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'El Conde De Sex' By Antonio Coello: A Critical Edition And Study

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'El Conde De Sex' By Antonio Coello: A Critical Edition And Study

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Content This dissertation has bean microfilmed exactly ss received 6 7-17,700 SCHMIEDEL, Donald E m erson , 1939- EL CONDE DE SEX BY ANTONIO COELLO: A CRITICAL EDITION AND STUDY. U n iversity o f Southern C aliforn ia, P h .D ., 1967 Language and L itera tu re, g en era l University Microfilms. Inc.. A nn Arbor. M ichigan EL CONDE DE SBC BY ANTONIO COELLO: A CRITICAL EDITION AND STUDY by Donald Eknerson Schmiedel A Dissertation Presented to the FACULTY OF THE GRADUATE SCHOOL UNIVERSITY OF SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA In Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY (Spanish) June 1967 UNIVERSITY O F SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA THE GRADUATE SCHOOL UNIVERSITY PARK LOS ANGELES, CALIFORNIA 0 0 0 0 7 This dissertation, written by ....... Doijald.J^fixaoii.ScJfcimiedel....... under the direction of his».....Dissertation Com mittee, and approved by all its members, has been presented to and accepted by the Graduate School, in partial fulfillment of requirements for the degree of D O C T O R O F P H IL O S O P H Y Dean Date.....J.une.,.. 19. 6. 7. ............................... DISSERTATION COM M ITTEE U/; Chairman .......................... PREFACE The purpose of this dissertation Is to prepare a criti cal and annotated edition of the seventeenth century drama El Conde de Sea by Antonio Coello. Although numerous critics have alluded to this play and have made It the object of a grotesque authorship con troversy, no objective study hew ever been made to solve the dispute and to evaluate the author's merit as a drama tist. No accurate edition has ever appeared in print. The Introduction to this edition will present a description of the extant manuscripts and editions of the play, offer a solution to the authorship question, and relate the plot to Its historical background. It will also analyze the play and examine the author's techniques, sources of literary Inspiration, and the unusually strong characterization of the two principals. I wish to express my gratitude to the Uhlted States Government and the University of Southern California. Their cooperation, under the auspices of the National Defense Education Act, Title IV, has enabled me to further my studies in Spanish literature in preparation for college teaching. I am also very grateful to my committee, Dr. Deuel, Dr. Servfn, and especially to my chairman, Dr. Hesse, for their Insight and advice during the preparation of this dissertation. Finally, a word of sincere thanks is due to Dr. Dorothy McMahon for her understanding counsel during my graduate career. ii TABLE OF CONTENTS Page PREFACE........................................... ii PART I. INTRODUCTION Chapter I. LIFE AND WORKS OF ANTONIO COELLO Y OCHOA ... 2 II. MANUSCRIPTS OF THE P L A Y .................... 13 III. EDITIONS OF THE PLAY . .................... 21 IV. THE AUTHORSHIP CONTROVERSY.................. 31 The Problem A Solution V. HISTORICAL BACKGROUND...................... 46 VI. SOURCES OF THE PLAY AND LITERARY DIFFUSION OF THE THEME............................. 56 VII. ANALYSIS OF THE PLAY........................ 62 Plot Summary The Plot as a Vehicle of Theme Techniques Imagery Coello's Debt to Gongora Characterization and Tragedy Critical Appraisal Versification ill Chapter Page VIII. METHOD AND PROCEDURE..................... 115 PART II LA GRAN COMEDIA DEL CONDE DE SEX................. 118 COLLATION OF VARIANTS.......................... 278 TEXTUAL NOTES .................................. 316 PART III BIBLIOGRAPHY...................................... 330 iv PART I INTRODUCTION 1 CHAPTER I LIFE AND WORKS OF ANTONIO COELLO Y OCHOA Honor, competence, trustworthiness, and a clear Castilian lineage proudly standing above the slightest sus picion of taint: these were the attributes of the Coello and the Ochoa families, all sons and daughters of Msdrid, whose generations of service to the Spanish throne gained them a treasure of noble titles which, unfortunately, was not accompanied by wealth of a more concrete nature.^* Antonio Coello y Ochoa was born on October 26, 1611, to Juan Coello Arias (b. 1579) and Melchora de Ochoa. His father was a faithful secretary to Francisco Fernandes de la Cueva, Seventh Duke of Alburquerque. Antonio and his brother Juan, born one year later, knew their father for ^Baslc biographical and bibliographical information for this chapter is taken from Bnilio Cotarelo y Mori, Don Antonio Coello v Ochoa (Madrid: Tip. de la Revista de Archivos, 1919). 2 only a £«w brief years because he died suddenly in 1615. Hie record of his death succinctly suggests the financial situation of the family: "Forque no ten£a qua no hlzo 2 testamento." The family was rescued by the Duke who, in addition to being an influential diplomat--Ambassador to Rome, Viceroy of Cataluna in 1618, and Viceroy of Sicily from 1627 to 1632— was celebrated by Lope de Vega as a magnanimous and generous man of letters. And so, guided by the Duke, Antonio was well schooled in the arts and trained, as was the Duke's son, for a military career. The first record of Coello*s artistic creation is a second prize that he won for a sonnet and a glosa entered 4 In the competition sponsored by the Orden de la Merced. It was probably during this period also that he wrote a series of satirical verses against the guardadamas of the ^Archivo parroquial de San Sebastian, Libro 4° de dlfuntos. fol. 248. Cited by Cotarelo, op. clt.. p. 6. 3Laurel de Apolo (1630), Silva VIII, in Biblioteca de Autores Espanolea (BAE) (Madrid: Rivadeneyra, 1855), XXXVIII, 215. 4 , Fray Alonso Ramon, Lm fiestas solemnes v grandiosas qua hizo la sagrada religion de N. Seffora de la Merced ... a San Pedro Molasco (Madrid: Imprenta del Relno, 1630), pp. 70-74. court.5 His work showed a sty Is that won Lope's praise in Laurel de Apolo.5 and two years later, that of Juan Peres de Montalban who wrote: , Don Antonio Coello, cuyos pocos anos desmlenten sue muchos aciertos y de quien se puede decir con verdad que empieza por donde otros acaban, ha escrito en octavas una Oraclon a la dedlcaclon del temnlo de la Casa nrofesa de la Comoanla de Jesus, sin otros muchos versos a di- ferentes sujetos que tiene hechos de grande profundidad y valentia; y entre ellos dos o tres comedies.7 The Oracion has been lost, and the dos o tres comedias evidently refer to early collaborations with Velez de Guevara and Calderon. By 1633 he was definitely writing for public presentation in Madrid as shown in the following record: "900 reales para una comedla de don Francisco Rojas g y don Antonio Coello." The drama referred to is evidently Los tres bias ones de Espana. the only one now in existence Josef Alfay, Poesias varies de grandes ingenios esnanoles. ed., Jose Manuel Blecua (Zaragoza: Institucion "Fernando el Catolico," 1946), p. 190. (1st edition, 1654.) 6Sllva VIII. BAE, XXXVIII, 216. 7Juan Perez de Montalban, Para todos: exemplos morales (Madrid, 1632), fol. 341. Quoted by Cotarelo, Don Antonio Coello. p. 8. ®Cristobal Perez Pastor, Memories de la Real Academia Espafiola (Madrid: Hijos de Reus, 1910), X, 110. written solely In collaboration with Rojas Zorrllla. The young dramatist had also found favor with the King, Felipe IV, for in 1632 El celoso extremeffo was presented in the Buen Retlro by the company of Manuel Alvarez Vallejo Q who one year later produced El Conde de Sex. The next four years saw Coello produce the main body of his dramatic output and by 1637 he was firmly estab lished as a poet-courtier. He took part in the grand festival given from February 15 to March 24 to honor the King's brother-in-law (later Bnperor Fernando III) in his election as Rev de Romanos; another cause for celebration was the arrival of the Princess of Carignan, wife of Prince Thomas of Savoy who was Felipe's cousin. In an Acad««"*a Burleaca officiated by Velez de Guevarra, Rojas Zorrllla, and Alfonso de Batres the following question was posed: "^Por que a las criadas de Palaclo se les llaman mondon- gas?” Prizes were awarded to Antonio de Solis, Jeronimo de Cancer, and to Antonio Coello who maintained in a romance that the word means doncella de honor. ^ He later ^E1 Averlguador (Madrid, 1871), I, 9. ^Alfredo Morel-Fat io, L'Esnaane au XV Ie et au XVII6 siecle (Paris, 1878), p. 633^ The word mondonga is used by the gracioso in verse 253. won second prise plus high preise for his romances on the theme: "En el verso que se quisiere se averigtte en qua ocasion parece Manuel Gonzalez mas feo, cuando aposenta mal o cuando guarda bien." The victim of this satire, Antonio Gonzales, served at that time as guard****«"»« and earlier as Aposentador de Palacio.*2 The following year witnessed another literary contest in the palace for the entertainment of the visiting Duchess of Chevreuse. Coello, in his Velamen Descriptive exposed a humorous facet of his own life as a student in order to make fun of himself and his colleagues: A el [Fernando de Rojas] y a ml, cuando eramos estu- diantes, nos echaban los aposentadores en las faldri- queras dos pescaderas de agosento; y era de manera lo puercos que sollamos ser, el y don Antonio de Soils y yo, que en nuestras casas no se atrevlan a echarnos por la puerta a mediodla porque no les llevasen la pena, y aguardaban siempre a las once de la noche. T en case de don Francisco se asomaba una criada en lo alto y decla "2Rojas va!" como "jAgua va!", y le echaba por el cana- lon.l2 Little is known of Coello during the period 1638-1642, but it can probably be assumed that his dramatic production 11Ibid., pp. 642-644. 12Antonio Pas y Mella, Sales espagolas, Segunda Serie (Madrid: Sucesores de Rlvadeneyra, 1902), p. 325. had coma to a halt bacause of hla military service with the Duka. Hie French Invaded Gulpuzcoa In 1638, one year after the death of the Duke of Alburquarque, and laid siege to Fuenterrabla. The youthful eighth Duke, who up until this time had not distinguished himself In any way, found him self an officer in the army of his uncle, don Juan Alonzo Enriquez de Cabrera. The young Duke was rewarded for his service with an encomlenda of the Order of Santiago. During the latter part of 1639 Coello was again In Madrid. His verses appear In Rodrigo Mendez Silva's book, 1 Catalogo real de EsnaSa and he wrote a sonnet on the un timely death of his friend Perez de Montalban.^ The Duke was evidently accompanied by Coello in his adventures of the following years: 1640 - Service In Flanders as Maestre de Campo. 1641 - Given command of the tercio of don Jose de Saavedra. (2nd ed.; Madrid: Imprenta del Reino, 1639). The verses of Coello and others did not appear In the first edition. Quoted by Cotarelo, Don Antonio Coello. p. 13. ^ Pedro Grande de Tena, Lagrimaa panegiricas a la muerte del Doctor Juan Perez de Montalbjbi (Madrid: Imprenta del Reino, 1639). Cited bv Cotarelo. ibfd. 1642 - Led his troops to victory In the Battle o£ Chatelet. 1643 - Wounded In the Battle of Rocroy. 1644 - Made Gentllhombre de r.mnmr* by the King. Coello must have rendered valuable service in the above- mentioned actions because in 1642 he was made captain and granted the hablto de Santiago which, however, was not claimed until February 29, 1648, due to his absence from the court. By this time Antonio Coello*s future seemed extremely bright. His financial situation was greatly en hanced on May 17, 1652, when he was appointed to the respon sible position of Mlnistro de la Real Junta de Aposento. But such security was of little avail when in autumn of the same year he was overtaken by a grave illness. He made his will, received the last rites of the church, and died on October 20, 1652, at the age of forty-one. Since Coello made no attempt to collect or catalog his plays during his lifetime, many were left undated or at tributed to others. The following annotated list is a summary of his known dramatic production; it includes in formation on existing manuscripts, the first printed edition, and modem editions: 9 LA ADULTERA CASTICADA Mb. BN (Blblloteca Naclonal) 17266. Never published. IA BALTASARA Act I, Velez de Guevara; Act II, Coello; Act III, Rojas Zorrllla. Comedias escogldas: Parte I (Madrid, 1652). EL CATALAN SERRALLONGA Written in collaboration with Velez de Guevara and Rojas Zorrllla. Comedias de varios autores: Parte XXX (Zaragoza, 1636). Comedias escogldas de Rolas Zorrllla. ed. Ramon de Mesonero Romanos: in Biblioteca de antores espafioles (Madrid: Rlvadeneyra, 1952), LIV, 565. EL CELOSO BCTREMENO Presented in the Buen Retiro in 1632. Parte velnte y ocho de comedias de varios autores (Huesca, 1634). LOS DOS FERNANDOS DE AUSTRIA Ms. BN 16669. Doze comedias de diferentes autores ... Parte LVII (Valencia, 1646). 10 EL JARD1M PE FALERIHA Written in collaboration with Rojas Zorrllla and Calderon de la Barca. Performed in 1636. Me. BN 17320. BAE. IX, 295. LO PICHO HECHO Parte cuarenta y doe de comedias de diferentee autores (Zaragoza. 1650). LO QUE PASA EN UNA NOCHE Undated seventeenth century suelta. Entitled Los empefios de sels horas. attributed to Calderon in Comedias nuevas escogldas de los melores ingenlos de Esoana; Octava Parte (Madrid. 1657!). LO QUE PUEDE LA PORFIA Comedias de los melores v mas inslanes ingenlos de Esnana (Lisboa. 1652). EL PASTOR FIDO Written In collaboration with Antonio de Solfs and Calderon de la Barca. Comedias escogldas: Parte VIII (Madrid, 1657). Comedias de Calderon de la Barca, ed., Juan Eugenio Hartsenbusch: in Blblloteca de autores espafioles (Madrid: Rlvadeneyra, 1945), XIV, 489. 11 PEOR ES HORCALLO Mi. BN 15376. Never published. EL PRIVILEGIO DE LAS MUJERES Written In collaboration with Calderon de la Barca and Perez de Montalban. Parte trelnta de comedias famosaa de varios autores fear agog a. 1636!). BAE. XIV, 397. EL ROBO DE LAS SABINAS Written by Antonio and Juan Coello, and Rojas Zorrllla. Presented In the Buen Ratlro before the King In 1637. Comedias escogldas: Parte XI (Madrid, 1659). TAMBIEN LA AFRENTA ES VENENO Written with Velez and Rojas Zorrllla. Comedias de los me lores v mas Insienes ingenlos de Banana (Colonial 1697). BAE. LIV, 585. LOS TRES BLASONES DE ESPAHA Written with Rojas Zorrllla. Comedias de Rolaa Zorrllla. Tomo II (Madrid, 1643). 12 BAE. LIV, 545. LOS YERROS DE MATORALEZA Y ACIEBTOS DE FORTUHA Written with Calderon de la Barca. Ms. BN 14778. Never published. See George Tyler Northup's article "Los yerros de naturaleza ... , by D. Antonio Coello and D. Pedro Calderon de la Barca." Romanic Review. I (1910), 411-425. CHAPTER II MANUSCRIPTS OF THE PLAT The two existing manuscripts o£ El Conde de Sex are both found In the Biblioteca Nacional de Madrid cataloged under the numbers 16630 and 16722. The first manuscript (F) consists of fifty-three folia with consecutive pagination in the upper right-hand corner of each recto. The title page reads: "el conde de sex / Comedia famosa de / don Antonio Coello," followed by a strongly written but undecipherable signature flourish. The manuscript is remarkable in that it is composed of sections from various copies made by several scribes. Folio lv contains typical orthographic and chirographic characteristics of the first half of the seventeenth cen tury: Initial h is usually omitted, and y alternates with i . ; words are indiscriminately connected, e.g., "que ocasion seamalogrado" for "iQue ocasion se ha malogrado!" (verse 23). 13 In contrast, folio 2r repeats the last line of the preceding page and continues In a fine, delicately shaded hand. In this section, comprised of folios 2r-18v, most of the words are carefully divided and the sentences are punctuated; the distinction between 1 and £ nearly cor responds to modern usage with a few common exceptions such as Reyna and traydor in addition to ydo. The h's are quite consistently preserved except in oy, and forms of haber. Intervocalic ss_from an earlier period appears occasionally as in sucesso and asseo but never in verb forms such as diese. Modem cue and cua are always spelled que and qua: quanto-quando. and the distinction between initial b and intervocalic v is preserved with the surprising rare excep tions motlbo and archibo. The conjunction o bears a circum flex accent, and the antiquated spelling fee for fe. is used. The fine handwriting ends abruptly on 18v and the last seven verses of the act are written--almost printed--in a heavy hand. The vertical tendency of the letters and the compression of the words make 19r appear to be written earlier in the century. This page is signed three times with what appears to be Casae. followed by a flourish. Folio 19v is blank. Act II begins on 20r. The remaining two acts are written in a consistent but un refined hand that reflects many of the characteristics of the copyist of the first folio. Punctuation is almost non existent and many words are connected. Some of the pages appear to have been hastily written because of the progres sive downward slant of the verses. The use of £ corresponds to that of the second copyist, but b replaces v in all posi tions: benlmos -tubo. The abbreviations < [ and vro are used for que and vuestro. The second act ends on 36r with "Fin de la / segunda Jornada." Folio 37 is missing. Folio 38r contains the heading "Tercera Jornada / del conde de Sex," and the number 1454. Act III begins on 39r and ends on 52r. At the top of 52v is the order, "Veala el censor y despues el fiscal y tray- gase antes de hacerse. Madrid a 9 de agosto de 1661," followed by the report of the censor, Francisco de Avella- neda: Sor, Euisto esta comedia del Conde de Sex con todo cuidado por ser caso de Inglaterra, y quitados unos versos que van anotadoa en la primera Jornada, que tocan en la Armada que el sor Key fhelipe Segundo apresto contra aquel Reyno (Noticia que no es vien que se toque) y una redondllla en la segunda Jornada de los validos, en todo lo demas el Autor supo granjear su aprovacion de Vss*. Este es mi sentir. M® a 11 de Agosto de 1661. — D. Franco de Auellaneda. 16 Balov this Is written "Viit« on Madrid 12 do agosto / 1661 D. V* Suires."1 Above and to tho loft la the authorisation "Hagaao a In rapresentar lea doa cosaa quo advlerte ol Censor. Madrid, a 13 do Agosto do 1661." Even though this manuscript la composed of fragments copied at four different periods by four different men (and corrected and altered by two others), it still com prises a complete play; Indeed, since Avellaneda*s censor ship Is found throughout, it was obviously considered a complete work and was probably used as a producer's or actor's copy. Although some extensive omissions were made In this manuscript, It seems clear that the passages were omitted to shorten the play and to avoid repetition. The second manuscript (U) bears no date, but according to Cotarelo the handwriting dates from the late seventeenth 2 century. It consists of sixty-four folia with pagination on the upper right comer of each recto. Folio lr begins ^The Primer a parte de los donalres de Taros fcore was collected by ^'Vicente Suarez de Deza y Avila, ugler de Saleta de la Reina, fiscal de las comedias de esta corte: Madrid, 1663." It is a collection of his own dramatic works. 2 Don Antonio Coello. p. 30. 17 with the text, preceded by t list of characters under the heading: Prlmera Jornada del conde de Sex — -son figures-— In the upper right corner the words "De Calderon" are written in a late eighteenth or nineteenth century hand; however, there Is no record of this play ever having been attributed to him. In the right margin the name Alvaro Jose de las Haras appears In a heavy hand. There are many stray marks and comments on this page and on others. In the lower right corner there are three sets of slanted parallel lines and the word muy. In the right margin, written vertically at mid-page is the comment, "muy mal hablosse," and above, also written vertically, is a faded notation that ends with a flourish; it appears to be "nl en mundo." Act I ends on page 22v with the inscription "Fin de la prlmera jornada." Directly below is the note "muy gracioso era" written in a fine, more modern hand. The name Alvaro Jose de las Haras again appears scrawled four times all over the bottom of the page. A few faded com ments, in addition to random scribblings and flourishes, were obliterated by these signatures. 18 Act II begins on 23r, htadad by "Jornada segunda dal Conda da Sax" and anda on 42r with "fin da la 2a Jornada," underlined with two spiral scrawls. Page 42v Is blank and 43r Is boldly signed by Licen- clado Pedro Garcia Calblllo, followed by a flourish that takes up half the page. At the middle of the page Is writ ten In a small but heavy hand: Juan Martin ....... con aquessas barbas malas followed by the signature Juan Martin. Page 43v Is blank but In the upper left comer of 44r the word humo appears surrounded by a cluster of h's giving the Impression that someone was practicing or trying out a new pen. To the right Is the name Juan Martin del Campo, and below It an almost Illegible line, the first part of which may be Izoulerdo. part of his family name. This same Inscription Is repeated in the middle of the page and twice more on 44v. Unfortunately these names could not be Identified. 3 The following sources were consulted: Eknlllo Cotarelo y Mori, Ac tores famosos del siglo XVII (Madrid: Artes Grafleas, 1933>. “ Bnilio Cotarelo y Mori, Dlcclonarlo bloaraflco ..■ de caliarafos eapenoles (Madrid: Tip. de la Revlsta de 19 Act III begins on 45r, headed by "Jornada tercera del conde de Sex'* and ends on 65v with "£in / de la tercera Jornada." The outstanding orthographic characteristic of U is the contraction ael which is always used instead of al. The i and the y seem to alternate at random, even to the extent of writing io occasionally in place of yo; i also appears for the conjunction j r . The letter h is retained except in the word onor and forms of the verb haber. Intervocalic u in place of b, is usually retained with exceptions such as brebe and vlbo. and b_ almost always replaces y as in buelbo. The intervocalic ss_ is always retained: acasso-confusslon. and x usually replaces e.g., enoxo-monxa. The y is used and is always written as a dot, as is the tilde: brapo-seftora. The copyist has made extensive use of abbreviations: sr, sra. vro, -mtc, and Archlvos, 1913). Emilio Cotarelo y Mori, Tlrso de Molina: Investiga- clones ... (Madrid: Enrique Rublnos, 1893). Hugo Rennert, The Spanish Stage . . . (Mew York: Hispanic Society, 1909). Ricardo Sepulveda, El corral de la Pacheca (Madrid: Fernando Fe, 1888). Adolfo Federico Conde de Schack, Historic de la lite rature ... (Madrid: M. Tello, 1887), vol. IV. 20 pin«iato are used to represent itgor. sartor a. vuastro. -manta, and pansamlento. Both F and U hava au££arad in many placas £rom Ink soaking through from the opposlta sida of tha paga and in cartaln casas where this action combines with messy writing tha linas are difficult to raad; however, in general both manuscripts are legible and well preserved. CHAPTER III EDITIONS OP THE PLAT The first printed edition of El Condo de Sex wee offered to the public In 1638--five years after the first performance— in the Parte trelnta v una de las melores come dies cue hasta hov hen salldo. Hie table of contents lists twelve plays written by Calderon, Lope, Velez, Belmonte, and Rojas, but the names of the authors are not given. The sixth in order is La gran comedia del Conde de Sex. In 1651 it was included in El melor de los melores libros cue han aalido de comedies nuevas. On the second page of this collection is a list under the heading "Los tftulos de las comedies qua tiene este libro"; the play is listed under its alternate title La tragedia mas lastimosa Am ninr. Following this is a "Table de los ingenlos qua escribleron este tomo de comedies" and included therein is "Don Antonio Coello, la tragedia mas lastimosa de amor." This edition was reprinted identically "En Madrid, por Marfa de Quitfones, Ano de 1653." The title pages of the first two editions (hereafter referred to as A and B) are as follows: 21 22 PASTE T R E T N T A VHA, DE LAS MEIORES COME- dlas, que hasta oy han salldo necogldas por el Dotor Fran cisco Torlulo Xlmenez. Y a la fin va la Comedla de Santa [Madrona, Intltulada la vluda tirana, y conqulata de Barcelona. A&o, [Vignette] 1638 CON LICENCIA, Y PRIVILEGIO Eh Barcelona: En la Eknprenta de Iayme Romeu, de- lante de Santiago. A costa de Iuan Sapera Mercader de llbros 23 E L M E I 0 R DE LOS MEIORES LIBR0 [sic] QUE HA SAL1DO DE COMEDIAS NVEVAS DEDICADO AL SENOR DOCTOR D. AGUSTIN de Hierro, Cavallero del Orden de Calatrava, del Consejo del Ray nuestro senor, en el Supremo de Castilla [Vignette] CON LICENCIA EN ALCALA, EN CASA DE Marla Fernandez, Ano de 1651. A costa de Tomas Al£ay Mercader de llbros. Vendese en su casa junto a S. Felipe en la esqulxia de la [calle de la Paz, y en Palaclo 24 In the 1638 edition (A) the play occupies pages 113v- 135v; it exhibits the characteristics typical of early seventeenth century printing: the long gothic i is used within words and initially in conjunction with Jj punctu ation is irregular: periods or question marks are usually used at the end of sentences but other punctuation is arbi trary or completely absent. A grave accent is used through out, and when space is at a premium n is replaced by a tilde (B12ca-ocasi5) and que is abbreviated Spelling is fairly inconsistent in the play; the use of h, especially in forms of the verb haber. is arbitrary, and the exclamation "|Ah!" can be found as "A" or "Ha." H is also used occasionally to divide syllables: ohiste for oiste. U replaces intervocalic b, and initial b. and v may alternate: buelueme fvuelveme)-vna. In second person plural verbal endings £ replaces i . : slgavs for sigais. The verbs decir and hacer are always spelled with z_ (dezfs- hize) but the £ occasionally appears in other words such as empeco and venganca. X always replaces jj quexaa -dlxo. Although the layout of A is attractive and the print is quite clear, it is roughly executed and the editing is extremely poor; the many printing errors and misplaced 25 or omitted lines indicate a gross lack o£ proofreading. The abundance o£ printing errors over and above common typographical slips gives ample evidence that the printer himself was not able to understand a large part of what he was printing. For example, Roberto's reply: "No lo se. i Que ocacl&n se ha malogrado!" (verse 24) was misread and reduced to nonsense: "No lo se q ocaslo sea, ni a logrado"; the Senescal's comment, "Dellto tan insolente / me toca saber de oficio" (verses 1998-1999) is ludicrously changed to "De Lito tan insolente." It would be most interesting to Inquire of the printer the identity of "Lito"! There are also several instances of a unity of thought being broken in mid-verse with a period and a new sentence started. B occupies pages 387-425 of the collection; it differs from A in that the whole collection was more carefully edited and printed. Discounting the occasional spelling errors, there are no massive confusions or misplaced lines as are found in A. The layout of the book is trim in appearance and the type is sharp and clear. Host of the spelling and printing conventions noted in A are also found in B. There is greater alternation between i. and in second person plural verb foxms, and the long s_ is printed 26 In all positions except £inal. The letter h Is used uni- formly throughout the edition. There Is no concrete evidence that can be used to establish a direct link between the manuscripts and the printed editions. An examination of the collation of variants shows that B and manuscript U tend to resemble each other in major cases of omissions and radically altered passages, but the resemblance is not strong enough to support any conclusions. Moreover, It must be borne In mind that U, a seemingly later manuscript, contains the long soliloquy that is found nowhere else. We must rest on the assumption that F and U were copies belonging to actors or producers, and that the manuscripts from which A and B were printed are lost. The following is a list of editions of El Conde de Sex printed after the seventeenth century; the author's name Is given exactly as it appears on the edition: Comadia famoaa del Conde de Sex. D. Juan de Matos Fragoao:L in Comedies escogidas. ed., Manuel Texera Tartaz (Brussels, 1704). ^The editor, a Portuguese, evidently attributed the play to his countryman as a joke. There is no other basis for the attribution. 27 Co— die faaoia dal Condi do Sex. D. Antonio Coollo (Madrid: Francisco Sns, n.d.). Co— din fanoia. El Condo do Sox. Don Antonio Coollo. "Hollaraao on lo ompronto do lo calle do lo Foz" ([Madrid: Francisco Sons], n.d.). Dor lo vido nor au dama:2 El Condo do Sox. Luis Coollo3 (n.p.: Quiroga, n.d.). El Condo do Sox. Lo tr«f{^u mms lastlaaosa do maor (Sevilla: Francisco Leafdael, n.d.). Dor la vlda nor su da— . Do un ingonlo desto corto^ (n.p., n.d.). Par la vlda nor an da— . El Condo do Sox. De un ingonlo desta corte (Sevilla: Joseph Padrino, n.d.). Par la vlda nor su dama. De un ingonlo de esta corte (Madrid: Antonio Sans, 1734). Par la vlda nor su da— . De un lngenlo de esta corte (Madrid: Antonio Sans, 1741). Par la vlda nor su dame. Don Luis Coollo (Madrid: Antonio Sans, 1783 Ishould road 1753]). Par la vlda nor su da— (Madrid: Imprenta de Sans, 1754>. o There Is no Indication of the origin of the alternate titles. Me del del Castillo lists Coello's name as Luis in his Indice general ... (Madrid, 1735). The error has been constantly repeated. ^This anonymous title was the basis for the play's attribution to Felipe IV, studied in the next chapter. 28 Par 1a Vldj m?r ill tin T fVlhll dft Hfi O* *» lagenio de la corte (Salamanca: lmprenta de la Santa Crus, n.d.)• Par la vidg p™- ^T”*- fil Cgndi 4t Sgg, Da un ingenlo de esta corte (Barcelona: Francisco Surla, circa 1770). Par la Yftflg m flmf- D« Uils Coello (Valencia: lmprenta de J. y T. Ortega, 1780). El Conde de Sex. Felipe IV: in TgftttV t>t. * ed., Eugenio de Ochoa y Ronna (Paris: Baudry, 1838). El Conde de Sex o Par la vlda nor ffu dama, D. Antonio Coello: In contamporineoade Lone de Veea. ed., Banfin de Mesonero Romanos. BAE. XLV (1858), 403-420. La traaedl* Am amm-. Felipe IV: In Teatro selecto antlauo v moderno. ed., Francisco Jose de Orellana (Barcelona: Salvador Manero, 1867), Vol. III. El Conde de Sen o Par la vlda pot su Dama. Antonio Coello: In Teatro espanol. ed., Carolina Mlchaelis (Inlpzlg, 1870). Although El Conde de Sex appeared In only three edi tions during the seventeenth century, It seems to have maintained a considerable amount of popularity judging by the extensive number of reprints made during the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. There Is reliable Information on just one performance In Madrid at the late date of 1819 29 In the Teatro de la Crus, ^ and no record of performance in Sevilla. In contrast with the small number of presentations In other cities the play was apparently quite popular in Valladolid. The following list is taken from the Archivo del Hosoicio provincial de Valladolid, which is reproduced 1704 Manuel de Villaflor Ago Comnania Titulo 1681 Martin de Mendoza El Conde de Sex 1682 • • f t i t • • • « t t t t 1689 Maria Alvarez t « n r t t t 1692 Miguel de Salas « i t t t t 1695 Miguel de Castro Dar la vlda • • • 1696-twice f t f t f t t t t t t t 1697 Jose de la Rosa El Conde de Sex 1698 I f t t t t f t f t f t i t t t 1703 Jeronimo de Sandoval f t f t t t f t •« f t f t ft Ada M. Coe, Catalogo bibliografico v critico de las comedies anunciadaa en los perlodicos de Madrid ... (Baltl- more: Johns Hopkins Press, 1935), p. 59. ^(Madrid: Tip. de la Rev. de Archivos, 1923), p. 286 et passim. 30 Ago Comnagla Tltulo 1716 Francisco de Antonio El Conde da Sex 1718 Manuel Rodrigues t t f t I t t t 1726 Francisco Santos f t t t t t t t 1727 I I f t % t t t t t t f t 1729 Francisco Navarre te t t t t I t t t 1732 Marla Bernards Portillo f t t t V I t t 1734 Dionisio de la Calle t t t t t t t t 1735 t * M I I I I f t t t t t f t 1737 Vicente Ballejo I t t t t t t t 1742 Joseph Valles Dar la vlda • • • 1756 Carlos Valle t t t t I t 1796 ? El Conde de Sex Toward the end o£ the century the record is Incomplete and there may have been other performances. Also, Par la vlda nor su dama is Included in the "Lista de las Comedies que tiene de caudal la Companla de Comicos de Juaquln Doblado ano de 1787." CHAPTER TV THE AUTHORSHIP CONTROVERSY Tha Problem Any statement suggesting that the theater formed an integral part of Spanish life during the Golden Age would no doubt be decried as a dry platitude— a truism. The comedlas with their accompanying loas. bailee, mogjgangas. and entremeses were, of course, a firmly established diver sion enjoyed by high and low classes alike. However (as with most firmly established diversions enjoyed by all) the theater also had its detractors, men, many of them clerics, who were scandalized by an occasional crude joke or sug gestive passage and saw in them decadence and a dangerous threat to national morals. This voice of condemnation of the drama can be traced all the way from the reign of Carlos V and at times did indeed have its effect on the various monarchs, causing the prohibition of public per formances over considerable periods of time in spite of 31 32 their popularity, often as an expression o£ national mourn ing. 1 Tha passion for vllliflcatlon came to a head in 1746 when Bias Antonio de Nasarre published his collection, Comedies de Cervantes, with its famous Prologo In which he disparaged Golden Age theater and denounced Calderon and Lope as corruptors of the national drama. But this defama tion was not altogether cordially received and Nasarre and others who shared his views were bitterly attacked by cham pions of the comedia who argued that not only staunch clerics such as Tirso, Mira de Amescua, and Perez de Mon- talban had composed theatrical pieces, but also important nobles and even King Felipe IV himself, whose identity was hidden under the anonymous title, "un ingcnio de esta corte." In short, the idea of a King-dramatist appealed to many, and when eyes fell on the eighteenth century sueltas of El Conde de Sex ascribed to un ingenio de esta corte. the play was celebrated as one of the King's better dramatic efforts. The fact that the play is anonymous in ^For an exhaustive treatment of this subject see Bnillo Cotarelo y Mori, Biblioaraffa de las controversias sobre la lidtud del teatro en Esnaita (Madrid: Eat, de la Revista de Archives. 