Miracles of Performance: : Lope de Vega’s el Caballero del Milagro and Guillén de Castro’s el Narciso en su Opinión

M I R A C L E S O F P E R F O R M A N C E : L O P E D E V E G A ' S EL CABALLERO DEL MILAGRO A N D G U I L L E N D E C A S T R O ' S EL NARCISO EN SU OPINI6N H a r r y V e l e z - Q u i n o n e s University of P u g e t S o u n d E arly on in Lope de Vega's El caballero del milagro (1593-1598) the protagonist, a con-man named Luzman, receives the following warning from his lackey Tristan: TRISTAN: Moriras como Absalon, pues que de tantas mujeres ninguna estimas y quieres, siendo el quererlas razon, y aborrecerlas repugna la naturaleza de hombre (151) The prediction of a destiny equal to that of he "who stole the hearts of the men of Israel" (2 Samuel 15:6) is as telling as it is chilling. Like Luzman, the third of the sons of David was known for his faultless beauty, "in particular for theluxurious wealth of hishair, which,when shorn, weighed over ten ounces."1 Favored by the people and highly talented in his own right, Absalom succumbed to the call of his own ambition and attempted to usurp his father's kingdom.Avolatilemix of charisma, talent and comeliness , along with a burning desire for power led to his undoing. While riding away from his father's army, Absalom's magnificent hair was caught in the lower branches of a tree. Contravening David's express orders, Joab, one of his generals, speared the entangled lad to death. El caballero, nonetheless, is a comedia de enredos, not a tragedy. No one will slay Luzman and yet greed, beauty and excessive self-love will vanquish him too. At the conclusion of the play, though alive and well, he is destitute and with no other recourse than to seek public assistance at a Roman hospital. The miraculous ascent of Pon Luzman Cerda y Toledo Giron Mendoza Enriquez from nobody to mock Spanish grandee and his fall back to insignificance is colored throughout by persistent references to his deviant attitude towards women. As he explains it: CALfOPE Vol. 6, Nos. 1-2 (2000): pages 71-84 72 ios, me miran con ojos claros!" (83b) 78 <•$ Harry Velez-Quinones Episodes like the one above compose, as Dona Brianda's lover puts it: "los milagros de su vida" (83b). Pon Gutierre comes across as afiguron first and foremost, thebutt of alljokes on account of his being a caricature of masculinity. He is silly and comical, but neither seductive nor loathsome in the way that deviants and criminals are. "Los milagros" of Pon Gutierre's life are trivial in comparison to Luzman's all encompassing "milagro" in Lope's play. There can hardly be any room for deception in the case of the former, as his uncle wisely notes: "Si este mozo es confiado / y no es loco, sera necio" (84a). In this regard, as Tadeo remarks, the only one who is deceived is himself:"... y entre confusas ideas, /pueden tanto sus engafios, / que cuenta por sucedidos / los gustos imaginados" (83a). Thus, what Tadeo recounts about his master's ways are indeed "milagros," but only inasmuch as they compose the lively hagiography of a holy pisaverde, the founder of the order of the lechuguinos, that is, the patron saint of all petimetres, currutacos, and gomosos.7 Pon Gutierre's inoffensive makeup, however, bears little resemblance to that of his counterpart in Moreto's version of El Narciso, El Undo don Diego (c. 1654-62). Although the latter is an imitation of the former, Pon Piego, like Luzman, does come accross as sexually transgressive. His kind of Undo is the one that others suspect. In a 1997 essay on the subject, Pan Heiple sees Pon Piego and Pon Gutierre as birds of a feather, as it were. Although my contention here is contrary to his, our views on Pon Piego coincide. Even before he appears, Mosquito, a lackey, describes Pon Piego as a "rara persona" and goes on to identify him with a sailor, an atheist, a Jew, and a mule (45,11. 