Lope's El mejor alcalde el rey: addendum To a Note by Sturgis E. Leavitt

Bulletin Of The Comediantes Vol. VII Fall, 1955 No, 2 Lope's El mejor alcalde el rey: addendum To a Note by Sturgis E. Leavitt by Albert E. Sloman, University of Liverpool Most modern readers of Lope's El mejor alcalde el rey will approve of Professor Leavitt's desire to defend Feliciana, who was misunderstood and denigrated by nineteenthcentury critics and translators. I have no doubt myself that Feliciana has been grievously maligned, and that she has a contribution to make to this great play. Yet I am by no means convinced by Leavitt's case, and would suggest that he has omitted the argument that is crucial, though it is one which is consistent with his own concluding remarks . Leavitt maintains, first, that Lope has so constructed his play that Sancho must make two journeys to court, and that during this time we are to believe that Don Tello has not done violence to Elvira; Don Tello's sister Feliciana provides, he claims, the "semblance of an explanation" for the delay . Feliciana certainly does try to restrain her brother, but since Lope leaves us in doubt about the effectiveness of her intervention the point has little weight. Leavitt's second argument is that, when Sancho comes to Don Tello early in Act II, Feliciana sets Elvira free in the hope of "saving" her, and he believes that the line:¿Esto has hecho contra mi?1098 is addressed to Feliciana. I find this unacceptable . It is Feliciana herself who a few moments before bids Don Tello to open to Ñuño and Sancho on the grounds that: ... si no entran aquí, dirán que tienes a Elvira.995-96 and there is no reason to doubt her sincerity. That she is here deceiving her brother, and that in a moment or so she opposes him to the extent of releasing Elvira, is totally inconsistent with her behaviour in the rest of the play. And it is surprising indeed that, had she done so, Don Tello makes no further reference to it. Neither Feliciana in any case nor Elvira leave the stage, so that Feliciana has no opportunity either of confining Elvira satisfactorily or of releasing her. Spanish Golden Age drama provides, of course, numerous examples of persons who are hidden as carelessly—and for the dramatist as conveniently —as Elvira. The line of Don TeDo is surely addressed, as the distribution of speeches suggests, to Elvira herself. Leavitt bases his defence of the part of Feliciana on two examples of motivation. The first of these, he states, "is the main reason why she is in the play." I submit, on the contrary, that "the main reason" is to be found in Lope's characterization. One of the traditional methods by which dramatists present their leading characters before their audience is by contrasting them with other characters who serve to set in relief their qualities or their defects; and, in addition, these secondary characters are themselves examples of another standard or level of human behaviour. This would seem to be the purpose of Feliciana. She is above all a foil to her brother Don Tello, with whom she is inevitably associated, and she enrichet the play as a character in her own right. 17 BULLETIN OF THE COMEDIANTES Published in the Spring and Fall by the Comediantes, an informal, international groupj of all those interested in the comedia. Editor Everett W. Hesse University of Wisconsin Madison 6, Wis. Assistant Editor John E. Keller University of North Carolina Chapel Hill, N. C. Subscription: $1 a year In Act I Lope presents Don Tello and Feliciana not only as brother and sister, but with much in common: each taunts the other on the subject of marriage (anticipating, incidentally , Tello's passion for Elvira), both are amused by the gracioso Pelayo, both remark upon the beauty of Elvira. As if deliberately to exclude at this stage of the play any suggestion of the differences between them, Lope allows Feliciana no comment on the one occasion when she might have opposed Don Tello, namely the postponement of Sancho's wedding. And she is neither consulted nor involved in the abduction of Elvira. This linking...