Intolerancia del poder y protesta popular en el Siglo de Oro. Los debates sobre la licitud moral del teatro (review)

152Bulletin ofthe Comediantes ing on the stage. To the remaining comedias a fantasia-the Ymenea, Calamita, Aquilana—he added a more highly structured plot, typed characters, symmetry in the acts, alternation of the comic and the serious, a gracioso-like character, music, poetry, intrigue and the honor theme. The chronological ordering of the plays forces Lihani to reject an organization based on thematic unity that would have lent itself to a less repetitious comparative procedure. The comedias a noticia—the Soldadesca and the Tinellaria—are separated from each other, as are the spectacular Trophea and the transitional Jacinta. Only the last comedias a fantasia—the Ymenea, Calamita and Aquilana—are grouped sequentially in a manner that facilitates a comparative analysis of their dramatic technique and their contributions to the development of the comedia. And they, of course, are separated from the earlier Seraphina. Professor Lihani provides a good description of the author/play/audience relationship, a theme he expands upon in his 1979 BCom article. In Bartolom é de Torres Naharro, he presents TN's social aims and artistic expression and theory in light of the mutual impact of author and audience. The result is a thoughtful and thought-provoking portrait of a man's life, his ideals, his art and his age. Ann E. Wiltrout Mississippi State University GARCIA BERRIO, ANTONIO. Intolerancia del poder y protesta popular en el Siglo de Oro. Los debates sobre la licitud moral del teatro. Málaga: Universidad . Secretariado de Publicación e Intercambio Científico, /1978/. Cloth. 67 pages. This monograph was presented, presumably as a lecture, as a «Lección de Apertura del Curso Académico, 1978-79.» The many footnotes, often of unusual length, were obviously omitted from the lecture, and added for the printed version. The extensive bibliography that appears in the footnotes is a very valuable part of the monograph; it is unfortunate that its items were not reproduced as a Bibliografia at the end of the study. García Berrio of course pays tribute to the volume that is basic to the subject , Cotarelo y Mori's Bibliografia de las controversias sobre la licitud del teatro, published in 1904. He has read a very large part of the literature on the subject published since that date. He finds it morally proper (as do most moderns) to castigate those who throughout the Golden Age persisted indefatigably to suppress the theater. These were mostly churchmen; he labels them (p. 34) as «rijosos y anquilosados.» They represented the extremism that he finds typically Spanish (p. 41). He sees the pureza de sangre concept as an especially extravagant form of extremism (p. 54). He accuses the theologians of wishing to make a convent of the Court and of Spain (p. 59), and refers to Reviews153 the coziness of the relationship between Church and State (p. 46) that at times made possible the closing of the theaters. He is especially harsh toward Juan de Mariana (p. 37), who was typical of those who saw the Comedia as morally pernicious because of the pleasure it gave (p. 38). This «deleite cómico» is proposed (p. 58) as one of the most worthy and noble products of the Comedia. Thus he supports, with stress on the first word, the Horatian concept of the duke et utile that the theater provides. The dulce served as an antidote to the disillusionment and despair that became a part of the Spanish consciousness of the economic and political decadencia of the Golden Age. Garcia Berrio has little to say about the utile; perhaps he considers this sufficiently taken care of as a pleasurable «escape mechanism» for the exorcism of the Spanish malaise of the time. For him the Comedia is wholly admirable; he has nothing to say about its occasional imperfections. It is possible that in a lecture there was no time for more than he gave. His book remains a very helpful discussion in brief of the matter at issue. Gerald E. Wade Emeritus, University of Tennessee ...