Copyright by Lee Alton Daniel

Copyright by
Lee Alton Daniel
1979
A TERRA INCOGNITA:
SOR JUANA'S THEATRE
by
LEE ALTON DANIEL, B.A., M.A.
A DISSERTATION
IN
SPANISH
Submitted to the Graduate Faculty
of Texas Tech University in
Partial Fulfillment of
the Requirements for
the Degree of
DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY
Approved
Acd^epted
May, 1979
Ac
3c /
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
I am deeply indebted to Professor Robert J. Morris
for his direction of this dissertation and to the other
members of my committee, Professors Edmundo Garcia-Giron,
Harley D. Oberhelman, Alfred Cismaru and Wendell M. Aycock,
for their helpful criticism.
11
CONTENTS
AGKIIC7.rLEDGELiENTS
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223
229
111
INTRODUCTION
In evaluating Sor Juana's total literary production,
critics are prone to consider her poetry in deference to
her drama.
I feel that this is a mistake, and ultimately,
an injustice to an evaluation of the literary production
of the "Decima Musa."
For this reason my investigation
attempts to evaluate Sor Juana from the secondary point of
view, that is, from her contributions as a dramatist.
Alfonso Mendez Plancarte, as recently as 1955* described Sor Juana's dramatic pieces as a Terra Incognita.
One purpose of his compiling volumes III and IV of her
Obras completas was to make accessible the corrected texts
and some basic information pertinent to all her drama.
Mendez Plancarte's intention was to provide the means and
the incentive for additional study of the drama.
He writes,
"Mas desde hoy, quiza' cabe prometernos que el Teatro de
Sor Juana, especialmente el Sacro, dejara' ya de ser esa
Terra Incognita, de la que osaba hablarse—si se hablaba—
solo a base de conjeturas.
Bien a mano estara, en perfecta
luz; y la pereza, ya sin pretext©." (O.C., p. x ) . With
the exception of Los empenos de una casa. El Divino Narciso
and its loa, however, the other plays are seldom mentioned.
Mendez Plancarte cites the publication in recent, times of
El Divino Narciso, Los empenos de una casa, selections of
Amor es mas laberinto and the two sainetes, but adds that
" . . . los otros dos Autos, la segunda Comedia en su
cabalidad, y las 18 Loas sin casi excepcio'n, nunca han
vuelto a luz desde en 1725 . . . "
(O.C, p. viii).
It
is of note that the eighteen loas which comprise two-thirds
|of the total dramatic output of twenty-six plays by Sor
Juana, are virtually unknown.
Since Mendez Plancarte's
study, few plays have been published to facilitate the
availability of Sor Juana's plays.
One notable exception
is the 1972 critical anthology of colonial Spanish American
drama by Carlos Ripoll and Andre's Valdespino.
El^ Divino
Neirciso and Los empenos de una casa are included in this
anthology.
Also, little of importance has been done in
the critical realm.
Gerard Flynn in Sor Juana Ines de la
Cruz-^ treats the secular drama in one chapter and the religious plays in another.
However, the loa, as an independ-
ent genre, is not treated at all. Anthony M. Pasquariello
in "The Evolution of the Loa in Spanish America"
examines
a few of Sor Juana's loas but concludes, as does Flynn,
that these short works are of scant literary consequence.
No one, in short, has provided an overview of all of the
Sorjuanian theatre.
There are several reasons why critics are hesitant to
do a critical overview of Sor Juana's drama.
The primary
reason is the complexity of such an undertaking occasioned
by the fragmentary nature of Sor Jueina's theatre when con-
sidered as a whole.
This peculiar aspect is due to the
fact that with the exception of the eighteen loas, she
wrote few works in each of the various dramatic genres:
comedias (2), autos sacramentales (5), sainetes (2), and
sarao (1). The small body of works would present no problem if they were from one or two dramatic genres. By comparison, Alarcon also wrote twenty-six plays of which twenty were published, but they are all comedias.
Additionally,
his plays can be grouped under one of several categories.
One such classification is the comedia moral de caracter.
In this categorization is found La verdad sospechosa. Las
paredes oyen, La prueba de las promesas, and Los favores
del mundo in which the protagonist of each play has some
defect of character.
However, Sor Juana's plays do not
conform to such neat categorizations.
A second explanation
lies in the variety of theme and intent of her plays. This
fragmentary characteristic of Sor Juana's theatre has resulted in critics* considering individual plays rather than
doing studies of the entire dramatic corpus.
Jean Franco,
although referring to Sor Juana's literary efforts in toto,
makes a statement which is applicable to our present discussion of the drama.
She writes, "But the very variety of her
output perhaps reveals her own uncertainty as to where her
true expression lay."-^
Another reason that Sor Juana's plays have not received
adequate consideration is due to the disparate nature of
past dramatic criticism.
With the exception of the com-
monly found confusing and misleading statements published
to date, few studies have been forthcoming to awaken an
interest in Sor Juana's theatre.
This apathy is under-
lined in the most recent issue of the Handbook of Latin
American Studies (1976) in which nine studies on Sor Juana
are listed, yet not one of these treats her theatre.
In
the same issue, Daniel Reedy, addressing himself to Sorjuanian studies in general, states that the material on the
"Decima Musa" is largely superficial.
This appraisal is
especially applicable to the dramatic criticism which is
often cursory and is mainly composed of lists of titles,
influences, and dates. A few representative examples of
comments made by well-known critics will illustrate the
present state of this area of criticism.
Willis Knapp
Jones in Behind Spanish American Footlights writes, "In
addition, this learned and witty woman wrote eighteen loas
7
and autos sacramentales."
Does Jones mean that she wrote
eighteen loas and eighteen autos or that the works of both
genres totals eighteen?
If the latter is his intention,
then how many works did she write in each genre?
Sor Juana
actually wrote eighteen loas and three autos sacramentales.
Erroneously given titles are also a contributing
factor of the lamentable state of Sorjuanian dramatic crit-
icism.
Jones, in the same book mentioned above incorrect-
ly cites Sor Juana's Calderon-like comedia, Los empenos de
una casa.
He uses "la" rather that "una."
But, he goes
on to say that Sor Juana borrowed her title from Calderdn's
Los empenos de una casa.
Juana's work.
acaso.
This is the correct title of Sor
Calderon's play is titled Los empenos de un
Another instance is the long title of the sacra-
mental play. El martir del Sacramento, San Hermenegildo,
that has been listed several times as two different plays.
The auto. El cetro de Jose, has been cited as Cetro de San
Jose and El cerco de Jose.
The titles given, as well as
the comments made, suggest that the critics had either misinterpreted the work, or more likely, not even read the
play.
Perhaps the most flagrant example of the foregoing
is that Amor es mas libertine is given for Amor es mas
laberinto.
A mere glance at the list of characters (Minos,
Pedra, Teseo) would bring to mind the myth of the minotaur
and the labyrinth of Crete.
The non-independent loas, those written specifically
for or used in conjunction with the following main work,
were never given a title other than loa by Sor Juana.
In
yet another well-known study, Ezequiel Chavez fabricated
two titles.®
He names the loa for El cetro de Jose, La
educacion de la raza indigena and the one for El Divino
Narciso is called, Nuevamente la educacion de la raza
indigena.
To point out that Chavez retitled the two loas
is not to imply that the fabricated titles do not indicate
the content and primary purpose of the plays. However, it
does once again illustrate one cause of the present state
of misunderstanding and confusion found in comments about
Sor Juana's drama.
Also, many of the earlier errors are
perpetuated as illustrated by Anita Arroyo's Razon j pasion
de Sor Juana.^
Twenty-one years later she uses the Chavez
titles when mentioning the two loas.
Of the work. Concha
Melendez writes that it is an " . . . acabado estudio sobre
la monja Jeronima con el cual Anita Arroyo alcanzo reconocim^i}nto Junto a los mejores sorjuanistas de todos los
tiempos.
Unfortunately, few would think that a study
with that reputation would contain such errors.
El Divino Narciso is considered by Ludwig Pfandl and
Gerard Flynn as Sor Juana's masterpiece.
see the play as a lesser work.
However, others
I think the latter appre-
ciation is due to many critics' considering the play's
main virtue to be the poetry it contains.
That is, they
place more emphasis on the language than on the important
dramatic features—the Narcissus theme and the echo-device.
These two features, then, are what should be recognized
and cited rather than simply the poetry.
Besides Sor
Juana's unique and masterful employment of the two elements,
they deserve attention because they are essential to the
dramatic development of the play where the poetry is not.
In considering more than the poetry, then, I think that
the play will be rightly recognized as Sor Juana's opus
magnum.
Another problem in dramatic criticism on Sor Juana is
the failure to decide which works are dramatic.
Orlando
Gomez Gil, for one, includes the non-dramatic genres
(Villancicos, Letras Sagradas, and Letras Profanas) as
part of Sor Juana's drama.
The addition of these twenty-
four works vjould almost double the corpus of Sor Juana's
dramatic work.
The preceding examples characterize two basic deficiencies regarding present criticism of Sor Juana's drama.
One is the need for criticism evolved from a careful reading of her dramatic pieces and the second is the need for
an overview of her total theatrical production.
The purpose of this study is to overcome these deficiencies.
To bring a thematic and generically disparate
collection of plays together for an overview requires finding important points which all, or at least most of the
plays share.
I have found, as a result of my careful read-
ing of all of Sor Juana's drama, at least six constants
which apply to a significant portion of the Sorjuanian drama.
They are the following:
Calderon-like dramatic art
and theory; Greco-Latin mythology; the echo/echo-device;
8
the Ad Spectatores technique; the loa, especially as an
independent genre; and literary eclecticism.
A considera-
tion of these points will produce an understanding and appreciation of a major part of the literature of Sor Juana
Ines de la Cruz, her literary Terra Incognita, the drama.
Considering the previous studies on Sor Juana's theatre, as well as the purpose of this study, I opted to
structure my investigation in the following manner.
The
first chapter will provide an orientational overview of
Sor Juana's drama.
Chapter two will consist of a treat-
ment of the genres which have received the most critical
attention in the past:
and the sarao.
the comedia, the auto, the sainete,
The main purpose of this chapter is to con-
tribute nev; insights into her drama by considering the
above mentioned six points as well as clarifying and correcting, when possible, information gleaned from existing
studies.
The third chapter will be concerned solely with
the loa which lacks the critical consideration of the other
genres.
The final chapter will be the summation of this
overview of Sor Juana's drama.
Chapter I
SOR JUA:IA'S DRAMA:
AN
CRIE^ITATICNAL OVERVIEW
Twenty-six extant works by Sor Juana are not so well
known as they deserve to be.
The Terra Incognita status
of her dramatic work is caused in part by the well-lrnown
term "decima ziusa."
Its use has continued unabated since
it appeared in print in her first book of poetry, Inundacion
Castalida (1689) in which is found on the title page
"...
la unica poetisa, musa decima . . . "
Ironically, nine of
her loas are included in this volume.
Of the many epithets
applied to Sor Juana,
the "decima musa." is the least ap-
propriate and most misleading.
The appelation, albeit well
deserved due to some excellent poetry, unfortunately restricts the understanding and appreciation of Sor Jua-na's
total literary production.
One of the more serious conse-
quences of the prejudicial and limited term is the general
exclusion cf her theatre.
In fact, one critic has written
1^
that Sor Juana's drama adds nothing to her literary fame. '
There are doubts as to which plays of Sor Juana were
staged as well as to where they were performed.
7rnether
she wrote any plajs of her own volition, or if she would
have without being reauested, is also unknown.
In the
Resouesta a Sor Filotea de la Cruz (1691) Sor Juana wri*:es;
10
"Demas, que yo nunca he escrito cosa alguna por mi voluntad,
sino por ruegos y preceptos ajenos; de tal manera, que no
me acuerdo haber escrito por mi gusto sino es un papelillo
que llaman El Sueiio" (O.C, p. 993). There is no known
dramatic piece written after this work which suggests that
all her plays would be classified as "de encagro" drama.
In the last five lines of Amor es mas laberinto is found:
— Y perdon, rendida,
OS pide la pluma que
contra el genio que la anima,
por serviros escribio,
sin saber lo que escribia (O.C, p. 916).
This quote seems to substantiate the "de encargo" categorization of at least this particular play.
It is known that
Amor es mas laberinto was hurriedly commissioned for the
Conde de Galve which accounts for Juan de Guevara's writing
the second act.
It seems unlikely that any of the theatre was staged
for the general public.
It is documented that court pro-
ductions of the loas, comedias, sainetes and the sarao for
the viceroys did take place, but there is no evidence that
any of the three autos were staged.14 At the request of
the Condesa de Paredes, the viceroy's wife, Sor Juana sent
£1 Divino Narciso to be performed in Madrid.
Evidence
that Sor Juana planned to send the play to Madrid for presentation is found on the title page of the edicion suelta
(1690), " . . . para llevarlo a la corte de Madrid, para
11
que se representase en ella."
Also, near the end of the
loa for the auto is found;
Celo.
Religion.
Celo.
iPues no ves la impropiedad
de que en Mejico se escriba
y en Madrid se represente?
iPues es cosa nunca vista
que se haga una cosa en una
parte, porque en otra sirva?
Demas de que el escribirlo
no fue idea antojadiza,
sino debida obediencia
que aun a lo imposible aspira.
Con que su obra, aunque sea
rustica y poco pulida,
de la obediencia es efecto,
no parte de la osadla.
Pues dime. Religion, ya
que a eso le diste salida,
iComo salvas la objecion
de que introduces las Indias,
y a Madrid quieres llevarlas?
Religion. Como aquesto solo mira
a celebrar el Misterio,
y aquestas introducidas
personas no son mas que
unos abstractos, que pintan
lo que se intenta decir,
no habra cosa que desdiga,
aunque las lleva a Madrid:
que a especies intelectivas
ni habra distancias que estorben
ni mares que les impidan. (CO., p. 20 ).
These speeches lend credence to the supposition that El
Divino Narciso was staged in Spain.
Additionally, Sor
Juana compliments the King and Queen as well as members
of the Royal Councils in anticipation of its performance.
The Condesa returned to Spain in 1688 and Mendez Plancarte
(CO., vol. Ill, p. Ixxi) believes that it must therefore
12
have been performed in Madrid in 1689.
Alexander A. Parker
counters this belief by proving that El Divino Narciso was
not among the autos performed in Madrid from 1688 to the
end of the century (p. 259). The two autos of 1688 were by
Calderon; no autos were performed in 1689; and the two in
1690 were again by Calderon.
N. D. Shergold notes a staging
of Eco 1 Narciso, on October 28, 1689, but he is sure it was
a Calderonian play."^^ Parker feels that El Divino Narciso
was probably rejected, not because the author was a woman,
but because of lack of novelty.
Andres de Villamayor's
Eco ^ Narciso, with the same allegory as the Sorjuanian
auto, was performed in 1683, Also, the Junta de Fiestas
del Corpus preferred an auto by Calderon over any living
dramatist.
Near the end of the loa for El martir del Sac-
ramento , San Hermenegildo is yet another reference to the
Spanish monarchs which suggests it also was to be performed
there.
However, neither Shergold nor Parker have found any
evidence of the performance of the three Sorjuanian autos
sacramentales in Madrid.
As well, there is no proof that
they were presented on stage in Mexico.
The secular plays, on the other hand, were staged.
Los empenos de una casa, its loa, the two sainetes, and
the sarao were performed in 1683 and Amor es mas laberinto
and its loa were presented in 1689.
An area of much less doubt, and perhaps a better means
15
to Judge the interest in Sor Juana's dramaturgy, is the
bibliography of published plays.
Twenty-four of the twen-
ty-six extant dramatic pieces of Sor Juana are found in
volumes one and two of her works. With the exception of
eleven independent loas, all the drama is in volume two.
Nine of the eleven loas are in volume one.
The remaining
two loas, Loa de la concepcion and Loa a los anos del Rey
(III) were not published, to our knowledge, until Mendez
Plancarte's Obras completas, volume III, 1955«
The first
edition of volume two, Segundo volumen de las obras de Sor
Juana Ines de la Cruz . . . (1692) contains the three autos
sacramentales and their loas, the two comedias and their
loas, the two sainetes, the sarao and two independent loas.
Nine independent loas are published in the first edition of
volume one, Inundacion Castalida (1689).
The extant editions
of Sor Juana's works, which illustrate the continuance of her
dramatic appeal, are from the following years:
1689, 1690,
1691, 1692, 1693, 1700, 1701, 1709, 171^, 1715, 1725, 1730,
1873, and 1901.^
Five of the editions are without a date
and at least one. El Divino Narciso, is thought to be of the
eighteenth century.
The first and second volumes of Sor
Juana's works were published with minor deletions and additions annually from 1689-1695.
The Fama j^ obras postumas
. . . appeared in 1700 and is actually the first edition of
the third volume of Sor Juana's works.
The second and third
14
editions of this volume were published in I70I.
The fifth
and sixth editions of volume one appeared in I709.
The
fourth edition of volume three was published in 1714. The
seventh edition of volume one appeared in 1714 also.
1715 the third edition of volume two was published.
In
The
eighty edition of volume one was published in 1725 as well
as the fifth edition of volume three.
It should be noted
that the previously mentioned volumes are not devoted strictly to drama.
in them.
However, all the Sorjuanian drama is contained
There is a 1750 edition of a comedia famosa which
Henriquez Urena believes is Los empenos de una casa. Also,
Los empenos . . . is found in Obras selectas . . . of Sor
Juana in 1875, in Poesias escogidas (I9OI).
Amor es mas
laberinto was published twice without a date.
The two
comedias are published in Comedias de diferentes autores
without a date which is listed in the Catalogue of the
Spanish Library and of the Portuguese Books Bequeathed b^
George Ticknor to the Boston Library (1879)•
In summary,
Los empenos de una casa was published eight times. Amor es
mas laberinto three times and El Divino Narciso once from
1725 to 1901.
Dorothy Schons' Some Bibliographical Notes on Sor
"
17
Juana Ines de jLa Cruz (1925)
provides some additional
information to the Henriquez Ureiia study.
She notes the
gap from 1750 forward, as shown by the earlier bibliog-
15
raphical work, and suggests one explanation with the observation that " . . . the eighteenth century was not a
fertile one in Spanish or in Mexican literature.
It was
also due in part to a change in literary tastes." (p. 6 ) .
Schons' survey, more amply annotated that fche earlier cited
bibliography by Henriquez Urena, mentions some critical
works on Sor Juana.
Among the several that she enumerated
are the biography written by Diego Calleja (I7OO) and the
1703 Carta laudatoria a Sor Juana Ines de la Cruz published
by Francisco Alvarez.
She notes that a great deal was
written about Sor Juana in the nineteenth century and that
1874 was a "banner year" in Sor Juana's bibliographical history.
In I874 the Liceo Hidalgo celebrated a velada lit-
eraria in honor of Sor Juana's birthday.
The proceedings
were published in El^ Federalista in three instalments:
November 19, 22, and 29, 1874."^®
Schons also mentions the estreno of one of Sor Juana's
plays in 1876 but fails to give the title.
It was probably
Los empenos de una casa, because as previously noted, the
work was published in 1875.
She does write, however, that
the play was favorably received and reviewed.
Willis Knapp Jones points out that Sor Juana was herself the subject of at least two Mexican dramas:
S£r Juana
Ines (1876) by Jose Rosas Moreno, and Octavio Meza's three19
act Diamantino pecho (1951)-
16
Schons also mentions Marcelino Menendez Pelayo's study
on Sor Juana published in 1895 as well as the first documented article on her by Luis Gonzalez Obregon in 1894.
Schons makes several comments which are still valid
today.
She writes that Sor Juana is "something of an un-
explored mystery" (p. 5) and that " . . . she /Sor Juana/
has never been the subject of an exhaustive study" (p. 5).
It is of note that Sor Juana's Obras completas did not
appear until the mid-fifties.
As recently as April 1978
Octavio Paz in "Juana Ramirez" comments also on the Schons
study and adds that "Hoy, cincuenta anos despues, la situacion no ha variado."
Sor Juana has always been linked, in literary and
critical considerations, with Gongora, and this association
has proved detrimental to her.
Menendez Pelayo, in the
previously cited study, praises her literature in general,
but rejects the works that make her more inaccessible than
her model Gongora.
Damaso Alonso, and others of the "Gene-
racion de '27" of Spain, have brought about a revaluation
and a resulting appreciation of Gongora.
This has been
accomplished in part for Sor Juana due to the new status
of Gongora as well as the efforts of Mendez Plancarte, and
others.
As has been noted, Sor Juana's works have been published each century since her death, and the 1876 produc-
17
tion of a Sorjuanian play substantiates the continuing
popularity of Sor Juana's drama.
After three hundred years
one might wonder why her dramatic appeal continues. Francisco Monterde in his response to the question provides one
acceptable answer.
He writes that Sor Juana was ahead of
her time in the theatre and was superior to Juan Ruiz de
Alarcon in that aspect.
Monterde writes, "En la obra dra-
matica—sin haber salido del terruno—realiza lo que Ruiz
de Alarcon no llego a intentar: pone la escena al dia y
21
aun se adelanta a su tiempo.
It is most likely that Monterde is referring to the Sorjuanian dramatic technique
which Pirandello used centuries later. Although not drama,
there are also translations of selected Sorjuanian poetry
2?
by Samuel Beckett and R. L. Littlefield. ' Even in a recently published collection of limericks is found one inspired by the "Decima Musa."
-^ All these efforts are de-
monstrative of Sor Juana's appeal today.
Finally, and more
recently, in the theatre, Los empenos de una casa and the
two sainetes were performed in March 1978 by a theatrical
group from Our Lady of the Lake College of San Antonio,
Texas at the Third Siglo de Pro Drama Festival at the
Chamizal National Memorial at El Paso, Texas.
The same
troupe performed Sor Juana's El Divino Narciso and its loa
at the Fourth Siglo de Pro Drama Festival in March 1979.
In summary, Sor Juana's drama was popular in the lat-
18
ter part of the seventeenth century and the early years of
the eighteenth.
Despite the philosophical differences be-
tween the seventeenth and the eighteenth centuries in literature, Sor Juana's plays survived the Age of Enlightenment and critics like Memez Pelayo that were influenced by
the critical norms of that century.
A renewal of interest
in Sor Juana's dramaturgy began in the nineteenth century,
and her appeal and popularity have continued since.
The three works traditionally considered as the foundation of Sor Juana's dramatic production are El Divino Narciso, its loa, and Los empenos de una casa.
These three
plays represent each of the major dramatic genres used by
Sor Juana.
However, this customary evaluation does not con-
form completely to the thesis of this study nor its organizabion.
It is agreed that El. Divino Narciso is Sor Juana's
masterpiece and that the better of her two comedias is Los
empenos de una casa, but there are other loas of at least
comparable literary value to the one for El_ Divino Narciso.
The loas will be given full treatment in a subsequent chapter.
In the following chapter all of Sor Juana's drama, except the loa, will be discussed.
In addition to basic con-
siderations and material dealt with in previous studies, the
following points will be considered as they apply to the
plays:
Greco-Latin mythology, Calderon-like dramatic art
19
and theory, the echo/echo-device, the M
Spectatores tech-
nique (a post-classical theatre technique which is often
termed pre-Pirandellian), and literary eclecticism.
Chapter II
SCR JUA2TA'3 AUTO SACRAIAENTAL. G C M S D I A ,
SAIirSTS, AND SARAO
I.
The Religious Theatre: the Autos Sacramentales
24
The auto sacramental,
of which Sor Juana wrote three,
is a dramatic genre peculiar to Hispanic literature.
The
genre began modestly in Spain and had a constant development from a short, simple work, to a longer, more complex
production as written by Lope de Vega, Jose de Valdivielso,
Tirso de Molina, and especially the master of the genre,
Pedro Calderon de la Barca.
The auto came into vogue dur-
ing the sixteenth century, the time of the Council of Trent
(I545-I563), and Harold B. Segel provides one possible reason for the genre's increased popularity beginning at that
time.
He writes that "Pne direct consequence of the Coun-
cil of Trent was the very great emphasis placed by the
Church on the visual aspects of worSlaip." '
The auto sac-
ramental, then, was well suited for the needs of the Church
as seen by those of the Council of Trent because, in the
sacramental auto, complex and abstract Christian concepts
are allegorized.
The actors dress as grace, faith, devotion,
the Devil, death and in other allegorical costumes to aid
the audience in visually perceiving, for example, the mystery of the transubstianticn of the wafer.
Allegorj, then,
i.3 an integral part of the auto sacrament;al.
20
Parker in
21
this regard writes.
Allegory is the medium by which the "concepto" becomes
"cuerpo," which transforms "lo visible" into "lo
animado;" the medium, that is to say, by which the
conceptual order is given a concrete expression that
makes it more directly accessible to human experience,
this concrete expression (qr visible, living "reality)
being the dramatic action.
The underlying theme of each auto is the asunto and the
argumento is its plot.
Parker states that "the asunto of
every auto is therefore the Eucharist, but the argumento
can vary from one to the other:
it can be any historia
divina—historical, legendary, or fictitious—provided that
it throws some light on some aspect of the asunto." (p. 59).
In the Sorjuanian auto. El cetro de Jose, for example, the
argumento is the story of Joseph as given in Genesis and
the asunto is the Eucharist.
In the loa for this auto the
character Fe explains the mystery of transubstan'tion to
Idolatria as it will be represented in the auto in the following manner:
La
en
Su
el
Eucaristia Sagrada,
que nos da el mismo Cristo
Cuerpo, en que transubstancia
Pan y el Vino (CO., p. 198).
The above comments by Parker, although based on the Calderonian auto, are also applicable to Sor Juana's efforts in the
genre because she continues the Spanish tradition in the
New V/orld.
In his study, Segel goes on to point out the
reaffirmation of the sacraments, and above all the tran-
22
substantiation of Communion by the Church after the Council
of Trent.
He writes that "In the face of increasing Prot-
estant reinterpretation and deviation, the Church firmly
upheld the dogma of the Incarnation, that is the full humanness of Christ first asserted at the Third General Council
of Ephesus in 451, and then reasserted its traditional
teaching that in the sacrament of Communion believers actually partake of the body of Christ.
The bread and wine are
transformed, transubstantiated, into the flesh and blood of
Christ, thus causing the participants in Communion to participate in the divine being of Christ and to experience,
or reenact, the death and the resurrection." (Segel, p. 63).
These points mentioned by Segel are all important aspects
of the one-act Spanish sacramental play.
In the following pages consideration will be given
each of the three autos sacramentales and the five secular
pieces by Sor Juana.
A.
El Divino Narciso
Sor Juana was not the first to use the Narcissus theme
in Spanish literature.
According to Jose Maria de Cossio,
the theme was introduced to Hispanic letters by Alfonso X
27
(1221-1284) in his Grande e General Estonia. ^ He says
PR
29
that "Las 'Metamorfoois'
y las 'Heroidas' ''
puede decir-
se que estan incluidas en su totalidad dentro de la compilacion de Alfonso X" (Cossio, p. 16). A second, yet later
25
source of the theme in Spanish literature is the Cancionero
d£ Baena (1445) whose poems reflect considerable influence
of Ovid and particularly the Metamorphoses.
In this same
collection is found "El gentil nine Narciso" by Fernan de
Guzman, the first Spanish poet to treat the Narcissus theme
(Cossio, p. 19). Rudolph Schevill in Ovid and the Renascence in Spain"^
adds that the modified influence of Ovid
is seen in the Cancionero de Stuniga (1458) much the same
way as the song-book of Baena.
He also suggests that there
is evidence that the Metamorphoses is again the main source
of the classical myths.
Recourse to the Narcissus theme, especially in poetry,
is found in each century since Ovid's treatment of it. The
theme itself was metamorphosed or transformed depending on
the specific author's concept and purpose.
Each writer
tends to emphasize, alter or delete some aspect of the theme
to suit his particular need.
One notable exception is the
very detailed "El Narciso" (1618) written in the Baroque
style by Juan Bermudez y Alfaro.
The poem is extensive be-
cause the episodes which are implicit in Ovid, such as the
bath of Liriope, are treated explicitly by Bermudez y Alfaro.
In the latter composition, the 500 octavas reales are divided into three parts, eight hundred lines each, treating 1.)
the birth and youth of Narcissus; 2.) the transformation of
Echo; and 3.) Narcissus and the fountain.
The gongoristic
24
aspect of the entire work is illustrated in the description of the fountain in the following lines:
Aspid de vidro, pues, roscas dilata
por herido marfil, por flor que muerde,
liquida guranicion, franja de plata
en felpa carmesi, en damasco verde . . . (Cossio,
p. 428).
Besides the numerous poetic treatments of the theme as exemplified in the poem by Bermudez y Alfaro, there were a
number of dramatic versions, especially in the seventeenth
century.
Throughout Europe the possibilities of using the
echo for musical effects prompted dramatic and even operatic
versions of the Narcissus myth.
Calderon's comedia, Eco ^
Narciso (1661) was an influential work especially in the
51
opera.-^
His treatment of the myth was a model for Chris-
tian Bressand's text which was set to music by the German
Georg Bronnor in 1693.
The Calderonian play also influenced
the 1693 German opera libretto by Christian Heinrich Postel.
Calderon's Eco j^ Narciso was influential in Sor Juana's
version of the theme in E!l Divino Narciso«
Ovid's work also
must be considered as an important factor in Sor Juana's
auto.
The classical bard indirectly influenced Sor Juana
through Calderon's play and it should also be recalled that
Sor Juana knew Ovid's works from her own reading as demonstrated in her Neptuno Alegorico.
Ovid, although not the
earliest to use the Narcissus theme, definitely gives it
25
the most detailed treatment.
According to Louise Vinge,
"The echo-reply occurs even in classical Greek literature
(a scene in the fragments of Euripedes' Andromeda and the
parody of this place in Aristophanes' Thesmophoriazousai),
but it was probably Ovid who first combined the technique
with the story of Echo's fate and also gave it an adequate
pastoral setting in the Narcissus fable" (Vinge, p. 574).
There are two major components of the Echo and Narcissus fable.
is the echo.
The first is the reflection and the second
Secondarily, there is the metamorphosis of
Narcissus to the flower and of Echo to air.
The reflection,
the echo, and the metamorphoses can be seen in the following brief summary of Pvid's Echo and Narcissus fable:
Liriope, a water-nymph, was raped by Cephisus and as a result gave birth to Narcissus.
He was a beautiful boy to
whom everyone, male and female, longed to make love. When
the prophet Tiresias was asked if Narcissus would live to
old age, he responded, "only if he never comes to know himself."
One of those who pursued Narcissus was the beautiful
nymph Echo.
Echo, due to being overly loquacious, was caused
by Juno to be able to repeat only others' words and then
only the last ones of a sentence.
Despite Echo's beauty.
Narcissus scorns her (who fades away except for her voice)
as well as other hopeful lovers.
Among the many scorned is
26
a love-sick boy who curses Narcissus.
The curse is heard
by Nemesis, who recalling the prophecy of Tiresias, causes
Narcissus to go to a fountain.
There Narcissus sees his
reflection and falls madly in love with himself.
The proph-
ecy comes true and after his death, the beautiful boy of
sixteen is transformed into the narcissus flower.^
In addition to the two major components of the theme,
the reflection and the voice echo, there is also the socalled classic and the scientific re-incarnation of Narcissus known as the modern or psychological treatment (Vinge,
p. 5P). The Calderon play, Eco ^ Narciso, is considered
to be the transitional work between the two treatments
(Vinge, p. 5P). The psychological treatment gained momentum with Freud's essay "Zur Einfiihrung des Narzissismus" in
1914.
The term "narcissism" in the modern sense was created
by a German psychiatrist Paul Nache in 1899. However, Otto
Rank was the first to use the word in connection with literary criticism in his two works, "Ein Beitrag sum Narzissismus" (1911) and "Der Doppelganger" (1914).
Rank shows that
the Doppelganger motif is constantly linked with a conception of death, and along with Freud he says that this makes
for a disposition towards paranoia and a tendency to suicide
(Vinge, pp. 50-51).
There has been considerable debate among more recent
writers, including Ludwig Pfandl, as to whether Ovid and
27
the subsequent writers employing the theme were aware of
the psychological implications of the fable.
This argument
is irrelevant in the present study because no matter how
interesting the psychological aspect of the theme may be,
Sor Juana's El Divino Narciso can be discussed without delving into the theoretical problems present therein which,
perhaps, can never be solved.
El Divino Narciso was first published as an edicion
suelta in psunphlet form in Mexico in 1690.
According to
Ludwig Pfandl it was published by the physician Ambrosio
de Lima, who, he believes, is responsible for El Divino
55 Pfandl writes, "Mas nosoNarciso's being extant today.'^•^
tros estamos obligados con el hidalgo medico, el doctor
Ambrosio de Lima, a una gratitud, porque sin su intervencion,
con toda probabilidad estaria el Divino Narciso para siempre
perdido (Pfandl, p. 252).
