How did El-rei Seleuco turn a story from Plutarch into a farce?

In his comedy El-rei Seleuco ("King Seleucus"), Luís de Camões adapted a historical account from Plutarch—which details the story of a son who wins his stepmother from his father—and transformed it into a work of pure farce.1

Camões achieved this by shifting the focus of the narrative: rather than emphasizing the original dramatic or historical weight of the situation, he refined the farce by transferring the comic element from the characters themselves to the action of the play. While Camões viewed his dramatic works as mere curiosities or recreations, this approach allowed him to impose classical restraint on the traditional auto (a form of morality play) and increase the importance of the plot, offering a potential path for rejuvenating 16th-century Portuguese comedy.1