El Amor Desatinado and La Arcadia: The Reappearance of a Sonnet

skill in construction and dialogue that we find in some of the original scenes of the Amphitri ón and the Menemnos." 7 Fray Antonio de Guevara, Libro Aureo, ed. R. Foulché-Delbosc, Revue Hispanique, LXXVI (1929), 1-319. The first editions of the work appeared in 1528 but Guevara rejected them as incorrect and published it again with a new official title of Libro llamado relox de príncipes, en el quai va incorporado el muy famoso libro de Marco Aurelio, in Valladolid, 1529. 8 See intro. to Obras, Vol. I, p. xxvi, "Originalidad de los escritos de Timoneda," by Eduardo Julia Martínez. 9 Ibid, pp. xiv-xv. 10 Julia Fitzmaurice-Kelly, in her article "Woman in Sixtenth-Century Spain," Revue Hispanique, LXX (1927), 557-558 has pointed out that this particular excerpt from Guevara also appears in the "spurious Second Part of Guzman de Alfarache' by Mateo Lujan de Sayavedra. " Timoneda uses these words in the prefaces to the works of others he has published and also in the intro. to his own three comedies . It is curious that he never attempted to receive credit due to the real authors of the works he claimed to "mejorar," "ampliar," or "corregir" and yet in his own works should fail to mention his debt to Guevara in his Plautine adaptation. ^^6S^v EL AMOR DESATINADO AND LA ARCADIA: THE REAPPEARANCE OF A SONNET Bkuce St. John University of the West Indies ( Barbados ) The recent publication of Lope de Vega's El amor desatinado (1597) not only makes more readily available another of the Phoenix' more interesting plays,1 but also permits a comparison between versions of a sonnet which appeared first in the comedia and afterwards in La Arcadia (1598), a pastoral novel in prose and verse, as Olympio's first song.2 Most students of Lope are acquainted with José F. Montesinos' edition of this sonnet, since it appears as the first one in his collection.3 From his introduction , he appears to have used the Sancha edition of Obras sueltas. I have consulted the 1617 Antwerp edition of the Arcadia, pp. 49-50,4 and that of Sancha. Montesinos' punctuation differs from Sancha's, which is closer to that of the comedia, and to that of the 1617 edition. As editorial changes and typographical errors are not infrequent, we will only consider the texts of the 1617 and 1777 editions in relation to the comedia text. One quickly notes two lexical variants : Rosa of the comedia text is replaced by Ninfa (line 10), and lirio gives way to lino (line 14). Differences in punctuation, capitals and spelling may be seen when comparing the texts (see note 4 infra). The text of the comedia follows: Rey. Ya todo el veneno tomo. No queda más lustroso y cristalino por altas sierras el arroyo helado, ni está más negro el ébano labrado, ni más azul la flor del verde lino; más rubio el oro que de Oriente vino, ni más puro, lascivo, regalado espira olor el ámbar estimado, ni está en la concha el carmesí más fino, que frente, cejas, ojos y cabellos, aliento y boca de mi Rosa bella, angélica figura en vista humana; que puesto que ella se parece a ellos, 56 vivos están allí, muertos sin ella: cristal, ébano, lirio, oro, ámbar, grana, (p. 23) The repetition of lino in the final line of the Arcadia sonnet is in accordance with the stylistic device where by asyndetic enumeration, component parts which have been treated in preceding structural divisions are brought together so as to achieve a concentrated and climactic synthesis.5 Since lino not only appears in the octave, but is also a rhyme word, the appearance of lirio in the final line of the comedia text seems to be a copyist's error. On the other hand, the substitution of Ninfa for Rosa is demanded by the pastoral tradition where female characters are usually ninfas or pastoras; it also satisfies that lack of identity which Olympio's song requires as opposed to the particularity which the King's soliloquy demands. The Arcadia sonnet, however, lacks that intensity which the...