Lope and Calderon's La hija del aire

2 Mira's play has an ad quern date of 1619 (the date of the earliest approval for performance in Madrid as found on the manuscript cited above). Not only because that approval appears on a separate leaf from the last page of the manuscript, but since the last few pages of that copy are not autograph (they are tipped in on the stubs of a lost original), there may well be intervening pages that are missing . Consequently, this work may be of considerably earlier date. 3 Alexander A. Parker, "Santos y bandoleros en el teatro español del siglo de oro," Arbor, 13 (1949), 385-416. 4 Whitby and Anderson accept the reading of the printed version of La fianza which calls for a crucifixion. We concur with their refusal to admit the impalement called for in the MS. 5 See Vern G. Williamsen, "The Versification of Comedias Attributed to Antonio Mira de Amescua," a study which has been completed and is soon to appear. 6 For example, Daniel Rogers, "Not for Insolence , but Seriously," Durham University Journal, 9 (1968), 146-70. He finds the play so poorly written that it could hardly be die work of Lope. He calls the work (p. 154) a "daring but inept illustration of an important and potentially moving idea." 7 See also Vern G. Williamsen, "Tres grandes pecadores en el teatro de Salustio del Poyo, Lope de Vega y Tirso de Molina," Estudios ( in press ) . 8 Willis Barnstone, "Lope de Vega's Don Leonido: A Prototype of the Traditional Don Juan," CLS, 2 (1965), p. 105. 9 See, for example, Wilhelm Möller, Die Christliche Banditen-comedia (Hamburg: Ibero -Amerikanische Institut, 1936), 24-30. 10 Whitby and Anderson (p. 69) review what has been said in this regard and point out the relationship of the play's theme to Romans 6:23, "Because the wages of sin is death; but the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ, Our Lord." LOPE AND CALDERÓN'S LA HIJA DEL AIRE Joseph G. Ftjchjla, Northwestern University Part I When Professor Gwynne Edwards reaches Lope in the course of his detailed survey of the Semiramis theme in the introduction to his edition of La hija del aire, London, 1970, p. xxxiv, he declares: "It appears that Lope de Vega whose plays so often provided Calderón with his material, wrote a play called Semiramis in 1603. It is a great pity indeed that it has been lost. While it is pointless to conjecture the extent of its influence on Calderón, it seems highly probable that he would have known it and would have drawn on it to some extent." The statement is followed by a footnote bringing out that Lope refers to Semiramis in Act I of El villano en su rincón and in Act I of Las bizarrías de Beiisa. Actually, he refers to her in a number of other places: a third play, El hombre por su palabra, Act III; Corona trágica, Colección de las obras sueltas, IV, Madrid, 1776, 53, 112; Arcadia, ibid., Vol. VI, 1777, a "retrato"; Filomena, B. A. E., XXXVIII, 491a; El peregrino en su patria (Peyton ed.) Chapel Hill, N.C., 1971, 179; a sonnet, "De Nino y Semiramis" in Obras escogidas, II, Madrid , 1946, 85-86; La hermosura de Ang élica, ibid,, 908; La Jerusalén conquistada , ibid., 1192; La Dorotea, ibid., 1738. They indicate a continuing interest in the Assyrian queen on the part of Lope, but only the last two are pertinent to our discussion, and both happen to be associated with the dressing table episode in the second part of La hija del aire (11. 465-75), where Semiramis' toilet is interrupted by an impending rebellion led by Lidoro. She vows immediate revenge saying to Lidoro among other things: 90 ......... pues aqueste peine que en la mano tengo, no ha de acabar de regir el vulgo de mi cabello, antes que en esa campaña o quedes rendido o muerto. Laurel de aquesta victoria ha de ser; porque no quiero que corone mi cabeza hoy más acerado yelmo que este dentado penacho que es feminil instrumento...