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252BCom, Vol. 40, No. 2 (Winter 1 988) plays for their semiotic density; followers of Jauss may wish to probe even more deeply the fate of individual plays like La vida es sueño and El alcalde de Zalamea , while those critics hoping to develop a theory of Christian tragedy will profit from the careful foundation laid by Sullivan in his discussion of the Idealist philosophers. In light of the importance which the Germans have attached to Calderón, perhaps more Spaniards will join the ranks of A. Julián Valbuena and Francisco Ruiz Ramón in elevating Calderón to the preeminent position he deserves on his native soil. Charlotte Stern Randolph-Macon Woman's College Serralta, Frédéric. Antonio de Solís et la "Comedia" d'intrigue. Toulouse : France-Ibérie Recherche, Université de Toulouse—Le Mirail, 1987. 470 pp. (Collection "Thèses et recherches," 16). The year 1986 was the tercentenary of the death of Antonio de Solís y Rivadeneyra (1610-1686), and Frédéric Serralta published an illuminating "Nueva biografía de Antonio de Solís y Rivadeneyra" (Criticón, No. 34: 51-157), as well as another article on the dramatist in the same journal. Now, in 1987, Serralta has produced a noteworthy study of the Solís comedias de enredo (or comedias de capa y espada) of the period 1627-1636/37, when the dramatist was writing for the corrales, and before he became secretary to the Conde de Oropesa. This interrupted dramatic activity was resumed when, in mid-century, Solis entered the service of Felipe IV and wrote a few plays for the Buen Retiro. The second dramatic period was terminated by his being appointed, in 1661, Chronicler of the Indies, from which activity Solis brought forth his Historia de la conquista de Méjico. Important in Serralta's book is his detailed and careful analysis of the plays in question, with many references and allusions to contemporary comedias of other Golden Age dramatists. The Solis plays studied in depth by Serralta are Amor y obligación (written at seventeen years of age) , La Gitanilla (and the retouched Court version of the mid-century, La Gitanilla de Madrid), Amparar al enemigo, La más dichosa venganza and El amor al uso. Amparar al enemigo, El amor al uso and La Gitanilla de Madrid appeared in the 1681 collection of Comedias of Solís; Amor y obligación (long thought lost) came forth from Biblioteca Nacional MSS in two editions, in 1929 and 1930, in Giessen and Madrid respectively; La más dichosa venganza was printed in Comedias nuevas escogí- Reviews253 das, Madrid, 1666; and La Gitanilla, attributed to Juan Pérez de Montaivan in two identical suelta copies, exists, so far as has been ascertained, in Toronto and Paris only. (It is amazing that in spite of publications to the contrary, some critics have declared, even up into the 1980s, that this last play has never been found.) After a careful consideration of internal and external evidence for the La Gitanilla— La Gitanilla de Madrid relationship, Serralta accepts my opinion of 1941 (Ph.D. thesis, University of Toronto) that La Gitanilla de Madrid is a refundici ón by Solis of his earlier version, La Gitanilla. (This opinion was rejected in 1976 by Maria Grazia Profeti in her monumental bibliography of Juan Pérez de Montalván.) In the case of La más dichosa venganza, in spite of Serralta's certainty regarding authorship, personally, I still have some nagging doubts about the matter, in view of some stylistic "differences," such as the presence of silvas, type 1 , and the absence of Solis' oft-repeated formula "Bien sé que. . . ," or variations . Serralta has done very well in establishing a chronology for the plays, and he has shown a continuing development in dramatic technique. The critic has delved deeply into this important dramatic production of a few short years, and his notes and bibliography are copious. Serralta's method of play analysis is first a study of structure, and then, and only then, a study of meaning. This approach , Serralta acknowledges, is not new with him, but has been carried out with...

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