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Moratin's Creation of the Comic Role for the Older Actress

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  07 July 2009

John Dowling
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Extract

It is commonplace to observe that there are no mothers in the casts of Spanish Golden Age comedias. There are rare exceptions, but in such cases the mother is young. For example, in Tirso de Molina's La prudencia en la mujer (Prudence in Woman), the queen Dona María de Molina is the mother of a small child. As a general rule, the female characters of the Spanish comedia are young damas, or ladies. They are looked after by fathers and brothers, by male servants, or by young female servants, but not by a mother, an aunt, or even an older servant.

Type
Articles
Information
Theatre Survey , Volume 24 , Issue 1-2 , May 1983 , pp. 55 - 63
Copyright
Copyright © American Society for Theatre Research 1983

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References

Notes

1 It may be well to point out that in the seventeenth century, when the vast repertoire of Spanish comedias was created, the word comedia meant simply “play,” comic or serious or mixed. Spaniards were aware of the theatrical distinctions, but they did not practice them in their national drama.

2 The mother in Lope de Rueda's farce, Las aceitunas (The Olives), like Celestina in Tragicomedia de Calisto y Melibea, was a creation of the period before Lope de Vega. Once the formula was fixed and the composition of the theatrical companies was established, the mother and the older woman were excluded.

3 de Moratín, Leandro Fernández, Obras, Biblioteca de Autores Españoles, 2 (Madrid: Ediciones Atlas, 1944), p. 319Google Scholar.

4 de Iriarte, Tomás, El señorito mimado. La señorita malcriada, ed. Sebold, Russell P., Castalia, Clásicos, 83 (Madrid: Editorial Castalia, 1978), p. 139Google Scholar. The Spanish is “señora de mediana edad.”

5 Moratín, Obras, pp. 321–22.

6 The Diario is not a literary work. It is, however, a curious and useful biographical document that can be put to effective critical use. It has been published: Diario, mayo 1780–marzo 1808, ed. Andioc, René y Mireille (Madrid: Editorial Castalia, 1968)Google Scholar. Sebold, Russell P. studies the relationship between the reality of Moratin's life and the reality of his masterpiece in “Autobiografía y realismo en El sí de las niñas,” in Coloquio international sobre Leandro Fernández de Moratín: Bolonia, 27–29 de octubre 1978 (Abano Terme: Piovan Editore, 1980), pp. 213–227Google Scholar.

7 de Moratín, Leandro Fernández, Obras dramáticas y líricas (Paris: Augusto Bobée, 1825), I, 3 (numbered in Roman by error)Google Scholar; also in Obras, B. A. E., 2, p. 335.

8 Moratín, , Obras dramáticas y líricas, I, 3–4Google Scholar.

9 Emilio Cotarelo y Mori, Don Ramón de la Cruz y sus obras. Ensayo biográfico y bibliográfico (Madrid: Imprenta de José Perales y Martínez, 1899), p. 581Google Scholar.

10 Moratín, , Obras dramáticas y líricas, II, 204Google Scholar; also in Obras, B. A. E., 2, p. 418.

11 de la Rosa, Francisco Martínez, La niña en casa y la madre en la máscara, in Obras, B. A. E., 148 (Madrid: Ediciones Atlas, 1962), I, 67–130Google Scholar.

12 de los Herreros, Manuel Bretón, A la vejez, viruelas. Comedia original en tres actos. Representada por la primera vez en el teatro del Príncipe el día 14 de octubre de 1824 (Madrid: Imprenta de D. Miguel de Burgos, 1825), 84 ppGoogle Scholar.

13 I mention these works in order to suggest the visual concept that Breton may have had of his character. The painting bore the title Time in the 1812 inventory of Goya's works. See Gudiol, José, Goya, 1746–1828: Biography, Analytical Study, and Catalogue of His Paintings (New York: Tudor Publishing Company, 1971), I, 322Google Scholar.

14 The cast of characters of A la vejez, viruelas is given in the 1825 edition cited above. Gertrudis Torre was a member of the company of D. Clemente Rojas that performed at the Príncipe Theatre between April 21, 1821, and February 20, 1822, and which gave the first performance of La niña en casa.… This information is to be found in a manuscript in three volumes in the archive of the María Guerrero Theatre, Madrid, composed by the actor Bernardo Gil, “Teatros: sus compañías y representaciones. Libro que contiene las listas de actores y actrices de las compañías cómicas de Madrid y comedias executadas por las mismas desde el año de 1792 hasta … [martes de Carnaval de 1826].”

15 Mori, Emilio Cotarelo y, Isidoro Máiquez y el teatro de su tiempo (Madrid: Imprenta de José Perales y Martínez, 1902), p. 96 et passimGoogle Scholar.

16 In his “Autocrítica” Paso wrote, directing himself to his readers: “Estoy seguro de que no se reirían [Vds.], como espero que lo van a hacer con mi pieza, si Isabel Gracés no interpretara el papel central de la obra. Isabel es ya maestra en su género y pocas, muy pocas actrices pueden manejarlo con el arte y la eficacia que ella.” Teatro español, 1959–60, ed. de Robles, Federico Carlos Sainz (Madrid: Aguilar, 1961), p. 231Google Scholar.