[450] 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. Vicente, however, understood that the queen desired to have such an entertainment as she had been accustomed to enjoy at the court of Castile, when John de la Enzina brought his contributions to the Christmas festivities. He therefore prepared for Christmas morning what he called an “Auto Pastoril,” or Pastoral Act;--a dialogue in which four shepherds with Luke and Matthew are the interlocutors, and in which not only the eclogue forms of Enzina are used, and the manger of Bethlehem is introduced, just as that poet had introduced it, but in which his verses are freely imitated. This effort, too, pleased the queen, and again, on the authority of his son, we are told she asked Vicente for another composition, to be represented on Twelfth Night, 1503. Her request was not one to be slighted; and in the same way four other pastorals followed for similar devout occasions, making, when taken together, six; all of which being in Spanish, and all religious pastorals, represented with singing and dancing before King Manuel, his queen, and other distinguished personages, they are to be regarded throughout as imitations of Juan de la Enzina’s eclogues.[451]