Peribáñez and the Comendador of Ocaña (review)

176BCom, Vol. 44, No. 1 (Summer 1992) the accounts of two writers, Francisco de Avendaño y Vilela and Joâo de Madeiros Correia. Shannon finds that the central theme of all three plays considered is the same, "the necessity of evangelization and conversion." By examining Lope's departures from his historical sources, Shannon establishes how the plays portray a consistent conviction about the spiritual role that Spain must play in America; the motivation of gold and personal glory, which are clearly present in his sources, are greatly attenuated by Lope in these works, subordinated to the religious facet of conquest and colonization. Shannon concludes that Lope's opinions on several of the thorny issues surrounding the New World debate (such as whether or not the indigenous population had ever knowingly pledged allegiance to the Spanish Crown, which would have made any resistance to Spain treasonous) were "conflictive and unresolved." As a result of this fact, perhaps, Shannon runs into difficulties when he attempts to sort out what in the plays results from Lope's personal thoughts and ideas about the involvement of Spain in the New World, and what is there because of the dramatist's audience or commission. At times Shannon speaks of Lope's beliefs as these are revealed through the content of the plays and the manipulation of historical sources, and at other times Shannon suggests that the action in the dramas and Lope's use of sources are the result of the dramatist's knowledge of what his audience or patrons wanted to see and hear; he states that "Lope's audience was too heterogeneous for him to expound such controversial ideas without offending someone," and that El Brasil restituido was quite possibly commissioned by the Count Duke Olivares. Still, while the reason for the liberties that Lope takes with his sources in these plays remains moot, Shannon clearly demonstrates exactly where and how the dramatist poeticizes history, and also what the ideological thrust of Lope's changes are. Chester S. Halka Randolph-Macon Woman's College Lope de Vega, Peribáñez and the Comendador ofOcaña. Translated by James Lloyd. Warminster, England: Aris & Phillips, 1990. Paper. 247 pp. This bilingual classroom edition of Peribáñez reproduces J. E. Varey and J. M. Ruano's excellent edition of the Spanish text (Támesis, 1980) with only a few minor typographical errors (e.g., the first half of verses 902 and 1994 are inadvertently omitted). A well documented 64-page introduction gives a very Reviews177 thorough survey of earlier critical studies of the play without, however, adding anything new. James Lloyd's translation is in blank verse but refreshingly avoids the temptation to echo Shakespeare. Lloyd is extraordinarily good at writing readable , and speakable, blank verse. The main problems with blank verse as a vehicle for the translation of Golden Age plays are that it is monotonous (as opposed to the metric variety of the original Spanish), and its longer line slows the pace and alters the tone of the original. My principal objection to verse translations is that the need to meet the requirements of verse competes with the obligation to translate the meaning accurately. The result is almost always amplification, which is in itself a kind of distortion. Take, for example, the following passage which I have selected at random from Act II:¡Por qué camino tan llano has dado a mi mal remedio! Pues no estando de por medio aquel celoso villano, y abriéndome tú la puerta al dormir los segadores, queda en mis locos amores la de mi esperanza abierta. (1312-19) Observe how economically and naturally Lope conveys the Comendador's glee! Even with its rhyme, the verse is amazingly unobtrusive. Now compare Lloyd's English version: By what a smooth, untroubled pilgrimage Have you marked out the road to sorrow's cure! Now, with the absence of this jealous clown, And you among the drowsy harvesters To open up the door, I'll find unbarred That door I crave to my unbridled hopes. Somehow the Comendador's lusty exclamation in Spanish sounds more like a sober meditation in English. There are other subtle changes as well. The way to...