Autobiographical Elements in Lope de Vega's La Ninez del Padre Roxas

AUTOBIOGRAPHICAL ELEMENTS IN LOPE DE VEGA'S LA NINEZ DEL PADRE ROXAS D. L. Basttanutti, Queen's University Even the most cursory survey of the criticism carried out over the last few decades on the dramatic production of Lope de Vega will reveal the little interest shown by Hispanists in the comedia de santos and, more particularly , in those of this group which were written soon after the subject had passed away in "olor de santidad." We refer of course to such plays as El saber por no saber, El rustico del cielo and La niñez del Padre Roxas. The common characteristic of these three plays is that there was an almost complete absence of official biography upon which Lope could base his play. This circumstance forced Lope to rely on whatever he might have come to know of the "saint's" life through the legends and anecdotes woven by the faithful, the facts gleaned from the many sermons preached during the lengthy funeral ceremonies in the "saint's" honor, and finally Lope's personal acquaintance with the deceased. Whether through sermons or through the mythifying action of the people, the "saint's" life had been already theatricalized and Lope in fact did nothing more than fix in final dramatized form this information. The play was, then, a mere extension of the social expression through which the polarized subject of the "saint" became sublimated through his reincarnation by an actor on the stage culminating in the apotheosis of the holy man. The social creation and the dramatic creation are, then, two complementary aspects of the same social force, through which society abandons itself to the spectacle of its own existence and reaffirms itself through its own eyes, so to speak. While in a separate study we examine the contribution of sacred oratory in the creation of La niñez del Padre Roxas, in the present article we propose to determine the extent of Lope's knowledge of Simón de Roxas' life and the degree to which such knowledge can be detected in the play. We are indeed fortunate that with regard to our play we have available a rare document outlining extensively Lope's testimony of his knowledge of Simon's life on which he declares he has based his play. The document, dated Madrid, March 14, 1629, is a formal deposition made by Lope on behalf of the beatification process of Simón de Roxas. The deposition took place in the Chapel of St. Ann in the church of St. Peter in Madrid, at three o'clock in the afternoon. Clearly, it is dangerous to conclude that the deposition made four and a half years after the death of Simón de Roxas reflects accurately only what was known to Lope at the time he wrote La niñez. In the first Artículo Lope explains why and how he searched for information on the life of Simón de Roxas: que hauiendo este testigo hecho diligencia con mucho cuidado para escriuir la vida deste sieruo de dios, que se repressentó a sus Magestades y después en publico, supo, aueriguó y entendió ser el dicho sieruo di dios hijo de Gregorio Ruiz y Constança de Roxas, personas nobles y calificadas, y que namió en valladolid, de legítimo matrimonio.1 In his play, Lope utilized this basic biographical data as ammunition against the attempts of the devil to subjugate Simón to his will: Gabriel points 43 out that a child having such virtuous parents is less likely to fall into temptation : "Este viue aquí seguro; / que sus padres fueron sienpre / virtuosos." (Act I 11. 79-801 )2 The background of Simón is further elucidated in the play by Crispin when he defends Simon from the false accusations of the sacristán: Este estudiantico es hijo, aunque basta ver su cara, de Gregorio Ruiz de Nauamel. Reynosa de la Montaña, por hidalgo conozido, le da su solar y casa; en el valle de Toranzo tubo su antigua prosapia Costanza de Roxas, madre de quien por ladrón ynfama; nació en Móstoles, adonde sus agüelos, que Dios aya, conpraron canpos y hazienda...