by Gil Vicente

Gil Vicente is considered the founder of the Portuguese theater as well as the greatest dramatist in the Iberian Peninsula before Spain’s Lope de Vega. He is thought to have been born sometime between 1460 and 1470 in Lisbon, Portugal, and to have been put to rest in Evora, Portugal, sometime before 1537. It is known that Vicente first came to Evora as a goldsmith for the court during the 1490 wedding of Crown Prince Afonso of Portugal to Princess Isabel of Castile. Vicente himself wed twice: to Branca Bezerra and, after her death, to Melícia Rodrigues. He had five children in all— two sons by Branca (Gaspar and Belchior) and two daughters and a son by Melicia (Valeria, Paula, and Luís). Although Vicente’s educational background remains a mystery, the philosophical and theological knowledge exhibited in his plays indicates some formal...