El Divino Narciso is the longest auto Sor Juana wrote.
^^ anto sacramental is normally about two-thirds the length
of a comedia.
El Divino Narciso has 2,258 lines, roughly
700 more than an average Calderonian auto.
Calderon's El
Divino Orfeo for instance, one of the sources of El Divino
Narciso, is I5OP lines long.
There are at least two possi-
ble reasons for El_ Divino Narciso' s unusual length.
For
example, in the 169P edition there is no mention made of
a loa, nonetheless, there is the apparent insertion of a
28
loa within the first 276 lines of the auto.
Therefore, it
is possible, based on Sor Juana's penchant for dramatic
experimentation (i.e. the Pirandello-like technique), that
she was incorporating the loa, or at least lines which would
serve the same purpose, in the longer work.
Nevertheless,
the second edition is accompanied by a loa, and there is no
deletion of the first 276 lines.
An additional source of
lines is due to the 211 line (lines 1480-1681) section of
echoes.
Therefore, the possibly incorporated loa and the
echoes account for 487 lines of the 700 not normally found
in an auto sacramental.
Even the title, El Divino Narciso, seraantically suggests Sor Juana's combination of the Hebrew-Christian tradition and paganism in order to illustrate a religious mystery.
However, despite the play's religious overtone and
purpose, Sor Juana never detracts from the importance of
the pagan figures and atmosphere.
In other words, a bal-
ance of paganism and Judeo-Christian religion is maintained
and greater emphasis is not given to the latter during the
course of the play.
Besides 'SI Divino Narciso' s being an
auto sacramental, in that it contains Biblical characters,
Biblical references, and is concerned with the Holy Eucharist, its relationship with the Greco-Roman literature is
also significantly represented by the important character
Narcissus and other aspects of that literature such as the
o9
pastoral mode.
A piece of literature having to do with
shepherds may be called pastoral, but more specifically,
the pastoral is concerned with those shepherds who dwell
happily in a simple and peaceful world of trees, flowers,
and meadows.
No one performs the actual work of sheep
raising in this unreal Utopian world, but rather, they occupy themselves in composing and singing songs. According
to Louise Vinge, the pastoral node in literature, although
originating with Theocritus, in the third century B.C.,
was not given its first full treatment in the Narcissus
theme until Cvid.
The pastoral mode was incorporated into
Spanish literature and reached artistic heights in writers
of the stature of Garcilaso de la Vega.
Another current
also beginning early in Hispanic letters is the religious.
The blending of Greco-Roman tradition with the Hebrew-Christian tradition in one work, for example, wherein the shepherd David sings psalms and Christ being the Good Shepherd,
is often found in Spanish literature.
One such example in
the seventeenth century is Sor Juana's El Divino Narciso.
The paganistic pastoral element permeates the play and is
an integral part of it.
For instance, at the beginning of
scene xiv, are found lines which evoke the pastoral.
Ninfas habitadores
de estos campos silvestres,
Unas en claras ondas
y otras en troncos verdes;
50
Pastoras, que vagando
estos^prados alegres,
guardais con el ganado
rusticas sencilleces (P.O., lines 1824-51),
In this selection there are found several aspects of the
pastoral mode such as the shepherd with his flock in the
simple, rustic, and happy meadow in which clear water and
green trees are found.
The nymphs, or nature goddesses,
who dwell there also lend to the creation of the unreal
atmosphere which is characteristic of the pastoral.
In addition, the pastoral mode, which influences Sor
Juana's landscape and atmosphere as illustrated in the Just
cited passage, also effects the author's character delineation.
The principal characters, along with "Dos cores de
Musica" and "Ninfas y pastoras" are dressed as shepherds
and shepherdesses who live in the usual locus amoenus typical of the pastoral expression.
Narciso is dressed as a
"pastor galan" and represents Christ; Naturaleza Humana, a
"pastora bella" represents unredeemed humanity who is searching for her lover, Narciso; Gracia as a shepherdess is the
grace of God who allows man to find Christ; Gentilidad is
a nymph who is accompanied by nymphs and shepherds and represents pagan antiquity; Sinagoga, also a nymph, is accompanied by musicos and simbolizes the Old Testament; Eco,
a nymph, is the Devil; Soberbia, as a shepherdess, is an
ally of Eco, as also is Amor Propio, who is a shepherd.
51
The characters are grouped as good and bad, the former led
by Narciso and the latter by Eco, and both sides are vying
for Human Nature.
All the characters, then symbolically
revolve around the axis of Human Nature.^
Calderon in
his later autos and refundiciones made an attempt to balance the number of characters on each side.-^^ If, for example, the forces of evil have three characters and those
representing Christ were more in number, the outcome of the
conflict would be weighted in favor of the side with the
greater number.
However, if each group were more equally
constituted, for instance, if there were three characters
for the Devil and for his side and three for Christ and
for his group, the outcome of the conflict could not so
easily be determined, and the result is heightened dramatic
tension and conflict.
The numerical symmetry in Sor Juana's
El Divino Narciso is not as perfect as is often the case in
Calderon's mature autos.
In Sor Juana's work the numerical
balance between the leaders, Narciso and Eco, and their followers is lacking.
Narciso has one follower, Gracia, while
Eco is accompanied by Soberbia and Amor Propio.
Although
good always prevails over bad in an auto sacramental, the
more even numbers of each group allows for more exciting
drama up until the inevitable ending.
Sor Juana was not the first to use the Narcissus theme
in a religious manner, as already noted, nor the first to
52
dramatize the theme in an auto sacramental.
Angel Valbuena
Prat notes that there are two autos in manuscript dealing
with the Narcissus theme in the Biblioteca Nacional of
56
'
Madrid.-^
One is by Andres de Villamayor entitled Eco j^
Narciso (Ms No. 14, 849) performed in 1685, and the other
with no date given is by Diego de Najera y Zegri (Ms No.
16, 277). In the first of these autos, Narciso is an allegorized representative of mankind, and in the second he
is allegorized as Christ.
Parker notes that these same
^^^ s^^"^03 also significantly deviate from Sor Juana's play
and that neither remotely approaches its artistic value
(Parker, p. 265).
Despite the already mentioned tradition of combining
religious and pagan elements in one v/ork in Spanish literature, Ludwig Pfandl criticizes Sor Juana for using a pagan
fable in an auto sacramental.
He also considers her use of
a pagan myth for religious ends as unique (Pfandl, p.l5l).
However, in neither case is Pfandl Justified because he has
failed to consider the Spanish tradition of pagan literature
in Christian writing that Otis Green treats in his essay
"Fingen los poetas."^^ Green cites Boccaccio, the Marques
de Santillana, Fray Luis and Calderon as writers whose
works substantiate this reality that Pfandl overlooked.
Green also reminds us that Boccaccio maintained that the
pagan poets were good theologians and that Fray Luis in-
35
sisted that a poet should "trabajar el marmol pagano con
manos cristianas."
Sor Juana, an heir to this tradition,
apparently agreed in principle, as she suggests in El
Divino Narciso:
Pues muchas veces conformes
Divinas y Humanas letras,
dan a entender que Dios pone
aun en las plumas Gentiles
unos visos en que asomen
los Altos Misterios Suyos (O.C, p. 26).
In this passage Sor Juana points out that the pagan myths
contained truths and that the ancients and their writings
were misguided.
For example, Jupiter, with all his god-
like attributes, was not God.
She illustrates the point in
El Divino Narciso when at the beginning Gentilidad and
Sinagoga do not agree in their songs of praise.
The former
applauds Narcissus and the latter praises Christ.
Sinagoga
is singing, "lAlabad al Senor todos los hombres!" and
Gentilidad sings "lAplaudid a Narciso, Fuentes y Flores!"
Thereupon Naturaleza Humana explains that since she is the
Mother of both they should listen to her—that they should
sing their praises in harmony for the same person, that is,
the Divine Narcissus.
To this end she admonished Gentilidad
"ciega/errada, ignorante y torpe,/a una caduca beldad /jNarciso/ /aplaudes en tus loores" and then, Sinagoga "cierta/
de las verdades que oyes/en tus Profetas /Pld Testament/,
a Dios/Le rindes veneraciones."
The plan of Naturaleza
54
Humana is to allegorize the truths of the Pld Testament by
using the myth of Narcissus, which deals with the world's
greatest beauty and thereby is the only one on earth worthy
of sjmbolizing Christ.
Eco reaffirms Naturaleza Humana's
belief:
Narciso a Dios llama,
porque Su Belleza
no habra quien la iguale,
ni quien la merezca (O.C, p. 54),
Gentilidad and Sinagoga agree to the plan of Naturaleza
Humana, and the latter offers "los versos de mis cantares,"
while Gentilidad says, "te dare de humanas letras/los poeticas primores/de la historia de Narciso."
Thus now their
songs of praise are combined and sung in harmony for the
same being, the Divino Narciso.
As mentioned in the earlier discussion of the characters, Naturaleza Humana represents unredeemed humanity who
is searching for her lover, Narciso.
However, the original
sin of the Garden of Eden has muddied the water of the fountains and Narciso is not able to see His image, that is,
humanity.
Naturaleza Humana laments this situation and
says:
. • . aguas turbias a mi culpa,
cuyos obscenos colores
entre mi y El interpuestos,
tanto mi belleza afean,
tanto alternan mis facciones,
que si las mira Narciso,
a Su imagen desconoce. (P.O., p« 31 )•
55
Nonetheless, by the grace of God, Gracia leads Naturaleza
Humana to a fountain which is the Virgin Mary.^
In this
fountain Narciso is able to see Naturaleza Humana who, created in His likeness, is His reflection.
Sor Juana slightly
distorts the m.yth in this instance since unlike Pvid's version Narciso does not literally see Himself, but the minor
change serves to reinforce the idea that humanity is made
in the image of God.
Thus, in this sense, when Narciso
sees the reflection of the concealed Naturaleza Humana, He
is seeing Himself.
Before the arrival of Narciso to the
fountain, Gracia instructs Naturaleza Humana to hide in the
bushed around the wate.r so that Narciso will see only the
reflection of Naturaleza Humana when he arrives.
She says:
Procura tu que tu rostro
se represente en las aguas,
porque llegando El a verlas
mire en ti Su semejanza;
porque de ti se enaraore (P.C , p. 5 5 ) .
In the literal sense, Sor Juana's Narciso, then, does not
see His reflection, as in Pvid's version.
Finally, Sor
Juana also alters the final outcome because, rather than
dying and being transformed into the narcissus flower as in
Pvid's Narcissus fable, the Divine Narcissus dies for mankind and lives on in the wafer of the Holy Eucharist.
As
a result, the pagan atmosphere is never adulterated although
the classical myth has been adapted to illustrate the Clni'istian mystery of the transubstantiation of the wafer.
56
Sor Juana's intention to dramatize Christian doctrine
and her own personal beliefs in El Divino Narciso tends to
have an effect on her portrayal of the characters.
In
Ovid's version of the myth, the frustrated Echo fades away
except for her voice, which remains.
In the Mexican play
Eco is also frustrated but in addition to the voice echo
role of Ovid's version of the fable, Sor Juana's Eco additionally remains as the ever-present and invisible force of
evil to tempt humanity.
This potential danger, with the
physical absence of Narcissus, is countered by the sacrament of the Eucharist.
However, despite Eco's being a force
of evil in Sor Juana's play, she is also portrayed as a person with whom tre audience can sympathize.
During the auto
the beautiful nymph symbolizing the Devil is very feminine
and her femininity is an important trait of her characterization.
She is a Jealous woman in competition with
Naturaleza Humana for Narciso, as underlined in the following passage:
. . . ya que no posea
yo el solio, no es bien
que otra lo merezca,
ni que lo que yo perdi,
una villana grosera,
de tosco barro formada
hecha^de baja materia,
llegue a lograr. Asi es bien
que estemos todos alerta,
para que nunca Narciso
a mirar sus ojos vuelva:
porque es a El tan parecida.
57
«.n efecto, como hecha
a Su imagen (lAy de mi!,
de envidia el pecho revienta),
que temo que, si la mira,
Su imagen que mira en ella
obligara a Su Deidad
a que se incline a quererla (P.O., p. 37),
Sor Juana has succeded in developing a round character with
a more complex characterization accompanied by an organization of traits or qualities, than does Pvid in the Metamorphoses.
In the latter work. Echo is a timid and flat
character, one centering about a single idea or quality and
lacking complexity.
Pne additional aspect of Sor Juana's
El Divino Narciso that is notably different from Pvid's
fable is the prophecy of Tiresias.
In Ovid, if Narcissus
does not see his image, he will have a long life.
In con-
trast, in Sor Juana's play, if He does, then Human Nature,
saved by the grace of God, will have everlasting life. The
same incident, then, is treated differently:
the former is
paganistic interpretation, and of course, the latter is the
Hebrew-Christian treatment of the same.
As a consequence,
it can be reasserted that Sor Juana treats the various
parts of the Narcissus and Echo myth as found in Pvid's
Metamorphoses and that her particular version of each, plus
the notable pastoral element, helps explain the general
critical opinion that El Divino Narciso is her opus magnum.
In the remainder of our discussion of El. Divino Narciso, attention will be given each of the four following
58
points:
its relation to Greco-Latin mythology; Sor Juana's
recourse to the Calderon-like dramatic art and theory; Sor
Juana's literary eclecticism; and her elaboration of the
Echo/echo-device.
^^ ^
I^lvlJ^o Narciso, Sor Juana's constant recourse to
Greco-Latin mythology is suggested even in the title.
As so
many of her time, Sor Juana relied on classical allusion as
a tool to widen the context of the setting, add universality
to the situation, and to transcend the worldly realm by adding grandeur or elevation.
This is especially appropriate
in a work that devils with Christ and the transubstantiation
of Communion as pointed out by Segel in his comments cited
at the be'^inning of this chapter.
It should be added that
a mythical personage can elicit meanings that a real character cannot.
Narcissus, for example^ evokes, among several
possibilities, great beauty; Adonis and Venus, used to represent the viceroy and the vicereine, calls to mind Ovid's
"Venus and Adonis" in Book X of the Metamorphoses.
In Sor Juana's auto, the use of mythology illustrates
the Renaissance belief that even the pagan myths represent
divine truth.
To this end, El Divino Narciso, as well as
its loa, was written ostensibly to convert the pagan Mexican Indians to Christianity.
By the use of a classical
pagan myth Sor Juana hoped to awaken the Indian mythical
consciousness and point out its analogies with other pagan
59
myths, thus facilitating the ultimate and intended transition to Christian theological concepts.
After 1650, two sacramental plays by Calderon were
normally performed in Madrid ea.ch year.
After Calderon's
death in 1681, and due to a lack of well-written autos being composed, the general procedure was to rework his plays.
This practice of staging refundiciones continued until June
11, 1765 when royal decree suppressed performances of sacra59
mental autos* '^ One important exception to the lack of
quality autos being written after Calderon's death is Sor
Juana's El Divino Narciso, which is undeniably similar
to the Calderonian autos.
In fact, the "Decima Musa's"
debt to Calderon's dramatic art and theory is an important
consideration in a study of all of Sor Juana's theatre.
The dramatic art of Calderon and of Sor Juana belongs
to the period called the high baroque that is characterized
by balance and contrast with regard to imagery, linguistic
style, plot structure, and character portrayal.
From myth-
ology Calderon selected figures, characters, and fabled
animales to express universal truths or emotional imbalance.
He also employed extraordinary displays of nature such as
eruptions of volcanos to show emotional distrubances.
This
same recourse is found in Sor Juana's El Pivino Narciso.
In this play, the death of Narciso (Christ) produces an
extraordinary display of nature as in Calderon's El Divino
40
Orfeo.
In the following fragment of £1 Divino Narciso
there is an earthquake, an eclipse of the sun, and great
turmoil and horror in general to underline the death of
Christ.
Eco.
Soberbia.
Amor Propio.
Eco.
Soberbia.
Eco.
IQue eclipsel
I Que terremotol
I Que asombrol
IQue horror!
IQue susto!
ILas luces del sol apaga/en la
mitad de su curso!
Amor Propio. iCubre de aombras al Aire!
Soberbia.
iViste a la Luna de luto!
(O.C, p. 7 9 ) .
In the plays of Calderon and Sor Juana the concept of the
four elements recalls that chaos would naturally ensue if
they were not in harmony because the four were thought to
separate order from chaos. This conception of the world is
similarly described in Book I of Ovid's Metamorphoses, and
also in Genesis, I.
Additionally, this classical concept
of the universe was integrated into the Scholastic system
still prevalent in the seventeenth century.
In regard to
the use of the same four elements in the literature of the
Spanish Siglo de Pro, E. M. Wilson in "The Four Elements in
the Imagery of Calderon" says that " . . . it was probably
considered theologically useful by Calderon and his contemporaries . . . ,"
Wilson goes on to state that Cal-
deron did not invent the metaphorical procedure but probably
derived it from a study of the works of Gongora.
less, Calderon did standarize the procedure.
Neverthe-
41
The Scholastic concept of the four elements in Sor
Juana's El_ Divino Narciso is evident in scene xiv:
El Aire se encapota,
la Tierra se conmueve,
el Fuego se alborota.
el Agua se revuelve (CO., p. B 4 ) I and
in scene iii Sor Juana uses the four elements based on Calderon's imagery as discussed in the Wilson study.
que ya adoraban al Sol,
. . .
ya el curso de las Estrellas,
ya veneraban los brutos,
ya daban culto a las penas,
ya a las fuentes, ya a los rios,
ya a los bosques, ya a las selvas . . .
(P.C, p. 58). The words sol, estrellas, brutos, penas,
fuentes, n o s , bosques and selvas are appropriate for the
pastoral setting of El Divino Narciso but they can also be
seen as symbols representing three of the four elements,
fire, earth, and water.
in the following way:
The eight words can be classified
1.)
Fire (sol, estrellas), 2.)
Earth (brutos, penas, bosques, selvas), 5.) Water (fuentes,
rios).
The absence of the fourth element, air, is signif-
icant.
Sor Juana, by omitting direct reference to the re-
maining element, suggests the lack of equilibrum that Eco
(the Devil) feels at the time.
It is only near the end of
the auto when Gracia, as divine grace, restores order and
harmony that we find:
Le alcamaba el Fuego en llamas,
el Mar con penachos rizos,
la Tierra en labios de rosas
y el Aire en ecos de silbos (P.C, p. 9 2 ) .
42
The message here is that all four elements are present and
that harmony will now ensue.
Basing our critical commentary on Wilson's study, it
can be pointed out that there are some irregularities in
Sor Juana's use of element imagery as compared to Calderon's
employment of it.
For example, the use of fue^^o and lla.Tnas
as well as tierra and labios de rosas in Sor Juana's El
Divino Narciso corresponds to Calderon's scheme; however,
aire and ecos de silbos, which although logical as used,
do not appear in the Calderonian scheme provided by Wilson.
Secondly, Sor Juana's penachos rizos, which corresponds to
Calderon's category of aire imagery, is used instead for
mar, which does not conform to the Calderonian usage for
penachos.
There are several other instances where Sor Juana
uses the elements and their corresponding imagery, but the
preceding examples, and even with these few differences,
suffice to suggest the similarities between the two playv/rithts and their dramatization of the four elements.
Besides Sor Juana's emulating certain aspects of Calderon's dramatic art in El Divino Narciso, she is apparently influenced also by a number of his autos.
Alexander A.
Parker in "The Calderonian Sources of .El Divino Narciso by
Sor Juana Ines de la Cruz," discusses autos which he contends influence the style and structure of El Divino Narciso.
As brought to light by this study, Sor Juana eclec-
4"^
Jtically drew from seA/^eral different Calderonian autos in
composing El Divino Narciso.
Parker discusses, for example,
Primero 2 Segundo Isaac, La viiia del Senor, La vida es sueno
and especially E_l nuevo hospicio de pobres for the theological concept and symbols and El Divino Orfeo for the classical myth used in Sor Juana's play.
More specifically,
Parker writes that there are numerous Calderonian influences
on the structure of Sor Juana's El Divino Na.rciso»
For ex-
ample, the source of the device of alternating choirs that
announces the theme of the play is Calderon's Primero j_
Segundo Isaac (Parker, p. 265) •> AlsOj the song of Sor
Juana's Sinagoga is similar to the song of the Elements
in the auto titled La vida es sueiio (Parker, p. 52). I21 El
Divino Orfeo Calderon turns his dogmatic theme into a classical myth (Parker, p. 266). Sor Juana uses yet another Calderonian device found in El nuevo hospicio _d£ pobres. That
is, the appearance of the forces of evil on stage to inquire
about the singing they hear (Parker, p. 267). Parker also
considers El Divino Narciso and Calderon's La yina del
Senor to finish in a like fashion, both with a translation
of the hymn Range lingua (Parker, p. 269). (The Pange
lingua gloriosi corporis mysterium was composed by St.
Thomas Aquinas especially for the office of Corpus Christi).
The penultimate verse of the Mexican auto is
Veneremos tan gran Sacramento,
44
y al Nuevo Misterio cedan loa .Antiguos,
supliendo de la Fe los afectos
todos los defectos que hay en los sentidos (P.C. , p. 9*:^ ).
Parker suggests that La vina del Senor by Calderon finishes
with an abbreviated and freer rendering of the same hymn.
A tan Alto Sacramento
venere el mundo postrado,
supliendo en la Fe el Pido,
Gusto, Plor, Sabor, y Tacto (P.O.,Ill,
p. 1499).
Parker also states that there are far more parallels between El Divino Narciso and a number of Calderon's autos
than those few that some critics find between it and the
comedia, Eco j Narciso.
°^ ^
However, the influence of the play
Dlvl^o Narciso is noticeable and in one instance to
be considered later, an entire stanza is taken verbatim by
Sor Juana.
Another critic who has concerned himself with the
sources and influences of El Divino Narciso is Alfonso
Mendez Plancarte who in his edition of the Pbras completas
of the Mexican Muse offers, in addition to Calderon's Eco
Z Narciso, certain aspects of the Biblical Song of Solomon,
and works by others, such as Garcilaso de Vega, Fray Luis
de Leon, and Cervantes.
Vinge, who advances some of Mendez
Plancarte's thoughts on the matter, even suggests that El
Divino Narciso is a Kontrafaktur of Calderon's Eco ^
E^"
cj-so (Vinge, p. 247). But Parker, in his study cited above,
counters that despite the similar basic plot of the two
^•5
plays, they are too dissiT.ilar in theme for Sor Juana's
work to be considered a spiritual reworking of the other.
Instead, he considers Sor Juana's auto to ba a version a
lo div^J^o o^ the iiayth itself, not an imitation of Calderon's
comedia (Parker, p. 261), Nevertheless, there is no question that Sor Juana knew Eco ^ Narciso, and, as numerous
critics have noted, that she plagiarized several lines of
the Calderonian comedia.
The following attests to Sor
Juana' s indebtedness to Calderon and Eco ^ Narciso. The
lines enclosed within parentheses are from Calderon's play
and the others are taken from Sor Juana's auto. The last
four lines to be quoted are identical in the two works and
are the ones cited by critics in this regard.
Bellisimo Narciso (Bellisimo Narciso)
que a estos humanos valles (que, a estos amenos valles)
del Monte de Tus glorias (del raonte en que naciste)
las celestitudes traes (las asperezas traes:)
mis pesares e^cucha (mis pesares escucha)
Eco soy, la mas rica (Eco soy, la mas rica)
Pastora de estos valles; (Pastora de estos valles;)
bella decir pudieran (bella decir pudieran)
mis infelicidades (11. 707-718) (mis infelicidades.)
Of particular note in this comparison is Sor Juana's choice
0^ hunianos valles in line tv;o that not only connotes but
reinforces the pagan element, i.e. the myth of Narcissus.
As noted earlier, humanas letras refers to pagan literature,
and therefore Sor Juana's line is more appropriate for El
Divino Narciso and explains why she used it rather than
Calderon's amenos valles.
The valles of Calderon could be
46
either earthly or heavenly, but humanos valles is suggestively pagan.
Therefore, even in an instance where Sor
Juana's eclecticism is flagrant plagerism, the resulting
work is altered to suit her needs and thereby is her own.
To this point we have seen how certain works were influential, or how at least certain aspects of them, were employed by Sor Juana in the creation of her play.
Her pen-
chant for eclectically drawing on previous works is one of
the more important aspects of Sor Juana's dramatic genius.
Critics, however, have always stopped Just short of classifying her as eclectic.
Usually, they only point out possible
sources, techniques, structure, and theology of which El
Divino Narciso is indicative.
We feel the work is perhaps
the best example of the eclectic nature of Sor Juana in the
theatre.
One critic, Iriving A. Leonard in Baroque Times in
Pld Mexico, writes "But, while it is clear that Sister Juana
Ines was often influenced by Spanish and other writers /he
mentions earlier the Latin poet Ausonius, Lope de Vega, and
Calderon/, seldom was she content merely to imitate her
models.
Generally she borrowed only those forms and ideas
which enabled her to pour some essence of herself into them
by adapting them to her own peculiar need of the moment."41
Enrique Anderson-Imbert, also recognizes this creative tendency in Sor Juana, but offers more concrete evidence of it.
For him "/Sor Juana/ sintetizo todas las corrientes apreci-
47
adas y praticadas en la primera mitad del siglo: tradicionales, renacentistas y barrocas, populares, cultas y vulgares, aqui una lira a lo San Juan, alia una silva a lo
Gongora o una decima a lo Calderon o un romance a lo Lope
.'
0 una jacara
a 1lo ^
Quevedo."4?
Before continuing, the use of the term literary eclecticism, as it applies to Sor Juana, needs to be defined.
In this study it is understood to mean the practice of selecting ideas, elements, doctrines, and even occasionally
borrowing stanzas verbatim from other sources for the purpose of combining them into a satisfying new whole. Pf
course, any author can be eclectic and in a sense all are.
However, Sor Juana's literary eclecticism, due to its prominence and her skill in its employment, demands that it
receive more than cursory attention in a study of E]^ Divino
Narciso.
Pne of the better examples of Sor Juana's eclecticism
is her portrayal of Narciso in El Divino Narciso.
In her
description of his effect on others she not only draws on
Pvid's Narcissus, who attracts both male and female admirers,
but also utilizes features drawn from Pvid's portrayal of
Prpheus, whose musical ability attracts inanimate objects
such as trees, streams, and flowers.
An example of Sor
Juana's recourse to both Narcissus and Prpheus in El. Divino
Narciso is the following:
48
Pues si en tu Narciso, tu
tanta perfeccion supones,
que dices que es su hermosura
iman de I05 corazones,
y que no solo la siguen
las Ninfas y los pastores,
sino las aves y fieras,
los collados y los montes,
los arroyos y las fuentes,
las plantas, hierbas y flores (P.C, p.
25).
In this fragment, it should be pointed out that the first
six lines, based on the above mentioned characteristics of
the two Pvidian characters, are reminiscent of Pvid's Narcissus, and the following four bring to mind Pvid's Prpheus.
Significant is the point that Sor Juana eclectically chose
from two different myths in order to make one character
worthy of symbolizing Christ.
Literary borrowing was common in Sor Juana's age and
it should not be considered as proof of a lack of inspiration or ability on her part.
In fact, Sor Juana's eclectic
borrowing is more artistic than is the case of many Siglo
de Pro dramatists who did not hesitate to incorporate into
their plays entire acts of earlier dramas.
Albert E; Slo-
man in The Dramatic Craftsmanship of Calderon:
Earlier Plays (1958)
from past sources.
His Use of
points out that even Calderon drew
In his comparison of eight Calderonian
plays with their eight source-plays, Sloman postulates convincingly that a lesser source-play often became a finished
Calderonian play.
This is not at all what Sor Juana did.
49
She did not remake an earlier work, but rather eclectically
chose forms, ideas, and theology from several works in order
to produce her own.
Despite earlier critics who viewed the greatest achievement of Sor Juana in El Divino Narciso to be her poetry, it
can be countered that the echo-device is the most notable,
especially from the dramatic point of view.
Sor Juana's
penchant for eclecticism again comes to fore in the echodevice.
Although she utilized several sources, Ovid's Echo
and Narcissus story found in Book III of the Metamorphoses
is the major literary source of the echo in literature.
Louise Vinge says that earlier examples are found in classical Greek literature, but that Ovid was probably the first
to combine the technique with the story of Echo's fate and
to provide an adequate pastoral setting (Vinge, p. 374).
The echo-verse by nature is composed of at least two
lines, the source line and the following echo-word.
The
echo repeats the final word or last syllables of the preceding line.
The echo may thus answer a question posed in
the source line, emphasize the last word of the anterior
line, or change the meaning of the source line entirely.
The sophisticated echo-device is a more complex and better
organized use of the echo.
a number of echo-verses.
The echo-device is composed of
The series of echoes are gathered
into one phrase in the recapitulation that emphasizes the
5P
echoes and gives them new importance.
As the simpler echo-
verse, the echo-device provides an immediate function, but,
additionally, the latter can provide a new meajjfning in the
recapitulation line wherein the various echoes are considered as a whole.
The lyric potential of the echo accounts
for its second important function, the aesthetic, because
of the musical possibilities.
Sor Juana drew from several previous treatments of the
echo to serve her as models.
The more important ones were
those provided by Pvid, Cervantes, and Calderon.
In the
Metamorphoses, for example, is found, "Meanwhile Narcissus,
strayed from his friends, began to shout, "Is anybody here?"
"Here," Echo answered, and the wondering boy looked far
around him and cried louder, "Come." "Come," she called
after him."44 The remaining echoes are "Here we shall meet,"
and "P fearful chains around me." As will be seen later in
the discussion of the echo, and by comparison to Sor Juana's
employment of it, Pvid's use of the structural aspect of
the echo is weak.
Furthermore, the musical element in Pvid
is lost when several words are employed rather than one and
the recapitulation sentence which can have many uses is also
lacking.
A constructed recapituja[]^tion would read, "Here,
come, here we shall meet, o fearful chains around me,"
Thus,
the aesthetic possibilities are limited and the utilitarian
aspect, although not necessary in the echo, is completely
51
absent in Pvid.
A stanza of a song found in Part I, chapter 27 of the
Quijote illustrates Cervantes' use of the echo-device;
iQuien me causa este dolor?
AM9R
Y iQuien mi gloria repugna?
FPRTUNA
Y iQuien consiente en mi duelo?
EL CIELC
De ese mode, yo recelo
Morir deste mal estrano,
Pues se aunan en mi daiio ..,AMPR, FPRTUNA y EI. CIELP.'•'-^
In Cervantes' work, as illustrated above, the recapitulation is constituted of a series of echoes.
Additionally,
the echoed v^ord is always a meaningful response to the preceding question.
A major defect in the device by Cervantes
is that the echoed word is not identical to the source word.
The most important aspect of the device in the Quijote is
its compactness, a feature lacking in Calderon's echo-device
^^ ^^0 Z Narciso.
Calderon, who often employed antiphonal choirs, resorted also to the echo for its musical potential. However, absent in Calderon's comedia is the organization and
complexity of the echo that is found in Sor Juana's echodevice.
Calderon employs the echo-device five times in
the third act of Eco ^ Narciso.
The most notable aspect
of his use of the device is found in echoes twenty through
twenty-nine that comprise echo groups III and IV, all of
52
which have identical echoes. The important aspect of these
two sets of echoes is that the five echoes, unlike the other
three sets, do form a meaningful sentence if they are combined.
In a constructed recapitu(a\Jtion, the combination
of the five echoes would form the following sentence: "Amor,
celos, penas, siento, IAy que me muero!"
These five echoes,
then, do form semi-intelligible sentences after the effort
has been m.ade to discover them, whether hearing the echoes
while watching the perform.ance or visually perceiving them
when reading the text.
The point is that the spectator-
reader has to put forth the effort to reconstruct the echoes
because Calderon, unlike Cervantes and Sor Juana, failed to
do so himself because he did not use the recapitu|§^tion
line.
Additionally, Calderon did not take full advantage
of the aesthetic possibilities that the recapitulation
would have provided.
Moreover, the compactness of Sor
Juana's echo-device, which will be discussed shortly, and
the already mentioned compactness of the echo-device in the
Quijote is not found in Calderon's E£o 2: Narciso.
For ex-
ample, in the Calderonian comedia, echo groups III and IV
are composed of eleven lines each which makes them the most
compact of the five groups.
However, groups I, II, and V
are not at all compact because the lines of each group in
which the echoes occur are forty-one, twenty-eight, and
forty-six respec0.i!j(vely.
In other words, the forty-two
55
echoes in Calderon's play are found within one hundred
thirty-seven lines, while the nine echoes in the Quijote,
excluding their repetition in the recapitu.'^tion lines,
occur in thirty lines. One last point to be made about the
non-compact nature of the echo-device in Calderon's Eco j_
Narciso is that the echoes or the devices are separated by
lines dealing with other action.
The thirty lines of echoes
in the Quijote, for example, are given with no lines or
action intervening.