317-48). Mosquito's definition of "rara persona" immediately falls within the general outline of Siglo de Oro sodomy. He is like the quintessential other, the Jew; shares the suspicious lifestyle of sailors; is a heathen; and finally appears to be as much in the habit of being cabalgado as a beast of burden.8 More importantly, as we will see later regarding Luzman, Pon Diego's love of self is rooted in an almost religious passion for the beauty of his own maleness: D. DIEGO: Mas si veis la perfection que Dios me dio sin tramoya, iquereis que trate esta joya con menos estimation? iVeis este cuidado vos? Pues es virtud mas que aseo, porque siempre que me veo me admiro y alabo a Dios. (5,511.489-96) Injustifying his elaborate narcissistic rituals Don Piego reaches the limits of heresy as he couples the love of his own body to the worship of God. MIRACLES OF PERFORMANCE rP 79 - • " •' • • • " • • • ' • I — . • •• - M i l . Still, Pon Piego retains a great deal of what in Guillen de Castro's Pon Gutierre is pure comic appeal. His relentless self-love lead him to carry out infinite acts of pure nonsense which often bring about the same reproach : "Mirad que esas son locuras,./ que a quien las ve a risa obliga" (59,11.598-99). All is a hoax, however, all is deception, with Luzman. His is the domain of industria as his assistants Lofraso and Tristan assert: LOFRASO: iPuede en la industria comparalle el mundo con todos los que fueron celebrados en tiempos de Alejandro y Senuramis? (193) Industria, the DA reminds us is the province of ingenio y sutileza, mafia ii artificio. Luzman's talent is that of continuously dissembling under the cover of physical perfection. That is what makes him "Caballero de milagro" (194a), as Lofraso and Tristan brand him. The latter explains it so: TRISTAN: jQue sagaz, que fingido, qu£ doblado!. jQue astuto llega, pide, teme y ruega! ;C6mo muda el color! ;C6mo le finge! jQue presto esta colerico y turbado, y en que momento afable, manso y blando! jCosa es de ver-la vida de este mozo! (...) iHay cosa como verle sin dineros, y otras veces desnudo, y en un punto jugar, pedir prestado y no volverlo, tomar baratos, enganar mujeres, quitarles la sortija, la cadena, hasta el espejo donde esta colgado, y que con todo le aman y le adoran, le visten le desean y le buscan? (...) Pues verle andar con prmripes y grandes (...) Es cosa de locura lo que estiman que hable, escriba o cuent[e] alguna cosa; danle su mesa, asientanle a su lado, honralle mas que a un igual suyo pueden. (194) What Tristan immediately goes on to illustrate is the extent to which Luzman is a prodigy He lives off nothing, swindles everybody, all women fall for his graces, noblemen and princes favor him, he is always in possession of the latest stories and gossip, and he is always present at every party and celebration. In sum: "todo se le ajusta como propio ( . . . ) / es valiente, es galan, es estudiante, / es hijo de quien quiere, y es tan noble, / que a veces tiene don y a veces titulo" (195). 80 «S Harry Velez-Quiftones That Luzman's capacity for industria surpasses that of Alexander and Semiramis, as noted above, is relevant and leads us back to the consideration of earlier parallels. Alexander the Great, a master strategist who "appears to have been almost exclusively homosexual" (Spencer 47), and Semiramis, a mighty virago whom Herodotus described as "the most beautiful, most cruel, most powerful, and most lustful of Oriental queens" (Tannahill 61), along with Narcissus, Elegabalus, and Absalom, round up the gallery of characters that help us visualize Luzman. Beauty, power, seductiveness, deviance, and sexuality, among other traits, characterize this group of figures. Finally, Luzman's very name, an unusual one even for the stage, has a distinctly devilish ring. Luzman does sound like the ordinary proper name Guzman but looks rather like Luzbel. The latter, we must remember, is but another version of Helel or Lucifer. This appellative, we should bear in mind, originally refers to the planet Venus, emphasizing the astronomical brilliance, mythological beauty, and pagan eroticism of the "lucero del alba"? Indeed, Luzman is much like Luzbel—the first and most beautiful of the fallen angels—and Venus, the goddess of love and sexual desire. It is not too difficult to read in this play with names the specter of pecado nefando. The previous identification of our Caballero del Milagro with hedonistic, deviant, rebellious, and sexually transgressive characters is quite unequivocal and in consequence makes this interpretation possible. We can now offer a reading of Tristan's initial prophecy concerning his master and the death of Absalom. Led by arrogance, the beautiful son of Pavid betrayed his father by going against the laws of succession. As one commentator explains: "[I]t is not strange that Absalom, idolized by those around him, whilst his natural sense of gratitude and filial duty became gradually dulled, was led to cultivate that species of egotism which grows cruel in proportion as it counts upon the blind affection of its friends."10 Just like Absalom, but in a strictly narcissitic way, Luzman would rebel