Dirty Dancing: Salome, Herodias and El retablo de las mara villas

While critics have begun to analyze the religious and secular imagery of the internal play in El retablo de las maravillas, such interpretations have not yet included a detailed discussion of the significance and relevance of the false retablo's final apparition, that of the dancing girl Salome. More precisely a composite persona representative of both the damsel and her mother Herodias, the Salome figure in this entremés (called "Herodias" in keeping with Medieval and Renaissance convention) is a logical choice for the conclusion of the magical show, since the Salome tradition itself incorporates many of the principal themes of Cervantes' satirical play.

This essay studies the relationship between the Salome legend in its original sources and the thematic structure of Cervantes' interlude and the "magical" drama represented within. The thesis is that the appearance of the Salome figure at the end of the internal play serves to remind its fictional audience of the conditions required for seeing the show (blood purity and legitimate birth) and that the motifs of marital fidelity/legitimacy, ethnic intolerance, and unmasking are points of identification between the Salome tradition and the pointed social criticism in Cervantes' play.