''The Monologue of the

Cowboy A cowboy is an animal herder who tends cattle on ranches in North America, traditionally on horseback, and often performs a multitude of other ranch-related tasks. The historic American cowboy of the late 19th century arose from the ''vaquero'' ...

'' (Portuguese: ''Monólogo do Vaqueiro'') or ''Act of the Visitation'' (Portuguese: ''O Auto da Visitação'') is a

play Play most commonly refers to: * Play (activity), an activity done for enjoyment * Play (theatre), a work of drama Play may refer also to: Computers and technology * Google Play, a digital content service * Play Framework, a Java framework * P ...

Gil Vicente Gil Vicente (; c. 1465c. 1536), called the Trobadour, was a Portuguese playwright and poet who acted in and directed his own plays. Considered the chief dramatist of Portugal he is sometimes called the "Portuguese Plautus," often refe ...

. The play is named after the

Vaquero The ''vaquero'' (; , ) is a horse-mounted livestock herder of a tradition that has its roots in the Iberian Peninsula and extensively developed in what what is today Mexico (then New Spain) and Spanish Florida from a method brought to the Americ ...

, the horse-mounted livestock herder of the

Iberian Peninsula The Iberian Peninsula ( ), also known as Iberia, is a peninsula in south-western Europe. Mostly separated from the rest of the European landmass by the Pyrenees, it includes the territories of peninsular Spain and Continental Portugal, comprisin ...

. With Spanish roots, it was Gil Vicente's first play, written for the celebration of the birth of the prince Dom João, the future king

John III of Portugal John III ( ; 6 June 1502 – 11 June 1557), nicknamed The Pious ( Portuguese: ''o Piedoso''), was the King of Portugal and the Algarve from 1521 until he died in 1557. He was the son of King Manuel I and Maria of Aragon, the third daughter of ...

. It premiered in

1502 Year 1502 ( MDII) was a common year starting on Saturday of the Julian calendar. Events January–March * January 1 – Portuguese explorers, led by Gonçalo Coelho, sail into Guanabara Bay, Brazil, mistaking it for the mouth of ...

at the royal court, then located in

Castelo de São Jorge Castelo may refer to: Places Brazil * Castelo, Espírito Santo, a municipality in the State of Espírito Santo * Castelo (Rio de Janeiro), a neighbourhood in the city of Rio de Janeiro Portugal * Castelo (Lisbon), a civil parish in the municipalit ...

, in

Lisbon Lisbon ( ; ) is the capital and largest city of Portugal, with an estimated population of 567,131, as of 2023, within its administrative limits and 3,028,000 within the Lisbon Metropolitan Area, metropolis, as of 2025. Lisbon is mainlan ...

External links

*
Original text in Portuguese for download.
1502 plays Portuguese plays {{16thC-play-stub