The Role of the Warrior Women in Amazonas en las Indias

El honrado de su padre de Juan Bautista Diamente," AUCh, No. 10 (1933), 70. 4 William E. Wilson, Guillen de Castro (New York: Twayne, 1973), p. 76. 5 Obras de Don Guillen de Castro y Bellvis, ed. Julia Martínez, 3 vols. (Madrid: M. Real Academia Española, 1925-1927). This edition will be used throughout. Roman numerals indicate number of volume. 6 The single most important social law in the theater of the Golden Age. See Wilson, pp. 50-51; Robert La Du, "Honor and the King in the Comedias of G. de C," Hispania, 45 (1962), 213. 7Wilson, p. 53; La Du, 213. 8 A possibility not overlooked by Rodrigo in his brief weighing of alternatives: Obras, II, p. 176. 9 Floeck, p. 92. 10The terms justice and vengeance are occasionally interchangeable in Jimena's speech (Ex.: "Seguiréle hasta vengarme." IL 184), but not the notions; the distinction is implicit in her actions.» La Du, 211. 12 Romancero general, ed. Agustín Duran, vol. X of Biblioteca de Autores Españoles (Madrid: M. Rivadeneyra, 1877). THE ROLE OF THE WARRIOR WOMEN IN AMAZONAS EN LAS INDIAS Nancy K. Maybekry, East Carolina University Warrior women, bandoleras, and the mujer varonil abound in Tirso's theater and have provoked a number of articles .' Yet Amazonas en las Indias has been sadly neglected by the critics interested in this phenomenon. A most striking example of a misreading of this play occurs in Melveena McKendrick's recent book, Woman and Society in the Spanish Drama of the Golden Age.2 Although an entire chapter is devoted to "The Amazon, the leader, the warrior," the author dismisses Tirso's play in three sentences claiming that "Amazons do appear in a play of Tirso's, but the title, Amazonas en las Indias is a misleading one."3 After capsulizing the plot, Ms. McKendrick concludes that "the Amazons are not really necessary to the plot and are included to provide extra drama, a love interest and a vein of humor."4 This article will attempt to prove that, far from being an inconsequential part of the drama, the Amazons deserve the title role because of their vital function in the dramatic structure of the tragedy. Various interpreters of Amazonas en las Indias have both praised and condemned the role of the warrior women. Valentin de Pedro considers them a purely poetic recourse, representing "uno de los mas bellos mitos de la antig üedad clásica" to which Tirso gave una nueva interpretación, otorgando al relato de los conquistadores una virtualidad poética digna de las grandes epopeyas."5 For Miró Quesada Sosa they represent local color and "el embrujo y al mismo tiempo el peligro de la selva."6 José Toribio Medina soundly condemns their appearance as conventional "disparates" and an unfortunate concession to the questionable tastes of the public.7 It was Otis Green who gave the first clue to the true function of the Amazon women. Green explains that they "enabled him [Tirso] to meet the natural requirements of the comedia — gallantry , love-making, novelesque interest — and they provide him with the means of foretelling the future. . ."8 Still more revealing is Green's further comment: 38 "He also uses them as a counterpart of the chorus in Greek tragedy in this play which in the appeal to the Senado he classes a tragedia."9 Part II of the Pizarro trilogy does indeed have the distinction of being one of the few Golden Age dramas labeled una tragedia by the author himself .10 As an apologist for Lope de Vega's form of national drama, it is most surprising to find a Tirso play that demonstrates numerous relationships with Greek tragedy, the theater so roundly rejected by the authors of the comedia nueva.n Yet such is the case. In addition to reviving the Amazons of classical literature, Tirso's drama shows a structural relationship with Greek trilogie composition, a classical concept of irony and the Aristotelian definition of the tragic hero. In each of these functions the Amazon women play an important role. Critics have long recognized that Tirso's dramatic motive was to vindicate an historic family by demonstrating...