Holy Wednesday: A Nahua Drama from Early Colonial Mexico

1. Spain

T Ausias Izquierdo Zebrero LITTLE is KNOWN ABOUT the author of the Spanish drama, except that he was a Valencian bookseller and a devotee of the Virgin Mary. Archival records in Valencia attest that Izquierdo was named a councilor of the parish of Santa Cruz in 1585. He dictated his last will and testament on September 20,1596 (Marti Grajales 1927:281). An Izquierdo alluded to in a work by the great Spanish dramatist Lope de Vegamay be thisValencian author (Barrera y Leirado 1860:196-97; Perez Gomez 1976-77:505-6). Izquierdo's earliest recorded publishing venture is a work of 1566 entitledReloxdeNamorados , a collection of songs by diverse authors including some of his own works. After Izquierdo and a brother of hisexperienced what they believed was a miraclewrought by Our Lady of Puig,Valencia's principal Marian advocation, Izquierdo wrote a history of the Puig shrine, which was published in 1575. Bibliographers also list ^Quaderno espirituai of 1577, containing eight poems about the Passion of Christ, and a 1589 play dramatizing a miracle of the Virgin of the Rosary. All these works were printed in Valencia(Ximeno 1747:!, 187; Barrera y Leirado 1860:19697 ; Marti Grajales 1927:281). The drama called Lucero deNuestm Salvation, or "Beacon of Our Salvation ," appears to be Izquierdo's only work to break out of the local Valencian press and to undergo several reprintings. Its publication record is somewhat confused and incomplete.The earliest edition may havebeen issued in Seville in 1582, but it seems that no one has laid eyes on this imprint for manyyears.In 1860, Barreray Leirado catalogued an edition bearing the name of Sevillian printer Fernando Maldonado and the date 1532 (1860:197). This date must be incorrect, according to Escudero y Perosso (1894:272), because Maldonado did not begin publishing until 1582. It is I 12 Chapter i also inconsistent with the dates of Izquierdo's other works. Escudero y Perosso hazards the guess that his predecessor misread or misprinted 1582 as 1532; other scholars have followed his lead in assuming a 1582 first edition (Crawford 1967:141; Perez Gomez 1976-77:501-2; Rouanet I979:IV, 281; Mendez Bejarano 1922:!, 126). An imprint lacking any statement of date or publisher exists in the Houghton Library at Harvard University, where it is provisionallycatalogued as a Valencian edition of 1590. Despite its uncertain status, this imprint appears to be the earliest availableextant version of the drama, and it is the one that I use in this study.1 The Houghton Library imprint of Izquierdo's play bears this introductory statement: Auto called Beacon of our Salvation, which treats of the farewell that our Lord Jesus Christ took of his blessed mother being in Bethany, to go to Jerusalem, in which are contained very devout passages, and contemplative thoughts about the Passion of Christ, and about his blessed mother. Composed by Auzias Yzquierdo bookseller, and examined by the Reverend father Fray Hieronymo Ferrer Prior. Printed with permission.2 Below this text are two small woodcuts. One shows Mary being crowned by the Trinity; the other depicts the crucified Christ flanked by Mary and Saint John the Evangelist. The script of the play begins immediately below the woodcuts and is printed in two columns (Figure i). It is 495 lines in length and is composed in quintillas, or five-line stanzas of rhymedverse, most of which follow an ABABA rhyme scheme.3 The language employed in the play is Castilian with some dialect features of eastern Spain, the region of Valencia.4 The Houghton Library imprint is bound in a volume with sixteen other Spanish devotional texts. Those that bear dates of publication range in date from 1588 to 1596. The volume, which bears the bookplate of the Marquis of Stafford, was deposited with the Houghton Library by Mrs. Imrie de Vegh of New York City in I964.5 The later publishing history of Izquierdo's drama is better known, thanks mainly to the efforts of Antonio Perez Gomez. The earliest edition surviving in Spain's National Libraryis one issued in Cuenca in 1603. Perez Gomez (1976-77:495-500) reprints this edition. In size, format, and content it is nearly identical to the Houghton Libraryversion. There aresome minor variations in wording, a few of which indicate that the Houghton i. The first page of Ausias Izquierdo Zebrero's "Beacon of Our Salvation." Bypermission of the Houghton Library, Harvard...