SOURCE: Tomlins, Jack E. “Gil Vicente's Vision of India and Its Ironic Echo in Camões's ‘Velho do Restelo’.” In Empire in Transition: The Portuguese World in the Time of Camões, edited by Alfred Hower and Richard A. Preto-Rodas, pp. 170-76. Gainesville: University of Florida Press, 1985.

In the following excerpt, Tomlins discusses how the conquest of India affected Vicente's writing.

Gil Vicente has likely given to the modern world the first literary reflection of India outside the Portuguese chronicles themselves, which—owing to their very nature—came to light after the poet-playwright's death, generally conceded to have occurred in the year 1536. The specific mention of the conquest of India and of its effects on the metrópole is to be found in two farces, so denominated by the goldsmith's son, Luís Vicente, in his cavalier categorization of his father's theatrical pieces in the Copilaçam de...