The three plays edited and translated in this volume are strongly linked to what we now think of as the Portuguese Discoveries. All three are fundamentally concerned with the expansion of Portugal in Africa and India through either crusade or commerce. In the introductions to the plays, the playwright's social role as a court dramatist is emphasized and his dramatic productions are set firmly within the political concerns of his time. Careful consideration is given to the involvement of both Gil Vicente and the Inquisition in the later emendation of the play's texts.

El Caballero de Olmedo is a history play, a retelling of a folk talk, a celebrated piece of Golden Age drama, and also an intense mediation upon the power of desire, the deceits of eroticism and literary convention, the injustice of a world obsessed with appearance, and the tragic potential inherent in the courting of beautiful women. The introduction sets this play within the context of Baroque eroticism and sexual mores as well as dramatic practice. The text is presented with glosses to words unfamiliar to undergraduate students; the notes comprise summaries of acts and scenes from a dramatic point of view, and in-depth notes to problematic passages in the text, written with an undergraduate readership in mind. -- .