against his father too: "Yo para rey naci, sino que ha sido / contraria estrella la que no ha querido..." (197). Who the biological father of this villanoAbsalom was is irrelevant but not so who his maker is. We should remember what Luzman had declared earlier a propos of his origin: LUZMAN: Errar vestirme recelo, que lo hecho mal podria: vestirme es a cuenta mia, el talle, a cuenta del Cielo. (147) Luzman's maker, his father, is. "el Cielo". It is against him that he rebels in deviating from what his "talle" would call for both socially and sexually. MIRACLES OF PERFORMANCE iP 81 In acting in ways that appear to violate the natural and ecclesiastical rules controlling manhood and masculinity Luzman rises against He who made him. This venerealty sublime creature falls from the sky, like Luzbel, but out of an arrogance nurtured in the immoderate love of his own maleness . One wishes that there were further proofs supporting this reading. However, we should consider that actions and ways of being regarded as unspeakable—crimen inter christianos non nominandum—ordinarily declare their presence indirectly.11 For those in the know—both then and now— it is enough to see that Luzman, as well as Pon Piego for that matter, are exactly the type of pretty boy described in Vicente Espihel's Sdtira contra las datnas de Sevilla. There Espinel refers to the lindos favored by Sevillian ladies as a "manjar provocativo al moro Muza" (Qtd. in Lujan 97) and concludes by making a keen observation and a desperate appeal: "[Tjodo el negocio va por lo de Italia. / jVolved, oh juventud, barbara y ciega, / a aquel antiguo ser de la Vandalia!" (Qtd. in Lujan 98). "Lo de Italia," the "Italian vice" in the mind of Golden Age Spaniards, is the practice that produces that "manjar provocativo al moro Muza." Quevedo aptly sums up that metier as "cosas de aire... pecados de arras" (DA), that is to say, the characteristic activities of those whom the DA describes under the name of puto. That as a Spanish Undo in Italy Luzman manages to strain the patience of his Roman accomplices and is in a sense forced to leave the country is not meaningless. Quite to the contrary, this is a milagro of the first order—a Spaniard who exceeds in queerness even the queerest of Italians. Notes 'The online edition of the Catholic Encyclopedia in its entry for Absalom states: "The sacred writer who sketches for us the career ofAbsalom (II Kings, xiii-xviii) lays stress upon the faultless beauty of the youth's appearance, and mentions in particular the luxurious wealth of his hair, which, when shorn, weighed over ten ounces. The significance of this latter note becomes apparent when we remember the important part which the culture of the hair played in the devotions of the Eastern people (note evenat this day the ceremonial prayers of the Dervishes). As shaving the head was a sign of mourning, so offering a comely growth of hair to the priest was a token of personal sacrifice akin to the annual offering of the first fruits in the sanctuary". See: H. J. Heuser, "Absalom" (Catholic Encyclopedia, Online Edition [October 10, 2000] http://www.knight.org/advent/cathen/ 01058c.htm). 2 As Leo Bersani has recently argued, there are real dangers involved in the continued reiteration of the standard binarism: "The double bind in the essentialistconstructivist , or nature-nurture, debate is clear. Since the very question of 'how we got that way' would in many quarters not be asked if it were not assumed 82 <•? Harry Velez-Quiflones that we ended up the wrong way, the purpose behind the question has generally been to learn how we might best go back and right the wrong" (57). The debate Bersani objects to is as deleterious to cultural and literary studies as to the social sciences. Limiting desire to what a specific nomenclature allows leads to the erasure of its traces in cultural artifacts. See Bersani, Homos. 3 James Iffland borrows the term from Erich Auerbach's Mimesis: The Representation ofReality in Western Literature. "Auerbach employs the term to describe all that which has to do with the mortal or physical limits of man's existence as well as to what these limits subject him. Since his body is corruptible, man undergoes an extensive variety of suffering: illness, aging and decay, and finally death" (61). See Iffland for an elaboration of the context of the burlesque poetry of Quevedo. 