bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
Calderón's Charlatan of Honor: Refranero Wisdom and Its Condemnation of Gutierre
Authors: Soufas Teresa S.
Published: January 2014

Through an examination of the proverbial basis of Calderón's characterization of Gutierre in El médico de su honra , this study provides more evidence for the increasingly strong case that the actions of the play's protagonist are not at all commendable. The complaints against unskilled doctors and physicians of death found in the Refraneros are dramatized by the association Calderón builds between those inept practitioners of medicine and Gutierre, the metaphorical physician of his honor. By basing this figure and the play's discourse on the lowly art form of the refrán , Calderón undermines the honor and nobility of his protagonist and allows the entire society to condemn Gutierre by means of the common and collective wisdom enunciated in the proverb lore. (TSS)
Lope de Vega and the Immaculate Conception
Authors: Howe Elizabeth Teresa
Published: January 2014

Interest in and devotion to the Immaculate Conception in Spanish has been longstanding. During the XII and XIII centuries Marian shrines became centers of religious devotion, while by the XV century the present network of popular shrines was by and large in place. Several centuries prior to the time of Lope de Vega, Saint Ildefonso wrote a key work, La virginidad perpetua de Santa María , to which tradition ascribed credit for introducing the privilege in Spain. This key book was instrumental in the defense of the virginity of both Mary and her mother, an important topic not only in the works of Lope de Vega but also in his religious life. Lope's inclusion of the theme of the Immaculate Conception in his drama occurs in a number of works whose dates of composition and publication coincide chronologically with a period of Intense and active demonstration of devotion to the privilege in Spain. His El capellán de la virgen, San Ildefonso presents a dramatization which intertwines references to the Immaculate Conception with events, both factual and legendary, of the Spanish saint; in La limpieza no manchada , the author introduces arguments and action not only to defend the idea of the Immaculate Conception but also to point the way towards his definitive work on this topic, the Auto de la puente del mundo , which represents a threading of a number of theological themes and literary trappings of a popular romance of chivalry. In all these works, Lope does not seem so much to convince his audience of the validity of the Immaculate Conception as dogma but, rather, to confirm them in their popular acceptance of it as an article of faith.
Echoing Desire, Mirroring Disdain: Moreto's El desdén con el desdén
Authors: Blue William R.
Published: January 2014

Moreto's El desdén con el desdén seems a typical love comedy wherein three noble men vie for the attentions of a noble lady. Diana, however, is haughty, disdainful, intellectually opposed to marriage, and, if we judge by Carlos's initial reaction, not particularly good-looking. Unless we attribute greed to Carlos as his prime motive, we must ask why he so passionately pursues the Conde de Barcelona's only child. Multifaceted desire lies at the heart of this, and perhaps of all, comedia . Carlos desires Diana because his friend, the Príncipe de Bearne and the Conde de Fox, do. His desire, therefore, is inauthentic, vain, based on a model. Frustrated and frustrating desire, whose archetypal presentation is in the Echo and Narcissus story, is the central motivator of the action. Disdain, the sword Carlos turns against Diana to win her, is but the other face of desire's coin. Desire and disdain, like all signs, carry the trace of their radical other inscribed in their essence, and both, again like all signs, are unstable. That resultant instability, then, must be projected into the end of the play, and will produce at least two possible futures for the newly betrothed couple.
The Romancero and Guillén de Castro's Nacimiento de Montesinos
Authors: Falk Janet
Published: January 2014

Guillén de Castro's cultivation of the Romancero , long apparent in his masterpiece Las mocedades del Cid , may be found even in an early work, El nacimiento de Montesinos. Muchas veces oí decir and Cata Francia, Montesinos , two ballads about Montesinos, were published repeatedly in various romanceros and circulated in the oral tradition. The widespread diffusion of these romances undoubtedly contributed to Castro's decision to dramatize their narrative core. However, the Nacimiento is not merely the re-creation of the tale of Montesinos; it draws from other Carolingian ballads and a secondary plot is apparently based on yet another romance . The two central traditional texts serve as a vehicle for Castro to incorporate modifications which reflect the contemporary social concern with honor.
Formula Thinking/Formula Writing in Calderón's El golfo de las sirenas
Authors: O'Connor Thomas A.
Published: January 2014

El golfo de las sirenas (el 17 de enero de 1657) fue un experimento dramático que inauguró la zarzuela en el teatro cortesano calderoniano. Al incorporar la loa y la mojiganga de la pieza al estudio del texto, se descubre que Golfo es una obra problemática, tanto desde el punto de vista de su estructura dramática como desde el de su contenido mitológico e ideológico. En primer lugar, el texto trata de secularizar en el teatro profano la alegoría dramática característica del auto sacramental. En segundo lugar, una misoginia latente en el mito de Ulises, Escila y Caribdis obstaculiza la realización de tal intento. Este estudio examina cómo y por qué Golfo fracasó como un experimento dramático, debido al hecho de que la obra contradice la dirección y significado de la mayor parte de los dramas mitológicos calderonianos de los años 50 y 60. El golfo de las sirenas , a fin de cuentas, niega la mutua dependencia del hombre y de la mujer, lo que significa en su plenitud un tipo de «salvación» puramente terrestre y humana. (TAO'C)
Tirso de Molina, Priest-Playwright
Authors: Wade Gerald E.
Published: January 2014