19141 ). passim. 33 tha Barcelona edition of 1638 made it juat that much easier to claim that succeeding editions bearing Coello*s name were merely "attributed" to him. In the writings of the critics and historians who treat El Conde de Seat the claim of royal authorship, whether or not it is espoused by the critic himself, has always gone hand in hand with an exposition of Felipe's great love for the theater and the pleasure he derived from court-sponsored satire contests and impromptu dramatic composition and recitations by the many ingenios who sur rounded him and whom he protected. Along with this bit of historical fact which is backed by a wealth of written records of performances, Academies Burlescas. etc., goes the tradition that the King himself often joined in the acting and recitations and, as was mentioned above, wrote several plays for court performance in the Buen Be tiro. A clear statement of this idea is made in the eighteenth century by Gaspar Melchor de Jovellanos: Llego, [la gloria del teatro] por fin, en el reinado de ... Felipe IV, llamado por los poetas el Grande, principe joven, dado a la galanterfa, a los placeres y las tausas, que alguna vex se ocupo en hacer comedies 34 y en representorlas, y que las protegio acaso mas apa- slonadamente de lo que convlnlera.^ It was repeated in the nineteenth century by many writers but principally by Jose de Marchena who wrote: La ignorancia de Felipe IV, menos supine que la de su devoto yestupldo padre, se marldaba en aquel con una dlsolucion de costumbres, que mal podia con el fervor de la religion avenlrse. En las escenas de las monjas de San Placldo ..• represento el Monarca uno de los princi- pales papeles. Las anecdotes del slglo XVII han con- servado la memorla de las comedies de repente que en el cuarto del Rey se representaban ... , en las cuales haclan lgual papal los mas llustres ingenlos de aquella epoca y el mlsmo Rey.3 It would be tedious to quote the many nineteenth century critics who echoed these comments because they all repeated the same Ideas and ascribed them to tradition or anecdote. A search for historical documentation to substantiate the claim that the King wrote or acted was practically fruitless. The only recorded occasion of his acting took place when Felipe was nine years old; Luis Cabrera de Cordoba gives the following grotesque report in his RelacIon "Memorla para el arreglo de la policfa de los espec- taculos y diver8tones publlcas, y sobre su origen en Espana." In Obras escoffidas de Jovellanos, ed., Eduardo Ovejero (Madrid: La Rafa, 1930!), p. 169. ^Lecclones de ftlosofla moral, quoted by Adolfo de Castro in Poetas llricos de los sialos XVI y XVII. BAE, XLV (Madrid: Rlvadeneyra, 1875), xliii. 35 da lag cosas aucedidas. prlnclp«i«f"tt ^ !• corf, dasde •1 ano de 1599. haste el de 1614:4 De Madrid 8 de marzo 1614. — El juevea de le semene pasede el Principe U.S. con lea menlnas repreeentaron una comedla delante del Bey y SS.AA. y las damas sin entrar otro ninguno: represen to el Principe el Dioa Cupido y de aalir de un carro ae mareo y tuvo doa vomi- tos, pero no le sigulo otro mal, y dicen que lo hizo bonitamente. If the background o£ the legend that purports to make an actor and playwright of Felipe IV seems to be hazy and uncertain, then the basis for attributing El Conde de Sex to him is doubly obscure. It seems to have been discussed at length only in the nineteenth century, and all the writers either ascribe it to tradition or to other critics without naming anyone. The first scholar to cast doubt on the tradition was Ramon de Mesonero Romanos who discovered manuscript F in the library of the Duque de Os una before it was incor ated into the Biblloteca Nacional. In 1858 he wrote in the introduction to his Dramaticos contearooraneos de Lope de Vega (BAE, XLV, xxvi): 4 Quoted from a manuscript in the Biblloteca Nacional by Adolfo Federico de Schack, Historic de la literature ... en Esnafia (Madrid: D. Tello, 1887), IV, 122. 36 [Coello] fue un poet* muy distinguido y celebrado en su ttempo, mereclendo le mas eetreche emisted . •. del mlsmo Monarea, a qulen suele atribuiree (no sabre declr con que fundamento) ... El Conde de Sen* He goes on cautiously to deny the attribution on the basis of manuscript F which bears Coello's name, and also cites similarities to other existing plays not In dispute. Writing at approximately the seme time, Adolfo de Castro, surprisingly enough, does not insist on the attribution (BAE. XLII, xliil) but he does assign four poems to the King.5 The legend was so firmly established that in spite of the manuscript discovery Cayetano Alberto de la Barrera wrote in 1860: Una tradidon constants, y cuyo antiguo raatro no me es conocido, generalmente admitida por los^eruditos, atribuye al rey don Felipe IF la composidon de algunas comedies. Const a, clertamente, que en las reuniones academicas de palaclo, donde se complacfa en congregar a nuestros mas ilustres ingenios, concurrfa con ellos a la improvisation de sasonadlslmas farses burlescas. Fero no se trata de estos juegos pasajeros del in- genio, slno de formales dramas que se aflrma fueron lmpre808, y aun representados al publico. Tan solo nos seftalan estas not Idas tradldonales, como obra del rey Bmilio Co tare lo y Mori has demonstrated with humorous efficiency that two of these attributions are unjustified and that the other two are utterly ridiculous. Don Antonio Coello. p. 2. 37 Felipe W,# uoa eonidlt, la tltulada El Conda da Sax ... La cuastlon quada indeclsa mlantraa no pueda raatraaraa al origan da la suposlclon.® Ha also Introducad tha idaa that Coallo halpad tha King write tha play: Hubo da ayudarle [al ray] muy especialmente an la composidon dal celebre drama El Conda da Sax, qua se publico por primers ves an 1638 como obra da nuestro autor' y sigulo atribuldo al mlsmo an muchas da sus posterlore8 reimpresiones.8 These concepts were repeated almost word for word seven years later by Francisco Jose Orellana who stressed that Felipe must have been helped because he probably did not Q have the capacity to write a polished comedia bv himself. As late as 1890 Schaeffer was indecisive about the authorship, tending to favor Felipe because tha first edi tion was anonymous. Other critics of tha nineteenth ^Catalotto bibliografico v bioarafico del teatro antlguo esnanol (Madrid: Rlvadeneyra, 1860). p. 150. ^He was misinformed; all plays in the 1638 edition were anonymous. 8Ibid., p. 95. ^Teatro selecto (Barcelona: Salvador Manero, 1867), pp. 145 and 907. ^ Geschlchte des Soanischen Natlonaldramas (Leipzig: F. Brockhaus, 1890), II, 84. 38 century (Mlchaalls, Schack, Ticknor) refuted to give credence to the legend but felled to Introduce any new reasoning. Bmillo Cotarelo y Mori was the first to reject the tradition soundly. He makes the observation that the pseudonym un Ingenlo de esta corte was so comaon that If every play thus labeled were attributed to Felipe IV he would be the most prolific writer In history. He goes on to say: For otra parte, la leyenda de hacer poeta a este Rey, intellgente en literature y amante de ella, no reslste al mas ligero examen crltico. Felipe IV no escrlblo ni Intento escribir un solo verso, a lo menos para que fuese publico. Era demasiado august a su calidad para que no creyese degradarla haclendo copies. Hoy, que ante el sopio de la desgracla se derrumban los tronos que pare- clan mas arralgados, no se comprende facilmente el respeto sagrado e Inviolable que se otorgaba entonces a la Monarqula. Fero leyendo muchos autores de equal tiempo se puede conocer cuan rellgioso era el caractar que a al mlsmos se concedlan y obtenlan los reyes en los slglos XVI y XVII.11 A1though we may suspect that Cotarelo was slightly over- zealous In his defense of the monarchy (Felipe IV did not miss many other opportunities to degrade himself), he is the first critic emphatically to oppose reason to hearsay. ^ Don Antonio Coello. p. 2. 39 Ha also points out that a play written by tha King would not have been subjected to the sharp censorship o£ Fran cisco de Avellaneda who was not only censor de comadlas but 12 one of the minor lngenlos favored by Felipe. Cotarelo evidently spoke for the twentieth century; all modem critics have chosen to follow him without offering any new evidence or theory. A Solution In an effort to uncover some kind of evidence perti nent to the authorship controversy I decided to compare the text of El Conde de Sex with other works of which Coello*s authorship has never been In dispute. The works available for the study were: Tamblen la afrenta es veneno. Act II; El Catalan Serrallonga. Act I; El pastor fldo. Act II; El prlvlleglo de las muleres. Act III; Los tree biasones de Espana. Act I. Upon completion of the versification study of El Conde de 12Ibid.. p. 31. Sax (given In detail in Chapter VII) it was noted that the author showed a marked preference for the romance and tended to avoid the more complex forms; In fact, 79 per cent of the play Is written In romance. For this reason a comparison of verse forms was also made to try to discover any significant patterns. I proceeded with great caution in this area, fully aware that mere similarity of form Is no basis for attribution.^ The computation showed the following percentages of romance used by Coello in each work: Per cent Tamhim la afrenta ... 86 El catalan Serrallonga 89 El pastor fldo 80 El prlvllealo ..♦ 72 Los tres biasones ... 42 Only los tres bias ones contains a relatively low percentage of romance. This act reveals a very complicated versifica tion system and was evidently written as a minor tour de 1 3 Reference Is made especially to the many entremeses attributed to Cervantes by Adolfo de Castro and others solely because they showed some artistic merit and seemed to reflect Cervantine style. 41 fore# of varit forms. TWo other patterns were noted. The second ranked form, as In El Conde de Sex <11 per cent), Is the radon - dilla, and often an artistic exposition is given in silvas early in the act as in verses 115-240. The direct comparison of texts yielded unexpectedly enlightening results. Not only are there easily recog nizable similarities of technique, concept, and style, but also many verses and even whole passages are repeated. In the following tables, passages from El Conde de Sex appear on the left; numbers in parentheses refer to verses in the present edition. Passages from the other plays appear on the right; the numbers refer to volume and page of the Biblloteca de autores esnanoles. Tambien la afrenta ea veneno Saco que llorar mi honor, y no que decir ml lengua. (1749-1750) Saco que llorar mi honor, y no que decir mi lengua. (LTV, 595) Plugulera a Dios lo [estuviera. (1672) Plugulera a Dios lo [estuviera. (LTV, 595) 42 Concepts: Tha rains-nittjar conflict In El Conda Is duplicated by a rav-honbra conflict In u afranta. Blanca wants to talk to tha woman, not tha Queen (1653) and Vasco wants to talk to tha King, not tha man (LIV, 592). Esta aspada ... tina su pecho. ( 6) la sangre qua ... esmalta al cuchillo ... (3071) La nece8ldad dispense lo qua prohlbio el racato. (47-48) ^Cuando, si alOlimpo, altlvo subir pretendlo sobarblo, en la mltad del camino no <guedo cansado el cierzo? ^Cuando vapor contra al sol se tejlo nube en el vlento qua no quedasa a sus rayos menudos atomos hecho? Suban puas al sol y Ollmpo, ya altlvos y ya groseros, soplando vlentos en susplros, tejida nube de afectos; y del Ollmpo y del sol a lo ardiente y a lo axcelso quedara el vlento cansado, quedara el vapor deshacho. (1515-1530) El Catalan Sarrallonga Prlmero un cuchillo infame, por traidor, tina ml cuello an vergonzosas asmaltas. aiV, 567) Hoy la costumbra dispense lo que el racato prohlbe. (LIV, 567) ^Cuando, si al Boreas anhela subir al Ollmpo, altlvo, qua mas qua las nubes trepa, an la mltad dal camino cansado el Boreas no queda? iCuando vapor contra al sol se tejlo en nubes o an [nleblas, <gue a sus rayos no quadase al roto y alias deshechas? Suban, puas, al sol y Ollmpo, ya altlvas o ya groseras, en vlento esas osad£as y an vapor asas ofansas, qua dal Ollmpo y al sol, al ardor y la emlnencla quedara el vapor sin forma; quedara el vlento sin [fuerza. (LIV, 569) 43 » jQuedamos buanos, honor! {Quedamos buanos, honor! Honra, docid, ^quedals buena? Canas, decld, iquedals (1825-1826) [buanaa? (LIV, 569) Juro por la mlama sangra qua, a peaar de ml padenda, •amalta al cuchillo an grana y al aualo an corales rlega, por aaaa lumbres dal clelo, qua son marlposas bellas qua an el lumlnar dal mundo tremulamente sa quaman, que ha de dar la muerta [a Blanca. (3069-3081) Hago juramento, puasta la mano sobra la crus, por la vlda qua me alien ta, por asas luces dal dalo qua son marlposas bellas qua an al lumlnar segundo tremulamente sa quaman, da no var al sol la cara hasta dejarla sangrlanta an su sangra £ementlda. aiV, 570) iAy, honor, maldlto seas! iAy, amor, en que me has jAy, amor, como me has [puesto! [muerto! iOh amis tad, cuanto te pago! (2899-2900) (LIV, 571) El pastor fldo revellln vegefatlvo que bate a soplos al darzo. (1065-1066) Hago al ex amen, arbltro el [o£do; nada averlguo aa£ ... (142-143) mil languas vegetatlvas que hablan cuando qulere [al vlanto. (XIV, 498) fuerte regular de floras cuyos revellinea bate, llquldo ingenlero, el rlo. (XIV, 499) Atlando mas, y el o£do, que as arbltro deste examen, averlgua qua al rumor dantro de las ondas naca. (XIV, 499) 44 Lot tres bla»ona» da EsnaSa El corrientes r£os de su infame sengre plenso Tan grande estrego here, que en corrlentes [rojos se inunde el muro ... (XIV, 545) anegar su cuarto miamo. (680-682) Cf. Imagery in verses 500-522. iQue plants ajo la azucena? iQue est£o seco la flor? iQue arado tronco la rosa? aiv, 551) In addition to the corresponding passages shown In the tables * each play contains examples of dovetailed conversa tions and repetition of syntactic forms for stress that are identical in style to those found in El Conde de Sex. The evidence adduced above puts a long overdue end to the alleged royal paternity of El Conde— a claim that never was based on fact but rather on pseudo-scholarly conjec ture. The theory that Coello "helped1 ' his sovereign write the play is partially based on a misunderstanding of the term poeta de avuda applied to Jeronimo de Villayzan in a satirical poem by Antonio Hurtado de Mendoza.^ According ^ Obras poeticas de Antonio Hurtado de Mendoza, ed. Rafael Benitez Carlos (Madrid: Graficas Ultra, 1947), II, 18. 45 to the Dlcclonarlo de Autorldades. 1726, an avuda de camera Is t f el crlado qua sirve an la Camara dal Ray, o da otro cualquier personaje, ayudando al Camarero." However, con sidering the Intent of the satire, Hurtado da Mendoza probably also meant to Imply the following meaning: Ayuda— Medlcamento, da qua sa usa para axonarar al vlentre, y sa llama as£, porque aaistey contrlbuya para qua la naturaleza obre. Llamase tambien ellstar, y vulgarmanta meleclna. All things considered, the "help theory" Is dismissed as a half-hearted attempt to lend credibility to an ephemeral tradition that was loath to die; the play shows far too much unity of plot and style to be passed off as the product of a rather dull mind, touched up by a profes sional. Equally unfounded is the concern over the anonym ity of the first edition in light of the fact that many plays of undisputed authorship are Included but no author's name is mentioned. El Conde de Sex is a drama of considerable merit which introduced a new theme to the world's literature. The credit for this accomplishment goes to one person: Antonio Coello. CHAPTER V HISTORICAL BACKGROUND The plot o£ El Conde de Sex revolves around three historical characters: Elizabeth I of Ehgland; Robert Devereux, Earl of Essex; and Franpois de Valois, Due d'Alenpon. It will be the purpose of this chapter to situ ate these three characters In real life and then briefly relate the plot to Its historical background. The character of Queen Elizabeth I was a study of extremes and contrasts: she was strong and vigorous but she procrastinated endlessly; she could be tyrannical and over bearing In her treatment of others or she could put on a coy and innocent personality at will; she was a cool, in telligent diplomat and statesman, conversant in several foreign languages, but she also flew into tantrums In which she stomped and swore with a vehemence worthy of the ser geants of her army. Not the least of the paradoxes of Elizabeth's life was her attitude toward marriage. In 46 47 private she expressed repugnance at the thought of marry ing, but In the tumult of European politics of the sixteenth century the hand of the Queen of England was elusive bait for many foreign nobles, serving mainly to lure them Into positions that mere politically advantageous to her country in the Incessant power struggle with France and Spain. The most persistent and most nearly successful suitor of the Queen was the Duke of Alenpon, born In 1555, youngest son of Henri II and Catherine de Medici. ^ Catherine first suggested a match with Alenpon In 1572 when marriage negoti ations for her second son, Henri d*Anjou, were failing for religious reasons. Alenpon was more acceptable to the English than Anjou because, although he was a Catholic, he was more tolerant and politically closer to the Huguenot case. The disparity of ages was a problem: Elisabeth (b. 1533) was thirty-eight and Alenpon was only seventeen, but as the talks progressed It was felt that this would not be too great an obstacle. Negotiations dragged over the *The primary sources of biographical Information for this section are: Conyers Read, Lord Burahlev and Oiaen Elisabeth (New York: Alfred A. Knopf, I960). Martin Hume, The Courtships of ftieen Elisabeth (New York: McClure-Fhlllips, 1904). following several years In an on-off manner, hampered by Huguenot conspiracies and court Intrigue concerning the succession of the ailing Charles IX. In 1578 the Flemings called upon Alenpon to help in their resistance against Spain. Since Alenpon was supported by England, this move threatened to draw the three countries into war. For the next few years England strove to bend Alenpon to her own interests while at the same time sowing discord between him and his brother, King Henri III, and trying to avoid open conflict with Spain. The Duke began to press his suite ardently, visiting England in 1579 and twice in 1581, but was always met with vexing delays, excuses, and conditions. In the following years Elizabeth twice declared that she was ready to marry and then each time reversed her decision. The ill-fated courtship came to an end only with Alenpon's death in 1584. He had been used by Elizabeth for twelve years as a pawn to help maintain the balance of power between France and Spain. Not long after the death of the Duke of Alen?on, the young Earl of Essex was introduced at court by the Earl 49 of Leicester, his stepfather and tha Queen's favorite.2 Elizabeth showed an Inclination to favor him as she did many other handsome young nobles who were willing to satisfy her Incessant need for flattery and attention. Essex served In Holland for a year under Leicester and distinguished himself In the battle of Zutphen. In 1587 the Earl was again at court and had firmly established himself as a favorite of the Queen. The closeness of their relationship Is picturesquely described in a letter written by the Earl'8 close friend, Anthony Begot: When she Is abroad, nobody with her but my lord of Essex, and at night my lord is at cards, or one game or another with her, that he cometh not to his own lodging till birds sing in the morning.3 The relationship was a rather grotesque one. He was twenty years old and she was fifty-four, and since Essex's maternal great-grandmother was a sister of Anne Boleyn, he was Biographical information for this section is taken from the following sources: Dictionary of National Biography (London: Oxford, 1950), Vol. V. J. B. Black, The Reign of Elizabeth (London: Oxford, 1936). J. E. Neale, Queen Elizabeth I (London: Jonathan Cape, 1934). ^Quoted in the Dictionary of National Biography. V, 876. 50 Elisabeth's first cousin twice removsd. In spits of the affection shown him by Elisabeth, Essex's temperament often brought him into violent clashes with her. For example, he took offense at a remark the Queen made in favor of Sir Walter Raleigh and departed determined to return to Holland. Elisabeth sent Sir Robert Carey hurrying after him and the quarrel was soon over. She expressly forbade him to take part in the action against the Spanish Armada in 1588 and so the dissatisfied young gallant escaped the court early in the following year and embarked with Norris and Drake on their voyage to Lisbon to support Don Antonio's claim to the throne of Portugal. In a quixotic gesture he went up to the gates of Lisbon while the English were preparing to attack and offered to fight any man in the Spanish garrison in the name of his sovereign. In 1590 Essex Incurred the Queen's wrath by secretly marrying Frances WalsIngham, widow of Sir Philip Sidney, and in the following year he again offended her by exposing himself to danger when she had ordered him to protect himself: Essex had led an army into Holland to aid Henry of Navarre and at the siege of Rouen he again played knight-errant by challenging the enemy 51 commander, Vlllars, to single combat. The Earl of Essex reached the senlth of his career In 1596 when he directed the attack against Cadiz and cap tured the city with his army of three thousand men. But thereafter his fortunes were on the wane; his enemies — Raleigh and Robert Cecil— had grown In favor with Elizabeth who had begun to show signs of mistrust. The year 1599 brought with It the Earl's great oppor tunity to distinguish himself decisively--an opportunity that went from apparent success to disaster. He was sent to Ireland at the command of a strong army to bring an end to the rebellion of the Earl of Tyrone. The campaign was marked by successes on one hand which were offset by defeats elsewhere; the army dwindled because of disease and desertion and Elizabeth began to question his policies. Finally he made a truce with Tyrone and returned to England without the Queen*8 permission thereby losing favor, never to regain it. In 1600 the Earl was tried, dismissed from all offices, and confined to his house; his eloquently phrased letters were ignored by the Queen. The inaction of confinement and the frustration of the Queen's refusal to grant him an audience wore on the Earl and he fell prey to Inept advisors with whom he hatched a plot to rally the people to his support, capture the palace, and £orce an audience with the Queen. In February, 1601, Essex and two hundred followers rode Into London calling the people to arms but his popularity did not overbalance their loyalty to the throne; he was received In silence and was soon captured, tried, and was beheaded on February 25, 1601. The Queen was reluctant to sign his death warrant and even recalled it once; however, the decision was made and she remained silent. The death sentence weighed heavily on Elizabeth; she declined rapidly after the execution and regretted it on her deathbed two years later. A brief condensation of the plot of El Conde de Sex will show that the play is not only fictional but highly anachronistic. In the play the Earl, returning victorious from battle against the Armada, is on the way to the house of his lover, Blanca. He prevents an attempt on the life of the Queen who is bathing incognito. They do not recog nize each other but they fall in love. The Earl is appalled to hear that Blanca is a part of the assassination plot but vows to help her, secretly planning to apprehend 53 the conspirators. His vow Is overheard by the Duke of Alenpon, visiting England for marriage negotiations, who gives him a stem warning. When Blanca herself tries to kill the Queen with the Earl's pistol the latter prevents it but is accused of the crime. He suffers a traitor's death, never revealing the truth that would incriminate his truelove. A comparison of the vital dates of the three prin cipals reveals the historical impossibility of the plot: Elizabeth (1533-1603); Alenpon (1555-1584); Essex (1567- 1601). Essex never had any contact with the Duke; he was Introduced at court shortly after the letter's death. The plot supposes little difference in age between Essex and the Queen, and she is represented as being extremely beauti ful; however, in the year after the repulsion of the Armada (in which Essex was forbidden to take part), the Earl, a youth of twenty-two, would actually be paying court to a painted old jade of fifty-six years. The plot also over looks the fact that Essex was a married man. In spite of the historical inconsistencies, it is worthy of note that Coello really did capture some of the character traits of both Essex and the Queen even though 54 it is doubtful that ha meant to reproduce their characters accurately and probably did not have the means to do so.^ In the play the Earl's gallantry, his wavering between two loves, and his fatal decision are in part historically justified by the following character sketch taken from the Dictionary of National Biography: Essex's character was a simple one. He was devoid of nearly every quality of which statesmen are made. Frank, passionate, and Impulsive as a schoolboy, he had no con trol whatever over his feelings; and at a court like Elizabeth's, split into warring factions, whose members strove to supplsnt one another by intricate diplomacy, his attempt to make a great political position by force of his personal character was doomed to failure. . . . Vain of the influence he exercised over most women, and misled by the queen, he sought to rule her and thus to vanquish his rivals. . . . Physically brave, even to recklessness, he was no military tactician and could not support a general's responsibilities.5 The appearance-reality conflict of the Elizabeth of the play is confirmed in real life by Lytton Strachey: Certainly no more baroque figure ever trod this earth than . . . Elizabeth herself. From her visible aspect to the profundity of her being, every part of her was perme ated by the bewildering discordances of the real and the apparent.® 4 Coello's characters are based on Spanish ideals. The subject of characterization will be treated in Chapter VII. 5V, 889. ^Elizabeth and Essex (New York: Harcourt-Brace, 1928), p. 10. 55 He goes on to echo the inner conflicts and the laborious decisions of Coello's Elisabeth: [It was] almost impossible for her to come to a fixed determination on any subject. • . . Such was her nature— to float, when it was calm, in a sea of indecisions, and, when the wind rose, to tack hectically from side to side.7 And finally, Queen Elisabeth herself spoke about a point of honor in terms dear to the Spanish code; she wrote to Essex concerning a suggested breach of the Irish truce: Our pleasure is that you do no way break it; for in what soever any word is passed from him that represents our person, we will have no pretext to warrant any violation of that which we have ever held so precious.** 7Ibid.. p. 13. ^Quoted by Laura H. Cadwallader, The Career of the Earl of Essex (Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania, 1923), p. 6l. CHAPTER VI SOURCES OF THE PLAY AND LITERARY DIFFUSION OF THE THEME In view of the fact that El Conde de Sex represents the first dramatic adaptation o£ the tragic history of Robert Devereux, Earl of Essex, all considerations of the sources of the play must be relegated to the realm of speculation. In short we are reduced to guessing about when and where Coello heard the story from which he drew inspiration since obviously there was no literary source to guide him. The Earl's name was probably fairly well known in Spain because of his part in the capture of Cadiz. Also, there is at least a possibility that the story of Essex's career and death came into Spain by way of Antonio Perez, renegade favorite of Felipe II, who was in exile in Ragland and later in France and was an intimate friend of Essex and of Anthony and Francis Bacon. The correspondence of Essex 56 57 and Feres in 1595 on the occasion of the letter's departure for France reveals that they shared a warm friendship.^ At any rate it is not improbable to -jmag-iw* that a romanticised version of the Earl's career was known in the Spanish court thirty years later and served as dramatic inspiration to Antonio Coello. El Conde de Sex, written in 1633, was followed chrono logically by numerous Essex plays but served as a direct source only for the Italian versions, the French and English productions being conceived and organised in a totally different manner. In 1638, the year in which Coello'8 work was first published, Gaultier de Coste, seigneur de La Calprenede, produced his Comte d*Essex which, according to H. C. Lan caster, is the first manifestation of the legend of the ring given to Essex by the Queen with the promise that she would pardon any crime that he might commit if he would 2 return it to her. The woman to whom the ring was entrusted ^Walter B. Devereux, Lives and Letters of the Devereux. Earls of Essex (London: John Murray, 1853), I, 304. 2"La Calprenede Dramatist," Modern Philology. XVIII (1920), 136. 58 (In this case Lady Cadi) kapt it and aaalad tha Earl'a doom. Tha lagand saama to hava existed in Engllah oral tradition avan before It waa utilized by La Calprenede. It waa widely circulated around 1650 in tha Hiatorv of tha moat renowned Quean Elizabeth and her great Favorite, tha Earl of Eaaex. and waa accepted aa fact by many later wrlter8. La Calprenede was cloaely imitated in 1678 by Claude Boyer whose work waa completely overshadowed in the same year by the Comte d*Essex of Thomas Corneille. In the preface to the play Corneille praises La Calprenede*s tragedy but insists that his own will be more accurate his torically. He omits the ring episode as apocryphal but does little else to correct the historical errors that are found In all the plays. In Corneille's version Essex's other love is the Duchess of Ireton. The English plays appeared somewhat later. The origi nal, The Unhappy Favourite, or The Earl of Essex was writ ten by John Banks in 1682 and was copied and adapted by James Ralph: The Fall of the Earl of Essex. 1731; Henry Brooke: The Earl of Essex. 1749; and Henry Jones: The Earl of Essex. 1752. In all of these versions the episode of 59 tha ring la repeated and it la Lady Nottingham who spite - fully refuses to deliver it because Essex had jilted her and had married Lady Rutland. Of course the French end English versions all overlook the fact that Essex was In reality peacefully married to Frances Walsinghsm. Winifred Smith, in her article "The Earl of Essex on the Stage,"3 studies in detail the direct influence of El Conde de Sex on Niccolo Biancolelli's La Begins statists d«Tnghilterra ed il Conte di Eaex: vita, succesi e morte. 1668, and its dell*arte variants. She notes that there were close contacts between Spanish, Italian, and French actors throughout the seventeenth century, and says of Biancolelli: Evidently he admired the Spanish style more than the French, for he chose as his model Coello's tragedy rather than La Calprenede's, when he came to write his own ver sion of Essex* history; or, a more probable hypothesis, Instead of working directly from the Spanish play, he wrote up a scenario based directly on it; in the lack of exact dates for the scenarios, there is no way of proving absolutely whether they or the written tragedy were the prior version.4 Her conclusion is: 3PMLA, XXXIX (1924), 147-173. 4Ibid.. p. 152. 60 Tha Italian actors in Naplaa In tha aacond half of tha seventeenth century discovered tha thaatrlcal value of tha Spanish play, synopslsad It roughly la translation and embroidered It In thalr inprovlsad dialog according to tha familiar mannar of thalr class. In this way tha sarvants' rolas were halghtanad and additional incidents invented for tha main action. Tha Neapolitan scenario and tha other two similar treatments are the surviving proof of tha popularity of this form of tha play, a form that I think probably Inspired Blancolelli whan an actor In Fabraslo*s company In Naples to put down In print his still more elaborate and formal version of tha story. 5 An Essex play by Herman MU Her, Elizabeth. KBnigin von England (1837) based on The Unhappy Favourite by John Banks Is described by Adolphe Rletmann. ^ In MUller's play Queen Elizabeth dies Immediately after hearing of Essex's execu tion. Although this turn of events is not historically true, it is based on a literary precedent in a drama by F. H. Bauer, 1716, which was, according to Rletmann, an elaboration of El Conde de Sex.^ Carl Heine discusses this play and claims that Brauer was directly Influenced by 5Ibid.. p. 160. **"The Earl of Essex” and MMar»y Smart": TWo of John Banks' Tragedies with a Side Reference to TWo German Plays on the Same Subjects . . . (Berne: Wirz, 1915), p. 15, et passim. ^Ibid.. p. 26. 61 g Blancolelll. Rietmann also eltti Salvador# Camarano' s libretto for tha opera Robert Devereux aa another Italian a elaboration of Coello'a work. It should be noted that neither Rietmaxm nor Heine mention two other work# in their discussions: Die Gunat dar Fdraten. anonymous (Wien, 1773), an adaptation of all four of the English plays; and Per Graf von Essex. Corneille, translated by Peter Sttlben (Wien, 1754). To summarize the diffusion of the Essex theme it may be said that the French and English versions developed independently of Coello*s work beginning with La Calprenede in 1638. El Conde de Sex is the direct source of the Italian versions and through them becomes a secondary source of the German versions. ^Viertellahresschrift ftir Literaturgeschichte. I, 329. Cited by Rietmann, on. cit.. p. 26. 9 Rietmann, loc. cit. CHAPTER VII ANALYSIS OF THE PLAY Plot Summary To make the analysis of the play easier to follow, it will be preceded by a summary of the plot. Act I. As the play opens the Earl of Essex (el Conde de Sex), accompanied by his servant Cosme, returning vic torious from the campaign against the Spanish Armada, has just arrived at Blanca's simmer home outside London. His intent is twofold: first to see Blanca, his truelove, and secondly to report to Queen Isabela who is temporarily lodged there. Underlying the tangled relations of the Earl and these two ladies are two factors: he and Blanca are lovers, and he cannot marry anyone without the Queen's per mission. Upon arriving, the Earl happens upon a beautiful masked lady wading in a stream in the garden of the quinta. 