Portuguese literature
plays anonymously, partly perhaps for the same reason that made him
insist that his characters represented no definite persons but types.)
The earliest edition that we have is that of Evora, 1561, that of
Coimbra, 1560, having disappeared, if it ever existed.[389] The words
on the title-page, _de nouo reuista & em partes acrecentada_, need
not imply more than that, as we know, the manuscript had circulated
among his friends: _por muitas mãos deuassa e falsa_. As a novelty,
_invençam noua nesta terra_, _Eufrosina_ with its proverbs and its
ingenious thoughts and phrases was appreciated in Portugal, whose
inhabitants were justifiably proud now to possess a _Celestina_ of
their own, a _Celestina_ with less action and rhetoric but more thought
and sentiment.[390] Quevedo was loud in its praises, Lope de Vega
perhaps quoted it,[391] its influence on the style of Mello and other
Portuguese writers is clear. It was a legitimate success and its modern
neglect is all the more deplorable because in this play the Portuguese
language, the richness, concision, and grace of which are exalted
in the preface, appears in its purest, raciest form. The author’s
vocabulary is immense, his sentences admirably vigorous and clear.
After heading the E’s in the _Index_ of 1581 (_Evphrosina_ simply,
without author) it was reprinted by the poet Rodriguez Lobo in 1616,
in a slightly modified form, shorn, that is, of some of the coarser
passages and of all reference to the Scriptures.[392] The style is not
the only merit of _Eufrosina_. Despite the lack of proportion in some
of the scenes, in which Jorge Ferreira proves himself to have been,
like Richardson, ‘a sorry pruner’ (four scenes out of the thirty-nine
constitute a quarter of the play), there is a certain unity in this
story of the love of the poor courtier Zelotipo de Abreu for Eufrosina,
proud and beautiful daughter of the rich _fidalgo_ D. Carlos, Senhor
das Povoas, in the little ancient university town above the green
waters and willows of Mondego. The numerous other persons are strictly
subordinate, and both scenes and characters are skilfully drawn. The
artificial construction, the convention by which emotion finds vent
in a string of classical allusions, scarcely mar the exceedingly
natural presentment of many of the scenes. Charming, for instance, is
that in which Eufrosina and her companion and friend Silvia de Sousa,
Zelotipo’s cousin, watch from the terrace of their house the river’s
gentle flow and along its bank the citizens and students taking the air
in the cool of the evening. The play contains as many characters as
a modern novel. There is Cariofilo, a gay good-hearted Don Juan; his
friend, the more serious Zelotipo, type of the Portuguese lover, the
_galante contemplativo_; D. Carlos, quick to anger but easily appeased;
the pedantic, unscrupulous Dr. Carrasco, whose conversation with D.
Carlos gives scope for a vigorous attack on the legal profession;
Silvia, who sacrifices her love and gives up to Eufrosina her cousin’s
verses that she had so carefully kept; the _moços_ Andrade and Cotrim,
greedy, timid, and talkative; the gentleman of Coimbra, Philotimo, a
wise and kindly man of the world. Other phases of Coimbra life are
shown in the _moças de rio_ and _de cantaro_, who fetch water or wash
clothes in the Mondego and metaphorically toss in a blanket Galindo,
the rich D. Tristão’s agent from Lisbon; in the love-lorn student with
his Latin, the morose and jealous workman Duarte, proud of his position
as _official_, the resolute goldsmith and his languid daughter Polinia,
the old servant Andresa and the merry servant girl Vitoria, and, most
prominent of all, Philtra the _alcoviteira_, deploring the wickedness
and degeneracy of the world and full of wise saws--the play contains
many hundreds. Eufrosina herself is first described by the lover--brow
of Diana, lips of Venus, limbs of Pallas, clear green eyes[393] of
Juno, quietly mirthful; then by his servant Andrade--the fairest thing
that ever he thought to see, fan in hand, the sleeves of her dress