Tirso de Molina wrote some of the most delightful comedies of the Golden Age. Most of them present a theme of universal and timeless appeal: the frantic efforts of young lovers to achieve union despite major hindrances of one sort or another. These erotic, and occasionally bawdy, comedies scandalized the moralists of Tirso's time and later. They found difficulty in understanding how a priest, a seeker after the mystical love of his God, could also find pleasure in the erotic. The purpose of this study is to attempt an explanation of this ambivalence. As an introduction there is offered a brief review of Tirso's activities as priest and as playwright that may aid in the pursuit of the matter at issue. it is recalled that in his composition of erotic materials he followed the lead of certain earlier churchmen who had no moral or religious scruples against composing naughty literature: Juan Ruiz and François Rabelais, the French cleric, come to mind. The mind-set of religious who found pleasure in the indecent is offered explanation by a recent commentator, Lucien Lefebvre. Tirso's definition of love is recalled as is also his statement of the intent of his writings: he affirmed that he wrote jestingly, in the mood of the burla so popular at that time. By treating the actions of his love-struck youngsters as play, as a game, he hoped to capture the attention of his audience so that he might interest them in more serious matters involving Christian doctrine. It is clear that he saw the mystical and the erotic as diametrically opposed in meaning; for the orthodox Christian the erotic, lust, is one of the seven deadly sins. There still remains, however, something further to be said about how a priest, sworn to continence, could enjoy the erotic so thoroughly as to compose dozens of plays about it, and one has recourse to the concept of «morose delectation» as offered by commentators, that kind of pleasure aroused by the erotic fantasies and dreams recalled in Augustine's Confesions . Certain thinkers have suggested that the mystical and the erotic are really not fundamentally different but are one and the same impulse. Interestingly enough this concept takes one back to the distant past when primitive believers saw their religions as partly sexual, requiring phallic worship as an element of ritual. No effort is made here to assess the validity of the concept of the oneness of the mystical and the erotic, but it is apparent that many will find the concept difficult of acceptance, just as it would have been for Tirso and especially so when it is expressed in the obscenities of the pornographic. Whatever one may conclude from the above about the psychological and theological complexities of Tirso's attitude toward his comedies, these will remain among the classics of their kind. (GEW)
Honor from the Comic Perspective: Calderón's Comedias de capa y espada
Authors: Mujica Barbara
Published: January 2014

Calderón's moral position with respect to honor is better defined in his comedias de capa y espada than in his honor tragedies. In the latter, characters are trapped by social conventions that they never consider discarding. They view honor as fate, and although they may recognize the injustice and even the absurdity of the honor code, they succumb to its demands. Because the honor hero never examines the nature of his own freedom, he is unable to take responsibility for his reaction to his wife's trespasses, real or imagined. While the honor plays do illustrate the blood-thirsty behavior to which strict adherence to the honor code leads, it is not clear to what extent Calderón sees his honor heroes as free to cast the code aside. From a moral and theological point of view, they are perfectly free, but from a social point of view, they are not. The cloak-sword comedies are less ambiguous. The criticism of the honor fanatic is explicit, and blame for the catastrophe that nearly occurs as a result of his obsession is placed squarely on him. The cloak-sword comedies provide examples of sassy, clever heroines who work around the honor code and get away with it. These women outsmart honor-obsessed men and capture the sympathies of the audience. But the predicaments of the comic characters are as disconcerting as they are amusing, not only because we are aware that the same system of values leads to bloodshed in the tragedies, but also because these men and women seem to gain no insight from their experiences.
The Run-on Line in the Poetry of the Comedia
Authors: Wooldridge John B.
Published: January 2014

Certain types of run-on lines were utilized from the earliest days of the Spanish theater, undoubtedly to avoid the monotony of a pause at the end of each line and to approximate natural speech. Other types of run-on lines were rather rare until Calderón's time. In his earliest plays Calderón's use of the run-on line resembles that of his predecessors. However, he rapidly expanded his utilization of this poetic device, more than tripling its use by the end of his career. He employed all the types that had been unused or rarely used before and even had recourse to the extremely rare lexical type. His Influence upon his contemporaries in this respect is patent. While it appears likely that the run-on line continued to be used primarily to provide greater rhythmic variety, it seems equally certain that it was also frequently employed for a specific aesthetic purpose, which involves the placement of the first element of the separated syntactical unit in the final stressed syllable of the line.
Calderón's Semíramis: Myth of the Phallic Woman
Authors: Hesse Everett W.
Published: January 2014

This paper will attempt to account for the insatiable ambition to rule of Semíramis, the protagonist of La hija del aire . It will draw on the writings of Freud and Jung and will utilize dramatic analysis, psychological theory and a knowledge of certain myths. It will trace the course of Semíramis' psychic development especially as it concerns the emerging domination of the animus (Jung). Semíramis exhibits 'penis envy' (Freud) when she complains that Nature erred in not creating her a man. She imprisons her son, the legitimate heir to the Assyrian throne, and, in male garb proceeds to assume his identity and rules, thus taking on the masculine role denied her by Nature. Semíramis is protected by the goddess Venus, who herself is a transformed phallus, since she was born from the foam of the sea under unusual circumstances. Cronos, son of earth and heaven, castrated his father (Ouranos) and hurled his testicles into the sea. They drifted away and the semen from Ouranos' castrated genitals mingled with the foam. Semíramis lacks the phallus from a physical point of view, but from a psychological viewpoint she substitutes aggressiveness and valor, a phenomenon corroborated by psychologists. Thus Semíramis triumphs over a male-dominated society. Under the protection of the goddess Venus, and possessed of phenomenal courage, she has asserted the masculine element in her psyche.
Risa y ambivalencia en Los cabellos de Absalón : Tamar, el gracioso y Teuca
Authors: Hernández-Araico Susana
Published: January 2014

