Note 460 — Chapter XIV
Reading edition
The first of these three Autos, the “Barca do Inferno,” was represented, in 1517, before the queen, Maria of Castile, in her sick-chamber, when she was suffering under the dreadful disease of which she soon afterwards died. Like the “Barca do Purgatorio,” (1518,) it is in Portuguese, but the remaining Auto, the “Barca da Gloria,” (1519,) is in Spanish. The last two were represented in the royal chapel. The moral play of Lope de Vega which was suggested by them is the one called “The Voyage of the Soul,” and is found in the First Book of his “Peregrino en su Patria.” The opening of Vicente’s play resembles remarkably the setting forth of the Demonio on his voyage in Lope, besides that the general idea of the two fictions is almost the same. On the other side of the account, Vicente shows himself frequently familiar with the old Spanish literature. For instance, in one of his Portuguese Farças, called “Dos Físicos,” (Tom. III. p. 323,) we have—
En el mes era de Mayo, Vespora de Navidad, Cuando canta la cigarra, etc.;
plainly a parody of the well-known and beautiful old Spanish ballad beginning—
Por el mes era de Mayo, Quando hace la calor, Quando canta la calandria, etc.,
a ballad which, so far as I know, can be traced no farther back than the ballad-book of 1555, or, at any rate, that of 1550, while here we have a distinct allusion to it before 1536, giving a curious proof how widely this old popular poetry was carried about by the memories of the people before it was written down and printed, and how much it was used for dramatic purposes from the earliest period of theatrical compositions.