La comedia de "El mejor representante, San Ginés", de J. Cáncer, P. Rosete y A. Martínez de Meneses: un caso ejemplar de metateatralidad

Abstract

This article is a general introduction to El mejor representante, San Gines, a collaborative play printed in 1668 and written by three poets that deserves better knowledge on the part of the critic, due to its extraordinary metatheatrical value. After some observations on its main features (source, editions and representations, critical reception, form and structure), it focuses on two aspects on which until now the attention has not been called: on the one hand, the relevance of the intervention of a peculiar comic character called Pocarropa, mask of an unknown actor of the time; on the other hand and mainly, the use of metatheatre, so varied, continuous and fertile that it even goes beyond what is expected in a comedy that, although hagiographic, has an actor as its protagonist.