62 Ha scarcely has time to admire her beauty when a would-be assassin steps forth, fires a shot at her, and then attacks her with his sword. The Earl quickly puts the villain to flight, and the mysterious lady expresses her deep grati tude and gives him a scarf to bind his wounded hand while at the same time revealing to the audience that she is the Queen, and is in love with the Earl of Essex. (She has failed to recognize him in the darkness of the garden.) The masked Queen quickly withdraws and the Earl admits that his allegiance to Blanca is now being shaken by love at first sight. In view of the commotion he decides not to see Blanca until the following morning. The next day the Duque de Alanson, in England to ask for the Queen's hand, is conversing with Blanca's maid Flora. He has fallen in love with Blanca, and gives Flora a golden chain to act as intermediary. Of course she does not dare mention Blanca's love for the Earl. At this point Essex arrives to greet Blanca, while Flora hastily removes the Duke to an adjoining gallery to admire some paintings. Blanca reveals to the audience that the Earl is her lover, but that marriage had not been possible because of her father'8 enmity toward the house of Essex. The Earl reassures her o£ his matrimonial intentions. She then reveals that her father and brother died in prison because they had supported Mary, Queen of Scots, and that she has sworn vengeance against Isabela. She had plotted with her cousin Roberto the murder attempt that Essex had foiled in the garden, and now wants to enlist the Earl's aid. Realizing that the mysterious woman he had saved was Queen Isabela, he is dismayed but feigns agreement, secretly in tending to use the plot for his own benefit: he will capture the traitors, but at the same time save Blanca from the consequences of her Involvement. His decision is overheard by the Duke, who admonishes him but agrees not to inform the Queen so long as no action is taken. Soon the Queen grants Essex an audience to reward him for distinguished service; he wears her scarf. Her confusion when she recog nizes it assures Essex that she was the masked woman; her love for him is confirmed, although neither admits what has happened. Act II. The first half of this act is mainly made up of soul-searching and veiled conversations between the Queen and the Earl as each insinuates his love but dares not express it. Jealousy enters the plot when Blanca pries from Cosine the story of the masked women and the scarf* which she then wears In the Queen*s presence. The Earl works up enough courage to declare his love to the Queen* but she flies Into a feigned rage to hide her real feelings and sends him away. Meanwhile Blanca reveals her love for Essex to the IXike, who renounces his own hopes for her and agrees to help her petition the Queen. When Blanca tells Isabela that she Is the Earl's wife in the sight of God* the jealous Queen rages and reproaches her severely. This rebuff drives Blanca to Immediate action: she discovers the Queen asleep* takes the Earl's pistol* and is about to fire when Essex again saves Isabela's life. The pistol goes off in the struggle* and the Queen awakens to a new dilemma: which is the murderer and which the defender? Neither will answer. Act III. The Queen is in despair. The Duke has told her how he overheard the Earl's treacherous plotting. The weight of the evidence against Essex makes his death sen tence imperative* and still she tries in vain to rational ize the circumstances and believe him innocent. The Earl maintains his innocence but offers no explanations. After he is told that he has been condemned to death* he writes 66 a latter to Blanca telling her that he never was disloyal to Isabela and warning her that she must cease her plots against the Queen's life. The letter Is entrusted to Cosine to be delivered after the execution. That night the Queen appears to Essex in prison, masked and dressed exactly as she was in the opening scene of the play. She cannot pardon the Earl, but she gives him a key that will enable him to escape. Essex seals his own doom by throwing away the key, claiming that it would also open the door to his dishonor. In the meantime Cosine's curiosity has gotten the better of him; he reads the letter and gives it to the Queen. In a burst of joy she orders the Alcaide to bring the Earl to her, but it is too late. The execution has already taken place and, according to her previous orders, the Earl's body is displayed along with the executioner's bloodstained knife as an example of her justice. The Plot as a Vehicle of Theme The plot of El Conde de Sex serves to convey two prin cipal themes which sometimes stand out individually in sharp relief and at other times merge into indivisible unity. Sharing equal Importance In this drama are the 67 themes of infidelity and the struggle between personal sentiment and duty. As the plot unfolds, these two themes will be seen intertwining until finally they are inseparably bound together by a third: the tragic catalyst of unrequited love. The struggle between duty as a monarch and personal sentiment-more specifically, the reinamuler theme— is introduced in the opening scenes of the play. The masked Queen, acting as a woman, admits to herself (and to the audience) that she loves the Conde: En todo parece el Conde. ... Amor le ofrece a la vista antojos vanos. (49-52)1 In fact, even before her first appearance Isabela has been hiding behind a mask to do as muler that which decorum would forbid her to do as reina. Thus, at the very begin ning she establishes a conflict that will grow as the plot develops and finally end in personal tragedy for her. Rapidly following this introduction, the theme of infidelity is subtly suggested. As the Conde concludes ^The numbers in parentheses following each quoted passage refer to verse numbers in the present edition. 68 his long description of the mysterious events that imme diately preceded the opening of the play he admits: qua esta mujer, qua enigma ha parecido, quiz a en mi corazon hublera entrado si Blanca algun lugar le hublera dado. C235-237) The audience will soon perceive how he has underestimated (or understated) his infatuation. But infidelity in El Conde de Sex exists on two levels; the Conde's hint of romantic infidelity is soon paralleled on a political level as Blanca declares to him her complaints against the Queen. She reveals that her father and brother had been faithful to Mary Stuart and had met a sad fate at the hands of Isabela: tamblen mi padre y mi hermano, por no estar bien convencidos, murleron de la prision al lento y sordo martirio. (523-526) Political infidelity, treason, bursts forth as Blanca swears vengeance: Yo, en venganza de la Reina (Marla), del hermano y padre mlo, ... me determlno a dar muerte a esta fiera. (535-541) It is at this point that the Conde makes his fatal deci sion. His feigned collusion is doubly inspired: his pride 69 and thirst for power move him to try to capture the con spirators s inglehanded, thereby gaining great favor with the Queen, and his love for Blanca inspires him to try to save her by dissuading her from the conspiracy. He is playing his part all too well when the Duque overhears him: ... En corrlentes r£os de bu infame sangre plenso anegar su cuarto mismo. iMuera esta tirana! iHxera! (680-685) These words will serve to incriminate him when the theme of political infidelity has reached its full development. Isabela meticulously carries out her role as relna when Essex comes into her presence officially for the first time. As reward for his service she bestows a new title upon him, but when he kneels to kiss her hand she sees that he is wearing the scarf that she had given him in the gar den; it acts almost as a battle flag to signal a new on slaught of her growing conflict. After a moment of confu sion she regains her poise, but her thoughts reveal the strength of the womanly sentiment within her: £No bastaba, amor tirano, una inclinacion tan fuerte, sin que te hayas ayudado del deberle yo la vida? (908-911) 70 The fact that she does owe him her life will serve to compound her conflict later. As she continues her con versation she Is nearly overcome by her feelings but she dominates herself and resolves to maintain the appearance of a monarch: £Sera blen qua sepa el Conde que soy la qua sin recato vlo anoche como mu jar, cuando deldad me ha juzgado? Creams deldad el Conde. (929-935) It is important to note that she is fully aware that her growing love is an Improper and Impossible one: iOh infame agradecimiento que engendro ml amor bastardo, hijo de padre traidor, yo te atajare los pasos. (945-948) Even though this part of the act is dedicated to establish ing the reina-muler conflict, there is another hint at the theme of infidelity on both the political and romantic levels as Isabela mildly chides the Conde for seeing Blanca before reporting to her: Yo os perdono el haber sido menos puntual vasallo que amante, por vlda m£a. (895-897) At the end of the act the Queen is left alone to pon der her problem in a long soliloquy. She enumerates the 71 good and bad points of the Conde and again mentions the Impossibility of thair love; than, abruptly, she falls pray to a fault that will characterise her during the remainder of the play: In spite of her expressions of uncertainty, she allows herself to incline toward pursuit of the womanly emotions, justifying the damage done to her character as monarch with questionable logic and extreme rationaliza tion: Case agora la cordura; suspendase un poco el seso, y deje la voluntad un rato al entendimlento. Yo me perdono a ml misma aquello que no me advierto para aquesto que me finjo. (1021-1027) Thus, at the close of Act I the groundwork is laid for the development of the tragedy. The relnamuler theme is well established as is the theme of political infidelity. Introductory hints have been set forth concerning romantic infidelity, and the principal characters have been estab lished . In the opening scenes of Act II the Conde and Cosme are conversing about the various inconveniences associated with the life of a court favorite. The theme of infidelity 72 is quickly introduced into the conversation but, ironi cally, the Conde Introduces it in reverse--as fidelity: y como el mas breve espacio ni la privansa sosiega ni el amor, cada esperanza me lleva, como se ve, a ver a Blanca, mi £e, y a la Reina, mi privansa. (1083-1088) At this point his love for Blanca is still true; his alle giance to Isabela is still staunch, but he is inclining emotionally toward the latter and is putting himself In the contradictory position of sustaining a true love and cheat ing on it at the same time. Blanca suddenly becomes aware of this Impending danger to her position when Cosme gives her the scarf and tells her all he knows. Without even realizing the worst part of her predicament, i.e., the identity of her rival, she bursts out with: jAy de aquella que a un hombre flo su honor, siendo tan malo el mejor! Meanwhile Essex and Isabela are about to meet alone in the garden. As they appear on opposite sides of the stage they reveal their thoughts, and the Conde is seen to be struggling with his problem of fidelity just as the Queen struggles with her conflict of love and duty. His 73 resolutions of honorsble behavior are similar to the Queen's, but when they see each other there Is such a powerful visual attraction that each Is overcome. Good intentions are cast aside and Essex declares that his ambi tion is stronger than his fidelity to Blanca: Mas, oh for tuna, probemos que pesa mas que el amor una hermosura y un reino. (1282-1284) Likewise, the Queen in a parallel declaration admits that the reina is subordinate to the mu 1 er: Mas, oh cuidado, volvamos; que amor, cuidado y deseo son muy fuertes enemigos, y es uno solo el respeto. (1285-1288) In the ensuing scene the Conde and the Queen engage in a conversation in which their mutual attraction is only thinly veiled, failing to find open expression because he fears to be so bold toward his monarch and she is reluctant to reveal herself as a woman. Just as the Conde is about to overcome this barrier of decorum, Blanca, wearing the scarf, enters to announce the arrival of the Duque de Alan- son. The scarf serves once again to trigger an emotional reaction in the Queen. As before, she falls into an ob vious confusion, but this time it is not simply the result of a fraah attack of tha reina-muler conflict; tha scarf has become tha bannar of Jealousy--a new and powerful theme which will affect tha character of tha two women and ulti mately precipitate tha tragedy. This, at least, is one amotion that tha Queen does not try to rationalise: "jAh celos! / iPrenda m£a an otro cuello!" (1492-1496). When Blanca leaves, the Conde quickly takes the initiative once again and openly declares his affection. He is ill- prepared for the answer he gets. The Queen, spurred by jealousy, does another abrupt about-face in character; she Ignores all the veiled expressions of encouragement that she had only recently used to insinuate her womanly emo tions and rejects him, as reina. in a towering rage ending with the command: ... No me veais y agradecedme que os dejo cabeza en que se engendraron tan livianos penssmientos. (1543-1546) With this turn of events the Conde is completely abashed and in repentance turns his attentions back toward Blanca. It is significant that he will never again veer from his romantic fidelity to her nor, in reality, from his politi cal fidelity to Isabela. 75 Blanca is tha next to suffer from tha Queen's turbu lent emotional state. Encouraged by Alanson's intercession she decides to appeal to Isabela in order to save her honor. Blanca is the first really to express the reina- muler conflict; she approaches the Queen saying: Isabela os he llamado en esta ocas ion, no reina; que, cuando vengo a deciros, por mi mal, una flaqueza que he hecho como mujer, porque menos os parezca, no reina, mujer os busco; solo mujer os quisiera. <1647-1654) Isabela is undisturbed by Blanca's confession and even anticipates the first part of it, saying that it is an "old story." She is, however, totally unprepared for the con clusion: "Saco que llorar ml honor, / y no que decir mi lengua" (1749-1750). Upon hearing this the Queen almost loses control of her temper again to her own amazement: "iJesus! ifo tan sin modestia? / iQue necedad! iQue locura!" (1806-1807). In a thinly disguised allegory she explains to Blanca the meaning of jealousy and, under the Impulse of the very thing she is explaining, she clearly implies that Blanca's honor is meaningless and that she must renounce all claim to the Conde's love. In short, 76 the unfortunate Blanca's request to speak to the was all too generously granted; all her hopes are shattered by the womanly reaction of the Queen, and jealously, closely bound up with Blanca's view of the Conde's romantic in fidelity, drives her to her move of desperation: personal vengeance on the Queen, the realisation of the treason announced in Act I. As the plot rises to this point of crisis the theme of infidelity is violently united on the romantic and political levels. Blanca summarizes her situation thus: La Reina ofendlo mi sangre; la Reina me quite al Conde, y me amenaza soberbla con equfvocas palabras que no le mire ni quiera; la Reina al Conde le oblige, ya amorosa o ya severe, a que el me nlegue, perjuro, mi honor; pues la Reina muera. (1847-1860) The Queen is in a similar predicament but with the added aggravation of an attempt on her life, evidently by the man she loves. At the beginning of Act III she expresses her parallel situation with these words: Preso esta el Conde alevoso por indicios de traidor, y tambien le acusa amor por ingrato y enganoso: 77 da su lngratitud quejoso esta amor, da au t rale Ion la justlcla y la rason, y ambos, luchando antra s£ me sacan fuera da m£, y astoy sola an ml pasIon. (2031-2040) Tha tragically Ironical aspect of this whole problem Is that Essex Is caught in tha middle o£ this whirlwind of feminine passions and, In reality, ha Is innocent of every thing save his untimely moment of infidelity to Blanca. Act II ends in a scene of deep agitation for the three principal characters: the Conde's life is In danger but he has decided, according to his code of honor, not to clear himself by implicating Blanca; Isabela has seen her status as monarch, as well as her womanly love, abused by an attempt on her life, and Blanca realises that Essex is sacrificing himself for her, but she cannot help him with out imperiling her own life. Hie infidelity theme has now been fully elaborated and the direction of its desenlace can only be determined by the resolution of the reina-muler conflict. Blanca's absence from Act III forces the plot to concentrate its action on the outcome of the Queen's inner conflict and its subsequent relation to the fate of the Conde. Notwithstanding Isabela's rationalizations, the incriminating evidence o£ treason compounds itself against Essex. The Senescal discovers his name engraved on the pistol; Cosine is forced to surrender the treacherous letter directed to Roberto; the Duque de Alans on reveals what he had overheard in the first act, and all during these developments the Queen strives to maintain decorum and not show her emotions. She almost falls when Cosine's abrupt declaration that Essex and Blanca are married brings her to the brink of another outburst. Cosme's choice of the word casados does not imply lawful marriage but refers to the illicit relationship of the two, of which Isabela is al ready well aware. Her reaction, therefore, is not caused by the news itself but by the fact that it was proclaimed in the presence of all the courtiers; that which had been hidden is now publicly affirmed and she can no longer deceive herself. The Duque, who is ignorant of the total situation, is amazed at the Queen's reaction. He expresses her conflict perfectly in an aside but finds it impossible to believe: Fues ^como tanto lo siente? Si fuera mujer la Reina, segun lo que al Conde qulere, recelara ... Mas no es jus to. (2272-2275) 79 In another soliloquy the Queen finally brings herself to admit reality, albeit a reality baaed on an untruth: El Conde traidor dos veces me ofende, siendo uno solo: como a mujer en el gusto, como a reina en el decoro. (2329-2332) However, in her final decision for action she also decides to maintain her duality. As defender of the law she will punish Essex legally and at the same time will take revenge as a woman driven by jealousy. By so doing she repays political and romantic infidelity simultaneously with castigo and venganza, and thereby unites the theme of in fidelity with the reina-muler theme. But this solution is lacking in one important aspect: Isabela as muler still owes Essex a debt of gratitude for saving her life. For this reason, and because she still cannot deny her love, she goes to him in prison, masked and dressed exactly as she was in the opening scene of the play, to give him a key that will facilitate his escape. She insists once again on the duality of her character: Nada con la Reina puedo; que, aunque estoy muy cerca della, tamblen della estoy muy lejos. (2690-2692) But Essex tries to force her to merge into one personality by asking her to remove the mask. She warns him that her dual personality is basic to her character and gives him the key before granting his request, saying that it is something she can do only as muler. During this scene Coello's concept of the majesty of monarchy becomes evi dent. Essex repeatedly tries to appeal to Isabela as a reina-muler unity and she strictly insists on the theme of duality--the conflict that has given her endless grief throughout the entire course of the plot: ... No aconsejo lo que es contra ml justlcia. (2818-2819) When the Conde asks sarcastically if this is the thanks he gets from the woman whose life he saved she answers, "No soy yo" (2824). In other words she, the Queen (unmasked), owes him nothing. When Essex throws the key out the window he tries to force the Queen to resort to a more humane solution because his honor code will not let him escape in What he considers a cowardly manner. Unfortunately not even Essex can comprehend the depth of Isabela's resolu tion; his honor code has come into conflict momentarily with her code of majesty and has been vanquished. Her 81 £inal word is, "Como mujor os llbrabs; / como Reina, no me atrevo" (2879-2880). It is only at tha vary and that tha duality Is dis solved by tragedy. Tha Quean's justice miscarries; tha woman destroys her loved one; and Isabela, reina and muler. has nothing le£t in life save the bitter consolation of vengeance upon Blanca. During the course of the drama and especially during the last half, the themes of infidelity and reina-muler. which started out sharply separated as individual develop ments of the plot, have been seen to move toward each other until in the end they are scarcely distinguishable. On the basis of the preceding analysis it is now clear how the theme of unrequited love acts to tie these themes together. This function of unrequited love as a catalyst may be seen in the first three of the following parallel statements: Conde loves Isabela; she does not correspond because of her duty as monarch (Reina). Isabela (Muler) loves Conde; he does not correspond because she has rejected him (as Reina). Isabela (Muler) condemns Conde for unfaithfulness (Romantic Infidelity). Isabela (Reina) condemns Conde for treason (Political Infidelity). 82 ; Alamon'i unrequited love for Blanca acts as sort of a thematic reflector of the first three. Had there been mutually expressed love between Essex and Isabela, Blanca would have been the sole victim of infidelity, and the per sonal tragedy plus the traitor's fate would have befallen her alone. In closing the thematic study, the concept of jealousy should be recapitulated. Jealousy is so Intertwined with the other themes that it would be difficult to separate it as an individual entity. However, it does function to precipitate two important actions: Blanca's jealousy of Isabela is what ultimately drives her to violence against the Queen's person, and Isabela's corresponding jealousy hardens her as mujer and makes her thirst for vengeance. The themes are carried by a rigidly linear plot that is entirely devoid of digressions and subplots. Cosine's scene with Flora in Act II could have grown into a typical reflector action in which the servants' humorous Intrigues parallel those of their masters, but it was not developed by the author. Likewise, the Duque de Alanson seemingly introduces a complicating subplot in Act I when he declares his love for Blanca, but it is abruptly terminated in 83 Act II when he renounces his love end Intercedes for her with the Queen. The plot Is engineered so that each act ends on a high emotional pitch or moment of suspense, and the play as a whole reaches two climaxes: an emotional climax when Essex throws the key out the window, and a dramatic climax— the highpolnt of the whole tragedy--when Isabela rises to the heights of joy after discovering that her favorite la Innocent, only to plunge Into the depths of despair in the horrible Instant In which his cadaver Is revealed on stage. Techniques Of the several dramatic techniques employed by Coello in El Conde de Sex, the one that contributes most to the development of theme is the popular baroque element of appearance vs. reality. It has already been shown how the appearance of the Queen incognito serves to announce the reina-muler conflict that will soon become so decisive a force in her life. But in addition to a mere statement of theme, the Queen's masked appearance suggests the entire course of action that will lead toward her personal tragedy; it symbolizes her 84 Insistence on the apparent and her unwillingness to accept reality. Cosine emphasizes her unreal aspect when he asks: ... &que mujer es esta que hemos softado entre los dos? (71-73) This unreality is echoed by Isabela herself in the parallel scene in the prison when she says: "Ho es sombra; / verdad es lo que estais viendo" (2619-2620). At the end of Act I Isabela admits to herself that the appearance of a monarch must take precedence over the reality of her emotions: "Fero yo no soy quien soy: / la Reina soy" (1031-1032), and then, ironically, when she rejects the Conde she asks: "^Conocelsme? £Quien soy yo?" (1509), expecting him to be fully aware of the importance of her appearance as reina when she can barely bring her self to believe it. From then on every harsh word she utters to Essex is mere appearance: iAy recato! Aunque esto dlgo, sabe Dios lo que le quiero. (1547-1548) and she insists on avoiding reality when she expounds her own thoughts: "lo que pudo ser pensemos; / no pensemos lo que fue" (2059-2060). In fact, Isabela becomes so accus tomed to denying reality that she even manages to deceive 85 her*elf. In her sharp warning to Blanca she says In sn aside: Los celos, aunque fingidos, me arrebataron la lengua y despertaron mi anojo. (1803-1805) Her jealousy was definitely not feigned. Although many more examples could be cited, suffice it to say that Isa bela's character and most of her actions leading up to the Conde's death are molded by the technique of appearance vs. reality. The other principal manifestation of this technique forms the axis on which the entire plot turns--the con viction of Essex for treason. In spite of the Conde*s fierce loyalty to the Queen, early in the play the Duque interrupts him as he rants: "Si una vez la espada esgrlmo / he de beber de su sangre" (690-691). In promising to keep the secret, Alans on carries his disavowal of reality almost to a ridiculous extreme: Solo yo sabre este caso; pero mal dije: yo mlsmo no lo sabre; que, en saliendo de aquesta cuadra que piso, si agora he sabido aquesto, despues no lo habre sabido. (761-766) 86 And finally tha Conda makas hla fatal error--the dads ion to risk his Ufa and honor on appearance: No ha da raspondar al Duqua hasta qua al sucaso mismo muestre como fueron falsos da ml traldon los lndlclos, y qua soy mas laal cuando mas traldor ha paracldo. (805-810) Reality reasserts Itself bitterly in tha and; Essex never regrets his decision (his honor coda would not permit it) but his final warning to Blanca embodies a sad truth: y no ha da haber cada d£a quien, por mucho qua ta quiera, por consarvarta la vide, por traldor la suya plarda. (3017-3020) Since the element of outward falsity is so vital to the plot, Coello evidently could not resist injecting a parallel comment drawn from tha courtly circles in which ha moved: Gran desdicha es al privar pues hace a los mas amigos ser hada dantro enemlgos. (1089-1091) This remark about tha falsa appearances associated with tha institution of nrivanza must have struck a sensitive point because these lines were deleted by the censor, Francisco de Avellaneda, in 1661. 87 The really outstanding tachnlqua from tha point of view of tha audience Is Coellovs use of dramatic irony, tha process by which tha parsonages of a drama act in ignorance of a situation that is fully known to tha spectators. By its vary nature this technique is closely associated with the conflict of appearance and reality because in all cases the audience is aware of the realities of the plot while the characters act on appearances. Dramatic irony is used in several instances as a tech nique to involve the audience emotionally in the action of the play. For example, part of the Duque's threat to Essex consists of this woefully erroneous assumption: que yo se muy blen que Blanca si yo no hublera salido prlmero a vuestros intentos, conforme al biason antlguo de su sangre y de la vuestra, os hubiera respondido. (769-774) The fact that the audience knows the truth and sympathizes with Essex serves to heighten the strain and embarrassment of the episode. With the audience thus established, as it were, as an accessory to the conspiracy, it would take an unperceptive observer indeed to miss the real meaning be hind Blanca's expression of courtesy to the Queen: "Guarde 88 vuestra vlda al clelo / canto como yo quislera" (1255- 1256). In tha aama vain, Blanca makes tha following ramark In har appeal to Isabela: "A vacas duerme al racato / al esta la aficion despierta” (1717-1718). She follows It closely with a similar observation: qua hay pocas vacas qua pueda astarsa firme al dacoro cuando an la ocas ion tropleza. (1736-1738) She believes that she Is saying these things about herself, but tha audience experiences tha same emotional Impact as Isabela does when it becomes clear that the statements apply equally to both women. It is in the third act that dramatic irony serves most strongly to involve the audience emotionally and to build suspense. The technique consists of a series of conjec tures, made by the Queen while trying to solve her dilemma, in which she hits upon the truth and then, to the inevi table dismay of the audience, rejects it because of con flicting criteria. Thus she says: £No pudo ser que no fuera el Conde quien me mataba, sino Blanca, que all£ estaba pues yo, celosa y severs, le di ocaslon de que hiciera tan cruel venganza? (2061-2066) 89 but suspecting an excess of rationalization, she does not dwell on this conclusion. Likewise, she guesses the exact sequence of events that lead to the Conde'8 Incrimination: £Ho pudo ser que llegara el a estorbar su traldon, y Blanca con turbaclon en su mano le dejara? Luego el Conde a Blanca qulere, pues la libra con su honor. (2107-2116) but she then destroys her own logical conclusion when she remembers that Blanca herself had complained about the Conde*s rigor. She is ensnared at this point also because she does not realize that Essex has a great deal of affec tion for both women. This type of dramatic irony rises to its highest point of tension in Act III when Isabela goes to the Conde in prison and finds him writing a letter; she says: ... Escribiendo esta el Conde; sera a Blanca. Pues £que imports? Ya no es tiempo de estas cosas. (2606-2609) When she first sees him, the outcome of the plot momen tarily hangs in the balance, but her disregard of the letter of exculpation pushes it toward tragedy. Dramatic irony is also effectively used for comic 90 relief. Given the near sacred respect for monarchy that was common in seventeenth century Spain, the audience must have responded enthusiastically to Cosme's speculation that the mysteriously masked Queen was "la mujer del horte- lono, / que se lsvaba las plemas" (244-245), or possibly a chambermaid (253), or even a local prostitute (1141). A third Important technique, more or less common to the Golden Age drama, is the foreshadowing of impending disaster. As Lope and Calderon often used a fell from a horse to prefigure the unhappy fate of an arrogant noble, Coello uses symbolism reminiscent of the fall of Icarus: a rise to a great height and then a plunge. At the end of Act I when Essex begins to realize the implications of his infatuation with the Queen he says: "Necio amor / que temerario / me quieres subir tan alto, / advierte que soy vasallo" (975-980). He again tries to warn himself saying: i Necio engano, no me subas para caer de mas alto! (991-992) And the Senescal, who has been observing the actions of Essex and the Queen, echoes him with the solemn comment: "Mucho va subiendo el Conde / si no baja al mismo paso" (993-994). At the end of Act II when the Conde is taken 91 prisoner he alludes precisely to his impending doom with the aside: I Ah Blanca, mucho me debes! Ruego al delo que el amarte la cabeza no me cueste. (2028-2030) Death Itself Is mentioned In a curious and foreboding manner on several occasions. When Essex works up enough courage to declare his love to Isabela, he does It "por no morlr del mal cuando / puedo morlr del remedlo" (1473-1474). He Is Interrupted by Blanca's arrival but on the second attempt he uses almost the same figure of speech: "qulero morir noblemente" (1503). Later, at the peak of suspense near the end of Act II when Blanca decides to kill the Queen herself, the latter goes to sleep saying: Haga treguas, mientras viene la muerte a atajar mis males, el hermano de la muerte. (1922-1924) Her grim personification of sleep as the brother of death helps to build dramatic tension as death in the person of Blanca approaches her, but it is strange that she should make such a reference to death in the first place; from her point of view it is unwarranted. Be that as it may, the mention of death serves to complete the atmosphere of gloom 92 and Impending evil. The £inal principal technique la Coello'a method of exteriorizing the mental proceaaes of hia main charactera. Generally speaking, In the Spanish comedia the development of the plot typically takes precedence over characteriza tion; the mentality of the charactera tends to be expressed as dramatic action. However, in this aspect El Conde de Sex leans more toward the Shakespearean technique of ex teriorizing thoughts, motives, and emotions by means of extensive asides and lengthy soliloquies. Repeated inter jections such as iEstov ciega! and iLoca estoy! serve to convey a mental confusion that is not revealed by the words of the regular dialog. The Queen especially takes part In this process because it is she who is tom by the greatest conflicts. She argues with herself, rationalizes and ex presses her entire train of thought in three soliloquies, the longest of which is one hundred twenty lines. To conclude: Coello did not achieve the deep penetra tion into abnormal psychology that Tirso did with Ills charactera, but he did exteriorize motives and the fluctu ations of his characters' mental processes to an extent unique in the comedla. lawrr 93 The total body of imagery utilised in El Conde de Ses does not fit into a unified system. A survey of the play in its entirety reveals that the author made moderate use of word-pictures throughout to intensify expression and especially to reinforce his characterizations. However, early in the first act there is a highly lyrical passage, a series of sllvas. In which the Conde gives a detailed description of the attempt on the Queen's life. The style of this passage is quite different from the rest of the play, and it seems evident that the author intended it as a tour-de-force of florid Imagery. Since these silvas stand apart from the main structure of the play they will be analyzed separately later. . . . . A perusal of the imagery found in the main body of the play has prompted two general conclusions: first, that Coello made surprisingly little use of metaphor and simile to convey action and emotion, preferring to use imagery mainly to help define his characters; and secondly, that his selection shows little variety and is generally com posed of commonplaces of the baroque. For example, Blanca is compared to the sun in a typical metaphor which also includes a word play on her nmne: y as da Blanca, sol blsarro y bianco da mis fInaras, y yo lo soy da sus rayos. (90-92) This Idaa is rapaatad and developed as tha Conde is twice described as girasol (1293, 1700) because ha remains atten tive to her beauty just as the sunflower turns to follow the course of the sun. Bronze is used on three occasions to represent cold, unyielding character. Blanca explains for the benefit of the audience: al fin mi pecho esquivo labrar se dejo, aunque bronce, al burll de tus suspiros. (408-410) And after the death of Essex the Queen laments: "lYo a mi amante piedra soy; / bronce ful ... ?" (3053) almost as an echo to the Conde'8 final appeal for compassion: "$En fin sois bronce?" (2887). A unified concentration of pastoral Images is found in Blanca's description of Mary, Queen of Scots. According to Blanca, Mary responded to the fatal summons of Queen Isabela: bien como al traldor reclamo suele incauto pajarillo venir lmprovlsamente, feitejndo su pallgro. (461-464) Blanca then goes on to extol Mary's virtues In a series of floral linages: be11a flor qua nrobo los fllos dal arado. honest a rose, blanca azucena. clavel flno, hamoso llrlo. The picturesque language used by Isabela as she pon ders her predicament at the end of Act 1 contains the best written and most meaningful Imagery of the play. While analyzing the ability of love to overcome the difficulties of decorum, she compares love to lightning: "la resistencia le enciende / y le apaga el rendlmlento" (1061-1062), and then follows the comparison closely with another allusion to nature which refers metaphorically to her possible courses of action: No lrrita robusta encina la injusta sana del viento. A raudal violento el junco se hurta doblando el cuello. (1063-1070) The act ends on a typical note of indecision: "o doblarme al raudo, junco, / o lmitar encina al viento" (1075-1076). As the preceding study shows, few of Coello's images go beyond the visual stage to take on a deeper symbolic meaning. In reality, the only occurrence of symbolism in 96 the play Is the animal imagery used to describe the two women. First Blanca says: ... me determino / a dar muerte a esta flera" and then alludes to the fury of a tigress whose cub Is taken away, characterizing herself In the same terms: hljo es del alma el honor; tlgre soy y me la llevan. (1879-1880) Essex even adds another opinion which helps reinforce the allusion: que es una raujer resuelta animal tan vengativo que no se dobla a los ruegos. (623-625) This Insistence upon equating the two women with wild ani mals suggests that both of them are moved to action by animal-like passions of love and hatred in spite of their impressive displays of rationality. To summarize Coello* s use of figurative language in the main part of the play, it may be said that he proves to be most artistic in his use of nature images, especially those with a pastoral theme. Otherwise his use of typical baroque metaphor serves to strengthen characterization but meets with considerably less artistic success. 