Note 450 — Chapter XIV

The youngest son of Vicente published his father’s Works at Lisbon, in folio, in 1562, of which a reprint in quarto appeared there in 1586, much disfigured by the Inquisition. But these are among the rarest and most curious books in modern literature, and I remember to have seen hardly five copies, one of which was in the library at Göttingen, and another in the public library at Lisbon, the first in folio, and the last in quarto. Indeed, so rare had the Works of Vicente become, that Moratin, to whom it was very important to see a copy of them, and who knew whatever was to be found at Madrid and Paris, in both which places he lived long, never saw one, as is plain from No. 49 of his “Catálogo de Piezas Dramáticas.” We therefore owe much to two Portuguese gentlemen, J. V. Barreto Feio and J. G. Monteiro, who published an excellent edition of Vicente’s Works at Hamburg, 1834, in three volumes, 8vo, using chiefly the Göttingen copy. In this edition (Vol. I. p. 1) occurs the monologue spoken of in the text, placed first, as the son says, “por ser á primeira coisa, que o autor fez, e que em Portugal se representou.” He says, the representation took place on the second night after the birth of the prince, and, this being so exactly stated, we know that the first secular dramatic exhibition in Portugal took place June 8, 1502, John III. having been born on the 6th. Crónica de D. Manoel, Parte I. c. 62.