Some Remarks on Professor O'Connor's Article "Is the Spanish comedia a Metatheater?"

families with their inherent deception and tragedy are balanced by eternal truths: ambition and blind, shallow love as opposed to the truly perfect love of God. This ideological balance is reinforced structurally through the kings representing the two philosophies: the four "worldly" kings Hircano, Antipatro , Herodes, Falselo; and the four "heavenly" kings, Jesus and the Reyes Magos. Qther structural reinforcements of this balance were previously illustrated , such as Mariadnes' symbolic fall in Act I and literal fall in Act III; the parallel speeches of cruel Herodes in Acts I and III; in the scenes introducing the fathers Antipatro and Hircano; and the parallel attacks of envy suffered by the two brothers but resolved so differently. There is one point still to be elaborated : the concept of the wages of the sins of pride and ambition, both for Herodes and for the audience. This is depicted in the last two scenes which show Herodes now at the height of his rage and completely mad:4 Murió el bárbaro rabiando y ahogando los dos Abeles; se libró Jerusalén de sus tiránicas leyes. Sirva su vista de espanto, y demos fin, con su muerte, a su inaudita crueldad y lástima a los presentes. (III, 1309-16) This final speech reiterates the message , again employing the Cain/Abel story. The roots of evil and death are the sins of pride and ambition. The conflict and illusions created by them lead to the murder of brother by brother, and by extension to the tragic destruction of mankind by mankind. La vida y muerte de Herodes is, in essence, an illustration of two contrasting ways of life with no question left as to the proper choice to be made by the audience . FOOTNOTES 1 For example: Fray Alonzo López in "La Sagrada Biblia en la obras de Tirso," Estudios, 5 (1949), pp. 381-414, says: "Así vemos escenas como la del Nacimiento del Señor, que a pesar de su belleza, son de efecto teatral desastrosos . . ." And Doña Blanca de los Ríos comments in the preface to the play in her three-volume edition Tirso de Molina: Obras dramáticas completas, (Madrid, 1949, Vol. I, p. 1570): ". . . Ia tragicomedia heroica y sangrienta se transmutó de súbito en un ingenuo y jubiloso auto de Navidad, seguido de algunos desgarradores episodios de la Degollación de los Inocentes, elementos que parecen sueltos y desconectados de la obra 2 This paper was presented in a shorter version at the Mountain Interstate Foreign Language Conference, Richmond, Kentucky, on October 6, 1973. 3AlI references are to the most recent edition , the only one containing numbered verses: Obras de Tirso de Molina, 4, María del Pilar Palomo, ed., Biblioteca de Autores Españoles, Vol. 37 (Madrid, 1970). SOME REMARKS ON PROFESSOR O'CONNOR'S ARTICLE "IS THE SPANISH COMEDIA A METATHEATER?" Frank P. Casa, University of Michigan A recent article by Professor Thomas O'Connor1 reopens the controversy on the nature of the Comedia that has been carried on intermittently in the pages of the Hispanic Review.2 This time, the point of departure is Profes27 sor Bruce Wardropper's introduction to his edition of Golden Age plays in which he had made use of the concept of metatheater to explain the ideological background of some plays. Professor O'Connor feels uneasy with what he understands to be Professor Wardropper 's acceptance of metatheater, and seeks to find a way of reconciling his own understanding of the comedia with the principles of metatheater. I think that he has not captured completely Wardropper's circumspect use of Abel's material and ascribes to the former a broader espousal of the latter 's ideas than the wording warrants.3 Essentially, Professor O'Connor cannot accept the relativity of values and the assumption of individual decision on transcendental questions inherent in the idea of role-playing. He firmly believes that the personages of the Comedia are directed by absolute values and that their actions, morally and culturally , follow previously established inflexible lines. At the same time, he finds a certain attractiveness and even utility in the concept of role-playing and wishes to find a way...