(ca. 1465–1536)
Gil Vicente was a major Portuguese-born playwright and lyric poet who composed plays in a variety of genres and wrote in both the Portuguese and Castilian languages. A court poet who wrote some 44 extant plays,Vicente is considered by some critics to be the last and best representative of medieval Portuguese drama, and by others to be the first important Renaissance dramatist in Portugal. Little is certain in our knowledge of Vicente’s life. He may have been born in Lisbon, but some believe he was born in the country, perhaps the province of Beira Alta. It has been suggested that he studied law at the University of Lisbon, but it would appear by the evidence in his plays that he was self-educated. He may have been a goldsmith and financial adviser to the Portuguese court, but there are those who believe the goldsmith Vicente was the poet’s relative. If the playwright was in fact the goldsmith, he was made master of the Royal Mint from 1513 to 1517. It is certain that the poet was an actor and director of court pageants as well as a playwright during the reigns of the Portuguese kings Manuel I and Juan III, so that a number of his plays appear to have been written as occasional pieces for courtly entertainment. He produced his plays between 1502 and 1536—therefore, it is assumed he died shortly after 1536.
Of Vicente’s 44 plays, 16 are written in Portuguese, 11 are in Castilian Spanish (which was becoming the preferred language among Portuguese court poets), and 11 are bilingual. His first play is called the Visitaçāo (Visitation), and was written to commemorate the 1502 birth of King Manuel and queen Maria’s heir, Prince Juan. In it a shepherd visits the queen’s bedchamber to congratulate her on the prince’s birth. Another play clearly written to flatter the court, specifically regarding Portugal’s new overseas adventures, is the allegory Auto da Fama (Play of fame, 1515), in which Fame is courted by France, by Italy, and by Spain in turn, but rejects them all in favor of Portugal. Vicente’s other plays comprise a variety of genres, including farce, comedy, tragicomedy, chivalric play, and religious play. His best-known religious plays are the trilogy of “ship” plays: the Auto da barca do Inferno (Ship of hell, 1517), the Auto da barca do Purgatorio (Ship of purgatory, 1518), and the Auto da barca da Glória (Ship of glory, 1519). These allegorical plays deal with human vices and with the judgment of souls after death. They include bitterly satiric portraits of royal and clerical souls expressing their outrage at being consigned to hell. Another of Vicente’s well-known religious plays is the Auto da Sibila Casandra (Play of the prophetess Casandra, ca. 1509), in which a shepherdess named Casandra refuses marriage because she believes herself to be the virgin destined to become the mother of the Messiah. After being reproved for her pride, Casandra is finally depicted worshipping at Christ’s actual nativity. Vicente’s chivalric plays, both written in Castilian, are more complex than his other works. Dom Duardos (ca. 1522), his longest play, presents scenes from the Palmerín cycle of ROMANCES, focusing on the episode in the story where Dom Duardos, disguised as a gardener, courts Flérida, princess of Constantinople. Amadis de Gaula (ca. 1523) is, of course, based on a few episodes in the Amadis cycle. Some of Vicente’s other plays include two farces based on the very popular CELESTINA. One of his last plays, The Auto da Mofina Mendes (1534), has drawn some scholarly attention for the apparent influence of Erasmus suggested by its opening scene, which satirizes friars and scholasticism—a scene that resulted in the play’s condemnation by the Spanish Inquisition. Vicente’s works were published by his son, Luis, in Lisbon in 1562, with royal sponsorship that saved the book from the censorship of the Inquisition. His plays depict a wide assortment of characters and portray a range of Portuguese society. The tone of the plays varies from the devoutly religious to the bitingly satirical. He does not spare the corrupt clergy or the arrogant nobility. Apparently an accomplished musician, Vicente also included a number of songs in his plays. He is called by some the Portuguese Plautus, emphasizing his seminal role in Portuguese drama, particularly comedy. Vicente is universally recognized as one of the major influences on Renaissance drama in Spain and Portugal.
Bibliography
■ Bell, Aubrey F. G., ed. and trans. Four Plays of Gil Vicente. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1920.
■ Garay, René Pedro. Gil Vicente and the Development of the Comedia. Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Department of Romance Languages, 1988.
■ Parker, Jack Horace. Gil Vicente. New York: Twayne, 1967.
■ Stathatos, Constantin C. A Gil Vicente Bibliography (1925–2000). Kassel, Germany: Edition Reichenberger, 2001.
Encyclopedia of medieval literature. 2013.