Este estudio propone que la risa y obscenidad carnavalesca del gracioso destacan en Tamar y Teuca la ambivalencia que impulsa la fuerza trágica de Los cabellos de Absalón . Siguiendo la tesis de Rodríguez López-Vázquez sobre la autoría calderoniana de la tercera jornada de La venganza de Tamar , se observa que la simpatiá entre princesa y pitonisa en ese acto contradice la delineación anterior de la Tamar de Tirso. En Los cabellos , en cambio, su amistad concuerda con la caracterización calderoniana de Tamar como partícipe fundamental en la «responsabilidad difusa» de la tragedia. El nuevo papel de Jonadab en la obra de Calderón destaca desde el primer acto la ambivalencia taimada de la princesa y la relaciona progresivamente con la función engañosa de la agorera. Debido al origen divino de la profecía de Natán que pende sobre la casa de David, Calderón concienzudamente aclara desde un principio la deceptividad de Teuca y, con los comentarios del gracioso, se burla del agente de su acostumbrado recurso de pronósticos irónicos que, en este caso, unifica la acción dispersa de varios personajes. Al final Calderón relega a Tamar y a Teuca al submundo carnavalesco del gracioso, identificando así del todo a las dos mujeres en cuya ambivalencia fundamenta la estructura de su tragedia.
Virtue Triumphant in Cueva's La libertad de España por Bernardo del Carpio
Authors: Burton David G.
Published: January 2014

Juan de la Cueva's fourth play, Comedia de la libertad de España por Bernardo del Carpio , produced in Seville in 1579, holds special fascination for serious inquirers into early Spanish literature, and particularly for those drawn to the development of the Spanish national theater. This play dramatized the story of the Spanish medieval hero Bernardo del Carpio, and his defeat of the French at the battle of Roncesvalles. A closer study of the play reveals that Cueva did more than present history on the stage. The play is an affirmation of patriotic zeal, moral virtue, and religious precepts. Cueva uses the struggle of Bernardo as a means of urging his audience to consider questions of morality and of religion. As a moralist, the dramatist presents the example of two kings — Alonso of Spain and Carlo Mano of France — whose intemperate character should not be emulated. For Cueva, Bernardo's reasoned approach to solving personal and national problems represents the golden mean. At the heart of the lesson in morality lies a subtle message that is religious in nature. The themes of sin and salvation are woven throughout the drama and give the play a distinctly religious foundation. The errors in judgment made by Alonso and by Carlo Mano are reversed at the end of the comedia when Bernardo is crowned with laurel by Marte, god of war. Through the appearance of a divine figure, Cueva reassures his audience that evil will not win and that there is hope for salvation.
Tirso's Pizarro Trilogy: A Case of Sycophancy or Lese-Majesty?
Authors: Ó Tuathaigh Marie Gleeson
Published: January 2014

Tirso's Pizarro trilogy, because of its historic theme and also because of its interesting position in the chronology of his dramatic work, presents the reader/ critic with certain difficulties. If the author's prime intention was, as has been suggested to date, to glorify the Pizarro family, then why did he choose to highlight and give prominence to what might be described as the darker moments of the family history — Francisco's illegitimacy, Gonzalo's treason and execution and Fernando's long imprisonment at the hands of Philip II? This rather unexpected view of the conquistadores sets up a series of variations on the theme suggested by the title of the third play La Lealtad contra la Envidia . The combination of such a manifestly political theme with a setting, not in the distant past but for the most part in the relatively recent reigns of Charles V and of Philip II, gives an added edge to the strong political criticism contained in the play. When we consider that the play was written subsequent to the edict of the Junta de Reformación , which forbade his writing any further comedias or versos profanos , and yet immediately prior to his renunciation of the secular comedia , these plays provide an interesting insight into the state of mind of their recalcitrant author. (MGOT)
Queen Christina of Sweden and Calderón's Afectos de odio y amor
Authors: Lundelius Ruth
Published: January 2014

Calderón's interest in Queen Christina is evidenced in two dramatic works: an auto sacramental and a comedia . My thesis in the present paper is that it was not the historical saga of the Swedish queen or even her religious pilgrimage that attracted Calderón to the dramatic potentialities in the Christina character, but rather his interest in the popular comedia type of the mujer varonil . The historical queen and historical circumstances are slightly modified and adapted to conform to comedia conventions and to enhance dramatic interest. In this connection, the comedia raises interesting questions about numerous areas of conflict and tension, including the whole love/honor/duelling complex. (RL)
The Satiric Irony of Marta la piadosa
Authors: Albrecht Jane White
Published: January 2014

