Los corrales de comedias y los hospitales de Madrid, 1574-1615, and: Teatros y vida teatral en Badajoz, 1601-1700 (review)

456BCom, Vol. 50, No. 2 (Winter 1998) Las cuentas del Gran Capitán refers to the period following the death of Isabel, with emphasis on the dispute over Castile, the question of the title character's loyalty to Fernando, and the future ofthe crown ofNaples. The play provides a unique vision ofthe queen, presented through memory, and of the king, rendered here as more "fallible" (95) than in the other works. Lope's treatment of Fernando, who made every effort to prevent Habsburg rule in Spain, obviously will reveal some tension, which the critic, guided by the observations ofDonald Larson, relates to an increasing pessimism on the part of the dramatist. Ultimately, for Ostlund, however, Las cuentas extols the virtues of the Habsburg rulers as it "mourns the loss of an ever greater reign, that ofthe Catholic Monarchs" (107). The scrutiny ofthe plays, ordered by the chronology ofthe subject matter rather than by the date ofcomposition, is effective and illuminating. Ostlund sustains the thesis that Lope de Vega views history as a function of drama, and her approach to the five texts delineates, in a straightforward manner, the transformation of source material into comedia. The study is quite brief, so that, while always suggestive, some of the arguments could be developed further, and I suspect that they will be complemented, in the future, by Ostlund and other scholars influenced by her readings. Edward H. Friedman Indiana University Davis, Charles, and J. E. Varey. Los corrales de comedias y los hospitales de Madrid, 1574-1615. London: Támesis, 1997. 397 pp. (Fuentes para la Historia del Teatro, XX) Marcos Alvarez, Fernando. Teatros y vida teatral en Badajoz, 1601-1700. London: Támesis, 1997. 377 pp. (Fuentes para la Historia del Teatro, XXVII) An air-raid in 1936 destroyed most of the archives of the Hospital General and the Hospital de la Pasión. C. Davis and J. E. Varey reproduce and study what survived, revealing the business side of the early Madrid corrales , the receipts from which went to support the hospitals of the Villa y Corte, the arrangement being supervised by comisarios (28), later by lessees (arrendadores). These documents, then, cover the same early period of the arriendo system as those in "Fuentes" XIII. When the Consejo de Castilla began to oversee the corrales through its Reviews457 Protector (the energetic Juan de Tejada, after 1610) certain modifications to performances became customary: female costuming and performance; the inadmissibility ofmale players in female attire (42); the visibility ofactresses ' legs when infaldellín solo. All ofthese features are apparently connected with the activity in Madrid of the Italian players of Alberto Naselli, called Ganassa, and his colleague Botarga (whose popularity caused his stage-name to enter the language). The surviving account-books here illustrate this novelty, though Davis and Varey might have noticed the work of John V. Falconieri in Revista de literatura 11 (1957). Ganassa's modifications of the corral probably account for what Cervantes tells us in his prologue to Ocho comedias, according to Davis and Varey (48), in their section on the physical apperance of theatres inferred from the documents. Some corrales had a long life: C. de la Cruz (1579-1736), C. del Principe (15791744 ), while the C. de Valdivieso survived for only three days (June 1579) (52). The account-books allow for some calculation of the size of audiences, but do not name any specific play, so that we cannot spot how Lope de Vega alzóse con la monarquía cómica. What Davis and Varey can provide, however, are tables and graphs: box-office takings and expenditures, receipts from the sales of aloja and confitura as refeshments, and the monetary yield at different moments of the theatrical year as well as per (major) corral (72). All can be usefully compared with the authors' previous analyses in "Fuentes" XVI. The crisis of 1614 that precipitated the intervention of the Villa y Corte just had to happen. Among its causes could have been: a slow recovery from the transfer ofthe Court to Valladolid and back; six hospitals competing for funds instead ofthree; uneconomic pricing and seating, especially of women; intervention by the authorities in the autores ' decisions, especially...