CERVANTINE CURIOSITY AND IMPERTINENCE IN LEONOR DE LA CUEVA’S LA FIRMEZA EN LA AUSENCIA JONATHAN ELLIS AT the end of the interpolated story El curioso impertinente that forms part of the Quixote, Cervantes included an odd passage in which the Cura, who has been reading the story to an audience, offers his judgment on the quality of the piece, declaring “algo tiene del imposible” (630) because it involves a man and wife. He suggests that the story would have been better had it dealt with “un galán y una dama,” lovers, rather than a married couple.1 Not only does this comment provide a critique by Cervantes as to the verisimilitude of his own story, it also directly suggests the possibility of reworking certain elements of the story in order to present in a different manner this type of plot dealing with this type of love triangle. Góngora did just that in his Las firmezas de Isabela,2 as did Guillén de Castro in his own El curioso impertinente,3 in which he preserved the title and character names of the Cervantine orig1 John G. Weiger has noted that this objection seems based more on a moral concern for the importance of the marriage sacrament rather than a desire for verisimilitude. The curate appears perfectly willing to accept as normal the testing of a woman’s virtue; it simply should not occur within the confines of marriage (“Curious Pertinence” 261-62). 2 In this play, a young man named Lelio is betrothed to Isabela, having never met her. In order to test her faithfulness and virtue, he decides to meet her and tempt her under the false guise and name of Camilo. As Góngora has constructed the plot, then, the curioso impertinente and the rival are the same man, one of the changes that allow for a happy ending not possible in Cervantes’ tale. See María Cristina Quintero for an analysis of Góngora’s use of Cervantine plot elements in his comedia. 3 This is one of three comedias in which Guillén de Castro paid tribute to Cervantes, the other two being La fuerza de la sangre and Don Quixote de la Mancha. Weiger has examined how Guillén de Castro “accommodated a Cervantine tale to the formula of the Lopean comedia nueva” (“Monstruo” 43). See also the study of Christiane Faliu-Lacourt. 35 inal, but made substantial changes in the plot, adapted for comedia audiences . Given the precedence for this type of heuristic imitation, as well as the tremendous popularity of the Quixote, it is not surprising that the story would also capture the imagination of one of the female comedia authors of the period. In La firmeza en la ausencia, Leonor de la Cueva reworks important elements of the Cervantes tale in order to invert the negative moral examples of the original and highlight the firmeza of her protagonist, Armesinda, providing a stark contrast to the inconstancy of Cervantes’ Camila. This inversion can also be seen in Cueva’s treatment of masculine friendship, creating a distinctive, positive, vision of this type of tale. On the surface, La firmeza en la ausencia appears to be another of the virtue under siege plots that were common enough in the Golden Age.4 The king of Naples, Filiberto, burns with desire for Armesinda, a lady of his court, but she is already in love with another man, Juan. So the king must remove Juan from the scene, and does so by sending him off to war (hence the ausencia of the title),5 and then he must somehow persuade Armesinda to betray her vows of eternal love for Juan, be unfaithful to him, dishonor herself, and respond to the king’s advances. In order to achieve this goal, the king enlists the aid of Juan’s friend Carlos , and orders him to break down her defenses with lies of Juan’s infidelity to her and marriage to another during his absence. The absence is a necessary part of the plot just as Anselmo, in El curioso impertinente, contrived a number of reasons to be absent from his home for extended periods of time...