La bella malmaridada o la cortesana (review)

Reviews215 bida a lo largo de los siglos y va dejando de lado cualquier otro tipo de presupuesto anacrónico que pueda desvirtuar nuestra comprensión de este proceso. Queda de manifiesto la importancia de abordar una traslatio (o trasvase cultural) apropiada del Fénix y su legado para poder entender con precisión a lo que de manera vaga y tópica se suele aludir como "los vaivenes del gusto o de las modas." Además, las secciones dedicadas a los siglos XVIII, XIX y XX se completan, respectivamente, con el estudio de la respuesta receptiva a tres de las obras que hoy se consideran más emblemáticas dentro del corpus lopesco: Elperro del hortelano, El mejor alcalde, el rey y Fuenteovejuna. El libro finaliza con un apartado en el que se apuntan los retos que las nuevas tecnologías depararán al Fénix y la recepción de su obra en un futuro cercano, y, además, se revisa su situación actual, en la que son percibidos como objetos de prestigio social. Como vemos, nos encontramos ante un libro llamado a ocupar un lugar destacado dentro de una materia en la que no abundan los trabajos (a pesar de su indudable importancia), debido, precisamente, a las enormes dificultades (primordialmente documentales) con las que se tiene que enfrentar el investigador que decide aventurarse a tal menester. Se trata, por consiguiente, de una lectura más que recomendable que, a buen seguro , complacerá al estudioso del teatro áureo español. Francisco Soez Raposo Vanderbilt University Vega, Lope de. La bella malmaridada o la cortesana. Ed. Christian Andrés. Madrid: Castalia, 2001. This edition of an early comedia by Lope is a welcome scholarly contribution to the field, presenting the reader with almost everything that could be wished for short ofa live performance: a fine briefbiography of Lope's eventful life; a thoughtful introduction that acknowledges criticism already published on the play; a general bibliography on Lope's theater ; not one, but two versions of the play (based on variant texts, one claiming to be an eighteenth-century copy ofthe original manuscript and the other the first print version of 1 609); and, finally, a rendition of the romance that lends its title and topic to the drama. Interspersed through- 216BCom, Vol. 57, No. 1 (2005) out the book are several black and white plates, most ofwhich reflect the urban milieu of Felipe Ill's Madrid, where the action takes place. Also, the first version of the play includes explanatory footnotes that usually appear just where one would want them. As suggested, the scripts really do seem to cry out for a talented troupe that could bring them to life, and this edition will certainly facilitate such a production. In surveying recent scholarship on this play, Christian Andres does not shrink from inserting his own considered opinions and calls for further studies, including one that might account for the variations between the two texts. Just one minor complaint: Donald McGrady's analysis ofLa bella malmaridada is mentioned frequently in the introduction, but his first name does not ever appear, even in the bibliography. Lope's play itself lacks the impact of the romance in which the neglected wife practically dares her husband to do away with her, leaving the reader to imagine the grisly denouement. Such dramatic shorthand is more credible than the miraculous staying of the husband's murderous hand in the play, followed by a somewhat forced reconciliation of spouses . Still, there are many felicitous poetic passages to be found, and one may sense Lope flexing his muscles, placing himself atop the shoulders of the authors whose names he drops in the first act (Montemayor, Garcilaso, Argensola, Camöes), even as he slips the phrase "es de Lope" into the third. In addition to its verbal dexterity, the play memorably sketches a celestina and apicaro, both ofwhom emerge from the fabric ofa city that seemingly teems with noblemen given over to womanizing and gambling in "casas" that are not their own. In this light, the eventual happy ending seems a mere artifice upon which to hang the staging of so much vice. Lope, as always, plays...