The Source of Moreto's only Auto Sacramental (1972)

the footnotes. Italics in quotations are mine. 2 Diego Marín, Uso y función de la versificaci ón en Lope de Vega (Valencia, 1962). 3 Marín y Rugg, p. 44. 4A similar suggestion also occurs in Fuenteovejuna . To the Comendador's arrogant "PVosotros honor tenéis?/¡ Qué freiles de CaIatrava !" the Regidor replies: Alguno acaso se alaba / de la cruz que le ponéis,/ que no es de sangre tan limpia." (128-132) in Lope de Vega Carpio, Fuenteovejuna, ed. Tomás García de la Santa, 5a edición (Madrid, 1962), p. 58. 5 Note the apparent concern for Tello's honour in the following: Ramiro. Esto te he dicho, de saber contento, quién es el dueño del disgusto y pena que te ha dado el papel; si algo quisieres para defensa de tu onor, auísame, que nadie como yo sabrá servirte (656-660) 6 Cf. Marín y Rugg, "El Elemento Judaico," pp. 51-54. 7J. H. Silverman in his unpublished doctoral thesis Lope de Vega's figura del donaire: Definition and Description (University of Southern California, 1955) has listed Tomé as a figura del donaire. I think that the use of the term gracioso as an alternative to figura del donaire is erroneous. My own criteria for recognizing the figura del donaire are: (1) he is a personal servant closely and constantly attached to his master from whom he holds opposing points of view, ( 2 ) he has a quantitative as well as a qualitative role in the action of the play, and ( 3 ) he indulges in varying proportions of the comic and the witty to the extent that, even if he has serious moments, he is primarily a humorous personage . A serious character with a sense of humour would not satisfy these requirements even if his comic-witty characteristics are identical with those of a figura del donaire. 8 Marín y Rugg, pp. 48-50. 9Cf. Benjamin Lehmann, "Comedy and Laughter," in Comedy: Meaning and Form (New York University, 1965), p. 165 "Social homogeneity, or true unity, cannot be always maintained; there is bound to be schism. But the sacrificed will be gently discarded, after being duly wrapped in derision, away from our complete sympathy; and the mutually opposed parties will fuse once more in a firm social unity." Ramiro, Laurenzia and Fabio can not be viewed as being "gently discarded." Although Tello is "mutually opposed" to Leonor and Don Felis, they do "fuse once more in a firm social unity." From this, it would seem as though El galán de la Membrillo should be taken as a serious play, rather than as a comedy. THE SOURCE OF MORETO'S ONLY AUTO SACRAMENTAL John J. Reynolds, St. John's University (N.Y.) There exists today a single auto sacramental by Augustin Moreto (16181669 ) : La gran casa de Austria y divina Margarita! Another play of this genre, El gran palacio, is attributed to the Madrid-born playwright in Autos sacramentales y al Nacimiento de Cristo. . . . , Madrid, 1675, pp. 16-36; however, the work is clearly not his, but rather belongs to Francisco de Rojas Zorrilla as the play's last stanza indicates: Y don Francisco de Roxas à vuestra Real Magestad os pide perdón, sabiendo que vos siempre perdonáis. In view of Moreto's well-known penchant for adapting the work of his predecessors,2 I was not surprised to discover that La gran casa de Austria, too, is an adaptation. Its source is the auto entitled La fe de Hungría ( Biblioteca Nacional, Madrid, Manuscript 15.318) by Antonio Mira de Amescua (1574P-1644), who probably wrote his eucharistie play in praise of the House of Habsburg not long before retiring to his native Guadix in 1632. A detailed comparison of the two autos must await the appearance of the edition I am preparing of Mira's play. Nevertheless, at this point I would like to show briefly the relationship between the two Corpus Christi pageants by indicating how Moreto's characters de21 rive from Mira's. Moreto's El Demonio and Un Sacristán (also the gracioso) correspond exactly to Mira's demon and sacristán-gracioso named...