Claves de "La verdad sospechosa." Juan Ruiz de Alarcón (review)

1 78BCom, Vol. 44, No. 1 (Summer 1992) characters and tone almost unrecognizable, though the plot is preserved more or less intact. On several occasions, intentionally or not, the translation seems to bowdlerize the original. The first time Casilda addresses the Comendador, she asks him: "¿Sois vos quien daba temor/con ese desnudo acero/a los moros de Granada?" (294-96). The symbolism of naked steel here is surely too obvious to require commentary, but Lloyd inexplicably translates the words as "the flashing sword." When the newlywed Casilda describes her idyllic life with Peribáñez to her cousin Inés, she concludes her account of a typical day with the words: "y vamonos a acostar,/ donde le pesa al aurora/cuando se llega la hora/ de venirnos a llamar" (758-61). In a note to this passage Lloyd comments : "The (unmarried) lovers disturbed by unwelcome dawn are a topos of lyric poetry since Provenzal...Peribáñez and Casilda, however, are legitimately married, hence dawn is reluctant to disturb them." That being the case, it is odd that he translates the passage: "we're off to bed, and sleep so peacefully/ That dawn is sorry when the moment comes/For her to call on us, and wake us both." Notice that the Spanish text contains no reference to sleep, and we can be sure that it was not "peaceful sleep" Casilda had in mind. When Peribáñez interviews the painter whom the Comendador hired to paint a portrait of Casilda, he is told that the Comendador's lackey will be coming the following day to fetch the painting. Peribáñez then asks whether the lackey is aware of his master's love for Casilda ("¿sábelo ese lacayo?") and is told: "Anda veloz como un rayo/por rendirla" ("He's moving swift as lightning to conquer her"). Lloyd misunderstands the exchange as referring to the portrait , and hence translates: "And does the servant know what he's to do?" "He's coming lightning-swift to fetch it back" (1729-31). Peribáñez is one of Lope's finest plays and deserves a better translation than this. Michael McGaha Pomona College London, John. Claves de "La verdad sospechosa. " Juan Ruiz de Alarcón. Madrid: Ciclo. 1990. Paper, 112 pp. This little volume of commentary on La verdad sospechosa forms part of a series of Claves or guidebooks to monuments of Spanish literature (e.g., La Celestina, Trafalgar). At least twenty-four titles have been published thus far, all following the same format and designed primarily for use in the classroom Reviews179 by teachers and advanced students. Characters, themes (lying, the "possible" moral lesson, honor, love and friendship, social criticism), space, time, style, and suggestions for further study are among the major sections of the text. The author stresses the originality of the drama: it is not like the usual comedia (which is not itself defined), for its ambiguity allows for many interpretations of the play's meaning and makes it hard to classify precisely with regard to its género. Is it a comedia moral, a comedia de carácter, a comedia de costumbres, or yet another type of comedia (pp. 42-43)? No answer is provided . Students are supposed to arrive at their own conclusions about all the matters discussed. Despite the attempt at impartiality with regard to the interpretation of the play, it is inevitable that the author's own point of view will shine through clearly at times, as it does in his statements about the character of Don Garcia, the protagonist, and Don Beltrán, his father. Of Don Garcia he affirms that his "picardía es, desde luego, reprochable moralmente; pero nos hace reír. Su inmoralidad es seductoramente atractiva" (p. 49). Don Beltrán, on the other hand, is seen as an egotistical, dull moralizer. When he tells his son not to call him father, "que no tiene sangre mía /quien no me parece en nada," London comments: "Vale la pena ponderar si don Beltrán tiene razón aquí. ¿Es que difieren tanto el hijo y el padre?" (p. 53). London insists that this play moves us to laughter constantly and at all the...