Three Major Plays (40 page)
Authors: Lope de Vega,Gwynne Edwards
Tags: #Fiction, #Drama, #Classics, #English; Irish; Scottish; Welsh, #Continental European
Despite the fact that Fabia suggests that Alonso's fate may be
different, the allusions to the three Classical heroes would have been
for an audience of Lope's time a pointer to his death.
| the jewel of | Medina, the flower of Olmedo!: Fabia's words here are those | 110 |
Alonso's death. Indeed, after the peasant has sung the song and is
questioned about it by Alonso, he observes that it was told to him 'By
one called Fabia' (3.501).
| discretion: in the sense of prudence. Tello's fears reflect what would have | 111 |
three-day fever!: this refers to a high temperature which, accompanying
a fever, appeared every three days. Alonso has known Inés for three
days and by the third day, Tello suggests, his passion for her has the
character of a burning fever.
salamander:
a lizard-like creature which, according to legend, was capable of
living in fire. Thus, if Alonso were near Inés, whose passion consumes
him, he would be like the salamander.
Leander:
in Classical legend Leander swam the Hellespont every night from
Abydos to Sestos in order to be with his lover Hero, a priestess of
Aphrodite. When he was drowned, Hero threw herself into the sea. Lope
seems to have written a play, Hero y Leandro, which was subsequently
lost.
| upon its dunghill: a well-known Spanish proverb. | 112 |
Harlequin:
the figure of Harlequin, pulling grotesque faces, is often seen in
old prints climbing a ladder to one side of the tightrope on which an
acrobat is performing.
| wet: Tello has wet himself from sheer terror. The comic character or | 113 |
of Golden Age plays was more often than not portrayed as a coward, concerned only with his own safety and well-being.
Her slave:
in many ways Alonso is reminiscent of the traditional courtly lover
whose life was totally dedicated to the lady he worshipped.
| Melibea: through the words of Tello, Lope deliberately invites a com- | 114 |
La Celestina
,
in which Calisto becomes obsessed with Melibea and their meetings are
arranged by Celestina, with the assistance of a servant, Sempronio.
The comparison reveals Lope's admiration for the earlier work, as well
as his confidence in his own ability as a writer, but it also
suggests that Alonso's fate will be as tragic as Calisto's. See the
Introduction.
| why complain?: the story was a common one, often repeated, and can be | 115 |
Tusculan Disputations
, v. xxxviii. 112, where the remark is attributed to the Stoic philosopher Antipater.
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| A moth!: Inés corrects herself because the moth, seeking a light or flame, | 115 |
The coral:
her lips are here compared to a pink rose.
| radishes: it appears that radishes from Olmedo were famous for their quality. | 116 |
I'm dying:
this poem of five lines -- known in Spanish as a
quintilla
-- was very well known in Spain before Lope's time. It had appeared as early as 1578 in the
Flor de romances
,
a collection of ballads published in Zaragoza. A short poem of this
kind frequently served as a basis for elaboration, as is the case
here, each of its lines appearing at the end of a new stanza.
| Inés's lovely feet: Lope's original is in stanzas of ten lines, with an elab- | 117 |
without a regular rhyming pattern. The notion of a lady's lovely feet
making the flowers grow has been mentioned earlier. See note on
bright April's flowers
, p. 105.
| I'm dying: the poem is full of traditional poetic clichés, in particular the | 118 |
| Already married: in intention to Alonso, but, as far as her father is | 119 |
My heart is moved:
Don Pedro is very much in the tradition of the gullible father who
appears in so many Golden Age plays and who is, to a certain extent, a
comic figure. He is also, as his speech here suggests, extremely
long-winded.
| keep his word to him: if Inés is to enter a convent, Don Rodrigo would | 121 |
salvation:
Alonso's references to Inés's being his life and his death have an
irony which is now reinforced, following her pretence to want to
become a nun, by irony of a religious nature.