97 Coello*8 Debt to Gongora Although Antonio Coello was a close friend of Calder6n de la Barca and collaborated with him in the creation of several dramas, he never adopted the stylistic extremes characteristic of the major dramatic productions of Calde ron and his contemporaries. In spite of the epoch in which it was written, El Conde de Sex demonstrates many similari ties to the comedia as conceived by Lope in which the themes are carried by a fast-moving plot, and the psycho logical development of the characters takes precedence over philosophical exposition. Ihere is, however, one soliloquy in El Conde de Sex, verses 115-240, in which an act of violence in a mysterious pastoral setting is described by means of artfully employed baroque imagery. This passage exhibits a lyric beauty and delicacy of expression that compares favorably with any similar passage in the Golden Age comedia. In the following analysis I hope to present enough evidence to justify the conclusion that even though Coello*s lyricism reflects the trend that culminated in the florid style of Calderon, Moreto, and their contempo raries, he took his main inspiration directly from Luis de Gongora. The calm atmosphere o£ awe that prevails In the second scene o£ the play forms a quiet contrast to the violent opening action. In an attempt to piece together an under standing of the mystery, Essex and Cosine relate what they have just witnessed. The Conde gives the £ollowlng descrip tion of the stream that runs through the secluded garden: Pasa por esta quinta conducldo un desculdo del Tames is florido, llquido desperdlclo o vena breve, por donde el r£o se sangro de nieve; descamlnada plate que en senda cristallna se desata, o fugitlvo aljofar transparente que callado se huyo de la corrlente. (121-128) A similarity In the tone and style of this water imagery may be seen In the first quatrain of a sonnet written by Gongora in 1582: Oh claro honor del l£quldo elemento, dulce arroyuelo de corrlente plata cuya ague entre la yerba se dilate con regalado son, con peso lento!2 This type of expression, highly refined in the Soledades and the Polifemo around 1613, was adapted by Coello in 1633. ^Luis de Gongora: obras completes, ed., Juan Mille Gimenez (Madrid: Aguilar, 1961), p. 443. 99 Note the following description o£ the death and transfigura tion of Acis: los pies de los arboles mIs gruesos calso el llquido aljofar de sus venas. Corrlente plata al fin sus blancos hues os ... (Polifemo, Stanza 63) Also the description of a stream In the Soledad Seaunda; el pie villano ... los cristales pisaba de una fuente. Ella, pues, slerpe, y sierpe al fin plsada, — aljofar vomltando fugitivo— esconde ... las floras .•• del huerto, en cuyos trcmcos se desata de las escamas que vistlo de plata. (Verses 318-327) Elsewhere in the Polifemo occur the metaphors fugitivo cristal and fugitlva nieve (Stanzas 41, 61). Essex continues: Esta, pues valla undosa divide el sitio ameno, tan denso e intrlcado que la grena f rondos a de su crespo cabello enmaranado, soplando airado o lento, con gran dlflcultad la pelna el viento. (129-135) A similar reference to hair appears in Gongora's romance Eh los ninares de Jucar: El cabello en crespos nudos luz da al sol, oro a la Arabia. (Obras completes, p. 148) 100 The Idea of hair being combed by the wind is found in the description of the giant Follfemo: Negro el cabello, imitador undoso de las obscures agues del Leteo, al viento que lo pelna proceloso, vuela sin orden, pende sin aseo. (Stanza 8) Note that the word undoso also appears in the passage from El Conde de Sex. The Conde tells how he saw: una mujer divine, reclinada en la margen cristalina, quitarse, desculdada, azul cendal y media nacarada, negros despues cotumos al pie breve, que, primavera errante, flores llueve; las dos colunas belias metio dentro del rlo ... (148-155) Again the romance provides a source of reference: Ellas, cuyo movimiento honestamente levanta el cristal de la columna sobre la pequena basa ... The columna metaphor is amplified in the Soledad Prlmera and the coturno is added: [el arroyo] hurta blando pedazos de cristal, que el movimiento libra en la falda, en el coturno ella, de la coluna bella, ya que celosa basa, dispensadora del cristal no escasa. (Verses 541-549) 101 On two different occasions the Conde loses the ability to distinguish between the clarity of the woman's com plexion and the clarity of the water: vi cristal en el r£o desatado, y vl cristal en ellas [colunas] condensado. (156-157) and: Quiso probar acaso el agua, y fueron crlstallno vaso sus manos . •. y como tanto, en fin, se parec£a a sus manos aquello que beb£a, tem£ con sobresalto, y no fue en vano, que se beblera parte de la mano. (197-204) Gongora achieves the same blend of metaphoric qualities as Acis regards the sleeping Galatea while drinking from the stream: ~ su boca dio, y sus ojos cuanto pudo, al sonoro cristal, al cristal mudo. (Polifemo, Stanza 24) This poetic conceit is brought to its fullest form in the Soledad Primera: Otra con ella montaraz zagala juntaba el cristal l£quido al humano por el arcaduz bello de una mano que al uno menosprecia, al otro iguala. (Verses 243-246) Some of the water from the stream splashes on the masked woman's hair, and the Conde attributes the action 102 to the envy of the water nymphs: envidlos&8 las nlnfas de aquel r£o, pensando que estuvlera menos bello, le encanecleron parte del cabello. (167-170) TWo probable sources for this allusion are found In the POlifemo. Galatea is characterised as "Iuvidla de las nin- fas" (Stanza 15), and the stream runs entre dos mirtos que, de espuma canos, dos verdes garzas son de la corrlente. (Stanza 27) Essex finally tells how the woman left the stream just before the murder attempt: ... salio del r£o y delgado cambray chupo el roc£o de las dos azucenas. (205-207) The unusual verb chupar is used in the Soledad iv to describe the drying action of the sun: el sol • • • lento lo embiste, y con suave estilo la menor onda chupa al menor hllo. (37-41) The use of azucena as a metaphoric reference to a woman's feet is clearly established in the Polifemo as Galatea flees from Acis after their first encounter: La nlnfa, pues la sonorosa plata bullir sintio del arroyuelo apenas, 103 cuando, a los vardes margenes ingrata, sagur 8a hlzo da sus azucenas. (Stanza 28) In addition to the similarities in imagery outlined above, El Conde da Sax contains many instances of Gongoris - tic syntax and vocabulary. For example, Coello often uses the structure Bate, cues ... . e.g., "Esta, pues, valla undosa" (129), which is so common in Gongora1s poetry: MDeste, pues, formidable de la tierra bostezo ... 1 1 (Polifemo. 6). Gongoristic hyperbaton and cultista vocabu lary are also very common: "negros despues coturnos al pie breve1 1 (152). Unfortunately, Coello could not maintain the delicate balance of these stylistic elements as he did in the silvas: their inept handling elsewhere must be singled out as one of the major defects of the play. A glaring display of culteranismo come to grief is found in the Condevs account of the defense of England: ... Filipo Segundo, espanol monarca, contra Ingalaterra hizo la armada mayor que nunc a con pesadumbre de pino la espalda oprimio salobre de aquese monstruo de vidrio. (422-426) This awkward bow to the taste of the times stands out ludi crously in the midst of a well-written passage. 104 Iht final aapact of Coallo'a debt to Gongora consists of the use of syntactic correlations from one verse to the other with a typical baroque concentration of Images as seen In Blanca's statement of Mary Stuart's fate: ... muriendo la Relna al arado, al pie, al cuchillo, al an to jo, hielo y mano, murleron en el supllclo juntos flor, victims, rose, clevel, azucena y lirio. (517-522) On the basis of this study I believe It is safe to conclude that Coello was not only familiar with Gongora's poetic production, but freely borrowed and adapted his Imagery and technique. Characterization and Tragedy The aspect of El Conde de Sex which has the most powerful impact on the audience is the tragic characteriza tion of Essex and the Queen. The Conde captures the affec tion of the audience early in the play because he embodies all the ideals of the baroque caballero; he is proud and self-assured but not arrogant or overbearing by seventeenth century standards. It is precisely this facet of his character that proves to be his tragic flaw: his pride, 105 reflected in the grandiose plan to capture the traitors by himself, leads him to an erroneous choice— his decision not to implicate Blanca. As the tragedy deepens, the Conde's heroic choice of death rather than dishonor excites admiration and pity: admiration for his dedication to the high principles of decorum, and pity for the useless sacrifice of his life for an unworthy woman. He comes to terms with his fate and retains his dignity. In this he overshadows the Queen. Isabela emerges as a warm, Intensely human character, 3 treated surprisingly well by Coello. In fact this favor able characterization prompted the following observation from Bnillo Cotarelo y Mori: 3 Other writers saw Elizabeth through less benevolent eyes. Gongora launched this diatribe: Oh ya Isla catollca .. • ahora condenada a infamia eteraa por la que te gobiema con la mano ocupada del huso en vez de sceptro y de la espada; mujer de muchos, y de muchos nuera, I oh reina torpe, reina no, mas loba libidlnosa y flera, flamma dal del su le tue trezze niova! ("De la armada que se fue contra Inglaterra," Obras com pletes. p. 569.) 106 Mucho valor, nucha audacla eran, an efecto, necesarlos para ofracar al puablo espaxiol con clrcunstancias noblas y simpatlcas a aqualla Balna tan odlada, cauaanta princi pal da nuaatraa daadlchaa polltlcaa • ... Bn la obra da Coallo aparaca dulca, aanaibla, honaata, digna, altlva, paro no crual cuando ae va menospreciado au amor y haata o£andlda au cualidad da Reina.* Coallo shows raal skill in developing the mood o£ despair that settles over the Qua an. In the second act, just before Blanca's murder attempt, Isabela sits alone in an atmosphere o£ gloom, trying to rid her mind o£ the con flicts that plague her: Dejama un rato, cuidado. Por cuidado mas decente aquastos papeles miro. Aqui dice: "El Conde Felix ... " Conde hubo de ser por fuerza con el primero que ancuentre, conde an fin. iValgame Dios! (1909-1915) A fickle stroke of luck brings the title "Conde" to her eyes and she is beset by a new wave of depression. Later, in one of her soliloquies, she reaches a truly pitiful state of mind which is conveyed by Coello with poignant realism: jYo, a pesar de mi grandeza, con infame llanto mojo ^Don Antonio Coello. p. 34 107 la purpura raal qua viate la majestad por adomo? (2383-2386) Thera la, in fact, a tranafer of pity from Essex to Isabela; the deepest tragedy occura In her mind. As Queen, Isabela had power but she longed for love; Essex had love but he longed for power. In other words, both were trying to obtain something which neither had in order to effect their self -realization: she needed love to complete her happiness, and he needed power to round out his life. Which, then, Is the more pathetic case? Clearly It Is the Queen's. Essex falls victim to a death he did not deserve, but she Is condemned to live a life which she despises. Critical Appraisal Considered In view of the preceding critical study and in the context of Spanish Golden Age drama, the inevitable conclusion is that El Conde de Sex is a good drama that might have been a great one if its author had been able to revise and refine it. The sharp character delineation and the powerful personal tragedies of Essex and the Queen are developed to an extent almost unknown to the comedla. With this in mind, it is all the more regrettable that their effectiveness is dtamed by inconsistent style and prolixity* One of the major attributes of the play, the psychological development of the characters, must also be considered as partially defective because of the faulty technique with which it is carried out. Specifically, Isabela's inner conflicts are revealed to the audience through extensive soliloquies which, though well composed, tend to become repetitious. Also, extremes of emotion are revealed to the audience by means of many asides such as iLoca estov! and iEstov cieaa! in order to maintain the technique of appear ance vs. reality. Unfortunately, these asides are used to such an extent that they sometimes break the flow of the dialog and become droll. In short, if Coello had been able to condense his material somewhat and maintain the subtlety of style re vealed in the silvas. the play would have gained immeasur ably in value. In spite of these weaknesses El Conde de Sex deserves a place of consideration in seventeenth cen tury Spanish drama, and as the first and most successful play on the Earl of Essex theme, should become better known to contemporary critics. 109 Linaa ACT I 1-llA 115-240 241-292 293-364 365-816 817-994 995-1076 ACT II 1077-1256 1257-1300 1301-1304 1305-1322 1323-1326 1327-1328 Versification Total Verse form 114 Romance, a-o 126 Silva 52 Romance, a-o 72 Redondilla 452 Romance, i-o 178 Romance, a-o 82 Romance, e-o 1076 180 Redondilla 44 Romance, e-o 4 Redondilla (song) 18 Romance, e-o 4 Redondilla (song) 2 Romance, e-o Linas Total Linas Versa form 1329-1368 40 Qulntllla 1369-1438 70 Romance, a-o 1439-1452 14 Soneto 1453-1454 2 Romance, e-o 1455-1468 14 Soneto 1469-1554 86 Romance, e-o 1555-1634 80 Redondilla 1635-1886 252 Romance, e-a 1887-1888 2 Endecasflabo 1889-2030 142 954 Romance, e-e ACT III 2031-2140 110 Decima 2141-2316 176 Romance, e-e 2317-2436 120 Romance, o-o 2437-2904 468 Romance, e-o 2905-3093 189 Romance, e-a 1063 TOTAL LINES 3093 Ill The various verse forms are found in the following proportions: Romance 2447 79.0 per cent Redondilla 340 11.0 Silva 126 4.1 Decima 110 3.6 Qulntllla 40 1.3 Soneto 28 .9 Endecas£labo 2 .1 3093 100.0 per cent Since Coello showed such a marked preference for the romance and obviously avoided the longer forms, it would be futile to try to relate the greater part of his versi fication system to Lope's suggestions in the Arte nuevo de hacer comedies. There are, however, certain noticeable tendencies and patterns in the versification of El Conde de Sex. Although the romance dominates each act, it con tains a relatively small number of assonances: a-o, i-o, e-o, e-a, e-e, o-o. In all three acts the practical assonances, mainly used for conversation, narration, and basic action, are a-o and e-a. An e-o assonance is also 112 extensively used for conversation but tending toward a more emotion charged dialog as in Act II, verses 1257-1554. This section, Interspersed with sonnets and glosaa. conveys the mental sparring done by the Queen and the Earl when neither dares to speak openly. The e-o assonance is used by the Queen to express her innermost thoughts at the end of Act I, and also in the mysterious and emotional section of Act III where she visits the Earl in prison. The romance in i-o in the first act (verses 365-816) is used for amorous conversation and narration in which a tender mood prevails. At the end of Act II a mood of quiet sadness is created by the Queen with the repetitive asso nance e-e. Suspense builds in this somber atmosphere toward the explosion of the final action in the act: the attempt on her life. The best adaptation of the musicallty of the verse to the situation is in Act III, verses 2317- 2436; the Queen gives words to her despair in a soliloquy in which the mournful o-o endings echo her grief like the tolling of a bell. To summarize Coello*s use of the romance it may be said that, in general, a-o and e-a convey basic action, narration, and conversation; e-o assonance is more 113 mysterious and Introspective; i-o conveys love and tender ness; e-e suggests sadness, agitation, and suspense; and the dole£ul o-o expresses deep melancholy. Coello follows Lope*8 suggestion more closely in the use of the redondilla for subjects of love. In Act I (293-364) Flora and the Duque de Alanson discuss the latter*8 unrequited love, and in Act II (1555-1634) the Duke agrees to intercede for Blanca to help her solve her dilemma of love and honor. The rollicking motion of the redondilla is exploited in lines 1077-1256 of the same act in the comic scene in which Cosme divulges his secret to Blanca. The decima is employed in the opening scene of Act III for another of the Queen's soliloquies in which she reveals her inner conflicts and struggles to reach a decision. This also is fairly well in line with Lope's opinion that the decima should be used for ouelas. The silva. as was mentioned in Chapter IV, is the form with which Coello realizes his highest lyrical flights. Verses 115-240 of Act I narrate an episode reminiscent of the pastoral novel: a perfect natural setting, a beautiful mysterious woman bathing, and the intrusion of violence 114 upon the scene in which the perfections of nature are equated with the beauty of the woman so that the two seem to merge. The versification table as a whole shows that Coello used an extremely compact structure In the first and last acts to establish the plot and to resolve it Into the final tragedy, but In the second act a wider range of verse forms is used to elaborate upon the basic conflict. And finally, lest it be said that this section too eagerly characterizes Coello as a master of the art of adapting verse form to dramatic situation, we must not lose sight of the distinct possibility that he preferred the romance simply because it was easier for him to write. The superabundance of romance in this and other plays, and the total absence of octavas and tereetos may well indicate that our author just did not have the ability to manipulate successfully the longer, more complicated forms. Of course this conjecture in no way detracts from the dramatic effec tiveness of El Conde de Sex. CHAPTER VIII METHOD AMD PROCEDURE The present edition of El Conde de Sex Is based on Its first printed edition In the collection Parte tr*fp^ * ««>f de las melores comedies ... . Barcelona, 1638. In the absence of the original manuscript It seems logical to assume that the first edition, which precedes the two manu scripts, reflects most accurately the play as Coello wrote It. This assumption, however, does not fall to take Into account the poor editing of that edition and the omissions that were made by the printer through carelessness or to compensate for lack of space. Therefore, passages which were judged to have belonged In the original text were restored, always on the basis of the second edition (1651), and manuscripts already discussed in Chapters II and III. All available seventeenth century sources (the second edition and two manuscripts) were collated with the first edition and the variants were recorded. Printing errors 115 116 of both editions were quite carefully noted except for minor slips such as inverted letters that could not pos sibly alter the meaning of a sentence. Common spelling variations such as dlce-dlze were not recorded. In order to make this edition more convenient and appealing to the modem reader, the spelling, punctuation, and capitalization have been modernized. However, the fol lowing archaic forms were retained in order to preserve the rhyme or to maintain the proper number of syllables: agora, mesmo. conceto. efeto. coluna. and Ingalaterra. In addi tion to these forms, certain characteristics of the first edition were reproduced solely in order to preserve its spirit and lend a seventeenth century flavor to this edi tion. For example, the spelling of Palacio with a capital letter is retained as are the contractions deste. destos. etc.; assimilation of infinitive + pronoun (delalios) and metathesis in the Imperative * 1 * pronoun (delaldos) are re tained wherever they appear in the first edition, whether or not they affect the rhyme; stage directions are taken directly from the first edition, or in case of their omis sion, from the second edition or manuscripts; and finally, facsimiles of the title page and last page of the 1638 edition are reproduced. 117 No arbitrary changas of words, phrases, or contant have baan mada for artistic purpoaas nor for tha aaka of making meaning more obvious. In cases where the three later sources showed one word and the 1638 edition used another, preference was always given to the version found In the latter provided, of course, that it made sense. The careless errors of the first edition were always corrected from the second edition or manuscripts and so recorded In the collation of variants. Since accurate reproduction of the variants requires careful spacing, and since a clean, readable text is most desirable, the collation notes, identified by their verse numbers, are presented in a body directly following the text. The original spelling has been preserved in the notes only in those cases where an exact reproduction is necessary to understand the nature of the variant. In keeping with the idea of a text uncluttered with mechanical accoutrements, all asides are included in paren theses eliminating the need for the word anarte. Passages not appearing in the 1638 edition are enclosed in brackets and all stage directions are underlined. PART II La Gran Comedla del CONDE DE SEX Hablan en ella las personas siguientes: Conde de Sex. Duqtie de Alans on. Senescal. Cosine, gracioso. Un crlado. Blanca, dama. Isabela, Reina. Flora, criada. Roberto. Soldados. 118 ROBERTO. REINA. ROBERTO. REINA. ROBERTO. CONDE. ROBERTO. CONDE. COSME. JORNADA PRIMERA Diaparan dentro un arcabuz. v dice ROBERTO: Muere, tIrana. 2Ah, traidorea! Aa£ vengo los agravlo8 que ha8 hecho a mi aangre. 2 Ay, cielo! E8ta espada, por al acaso mintio el golpe de la bala, 5 tifia 8U pecho. Ah, vi llano a, e8o no; yo la de£iendo. iQue intentas, hoobre? Sale COSME Mataros. iRuido de armas en la quinta, 119 CONDE. COSME. ROBERTO. COSME. ROBERTO. COSME. OTRO. ROBERTO. y dentro el Conde! iQue aguardo, qua no voy a socorrerle? iQue aguardo? ;Llndo recado! Aguardo a qua qulera al mlado dejarme entrar. Pues yo gasto llnda flema. Si a eso espero, blen socorrere a ml amo. No huyals, cobardaa traldores. Aquaste as el Conde. Huyamos, que se alborota la quinta. Salen ROBERTO v OTRO. con mascaras y aspadas. iQulen va? Nadia impida el paso; que la matare dos balas. Con mucho menos hay harto. iQuedo muerta? No lo se. iQue ocas Ion se ha malogrado! (Vanse. ) CONDE. REINA. CONDE. REINA. CONDE. REINA. CONDE. REINA. CONDE. REINA. CONDE. REINA. Salan EL CONDE DE SEE v LA REINA ISABELA, alia an eniaiM v cotilla. a madio vestir v con maacarllla. Huyeron. ^Estate harida? No, buana me slanto; arraron al golpa. Pues yo lo8 algo. No, no lo8 sigals; daj aldos. iPor qua? Temo vuestro riesgo. Mucho os debo. Mucho os pago agora ... Mas otro d£a . •. iQue? No puedo declararos mas agora, porque temo que da la Relna en el cuarto se haya sentido rdldo, y hallarme ser£a gran dano aqu£ en tal traje. Idos presto. Yo os obedezco. Esperaos• CONDE. REINA. CONDE. REINA. CONDE. REINA. lEa sangre? iQue estais herldo Herldo eitoy an la mano, aunque poco. Pues tomad aquasta banda; aprataos la harida. Es gran £avor. No es favor, paro pansaldo si os asta blen qua lo sea; que an lance tan apratado la nece8ldad dispense lo que prohlblo el recato. (En todo parece al Conde; mas £como, si no ha llegado de la guerra? Amor le ofrece a la vista antojos vanos.) ^Conocelsme? Aquesa banda senal para hacer buscaros sera, y adlos; que yo estoy en grande riesgo, si acaso sabe la Relna este exceso; 123 CONDE. REINA. CONDE. COSME. CONDE. COSME. CONDE. COSME. CONDE. COSME. y ami, el aecreto os encargo de todo. Yo os lo prometo. (lS± me he conocldo acaso? 60 Mss iquien dire que 70 as toy en hablto tan humano?) ( Vase.) &Hay confusion mas extrana? iQue es esto? iQuien es? El dlablo. Cosine, que ha tenldo mledo 63 que puede valer por cuatro. Cosme, jvIste sallr tu dos hombres enmascarados por aqu£? Escuchen la £lema; pues de aqueso es ml trabajo; 70 pero dime: &que mujer es esta que hamos sonado entre los dos? No lo se. FUes iQue has vlsto? CONDE. COSME. CONDE. COSME. CONDE. COSME. Dodo cuanto he vis to ha sido un enigma. Y los hombres qua pasaron por aquli £quien son? No se. Ries £que in£teres desto? On rato escucha, y yo te dire lo que he sabido del caso: ya sabes c6mo venlinos de la guerra, y que llegando los dos esta tarde a Londres, suplmos que este verano la Reina por unos dlas, para divertir culdados del gob temo, se ha venido a aquesta casa del campo, que est£ dos leguas de Londres, y es de Blanca, sol blzarro y bianco de mis flnezas, y yo lo soy de sus rayoa. Ya se que tu, por cumplir 125 CONDE. lu ltyti da enamorado, vanlata a var ancublarto 95 a Blanca harmosa, flado an la llava dasta puerta, qulan otro tlempo dlo paso mil vacaa a tus deseos, cuando esta quinta taatro 100 £ua de tan £lnoa amores, antes qua antraaa an Palaclo Blanca a servlr a la Reina. Se qua te queda esperando; sb que entraste alia dentro, 105 que hubo arcabuz y embozados; se que tuve todo el mledo que tener puede un crlstiano, y esto es lo que se mas bien, porque lo estoy estudlando 110 desde al d£a an qua nac£; y pues esto no es del caso, dime lo demas. Pues oye, Cosme, lo que has ignorado: Entrt an la quinta, cuya oculta puarta al mas pequeffo lmpulso la hall£ ablarta la novedad admiro; emplazo a camlnar por al ratlro de una varde espesura, qua hast a vanlr la noche me asegura. Pasa por esta quinta conducldo un desculdo del Tamesls florido, l£quldo desperdicio o vena brave, por donde el r£o se sangro da nieve; de8camlnada plata que en senda cristallna se dasata, o fugltlvo aljofar transparante que callado se fauyo da la corrlente. Esta, pues, valla undosa divide al sltlo ameno, tan denso e Intrieado que la graSa frondosa da su crespo cabello anmaranado, soplando alrado o lento, con gran dl£lcultad la peina al vlanto. Por eate, pues, camino, slandoma alamp re «1 rlo cristallno, cuando al tino it plarda, hilo da plata an labarlnto verde, a pocos pasoa advartldo aianto an al agua rflldo; hago al examen, arbltro al o£do; nada avarlguo as£, por mas qua atanto an infomarme Insists. Recojo la atancion para la vl8ta; alia penetra ramas, y yo vao — escucha lo qua vi, qua aun no lo creo- una mu jar divina, racllnada an la margen cristalina, quitarse, descuidada, azul cendal y madia nacarada, negros das pues cotumos al pia breve, que, primavera err ante, floras lluava; las dos colunas belias metio dentro dal r£o, y como al vellas vi crlatal an al r£o dasatado, y vl criaeal en alias condansado, no supe si las aguas qua sa v£an 128 •ran aua plea, que l£quldoa corrfan, o al aua doa colunaa se formaban de laa aguaa que all£ ae congelaban. El hermoao cabello, auelto al vlento, en qulen con manao allento el ceflro laaclvo se abrlgaba, el ague llcendoaa aalplcaba, o £ue 1ison jearla el crlatal frlo, o envldloaaa laa nlnfas de aquel rfo, pensando que eatuvlera menoa bello, le encanecieron parte del cabello; y como mas atento aoor mlraba, quise ver si au roatro conformaba con lo demas, y cuando verle plenaa ml curloaa atenclon, hallo defenaa que, de negro cendal, pudo encubrllla el medio roatro media maacarllla, dejando llbre, con beldad no poca, lo que hay de8de la barba haata la boca: advertIdo recato, qua, aunque penao que nadle la mlraba, qulao al agua encubrlr el roatro el rato 160 165 170 175 180 qua it juzgo lndtctntt, porque no lo parlor* la corriente. To, qua al prlnclplo vi, clago y turbado, a una parte nevado, y en otra negro al roatro, juzgue, mlrando tan divlno monatruo, que la naturaleza culdadosa, des igualdad unlendo tan hermoaa, quiso hacer por asombro o por ultraje de azabache y mar£ll un maridaj e. Tan hermoaa en efeto parec£a con la nube que el rostro le cubr£a, que, como la miro deade su esfera, por imltarla en algo, al pudlera, antes de deapenar al mar su coche, el aol ae cubrlo el roatro con la noche. Qulao probar acaso el agua, y fueron crlstallxio vaso sue mano8; acercolaa a los lablos, y entoncea el arroyo lloro agravlos; y como tanto, en fin, se parec£a a aua manoa aquello que beb£a, tem£ con sobraialto, y no fua on vano, quo so boblora parto do la mono. Llogo la nocho on fin, sallo dol rlo, y dolgado cambray chup£ ol rocfo do las dos azucenas; onvldlan a las floras las arenas, vlondo quo ha do pisarlas; y luego, on acabando do onjugarlas, a cubrlr empozo sus dos colunas con dos nubes de nacar importunaw; adomo suolo ser, pero ^qulon duda quo era mayor adomo estar dosnuda? En osto ruido 8lento; oigo una voz declr: "Muero, tlrana. dlspara un arcabuz su bala al vlonto; turbome yo do vor que la profana; ella cae a law floras do repente, y todo fue tan Indlstint amento quo ompozaron a obrar a un tlempo mismo ruido, voz, bala, susto y paroxismo. Dos hombres, dos traldoros, el rostro Infame cada cual cublorto, por si ha salldo al arcabuz Inderto, sacaron los aearos vangadoras contra su pacho. Etatonces yo llgaro llago y hagome bianco da su acaro; rlno con alios; huyen racatados de ml valor, o su traldon turbados. Yo los slgo; alia, an s£ restitulda, tame an segulrlos rlasgos da ml vlda. Con racelo me hablo, ya tii lo o£ste; esta banda me dlo, ya tu lo vista. Fuesa; no se qulan as; s6lo he sabldo que esta mujer, qua enigma ha parecldo, quiz a an ml corazon hublara antrado si Blanca algun lugar la hublara dado; mas, como a tanto amor la vlene astracho, no conslente otro huasped an el pacho. 