Three Major Plays (41 page)

141
enter the ring:
the bullfight in this play clearly takes place off-stage, as the
subsequent stage-direction and the earlier shouting suggest. In the
theatres of the time there was, nevertheless, an area of the pit which
could be roped off and where jousting on horseback could take place.

142
the chain:
Tello's plan to get the chain from Fabia echoes the resolve of Pármeno and Sempronio in
La Celestina
to make Celestina share with them the reward given her by Calisto.

Medea, Circe, Hecate:
in Greek legend Medea was the daughter of Aetes, King of Colchis, who
helped Jason to obtain the Golden Fleece. Circe was, in Homer
Odyssey
,
the enchantress who changed the companions of Odysseus into swine by
means of a magic potion. Hecate was originally, in Greek mythology, a
goddess descended from the Titans who had power over earth, sky, and
sea, but she was later regarded as goddess of the underworld and was
associated with magic and sorcery. All three are, therefore, examples
of supreme cunning and black arts.

143
Orlando:
the Italian name for Roland, the hero of the Anglo-Norman epic
La Chanson de Roland,
and the protagonist of Ariosto
Orlando furioso
,
which was published in 1516 and which subsequently became a source of
inspiration for many Spanish writers. Tello is thinking here of
Orlando as a lover rather than a knight, for in Ariosto's poem he falls
madly in love with the beautiful but disdainful Angelica.

144
the inspiration:
this is a parody of the novels of chivalry in which the heroic knight
undertook his adventures and achieved great victories in the name and
through the inspiration of his lady.
blinkers:
the horses which are used in the bullfight are provided with blinkers.

145
more | Dark-brown than bay:
dark-brown or chestnut horses had the reputation of being more reliable than bays.
With servants from Olmedo:
yet another reference to the rivalry between Medina and Olmedo. See the note to p. 139.

146
I owe my life:
Rodrigo is now indebted to Alonso to the extent that, far from
wanting to kill him, he is obliged to protect him. To take away the
life of a man to whom one owed one's life was unforgivable.
dishonoured: in the sense that, having been rescued by Alonso, he thinks
he has been made to look foolish in public. Witnesses to the incident
will therefore talk openly about it in future, praising Alonso at the
expense of Rodrigo.
observed Rome burn:
in AD 64 Nero watched Rome burn while he stood on the Capitol Hill.

147
those pearls:
see note on
coral and pearl
, p. 86.
Apollo:
the Greek god of youth, masculine beauty, music, song, and prophecy, also identified with the sun-god Helios.

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147
And meet the Infante:
this meeting seems to have no basis in historical fact.

148
S.D. It is night:
as indicated previously, the performance of the play would have taken
place in daylight, in the afternoon. See note to p. 105.

149
the window:
the window would have bars in the traditional Spanish manner. In such
circumstances the suitor would stand outside, usually in the street,
and, if the window was on an upper floor, would have to call up to
her.

150
My foot already in the stirrup?:
Alonso's speech here is similar in structure to his poem in Act Two (see note on
I'm dying
,
p. 116): a five-line traditional poem which serves as a basis for
elaboration, each line becoming the last in five stanzas of ten lines
(décimas).
In the translation I have not attempted to follow the elaborate
rhyming pattern of Lope's original but, with the exception of the
first stanza, have retained the tenline format. Lope had previously
introduced an elaboration of the same traditional poem in
Knowing Can Be Dangerous
(El saber puede daQar).

151
I go, then, to my death:
the poem is a fine example of the tragic irony which runs throughout
the play. The ideas and concepts expressed by Alonso are poetic
commonplaces which are entirely to do with death in the sense of
absence from the beloved, yet for the audience they have a deeper and
darker implication, and even Alonso seems to some extent aware of
their relevance to the danger which lies ahead.

