A Maligned Character In Lope's El Mejor alcalde el rey

Abstract

Bulletin Of The Comediantes Vol. VI Fall, 1954 No. 2 A Maligned Character In Lope's El Mejor alcalde el rey by Sturgis E. Leavitt If a poll were taken to select a half dozen plays of Lope de Vega especially notable for their excellence, the chances are that El mejor alcalde el rey would be in every list. It was one of the two plays selected as most representative of Lope in the Clásicos Castellanos; it appears in practically every set of Lope's Obras Escogidas; and it is always mentioned in any extensive treatment of Lope's dramatic art. Few plays of Lope have had more editions in one form or another. It has been translated three times into French, once into English, once into German, once into Polish, and recently into Italian. First published in 1635 in the Veirte y una parte verdadera of the Comedias of Lope, the play was evidently written at the height of the playwright's career. An examination of the play gives evidence of careful workmanship . It has a well organized plot, dramatic situations of great intensity, and characters that are original and convincing. As was usual with plays of the siglo de oro, this comedia combines tragedy and comedy, and very effectively. Critics have almost unanimously praised this play for its presentation of the unbridled spirit of the times and for the way Lope has drawn the principal characters. Some critics of the early nineteenth century, however, unduly influenced by their reverence for the French drama of the seventeenth century, note that the play violates the unity of time in a scandalous manner, and occasionally they are shocked at the introduction of humor in so tragic a play. The character of Feliciana does not seem to have been fully understood by those who have interested themselves in the play. When Dionisio Solís, in one of his many efforts to make the old-timey plays of the Siglo de Oro conform to new standards and new tastes, rewrote El mejor alcalde, he omitted the character of Feliciana altogether, because he thought she was "hateful and useless ." In 1822 when A. La Beaumelle translated this play into French, he prefaced it by critical comments in which he first speaks of "la faiblesse de Félicie," and then later, says in commenting on Tello: "Sa soeur Félicie ne le blâme que de sa brutalité, et s'emploie a déterminer la jeune fille à consentir a sa déshonneur" (II, 394). The words of La Beaumelle are repeated by Eugène Baret in his translation of the play (1874), though he limits his comments about Tello's sister to mere mention of "la faiblesse de Feliciana" (I, 65). It is a German critic, Julius L. Klein, who has the worst opinion of Feliciana. In his Geschichte des Dramas, 1874, he speaks of her as Tello's "Leporello in Unterrock" (X, 455). It is hard to see how anyone who had read the play with a reasonable degree of care could go so far as to compare Feliciana to the vile creature Leporello in Mozart's Don Giovanni, but Klein evidently could see it no other way. 1 BULLETIN OF THE COMEDIANTES Published in the Spring and Fall by the Comediantes, an informal, international group of all those interested in the comedia. Editor Everett W. Hesse University of Wisconsin Madison 6, Wis. Assistant Editor John E. Keller University of North Carolina Chapel Hill, N. C. Subscription: $1 a year In 1882 Louis de Viel-Castel in his Essai sur le théâtre espagnol, continents as follows on Feliciana: "Félicie qui s'efforce de le calmer en lui donnant l'espérance qu'avec le temps, Elvire pourra devenir moins inflexible " (I, 96). Or again: "en vain Félicie toujours singulèrement accomodante, s'efforce , tantôt de le calmer,tantôt de rendre Elvire moins intraitable" (I, 103). Menéndez y Pelayo takes a position that is not easily defined. In his introduction to this play, in Volume VIII of the Obras de Lope, he mentions the omission of Feliciana by Dionisio Solís and quotes the comment of La Beaumelle...