Many modern critics, while recognizing social satire in Tirso's Marta la piadosa , tend not to see the title character as included in that satire. In fact, all of the evidence in the play points to Marta as one more hypocrite in a hypocritical society. Verbal irony in the play, Tirso's ironic characterization of Marta and the inclusion of distanced characters, including the gracioso , who comment on Marta's behavior, mark Marta as a play of satiric irony, one of the poles of ironic comedy as defined by Northrop Frye. Marta, a hypocrite based on the proverbial Marta, is not a sympathetic figure; we laugh at Marta, we do not identify with her. She is held up for our judgment, not for our sympathy. Marriage at the end of the play is not the sign of a divinely sanctioned happy ending. We would do well to reject the notion of a «happily ever after» to Marta and to recognize the ironical, critical vein in Tirso's work. (JWA)
Politics, Patronage, and Lope's La noche de San Juan
Authors: Stoll Anita K.
Published: January 2014

More than almost any other play from the Golden Age, Lope's La noche de San Juan is rooted In the circumstances of its creation. It is a clever and good-natured play that interweaves reality and fantasy, present and timeless. It is one of Lope's most inventive plays and hides a great deal of depth in its light-hearted drama. In addition, however, it provides a fascinating window on the patronage practices and the political and social realities of the period, amply illustrating the fact that it was commissioned by the Count-Duke of Olivares for the entertainment of Philip IV and his court.
El cruce de los temas de honor y justicia en El alcalde de Zalamea de Calderón: un choque de motivos estéticos y prácticos
Authors: Aylward E.T.
Published: January 2014

En este estudio se analiza el procedimiento bien silogístico que utiliza Pedro Crespo para resolver el problema de su honor. El alcalde procede en dos planos distintos porque concibe su dilema en términos de fama vs. hacienda. Violada su hija, el padre ultrajado elige buscar primero un remedio estéticosacramental para la ofensa a su amor propio (o "fama"). Cuando el malhechor rechaza rotundamente la solución divina (el matrimonio), Crespo no puede más que descender al nivel inferior de la justicia humana: emprende un proceso judicial por el cual espera conseguir un remedio práctico para la ofensa a su "hacienda." Culmina el proceso en la inolvidable confrontación entre Crespo y el Capitán durante el tercer acto, una escena en que cruzan los dos asuntos principales del drama: el honor y la justicia. Por cortarse tan fuertemente este par de temas, muchos críticos han entendido mal el propósito y moraleja de la obra. Sin embargo, si se estudia el drama desde el punto de vista de unos motivos estéticos en conflicto con otros prácticos, el caso queda fácil de explicar y entender. (ETA)
The Devil and Humor in Lope's Comedias de santos
Authors: Case Thomas E.
Published: January 2014

The devil figures prominently in Lope de Vega's comedias de santos , and often in situations which can be judged as humorous. This humor arises for different reasons. Since the devil assumes human form to tempt the saint, he sometimes is subjected to awkward and humiliating circumstances. The devil himself makes puns or cracks jokes about his predicament. The devil, sometimes resembling a pedantic hidalgo , is satirized for his airs of superiority. The devil also provokes laughter because, through his defeat and humiliation, the public of the seventeenth century felt temporarily relieved of fear. (TEC)
En torno al tema de la misericordia en Los cabellos de Absalón
Authors: Sirias Silvio
Published: January 2014

El propósito de este estudio es examinar la obra de Calderón de la Barca, Los cabellos de Absalón , con las miras puestas en la interacción entre el rigor y la piedad. Este enfoque nos permite observar no sólo cómo esta interacción le provee unidad temática al drama, sino también la manera en que los personajes se realizan alrededor de la postura compasiva del rey David. El monarca israelita surge de este trabajo no como un individuo débil, como ha sugerido un núcleo crítico, sino como un dechado de la virtud del perdón. La obra de Calderón nos provee un formidable contraste entre el rigor intrínseco del Viejo Testamento y el concepto de la misericordia que emerge a partir del Nuevo Testamento. La dimensión trágica de la obra brota del abismo que existe entre ambos. Sorprendentemente, utilizando este enfoque, es Tamar, la violada hija del monarca, quien emerge como la verdadera víctima de esta pieza teatral. Al final, ella cae en la sima donde desaparece de vista para siempre.
Voice in El divino Narciso
Authors: Ackerman Jane E.
Published: January 2014

The highly complex, ornamented auto sacramental by Sor Juana Inés de la Cruz achieves its didactic ends through spoken words. With song, chanting, paraphrase, retelling, listening, and hearing, the playwright sensitizes her audience to higher meaning in the allegory that it sees onstage. Sor Juana uses the device of utterance not only to teach her spectators how to approach her play, but to urge in them a particularly loving response to Christ, the Word.
"Girl Gets Boy": A Note on the Value of Exchange in the Comedia
Authors: Friedman Edward H.
Published: January 2014

