La dama duende (review)

volume number of CL (XVII instead of XVIII) where his article appeared. But some errors seem factual. Thus Parker's review of Roaten and Sánchez Escribano reads: BHS (1953), 112-151, lengthening it by thirty pages! But can this be a misprint if the same false information appears in a note at the foot of page 97? The truth may be that Calderón y la critica lay for many years in press before appearing in 1976. In spite of this, however, and despite the matter of reading-audience discussed above, these two volumes appear to have been thrown together in tremendous haste, the Introduction improvised facilely from secondary sources and, apart from some good assessments of the 'British School' and the état de la question in Spain and Latin-America (pp. 94-123), the very goal of the authors-to demonstrate to Spaniards that the rest of the world has always recognized the genius of their Calderón de la Barca-remains largely unaccomplished for sheer lack of solid research. Henry W. Sullivan Northwestern University VALBUENA BRIONES, A. JULIAN, ed. La dama duende. Madrid: Ediciones Cátedra, 1976. paper. 165 pp. A new series of college textbooks geared to Spanish students was recently inaugurated by Cátedra. Calderón's ?a dama duende (1629) prepared by one of today's most authoritative scholars on the playwright's work is a welcome addition to the series. Professor Valbuena precedes the text of the play with a commentary on the dramatist's life and works, and adds a brief bibliography. Valbuena sketches Calderón's early years, his studies at the Universities of Alcalá and Salamanca and his adulthood as poet and dedicated master of the theater. Calderón's career included service in both the military and clerical professions. As a favored poet he resided in the household of the Duke of Alba at Alba de Tormes and in that of the royalty in Madrid. After his ordination as priest in 1650, Calderón's talents were channeled to writing autos sacramentales. Despite his enormous success as a playwright, his last days in Madrid were marred by an impoverished existence. In his discussion ofLa dama duende Valbuena points out the formula for a typical cape and sword play-a formula that was initiated for the Spanish stage by Torres Naharro with his Comedia Himeneo over a hundred years earlier. Calderón's piece was a decided theatrical success with its involved story set in the Madrid of 1629, its satire of customs, and its ridicule of the epoch's beliefs. There is exceptional characterization of the leading lady, Angela, who cleverly arranges her affairs to capture the love of Don Manuel. It is her surreptitious ways that give rise to a belief in the existence of a family ghost. To establish the text for his edition, Valbuena collates the princeps version with two manuscripts. To clarify the text, he provides notes along the way and points out Calderón's techniques of interpolated stories, pre69 figurations, recapitulations, and such devices as «deceptions with the truth», contrasts, and exaggerations for creating surprises and for augmenting dramatic effects. After the excitement of a climactic duel, the ensuing conclusion secures a renewed order contingent upon the young lovers' marriage, which gives a sense of direction and meaning to their worldly existence. The format of the book is pleasant, and it makes for a handy text. There are some minor typographical errors that have escaped correction. The notes by the editor are well chosen and informative. One note, however, requires comment since the etymology of ce, a familiar term used to attract someone's attention, continues to be troublesome. Valbuena accepts ce as an abbreviation of ucé for usted (p. 144), but this expression appears in La Celestina (1500 as per Vindel), indicating that it was in vogue long before ucé or usted came into general use in the seventeenth century. More acceptable explanations resort to onomatopoeia or the Latin ecce. The play's literary merit, its preoccupation with young love, its fine satirical elements, and its value as individualized history together with its presentation of the seventeenth-century customs and superstitions of...