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The expedition to capture from the Moors the important town of Azamor in N. W. Africa consisted of over 400 ships (Luis Anriquez in his poem in the Cancioneiro Geral says 450) and a force of 18,000 soldiers, of which 3000 were provided by James, Duke of Braganza, who commanded the expedition. It set sail from Lisbon on the 17th of August, 1513. (DamiÃo de Goes and Osorio say the 17th, Luis Anriquez the 15th, which was evidently the day (the Feast of the Assumption) fixed for departure.) It was entirely successful and the news of the fall of Azamor caused great rejoicings both at Lisbon and Rome. The play was evidently touched up afterwards, for it includes the sending of the elephant to Rome (1514) and the marriages of the princesses. It is barely possible that it was written after the victory, in which case the words na partida would be retrospective and the date given in the 1st edition was not a slip. Parts of the play suit 1514 better than 1513. TristÃo da Cunha's special mission (cf. lines 195-6) to the Pope (with Garcia de Resende for secretary) left early in 1514 and entered Rome on March 12. One of the objects of the mission was to obtain a grant of the tithes (ll. 194, 224) for the Crown to use for the war in Africa. (The request was granted but King Manuel subsequently renounced them in return for 150,000 gold coins.) The exhortations of l. 351 et seq., l. 514 et seq., l. 559 et seq. are better suited to a time when more men and money were needed actively to continue the war than when an army of 18,000 was equipped and ready to leave. The Pope in 1514 promised indulgences to all those who should contribute money for the African war and also granted King Manuel a portion of church property in Portugal (cf. ll. 475-84 and 535-48) for the same object (l. 546: pera Africa conquistar). The King's aim is now to build a cathedral in Fez (l. 573-4). There is no mention of Azamor. This was the first of the great patriotic outbursts (cf. the Auto da Fama and other plays) in which Vicente appears not as a satirist or religious reformer but as an enthusiastic imperialist, and which still delight and stir his countrymen.18 Prince Luis (1506-55), one of the most gallant, talented and interesting of Portuguese infantes, was no doubt present at the serÃo and would be delighted by this reference. (The youngest princes, Afonso, born in 1509, and Henrique, born in 1512, are not mentioned. They both became Cardinals and the latter King of Portugal, 1578-80.) The princes are similarly addressed in the Cortes de Jupiter in 1521.46 Mercury opens the Auto da Feira with a similar string of absurdities (suggested by Enzina's perogrulladas), e.g. Que se o ceo fora quadrado NÃo fora redondo, Senhor; E se o sol fora azulado D'azul fora seu cor. (If square the sky were found then it would not be round, and if the sun were blue then blue would be its hue.) Os disparates de 'Joan de Lenzina' (Ferreira, Ulys. IV, 7) were well-known in Portugal.94, 113, 129 No meaning is to be squeezed out of these cabbalistic words. 116 We have an even more detailed description in the Sumario da Historia de Deos:

A furna das trevas, ponte de navalhas,
o lago dos prantos, a horta dos dragos,
os tanques da ira, os lagos da neve,
os raios ardentes, sala dos tormentos,
varanda das dores, cozinha dos gritos,
AÇougue das pragas, a torre dos pingos,
o valle das forcas.

125 Vicente was more tolerant than most contemporary writers who inveighed against the blindness and malice of the Jews.132 The necromancer evokes spirits which he is unable to control. He calls them brothers but they answer in effect: 'Du gleich'st dem Geist den du begreif'st, nicht mir.'151 The almude = 12 gallons.156 Cabrela e Landeira is a village near MontemÔr-o-Novo. Cf. Sum. da Hist. de Deos:

Satanas: Sabes Rio-frio e toda aquela terra,
aldea Gallega, a Landeira e Ranginha
e de Lavra a Coruche? Tudo É terra minha.