like a ship at full sail[394]--so that we have an effective impression
of her beauty. Besides Coimbra life we obtain glimpses of that of the
Court at Lisbon and Almeirim in a letter from the courtier Crisandor,
of India in a very real and interesting letter from Silvia’s brother,
even of Cotrim’s native village. That the unity was not sacrificed to
these many by-scenes says much for the author’s skill. This praise
cannot be given to his second play written some ten years after the
first, _Ulysippo_ (1547?), for here the reader loses his way among the
many courses of true love. There are twenty-one _dramatis personae_,
but the principal interest is in the sketch of Constança d’Ornellas,
the hypocritical _beata_,[395] or, rather, that is the most original
part, since in the play as a whole there is a certain monotony after
_Eufrosina_, and many of the proverbs are the same.[396] Excellent
as the earlier play in its terse and idiomatic prose,[397] full of
interest in the insight it gives into the customs and life of the
people, its chief fault is the intricacy, or absence, of plot which
makes it difficult reading, and of course it would naturally please
less on its first appearance as being no longer a new thing. The
author, who knew how the Portuguese prized _novidades_, appears to have
been conscious of this, since his third play, _Aulegrafia_, written
perhaps in 1555,[398] and first published in 1619, was developed
on somewhat different lines. It is concerned, as its name implies,
exclusively with the Court, and the people and popular proverbs are
in abeyance. In its fifty scenes we are introduced to typical Court
ladies, noble _fidalgos_, poor gentlemen and their servants, one of
whom considers it _mais fidalgo nam saber ler_. The play is by its
author termed ‘a long treatise on Court manners’,[399] and as such it
is admirable and full of interest, however negligible it may be as
drama. Its style, moreover, even excels in atticism Ferreira’s other
works. The most remarkable character is that of the young (_menina
e moça_) and very wily aunt of Filomela. She is twice described in
detail (f. 46 and f. 153 v.), and we perceive that Philtra of the
people, the middle-class Constança d’Ornellas, and the aristocratic
Aulegrafia are really three persons and one spirit. In _Ulysippo_ one
of the lesser personages was the Spanish _Sevilhana_ (mentioned also in
_Eufrosina_), and here a boastful Spanish adventurer is introduced in
the person of Agrimonte de Guzman, who disdains to speak Portuguese.
The scene of both the later plays is Lisbon. The author drew from his
experience here, as previously at Coimbra, and often describes to
the life the persons that he had met. Scarcely any other writer gives
us so intimate an idea of the times--of this the latter heyday of
Portugal’s greatness--or of the gallant, lovesick, dreaming Portuguese,
who considers love as much a monopoly of his country as the ivory and
spices of India.[400]
FOOTNOTES:
[353] The disapproval of the popular drama is frequent in religious
writers. In the seventeenth century Antonio Vieira declared that
_uma das felicidades que se contava entre as do tempo presente era
acabarem-se as comedias em Portugal_. Feo earlier, in common with many
others, had similarly denounced the romances of chivalry _pelos quaes o
Demonio comvosco fala; livraria do diabo_ (_Tratt. Qvad._ (1619), ff.
156, 157).
[354] One of them, João, _lavrador_, says: _Vimos ver se he assi ou nam
De hũa arremedaçam Que s’a ca d’arremedar.... Ora nos dizei se he assi
Que fazem ho ayto cá._
[355] e. g. Branca Janes says of her husband:
He hum grão comedor,
Destruidor da fazenda, &c.
[356] Cf. _este leo ja Celestina_ (_Primeira Parte dos Avtos_, &c.
(1587), f. 44).
[357] The student’s song on f. 44 v. and f. 46, _Polifema mi postema
Grande mal he querer bem_, parodies Lobeira’s _Leonoreta fin roseta_.
[358] Ibid., f. 49.
[359] _Primeira Parte dos Avtos_, f. 57:
_Ro._ Senhor, se me dá licença,
Ja eu aquela trova li.
_Os._ Qual trova leste? _Ro._ Essa sua,
Como a disse nua e crua.
