El galan Castrucho: Lope in the Tradition of Bawdy

Abstract

EL GALAN CASTRUCHO: LOPE IN THE TRADITION OF BAWDY DAVID M. GITLITZ University ofNebraska-Lincoln Two kinds of evidence confirm the fact that there was a tradition of bawdy in the theater of Lope's day. By bawdy I mean - following E. A. M. Colman's definition,- dramatic material which is indecent, comic and intended to shock.' The first is the flood of anti-comedia invective that condemns the bawdy strain in the plays. The second is found in the plays themselves: scattered morsels of off-color references, scraps of innuendo, and occasional sexually oriented slap-stick or comic misdirection. In this paper I want to review briefly the first kind of evidence and then present a slice of the second taken from an early play of Lope, El galán Castrucho, ' which is the bawdiest comedia I have encountered to date.1 Unlike the Elizabethan theater, the Spanish comedia does not wallow in the tradition of bawdy, at least not overtly. Shakespeare was one of the cleanest of his contemporaries, and, as we all know, even his plays are paced with broad references to sexual organs, cuckoldry, and flatulence, as well as diverse matters relating to coupling: lust, frigidity, promiscuity, impotence and of course the pox. These elements, while not wholly absent from the Spanish stage, are clearly less prominent in Spanish texts than in those written across the channel. However there is some textual evidence, and when it is coupled with other evidence it suggests a strong tradition of bawdy in Spain. After all, it is not as though Spaniards were ignorant of carnality or how it might be used in art. Anyone who wanders through the Prado knows how fleshy 17th century Spanish painting could be. Spanish poetry of the time,' particularly the honeyed venom of Quevedo, gives ample evidence of both intense sensuality and bawdy scatology. However, neither of these flowers blooms fully in poetry written for the stage. And yet paradoxically the theater was condemned by Lope de Vega's contemporaries as the most licentious of art forms. Almost every early 17th century moralizing text vituperates the theater. Consider, for example, the opinion of Fray José de Jesús Maria in 1601: Es cosa, sin duda, que las comedias, como agora se representan, son cuchillo de la castidad, incentivo de torpezas, seminario de 4 Bulletin of the Comediantes vicios, fuente de disolución, estrago de todos los estados, corrupci ón de las costumbres, destrucción de las virtudes.5 Or the view of D. Luis Crespi de Borja, who in 1649 calls the comedia «un continuo fomento de la sensualidad.» These attacks, which are representative of the tone and major argument of 17th century invective, are directed not at bawdy language but rather at matters having to do more with the style of presentation of the plays. Five points appear over and over, and rather than summarize I will let representative critics speak for themselves: 1)According to Alfonso de Andrade, in 1648, the dances are obscene: «Los fuelles que encienden el fuego de los apetitos sensuales son las músicas y bailes lascivos.» 2)Fray Jerónimo de la Cruz protests in 1635 that the actors neck on stage; he condemns: «el dar abrazos, dar las manos, llegarlas a la boca, y otras tales cosas que es asombro ver hacer en público.» 3)Juan de Mariana in 1609 laments the scantiness of the actresses ' costumes: «algunas veces en la misma representación se desnudan, o a lo menos salen vestidas de vestiduras muy delgadas, con las cuales se figuran todos los miembros y casi se ponen delante de los ojos.» We must remember, in thinking of the innumerable ladies disguised as men in these plays, that in the 17th century women wore full skirts while men dressed in tights. ' 4)The plots are immoral, says the anonymous author of the Diálogo de las comedias, who in 1620 asks: «Qué se puede seguir de ver un enredo de amores lascivos y deshonestos? 5)And of course, the actresses themselves are little better than whores, or, as this same anonymous author calls them, «mujercillas de la vida peligrosa, y muchas de mala vida conocidamente...