The Fernandez Edition of Tan Largo Me Lo Fiais: A Review Article

THE FERNANDEZ EDITION OF TAN LARGO ME LO FIAIS A Review Article Gerald E. Wade, Vanderbilt University Professor Xavier A. Fernández presented late in 1967 his edition of Don Pedro Calderón. "Tan largo me Io fiáis," published in Madrid by Estudios, the journal of the Padres de la Merced. The book has as preliminaries an Indice General, a Prólogo, an Introducción, and a Bibliografía; they comprise fortyfour pages. The text of the play follows ; it has seventy-nine pages. Then come the Anotaciones Críticas; they begin with photographs of two Tan largo folios. The Notes begin on p. 85, and run to p. 212. There follow an Epílogo, an Indice de Nombres y Materias , and a page of Addenda et Corrigenda . The book totals XLIX plus 233 pages. There is every evidence that Professor Fernández meant his book to be a model of careful compilation . That Tan largo me lo fiáis ( to be called TL hereafter) is deserving of the most careful edition possible is indeed beyond dispute, since it is a version of the first of the Don Juan plays so important in world drama. (As the reader must know, the play is even better known as El burlador de SeviUa . ) The Fernández edition is taken from a photostat of the suelta of TL that belonged to the Sedó library of Barcelona . I am told that the Sedó drama collection now belongs to the Instituto del Teatro of Barcelona. The suelta, the earliest printing that has survived, was used in the last century by the Marqués de la Fuensanta del Valle for his edition in volume XII of "Libros raros o curiosos" (Madrid, 1878); the Fernández edition is superior to the earlier one because it follows the text of the suelta more carefully and has valuable explanatory material lacking in the Fuensanta edition. The Fernández edition is for the same reasons superior to that of E. Cotarelo (in his Comedias de Tirso de Molina, II /?????, 9, Madrid, 1907J, whose less than adequate commentary on the play appeared in his "Catálogo razonado" in the same volume), and to that of Blanca de los Ríos in her Tirso de Molina. Obras dramáticas completas, II (Madrid, 1952); the señora's edition reproduces that of Cotarelo almost exactly and is, like Cotarelo's, inadequate in its editorial and textual discussion. Professor Fernández, in addition to the three editions of the play just mentioned , had also at hand the efforts of several scholars to clarify the TL relationship to the Burlador text; the scholars who made comment were Manuel de la Revilla, Cotarelo, Eugenio Hartzenbusch, Joaquin Casalduero, Blanca de los Ríos, María Rosa Lida de Malkiel, Albert E. Sloman, Daniel Rogers, and Gerald E. Wade and Robert J. Mayberry. (The Bibliografia carries publication data for the names and titles.) Finally, Fernández had recourse to the Burlador for many of TL's variantsjfor the former text he used the Spanish-French edition of Pierre Guenoun (Paris, 1962), and also there are references to the editions of Americo Castro and others. The critical literature that has accumulated about TL and the Burlador will become more and more profuse as scholars give increasing attention to this drama of such large meaning for world theater. Professor Fernández should be congratulated for his effort to give the play the careful study it deserves. One feature of his edition that stands out is its attractive print31 ing. Typographical mistakes are few considering the multiple opportunities for error. In addition to the small number of errors that are corrected in the Addenda et Corrigenda, we observed the following: I, 73 needs indentation ; at 170 read vengando (for the suelta's vengado); Salamandras of 393 should have a small s; the Note on p. 115 for lines 814-16 should read only 814; at 540 the suelta has soy for the text's yo. Detente of the first line of Note 95-99 (p. 122) should be moved to the line's end; at 97, sagitario has a small s whereas it has a large S in the Note...