El teatro palaciego en Madrid: 1707-1724. Estudio y documentos (review)

While the Fuentes para la historia del teatro en España are standard references for anyone interested in the historical circumstances of dramatic representation in early modern Spain, the series' familiarity does not diminish the ability of new installments to surprise and delight. The instantly recognizable Tamesis spines and dust jackets brim with tidbits that hint at both the petty and the sublime. Even when they recount only the mundane requirements of human existence—what was eaten or worn—and the daily record of expenditure and income, they are frequently the more interesting for that. Admittedly, the reading of the documents themselves can sometimes be slow going, but fascinating data arrive with the power of intermittent reinforcement.

López's satisfying contribution to the work of J. E. Varey spans a period beginning with the representation of Antonio de Zamora's Todo lo vence el amor, staged for the birth of Luis I in 1707, and ending in 1724 with an updated version of Calderón's Fieras afemina Amor performed upon Luis's coronation. With the birth of a prince and his ascent to the throne as bookends, El teatro palaciego en Madrid: 1707-1724 makes a tidy and logical package.

The book starts with a prologue by Margaret Rich Greer that briefly recounts the genesis of Fuentes volumes dedicated to representaciones palaciegas, López's being the third. The names of those who have had a hand in this project to date are familiar to every comediante: Varey and Greer, N. D. Shergold, and Charles Davis. López's effort builds upon their work, and he shows himself to be worthy of his predecessors. The introduction, for example, suggests the historiographic benefits of being familiar with the documents and functions as a first helping of the "historia" for which the documents are "fuentes." With Emilio Cotarelo y Mori's contention that the period was one of decadence clearly in his sights, López Alemany persuasively argues that the dramatic traditions of the seventeenth century by no means fell into disuse in the first decades of Bourbon rule. Even with the marriage of Philip V to Isabella Farnese—the latter having a marked taste for French and Italian entertainments—López insists there was no "ruptura de la tradición dramática de los Austrias" (1). Instead, he explains, patronage systems continued to support the work of playwrights and actors much as they had under the Hapsburgs.

This argument will probably inspire some debate, and it is easy to oversimplify López's nuanced claim. He does not, for example, underplay Isabella Farnese's influence or argue that the period represents a pause in the development of Spanish drama. Focusing on patronage and the power of the mayordomo mayor, López argues against discontinuity rather than for stasis. It becomes apparent that, rather than addressing students of eighteenth-century drama, he chastens siglodeoristas tempted to believe that any play produced after the death of Calderón was merely a dramatic pésame paid at the master's passing.

López's decision to revisit questions of literary periodicity makes his introduction a tremendous aid for understanding the documents themselves. In particular, he gives readers a framework for understanding the tensions between tradition and innovation when, for example, organizers of the festivities for the birth of Luis I explicitly mention their desire to equal those produced for the birth of Baltasar Carlos in 1629 or when Fieras afemina Amor is restaged. In both cases, the Bourbon monarchs are as much aware of the splendors of their Hapsburg antecedents as they are of dramatic practices abroad.

As with the other books in the Fuentes series dedicated to representaciones palaciegas, this one will be most helpful for those interested in plays rather than the historical events they commemorate. Readers of Todo lo vence el amor, for instance, will find...