Stage Business in the Plays of Juan Ruiz de Alarcón

media talla también me ruegan; mas servir con éstos es gran trabajo. Porque de hombre os habéis de convertir en malilla y, si no, 'Anda con Dios', os dicen" (Tratado Tercero). In the Guzman de Alfarache we find the following text: "Figúraseme ahora que debía de ser entonces como la malilla en el juego de los naipes, que cada uno la usa cuando y como quiere. Diferentemente se aprovechaban todos de mí. . ." (Segunda Parte, Libro I, Cap. In other words, "criadas mahllas" are indeed a combination of "donzellas y dueñas," among other things, and "son todo" for the innumerable and variegated chores they must perform and "no son nada" for the lowliness and debasing demands of their position. ' In his edition of the play ( Groningen, 1928), van Dam places a comma after quexar and a question mark after lugar (pp. 178179 ), as does Alfonso Reyes in his earlier edition (Madrid, 1919), p. 212a. Reyes' edition is not cited in van Dam's bibliography. 2 According to Wilson and Blecua, other examples of this same idea can be found in Horace as well as in other Latin authors ( Lágrimas , p. cxxxH and n. 93). Recently, Dale B. J. Randall "rediscovered" the source of "The Classical Ending of Quevedo's Buscón" (HR, XXXII [1964], 101-108), demonstrating in the process that he either had not consulted or had not remembered the Wilson-Blecua edition of the Lágrimas de Hieremías castellanas or, for that matter, the important study by Peter N. Dunn of "El individuo y la sociedad en La vida del Buscón" (BHi, LII [1950], 375-396), which also mentions the sententious conclusion of the Buscón and its counterpart in the Lágrimas (p. 391). On the credit side, Randall does provide several important bits of additional information, including a passage from Seneca's epistles that he considers "the closest parallel to the Buscón" (p; 106): "animum debes mutare, non caelum." Francisco Ayala has claimed that the famous conclusion was lifted from a Biblical text that Quevedo was translating at the time (Experiencia e invenci ón [Madrid, I960], p. 161). Perhaps Ayala could provide a more specific orientation. 3 See The Texas Quarterly, VI ( 1963), 174187 and Insula, XVIII, nos. 200-201 (1963), 10 and 23. Stage Business in the Plays of Juan Ruiz de Alarcón John Brooks, University of Arizona Over the years I have wondered how much of the stage business in plays of the Golden Age was indicated in the lines and how much was left to the discretion of the actor. The thought has led to this study of stage business in the plays of Juan Ruiz de Alarcón. The embrace is a frequent occurrence mentioned in the lines of the plays. Friends embrace when one leaves town or returns from an absence (64b; 418b).1 A gallant holds that one day of absence may well justify an embrace (426c). Another embraces the son of a friend on learning his identity ( 197b) . An embrace is often given as albricias or a sign of joy ( 133a ) . A master embraces his servant as albricias and the servant expresses disappointment and expectation of something more substantial (60a; 291a). When a servant hesitates to give the embrace requested, his master reassures him by saying that he is now a friend, not a servant (419a). In La verdad sospechosa (321-22) D. Beltrán, on meeting his son's tutor, asks him for an embrace. The tutor, in reply , asks for D. Beltrán's feet. D. Beltr án tells him to rise and undoubtedly embraces him. Later, when D. Beltrán learns of his son's unsavory reputation at school, he leaves with an abrupt "Adiós." The tutor then soliloquizes that the old man must be much upset. Touches like this are frequent in Alarcon and they are spelled out in the lines. The contemporary besamanos and besapiés have often been termed merely conventional expressions of courtesy. They occasionally are. However they appear regularly in Alarcón in the following manner. The hand is really kissed with a genuflection or obeisance (166a) and the besapiés...