El desdén con el desdén (review)

Reviews109 Moreto, Agustín. El desdén con el desdén. Prólogo, edición y notas de Willard F. King. Estudios de Lingüística y Literatura, XXXVI. México: El Colegio de México, 1996. Paper. 219 pp. Editions of this perennially popular play—perhaps the most produced throughout the centuries of all Golden Age comedies—are always welcome , and Willard F. King's thoughtfully crafted contribution supplements well the earlier scholarly editions by Rico (Castalia, 1971), Sirera (Planeta, 1987) and García Ruiz (Austral, 1993). King's rendition presents a modernized text that follows the 1654 princeps with slight emendations culled from the 1677 second printing of the play. The few variants that exist between the two versions are listed in an appendix (203- 04). Fortunately, the verse numeration still matches exactly that of the "standard" text for most American Hispanists in Halpern and Martel's Diez comedias del Siglo de Oro (based on the Clásicos Castellanos edition). King's notes are copious and informative. The shorter ones, having to do mainly with language difficulties or matters ofinterpretation, are at the bottom ofthe page by line number. There are also longer "notas complementarias " at the back ofthe book (also by line) which discuss wider topics such as the historical context of the play's setting in a Barcelona which, at the time of the play's presentation (c. 1653), had just been taken over by the Spanish crown; the many interpretations ofthe cumulative references to the theme of carnival, Polilla's stories, the names of Diana, Cintia and Laura, color symbolism, medical terminology and humoral psychology; and the whole complex issue ofthe nature oftrue love, which moves from a core of carnal repulsion/desire on the part of Diana and Carlos respectively to one of cooperative affection based on the mutual surrender of one to the other. Unfortunately, these complementary notes are difficult to use because the reader has to examine first the footnote then search in the back of the book for its continuation. King should consider putting the notes for a future edition at the bottom ofthe page with all the others. The book's introductory statements are cogent and fully adequate for a solid understanding ofEl desdén con el desdén. King discusses the cultural background regarding the dama esquiva, the important historical context, and Moreto's conservative view of society in which his plays all end with the proper adjustment ofthe characters to the social norm established by the elders and the nobles but given as emanating from the proper use of discretion and reason. She also analyzes the play's characters, theme, structure, language, style, and versification, all in an effective—although derivative— 110BCom, Vol. 50, No. 1 (Summer 1998) manner that gives the reader a solid notion of these matters before reading the play. The completeness of the introductory material, notes and bibliography, the elegant presentation ofa modernized text and the accessibility of a book published in neighboring Mexico rather than Spain should make King's edition the top choice for teachers ofthe comedia. As the promotional statement on the back page boasts, "de las no pocas ediciones que se han hecho de El desdén, es ésta, sin duda alguna, la mejor, la más esmerada." David H. Darst Florida State University Soufas, Teresa Scott, ed. Women 's Acts: Plays by Women Dramatists of Spain's Golden Age. Lexington: U of Kentucky P, 1997. Hardcover and paperback. 326 pp. Soufas, Teresa Scott. Dramas ofDistinction: Plays by Golden Age Women. Studies in Romance Languages, 42. Lexington: U of Kentucky P, 1997. Hardcover. 201 pp. Teresa Soufas's Women's Acts, an anthology of nine works composed by five women dramatists, is a most welcome addition to the newly emerging canon of literature by women writers of the Spanish Golden Age. A timely companion to recent editions of women's poetic production, such as Julián Olivares and Elizabeth Boyce's Tras el espejo la musa escribe: Líricafemenina de los Siglos de Oro (Siglo XXI, 1993) and Amy Katz Kaminsky 's Water Lilies: An Anthology ofSpanish Women Writersfrom the Fifteenth through the Nineteenth Century (U of Minnesota P, 1996), the...