The reason for this is because although
^^^ Q^lJote is written primarily in prose, the echo-device
is found in a three-stanza song of which each stanza is composed of ten lines. Three echoes, and their repetition in
the recapitu/SCLtion line, are found in each stanza. Therefore, the stanza'structure accounts for the compact nature
and precludes the possibility of the extraneous material
found in Eco y Narciso by Calderon.
An important part of the literary echo is the character
Echo herself.
In the works considered in this study, (those
by Ovid, Cervantes, Calderon, and Sor Juana) she is the personage (with the exception of the device in the Quijote)
who gives the echo.
It is of note that Ovid, Calderon, and
Sor Juana each treat differently the origin of Echo's inability to articulate more than the latter part of anyone's
speech.
Ovid explains it by having Juno punish Echo thusly
for having interfered in other's conversations.
In Cal-
54
deron's comedia, Narciso's mother, Liriope, administers
Echo a poison which causes the speech problem.
Sor Juana,
it seems, based her choice partially on the Bible and also
on an auto by Calderon.
In Matthew, IX, 32-55 is found:
"Salidos estos, le presentaron un mudo endemoniado.
Y,
arrojado el demonic, hablo el mudo . . . . " This is a
good choice on Sor Juana's part because in her auto Echo
is the Devil.
Secondly, Sor Juana surely knew Calderon's
auto titled El Diablo Mudo (1660) which, like the Biblical
account, suggests, as her auto, that the Devil be mute.
Sor Juana uses the echo-device in El Divino Narciso in
two consecutive scenes, numbers XI and XII, in which the
echo occurs forty-eight times.
In his critical observa-
tions on these scenes, Gerard Flynn critizes Sor Juana's
alleged overworking of the device.
Hov/ever, if one com-
pares its use in Calderon's Eco ^ Narciso, this complaint
seems unfounded because Calderon used the echo forty-two
times.
In addition, the structural organization of the
echo-device in Sor Juana's auto, it can be seen, is superior to that of Calderon's Eco ^ Narciso.
As an example,
the complexity of the echo-device in Sor Juana's play is
compensated for by its organization.
The echo section of
El Divino Narciso is divided into four major parts. The
first part is concerned with Soberbia and Amor Propio with
Eco's repetitions and parts II-IV are between Narciso and
55
Eco.
Within each part there are the four subgroups A, B,
C, and D.
In each of these occur three echoes and a summary
sentence by Musica of the three words echoed in the subgroup.
At this time Amor Propio and Soberbia alternately
pose a question.
For example, in subgroup A of Part I Amor
Propio queries,
Pues eres^tan sabia,
•LDinos que accidentes
tienes, o que sientes?
(CO., p. 66).
The three echoes are now used for a utilitarian purpose in
that they serve to answer the earlier posed question.
Fol-
lowing the above organization, and after the completion of
the dozen echoes in one part, the tv/elve are given again in
the form of four hexasilabos that rhyme a b b a .
In this
way, Sor Juana summarizes in one stanza not only the twelve
preceding echoes but also uses these lines to serve an additional purpose since each of the echo stanzas is in itself meaningful.
The above organization and procedure is
repeated in parts II-IV, thereby totalling forty-eight
V
^6
echoes.
The organization, repetition, and compactness of the
echo-device in El Divino Narciso allows for a better grasp
of the device by the spectator-reader as well as their being able to appreciate better its aesthetic and utilitarian aspects.
Notably, and with few exceptions, the echoed
word in Sor Juana's El Divino Narciso is identical to the
56
source word and thus more natural.
ceptions:
There are only six ex-
de spue's > pues , Narciso > hiz^, inmortal > mortal,
inhumana > humana, impasible > pasible, hueco > eco, but even
these are almost perfect, that is, the echoed word is the
mirror image of its source.
All the other echoes are per-
fect, for example, tengo > tengo, pena > pena.
In three of
the four parts, the echoes are between Echo and Narcissus,
an arrangement which is reminiscent of that in Pvid's work.
The echo-device in El Divino Narciso is Sor Juana's most
perfected use of the technique.
Sor Juana employs the echo
in a different manner in the last lines of scene vii where
she gives a series of six units composed of six lines each
in which a double echo is used:
IPh, siempre cristalina,
Clara y hermosa Fuente:
tente, tentej^
reparen mi ruina
tus ondas presurosas.
claras, limpias, vivificas, lustrosas!
(P.O., p. 55).
The imperfect echo, that is, one that is not a mirror image
of its source, is found in each instance in the third line.
The five additional echoes are:
clara> para, buena> llena,
espejos^ lejos, cristales -7 tales , and repara> clara.
In the discussion of Sor Juana's El Divino Narciso it
has been noted that the auto is only one of many in the
long series of literary adaptations of the Narcissus-Echo
fable in Spanish literature inspired by Pvid's version as
57
found in his Metamorphoses.
Three of the more notable
aspects of the Sorjuanian play are the echo/echo-device
that provides musical, aesthetic, and utilitarian possibilities, and which was favored in seventeenth century drama; the adaptation of a classical pagan myth to illustrate
a Hebrew-Christian mystery without ever adulterating the
pastoral atmosphere; and what has been termed in this study
dramatic eclecticism.
Contrary to the general practice,
Sor Juana did not follow Spain's Golden Age dramatists,
such as Calderon, who often reworked older plays. Instead,
Sor Juana chose from various v^orks to produce her own work.
In writing El Divino Narciso, which today is considered to
be not only her masterpiece, but also one of the best autos
sacramentales ever written in the Spanish literature, Sor
Juana relied on a number of Calderon's sacramental autos.
Their influence is clearly discernible with regard to the
style and structure of the Sorjuanian auto.
The more nota-
ble examples of Calderon's influence are the use of the
four-element imagery and the extraordinary dispalys of nature to show emotional disturbances of the characters.
Finally, our study of El Divino Narciso leads us to
the conclusion that, of the five points found to be common
to Sor Juana's theatre, only the Ad Spectatores technique
is not found.
It should be kept in mind that the five
points are based on Sor Juana's theatre as a whole, that is.
58
twenty-six works.
Therefore, it is possible that only a
few of the points will be found in some plays. A case in
point is the next dramatic piece to be discussed, El^ cetro
^
Jose, in which only two of the five points are applica-
ble:
literary eclecticism and the Calderon-like dramatic
art and theory.
B.
El cetro de Jose
El cetro de Jose, the briefest of Sor Juana's three
autos (1,677 lines) most nearly approaches Calderon's 1500line average.
It is classified by Sor Juana as an alle-
gorical-historical auto.
The date of composition has not
yet been determined, but it was first published in the
second volume of Sor Juana's works in 1692.
In past crit-
icism the title often has been given incorrectly as Cetro
de San Jose, ' however, it should be pointed out that the
play is not concerned with Saint Joseph, but rather with
the Joseph who became viceroy of Egypt after being sold by
his brothers.
Gerard Flynn considers the three major themes of El
cetro de Jose to be:
1.) Joseph/Christ; 2.) Bread, Wheat,
Tassels, the dinner of Joseph and his twelve brothers/the
Holy Eucharist, the Last Supper of Christ and his twelve
apostles; and 3.) the conflict and despair/man's redemption
(Flynn, pp. 80-81).
El cetro de Jose is a gloss of the
story of Joseph and his twelve brothers and as such is a
59
prefiguration of the story of Jesus and his twelve disciples.
The numerous references to wheat find the invitation
sent by Joseph to his brothers, both essential parts of
Joseph's story, also foreshadow the wafer of communion and
the Last Supper,
Thus, we agree with Flynn that the Bib-
lical account of Jose in Genesis foretells the New Testament mysteries, but we feel that the major part of the prefiguration theme is the Josephs Christ theme, of which several examples are to be found in the work.
The portrayal
and dramatic development of the main character in this auto
sacramental are similar to those of the protagonist in El
Divino Narciso.
But in the latter auto Narciso is por-
trayed as Christ and in El cetro de Jose Joseph is His prefiguration.
In El cetro de Jose the allegorical character
Profesia alludes to Joseph's being the prefiguration of
Christ.
declares:
In the following lines, for example, Profesia
"/Jose es/ una figura/del que sera en el siglo
venidero/Redentor verdadero.. . . " (P.C, p. 23l)^ and
that the purpose of his story is "Para que el Mundo vea/del
Salvador en el la viva idea" (P.C, p.25l).
As previously
mentioned, in the discussion of El Divino Narciso, the
action of an auto sacramental is derived from the struggle
between the forces of good and evil with the former always
winning.
In El cetro de Jose, even Lucero (the Devil)
admits that Jose is the prefiguration of Christ.
6P
Es Josef y no es Josef,
Conque es Josef, y no es el
no temo yo lo que es el /Jose/»
sino que a Ptro represente /CJristq/.
Therefore, El cetro de Jose contains references to Chi^ist,
the twelve disciples, the wafer, and the Last Supper, ^H,
-fjil!'"IBfP-fe" all of which are essential aspects of the auto
sacramental.
Another important prefiguration is the men-
tion of the Lavatorio, an aspect of the Holy Communion, as
found in the following:
Aqui es corporal limpieza
el Lavatorio de pies
y se elevara despues /alia/
a ser del Alma pureza (P.O., p» 242).
This is a direct reference to the chalice and an indirect
one to the maundy, the words spoken by Christ to his disciples after washing their feet at the Last Supper.
Because the prefiguration theme of El cetro de Jose is
involved with two distinct periods of time, that of Joseph
in Genesis and the period in which Christ was on earth, Sor
Juana employed the adverbs of time, aqui and alia, to distinguish between the two.
Aqui refers to the time of
Joseph when the chalice is used to wash the feet and alia
designates the time of Christ and the Last Supper.
In an-
other scene Profesia also employs aqui and alia.
Esta Mesa /aqui/ es de otra Mesa /alia/
y estos Doce de otros Doce,
61
figura en que se conoce
de Dios la cierta promesa.
El Pan aqui, con afan,
es sustento y es comida;
y sera el Pan de Vida,
cuando deje de ser Pan /alia/ (O.C, p, 242)
In this selection aqui, however, designates the time of
Jose.
In the same lines the table, the twelve brothers,
and the bread are respectively, the prefiguration of the
Last Supper, the tv/elve disciples, and the wafer of communion in the period designated by alia, which is the prophesied time of Christ.
The first lines prophesy the Last
Supper and the last refer to the wafer that becomes the
body of Christ through transubstantiation.
Near the end
o^ ?1 CQ'tro de Jose Sor Juana again employs the aqui-alla
time adverbs, but with different designations.
The follow-
ing two short speeches by Profesia are illustrative of the
change.
Si a David sustentan
los panes benditos /alia/,
aqui es Alimento
y Manjar, Dios mismo
and.
Si Jose conserva
siete anos el Trigo /alia/,
aqui dura el Pan
infinites siglos.
In this scene, then, aqui is the time of the auto, the
historical present, and alia is the past, the time of
David and Jose.
62
The major sources of Sor Juana's story of Joseph in
Si g^^^Q ^
Jose apparently were Genesis and Calderon's
auto, Suenos ha^; ^ue verdad son (1670).
Mendez Plancarte,
for one, cites the Spaniard's auto as an influence or model
for Sor Juana's El cetro de Jose. He additionally suggests
the anonymous sixteenth-century Auto de los Desposorios de
Jose as a vague and remote precedent.
We feel that "vague"
and "remote" adequately classify that contention and therefore no consideration of th.e latter auto will be made. The
Calderonian auto, however, is si"iilar with regard to types
of characters, the treatment of the story of Jose, and even
the length of the work.
In fact, based on these well-known
similarities, critics in the past, such as Mendez Plancarte,
have often stated that Calderon's auto was the source of
the auto by Sor Juana.
Despite noting these similarities,
however, critics have seemingly overlooked important differences between the two works which suggest that Sor Juana
did not follow Suenos hay que verdad son.
To defend this
stand a consideration is required of the names of some of
the characters of the three works, Genesis, Calderon's
Suenos hay que verdad son, and El cetro de Jose by Sor
Juana, as well as a consideration of scenes common to the
two plays.
With regard to characters, Sor Juana's play has twentyfour personages while Calderon's has twenty-five.
The
65
names of some of these characters suggest the possibility
that Sor Juana based her play on Genesis rather than Calderon' s Suenos hay que verdad son.
For example, one of
Jacob's sons named Dan does not appear in Calderon's auto,
but does in Genesis and El_ cetro de Jose.
One additional,
yet admittedly weak indication that Sor Juana did not rely
on Calderon's version of the story of Joseph is that the
leader of Egypt is called Faraon in both Genesis and Sor
Juana's El cetro de Jose and that for the same character
Calderon used the title El Rey.
One example of the two
autos being similar, yet different from Genesis, is seen
in the use of the name Judas by Sor Juana and Calderon.
48
Juda is the name given in the Bible.
Another slight
variation in the two autos is found in the choice of different synonyms for tie same profession.
For example, Sor
Juana uses Pincerna for cupbearer while Calderon employs
the synonym copero.
The names assigned a character, such as Juda and
Copero, in considering the sources of a work, although suggestive, are somewhat superficial.
A more conclusive deci-
sion concerning Sor Juana's source for writing El cetro de
Jose can be made by considering the scenes which are common to it and Suenos hay que verdad son.
For instance,
both Sor Juana and Calderon treat the scene in which Joseph
accuses his brothers of being spies.
Calderon's Jose says:
64
Ahora acabo
de saber que sois espias,
y que venis a enganarnos
con los pretextos del trigo
para saber este Estado
las defensas, por el odio
que^siempre con los gitanos
teneis los hebreos, y hacernos
guerra despues (O.C, p. 1226).
Sor Juana's Jose also accuses the brothers of spying on
Egypt's defenses.
Vosotros sin duda sois
Espias, que a ver del Reino
las plazas menos f':uardadas,
venis con ese pretext© (O.C, p. 234).
The subsequent questionin.^ of the brothers by Jose reveals
that one brother is dead (Jose) and the other (Benjamin)
has remained hone with Jacob, their father.
that Benjamin also come to Egypt.
Jose demands
In Calderon's version,
Simeon is held prisoner while the others return for the
youngest brother.
In Sor Juana's play, one brother, who is
never mentioned by name, is sent for Benjamin while the
rest remain in Egypt as prisoners.
In both dramatic ver-
sions, and the one in Genesis, the brothers feel that they
are being punished for their cruel treatment of Jose.
Sor
Juana's version follows closely that of Genesis which is
different from Calderon's treatment.
The final scene to be considered is that in which
Joseph invites his brothers to dine with him.
This pre-
figuration of the Last Supper is not developed in Calderon's
version because the brothers simply come and eat.
Sor Juana,
65
however, takes advantage of the dramatic and theological
possibilities of this same event.
In her version, Mayor-
domo instructs the brothers to bathe properly, " . . . que
03 laveis los pies, porque/comais con mayor limpieza" (O.C,
p. 241)» a reference to the maundy or the words spoken by
Jesus to his disciples after washing their feet at the
Last Supper and currently the ritual washing of the hands
by a celebrant of the Eucharist.
A major difference between the Sorjuanian and Calderonian autos treating Joseph is the allegorical character
Lucero.
Not only is this personage not found in Suenos hay
que verdad son, which would help to substantiate the earlier
discussion on characters as regards sources, but he is also
important, as will be seen, in other ways.
There are sev-
eral possible sources for Sor Juana's Devil being allegorized as the Morning Star.
In the Bible, Isaiah, XIV, chap-
ter 12 is found, "iComo caiste del cielo, o Lucero de la
manana, hiJo de la aurora?"
A second possible source is
some Calderonian autos in which Lucero is usually the Devil.
However, occasionally in Calderon's autos Lucero is the allegorization of John the Baptist as is found in Las ordenes
militares and the loa for La similla ^ 3^ cizana, but more
often, Lucero is the Devil. This is true of the loas for
El veneno -^ la triaca (1634) and La inmunidad del Sagrario
(1664) as well as the auto, El pintor de mi deshonra, all
66
by Calderon,
In El^ cetro de Jose Sor Juana takes one evil person,
the Devil (Lucero), and dramatically divides him into four
additional allegorical beings who function at the same time
as a collective figure.
They Jointly lament the successes
of Jose; they consult one another and plot together to discredit him; and they despair when they realize that Jose
is the prefiguration of Christ, the Savior of mankind, and
that they can do nothing to prevent it. The use of these
five characters effectively heightens the dramatic intensity
of the auto because the division of one character into several allows for a greater dramatic involvement.
Although
El cetro de Jose is not a refundicion, nor in our opinion
a copy of Suenos hay que verdad son, in terms of Sor Juana's
dramatization of Lucero, the auto is reminisjfcent of what
Calderon did in his rev/orked autos of his mature period.
The four allegorized beings created by Sor Juana represent
notable aspects of the Devil:
conjecture, and envj.
intelligence, knowledge,
As dramatic personages in El cetro
de Jose they are members of the Devil's family.
For ex-
ample, Inteligencia is Lucifer's wife and Envidia and ConJetura are his daughters.
Ciencia, although not a member
of Lucero's family, says that she is Lucero's "tormento mas
severe," and as such is an integral part of his being.
her work, then, Sor Juana has effectively increased the
In
67
dramatic action by allegorizing the several facets of the
Devil.
Also, she has maintained the various personages in
a compact unit, the family, with the exception of Ciencia.
Ciencia, the "tormento mas severe" of the father is shared
by, and is influential on, the remaining members of the
evil family.
In this sense the balance and symmetry of
the four is not distorted,
Lucero, as an angel, is superior to man and as such
can observe the actions of manlcind as if watching a drama.
In El cetro de Jose Lucero can also go back and forth in
time as well as in space. He and his family, for the most
part, simply observe the action and react to different
events in an abstract or intellectual way.
However, in the
scene with Joseph and the wife of Putifar, the characters
of this collective dramatic unit (the Devil and his family)
pretend to be her servants and actually enter the play
action in order to encourage her to discredit Joseph. Besides being a scene which prompts the Devil and his followers to participate in the action of the play, it is, additionally, a scene that is unusually valuable in a comparative sense because it illustrates a difference between the
Sorjuanian and Calderonian autos. The major difference in
the two versions of the same scene, which contains elements
of potential drama, is that Calderon's scene is narrative,
while the same scene, in terms of action, is dramatized
68
in Sor Juana's El cetro de Jose.
In summary, it is evident that even if Sor Juana did
read Calderon's Suenos hay que verdad son, she was more
influenced by Genesis, the original story of Joseph and
his brothers.
Therefore, Suenos hay £ue verdad son, along
with El, cetro de Jose, should be viewed as another dramatization of the story of Joseph, and not as the model for
Sor Juana's Joseph auto.
This contention is supported not
only by the choice of the naines for some of the characters
but by the treatment of several important scenes. The purpose of both autos, nonetheless, is to dram.atize Joseph as
the prefiguration of Christ.
In Sor Juana's auto this
theme is ^3;iven emphasis from the beginning and she dramatizes scenes relevant to the theme.
This is in contrast
to Calderon's play in which the same emphasis is lacking
and there exists the failure to dramatize potential and relevant scenes applicable to the theme.
Our consideration
of possible sources based on characters and scenes should
not, however, detract from Sor Juana as a dramatist. One
of the more notable dramatic aspects of the Sorjuanian
auto, for example, is her spHiting the Devil into various
allegorical characters to represent his intelligence, knowledge, conjecture, and envy and thus allow for greater dramatic involvement.
A rigid as well as balanced structure
is maintained because the five characters form a single
69
unit as a family.
It would appear, then, that although
the two playwrights dramatize the same subject, their respective treatments are significantly different, so much
in fact that we may preclude the possibility that Sor Juana
copied Calderon's Suenos hay que verdad son.
C.
El martir del Sacramento, San Hermenegildo
El martir del Sacramento, San Hermenegildo, considered
by Alfonso Mendez Plancarte to be second only to £1 Divino
Narciso in artistic value (O.C, p. Ixxi), was first published
in 1692 in volume II of Sor Juana's works along with her
two other sacramental autos. El Divino Narciso and El cetro
de Jose.
El martir del Sacramento, San Hermenegildo is com-
posed of 1,962 lines making it the second longest auto of
the three that Sor Juana wrote. The title capsulizes the
action of the auto because Hermenegildo refused to receive
communion from an Arian bishop, and this action resulted in
his death and subsequentraartjj^dom.Hermenegildo's death
and its cause, then, places emphasis on the sacrament of
the Eucharist.^^
As El cetro de Jose, El martir del Sacra-
mento, San Hermenegildo was classified as a historical-allegorical auto by Sor ^uana.
However, Mendez Plancarte
considers it to be an "Auto Hagiografico" or Auto de_ santos
(0,C, p, Ixxi).
Instead of being set in the Biblical
period, as is El cetro de Jose, the action for this auto is
laid in the Spanish Visigothic period which extended from
70
the early sixth century until the Modish invasion in 711.
Besides being a sacramental auto, this work has most
of the traits of what Frank J. Warnke, in Versions of Baroque, has termed the "Baroque martyr-draiaa" of the seven50
teenth-century.-^
According to Warnke this type of play
has "a male or female protagonist, either a Cliristian at
the beginning of the play or converted during its course,
/who/ is threatened with persecution and death by some
secular authority opposed to Christianity; resisting both
the threats of the tyrant and the emotional appeals of a
beloved, the protagonist embraces death, often with Joy.
Minor motifs fr^uently encountered include the hero's conversion of his beloved, the conversion of a large number of
other characters as a direct result of his martyrdom, and
the appearence of the martyr after death to encourage a
Christian army in combat with the pagans" (Warnke, p. 198).
In a footnote to his own text, Warnke mentions the classification of the major types of martyr-hero perceived by
Szarota in Kunstler, Grubler und Rebellen as the artist,
the meditative intellectual, and the rebel or resistancehero (Warnke, pp. 199-200).
Sor Juana's San Hermenegildo
fits the third classification because he is a hero to the
Christians and resists his father and the Arian religion
to the point of becoming a martyr.
Based on the above,
then, one can additionally classify El martir del Sacra-
71
mento as a Baroque martyr-drama or more specifically, as a
martyr-auto.
Considering each of the requirements given
by Warnke, 3or Juana's auto fits the first one because the
protagonist (Hermenegildo) is, of course, male and his wife,
Ingunda, is a strong influence on the saint, and in that
capacity she can be classified as a female protagonist of
secondary stature.
The second requirement is also satis-
fied because Hermenegildo has been converted to Christianity by San Leandro with the aid of Ingunda before the beginning of the action of the play.
The third requirement,
that the protagonist be threatened with persecution or death
by some secular authority who is opposed to Christianity,
is also found in Sor Juana's auto. Hermenegildo's father,
the king Leovigildo, first tries, th|ough unsuccessfully,
to dissuade Hermenegildo by reason and then, as a last resort, wages war against his son.
Hermenegildo resists the
reasoning and threats of his father, the ambassador, and
the Arian priest, and after being captured in battle he is
executed and thereafter becomes a martyr of the sacrament.
In this v/ay He.rmenegildo fulfills all the requirements of
a Baroque martyr-drama as set forth by Warnke, except with
regard to the emotional appeals of a beloved.
But it
should be noted, too, that the dramatic conflict of the
auto is heightened when Sor Juana emphasizes Hermenegildo's
mental struggle in choosing between his father and Christ.
72
The fact that the tyrant is Hermenegildo's father adds
greatly to the conflict because Hermenegildo is torn between
honoring his father,
Honrar Hermenegildo,
a los padres, Dios manda,
dando a la Natural
mayor autoridad Su Ley Sagrada (CO., p.
122),
or sacrificing all for Christ,
Por aquesto, en Su Evangelic,
nos esta diciendo El mismo
que el que no a su madre y padre
y aun su vida ha aborrecido
cuando le importa a Su Amor,
no es Su discipulo digno (CO., p. 141),
Although Leovigildo is a tyrant, he is also Hermenegildo's
king and father.
Besides the required allegiance to the
two, the alle^giance to one's father is additionally sanctioned by Holy Scripture while Christ also says that a
worthy disciple must sacrifice all for Him.
So, the recent-
ly converted and fervent Hermenegildo naturally wants to
live up to his new commitment but the first two allegiances
also demand consideration.
But, as noted, Hermenegildo
chooses Christ and becomes the martyr at the end of the
play.
A consideration of the dramatic personae of El martir
del Sacramento, San Hermenegildo reveals that the play has
eight historical and nine allegorical characters.
torical personages are:
The his-
San Hermenegildo, Leovigildo (his
75
father and king /A.D. 568-586/); Recaredo (Hermenegildo's
brother and king /A.D, 586-601/); Geserico (an ambassador),
Ingunda (the wife of Hermenegildo); San Leandro (Hermenegildo 's uncle and Bishop of Sevilla who, along with Ingunda,
had converted Hermenegildo to Catholicism in A.D. 579); and
then, collectively, the Soldados and Muestra de los Reyes
Godos (a series of fourteen Visigothic kings).
gorical characters are:
The alle-
Apostasia, Fe, Misericordia, Jus-
ticia, Verdad, Paz, Fama, Espana, and Fantasia.
Musicos
and acompanamiento also figure in the play.
The main characters, of whom six are historical and
one allegorical, are grouped in almost equal numbers as to
good and evil, thus allowing for a more equitable dramatic
confrontation.
The suggestion, once again, is that both
Sor Juana and Calderon were aware of the importance of even
odds in order to improve the dramatic conflict. Additionally, they grouped the personages fairly evenly as to good and
evil characters in a symetric fashion.
'
even commented on by Calderon m
This practice is
SI
one of his autos.-^
Each
of the main protagonists in El martir del Sacramento, San
Hermenegildo, with one exception, conforms to the structural
division suggested by Calderon.
Hermenegildo is a civil
leader of the Catholic forces and as such is in direct opposition to his father, the king and political mainstay of
the Arian religion.
San Leandro is the spiritual leader of
74
Catholicism and Apostasia, the Arian priest, is his religious counterpart.
Hermenegildo's wife, Ingunda, may be
classified as an ambassador of God because she aided in
Hermenegildo's conversion to Catholicism.
In this role
then, Ingunda is the religious counterpart of Geserico,
Leovigildo's ambassador, who attempted to dissuade Hermenegildo from embracing Catholicism.
Each of these six char-
acters, then, has a dramatic counterpart and each of the
pairs is locked in at least one conflict.
The single major
character who does not have a dramatic opposite is the pivotal character, Recaredo.
Recaredo fluctuates between the
forces of good and evil because, although he fights for his
father against the martyr, he also is sympathetic toward
Hermenegildo.
Recaredo's position is manifested when the
two brothers meet on the battlefied and he says:
IHermenegildo,
herraano, pierde el recelo!
Llega a mis brazes, que aunque
contra ti esgrimo el acero
por obedecer al Rey,
es con acto tan violento,
que si contra ti lo saco
lo vuelvo contra mi pecho.
ILlega a mis brazes! (O.C, p, 165).
Later, when Recaredo is king, he officially converts the
kingdom to Catholicism and is thus allied to both the side
of evil (because of duty to king and father) and that of
good when he denounces Arianism.
The conversion of a
large number of characters as a direct result of the pro-
75
tagonist's martyrdom, a minor motif found in martyr dramas,
is realized by the action of Recaredo.
Faith is allegorically indispensable in the sacrament
of the Eucharist, because one must have total faith that
the bread is the body of Christ.
Sor Juana expresses the
need for such faith by the use of the character Fe and her
four allegorical companions, the virtues Verdad, Misericordia, Justicia, and Paz. Fe even explains to the four
virtues that she is the most important because while she
may exist alone, they exist only by faith.
As the auto progresses Sor Juana draws a comparison
between the Eucharist and Maria in order to delve deeper
into the mystery of transubstantiation.
According to the
Mexican nun, without great faith it may be difficult to believe that the Virgin could be pregnant and still be a virgin.
Nevertheless, the physical proof is available for
those with sufficient faith.
A second mystery, and one which requires even greater
faith for acceptance, is to believe that while the bread is
transformed into the body of Christ the wafer never changes
in appearance.
Sor Juana outlines her own explanation
thusly:
si el Vientre mira a Maria,
aunque no sabe la causa
ni el Misterio, ve un prenado,
y es verdad que esta prenada,
Conque en todos los Misterios
76
la vista es torpe y escasa,
pero alcanza alguna parte,
y por obra de la Fe ayudada;
pero en Aqueste, no solo
no ve del Misterio nada
pero lo contrario ve,
pues ve pan y esta obligada
a creer que alii no hay pan
sino Cristo, a cuya causa
este se llama Misterio
de Fe por antonoraasia
(O.C, p. 119),
The virtues, used to underline the importance of faith
in the Holy Eucharist, serve a more important dramatic function in scene iii where they form choirs. Music, which is
often an important consideration in Calderonian and Sorjuanian autos, is certainly so in El^ martir del Sacramento, San
Hermenegildo.
Arm Liverraore, in A Short History of Spanish
Music, points out that Calderon was prone to employ choirs
in antiphonal style, that is, one group singing, for example,
52
"lAmor! lAmor!" while the other cries "IGuerra! IGuerral"^
The virtues in Sor Juana's auto, it can be seen, are also
employed in an antiphonal style which is reminiscent of Calderon's use of it.
The virtues Misericordia and Paz posi-
tioned on one side of the sleeping Hermenegildo sing IPausa,
pausa!/IDeJa el sosiego!
ICesen las armas! and in opposi-
tion on the other side, Verdad and Justicia sing IMarcha,
marcha!/IDeJa el sosiegol
IToma las armas!
By using the
two choirs Sor Juana reasserts the great conflict troubling
Hermenegildo, that is, to honor his father ("Cesen las
armas") or be faithful to his own religious beliefs even if
77
it means opposing his father ("Toma las armas").
The re-
spective refrains of the two groups of virtues are repeated
four times and then with two variations, represented A"^,
2
5
4
A , A-^, A and A-I, A-II. This is true also of the second
1 2
5
4
refrain, B , B , B-", B and the variants B-I and B-II. The
lines of the opposing choirs shorten to "IMarcha, marcha!,"
"IPausa, pausa!" (A-I, B-I) and with the single word opposition (A-II, B-II) rises to a crescendo in the following
manner:
Misericordia.
Verdad.
Paz.
Justicia.
Misericordia.
IPausa!
IMarchal
IDeJa el estruendo!
IDeJa el sosiego!
ICesen las armas!
Verdad.
IToma las armas!
Mendez Plancarte considers Sor Juana's use of the four virtues, as graphically represented in this auto, to serve the
same purpose as that of the chorus in the Greek tragedy.
He writes, "Y la parte alegorica se reduce, exquisitamente,
a la Fe y las Virtudes que, con secrete influjo, asisten
al Martir, y presencian con'avido temblor el drama de su
alma, y comentfiin su lucha y su victoria dese la perspective
de lo Celeste, en contrapunto lirico que renueva
lo Divino"
aqui "a
la mas bella funcion que tuvo el "Core" en la
Tragedia Griega . . . "
(O.C, p. Ixviii).
ficult to agree with Mendez Plancarte.
It is not dif-
However, Gerard
Flynn feels that when the four virtUes form a single dra-
78
matic unit, one reminiscent of a Greek chorus, the result
is a disruption, a failure to advance the play action.
Flynn defends his conclusion with the insistence that the
chorus-like dramatic unit (my words) merely repeats the interior arguments of Hermenegildo.
In this study, on the
other hand, the repetition is considered important in emphasizing the great conflict and struggle of Hermenegildo
which is basic to the raison d'etre of the play, that is,
to dramatize the story
of the martyr of the sacrament of
the Eucharist, Hermenegildo.
Also, the decision reached
by the future martyr, as based on his interior conflicts,
resulted in the ultimate decision to accept Catholicism in
Spain.
For this reason Sor Juana's use of the virtues was
valid.
It is also of note in this regard that the dramatic
involvement and intensity is heightened because Hermenegildo' s interior conflict is personified in the form of the
four virtues.
Rather than one character, there are four
personages of opposing views who, divided equally, substantially reinforce the drarriatic conflict and i.nvolvement.
The legend of Hermenegildo was a popular theme of
seventeenth-century dramatists.
Among those v;ho dramatized
the legend prior to Sor Juana's El martir del Sacramento,
San Hermenegildo are Lope de Vega, Juan de la Hoz y Mota,
and Calderon.
Nevertheless, it is doubtful that any of
the preceding versions influenced
Sor Juana's version of
79
the legend in her auto.
Lope de Vega's dramatization of
the legend. La mayor corona, was not published until the
twentienth century and Hoz y Mota's El primer blazon de
Espana, San Hermenegildo, has never been published. Finally, even though Calderon's El primer blason catolico de
Espana, was performed in 1661, it has never been published.
So, it is doubtful that Sor Juana saw any of the three preceding plays performed, however, it is remotely possible
that she read Calderon's E]. primer blason catolico de Espana. in manuscript.
This would account, at least in Sor
Juana's Hermenegildo auto, for what seems to be the presence
of Calderon's dramatic techniques.
