Orígenes y elaboración de 'El burlador de Sevilla.' (review)

REVIEWS Márquez Villanueva, Francisco. Orígenesy elaboración de 'El burlador de Sevilla. ' Salamanca: Ediciones Universidad de Salamanca, 1996. Paper. 202 pp. Others have covered some of this ground, among them the eminent Menéndez Pidal ("Sobre los orígenes de 'El convidado de piedra'"), Said Annesto (La leyenda de Don Juan. Orígenes poéticos de 'El burlador de Sevilla y Convidado depiedra *), and Hazañas y la Rúa (Génesis y desarrollo de la leyenda de don Juan Tenorio), to mention only three. The genealogical view of literary history continues to titillate the "detective function" ofour minds, even though it becomes increasingly apparent that the process is a mise en abîme, for no sooner do we identify a source than someone discovers another that antedates ours, and so on ad infinitum. Texts (written and oral) are made from other texts, and the process can be traced back indefinitely , for the original story will always remain elusive. Márquez avoids most ofthe pitfalls quite handily by focusing on traditional and folklore material that may have informed Tirso's classic text. His purpose is to offer a context for the "creation" ofthis mythical figure. Now there are titles that suggest more than they can deliver. This is an honest title, however, and it delivers what it promises, within the limitations sketched above. Marquez seeks out and scrutinizes antecedents to the burlador figure as these find expression in legend and myth, some ofwhich are rooted in Seville. The study was prompted by two circumstances: 1) the fact that Márquez spent a number of formative years in those parts; in his own words, "responde a una preocupación con Tirso, Sevilla y el Burlador iniciada en años juveniles durante muchas horas de goce del ex-convento hispalense de la Merced, actual Museo de Bellas Artes" (17); and 2) an invitation to prepare a series of three lectures on Tirso and the Burlador for presentation in January 1995 at the Residencia de Estudiantes in Madrid. Following this introductory mise-en-scène, the book is divided into three chapters: I. Estado de una vieja cuestión; II. La leyenda sevillana; III. Del 439 440BCom, Vol. 50, No. 2 (Winter 1998) trickster al burlador. Two brief appendices follow, the first of which discusses an essay on origins that came to his attention belatedly, while the other offers a one-page "etiología sinóptica de El burlador de Sevilla," showing in schematic form the similarities and differences among the main character and several possible precursors: the ballad tradition, Floovant, Joäozinho, and the trickster figure of the same name in Sevillan legend. These will be discussed momentarily. In the first full chapter, "estado de una vieja cuestión," a great many topics are covered in a limited space, but Márquez has done his homework on each of the issues he addresses, as the extensive footnotes make evident. Regarding authorship, he comes down very much on the side of Tirso, and justifiably so. The date of composition proposed is around 1620, give or take a few years. More debatable is his view that the Burlador and 7a« largo spring from a common source, now lost, rather than deriving one from the other. Although Tirso's role is central in the creation of the character we know today as Don Juan Tenorio, he does not create that figure from whole cloth. There are antecedents, and that is what this book is mainly about: "... Ia centralidad de Tirso deberá equilibrarse aquí con la noción no menos firme de la previa existencia del personaje, cuya materia prima sin duda encontró ya hecha en bosquejo" (23). Márquez proceeds to review various candidates who have been proposed as models for the Burlador: Miguel de Manara, Leontio, El Infamador-each ofwhom is found wanting, for different reasons. Regarding dramatic tradition, an interesting point is made concerning La serrana de la Vera (of Lope and then Vêlez), which Márquez sees as a significant variation on the burlador theme, since here the focus is less on the burlador who sets things in motion than on the burlada , "como antisocial vengadora y salteadora de...