Gongora's Anti-Comedia: Introductory Notes on Las Firmezas de Isabela

Bulletin Of The Comediantes Vol. XXV FaU, 1973 No. 2 GONGORA'S ANTI-COMEDZA: INTRODUCTORY NOTES ON LAS FIRMEZAS DE ISABELA David William Foster, Arizona State University For many students of Spanish literature , it may come as a bit of a surprise that Góngora tried his hand at the composition of comedias. In reality, we have only one complete text, Las firmezas de Isabela, written in 1610, published in a collection of four dramatic works by diverse hands in 1613, and reprinted again in 1617.1 No critical edition or separate publication of this work exists, although it is routinely included , without the usual explanatory notes of such publications, in the editions of complete works of the poet.2 In addition, Góngora, who left a trail of unfinished works, the traces of his insecure existence and the record of his (generally) unsuccessful attempts to please various patrons, wrote two of the three acts of El Doctor Carlino, which is dated 1613.3 One other drama has been attributed to him, the Comedia Venatoria, consisting of scarcely 350 lines and also left unfinished.4 Thus the Firmezas is the only work that can merit any close attention as representative of Góngora's obviously passing and minor interest in the drama. With the exception of Jammes' extended and excellent analysis,5 this comedia has remained virtually unnoticed. It is not customarily discussed in treatises on Góngora's work and it is almost universally ignored in discussions of the drama of the period, despite its many, if only superficial, resemblances to contemporary dramatic literature of the seventeenth century. Indeed, although he is able to dwell to some extent on the "psychological" portrayal of the human emotion of love in the work as it emerges in both the dialogues as well as in the many, contrapuntal asides, Jammes' principal emphasis falls on what are decidedly extrinsic considerations : the drama is almost the only work of the period to deal exclusively with the merchant; the work is a near perfect example of the attempt to construct a drama on the three Aristotelian principles as then understood in Europe and rejected by Lope and his followers — aside from the unity of action, which is not a major concern of Renaissance dramatic theory, Góngora's work possesses unity of time in that the three acts of the play correspond, respectively , to morning, midday and night of a single day, and unity of place in that all of the scenes but the first scene of Act III, which takes place overlooking Toledo, take place in the latter city and in and about the houses of two successful merchants; and, finally, the work is of interest, in its clear emphasis on Aristotelian, "classical" unities unquestionably out of vogue in Spanish drama of the period, as a protest against the amorphous comedia as defended by Lope before the Academy of Madrid in (note) 1609. Jammes devotes five dense pages to summarizing the often confusing plot 33 of the Firmezas, advising the reader who believes such a detailed summary superfluous to tackle the 3600-line work itself. Without intending to repeat Jammes, ours will be much more of a schematic introduction aimed quite simply at identifying the play as one of Góngora's compositions, even if it cannot be claimed to be either typical or — more significantly — of major artistic accomplishment. (Indeed, if we appear to refer to Jammes' comments over much, it is simply that he is in effect the only critic with whom one can agree or disagree. ) II Despite the plot complexity, the nucleus of the play concerns a foolhardy but successful test for constancy in love, applied by one Lelio to his betrothed, Isabela. Marriage has been arranged between the two by their fathers, who have not seen each other for some years; the father of Isabela has never seen Lelio. Although apparently accepting this traditional arrangement for his future , Lelio wishes to satisfy his somewhat cynical doubts about the constancy of women, although he has no reason whatever to doubt Isabela specifically . He thus arranges to travel to Toledo (from Sevilla, where his home is) and to become, under the...