153
S.D. SHADOWY FIGURE:
the appearance of other-worldly figures is no less common in Golden
Age than in Elizabethan and Jacobean drama, and Hamlet's famous
observation about his father's ghost -- 'There are more things in
Heaven and Earth, Horatio, | Than are dreamt of in our philosophy' (I.
v. 174-5) -- is equally relevant. Sometimes such figures were
prophetic. In the case of Alonso, the figure could be a product of his
unnatural melancholy, which previously has been responsible for his
dream at the end of the second act. Indeed, a few lines later Alonso
himself speaks of the figure as being fashioned by his own sadness, but
he also thinks that it might be a vision conjured up by Fabia. Lope
allows for various possibilities and therefore makes the episode that
much more fascinating.

154
lacking noble blood:
in expressing the view that honour is to be found only in those of
noble birth, Alonso may be compared with Fernán Gómez in
Fuente Ovejuna
,
though if he were, as a Knight Commander, to exercise power over
lands and their inhabitants, one cannot imagine him behaving in the
same way.
Romance!:
the word is used here in the sense of the
vernacular, or everyday Spanish, as opposed to Latin, which Tello has
been pretending to teach Inés.

155
witchcraft:
see note on
satanic flames
, p. 94. While neither Alonso nor Tello believes in Fabia's magical powers, Rodrigo clearly does.

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155
Acheron:
in Classical mythology, the river of woe, one of the rivers of Hades.
musket:
strictly speaking, a harquebus, which was the predecessor of the
musket. It was often supported on a tripod or a forked rest.

156
For at night they killed:
this is the famous song around whose origin so much controversy has
raged. For different opinions on this matter, see the Introduction, p.
xix.

157
Fabia:
if the song
was told to the peasant by Fabia and warns Alonso to turn back, the
implication is that she is concerned with his well-being, not with his
downfall. She is not, therefore, an evil woman but a potential saviour.
This is yet another example of the ambiguity which makes Lope's play
so interesting.

158
someone from Olmedo:
Alonso -- and therefore Lope -- may be thinking here, of course, of
Don Juan de Vivero, an alderman from Olmedo, who in 1521 was murdered
by his enemies on the road between Medina and Olmedo, an incident
which, according to some critics, gave rise to the song sung by the
peasant in Lope's play. See the Introduction, pp. xviii-xix.
Remove your sword:
Rodrigo has claimed earlier to be a man of honour, yet the way in
which he disposes of Alonso -- a dishonourable act itself because he
owes him his life -- is made worse by the fact that he strips him of
any means of self-defence. The more honourable procedure would have
been to challenge Alonso to a duel.

159
offends
| The people of Medina: see note to p. 139. It is, perhaps, significant
here that the hostility towards Olmedo is mentioned not by Rodrigo,
whose hatred of Alonso is coloured by jealousy and envy, but by
Fernando, whose motives are less personal.

161
Warden of Burgos:
the Spanish word alcaide described in the Golden Age a person who was
entrusted by the King with guarding and defending a town, city, or
fortress, but it could also mean simply a jailer. Don Pedro has
presumably been honoured by the King with the task of defending
Burgos, a city in Old Castile and birthplace of El Cid.

162
a cross:
as a Knight Commander, Alonso will wear the cross which distinguished members of the Order. See note on the old one, p. 131.

165
the envy of | Your enemies:
a reference to the extremely turbulent times in which Castile found
itself during the reign of Don Juan II, constantly threatened by
enemies both outside and inside its boundaries.
old|In years:
Alonso's father.
both poles:
the two fixed points on which, it was thought, the heavens turned. The halfway point would have been reached at midnight.
six men:
in the earlier stage-direction (3.402) only four are indicated.

166
justice:
as in
Fuente Ovejuna
, the King, God's representative on earth, is called upon to right wrongs and restore order to a disordered situation.

167
The Knight from Olmedo:
in the printed text of 1641 the last line of the

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play is followed by the words:
'Fin de la Comedia del Caballero de Olmedo.'

[
subtitle
]
A Tragedy:
on the play as tragedy, see the Introduction.

171
No modern poet:
a sarcastic reference to the poet Luis de Góngora and his followers. The so-called
culto
or
culterano
poets of the seventeenth century, of whom Góngora ( 1561-1627) was
the supreme example, developed a style of extreme artificiality,
characterized by complex syntax, Classical allusion, and elaborate
imagery. Lope was initially much opposed to such a style, scolding
Góngora and his imitators for their poetic excesses.

