Lope de Vega , Robert M. Shannon (review)

Abstract

812 Reviews El nuevo mundo descubiertopor CristobalColon: The New WorldDiscover edby Christo? pher Columbus. By Lope de Vega. Ed. and trans. by Robert M. Shannon. (Iberica, 34) New York, Washington, and London: Peter Lang. 2001. x +307 pp. ?37. ISBN 0-8204-4884-2. Lope's play about Columbus, no doubt because of its subject, has probably had more modern editions than any of his comedias except the seven or eight that supposedly constitute the 'canon'. Robert Shannon's, as he claims, is considerably superior to all its predecessors; he has based it, directly and carefully, on what he oddly calls the 'three princeps editions [. . .]: Madrid, Barcelona and Pamplona, 1614', of Lope's Cuarta parte (p. 57). He is very unfortunate, therefore, that it has itself been quickly surpassed. The PROLOPE team at the Universidad Autonomade Barcelona, having admirably set about editing all the plays in the Partes, have just published, in three volumes, the Cuarta (Lleida: Editorial Milenio, 2002), and their criteria are more demanding. In this case, for instance, listing (complete with shelf marks) all known copies of all three texts, they have utilized, in addition to one each of 'Barcelona' and 'Pamplona', six copies ofthe trueprinceps of Madrid (which reveal some corrections in proof); they seek to footnote all the variant readings of these, and to each play add use? ful appendices as well as prologues and notes. Thus specialists must prefer now (and forthe foreseeable future) the edition ofEl nuevo mundo (vol. 1,pp. 173-287) prepared by Luigi Giuliani, though the latter himself declares that he found Shannon's 'muy util' (p. 183). On the other hand, he adds, and this reviewer can confirm, 'no deja de introducir algunas erratas y pasa por alto algunos errores' in the firstthree editions. Regrettably ,too, Shannon does not follow the established convention of clarifying verse forms by indenting the firstlines of stanzas. On the whole, however, his text, which includes a modern director's attempts to supply three missing lines, will be very useful to students, especially since it is accompanied by over 250 often informative notes. An introduction comprises six sections. The first,analysing in turn Lope's El nuevo mundo and Araucodomado, four American' plays by others, Elprodigiode Etiopia, and Ximenez de Enciso's Juan Latino, considers how Golden Age dramatists treated the 'Other', especially Amerindians and Blacks. Shannon exaggerates, to this reviewer's mind, the extent to which, pursuing an imposed agenda, they were intolerant of difference, rather than merely reflectingtheir community's requirement of Christianization , but his discussions are thoughtful and thought-provoking. In a second section he attempts unconvincingly to narrow the date of El nuevo mundo's composition from Morley and Bruerton's ' 1598-1603' to 1600, although he has previously asserted (p. 7) that Lope wrote his Arauco domado before it, whereas the reverse might seem more likely. In a third, on the use ofallegory, he rightlystresses how abstract characters clarifythe view of the Conquest that informs the play as a whole: that while the cupidity and lust of many Spaniards must be severely condemned, it was justified by Spain's evangelizing mission. In the next, he ably demonstrates how Lope modified historical facts to present Columbus himself as exemplary?learned, pacific, disinterested, divinely inspired, and devout. A furthersection, which seeks to reconstruct the staging Lope envisaged, is especially welcome, despite some minor errors; one wishes this were a commoner editorial practice. Finally, after lambasting earlier editions of the text, Shannon sets out his views on the translation of comedias. He quotes extensively, and generously commends, those of this reviewer, including one to the effectthat to render poetic drama in prose 'is to my mind unthinkable, an abdication', but defends his own decision to do so, though insisting, giving examples, that he has 'attempted to be attentive to the beauty of poetry which is the essence of Lope's theater' (p. 62). In fact his translation, facing the Spanish text but often out of step with it, is the most disappointing part of an otherwise commendable book. Much of it, though rather flat,is adequate, but many lines appear to have been misunderstood (especially MLR, 99.3,2004 813 224,310...