Calderón de la Barca Studies 1951–1969: A Critical Survey and Annotated Bibliography ed. by Jack H. Parker, Arthur M. Fox (review)

374 LETTERS IN CANADA Jack H. Parker and Arthur M. Fox, editors, Calder6n de la Barca Studies '95'- '969: A Critical Survey and Annotated Bibliography. University of Toronto Press 1.971., xiii, 247, $1.2·50 This, the third major contribution made by the University of Toronto to the bibliography of the Spanish drama of the Golden Age, is closely connected with its predecessors. The general editors are the same scholars who were responsible for Lope de Vega Studies '937- '962, and this new production is planned as a continuation of the Calder6n section in Warren T. McCready's Bibliagrafia tematica de estudias sabre el teatra espanal antigua (:1966), which stopped at :1950. Like its Lope predecessor this Calder6n volume is a co-operative undertaking . Fourteen compilers have covered the nineteen years, working under the guidelines established by the editors. The latter note that these guidelines have not suppressed a certain individuality from unit to unit, revealing itself in personal preferences and interpretations in both the introductory critical survey and the annotations. This was, of course, inevitable and every user of this bibliography must make the necessary allowances by suppressing his own preferences. None the less, the editors could well have been more rigorous in introducing a better sense of proportion as regards the space devoted to the various annotations. No one will quarrel with the fact that Sloman's Dramatic Craftsmanship has the longest entry (over two pages), but why should practically the same length be given to Ortigoza's study of El principe canstante, entitled Los moviles de la camedia? Such discrepancies are fairly numerous. Seven lines are devoted to an adaptation, in two acts, of No hay burlas can el amar, which is described as 'of little value to scholars' (52), while Manfred Engelbert's immensely scholarly critical edition of El pIeito matrimonial has no description at all. Eleven lines are devoted to a work described as 'extremely subjective,' 'oversimplified,' and 'superficial' (63), while nothing at all is said about Watson's and Paterson's important studies of EI pintar de su deshonra. Some entries are hard to explain: R. Trevor Davies's Golden Century of Spain is included by virtue of the conventional few lines on Calder6n, which are purely marginal to the book's theme. In principle it is better, in an annotated bibliography, that the compiler should confine himself to a description of the contents of the work he is recording and not venture into criticism where he may have no specialized knowledge. As regards books the critical comments are generally quotations from the reviews that the particular entry has received. This is a safer system, but even here it is possible to slip up badly. Hesse's critical edition of EI mayor monstrua los felos is listed together with eight reviews (49-50). For a value judgement on the play, as distinct from the edition, the compiler selects the review by Flecniakoska, a scholar who HUMANITIES 375 has never devoted himself to Calder6n at all. He dismisses the playas very inferior. Among the reviewers who might have been quoted is E.M. Wilson, one of the leading specialists on Calder6n who has been in the forefront of the revaluation of his comedias: his review gives the play the high praise it deserves. To go on finding fault with individual entries would, however, give a totally wrong impression. Y lque importa errar 10 menDs';quien acert6 10 demas? The over-all aderto is of inestimable value to all calderonistas, who must express unqualified gratitude to editors and compilers for their patient and meritorious labours. Praise must also go to the University of Toronto Press for the perfect photographic reproduction of a typescript, and not least to the typist or typists for their faultless work. (A.A. PARKER) James Downey and Ben Jones, editors, Fearful Joy. McGill-Queen's University Press, xvii, 266, $11.50 I regret not having attended the Bicentenary Conference on Gray in Ottawa, for although I now review the papers, I missed the company of scholars from Aberystwyth to Los Angeles and Donald Davie's afterword tells me that I missed the battles over Johnson on Gray. I should have liked...