: Susan Niehoff McCrary
: 'El último godo' and the Dynamics of Urdrama
: Digitalia
: 9780916379360
: 1
: CHF 51.70
:
: Dramatik
: English
: 129
: DRM
: PC/MAC/eReader/Tablet
: PDF

A figural and typological study of Lope's important historical drama.“A fresh and vital interpretation of an unfortunately half-forgotten play.” -John E. Keller, University of Kentucky. 

“[McCrary] has opened the way to a real and more profound comprehension of the complexity of Lope's historical vision in his dramas.”-Thomas E. Case, Hispania.
Introduction (p. 3)

It is well-known that dramatists of Spain`s baroque theater turned time and again to the chronicles in search of material for their craft. Indeed, to describe the comedia as a national theater rests in part on the inordinate fondness of audiences and dramatists alike for plays which reconstructed and celebrated las glorias of what we would today refer to as Spanish Medieval and Renaissance history.

In creating El tiltimo godo. Lope F61ix de Vega Carpio had at his disposal not only the rich historical and literary traditions of King Rodrigo with which the spectator would have been familiar, but also a unique work by Miguel de Luna entitled La verdadera hystoria del rey don Rodrigo, which stands out as a major influence on the drama in question. In the introduction to his work, Luna claims to have found and translated a Moorish account of Rodrigo which was composed by Abulcacim Tarif.

Whether the Hystoria is a fictitious creation by Luna, which is highly probable, or in actuality is a factual recording of events, does not affect the significance of the work here. What becomes obvious as one reads Luna`s Hystoria and Lope`s El ultimo godo, is that the dramatist very clearly extracted numerous details from the Moorish chronicle for his plot.

Since Luna`s work purports to be a Moorish account, it naturally contains variations not found in the Christian narratives but which do appear in El ultimo godo. Ramon Menendez Pidal enumerates many of these incidents which Lope gleaned from Luna`s work:

. . . la infanta africana Zara, que se embarca en la maftana de San Juan, y arribada por tormenta a las costas de Espafia, se bautiza y se casa con Rodrigo, a gran pesar del rey Africano, el nombre de Florinda, el texto de la carta que esta escribe a su padre y el suicidio de la dama en Malaga, los amores de Zara, viuda de Rodrigo, con el gobernador moro, aunque este en Lope no se llame Mahometo Gilhair, como en Miguel de Luna, sino Abenbucar, nombre, por cierto, de otro moro de Luna,

el martirio de estos Zara y Abenbucar por orden de Tarif, la muerte de la condesa a causa de un rabioso cancer y la de Julian desesperado, solo que Lope no acepta que Julian se suicide, como quiere Luna, sino que para mayor escarmiento de traidores es Tarif mismo quien le manda matar.

A careful examination of these isolated incidents and the fashion in which Lope chose to include them in El ultimo godo raises, in my opinion, sufficient questions to warrant a re-evaluation of a drama which hitherto has received, for the most part, less than favorable critical attention.^ Menendez Pidal lays the blame for what he considers the poor quality of the play on Lope`s source material, Luna`s Hystoria.

After his enumeration of the fictitious elements in the Moorish account, Menendez Pidal continues:

Me detengo en esta enumeracion para mostrar cuSnto influyo en Lope la gran popularidad que entonces disfrutaba el falso Abulcacim. Aunque reacciona contra este a veces, por ejemplo, ennobleciendo en muchos rasgos el carScter de Rodrigo, sin embargo, le sigue hasta en detalles oscuros e incomprensibles, crey£ndose obligado a incluirlos en su comedia. . .
CONTENTS10
PREFACE12
INTRODUCTION14
CHAPTER I. SOURCE MATERIAL21
Medieval-Renaissance Historiography21
Historical Source Material25
Literary Source Material33
CHAPTER II. ACT I: TEMPTATION AND TRANSGRESSION41
CHAPTER III. ACT II: ALIENATION AND RECONCILIATION63
CHAPTER IV. ACT III: CATHARSIS AND REGENERATION76
CHAPTER V. DYNAMICS OF URDRAMA96
CONCLUSION122
INDEX124
A124
B124
C124
D125
E125
F125
G125
H125
I125
J125
K126
L126
M126
N126
O126
P126
R126
S126
T126
V127
W127