“Such absurd encounters have no existence save in silly books of chivalry and in plays which in our time have been taken from them; but which in the time of Lope de Rueda, Gil Vicente and Alonzo de Cisneros, would not have been tolerated on the stage.” (Page 128).
Cervantes highly appreciated the genius of Lope de Rueda, who was a celebrated actor as well as a dramatic writer. He styles him el gran Lope de Rueda, insigne varón, &c. Some curious particulars respecting Lope de Rueda and the state of the Spanish stage in his time are related by Cervantes in the Prólogo or Preface to his Ocho comedias y ocho entremeses nunca representadas,[82] from which the following extract is translated—
“A short time ago, when I was in company with some friends, our conversation turned on play-writing, acting, and other matters connected with dramatic representation. These subjects were so ably discussed and criticised that in my opinion it would have been difficult to meet with more clever remarks. One of the questions under consideration was to ascertain who first stripped Spanish comedy of its swaddling clothes, dressed it up, and arrayed it with ornament. I, who was the oldest person in the company, observed that I had a perfect recollection of having seen Lope de Rueda act, and that that extraordinary man was remarkable not only for his talent as a writer, but also for his power as an actor. He was a native of Seville, and was by trade a gold-beater, that is to say, his employment was making gold leaf for gilding. He was an admirable writer of pastoral poetry, and in that style of composition no one either before his time, or unto the present day, has surpassed him. When I knew him, I was a mere boy, and therefore I could form no well grounded judgment respecting the merit of his writing; yet in my present mature age, when I reflect on some of his verses which my memory retains, I think the opinion I have expressed is correct. Were it not for the fear of going beyond the limits of this preface, I would cite some of Lope de Rueda’s verses in support of my opinion.
“In the time of that celebrated man, all the apparatus of a theatrical manager could be packed up in a sack. It consisted of four shepherd’s dresses of white skin trimmed with gilt leather, four beards and wigs, and four shepherd’s staffs. The comedies were composed of dialogues (after the manner of eclogues), between two or three shepherds and a shepherdess. The entertainment was augmented, or rather spun out, by two or three interludes in which sometimes a negro, sometimes a rufián,[83] a fool, or a Biscayan were introduced. All these four characters, and many others, Lope de Rueda, acted in most excellent style, and with the utmost truth to nature. At that period there was no such thing as stage machinery; no combats between Moors and Christians either on foot or on horseback, no figures rising up from trap doors, and seeming as though they rose from the bowels of the earth; no descending clouds in which spirits and angels came down from Heaven. The stage was constructed of four benches ranged square-wise, and over them were laid a few planks, by which means the stage was raised about four spans above the ground. There were no scenes, but an old curtain was hung across the back part of the stage, and was drawn by two cords from one side to the other. A space behind the curtain served as a dressing-room for the actors. The musicians also stood there. They sang old romances, but without guitar accompaniment. Lope de Rueda died at Cordova, and out of respect for his excellent character and great talent he was buried in the cathedral of that city, between the two choirs.”
Further particulars of the life of Lope de Rueda may be found in Moratin’s Orígenes del Teatro Español, and in El Teatro Español Anterior a Lope de Vega, by Nicolás Böhl de Faber.
Of the life of Gil Vicente, the Hispano-Portuguese dramatist and comedian, who has not inaptly been styled the Portuguese Plautus, but little is known. No biographical accounts of him furnish any authentic record either of the date or the place of his birth. Some describe him to have been a native of Guimaräes, others assign Barcellos, and others Lisbon, as his birth-place. Don Adolfo de Castro, notices a fact which would appear to have escaped the observation of Gil Vicente’s biographers, both Spanish and Portuguese, viz.: that he himself mentions his birth-place in one of his Portuguese autos.[84] In that piece, one of the characters steps forward and delivers a sort of address commencing thus:—
Gil Vicente o autor
Me fez seu embaixador.[85]
Then follows a description of the condition and calling of the author’s grandfather and parents, and Alemtejo is mentioned as the place of his nativity.
Bouterwek, who furnishes some particulars relating to the life of this celebrated man, says:—“There is reason to suppose that Gil Vicente was born within twenty years of the close of the fifteenth century. He first studied the law, but speedily relinquished it, and devoted himself wholly to the dramatic art. It is not recorded whether he was a regularly pensioned writer for the Court, but he was most indefatigable in furnishing the royal family and the public with entertainments suited to the taste of the age. He constantly resided at Court, where his poetic talents were held in permanent requisition for the celebration of spiritual as well as of temporal festivals, and no dramatic writer in Europe was more admired and esteemed than Gil Vicente. His early productions were performed with approbation at court in the reign of Emmanuel the Great, but his reputation rose higher in the reign of John III., and that monarch did not, in his youthful years, scruple to perform characters in the dramas of this favourite author. We are not informed whether Vicente was himself an actor, but he was the tutor of the most celebrated actress of his age, viz.: his daughter Paula.”[86]