| The Festival of the Cross of May: a religious festival which takes place on 3 May. | 122 |
The Constable's | Invited him:
Don Alvaro de Luna ( 1390?-1453) was the King's royal favourite and
someone on whom he relied greatly. He was much hated by the nobility
of Castile for the power he exercised over the King. His ultimate
downfall was frequently used by later Spanish writers to illustrate
the theme of the fickleness of fortune. Antonio Mira de Amescua (
1574?-1644), a contemporary of Lope, was probably the author of
The Good Fortune of Don Álvaro de Luna (La próspera fortuna de Don Álvaro de Luna)
and certainly the author of
The Adverse Fortune of Don Álvaro de Luna (La adversa fortuna de Don Álvaro de Luna),
both plays serving in part as warnings to kings and their favourites.
the sun:
Inés is the sun in Alonso's heaven. When he is away from her, the sun has, for him, effectively set.
| A kind of monster: jealousy was as much a monster in the Golden Age | 124 |
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theatre as in that of Elizabethan England. Indeed, fear and suspicion
regarding the behaviour of a wife, a daughter, or a lover were closely
connected with topic of honour in the drama of the time. In certain
respects Calderón
The Greatest Monster in the World (El mayor monstruo del mundo)
, first published in 1637 in the
Segunda Parte
or second volume of his plays, and whose title he subsequently changed to
Jealousy the Greatest Monster (El mayor monstruo los celos)
, is a Spanish
Othello
.
dishonoured:
if Inés is promised to him in marriage yet persists in seeing Alonso,
Rodrigo is, of course, 'dishonoured'. He would not be so if she chose
instead to become a nun.
| Our Lord?: only the gullible Don Pedro is unaware of the true meaning | 126 |
of Writing Plays" (see the Introduction, p. x), that 'To deceive with
the truth is effective . . .', which is precisely what Fabia is doing
here. hair-shirt: a shirt-like garment made of rough cloth,
frequently made from goats' hair, and worn by penitents in order to
punish the flesh.
| . . . Festina: the reference is to Psalm 69:1, and the meaning is 'Lord, | 127 |
S.D. scholar's cap:
this would be the cap worn by an impoverished student, in contrast to the more elegant headgear worn by the rich.
| Calahorra: a town in the province of Logroño in northern Spain. | 128 |
Martín Peláez:
a companion of El Cid who, having once been lacking in courage, became one of his bravest men.
La Coruña:
this is another example of Don Pedro's gullibility, for there was no university in La Coruña.
| a shield: a shield of leather, used to protect themselves by those who | 129 |
juego de cañas
-- was introduced into Spain by the Moors and took place on certain
special occasions. The jousting involved groups of up to eight men on
horseback, four groups at each end of the arena. They proceeded to
attack each other either in pairs or in larger numbers, employing both
swords and lances.
I stamp it:
the stamp was paid for not by the sender but by the recipient of the letter.
| Jugatoribus paternus: strictly speaking, the phrase does not make sense | 130 |
| The old one: the Grand Master and the Knights of the Order of Alcántara | 131 |
of the Order were allowed to wear a green cross, just as the members of
the Order of Calatrava wore a red cross. This change was not, however,
effected by Don Juan II, but by the Infante Don Fernando de Antequera
( 1379-1416), who in 1412 was elected King of Aragon and who in the
previous year had obtained the Pope's permission for the
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modification to the dress described above. The reference to the Infante
in 581 seems rather strange if, just a few lines earlier, Juan II is
given credit for the change of dress.
| Brother Vicente Ferrer: a famous Dominican priest ( 1350-1419) and cel- | 131 |
supported Fernando de Antequera in his election to the throne of
Aragon and had also been confessor to the Pope, Benedict XIII, who
gave permission for the change of dress for members of the Order of
Alcántara.
| Jews . . . Moors: despite the fact that many Jews and Muslims had sworn | 132 |
conversos
in Spanish -- they often continued to practise their own faith in
secret. Because it was feared that Catholics would somehow be
contaminated by such people, it was decreed in 1412 that Jews and
Moors alike should be restricted to living in certain areas of towns
and cities, and that Jews be obliged to wear a tabard or gown with a
red sign, and Moors a green hood with a blue moon.
the habit:
this was the habit worn by the knights of the three great military-religious orders.