172
For him who gives:
that is to say, the wife's lover. In the following lines Febo
complains that, after the wife's death, the lover's gifts should
become the property of the husband.

I turn ¶ The phrase around:
as indicated above, syntactical complication, including inversions,
was a characteristic of the poet Góngora and his followers.

173
fiery dark brunette:
the allusion is probably to a girl of gypsy origin. In general they had the reputation of being hot-blooded and passionate.

174
S.D. Cintia above:
it is quite possible that Cintia would have appeared on one of the
balconies of the houses at the back of or to the side of the stage.

175
Mantua:
a fortified provincial capital in the Italian province of Lombardy. It
is situated on the river Mincio, about 40 miles from Ferrara.

176
famous emperors and kings:
amongst those who used such cunning was the Roman emperor Nero. In
Calderón famous play The Surgeon of Honour (El médico de su honra),
King Peter the Cruel walks the streets of Seville, disguised and at
night, in order to keep himself abreast of any scandalous events in
the city.

I have lived indulgently:
writing this play at the age of 69, Lope was no doubt looking back on
his own indulgent life and, not least, on his many love affairs,
though he did marry several times. See the Introduction, pp. ix-x.

177
An actor-manager:
in the Golden Age the actor-manager was called the autor, though he
was not usually a dramatist but quite often an actor. Punishment
Without Revenge was first performed, it seems, by the company run by the
actor-manager, Manuel Vallejo, who played the part of the Duke.

a friendly audience:
as a professional playwright, Lope was only too aware of the importance of the favourable reaction of a theatre audience.

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In the Madrid of his day the theatre was an intensely competitive business.

177
ingenuity exceed ¶ Vulgarity:
in his poetic essay
The New Art of Writing Plays
,
Lope gave the impression (tongue-in-cheek) to the stuffy
traditionalists of the Madrid Academy that he had lowered his standards
in trying to please the public. In reality, of course, his standards
were very high and his work distinguished by its intelligence and
craftsmanship, as well as by its entertainment value.

178
Andrelina:
the well-known Italian actress and poetess, Isabel Andreini (
1562-1604). The reference is, at all events, anachronistic and fairly
typical of Lope in that respect.

A mirror to all men:
Lope's definition of a play, like Shakespeare's, has its origin in the saying attributed to Cicero:
'est imitatio vitae, speculum consuetudinis, imago veritas'
('it is an imitation of life, a mirror of customs, the likeness of truth').

179
Comedy with seriousness and tragedy ¶ With jokes:
Lope sets out here his belief that the new Spanish drama, which he
largely helped to fashion, should, in imitation of life itself, mix
the serious and the comic in a way which Greek and Romann drama did
not. It echoes what he had written more than twenty years earlier in
The New Art of Writing Plays
. See the Introduction, p. x.

willow-trees?:
presumably weeping willows and therefore an appropriate setting for
Federico's dejection. The change of scene from the streets of Ferrara
at night to the countryside in the daytime is suggested largely by the
dialogue, which locates the action quite precisely.

melancholy thoughts:
Federico appears to be dejected here rather than truly melancholic. The kind of melancholy experienced by Alonso in
The Knight from Olmedo
,
and which was often the result of excessive passion, affects Federico
in Act Two. On the topic of melancholy, see note to p. 138 above.

180
A loyal subject once:
this is a good example of the stories often told by servants to their
masters in Golden Age plays, which are both amusing and relevant to
the master's particular predicament. Although, as in Batín's case, the
servant is a comic character, he is usually wiser and more observant
than his master. The source of this particular story is unknown.

182
S.D. with Casandra in his arms:
this is, of course, a quite brilliant foreshadowing of the events which
lie ahead, when Casandra will lie in Federico's arms in quite a
different context. The important point here concerns the physical
contact between two young people who are immediately attracted to each
other before they become aware of their respective identities.

S.D. Batín with Lucrecia, a servant, in his arms:
in many Golden Age plays the activities of servants act as a comic
counterpoint to the events concerning their masters. Here, for
example, the beautiful and sylphlike Casandra, borne effortlessly to the
river-bank by Federico, provides

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