conquistada de las flores
escuadrones que arma el tiempo. (1:298-300) In spring, the snow melts, flowers blossom on the mountainside. In the same way it is part of the natural order of things for a girl to get married to one who is her social equal. So Enrique has no grounds for complaint:
MENGÎA Si me casé,^de que engano se queja, siendo sujeto imposable a sus pasiones pues soy para dama mas,
lo que para esposa menos? (1:301-6) The contrast is neatly put; the impossibility of marriage between a Prince and a commoner meant that she could never relate to him as a prospective wife. Since there was never any question of her mariylng Enrique, Mènera argues, she cannot be said to have betrayed him by
marrying another.
Here again, she is appealing to Enrique’s sense of what befits him as a Prince; she concludes by referring to her own duties as a subject:
MENGÎA y asr, en esta parte ya disculpada, en la que tengo de mujer, a vuestros pies humilde, senor, os ruego no os ausenteis desta casa, poniendo a tan claros riesgos
la salud. (l:30?-13)
She seeks to imply a harmony between the two worlds, the private and the public. In the private sphere, he has no grounds for complaint; in the public, he has a responsibility to his kingdom not to endanger
C 3P )
his health. So both as a private person and as a loyal subject,' ^
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Mencîa’s defence is a subtle one. It conceals more than it reveals. When she describes her reactions to Enrique's advances, she speaks only of her honour, and evades all mention of herself. Yet we have already heard how the demands of her honour are not at all in accord with her inner feelings (l:121-55)» and when she argues that Enrique could never have expected to marry her she tells us no more than what we already know. Her disingenuous "soy para dama mas, lo que para esposa menos" (1:305-6) does not tell us the extent to which she really was, or was not, Enrique's dama, If we think about this scene as a piece of exposition, it leaves us very much in the dark. Are we to believe Enrique's unreasoned attack - or Mencia's byzantine defence? Calderon takes care to leave us guessing.
—128- NOTES
(1) Furio Geriol, El Concejo i Consegeros del Principe, ed. cit., p. 93.
(2) The scene has its counterpart in Act 11:59-122. Here the physical assault will he carried a stage further; the closing lines sound very much like the prelude to rape.
(3) See the regulations of the protector of the Corrales in I6O8,
quoted hy Shergold in his History of the Spanish Stage, pjJ. 386qs. Great stress was laid on the importance of having alcaldes at
the women's entrance to the theatre: "y esto comhiene mucho, porque suele auer alii gran bulla y yndecencia", op. cit., p. 3 91* For a note of the expense involved in building this separate entrance, [êè'e op. cit., p. I8 7.
(4) For example: "Mujeres de excelente hermosura, de singular gracia de meneos y posturas, salen en el teatro a representar diversas personajes en forma y traje y habite de mujeres, y aun de hombres, cosa fue grandemente despierta a la lujuria, y tiene muy gran fuerza para corromper los hombres.", Mariana, Contra los juegos publicos, in BAE , XXXI, p. 424. See, too, many of the attacks on the theatre gathered together by Cotarelo in his Bibliografra ■de las controversias sobre la licitud del teatro en Espana (Madrid,
1904), especially pp. 1 2 3, 215, 3 88.
(5) See Juana de José Brades, Teoria sobre los personajes de la comedia nueva (Madrid, 19^3}, pp, 90-1.
(6) This particular commonplace was crudely staged in the opening scene of Rodrigo de Herrera's Del cielo viene el buen rey (BAE, XLV, pp. 237-51)' The King has had a bad dream; he asks for an interpretation of it from his two councillors and his fool. One councillor gives a flattering interpretation he knows to be false, and the fool, Moscon, does the same. Lisandro, the wise councillor, gives a true, but unflattering, interpretation and
is sent into exile. Moscon is given gold. He comments in an aside; "|Lo que vale la lisonjal / Aprended, mirones, desto." (p. 238a), (7) Notice how Enrique has dropped the 'tu' here; the scene is full
of subtle variations in the modes of address, variations that would undoubtedly be reflected in the actors' voices.
(8) A tradition marvellously parodied by Cervantes in such passages as these: "jOh princesa Dulcinea, senora deste cautivo corazon'.", Don Quijote, I, cap, 2; ed. cit., p, 42.
