Gil Vicente

Gil Vicente (c. 1465–c. 1536) was a Portuguese playwright and poet, often called the father of Portuguese drama. Little is certain about his life, though he may be the same person as a goldsmith of the same name who made the Belém monstrance. From 1502, when he performed a monologue for the birth of the future King João III, he wrote and staged plays for the courts of Manuel I and João III, in both Portuguese and Spanish. His forty-odd works range from religious autos, such as the trilogy of the boats, to farces, comedies and pastoral tragicomedies full of lively social types.