The Harmonizing Perspective of Gil Vicente

Bulletin Of The Comediantes Vol XI Fall, 1959 No. 2 The Harmonizing Perspective of Gil Vicente by J. Richard Andrews, University of California, Los Angeles Critics of Gil Vicente, instead of appealing to inner preoccupations and emphases of his theater itself, have constantly presumed it into the dramatic genre, acting under ethical rather than aesthetic pressures, forcing Gil Vicente's accomplishment toward interpretative expectations that cover its essential qualities . In doing so they arbitrarily falsify the functional reality, the creative originality, and the significant form of the works. The exterior characteristics (dialogue, "characters ", "plot", and most damaging of all, titles including such generic classifications as comedia, tragicomedia, farça, etc.) have predisposed the critics to see drama where , dtama1 was not intended and, more importantly still, where drama is contrary to the generative principles and poetic processes at work in the pieces themselves.2 This prejudicial concern has led to such statements as: ". . . his failure to turn the most promising situation to dramatic account (Auto da India), to keep to his theme (O Clérigo da Beira),. or to achieve anything like a dénouement (Os Físicos) is almost incredible in a follower of Encina."3 While critics have admitted the highly lyrical quality of Gil Vicente's theater, they have viewed lyricism as something ornamental , or at best, as accessory to the supposed dramatic purpose. They have not been properly impressed by the fact that Gil Vicente 's theater is the continuation of the Portuguese courtly lyric poetry within line with what was promised (lying pregnant with possibility) by the directions and trends at work within that expression. It is the projection, the theatricalization of the artistic premises of that poetry ... a combination , a gathering of the various threads (motifs, images, metaphors, etc.) and an activation of their potentialities within a theatricalizing strategy that was developed along, and under the direction of, the lines of movement latent in, and presupposed by, the inner manner of current poetry.4 The principles of construction, organization , and orchestration that Gil Vicente knew were those of lyric poetry. And when he accepted Encina's suggestions for theatrical expression, he translated those suggestions into the terms of what he felt, understood, and knew: the principles of Portuguese lyricism. His theater is essentially a performance of those principles, an enacted magnification and socialization of the discrete moments of the metaphorical process. A much grosser, but still enlightening, example of such a creative procedure can be seen in the Farça de Inés Pereira where the poet has exemplified the proverb, "mais quero asno que me leve que cavallo que me derrube," by transposing its terms into pseudo-allegorical parallels. The largeness of the elements employed and the unembarrassed directness of the transposition give the work the appearance of being almost a deliberate abstraction and public explanation of unstated, personal creative theory. The generating lyrical principle behind Gil Vicente's theater, at work on both the microcosmic and macrocosmic levels, while controlling the inner proportion and progress of a play as a whole, is the possibility and 1 BULLETIN OF THE COMEDIANTES Published in the Spring and Fall by the Comediantes, an informal, international group of all those interested in the comedia. Editor Everett W. Hesse University of Wisconsin Madison 6, Wis. Assistant Editor John E. Keller University of North Carolina Chapel Hill, N. C. Subscription: $1 a year justification for the constant attention given to lyricism in the parts. The creative problem seeks everywhere a solution in the presentation of feelings, sensations, the intimate experiencing of attitudes—lyrical moments that are the surface corrolary to the originating lyrical depth. The narrative element, the dialogue, the figures, and the situations are integrated and realized through a strategy of lyrical synthesis. Many of the most outstanding Vicentine scholars have pointed out the constant appearance of contrasts in Gil Vicente's style, but have failed to show the unique manner and special use of these and their meaning in connection with his poetic technique. His saudoso and affective artistry is based on an essential duality, the dynamic polarization and combination of opposites, which, instead of clashing, are suspended into a harmonious unity. Two opposing elements, under...