131 225 230 235 COSME COSME CONDE Notable suceso ha sldo. Van aca. iQue? COSME CONDE Discurramos qulan sera aquasta mujer. La mujer dal hortelano, CONDE. COSME. CONDE. COSME. CONDE. COSME. CONDE. qua •• l m b t las p lamas. Niefo, da varas ta hablo. Puas yo da varaa lo dlgo. Dos hombres anmascarados tanar llava da la quinta, atreverse a antrar astando la Reina an alia, no as de poca importune ia al caso. Pues sera alguna mondonga con algun honrado harmano, que vanga a vangar su honor. Mira que estas muy cans ado. Ries £quien quiares tu qua sea? jPor fuersa ha da sar milagro? £Vista tu mas qua unas piamas y un rostro muy bian tapado? Detras da una mascarllla pudo astar Arias Gonzalo, La Monja alfaraz, al cura y la moza de Pilatos. Necio, al arte y al asao, al modo da hablar, al garbo 132 245 250 255 260 265 133 COSME. CONDE. COSME. CONDE. COSME. CONDE. COSME. CONDE. arguyen nobleza en ella. Pues, ya que notaste tan to, £ii 0 pudlste conocerla en la voz? No, porque hablando con turbacl6n, no es poslble; fuera de que es neclo engaao pensar que, entre tantas damas como tlene en su palaclo la Reina, en la voz se pueda conocer aquesta. Es llano, y mas quien ha estado ausente. Ya es muy tarde, Cosme; vamos. £No has de entrar a ver a Blanca? No, que e star a con culdado si acaso oyeron el ruldo, y no es blen que sin recato, si me ven, eche a perder un amor de tantos anos. Vamos pues. I [Ay] Blanca mla! 270 275 280 285 134 DUQUE. FLORA. DUQUE. FLORA. DUQUE. perdona si ma ha estorbado de hablarte esta noche y verte un aucaso tan extrafio; que manana Ira ml amor, clego a tus dlvlnos rayos, a ser salamandra ardlente en tus ojos soberanos. (Vansa.) Salen FLORA, crlada. y EL DUQUE DE ALANS6N. iQue hace Blanca? Esta vlstlendo a la Reina. Yo he venldo a su cuarto, conducldo deste mal que estoy sintlendo, para hablarte en ml culdado, pues eres tu la tercera de ml amor. Eh vano espera vuestra alteza ser pagado. Pues ique dice cuando amante 290 295 300 135 FLORA. DUQUE. por ella el pecho suspire? Como ella a c as arse aspire, vuestra alteza no se espante que, hablendo tanta dlstancla, 305 tema poner su aflci6n en un Duque de Alans&i, hermano del rey de Francla, y asl, ingrata corresponds; que, aunque es de tan alta esfera, 310 vos sols mas. (iQulen le dljera que es porque ella qulere al Conde?) To vine, como sabr&s, con color de una embajada, a Londres, y mi Jornada 315 no fue a las paces; que mas £ue a tratar ml casamlento con la Reina; y tanto gano, que a Londres el Rey, mi hermano, me envi6 para este intento; 320 y aunque esto esta en buen estado con los grandes y la Reina, Blanca, que en mi pecho reina DUQUE. FLORA. DUQUE. FLORA. DUQUE. FLORA. DUQUE. FLORA. hoy, m da mayor culdado. Esta papal la has da dar, paro yo tango da var •.. — aata gusto ma has da hacer-- En todo puadas mandar. ... lo qua, al leer[le], responde. ^Como? Ocultandome aqu£. Mire tu alteza ... Por m£ has de hacer aquasto; ^donde me entrare ? Y pues soy cautivo de la causa de ml pena, qultame tu esta cadena. (iQua Undo madurativo! ;Ablandare! ^Hay tal porf£a?) Pues lo quiere vuestra alteza, entrese en aquasta plaza que sale a una galer£a. Escondese el DUQUE. Salen BLANCA y COSME. BLANCA. COSME* FLORA. Vuilveu a dar mil abrazoi. Basta basar tus plas a ml, SeSora, y despues merezca al Conda tus brasos. Forqua no ta dlasa susto el varla entrar da rapanta --porque Inoplnadamente sue la dar la muarte un gusto- yo me adelanto, y el llaga. (El Conde vlene, --jay de oil! y como el Duque esta aqul, ha de escuchar --jestoy claga cuanto pas.a en sus amores; qulerolo as! remedlar.) Tu alteza se puede entrar un rato a ver los primores que esa hermosa galerla en tantes plnturas tiene, porque una vis It a vlene a ver a Blanca, y serla cansancio estaros aqul; en yendose, avlsare 138 DUQUE. FLOHA. CONDE. BLANCA. CONDE. BLANCA. CONDE. a tu alttza. Asl lo hare. Vasa al DUQUE v aala al CONDE. FUea adlos; blan est£ as£. Nunca cre£ qua llagara 365 esta dicha. DuaSo nlo, Solemnicen hoy mis brazos la dicha da habarta vis to. iVienes bueno? Ya lo estoy; que hasta aquf solo ha vivido 370 a cuenta de la asparanza da ver tus ojos divinos. j Ay, Conde. lo que me cuastas! £Sabas. Blanca, lo que digo? Qua la agradazco a la ausencia 375 al habarma suspandldo la gloria da estarta viando. porque agora mas la astlmo. Bian haya la ausencia. Blanca; BLANCA. CONDE. BLANCA. CONDE. BLANCA. CONDE. BLANCA. CONDE. BLANCA. CONDE. BLANCA. bien haya, amen, pues me hljo, solo con darme el tormento, mas deaplerto en el allvlo. Yo, Conde, solo con verte, como slempre .. • mas ique digo? In£ormate tu del pecho, pues en el has aslstldo, y no llmlte la lengua un amor que es infinito, nl las £lnezas de un alma eche a perder un sentldo. ^Que hlclera yo por pagarte? Si eso, Conde, has pretendldo ya tengo con que me pagues. Pues £que dudas, Blanca? Dllo. Una merced has de hacerme. ^Merced, Blanca? $En que te slrvo? Mira que te f£o el alma. Ya, Senora, estoy corrldo. ^Eres ml dueno? Tu esclavo. ISoy tu esposa? 139 380 385 390 395 CONDE. BLANCA. CONDE. BLANCA. CONDE. BLANCA. Eras blan m£o. iQuleresme mucho? Te adoro. Pues, an fe da aso qua has dicho, sallos los dos alia fuera (Vanaa Flora v ) y escucha tu. Ya se ban Ido. (iQue querra Blanca?) Ya sabes oh Conda da Sex invlcto, que me servlste tras anos, y que al fin ml pecho esquivo labrar sa dajo, aunque bronca, al burll da tus susplros, pues qua, con la £e y palabra qua me dlste de marldo, te hlce dueno da ml honor, y que no nos atrevimos a casamos por ml padre y ml hermano, que enemigos fueron slempre de tu casa. 140 400 405 410 415 141 CONDE. BLANCA. Todo, Blanca, lo ha sabido, y qua ya, despues da muartoa i tu harmano y padre, qulslmos, dandole cuenta a la Reina, casamos, cuando Flllpo Segundo, espanol monarca, contra Ingalatarra hizo la armada mayor qua nunca con pesadumbre de plno la espalda oprlmio salobre de aqueae monstruo de vidrio; y que a ml la Reina entonces me envio con sus navlos a procurer resistir tan poderoso enemigo. Por esto no pude entonces casarme; agora he venido de la empresa, y a la Reina pedire, a sus pies rendido, que me case. Pues supuesto que es verdad lo que me has dicho, 420 425 430 435 y que mis males te toe an ya como tuyos mlsmos, bien podre seguramente revelarte lntentos mlos, como a galan, como a dueno, como a e8poso y como a amigo. La reina de Ingalaterra, Isabela, que ha tenldo slempre suspense la Europe con £uerza o con artificio, prendlo a Marla Estuarda, reina de Escocla y archlvo de virtudes y belleza, por unos falsos indlclos. Creyo Isabela, o creyeron de Isabela los valldos, que Marla fomentaba en secreto los deslnlos de rebeldes conjurados. I Que engano para creldo! Llamo Isabela a la Reina a su corte, y ella vino. 143 blen como al traldor raclamo 8uale Inc auto pajarlllo venlr irapr ovis amenta, fastajando su peligro, a ser despoj o sangrlento del cazador enemlgo. Ml padre que muchos aSos estuvo en los tlemos mlos con la embajada en Escoda, slempre se Incllno al servlclo de Marla y de aquel reino; y yo, con el amor mismo, cuando nacl, me crle con la Reina, y le ha debldo ml amor muchos agasajos y no pocos beneficios. Con esto a ml viejo padre y a ml hermano Ludovico, por complices y traldores, los meten en un castlllo, solo porque la Inocencla de la Reina no han querldo 465 470 475 480 perseguir, como los otros; s6lo porque el hecho Indlgno no apoyaron, como nobles; s6lo porque, slendo amigos de la vlrtud e inocenda, ser parciales no ban flngldo de la mallda. ;0h, mal haya mil veces, mal haya el siglo en que para conservarse, porque es monarca el dellto, ha menester la vlrtud ser hlp6crita del vldo! En fin, Conde; en fin, Senor, — icon que lastima lo dlgo! -- tldendo en sangre la Reina aquel Infame cuchlllo, noble vlctlma, inocente, fue de lnjusto sacrificio; be 11a flor, que de la noche se defendio en su capillo, de Ignoranclas del arado probo los groseros fllos; de atrevimlento villano el antojo inadvertldo violar pudo honesta rose qua aun me recato al roc£o; fallecio blanca azucena, de qulen se coplo el armlno, a los hlelos del enero o a los rayos del est£o; dejose ajar de una mano, deshojado clavel fino, y pisar de errante huella, destroneado hermoso llrlo; porque, murlendo la Relna al arado, al pie, al cuchillo al antojo, hlelo y mano, murleron en el suplldo juntos flor, v£ctima, rose, clavel, azucena y llrio; tambien ml padre y ml hermano por no estar blen conveneidos murleron de la prlslon al lento y sordo martlrlo; 146 pero, en fin, cono traldocu, quedaron deatltuldoa de su hacienda y de au eat ado, y haata Roberto, ml prlmo, 530 por pariente de ml padre, que no por otro delito, huyo el rieago, y ain estado vive en Eacocla eacondldo. Yo, en venganza de la Relna, 535 del hermano y padre m£o, lrritada y perauadlda, — que tambien eata ofendldo— del noble conde Roberto, mi prlmo, me determino 540 a dar muerte a e8ta fiera, y quiz£ por su deatlno, o por juaticia del cielo, venlr8e ella miama quiao a ml quinta algunoa d£as. 545 Yo, en fin, a Roberto eacrlbo que venga en aecreto a darle la muerte, que el tiempo, el aitio, el asistlrla yo slenpre, y ester desapercebldos, daban ocasi6n bast ante pare lograr sue dealnloa. Vino, y espero ocasion unos d£as escondldo; y ayer, bajando Isabela sola a los jardlnes, dijo que no hubiese nadle en ellos y yo a Roberto le aviso; entonces, dejando abierto de la quinta el un postlgo, el la tiro una pistole al tiempo que de unos mirtos salio un hombre a socorrerla; y el, por no ser conocido si al ruido acudiese gente, se fue, dejando perdidos a un tiempo ocasion, venganza esperanzas y desinlos. Vo, el corazon lleno de Ira, en rabia el pecho encendido, ardiendo en venganza al alma y en c£lera el rostro tinto, puea son tuyos mis agravios, y tuyos aun mas que m£os, como a esposo, como a dueno, como a senor y marldo, hoy a tu valor apelo: ml venganza a tl te f£o; venga tus proplos agravios, pues los mlos te prohijo. Muera esta tirana, Gonde; escribe al Conde, ml prlmo; Junta tus amigos todos, pues todos son tus amigos. Sin riesgo puedes matarla porque es tan aborrecldo el nombre de esta tirana, que, en vez de darte castlgo, lauros le dara tu patrla a tu valor peregrlno; y si no, viven los cielos, que, si leal o remiso, 149 CONDE. o dudas o no to atreves a hocor eato quo to pldo, yo mlanta, 70 mlsma, Condo, 595 euando £altara on ml prlmo el valor o la ocas Ion, apelando a aquas too brlos, con loa dlentes, con las manos, o con mis proplos suaplros, 600 cuando faltara Instrumento a ml a£ecto vengativo, he de hacerla mas podazos que ese monstruo cristalino hunde crttel en su centro, 605 que os veclndad del ablsmo. (iHay tal tralclon? Vive el cielo, que de amarla os toy corrldo. ^Blanca, que es ml dulce dueno, Blanca, a quien quiero y estlmo, 610 me propone tal tralclon? iQue hare? Porque si ofendldo, rospondlendo como es justo, contra su tralclon me Irrlto, no por oso ho de ovltar su resuelto desatlno; pues dsrle cuenta a la Balna as lmposlble, pues qulso ml suerte que tenga parte Blanca en aquaste dellto; pues si procuro con ruegos dlsuadirla, es desvarfo, que es una mujer resuelta animal tan vengativo que no se dobla a los ruegos --antes con a£ecto imp£o en el mlsmo rendlmlento suelen aguzar los £llos— y qulza desesperada de ml enojo o ml desvfo, se dedarara con otro, menos leal o mas fino, que quizl por ella intente lo que yo hacer no he querldo demas que el inconveniente del vll Roberto, su prlmo, 151 BLANCA. CONDE. tampoco etia, y ^quien duda qua el, por traldoraa o amigos, tanga machos conspirados, qua £omentan sus motives? 640 Pues yo tango da librar a la Relna dal peligro. Viva Dios, qua ha da barrer aquastos fieros prodlglos da tralclon de Ihgalaterra; 645 todos juntos conducldos an un d£a con ml Industrie, se han de venlr al cuchlllo; que despues a Blanca sola, sin persuasion de su prlmo, 650 con ruego o con amenazas ata jare sus desinlos.) Si estais consultando, Conde, alia dentro de ti mlsmo lo que has de hacer, no me quleres; 655 ya el dudarlo £ue dellto. Vive Dios, qua eras ingrato. (En esto me determino.) BLANCA. CONDE. DUQUE. CONDE. iQue respondts? Yt te doy le respuesta por escrlto. Fonese a escrlblr el Conde sobre un bufete. v aaomeae EL DOQPE. (Como tarda tanto Flora curioso a ver he salldo que vislta es la qua a Blanca tanto entretlene. iQue mlro? jEl Conde de Sex con Blanca? Pues, £como? jEl Conde ha venido de la guerra?) La respuesta nunca dudar se ha podido de ml afecto, slendo ya tan grandes agravios sdtos. Partase Cosine, y a Escocla lleve esta carta en que dlgo a Roberto que se venga el y todos sus amigos a la deshllada a Londres; 153 DUQUE. CONDE. DUQUE. CONDE. DUQUE. CONDE. qua eon la ganta qua rljo, qua no segulra, y al pueblo, da quien astoy tan blenqulsto, dare la muarta a la Ralna. (Qua ascucho?) En corrlentes r£os 680 da su lnfame sang re plenso anegar su cuarto mlsmo. (En vlnlendo todos juntos morlran en el supllclo.) iMuera esta tirana! jMuera! 685 Arranque mi brazo invicto ... (Hay tal tralclon?) ... dasta reino y dal mundo este prodlgio; que, a pesar da Ingalaterra, si una vez la espada esgrimo, 690 he da beber de su sangre. Sale EL DUQUE. No podreis mientras yo vivo. iValgame al cielo! 154 BLANCA. CONDE. BLANCA. CONDE. BLANCA. DUQUE. BLANCA. DUQUE. |Ay de ml! iQue *8 esto, Blanca? iQue mlro? £Como vueatra alteza ... El Conde ... 695 (Toda soy un hlelo frlo.) Pu.es icoao, Blanca, en tu cuarto el Duque? ^Quien le ha metldo en ml cuarto a vueatra alteza? Nadle, Blanca, que yo mlamo 700 me entre aca, quiza gulado de algun impulso divino, para e8torbar tal maldad. Pues &cuando tu alteza ha vi8to en ml ocas Ion para hacer ... 705 Eaperad. iQue desatino! Bor vlda del Ray, mi hermano, y por la que mas estlmo, de la Relna, ml aenora, y por ... Pero yo lo digo: 710 — que en ml es el mayor empeno de la verdad el decirlo-- 155 CONDE. DUQUE. CONDE. DUQUE. CONDE. DUQUE. qua no tlane Blanca parta de estar yo aqu£; qua yo mlsmo me antra, hallando ablerto, a var 715 esoa cuadros, divertldo, qua tiene eata galer£a; y astad muy agradecido a Blanca da que yo os da, no satisfacclon, aviso 720 desta vardad; porque a vos, hombre, como yo ... Lnagino qua no me conoceis bien. NO os hab£a conocido hasta aqu£; mas ya os conozco, 725 pues yo tan otro os he vlsto que os reconozco traldor. Qulen dijere ... Yo lo dlgo; no pronuncieis algo, Conde, que yo no pueda sufriros. 730 Cualquler cosa qua yo Intents ... Mirad que estoy persuadldo 156 CONDE. DUQUE. qua hace la tralclon cobardas; y as£, cuando os ha cogldo en un lance que me da 735 de que sols cobarde indicios, no he de aprovechaxme desto, y as£ os perdona ml br£o este rato que tenels el valor disxnintlido, 740 que a estar todo vos entero, suplera daros castigo. Yo soy el Conde de Sex, y nadle se me ha atrevldo sino el hermano del rey 745 de Franc la. Yo tengo br£os para que, sin ser quien soy, pueda mi valor Invlcto castigar, no digo yo solo a vos, mas a vos mismo, 750 slendo leal, que es lo mas, con que queda encarecldo; y pues sols tan gran soldado, no echeis a perder, os pido, tantas harolcas hasaSas con un hacho tan Indlgno. ^Qua os ha hacho a vos la Raina? $Por qua su privanza os hlso? $Que daslnios son aquestos? Ea, Conde, corraglldos. Solo yo sabre asta caso; paro mal dije: yo mlsmo no lo sabra; qua, an sallendo de aquasta cuadra que plso, si agora ha sabido aquasto, despues no lo habre sabido. Yo quedare muy ufano que me debais asta aviso: qua yo se muy bian que Blanca si yo no hubiera salido prlmero a vuestros intantos, conforme al bias on antiguo de su sangra y da la vuastra, os hubiara respondido. Ya habreis mudado de intento; 158 CONDE. y si no, 08tad advertido quo a qulen a« atreva a tanar al mas oculto deslnlo contra la Relna, yo entonces, qua la guardo, qua la asIsto, 780 que la estlmo, qua la qulero, qua la da£lando y la llbro, atalaya a sus pis ad as, Argos a su sol dlvino, sabra sar lince qua os vea 785 los mas ocultos motives. Y sabra daros mil muertes; qua, si esta aspada esgrlmo, todo un mundo de traldores son pocos al valor mfo. 790 Mlraldo major, dejad un lntanto tan lndlgno; corresponded a qulen sols; y si no bastan avisos, mlrad qua hay vardugo an Londres, 795 y an vos cabeza; harto os dlgo. (Vasa.) (Corrldo y confuso astoy. 159 BLANCA. lVlose lance como el m£o? Pero plense agora el Duque mal de la £e con que slrvo 800 a la Relna; que despues, con la hazaffa que lmagino, el vera que soy leal.) Lleven la carta a tu prlmo. (A ella.) (No he de responder al Duque 805 hasta qua el suceso mlsmo mue8tre como fueron falsos de ml tralclon los indlclos, y que soy mas leal cuando mas traldor he pareddo.) [Vase.] 810 ^Hubo de8dicha mas grande? Y aun mayor hubiera sldo si no aclerta a ser el Duque el que escucho los deslnlos del Conde. iValgame el delo! 815 I Que desdlchada he nacldo! [Vase BLANCA.] Salen EL SENESCAL v LA REINA REINA. SENESCAL. REINA. SENESCAL. REINA. SENESCAL. Senescal, asto quo os digo me sucedio. El clelo santo nos defendio vuestra vida. Haced pues qua los soldados de mi guards eaten a trechos aquasta quinta guardando hast a que me vuelva a Londres. ^No ser£a major buscarlos a los vlles agresores? iCaaol Yo hare echar un bando, que o£rezca grande8 mercedes, el delito publicando, a quien diere el agresor, y que sera perdonado, si es complice, el que le entrega; y pues son dos los culpados, podra ser que alguno dellos entregue al otro; que es llano que sera traidor amigo quien fue desleal vasallo. 161 REINA. No lo apruebo, Senescal, qua as£ aa publlqua al caso, y no quiaro yo qua aapan qua hubo quien se atreva a tanto 840 qua lntente daxma la muerte dos laguas de ml palaclo; que quiza despertaremos de algunos que estan callando la tralclon con este ejemplo; 845 que es gran materia de estado dar a entender que los reyes estan en s£ tan guardados que, aunque la tralclon los busque, nunca ha de poder hallarlos; 850 y as£, el secreto averlgtte enormes delitos cuando mas que el castlgo escarmlentos da ejemplares el pecado. Sale un CRIADO. CRIADO. El de Sex plde llcencla para entrar. 855 162 REINA. CONDE. REINA. CONDE. REINA. CONDE. REINA. SENESCAL. Pues &ha llegado? (Macho me tamo.) Dadd que espere; mas no, dejaldo. Entre. Sale EL CONDE con la banda. SI acaso merezco besar tus pies ... Levantaos, 860 Coluna de Ingalaterra, que ya solo con mlraros se el suceso de la guerra. (Locos pensamlentos vanos, dejadme; £que me quereis?) 865 Yo mi8mo he querido daros la nueva. iQue hay de mi armada? Libre esta el reino; dejamos de los espaHoles lenos llmpio nuestro mar britano. 870 iFeliz suceso! iGran nueva! 163 CONDE. REINA. CONDE. REINA. CONDE. REINA. De tita suarta fue ... Esperaos. No quiero o£r el suceso haste teneros premlado. Senescal, haced al pun to 875 la cedula en que le hago de Ingalaterra almlrante al Conde. [Vase el Senescal.] Besar tu mano sera de tan grandes premlos el mayor. Llega el Conde a besar la mano a la Relna. y ella repara en la banda. Debo pagaros ... 880 (iQue mlro?) ... porque a servlclos ... (^No es esta ml banda?) ... tantos ml relno ... jCuando llegastels? (Bi la banda ha reparado.) Agora. aqueste punto 885 os apeals? 164 CONDE. REINA. CONDE. REINA. CONDE. (iQue maa claro indielo que £ue la Relna, aun cuando hublera faltado lo que dljo Blanca?) IAgora? No lo creo; &algun culdado no hab£ade8 de tener que de amenta o cortesano anoche os hlclese un poco adelantar? Confesaldo; yo os perdono el haber sldo menos puntual vasallo que amante, por vlda m£a. (El lo nlega.) A empeno tanto, 2, quien lo negara, aunque importe la vlda? ^Es favor acaso la banda, o estais herldo? Siempre he vlvldo lgnorado de amor; mas ya dulcemente la banda ha llsonjeado 890 895 900 REINA. CONDE. REINA. CONDE. REINA. los dolores dssta hsrida qua ma dieron an la mano por sarvlros. Yo lo crao. (^No bastaba, amor tirano, una Incllnaclon tan fuarte, sin qua ta hayas ayudado del debarla yo la vlda?) ^Quereis mucho? £Sois pagado de la dama de la banda? Es el sujeto tan alto que aun no podran mis susplros 915 alcanzar alia volando. (^Sl anoche me conocio? Mas esto es hablar a caso.) Y ella, £sabe vuestro amor? Aunque en batallas y asaltos 920 tan atrevldo y valiente me mostre, no lo soy tanto que ose decirle ml amor, porque aun de m£ le recato. Pues si no se lo habels dicho, 925 165 905 910 166 CONDE. REINA. CONDE. REINA. no tennis de que quejeros. N1 aun a quej acme me atrevo. (iDirele al Conde — ique aguardo! - que soy a qulen dlo la vlda? Mas, ioh necla lengua!, paso. iSera blen que sepa el Conde que soy la que sin recato vlo anoche como mujer, cuando deldad me ha juzgado? Creame deldad el Conde; que lo que tlenen de humanos no han de revelar los reyes a los ojos del vasallo.) (iQue es esto, locura mia? ^Atrevereme --mal hago— a presumlr que la Relna ... pero no; ique neclo engano!) (El Conde me dlo la vlda; con£leso que me ha pesado. iOh ln£ame agradec imlento que engendro ml amor bastardo, hi jo de padre traldor, 930 935 940 945 167 CONDE. REINA. CONDE. REINA. CONDE. REINA. CONDE. SENESCAL. yo to at aj are loo puoi. Ea, cordura, £esto tu£r«i?) Conde. Senora. (Venzanos.) iComo no os vais (jEstoy loca!) a descansar? Solo aguardo llcencia. Pues Idos luego. Ya os obedezco. Esperaos. (lQue es eato?) Esperad un poco y os llevarels el despacho desta merced que os he hecho. (iQue as! me rlnda un cuidado? Esta es la prlmera vez que tener el pecho ingrato fuera en m£ menos bajeza.) Sale EL SENESCAL. con escrlbano. (Confuso estoy.) Ya le aguardo. Esta es la cedula; firme 950 955 960 168 REINA. CONDE. REINA. CONDE. REINA. CONDE. REINA. CONDE. REINA. CONDE. REINA. CONDE. vueatra alteza. Ta ha flrmado. Tomad la cedula, Conde, da aqua8ta merced qua os hago; yo mlsma al daspacho os doy, solo por no dllataros la merced, porque no qularo, cuando me sarv£s y os pago, echar a perder al pramlo con hacer que os cueste pasos. El mayor pramlo as servlros. (&S1 es tanto favor acaso?) (Amor loco ... ) (Nscio amor ... ) (que clago ... ) (qua temerario ... ) (me abates a tal bajeza ... ) (me quieres sublr tan alto ... > (advierte qua soy la Relna.) (advlarta qua soy vasalio.) (Pues me humlllas al ablsmo ... ) (Fbas me acercas a los rayos ... ) 965 970 975 980 169 REINA. CONDE. REINA. CONDE. REINA. CONDE. REINA. CONDE. REINA. CONDE. [SENESCAL. REINA. (sin reparar ml grandeza ... ,) (sin mlrar ml hum! Ids eat ado ... ,) (ya que ts admlto sea dentro ... ,) 985 (ya qua an ml ta vas antrando ... ,) (muara antra al pacho y la vox.) (no ta asomes a los lablos.) ^Olsme, Conde? Senora. Vedme despues. Soy tu esclavo. 990 (iNeclo engano, no me subas para caer de mas alto!) (Vase.) (Macho va sublendo el Conde si no baja al mlsmo peso.) ( Vase.) Ya que hemos quedado solos, 995 culdado, a cuentos lleguemos: has tu alarde de tus armas, y yo de mis pensamlentos. El Conde: &qulen es el Conde? Es galAn: yo lo confleso; 1000 es dlscreto: no lo dudo; es vallente: yo lo creo; 170 m gallardo: ya lo mlro; as nobla: yo no lo nlego; paro eat a tambien, el miamo, 1005 as da8lgual: yo lo tano; as lnfellz: sa lo astlmo; as pobra: yo lo padasco; as crlado: yo lo lloro; as vaaallo: ya lo slanto; 1010 as humllde ••• Mas no as tal: mlento yo, mil vacas miento; y si esto as vardad, memorla, hazte olvidadiza da alio; no me lo acuardas, por Dios, 1015 pues dejame, qua yo quiero ragalar con la mentira, lisonjaar con el riesgo, paladear con al dano y halagar con al vanano. 1020 Ceaa agora la cordura; 8U8pandaaa un poco al seso, y deje la voluntad un rato al entendlmiento. 171 To mo pordono a ml mlsma aquello quo no me advlorto para aquosto quo me flnjo, y do buona gana dojo do gosar blenos tan malos por sufrir malos [tan buenos. ] Boro yo no soy quien soy: la Reina soy; no lo croo couao rolna quien no tiene sobro una pas ion Imperio. Yo, ^vasallaje a un cuidado? Yo, £8ujecion? &Que os aquosto? iNo soy Isabela [yo:] Isabela, la quo tengo pendionte do mis motives a todo el mundo suspenso? ^No soy do Europe osporanza? lA ml no me pretendieron ol gran Duquo do Alanson quo on ml corto esta asistiondo --sangre ilustre do Valois--, ol rey do Bolonia excolso, 1025 1030 1035 1040 1045 172 el Infante de EacocZa y don Juan, equal mancebo, hi jo del gran Carloa quin to, del tronco de Austria renuevo? To, &pechera del amor? To f£o en los pesos de un clego, la esperanza de un rapes, de un loco el entendlalento, de un tlrano la pledad, y en fin, de un desnudo el premlo. {Yo al Conde, yo al Conde! To slendo relna, pues por eso amor allana lmposlbles, que el rayo, como sabemos, la resl8tencla le enclende y le apaga el rendlmlento. No Irrlta robusta encina la Injusta 8ana del vlento --revellin vegetatlvo que bate a soplos el clerzo— 1050 1055 1060 1065 la tlerra en un mlsmo tlempo que a reudal vlolento al junco •a hurta doblando al cuello. Aiai al aato aa ui, y aa fuarsa aar uno daatoa aastramoa, aa cordura, eacojanoa; mlrad cu&l aa maa aclerto: o doblarma al raudo, junco, o Imlcar anclna al vianto. ] JORNADA SEGDNDA Salen COSME v EL CONDE DE SEX. COSME. Agora a Londrea llagamos, U ya a Palaclo venlmoa? CONDE. Loa qua a raya8 aalatlmoa nunca, Cosine, dascanaamoa. Agora la Raina llaga daada la quinta a Palaclo, y como [el] mas brave e8pacio nl la prlvanza aoalaga nl al amor, cada eaperanza me llava, como aa ve, 173 1070 1075 1080 1085 174 COSME* CONDE. COSME. CONDE. COSME. CONDE. COSME. CONDE. a ver a Blanca, ml fa, y a la Reina, ml prlvansa. Gran dasdlcha as al prlvar, puas haca a los mas amigos sar hacla dantro anamlgos. Mas trabajo as anvldlar, Cosine, qua sar anvldlado. Esa as mas dasdlcha sola. ^No trajlste la pistola? Vesla aqu£, y hasta grabado tu nombra an alia; maa dl: ipor qua la mandas traer? Como habamos da volver, Cosine, tan tarda da aqu£, no as mucho que ma pravanga; qua la prlvanza ocasIona anvldlas. En tu persona no me aspanto qua las tengas. No ha sldo con otro £ln. (Del Duque astoy racaloso porqua asta muy sospechoso; 1090 1095 1100 1105 175 COSME. CONDE. COSME. CONDE. COSME. pero no, quo ti noble al fin.) Ta la hemos traldo, y puas idonde Ira a guardarla agora? Al cuarto da Blanca: Flora ta la guardara, y despuas, puas da Blanca na despldo, al Irma la pediras. Eso as lo que apruebo mas porqua yo slempre ha tanldo azar, si saberlo quleres, con asa instrumento atroz; qua sin pansar tiran coz arcabucas y mu jeras. iPor qua ta qultas la banda? Porqua a var a Blanca paso, y si alia la viasa acaso, --qua slampra an recelos anda-- puada sar qua me la plda, como curiosa y mujar, y ma pa ear a por sar da la dau a quian dl vlda. i Qua nunca hayamos sabldo 1110 1115 1120 1125 176 CONDE. COSME. CONDE. COSME. CONDE. COSME. CONDE. si era dana o si ara duaSa! ^No dlo eaa banda por aeSa? s£. Puas jalguna no ha habido qua an alia haya raparado? No, Cosine. Eata dado dlara solo por adber quien ara; ique no hayamos alcanzado quien fuaae, por maa qua yo me daavalo y ta de8vela8! Da algun libro da novalas presumo qua 8a 8olt6. Ella ara una gantil tronga. No dlga8 tal, majadaro. A pagar de mi dlnaro que era duena o vll mondonga, puaa qua eata banda pre8ea as qua eualqulara la tiene a in 8ar ... Pero Blanca viene. Eacondela; no la vea. 1130 1135 1140 1145 177 BLANCA. CONDE. BLANCA. CONDE. BLANCA. CONDE. COSME. Tobol la banda COSME tn la mano r aalan BLANCA v FLORA. Conde. (No se qua ha ocultado da m£ Costae.) Blanca hermoaa ... , (^Que sera? Qua eatoy dudosa.) &donde vas? Hama llamado la Relna. Vente conmlgo; Ira bien acompaSada. (Mira qua no dlgas nada fa Coamal a Blanca de •.• ) Ta ta slgo. Vanaa BLANCA v EL CONDE. (Con asto a perder lo echo porqua yo no me acordaba de decirlo, y lo callaba; y como me lo encargo, ya por daclrlo reviento, qua tango tal propledad qua an una hora o la mitad 1150 1155 1160 178 FLORA. COSME. s« me hmem postema un cuento.) Ouarda, Flora, aata pistole hasta irse al Conde despues; mlra no te de un raves, y te pegue golpe en bole. Pbes en el cuarto la meto de ml senora. (^HabrA ya trelnta y sels horas — a£ habra— que estoy callando el secreto? Alla va. ) Flora ... Mas no; (Vase sea persona mas grave. No as bien que Flora se alabe que el cuento me des£loro. Dos cosas juntas --^Que hare?— me eat An matando: una ha sldo saber lo que no he sabldo, y otra declr lo que s£. For saber quien £ue, me muero, la dama con mascarilla, y esta tamblen por decilla tan solo saberla qulero. 1165 1170 Flora.) 1175 1180 179 BLANCA. COSME. BLANCA. COSME. BLANCA. COSME. BLANCA. COSME. May blen el Conde negocla. Sale BLANCA. Cosmo, £como tan dospoclo te estas agora en Palaclo, si te has de partir a Escocla? Al alba, aunque yo trasnoche, mando el Conde que me part a. Vos aqu£, Cosme, la carta. Partete luego esta noche; no aguardes a mas. s£ hare. ^Qua escondes aqu£? (Maldlto es esto; si otro poquito me aprleta, se lo dire.) No es nada. (Jesus mil voces, ya se me vlene a la boca la purga.) Eso me provoca. (iQue regtteldos tan soeces me vlenen! {Terrible aprleto!) 1185 1190 1195 1200 180 BLANCA. COSME. BLANCA. COSME. BLANCA. COSME. BLANCA. COSME. Dllo puts. (Asco umi da.) Majadero, acabe ya. (iQua asqueroso as un sacrato!) Has da ml paclancla pruaba. 1205 Aguarda, raventare; quiaro daclrlo porqua ml estomago no lo llava. Protasto qua as gran trabajo; meto los dados. Di ya. 1210 Ea puas, sacrato va, como agua fuara da abajo. Aquasto qua tralgo as banda, y da tl la encubr£ yo; al Conde me lo mando, 1215 que an estos anrados anda. A al so la dio una mu jar ancublarta y disfrazada, qua llbro da una astocada; no supa quien pudo sar. 1220 El Conde, aleve a indiscreto, 181 BLANCA. parjuro, £also, crtlel, plsavardt, caacabal, toma la banda en e£ato; y aqu£ la hlatorla dlo £ln. Y puas la purga he trocado y el secreto vomltado desde el principio hasta el fin, y sin dejar cosa alguna, tal asco me dlo el decillo, voy a probar de un membrlllo o a morder de una aceltuna. (Vase.) De lo que a Cosme he escuchado, aunque mal, he colegldo que el Conde anda divertldo; y aunque credlto no he dado, es hombre en £ln. {Ay de aquella que a un hombre fio su honor, siendo tan malo el major! Mss, pues lo quiso ml estrella, he de apretar al memento que nos casemos los dos. £ Quien ser&? iValganoe Dios! 1225 1230 1235 1240 182 REINA. BLANCA. REINA. BLANCA. CONDE. £Si tiana algun fundamento la banda? La Ralna vlene. [Eaconde la banda. ] Sala LA REINA ISABELA. ^ No £ue al jardln vuastra alteza? Todo cans a; iqu£ trlsteza! Nadai Blanca, ma entretlene. ^Quiere vuestra majestad que llame a las damas? No, deja[d]me sola; que yo gusto de la soledad. Haced que cante alia fuera Irene; {Gran desconsuelo! Guarde vuestra vlda el delo [tanto como yo qulslera. ] ( Vase. ) Sale EL CONDE. (Loco pensamlento m£o, que a un Imposible desvelo tan reciamente me encubres 1245 1250 1255 183 REINA. CONDE. REINA. CONDE. REINA. de ambldoao o de aoberblo, abate, abate lea alee; no aubaa tan to. Buaquamoa maa proporclonada ea£era a tan limltado vuelo. Blanca me qulere, y a Blanca adoro yo, ya ea ml dueno; pue8 icomo de amor tan noble por una ambicion me alejo? No convenlencla bastarda venza un legltimo afecto; no hagamoa razon de e8tado del guato nl del deaeo: congruencla, venza amor.) (Este 68 el Conde; ya temo. iQue e£eto tan poderoao!) (iLa Relna! Volverme intento; no me arrastre la locura.) (Clega estoy, mas Irme qulero; venza la razon al guato.) (Maa yo vuelvo.) (Mas yo vuelvo.) 1260 1265 1270 1275 1280 184 CONDE. REINA. CONDE. REINA. CONDE. REINA. CONDE. REINA. CONDE. REINA. CONDE. REINA. (lY Blanca?) (&Y la majastad?) (Mu, oh fortune, probamos qua pasa mas qua al amor una harmosura y un raino.) (Mas, oh cuidado, volvamos; qua amor, cuidado y dasao 8on muy fuertas enemlgos, y es uno solo al respato.) (iHablarela?) (Qulero hablarle.) (Yo qulero llagar.) (Yo llego.) ISenora! iConde! (Estoy loca.) (Cobarde astoy.) Aqu£ vango, girasol de vuestros rayos, a bebar su luz atanto. iComo vos an yuestra Idea, aunque vasallo? &Que as esto? Suena Instrumanto. 1285 1290 1295 185 CONDE. REINA. Cantan [dentro.] REINA. CONDE. REINA. CONDE. REINA. CONDE. Quieren cantar. Ea Irena; yo aa lo mande. (Agradezco qua atajase una locura a ml vos un lnatrumento.) Si &c080 mis daavarloa llegaren a tua umbralea, la lastlma de sar males quite el horror de aer m£oa. iQue blen dice! Es extremada la redondllla. En extremo. Confle8o que me ha agradado, por 8er de amor, el conceto. Anda agora muy vallda. Con razon. (Ea, amor clego, con una Industrie a la Relna declrle mi amor pretendo.) Axes si a vuestra alteza tanto le han agradado estos versos, yo los hab£a glosado 1300 1305 1310 1315 186 REINA. CONDE. REINA. CONDE. a ml Imposlble desao; y al vuastra altesa gusta, los dire. Mucho ma hualgo. Repatid prlmero al mote, y dlrels la glosa luago. As£ dice al mote, que, por ser de amor, me acuerdo: SI acaso mis desvar£os llegaren a tua umbralea, la lastlma de ser males quite el horror de aer mlos. Ese es el mote; dedd lo que habels glosado. Buplezo. Aunque el dolor me provoca, declr mis quejas no puedo; que es ml osadla tan poca, que entre el respeto y el mledo se me mueren en la boca; a as£, no llegan tan m£os mis males a tus orejas, 1320 1325 1330 1335 187 perdiendo en la voe los br£os, si acaso dlgo mis quajas, si acaao mis desvar£os. El ser tan mal explieados sea su mayor Indlclo; que, trocando en mis culdados el sllenclo y voz su ofielo, quedaran mas ponderados; desde hoy por estas senales sean de tl conocldos, que sin duda son mis males si algunos mal repetldos llegaren a tus umbrales. Mas jay Dios! que mis culdados, de tu crueldad conocldos, aunque mas acredItados, ser an menos admltldos; que, con los otros mezclados, porque no sablendo a cuales mas tu Ingratltud se deba, viendolos todos iguales, £uerza es que en comun te mueva 1340 1345 1350 1355 188 REINA.. CONDE. REINA. CONDE. REINA. CONDE. la lMtlma de ier ailti. En ml este efeto vlolento tu hermoso deaden le cause; tuyo y m£o es ml tormento: tuyo, porque eres la causa; m£o, porque yo le slento. Sepan, Laura, tus desvlos que mis males son tan suyos , y en mis cuerdos desvar£os esto que tlenen de tuyos quite el horror de ser mfos. iBuen conceto, Undo estllo y blen ponderado efeto! £Laura es en £ln? No, Senora; que aqueste nombre es supuesto. £S1 es por m£? Cobarde amante ... No cobarde, sino cuerdo. Pues revlenta de cordura, o qulere poco. El mas tiemo vasallo soy que el amor 1360 1365 1370 1375 REINA. CONDE. tuvo entrt tantos trofeos. No puede haber grande amor sin ser pagado; y por eao finglo alii la antlgttedad qua hasta que creclese Anteros, que es el rec£proco, nunca crec£a Cupldo; luego si no dec£s vuestro amor, nunca lo sabra el sujeto; sin saberlo, no os tendra rec£proco amor, es clerto; si ella no os lo tlene a vos, no podra crecer el vuestro; luego no puede ser grande vuestro amor, pues que vos mesmo le qultals el beneflclo de hacer que vaya creclendo. Aunque esta blen dlscurrido, es so££stico argumento; que el mas verdadero amor es el que en s£ mlsmo quieto descsnsa sin atender 1380 1385 1390 1395 REINA. CONDE. REINA. « mis p«g«, s mis Intanto; 1400 la correapondancla as paga, y tenar por bianco al prado as quarar por granjer£a: luego as amor imparfacto, puas la estraga la codlcla, 1405 y sirve a cuanta del pramlo. Eso es cuanto a conformarse con al favor o despreclo, segun gustare la dama; pero no cuando el silencio 1410 puada ser mucho cuidado, qua caba dentro da un pecho, sIn rebosar por los lablos. (s£; qua por ml mal lo veo.) No ocupa lugar amor, 1415 qua es esp£rltu y no cuerpo, fuera da qua, si el porf£a sallrse fuara a despecho de la cordura, al temor la hace cajar hacla dantro. 1420 £Temor da qua? 191 CONDE. REINA. CONDE. REINA. CONDE. REINA. CONDE. REINA. CONDE. REINA. CONDE. REINA. De decirlo; que ear pagado no puedo. Puee $que dame querela vos, que no oe qulera? La que qulero. (jSi me entendera la Relna?) ($S1 eoy yo quien le deavelo?) Puas 8l eetale vos pereuadldo que es imposible quereros, &que convenlencla es cellar? Cello porque tengo mledo de aventurar cierta dicha, que el la dlgo, la plerdo. i Die ha? Si, solo callando. iQue dlcha, el estais diciendo que sabeis que no admitlera vuestro amor? Por eso mesmo. &Porque no os quisieran? Sf. &En que lo fundais? 