Ambiguous Allegories: What the Mythological Comedia Reveals About Baroque Tragedy

I. The Double Bind

Drawing on the ambiguous postclassical conception of classical myth, the serious Baroque mythological comedia, as practiced first of all by Lope de Vega and Calderón,¹ flaunts a paradoxical coexistence of what appear to be mutually exclusive mythographic perspectives. On the one hand, spectators and readers are presented with a series of "horizontal" readings of individual myths dominated by the empathetic and moving representation of subjective feeling and a realist depiction of characters' psychology. On the other hand, a fundamental detachment is perceived as the plays simultaneously launch a transcendental interpretation of myth that renders it yet another comic or insignificant event on the world's great stage: a folly, a fiction, a chimera of the human imagination, or even, theologically speaking, an error.

The result of this intriguing double reading of classical myth is an extremely complex genre, which meditates on the cosmic convergence of the jocose and the serious—the insignificance or "comedy" of individual destiny in the greater scheme of things—even as genuinely tragic events may be represented on the stage.² The much noted scenographic lavishness, especially of that part of the mythological theater written for the court, only emphasizes this double bind even more. Here, conspicuously ostentatious sceneries paradoxically reinforce the engaño of what is presented as a fabulous, imagined, and ultimately untrustworthy mythical world.

Critics have brought to light a series of general characteristics of the serious mythological comedia: the tongue-in-cheek and even desacralizing treatment of the mythical universe on the part of the donaire (clown) reflecting the "democratic" propensity of Lope's early myth plays written after the smash hit formula of the dramatist's new comedia;³ the Fénix's closely associated tendency toward anti-heroic or even negative characterization of the mythical hero and the gods;⁴ Calderón's allegorization of the figures and stories of classical mythology as intricately entwined with Christian didactic poetics;⁵ conversely, as the expression of a universal, transcultural psychosemiotics;⁶ the eventual development of Calderón's serious mythological theater into mythological burlesque occasioned by the crisis of the Renaissance world;⁷ the political, representational or propagandistic function of these plays;⁸ conversely, their aestheticist tendency to dissolve all referentiality in sophistic reflexions on the nature of theatrical illusion⁹—to mention just a few fundamental studies of the genre.

However, despite the fact that a considerable number of the mythological comedias by the dramatists in question (three out of eight plays by Lope; seven out of seventeen plays by Calderón)¹⁰ qualify as tragic, in part or in full, existing studies fall short of accounting for the specific tragic mode that characterizes the mythological comedia, not to mention the special relation between this genre and tragedy.¹¹ Quite to the contrary, the mythological comedias have often been characterized as insignificant showpieces or dramatic bagatelles meant to divert a decadent royal audience interested in nothing but idle amorous intrigues and pretty words. Besides belittling the spiritual capability of some of Europe's most well-bred princes, taught by the best teachers and surrounded by the brightest intellectuals and most consummate artists, this recurrent interpretation severely derrogates a number of highly complex artworks. Thus, the significant characteristics of Baroque tragedy brought to the fore by these plays are generally overlooked, which is especially a pity since the "status quaestionis" of Baroque tragedy studies has not advanced decisively in recent decades despite increased scholarly attention.¹²

Delving into the problem of Baroque tragedy from a new angle— that of its interrelation with myth—I will subsequently present a generic discussion of the serious mythological comedia. Focal point of this discussion will be the part of this corpus that may be termed tragic. I will begin by surveying the ambiguous Baroque mythography which provided the material of the serious mythological comedia and proceed to a consideration of the serious comedia that was its mold, ending my survey with an inquiry into the striking Baroque interrelation of myth and tragedy.

II. Postclassical Ovidianism

When considering the mythographic backdrop...