Mendez Plancarte, how-
ever, states that Sor Juana's source for the auto was simply
Juan de Mariana's Historia de Espana published in 16P1 (P.C
, p. Ixxviii).
Many of Calderon's dramatic practices are repeated by
Sor Juana in her martyr-auto as well as in her other dramatic v;orks. For example, she uses the series of three,
anaphora, and repetition, as well as lines v;hich evoke
scenes from some of Calderon's dramas.
The following
speech by Leovigildo, for example, contains some of the
items Just mentioned and are reminiscent of Calderonian
dramatic practices:
Sombra, ilusion,^fantasma, Idi quien eres!
iQue buscas o que quieres?
8P
Y si quieres o buscas, ipor que, cuando
ya te quiero escuchar, te vas volando?
Si te sigo me dejas;
Si te huyo, me sigues;
Si te busco, te alejas;
Si te quiero dejar, tu me persigues.
iQue vuelo es ese tuyo, que me espanta,
que en velocidad tanta
te vas sin apartarte,
y te quedes conmigo sin quedarte?
'.j,
^
(P.C, p. 143).
In this segment Sor Juana, as Calderon, resorts to the
series of three:
sombra, ilusion, fantasma as well as the
commonly found chiasmus:
buscas, quieres—-quieres, buscas;
and anaphora by the four-fold repetition of "si." At the
end of scene x Leovigildo's dialogue evokes Segismundo and
La vida es sueno.
For instance, in Calderon's play the
astrologers have predicted that Segismundo will be an evil
tyrant and in Sor Juana's auto Fantasia evokes a vision
which also portrays Hermenegildo as a tyrant.
Fantasia
has allov;ed Leovigildo to see, in addition to Espana and
Fama, a series of fourteen Visigothic kings. Leovigildo
says,
lEspera! iDonde vas? . . . IValgame el Cielo!
iQue es esto? iSueno^o velo?
I Oh, que viva aprension me ha arrebatado
y tras si toda el alma me ha llevado!
IQue de siglos he vistol IQue de edades
por^rai han pasado en este rate breve 1
IQue de coronas vi! IQue antiguedades
que ya redujo el tiempo a polvo level
Jurara que las via y las 01a:
tal la viveza es de mi Fantasia.
Y es que, como me aflijo
tanto de que mi Hijo
tirano, despreciando la Arriana
Ley, se hay a convertido a la Cristiana . . ,
(o,c, p. 152).
81
Besides the dramatic techniques used by Sor Juana
which are reminiscent of Calderon, she also is capable of
original dramatic techniques. As indicated numerous times,
Sor Juana often was dependent on Calderon.
This, however,
is not unusual for the seventeenth century playwright because, generally speaking, all Hispanic dramatists belonged
either to the "cielo de Lope" or the "cielo de Calderon."
Calderon's influence which is considered in this study as
a constant in the Sorjuanian theatre, is not overwhelming.
That is to say, that even within the Calderonian framework,
Sor Juana was capable of dramatic techniques atypical for
Calderon, and in some instances she was thoroughly original.
For example, So.r Juana converts King Leovigildo's monologue
into a dialogue by allegorizing his fantasia which in itself allows for greater dramatic involvement.
The king and
his thoughts or fantasy are divided and the result is two
characters which carry on their own conversation.
This
greater dramatic involvement is similar to the earlier discussed scene in which the four virtues serve a purpose similar to the Greek chorus.
Gerard Flynn does not consider El martir del Sacramento, San Hermenegildo to be good drama, nor even a true
auto sacramental.
He writes that the play is " . . . not
so much a sacramental play as an inchoate three-act play
about the life of a saint" (Flynn, p. 78). Besides being
82
too brief to have three acts, the auto in no way permits
that type of division.
It is an auto sacramental, that is,
a one act play which treats the mystery of the Holy Eucharist.
However, it is similar, as we have noted, to the
Baroque martyr-drama and to the religious dramas by Calderon, especially El principe constante.
In considering
the latter play, Everett W. Hesse writes that "Fernando
must suffer nartyrdom in order to exult the Catholic faith"
(Hesse, p. 78). In Sor Juana's auto she exults one aspect
of the Catholic faith, the mystery of the sacrament of the
Eucharist.
Fe says at the end of the auto,
y pues Hermenegildo,
con Catolico celo,
murio por la especial
Fe de aqueste misterio . . . (O.C., p.
182),
The mystery mentioned is of course the transubstianticn of
the bread and wine to the body and blood of Christ, an integral part of the auto sacramental.
In reviev^, then, in El martir del Sacramento, San Hermenegildo Sor Juana treated a popular theme, that of the
legend of Hermenegildo, but apparently she relied on Mariana's Historia de Espana rather than any literary version
available to her.
Furthermore, Sor Juana uses secular his-
tory, as opposed to the Biblical story she used in El cetro
de Jose, to advance visually the dramatization of the mystery of the transubstantiation of the Holy sacrament of the
85
Eucharist in general.
One of the more important aspects of
the mystery of this sacrament is the faith that the bread
is not only symbolic of Christ, but that it is, too, His
body for the celebrant of the Eucharist.
Sor Juana in-
structs her audience in this matter by Fe's insistence that
she, representing the required faith, is "la primera basa,"
and "el primer cimiento," of the Holy Communion.
Also, be-
ginning with the title of the auto, Sor Juana emphasizes
the fact that Hermenegildo had the faith to become a martyr
for the sacrament of communion.
Sor Juana enhanced the di-
dacticism of the auto by the use of music and antiphonal
choirs.
With the latter device is found the emphasis on
form and structure brought about by the rigid organization.
Besides the repetition, the chiamus, the use of the series
of three, and other techniques Calderon often used, the
characters are grouped in equal and opposing pairs, as also
advocated by Calderon.
The grouping is done in order to
make the struggle between the forces of good and evil in
the auto more exciting by heightened conflict although the
reader-spectator knows that good v/ill prevail. But the
major conflict is always within Hermenegildo and centers
on his struggle to honor his father while sacrificing his
all for Christ.
Finally, in addition to classifying El
martir del Sacramento, San Hermenegildo as an historicalauto, and as an auto de santos (as in past criticism), it
84
is further suggested that it be considered a Baroque martyranto based on the martyr-drama as defined by Warnke.
In summation, Sor Juana's autos, even when viewed as
Just one facet of her theatre, are the product of two broad
and general considerations:
the social-theological, i.e.,
the influence of the Council of Trent (as suggested by Segel
and discussed earlier) and the literary and structural (primarily the works of Pvid, Cervantes, and Calderon).
The
first consideration occasioned the staging of the concept
and belief of the humaness of Christ with the emphasis on
the faith required in the Holy sacrament of the Eucharist.
The second aspect, the literary, is important because it
was the vehicle used by Sor Juana to realize the theological
intent.
With regard to the structural consideration, it
should be recalled that in each of the three autos sacramentales by Sor Juana there is the division of the characters into two different and opposing groups v/hich suggests
that man has a choice.
Becattse the temptation for evil does
exist, it is given equal representation in the autos.
HOWT
ever, Christ and His followers always overcome in the staged
conflict, and the Holy Eucharist is maintahned as mankind's
way to salvation, if he chooses to accept it.
It was with
this thought that Sergio Fernandez reminds us that Lope
55
called the autos "/plays/a gloria y honor del pan."'^'^
It is also to be concluded here that, in her autos.
85
as most of her other dramatic works, Sor Juana eclectically
chose from classical mythology, the Bible, and secular history in the portrayal of her characters.
In fact, Fernandez
classifies the three major characters of her autos in the
following manner:
Jose as "el iluminado," Hermenegildo as
"el santo visionario," and Narciso as the one who "representa la totalidad, la armonia, la conjuncion de los poderes
divines."
The various sources given above (mythology, the
Bible, and secular history) are reflected also in the personages of the opposing side:
Lucero, Apostasia, and Eco.
Some sources permit a better understanding of the various
facets of the Eucharist than others which explains Sor
Juana's choice of characters and events from the three areas
mentioned above.
For example, the prefiguration of the Eu-
charist in the story of Jose; the great faith required in
the transubstiation as reflected in Hermenegildo's giving
A
his life based on his faith in the sacrament of the Eucharist; and finally, the object of the Eucharist, Christ, is
personified in the form of Narcissus.
Additionally, Fer-
nandez suggests, "iCabria decir por ello que ambos—Jose
y Jesus el Nazareno—son el mismo espiritu en proceso de
desarrollo historico?
iQue Jose es la fase inicial del
esplendido y final brote divino?"
(Fernandez, p. xiii);
Hermenegildo gives his life for the Eucharist; and Narciso,
"la Suma Belleza, el Sumo Bien," and Eco underline the
86
Christian implications in pagan mythology.
Also, El Di-
vino Narciso allows for the combination of the mythic, historic, sacred, and human elements in the visual presentation
of the mystery of the Eucharist.
87
II.
The Secular Theatre:
the comedia, the
sainete, and the sarao
^'
^03 empenos de una casa
Pf the two comedias by Sor Juana, only L£s empenos de
una casa was written entirely by the "Decima Musa." The
second act of Amor es mas laberinto was composed by her
cousin, Juan de Guevara.
Los empenos de una casa is gener-
ally classified as a comedia de capa ^ espada in the style
of Calderon.
Moreover, the earliest known staging of a
Calderon play in Mexico was that of Los empenos de un acaso
in November 1679, almost four years prior to Sor Juana's
Los empenos de una casa.
According to Everett W. Hesse,
"Don Pedro Calderon de la Barca reigned supreme as the most
popular peninsular dramatist in the Spanish Indies during
the colonial period, if the number of performances of his
plays /558 performances in Mexico alone/ is any indication."^^
Calderon's influence is seen even in the title of Los
empenos de una casa.
A comparison of the two titles, each
of which is composed of nineteen letters, reveals that the
only difference between them is the last phoneme.
This
can be seen graphically with the following:
LOS EMJ'EfJPJ
DE UNA\ CASA
LPS EMPElJPS DE UN ApASP
F r a n c i s c o Monterde f e e l s t h a t t h e t i t u l a r s i m i l a r i t y was in-
88
tentional, and that Sor Juana purposely took advantage of
Calderon's popularity.
"...
venidos:
According to the Mexican critic
seria un anzuelo para pescar espectadores desprelos que antes de la representacion creyeran que
iban a ver una obra de aquel /Calderon/, anunciada erron*
55
ear;ente asi."^^
This is an interesting observation, but
the matter in this study is considered to be simply a coincidence, and for two reasons.
First, Sor Juana's comedia
was performed originally as a homage to the viceroy, and was
not intended for presentation to the general public.
It,
like the ot?ier Sorjuanian comedia, was presented in what
was called in the seventeenth century a festival (festejo).
The "Festejo de Los empenos de una casa" was performed on
Pctober 4, 1683.
Secondly, comedias of this type, so
frequently written during the seventeenth century, were
often not only similar in plot, but also had similar titles.
Although Sor Juana's Los empenos de una casa is not
considered her masterpiece in this study, its numerous editions and presentations have made it the best known of the
theatrical pieces she wrote.
Even though Gerard Flynn as-
serts that the play is "suited to a seventeenth-century
rather than twentienth-century audience," (Flynn, p. 35)
we feel that Los empenos de una casa can still be of interest as attested by its most recent perfor:.^ance in March
1978.^*^
In addition to its historical interest, the
89
Pirandello-like technique, the Brechtian V-effekt, and the
M
Spectatores technique, all of which will be defined and
discussed later, account for the modern appeal of the play.
Ironically, these same techniques were considered to be defects in the past.
Earlier critics, especially Menendez
Pelayo, have Judged the work to suffer from undue complexity (accounted for in part by the Pirandelle-like technique),
its exorbitant intrigues, and Sor Juana's preference for
form over content.
Pne key concern of past criticism of Los empenos d.e
una casa has centered around the characters, particularly
Leonor.
In almost every critical discussion of the play it
is pointed out that there are autobiographical elements in,^i^"
the portrayal of Leonor such as Sor Juana's acclaimed beauty,
her intellicence, and her studious bent.
These autobiograph-
ical references are scattered throughout the work.
In act
one, for instance, Leonor tells Ana her life story in a
long soliloquy from which we learn that the former also is
beautiful,
Decirte que naci hermosa
presume que es excusado,
pues lo atestiguan tus oJos
y lo prueban mis trabajos.
She is intelligent and studious.
Inclineme a los estudios
desde mis priraeros anos
con. tan ardientes desvelos.
9P
con tan ansiosos cuidados
que reduje a tiempo breve
fatigas de mucho espacio.
The third point applies as well,
Era de mi patria toda
el objeto venerado
de aquellas adoraciones
que forma el comun aplauso (P.O., p.45 ).
Finally, in the Respuesta a Sor Filotea de la Cruz, Sor
Juana explains that she has only "cuatro bachillerias superficiales" (P,C, , p, 444). In Los empenos de una casa
the materialistic Castano advises his master to marry the
rich Ana and to forget Leonor ("Cuyo caudal/don cuatro
bachillerias" / O . C , p. 47/).
Among other points, the auto-
biographical element is treated by Jose Juan Arrom in a recent article titled "Cambiantes imagenes de la mujer en el
teatro de la America virreinal. "-^
Arrom says that, "Sor
Juana, en total contraste /to the earlier mentioned practice of the Mexican Jesuit Matias de Bocanegra/, interioriza
sus experiencias e introspectivaroente las desdobla en las
imagenes de las dos protagonistas de Los empenos de una
casa" (p. 9). Therefore, Arrom finds autobiographical elements not only in Leonor but also in Ana.
Arrom, it seems,
sees Ana as Sor Juana the dramatist (he says Ana is Ju-Ana)
and Leonor (Le-honor) is the woman Juana de Asbaje longed
to be.
As regards the autobiographical elements found in
Ana, Arrom writes:
"Y es precisamente Ana la que en la
comedia teje y desteje los lances, llevando en sus manos
91
inquietas los hilos de la trama.
Ella se halla constante-
mente en el centre de la accion, dirigiendo la intriga
urdida por su hermano D. Pedro y planeando los movimientos
de cada una de las piezas que intervienen en aquel complicado ajedrez amoroso" (p. 9). Concerning Leonor, Arrom
points out that she is never censured because of her intelligence and her studious inclination as was Sor Juana in
real life.
Arrom also underlines the fact that Sor Juana
was neither rich nor noble and was illegitimate.
He con-
tinues that "El hombre a quien ella quiso no fue capaz de
salvar el triple prejuicio de una ideologia que resultaba,
en difinitiva, egoista, rancia e injusta.
En tales circun-
stancias, al no poder escoger casamiento, la unica alternativa que le quedaba era el convento.
Pero a Leonor,
haciendola mas afortunada en amores, le concedio optar por
el matrimonio.
Leonor es, por consiguiente, la muJer que
Juana de Asbaje hubiera deseado ser." (pp. 10-11).
Castano, the fziracioso, is typical of his type, exhibiting many traits of the stereotyped "Spanish" gracioso of the
seventeenth-century.-^^
He is cunning and humorous, he paro-
dies his master's thoughts and deeds, he disguises himself
as a lady and is a coward.
In addition to the Spanish ster-
eotype Sor Juana chose moreover to enhance the character
with Mexican Creole traits and to endow him with a sense of
humor with a Mexican flavor.
Past.criticism has seen him
&
^
92
as "el unico que proviene directamente de medio ambiente,"
and that he is "el aporte de la mexicano."^^
The Mexican
pioaro, Garatuza, is an example of this mexicanidad that is
also associated with the gracioso Castano in the comedia.
On one occasion when Castano finds himself in a predicament,
he says,
Quien fuera aqui Garatuza,
de quien en las Indias cuentan
que hacia muchos prodigies!
Que yo, como naci en ellas,
le he sido siempre devoto
como a santo de mi tierra.
I Oh tu, cualquiera que has sido;
oh tu, cualquiera que seas,
bien esgrimas abanico,
o bien arrastres contera,
inspirame alguna traza
que de Calderon parezca,
con que salir de este empenol (III, iv).
The antepenult and penult lines of this passage are often
noted in critical comments on Los empenos de una casa to
illustrate Sor Juana's acknowledgment of her dramatic debt
to Calderon.
Despite this temporary intrusion of reality
into the fiction of the play (suggested by an actor asking
a dramatist to help him) he seeks aid initially from the
Mexican picaro which underlines Castano's mexicanidad not
only in his humor but also his mentality.
In addition to
his mexicanidad, Castano is also somewhat of a memorable
character due to his penchant for crude humor.
This type
of comedy is perceptible, for example, in lines found at
the end of the play.
95
Castano.
Celia.
Castano.
Dime, Celia, algun requiebro
y mira si a mano tienes
un mano.
No la tengo,
que la deje en la cocina,
pero, ibastarate un dedo?
Daca, que es el dedo malo,
pues es el con quien encuentro
(III, xvi).
Even though Sor Juana's characters express the concepts
61
of honor current in the age,
she does not follow closely
her mentor Calderon, and others of the Spanish tradition,
in their uze of the theme.
Instead, the ever logical Sor
Juana considers the problem of honor as a sickness. For
example, she compares it to a bad limb of the body which is
first treated with medicine and only as a last resort is
such severe action as amputation required.
This attitude
by Sor Juana concerning honor is reflected in a speech by
Don Rodrigo.
Tomad, hiJo, mi consejo:
que en las dolencias de honor
no todas veces son buenos,
si bastan solo suaves,
los medicamentos recios,
que antes suelen hacer dano;
pues cuando esta malo un raiembro,
el experto circujano
no luego aplica el hierro
y corta lo dolorido,
sino que aplica primero
los remedies lenitives;
que acudir a los cauteries;
es cuando se reconoce
que ya no hay otro remedio. (Ill, xiii).
It follows then that rather than first seeking blood in
order to cleanse the offense, as would the typical Spanish
94
protagonist of the Spanish Golden Age theatre, the aged Don
prefers to maintain his honor by converting his enemy to
his son by marriage ("Buscar a mi ofensor aprisa elijo/por
convertirle de enemigo en hiJo"/i,iy/).
Sergio Fernandez
considers Sor Juana's treatment of the theme here, as in
other instances, to be the result of her common sense and
her religious training.
He writes that Sor Juana's peculiar
use of the honor code is occasioned by " , . . este sentido
comun y lo directo de Sor Juana (que son rectitud espiritual)
..."
He gives as an example, "Asi tambien don Carlos,
que encuentra a Doiia Leonor en casa a Jena, no mata, ni injuria, ni enloquecido de rabia y vanidad lanza exageraciones
que desvirtian el sentimiento" (Fernandez, pp. 40-41).
Besides the characters, often discussed in earlier
criticism of Los empenos de una £a£a, there are additional
considerations that also deserve mention.
The monologue of
Don Carlos in act I, scene vii, which parodies Segismundo
in Calderon's La vida es sueno, is one example ("ICielos!
ique es esto que escucho?/6Quien soy yo?
iDonde me hallo?"
/I, viiy).
Another such consideration, by Irving A. Leonard, is
Sor Juana's use of the device called encontradas correspondencias, or triangular antitheses found in three of her
sonnets.^^
The antitheses can be seen in one quartet of
Sor Juana's sonnet titled "Resuelve la cuestion de cual
95
sea pesar mas molesto en encontradas correspondencias, amar
0 aborrecer."
Que no me queria Fabio, al verse amado
es dolor sin igual en mi sentido;
mas que me quiera Silvio, aborrecido,
ss mencr mal, mas no menos enfado. (P.O., p^l28).
The author (Sor Juana?), Fabio, and Silvio form the triangle.
The antithesis of the triangle is that Sor Juana
loves Fabio but he does not return the affection, while
Silvio loves her, she also cannot reciprocate.
We offer
the following graphic depiction to demonstrate more clearly the triangular antitheses found in the sonnet.
Fabio
Author
<^
1LS>
(Sor Juana?) — ^ — > Silvio
We have discovered that Sor Juana also employed the encontradas correspondencias device in the comedia, Los empenos
de una casa.
Carlos.
In the play, Juan loves Ana, but she loves
Carlos loves Leonor but she does not love him. A
graph can also facilitate the understanding of the triangular antitheses as used in Los empenos de una casa.
They are
the following:
., Ana
Pedro c
2i:r~
._ _ ^ Leonor
ND"^ -^
(Sor Juana)
96
/Although the same premise is used, the device in the comedia is more complex than that of the sonnets. For example,
in Los empenos de una casa a double triangle is used with
Carlos as the pivotal character because he is loved by Ana
and Leonor.
A second variation is the mutual reciproca-
tion of the love expressed by Carlos and Leonor, but the
antithesis is also present because Ana loves Carlos but he
does not love her.
Lope de Vega, in Arte nuevo de hacer comedias en este
tiempo (1609), suggests the abandonment of the unities of
time and place.
Sor Juana, unlike most of her contempora-
ries, paid little heed to Lope's precepts.
Instead, she
preferred the classical concept of the use of the unities
as set forth by Aristotle,
This is a significant departure
from the standard use of the unities in the Spanish comedias.
The period of time that transpires in Los empenos de una
casa is brief and the action takes place in a restricted
locale.
The action begins Just before dawn (" . . . pues
viene al amanecer" / I , i/), and presumably the play ends
before daylight, as sugr;ested by the need of candles in
order to see in the third act.
The action primarily takes
place in two houses, that of Don Pedro and that of Dona
Leonor, with some scenes set in the street in front of the
two residences.
Pne of the more recent and also novel interpretations
97 '1
of 1^0 3 empenos d£ una casa is that of Joseph A. Feustle,
Jr. , who see3 the primary function of the play to be a
parody of the comedia de capa -^ espada.
According to
Feustle, " . , , casi todo tiende a indicar que en 1685 se
conocia tan a fondo no solamente el contenido sino tambien
la forma, que, sin la posibilidad de ser original dentro
de los limites que impone esta fo.rnia dramatica, lo unico
que faltaba era burlarse de la comedia de capa y espada
como vehiculo de presentacion teatral."
In a sense, this
is reminiscent of the parody of the novelas de caballerias
by Cervantes in El^ Quijote.
Fuestle continues in the same
study with yet another theory which is not as easily accepted.
He posits that Los empenos de una casa is meta-
theatre and that the Ad Spectatores scenes of Castano are
proof that the p;racioso, along with Celia and Ana, has a
theatrical conscience and sees the world as a theatre.
These three characters, according to Feustle, abandon their
appointed roles to produce the modern effect of Verfrem65
dungseffekt, as used by Brecht in his theatre. ^ This particular point will be studied in detail in the following
section, but as an Ad Spectatores technique.
The so-called Pre-Pirandellian or Pirandello-like device in Sor Juana's drama has been noted by Flynn, Anderson66
Imbert, Mendez Plancarte and others.
She used it in her
loas, comedias, and the Sainete segundo.
"Ve feel, however,
•^w^ftfc^
98
that what some deem a modern technique, or a harbinger of
the future, should perhaps be considered rather as a continuation of the Greco-Latin theatre.
In the classical
drama, for instance in The Birds by Aristophanes (c. -^-48c. 58C B . C ) there is found a type of aside called Ad Spectatores, that is, a direct address to the audience. This
is essentially what the aforementioned critics have termed
the Pirandello-like technique in Sor Juana's theatre.
There are several other dramatic elements in Sor Juana's
theatre whose genesis is found in Greco-Latin drama. For
example, the loa, which realized its fullest potential v/ith
Calderon and Sor Juana originated in the prologues of Plautus.
Another dramatic constant of the Sorjuanian theatre
is the echo/echo-device which began in Greek and Roman literature as well.
Since Sor Juana antedates Luigi Pirandello
and Sei per.sonaggi in cere a d' autore by some 25P years, and
considering literary tradition in general, it seems more
appropriate to designate the so-called Pirandello-like technique a post-classical theatre development i.nstead.
How-
ever, it should be noted that neither the twentieth century
nor the classical treatment is exactly like Sor Juana's use
it which underlines her own originality and dramatic genius.
Mendez Plancarte, Anderson-Imbert, Flynn and others who have
studied the technique do not give Sor Juana sufficient credit for her originality.
This is especially true with Flynn,
99
who condemns Sor Juana's use of the technique for not having
the depth of Pirandello in his use of it.
In Los empenos de una casa two instances of the Pirandello-like technique are to be found.
The first occurs
in the last lines of act II when the gracioso Castano says
to his master Don Carlos:
Vamos, y deja lamentos,
que se alarga la Jornada
si aqui mas nos detenemos (II, xii).
This quote seems to indicate that even Sor Juana's characters are aware that they are not only representing reality,
but also that they are instruments of fiction manipulated
by the author.
Castano, who plays his fictional role until
the moment he speaks these lines, is conscious of the world
of reality and the need to finish the act. The second example of the phonemenon in Los empenos de una casa occurs
in scene iv of the third act.
In this scene Castano, now
dressed as a woman, speaks directly to the spectators. He
says:
6Que les parece, Senoras,
este encaje de ballena?
Ni puesta con sacristanes
pudiera estar mas bien puesta.
Es cierto estoy hermosa.
IDios me guarde, que estoy bella!
Cualquier cosa me esta bien,
porque el molde es rara pieza.
Quiero acabar de aliiiarrae,
que aun no estoy dama perfecta.
Los guantes: aquesto si,
porque las manos no vean,
que han de ser las de Jacob
100
con que a Esau me parezca.
El manto lo vale todo,
echomelo en la cabeza
IValgame Dios! cuanto encubre
esta telilla de seda,
que ni hay foso que asi defienda,
ni ladron que tanto encubra,
ni paje que tanto raienta,
ni gitano que asi engane
ni logrero que asi venda,
un trasunto el abanillo
es de mi garbo y belleza,
pero si me da tanto aire,
Ique mucho a mi se parezca?
Dama habra en el auditorio
que diga a su companera:
"Marquita, aqueste bobo
al Tapado representa."
pues atencion, mis Senoras,
que es paso de la comedia;
no piensan que son embustes
fraguados aca en mi idea,
que yo no quiero enganarlas,
ni menor a Vuexcelencia. (O.C, III, iv).
This is not Just a soliloquy and it must be remembered that
Castano is dressed as a female, which is not his primary
role, and that, ostensibly, he is speaking to the ladies
present in the audience.
to do vjlth
Also, this soliloquy has nothing
the develoi^ment of the plot or dramatic effect.
It should also be noted that in each instance the gracioso
gives the lines in which the Ad Spectatores technique is
found,
i/iargaret Sayers Peden believes that Sor Juana was
experimenting with techniques, and that to avoid damaging
the decorum of the play and offending the audience, she
67
therefore chose to use the gracioso.
Greco-Latin mythology does not play as significant a
101
role in Los empenos de una casa as it does in El Divino Narciso, Amor e^ mas laberinto or some of the loas.
Only a
few classical allus|ions are found in Los empenos de una
casa.
One is the reference to Febo ("que si no es el mismo
Febo/yo no se quien pueda ser" / O . C , p. 7177).
Febo, of
course, is Phoebus or the sun, and was used in Sor Juana's
time to indicate an important person such as a king.
In
this case it is "un galan mancebo" who greatly interests
Dona Ana.
Later in the comedia, there is a second classical
reference, this time to Himeneo, the god of matrimony.
Dona Leonor says:
Crecio el amor en los dos
reciproco y deseado
que muestra feliz union
lograda en talamo casto
ccnfirmance de Himeneo
el indisoluble lazo (O.C, p. 722).
Despite the fact that these classical allusions are of
practically no dramatic or thematic significance, it might
also be surmised that Sor Juana's limited recourse to the
myths (i.e., Febo and Himeneo) suggests that she preferred
to avoid pedantic classical allusion or ornamentation, a
vice of the time to which most writers fell victim.
In
Amor es mas laberinto, El Divino Narciso and several loas,
on the other hand, the Greco-Latin mythology is not used
for ornamentation but is an integral part of the dramas.
Another of Sor Juana's dramatic constants which is de-
102
rived from Greco-Latin literature is the echo/echo-device
that she employed in Loai empenos de una casa.
The echo
was a popular dramatic device of the seventeenth century
drama because of the musical possibilities it provided.
In addition to its aesthetic opportunities, it was frequently used in a utilitarian way—as a didactic and explanatory
device.
And frequently, the didactic tone was, in turn
lightened somewhat by musical accompaniment.
This tech-
nique is especially effective in almost all of scene v, as
it is taken up with two sets of echoes. The first echo is
composed of Musica, Voz I, II, III, IV, and V, Coro I end
II.
The second also is composed of eight characters: Coro
I, Don Pedro, Dona Leonor, Dona Ana, Don Carlos, Castano,
Celia, and Musica.
The question, "iCual es la pena mas
grave/que en las penas de amor cabe?" initiates each set
of echoes.
In the first set, an answer is given for the
question but is immediately follov;ed by "No es tal" and "Si
es tal," and a secondary question, "ITues
cual es?" A sec-
ond ansv/er is offered and the above process is repeated until five answers are given.
A reproduction of one unit will
better illustrate the technique.
Musica.
Voz I.
Core I.
Voz I.
Coro II.
iCual es la pena mas grave/que en las penas de
amor cabe?
,
El carecer del favor/sera la pena mayor, puesto
que es el mayor mal.
No es tal.
si es tal.
iPues cual es?
103
Voz II.
Son los desvelos/a que ocasionan los celos,/
que es un dolor sin igual.
Here, the last word of each answer, for example, mal, is
echoed by a word which rhymes such as tal.
all of the echo-words in the set rhyme:
Lm^y
portal, cabal, and igual.
In other words,
cual, mal, tal,
There is a slight varia-
tion in the orga.nization of the second set. The same initial question is asked, but the several answers given are
six lines each and are followed by No and Si but the secondary question "iPues cual es?" is not used.
Also, the
five parts of Set-I (A-S) is increased by two in Set-II (AG).
The same rhyme continues in the second set: fatal,
mortal, mal, cuadal, and dedal,
Sor Juana's use of the
echo-device in Los empenos de una casa demonstrates the importance of form, as seen in the rigid organization of the
devices, GO commonly fou.nd in Baroque drama, and also the
utilitarian and aesthetic use. Amid the music and song,
answers are given to the questions and all of it is maintained in a compact sind organized unit.
This controlled
ostentation is reminiscent of "la contencion (y alards dentro de la contencion)" suggested by Emilio Carilla in La
literatura barroca en Hispanoamerica as one of the essential characteristics of Baroque literature. *•
In writing Los empenos de una casa Sor Juana appears
to have drawn eclectically from several Calderonian plays
'fMtti
104
and from Lope de Vega.
She drew on Calderon's Los empenos
de un acaso, as already discussed, for her title. And in
Calderon's Casa de dos puertas there are other similarities
to be found in the portrayal of Sor Juana's Castano and
Calderon's gracioso, Galabazas, especially in the way they
parody their masters.
Also, the rapid action and intrigue
in Calderon's work is similar to that of Sor Juana's comedia.
The dramatic complexity of Sor Juana's play is also
much like Calderon's La dama duende.
In Behind Spanish
American Footlights Willis Knapp Jones suggests yet another
source of Sor Juana's play. Lope's Discreta enamorada, but
unfortunately he does not substantiate his comparison, finally, and basing our view on Hesse's contention that
throughout Calderon's production his imagery is usually
visual, it should be added that 3or Juana also seemed particularly aware of the visual image in Los empenos de una
casa.
In this same work, for example, is found (" . . , que
se vista la verdad/del color de la mentira" / O . C , i, i 7 ) .
A second illustration of Sor Juana's recourse to the fourelement imagery, as also typified in Calderon's dramaturgy,
is the following lines from Los er-.penos de una casa. Here
Leonor explains that despite her father's wishes, she will
not marry Don Pedro,
iQue dices, Celia? Primero
que yo de Don Pedro sea,
veras de su eterno alcazar
105
fugitivas las estrellas;
primero rompera el mar
la no violada obediencia
que a sus desbocadas olas
impone freno de arena;
primero aquese fogoso
corazon de las Esferas
perturbara el orden con que
el cuerpo del orbe alienta;
primero, trocado el orden
que guarda Naturaleza,
congelara el fuego copos,
brotara el hielo centellas;
primero que yo de Carlos,
aunque ingrato me desprecia,
deje de ser, de mi vida
sere verdugo yo mesma:
primero que yo de amarte
deje . . . (O.C, III,i).
The influence of Calderon's use of the four-element imagery
is suggested in the above selection, even though Sor Juana
included only three of the four elements:
fire ("Aquese
fogoso corazon de las Esferas /the sun/, las estrellas,
centellar, and fuego); water (el. mar, olas); and earth
(alcazar, arena).
As discussed earlier, the absence of the
fourth element does not constitute a structural or dramatic
weakness, but implies cosmic disharmony.
Specifically,
then, the missing element in this ^^.election, air, symbolically suggests the lack of harmony in Dona Leonor's life
at the moment.
In summary, Los empenos de una casa, based on its numerous editions and performances, is Sor Juana's best known
play.
