On the Meaning of Catalinon

Abstract

and he calls upon Heaven either to enslave all of nature or to give him that liberty enjoyed by the least of creatures. Concurrently Boissy makes Basile confess that it is his cruelty and not the inexorable power of the stars that has made Sigismond the evil creature that he is: Mon fils était né bon, vertueux, débonnaire, Ma cruauté pour lui, mes ordres rigoureux Ont aigri son orgueil, allumé sa colère. J'ai moi seul, malheureux! Fait un tiran d'un Prince généraux. (I, 7) While in Calderón Segismundo is the victim of the stars or fate, in Boissy he is the victim of his father's tyranny. In making Segismundo a victim of fate, Calderón was faced with the problem of reconciling that idea with the theological question of the freedom of the will, and he treats the question with considerable obscurity, whereas Boissy is able to make his character speak frankly and resolutely with a free will thus: Je vais . . . convaincre mon Père . . . Que les Astres malins n'ont sur nous de puissance Qu'autant que notre coeur est d'accord avec eux: Que notre volonté règle leur influence; Et qu'on est à son gré cruel ou généreux. (111,10) Likewise Clotalde had warned Sigismond that all the grandeur that he has seen in his dream was vain; and to overcome his love of worldly things he had only to exercise his will: Et pour en triompher vous n'avez qu'à vouloir (III, 2) The eighteenth century French author found a theme of liberty in Calderón which was timely. He brushed away the words that hid the message in romantic obscurity and emphasized the twin themes of human freedom and freedom of the will. As has been noted above, Boissy's heroic comedy became rather popular as the century wore on. This growth in popularity would tend to confirm the idea that the theme of personal freedom stressed by Boissy was understood better and appreciated more by the public as time went on. Indeed, it may not be stretching the imagination too much to attribute the popularity of La vida es sueño in both France and Italy in the eighteenth century to the fact that the theme of personal freedom coincided with the growth of the idea during the century of Voltaire and Rousseau. 1 It was done in five acts by an anonymous writer, and called a tragi-comédie. (Nouveau Théâtre Italien ou recueil général des comédies représent- ées par les Comédiens Italiens Ordinaires du Roi, Paris, 1758, Vol. I, p. xcii) ^ Farinelli: La vita è un sogno, II, 411. 3 Charles Franklin Zeek: Louis de Boissy, Auteur comique (1694-1758), Grenoble, 1914, p. 189. * Ibid., p. 191. 5 Ibid. 6 The theme of La vida es sueño received considerable attention in Italy as well, probably for the same reason as given above. Comediantes Will Convene Dec. 28 at Hotel Statler The seventh annual meeting of the Comediantes will take place in connection with the MLA Convention in New York during the Christmas recess. The topic for discussion at the morning session is: The Technique of the Sub-Plot in Lope de Vega. Discussion leader: Dr. Courtney Bruerton. See the MLA Program for time and place. At noon of the same day the Comediantes' Luncheon will be held at A. Schiavi's restaurant , 311 W. 33 Street, the downstairs of a brownstone house, one block from the hotel. The prices of the entrées (which include the meal) range from 85 to 99 cents. The food is reported to be "excellent and plentiful." No reservations needed. On the Meaningof Catalinon by Frank B. Sedwick The name of Don Juan's servant in Tirso de Molina's El burlador de Sevilla is still a lexical puzzle, both regarding its linguistic origin and its precise significance. On the bases of retorts between servant and master, Catalinón is generally thought to mean coward. Catalinón himself says (Act I: 11. 880-885): Aunque soy Catalinón, Soy, señor, hombre de bien, Que no se dijo por mí: "Catalin...