SOURCE: Bell, Aubrey F. G. “Gil Vicente (c. 1465-1536?).” In Gil Vicente, pp. 3-64. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1921.

In the following excerpt, Bell offers an overview of Vicente's career as a dramatist.

I

Goldsmith, musician, actor, dramatist, lyric poet, Gil Vicente is one of the most interesting figures of the sixteenth century. Although the first half of his life was spent in the fifteenth century, we know nothing of him till seven years after the accession (1495) of King Manuel (1469-1521) and three years after the return of Vasco da Gama from his famous voyage to India (1497-9). Portugal for the next quarter of a century was in some measure the centre of Europe. The golden fruit of the tree planted by Prince Henry the Navigator (1394-1460) and watered by King João II (1481-95) fell into the lap of ‘the most fortunate Emanuel’. Lisbon became an El Dorado...