As has been demonstrated, there are sufficient par-
allels between Sor Juana's Los empenos de una casa and var-
106
ious plays by Calderon to consider that Sor Juana purposely cast this, her best comedia, in the former's style.
That Sor Juana herself openly admitted her debt to the
Spaniard is evident in the often quoted, "inspirame una
traza/que de Calderon parezca" found in the fourth scene
of act three of Lo£ empenos de una casa.
Although Los em-
penos de una casa is not considered in this study to be
Sor Juana's obra maestra, it is certainly a play with several noteworthy features.
In addition to Sor Juana's dra-
matization of the concept of honor, other notable features
include the portrayal of the gracioso, the triangular antitheses device, the use of the unities, the Pirandellolike technique, the echo/echo-device, dramatic eclecticism
and Feustle's theory that the play is a parody of the comedia de capa ^ espada.
B.
Amor es mas laberinto
Amor es mas laberinto, written by Sor Juana in collab-
oration with her cousin Juan de Guevara, is usually classified as one of the minor plays of her theatre.
There are
at least tv;o reasons for this traditional critical evaluation of the comedia.
The primary one is that Sor Juana
wrote only the first and third acts, and the second is that
critics conclude that she did not reach her potential as a
dramatist in this play.
One explanation commonly given to
substantiate both points of view is the apparently brief
107
time in which the work was actually composed.
Admittedly
the time element probably accounts for her collaboration
with her cousin in order to finish the comedia on time.
Their haste in writing the play also may be the cause of a
possible dissatisfaction on Sor Juana's part, as suggested
by the closing lines of Amor esrn^aslaberinto.
Y perdon, rendida,
03 pide la pluma que,
contra el genio que la anima,
por serviros escribio,
sin saber lo que escribia (O.C, m ^ xiv).
The lack of time, and its adverse effect on the quality of
the play itself, also limited the elaborateness of the festival.
The "Festejo de Amor es mas laberinto," January 11,
1689, was composed of only two parts, the comedia and its
loa, in contrast to the earlier ten part festival of Los
em.penos de una casa.
The gene.ral critical appreciation of Amor es mas laberinto is not forthright.
Alberto Gonzalez Salceda, in the
introduction of the fourth volume of Sor Juana's Pbras completas writes that the play is simply one more chapter in
her treatise on love (P.C, IV, p.xxii). Karl Vossler considers the comedia to have little value and even concludes
that " . . . no tiene ningun estilo." ^
Gerard Flynn, who
also finds fault with the play, suggests that "Love the
Greater Labyrinth should have been written in the fashion
of Lope de Vega's Peribaiiez, Calderon's The Mayor of Zala-
1P8
mea, or Rojas Zorilla's None Except the King." (Flynn, p.
51).
Flynn's conclusion, then, is that the work suffers
due to its thematic inconsistency—that there is a disparity
between the coiredia de enredo format and the theme of love
as a labyrinth.
It is agreed that Amor es mas laberinto is a minor
play.
However, the purpose here is not to portray it as a
forgotten or misread classic nor to make additional suggestions on how Sor Juana might have improved it.
It is
considered in this study that the play has sufficient intrinsic value Just as it was written.
The title, which is in abbreviated form, can, with a
few additions, succinctly give the basis for the play:
Amor es mas /intricado que el7 laberinto /de Creta/.
In
this form the title clearly recalls the Greco-Latin myth
of Minos, Phaedra, Theseus, the minotaur and the labyrinth
of Crete.
It was not unusual for Sor Juana to employ a
myth, based on her previously mentioned penchant for their
use.
What is unusual in this work is that she changes and
complicates the simple story line of the original.
For ex-
ample, in the classical prototype Theseus marries Ariadne
after she helps him find his way out of the labyrinth.
Some time later, Theseus abandons Ariadne to be v;ith Phaedra.
In Sor Juana's version the two sisters fall in love
with Teseo at first sight and, after Ariadna frees Teseo
1P9
from the labyrinth, he marries Fedra.
Peden, in her article on Amor es mas laberinto, brings
up the question of why Sor Juana altered the original Greek
70
myth as she did.
Although Peden answers her own question,
it is felt that there are additional reasons that she fails
to state.
In our opinion, for instance, one reason that
Sor Juana complicated the simple myth lies in an understanding of literary tastes of the period in which she lived
In the seventeenth century the comedia de capa ^ espada was
very popular and in order to take advantage of public preference she altered the simplicity of the Greek myth to con-r.
form to the cor.plicated nature of the capa ^ espada style.
Pne explanation for Sor Juana's changing the original story
can be found in at least one of the two treatments of the
myth by Calderon which Sor Jua.na probably read.
Calderon
treated the myth of the labyrinth of Crete in the second
act of a comedia, Los tres mayores prodigies and in an auto
sacramental titled El. laberinto del mundo (1677).
Although
the auto bears little resemblance to Sor Juana's comedia,
Calderon's allegorical treatment of the female characters
in the auto does suggest the mold from which Sor Juana
might have fashioned her own Fedra and Ariadna.
For ex-
ample, in Calderon's auto, Ariadna is Mentira and Fedra is
allegorized as Verdad and the ncL-iative implication of the
allegorical mentira may well have influenced Sor Juana to
IIP
change the myth in favor of Fedra.
And, too, since in the
original version Phaedra eventually married Theseus, it
seems that Sor Juana slighted Ariadna because the myth was
primarily a pretext or vehicle for her comedia de capa ^
espada.
Thus, there was no reason to follow it closely and
several reasons for abbreviating the myth.
Peden, as al-
ready noted, answers her own question by suggesting that
Sor Juana portrayed Ariadna as she did due to autobiographical considerations.
To this end Peden finds lines in Amor
es mas laberinto that she believes are evocative of Sor
Juana in the redondillas and that they suggest the Ariadna/
Sor Juana identification.
Another proof Peden offers is in
the last six lines of Sor Juana's only sonnet in the comedia,
found in act three, scene viii, wherein she expresses the
fear of giving without receiving love in return.
Peden con-
cludes her comments on the autobiographical identification
in Ariadna v.-ith, "Ariadna plays a role that is important to
Sor Juana.
And what is that role?
That of a woman who
gives love that is not returned, that of a woman rejected,
a woman resigned to self-abnegation" (p. 46). Peden's
point is that Sor Juana, consciously or subconsciously,
identified herself with Ariadna in much the same way she
did with Doiia Leonor in Los empenos de una casa.
Peden goes' on to comment on what she calls, "a very
modern intrusion of reality in the fiction of the play."
Ill
(p. 41). She is referring to the so-called Pirandellolike device,
Peden concludes that Sor Juana was aware of
breaj(ing what she calls "traditional dramatic fiction" (p.
46) when Atun and Racimo speak about themselves and comment
on their situation as actors in a play.
It is agreed that
Sor Juana was aware of her dramatic procedures and that she
was conscious of her double role as dramatist and entertainer.
However, we question how traditional this type of dra-
matic fiction actually is in literature and especially in
Hispanic letters.
The aside, particularly the Ad Specta-
tores type, has been used intermittently in drama from early
times.
For example, the Ad Spectatores device is found in
The Birds by Aristophanes, and specifically in Spanish literature as in Juan de la Encina's Egloga de Placida ^ Vitoriano (c. 1513) opens with an Ad Spectarores by Gil Cestero
71
that continues through line eighty-eight.^
Cestero identifies himself to the audience and says that he has come to
entertain:
Por daros algun solacio
Y garajo y alegria,
Ahora que e^toy de spacio
Me vengo aca por palacio (11, 17-2P).
Douglas Carey has found the aside, which he categorizes as
Ad Spectarores, among other types, in prose and drama from
72
as early as the Cantar d£ Mio Cid.^
He finds numerous examples in the early Spanish theatre and that of the Golden
112
Age:
Juan del Encina's Eglogas. Torres Naharro's Comedia
Himenea, Gil Vicente's Tragicomedia de Don Duardos, Lope
de Rueda's La caratula, and plays by Lope de Vega, Tirso
de Molina, and Calderon.
Sor Juana's use of a particular
type of aside, known as the Pirandello-like technique, essentially an intrusion of reality into the play's fiction,
is then, only one example in the long tradition of the dramatic direct address in Hispanic literature.
There are not as many lines involved in the Pirandellolike aside in Amor es mas laberinto as in Los empenos de una
casa.* In the latter play, there are two instances of the
technique and they account for forty lines.
Although Sor
Juana also uses the technique twice, and in a similar fashion, in Amor es mas laberinto, the total number of lines is
only seven.
The technique in Amor es mas laberinto, both
times that it is employed, is much like the first use of
the technique in Los empenos de una casa when Castano is
concerned about the length of the act. The second example
of the technique involving Castano is different.in that it
is an Ad Spectatores and is not directly concerned with
fiction-reality or the play itself.
Also, the entire scene
is comical (Castano is dressed as a lady) and the soliloquy
has nothing to do with the drama and its development,
spec-
ifically in Amor es mas laberinto it is apparent, in the
first instance, that Racimo is aware that he is an actor on
113
stage who wants to perform and finally is given the opportunity.
He says:
Yo me voy a desquitar
de lo mucho que he callado,
pues he salido al tablado
a solamente callar (O.C, p. 857),
It should be remembered that the characters of a successful
play, with the aid of the mental participation of the audience, create a new reality.
However, here, the spectators,
prompted by Racimo's unorthodox comments, must surely have
been brought back to the realization that the scene was
merely fiction created by a dramatist and given life by
actors.
One wonders, nonetheless, if Racimo's words were
intended to shock or startle the audience. Because the
first time the technique is used is near the end of scene
iii of the first act and it is doubtful that the theatrecreated reality had been achieved so early into the action
of the play.
However, the second example is found in the
last lines of the third act and surely the spectators would
be deeply involved with the fiction of the play at that
point.
The second gracioso, Atun, says,
Aqui entro yo
^
(IGracias a Santa Lucia,
que tengo lugar de hablar! / O . C , p. 9157)-
As Racimo, Atun is aware that he is an actor.
Based on the
above line and aside, hov.ever, it is evident that Atun is,
at this point, leaving the world of reality to enter the
fiction created in the play.
114
In addition to their role in the Pirandello-like device, the two graciosos of Amor e_sra£slaberinto are important to the development of the play action.
They speak a
great number of lines and they are the only ones to talk
in several scenes.
In their portrayal, the two graciosos
seem to be closely related to Castano, the stock comic character of the earlier comedia.
By creating two characters,
we should note, Sor Juana has multiplied the possibilities
for comic relief.
In addition to their comedic value, their materialistic
and cowardly characteristics are also aptly manipulated in
order to advance the complioations and developments of the
play.
That is, during some of the necessary complications,
the graciosos are in real physical danger.
For example,
Racimo, fearing the possible consequences, convinces Atun
to deliver a message for him which the latter, due to materialistic motives, agrees to deliver.
And as is to be ex-
pected in the capa j espada play, the result is confusion
and complications which ultimately heighten the dramatic
tension.
Sometimes the complication is extended by recourse
to verbal plays on words. For instance, Racimo (Clusterbunch) takes advantage of the linguistic possibilities of
his name for comical ends.
In act one he says, (" . . . que
si tu aprietas la mano,/corre peligro el Racimo" / C O . , p.
8467), and in the third act he says, (" . . . corre esta
115
vez el Racimo/peligro de ser colgado" / O . C , p. 906/).
Practices reminiscent of Calderon's dramatic art are
commonly found in Amor es mas laberinto, and many of the
statements made in the discussion of Los empenos de una
casa are applicable to this play.
But there is at least
one Calderonian dramatic technique that appears in Amor es
mas laberinto and not in Los empenos de una casa.
In order
to add^ suspense or indicate the agitated emotional state
of a character Calderon would often interrupt a speech by
a particularly wrought character.
For example, in La de-
vocion de la misa we find four interruptions in the first
four lines by Secta:
Pues, iComo (no puedo hablar)
es (enmudece la lengua)
posible (la voz se pasma)
que tu (el aliento se hiela) . . , (III, p.
249).
Before the end of this speech by Secta there are eleven interruptions within the twenty-four lines.
In comparison,
a twenty-five line speech in Sor Juana's Amor es mas laberinto has only five interruptions, but one is five lines
long.
As a brief example, and to illustrate the similar-
ities of the interruptions techniques, a few lines of
Mine's speech from Amor es mas laberinto should be recalled.
. . . en tal sitio (Ique tormento!),
a las dos (Ique desacato!)
disfrazada (Ique indecencia!),
solas con dos hombres hallo? (O.C, p. 5^1).
116
It was seen in Los empenos de una casa that Sor Juana
viewed the honor code differently than Calderon and most
other dramatists of the seventeenth century.
In the comedia
de capa j^ espada. Amor es mas laberinto, however, the general conception and employment of the theme in the play is
viewed in a more traditional way.
Sor Juana observed the unities of time and place in
Amor es mas laberinto Just as she did in Los empenos de una
casa.
The three acts of Amor es mas laberinto take place
within a twenty-four hour period.
The first act begins
during the dayli£:ht hours, the second act transpires during
a sarao held that night, and the third act takes place after
the party the same night.
The action of the comedia con-
forms principally to the second unity, that of place, and
develops primarily in King Mino's castle.
But Sor Juana,
in her use of the classical unities, does more than Just
follow the precepts of Aristotle when she employs the unity
of place to reinforce the thematic development.
For example,
the selection of the place, the castle of Mino, is clearly
influenced by the theme of the comedia.
The theme, that
love is a greater labyrinth even than the famous one of
Crete, develops in the castle which in turn is often referred to as a labyrinth.
Laura says, for instance, (" . . .
como este alcazar,/empezado en un palacio,/en un Laberinto
acaba . . . " / O . C , p. 8257)*
117
In Amor es mas laberinto, a similar use of the temporal unity is also evident.
As already noted, most of
the action occurs during the night.
This is good dramatic
technique because the necessary mistaken identities, errors,
complications, and confusion in general of the comedias de
capa ^ espada are more easily achieved in an atmosphere
that is itself obscured.
The point is that Sor Juana is
not only different in her use of the two unities, but also
she dramatically enhances her play by adhering more closely
to Aristotle's precepts than most of her contemporaries.
The two sainetes which Sor Juana wrote, Sainete primero
de palacio and Sainete segundo, were first performed in the
"Festejo de Los empenos de una casa" on October 4, 1685.
The former is inserted between Acts I and II and the latter
is placed between the second and third acts.
C
Sainete primero
The one act Sainete primero de palacio is divided into
seven scenes; the first consists of the monologue by the
Alcalde, and the following five are of dialogues between
the Alcalde and one each of the five metaphysical beings.
The seventh scene consists of a dialogue among all six characters.
The form or structure of Sainete primero is perhaps of
more critical interest than the content.
The latter con-
cerns a contest between the five entes and the Judge, the
118
Alcalde de Terrero, who is to award one of them a prize,
the scorn of the ladies.
The allegorical entes (Amor,
obsequio, Respeto, Fineza and Esperanza) in turn approach
the Alcalde who, after hearing from each sends him away
with "lAndad, andad adentro . . . . " The repetition of
this phrase and also the reappearance of the five characters
at the close of the sainete in the order in which they originally appeared underline the rigid organization of the
structure.
The theme of love, often mentioned by critics as a
constant in Sor Juana's theatre, underlines in Sainete
primero.
Alberto G, Salceda, in fact, considers this work
to be a special chapter or appendix of Sor Juana's "tratado
de amor" because it treats what he calls "Galanteo de Amor."
(CO., p, xxiv).
Unfortunately, he does not elaborate fur-
ther on specifics of the theme. However, in a speech by
Alcalde, in the last lines of scene three, is found the
following lines which would support the love theme, specifically amor cortes.
The Alcalde says:
iEn que? En que vos lo decies;
y el amante verdadero
ha de tener de lo amado
tan soberano concepto,
que ha de pensar que no alcanza
su amor al merecimiento
de la beldad a quien sirve;
y aunque ame con extreme,
ha de pensar siempre que es
su amor, menor que el objeto,
y confesar que no paga
119
con todos los rendiraientos;
quelle fine del amor
esta en no mostrar el serlo (O.C, p. 740).
In this fourteen-line speech are found several requisites
of amor corte^s:
the traditional placing of the loved one
on a pedestal, service d'amour, the blessed suffering and
secrecy, all of V7hich is required in courtly love. Other
than the organization of the work and the theme of love,
nonetheless, the sainete offers little of dramatic substance.
In general, we rrust agree with Gerard Flynn who concludes
that "This first sainete may hold some interest for the
social historian, but it is too contrived and abstract to
be considered good theatre." (Flynn, p. 5^).
The Sainete segundo is the shortest dramatic work by
Sor Juana and the better of her two sainetes. This 177
line play has three major characters:
Muniz, Arias, and
Acevedo in addition to several coinpaneros.
In her study of Sor Juana's two sainetes, U s e Heckle
writes, "si aquel /Sainete primero/ hablaba del desprecio
de las dam.as, este /Sainete segundo/ habla del desprecio
7^
del publico, que silba la obra . , . . "^-^ Heckle's comment
brings to mind the attitude of Ruiz de Alarcon toward the
theatre goers of the time, those whom he addressed in the
prologue to an edition of his plays as bestia fiera. The
Sainete segundo begins with a pun on the word Jornada.
Arias says:
120
Mientras descansan nuestras camaradas
de andar las dos Jornadas
(que, vive Dios^ que creo
que no fueran mas largas de un correo;
pues si aquesta comedia se repite
Juzgo que llegaremos a Cavite,
e iremos a un presidio condenados
cuando han sido los versos los forzados)
aqui, Muiiiz amigo, nos sentemos
y toda la comedia murmuremos
(O.C, p. 769),
In the seventeenth-century the word Jornada meant an act of
a comedia and also a day's Journey.
The pun here is an ex-
ample of autocriticism—Sor Juana is criticizing her ov/n
play for being long and boring.
Her concern about the
length of the play is earlier reflected in the body of the
comedia itself.
In the last lines of the act preceding
Sainete segundo Castano had said:
Vamos, y deJa lamentos,
que se alarga la Jornada
si aqui mas detenemos (CO., II, xii).
Muniz also comments on the lengthy and boring first two
acts:
. . , de aquestas dos Jornadas, que he pensado
que en mula de alquiler he caminado . . . (O.C, p. 769),
and even later he continues his criticism with ("aquesta
comedia/tan larga y tan sin traza" /P.O., p. 770/).
In ad-
dition to her own criticism of the play, Sor Juana takes
the opportunity to deny that she wrote Los empenos d_e una
casa and even claims, through Muniz, that a certain Acevedo
is the author.
Muniz says:
("IVive Cristo, que no puedo/
sufrir los disparates de Acevedo!") to which Arias replies
121
("iPues el es el autor?") Muniz then says:
Asi se ha dicho,
que de su mal capricho
la comedia y sainetes han salido;
aunque es verdad que yo no puedo creelo (P.C,
p. 77P')Hildburg Schiling makes a timely comment regarding Sor
Juana's attributing Los empenos de una casa to another dramatist.
Schilling writes:
"Quiza, atribuyendo su obra a
un comediografo novate e inexperto, Sor Juana quizo disculpar los defectos de su comedia, fijando a la vez por el
giro 'han sido los versos los forzados' que, por tratarse
de una obra de encargo, no se le concedio el tiempo indis74
pensable para formularies a su agrado."'
Sor Juana's dra.matic criticism continues, but it is no
longer directed toward her personal efforts, but toward the
Spanish dramatists' of the time. Pondering the poor quality
of the play being presented, she seems to speculate by way
of Mu.niz:
No era mejor, amigo, en mi conciencia,
si queria hacer festejo a Su Excelencia,
escoger, sin congojas,
una de Calderon, Morete o Rejas,
que en oyendo su nombre
no se topa, a fe mia,
silbo que diga; iaquesta boca es mia? (P.O.,
P- 77P).
Basing his observation on this passage, Salceda has elaborated his own theory on another of Sor Juana's compositions
He believes that Sor Juana wrote, or at least collaborated
122
in, a non-extant comedia titled La Gelestina.
Salceda
writes, "Conociendo el tacto y la cortesania de Sor Juana,
debemos suponer que, cuando menosprecia a uno de los autores
de esa Celestina, es porque ese autor no es otro sino ella
misma.
Es decir, esto nos de el indicio de que hubo una
obra teatral llamada La Celestina, uno de cuyos personajes
era una hechicera, y que fue escrita en parte, por un autor
transatlantico y en parte por la misma Sor Juana" (O.C, p.
xxx).
This theory seems more probable when one remembers
the previously mentioned comments by Ludwig Pfandl on El
Divino Narciso.
'.Ve recall that he feels that if Dr. Lima
had not published the play with his ov/n money it would be
lost today.
Thus, considering the known risk that El Divino
Narciso ran of being lost, it is not far fetched to suggest
that Sor Juana's La Celestina was indeed lost.
Besides the dramatic criticism, the Sainete segundo is
also of real interest because of its linguistic possibilities.
For instance, Muniz asks if there is any possible
way to halt the production of the rest of the play ("Ahora
bien, ique remedio dar podremes/para que esta comedia no
acabamos?" / O . C , p. 7717).
At this point Sor Juana intro-
duces her linguistic play on words when it is decided that
they will behave like mosqueteros and end the play with
their hissing.
Muniz is agreeable to the plan but confes-
ses that he is unable to hiss.
Arias asks why and Muiiiz
125
explains that, ("El punto es ese,/que yo no acierto a pronunciar la ese." / C O . , p. 771/).'^^
sing begins.
Nevertheless, the his-
Later, Acevedo comes forth and protests the
hissing of the play:
IAy, silbado de mil IAy desdichado!
IQue la comedia que hice me han silbado!
^Al primer tapon silbos? Muerto quedo (O.C, p.
Acevedo at first suggests that he hand himself ("lAlla a
ahorcarme me meto!" /P.O., p. '7'72j) .and amid great hissing
he is offered a rope which he refuses, but the fun continues
Among several protestations Acevedo says:
No me silbeis demonios,
que mi cabeza
no recibe los silbos
aunque esta hueca (P.O., p. 775).
Arias replies with:
IVaya de silbos, vaya!
Silbad, amigos;
que en lo hueco resuenan
muy bien los silbos (P.O., p. 775).
After several repetitions of the "IVaya de silbos, vaya!"
refrain, Acevedo cries out:
IBasta ya, por Dios, baste;
no me den soga;
que yo les doy palabra
nn
de no hacer otra! (P.C, p. 775).^^
In Sainete segundo everyone feels that promising to refrain
from writing another dramatic piece is not sufficient for
the act of composing the play now being hissed.
It is de-
cided that the most severe punishment that can be given
124
Acevedo is to make him copy the play.
Arias says:
Pues de pena te sirva,
pues lo has pedido,
el que otra vez traslades
lo que has escrito (P.C, p. 774),
Acevedo objects that the punishment is overly cruel and says
that he prefers to die from the hissing.
Muniz agrees to
his request and the sainete closes with his saying:
Pues lo has pedido, IVaya;
Silbad, amigos;
que en lo hueco resuenen
muy bien los silbos! (P.C, p. 774).
Another notable element of Sainete se^rundo is the litW — . — — . • • • — ....1 — 1 >
erary allusions:
umm> ..*^
,
i.ii I , — u n a
Calderon, Moreto, RoJas, " . . . que'puedo
en el Arcadia ser Silvano /Los siete libros de la Diana
(1559) by Jorge de llontemayor/," and La Celestina.
The au-
thors and titles that Sor Juana mentions show us some of
what she had read in Spanish literature much the same as
Neptuno Alegorico indicates her readings in the Greco-Latin
literature.
In the past, critics of Sor Juana's theatre tended to
indicate possible sources of her plays.
Fljnn^
following
the traditional historical approach to literary criticism,
ultimately dwells on those works that may have influenced
Sor Jua.na in writing Sainete segundo. He suggests, for example, two sources for her second sainete—two mojigangas
by Calderon, Los flatos and La muerte (Flynn, p. 45). In
addition to these specific suggestions, Flynn also points
12^y
out that the play-within-a-play created by the actors becoming mosqueteros is reminiscent of the drama of Pirandello.
But he goes on to qualify this contention somewhat by
adding that, even though other critics have arrived at the
same conclusion, the comparison is misleading since Sor
Juana's sainete lacks the depth of Pirandello's plays in
which an analogous treatment is found.
In conclusion, and despite the above adverse criticism
by Flynn, the Sainete segundo is good drama.
It is replete
with humor, noise, music and singing and one must agree with
Flynn who also writes that "Sor Juana has left her audience
a good deal of theatrical fun in this short sainete" (Flynn,
p. 44).
E.
Sarao de cuatro naciones
The end-piece to the "Festejo de Los empenos de una
casa" was the three hundred and one line Sarao de cuatro
naciones.
Hildburg Schilling classifies the work as "el
broche de oro de la adulacion extremadamente barroca y palaciega del festejo, solo sirve para halagar a los virreyes
. . , " (Schilling, p. 244). Schilling considers the dramatic structure to be almost non-existent, the characters
sketchy and that "se puede considerar como una buena pieza
lirica de esta indole para rematar elegantemente una presentacion teatral" (Schilling, p. 246),
The cast includes four characters who represent: Es-
126
paneles, Negros, Italianos and Mejicanos and four choruses
of music:
Coro 1, Coro 2, Coro 3 and Coro 4.
The person-
ages appear separately on stage in the order Just given and
then reappear together at the end of the work.
The two main themes of the sarao are duty and love.
It is established at the beginning that there is a rivalry
between duty and love and with the typical Baroque use of
military images,''^ Coro 5 says:
dicen: IGuerra, guerra, porque ya el Amor
hoy sale al campo armado de furor,
porque espera salir vencedor! (P.O., p.8P5).
Core 1 then says:
Su epuesta es la Pbligacion,
que el lauro pretende,
porque que es, entiende,
quein tiene razon (P.C, P.QP5).
Sor Juana's suggestion in the sarao is that the subjects of
America owe allegiance (la Pbligacion) to Spain, represented
by the Viceroy, and also the subjects should love him (el
Amor) as their representative of the king.
The content of
the sarao suggests that this should not be difficult because
the Viceroy and his wife are, according to Sor Juana, worthy
of these and other considerations.
Sor Juana verbally creates a fairy tale in an Arcadian
and mythical type atmosphere (suggestive of the Viceroy's
reign).
For example, one finds "el alcazar de cristal,"
"entre arreboles/de nieve y carmin," and "inunda la Esfera/
127
con rayos de Pfir."
The numerous classical allusions and
characters found in the sarao are used to add grandeur and
elevation to the fairy-tale atmosphere,
Pf the twelve
Greco-Latin personages mentioned, Venus appears five times
with the following once each:
Palas, Adonis, Jupiter, Juno,
Vertumno, Pomona, Cupido, Tethis, Jove, i^^arte, Diana and
the Nereidas, the majority of which are suggestive of love.
Jupiter, Jove, and Marte bring to mind the greatness and
power of the Viceroy.
In this fairy tale the Viceroy is
variously described as ("el EJxcelso Cerda, el bello Jose,
el alto Cerda, and el Cerda glorioso") and his wife Maria,
whom Sor Juana also deifies, is ("divina consorte, esposa
sin egual, and herr^.osa deidad de Ivlaria").
Once ar:ain Sor Juana employa the four elements to dramatize symbolically the harmony and peace of the Spanish
rule brought about by the Viceroy and the Vicereine. According to Core 4:
. , . el rayo Jove, y Marte los laureles;
a la Venus, a quien el Mar erige
en temples de cristal tronos de nieve,
vagos altares le dedica el Aire
y aras le da la Tienra consistentes . . . (P.C,
p. SP9).
The fourth element not mentioned specifically by name, fire,
is of course suggested by _el rayo.
Schilling's classification of the sarao, as extremely
baroque at the beginning of this discussion> is substan-
1
28
tiated by the following lines of Coro 2:
iHaya un indice en el labio
de lo que en el pecho esta,
que indique, con lo que explique,
lo que no puede explicar! (P.C, p. 8P7).
Sor Juana has a penchant for escaping the physical for
the intellectual and mental realm as suggested by the imagery of a line of the sarao:
mental!" / P . C , p. 8P77).
(" . , . arda el alma en aroma
This line suggests that although
there is no physical dramatic cop-flict, there is a mental
conflict, and which, if considered, v/ould negate Schilling's
opinion mentioned earlier that the dramatic structure of
the piece is non-existent.
The spectators are caught up in
the conflict of whether love or duty is more important in
their admiration for the Viceroy.
Nevertheless, we must
agree with Schilling that the characterization of the sarao
is sketchy and that Sor Juana, unfortunately, was more poet
than dramatist in the Sarao de cuatro naciones.
Chapter
m
THE LCA
I,
The Loa:
an Introduction
The little-kno7/n genre, variously called introito, '^
argumento, prologo and more commonly loa, is often overlooked even by those interested in the teatro menor.
The
lack of readily accss5-ble textual sources for the loa accounts for the Terra Incognita status of the genre especially among the general public.
In the critical realm,
furthermore, the loa is largely unknown to literati as a
result of its classification as teatro nenor as well as of
unfavorable criticism made in the early years of the seven70
teenth century.
Prinarily, this criticism viewed the loa
to be not only trivial but insisted that too often it had
no relation to the longer -.vork it preceded.
In this same
period, tradition held that the principal work be initiated
by a loa.
Thi3 practice led to the writing of loas lack-
inr; in serious intent such as Lea de den Carlos Bojl donde
se nombran todas las damas de Valencia as well as those
intended to enhance the general success of the actors, for
•3xan:ple, Loa en alabanza de Granada.
In addition to loas
in prai'ie of i.ndi7idual3 and cities there -.vers others directed to the various letters of the alphabet, parts of
the body, and tc other trivial suejects.
The following
titles are illustrative of this tendency in the writing
129
130
of loas:
En alabanza de la letra A, Loa famosa en alabanza
M
ios dedos. En alabanza de la mosca, and En alabanza del
80
puerco.
Therefore, with the exception of these by Agustin
81
de RoJas Villandrando,
the unfavorable criticism of the
loa was all too often valid.
Unfortunately, these early
Judgments have adversely affected contemporary criticism
to the point that there is now a general tendency to dismiss the loa, or at the very best, to consider its demise
to have occurred by the mid-seventeenth century.82
Regrettably, this chronology, or the insistence that
the loa waned after 1650 omits the greatest Hispanic loa
writers:
Spain's Calderon de la Barca and. Mexico's Sor
Juana Ines de la Cruz.
Most of Calderon's leas were writ-
ten after 1650 as were all of those by Ser Juana. JeanLouis Flecniakoska, a recent critic who supports this myopic theory, writes that "la loa propiamente dicha se diversifica, crece, florece y muere en la epoca de Lope de Vega"
(p. 103), Also, Flecniakoska sees the loa after 1650 developing into the loa entremesada of Quinones de Benevente,
and in the case of Calderon de la Barca, into an egloga or
zarzuela (pp, 102-103) or loa zarzuelizada (p. 129). Both
suppositions of Flecniakoska are incorrect, becuase, as
Cotarelo pointed out as early as 1911, it was Calderon,
"quien dio nuevo giro a esta clase de loas /the sacramental
of which Calderon wrote thirty-one/ y las encumbro casi al
131
nivel mismo de los autos . . • ; sobre todo en las que
compuso despues de 165P en que se ordeno sacerdote."
xxvii).
(p.
The same may well be said for Sor Juana and not
Just for the sacramental loas.
These two important lea
writers developed the genre to such an extent that their
mature efforts resulted in loas which can be given play or
drama status.
Alfonso Mendez Plancarte calls them "autos
en miniatura" and N, D, Shergold considers them to be "little prefatory plays."
This seems also to negate Flecnia-
koska' s conclusion that the loa was mere an introductory
piece, that was essential te the entire production, (p. 51)
than as an independent lea.
In Spain the loa, titled Lea
para culaquier auto (c. 157P) suggests the latter type of
loa.
Sor Juana also wrote a number of loas that can be
classified as independent—that is, they were not written
as a preface to a longer work, but rather are complete in
themselves.
The independent classification is especially
applicable to those Sorjuanian loas written on the occasion of an important person's birthday.
A complete and exhaustive study of the Hispanic loa
has yet to be written.
Such a v;ork would be a welcome ad-
dition to scholarship in the theatre and it is surprising
that to date there have been only some five studies devoted
to the loa.
These wo.rks are by Emilio Cotarelo y Mori
132
*
(1911), Joseph A. Meredith (1928), Alfonso Mendez Plancarte
(1955). F. Garcia Pav6n (1964) and Jean-Louis Flecniakosca
R5
(1975).
Information on the loa is found primarily in in-
troductions and prologues of the five works by the above
cited critics.
The one exception, and the study most near-
ly devoted to loa criticism, is by Flecniakoska. However,
even in this case almost half of the book is made up of
the texts of thirteen loas.
Flecniakoska is obviously in-
debted to the 1911 Cotarelo study, as indicated by his
citing the earlier work seventy-five times. Finally, while
the Flecniakoska book is adequate for the Hispanic loa until 165P, it fails to consider the sacramental loa, the Calderonian loa, and the Sorjuanian loa.