4 The so called 'puta vieja' speech appears in the first act of Fernando de Rojas's La Celestina. In it Calisto's servant, Parmeno, tells all about his former guardian, Celestina. The latter's link with the world of debauchery, prostitution, pimping, and irregular sexuality is akin to Luzman's. 5 For more on Elegabalus, see Boswell 75-76,82,120,123. 'Jonathan Dollimore explores the links the Augustinian ideas surrounding evil and perversion and the Freudian and Foucaldian views of the latter. His insights on how perversion "has its origins in, or exists in an intimate relation with that which it subverts" (183) as well its paradoxical centrality to culture are relevant to Luzman's troubled relation to his naturaleza de hombre (179-96). 7 See Narciso Alonso Cortes's prologue to his edition of Agustin Moreto's Teatro (20,n.l). 8 The term cabalgar meaning 'to sodomize' appears frequently in sixteenth and seventeenth-century legal documents of trials for pecado nefando. In the hearing of Don Garceran de Borja, Grand Master of the military order of Montesa, convicted for sodomy in 1575 the term is used by two different participants. Martin de Castro, the Grand Master's favorite hustler, is quoted as saying that he "no se echaba ni cabalgaba a hombres pobres sino a senores que le daban muchos dineros." Amore cultured speaker, Don Francisco Tallada, one of Don Garceran's accusers, testifies having caught him in the act: "vio e sintio como el Maestre estaba dentro en las cortinas de la cama cabalgando por posterior a un paje suyo que se llama Granulles". Cf. Carrasco 196-97. 'The online edition of the Catholic Encyclopedia in its entry for Lucifer states: "Hebrew helel; Septuagint heosphoros, Vulgate lucifer: The name Lucifer originally denotes the planet Venus, emphasizing its brilliance. The Vulgate employs the word also for 'the light of the morning' (Job 50:17), 'the signs of the zodiac' (Job 38:32), and 'the aurora' (Psalm 109:3). Metaphorically, the word is applied to the King of Babylon (Isaiah 14:12) as preeminent among the princes of his time; to the high priest Simon son of Onias (Ecclesiasticus 50:6), for his surpassing virtue, to the glory of heaven (Apocalypse 2:28), by reason of its excellency; finally to Jesus Christ himself (II Petr. 1:19; Apocalypse 22:16; the 'Exultet' of Holy Saturday ) the true light of our spiritual life. The Syriac version and the version of Aquila derive the Hebrew noun helel from the verb yalal, 'to lament'; St. Jerome agrees with them (In Isaiah 1:14), and makes Lucifer the name of the principal fallen angel who must lament the loss of his original glory bright as the morning star. In Christian tradition this meaning of Lucifer has prevailed; the Fathers MIRACLES OF PERFORMANCE ?P 83 maintain that Lucifer is not the proper name of the devil, but denotes only the state from which he has fallen (Petavius, De Angelis, III, iii, 4)". See: A. J. Maas, "Lucifer," Catholic Encyclopedia, Online Edition. "The online edition of the Catholic Encyclopedia in its entry for Absalom states: "To a pleasing exterior the youth Absalom joined a temperament which, whilst fond of display, was nevertheless reserved, bold, and thoughtful. These qualifications were calculated to nourish a natural desire to be one day the representative of that magnificent power created by his father, from the prospective enjoyment of which his minority of birth alone seemed to debar him. Despite his ambition , there appears to have been in the youth that generous instinct of honour which inspires noble impulses where these do not clash with the more inviting prospects of self-interest. Under such circumstances it is not strange thatAbsalom, idolized by those around him, whilst his natural sense of gratitude and filial dutybecame gradually dulled, was led to cultivate that species of egotism which grows cruel in proportion as it counts upon the blind affection of its friends". See: H. J. Heuser, "Absalom,"Catholic Encyclopedia, Online Edition. "According to Gregory Bredbeck, the prosecutor in the 1631 trial of Mervin Touchet, theEarlofCastleheaven, refers tosodomythusinhisbrief. SeeBredbeck 5. Works Cited Auerbach, Erich. Mimesis: The Representation of Reality in Western Literature. Princeton: Princeton UP, 1974. Bersani, Leo. Homos. Cambridge: Harvard UP, 1995. Boswell, John. Christianity, Social Tolerance, and Homosexuality: Gay People in W ern Europefrom the Beginning of the Christian Era to the Fourteenth Centur Chicago: U of Chicago P, 1980. Bradbury, Gail. "Irregular Sexuality in the Spanish Comedia." Modern Language Review 76 3 (1981): 566-80. 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