Preface to "La Estrella de Sevilla as a Mirror of the Courtly Scene—and of Its Anonymous Dramatist (Luis Velez???)"

PREFACE TO "LA ESTRELLA DE SEVILLA AS A MIRROR OF THE COURTLY SCENE— AND OF ITS ANONYMOUS DRAMATIST (LUIS VELEZ???)" La Estrella de Sevilla has been the object of considerable critical attention in recent years. One of the foundations for much of the recent work on that problematic work has been Ruth Lee Kennedy's "La Estrella de Sevilla, Re-Interpreted," published in RABM 78 (1975): 385408 , a study of the play's themes and of the circumstances that possibly lay behind them. Miss Kennedy promised to deal with the identity of the play's author and his possible motives in another study. That continuation was to have been included in Antigüedady actualidad de Luis Vêlez de Guevara: Estudios críticos, edited by me, in collaboration with William R. Blue, Joseph R. Jones, Raymond R. MacCurdy, Enrique Rodriguez Cepeda and William M. Whitby, and published in the Purdue University Monographs in Romance Languages, 10 (Amsterdam-Philadelphia: John Benjamins, 1983). Ultimately, and most regrettably, the article could not be included in that volume because of space constraints. Miss Kennedy died shortly thereafter, at the age of ninety-three. What follows is the second part of Professor Kennedy's study of La Estrella de Sevilla, exactly as it would have appeared in Antigüedad y actualidad. It is published here with two intentions: to provide additional documentation for future research on La Estrella de Sevilla; and, to complete the published opus of one of the twentieth century's most important Hispanists. I thank Professor Vern G. Williamsen, who, as heir to Ruth Lee Kennedy's papers, has kindly given permission to publish this article. C. George Peale California State University, Fullerton 103 ...