The Spanish picaresque novels foreground the ironies of first-person narration and the illusion of authority, as manifested in a dialectic of sorts between the narrator/protagonist and the implied author. The feminine variation of the picaresque, with women (and women's voices) created by men, offers especially strong markers of the author's presence in the text as manipulator of story, discourse, and message production. In the theater, there is, of course, no narrator. Perspective must stem from direct discourse, which does not necessarily mean that all voices are equal. Male dramatists and a male-oriented society mediate the speech of women and the direction of the plays. Even in the comic works of the Golden Age, the aggressive female and what Bruce Wardropper calls a feminist perspective may lend themselves to deconstruction. A case in point is Lope's La dama boba , in which success may be a losing battle. (EHF)
Una nota critica a la prioridad del Tan largo me lo fiais
Authors: López-Vázquez Alfredo Rodríguez
Published: January 2014

El texto de Tan largo me lo fiáis presenta en algunos casos variantes mínimas en cuanto a grafía respecto al texto de El burlador . En este artículo se analiza un pasaje editado por A. Castro en 1910 siguiendo la lección de Tan largo , y reformado más tarde por el propio Castro de acuerdo con Burlador . El rastreo y cotejo en autores del siglo XVI-XVII confirma la prioridad del Tan largo en la grafía raxas y la lección correcta de raxas como paños , atestiguada ya en el Viaje de Turquía . El análisis de los procesos de transmisión textual reafirma, también en este breve pasaje, la prioridad del Tan largo .
The Art of Imitation in Lope's El bastardo Mudarra
Authors: McCrary Susan Niehoff
Published: January 2014

Lope's El bastardo Mudarra appears at first glance to be a simple reenactment of the historical-legendary material concerning the Siete Infantes de Lara. While this is, without doubt, one of the many levels of the play, other interpretations exist and are equally valid. If we as spectators view the play in light of the Medieval-Renaissance conception of history as a moral account of the world, in which God's purposes were made manifest, then the secular material functions to commemorate an Urform , the greater cosmological epic having to do with the Fall of Man and the Christian themes of temptation, transgression, atonement, salvation and regeneration. Lope's perception of the function of Mudarra in history differs significantly from that of the historical accounts. The dramatist invests the source material with a universal design that is teleologically oriented; thus Mudarra's purpose is not only to finalize the vengeance against Ruy Velázquez and Doña Lambra, but also, and more importantly, to establish a new beginning for Christendom in Spain, and thus for mankind. In this sense, then, the play imitates the greater Providential design at work within the universe.
Calderón and Shakespeare: The Subject of Henry VIII
Authors: Mariscal George
Published: January 2014

Comparative studies of Calderón and Shakespeare traditionally have attempted to rank one text (or even one playwright) over the other. The theoretical assumptions underlying such criticism for the most part have been drawn from a formalist method which delimited the critic's activity to the boundaries of the text itself, paying relatively little attention to socio-cultural background in which the dramatic text was produced and performed. By looking more closely at the historical circumstances in which theatrical practice developed in Madrid and London in the early seventeenth century, I argue, we will be able to see more clearly the differences that separated these two societies and the dramatic literature they produced. More specifically, the test case of two plays representing the same events, La cisma de Inglaterra and Henry VIII , shows us how important concepts of subjectivity and sexuality were constructed on the stage in England and in Spain. (GM)
Lope de Vega's Use of Discretion: An Indication of a Change in Spanish Thought
Authors: Norden Janet B.
Published: January 2014

In La vitoria de la honra Lope de Vega skillfully ranks three values the sixteenth- to seventeenth-century Spaniard esteemed most: pure blood, valor and discretion. In presenting discretion as the most valuable, he hints at the beginnings of an important psychological change in Spanish thought. Perhaps due to the socio-psychological and political climate of the time, and due in part to Lope's personal experiences, this play, while ostensibly giving lip service to the prevailing traditional values of lineage and honor, also questions them. The traditional values were inherently static: a man was the sum total of his inherited past and acted accordingly. In La vitoria de la honra the power the individual exhibits is due to his active discretion. The play's last scene demonstrates that honor depends on a continuing process of self-development. Man must focus not on «being» but on «becoming.» Lope thus aligns himself with those writers, such as Gracián, who stressed that a man's value depends on what he does.
Astrology, Poetic Justice and Providence in Andrés de Claramonte's La infelice Dorotea
Authors: Ganelin Charles
Published: January 2014

In Andrés de Claramonte's La infelice Dorotea , an understanding of an astrological prediction and of the characters' reaction to it is essential in elucidating the play's theme of fortune as well as in analyzing the workings of poetic justice. While insufficient detail precludes an accurate rendering of the horoscope, the fundamental planetary configuration—Saturn in opposition to Mars—does not bode well for the heroine. Her fiancé, with the help of a Moor (a people known for their scientific knowledge), interprets the sign as a prophecy that the woman will die by her husband's hand. Though the engagement is postponed, the man who eventually marries the woman is later informed of the prediction, ignores it, yet at the end of Act III murders his wife. If the play does present the prophecy as fulfilled, the playwright comes perilously close to heresy by dramatizing a prediction that excludes the possibility of Grace through Divine Providence. However, both the heroine's and her husband's attitude toward the prediction is one of resignation and blind acceptance. The prediction is fulfilled, then, as a punishment for having forsaken the Grace of God.
The Threat of Long-Haired Stars: Comets in Lope de Vega's El maestro de danzar
Authors: de Armas Frederick A.
Published: January 2014

