Four Plays of Gil Vicente is a book of Plays. Gil Vicente, that sovereign genius, is too popular and indigenous for translation and this may account for the fact that he has not been presented to English readers. It is hoped, however, that a fairly accurate version, with the text in view, may give some idea of his genius. The religious, the patriotic imperial, the satirical and the pastoral sides of his drama are represented respectively by the Auto da Alma, the Exhortação, the Almocreves and the Serra da Estrella, while his lyrical vein is seen in the Auto da Alma and in two delightful songs: the serranilha of the Almocreves and the cossante of the Serra da Estrella. Many of his plays, including some of the most charming of his lyrics, were written in Spanish and this limited the choice from the point of view of Portuguese literature, but there are others of the Portuguese plays fully as well worth reading as the four here given. The text is that of the exceedingly rare first edition (1562). Apart from accents and punctuation, it is reproduced without alteration, unless a passage is marked by an asterisk, when the text of the editio princeps will be found in the foot notes, in which variants of other editions are also given. In these notes A represents the editio princeps (1562).
