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  • Un autor desconocido del Siglo de Oro. Estudio y edición
  • Isabel Torres
Juan de Quiroga Faxardo , Un autor desconocido del Siglo de Oro. Estudio y edición. Edited by Salvador García Jiménez. Kassel: Edition Reichenberger, Teatro del Siglo de Oro Estudios de Literatura, 100. 2006. 435 pp. ISBN 3-937734-22-8.

Those familiar with the poems and novels of Salvador García Jiménez, which are profoundly rooted in the time and places of his life, will not be surprised that the Murcian writer should now turn his attention to the discovery and recovery of one of Castillo de Cehegín's lost sons and lost voices: don Juan de Quiroga Faxardo (1591–1660). At first glance the extensive introduction (130 pages) seems to follow the conventional formula of critical editions: biographical details, questions of authorship, a section dedicated to the five works included in the volume, information regarding extant editions, and the editing criteria followed by the editor. However, the style and tone of the writing, particularly in the section which charts the dramatic rise and fall of Quiroga, conveys the passionate engagement of the novelist rather than the cautious back-covering of the literary critic. That is not to say that the biographical section lacks an evidential base. On the contrary, authenticating data from an impressive range of archives is impeccably integrated throughout. But García Jiménez's favourite tense is a stylistic use of the conditional with the hypothetical element suppressed. Thus he penetrates beyond the facts, and even harnesses speculation, to recreate the contradictory splendour of Quiroga Faxardo's complex existence. García Jiménez opens up a space in which Quiroga is brought vividly before us in private as well as in public: first as a young man in Madrid fraternizing with the literati of the day (Vicente Espinel, Lope de Vega, Francisco de Quevedo); then back in his birthplace on a rising socioeconomic curve, culminating in his role as mayor; and finally, his fall from grace, and a series of murky anti-heroic dealings that see him implicated in two murders, imprisoned and exiled.

The volume purports to include the complete works of Quiroga, two of certain authorship and three autos al nacimiento del Señor which are attributed to someone of that surname by Cayetano Alberto de la Barrerra in his catalogue of 1764. The autos in question, Las astucias de Luzbel, El cascabel del demonio and the Triunfos de Misericordia, all lack extant autograph manuscripts. The editor must, therefore, garner several arguments in support of Juan de Quiroga's authorship. While none of these are singularly conclusive, collectively they build a persuasive picture in the absence of evidence to the contrary. Beyond a summary of plot and a brief discussion of music and versification, of particular interest is the subsequent impact of these works in both Spain (they are especially resonant in the performances of the marionette company La Tía Norica of Cadiz) and the New World (the editor offers a succinct, convincing exploration of the relationship between the autos and the Mexican pastorela). A useful esquema provides a clear indication of the autos' diffusion, although an unfortunate error in the accompanying narrative paragraph has been overlooked (I suspect Las astucias de Luzbel should read Triunfos de misericordia).

Less space is devoted to a discussion of the two shorter works known to have been produced by Quiroga in his youth: the Canción fúnebre a la muerte de Don Fernando Pimentel (1622) and the Tratado de las voces nuevas, y el uso dellas (1624). Despite the editor's assurance that the first piece is an impeccable 'canción funeral con apropiado y sostenido ritmo, cuajado de dolorido sentir' (55), flashes of poetic quality are few and far between. Mostly, the poem is impeded by awkward, even jingoistic verses (e.g.: 'Tan pródigo [End Page 712] mostró, mostró tan culto / naturaleza al joven su semblante, / que no reconocieron las edades / compostura más grave y elegante'; 4; 1–4), suggesting that an implicit analogy with the emotive energy of Garcilasian elegy is a somewhat inflated accolade. The second short treatise testifies to Quiroga...

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