My sister's marriage:
Juan II had two sisters, María and Catalina, but neither of them was
married in Valladolid, where, it is suggested, this particular scene
takes place. Once more, then, Lope is guilty of historical confusion.
Knight Commander:
a position in the Order higher than that of a knight and which would
allow the individual concerned to collect rents paid by those who
lived on the land granted to him by the Order.
Oh, absence, this is hard indeed:
the passage which follows also appeared, with certain modifications, in Lope
La Dorotea
, published in Madrid in 1632. The work is a prose dialogue in five acts and, like
The Knight from Olmedo
, contains many echoes of
La Celestina
.
Largely autobiographical too, it reflects Lope's youthful love-affair
with Elena Osorio (see the Introduction, p. ix) and tells how the
beautiful Dorotea, who is really in love with a poor poet, Fernando,
is obliged by her mother and the Celestina-like Gerarda to marry the
wealthy Don Bela. His murder means that in the end she loses both her
husband and, since widows did not normally remarry, the man she really
loves.
| honest: his love for Inés is dishonest in the sense that they meet in secret, | 133 |
| My lord . . .: another example of prose used for a message. See note to | 134 |
| Cato: Marcus Porcius Cato, the Elder ( 234-149 BC), a Roman statesman | 135 |
| three acts: the traditional length of a play in Lope's time. Just as the letter | 136 |
tedious to a notoriously impatient Spanish audience if its plot was
not consist-
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ently entertaining. The three-act structure of Spanish plays has
persisted well into the twentieth century, as many of Lorca's plays
suggest.
136
the ribbon:
worn by the participants in jousting and the like and frequently a gift from their lady.
whatever suit:
the servant or squire of a knight was traditionally rewarded with a gift of his clothes.
137
Last night:
Alonso's account of his dream marks the moment when the play changes
from a mood which is often comic to one which is increasingly dark.
A hawk:
although the colouring of the hawk is not mentioned here, it is
clearly much darker than that of the goldfinch and to that extent a
reminder of Rodrigo, who frequently appears in dark clothing and whose
passion for Inés and hatred of Alonso is both dark and dangerous.
138
hopelessness:
it seems quite probable that, at this point in the play, Alonso is
suffering from what doctors of the time would have described as
unnatural melancholy. This could be caused by extreme heat in the
body, which would in turn be the consequence of passion, and whose
effect would have been to ignite the four humours of blood, choler,
phlegm, and melancholy (natural) and leave behind a poisonous substance
known as unnatural melancholy. In this condition the individual would
be subject to fearful dreams and visions of future catastrophe.
Love-sickness, which is what Alonso is suffering, was therefore a
genuine and potentially fatal illness. Another melancholic in Lope's
theatre is Federico in
Punishment Without Revenge,
his condition caused by his unspoken passion for his stepmother Casandra.
139
outshine Medina's best?:
the envy, and indeed hatred, felt by Rodrigoand to a lesser extent by
Fernando -- towards Alonso are clearly rooted in matters of the heart,
but there was also a historical rivalry between Medina and Olmedo
which Lope used as the broader context for his play. See the
Introduction, pp. xxii-xxiii.
140
Greek and Roman times:
while the reference is somewhat vague, the topic of a country's
ingratitude towards its subjects was a familiar enough one in both
Classical and Renaissance literature. One example was Valerius Maximus's
Facta et dicta memorabilia
,
iii ('De ingratis romanorum').
The lance:
a kind of dart with a wooden shaft and an iron tip which was thrust
into the neck of the bull. The breaking of the lance was an indication
that the manœuvre was successful.
changing horses:
until the eighteenth century the bullfighter was always on horseback.
141
sorrel:
a horse which is reddish or yellowish-brown in colour.
chopped:
when the bullfighter had fatally wounded the bull and withdrawn from
the ring, it was the practice of his assistants to cut the tendons of
its back legs with a blade in the shape of a half-moon.
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