Matthew D. Stroud

Fatal union : a pluralistic approach to the Spanish wife-murder comedias

The Spanish wife-murder comedias constitute an important category of seventeenth-century peninsular plays. Fatal Union considers thirty-one comedias by fifteen authors to show that they present anything but a unified perspective.

Some Practical Thoughts on Producing Calderón's Court Plays

Calderóns comedias de tramoyas present special problems to a modern producer attempting an authentic stage presentation. This article discusses possible answers to questions relating to staging (the theater itself, sets, the length of the performance, funding, etc.), direction, special effects, costumes, hairstyles, and text (cuts, versions, the use of loas and entremeses, etc.). In addition, court plays also require decisions about the music—tessitura, pitch, instrumentation, and orchestration—most of which must rely on conjecture rather than on concrete knowledge of the original. For each problem, it quickly becomes apparent that absolute authenticity is quite impossible. Stated generally, one must simply decide how much and in which ways one is willing to compromise. (MDS)

Imperial Incentives and Individual Allegiances in Juan Antonio Correa's La pérdida y restauración de Bahía de Todos los Santos

Juan Antonio Correas La pérdida y restauración de Bahía de Todos los Santos, written primarily to celebrate the successful recapture in 1625 of an important American colony from the Dutch and their allies, invites an investigation into why and how human beings can be motivated to support people and institutions that not only do not directly benefit them but may in fact operate in ways that are unfavourable to their own lives and causes. Informed by the political writings of Antonio Gramsci and Paulo Freire and the psychoanalytic theories of Jacques Lacan, this study explores the various reasons why the Portuguese, the Brazilian colonists, and even the voiceless ‘negros’ would choose to fight in support of the Spanish Empire, while, on the other hand, French and English, both Catholics and Protestants, would opt to aid the Dutch. By including two love triangles as subplots within the main action that dramatizes the loss and recovery of the Bahia, Brazil, Correa has produced not only an entertaining play but an insightful study into the ways that empires operate, employing direct military force as well as various personal incentives and societal inducements, in order to motivate the populations they have subjugated into acceptance of their subservient role and even into lending active support to the political powers that govern and control them.

The Wife-Murder Plays

Few subgenres of the Spanish comedia have garnered as much critical attention as those plays in which a husband kills, or conspires to kill, his wife. From Senecas Hercules furens to Hardys Procris and Dolces Marianna, to Shakespeares Othello, it is clear that the murder of a spouse was considered worthy of theatrical treatment over a great span of time. The wife-murder plays drew upon so many different historical and literary traditions spanning more than two millennia tell us that wife murder as a theatrical plot was not unique to Spain, but what of those plays based upon incidents recorded in Spanish history? Considerable criticism has sought to establish connections between these plays and Spains past, especially the influences of Visigothic, Jewish, and Muslim cultures in the development of the nation, in order to assert that wife murder was a well-known, feature of medieval and early modern Spanish society.Keywords: Jewish culture; Muslim culture; Shakespeares Othello; Spanish society; wife-murder plays

Taking Matters into Their Own Hands: Heroic Women of the Early Reconquest in the Spanish Comedia

Against the backdrop of the uncertain and troubling history of Christian Spain at the turn of the ninth century, three comedias highlight the heroic deeds of the women of Asturias and León. In Lope de Vega’s Las doncellas de Simancas, women who are to be sent as tribute to the Emir of Córdoba sever their own hands, threaten suicide, and ultimately lead the resistance against the barbaric exchange. In Las famosas asturianas, also by Lope, Sancha, selected, as well, for delivery to the Moors, shames her countrymen by appearing undressed before them but not in the presence of the Moors. Spurred by such an insult, the men fight for the freedom of their daughters. Finally, in Álvaro Cubillo de Aragón’s Hechos de Bernardo Carpio, segunda parte de El Conde de Saldaña, Bernardo del Carpio’s wife, Sol, leads the women of Asturias and León to battle against the French at Roncesvalles; the future of Spain belongs to them as much as it does to the men. These heroic women demonstrate the popularity of the mujer varonil, the radical shift in the perception of women in the sixteenth century, and the notion that the real strength of Spain lies in its people, including its women, rather than in its hereditary monarchy.

Feminizing the Enemy: Imperial Spain, Transvestite Drama, and the Crisis of Masculinity (review)

Interest in looking at the comedia from the perspective of queer studies has grown quite rapidly in the past ten years, and Sidney Donnell has established himself as one of the pioneers in this relatively new field. His first monograph, Feminizing the Enemy, is a brilliant, solid, clever, and important work that should forever dispel the notion that it is somehow inappropriate to look at early modern theater through the lens of twentyfirst century theory. Indeed, although queering the plays in question is one of his principal goals, this book is also a work of extraordinary literary insight and a serious treatment of some lesser-known plays of both the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries that will no doubt become a standard

The Painter of His Dishonour (review)

Gregg basically follows traditional practice: 1) number of play, 2) title, epithet(s), and stated author(s), 3) Signatures and pagination, 4) place, printer, publisher, bookseller, 5) date, 6) reference to modern s, 7) first two and last two printed lines, 8) editorial comment, and 9) volume call number for the item in the Biblioteca de Palacio. Gregg states his methodology and adheres to it sytematically. The bibliography has been meticulously prepared. I would only call attention to a minor typographical error in attributing play number 208 to Tirso de Molina (Appendix I, page 136) when the correct play number should be 202. There is no question of the importance of cataloguing Spanish drama collections. Clearly the growing number of publications now in print should serve as a testimony to the need to continue in this scholarly endeavor. However, a quick glance at several existing catalogues will reveal that we have not yet agreed on a standard bibliographical format. It is perhaps in this area where more discussion should be generated among those of us who have undertaken the important task of cataloguing such collections. Gregg is no newcomer to this area of scholarship and his recent work will certainly constitute an invaluable resource for the comedia scholar.