The Golden Age of Spanish Drama ed. by Barbara Fuchs

Abstract

Reviewed by: The Golden Age of Spanish Drama ed. by Barbara Fuchs Barbara Mujica Barbara Fuchs, editor. The Golden Age of Spanish Drama. Translated by G. J. Racz. w. vv. norton, 2018. 640 pp. programs in comparative literature and interdisciplinary studies increasingly call for readings in translation, yet few English-language anthologies of early modern Spanish theater are available. The Golden Age of Spanish Drama fills a need by providing not only a selection of plays by early modern Spanish dramatists, but also background material and criticism suitable both for the classroom and a general Anglophone audience. The volume consists of three parts: the texts of five Golden Age plays, a collection of writings on theater and culture by early modern thinkers, and fourteen essays by modern comedia scholars. In addition, the substantial introduction by Barbara Fuchs provides an overview of Golden Age Spain and the development of Spanish theater, including the rise of the corrales and the growth of new theater companies in Spain's major cities. Drawing on Melveena McKendrick's study of the corral, Fuchs examines the popular roots of Spanish drama, which remained strong even after court theaters and permanent locales began to incorporate sophisticated scenography using stage devices. Of particular interest is the discussion of the growth of theater companies, with their specialized personnel (managers, actors focusing on particular types of roles, and musicians) and the regulations that governed them. The centrality of female actors and the relationship between the growth of cities and the expansion of theater are also important topics. The introduction and critical essays reflect the current focus in comedia studies on performance. As Fuchs explains, although our principal access to early modern theater is through printed texts, today's scholars are mining historical documents for information on props, scenery, costumes, audience composition, and other information relevant to how plays were actually mounted and received. At the same time, they are exploring modern adaptations of the comedia and its relevance for today's audiences. One of the finest aspects of this anthology is the translations. Part l,"The Texts of the Plays," contains five plays: The Siege of Numantia (Numancia), by Miguel de Cervantes Saavedra; Fuenteovejuna and The Dog in the Manger [End Page 273] (El perro del hortelano), by Lope de Vega; Life Is a Dream (La vida es sueño), by Pedro Calderón de la Barca; and Trials of a Noble House (Los empeños de una casa), by Sor Juana Inés de la Cruz. Because the translations are all by the same translator, they offer a welcome uniformity of style and vision. Racz explains in his Translator's Note that he has employed meter and rhyme "to convey a greater sense of the constitutive poetic structures" of the plays, thereby restoring their "lost historicity" (xix). In order to achieve a balance between context and textual features (verse, style, tone, and so forth), he has eschewed word-for-word translations and instead provided fluid renditions, employing strategic deletions, explanatory insertions, changes in tense, and other such devices whenever necessary. Happily, he has succeeded in capturing the sense of the texts while retaining their poetic integrity. Part 2, "Backgrounds and Contexts," contains writing by Golden Age luminaries on theater and society. This part is divided into three sections. The first, "Theater New and Old," begins with Lope de Vega's much anthologized "Arte nuevo de hacer comedias" ("The New Art of Writing Plays"), which distills the playwright's views on the form and objectives of the comedia, types of roles, uses of verse, and other issues. In "Writing for the Theater," Cervantes's prologue to his published plays and entremeses, the playwright describes the evolution of theater from his youth, when "there were no stage machines, nor fights between Moors and Christians, on foot or on horseback" (387), to the elaborate productions of his older years. Cervantes had tried his hand at playwriting as a young man and returned to it after he had won acclaim as a novelist, only to realize that tastes had changed and that theater managers were not interested in his scripts. Agustín de Rojas Villandrando's long poem, El viaje entretenido (The Pleasant...