Ο αγαπητικός της βοσκοπούλας (review)

Abstract

Reviews 149 the underworld, whereas in the café aman songs objective terms are sometimes used. Women, in the few Piraeus songs in which they appear, are either satirized or idealized as fantasies, whereas they not only appear frequently in the café aman songs but also take an active part in the life of the τεκÎ-Ï‚ and even speak about smoking themselves. The conclusion that the Piraeus-style χασικλίδικα are the songs that were really composed by members of the συνάφι, and that men like Markos, BatÃ-s, and Artemis were really doing what they wrote about comes as no great surprise—after all, there are witnesses still alive who watched them doing it! To have it corroborated by a careful scrutiny of the texts is reassuring in a field where speculation, misinformation, and rancor have too often dominated. I would have liked to see a little more of the authors' own conclusions about the genre. The book is a modest one, as I said, but not fainthearted; the fact that it was written in Greek is a courageous step in itself. Gail Holst-WARHArT Cornell University Alekos Geladas. ΑλÎ-κος Γελάδας, O αγαπητικός της βοσκοποϕλας. Edited by Minas Alexiadis. Athens: Kardamitsas. 1990. Pp. 222. Minas Alexiadis's critical edition of Alekos Geladas's play TL· Beloved of the Shepherdess (ca. 1910) is a useful contribution to the study of early twentiethcentury Greek dramatic literature and theater. The book has an introduction (13-37), the edited text of the play (43-182), a commentary (185-190), a bibliography (193-197), a glossary (200-208), a table of all the proper names and place names mentioned in the play (209—211), an index, and an appendix consisting of four photocopied pages, the first two reproducing part of a typewritten copy (from Spyros Kavvadias's personal collection) of Geladas's manuscript (in Maria Zouglas's personal collection), and the last two pages reproducing part of a truncated handwritten copy of Geladas's manuscript that begins with the last six verses of the third act. Alexiadis adds this play of 2419 couplets to a list of thirty-two "homiletic" skits on record to date, and to a shorter list of seven published homiletic skits such as Hχϕυσαυγή (1893; 427 couplets), O κϕίνος (1934; 287 couplets), and H χϕυσομαλλοϕσα (1961; 385 couplets). Homiletic skits, which dramatized love stories, were outdoor, populist, amateur, improvised performances in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. Alexiadis thinks that Geladas's play continues into the twentieth century the oral tradition of Greek theater on the island of Zakynthos. For him, a play qualifies as a homiletic skit if (a) it tells a love story (b) in a satirical tone (c) using fifteen-syllable couplets and (d) it was performed during Greek carnival time in February. According to these four criteria, Alexiadis also classifies Dimitrios Gouzelis's adaptation, O Χάσης 150 Reviews (1795; 1933 couplets), and Nikos Karatzas's ethography, Κακάβα (1834; 369 verses) as homiletic skits. However, the fact that Geladas's play is an adaptation invalidates Alexiadis's claim that it is part of the oral tradition in Greek theater. On the contrary, The Beloved of the Shepherdess testifies to εξωζακυνδινή (nonZakynthian ) influence and confirms the end of the oral tradition in Zakynthos in the twentieth century. O αγαπητικός της βοσκοποϕλας by Geladas (18711941 ) is based on an earlier play of the same name by Dimitris Koromilas (1850-1898) that was performed in 1891 and published in 1903. This one had five acts, 27 characters, and 2159 blank verses. Alexiadis correctly argues that, between 1910 and 1930, Geladas closely adapted Koromilas's play, transforming it into a six-act play with 13 characters speaking in 15-syllable couplets. Geladas also added a prelude and a character (Komikos), who, along with Chrones, voices the play's satirical tone. But Alexiadis's estimated dates indicate that Geladas's play was based more on Koromilas's 1903 published text than on his version's 1891 performance. If this is true, Geladas's adaptation is a variant of the written tradition of Greek theater, not of the oral tradition. Geladas borrowed the "homiletic" form from earlier centuries; however, he gave his play a more progressive social content than Koromilas gave the earlier version. In Geladas's prelude, a ten-year-old...