Therefore, the title
Flecniakoska gives to the study. La lea, is misleading because it implies a complete study of the genre.
Until the appearance of the Flecniakoska study in 1975,
the Cotarelo work was the most complete and valuable study
available on the loa.
Although it treats the teatro menor
in general, that is, entremeses, Jacaras, bailes and mojigangas, it is still the standard reference on the loa. The
loa is considered in the following manner:
teriores a Agustin de RoJas;" 2.)
coetaneos;" and 3.)
1.)
"Loas an-
"Agustin de RoJas y sus
"Loas posteriores a Agustin de RoJas."
Another early work is the 1928 Meredith study which was
84
originally a doctoral dissertation.
The book is divided
133
into seven sections.
The sixth section, "The Early Loa
and its Prigins" is the only part of the book concerned
with the loa.
In this section Meredith discusses the or-
igin of the loa and refutes the theory that it developed
from the earlier form called introito.
He considers the
loa to be an independent genre. Meredith also suggests
that some loas were intended to be independent of the following work and were not always Just a preface. His proof
for this contention is the Loa para cualquier auto. He
also states that the genre was used exclusively with the
religious drama from I55I until I58P, and after the latter
date the loa also prefaced the profane plays. Meredith,
as early as 1928, made a statement that typifies the situation today when surmised that the loa had been the subject of few studies because many critics considered the
genre to be of little value.
A more recent critical observation on the loa is the
1964 work by F, Garcia Pavon which is an anthology of
Jacaras, loas, entremeses, bailes and mojigangas.
The most
useful section of the book for critical commentary on the
genre is the prologue.
Unfortunately, however, the pro-
logue contains little new information because it seems
that the Garcia work is primarily a compendium of the earlier Cotarelo study.
134
There are, of course, a number of other works that
treat the loa in a limited fashion.
Typical of these is
A History of the Spanish Stage (1967) by N. D. Shergold
wherein each mention of the lea is only a few lines in
length and rarely is there a complete paragraph on the
genre.
Other works which treat the ]_o_a in a similar manner
are The Spanish Stage in the Time of Lope de Vega (19P9)
by Hugo Rennert, Calderon de 1^ Barca (1967) by Everett
77. Hesse, and the Wilson and Moir The Golden Ag^:
Drama
1492-1700 (1971).
There are fewer studies still which treat specifically
the loa of Sor Juana.^85
^ Critics have almost exclusively
limited their studies to her comedia and auto sacram-ental,
leaving the loa virtually untouched.
One of the better
sources for information on her loa is the introduction by
Alfonso Mendez Plancarte of the Pbras completas de Sor Juana
Ines de _la Cruz;
Autos j loas (1955).
The "Estudio Limi-
nar" is divided into seven parts and is followed by notes
and references.
with the loa:
Three sections of the study are concerned
"La vida de las 'leas* en el teatro hispano,"
"Los autos y las loas sacramentales de Sor Juana," and "Las
restantes 'loas sueltas' de Sor Juana."
The Mendez Plan-
carte introduction is valuable for its information of the
peninsular auto and lea sacramental and also for these two
135
genres by Sor Juana.
He additionally provides a good bib-
liography at the conclusion of the study.
More recently, however, critics tend to discuss the
Sorjuanian loa as a minor genre of questionable literary
value.
Pne such critic is Anthony M. Pasquariello, who
briefly considers Sor Juana's loa in "The Evolution of the
Lea in Spanish America."
lea into two groups:
Pasquariello divides Sor Juana's
the secular which he considers to be
all fo.rm and no plot and. the sacred which he feels develops
a unifying action.
Pasquariello criticizes the Sorjuanian
loa en several counts. First, he finds fault for what he
considers ostentatious mythological references (p. 8) and
says that the loas suffer from didactic dullness (p. 9).
He also states that indigenous traits are absent in the
Sorjuanian lea (p. 9) but that "Notwithstanding the unctuous, mechanical expression of Sor Juana's loa there are
instances in which she achieved some dramatic effectiveness" (p. 8 ) . Pasquariello concludes that "The best that
can be said for the leas of Sor Juana is that they were
less strained than most of the eiL^hteenth-century efforts
with their stagse^i^Pi multitude of mythological and allegorical characters, their complex elaboration of metaphors, and a versification which startles the reader with
its twists and turns for effect" (p, 9).
136
n.erard
Flynn, in the Twa^me series book on Sor Juana,
also finds the Sorjuanian loa to be of little literary consequence.
However, in the preface to his study Flynn states
that he has not closely examined zhe loas.^*^ His qualification, then, should be reniembered in order to keep his criticiszi of zhe Sorjuanian loa in proper perspective.
?or
example, his lack of careful considerarion of the genre is
apparent when he says that the loas by Sor Juana were written for some celebrity's birthday.
The statement is net
accurate because six, or one-third of the loas, -.vere not
written to ccmnenorare such an occasion.
In his book,
Flynn mentions several of the Sorjuanian loas and discusses briefly three of them, one of which is the Loa de la
Concei:-ci6n given as Loa a la. Concercior. (p. 56). The "de/
a" discrepancy may appear small, but the difference is that
Sor Juana did not write a play to the Ir.maculate Conception, out rather about it, that is, she was explaining and
teaching, thereov ?ivin?' the loa a ourDOse much like that
of the au-co sacramental.
The second loa he considers is
the first Loa a Carlos II (p. 97) and the third is Loa a
los ann? del ?L ever end! si mo Padre Maestro Fra:/ Diego Velasquez de l_a Cadena (p. 96). llore attention, however, is
given by 71jzm
to the loa for Los empenos de una casa and
the one for El Divino Narciso,
In all, then, ?l?/nn mentions
137
Just five of the eighteen loas and of these he adequately
discusses only two.
Considering this shortcoming, then,
perhaps a more valuable contribution of Flynn in his treatment of the loa is the definition of it that he provides:
The ^ word loa is a cognate of the English v/ord "laud,"
praise. In the theater a loa is a brief dramatic work
that may do one of three things: 1,) it may serve as
a prelude to a play and explain to the audience the
argument of the work it is about to see; 2,) it may
solicit the good will of the audience; 5.) it may sing
the praises of the dignitary to whom the play is dedicated—or, it may do all three, serve as a prelude,
solicit: goodwill, and praise a famous person (p, 69).
^nn says is true, hut his definition is too restric-
'T\
tive as will be seen in the discussion to follow.
In contrast to Flynn, Flecniakoska in his study fails
to provide an explicit definition of the loa, although,
after reading the book the reader probably can form his
O'jjn.
A parallel exists het-.veen the difficulty of defining
the loa and that of^ the auto which Ivlendez Plancarte refers
to as the "definicion imposible,"
The problem of strictly
defining the loa arises from several reasons such as the
genre's long history of generic and thematic variety and,
in addition to the fact that each author defines and uses
the loa according to his ov^n purpose and need.
Due to the
complex nature of the loa, therefore, it is contended here
that a more tenable approach is a composite definition
based on a number of loas of all classes from several cen-
158
turies,
'Vith this criterion, then, the loa can be defined
as a brief one-act work, generally -ritten in verse, and
which can be a monologue or a dialogue.
dramatic act zhe
In this brief
echador d_e loas asks for silence, pardon
for any error in the theme treated in the play, or for a
shortcoming of the author and the actors in its composition
and presentation.
even towns.
The loa praises a person or persons and
It also presents the plot of the follo'ving
"crk, or by suggestion, directs the thoughts of the audience 00 a hey idea in the auto or com.edi5 which follcvs.
The loa can also he a "pre-show" in the sense of im.provin£
the mood of the audience by provoking liv.ghter and general
goodwill,
'.Vith regard to this aspect of the pre-1650' loa,
FlecnialvOska offers a nev; and valid insight into the genre,
and into the character who recites the lines, '.vhen he asserts that the t-.vo are dramatists' "embajador del autor" to
the spectators.
Based on his theory, then, Flecniakoska
surmises that the very important "echador de loa" m.ust have
been a person of special talents " , . . presencia fisica,
dotes mimicas, extremada facilidad verbal, natural simpatia" (pp. 67-68) in order to have successfully accomplished
his objective.
The independent loa is not to be considered
in the light of the last two statements because it is complete in itself and not prefatory.
The .Sorjuanian and Cal-
deronian loas contain not only the characteristics given
139
thus far, but additional dramatic elements that elevate
them to the play or drama status.
V/ith respect te struc-
ture, Shergold, for one, sees the same imagery, the same
action, the same equilibrium of opposites, and the same
grouping of characters in the Calderonian l£a that is found
in the auto (Shergold, p. 465). He also adds that symbolism shares the same role in the respective genres. The
leas of Sor Juana, the Mexican counterpart to Calderon,
have all the characteristics of a Calderonian loa.
In this
light, then, they are short prefatory plays v/hen they precede longer works and brief dramatic pieces when they are
independent.
The origin of the Spanish and Spanish American loa is
found in the Greco-Latin drama.
Pccasionally the works of
Sophocles, Euripides, and Aristophanes have a prologue
which is given by a character or god from the longer play
88
which follows.
The six prologues of Plautus^^
also con-
tain elements found in the later Hispanic loas. ^'lecniakoska additionally suggests the influence of the Italian
theatre on the Spanish lea.
He writes that " . . • los
prologos latinos e italia^nos nos parece que fueron conocidos por les espanoles:
los primeros por el teatro uni-
versitario y los segundos por los frecuentes contactos con
Italia; testigo es el prologo de Alessandro Piccolomini
14P
que debia representarse con L'Amor Costante, en Siena, en
1536, en presencia del Emperador Carles Quinto y su sequito" (Flecniakoska, p. I5).
First evidence of what was to become the Hispanic loa
can be found in the dramatic production of Spain's leading
playwrights of the sixteenth century.
The first loa of the
Spanish theatre is attached to Juan del Encina's Egloga de
Placida y Vitoriano (I513).
Another early Spanish play-
wright to use loas was Bartolome de Torres Naharre, who
included them in Propaladia (I517) in the style of Encina
(it should be noted that the 1515 and 1517 dates are earlier
than the 1536 date Just given by Flecniakoska te sup-
pert his Italian theatre influence theory) and Cotarelo
has no doubt that seme of Lope de Rueda's pasos were actually leas (Cotarelo, p. xii). If this is true, and with
the already mentioned Lea para cualquier auto (c. I57C),
the independent loa was well established before Sor Juana
wrote them in the second half of the seventeenth century.
Finally, Juan de la Cueva wrote short prefatory pieces
which he called argumentes, often placing them before each
act, and net Just before the first as was the common practice.
During the Siglo de oro, it became the custom to precede dramatic works, secular and religious, with a loa.
141
Based on the popularity of the genre, and the increased
demand for it, Agustin de RoJas Villandrando became a professional l_oa writer and published forty loas in Viaje
entretenido (16P4).
Pther evidence of the popularity of
the lea appeared Just before the publication of these by
Agustin de RoJas when Luis Alfonso de Carvallo treated the
genre in Cisne de Apolo (1602).®^
Cotarelo says, but with-
out any examples or explanation, that in this critical work
Alfonso de Caravallo made recommendations for the lea and
also classified the various kinds (Cotarelo, p. xxiii).
The categorizing of the loas was also dene in 1911 by Cotarelo himself who classified and placed them in five distinct categories:
1.)
auto sacramental; 2.)
loa sacramental which precedes the
lea prof ana v^hich precedes a secular
play (I have added this category to Cotarelo's original
five); 5.)
lea al nacimiento de Cristo, a Nuestra Senora
Z ^ los santos; 4.)
loa de fiestas reales;
casas particulares and 6.)
nias.
5.)
lea para
lea de presentacion de cempa-
The critical recognition of loas along with their
publication seems te mark the zenith and the beginning of
the decline of the genre in the first half of the seventeenth century, because by this time the loa had lest much
of its appeal.
The demise of the lea was occasioned by
the generally repetitious nature of the genre and the lack
of relation it often had with the following work.
Although
142
the sacramental loa did not suffer the decline of the other
loa forms, it alone received new life in the form of literary importance and stature after 1650 when Calderon began writing them.
He turned his genius toward the loa and
made them popular once again.
Calderon expressed his at-
titude toward the loa through the allegorical character
Historia in La siembra del Senor (1655).
Historia says,
"iPues como he de introducirse sin Loa el Auto?" (O.C,
III, p. 1240).
Calderon, then, revived the sacramental
loa in Spain, and Sor Juana had an analogous function in
Mexico where she additionally restored the profane loa,
especially the independent ones.
In review, the Spanish and Spanish American lea, is an
offshoot of the prologue of the Greco-Latin theatre. The
Hispanic loa slowly evolved from those early forms which
v/ere brief monologues that asked for silence and pardon to
the loas of Sor Juana and Calderon who developed them to
their greatest potential, that is, the drama status. Therefore, the loa as a dramatic genre, has a long history in
which it reached play status only in the second half of
the seventeenth century.
Also, the _l.oa rightfully deserves
a better classification, certainly among the genres of the
teatro menor, than the present one of Terra Incognita.
It is felt, then, that the loa in general is deserving of
143
more critical attention than it has received te date. Additionally, it is our contention that the mature lo_a, as
written by Sor Juana, will be appreciated if it is made
accessible and if it receives constructive criticism.
Therefore, in this study, and for the first time in a critical consideration, all the extant Sorjuanian loas will
be brought to light in the continuing overview of Sor
Juana's theatre.
II.
Sor Juana's Loa
The loa, as a dramatic genre, is important in the Sor-
juanian theatre for several reasons.
First, as her seven-
teenth-century biographer Father Galleja points out, Sor
Juana wrote Loa al Santisimo Sacramento when she was not
yet eight years old.90 A loa, then, was probably Sor
Juana's firjit literary work.
Second, Sor Juana's Loas, in
terms of numbers of .vorks, requires more consideration than,
they have been given until now.
The lack of critical at-
tention in the past is surprising since the loa constitutes
two-thirds of her total dramatic output, i.e. eighteen of
the twenty-six extant pieces.
This lamentable condition
of the Sorjuanian loa criticism is perhaps more understandable when it is considered that the loa in general has not
been the subject of many studies and certainly no definitive
<-")l
work has appeared to date on the genre."
144
In the few critical considerations that have been dene
on Sor Juana's 1 ^ , as typified by the article by Pasquariello, the tendency is to classify the Sorjuanian loa as either religious or secular.
It is advocated in this study,
however, that a more meaningful way of arranging the loas
is possible.
It is suggested, for instance, that the eight-
een loas be broadly classified as 1.)
auto or comedia and 2.)
more numerous.
loas preceding an
independent leas, the latter being
Because the lea is generally considered to
precede a following longer work, and to a lesser degree to
be independent, it is essential to emphasize that Sor Juana,
as a loa writefr, is exceptional in that the latter type
makes up two-thirds of her total lea output.
Therefore, a
classification of these preceding an auto or comedia, and
those that are independent, seems a more logical and meaningful classification than merely viewing them as religious
and secular.
Although correct, the religious-secular cat-
egorization by itself is net adequate, and is even misleading, because only four of the leas are religious while
fourteen are not.
Also, the reason for opting to use the
second part of the suggested classification lies in the
fact that thirteen of the eighteen loas are independent.
Nevertheless, we will continue to use the traditional
secular-religious categorization in this study, but only
145
as a secondary classification.
Of the five loas preceding
ai^ auto or comedia, the loa for Amor es mas laberinto can
also be classified as independent because it is one of the
leas written for the celebration of a birthday and is titled Loa a los anos del. exce 1 entisimo senor Conde de Galve.
The thirteen remaining loas are independent and are classified as follows:
one religious and twelve secular of
which all but one are Birthday Loas.
Thus, there are
twelve Birthday Loas if the already mentioned lea precedii^S a comedia is counted.
Seven of the Birthday Leas are
written for as many different individuals while five are
for the same person.
The pentad of loas is in celebration
of the birthday of Carlos II, and with the exception of the
first one titled Lea en celebracion de lo£ anos del, re;^
Senor don Carlos n , the others are more briefly named
Loa a los anos del rey and differentiated by the Roman
numerals II, III, IV and V.
The five loas were written
between 1674 and 1684 respectively.
Of the seven remain-
ing Birthday Loas, one each was written for the following
individuals:
the Queen Maria (1681, 82 or 85), the Queen
Mother Mariana (between 1680-82), the Vicereine Marquesa
de la Laguna (1680), their eldest son, Don Jose de la
Cerda (1680), the Count of Galve (1689) and Father Diego
Velasquez de la Cadena (1687 or 88).
The two remaining
146
independent, but non-birthday loas, are the secular loa to
the Countess of Galve (between 1680-83) and the religious
loa de la, Concepcion (between 167P-75), the oldest extant
Sorjuanian loa.
Found in the first group of loas, those preceding an
auto or comedia, are the three sacramental loas for the
autos, El Divino Narciso, E_l martir del Sacramento, San
Hermenegildo, and El. cetro de_ Jose.
These three loas, be-
sides being sacramental, are also similar in that each one
treats the discovery and conquest of the New \Vorld, the
subsequent need to convert the Indians to Catholicism, and
finally, the resulting theological problems of the double
conquest.
Considered individually, the loa for El martir
del Sacramento is involved with the Non plus ultra and
Plus ultra issue; the loa for El cetro de Jose is an expose
of theological and moral problems:
Ser Juana treats the
idolatry of the Indians, their practice of human sacrifices,
their marriage system and the conversion of the Indians to
Catholicism; and in the loa, for El Divino Narciso, Sor
Juana alludes to the moral issue of the Justafiuerraand
also compares Catholicism and paganism as practiced by
the Aztecs.
The third l^a ends with the assurance that
the Indians will be converted to Catholicism thus completeing the last element of the tripartite goal of the Spaniards:
discovery, conquest, and conversion.
Therefore,
147
there is a continuity in the three sacramental loas in th e
secular (historical) realm and also in the religious in
that each is sacramental.
Alfonso Mendez Plancarte calls the loa for El martir
del. Sacramento, San Hermenegildo "un auto minuscule" (P.C,
p. Ixxvii).
The play treats moral, social, and theological
issues as well as offering points of historical and literary interest.
Dramatic conflict is established from the opening
lines of the play because Estudiante 1 and Estudiante 2
are loudly discussing theological issues. Estudiante 3,
who is older and of a serious disposition as well as being
the maestro of the younger and noisy disputants, wisely
counsels them by saying:
Esta no es cuestion de veces
sino lid de los cenceptos;
y siend9 Juez la razon,
que sera^vencedor, pienso,
el que mas sutil^arguya,
no el que gritara mas recie.
En ninguna parte tanto,
come en las Escuelas, creo
que es el que lo mete a voces
el que tiene mas mal pleito (P.C, p. 429).
Afterwards, the two continue to argue, but in a mere restrained manner.
The first student, advocating the views
of Saint Augustine, says that the greatest blessing of
God, after giving the world Christ, was the death of the
latter for the salvation of mankind.
Estudiante 2, sup-
148
porting Saint Thomas Aquinas, agrees that this was a great
blessing but contends that Christ's remaining on earth in
the form of the Holy Eucharist was the greatest act.
Estudiante 3 says that he can show the two disputants his
opinion of the matter either by magic or by visual presentation.
He chooses the latter and at that point the
first part of a play-within-a-play begins. The characters
of the first interior play, which constitutes scene iii,
are Hercules and his soldiers. The group, acting out the
ancient geographical myth, erects a column at the Strait
of Gibraltar and proclaims "Non plus ultra, lAqui acaba el
universe!"
Scene iv consists of a brief discussion about
the preceding scene.
Scene v is a second interior play
which is set in the New World in a period more contemporary
te Sor Juana.
Amid the noise of drums and clarions is
heard the shout, "Ique hay mas mundes, que hay Plus ultra!,
• • . y ya venimes de verlesi" as Columbus and his soldiers
arrive.
Mendez Plancarte reminds us that Sor Juana treats the
same theme in Carta atenagorica, which is divided into two
parts:
"Crisis sobre el sermon del Mandate" and "La mayor
fineza del Divino Amor."
Also, Emilio Abreu Gomez substan-
tiates the point in his edition of Carta Atenagorica and
Respuesta a Sor Filotea."
It is of note that Sor Juana
149
supports the Eucharist as the greater blessing in the loa,
while in her famous tract she supports the death of Christ
as the greatest.
Sor Juana makes her point in the loa by
use of the interior plays on v^hich Mendez Plancarte admirably comments:
Asi, el morir Jesus por los que amaba, ser diria le
ya insuperable; pero en la Ultima Gena excedio a ese
amor . . . y a ello se anade, en nuevo y gustoso toque
escolastico, una cuestiuncula escrituristica, sobre
que el Lavatorio antecedio a la Institucion de la
Eucaristia (CO., p. Ixxvii).
The loa ends with praises for the royalty and a hint of
the following auto, specifically its characters and its
theme.
The lea for El cetro de Jose offers little dramatic
action.
In a sense, it is more a static expose of the
situation of the Indians after Spanish conquest than drama.
In the course of the loa, Ser Juana briefly comments on
the conversion of the Aztecs, their hum.an sacraficies,
their multiple marriages and their pagan altars. The loa
is also sacramental in that Ser Juana explains the mystery
of the sacrament of the Eucharist.
As usual in Sorjuanian
plays, Fe is the character chosen for the explanation since
the Eucharist is a "Misterio de Fe."
The mexicanidad of the loa is expressed through Idolatria, the "plenipotenciaria de todos los indies," who defends the human sacrifices of the Aztecs to the Christian
150
Fe.
The argument of Idolatria is that human beings (pri-
marily the captives of Tlaxcala) are 1.)
meJor," and 2.)
"la substancia
"las personas que comen les sacrificios
van a tener vida larga."
(CO., p. 490). Fe explains that
in her religion a similar situation exists because in Christianity the sacrifical victim was net human but divine and
that by eating His body and drinking His blood the person
v/ould not have simply a long life, he would have eternal
life.
Idolatria finds this prospect attractive but she is
not totally convinced or converted.
For instance, Idola-
tria finds it espcially difficult to believe in the transubs-t?iaction of the bread into the body of Christ. Idolatria's difficulty arises from the fact that his bread was
in the likeness of his god, thus requiring no unusual faith,
while the Christian is required to believe that a simple
wafer is the body of Christ.
Fe explains that this aspect
will require a longer explanation that that possible in
the loa.
Therefore, as in El Divino Narciso, the Indians
will watch the following auto sacramental and be converted
as a result of the Christian theological teachings it contains, especially regarding the Eucharist.
In the remain-
ing lines of the l^oa, Sor Juana through Fe, gives the title
of the following auto and tells what it will treat.
Cal-
deron often used the same technique, that is, he introduced
a problem in the lea, but the followi.ng auto was required
151
to explain and clarify that which was initiated in the loa.
The principal theme of the loa for El Divino Narciso
is Communion, that practiced by the Aztecs and also the
Eucharist of the Christians.
Despite the striking similar-
ities between the rituals of the two religions conce.-^ng
Communion, Communion is what provides the underlying dramatic conflict between the pagans and the Christians. The
conflicts are relevant not only in the theological realm
but the physical as well, as illustrated in the combat between the two groups.
After the initial encounter of the
two ideologies, there is a brief war scene which is symbolic of the physical conquest of the Indians by Spain.
This part of the double conquest brings to mind the problem.
of the "Just War" te which several authors of the time addressed themselves.
For instance, Hernando de Acuiia, the
sixteenth century Spanish soldier-poet (I52O-I58O) vixote
a poem titled "Soneto al rey nuestro senor" in which he
deals with the Justa guerra.
With the phrase of this son-
net, "one monarch, one empire, one sword" Spain felt perfectly Justified in her physical and spiritual conquest of
the New World Indian.
On the ether hand, Padre Las Casas,
the "Apostle of the Indians," and proponent of the Black
Legend, criticizes Spain and seems to find fault in the
perhaps exaggerated cruelties and exploitation of the In-
152
dian by the Spaniards as shown in his Brevisima relacion
de la destruccion de las Indias (1552).
Considering these
opposing viewpoints, then, it seems that Sor Juana eclectically chose from the two.
For example, although Ser Juana
in the loa for El Divino Narciso does not reprimand Celo,
she dees give him a secondary role, thereby limiting the
importance of what he represents.
In her lea the physical
force of the soldiers is used only to give Religion the
opportunity to appeal to the pagans through reason.
In addition to being eclectic in the dramatization of
moral issues, Sor Juana drew also from the Spanish American
cultural and historical milieu of Mexico.
For instance,
she utilized Indian customs, dances, songs (the Tecetm
which is an Aztec song and dance), and the Dios de la
Semilla whose ritual closely corresponds to the Christian
concept of the Eucharist.
In the play the pagans, Occidente
and America, explain that they wash their hands before partaking of the ritual meal whose source is a statue, made
of a mixture of grain and the bleed of children, fashioned
in the likeness of their god.
Notv/ithstanding the human
sacrifice of the Aztecs, Religion is quick to point out
the parallel between the pagan ritual and that of the Christians.
She informs the Indians that the Christians are
first baptised and later eat the wafer, which, through
transubstantiation, becomes the body of Christ, and drink
153
the wine which is His blood.
In the lines that follow,
other parallels and similarities between the two religions
are indicated.
The comparative approach of Religion in the loa^ is
chosen to show that the beliefs are similar but that those
of the Christians are ultimately superior.
This line of
reasoning is also developed in the following auto in which
the pagan myth of Narcissus forms the mental bridge which
greatly facilitates the conversion of the Indians to Catholicism.
After Religion explains her beliefs, the Indians
are still unconvinced and unconverted, yet they are interested enough to watch the allegory which will follow in
the subsequent sacramental auto.
El Divino Narciso is a
success and the pagans ultimately embrace Christianity,
thus completeing
the double conquest,
A hasty consideration might tempt one te think that
the loa, and El Divine Narciso itself, are examples of the
teatro misionero in that instruction of religious matters
is provided for the Indian.
However, this is not the case
because Sor Juana's plays were intended for the court, not
the general public and certainly not for the uncultured
Indian,
The loa for El Divino Narciso reflects not only the
Spanish American cultural and historical milieu but also
the literary styles of her contemporaries, especially that
154
of Calderon.
For example, in all the refundiciones of Cal-
deron one can note the later incorporation of changes to
enhance the structural balance and equilibrium as regards
the characters.
This is done in order to prevent one
group from having superiority over the other and thereby
allows for a more equal chance for victory.
Sor Juana's
allegorical characters, five in this work, are divided
into two opposing groups, the pagans and the Christians.
Both pagans represent the New World Indian.
Occidente is
dressed as a gallant Indian male, and America is an Indian
lady.
In tlio Christian group are Celo, dressed as a Gap-
tain General who symbolizes Hernan Cortes and the conquistadors, and Religion, whose dress and presence represent
the mission:.!.ries in the spiritual conquest.
It is notable
that the character Religion is a dama espanola who, v/ith
her reason, grace, and compassion, v^as chosen to counterbalance the aggressive Celo personified as a zealous Captain General.
Despite the near balance in numbers of the
two opposing groups of characters, the Spanish soldiers
tip the scales in favor of the Christians.
This is a
slight structural defect on Sor Juana's part as it ultimately lessens the dramatic intensity of her loa.
As mentioned earlier in this study, the audience of
such dramatic pieces had an a priori idea of the outcome.
155
For example, in every auto or loa sacramental the forces
of good eventually will be the victors in their conflict
with the forces of evil.
However, in the mature Calderon-
ian sacramental pieces he tended to provide an equal balance in the num.ber of characters on each opposing side.
The equal numbers of each group enables the spectators to
forget momentarily the ultimate outcome of the auto, and
as a result, the playv;right is able to improve the dramatic tension.
This is especially true when the audience
is caught up in the play action during the scenes in which
the evil forces have the advantage.
Finally, there are u,niquely Mexican elements in the
loa for E2_ Divino Narciso.
I.n the first scene the Aztec
song and dance, the Tocotin, is mentioned.
Immediately
following is the myth of the Aztec creation.
Nobles Mejicanos,
cuya estirpe antigua,
de las claras luces
del sol se origina . . . (O.C, p. 5).
According to Mendez Plancarte, Sor Juana is referring here
to the Aztec belief that " . . . el sol echo una flecha . . .
e hizo un hoyo, del cual salio un hombre . . . , y despues
la muJer (O.C, p. 505). A second reference te a Mexican
myth, beginning with lines fourteen, is the refrain "Celebrad al gran Dios de las semillas" which is repeated twelve
times in the remainder of the loa.
This aztec god is
156
Huitzilopoxtli, the god of war.
The comparative approach
mentioned earlier is emphasized at the end of the play.
For example, the Aztec god Huitzilopoxtli, concrete in the
form of a statue, is transformed at the conclusion of the
loa to the Christian Eucharistic wafer.
The next group of loas is the secular ones that precede the two Sorjuanian comedias.
The first is the lea
for Los empenos de una casa, which is essentially a debate
ever which is the greatest among the allegorical characters
Fortuna, Diligencia, Merito and Acaso.
two lines of the loa says:
("Para celebrar cual es/de las
dichas la mayor" /P.O., p. 6997).
explains his greatness.
Musica, in the first
Each of the characters
For example, Fortuna cites ex-
amples from, history in order te demonstrate that such men
as Alexander the Great and Caesar lest all power because
of her.
After a series of such arguments from each char-
acter it is decided that Dicha should be called to settle
the dispute by choosing one from among the four.
Dicha
then appears and comments on the attributes of each of the
four disputants.
The climax is reached when she announces
that the greatest happiness is the upcoming arrival of the
viceroy, his wife Maria, and their son Jose.
agreement and says:
Bien dice: celebremos
la gloriosa venida
Merito is in
157
de una dicha tan grande
que en tres se multiplica (O.C, p. 711).
As will be seen later, a comparison can be made between
this loa and Loa en la£ huertas . . . .
The latter one
has two levels of conflict, intellectual and physical,
whereas the loa for Los empenos de una casa has only the
intellectual conflict in the form of arguments.
The major technical aspects of the losi for Los empenos
de una casa are the echo-device, the columpio, in which,
for example, a statement is made and one chorus of music
sings INo es! and another will say isi esl; and thirdly,
the usual repetition.
Chiasmus is used several times near
the end of the play to emphasize dicha and its relation
with the arrival of the viceroy.
For example:
IFue la dicha de su entrada,
La entrada de nuestra Dicha! (O.C, p. 71^).
Music is an integral aspect of this lea since it is required
in both the echo-device and the columpios.
Also, during
the course of the loa Musica often sings a repetition of
what a character has Just spoken in order te reiterate concisely the foregoing statement.
The 624-line loa for Amor es mas laberinto is the
longest that Sor Juana wrote.
It was staged on Tuesday,
January 11, 1689 to celebrate the birthday of the Count of
Galve.
The basic character of the loa for Amor es mas
158
laberinto is time.
However, to increase the dramiatic in-
volvement, Sor Juana divided time into five allegorical
characters:
Edad, as a dama ("senora del ano"), and the
four seasons of the year, Invierno, Estio, Otono and Verano.
The compact organization of the characters is rem-
iniscent of Calderon's practice in numerous plays. The
emphasis on the compactness in the loa for Amor es mas
laberinto is seen in an early speech by Edad ("lAh, de las
cuatro/partes de mi monarquia,/fluxibles Reinos del ano"
/ O . C , p. 811/).
Additionally, there is Gore 1 and Coro
2 that provide the usual functions of music.
Edad summons the four seasons of the year and they
appear to explain their individual importance.
Edad greets
them and in the following lines of his v;elcome speech the
audience is made aware of Sor Juana's logical end scientific
bent as well as her constant recourse to classical mythology,
In her speech, for example, she says that it is impossible
to measure time; she discusses the Ptolemaic-Scholastic
theory of the four regions of the elements; she alludes,
in scientific fashion, to various aspects of Greco-Latin
mythology and also in the last lines of this speech Edad
discusses the myth of Janus. This mythological character
is directly related to the time theme of the loa, and also
to the person for whom the play is written, the Count of
Galve,
159
There is also an autobiographical element in a speech
by Estio that leads us back to the already discussed problem that Sor Juana had in writing the "de encargo" play
that follows this loa. Amor e_s mas laberinto.
Sor Juana,
through Estio, says:
Y mas, cuando acostumbrado
a las grandezas de Europa,
a los celebres saraos,
regies festines, discuros
de aquellos ingenios claros,
viene, Ino parecera
nuestro arrojo temerario
mas desaire ;;_ue no aplauso?
Y mas cuando hemos venido
tan sin prevsncion, que estam.os
sin ofrendas que ofrecerle (O.C, p. 814).
Evidently, Sor Juana feels that only is she in competition
v/ith Spanish writers, but that she carnot even do her best
because of the last-minute request for her to write the
play.
