Das spanische Theater von den Anfängen bis zum Ausgang des 19. Jahrhunderts (review)

Reviews143 rather elements of literary tradition. Regrettably many fine papers must be passed over without their due mention, but any reader may be assured of finding here ample material for illumination and thought. The volume itself is attractively printed, easy to read, and almost totally free of typographical errors. This is a book which will reflect well-deserved honor on both its contributors and on its recipient, Professor MacCurdy. Ruth Lundelius University of Georgia Poertl, Klaus (editor). Das spanische Theater von den Anfängen bis zum Ausgang des 19. Jahrhunderts. Darmstadt: Wissenschaftliche Buchgesellschaft, 1985. Hardback. 503 pp. For the first time in one hundred and forty years, German-speakers have a complete history of the Spanish theater of their own. Readers must, to be sure, be able to understand brief illustrative passages in original languages; and it is hard to imagine the idle Leser browsing in this dense volume. But the new guide to the development of Spanish drama from the earliest liturgical playlets to the present is in fact a smoothly-joined set of essays interesting in their own right, besides being a landmark in German Hispanism. Klaus Poertl and a team of internationally-recognized experts intended, when they began this project , to produce a one-volume work; but the quantity of material convinced them of the usefulness of dividing their subject between two books, the first of which is now available. The forthcoming second volume on the contemporary period will begin with Benavente and trace the development of the Spanish theater to the present. It will also contain the general bibliography. The first volume, divided into ten units written originally in English, German, and Spanish, begins with what Poertl's introduction touts as a unique feature among theater histories: an account of Spanish Latin drama from the Middle Ages to the Jesuit school plays of the 18th century . It is the work of Dietrich Briesemeister, who is also responsible for several other sections as well as for some of the translations. Briesemeister's chapters on Latin drama and on the influence of Celestina axe perhaps the most original in the volume, especially in the 144BCom, Vol. 39, No. 1 (Summer 1987) treatment of Humanist plays contemporary with and later than the appearance of Celestina. His exceptionally wide reading in non-dramatic literature and the collection of rare bibliographical items make these pages the best study of Spanish Latin drama available. Ch. Ill, on the special place of Celestina in the history of Spanish drama, examines the influence of the tragicomedia, directly and by way of its Latin translation , on theater and other forms of literature, up to the present. This essay will certainly become standard reading for celestinistas. Fernando Gonzalez Olle surveys drama in Spanish from Reyes magos to the later 16th century (Ch. II), including as a sort of appendix a review of Torroja 's ground-breaking work on late medieval theatrical activity at Toledo, on the rediscovered work of Alonso del Campo, and on the previously unknown dramatic writings of the Arcipreste de Talavera, Martínez de Toledo. Eberhard Mueller-Bochat contributes chapters on Juan del Encina and Cervantes (IV) and on Lope de Vega (V) , useful for its account of the reception of Lope's work up to the 20th century. Next comes a chapter (VI) on Lope's circle—seven of the great playwrights have a page or two apiece—by Jesús Cañedo, who is also co-autor of the division on Tirso and Ruiz de Alarcón (VII) completed by Briesemeister. Calderón has a chapter to himself (VIII) written by Manfred Engelbert. The least satisfactory essay of the collection—though Poertl ranks it with the chapter on Latin drama as a novel contribution to Spanish dramatic history—is an elementary study of theological aspects of Golden Age theater. This chapter has no separate bibliography, as do all others, and the footnotes reveal the author's dependence on secondary material which in some cases (e.g., Henry Sullivan's book on Tirso) is a better source of information. Ann L. MacKenzie's chapter on the circle of Calderón treats the complicated question of Calderón's influence, with attention to...