In Defense of ¿Tan largo me lo fiais. . . ?

transposed into a new key in the cantica that follows (stanzas 1022-1042). The frightening hag becomes a charming maiden. 46For an enhghtening discussion of sheep raising and its importance in Mediterranean society, see Fernand Braudel, The Mediterranean and the Mediterranean World in the Age of Philip II, I (N.Y., 1972), 85-101. 47Noël Salomon discusses in detaü the Spanish portrayal of the peasant as a comic personality in the early sixteenth century, and implies that it is a reflection of an unsympathetic attitude within the society itself. His involvement is with the social significance rather than with the aesthetic aspect. The shepherd was not always comic. In many plays of that period he was chosen to elucidate the Christian meaning of the Nativity. 48Cf. Charles Read Baskervill, The Elizabethan Jig and Related Song Drama ( Chicago, 1929), pp. 94-95. See also Edmond Farai, "La pastourelle", Romania, 49 (1923), 204-59. He concludes, "Les pastourelles sont des paysanneries , traitées dans l'esprit de la caricature, et où la rusticité est un élément, non pas de poésie naïve, mais de comique" (p. 232). For popular pastoral drama in Italy see Joseph Spencer Kennard, The Italian Theatre. From Its Beginning to the Chse of the Seventeenth Century (N.Y., 1932), chap. VIII, pp. 15675 , and Mario Apollonio, Storia del teatro italiano (Firenze, 1943-51), I, ?. 49 Itahan influence on the Egloga is suggested by Kohler, Sieben, pp. 171-72 and Gillet-Green, Propalladia, TV, 410. Conversely, Crawford believes the search for Italian models is unnecessary (Spanish Drama, p. 76). Ruzzante's Pastorale and his mariazo, Cornmedia senza titolo, postdate Avila's plays as do the Siennese egloghe or commedie pastorali, performed by the Rozzi. However, it is possible that while in Italy, Avila saw performances of other mariazi or farse for which we have no printed texts. Or perhaps he knew the farces of Giovan Giorgio Alione written some time after 1488 or the farse cavatole, performed-.-at the Court of Naples. Pietro Antonio Caracciolo 's Farsa della Cita e dello Cito, for example, is a marriage play in which the marriage broker is a woman. All these works emphasize the comic and burlesque. 50 Northrop Frye, Anatomy of Criticism (Princeton, first ed., 1957). Juan Benito in Fernandez's Comedia de Bras Gil y BeringuelL · more nearly satisfies Frye's definition than any character in Avila's play. 51See Susanne K. Langer, Feeling and Form (N.Y., 1953), chap. 18. 52Absurdity, violence, and obscenities are the hallmark of nonsense literature (see F. J. Norton and Edward M. Wilson, Two Spanish Verse Chap-Books (Cambridge, England, 1969), pp. 61-65. 53See Erich Segal, Roman Laughter: The Comedy of Phutus (Cambridge, Mass., 1968), pp. 99-136. 54A decree by the Council of Lugo in 572 confirms that wedding celebrations were accompanied by excesses and should not be attended by the clergy: "Non liceat sacerdotibus vel clericis aliqua spectacula in nuptiis vel conviviis spectare". The admonition was repeated frequently by Church councils( see Crawford, "Early Spanish Wedding Plays", p. 372, also "Echarse pullas", p. 159). The salacious monologue of address, comparable to Torres Ñaharro's introitos, may have been more frequent in the early Renaissance than the full-fledged burlesque marriage play. Cf. Otis H. Green, "A Wedding Introito by Francisco de Aldana (1537-1578)", HR, 31 (1963), 8-21. 55See Segal, Roman Laughter. 56Lope de Vega's urban comedy likewise provided the opportunity for "the abdication of social responsibility . . . The audience revels in a world which has been turned up-side down (see Bruce W. Wardropper, "Lope de Vega's Urban Comedy", Hispanófila especial [1974],47-61). IN DEFENSE OF ¿TANLARGO ME LO FIAIS ... ? Michael D. McGaha, Pomona College "No os engañéis; Dios no puedepara su carne, de la carne segará ser burlado: pues todo lo que elcorrupción; mas el que siembra , , . , , para el Espíritu, del Espíritu hombre sembrare, eso tambiénsegará vida eterna." segará. Porque el que siembra— Gálatas 6:7-8. 75 More than a decade ago, the Bulletin of Hispanic Studies published an important article by Professor Daniel Rogers entitled "Fearful Symmetry: the Ending of El burlador de Sevitta...