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VISO OR PISO IN CALDERÓN'S LA VIDA ES SUEÑO, LINE 895 EDGAR C. KNOWLTON, JR. University of Hawaii at Manoa Toward the end of the first act of Calderón's La vida es sueño occurs a pun which has resisted elucidation. Clotaldo has told Rosaura and her companion , the gracioso Clarín, that they are free. In gratitude, Rosaura addresses him: Tus pies beso mil veces, 'Thy feet I kiss a thousand times.' Clarín continues: Yyo los viso. Que una letra más o menos/ no reparan dos amigos, 'And I viso them. For one letter more or less two friends do not notice." Beso and viso are near-homonyms; for more than half a century b and ? had been undifferentiated in Castilian speech.2 In this passage the environments of the b- and v- are similar, too, being between -s and a front vowel. The meaning of viso has puzzled commentators. A partial solution is merely to state that it forms part of a pun. ' This is the clue to its translation taken by several translators of the play.' Another solution, which may not be entirely convincing, is to change viso to piso. In this case, Clarín means: 'And I trample on them.' Such a change suggests a desire to improve upon Calderón. ' To retain viso, even if an acceptable meaning not be obvious, is the more cautious course of action." To the best of my knowledge, the interpretation of viso as a variant, by aphaeresis, of aviso has not been suggested. Visar, 'to certify, examine,' is not attested in Spanish, according to etymological guides, until after the date of Calderón's play.7 Aphaeresis of the first and unstressed syllable of a word is a frequent phenomenon, observable both in English (e. g., 'lone' for 'alone') and in Spanish (e. g., restado for arrestado.)' That aphaeresis of avisar may have occurred dialectally is clear from Keith Whinnom's discussion of visa in his study of the Ermitaño Spanish dialect of the Philippines.' 10Bulletin ofthe Comediantes Avisar was used in Spanish as early as in the sixteenth century with the meaning of Italian scorgere, 'to perceive, to descry; to notice."9 Chronology permits avisar in Calderón's era; there exists for the early seventeenth century the gloss advertir, i. e., 'to observe, notice,' with the explanation that there may be a connection with the Latin word visus, 'look, appearance; sight,' since one sees and observes with the eyes of one's understanding." The meaning ? notice, I observe,' provides Clarín with reason to look at Clotaldo's feet, probably wide-eyed, creating a humorous stance without running the risk of irritating their host by 'certifying, examining, or trampling on' his feet. Slang or a term of germanio like aviso is not inappropriate in the speech of a gracioso. n Aphaeresis or dropping a letter jibes with Clarin's statement that 'one letter more or less two friends do not notice.' Here the initial letter of aviso cannot be 'noticed' inasmuch as it is not used. It is a case of 'one letter ... less.' If the pun were merely on the difference in vowel and in written consonant , the expression 'one letter more or less' loses some of its appropriateness, even if the expression is not to be necessarily taken literally; beso and viso have the same number of letters. To sum up, viso is phonetically similar to beso (more so than the suggested correction piso), is a variant (with one less letter) of aviso, which has a meaning that lends itself to comic facial play. This explanation of the line requires no change in the original text. Devotees of punning and word-play might wish to entertain the possibility that the presence of veces, 'times,' as the last word spoken by Rosaura before Clarin's punning speech may have been a factor in the choice of viso. Besides its phonetic similarity (the two words have the introductory sequence of the same initial v-, front vowel, voiceless fricative) to viso, veces is a homophone of the verb form veces, 'may thou accustom,' which might be answered by vezo, ? accustom...

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