1425 1430 1435 192 CONDE. REINA. En esto: Dentro esta del silendo y del respeto ml amor; y aa£ ml dlche esta segura, preaumlendo tal vex — dulce locura— que es admltldo del mayor sujeto. Dejandome enganar deste conceto, dura ml bien, porque ml engano dura; neda sera la lengua si aventura un blen que esta seguro en el secreto. NO a los labios se asome licencloso ml amor, que perdera, desenganado, gloria que puede presumlr dudoso. NO averlgtte su mal; viva enganado; que es fells quien, no slendo venttiroso, nunca llega a saber que es desdlchado. Pues old lo que os respondo con vuestro proplo argumento: Quien, callando de mledo o de respeto, gloria que se flnglo juzga segura, solo aquello es fellz que a su locura con procurado olvldo esta sujeto. 1440 1445 1450 1455 CONDE. REINA. CONDE. SI el mm jucga £clis ym en su cones to, y ssbs que ds neclo si bisn Is dura, gque bienss declarandose aventura, o qua males se excuse en el secreto? Diga pues su cuidado llcencloso, nada arrlesga en quedar desenganado, si am lo esta tambien cuando dudoso; que, si de solo mledo esta engafiado, qulza hablando sera mas venturoso, y callando no es menos desdlchado. Pues, supuesta la opinion de vuestra alteza, yo qulero atreverme. (Ea, cuidado ... ) (Cordura, mucho le allento.) Por no morlr del mal cuando puedo morlr del remedlo dlgo pues ... (Ea, osad£a, ella me alento; gque temo?) que sera blen que tu alteza ... Sale BLANCA, con la banda puesta. 1460 1465 1470 1475 BLANCA. Senora, el Duque .. • 194 CONDE. BLANCA. REINA. BLANCA. REINA. BLANCA. REINA. BLANCA. REINA. BLANCA. REINA. BLANCA. (A mal tlempo vino Blanca.) esta aguardando en la antecamara ... (jAy cleloa!) para entrar ... (iQue es lo que mlro?) llcencia. DecId ... C^Que veo?) Decld que eapere. (jEstoy loca!) Decld ... andad. Ta obedezco. Ven£ aca; volved. iQue manda vuestra alteza? (El dano es clerto.) DecIdle ... (No hay que dudar.) Entretenedle un momento (iAy de m£!) mientras yo llego, y dejadme. (iQue ea aquesto?) Yo voy. (Vase.) 1480 1485 1490 195 CONDE. REINA. CONDE. REINA. CONDE. REINA. CONDE. REINA. (Ya Blanca sa fua; qularo puaa volvar ... ({Ah caloa!) ... a daclararma atrevido, puaa al me atrevo, me atrevo an fa da aua parauaaionaa.) ({Prenda m£a an otro cuallo! Viva Dios, paro aa vargttanza qua puada tanto un afacto an ml.) Segun lo qua dljo vuaatra altaza aqu£, aupuaato qua cuaata cara la dlcha qua 8a compra con al mledo, qularo morlr noblamanta. iPor qua lo dac£8? (iQue aaparo?) Si a vuaatra altaza (iQue dudo?) la daclaraaa au afacto algun aman .. • &Qua dac£a? lA m£? ]Como! Loco, nacio. 1495 1500 1505 196 ^Conoceisme? ^Qulen soy yo? Dodd qulon soy; quo sospocho quo so os huyo lo momorlo. ^Sobols quo no admits ol clolo porogrinos Improslonos do humanos otrovlmlentos ? ^Cuando, si ol Olimpo, oltlvo sublr pretondlo soberbio, on lo mltod dol camino no quodo consado ol ciorzo? iCuando vapor contra ol sol so tejio nubo on ol vlonto quo no quedaso a sus royos menudos atomos hocho? Sub an puos ol sol y Olimpo, yo oltlvos y yo groseros, soplondo vlonto on suspiros, tojldo nubo do ofectos; y del Olimpo y dol sol a lo ardiente y a lo oxcolso quodoro ol vlonto cansado, quodoro ol vapor doshocho. 1510 1515 1520 1525 1530 197 CONDE. REINA. CONDE. REINA. CONDE. REINA. CONDE. iSefiora! ... (j Perdido astoy! Atrevido pensamiento, qua naclamenta fiaste poca cara a nucho encendlo. La Reina, qua hablo sin duda sin in tendon ... ) Idos luago. No estels an Palaclo mas. Ya obedazco. (^Estals contento, loco pansamlanto mlo? Ea puaa, ascarmantamos; buscad vuestro cantro an Blanca.) iNo os vals? (Mucho valor tango.) Ya me voy. No me veals, y agradecadma qua os dajo cabeza an qua angandraron tan llvlanos pansamiantos. ({Ay racato! Aunque asto digo, 8aba Dios lo qua la qularo.) (Vasa.) Adlos, amblclon. {Ah Blanca! iQue arrepentldo qua vualvo 1535 1540 1545 1550 198 DUQUE. dtl tiempo qu« me apartaba, de ableloio o de soberbio, del ampefio de tue ojoa, que son el mayor Imperlo! (Vase.) Salen EL DOQPE DE ALANS6n v BLANCA. No proslgas, Blanca, mas. Ya el desengano he entendido; yo me doy por advertldo del aviso que me das cuando partido un cuidado entre tl y la Reina vi, y era solo amor en tl lo que alia razon de estado. ^Diees que tlenes amor al Conde, y que es tan £orzoso que le has menester esposo si quleres tener amor, y que de honrada y constante, no es mucho haber preferido el que tu buscas marldo 1555 1560 1565 199 a el qua a tl ta buaca amanta? Dlcas blan; paro racalo qua otro tuvlara por culpa lo qua tu das por dlsculpa, y admito yo por consuelo. Curar quislste, homlcida, y fua tan crttel al medio qua morlrme del remedio puda aun mas qua da la harlda; mas yo bebf tan tamplado, o da tlblo o de cortes, el veneno, qua despues conozco qua me ha sanado. Antes, con pasIon trocada, te ha da pagar ganeroso al dajarme tu caloso con dajarta yo a tl honrada. SI dlcas qua an al honor eras dal Conde acreedora, yo hablare a la Ralna agora, aunqua me lo rlna amor; yo la pedlra, si vlana, 1570 1575 1580 1585 1590 200 BLANCA. DUQUE. qu« te case, Blanca bella, y tu la dlraa a alia la dauda qua al Conda clana. Esto ml £a ta aconaeja; y aunqua sa ma quaja amor, no Importa, qua ml valor sabra acallarla la quaja; esto ha da aar aunqua lucho conmlgo y con ml pas Ion. Cuando una reaoluclon tan da vuestra alteza eacucho, £que tango da reaponder, alno qua a tu avlao dabo cobrar al honor da nuevo que perdl como mujar? A tus plantaa ... Blanca, aapara; no ma agradaccaa aal al hacar por tl y por ml lo qua por ml aolo hlclera. 1595 1600 1605 1610 Sale LA REINA. BLANCA. REINA. DUQUE. REINA. DUQUE. REINA. DUQUE. {La Reina! (Culdado alo, bufeaa alguna dlaculpa. Qulsa no tuvo la culpa al Conde ... {Qua deavarfo! £No la vl la banda yo? iHo pudo aar qua otra fuaae, o qua a au poder vlnlasa sin qua al Conde ... ? Faro no. £C6mo pudo ... (Divertida la Reina esta. iGran trlsteza!) lb asclavo vuaatra altaaa tiene an m£. Guardan la vlda da vuaatra altaza los cielos. Yo ha venido a suplicar una marc ad. A mandar, dlga au altaza. (Daavalos, dejadme ya.) Blanca y yo 1615 1620 1625 202 REINA. DUQUE. REINA. BLANCA. pcdliDOi una taread mlsma a tu altasa. Fbaa ved, Blanca, jqua as lo qua mando al Duqua, o ma pedis vos? Fkiai por ml tu altasa hara lo qua Blanca la dlra estando a solas las dos. (Vase.) (^Que sera? Confusa astoy.) Dadd pues. (Ya astoy rasuelta. No a la voluntad mudable da un hombra aste yo aujata; qua, aunqua no sa qua ma olvide, as nacadad qua yo qulara dajar a su cortesla lo qua puade hacer la fuarza.) Gran Isabela, escuchadme; y al escucharme tu altasa, ponga, aun mas qua la atanclon, la pladad an las orajas. Isabela os ha llamado 1630 1635 1640 1645 203 REINA. BLANCA. REINA. BLANCA. REINA. BLANCA. REINA. •n Mta ocMion, no reina; quo, cuondo vengo a deciros, por mi mol, una £laquaza quo ho hocho como mujor, porquo monos os paresca, no reina, major os busco; solo mujor os quisioro. iTu, fl&queza? Yo, Sonora. (No so quo ol alma recola.) Pues roquiobros y suspiros, amoros, ansias, fInezas, y lagrimas sobro todo son, aunquo el honor no quiera, lima sorda dol secroto on la mujor mas honesta. iOh, cuan a mi costa supo desta vordad la experiencia! Porquo ol Condo ... I El Condo? El mismo. (&Que oscucho?) 1650 1655 1660 1665 204 BLANCA. REINA. BLANCA. REINA. BLANCA. REINA. BLANCA. REINA. Con iui tcrnacai de amor •. • £E1 Conde de Sex? s£, Senora. (Yo eatoy muerta.) Pasa adelante. iAy de m£! que, como juzgo a tu alteza tan lejoa destos cuidados ••• (Pluguiera a Dios lo estuviera.) no me atrevo a referirle desnudamente mis penas; y as£ dudo ... Pues &que lmporta? Mujer soy tamblen; no temas. (Clega estoy.) Diras que el Conde, claro esta, amo tu belleza; que hubo recados, no es nuevo, papeles, ya es cosa vieja; que le hablaste, no me espanto; que te encareclo sus penas; s£ har£a, yo te lo creo; 1670 1675 1680 BLANCA. REINA. BLANCA. qua hlclste tu raslitaneia, qua araa noble, claro a«ti; qua dlo ligrlmas y que j as; — es hombre en fin, blen sabr£a— y que tu, un poco mas tlema, --eras mujer; no es mllagro— admltlste sue £Inezes; te pages te de su 1 lanto, y que despues, loca y clega, --que a incendio crece en un punto amor que empezo en paveza-- eres monstruo, eras prodlglo de voluntad, de £lzineea, de susplro8, de culdados; y el, con recfprocas penas, te adora, slrve y estlma, glrasol de tu belleza. ^Es esto lo que pas6? &Mas que £ue desta manera? As£ £ue todo. (jAy de m£!) Pero pasa a mas ml pena; 1685 1690 1695 1700 REINA. BLANCA. REINA. BLANCA. 206 paro m mayor ml dtadleha. 1705 4 Qua dlcas mujer? Pdas ea, dllo todo. Porque eatando an aqua 11a quinta masma an qua astuvlsta astos dfas, como da ml padra ara 1710 tan gran anamlgo al Conde, antes qua yo a vuaatra altaza entraae a sarvlr, Senora, no so atrevlo ml flrmeza a qua an publico a ml padre 1715 ma pldlese; y yo, resuelta, que a voces duenna al racato si esta la aflclon desplerta, la llama una nocha oscura. lY vino a varta? I Plugulera 1720 a Dios qua no fuera tanta ml dasdlcha y su finer a! Vino mas galln qua nunca; y yo, qua dos vacas claga REINA. BLANCA. REINA. BLANCA. REINA. BLANCA. por ml mal as tab a entoncas, dal amor y las tlnlablas •.. Pasa adalante. No puado; que embarga aqu£ la vergttenza a la voz. D1 pues, mujor; dllo, acaba. (Porque baba de una vez todo el veneno.) En fin, yo, rendlda y necla, muy sin o£r al recato, muy oyendo sus promesas, an la ocas Ion, que as lo mas, — que hay pocas veces que pueda estarse firme el decoro cuando en la ocasIon tropieza-- dandome palabra y mano de esposo .. • Mu jar, espera; vata poco a poco. Yo no qularo morlr de prlesa. Me sucedlo lo qua a todas, 207 1725 1730 1735 1740 208 REINA. BLANCA. REINA. BLANCA. REINA. BLANCA. REINA. sl en tal lance sa puslaran. (Ya bab£ todo al vanano.) I Que dlcas, mujer? Tu altaza lo collja alia conslgo; qua da ocasIon como aquasta saco qua llorar ml honor, y no qua dedr ml lengua. (Adlos, esparanza m£a; adlos, qua ya el vlanto os lleva.) Lo que a vuestra altaza pldo as que, pues sabe la deuda que ma tlene al Conde, haga que me cumpla la promesa. (iEstamos buanos, amor! |0h, qulen flngir se pudlera alguna duda!) Esto es justo; y pues por deuda tan clerta, en £in, el Conde es ml esposo. 4 Como vuestro esposo? ({Clega estoy!) 1745 1750 1755 1760 BLANCA. REINA. BLANCA. REINA. BLANCA. REINA. BLANCA. REINA. BLANCA. REINA. BLANCA. Como esposo mlo. ^ Quo oscucho? Liviana, noela facil ... i Sezfora! Quo a un hombre, olvldada de vos mesina, a un hombre, a un traldor, a un falso . (&Que con£u8tones son estas?) necia, vuescro amor rendistes. £Como os atreveis, resuelta, a declr que amais al Conde, Pues £como as£ vuestra alteza ... I'Por que al Conde ... (Loca estoy; el afecto me despena.) Este es celo, Blanca. £Celo? (Anadlendole una letra.) j,Que dec Is? Senora, que, si acaso poslble fuera, a no ser vos la que dice 1765 1770 1775 210 REINA. esas palabras, dljera qua de caloa •.. iQue son caloa? No son caloa a8ta o£anaa qua me eatala haclando vos. Supongamos qua yo quiara al Conde en eata ocaalon: pue8 al yo al Conde qulslera, y alguna atrevlda loca, presumlda, descompuesta, le qulslera — £que as querer?— le mlrara, qua le viera, — ique es verle?— no se que dlga; no hay cosa que menoa sea; con las manos, con loa dlentes, con la vista, con las quejas, con la lntenclon, con el ceno o con las palabras mesmas, ^no le qultara la vlda, la sangre no le beblera, los ojos no le sacara, y el corazon hecho plezas, 1780 1785 1790 1795 1800 211 no le abrasara? (Mae £Como hablo yo tan deacootpuaata? Loa caloa, aunqua flngldos, me arrebataron la lengua y despertaron ml enojo. iJesus! jyo tan sin modestie? i Que necedad! i Que locura!) Pero vos estad atenta: estareis desto advertlda para cuando se os o£rezca, aunque os lmporte el honor, — que vuestro honor nada pass es tando yo de por medio, que no habels de hacertna o£ensa de mlrar a qulen yo mire, de querer a qulen yo qulera. Mlrad que no me dels celos; que si, fingido, se altera tanto ml enojo, ved vos, si fuera verdad, qua hlciera. FUes en ello os va la vlda, aunque vuestro amor se pierda, 1805 1810 1815 1820 212 BLANCA. escarmantad en las bur las; no me dels celos de veras. (Vase. ) iQuedamos buenos, honor! Honra, decid, ^quedais buena? 2Que ocasion busca la vida, si no acaba en esta a£renta? Ml aangre ofendlda clama contra el vigor de la Reina; burlado mi amor del Conde, de 8u ingratitud se queja; loa celos, siempre mas vivos, con mi muerte se aliment an; ml llanto celebra el dano como allvlo o como queja; suspiros mi pecho abraaan o por indicio o por pens; y entre celos, ansia, llanto, rigor, suspiros y o£ensas, todo el honor lo padece, y nada el llanto remedia; pues, si no es remedio el llanto, slno solo estratagema, 1825 1830 1835 1840 tptlflDos, honor mlo, a la venganza; £que esperas? La Ralna ofendlo mi aangre; la Ralna, tlrana y fiera, hermano y padre me quite y 8in eatados me deja; la Reina mancho el cuchlllo de Marla en la inocencia; la Reina me quite al Conde, y me amenaza soberbla con equlvocaa palabraa que no le mire ni quiera; la Reina al Conde le oblige, ya amoroaa o ya 8evera, a que el me niegue, perjuro, mi honor; pues la Reina muera. Ea puaa, celoa valientea, no fleia a mano ajena, como haste aqul, la venganza. To miama, yo, pues me alienta el honor y la ocaalon, he de dar muerte a eata fiera. 213 1845 1850 1855 1860 1865 214 Agora entrara a ac os tarsa, y puas qua sola sa quada an su cuadra, 7 70 la asIsto, loca, atravlda 7 rasualta --qua qulen asta sin honor, desesperada, &que arrlesga?-- ha da hacarla mil pedasos, bien como lrritada flara que, echando menos los hijos, sacude al cielo la arena 7 atruena al monte a bramldos hasta que al ladron ancuantra; hljo as del alma al honor; tigre 807 7 ma la llavan, 7 a cobrarle voy furlosa sin qua ml pellgro tama; qua al qua aboraca la vida al paligro le festeja. Mi enojo va contra tl; guardate da m£, Isabela, qua S07 tigre lrritada, 7 voy rasualta hasta cobrar al hljo qua ma 1lavas. 1870 1875 1880 1885 215 REINA. BLANCA. SENESCAL. REINA. SENESCAL. Salan EL SENESCAL. LA BEIMA y unt dama. con una lug. Poned aquesas consultas, Saneacal, aobra un bufete; que, aunque ya aa tarda, as forzoso verlas antes qua ma acueste. (Ml enemlga vlane aqul; sola ea fuerza qua aa quede; voy a trazar ml venganza, pues tal ocas Ion se ofrece.) (Vaae.) Guarden los clelos la vlda de tu altaza, como pueden, para bien da Ingalaterra, puaa tan vigilante atiande a 8u reino y sua vasallos. Eato as fuerza mientras fuere reina. Id con Dios, Saneacal. Prodiglo as la Reina aiempre de prudencia y de valor. (Vase.) Siantaae LA REINA en una allla. y have un bufate del ante de ella con papalaa. 1890 1895 1900 1905 216 REINA. iQua dlflcultoaamente •1 querer blen y el reinar an un aujeto aa avlanan! Dajama un rato, euidado. Bor euidado maa decente aqueatoa papalaa mlro. Aqul dlca: "El conda Felix ... " Conde hubo da ser por fuerza con el prlxnero que encuentre, conde en fin. iV&lgame Dioa! £Si querra mucho? £S1 qulere el Conde a Blanca? £ Qulen duda --iAh traidor! — que la tuvleae en 8U8 brazoa ? Oh euidado, no me aflijaa neclamente. iValgame Dios! iQue deaveloa! Haga traguaa, mlentras viene la rnuerte a at a jar mla malea, el hermano de la muerte. Duermaae. v aale BLANCA con la niatola. 1910 1915 1920 217 BLANCA. CONDE. BLANCA. CONDE. REINA. BLANCA. REINA. Guladme, puoi cobardee; qiMf al al tamor oa detlene, plumaa oa da ml venganza; aola eata la Reina, y duarma qulza au poatraro auano; ibuana ocaaion aa me of race! Sala EL CONDE. (Pul a var a Blanca a au cuarto, y no aata an al; y aa£ vine, dudoao ml amor, a var al por venture aata en eate de la Reina. Aqu£ eata Blanca.) Ea, venganza, &que temea? Eata platola del Conde, que halle en ml cuarto, a su muerte sera inatrumento. (iQue mlro?) Blanca me mate. (Entre auenoa. ) iQue temea, corazon? De celoa, Conde, 1925 1930 1935 1940 218 BLANCA. CONDE. BLANCA. CONDE. BLANCA. CONDE. BLANCA. CONDE. BLANCA. CONDE. BLANCA. CONDE. BLANCA. me mat* Blanca. Bian puedea decirlo, porque te mato de caloa con eata ..• Echa la nlatola contra LA REINA. v llega EL CONDE v le aae de la nlatola. v BLANCA ae turbe. IAh aleve! iQue Intentaa ? Dejame, Conde ... Eso no. darle la muerte. Suelta, Blanca. {Ah Infama, auelta! Fues itu matas •.. de£lendea •.• iTu a la Reina? iTa, a la Reina? I Ah traldora! Traldor area. 1945 1950 219 REINA. SENESCAL. CONDE. REINA. CONDE. REINA. BLANCA. CONDE. SENESCAL. CONDE. Fotetiinde los doi. it dlanara la nlatola: diiolarti LA REINA. dentro EL SENESCAL. v a a lan todoa. iQue mlro? Acudamoa todoa. iQua trcabuz, qua ruido aa aata an al cuarto da la Reina? iQue aa aqueato? (t Lance fuarte!) iQue aa esto, Conde? (^Qua hare?) Blanca, &que aa aato? (Mi muarte llago. > (^Hay mayor confusion?) ^Traidor al Conde? tl Qulen puede aallr da aprlato tan grande? Porque al callo, aa Inflere de ml al dellto, y si dlgo la verdad, Infamamanta 1955 1960 220 REINA. echo la culpa a ml dama, a Blanca, a Blanca, a qulen tlana per cantro el alma; ique hare? ^Hubo confusion mas fuerta?) Conda, ivos traldor? £Vos, Blanca? El juiclo asta indlferente. &Cual ma libra? ;Cual ma mata? Conda, Blanca, respondedme. "iTu a la Reina? a la Reina?” ol, aunque confusamente. MiAh traidora!" dijo el Conda; Blanca dljo: ’ ’ Traldor eras.” Estas razonas da antrambos a entrambaa cosas convianan: uno da los dos ma libra; otro da los dos ma ofende. Conda, &cual ma dabs la vida? Blanca, £cual ma daba muerta? Decidme; mas no digais, qua, nautral, ml valor qulara, por no saber al traldor, no saber al inocente. 1965 1970 1975 1980 221 SENESCAL. REINA. Major as quadar confuaa; an duda al juiclo quada porqua cuando mlra al uno y da la tr ale Ion ma acuarda, al panaar qua aa al traldor, qua aa al laal tamblen planaa. (Yo la agradaclara a Blanca qua alia la traidora fueae, solo a trueco da qua al Conda fuara al qua aataba lnocente.) Senora, aunqua vuaatra altera averlguarlo no qulare, a mi por gran sanaacal, delito tan Insolanta ma toca aabar da ofido, y mas cuando aa tan urgente al indlclo contra el Conda, puaa al an las manos tlena la platola. Dacls bian; averlguarlo convlene. [(Conda!] 1985 1990 1995 2000 CONDE. REINA. BLANCA. REINA. CONDE. REINA. CONDE. REINA. CONDE. REINA. CONDE. REINA. SENESCAL. REINA. CONDE. iSenora! Dec Id la verdad; saberla teme ml amor. £Fue Blanca ... I Ay de m£! la qua intentaba ml muerte? No, SeSora; no £ue Blanca. Luego 2<oi8 vos? (iLance fuerte!) No lo se. $No lo sabels? Axes £como esta aquese aleve Instrumento en vuestra mano? (Clelos, £que he de responderle?) Como yo soy desdlchado ... No, slno yo. (^Que me quleres, fortune?) Prended al Conde. ^Donde msndals que le lleve? A la torre de Palaclo. (Fortune, ya te estremeces.) 2005 2010 2015 2020 223 REINA. BLANCA. REINA. CONDE. REINA. BLANCA. CONDE. REINA. Fnit esta Blanca an au cuarto haata qua otra cos a ordene, 7 aato major aa avarigtta. (Muda aatoy; no aa qua intenta.) Llavaldoa puaa. (Muerto voy.) (iAh Conda, mucho me o£endea!) (]Ah Conda, mucho ma obligaa!) ({Ah Blanca, mucho ma debea! Ruago al delo qua al amarta la cabeza no ma cuaata.) JORNADA TERCERA Sale LA REINA. Preao eata el Conda alavoao por indicioa de traldor, y tambien la acuaa amor por Ingrato y angaHoao; da au ingratitud quajoao eat a amor, da au traiclon la jti8tlcla y la razon, 2025 2030 2035 224 y ambos, luchando antra s£, me aacan fuara da m£, 7 as toy sola an ml pas Ion. Ea, ya as tlampo, culdado; a astar contlgo ha salldo; dlsculpas me has prometldo, a var si alguna has hallado. El Conda slave ha lntentado darme muarta; --jcomo pudo?-- 8upongamos qua lo dudo. El Conde con Blanca — jay trlste! — me ofende; jque res pond Is te a esta cargo? Qua astoy mudo. ^Mudo astas? SI lo estuviera el fiscal, qua es al rigor? Ingenloso eras, amor; buscsme alguna qulmera. iOh si no saber pudlara aquallo mlsmo qua se! Dlscurra amor, pues no ve. Ea puas, clegos axtramos, lo qua pudo sar pansamos; 2040 2045 2050 2055 225 no penaamos lo quo £uo. 2 No pudo ser quo no fuoru ol Condo qulon no mataba, sino Blanca, quo allf oat aba, puoa yo, celoaa y severe, lo dl ocaalon do quo hldera ton crdol venganza? s£, blon dlgo porque yo o£ razones quo a la dlaculpa lgualmente y a la culpa las puedo apllcar aqu£. SI el uno mo defend£a cuando el otro me mataba, el Conde ea qulen me llbraba; Blanca fue qulen me ofend£a. Blen to engano, pena m£a; eato os cuanto a los recelos de la tradlcion, mas --jay clelos!— dos males el alma llora: busquemos dlaculpa agora a la o£on8a de los celos. ^No pudo ser que mlntlera 2060 2065 2070 2075 2080 226 Blanca an lo qua ma conto da gosarla al Conda? Mo; qua Blanca no lo £iaglera. Am s cuando esto vardad £uera, $no pudo habarla gozado sin astar anamorado? Y cuando tiarno y rendldo antoncas la haya querido, $no puada habarla olvldado? itio la vlaron mis anto j os f antra encoglmlentos sabios, may callado con los lablos, may bachillor an loa ojos, cuando al daclr aus enojos yo au daapacho ren£? Luego, m£ me quiera? s£, aato ea vardad; y al no, amor, no lo sepa yo, o sepalo yo sin m£. iOh dlscurso a8crupuloso, que con repllcaa praclsas da un nuevo lndlclo me avlsas! 2085 2090 2095 2100 £No vi 70 al Conda engaxfoso al instrumanto alavoao an au mano? Coaa as clara. {No pudo aar qua llagara al a astorbar au tr ale ion, 7 Blanca con turbaclon an 8u mano la dejara? Puaa al: &c6mo, cuando muere, au inocencla no disculpa? For no echar as£ la culpa a Blanca. Claro aa in£iara. Luego el Conde a Blanca quiere, pua8 la libra con au honor: £como, si de su rigor Blanca misma aa quajaba? Luego £el Conde me mataba, ai a Blanca no tiene amor? i Oh mal haya la agudeza con que a mi pasar me aviso! Siempre mi dano as preciso; ai uno acaba, el otro empleza: si busco an su amor firmeza, 2105 2110 2115 2120 2125 228 DUQUE. hallo on au lealtad racelos, y al quleren mla dasveloa dlfaranclar da pasl6n, convalezco a la tralcl6n para anfarmar da los caloa. lOh, si al Conda traldor fuera para qua a Blanca no amara! I Oh, al al Conda la adorara para qua no me ofendlera! jOh, qulen sin amor la vlera por no verle sin honor! I Qulen hallara an el amor, aunque hallara algun vll trato! jOh, qulen la tuvlera Ingrato por no tenerle traldor! Salon EL DUQUE DE ALANSON v EL SENESCAL. De la fama qua el sucaso dlvulgo confusamenta por todo el Palacio, supe vuestro rlesgo, y cuando vlene 2130 2135 2140 229 SENESCAL. REINA (Lee.) CRIADO 1°. COSME. ml emor con sue to a Informer ee, quleren los clelos qua encuentre al Senescal, que me ha dlcho qua astale sin pallgro; aunente la vlda de vuestra alteza al delo, y la libra slampra de traldones. torque vaa vuestra alteza si haber puede duda an la traldon del Conde, la mlsma plstola tlana escrlto el nombre dal Conde; qua as llsonja que hacer suelen los artifices al dueno. Leerlo tu alteza puade. "Soy para el Conde de Ser." Este Indlclo es evldente de que es el Conde traldor. Sacan dos crlados a COSME asldo. Entre, acabe. iQue ma quleren? 2145 2150 2155 2160 230 CRIADO 2°. COSME. CRIADO 1°. SENESCAL. CRIADO 1°. SENESCAL. REINA. CRIADO 1°. No se resist*; &que Intent*? Y* no dejo que me lleven como un cordero si agora achacarme pretendiesen re8lstencla. Avis* tu al gran Senescal que aqueste es complice con el Conde. iQue es esto, Fablo? jQue quleres? Senor, en casa del Conde hallamo8 de aquesta suerte aqueste criado suyo que sin duda parte tlene en la tralcion de su amo, pues sablendo que le prenden, se ausentaba. £Como entrais aca dentro? Haced que espere; que esta aqu£ su majestad. No importa; decidle que entre. ({Oh, si disculpase al Conde!) Llegad pues. 2165 2170 2175 2180 231 COSME. CRIADO 1°. COSME. SENESCAL. COSME. SENESCAL. COSME. ^Tiene juanetes el gran Senescal? jPor que? D^jame que se los base, por captarle la pledad. Complice sin duda eres, porque £como te ausentabas, si parte en esto no tienes, en sabiendo que prendieron a tu amo? Nadie puede decir que yo lo sabfa; que hasta que aquestos crtteles me agarraron esta noche, ignorante estuve siempre del 8uce8o; que esta tarde, dejandole en el retrete, me £ui, y no le he visto mas. Pues idonde ibas desta suerte? Acabara ya; si es eso lo que saber se pretende, direlo con mucho gusto, 2185 2190 2195 2200 232 SENESCAL. COSME. SENESCAL. COSME. REINA. SENESCAL. REINA. SENESCAL. REINA. que a ml nadie ha de vencenne en corteala. To Iba a Escocla, como im cohete, con esta carta del Conde a otro conde, su parlente. 2 , Que es de la carta? Esta es. Muestra. Miestro; &que mas quleren? Mlren si soy porflado. (Temblando estoy; job, si fuese en su £avor!) A Roberto es la carta. Abrlrla puedes. As! dice: "Conde amigo, Informado estoy que tlenes grandes quejas de la Reina, y que intentas justamente mataria; yo lo deseo por mil causas que me mueven." iValgame el cielo! Mostrad; 2205 2210 2215 SENESCAL COSME. SENESCAL COSME. SENESCAL COSME. su letra y su firma tiena. (No hay qua dudar; muarta soy.) (Laa.) "Para qua mas facilmente nuastro lntanto se disponga, venlrte an secreto puedes, con todos los conjurados, a Londres, que dasta suerte, con el pueblo qua ma slgue, sera facll darle muarta." $Hay tan gran bellaquerfa? (Laa.) "Y rasponde brevemente con esta crXado mLo, que as hombre muy confidente." ^Que escucho? Seflores m£os, dos mil demonios me Haven si yo confidante soy, si lo he sldo o si lo fuara, nl tango intenclon da serlo. Preso la llevad. Esperen. ^No as gran Injustlda, sailor, qua preso me llavan 233 2220 2225 2230 2235 2240 234 CRIADO 2°. COSME* CRIADO 1°. COSME* por confidante tin serlo? Venga ya. Vuesas mercedes aguarden. --jHay tal desdicha?-- jPor confidante! Ann ti fuese por otro cualquiar delito, llevara blen el prenderme; mas ipor confidante a ml! jHay mat datdichada suerte? Acabe ya. ^Tengo yo cara de ter confidante? Yo no se qua ha vitto en ml mi amo para tanarme en esta opinion, y a f e que ma holgara de que fuese cosa de mas lmportancia un secretillo muy leve que se suyo, por decirlo; que es que al Conde a Blanca qulera; que estan c as ados los dos en secreto; y con ser aste 2245 2250 2255 2260 235 REINA.. COSME. REINA. COSME. - REINA. SENESCAL. DUQUE. COSME. un cuento de dos de queso, --que no hay para untar los dlentes con el a un chisme cartujo— slempre que se me o£redere lo he de declr, juro a Dios, por ver si soy confidante. &Casados el Conde y Blanca? Recasados. {Trance fuerte! (Malas nuevas te de Dios.) lY se quleren? Se requleren. Idos de aqul. Despejad. (Pues icocao tanto lo siente? SI fuera mujer la Reina, segun lo que al Conde quiere, recelara ... Mas no es justo.) {Oh, que dlferente tienen la cara que no el vasallo, si se mesuran, los reyes! Vanse [Cosme v los criados.] 2265 2270 2275 SENESCAL. DUQUE. Si vuestra alteza dudaba la trale Ion del Conde aleve, ya la habra vis to blen clara. Pues ya que ocasion se ofrece, no sera, ser yo fiscal si una verdad os dljese; y mas cuando vuestra vlda padeclo el rlesgo presente por no haberos yo avlsado: yo se Indubltablemente tamblen que el Conde es traldor porque el con otros sieves, que por cartas consplraba, pretendla dar la muerte a tu alteza. Yo lo supe; qu£sele matar; templeme; y por ser tan gran soldado, pensando que aquesto fuese algun leve enojo entonces, yo con palabras corteses le procuro dlsuadlr, y el secreto le promete 2280 2285 2290 2295 2300 237 SENESCAL. REINA. ml voz, pensando que ye de su traicion se arrepiente; pero, supuesto que el Conde por£la, 8 In que se enmlende en su traicion, y tu alteza por tal delito le prende, quise darle esta noticia, por que, si acaso slntiese verse amenazar sin causa de esta traicion, la consuele que tiene cabeza el Conde, y hay verdugo que la vengue. Y cuando tan gran traicion disixmilar pretendiese vuestra alteza, el reino entonces castigara a quien la ofende. Vanse. y oueda LA REINA. Ea, amor, ya el dano es cierto; morid ya, cuidado loco, pues que no os dejan siqulera el consuelo de dudoso. 2305 2310 2315 2320 238 Ya no hay duda qua os consuele; ya el dlscurso ascrupuloso la experlencia da ml dano ma hlzo baber por los ojos; ya no hay mentlra qua finjas; ya no hay engano nl abono qua mlentas; ya no hay siquiera un qulza, qua clerto as todo. El Conda traldor dos vacas ma ofende, siendo uno solo: como a mujar an al gusto, como a reina an al dacoro. El Conde qulere matarme; al Conde, da Blanca esposo, ofende ml amor; al Conda an amor me causa oproblos, en traicion me busca muertes, an culdados me da enojos, an daslealtades peligros, y an celos me causa asombros. Mas ioh sentlmiento! aspara; no confundas prasuroso 2325 2330 2335 2340 dos males que son distint os; vamonos poco a poco. Cada cual te busca entero; slente el uno, y luego el otro, que si de una vez los slentes, qulza diran, sospechosos, que es ardld de la flaqueza y no prlsa del enojo. El Conde, adorando a Blanca, habiendo entrado enganoso tan dentro de ml, £se burla de la £e con que le adoro? ^Adoro dlje? Si dlje; no plenses que me equivoco. Honor, duermase el recato; esta vez ahoguese sordo; que con£unde el sentlmlento la acencion con el ahogo. El Conde, ml dulce dueno, que ya en ml pecho amoroso Idolo £ue, a qulen al alma consagro en culto devoto 2345 2350 2355 2360 vardad en tieraaa f Inezes, victims en duroe enojos, ague en lagrlmas distlntas, y fuego en susplros roncos, icon, otre mujer me ofende ? iCon otre mujer? Pues jcomo? IEb Blanca mejor que yo? iTiene velor mas herolco? jTiene mas amables partes? Y lo que encarezco solo, ^qulerete mas, Conde? jDebes a su fe extremos mas locos, mas verdad a sus flnezas, a su favor mas sobomo, mas susplros a su pecho, mas lagrlmas a sus ojos? ^Qulerete mas? Mas £que es esto? iYo ternuras? &Yo sollozos? iYo, a pesar de ml grandeza, con infame llanto mo jo la purpura real que viste la majestad por adorno? 240 2365 2370 2375 2380 2385 241 To en rayos que arroja el pecho por Indldo o desahogo, hago el decoro cenlsaa y el valor deshago en polvos? Enjugue pues ml venganza, o bebase lo que lloro; clerre la raz&n vallente la boca por donde arrojo susplros que me dls£aman por que, cegando los propios, o me ahoguen o se vuelvan a la esfera en que los formo. ^Culdado un traldor me debe, susplros un alevoso, memorlas un desleal, y un fomentIdo sollozos? iPor un hombre que, ln£lel, estando a las voces sordo con que el rey mudamente habla lo majestuoso, pretendl6 darme la muerte, slento, gimo, peno, lloro, 2390 2395 2400 2405 ♦ padtteo, suapiro 7 muero? IOh, que afecto tan laproplo! iMutrt al Conda! {Muera al Conda! Bian raplto; qua as £orzoso qua muera al Conda dos voces, puas dos dalito8 la noto. Dupllquese puas su vlda: muera una vez por asombro da traicion, por mal vasallo, 7 muera tambien el proplo otra vez por mal amante, 7 entrambas por alevoso. Contra el Conde, infiel vasallo, ho7, como reina me opongo; contra el Conde, falso amante, como mujer me apaslono. Busque pues, mujer, venganza; reina, legates oproblos; justlflcada, castlgos; mal correspondlda, modos; escarmlentos, justlclera; 7 en fin, ofendida, asombros, 2410 2415 2420 2425 2430 243 ALCAIDE. CONDE. SENESCAL. CONDE. SENESCAL. para que, murlendo al Conda por ingrato 7 alevoso, por castlgo 7 por venganza, la dan a un dallto 7 otro, al castlgo la justlda, como la vanganza al odio. (Vase.) Salen EL CONDE DE SEX. EL ALCAIDE. COSJffit jLjuago_EL__SENESCM i. Aqu£ esta el gran Saneacal. iOh SaSor! Conda, 70 vengo por el gusto da la Reina, por lo que a ml oflcio dabo, solo a ver si vuecelencia, aunqua todo el Parlamento la ha dado 7a por culpaulo por los indielos, de nuevo quiera dar algun descargo. Solo al descargo que tango as al estar inocente. Aunque 70 quiara craarlo, 2435 2440 2445 CONDE. SENESCAL. CONDE. SENESCAL. CONDE. SENESCAL. CONDE. SENESCAL. no me dejan los indicios; y sdvortld quo ys no es tlempo de dilacion, que macCana habets de morlr. Yo muero lnocente. Bias decld: iNo escrlblstel8 a Roberto esta carta? Aquesta firms, £no es [la] vuestra? No lo nlego. El gran Duque de Alanson ino os oyo, en el aposento de Blanca, trazar la muerte de la Reina? Aqueso es cierto. Cuando desperto la Reina, £no os hallo, Conde, a vos mesmo con la pistola? Es verdad. Y la pistola, pues vemos vuestro nombre alll grabado, 244 2450 2455 2460 2465 245 CONDE. SENESCAL. CONDE. SENESCAL. CONDE. SENESCAL. CONDE. SENESCAL. CONDE. SENESCAL. &no es vuastra? Yo os lo concedo. Luego jvos Mtait culpado? Eso solamante nlego. Fkias leono escrlblsteis, Conde, la carta al traidor Roberto? No lo aa. Plies £c6mo al Duque, qua escucho vuestros intentos, os convence an la tralclon? Porque as£ lo qulso al cielo. I Cocao, hallado an vuastra mano, os culpa el vll instrumento? Porque tango poca dlcha. (O por declr lo mas clarto: porque tango mucho amor, y a Blanca culpar no quiero.) Puas, sabed que si as desdlcha y no culpa, an tanto aprleto os pone vuastra fortuna, Conda amigo, qua, supuesto que no dais otro descargo, 2470 2475 2480 2485 246 CONDE. SENESCAL. CONDE. SENESCAL. CONDE. SENESCAL. CONDE. SENESCAL. en fe d« lndlcios tan ciertoa maffana vuastra cabaza ha da pagar ... (Malo as asto.) culpas da vuastra dasdlcha. ^No hay ramedlo? No hay ramedlo. Puas, ya que as fuerza el morir ... ({Ay ml Blanca, como tamo que tu tralclon en ml muerte no ha da escarmentar! Yo qulero hablarle, por persuadlrla que daslsta da su intento.) Puas, ya que muaro sin duda, y no hay pladad nl ramedlo, hacedme un blan. iQue mandals? Antes qua muera --asto os ruego— dajadme hablar a ml esposa, a ml Blanca, porque tango un nagoclo qua encargarle. Yo soy juaz, Conde; no puedo. 2490 2495 2500 247 COSME. ALCAIDE. COSME. MmSmaa h abets da morlr, y ha de sar con tal aacrato qua nadla an todo al Palaclo lo aaba nl ha da saberlo; porque, como se presume qua antra nobles y plabayoa tana Is muchos conjurados, porque no aa altera al pueblo, al aacrato se procure; y asf, Conde, asto supuaato, no as bien qua lo sepa Blanca si sa procure al secreto. ^Saba ustad si a ml me ahorcan? No; qua al Conde, vuestro dueno, an todo os ha dlsculpado. Dejeme darle dos besos. Albrlclas, sailor gaznate, que an albrlclas da qua os veo libra da tan £uerte trago, desholllnaros pretendo con otro trago tamblan, paro ha da sar da Alahej os. 2505 2510 2515 2520 2525 248 SENESCAL. ALCAIDE. SENESCAL. CONDE. Vos, Alcalde, con las guardas todas, cerrando prlmero la torre, os venld conmlgo, porque os de la Rslna luego orden para ejecutar esta muerte. Yo obedezco. (Vase.) As! lo mando la Relna. Y vos, Conde, dlsponeos a morlr como quien sols; que aqu£ la sentencla llevo a que la Relna la £lrme, aunque mas slants el perderos. ( Vase.) Ea, valor, no me dejes; hoy te he menester, esfuerzo; no eche a perder el temor, cuando anlmoso y resuelto, noble, amante y valoroso, por librar a Blanca muero: la hazafta mayor que nunc a entre romanos y grlegos con letras de bronce escribe 2530 2535 2540 2545 COSME* CONDE. 