During the Spanish Golden Age, comets were perceived as ominous and puzzling phenomena in an ordered cosmos. They were signs of sudden change and disaster, particularly in the political and social arena, bringing sudden death to princes, and famine or plague to the people. Towards the close of the sixteenth century an astronomical curiosity to observe and determine the causes and nature of the phenomenon began to balance out the traditional astrological view. Lope de Vega began his literary career shortly after the visitation of the 1577 comet. He was reaching the peak of his creative powers when the 1607 comet, later labeled Halley's, made its appearance. As a result, it is not surprising then to find numerous references to comets in his comedias . This paper studies the presence of comets in a number of Lope's plays, concentrating on El maestro de danzar .
Playing for Time and Playing with Time in Calderón's Eco y Narciso
Authors: Larson Catherine
Published: January 2014

The treatment of time in Calderón's Eco y Narciso combines diachrony with synchrony in terms of theme, plot, and structure. In addition, Calderón's use of Ovid's Metamorphoses as the source of his myth play posits an excursion into the ways that intertextual echoes of past works affect a seventeenth-century text. The fragments of the pastoral, the zarzuela , literary romance, and other works by Calderón himself, all woven into the fabric of Eco y Narciso , offer a rich interplay of the notions of literary time, literary transformation, and artistic creation. Diachronie and synchronic time fuse in this dramatic text, producing a type of spiral that simultaneously looks back upon the past and points ahead to the future, while it addresses the concerns and realities of the Spanish court and nation in the waning days of the reign of Philip IV.
Calderón's Los cabellos de Absalón and the Semiotics of Performance
Authors: Fischer Susan L.
Published: January 2014

Semiotics can provide the student of theatre with both a methodology and a vocabulary for dealing with the interrelated tasks of the director, actor, scene designer, costume designer, and lighting and sound technicians in creating a performance text from a written text. Tadeusz Kowzan offers one of the clearest statements on the direct application of semiotic principles to theatre studies. He attempts to identify and define the principal signifying systems which interact in a theatrical performance, providing a preliminary and approximate typology of some thirteen. His classification affords a useful structure within which to examine how the various visual and auditory elements of theatre interact with the text in order to recreate—however imperfectly—the experience of a single performance of José Luis Gómez's 1983 production of Calderón's Los cabellos de Absalón . Nevertheless, it is essential to bear in mind Robert Scholes' corrective with regard to extreme versions of formalist and structuralist theory: meaning is not only a matter of purely formal systems but also a function of experience. It is important to consider the possibilities and limitations of critical theory as applied to live performance, that is to say, the distinctive approaches of theatrical practitioners and academic theorists.
Lope's Dialogic Imagination: Writing Other Voices of "Monolithic" Spain
Authors: Swietlicki Catherine
Published: January 2014

The debate on whether Lope de Vega was a propagandist or an accomplished artist whose work reflects the traditions and values of his era has often centered about Lope's treatment of Spanish minority groups in his theater. A close investigation of his attention to these cultural "others" reveals a wide range of approaches to dealing with the alterity in the society of his day, particularly with the Jewish "other". By applying Mikhail Bakhtin's concepts of otherness in society, language and authorship to our study of Lope's plays about Spanish Jews, we can gain new understanding of the intricate relationship between society and artistry in his works. The examination of two plays, one from the age of convivencia, Las paces de los reyes y la judía de Toledo , and another from the edad conflictiva, El niño inocente de La Guardia , reveals a variety of treatment for the Jewish "other" in Lope's works. At times Lope's characters speak with monologic voices of the monolithic national culture, but on numerous occasions that discourse expresses an otherness that is not of the dramatist or the dominant society. Lope shows us, in Bakhtin's terms, his "dialogic imagination". It is the ability to hear other voices and to "write" them into his works that makes Lope more than a mere propagandist. (CS)
The Independent Heroines in Ruiz de Alarcón's Major Comedias
Authors: Pasto David J.
Published: January 2014

A close analysis of the heroines in Las paredes oyen, La prueba de las promesas , and La verdad sospechosa proves that Alarcón's female protagonists are not as selfish, unfeeling, and hypocritical as traditional scholarship has described them. The heroines of these plays are independent, active, and decisive women, making choices and determining not only their own destinies but the heroes' destinies as well. Traditional scholarship also criticizes Alarcón's female characters as "undistinguished and undistinguishable," but each of the heroines in the three plays chosen for analysis is clearly drawn and well-differentiated from the others. Alarcón, long noted for his characterizations of men, also created interesting, well-drawn, and independent female characters in Las paredes oyen, La prueba de las promesas , and La verdad sospechosa . (DJP)
The Perseus Myth as Defined by Calderón and Corneille
Authors: Hivnor Mary
Published: January 2014

That myths are capable of multiple uses and interpretation is demonstrated by two palace plays based on the same Ovid story of Perseus. Corneille's Andromède and Calderón's Las fortunas de Andrómeda y Perseo are entirely different in their affective impact. Corneille's play celebrates Perseus as heroic bridegroom; Calderón celebrates him as heroic saviour. The reason for such a divergence in interpretation and style can be partly explained by the basic difference between two concepts of romance. While Corneille uses romance in a limited sense, as adventure dependent on love interest (with social values as a strong obstacle), Calderón makes full use of the romance quest as defined by Northrop Frye. This makes it possible for Calderón to use the monster, for instance, not only poetically but dramatically, while Corneille is obviously bothered by the monster's incredibility. While Corneille's play is no more than a palace entertainment, Calderón succeeds in preserving, re-expressed for a Christian audience, the universal significance and dramatic impact of the Greek myth. (MH)
Language and Seduction in El burlador de Sevilla
Authors: Mandrell James
Published: January 2014

