The three plays of Camões, written perhaps between the years 1544 and 1549 during his first stay at Lisbon, belong entirely neither to the classical drama nor to the more ancient _autos_, but combine elements of both. They are written in _redondilhas_, mostly _quintilhas_. The third, _El Rei Seleuco_ (1549?), is slighter even than a Vicentian farce. It has a curious prologue scene (_Vorspiel auf dem Theater_) in prose. The versification is easy, but its chief interest is the important part it may have played in its author’s life. The earliest in date, _Filodemo_, although it lacks Vicente’s savour of the soil, has a graceful charm and faintly recalls the _Comedia do Viuvo_. Filodemo, orphan son of a Danish princess and a Portuguese _fidalgo_, is in love with Dionysa, daughter of his father’s brother, whose son Venadoro is in love with Filodemo’s sister Florimena. Their relationship is unknown, but the discovery of their true birth smoothes the path of love and ends the play. _Os Amphitriões_, in Portuguese and Spanish,[376] is based on the _Amphitruo_ of Plautus. The predicaments resulting from the appearance of Jupiter as Amphitrião’s double and Mercury as the double of Sosia are deftly and humorously worked out in delightfully spontaneous verse. For those so fastidious as to be satisfied neither by the popular _autos_ nor the staid classical plays, yet another kind was provided in the shape of Celestina comedies in prose. Of the life of their author we know scarcely more than that he was very well known in his day. Judging by literary merit only, one might assign the verses written by Jorge de Vasconcellos in the _Cancioneiro Geral_ to JORGE FERREIRA DE VASCONCELLOS (_c._ 1515-63?), since the poems, alike in the new and the old style, interspersed in his works do not prove him to have possessed high poetical talent. It is as a dramatist and still more as a writer of Portuguese prose that the distinguished courtier of King João III’s reign[377]--deserves a higher place in Portuguese literature than his ungrateful countrymen have habitually accorded him. But the dates forbid the identification of the dramatist with the earlier poet, who was also a notable courtier since he is specially mentioned in Vicente’s _Cortes de Jupiter_ (ii. 404). One of the few definite facts known to us concerning Jorge Ferreira is that affirmed in the preface of his _Eufrosina_: that this play was the first fruit of his genius, written in his youth.[378] The exact date of _Eufrosina_ is unknown, but it was written after the University had been finally established at Coimbra in 1537--the date of the letter from India (December 20, 1526[379]) is clearly a misprint since mention is made of the siege of Diu (1538). Ferreira de Vasconcellos evidently studied law at the University. If he was born, not at Coimbra but at Lisbon, he may have begun his studies in the capital. At the time of Prince Duarte’s death (1540) he was in his service, as _moço da