After the autobiographical section, the praises for
the "excelso Jane" begin.
to the Conde de Galve:
Each season offers their fruit
Verano offers an eternity of per-
petual spring; Otono offers him the aesthetic flowers and
the utilitarian fruit; Estio offers him maturity; and Invierno is the time in 7;hich the Count was born.
The following scene (iv) is composed of four echo-devices and repetitions of recapitulation lines of each echodevice.
The devices provide each season the opportunity
to offer something new and each time Edad makes a four line
160
response of which the fourth one is a recapitulation of the
four preceding echos.
The following reproduction of the
first echo-device will illustrate its structure.
Verano:
Otono:
jistio:
Invierno:
Edad:
Y asi, es rinden mis verdores
Y yo os rindo, por tribute,
Os ofrece mi atencion
Solo cs puede dar mi anhelo
El dulce aceptad desvelo
en que, por diversos modes,
03 vienen a ofrecer todos
flores, fruto, sazon, hielo.
floras.
fruto.
sazon.
hielo!
After the completion of the four devices, a series of recapitularions in diverse forms follows.
The loa ends with a final reference to Rome.
Edad
says:
Todos y Musica:
Y de vuestro natalicie,
en Justas aclamaciones,
repitan los dulces ecos
de las populares voces
lo que Roma a sus piadosos
y Justos Smperadores
deseaba, repitiendo
el Pueblo todo conforme:
IQuiten los dieses
de nuestro anos, y
los tuyos doblen!
Salceda reminds us in volume 17 of Sor Juana's Pbras completas that Jason, in Pvid's liletamorphoses, says to Medea:
"Quita de mis anos, y anadelos a los de mi padre." (P.O.,
p. 578).
The foregoing loas have been those that preceded a
following longer work, either an auto or a comedia.
The
remaining thirteen loas to be critically appraised belong
161
to the second major categorization, that is, the independent loas.
The pentad of loas written to celebrate the various
birthdays of Carlos II over a ten year period have several
points in common.
For example, allusions to Greco-Latin
mythology are found in loas IV and 7; the ?irandello-like
technique is employed in loas II and III; the four element
;ery is used in loas I and 7; and the echo/echo-device
'3
^^ ^-'-5 I, 17, and 7,
.Music figures in all five
of the loas as a vehicle for the echo and echo-device and
for repetition.
In Loa en celebracion de los aiios del rey nuestro
senor don Carlos II (15?'^-7S), scene v is the most notable.
3cr Juana incorporates all the characters, except Coro 1
and Coro 2, in this seventy-six line, six-part scene.
Cielo, Fuego, Aire, Agua, Tierra, and Amor each head one
of the six tarts of the scene along with the echoes of
'iiusica.
In addition, each section, that is designated A-
?, is composed of one sentence broken up into twelve parts.
A reproduction of section A by Cielo 7;ill illustrate how
the sentence is used.
The underlined words are the echoes,
which, it should be noted, not only help complete the sentence cut do so in an unusual and aesthetically appealing
manner.
The complete sentence is, "El cielo os da, en sus
162
puras luces bellas, estrellas. porque os asista, sin mudanza alg^ana, la Luna, y os adornen con varies arreboles,
soles, y con lucientes esmeros, luceros:
para cue el
iilundo, ufano de teneros, vuestras leyes admita sin recelo,
pues ve que os contribuye el mismo Cielo Estrellas, Luna,
Soles, y Luceros."
It can be seen that all the echoes
are repeated in a recapitulation line at the end of the
section.
.-ilso, here, as in the other five sections, the
echoes of the recapitulation line are applicable to the
character of the section.
For example, the echoes for
Fuego (B) are ardores, brasas, rayos and centellas; for
Aire (C) they are aves, ecos, alientos and sonido; for
Agua ( D ) they are espumas, rlata, teces and cristales;
for Tierra (E) :
arom.as, tlantas , rosas and clave les; and
for Amor (7): aliraha, cuerda, flechas and veneno.
Thus,
in this one scene Sor Juana involved all but tv/o secondary
personages as she employed the Ptolemaic-Scholastic theory
of the four regions of the elem^ents—earth, air, fire,
-.vater and the echo-device.
Despite the unusual form, and
structure of the scene, however, it has no real dramiatic
substance here or, by implication, in the rest of the loa.
Loa a los anos del rev (II) (1681-82) is more dramatic
than the first loa of the pentad in that there is an immediate conflict between Vida and Majestad.
Vida believes
165
that she is more important because the occasion is marked
for celebrating the arjiiversary of another year in the
life of the king; but Llajestad thinks that she is more
important because this is a celebration of Carlos as king.
Each time the two arg^ue the import of the discussion is
summarized by ^.lusica as in the following, ("IPues en el
ser hom:bre,/si bien se prueba,/mandar es accidents ;/vivir,
esenciar'/C.C. , pp. 299-3PP/).
In. scene iv -Taturaleza enters to side v;ith 7ida, and
Lealtad comes to Join hajestad.
These two characters do
little more than augment and comnlicate the situation.
During the discussions ajnt conflicts of the four, Plebe,
dressed as a villana, enters and in her first speech summarizes the precedin.g arguments.
I-iers is a humorous manner
that provides a light moment in Em otherwise serious play.
Plebe considers it ridiculous that, as she calls them,
cuatro bachillerias 77culd come ?nd debate such things as
whether life or majesty is better v/hen the purpose of the
day is to celebrate.
To this end, Vida admits that " . . .
tal vez los ignorantes/a los discretes avisan." (C.C., p.
3P5)7).
At this moment voices within shout:
Carlos!
I Viva Carlos!
and Piece responds with:
I Carlos 7iva!
("IViva
/ O . C , p. 304/),
(IViva, que esto si es dar aiios!"
/ P . C , p. 3 P V ) . Also, it is established that although
164
Carlos is not physically present, he is, by extension
spiritually present in the form of his loyal vassals, the
IJexicans.
(In the remaining lines "LIusica y Todos" repeat
twelve times the following refrain:
"T/ivid, alto Carlos,
porque todos vivan!")
The Pirandello-like technique is found in the closing
lines of the loa.
Plebe suggests that the audience is tired
of the long and tedious loa and that the com.edia should begin.
Lealtad explains that this is not possible because
the actors that play the d ami as are bus;' at the m.oment.
Plebe responds that since liajestad, Lealtad, and Naturaleza
(who have just acted in the loa) are dressed as ladies and
since all three know the Calderonian com.edia to be staged,
they can play the parts of Cintia, Libia, and Ismenia respectively.
The basic premise of Loa a los anos del rey (III),
written in 1621 or 32, is that although ITovember 6 is one
of the shortest days of the year it is also one of the
greatest.
The alternating choirs announce repeatedly that
"Hoy es el mas propio Dia del Sol" and "Ss el mayor Dia
que el Cielo formo."
The greatness of the day is derived
not only from the fact that it is the birthday of Carlos
II, but because, as Core 1 says, it is a day of two soles.
("Dia que tuvo dos soles/iComo pudo ser pequeno?" /P.O.,
165
p. 518/).
II.
One of the suns te vmich Coro 1 refers is Carlos
Because the sun.'held primacy among the planets, it was
natural to associate any king with it, especially Felipe
IV because he was the fourth Phillip as the sun is the
fourth sphere.
Therefore, it was logical that Sor Juana
considered Felipe's son Carlos II also te be the sol.
Carlos II is additionally lauded as a result of the question:
Who is the most soverign king, the most supreme
lord and the most invictus hero?
Sol responds that it is
Carles Segundo; Cielo says Carlos Primero; and Tiempo says
it is El Sexto Carlos.
Those differing opinions are clari-
fied in the following manner.
Sol:
Cielo:
Tiempo:
Porque es segundo en nombre.
Irimiere en el e3fue.rzo
Y Sexto, porque incluye, como el numero seis, le
mas perfecte (CO., p. 522).
In the last scene, Tiempo summarizes the function of each
of the characters in their tribute to the king's birthday.
Pues a les felices anos
del mayor Monarca asisten
el Cielo, que les aumente,
el Sol, que los ilumine,
el Tiempo, que los conserve,
la Prudencia, que los guie,
la Jirventud, que los logre.
la Dicha, que los sublime (O.C, p. 326).
The Pirandello-like technique is used in the last
lines of l£a III.
Both the person who acted the part of
Sol and the one who played the role of Cielo, new as individuals of reality and not characters of the fiction
166
they created, discuss their respective roles.
The play
contains some ingenious plays on words and ideas but it is
not good drama.
The idea that Carlos is the sun, as found in loa III,
is continued in Loa a los anos del rey (IV) (November 6,
1683).
In the first lines of the play, Coro 1 announces
the purpose of the loa and for whom its praises are intended,
Al luminoso Natal
del Sol, Hispano Llonarca,
que sin cuemar ilumina,
y sin cfender abrasa (O.C, p. 331).
The constant cf Greco-Latin mythology fig^ires more
importantly than usual in Loa IV,
Beginning with the char-
acters is found Eclo, Pan, Siringa and Flora, the gods of
the v/inds, the woods, the fountains and the flowers, respectively.
Sor Juana, for whatever reason, makes a sub-
stitution as regards Siringa.
Mendez Plancarte points out
that Siringa, in Greco-Latin mythology, was not the goddess
of the fountains but rather a naiad.
goddess of the fountains.
Fen or Fontus was the
( O . C , p. 675). Heflejo, the
remaining character, excepting Llusica and the four choruses,
is formed from the rays of the sun reflecting on the fountain.
Figures and words as ninfa, nayades, fauncs, satires,
silvanos, semidioses, silvestre, Venus, and Adonis all help
create the arcadian, fairy tale atmosphere in which the
167
action of the loa takes place.
Music, in its various forms
lends to the aesthetic setting both through its function
as a vehicle for repetition as well as by the echoes which
provide additionally a utilitarian purpose.
The general Baroque insistence on form over content is
readily perceptible in Loa IV.
The echoes, which are the
major thrust of the fourth scene, are an example of the
Baroque character of the play.
The structural organization
of the echo-device is rigid in Loa IV.
For instance, in
the three sets of echoes the characters (Eolo, Siringa,
Flora and Pan) appear each time in the same order.
Also,
Core 1 repeats the echo of Solo, Cere II that of Siringa
and Core III and Coro IV repeat those of Flora and Pan
respectively.
A brief statement is given Just prior to
each of the three recapitulations by Eolo, Siringa, and
Flora.
However, by having only three sets of echoes,
there is a lack of balance since the fourth character,
Pan, does not make such a statement.
The recapitulation
sentence, then, provides the repetition of the preceding
four echoes.
The following reproduction of Set I of the
three echoes will provide a graphic idea of the above and
as well give the reader the opportunity to appreciate the
aesthetic possibilities of the echo-device.
Eolo:
Core 1:
y con sus ecos suaves,
las aves!
168
oiringa:
Coro 2:
Flora:
Coro 3:
Pan:
Coro 4:
Solo:
Coro
Coro
Coro
Coro
1
2
3
4
Y con sus dulces corrientes,
las Fuentes;
y con clausulas de olores,
las flores;
y con sus verdes gargantas,
las Plantas,
le den alabanzas tantas
cuantas a su honor convienen,
I pues por bienhnechor le tienen
Aves, Fuentes, Flores, Plantas!
Aves,
"^1 r; -r- o Q
-!•'•' P >o +- ^ll f-,
Plantas.
(C.C., pp. 5B5-335).
;her example of the emnhasis on for: is found in an
iieogram comoosed o
•p
^
'^ a
"! o -^ t
lin.es of scene iv.
>
Musica:
1
Aves, Fuentes
Plantas
/K
PueSvmerecen
oiringa:
Musica:
es
Flora:
i'lu s i c a :
ues,
i~' p m. •
...us 10 a:
au s 0 s\ 3
Ny
Plantas, Flor
5
3
It s h o u l d b e n o t e d that lines drav/n from the words
Aves,
F u e n t e s , F l o r e s , and P l a n t a s all p o i n t to the m i d d l e
line
( s u r r o u n d e d b y t h r e e lines o n e i t h e r s i d e ) "pues deben. se:
o b e d i e n t e s " w h i c h t h e y are and as a r e s u l t " d a n d o l e aplausos s u a v e s " i n the a c t i o n of the l o a .
F i n a l l y , the r e -
169
petition in the last two scenes of the play can be graphed
thusly:
A, A-1, B, B-1, C, C-1, D, D-1, E, E-1 which is
repeated and A, B, C, D, and E.
It should be noted also
that Sor Juana relies en the visual and aural in this loa.
The aural aspect is evident in each statement of the echodevice (set-1) made by the four gods, for example, "ecos
suaves," "dulces corrientes," "clasulas de olores," and
"verdes gargantas."
The visual element helps to identify
the actor with the god he represents.
For instance, Eolo
wears a crown of feathers; Pan v;ears a crown of leaves and
has a bunch of fruit; Flora, dressed as Spring, wears a
crown of roses and carries a bouquet of flowers; Siringa,
dressed in .vhite, v/ears a crown of glass, and has a bouquet
of talc; and Refleje is dressed in sun rays.
After the beautiful arcadian setting has been created,
and after the four gods direct their praises to Carlos II,
it is decided that the only one worthy Of congratulating
Carles on his birthday would be his reflection, that is,
Don Jose de la Cerda, the eldest sen of the viceroy.
In
order to illustrate graphically that Don Jose is the king's
reflection, the viceroy's son appears in the water of the
fountain as the character Refleje that is formed by the
rays of the sun, which, by extension is Carles II. That
Carlos is the sun is reiterated by Refleje when he appears
and explains that:
170
. . . pues si en una cifra
el nombre pusiesen
de CAi^OS, no hay duda
que quien le leyese,
leyera SOL CLARO,
pues en si contiene
las letras, cen solo
deblar la 0 y la L
(O.C, p. 595).
Refleje, as requested, offers the obsequio corte, that is,
the loa to Carlos and in the closing lines of the play
praise is given, in turn, to the Queen, the Queen Mother,
the Viceroy, the audience and Mexico City.
One theme com-
mon to the pentad of loas to Carlos II is Sor Juana's preoccupation with the absence of the king during the festivities celebrated in his honor.
In order to compensate, she
always managed te lavish praise on his representative, the
viceroy.
The indirect praise for the viceroy in Loa IV is
accomplished by having his son be a character in the play.
Based en tv;e lines of Lea V (" . . . veintitres cabales
anos/cumple de su edad dichosa / D . C , p. 6P27), the work
can be dated.
Carlos II, el Hechizado, was born November
6, 1661, thus the year of the composition of this loa,
written to celebrate his birthday, has to be 1684.
Before the curtain rises, Musica explains that to
celebrate the birthday of Carlos IT there v/ill be a Cencilio dje Luceros composed of the planets of the first seven
heavens based on the geometric universe of Ptolemy:
Luna,
Mercuric, Venus, Sol, Marte, Jupiter and Saturno ("En los
171
doseles siete de los Orbes,/sentados en los tronos de
alaba3tro,/periodo3 son fuego sus conceptos,/clausulas son
de luces sus vocafelos /P.O., p. 5997).
Each of the six
planets are lowered to the stage after being summcned by
Sol, the "Rey de los Planetas" who addresses them variousl-v
as:
ISacro auditorio de Luces,
alto concilio de Rayos,
clara Junta de Esplendores
Consistorio de las Astros (C.C, p. 601).
Each of the planets points out his individual greatness,
which in tu.rn he offers to Carlos II as a gift.
For ex-
ample, Saturno, Jupiter, Sol, Marte, Mercuric, Venus and
Luna offer authority, power, science, valor, eloquence,
beauty and success.
It requires ninety-one lines for the
planets to make their offer to Carlos II. .A.fter this
lengthy section, Sor Juana employed a series of echoes
v.'hich, in addition to the obvious aesthetic value, was
utilitarian in that the preceding offers were succintly
reiterated.
A reproduction of the echoes can serve a sim-
ilar purpose for this discussion of Lea V.
Saturno:
Mu s i c a:
Jupiter:
Musica:
Marte:
Musica:
Sol:
Musica:
Venus:
Por adorno doy yo, a Su Majestad,
Au t o ri d ad.
Y o p o r grandeza d o y , a su alto s e r ,
Poder:
Yo, porque a todos venza superior,
Valor,
Yo, porque resplandezca su cleraencia,
Ciencia,
Y yo, en quien la beldad toda se apura,
172
Musica:
Mercurie:
Musica:
^•^V^^*
Musica:
Hermosura,
Yo, en quien hablar asiste la eminencia,
Elocuencia.
^ yo, que doy a todo cumpliraiento,
Lucimiento.
When compared to the echo-device in Lea IV, the format of
the echoes here is much simpler.
The echoes are given by
Musica and there is no repetition or recapitulation line.
However, a series of repetitions does follow a few lines
later, but this cannot be const3?ued as a part of the echoes.
The object of the l^oa was to imply that Carles was equal to
the seven heavenly bodies and that since each had given him
their greatest trait, he thereby was greater than any one
of them.
The last lines are devoted to praising the queen,
the queen mother, the viceroy and Mexico City.
In conclu-
sion, Loa V, despite several notable aspects, does net contain any dramatic conflict and thereby as a theatrical
piece suffers as a consequence.
The first of the six remaining Birthday leas is the
Loa a los aiios de la reina nuestra Senora, dona Maria
Luisa de Borbon.
The most notable aspect as^^stt
of this
loa te the queen is the allegerization of the rational
soul.
Although the rational soul is alv/ays E Pluribus Una,
its different functions can be considered separately.
For
example, its function to retain is called memory; its function to comprehend is called intellect; and its function
to crave and te desire is called v;ill. For greated dra-
175
matic involvement, Sor Juana allegorized the faculties of
the soul (intellect, will, and memory) as individual characters:
Entendiraiente as a doctor, Voluntad as a queen,
and Memoria as a lady.
The three time periods (past, i)re-
sent, and future) are likewise allegorized.
Tiempo Pasado
is an old man with a book in his hand ("volumen del Tiempo
que ha pasado"), Presente is a young man who carries a
bouquet, and Future carries a mirror.
Each of the time
periods corresponds to the three faculties of the soul:
Memoria-Tiem.po Pasado; Veluntad-Tiempo Presente; and Entendimiento-Tiempo Future.
It is of note that V/ill, Memory,
and Intellect are characters in Calderon's La nave del
mercader (1674), but here is little resemblance betv/een the
Sorjuanian and Calderonian and the former apparently had no
influence en the "Decima liusa." Three choruses (designated
Core 1, Coro 2, and Core 3) and Musica also fig-ure in the
play.
The 27P~line Loa a los anos de la reina madre, doiia
Mariana de Austria, nuestra Senora is the shortest loa that
Sor Juana wrote.
In it the combination of Greco-Latin myth-
ology and the Ptolemaic-Scholastic theory of the four regions of the elements is reflected in the names assigned
the dramatis personae:
Marte (fuego), Venus (aire),
Neptuno (agua) and Ceres (tierra) and also when Fama says
174
"...
en sus cuatro Deidades,/vinculos de les cuatro
Elementos" (O.C, p. 626).
The same premise, that the characters assemible and
laud the honored person, is found in the loa for the queen
as well as that for the queen mother,
flewever, no dramatic
action or tension is produced and the result is a static
oral praise lacking the dramatic essentials.
The dramatis personae of the Loa a les felices anos
del senor virrey marques de la Laguna (Don Tomas Antonio
de la Cerda y Enriques)
Venus, Belona, Concordia, Ninfas,
Amazenas and Coro 1 and Cere 2 whicli, can be grouped as follows:
Venus, Ninfas, and Coro 1 on one side and in oppo-
sition Belona, Amazenas, and Coro 2.
Concordia later brings
harmony to the two groups. The lea is based on the contrast
between love and war, and begins vvith Venus, the goddess of
love, on one side of the stage and Belona, the goddess of
war, en the other.
The masculine counterparts to the two
goddesses are Adonis and Mavorte.
Core 1 procalims that
"Hoy es el feliz Natalicie de Adonis,/que de Amor nace
para matar de amores."
Core 2, in contrast, announces that
"Hoy es el Natal del glorioso Maverte,/que en triunfes nace
para engendrar blasones."
The two choruses then provide a
series of contrasts concerning the viceroy and his role as
Adonis and Mavorte.
175
Core
Coro
Coro
Coro
Coro
Core
Coro
1:
2:
1:
2:
1:
2:
1:
Core 2:
Y asi las dulzuras,
Y asi les herrores
que el sentido halagan,
que les aires rompen,
de liras,
de cajas,
que suenen acordes,
que hieran violentas.
The two conflicting groups each laud the aspects of the
viceroy that support their respective points of view.
For
example, Venus points out "le entendide, le alto, lo amable,
le noble, le benigno, and lo galan" while Belona admires
"le gallardo, lo fuerte, and lo invencible" of Don Jose.
The same type of reasoning is extended even further, but in
other forms.
For instance, Belona says:
"Que fue Marte
mas temido, ninguno habra que lo ignore" and Venus says:
"Que fue Adonis mas amado, no hay nadie que no lo note."
In a series of seven in scene iii, Coro 1 sings "ILa victoria per la gala!" and Coro 2 sings "iVictoria per el valor!"
In scene v the conflict continues in yet another
rhetorical form, the columpios.
Venus and Coro 1 sing
INo sera! in opposition to ISi sera! of Belona. and Coro 2
to each statement made by Belona and Venus who alternate
with their comme.nt3. For example, Belona makes a statement
which is followed by a negation by Venus and Core 1 and
supported by Belona and Coro 2 and vice-versa.
Finally,
Concordia, now with an olive branch in. her hand, comes between the two warring factions and promises victory te
176
each side and continues:
. . . al Heroe que alabais,
pues es Marte y Adonis Juntamente
(que no en^vano su nombre,
que es Tomas, decir quiere
Gemellus, que es lo mismo
que dos que asisten Juntos en un vientre,
per dos vale, aunque es uno (O.C*, p. 640).
In the end, the two forces Join in their praise for the
viceroy who, now incorporates the best of each side.
The cast of characters of Loa al aiie que cumplio e_l
senor don Jose de la Cerda, primogenito del seiior virrey
marques de la Laguna includes Amor, Coro 1, and Coro 2
and the allegorical characters:
Neptune (water), Venus
(air), Telus (earth) and Apolo (fire).
Musica is the first to speak in the loa and makes the
common comparison between Apolo and the royality:
"uno lo
abrasa a centellas /Apolo/" and "otro lo inflama en amores
/Jose/."
Telus then enters the stage on one side and Nep-
tuno on the other.
There is a series of thirty-two alter-
nating pronouncements between the two characters of which
the first fourteen are synonyms of the sun.
For example;
Universal padre, Rey de los Orbes, corazon de las Esferas,
flam ante Broche and claro Espanto de l_a neche.
Because the earth is between two suns (Apolo and Jose)
it is feared that it will perish.
Neptuno conjectures that
in his elemont the fish v;ill swim through gulfs of liquid
177
flames and that they will look for water in the water as it
boils.
Telus then asks the question, "Si arde el Mar, 6que
hara la Tierra?"
He conjectures that the following will be
the result of two suns en his region:
Arida y esteril yace;
y ya su globe disferme,
en vez de flores y plantas,
grutas abre y bocas rompe (O.C, p. 660).
At their height of desperation, and during cries for mercy,
Musica announces:
Ni piedad, ni favor, ni socorro
a vuestros lamentos pueden dar los Dieses,
pues ni enciende ni abrasa ni mata
quien enciende y abrasa en amores (O.C, p. 660).
Venus now appears and explains that Jose, as the sun, illuminates but does not burn.
Follov/ing the explanation of Venus, complicated arguments are sustained en v;hether the sun illuminates or
burns.
The exercise is carried en through a series of
columpios composed of "ISi puede ser!" and "INo puede ser!"
One such argument will suffice to illustrate the com.plexity
of the various arguments contained in the columpios.
Venus:
Telus:
Sol:
Neptuno:
Mas si al alma llega a unirse,
arder y no consumhrse
I si puede ser!
Dar fuego, sin abrasar,
INo puede ser!
Iluminar sin queraar,
I si puede ser!
No consumdnse de amar,
INo puede ser!
178
The columpios malce up half of scene iii and all of scenes
iv and v.
At the beginning of scene vi Amor appears. She
says that she wishes to use the "ecos de la controversia,"
that is, "si puede o no puede ser" to introduce the comedia
to be used in the birthday celebrations for the viceroy's
son that is titled No puede ser.
The last scene ends in a series of columpios:
"No
puede ser" and "si puede ser."
Amor:
Viva el Jose generoso,
pues otro sol mas herraoso
no puede resplandecer.
INo puede serl
Viva la Aura divina /the viceriene/
de su Madre peregrina,
que nos le hizo am.'-^necer.
Isi puede ser!
Viva el Cerda soberano /the viceroy/;
pues divine tan humane,
no puede haber.
INo puede ser!
Musica:
Venus:
Musica:
Sol:
Musica:
By using the columpios» Sor Juana praised the royalty,
later the audience and even Mexico City while also reinforc|ing the title of the following play. No puede s_er by
Agustin Morete.
It has been noted often that Sor Juana not only was
proficient in music but that she wrote a treatise on it
which today is lost.
In a romance written to the Condesa
de Paredes is found:
y empece a hacer un Tratado
para ver si reducia
a mayor facilidad
las reglas que andan escritas.
179
En el, si mal no me acuerdo,
me parece que decia
que es una linea espiral,
no un circulo, la Armonia;
y per razon de su forma
revuelta s9bre si misma,
lo intitule Caracol,
porque esa revuelta hacia (O.C, p. 61).
Ser Juana's musical knowledge, v;hile suggested in the
roma.nce, is even more evident in Encomiast ice poeria a los
anos de la excelentisima senora Condesa de Galve.
In this
eulogistic play the musical learning of the "Decima Musa"
is constantly apparent, beginning v/ith the dramatis personae in which the scale of Aretino is allegorized as the
characters Ut, Re, lui, Fa, Sol and La.
Other characters
are Musica and Core de Musica.
The purpose of the loa is to celebrate the birthday
of the beautiful Elvira, the Condesa de Galve. Musica,
explains in a very logical series of examples that nothing
represents beauty better than music.
Musica also shows
that there is a relationship between the musical scale and
the measurement of time, noting that even one of the scales
is called sol.
For these reasons, m.usic is the ideal ve-
hicle for celebrating the Condesa's birthday.
After all the notes of the scale have been summoned,
the purpose of the gathering has been announced, and the
appropriateness of m.usic for the celebration has been established, the loa begins.
Musica calls forth each note
180
of the scale in the order Ut, Re, Mi, Fa, Sol and La. Except for Sol who has three, each of the notes is given two
shields on which is painted a letter that suggests a word
that is a virtue for the Condesa, for example, Virtud>ut,
Regocijo > re, miramento > mi , faraa>fa, selicitud >sol, and
latitud ^ la.
Musica then decides tc see if the letters on
the shields, suggesting the qualities wished for the Condesa, can be rearranged to fe.rm nev/ meanings.
After the
exchanges have been made, the results are given the audience in the form of an echo-device.
The nev; meaning is
ELVIRA SOLA which can be seen in the follov/ing reproduction
of echo-device I.
Ut:
Coro:
.Re:
Core:
Li:
Core:
Fa:
Coro:
Sol:
Core:
Musica:
El eco fiel:
-^Ij,
segun lo que vi:
vi;
la cifra leera:
Ra;
pues el solo eso:
so;
a descifrar-la:
La
Juntando lo que acrisola
la Anagrama en las vocales,
hallo que dicen cabales
los ecos: ELVIRA SOLA. (CO., p. 476).
The scale is follov/ed but it should be noted that La is excluded.
It is decided to rearrange the letters again and
the result is EL SILVA MiCR which is given in the second
echo-device.
In the last scene is found IViva Elvira sola;/viva
T 81
R1
sola Elvira! by the chorus in the form cf a chiamus that
is repeated eight timies in praise cf the vicereine and for
the viceroy, IViva el Silva .-.mor;/viva el amor Silva! also
a chiasmus
which is repeated three times.
Almost all of Sor Juana's plays were staged at court.
Pne excerption is the L^--a a les anos del reverendismo padre
maestro fray Diego Velasquez de la Cadena that was presented
at the Colegio de San Pablo,
The hiera.rchy inherent in the metaphorical Great Chain
of Being, that is, the structure of the universe seen as a
chain composed of a series of links from the lowest form of
inanimate objects to the throne of God, is found in this
loa,
v;ithin the chain-of-being concept, is found the hier-
archic structure of nature, i.e, God is the uncreated first
cause, the second division is the created and creating nature, the ideas of God, and the third level is the universe
of things based on the ideas cf God.
Often the levels of
nature are divided as Natura naturans (nature that creates)
the producer, the former, the shaper of things, the Universal God and Natura naturata (nature in all its details),
nature created but that does not create.
That Sor Juana
was aware of, and in conformity with, this idea of nature
can be seen in the opening lines of the present loa,
Naturaleza:
Ya que de la Primera Causa
dispuso la Pmnipotencia
l^o6j
182
que yo, como su segunda,
dominie absolute tenga
en las obras naturales
(pues soy la Naturaleza
en comun, a cuya docta
siempre operativa idea
se debe la dulce union
de la forma y la materia),
JO soy quien hago que el Mundo
tenga ser . . , (P.C, p. 685).
In this loa, Sor Juana makes good use of the possibilities that the name Diego Velasquez de la Cadena offers,
as well as the concept of the Greet Chain of Being, in her
use of cadena and eslabon. An example of the latter is
seen in the following:
, , , en fabrica tan inmensa,
en tan dilatado espacio
y en multitud tan diversa,
todo este con tal mensura,
todo con tal orden sea,
que ni el Mar crezca una gota,
ni mengue un punto la Tierra,
ni el Aire un atomo falte,
ni al Fuego sobre centella;
sino que con tal concierto
eslabones se vean,
que con esferica forma
a la Tierra el Mar rodea,
al Agua el Aire circunde
y al Aire el Fuego contenga,
haciendo sus cualidades,
ya hermandas, y ya opuestas,
un circulo tan perfecto,
tan m-isteriosa cadena^
que a faltar un eslabon
de su circular belleza,
todo acabara, y el orden
universal pereciera ( C C , p. 685).
Naturaleza invokes the allegorized characters: Discurso,
Atencion, Nobleza, Ciencia, Agrado and Entendimiento which
18^^
will serve as liiilis /attributes/ of the Cadena /vhich is
the famous teachery,
Tne visual aspect is made evident
::'nen Nobleza, after her speech, offers a link with an "N"
inscribed on it.
Each of the remaining characters do like-
wise with their corresponding letter.
After each has spo-
ken and shown his letter it is revealed that they form the
word CADENA at which time everyone shouts, "ICadena dice I"
The sentence:
"Y asi decid, cantando, que Agrado, Ciencia,
Discurso, Entendimiento, Atencion, Nobleza, solo son eslabones de esta Cadenal" is shared among all eight characters
(including Musica) in the following manner:
Naturaleza:
Agrado:
Ciencia:
Discurso:
Entendimiento:
Atencion:
Nobleza:
Todos:
lY asi decid, cantando, que
Agrado,
Ciencia,
Discurso,
Entendimiento,
Atencion,
Nobleza,
Solo son eslabones de esta Cadena!
The attributes (with the exception of Discurso) are given
again in the form of echoes composed of one single sentence.
Abrade:
Musica:
Ciencia:
Musica:
Entendimiento:
Msuica:
Nobleza:
Hagale, pues, eternamente
Agrado
dele el eterno bien de su
Ciencia
dele su altivo y soberano
Entendimiento;
adornado de Prendas tanta
Musica:
Nobleza,
amado
asistencia,
aliento,
alteza,
The line, "IPara que sepan todos, que Agrado, Ciencia, Discurso, Sntendimiiento, Atencion, Nobleza, solo son eslabones
de esta Cadena!", is shared by the various characters and
18^
repeated twice more, in the penultimate scene and in the
last lines of the play.
The 1 ^ is static due to the lack of any dramatic conflict and thus cannot be considered good theatre.
does, however, contain some interesting aspects.
The work
Among the
structural considerations, the echo and instances where several characters share one sentence; as v;ell as to intriguing
linguistic aspects as implied by "naves de plumas las aves/
golfOS de vientos navegan,"
The two remaining Sorjuanian leas, the religious Loa
de jLa Concepcion and the secular Loa en las huertas , . •
constitute the final categorization of the loas by Sor
Juana, that is, the non-birthday independent type.
The Loa de la concepcion is concerned with the Immaculate Conception of the Virgin Mary.
In addition to
two choruses of music, the allegorical characters are Devocion, Culto, Escuela and Entendimiento, and of these
four, the first two are paired together, as are the last
two.
The initial conflict revolves around whether anyone
should show blind and ignorant devotion to the concept of
the Immaculate Conception, as supported by Devocion and
Culto, or to that advocated by Escuela and Entendimiento,
to believe but have subtle and healthy doubts,
contends that,
Cuando yo la Concepcion
Devocion
185
confese con fe sincera,
tu, de pure bachillera,
la redujiste a cuestion (C.C, p, 533).