_Os._ E onde a leste, vilão?
_Ro._ Cuido, señor, que em Boscão,
E canta-se pela rua.
[360] The Devil speaks both Portuguese and Spanish. All the other
characters in Prestes’ plays, with the exception of an enchanted Moor,
speak Portuguese. On the other hand, there are frequent Spanish words
and quotations. The word _algorrem_ occurs twice in these plays, but
the attempt to retain the old style of peasant conversation is but
half-hearted.
[361] Duarte in the _Auto dos Cantarinhos_ sleeps on an _arca_
(chest) like the _moço_ in _O Juiz da Beira_. There are other echoes
of Vicente, as the words _quem tem farelos?_ (1871 ed., p. 65), the
reference to _Flerida e Dom Duardos_ (p. 485), the line _Que má cousa
são vilãos_ (p. 420), the peasant who, like Mofina Mendes, builds up
his future on the strength of an apple of gold, which proves to be a
coal (pp. 407-8).
[362] _Auto do Mouro Encantado_ (p. 347). Unless there was an earlier
edition of _Lazarillo de Tormes_, this play must therefore have been
written after 1554. Prestes’ _Auto do Procurador_ was written before
1557.
[363] p. 262. For a corresponding knowledge of _Amadis de Gaula_, &c.,
among English servants see Dr. Henry Thomas, _The Palmerin Romances_,
London, 1916, pp. 38-40.
[364] _Alfea_ (ed. 1631), p. 59. The wonderful spelling is due to
the printer (e.g. _sesse_ = cease) as well as to the peasants (e.g.
_monteplica_ = multiply, _pialdrade_ = piety).
[365] _Composto por A. D. S. R._ There is an earlier _Acto Sacramental
da Jornada do Menino Deus para o Egypto_ (1746).
[366] It contains a dispute between Maize and Rye, after the very
popular fashion of the contention between Winter and Spring in
Vicente’s _Auto dos Quatro Tempos_, and the poetical contrasts common
in the Middle Ages and in the East, and still in vogue among the
_improvisatori_ of Basque villages, between wine and water, boots and
sandals, &c.
[367] i.e. No. 3: _De hvm almotacel borracho_; No. 5: _Dos conselhos
de hvm letrado_ (a _ratinho_ figures in this, as a _ratiño_ figures in
No. 17); No. 6: _Do negro mais bem mandado_ (the _escudeiro’s moço_
is here a negro who speaks in broken Portuguese, e.g. Zesu); No. 11:
_Dous cegos enganados_; No. 13: _Das padeiras de Lisboa_ (besides the
bakeresses there is a _meleiro_ (honey-seller), an _alheiro_ with his
_braços_ of leeks, an _azeiteiro_, &c.), and No. 25. The titles of
these plays sufficiently show their homely character.
[368] Of its author we only know that he was _Ulysbonense_. The play
had many editions: 1747, 1758, 1789, 1853.
[369] A priest of the same name wrote political and religious pamphlets
in the middle of the nineteenth century.
[370] The _affronta de Dio_ is mentioned. It may have been written in
the same year as Ferreira de Vasconcellos’ _Eufrosina_.
[371] In a letter sent with _Os Vilhalpandos_ to the Infante Duarte he
says that _ninguem que eu saiba_ had so written in Portuguese.
[372] _A comedia qual he tal va, aldeaã e mal atauiada._
[373] A passage in _Aulegrafia_ (1555?) describes the dramatic death of
Antony as a new thing: _parece-me que o estou vendo_ (f. 129).
[374] _Tragedia mvy sentida e elegante de Dona Inés de Castro ... Agora
nouamente acrescentada_ (31 ff. unnumbered). The one who published
_first_ was the most likely to be the thief. _Saudade_ is translated
_soledad_.
[375] _Nesta Universidade ... onde pouco antes se viram outras que
a todas as dos antigas ou levam ou não dam ventagem._ _Bristo_ was
written _por só seu desenfadamento em certos dias de ferias e ainda