Juan Ruiz de Alarcón (review)

life? (Hesse does not define "good.") These questions enter the area of philosophy , as all ultimate questions about the meaning of life and its record we call literature must do. Hesse makes clear (p. 11 and elsewhere) his desire to interpret the comedia for our own time, although he does not deny the need to see it as the seventeenth-century playgoer and reader saw it, insofar as this may be possible for our twentieth -century eyes. The plays chosen by Hesse for analysis are well known, and have had previous comment by scholars. Those by Calderón, the dramatist he most admires, are used more often than others. La devoción de la cruz is favored by two analyses (pp. 93-96 and 188-207. The second of the two is repeated in English translation on pp. 361-381 of the Revista de estudios hispánicos, vol. 7 [1973]. One may question the suitability of Calderón's plays as representative of the comedia as a genre if, as Parker observes (p. 51 of his article of reference), he is indeed "the most unrealistic of the Spanish dramatists." Margaret Wilson Borland seems to agree with Parker when, as Hesse recalls (p. 141) she finds that neither Lope nor Tirso follow the principles on which Calderón based his theater. It is apparent from even this brief review that Hesse has opened up for a fresh scrutiny many of the major and very difficult questions the study of the comedia engenders. Like all good books, his volume, explicitly or implicitly , poses many more questions than it — or any other book on the subject — can answer. Nashville, Tenn.gebald e. wade ^6.3^ POESSE, WALTER. Juan Ruiz de Alarcón. New York: Twayne, 1972. 185 pp. $5.95. Ruiz de Alarcón, by conventional wisdom one of Golden Age Spain's four greatest dramatists, spent only some ten years writing for the stage and his posthumous fame rests on La verdad sospechosa and a handful of other successes . Professor Poesse's recent book for TWAS brings together with commendable concision and clarity the sum of our present knowledge of the playwright 's life, as well as individual studies of all the authentic comedias in the two partes (1628 and 1634), thus directing overdue attention to the residual merits of Alarcón's neglected works. Professor Poesse's five chapters begin with the life, a particularly strong section that welds the (customarily!) scanty facts of the playwright's life into a highly readable and absorbing biography. The heart of the book — one lengthy chapter devoted to each parte and taking the plays in their printed sequence — offers a succinct account of every comedia, including problems of dating and sources, together with an excellent exposition of plot, characterization and motivations (Alarcón's strong points). Here Poesse freely uses and acknowledges the past contributions of Fernández - Guerra, Castro Leal and Millares Carlo in matters both critical and aesthetic. "His fourth chapter discusses questionable attributions (the majority rejected, correctly one feels) and the sparse minor works. The final chapter surveys some ninteen individual topics covering Alarcón's craft, style, favorite themes and intellectual complexion. Dr. Poesse argues that Alarcón was an unimaginative versifier, perhaps not always as careful a craftsman as he is held to be, but justly renowned for his 36 powers of character drawing. The main motivating forces in Alarcón, Poesse views as being, in descending order: honor, loyalty, friendship and love. The writer also deemphasizes Alarcón's moralist leanings, hints at his misogyny, and shows that his interest in the occult was stronger than his rather conventional Catholicism. Poesse, while conceding La verdad sospechosa its due, offers the stimulating view in his Conclusion that La prueba de las promesas was structurally and thematically Alarcón's masterpiece. As one would expect of a bibliographer of Professor Poesse's distinction, the critical apparatus and notes are thorough and much more extensive than is usual in this series (some 25% of the total pagination). However, could not all footnotes consisting merely of a page reference have been incorporated into the text itself? One also wonders at the bibliographical...