SIMÃO MACHADO (_c._ 1570-_c._ 1640), who as a Franciscan monk--Frei Boaventura--ended his life at Barcelona, was also born at Torres Novas. His plays--_Comedias portvgvesas_ (1601?)--are two: _Comedia de Dio_ and _Comedia da Pastora Alfea_. They are written in Spanish and Portuguese indiscriminately despite Gonçalo’s admonition _palrar como Pertigues_.[364] The author explains that, well aware of his countrymen’s love of what is foreign, he uses Castilian to save his plays from the neglect often bestowed in Portugal upon works written in Portuguese. His verse is ordinarily the _redondilha_, although Nuno da Cunha in the first part of _O Cerco de Dio_ makes a speech in _oitavas_. He has lyrical facility and his peasant scenes are full of life, for instance, the dialogue between the cowherd Gil Cabaço and Tomé the goatherd in _Alfea_. The Gospel story was dramatized by FREI FRANCISCO VAZ of Guimarães in a long _Auto da Paixão_. The oldest edition we have is dated 1559, and it has been often reprinted, with thirty rough woodcuts. Some of these are very spirited, as that of the cock crowing after St. Peter’s denial, or that of Judas hanging himself. After a long introductory speech in _versos de arte maior_ the play proceeds in _redondilhas_ (over 2,000 lines). Religious subjects have always been favourites with the Portuguese, especially those affording scope for lavish scenic display, not only those of martyred saints, as the _Auto de Santa Genoveva_, but those based on the New Testament, as the later play _Acto figurado da degolação dos Innocentes_ (1784) in seven scenes.[365] Two plays, the _Auto da Donzella da Torre_ and _Auto de Dom André_, are attributed to Gil Vicente’s grandson, GIL VICENTE DE ALMEIDA. The latter, written before 1559, in which a peasant brings his unlettered son (_nem nunca falei Gramatica_) to Court, and a _ratinho_, on becoming a page, promises himself to learn to sing and play on the guitar within a month, has a Vicentian character.