Seduction in Tirso de Molina's El burlador de Sevilla y convidado de piedra is not merely sexual in nature; it also has serious implications for language, including the ways in which language can be used and abused. In this study of the comedia , I explore the linguistic implications of seduction, relating them to concerns pertinent to seventeenth-century Spanish society and religious orthodoxy. Moreover, this interpretation demonstrates the ways in which Don Juan serves a positive function in patriarchal society as well as the extent to which Tirso was profoundly concerned with language and its capacity both to create and to deceive. By recognizing and recuperating the worldly importance of language as it relates to seduction in El burlador de Sevilla , I hope to restore to the comedia the lessons it offers us as readers and critics. (JM)
Iconología de Peribáñez y el comendador de Ocaña
Authors: Delgado-Morales Manuel
Published: January 2014

En este ensayo se estudian los colores y los iconos de Peribáñez como conjunto ordenado y dispuesto intencionalmente para significar, enseñar y mentalizar al público del Barroco. De acuerdo con la tradición medieval y renacentista, Lope ve en la pintura un medio adecuado de conocimiento y le atribuye una intencionalidad específica, al mostrar cómo Peribáñez descubre la realidad que lo amenaza gracias al cuadro que el Comendador ha mandado hacer de Casilda. De acuerdo también con dicha tradición, Lope combina palabra y pintura para lograr un retrato más expresivo de los rasgos morales de personajes como el Comendador de Ocaña y para alcanzar, de manera más efectiva, la doble meta propuesta: subvertir, por una parte, la autoridad oficial de Don Fadrique y consolidar, por otra, el poder monárquico y su sistema político y religioso. En la articulación de estas imágenes plásticas o verbales se pueden percibir, asimismo, un proceso histórico, político, y un yo autorial, cuyas experiencias de conciencia se identifican con las del protagonista principal, Peribáñez. Por esta razón, la continuada iconografía de Peribáñez alcanza su máxima expresión en el momento de la aparición del pendón inquisitorial, símbolo a su vez del castigo de Don Fadrique y del programa de gobierno de Enrique III. (MD-M)
From Copyist to Computer: Identification of Theatrical Scribes of the Siglo de Oro
Authors: Greer Margaret
Published: January 2014

Uno de los tesoros que tenemos como estudiantes del teatro del Siglo de Oro es la abundancia de manuscritos de la época que se han conservado. Aunque muchos de los manuscritos autógrafos ya han sido publicados en ediciones modernas, hemos podido utilizar muy pocos de los centenares de mansucritos no-autógrafos, porque no sabemos las circunstancias de su creación. Este artículo es una descripción preliminar de un proyecto mecanizado para la identificación de copistas teatrales del Siglo de Oro, que aspira a la producción de un manual de las manos de los dramaturgos y copistas principales del teatro español desde 1580 hasta 1699, incluyendo muestras de las manos de cada uno, listas de sus manuscritos, e información biográfica sobre ellos que indicará su relación con los dramaturgos y las compañías teatrales, complementado por otra información sacada de varios archivos y bibliotecas que también puede servir a fechar y evaluar estos manuscritos. (MRG)
How to Read a Comedia : Branching Points in the Script of Lope's La discreta enamorada
Authors: Gitlitz David
Published: January 2014

As readers of comedias we must train ourselves to animate the texts by staging the play in our minds. An analysis of Lope's La discreta enamorada —the Spanish text, the English translation by Vern Williamsen, and the 1986 Chamizal performance—shows that our attention to the script's branching points, those moments when an interpretation can go in one of several equally valid directions, enables us to perceive the variety of interpretations (or performance texts) inherent in the play's written script. We realize how the director, actors, and production crew, as well as the critic/translator, by their choices narrow (or even sometimes expand) a play's meaning. For one example, in some scenes the script of La discreta enamorada allows Lucindo to be played as either sincere or callow, or Fenisa to be naive, calculating, or wholeheartedly in love. Thus the responsible critic, avoiding monolithic interpretation, will instead map for us the meanings encompassed by the artistic event.
Noticias para el gobierno de la Sala de Alcaldes de Casa y Corte
Authors: Ruano De La Haza Jose M.
Published: January 2014

The Alcaldes de Casa y Corte were entrusted with the policing of the Madrid corrales during the seventeenth century. The Noticias , preserved in a manuscript in the Archivo Histórico Nacional of Madrid, is a detailed account of their daily duties and obligations. It also offers a curious insight into the more picturesque and unusual aspects of life in the corrales . Great concern is expressed, for example, about fights, prostitutes and transvestism (the latter being practiced, I hasten to add, manfully and for the most honourable motives). The Noticias is probably the only important item about the Madrid corrales not included in the series of documents published during the last 20 years by J.E. Varey and N.D. Shergold. This article therefore is meant to fill a minor gap in what is otherwise the most complete and thorough series of documents ever published on Spanish theatres.
The Date of Composition of Mira de Amescua's La Fénix de Salamanca
Authors: Taracido Jorge E.
Published: January 2014

