[451] The imitation of Enzina’s poetry by Vicente is noticed by the Hamburg editors. (Vol. I. Ensaio, p. xxxviii.) Indeed, it is quite too obvious to be overlooked, and is distinctly acknowledged by one of his contemporaries, Garcia de Resende, the collector of the Portuguese Cancioneiro of 1517, who says, in some rambling verses on things that had happened in his time,-- E vimos singularmente Fazer representações Destilo muy eloquente, De muy novas invenções, E feitas por Gil Vicente. Elle foi o que inventou Isto ca e o usou Cõ mais graça e mais dotrina; Posto que Joam del Enzina O pastoril començou. Miscellania e Variedade de Historias, at the end of Resende’s Crónica de João II., 1622, folio, f. 164. Of these six pieces, three of which, we know, were written in 1502 and 1503, and the rest, probably, soon afterwards, the most curious and characteristic is the one called “The Auto of the Sibyl Cassandra,” which was represented in the rich old monastery of Enxobregas, on a Christmas morning, before the queen mother. It is an eclogue in Spanish, above eight hundred lines long, and is written in the stanzas most used by Enzina. Cassandra, the heroine, devoted to a pastoral life, yet supposed to be a sort of lay prophetess who has had intimations of the approaching birth of the Saviour, enters at once on the scene, where she remains to the end, the central point, round which the other seven personages are not inartificially grouped. She has hardly avowed her resolution not to be married, when Solomon appears making love to her, and telling her, with great simplicity, that he has arranged every thing with her aunts, to marry her in three days. Cassandra, nothing daunted at the annunciation, persists in the purpose of celibacy; and he, in consequence, goes out to summon these aunts to his assistance. During his absence, she sings the following song: They say, “’T is time, go, marry! go!” But I’ll no husband! not I! no! For I would live all carelessly, Amidst these hills, a maiden free, And never ask, nor anxious be, Of wedded weal or woe. Yet still they say, “Go, marry! go!” But I’ll no husband! not I! no! So, mother, think not I shall wed, And through a tiresome life be led, Or use, in folly’s ways instead, What grace the heavens bestow. Yet still they say, “Go, marry! go!” But I’ll no husband! not I! no! The man has not been born, I ween, Who as my husband shall be seen; And since what frequent tricks have been Undoubtingly I know, In vain they say, “Go, marry! go!” For I’ll no husband! not I! no![452] [452] Dicen que me case yo; No quiero marido, no! Mas quiero vivir segura Nesta sierra á mi soltura, Que no estar en ventura Si casaré bien ó no. Dicen que me case yo; No quiero marido, no!