La princesa de Éboli: Cautiva del rey. Vida de Ana de Mendoza y de la Cerda (1540–1592) by Helen H. Reed and Trevor J. Dadson

Abstract

Reed, Helen H. and Trevor J. Dadson. La princesa de Eboli: Cautiva del rey. Vida de Ana de Mendoza y de la Cerda (1540-1592). Madrid: Centro de Estudios Europa Hispanica y Marcial Pons Historia, 2015. 539 pp.Two distinguished scholars of early-modern literary history have come together to examine and contextualize the remarkable life of Ana de Mendoza y de la Cerda (1540-1592), the Princess of Eboli (hereafter Eboli or Dona Ana). Reed and Dadson anchor their study in the primary-source documents they compiled and glossed for an earlier partnership, the Epistolario e historia documental de Ana de Mendoza y de la Cerda, princesa de Eboli (Madrid, Iberoamericana; Frankfurt am Main, Vervuert, 2013). A collaborative spirit towards scholarly labors animates the book. As the authors explain in the preface, Reed had prepared a biography of Eboli in an initial draft in English. Dadson then joined her, translating this text into Spanish, adding material from his own archival work along the way. The authors also take great care to recognize the works on which they build, most notably Gregorio Maranon's classic biography of Antonio Perez and Esther Alegre Carvajal's series of studies on the Princess of Eboli.Reed and Dadson's foremost aim is to peel away the layers of myth and caricature that have accumulated around Eboli. In theater history, a particularly durable fiction took shape when Giuseppe Verdi-following Friedrich Schiller-transformed a complicated noblewoman from the storied Mendoza family into a Romantic character informed by stereotypes of Spain, blending motifs of Moorish allure with the darker visions of Inquisitorial oppression associated with the Black Legend. In his Don Carlos (debut 1867), Eboli is a secondary character who complicates the tragic love story, as she vies with Isabel de Valois for Don Carlos's love. The crowning moment of this mezzo-soprano part is the Veil Song of Act 2 (Au palais des fees; Nel giardin del bello in the Italian version). In Hispanic studies, Eboli has also assumed a somewhat villainous profile as the estranged patron responsible for subjecting Teresa of Avila to Inquisitorial scrutiny.To provide an accurate assessment of the full life in all its complexity, the authors present ten chapters organized with the precise chronology of traditional biography. Thus, they begin with a first chapter on Familia, infancia y educacion de Ana de Mendoza, continuing with nine more chapters focused on the following milestones: betrothal and marriage to the up-and-coming courtier Ruy Gomez de Silva (Chs. 2-3); the court of Isabel of Valois (Ch. 4); the organization of Pastrana as a ducal village (Ch. 5); her widowhood and fateful entanglement with Antonio Perez (Chs. 6-7); and finally, the murder of Juan de Escobedo and the resulting imprisonment (Chs. 8-10).Theater scholars will find Chapter 4 (En la corte de Isabel de Valois) of special interest, with its analysis of documents that record the emergence of a sophisticated palace theater in the milieu of Philip Il's third queen consort. Isabel of Valois sponsored over forty performances by professional actors between 1561 and 1567 in the room of the Alcazar palace known as the salon de comedias o saraos. Eboli, as a close contemporary and companion of the French queen, was a key protagonist among the court damas who acted in invenciones teatrales on such occasions as the feast of the Epiphany in 1564. The alluring portrait of Dona Ana in pastoral costume by Sofonisba Anguissola (ca. 1565) records the extent that popular literature informed the courtly pastimes. But the levity and sophistication here would contrast with the horrific consequences of Don Carlos's mental unraveling. Indeed, the chapter closes with the double tragedies of the royal heir's death while imprisoned by his father and the young queen's death in childbirth. Here, Reed and Dadson draw attention to the letter of condolence Eboli writes to Isabel's mother, France's queen mother Catherine de'Medici. …