The study deals with the possible dates of composition for Mira de Amescua's La Fénix de Salamanca . Emilio Cotarelo y Mori claimed that historical evidence in the text of the comedia pointed to an early date of composition. Vern G. Williamsen, in his versification study of Mira's comedias , concluded that a much later date of composition is more likely. Research shows that the historical allusions that Cotarelo and Valbuena Prat refer to in the play are vague. It is difficult, therefore, to arrive at a date of composition for the comedia based solely on the allusions to certain events and personages of the period. However, a new interpretation of the historical allusions, coupled with evidence garnered from Williamsen's versification study, does point to a later date of composition for La Fénix de Salamanca .
Lope y la evolución del gracioso
Authors: Durán Manuel
Published: January 2014

El gracioso es una presencia constante en la comedia del Siglo de Oro a partir de Lope. Lope no lo inventa, ya que podemos encontrarle precedentes en el teatro prelopista. Para precisar cuál es el papel del gracioso en Lope y sus seguidores no es suficiente fijarse en los precursores del gracioso en España; hay que ampliar la búsqueda y la definición, antropológica y psicológicamente. El arquetipo jungiano del "Tramposo", nuevamente interpretado por Edith Kern, nos da los rasgos esenciales de un espíritu cómico universal, de Plauto a Rabelais hasta llegar a Chaplin y Woody Allen. Al señalar las diferencias entre este personaje universal y el gracioso de Lope entenderemos mejor la intención y los rasgos esenciales de la comedia lopesca.
The Legend of the Siete Infantes de Lara and Its Theatrical Representation by Cueva and Lope
Authors: de Carvalho Susan
Published: January 2014

The legend of the Siete Infantes de Lara , which had proven its popularity in chronicles and ballads, was adapted for the Golden Age comedia first by Juan de la Cueva, and later by Lope de Vega. Cueva must receive full credit for introducing the crónicas and the Romancero as material for the Golden Age stage; however, his version of the play is weakened by his exclusion of important elements of the original legend. Lope, on the other hand, adheres closely to the Siete Infantes legend as it appears in ballads and fourteenth-century chronicles, and adds only elements which increase the legend's popular appeal, such as the amorous subplot. Stylistically, in contrast with Cueva's elevated and sometimes ponderous tone, Lope incorporates dramatic techniques which enhance rather than hinder the effectiveness of his play. (SDC)
Animal Symbolism and the Characterization of Mendo in Rojas Zorrilla's Del rey abajo, ninguno
Authors: Conlon Raymond
Published: January 2014

Scholarship has explained how associations with religious and mythological figures play an important role in the characterization of the protagonists of Del rey abajo, ninguno , Blanca and García. It has not adequately discussed, however, how a like though inverse process involving associations with animals serves to define the moral character of the innocent couple's adversary, Mendo. Mendo is symbolically linked with the bear, the wolf, and the boar, the animals hunted by García. Mendo's moral identity and the significance of García's hunting these animals rest with the beasts' traditional artistic role as symbols of lust. This symbolism identifies Mendo's actions as bestial and makes García's hunt a symbolic enactment of his struggle with Mendo. (RC)
La marginación del carnaval: Celos, aun del aire, matan de Pedro Calderón de la Barca
Authors: Hermenegildo Alfredo
Published: January 2014

La identificación de la estructura narrativa subyacente en la comedia calderoniana Celos, aun del aire, matan , nos ha permitido hacer un análisis del comportamiento de los signos dramáticos [Rústico, Floreta, Clarín] y llegar a establecer las características siguientes como rasgos definidores del personaje [criado/gracioso]: 1) Los tres signos son actantes que conservan rasgos salidos de la tradición del loco carnavalesco; 2) Su inserción en la estructura narrativa condiciona tenuemente el despliegue de esta última; 3) Su participación en los nudos de la transgresión/carencia y de la mediación queda reducida a la ineficacia dramática; 4) El gracioso ha sido reducido a la condición de simple vehículo de una comicidad no integrada de modo orgánico en la estructura narrativa de la pieza; 5) El gracioso no sirve para reafirmar la verdad oficial y queda excluido de la problemática que llega a plantear tal reafirmación. (AH)
The Pathos of Mencía's Death in Calderón's El médico de su honra
Authors: Lauer A. Robert
Published: January 2014

To this day, criticism of El médico de su honra has not emphasized sufficiently the genre to which this play belongs, the dramatic functions of the characters, and the ambiguous imagery which, contrary to current opinion, would seem to indicate that Doña Mencía (like the wives of the other honor plays) is both guilty and innocent of the social upheaval which endangers the social order of King Pedro's court. To better understand what honor plays seem to portray, the author attempts to deconstruct the usual bilateral positions (if not quilty, innocent; if not Christian, pagan, etc.) which have obfuscated our vision of the tragic in Calderón's theater.
Nota a una frase de El Burlador
Authors: Rodríguez Alfred , Santaella Esteban
Published: January 2014

This note on El burlador de Sevilla attempts a thorough analysis of a specific repeated phrase containing the synonymously redundant verbs 'abrasar' and 'quemar.' An attempt is made to tie the special formulaic properties of the phrase to fundamental themes and positions taken by Tirso de Molina in the famous play. (AR & ES)