play (1513?). Nearly twice as long as the _Auto Pastoril Castelhano_, it combines the ordinary scenic display--_todo o apparato_--of a Christmas _representação_ with a presentment of the early prophecies now to be fulfilled, and introduces Solomon, Isaiah, Abraham, and Moses, who describes the creation of the world. The play includes a profane theme, since Cassandra in her mystic aversion from marriage realistically portrays the sad life of married women in Portugal. Although Cassandra appears as a shepherdess and her aunt Peresica as a peasant, they speak a purer, more flowing Castilian than the _toscos, rusticos pastores_ of the preceding _autos_, and the play is remarkable for the beauty of its lyrics--_Dicen que me case yo_, _Sañosa está la niña_, _Muy graciosa es la doncella_, and _A la guerra_. For the Corpus Christi procession of 1504 was provided, at short notice from Queen Lianor, the _Auto de S. Martinho_. The subject of this piece, merely ten dodecasyllabic _oitavas_ followed by a solemn _prosa_, is that of El Greco’s marvellous picture--St. Martin dividing his cloak with a beggar, whom Vicente treats with characteristic sympathy and insight: ¿Criante rocío, qué te hice yo[249] Que las hiervecitas floreces por Mayo Y sobre mis carnes no echas un sayo? The _Auto dos Quatro Tempos_, of uncertain date, acted before the Court in the Lisbon palace of Alcaçova on Christmas morning in or after 1511, opens with a mystic ode on the Nativity and a _vilancete_ (_A ti dino de adorar_) and proceeds rapidly with snatches of song in a splendid rivalry between the four seasons. The praises of Spring are sung with a delightful freshness, as are Winter’s rages, while Summer in a straw hat appears sallow and fever-stricken. Jupiter comes with countless classical allusions and David with much Latin, and they all worship together the new-born King. Very different is the _Auto da Alma_, written for Queen Lianor and acted in King Manuel’s Lisbon palace of Ribeira on the night of Good Friday, 1518 (Snr. Braamcamp Freire’s plausible suggestion in place of the commonly accepted 1508). It represents the eternal strife between the soul and sin. The soul, slowly journeying in the company of its guardian angel, is alternately tempted by Satan with the delights of the world, with fine dresses and jewels, and exhorted by the Angel, till it arrives at the Church, the Innkeeper of Souls, and confesses its guilt, imploring protection (_Ach neige, du schmerzenreiche!_). Then, while Satan in a restless fury of disappointment makes a last effort to secure his victim, the ransomed soul is fortified with celestial fare served by St. Augustine and other _doutores_. The whole theme, to which the language rises fully adequate, is treated with great delicacy and with a mystic fervour.