157 Cartaxo, a small town in the district of Santarem.158 The village of Lumiar is now connected with Lisbon by a tramway.159 Mealhada, a parish in the district of Aveiro.162 Cf. uva terrantes (indigenous).164 Ribatejo = the country along the river Tejo (Tagus). Cf. Auto da Feira: Vai-te ao sino do Cranguejo, Signum Cancer, Ribatejo.168 Arruda dos Vinhos and Caparica are villages in a vine-growing district on the left bank of the Tagus opposite Lisbon, near Almada.173 estrema = marco (Sp. mojon). Cf. Auto da Festa, ed. Conde de Sabugosa (1906), p. 110: Este he da pedra do estremo.174 diadema is usually masculine, but Antonio Vieira has it both ways.176 Seixal (2500-3000 inh.) in the district of Almada.177 Almada, formerly AlmadÃa (Arab = the mine, but as Englishmen settled there in the 12th century it was later given the fanciful derivation All made or All made it), a town of 10,000 inh., opposite Lisbon on the left bank of the Tagus.179 Tojal (= whin-moor, gorse-common), a small village near Olivaes (= olive groves), in the Lisbon district.195 The impression produced by the arrival in Rome of King Manuel's elephant, panther and other magnificent gifts was vividly described by several writers. Cf. DamiÃo de Goes, Chron. de D. Manuel, Pt 3, cap. 55, 56, 57 (1619 ed. f. 223 v.-227). According to Ulrich von Hutten the elephant 'fuit mirabile animal, habens longum rostrum in magna quantitate; et quando vidit Papam tunc geniculavit ei et dixit cum terribili voce bar, bar, bar' (apud Theophilo Braga, Gil Vicente e as Origens do Theatro Nacional (1898), p. 191). Cf. also Manuel Bernardez, Nova Floresta, V, 93-4. The head of this celebrated elephant forms the background to a portrait of TristÃo da Cunha (head of the embassy to the Pope) reproduced in Senhor Joaquim de Vasconcellos' edition of Francisco de Hollanda's Da Pintura Antigva (Porto, 1918).229 In 1517 among other exotic presents a rhinoceros was sent to the Pope. It was however shipwrecked and drowned on the way. It had the honour of being drawn by Albrecht DÜrer.238 Vicente seems to have coined this intensive of bellisima.243-4 Cesar = King Manuel. Hecuba = his second wife, Queen Maria, daughter of Ferdinand and Isabella of Spain.249 Prince JoÃo, born in 1502, afterwards King JoÃo III (1521-57).259 The Infanta Isabel (1503-39) married her first cousin the Emperor Charles V, and in her honour on that occasion Vicente composed his Templo de Apolo (1526). Her marriage may have already been planned in 1513, but more probably Vicente altered the passage when he was preparing the 1st edition of his works during the last months of his life. Gil Vicente more than once refers to her great beauty. Her portrait by Titian in the Madrid Prado fully bears out his praises and the expression on her face places this among the most fascinating portraits of women. The Empress is sitting by a window looking on to a beautiful country of woods and blue mountains, in her hand is a book; but one feels that she is thinking of neither book nor scenery but that her thoughts go back in saudade to the soft air and merry days of Lisbon. It might indeed be a picture of Saudade. There is a slight flush on her pale oval face. Her almond-shaped eyes are grey-green, her nose delicately aquiline. In the eyes and in the general expression there is a look of undeniable sadness. Her dress of plum, cherry-pink, gold and brown gives a gorgeously mellow effect and the curtain at the back is plum-brown. If the colouring seems at first too rich this is due to the criminal gold frame which clashes with the dress and the chestnut-golden hair. In a dark frame the picture would be twice as beautiful. The Empress' dress gleams with pearls and she has a jewel with pearls—set perhaps by Gil Vicente—in her hair, large pearl earrings and a necklace of large pearls. She died at Toledo at the age of 36 and lies in the grim Pantheon of the Kings in the Escorial crypt.266 Of Prince Fernando, born in 1507, DamiÃo de Goes, who knew him personally, says: 'assi na mocidade como depois de ser homem foi de bom parecer e bem disposto, muito inclinado a letras e dado ao estudo das historias verdadeiras e imigo das fabulosas... Era colerico e apressado em seus negocios e muito animoso, com mostra e desejo de se achar em algun grande feito de guerra, mas nem o tempo nem o estudo do Regno deram pera isso lugar' (Chron. de D. Manuel, II, xix). Cf. Osorio, De Rebvs Emmanvelis (1571), p. 189: 'Fuit in antiquitate pervestiganda valde curiosus: maximarum rerum studio flagrabat multisque virtutibus illo loco dignis praeditus erat.'275 Princess Beatrice as a matter of fact married Charles, Duke of Savoy, and on the occasion of her departure from Lisbon by sea with a magnificent suite Vicente wrote the Cortes de Jupiter (1521) with the romance:

Nina era la Ifanta, Dona Beatriz se dezia,
Nieta del buen Rei Hernando, el mejor rei de Castilla,
Hija del Rei Don Manuel y Reina DoÑa Maria, etc.

284 Cf. the Auto das Fadas (with which this play has many points of resemblance): Feiticeira (ao principle e infantes): Ó que joias esmaltadas, Ó que boninas dos ceos, Ó que rosas perfumadas!331-2 Cf. Divisa da Cidade de Coimbra: Vai delas a eles tÃo grande avantagem... como haverÁ...do vivo a hu~a imagem.341 Godos, Goths, i.e. of ancient race, 'Norman blood.'346 For dioso = idoso v. C. Geral, vol. II (1910), p. 153. Fernam Lopez, Chron. J. I. Pt. 2, cap. 10, has deoso.384 pequenas quadrilhas. When Afonso de Albuquerque began his glorious career (1509-15) there were in India but a few hundred Portuguese fighting men, and most of these badly armed. The whole population of Portugal during this time of fighting and discovery in N.-West, West and East Africa and India is by some calculated at a million and a half, by others at between two and three millions.416 Prov. mais sÃo as vozes que as nozes.418 For this line cf. Pedro Ferrus: Que por todo el mundo suena (ap. MenÉndez y Pelayo, AntologÍa, t. I, p. 159 and Enzina, Egloga, V (ib. t. VII, p. 57)).420 pois que...pessoa, a homely version of Goethe's Was du ererbt von deinen VÄtern hast Erwirb' es um es zu besitzen.470-4 These lines are translated from the Spanish poet Gomez Manrique (1415?-1490?). See MenÉndez y Pelayo, AntologÍa, t. VII, p. ccx.

Cf. Jorge Ferreira de Vasconcellos, Ulysippo, V, 7: Vos quando vos tirarem de Ansias e passiones mias e guando Roma conquistava. 487 dom zote. Cf. supra zopete and Sp. zote, zopo, zopenco, zoquete (a dolt); low Latin sottus; Dutch zot; Fr. sot; Eng. sot (bebe sem desfolegar). Zote occurs twice in the Auto Pastoril Portugues: muito gamenho (cf. Fr. gamin) zote and Auto da FÉ, l. 5.534 trepas is the Span. form (Port, tripas?).538 soyÇos the old, soldados the new, word for 'soldiers.' Cf. Lucas FernÁndez, Farsas (1867), p. 89: Entra el soldado, o soizo, o infante.559 This rousing chorus fitly ends a play from every page of which breathes the most ardent patriotism. Small wonder that King SebastiÃo (1557-78), with his visions of conquest and glory, read Vicente with pleasure as a boy.561 Cf. Gaspar Correa, Lendas da India, IV, 561-2: o Governador logo sobio e o frade diante dele bradando a grandes brados, dizendo: 'O fieis ChristÃos, olhai para Christo, vosso capitÃo, que vai diante' (1546).