Triangular Desire and Sensory Deception in Francisco de la Cueva y Silva's Trajedia de Narciso

¿Es sueño aqueste ó deseo?

Cueva y Silva, Trajedia de Narciso

In a fascinating study of the myth of Narcissus in medieval and renaissance literature, Kenneth J. Knoespel refers to the unusual power of Ovid’s tale (Met. 3.339–510) to “elaborate psychological crisis and invite its resolution” (59). He concludes that the myth “posed an invitation for medieval and renaissance poets to invent new visions and narrative strategies that would resolve the confusion portrayed in Narcissus’ experience at the fountain” (105). In his Trajedia de Narciso (c. 1580), Francisco de la Cueva y Silva responds to the challenge identified by Knoespel by extracting and amplifying the plot of the Theban story and relocating it in a context in which many of the thematic patterns soon to be codified by the comedia nueva are detectable in embryonic form. Through a reorganization of the classical model’s architecture of desire as well as an elaboration of its thematic manifestations, Cueva y Silva creates a highly original version of the Narcissus tale in this frequently neglected play. ¹

The action of the play is generated by the movements of what may be described structurally as two triangular configurations of desire. The outlines of the first such figure are sketched out in Jupiter’s opening monologue, in which the spectators learn that he has given Eco an eloquent tongue so that “á Juno hablando me detenga, / Quando á buscarme con temor se aplica, / Y para que en palabras la entretenga, / Mientras yo duermo con mi ninfa amada, / Sin que á cortar los dulzes lazos benga” (8–12). Juno becomes so enraged at Eco for this act of betrayal that she takes away her voice as punishment. Thus far the account of Eco’s condition follows Ovid’s (359–69) rather closely. What Cueva y Silva adds is the following variation, narrated by Jupiter:

Y Eco, mirando el aspero castigo Con que de Juno la crueldad crecia, Sin speranza ni señal de abrigo, Declaróle por señas que diria Con que de mí supiese si el azento Y la lengua que tuvo, le boluia. En esto Juno rreciuio contento, Y á trueco d’escuchar todas mis faltas, La boz entera le boluio al momento. Contole luego las cautelas altas Que e tenido con nimphas, ¡o traydora! Que por mal tuyo en la lealtad me faltas.

(16–27)

On hearing of Jupiter’s infidelities, Juno behaves toward him “Qual si fuera de marmol” (28). From this moment on, the king of Olympus struggles to win back the stony heart of his sibling-wife.

The structure of the relationship just described is triangular insofar as the sexual libido of the subject, Jupiter, bifurcates and is channelled toward two different objects: Juno on the one hand and the “ninfa amada” on the other. The result is a spiraling edifice of violence manifested in a chain of jealousy, hatred, and vengeance similar to that described in the theories of René Girard. ² The violence is initiated by Juno’s move to silence Eco. But when the nymph allies herself with the goddess on the condition that her voice be returned, she incurs Jupiter’s wrath for having betrayed him. In typical Olympian fashion, he decides to punish her with a penalty that far outweighs the crime. Summoning Cupido along with the Fury Tesifone, he orders the two to work together so that Eco might die “rrebuelta en amorosas tramas” (49). Cupido is to make her feel the pangs of love while Tesifone stirs up “entre ella y otra alguna, / Un ardiente yra y un furor constante” (65–66). Having originally served as an accomplice to the amorous desires of Jupiter only to incur the rage of Juno, Eco becomes a victim of pitiless violence as Jupiter seeks to “Dar un castigo á Eco tal que dure / Mientras durare mi divina alteza” (35–36). As a result of her mediatory role in the triangle of desire implicating Jupiter, Juno, and the unnamed nymph, Eco is quickly made into a pawn in an Olympian struggle of sex and...