Bulletin of Hispanic Studies 64.1(1987). Studies in Golden Age Drama (review)

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 sabemos quienes fueron" recte "quiénes fueron" (50), and "ya se toleraba 'comedias de historias'" recte "ya se toleraban" (35). The proper name Díaz de Coxmenzana (55) ought no doubt to read "Díaz de Cormenzana," the latter being apparently the name of a locality in the province of Burgos. One has to query whether José González really lived to the age of 105 (24, n. 27) , and to wonder whether notes might have helped us to arrive at the special meanings of civiles (1675, p. 147), vistas (1716, p. 182), conservaduría, as abstract noun (1716, p. 182) and frangente de ruina (1716, p. 182). Guarentixia (1609) and ynormisima (1637) may be noted as much earlier instances than the corresponding entries in Corominas. Alan Soons State University of New York at Buffalo. Bulletin of Hispanic Studies 64.1(1987). Studies in Golden Age Drama. These studies, dedicated to Gerald E. Wade, are a worthy tribute to a scholar and teacher who, during a long and distinguished career, notably advanced our understanding of the comedia and, particularly, illuminated the life and artistry of Tirso de Molina. This collection, in the spirit of Professor Wade's own multifaceted interest, ranges chronologically from Cervantes through the Reviews231 Comedia nueva to the school of Calderón and draws on a spectrum of critical approaches encompassing at one end literary analysis and at the other considerations of the technical details of stagecraft. The first contribution is an analysis of the honor theme, a seemingly perennial challenge to students of the comedia that is again today receiving renewed critical evaluation . Professor Melveena McKendrick makes a close reading of the texts in "Lope de Vega's La victoria por Ia honra and La locura por Ia honra: Towards a Reassessment of His Treatment of Conjugal Honour" and, as in her earlier study of Los comendadores de Cordoba, challenges the traditional view that in these plays Lope always affirms the values of the honor/vengeance code. Instead, she argues, persuasively, that the intent in these plays was broad humor. Another much-studied area, the pertinence of the classical precepts of tragedy to the Golden Age drama, is reexamined by Paul Lewis-Smith in "Cervantes ' Numancia as Tragedy and as Tragicomedy. " In view of the just eclipse of Scipio's fortunes, as well as the "happy ending" concocted to please the audience , he proposes to recategorize the play as tragicomedy rather than tragedy. In "Sermón y drama en El condenado por desconfiado" Angel Delgado Gómez seeks to reintegrate the too-often sundered aspects of medium and message into a whole where priority is accorded to the dramatic aspects of character and plot over the elements of didactic or moral preachment. The identity of the Jew, Enriquez Gómez, and the Christian, Fernando de Zarate, and the sincerity of the latter's so-called Christian plays...