DIAS, BALTASAR. - Portuguese dramatist of the 16th century, the best known and still beloved among the people. A native of the island of Madeira and blind, endowed with unquestionable talent, he enjoyed wide popularity both for his autos (in which he generally dramatized a pious legend) and for the minstrel-like songs interspersed in his plays.
Particularly worthy of mention are: the auto of Santo Aleixo, those on Santa Caterina, the Nacimiento de Cristo, Salomão, the Paixao, etc., faithful dramatic renderings of hagiographical narratives, in which the miraculous element and the pomp of liturgical ceremonies were employed. Also his are the Historia de la emperatriz Porcina mulher do emperador Lodonio de Roma and the Tragedia do Marquez de Mantua e do emperador Carlo Magno, which Garrett included in his Romanceiro, considering it a version of a French or Provençal text from the end of the 14th or the beginning of the 15th century.