249 la coronica dal tiampo. Viva Blanca, aunqua yo muera. ^Fuera bueno, fuara bueno, por conservar, temeroso, la vlda qua ya aborrezco, achar la culpa a mi dama? 2Qua dijaran da tal hacho los qua a vista da mi vida as tan a mi £ama atentos, sino qua al Conde da Sax, con tan vil infame medio, como todos los demas, a la muerte tuvo miedo? Si por ml tamo al morir, por ml al vivir tambien tamo; piardaoe yo a ml por ml, mas valgo yo qua yo masmo. Traeme una lux. [a Cosme. ] Voy por alia. (Vasa.) 2565 Ya que a Blanca hablar no puedo para disuadirla, amante, da su traicion, cuando piardo 2550 2555 2560 250 COSME. CONDE. COSME. la vida porque alia viva, airva un papal da tercero para la flneza — |Ay Dios! — Saca la ltiz COSME. v oSoala m m ultima que hacer asparo por qulen qulse mas que a ml; bien dtje— maa blen lo mueatro; solo an ml da cuantos aman no ha sido encarac imlento, pues as verdad clerta an ml lo que en los otros requiebro. id, amigo, aqueste papal ••• [a Cosme.] Mxriendome as toy de suefio. dar£s en su mano a Blanca, a Blanca, mi dulce duaSo, en habiendo muarto yo. As! lo hare. Yo me entro a dormir miantras escribe porque astoy hecho dos cueros, si otros astan hechos uno, 2570 2575 2580 2585 251 REINA. CONDE. con el vino y con el suefto. ( V— e.) Sale LA REINA. con una lug v de la suerte qua salio al princlnio de la comadia, con mascara v enaguas. (Sola esta la torre y mudo el Palacio; que por eso, por orden del Senescal, al Alcalde y guarda tengo en la antecamara ay trlste! — esperando el orden flero para la muerte del Conde a quien yo mlsma sentencio. El Conde me dlo la vida, y ab£, obllgada me veo. El Conde me daba la muerte, y as£, ofendida me quejo. Fues ya que con la sentencia esta parte he satisfecho, pues cumpll con la just Id a, con el amor cumplir quiero.) Asi esta blen; este aviso 2590 2595 2600 2605 252 REINA. CONDE. REINA. me dabe Blanca. (Escrlblendo esta el Conde; sera a Blanca. Rses £que Ixnporta? Ya no es tlempo destas cosas. Trlste estado es cuando, estando en un pecho tan vivo el amor, no tiene para los celos allento. »Ay honor, mucho me debes! Depongamos lo severo: algo me deba el amor, y tenga tamblen ml afecto en m£ de mf algima parte. Llevame, pledad; yo llego.) iConde! iQue mlro? No es sombre; verdad es lo que estals viendo. Tmaglnad que es posible porque tlempo no gastemos inutilmente en la duda y haclendoos fuerza el creerlo. 2610 2615 2620 253 CONDE. REINA.. Escuchad el fin que traigo sin averiguar los medios: 70 soy — si no os acordais, por las senas os lo recuerdo— una mujer que libras te is de la muerte. (&Que mlsterio tendra la Relna en tal traje?) En fin, Conde, yo, queriendo pagaros con vuestra vida la rnisma vida que os debo, (Bien digo la misma, jay trlste!) sabiendo agora, sabiendo que la Relna just icier a os da muerte, y sin ramedlo [habeis de morlr maffana, ] habiendo tenldo medio de tomar aquesta Have de la torre, que instrumento ha de ser de vuestra vida, y lo fue de entrar a veros, •-no me preguntels el modo-- 2625 2630 2635 2640 2645 254 CONDE. • doro8 la vida vango. Tomad la Have, y despues en la mitad dal si lane lo da la noche os ascapad por un postigo pequeSo qua tlena la torra al parque, y vivid, Conde; que es derto que si vos mor£s, sin duda an ml vida ... Pero aquesto no es del C880. Esta es la llave; tomad pues porque no quiero que estos Instantes usurpen las palabras al remedlo. Ingeniosa mi £ortuna hallo en la dicha mas nuevo modo de hacerme infeliz, pues cuando dlchoso veo que me libra quien me mata, tambien desdlchado advierto que me mata quien me libra; que estoy, Senora, tan lejos de ser dichoso, que agora, 2650 2655 2660 2665 255 REINA.. CONDE. en este favor que os debo, se vallo de la desdicha esta dlcha para serlo; mas, pues sols tan de ml parte, y el tomar aqueste empeno de llbrarme solo ha sldo por pagarme aquel primero que me debe vuestra vida, yo me doy por satlsfecho solo con que me troquels un favor de tan to rlesgo a otro mas facll. Dec Id. Para que muera c on tent o, antes de morlr --que yo se blen que podels hacerlo-- merezca yo ver el rostro de la Relna. Aquesto os ruego por la vida que os he dado; que solo para este intento no es bajeza hacer alarde en ml generoso pecho 2670 2675 2680 2685 REINA. CONDE. REINA. CONDE. REINA. CONDE. REINA. CONDE. REINA. del benaficio que os hlce. NAda con la Relna puedo; quey aunque estoy nuy cerca della, tambien della estoy muy lejos; pero. si ella esta o£endlda de vuestro alevoso intento. jque con8uelo hallar procure vuestra tralclon. vuestro yerro de una relna en la justlcla, de una o£endlda en el ceno? &Yo ofensa? Pues £que descargo teneis? Hablad. Solo tengo la inocenda. I Que dlsculpa? (iAy Blanca!) La del sllenclo. Pues si no hay otro. morlr es el ultimo remedlo, y el mas clerto el de esta Have. Ver la Relna es el mas clerto. IHies. aunque para el perdon 256 2690 2695 2700 2705 257 CONDE. REINA. CONDE. sera ocioao aqueste medio, yo voy, Conde, a procurarlo con alia para el consuelo. ^Donde vals? A egto que os dlgo, aunque de la Relna temo que no habels de verla el rostro. Pues esperad; yo sospecho que sols tan una las dos que lo mismo que deseo de consuelo vlendo el suyo, consiguire viendo el vuestro; y aat, yo quiero excusaros que os aventureis en esto, pidlendo aquesto que os digo cuando vos podeis hacerlo. Yo os ruego que os descubrais; que, si ver la Relna quiero, vlendoos a vos, que sols una, plenso que sera lo mesmo. (Sepa que la he conocido; qulza hara lo que le ruego.) 2710 2715 2720 2725 258 REINA. CONDE. REINA. (Pues me conoce ten clero £orzoso es muder de intento; qulza en vlendome dare las dlsculpas que deseo.) Yo he de hacer lo que decIs; pero prlmero os advlerto que qulza os esta major que tenga el rostro cublerto; que tanto ml ser transforms esta mascara que tengo, que os espantarels de ver cuanto as£ me dlferenclo. No excusels tanto ml dlcha. Pues si esto ha de ser, prlmero tomad, Conde, aquesta Have; que si ha de ser Instrumento de vuestra vida qulza tan otra, qultado el velo, sere, que no pueda entonces hacer lo que agora puedo; y como a daros la vida me empene por lo que os debo, 2730 2735 2740 2745 2750 259 CONDE. REINA. CONDE. por si no puedo dsspues, duts suerte mo prevengo. Polo lo Have. Yo os agradezco al aviso, y agora solo daseo ver el rostro de mi dicha en el de la Reina y vuestro. Aunque siempre es uno mismo, este que agora estais viendo, Conde, es solamente m£o; y aqueste que agora os muestro es de la Relna, no ya de quien os hablo prlmero. Deacubreae. Ya morlre consolado; aunque si por privlleglo, en viendo la cara al Rey, queda perdonado el reo, ya deste indulto, SeHora, vida por ley me prometo; 2755 2760 2765 260 REINA. esto es en comun, pues es lo que a todos de el derecho; pero si en particular merecer el perdon puedo, old, vereis que me ayuda mayor indulto en mis hechos: mis hazanas ... Ya las se; no penseis que no me acuerdo. Dellas estoy obligada, y aunque ya pagado os tengo, nunca quisiera otra vez la grandeza de mi pecho escuchar vuestros servicios 8in daros algo de nuevo; y como agora es forzoso que sea inutil recuerdo, Conde, el de vuestras hazanas, pues perdonaros no puedo, no quiero oirlas; callaldas, que si soy la Reina y veo que de vos estoy servida, 2770 2775 2780 2785 261 CONDE. REINA. CONDE. REINA. CONDE. tanbi£n toy 1* mlsma y slento que ofendlda estoy de vos, y, e ml pesar, eonsldero que borra la o£ensa cuanto los servlclos hablan hecho; y as£, solo servira decIrlas, cuando no os premlo, en ml de vergtlenza mucha, y en vos de poco provecho. Eh fin, jla Relna no puede usar de piedad? No puedo. Dues si no puede la Relna doblarse al llanto y al ruego, una mujer, a quien yo dl la vida, por lo menos no dejara de mostrarse, agradeclda. A la Reina de aquese agradecimiento no le toca nada, Conde. Luego ingrato es vuestro pecho. 2790 2795 2800 2805 2810 REINA. CONDE. REINA. CONDE. REINA. CONDE. REINA. CONDE. REINA. CONDE. REINA. CONDE. Si 1* ofendida os csstigs por cumplir con lo severo, tamblen Is obligs os libra por cumplir con si empetlo. £Como? Ys sabels el modo. ^No hay otro? No. No le apruebo; es infame. Es el major. ^Me aconsejais? No scon8ejo lo que es contra mi justicis; que antes, si os halls, en sallendo, mi rigor, hare mataros. Y jes ese agradecimiento de quien me debe la vida? No soy yo; pero supuesto que fuese, ya yo cumpl£, pagando con lo que os debo. £Solo con darme esta Have? 2815 2820 2825 263 REINA. CONDE. s£, Conde, solo con eso. [Luego esta, que si csmino sbrlera a mi vida abriendo, tambien le abrira a mi in£amia; ] luego esta, que es instrumento de mi libertad, tambien lo habra de ser de mi miedo; esta, que solo me sirve de huir, es el desempeno de reinos que os he gan&do, de servicios que os he hecho, y en fin, desa vida, de esa que teneis hoy por mi esfuerzo. jEn esta se ci£ra tanto? Pues, vive Dios, (Estoy ciego.) que he de hacer que, si quereis tener agradecimiento y darme la vida, sea por otro mas noble medio; y si no, que pueda a voces quejarme al mundo, diciendo que no pagais bene£icios, 2830 2835 2840 2845 REINA. CONDE. REINA. CONDE. qua da loa raalaa pachoa as la mas indlgna acclon. ^Donde vals? Vll lnstrumento da ml vida y da ml tnfamla, por aata raja cayando dal parqua qua bata al r£o, antra aua crlatalas quiero, si sols ml esperansa, hundlros; caad al humedo cantro donda al Tamesls sapulta ml esperanza y ml ramedlo. No quiero huyendo vlvlr. Arrola la llava. {Ay da mil Mai habeia hecho. Sad agora agradeclda; ya os ha qultado asta medio de agradecerme y llbrarme. Agora, agora os acuerdo servicio8 y obligactones; qua as forzoso, no teniendo 264 2850 2855 2860 2865 REINA. CONDE. REINA. CONDE. REINA. •quel que me estaba mal, buscar otro medio nuevo de librarme o ear ingrata. Ser ingrata escoger quiero; (iSln vida estoy!) que ese modo solo, a pesar del reapeto, os supo hallar mi piedad. Luego &ha de morir? Es cierto. Yo hice por vos cuanto pude a pesar de lo severo: como mujer os libraba; como Reina, no me atrevo. Manana habeis de morir, man ana, manana es luego. (jOh llanto! no me publiques humane; que cuando dejo de serlo en tener piedad, no lo sea en los e£etos.) Adios, Conde. jEn fin, sois bronce? Pluguiera a Dios fuera cierto; 2870 2875 2880 2885 266 CONDE. REINA. CONDE. REINA. CONDE. REINA. CONDE. REINA. CONDE. mas soy ... &Que sola? Ya as ocloso. Soy quien pondra un escarmlento con vuestra cabesa al nundo. For vos inocente muero. 2 , Quien me dijera algun d£a ... Vos tenels la culpa de eso; que algun d£a pense yo ... Mas tan poca dlcha tengo, que os doy la muerte yo misma. (Apenas el llanto en£reno. {Ay honor, maldito seas!) ({Ay amor, como me has muerto!) (En el morire aunque viva.) (En Blanca vivo aunque muero.) (iAh, si fueras leal!) (|Ah, si a Blanca quislera menos!) (Vanse. ) Sale COSME. con una carta en la mano. 2890 2895 2900 COSME. A morlr llevan «1 Condo, y el me oneor go quo lo dioro aquosto popol a Blanco on murlondo, y sera fuerza servlrle, puos ful criado; mas por osta causa meama hay rason para no hacerlo; quo si os ml smo, la rogla general do los crKados me excluyo dosta obedlencla. iQue sera aquosto papol? £Testamento? Ho, almoneda. ^Excomunlon? No, palabra de osposo; mas tardo llega. Mas ya so lo que os sin duda: os aquosto la sentoncla. Mas no la enviara as£, la enviara ... Que, si os fuerza que envludo en murlondo el, el, por darle buenas nuevas, so la debe do onvlar a que so huolgue con olla. 267 ’ 2905 2910 2915 2920 2925 268 ML curios Idad es nucha, y no es jus to que la tenga con cuatro dados de moho sin decentarla siquiera, desde que, por no saber lo que llevaba en sus letras aquella carta del Conde, estuve a pique y auy cerca de morlr por con£ldente. {Maldlgo la confidenda! Esto es escarmlento, astucia, recelo, honor, provldencla, y no deslealtad, senores; y hago prlmero protesta a los alacayos fieles que se usan en las comedies que a6lo aquesto me mueve; veamo8 si es macho o hembra. Afrre la g«rtg» Violela, ya no hay ramedlo; mas ique es esto, Santa Tecla? 2930 2935 2940 2945 269 REINA. SENESCAL. REINA. lEste secreto escond£as, papal? Voy aprlesa, aprlesa, por al tanarla as dalito, a hacer el silendo plazas, a hacer el secreto astlllas y hacer menuzos la lengua; no me hen de coger de susto. Pero aqu£ vlene la Reina; apartado esperare. Salen LA REINA y EL SENESCAL. y aplrtase COSME. Ejecutad la sentencla. ^Donde morlr a? En Palaclo porque es fuerza que se tenia que qulza el pueblo, alterado, se conspire en su defense. Para escarmlento le mato, mas no quiero que lo sepan haste que el tronco cadaver le[s] slrva de muda lengua; 2950 2955 2960 SENESCAL. COSME. y u{, al salon da Palaclo harals qua, llamados, vangan loa grandaa y loa mlloras, y para qua all! la vaan, dabajo da una cortlna harala poner la cabeza, con al aangrlanto cuchlllo, qua amanaca, junto a alia, por slmbolo da justicia, costumbre da Ingalaterra; y an aatando todos juntos, mostrandoma justiciara, axhortandolos primero con amor a la obedlancla, las moatrare luago al Conde, para qua todos antlandan qua an ml hay valor qua los rinda, si hay pladad que los atrava. To voy. Tragadia espantosa hoy aquaste ralno aspara. (Vasa.) Aguardando astuva a solas para hablar a vuastra altaza. 270 2965 2970 2975 2980 2985 271 REINA. COSME. REINA. iQua qutrcli7 SeHora, tl Conde qua da asca papal ma ordana a Blanca, an murlando al; yo, por no aa qua qulmera, la abr£, y hallando an al coaaa dignaa da qua tu 1aa sapaa, lo tralgo aqu£, por b± acaso al Conde an algo aprovecha. Blanca al papal? Mostrad; dal Conde aa aquasta latra. (Lee.) "Blanca, an el ultimo trance, porque hablarte no me deja[n ], ha da ascrlblrte un conaejo y tambien una advartancla: la advartancla aa qua yo nunca £ui traldor, qua la promaaa da ayudarte an lo qua aabe8 £ua por aarvir a la Relna, coglando a Roberto an Londraa y a loa qua aagulrla Intentan; para aque8to fue la carta. 2990 2995 3000 3005 272 COSME. REINA. Esto ha querido qua f«p«i porqua adviertas al prodiglo da mi amor, qua ai{ aa deja morlr por guardar tu vida; harta ha aldo la advartancla. (|V£lgame Dios!) El conaejo as qua dasistas la amprasa a qua Roberto ta incita; mlra qua sin m£ te quedas, y no ha da habar cada d£a quien, por mucho qua te quiera, por conservarte la vida, por traidor la suya pier da.M Hombra, £que trajlste aqu£? iTenemos mas con£idancla7 Anda, avlsa al Senescal al punto, — no ta datangas — (|Ay Conde, qua ares leal!) qua la ejecucion suspend an. (No an vano al alma dudaba su traleion; jalagres nuevas! I Viva al Conde, y viva yo!) 3010 3015 3020 3025 ALCAIDE. REINA. ALCAIDE. REINA. ALCAIDE. REINA. IHola, guardas! (^Qul refrena ml alboroxo?) Al Conda al punto la traad a mi preaencla. Sale EL ALCAIDE. iQui mandaa? ^D&ide eatl el Conde? Aqu£ est& ya. Puea iqu4 esperas? iQue as da £l? Aqul est& del modo qua lo mand6 vuestra alteza. Daacubra al CONDE dattollado. iV&lgame Dios! Lleg6 tarda. |Ah traldores, y qua presta, qu£ veloz esta vaz sola anduvo vuestra obadlencla! [ l Qua parazosa qua astuvo ml piadad y ml clamancia; qu£ dlllgante al rigor; y la crueldad, qua llgara! 273 3030 3035 3040 274 i Qua tird« llego el nntdio! pero slampre tarda llega, qua as achaqua da la dlcha llagar cuando no aprovacha. lYo castigua la laaltad? lYo dl muarte a la inocencla? jYo a la asperanza da Europa; yo al amparo da ml tlarra? iYo a ml amenta pladra soy; bronce £ul qulan muarte dlara a su amante? Tarda lloro. iOh intampa8tiva £Inez a! Blanca ma quitaba al Conde; Blanca darme muarte lntanta; dalltos fuaron an Blanca los que an el Conde soapechas. jOh valor mal amplaado; oh eacrupulosa nob las a, que por no culpar a Blanca al Conde morir sa deja! For delito ajeno rauere, mas si clama asta Inocencla, 3045 3050 3055 3060 3065 275 y la venganza an qulen ama deaahoga y aun ramedia,] juro por la mlama saagre que, a pesar de mi paclencia, esmalta al cuchillo en grana y el suelo en corales riega, por eaas lumbres del cielo, que son mariposas bellas que en el luminar del mundo tremulamente se queman, por ese espejo del d£a de qulen las hachas etemas con que se alumbra la noche son pedazos que se quiebran, que he de dar la muerte a Blanca si en el centro, si en la esfera se ocultase; y entretanto que aquesta mudanza llega, cubrid aquese cadaver; no mire yo tal tragedla hasta que, matando a Blanca y vengado el Conde, tenga 3070 3075 3080 3085 276 £in su trale Ion con au nuarta, y dal Senado marasca al pardon da nuaatraa faltaa, puas an servlros sa amplaa [al autor como al poata. ] 3090 Fin de la gran Comadla del Conde de Sex COLLATION OF VARIANTS 277 COLLATION OF VARIANTS Act I 3. has hecho: F - hiclste 14-15. (lines): A - dejarme entrar, pues yo gusto. Linda £lema, si a eso espero U - dejarme entrar? Pues yo gas to llnda £lema si as£ espero 15. a eso: B - as£; F - esto 23. (Roberto's line): A - No lo se que ocasion sea, ni ha logrado. 25. F - Folios lv and 2r and following are written in different hands; line 25 is repeated. 28. No, no los sigals: B - No los sigals mas 30. Mucho os pago: BFU - En esto os pago 31. F - otro d£a crossed out; algun dfa written in different hand. 35. ruido: BFU - el ruido 39. (line): B - &que, es sangre; que estals herido? U - que; es sangre? que; estals herido? 278 42 43 48 53 59 65 90 91 95 98 100 107 116 119 120 129 279 apretaos: A - aprestaoa gran favor: BF - grande favor prohlblo: F - prohlbe Aquesa: B - Aquesta Yo os lo prometo: A - Yo os le prometo. BU - Yo lo prometo. F - like text, mledo: BFU - un mledo bizarro: F - humano y bianco: FU - que es bianco (line): FU - venlste encublerto a ver qulen: BFU - que en 101. B - omits both lines. se que tuve: F - y que tuve al mas pequeno impulso: F - al impulso primero espesura: A - esperanza asegura: A - aseguro (line): A - Este pues, valla, undosa B - Este, pues, valle undoso F - Esta, pues, valla umbrosa U - Changed from valle undoso to vena undosa. (lines): F - hago al examen arbitro el o£do, quiere Informarme atento, nada averiguo as£ por mas que insista U - hago examen, advirtio el o(do nada averiguo as£ por mas que insisSe [atento a informarme insista. F - para crossed out; hacia written above in another hand. y media: F - a media U - la media U - line begins with midio. crossed out. U - breves crossed out; corrected to belias♦ r£o: UF - agua o si: A - as£ El: BU - Al le encanecieron: B - le encarecieron (line): Omitted in FU. al agua: A - el agua monstruo: B - rostro quizo: A - quize cotno la miro: B - como camino y entonces el arroyo: F originally read y el arrovo envidioso; corrected in another hand to read like text. 201. 206. 207. 208 212 216 221 225 230 233 237 238 239 251 255 263 264 281 (line): F - y como an fin all£ se parecia (line): Omitted In B. (line): B - y las dos azucenas FU - de 8us dos azucenas envldlan: BFU - envldlando (line): B - con nubes Importunes Muere: A - Muera BFU - like text. The reference Is to line 1; Roberto says "Muere, tlrana." empezaron: F - acabaron por si ha salldo: B - por se le ha errado o su traleIon: BFU - y su tralclon 234. F - oiate and vlste reversed; crossed out and corrected In another hand. hublera: FU - se hublera (line): Omitted In A. como a tan to: U - como tanto 252. U - estando Is repeated from line 250 and crossed out; no es is misplaced at the beginning of 252 and also crossed out. venga: F - vino el Cura: U - Elvira corrected to el cura. (line): A - como tienen en Palacio 282 278. 280. 285. 292. 296. 299. 312. 316. 326. 329. B - como tlene an al palaclo FU - Ilka taxt. U - omits Cosine. astara: F - estaran (line): A - Vamos pues. / Blanca m£a BU - Vamonos pues. / {Blanca m£a! F - like text, en: BFU - de de este mal: B - a este mal de ml amor: F - de ml mal amor (line): F - que no es slno por el Conde (line ): A - no fue a las paces que a mas B - no fue hacer paces, que mas F - no fue a las paces y mas U - no fue a hacer paces que mas (line): A - mas yo lo tengo de ver U - crossed out; poroue vo pueda entender follows line 327. leerle: A - leer 335. 337. 343. 347. 352. 360. 365. 367. 370. 372. 373. 394. 403. 422-435. 283 (line): U - originally like text; altered to toma tu aqueata cadena. (line): B - ablandare a tal porf£a. FU - abl£ndome £hay tal por££a? (line ): B - omits F - hermosa Blanca y despues U - a mi senora destmes crossed out and rewritten hermosa Blanca v despues. (line): F - que desprevenldamente estoy ciega: B - yo estoy clegas ser£a: BU - sera. Sera destroys the rhyme of the redondllla. cre£: F - entend£ hoy: B - a vlvido: BU - venldo ojos: F - soles cuestas: F - debes dudas: F - aguardas los dos: B - todos. Both versions contain nine syllables. F - blocked off and crossed out. No se diga and the flourish of Francisco de Avellaneda appear in both margins. In the right margin 437. 444. 447. 453. 473. 484 501 503 512 515 525 529 533 549 592 598 284 the new version is written in a different hand: dandole cuenta a la Reina, casamos. Aora he venido desta empresa y a la Reina me: FU - nos ABU read como amigo: F - like text, la Europa: BU - a la Europa F - toda la Europa o: BU - y nac£: F - nina hecho: U - pecho 522. F - the verses appear in different order and the entire passage is boxed in with heavy pen strokes. ignorancia: BFU - ignorancias o a los rayos: F - o desmayos pisar: A - pesar de: U - en su estado: F - sus estados (line): BFU - huyo del riesgo y sin esto el asistirla yo: B - el asistir aquf si leal: BU - si te hallo B - omits a 285 599-606. U - blocked off, crossed with wavy lines, and rewritten. 599. (line): FU - con estas deblles manos 605. hunde cruel: F - hunde arenas; U - tlene arenas 629. (line): FU - y asi qulza despreciada 632. o mas flno: F - menos flno 635-636. el inconveniente / del vil Roberto: B - es inconveniente / el vil Roberto 638. traidores o amigos: F - £ Instead of o U - omits o. 639. conspirados: FU - conjurados 659. &Que respondes?: FU - ^No respondes? 672. digo: BFU - escribo 678. tan bienqulsto: A - tambien quisto 692. F - DUQUE. No podels mientras yo vivo, que os lo sabre yo estorbar. CONDE. jValgame el cielo! BLANCA. ^ ^Que miro? CONDE. jQue es esto, Blanca? BLANCA. jAy de mi! Confusa el alma distingo. Continues as in text with line 695. 705. BF - following Blanca's speech: CONDE. No con enredos fingidos intentes, traldora Blanca ... 712. 722. 726 727. 737 750 751 760 777 783 787 804 811 819 823 286 (line): F - originally: de todoa cuantos ha dlcho: crossed out and corrected to read like text. U - originally like text but crossed out. Next line is de todos cuantos he dlcho. The following line was mistakenly copied que no de la yard ad el declrlo. then crossed out. hombres: B - hobres 727. F - both lines omitted and written in right margin in another hand. reconozco: B - renozco de esto: FU - del solo a vos: A - soldados es lo mas: A - es esto mas corregildos: U - correglos se atreve: BF - se atreva (line): A - Atalayo, a sus pisadas, Y sabre daros: F - Sabre daros yo (line): A - le ven la carta tu primo mas grande: F - como esta vuestra vlda: F - vuestra alteza (line): BU - hasta irme manana a Londres F - originally like text; altered to read as above. 832. 836. 838. 845. 865 869 870 876. 893 902 930 944 949 964 965 287 U - dos los altered to los dos. (line): F - qulen fuese traldor vasallo altered to read exactly like text. (line): BU - porque as£ se prueba el caso ejemplo: F - intento &que me quereis?: F - no desperteis 870. F - Francisco de Avellaneda's note, "No dlga espanoles," appears in the le£t margin. The lines are altered to read: Libre esta el relno; dejaron ya los enemigos lenos limpio: A - limpios (line): B - el tftulo, que le hago U - he dado crossed out; replaced by hago. adelantar: A - adelantad ignorado: U - ignorando Mas, ioh necla lengua! : BU - Mas no, necia lengua ha pesado: U - es pesado cordura: F - originally locura: changed to cordura. (Senescal's speech): A - Esta es la cedula firme de vuestra alteza. cedula: F - cedula changed to tltulo BU - t£tulo 288 975. (line): BU - REINA: Loco amor ... CONDE: Necio imposible. F - REINA: Necio amor ... CONDE: Loco Imposible. 979-980. (lines): F - added vertically in right margin. 988. (line): F - rauere entre el pecho y los labios U - muere entre el alma y los labios 993-1076. The speech of the Senescal and the soliloquy of the Queen are found only in U. 1030. tan buenos: The manuscript reads tambien but the romance demands e-o assonance. The copyist, having in mind the syllable tan and the consonant b, probably wrote tambien automati cally. 1037. yo: my guess. The word appears as a scrawl on the manuscript. 1067. This line is illegible in the manuscript. Act II 1077. Agora: F - ayer 1079. a reyes asistimos: FU - a los reyes servimos 1083. el: A - es 1084. privanza: B - esperanza 1089 1096 1100 1103. 1104. 1106. 1107. 1111 1116 1118 1132 1141 289 : 1091. F - boxed In. The "No se dlga" of Francisco de Avellaneda is written in both margins. Lines 1092-1093 are crossed out and the new version is written in the right margin: desdlcha es ser envldlado. hasta: BFU - esta (line): F - tan tarde, Cosine, de aqu£ (line): FU - mil envidlas. Cosme 1U persona las tengas: A - la tenga FU - las tenga B - like text, receloso: F - sospechoso (line): BU - que anda de m£ sospecho F - receloso instead of sospechoso. Flora: B - o Flora 1117. tenido azar: F - like text; changed from temido andar. U - altered but smudged and illegible, ese: U - este (line): U - changed to Pues. dime, alguien ha habido. una: U - alguna (Nine syllable line) 290 1141-1144. F - boxed In and crossed out; censored by Francisco de Avellaneda. 1148-1149. F - repeated and crossed out. 1152. Conde: A - Aonde 1167. te de: FU - tire 1172. callando: FU - guardando 1178. me estan matando: F - me dan la muerte 1181. £ue: F - es 1183. decllla: A - declrla. The assimilated form Is necessary to preserve the rhyme. 1209-1212. Missing in F. 1220-1221. (lines): F - Ya llegas a conocer que es el Conde un indiscreto 1222. £also: BU - facil 1223. B inserts £. 1224. toma: B - tomo 1226. trocado: B - tornado 1227. vomitado: U - he vomitado 1235-1237. (lines): B - que el Conde anda divertido, aunque credito no he dado, es hombre en fin, y »Ay de aquella U - que anda el Conde divertido 1241. apretar: F - apurar; U - hacer 1251. dejadme: A - dejame 291 1254. Irene: U - Fileno 1256. Line omitted in A. 1259. reciamente me encubres: BFU - neciamente me encumbras (U - lncumbras) 1274. temo: BFU - tlemblo 1275. efeto: BF - afecto 1283-1284. (lines): F - boxed In. The "Mo" and the Flourish of Francisco de Avella- neda which appear in both margins are heavily crossed out. 1294. su luz: F - sus luces (Nine syllable line) 1297. Irene: U - Fileno 1298. yo: A - y 1304. horror: In BFU; A - honor. 1307. agradado: B - agrado 1326. horror: in BFU; A - honor. 1336. B omits the line. 1338. A - The entire song is repeated instead of just the verso glosado. 1340. sea: FU - sera 1359. violento: B - violiento 1363. le: U - lo 1364. Laura: A - Lauro 1368. horror: in BFU; A - honor 1387. no os tendra: B - omits o^. F - tendra 1390. no: F - mal 1393. quitais: F - estorbas 1400. a mas lntento: BFU - o mas intento 1404. imperfecto: B - ya perfeeto 1405. le: B - el 1407. cuanto: A - cuando U - Eso cuanto 1408. despreclo: BF - el despreclo 1410-1411. (lines): F - pero no cuanto al silencio puede ser mucho un culdado 1414. Si; que: A - sin que 1417. porf£a: BFU - procura 1420. cejar: A - que jar U - celar changed to volver BF - like text. 1435. admitlera: BF - admitieran 1440. esta: A - es 1441. tal vez: A - tal luz 1444. mi engazio: AB - un engano 1449-1452. U - lines crossed out and recopied, evidently because of ink blots and copying errors. 1454. propio: F - mismo 1455. 1456. 1459. 1460. 1463. 1464. 1473. 1474. 1489. 1493. 1495. 1496. 1500. 1507. 1516. 1520. Qulen: A - Que bien juzga: A - luz Infellz: BU - fells dura: B - duda pues: B - que es (line): A - reads Mnada le esta tambien cuando dudoso” because of transposition of line 1465. BFU - like text, del mal: A - el mal; B - de mal puedo morlr: A - pudo U - morlr changed to vlvlr llego: BFU - salgo atrevido: A - atrevo (Seven syllable line) persuaslones: B - pretenslones (line): F - en otro dueno BU - Mi prenda en poder ajeno supuesto: BFU - y supuesto aman ... : B - amor subir pretendio: F - pretendio subir U - subir presumio tejio: in BFU; A - entrego. 1525. 1526. 1527. 1535. 1537. 1543. 1545. 1549 1553 1565 1570 1573 1575 1579 294 soplando: F - soplado tejlda: In BFU; A - tejj lendo. y del Ollmpo: BF - que del Ollmpo U - que del Ollmpo al sol que hablo: U - que plus something Illegible crossed out; changed to me hablo. esteis: BFU - entreis (Queen's speech): A - No os movals (Seven syllable line) BFU - like text. (line): A - omits se: BFU - like text. 1554. BU - omitted F - boxed in and crossed by two diagonal lines. 1554. (lines): F - del Imperio de tus ojos que es el mas divino imperio. menester: B - mener a el: B - al lo: A - la; BFU - like text. •1582. B - omitted F - blocked off and crossed with heavy vertical lines. U - written in right margin in another hand. beb£: A - me v£ 1588. acreedora: A - heredera 1596. queja: F - queje 1604. (line): F - cuando a vuestra altaza dabo 1604>1607. U - blotted, crossed out, repeated. 1607. tus: F - esas 1626. dlga: B - dlgo 1634. estando a solas: F - quedando solas 1651. raujer: B - menor 1657. F - omits j r 1661. secreto: recato 1675. y as£ dudo: A - omitted; BU - iy si dudo? F - like text. 1679. nuevo: BFU - mucho 1682. su8 penas: F - su pena 1683. creo: F - juro 1685. BU - omit que. 1687. en fin: BU - al fin 1691-1700. Omitted in F. 1693. a: omitted in A. 1694. B - omits en. 1697. de cuidados: B - y cuidado 1701. iEs esto: BFU - &No es esto 1705 1709 1710 1720 1725 1727 1732 1733 1735 1738 1759 1769 1772 1782 1784 1785 1811 1814 296 pero: F - crossed out, changed to poroue. U - originally y ea may mayor; changed to read like text. estos: B - dos 1711 and 1712-1713 reversed in F. Pluguiera: B - pluyera (line): A - por mlrarle esta entonces (Blanca's speech)-1748. Omitted in F. The passage is reduced to: REINA. Pasa adelante. BLANCA. En fin digo y: BU - o o£r al recato: AF - huir el recato BU - like text. en: BU - con 1739. U - written in right margin in another hand, duda: A - deuda honor: B - amor corno asl: A - como si a; BFU - like text, esta: B - es yo quiera: BU - quislera (line): F - en esta ocasion al Conde el: U - al hacerme: B - hecharme 297 1818 1821. 1822. 1828- 1856- 1861 -1820. (lines): A - que si £lngldo se altera tanto ml enojo, ved vos si £ueran verdad que hide ran. F - que si £lngldos alteran tanto mi enojo, ved vos, si fueran verdad que hlderajt [n, crossed out ] BU - like text. The dl££iculty of this passage lies in the ambiguity of its subject. Finaido refers to enolo but fingldos modifies celos (line 1817). The latter may have been intended In A but the printer could have easily omitted the final s, because of its assimilation with ge. The verbs refer to celos or enolo depending on their num ber, and the subject of hiciera could even be yo. (line): F - y as! pues ol va la vida amor: BFU - honor 1846. Omitted in F. The following passage substi tuted: El Conde aleve jquien duda de mi honor la deuda nlega? La Reina cruel le incite a que me niegue la deuda. •1859. F - boxed in and crossed by vertical lines; a flourish (not Avellaneda's) appears twice in the left margin and once in the right. -1863. Omitted in F. A l <mptilao de mi ira inserted in a different hand after line 1860. 1868 solas: F - a solas 1873. 1874- 1880. 1900. 1901. 1923. 1925. 1932 1949 1950 1951 298 U - omits mil. 1881. Oknitted in F. le: A - la atiende: B - atiendes U - s deleted from atiendes. su, sus: B - tu, tus U - originally a su reino v vasallos: deleted and rewritten a tu reino y tus vasallos. atajar: A - trazar; BFU - like text. The sense of the passage indicates that death would cut short her problems, not increase them. cobardes: U - pesados vine: BFU - viene Blanca's speech omitted in A. (line): ABU - BLANCA. jAh traidor! CONDE. iTraidora eres! (This erroneous reversal of roles lacks a syllable.) F - as above; changed to read like text. The queen herself corrects the text, so to speak, when in lines 1973-1974 she says: "{Ah traidora!" dijo el Conde; Blanca dijo: "Traidor eres." aquesto: BU - esto 1981. 1985- 1998. 2002. 2005. 2006. 2031. 2034. 2041- 2051. 2070. 2085. 2092. 2094. 2096. 2111 299 (line): BU - no lo dlgals F - Decid; mas no lo dlgals 1990. Omit tad In F. dellto: A - da Lito pues al: F - omits el, (Sevan syllable line). A - omits Conde. (line): U - Conde, la verdad teme (Seven syllable line) Act III alevoso: B - anlmoso enganoso: B - alevoso 2130. Omitted In F. estas: B - esta puedo: A - pudo; BU - like text. Omitted In B and U. encogimlentos: BU - acogimientos en: BU - con despecho: A - despejo -2130. Omitted In BFU. This passage seems to have caused considerable difficulty since It was omitted from both manuscripts and the second edition. Tran scribed exactly as It appears in A, it reads: 300 2124. 2130. 2138. 2145. 2155. 2156 2180 2187 Pues el como? quando muere su Inocencla no dio culpa por no echar as si la culpa a Blanca, claro se ln£lere; This may have been Intended to read: Ries el: £Como, cuando muere su Inocencla, no dlo culpa — por no echar a at la culpa— a Blanca? I have chosen the version that appears in the text because it follows the queen's thought process as she asks rhetorical questions and answers herself. acaba, el otro: A - acaballo otro enfermar de: A - enfermarse; BU - like text, algun: B - un (Seven syllable line) (line): U - ml amor confuso a informer del Conde: F - crossed out; aaut substituted. U - aqu£ B - su nombre aqu£ The changes were evidently made to avoid repetition of the words del Conde from line 2153. F and U lack a syllable. 2157. (lines): Crossed out in F. (line): B - No imporra [sic]; decid que entre. (Seven syllable line) ausentabas: A - ausentaba 2194. estuve: U - estaba 2199. 2206. 2212. 2218. 2221. 2227. 2235- 2236. 2237. 2253 2257 2263 2265 2266 2272 2276 ya: BFU - yo eso: B - esto esta: F - una A - Queen says entire line. Omitted In A. soy: F - estoy pueblo: B - conde 2236. (lines): F - si yo confidents he sldo, si lo soy o si lo fuere (line): B - si yo he sldo o si lo fuera (following): F - ni lo sere etemamente. £Yo confidente? jHay tal cosa! U - Inserted In right margin: nl lo sere etemamente. (si dljera confltero ... ) en esta opinion: F - por confidente que se suyo: B - que rablo ya (line): A - con algun chisme cartujo juro a Dios: F - vlve Dios (line): U - added In right margin. B - speech is said by the Senescal -2277. B - jOh, que dlferentes tienen las caras de los vasallos 2278. 