Thus the Spaniard in Italy. In Portugal, likewise, he made his way. GIL VICENTE (1470-1540), the Portuguese dramatist, wrote forty-two pieces, of which ten are wholly in Castilian, while fifteen are in a mixed jargon of Castilian and Portuguese which the author himself ridicules as _aravia_ in his _Auto das Fadas_. An important historical fact is that Vicente's earliest dramatic attempt, the _Monologo da Visitação_, is in Castilian, and that it was actually played—the first lay piece ever given in Portugal—on June 8, 1502. Its simplicity of tone and elegance of manner are reminiscent of Encina, and it can scarce be doubted that Vicente's imitation is deliberate. Still more obvious is the following of Encina's eclogues in Vicente's _Auto pastoril Castelhano_ and the _Auto dos Reis Magos_, where the legend is treated with Encina's curious touch of devotion and modernity, the whole closing with a song in which all join. Once again Encina's influence is manifest in the _Auto da Sibilla Cassandra_, wherein Cassandra, niece of Moses, Abraham, and Isaiah, is wooed by Solomon. In _Amadís de Gaula_ and in _Dom Duardos_ there is a marked advance in elaboration and finish; and in the _Auto da Fé_ Vicente proves his independence by an ingenuity and a fancy all his own. Here he displays qualities above those of his model, and treats his subject with such brilliancy that, a century and a half later, Calderón condescended to borrow from the Portuguese the idea of his _auto_ entitled _El Lirio y la Azucena_. Gil Vicente is technically a dramatist, but he is not dramatic as Torres Naharro is dramatic. His action is slight, his treatment timid and conventional, and he is more poetic than inventive; still, his dramatic songs are of singular beauty, conceived in a tone of mystic lyricism unapproached by those who went before him, and surpassed by few who followed. That Vicente was ever played in Spain is not known; but that he influenced both Lope de Vega and Calderón is as sure as that he himself was a disciple of Encina.