Los arriendos de los corrales de comedias de Madrid: 1587-1719. Estudio y documentos (review)

Reviews229 J. E. Varey y N. D. Shergold, con la colaboración de Charles Davis. Los arriendos de los corrales de comedias de Madrid: 1587-1 719. Estudio y documentos. London: Tamesis Books, 1987. ("Serie C. Fuentes para la historia del teatro en España," XIII). 204 pp. Theatrical history is that of great plays and performers, but it is also that of wooden Os and refreshment-concessions. An unusual compilation of information fills this volume complementary to III — VI and XI of the "Fuentes" series; J. E. Varey and N. D. Shergold have on this occasion sought their documentation in the details of leases (aniendos) and bids of all descriptions (posturas) relevant to the management of the two great Madrid corrales, del Principe and de la Cruz, up to the date of the last arriendo, 1716-1719. The authors illuminate the close dependency of the corrales and the hospitals and orphanages of a rapidly growing Madrid, the latter being sustained to an important degree by the former, The city, by 1638, had relieved the old religious brotherhoods of the task of overseeing the theatres, while the arrendador advanced from being a mere collector of entrance-money to the status of a financier, later to that of provider for actors, whether in Madrid or traveling, of their text-copiers, and even of the dramatists. He could therefore influence dramatic fashion, while being himself influenced by it. Over them the Consejo Real maintained, however, ultimate power through the specially created post of Protector de los Hospitales. The interdependence of theatres and hospitals provided powerful arguments for keeping theatres open in the face of truculent opposition by moralists. The authors identify the perilous period as 1646 to 1651, the central portion of an age of debilitating wars and economic uncertainty. As the power of Olivares fell away and military reverses became frequent, punctilious moralists could seize upon the eventuality of the death of Philip IVs first queen as a moment in which to impose their will. City and arrendadores are shown proceeding slowly, by way of autos sacramentales, and then comedias de historias, to get the corrales back to their regular function. The authors cite a pertinent loa by Cáncer y Velasco alluding to the hard times (36) Philip IVs patronage of palace theatricals impinged on the monopoly of the corrales, and of course contributed to the decision to close them. The monopoly was finally ruined, however, when the new Bourbon court gave its preference to Italian companies, a circumstance that Varey and Shergold delineated in "Fuentes Xl" at greater length. Readers who suspected an anachronism in the thesis, usually associated with the work of J. A. Maravall, that XVIIth century Spanish drama conceals a body of propaganda favoring reactionary groups, will be gratified to find that it probably has no content. The authors emphasize that powerful arrendadores, in the period of 230BCom, Vol. 41,No. 2 (Winter 1 989) the greatest inventiveness of Tirso, Alarcón, Vélez and Calderón, organized the efforts of playwrights and autores de comedias in a free market, with no perceptible state intervention. Moreover these men were quite often of Genoese or of Portuguese Jewish origins. There is much of interest concerning the place of theatre in society among the minor details of the arriendos and posturas: the alarm of arrendadores over a possible exclusion of women from the corrales (104), and the compensation expected for this; the repercussions of a change in women's fashions: wide skirts, in 1635, allow for the seating of fewer spectators on a bench in the cazuela, so that perhaps the price of a ticket ought to be marked up, until the fashion changes back again! (105). Calderón, we learn, was the only dramatist whose works had the power to affect the box-office; the final arrendadores could insist on presenting his work exclusively (185). Only one play, and it is Calderón's Agradecer y no amar, finds a mention in this collection of business documents (129). The typography of this volume is, as always in the series, excellent, The only oversights seem to be "los últimos decenios del siglo XVII" recte "siglo XVI" (19), "no...