(9) In spite of the way Mènera does her tactful best in 1. 220 to minimise the loss of prestige suffered by Enrique and place her husband in a subordinate position to him: "Esclavo vuestro".
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(10) Here again, the printed page conceals a fair amount of stage business. At 204-5, Enrique is doing his bluff best to minimise, in a manly way, the pain he feels in his leg; after he has got up at line 221, Mencia's words suggests that it hurts him to stand; "No os levanteis, deteneos; /ved que no podeis estar / en pie" (lî222-4). As Diego and Arias make their entrance, one imagines him hobbling angrily about the stage.
(11) Quevedo, El Buscon, ed. Americo Castro (Clasicos Castellanos: Madrid, 198?), p. 151; cf. also pp. 205, 210ss.
(12) Letter of 4th June 1624, in Obras Complétas, ed, J, and I, Mille y Gimênez (Madrid, 1943), p. 942.
(13) Cf. José Lopez Rey, Velasquez (London, 1980),pp. 82-4, Note the difference between the spirited charger ridden by the King in the portrait reproduced on p. 9 8, and the more amenable mare ridden by the Queen on p. 97* See also J, E. Varey, "La campagne dans le théâtre espagnol au XVIIerne siècle" in Dramaturgie et Société, I (paris, I968), p. 6 0, no. 28.
(14) El Conse.jo i Conse.jeros del Principe, ed. cit., p, 14?.
(1 5) A modern reflection of such values can be found in Jack Kerouac's On the Road (Penguin: 1972).
(1 6) Cf, for example, de Soto’s display in front of the Inca Atahuallpa; described by W. H. Prescott in his Conquest of Peru, revised
edition (London, 1893), P* 189. (17) Ed. cit., p. 4a,
(18) Quevedo, El Buscon, ed. cit., p. 218.
(19) Note the state of sexual impotence described by don Toribio, ed. cit., p. I48; Pablos' asexual conquest as a galan de monjas, p. 24'9ss; and his female disguise as a thief in Cordoba, p. 267-8. (20) And more, too, than a simple moral symbol of loss of self-control. (21) See Virgil's Aeneid, ed. J. W. Mackail (Oxford, 1930), bk. II,
II. 658SS. Aeneas rescued his father, but left his wife to die. So Enrique will rescue his "sentidos" and abandon Mènera.
(22) The image would probably be not unfamiliar with the audience. See, for instance, Lope de Vega, Audiencias del Rey don Pedro, BAE , CCXII, pp. I86a, 193b; Tirso de Molina, El Melancolico,
ed. B. Varela Jacome (Madrid, I967), p. 73,
(23) "Sentidos": "el .entendimiento, o razon, en quanto discierne las cosas" (Autoridades, s.v.).
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(24) A similar shifting of hlame, and abdication of responsibility is also staged by Galderon, on a much more serious level, in his El principe constante. Prince Fernando is dying of
starvation as a direct result of the orders of the Muslim King; yet, like many an oppressor, the King disclaims responsibility. When Fernando begs for food, he answers: "pues tu muerte causo / tu misma mano y yo no / no esperes piedad de mî" (ed. cit., p. 84), (25) 1:253-60 ; a similar motive inspired Pablos to show off his (non
existent) horsemanship with the disastrous results already discussed.
(26) See Autoridades, s.v. "estribos". This idiomatic use of the phrase ties the event in with its moralistic interpretation advocated by Valbuena Briones et al.
(27) "la persona que ciegamente se despena a decir palabras injuriosas, ofensivas, y perjudiciales a otro" (Autoridades).
(28) This may not necessarily be the case; generally, when Calderon wishes to draw our attention to a struggle between a character’s inner feelings and her outward appearance, he employs an aside. For example, see Laura in Casa con dos^ puprtqs, ed. cit., p. 285a. The little aside makes it clear that ner harshness towards
Felix is no more than a façade.
(29) "Vuelva el aire / los repetitos acentos / que llevo", 1:133-5* (3 0) I think there is also a hint here that Enrique's general behaviour
is that of a don Juan; that his amorous behaviour was, just for a while, centred on her. This is emphasised again at 1:305 - "soy para dama mas" - as if Mènera had been one of a series of mistresses, just another easy conquest.
(3 1) "mujer" also refers to her in her social capacity as wife and, on this occasion, hostess.
C H A P T E R S E V E N