SOURCE: Moseley, William W. “‘O Rei do Mar’: Portugal, the Sea, and Gil Vicente.” Luso-Brazilian Review 11, no. 1 (summer, 1974): 98-104.

In the following essay, Moseley examines Vicente's interest in the sea—an interest shared by his countrymen in the age of Portuguese exploration.

One of the salient characteristics of the work of Gil Vicente is its variety and range of themes. Whatever may have been his place of birth and early life, a genuine popular flavor pervades much of his production. But his plays probably owe their existence to the influence of the royal court which inspired and nurtured their writing and staging. In the royal household Gil Vicente became imbued with the courtly attitudes and preoccupations of the period, and these enlarged his range of themes. Among those of far more than passing interest to the court and to Gil Vicente were Portuguese maritime exploration and expansion. Although...