2279 2283 2284 2312 2315 2325 2333 2392 2414 2427 2430 302 j U - appears to have originally been like B but line 2277 is scrawled over and Illegible. (following): F Inserts the following passage: Cara de probar vinagre tlene agora. Que me dlese por traidor solo me falta. CRIADO 1°. Ande pues. COSME. jYo confidente! 2283. (lines): U - crossed out; the verse spoken by Criado 1° and Cosine (above) is inserted, and the action con tinues with line 2279. fiscal: F - quien soy (line): F - si una verdad no os dijese B - si una verdad os dijere verdugo: F - cuchillo entonces: F - todo >2328. Quitted in BFU. >2410. Quitted in BFU. lloro: A - el oro dos: F - que >2429. (lines): Reversed in BFU. asombros: A - asombres ofendlda: F - agraviada 2434. 2436. 2453. 2456. 2457. 2469. 2472. 2475. 2480. 2489 2491 2497 2507 2517 2518 A: Omitted in A and B. The sense of the passage demands that un delito v otro be objects and caatigo and venganza be subjects. odio: B - otro decid: U - decidme (line): A - omits la (Seven syllable verse). F - &No es vuestra? / Yo no lo niego. BU - like text. U omits gran (Seven syllable verse). (line): F - pues £como, Conde, escribisteis (line): F - que os escucho vuestro intento hallado: A - a hallado quiero: U - puedo desdicha: F - fortuna F - omits el. muero: B - muerto U - omits el. usted: A - v.m. 2519. (lines): U - crossed out; Cosine's speech continues que ya me gttele, sospecho, a espanto aquaste gaznate. Text continues with 2518. 2520. dos besos: F - changed to mil besos. 2521. senor gaznate: U - senora nuez 2525. tambien: F - mejor 2526. (following): F - Cosme *s speech continues: de Esquivias o San Mart£n u de Cebreros, que aquestos son lo8 mejores de Espana, aunque aca tarde los vemos. These four lines are crossed out. 2527. (line): U - crossed out and Cosme's speech continued as above except for the first line which is illegible. 2532-2538. (lines): U - crossed out; the Senescal's speech continues: esta muerte, y sabe el cielo lo que yo llego a sentir por el amistad [sic] que os tengo; mas es fuerza obedecer, Conde amigo. Yo obedezco. Lo que la Reina me manda se ejecutara al momento. Venid vos conmigo. Ea, Conde, disponeos CONDE. ALCAIDE. SENESCAL. Text continues with line 2535 2538. 2543. 2549. 2551. 2558. 2563. 2568. 2571. 2572. 2585- 2589- 2594. 2605 2618 2631 305 I (line): UP - no qul8iera conoceros In the crossed out passage In U this line Is like the text. noble: F - flrme Viva: BU - Vive conservar, temoroso: A - conservarte medroso vll infame: BFU - vll y infame (line): BU - pues pierdame a ml por ml cuando plerdo: F - hoy que plerdo para: U - changed to por ser ultima: B - Blanca 2588. (lines): U - boxed In. 2590. (lines): BU - Solo esta el palaclo y mudo y en silencio, que por eso esperando: F - aguardando esta: B - este Llevame, piedad: A - Llevame pie F - Venza ml piedad (following): BFU - insert this passage: Senora, deldad os veo. REINA. iQue dec£s? Pues iQulen soy yo? No debels vos de saberlo. (El me conoclo la noche que me dlo la vida, es cierto, o aqu£ en el habla sin duda me ha conocldo, que neclo sera si no dislmula, que echara a perder con esto lo que vengo a hacer por el.) En fin, Conde, yo, sablendo que habels de morlr man ana, por pagaros lo que os debo en la mlsma accion tamblen, y porque tanto deseo vuestra vlda. CONDE. 4 Vos? REINA. Yo; y tanto que arrlesgara esto que arrlesgo, que es lo mas, porque vos, Conde, vlvals. CiAy Dios!) CONDE. 4Que es aquesto? REINA. Mas porque vamos al caso, como os he dlcho, querlendo [Continues with line 2631.] Variations on the above: First line: F - Como gran senora os veo. habels de morlr: B - hablais de morlr y porque tanto deseo: Omitted in U. Considering the text o£ A, it is highly pos sible that the printer simply omitted this passage. After setting En fin. Conde his eye could have skipped from the vo sabiendo to the next present participle, querlendo of line 2632. However, in spite of the generally 307 2639. 2644. 2654. 2689. 2690 2705 2725 2730 sloppy editing o£ A, the text proceeds logi cally and smoothly throughout this part; therefore, the passage may have been purposely omitted because It Is extremely repetitious. For this reason I have chosen to exclude It from the text. (line): missing in A. y lo fue de entrar: F - y tamblen de entrar en ml vida: B - en embidla U - en invidia (following): U - lines 2742-2752 appear and are boxed in and crossed with wavy lines (2742 reads: Yo oulero mudar de intento): text con tinues with line 2690. 2729. (lines): Omitted in B and F. el de esta: U - es esta que: U - pues F reads: Yo quiero mudar de intento; quiz a en viendome dare las disculpas que deseo, pues que ya me ha conocldo, mas esto ha de ser prlmero. [Continues with line 2743.] B reads: 2744 2772 2776 2777 2777 2779 2793 2795 2799 2807 2810 Yo qulero mudar de Intento, que en vlendome me dara las dlsculpas que deseo. Lines 2733-2740 are omitted. F omits si. puedo: BFU - qulero (line): BF - Yo mesma me las acuerdo •2798. (lines): Omitted in B. •2792. (lines): Omitted In F. otra vez: A - Olales; U - tal es que: F - mas •2798. (lines): Omitted in F. la Reina no puede: F - no puede la Reina •2821. (lines): Omitted in BU; the passage reads: La Reina no puede, que de ese empeno de obligacion ha sido el haberos dado medio para huir de la justicia. >2821. (lines): Omitted in F; the passage reads: Luego a voces llamar puedo ingrata a quien di la vida. 2829 2832 2839 2841 2870 2877 2899 2900 309 REINA. No podeis, que el desempeno de eaa obligacion ha aido el haberos dado medio para huir de la juaticia de la Reina. The paaaage ends with a truncated verse. 2831. (lines): Missing in A. The missing verses and the firs t„printed verse both start with luego esta: the printer's eye probably skipped to the second cme. que es: F - que si es 2840. (lines): F - added in margin in a different hand; line 2840 reads: ... nor mi aliento. esta: A - esto medio: BFU - modo 2899. (lines): Oknitted in F; verse following 2876 reads: REINA. Adios para siempre. CONDE. Adios. maldito seas: BU - cuanto me cuestas muerto: FU - pues to U - The passage continues as follows: iExtrana flneza! ({Ay Blanca!) A morlr voy. REINA. Deteneos. 2914 2915 2917 2921 2932 2933 2941 2945 2952 310 CONDE. iQue querels? REINA.. Esto os relnar. (iOh costoso engaxfo, qulero ... mas no es menester.) Querfa esforzaros mas sols cuerdo. CONDE. Blen sabre morlr si es cosa que le negocla el esfuerzo. REINA. Adios para slempre. CONDE. Adios. CVlva Blanca. {Ay amor clego! Blen clego, pues al amor venda en los ojos me has puesto.) obediencla: B - licencla 2936. (lines): missing in F; the omission is indi cated by Falta written in the right margin. palabra: B - cedula asf: BU - si llevaba en: A - llevaban del Conde: U - crossed out and changed to de Escocia. Note that the letter was not from Scotland but addressed to that country. alacayos: BFU - lacayos Violela: A - Violeta; B - Viosela hacer menuzos: A - hacerme muchas 2953. (line): Omitted in F; the following two lines added in the right margin in a differ ent hand: 311 2955. 2964. 2967. 2973 2979. 2981 2982 2984 2985 pero aqul la Reina sale; qulero darsela a la Reina. (following): U - por ver el a solas se queda. SENESCAL. Ya el orden se esta esperando. The Senescal's speech was Inserted between the lines; It also appears In F. les: ABU - le I have accepted les from F to preserve the plural established by the verb sepan. mllores: F - milordes 2974. (lines): Omitted In F. mostrare: A - mostrarels BFU - like text valor: U - rigor los: A - la (following): BFU - Traedme a Blanca tamblen, que no es Justo aue este presa, pues ella no esta culpada. (La razon al amor venza.) F - por si Instead of pues; passage added In margin In another hand. U - Direction vase was originally written after line 2982; crossed out and placed after the above passage. estuve: BU - estaba 2987 2998 3006 3008 3012 3020 3022 3024 3026 3029 3038 3041 312 querela: BU - quleres dejan: A - deja; BFU - like text. (line): A - ya lo que segun le intentan U - aervlrle instead of seguirle: the erroneous line v a loa que servlr a la reina is crossed out. >3011. (lines): U - repeated by mistake and boxed in. harta: BFU - esta pierda: A - prenda; BFU - like text. (following): F - mas que me condena el Conde en nada mi dicha acierta. Both lines are crossed out. no: F - que suspendan: F - suspenda (following): COSME. {Suspendan la ejecucion! This extra speech breaks the e-a rhyme scheme, y viva yo: FU - y muera yo y: A - a -3068. (lines): This passage, missing in A, appears in BFU. I have included the version from B in the text. 3041. 3049- 3051. 3053. 3054. 3061- 3071. 3075. 3077. 3082. 3083. 3084 3087 3088 3089 3090 313 (line): F - omits the second one. U - iQue perezosa, qua estricta ml piedad y ml demencla! 3055. These lines could also be transcribed as exclamations. The question marks appear only in B. (line): F - Yo al abrigo de ml tierra pledra soy: F - (loca estoy) fui: F - soy •3080. (lines): Omitted in F esmalta: A - que esmalta; BU - like text. del mundo: A - segundo; BU - like text. ese: B - este el centro: BU - la tierra ocultase: BU - escondiere mudanza: BFU - venganza matando: B - vengando vengado: BU - vengando tenga: A - tengan; BFU - like text. (line): A - Sin su traiclon y su muerte BFU - like text. Senado: B - Sanado U - Cosme says £inal lines. 314 3091-3092. (lines): BFU - tener pardon de sus yarros al autor como al poata. 3093. The last line, which appears In BFU, Is omitted In A leaving the verb emplea without a subject. TEXTUAL NOTES TEXTUAL NOTES Title 15. 77. 90. 151. 152. Act I page: Not mentioned In the list of characters are Roberto's accomplice and the Alcalde. Un criado Is mentioned but In the play there are two, one of whom Is named Fablo. flema: Phlegm was recognized as the bodily humor that caused laziness; it shared the cold-wet properties of the element of water. The Dlccionario de Autorldades gives the following definition of gastar flema: "Ser perezoso en las acclones. Usase frecuentemente para zaherir al que se altera poco de las cosas." quien: During the Golden Age the word ouien was used both as singular and plural; It could refer to things as well as people. bizarro: The seventeenth century meaning of bizarro was "beautiful," "elegant," "rich." cendal: A wispy, transparent cloth of silk or linen. cotumos: High laced footwear that extended upward to the calf of the leg; invented by the Greeks and later adopted by the Romans, they were regarded as luxurious. "[Acis] el coturao besar dorado intenta." (Gongora, Polifemo. Stanza 38) 316 317 155. 158. 191. 253. 262. 263. vellas: The assimilation o£ the r-1 combination In an infinitive plus object pronoun began In the early sixteenth century. Although it was regarded as an affectation in the seven teenth century it was thought to be euphonious and graceful and was retained in poetry. v£an: Archaic form of vefan. maridaje: A pleasant combination of physical objects or characteristic traits; In this case, the union of jet and marble and the harmonization of their colors. This final image effectively brings to a close the short chiaroacuro descriptive passage In which the Whiteness of the lady's skin is con trasted with the blackness of her mask. The description is then paralleled by a mythological personification of the sun in which the same chiaroscuro effect Is used. mondonga: "Nombre que daban en Palacio a las criadas de las Damas de la Reina." (Autoridadas ) Arias Gonzalo: El Cid and dona Urraca grew up In Zamorra in the house of Arias Gonzalo who later defended the city against the attacks of King Sancho, Urraca*s brother. La Monja alferez: Dona Catalina de Erauso (1592-1650) entered a convent in 1603 and ran away four years later. She adopted men's clothing and became a successful soldier in the New World. Her Identity was not dis covered until a few years before her death. A picaresque novel entitled La monla alferez is the supposed autobiography of dona Catalina, and Juan Perez de Montalban wrote a drama based on her life using the same title. (See The Nun Ensign, trans. James Fitmaurice-Kelly. London: T. F. Unwin, 1908.) 318 263. 291. 314. 336. 362. 501* 538. 560. 609. el cure: This does not appear to be a literary or historical reference. However, the alternate reading, Elvira, refers to the daughter of Ramiro II, sister of Sancho I of Le£n. Elvira left the convent of San Salvador (founded by her father) in 967 to serve with her sister-in-law Teresa as regent for Ramiro III. She returned to the convent in 974. salamandra: It was widely believed that the salamander could live in fire. Covarrubias states: "Dizen della ser tan fr£a que paaando por las ascuas las mata cotno si fuese puro yelo." color: pretext. madurativo: persuasion, bribe. en yendose: In Golden Age Spanish the form en plus a present participle was the equivalent of the modem al. plus infinitive— al irse. 504. Logical word order would be: bella flor ... probo los groseros filos del arado de ignorancias This line is in apposition to conde Roberto in the following verse. el un: The combination of the definite and indefinite articles was possible but not prevalent in Golden Age Spanish; c.f., la ml caaa. dueno: In expressions of affection the masculine form was often used in reference to the woman; e.g., mi dulce enemigo. 319 784. Argos: In Greek mythology, a giant with a hundred eyes who was ordered by the jealous Hera to watch lo, of whom Zeus was Impassioned. "Argos es slempre atento a su semblante." (Gongora, Pollfemo. Stanza 37) 785. llnce: The lynx was commonly used In the Golden Age to symbolize visual acuity. "Llnce penetrador de lo que plensa." (Gongora, Pollfemo. Stanza 37) 846-850. This passage Is the first of several In which Coello reveals the political thought of his epoch. This concept of majesty will soon develop Into one of the basic reasons for the Queen's personal conflict. Jose Maravail states: "La Majestad requlere el mlsterlo y la lmpenetrabilidad, y solo de este modo se atrae la venerac ion. Un escritor de estado religioso como Mallea entiende que el Key, que en todo es imitaclon de Dios, ha de ser 'tan Incomprenslble que nlnguno alcance sus secre- tos.'" (Ft. Salvador de Mallea, Rev Pacifico. Genova: Barberlo, 1646. Cited by Jose Antonio Maravail, Teor£a espanola del estado en el slglo XVII. Madrid: Instituto de Estudios Poli ticos, 1944, p. 259.) 935. The Queen's statement Is Indicative of her con cept of majesty and does not imply that she herself Is divine. The belief in the divine right of the monarch was still prevalent in Spain during the seventeenth century, but the distinc tion of divinity was not extended to the King. "La madurez de la conclencia cristiana no puede tolerar la divinizacion de los principes temporales ... Al pensamiento catolico-politico no le inter es aba ligar el Rey a Dios para hacerle sujeto de facultades analogicamente comparables 320 a las dlvlnas. Lo qua le imports deduclr de esa relacion as al debar dal podaroao da sujetarse a las normas astablacIdas por Dios, da somatarse a la voluntad de Dios." (Maravall, Teorfa. p. 196) This concept of divine right has been defi nitely expressed at several points of Spanish history. For example, in the Slete Partidas; "Tlene el Ray lugar de Dios para facer justlda e derecho en el Reyno en que es Senor." (Leyes 1, 7. Tftulo I, Partida 2) and the following statement of Pedro Portocarrero: "Los pr£ncipes son imagenes de Dios y ocupan en la tierra su lugar." (Theatro monarauico de Espana. Madrid: Garc£a Infanzon, 1700. Cited by Maravall, Teor£a, p. 198.) 975-988. Ludwig Pfandl cites this passage as an outstand ing example of exteriorization of thought: the anti-dramatic technique in which two characters express their innermost feelings by means of two intertwining monologs which in reality form a dialog of souls. (Historla de la literature nacional espafiola ... , 2nd ed. Barcelona: Gustavo Gill, 1952, p. 421.) 1046. rey de Bolonia: This is apparently a historical inaccuracy on the part of the dramatist because Bologna was a papal state from 1274 to 1859 and therefore had no king. It is possible that this is a copying error for Bolonia which was used by Cervantes and Calderon (Persiles, La vida es sueno) as a romantic, far-off land. In neither case is the reference historical. 321 1047. 1048. 1051. 1065. There is no historical record of marriage negotiations between Elizabeth and any Scottish noble. don Juan: Don Juan de Austria, famous Spanish commander, was the illegitimate son of Carlos V and Barbara Blomberg. He was recognized by his half brother, Felipe 11, and gained fame in the Battle of Lepanto and the Netherlands. The statement that don Juan was a suitor to Elizabeth is an exaggeration. The Queen did send an agent to him to hint at marriage, and don Juan communicated this to Felipe. But with a slight shift in the political winds the proposition was quickly forgotten. (See Martin Hume, The Courtships of Queen Elizabeth. New York: McClure-Phillips, 1904, p. 185.) pechera: Pecho was a tribute paid to the King. According to Covarrublas: "En las Partidas dlze: * El que hiziere tal delito peche tantos maravedis.f Esta imposicion que al principle* fue pena ... se vino a hazer trlbuto. Deste estan essento los hidalgos y por el pecho se divlden de los que no son." The necho. therefore, marked the dividing line between the nobility and the commoners; the Queen's expression, pechera de amor, implies that she has fallen from her position of nobility and is now subordinate to love. revellin: In English, ravelin. A detached out work of a fortress having two faces which protect the main walls or curtains. The passage in which the word reve11in occurs (993-1076) is found only in the undated manu script; there is no explanation for its absence from the printed editions or the other manuscript. 322 1066. 1070. 1084. 1089 However, the appearance of this uncommon word In Coello'8 El pastor fido (see Chapter IV) provides a shred of evidence to indicate that this passage was written by Coello and not merely added by someone else. cierzo: A dry cold wind from the north, also called tramontano. se hurta: In modem Spanish, se esconde or se desvia. The privanza was an institution that had a pro found effect on Spain during the reigns of Felipe III and Felipe IV. Fray Jose Laynez gives this description of the privado: "[Aquel] con quien a solas y singularmente se comunica, a quien no hay cosa secreta, escogido entre los demas para una cierta manera de igualdad fundada en amor y perfects amis- tad." (El Privado Christiano. Madrid: Juan de Noorts, 1641. Cited by Maravall, Teorla. p. 306.) Since Spain suffered so badly from the corruption of the Duque de Lerma during the reign of Felipe III, many of the dramatists of the period treated the subject of the privanza. For example, Tirso's La nrudencia en la muler is said to be a warning to the young Felipe IV to avoid losing control of his government as did his father. Act II 1091. In 1626 Francisco de Quevedo warned: "Los reyes pueden comunlcarse en secreto con los minl8tros y criados famillarmente, sin aventurar reputacion; mas en publico, donde en su entereza e igualdad esta apoyado el temor \ 1141. 1164. 1168. 1186. 1207. 1223. 323 ; y reverencia de laa gentes, no dlgo con vali dos, nl con hermanos, nl padre, nl madre ha de haber sambra de amistad, porque el cargo y la dignidad no son capacea de igualdad con alguno. Ray que con el favor dlferencia en publico uno de todoa, para a£ ocaalon despreclo, para el privado odio y en todo envidia." (Politics de Dios ... Zaragoza: Pedro Verges, 1626, p. 75.) Coello's reference to the envy engendered by the privanza was evidently acceptable in 1633 when the play was first performed; it was probably removed by the censor in 1664 to avoid recalling to Felipe IV the tragedy of the rule of the Conde-Duque de Olivares. (See also verse 1102.) tronga: According to the Diccionario de Autori- dades: "Voz de la Germania que signifies la manceba, o dama del gusto." postema: Abscess or tumor. golpe en bola: "Metaphoricamente vale el acierto y seguridad con que se executa o logra algun dicho, u accion, especial- mente contra otro." (Autoridades) despacio: or de espacio; so long a time. porque: An Imperfect rhyme. To conform to the redondilla verse pattern it would have to be stressed on the last syllable. pisaverde: "El mozuelo presumido de galan, holgazan, y sin empleo ni aplicacion, que todo el dla se anda paseando." (Autori dades) 1382-1384. Anteros-Cupido: In Greek mythology Anteros was a minor deity in the retinue of Eros (Cupid), the god of love. He served as 324 the avenger of unrequited love and as the antithesis of Eros (Anti-Eros), representing not hate but the challenge of the loved object to the lover. When Aphrodite, mother of Eros, saw that her son did not grow, she asked advice of Themis, goddess of justice. When she was told that Eros would not develop unless he had a companion or counterpart, Aphrodite gave Anteros to him. When the two were together Eros grew, but when they were apart he returned to childhood. The allegory suggests that love cannot exist in a pure state but must be shared and challenged in order to flourish. It is sig nificant that the god representing the opposite of love is still subordinate to Eros, function ing in the service of love and not as an evil counter-force. 1469-1505. Bmilio Cotarelo y Mori, major contributor to the sparse criticism of El Conde de Sex, makes the following comment about this passage: "Hay alguna contradiccion en el caracter del Conde. A1 sospechar que la Reina le ama, intenta una declaracion amor os a, que la Sobe- rana ataja al ver a Blanca con la banda ... Esta cafda, este cambio en el caracter del protagonista, no era necesario para que el drama siguiese su curso fatal e inflexible." I cannot agree with this opinion for several reasons. In the first place, the love that Essex finally declares was engendered in a typical Golden Age case of love at first sight in the opening scene of the play when neither party recognized the other. This fact, spurred by the Conde'8 desire for power, makes his declaration a logical result of the first scene. 1661. 1742. 1812. 325 i I Secondly, I do not believe that this passage indicates a change In character. From the very beginning Essex showed a tendency to waver £rom one motive to the other where love was concerned. His conflict was nearly parallel to the Queen's: She had power and wanted love but was frustrated by the struggle between majesty and human desire. Essex had love but wanted power. The difference in their conflicts is that love pulled at Essex from two directions, and in this passage the balance was tipped toward the Queen. Finally, if Essex had not made his declare* tlon, the Important conflict of Impossible love would have remained a mere suspicion and the final prison scene would have been meaningless. lima sorda: a smooth file. "Metaphoric ament e se llama el tiempo, y todo aquello que lmperceptiblemente, y sin sentir, va gastando y consumiendo alguna cosa." (Autorldades) priesa: Archaic form of prisa. necessary to preserve the assonance. vuestro honor nada pesa: In Golden Age drama there are numerous cases of a tyrant who denies the existence of honor among those whom he oppresses. REGIDOR. Lo que dec£s es injusto; no lo digais, que no es justo que nos quiteis el honor. COMENDADOR. ^Vosotros honor teneis? iQue frelies de Calatrava! (Lope de Vega, Fuenteove 1 una, Act II) Act III 2052 2181 2261 2263 2283 2371 fiscal: One of the duties of the fiscal was to act as public prosecutor. juanetes: Hie bone In the foot at the base of the big toe which Is quite prominent In some Individuals. de dos de queso: insignificant or worthless. chlsme cartuj o: The Carthusian Order was founded In 1086 in Chartreuse by St. Bruno and was established in Spain in 1163 at the Monasterlo de Scala Dei In Tarragona. Since the Carthusian monks fast a great deal, maintain long periods of silence, and live very frugally, Cosine says that his secret is not even as interesting as a Carthusian rumor (chlsme) and puns on his former use of the word queso recalling the severe diet in the monastery. fiscal: In this case the word means "bearer of tales." 2381. This series of grief-stricken questions may well have been inspired by Salicio's lament in the Egloga I of Garcllaso de la Vega: Hi dulce habla £en cuya oreja suena? Tus claros ojos i& quien los volviste? iVor quien tan sin respeto me trocaste? Tu quebrantada fe &do la pusiste? Cual es el cuello que, como en cadena de tus hermosos brazos anudaste? The Queen's words bear a striking simi larity to a passage in La Gatomaqula. published by Lope de Vega in 1634, one year after the first performance of El Conde de Sex: 2526. 2548. 2586. 2654. 2765 327 ... Zapaqullda bella, £por qua me dejas tan injustamente? lEa Mizifuf mas sabio? jEs mas valiente? ^Tiene mas llgereza, major cola? ^No sabes qua ta qulse allglr sola antra cuantaa se precian da mlrladas ... ? ..• £Quien ha sldo mas cuidadoso, como tu lo sabes, an cuanto an las coclnas, a t rev id o, puda garra£lfiar da paces y avas? iQue pastel no ta truje, qua salchlcha? iOh terrible dasdicha! (Silva Primer a) Alahejos: A wine producing village in the province of Valladolid, located on the Rfo Trabancos. coronica: The archaic form of cronica is used to maintain the proper number of syllables. dos cueros: The popular expression estar hecho un cuero (wineskin) means to be drunk. Cosine says dos cueros to indicate that he is as drunk from lack of sleep as he is drowsy from too much wine. en mi vlda: Hie Queen's somber unfinished sentence echoes a historical reality. She went into a rapid mental and spiritual decline after the execution of Essex and died two years later after suffering pro tracted periods of weeping, silent depres sion and sickness. 2766. Rey-reo: This kind of play on words does not appeal to modern taste but was very much in vogue in Coello's epoch. Cf. Calderon de la Barca: "y apenas llega cuando llega a penas." (La vida es sueno. Act I) 328 2916. 2929. 2941. 2946. 2952. 3082. almoneda: auction. cuatro dedos de moho: Cosine refers to the mold that grows on sausage or smoked meat. He says that It would be a pity not to be able to make one little slice to see what Is underneath. alacayos: Archaic form of lacavos. Santa Tecla: St. Ihecla of Iconium, virgin and martyr, was supposedly converted to Chris tianity by St. Paul and thereafter followed him as an apostle, preaching and making several miraculous escapes from death. Thecla is known only from the apocryphal second century book, Acta Pauli et Theclae. and her very existence has been in dispute. She is the patroness of Tarragona. menuzos: fragments. el centro: According to Covarrubias: "Es el lugar que mas dista del cielo: y ass£ esta diputado para el demonio y sus sequazes." PART III BIBLIOGRAPHY 329 BIBLIOGRAPHY Alfay, Josef. Poesiaa varias de grandes ingenios espanoles (1654). 2nd ed. and notes, Jose Manuel Blecua. 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"Algunas observaclones acerca del con- cepto del honor en los slglos XVI y XVII," Revlsta de Filologfa Espanola. Ill (1916), 21. Coe, Ada M. Catalogo blbliograflco v critlco de las come- dlas anuncladas en los perlodicos de Madrid desde 1661 hasta 1819. Baltimore: Johns Bonklna Press. 1935. Correas, Gonzalo. Vocabularlo de refranes v frases pro- verblales (1626). 2nd ed. Madrid: Tip. de la Revlsta de Archlvos, 1924. Cortes, Narciso Alonso. El teatro en Valladolid. Madrid: Tip. de la Revlsta de Archlvos, 1923. Cotarelo y Mori, Bmlllo. Ac tores famosos del slglo XVII. Madrid: Artes graflcas, 1933. _______ . Bibllograf£a de las controveralas sobre la llcltud del teatro en Esnana. Madrid: Tip. de la Revlsta de Archlvos, 1914. . Catalogo de una colecclon dramatlca espafSola hasta fines del slglo XIX y de obras relatives al teatro esnanol. Madrid: Viuda e hljos de J. Rates, 1930. _______. Dlcclonarlo blograflco v blbliograflco de callgrafos espanoles. Madrid: Tip. de la Revlsta de Archlvos, 1913. ■ Don Antonio Coello v Ochoa. Madrid: ‘ Tip. de la Revlsta de Archlvos, 1919. _______ Fonologfa espanola: pronunc lac ion de los slglos XVI y XVII. Madrid: Imprenta de la Revlsta de Archlvos, 1909. _______ Tirso de Molina, investigaciones bio-bibllogra- flcas. Madrid: Enrique Rubinos, 1893. Covarrubias Horozco, Sebastian de. Tesoro de la lengua espanola ... anadido nor el padre Benito Remigio Novdens" Madrid: Melchor Sanchez, 167^-75. ............. 332 Devereux, Walter B. Lives and Letters of the Devereux. Earls of Essex. 2 vols. London: John Murray, 1853. Dicclonarlo de la lemma castellans commies to por la Real Academia Esnagola. 3rd ed. Madrid: Viuda de J. Ibarra, 1791. Dicclonarlo de la lcneua castellans en cue se explican el vardadero sentldo de las voces ... comouesto por la Real Academia Espanola. Autorldades• 6 vols.; Madrid: Dnprenta F. del Hierro, 1726-91. Dictionary of National Biography, Vol. V. London: Oxford University Press, 1950. Erauso, Catalina de. The Nun Ensign. Trans., James Fitzmaurlce-Kelly. London: T. Fisher Unwin, 1908. Fontecha, Carmen. Glosario de voces comentadas en edi- ciones de textos claaicos. Madrid: Consejo Superior de Investlgaciones Cientificas, 1941. Gongora y Argote, Luis de. Obras completes, ed., Juan Mille y Gimenez. Madrid: Aguilar, 1961. . Las Soledades, ed., Damaso Alonso. Madrid: Sociedad de Estudios y Publicaciones, 1956. Grande de Tena, Pedro. Lagrimaa panegfricas a la muerte del Doctor Juan Perez de Montalban. Madrid: Bnprenta del Reino, 1639. Guerard, Albert Leon. France: A Short History. New York: Norton, 1946. Herrero Garcfa, Miguel. Ideas de los espanoles del siglo XVII. Madrid: Editorial Voluntad, 1928. Hume, Martin. The Court of Philip IV. New York: G. P. Putnam'8 Sons, 1907. The Courtships of Queen Elizabeth. 2nd ed New York: McClure, Phillips, Inc., 1904. 333 i Hurtado de Mendoza, Antonio. Obraa poet leas de Antonio Hurtado de Mendoza, ed., Rafael Benitez Carlos. Vol. II. Madrid: Graflcas Ultra, 1947. Jones, C. A. "Honor in Spanish Golden-Age Drama: Its Relation to Real Life and Morals," Bulletin of Hispanic Studies. XXXV (1958), 199-210. Jovellanos, Gaspar Melchor de. Obras escogidas de Jove- llanos. ed., Eduardo Ovejero. Madrid: La Rafa, 1930. Kenniston, Hayward. The Syntax of Castillian Prose: The Sixteenth Century. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1937. Malden, H. E., ed. Richard Broughton's Devereux Papers. In Camden Miscellany, series 3, vol. XXXIV. London: Offices of the Society, 1923. Maravall, Jose Antonio. Teor£a espanola del estado en el siglo XVII. Madrid: Lnstltuto de Estudios Politicos, 1944. Mattingly, Garret. The Armada. Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 1959. _______ • "The Date of Shakespeare's Sonnet CVII," PMLA. XLVIII (1933), 705-721. Mendez Silva, Rodrigo. Catalogo Real de Espana. Madrid: Lnprenta del Reino, 1637. Mesonero Romanos, Ramon de, ed. Dramaticos contemporaneos de Lone de Vega. In Biblioteca de Autores Espartoles. Vol. XLV. Madrid: Rlvadeneyra, 1881. Michaud, Joseph Francois. Biographie Universelie. Vol. I. Paris: Michaud freres, 1811. Mbllnaro, J. A., et al. A Bibliography of Comedias SueItas in the University of Toronto Library. Toronto: Uni versity of Toronto Press, 1959. Morel-Fatio, Alfredo. L'Espagne au XVIe et au XVIIe siecle. Paris: F. Vieweg, 1878. 334 ' Neale, J. E. Queen Elizabeth I. London: Jonathan Cape, 1934. Orellana, Francisco Jose de. Teatro aelecto antieuo v modemo. Vol. III. 1867. Paz y Mel la, Antonio. Catalogo de laa nlezas de teatro que se conaervan en el departamento de manuscritos de la Biblloteca Nacional. 2nd ed. Madrid: Blass. 1934. . Sales espanoles. Segunda serie. Madrid: Sucesores de Rlvadeneyra, 1902. Perez de Montalban, Juan. Para todos: exemplos morales ... Madrid: Lnprenta del Reino, 1632. Perez Pastor, Cristobal. Memories de la Real Academia Espanola. Vol. X. Madrid: Hijos de Reus, 1910. Pfandl, Ludwig. Culture v costumbres del pueblo espanol de los siglos XVI v XVII. Trans.. Felix Garcia. Barcelona: Arabuce, 1929. _______ . Historia de la literature nacional espanola en la edad de oro. Trans., Jose Rubio Balaguer. Barce lona: Sucesores de Juan Gil, 1933. Quevedo Villegas, Francisco de. Politics de Dios, gobiemo de Cristo. Zaragoza: Pedro Verges, 1626. Read, Conyers. Lord Burghlev and Queen Elizabeth. New York: Alfred A. Knopf, I960. Remon, Fray Alonso. Las fiestas solemnes v grand loses que hizo la sagrada religion de Nuestra Senora de la Merced ... a ... San Pedro Nolasco. Madrid: Lnprenta del Reino, 1630. Rennert, Hugo A. The Spanish Stage in the Time of Lope de Vega. New York: Hispanic Society, 1909. Rletmann, Adolphe. "The Earl of Essex" and "Mary Stuart": Two of John Banks* Tragedies, with a Side Reference to Two German Plays on the Same Subjects bv Hermann Mflller. Bern: Wirz, 1915. 335 Rodr£guez Marin, Francisco. Mas da 21.000 refranee casta- llanos. Madrid: Revlsta de Archlvos, 1926. Rogers, Paul Patrick. The Spanish Drama Collection In the Oberlin College Library. Oberlln. Ohio: Oberlin College, 1940. Sanchez Arjona, Jose. Moticlas referentes a los anales del teatro en Sevilla. Sevilla: E. Rasco, 1898. Schack, Adolfo Federico de. Historic de la literature v del arte dramlticos en Esoana. Trad., Eduardo Mler. Vols. IV and V. Madrid: M. Tello, 1887. Schaeffer, Adolf. Geschichte dee soanischen Nationaldrama. Leipzig: F. A. Brockhaus, 1890. Sepulveda, Ricardo. El corral de la Pacheca. Madrid: Fernando Fe, 1888. Simon Diaz, Jose. Bibliografia de la literature hispanica. 6 vols.; Madrid: Consejo Superior de Investigaciones Cient£ficas, 1950-62. Smith, Winifred. "The Earl of Essex on the Stage," PMLA. XXXIX (1924), 147-173. Strachey, Lytton. Elizabeth and Essex. New York: Hareourt-Brace, 1929. Ticknor, George. History of Spanish Literature. Vol. II. 4th ed. New York: Houghton Mifflin, 1891. 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Creator Schmiedel, Donald Emerson (author)

Core Title 'El Conde De Sex' By Antonio Coello: A Critical Edition And Study

Degree Doctor of Philosophy

Degree Program Spanish

Publisher University of Southern California (original), University of Southern California. Libraries (digital)

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Advisor Hesse, Everett W. (committee chair), Belle, Rene F. (committee member), McMahon, Dorothy Elizabeth (committee member)

Permanent Link (DOI) https://doi.org/10.25549/usctheses-c18-579802

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