A musical summary of each statement by the four allegorical
personages is given by Musica, For example,
Musica:
IPues en dudar las cosas
por si tan ciertas,
tanto peca el que duda,
como el que niega! (O.C, p. 533).
Escuela responds to Devocion's pronouncements,
Esa duda^ bien nirada,
sirvio mas a Su Decoro,
pues La saco, como al oro,
mas pura y mas acendrada;
y la cuestion ventilada,
tanto a la Iglesia aprovecha,
que (toda duda deshecha)
que Su Honor venerado,
no solo sin el Pecado,
mas libre de la sospecha ( C C , p, 533).
Soon it is decided that each of the warring factions could
better praise the "Celestial Princesa" if they v/ere to Join
together.
It is additionally decided to employ alternating
echoes so that the members of the two groups can speak
(sing) at the same time.
The Loa de la Concepcion provides an example of a
vaniation of the echo-device.
It is not unusual that the
device is composed of four sections, A-D, and has the recapitulation, but normally there are four echoes before
the recapitulation of them.
In this loa there are only two
echoes, not four, and the recapitulation is also different
186
because the organization of it is in the form of chiasmus:
la Devocion y la Escuela
la Escuela y la Devocion
Graphically, the organization of the echo-device as used in
the loa to the Immaculate Conception can be summarized as
follows:
A
1
2
1
This organization, designated echo-device A, is repeated
four times (A-D), giving four echoes for each one and sixteen echoes for the complete echo section. With the smaller number of echoes, the recapitulation sentence is not
necessary, but by using it Sor Juana maintained better organization and the 1-2, 2-1 effect is interestingly Baroque
Finally, there is only repetition and no "new" meaning
found in the recapitulation.
Sor Juana, then, took advan-
tage only of the aesthetic value of the echo in this, her
earliest extant loa.
In her more mature efforts, her de-
velopment in the device can be seen by her taking advantage also of the utilitarian possibilities.
The Loa en las huertas donde fue a divertirse la excelentisima senora condesa de Paredes, marquesa de la
Laguna is Sor Juana's best loa, despite the absence of
187
elements that are normally considered to enhance a play
such as the echo-device.
that Sor Juana wrote.
This loa is the third shortest
Its brevity is best explained in
the authors rigid organization of the constant dramatic
conflict, which in turn underlines the incessant dramatic
tension that is always on the rise until the surprising
climax in scene iv,
Cnce again, the I^oa en las huertas , , , is based on
Greco-Latin mythology as reflected in the characters, which
are Ninfa, Flora, Cefiro, Vertumno and Pomona.
The story
of Vertumno and Pomona is found in Book XIV of Pvid's Metamorphoses in v.'hich Vertumno is the god of the changing
seasons and lover of Pomona who is a beautiful nymph devoted tc the cultivation of fruit trees and lives in gardens
and orchards.
She disdained all lovers until finally ac-
cepting Vertumno.
In Sor Juana's loa, these two are paired
together against their dramiatic rivals—Cefiro, who in classical mythology 7;as the West Wind, and Flora, the Roman goddess of flowers,
A conflict is sustained between the two
groups, beginning with the one between Cefiro and Vertumno»
which is physical, and continuing v;ith the one between Flora
and Pomona, which is psychclogical.
For comparison, it
should be recalled that in the loa for Los empenos de una
casa the conflict is strictly psychological.
The remaining
188
personages of the loa are Ninfa and i6.sica. Ninfa, the
plenipotentiary of the beautiful garden in which the action
of the loa taltes place, is responsible for the climax of
the play.
Musica is an equally important character because
she initiates the loa.
Hoy la Reina de las luces
transladas a las florestas,
trueca por sitial de flores,
el solio de las Estrellas;
y al contacto de sus huellas,
las flores, que van saliendo,
a las demas van diciendo:
ISalid apriesa,^apriesa,
flores, y besareis sus plantas bellas!
( C C , p, 645).
Upon hearing the lines of Musica, Cefiro comes on stage
and announces that Musica is surely referring to Flora,
Then Vertumno enters, convinced the reference is to Pomona,
Thus, their opposing views initiate the psychological conflict.
The remaining lines of the first scene are concerned
vvith Cefiro and Vertumno proclaiming the analogous attributes of the two goddesses,
Cefiro:
Vertumno:
Cefiro:
Vertumno:
Vertumno:
Cefiro:
Vertumno:
donde aclamen su deidad,
donde aplaudan su belleza.
ICh, tu, Reina de los prados,
IPh, tu, Diosa de las selvas
aliento de las flores,
Espiritu de las rosas,
Vida de las azucenasi
At the conclusion of the first scene Vertumno and Cefiro
call forth Pomona and Flora to appear in the second scene.
1 P.O.
Flora eiiTiers and announces that "yo solo del pradc soy la
Liosa" and the psychological conflict continues as Pomona
e:>:p.lains ^hat "solo mi poder preside al prado."
The two
goddesses meet, in the following scene and Flora says "encuentro con mi enemiga Pomona" to which Pomona responds
with "con mi opuesto Flora encuentro."
Each of the god-
desses is insulted that the other would think that she is
the one referred to by Musica in the opening lines of the
lea.
As a result of the shared outrage, each one feels
that she is entitled to satisfaction.
However, physical
vill^^ence is below the dignity of a goddess, and thus Cefiro
and Vertumno resolve to avenge their mistresses.
It is
decided to use swords in the com.bat and the conflict now
is en a second plane, that is, physical not the earlier
psychological plane.
Sor Juana appropriately provides
comic relief at this serious Juncture with a play on words
based on Cefiro being the T^est VTind.
Vertumno, addressing
himself to Cefiro, says " , , , pues si el aire es quien te
anima,/todo tu valor es viento , . , " ( C C , p, 455).
The character portrayal of Flora and Pomona in Loa en
las huertas , , . is reminiscent of that of Eco and Naturaleza Humana in El Divino Narciso,
Their conflict is always
on the psychological plane and is sustained only by words.
In addition, their character portrayal is decidedly feminine as indicated by the Jealous Flora.
.90
Mentida Deidad del prado
6C0210 mi culto te atreves
a usurpar?,
to which Pomona responds.
El devaneo,
caduca Beldad de flores,
d-^ds.: y pues tu osadc intento
competir quiere conmigo,
los ociosos argumentos
dejem.os, y remitamos
a las fuerzas el derecho
de la Corona del prado ( C C , p, 65P),
During the same encounter Pomona addresses Vertumno in a
manuaer reminiscent of a Calderonian character in an analogous situation.
Con mi opuesta Flora encuentro,
que te admira que la ira,
encendido Mongibelo,
me reviente por los oJos,
por no caber en el pecho?
(P.O., p. 65P).
Here, Mongibelo is suggestive of a volcano which Calderon
typically used to convey to the audience the emotional disturbance of a character.
combat Musica sings:
At the height of the physical
"ITened, parad, suspended los aceros;/
no hagais duelo propio, el que es duelo ajeno!"
The four
personages involved in the conflict cannot understand the
commentary of Musica.
In their minds, as each so states^
and as best captured in the speech by Vertumno, either
Pomona or Flora has to be the most worthy.
(LQuien sino el asombro bello
de Pomona, o el de Flora
191
pueden al florido Im.perio
de las flores aspirar? (CO., p, 651),
Consequently, the four disputants decide to resume the
physical conflict, but Musica again stops them with the
same refrain.
The second interruption of hostilities by
Musica produces in Cefiro, Vertumno, Flora and Pomona iras,
enojo, esfuerzo and arrojo, which is tempered by an eco,
voz, canto and acento each of which acts as a remora, freno
suspension and calma. The technique is clearly evident in
the four following short speeches,
Cefiro:
Vertumno:
Flora:
Pomona:
Segunda vez de mis iras/es dulce remora el eco.
Segunda vez es la voz,/de mi noble enoJo, freno.
Segunda vez es el canto/la suspension de mi
esfuerzo,
Segunda vez, de mi arrojo/viene a ser calma, el
acento,
Ninfa nov; appears and explains to them that with the support of the flowers she was to be the supreme arbiter of
the dispute. However, she decided that Apolo was more
qualified,
Acudi a Apolo
hay tan arduos sucesos,
que claramente exceden
la esfera del humane entendimiento
(C.C, p, 653).
The climax comes with Apolo's proclamation that neither
Pomona nor Flora, but rather the sublime Maria Luisa is
the " , . . hermoso/prodigio, que viniendo . . . deben/
ceder nuestros derechos de flores . . . . " The two god-
192
desses quickly acquiesce and Ninfa concludes by proclaiming,
Y pues ya la razon
cesa de vuestro duelo,
sirvan a sus aplausos
las voces que sirvieron
al estruendo ( C C , p. 653).
The final scene of the loa is devoted to asking for pardon
for the shortcoming of the work and to praising the viceroy
and the vicereine.
The unique aspect of Loa en las huertas , , , , when
compared to other loas in praise of an important person,
is that the vicereine in this play is not mentioned until
near the end.
Even if the reader-spectator knew, based on
the title, that the vicereine would eventually be the object of praise, there remains the suspense regarding how
it would be managed.
Nevertheless, Sor Juana has composed
a well-structured loa in which dramatic conflict and tension, along with suspense, is maintained until the climax.
At that point the focus changes and the loa quickly concludes with praises for the royalty.
The preceding overview of the Sorjuanian loas shows
that some of them, although ingenious, complex and aesthetically pleasing, are not dramatic. There are others,
hov/ever, such as the one for El Divino Narciso, the loa
for the Viceroy Tomas Antonio de la Cerda, and Loa en las
huertas • . . that have attributes necessary to good drama, such as conflict, tension, and involvement.
195
Considering the eighteen plays as a group, it has
been discovered that some aspects occur often enough to
consider them as constants in the Sorjuanian loa.
For ex-
ample, in all of the loas music is important in their dramatic development, ten of the loas are dependent on GrecoLatin mythology, the Piraindello-like technique is used in
three of them, the echo is found in seven, the four element
concept of Ptolmey's system is employed in four, references
to the New V/orld is seen in four of the pieces, and literary references to her own or to others' v;orks are made
in four of the loas.
This is the first overview of all of Sor Juana's loas.
It is felt that, although cursory in nature, it demonstrates that the loas by Sor Juana have more intrinsic dramatic worth than earlier criticism has suggested.
Chapter IV
SUMMATIPN
Alfonso Mendez Plancarte's designation of Sor Juana's
theatre as Terra Incognita is an unfortunate appelation
because there is no valid basis for such a classification.
Drama constitutes a large part of Sor Juana's total literary production and should therefore be considered as an
important aspect of it as well.
There are three fundamental reasons for this regrettable evaluation of Mexico's high Baroque dramatist and
poet.
First, the corpus of the "Decima Musa's" total dra-
matic production itself presents a problem to critics attempting an evaluation of her dreana in toto due to its uneven character.
This problem has ultimately led to the
general tendency of criticizing, in a non-comparative manner, only a few of the tv;enty-six extant dramatic pieces.
The almost total oblivion of the remainder of Sor Juana's
plays is the regrettable consequence of this selective approach.
A second important cause of the Terra Incog;nita statu;
of Sor Juana's drama lies in the paradoxical reference to
her as the "Decima Musa,"
Although well deserved, this
appelation is misleading since it implies that Sor Juana
is merely a poet and has too often led to an indifferent
recognition of her dramatic production and ability.
194
1 ^'^'
y^
-i-
y
^
is reflected in at least one important anthology cf Spanish
.hterican literature
I'^-^^^o
in v/hich only a short selection of El
Narciso is provided and in which the emphasis is on
the poetry with no recognition of the dramatic significance
of either the selection or the work as a whole.
A third reason for the Terra Incognita status, and one
which is a direct result of the first two, is the generally
careless nature of studies on Sor Juana's theatre.
This
problem is coupled with the lack of readily accesible textual sources (especially for the loas), and the consequential limitation of interest in this im.portant area of Sor
Juana's literature, the theatre.
For this reason, a major
objective of this study has been to call attention to snd
provide an overview of all of her drama.
ever attempted.
This is the first
A secondary, yet related objective is to
create enough interest in, and appreciation of, the plays
of Sor Juana in an attempt to eliminate the Terra Incognita
label already attached to her production.
\Vhere Sor Jusina's drama has been m.ade knovm to the
public it has been well received.
The success of at least
one university troupe, that of Pur Lady of the Lake University at San Antonio, Texas, substantiates this contention.
The group has presented her plays at both the third and
fourth Siglo de Pro drama festivals held at the Chamizal
196
National Memorial between El Paso and Juarez.
Additional
evidence of the growing interest in Sor Juana's theatrical
pieces is found in two recent anthologies of Spanish American drama wherein El Divine ^>arciso, its lea, los empenos
de una casa and Sainete sesrundo are included,
Sor Juana's autos sacramentales are the product of two
broad and general areas:
the social theological, specifi-
cally the inifiuence of the Council cf Trent and secondly
the literary/ and structural, derived from the works of Cvid,
Cervantes, and Calderon,
The various sources of the autos
are mythology, the Bible, and secular history.
In the
three autos it has been seen that El^ cetro de Jose illustrates the prefiguration of the Eucharist; El martir del
Sacramento, San Hermenegildo emphasizes the faith required
in the transubstantiation; and Christ, as the object of
the Eucharist, is personified in the form of Narcissus in
El Divino Narciso,
El Divino Narciso is only one of many in a long series
of literary adaptations of the Narcissus-Echo fable in Hispanic literature inspired by Pvid's version as found in the
Metamorphoses.
Three of the more important aspects of Sor
Juana's masterwork are the adaptation of a classical pagan
myth to illustrate a Hebrew-Christian mystery, the echo/
echo-device that provides musical, aesthetic, and utili-
197
tarian possibilities, and the Narcissus theme, all of
which was favored in seventeenth century drama.
The title. El Divino Narciso, semantically suggests
the amalgamation of the Hebrew-Christian and the pagan
tradition to illustrate a religious mystery.
However, and
despite the religious overtone and purpose, the pagan figures and atmosphere are maintained as a separate and viable
aspect of the play.
In addition to choosing elements from
each cf the differing religious beliefs and combining them
to write her own work, she was also eclectic in her chs.racter portrayal of Narciso, in that like the Pvidian model,
he attracts both male and female admirers.
But she addi-
tionally utilizes features of the classical poet's portrayal
of Prpheus, whose musical abilities attracted even inanimate
objects.
In a more general sense, Sor Juana is also eclec-
tic in her use of other important elements that are employed
in the auto.
For example, the bucolic ambience of Arcadia,
as found in El Divino Narciso, and which is usually considered to be the supreme archetype of the simple, natural,
and perfect existence, attained its first full treatment in
Ovid's
Metamorphoses.
Specifically in Spanish literature,
the pastoral mode was cultivated by Garcilaso de la Vega
and Calderon, the latter being an obvious influence on Sor
Juana and her dramaturgy.
The Narcissus and Echo fable.
193
in Pvid's version as well es that of Calderon, took place
in a bttcolic ambience.
Related to the pastoral and the
religious intent of El Divino Narciso is the Renaissance
belief as stated by Boccaccio that pagans were good theologians.
It is of note, in this regard, that the classical
pagan story of Narcissus and Echo closely corresponds to
that of the Biblical story of Christ.
From the drajnatic point of view, the echo-device is
the most notable part of El_ Divino Narciso.
It is found
in vsLrying stages of development in Ovid's Metamorphoses,
the Quijote of Cervantes, and Calderon's Eco v Narciso,
The character Echo as well as the echo-device comes from
Pvid, although the structural aspect of the prototypal
literary echo is weak.
The compactness of Sor Juana's de-
vice is most likely derived from Cervantes' use of it in
the Quijote.
Pn the other hand, Calderon influenced Sor
Juana in that he included a sustained echo in at least one
comedia known to Sor Juana,
The organization, repetition,
and compactness of the echo-device in El Divino Narciso
allows for a better grasp of the device by the spectatorreader.
Also, the three elements permit a better appre-
ciation of its aesthetic and utilitarian aspects.
For
these three reasons primarily, the echo-device in El^ Divino
Narciso is superior to the use of it in the preceding works
mentioned.
199
It has been concluded that El cetro d£ Jose was not
influenced by Suenos hay que verdad son by Calderon, but
by the story of Joseph in Genesis.
The basis for the con-
clusion is supported by the choice of the names for several characters and by the treatment of several important
scenes.
Sor Juana particularly tended to dramatize some
scenes of potential drama, such as the episode of Joseph
and the wife of Potiphar, which are narrative in Calderon's
version.
Pne of the mere notable aspects of the Sorjuan-
ian auto is her division of the Devil into various allegorical characters to represent his intelligence, knowledge,
conjecture, and envy.
This division allows for greater
dramatic involvem.ent.
Finally, the purpose of El cetro de
Jose is to dram.atize Joseph as the prefiguration of Christ.
In the auto this theme is given emphasis from the beginning
with the dramiatization of scenes relevant to the theme.
The last of the trilogy of autos is El martir del
Sacramento, San Hermenegildo which is classified as a
Baroque martyr-auto in this study.
The play is based on
a popular theme of the seventeenth century although it
seems that Sor Juana's source was Mariana's Historia de
Espana rather than any literary version.
Also, in con-
trast to the other two autos, this work was inspired in
secular history in the dramatization of the mystery of the
transubstantiation of the Holy Sacrament of the Eucharist.
200
The four virtues used in the auto are reminiscent of a
Greek chorus which repeats the interior arguments of Hermenegildo. The virtues emphasize the great conflict and
struggle of Hermenegildo which is basic to the raison d'etre
of the play, that is, to dramatize the story of the martyr
of the sacrament of the Eucharist. Rather than one character, Hermenegildo is in a sense divided into four personages who substantially reinforce the dramatic conflict and
involvement.
In the secular comedias, Sor Juana vjrote five acts—
the three of Los empenos de una casa and the two of Amor
es mas laberinto, Los empenos de una casa is the better
of the two plays in critical terms. It is also more popular in light of the number of editions, the performances
and critical studies it has received.
The autobiographical element is an important aspect of
Los empenos de una casa. Here Leonor is the woman Juana de
Asbaje longed to be while Ana is Sor Juana the dramatist.
The comedia has been seen as metatheatre in which Ana directs its complicated action, Pne of the more notable dramatic aspects of the work is the employment of the Pirandello-like technique. Another noteworthy aspect of the play
is Sor Juana's concept and use of the honor code. She considers the problem of honor as a sickness and her char-
201
acters resort to reason rather than spilling blood, as
would an injured party normally do in questions of honor
in the seventeenth century.
Another basic departure from
dramatic practices of the seventeenth century was Sor
Juana's adherence te the unities.
The play action takes
place in a brief period of time in a restricted locale
rather than in many places over an extended interval.
Although Los empenos de una casa is not thought to be
in this study Sor Juana's masterpiece, it is, however, a
noteworthy play.
Notable features of the comedia are Sor
Juana's portrayal of the gracioso, the echo/echo-device and
her dramatic eclecticism.
She employed the triangular an-
titheses in several sonnets and in a more complicated fashion she used the encontradas correspondencias as well in
Los empenos de una casa.
Pne of the more novel interpreta-
tions of Los empenos de una casa is that which explains the
primary function of the play to be a parody of the comedia
de capa v espada.
The other comedia. Amor es mas laberinto, is dependent
on Greco-Latin mythology.
Even the title suggests Theseus,
the minotaur, and the labyrinth of Crete, the classical
fable that serves as the plot of the play.
Nonetheless, Amor es mas laberinto is not considered
by critics to be more than a minor play and even Sor Juana
was not satisfied with it.
The brief period of time that
2C2
she had to write the play probably accounts for the quality
of the work.
The points cf interest in Amor es ma^ laber-
int£ are basically the same ones for Los empenos de una
casa.
For instance, the autobiographical element is seen
in the character of Ariadna, who as Sor Juana, was a woman
who loved but love was not returned; she was a rejected
woman resigned to self-abnegation.
The Pirandello-like technique of Amor es mas laberinto
lends it a modern appeal and critical significance.
The
two graciosos are important in the technique as Castano is
in the other comedia.
The graciosos are important to the
development of the play action, to advance the complications
and developments of the comedia, and by using two, Sor
Juana has also multiplied the possibilities for comic relief.
Finally, the unities are observed in Am,or es mas
laberinto as they are in Los empenos de una casa.
The first example of the teatro menor e
the Sainete primero de palacio.
Sor Juana is
Pther than amor cortes,
the sainete, almost totalljr lacking in drama, offers little of interest to the literary critic.
The Sainete segundo is replete with humor, noise,
miusic, singing and in general a good deal of theatrical
fun.
Within this is found dramatic criticism, not only of
Sor Juana's own work, but of others.
Also, the sainete
205
contains a play-within-a-play reminiscent of Pirandello
when the mosqueteros become actors.
In addition to dra-
matic criticism Sor Juana comments on linguistic considerations.
The Sarao de cuatro naciones is the end-piece of the
"Festejo de Los empenos de una casa" and is primarily devoted to lauding the viceroy who was in attendance at the
festival.
In the sarao Sor Juana creates a fairy tale in
the bucolic Arcadian atmosphere where glass castles are
found and where duty and love are in conflict over which
is more important in devotion to the viceroy.
The last category of Sor Juana's drama is that of the
loas,
A classification has been offered, and also an over-
view, of them in the first critical consideration ever of
all eighteen loas.
Based on their repeated occurance,
several constants have been noted in these brief plays:
music, Greco-Latin mythology, the echo and the Pirandellolike technique.
The conclusion, based on a cstreful reading
of the loas, is that Loa en las huertas . . . and the one
for El Divino Narciso are the best but that all the loas
have more intrinsic dramatic v;orth in general than earlier
criticism has suggested.
The scope and intent of this study has allowed the
exploration of the total dramatic output of Sor Juana Ines
2P4
de la Cruz.
In the process, we have exposed the problems
and difficulties inherent in her drama, corrected errors,
emphasized important points and supplied the first critical commentary of her loas.
In essence, then, we have
provided an overview of the Sorjuanian theatre in toto.
The obvious and constant recourse by Sor Juana to
Calderonian dramatic practice and theory leads us to some
intriguing speculations, but ones which, it should be
cautioned, are com.pletely conjectural.
For instance, if
Sor Juana had lived longer would she also have written refacimientos of her plays as did Calderon?
Sor Juana, at
forty-seven, died approximately at the age that Calderon
entered his mature period, the one in which he began writing refundiciones.
Several studies have been devoted to
the important subject of the reworked plays of Calderon.
In contrast, all the plays that constitute Sor Juana's
dramatic corpus are of the "de encargo" type.
She alludes
to the problem in Primero Sueno, Amor es mas laberinto and
its loa.
A substantial reason that leads us to the con-
clusion that Sor Juana, with more experience and more time,
would also have done refundiciones is that she was not
satisfied with her dramatic pieces as they were presented
and as they are known today.
A parallel consideration, discovered in the final
stages of this study, and one of a more scholarly and less
205
theoretical nature than the hypothesis above, is the probable influence of Agustin Moreto on Sor Juana's dramaturgy.
There are dfi^finite parallels between the Pirandello-like
aspect of Sor Juana's theatre and that of the plays of
Moreto as discussed by Frances Exum in a recent study,
"Moreto's playmakers:
the roles of four graciosos and
their plays-within-the play." /sic7.
Also, Sor Juana wrote
a loa to precede the comedia by Moreto titled No puede ser
and she mentions Moreto, who was a popular playwright in
the New World during the seventeenth century, as a worthy
dramatist in Sainete segundo.
At the conclusion of the present study, it is felt
tiiat more needs to be done on specific genres such as the
loa, specific plays v/ithin the various genres, and areas
such as the Just mentioned influence of Moreto on Sor
Juana's dramaturgy.
However, the objective here, to pro-
vide an overview of all of Sor Juana's plays has been realized and as such is a valuable contribution and a solid
basis for continuing study in her theatre.
NCTES
1
Sor Juana Ines de la Cruz:
Pbras completas, Ed.
Alfonso Mendez Plancarte, III (Mexico: Fondo de Cultura
Economica, 1955), vii,
2
Carlos Ripoll and Andres Valdespino, Teatro hispanoamericano, antologia critica:
epoca colonial (Nev; York:
Anaya-Book Co., Inc., 1972), pp. 215-324.
A more recent anthology containing Sainete Segundo
and the loa for Sl^ Divino Narciso is that of Gerardo
Luzuriaga and Richard Reeve, Los clasicos del teatro hispanoamiericano (Mexico: Fondo de Cultura Economica, 1975) i PP.
149-166.
5
Gerard Flynn, Sor Juana Ines de la Cruz (New York:
Twayne Publishers, Inc., 1971).
4
Anthony M, Pasquariello, "The Svclution cf the Loa
in Spanish America," Latin American Theatre Review, 2/3
(Spring 197C), pp. 5-19.
5
Jean Franco, An Introduction to Spanish-American
Literature (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1975),
p, 21.
6
Handbook of Latin American Studies, eds. Dolores
2P6
20 7
Meyano Martin and Donald S. J. Stewart, 58 (Miami:
Univer-
sity of Florida Press, IS'^S), pp, 595~4P1.
'.Tillis Knapp Jones, Behind Spanish ^jnerican Footlights (Austin:
University of Texas Press, 1966), p. 473.
5
Ezequiel Chavez, Ensaye de psicelogia de Sor Juana
Ines de la Cruz (Barcelona:
Casa Editorial Araluce, 1931)»
p. 194 and p. 199.
Q
-•^ita Arroyo, Razon ^ pasion de Sor Juana (Mexico:
Porrua y Obregon, 1952).
There is also the 19'^1 "Sepan
Cuantos , , , " edition, number 195.
10
Anita Arroyo, America en _su literatura (San Juan:
Editorial Universitaria, 1967), p. xv,
11
Prlando Gomez Gil, Historia critica de la
tura hispanoamericana (New York:
litera-
Holt, P.inehart and Tin-
ston, 1968), p, 145,
12
During the course of the investigation for the
present study the following epithets were found in reference to Sor Juana Ines de la Cruz:
Tenth Muse, Decima
Musa, Die Zehnte Musa Voa Mexico, Singular Numen, Sister
Jane, Sor Jane, Mexican Nun-Poetess, Creole Nun-Poetess,
Nun-Poet, Fenix Americana, Mexican Phoenix, Fenix Mexicana,
208
Fenix de las Indias, Unica Poetisa Americana, Madre Jeronima. MenJ a Mexicana.
15
Abraham Arias-Larreta, Literatura Colonial (Buenos
Aires:
Imprenta Lopez, 1970), p. 253.
14
Alexander A. Parker, "The Calderonian Sources of
SI Divino Narciso by Sor Juana Ines de la Cruz," Eomanistishes Jahrbuch, XIX (1968), 233.
15
N. D. Shergold, A History of the Spanish Sta^re
(Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1967), p. 355.
16
Pedro Henriquez Urena, "Bibliografia de Sor Juana
Ines de la Cruz," Revue Hispanique, 40 (1917), pp. 161-214.
17
Dorothy Schons, Some Bibliographical Notes on Sor
Juana Ines de la Cruz (Austin: The University of Texas
Press, 1925).
13
El Federalista:
Edicion literaria, /Mexicoy 19
Nov. 1874, pp. 2P5-216; 22 Nov. 1874, pp. 217-228; 29 Nov.
1874, pp. 229-232.
19
Willis Knapp Jones, Breve historia del teatro
latinoamericano (Mexico: Ediciones de Andrea, 1956), p. 33.
2P
Pctavio Paz, "Juana Ramirez," 17, Vuelta (April
2P9
1978), p. 17.
pi
Sor Juana Ines de la Cruz:
Obras completas, ed.
Francisco Monterde (Mexico: Editorial Porrua, S, A., 1969),
p, xi,
22
Samuel Beckett's translation of Sor Juana's "A su
retrato," as found in The Baroque Poem by Harold E, Segel,
p. 225, was originally published, along with other Beckett
translations cf Mexican poets, in An Anthology of Mexican
Poetry, ed. Octavio Paz (Eloomington, Ind., 1965).
R. L. Littlefield, tr., "Three Poems by Sor Juana
Ines de la Cruz," Allegorica, 1, no. 1 (1976), 226-51.
23
Gerson Legman, The Limerick (New York: G. Bell,
195^), number 1659.
24
Good studies treating the auto sacramental have
been done by Alexander A, Parker, The Allegorical Drama
of Calderon (Oxford:
The Dolphin Book Co., Ltd,, 1945);
Bruce W. 'Vardropper, Introduccion al teatro religiose del
siglo de oro (Madrid:
Anaya, 1967); and Donald Thaddeus
Dietz, The Auto Sacramental and the Parable in Spanish
Golden Age Literature (Chapel Hill:
North Carolina Press, 1973).
The University of
25
Harold B. Segel, The Baroque Poem (New York:
E. P.
210
Button & Co., Inc., 1974), p, 63.
26
Alexander A. Parker, The Allegorical Drama of Calderon (Oxford:
27
,
The Dolphin Book Co., Ltd., 1943), p. 79.
^
Jose Maria de Cossio, Fabulas mitologicas en
Espana (Madrid:
Espasa-Calpe, S. A,, 1952), p, 16.
28
Ovid's Metamorphoses, composed of 12, 000 hexameter lines, is a fifteen-book collection of fifty long
myths and more than two-hundred shorter tales. This epic
is considered to be Ovid's opus magnum and covers the history of the world from the creation to the founding of
Rome,
From antiquity until the nineteenth century the
Metamorphoses was read for entertainment and for instruction in ancient myths. The myth of Echo and Narcissus is
found in Book III,
29
The Heroides is a collection of twenty-one imaginary letters exchanged by great mythological lovers (Penelope-Ulysses, Phaedra-Hippolytus, Paris-Helen etc.) pleading with a distant or separated lover to act faithfully.
30
Rudolph Schevill, Ovid and the Renascence in
Spain (Berkeley:
p. 62.
University of California Press, 1913)»
211
^1
Louise Vinge, The Narcissus Theme in 7/estern Liter-
ature Tr: to the Early 19th Century (Lund:
Gleorups, 1967)»
p. 52.
32
Horace Gregory, trans, Ovid/The Metamorphoses
(New York: The Viking Press, 196P),
53
Ludwig Pfandl, Sor Juana Ines de la Cruz. La
decima miusa de Mexico. Su vida.
trans,
Su poesia, Su psique,
Juan Prtega y Medina, ed. Francisco de la Maza
(Mexico:
1965).
54
UN;J^, Institute de Investigacienes Esteticas,
Refer to Appendix A for graph.
Refer to Appendix A for graph.
36
Angel Valbuena Prat, Don Pedro Calderon de A^
Barca:
Pbras completas. III (Madrid:
Aguilar S.A,, 1952),
p. 26,
37
Ptis H. Green, The Literary Mind of Medieval &
Renaissance Spain (Lexington:
The University Press of
Kentucky, 197P), PP. 113-123.
38
This idea was originally suggested by Vmge, op.
cit,, p. 227, in her discussion of Pierre de Marbeuf's ode
to the Virgin Mary where she writes that " . , , she /the
Virgin/ is the pure well in which God reflects himself."
Gracia, in El Divino Narciso, referring to the fountain
says, " . . . siempre han corrido sin mancha," " . . . que
sale del paraiso . , , ,"
"IPh, Fuente Divina, oh Pczo de
las vivificas aguas . . . ,"
"Fuente sagrada," and "In-
m-aculada /fountain/.'^
39
-^
ardropper,
Introduocicn al teatro religiose del
-.
siglo de oro, p. 18.
4P
E, M. */7ilson, "The Four Elements in the Imagery
of Calderon" Modern Language Review, XXXI (1936), pp. 5^^
47.
41
Irving A. Leonard, Baroque Times in Pld Mexico
(Ann Arbor:
The University of Michigan Press, 1966), p.
177.
42
Enrique Anderson-Imbert, Historia de la literatura
hispanoamericana (Mexico: Fondo de Cultura Economica,
1970), p, 1C6.
43
Albert E. Sloman, The Dramatic Craftsmanship of
Calderon:
His Use of Earlier Plays (Oxford:
Book Co., Ltd., 1958),
The Dolphin
215
44
Gregory, Ovid/The Metamorphoses, pp, 96-97,
Miguel de Cervantes Saavedra, Don Quijote d£ la
Mancha (New York: Las Americas Publishing Co,, 1968), p.
261.
46
Refer to Appendix B for a graphic illustration
of the echo-device of El Divino Narciso,
47
Examples of this error are fotmd in the following:
Ermilo Abreu Gomez, Semblanza de Sor Juana (Mexico: Edicicnes Letras de Mexico, 1938), p, 52; Anita Arroyo, Razon
2 pasion de amor, pp, 277 and 279, refer to number 9 above;
and Francisco Garcia Chavez, Sor Juana Ines de la Cruz
(Vida 2 obra) (Mexico: Editores mexicanos unidos, S. A.,
1976), p. 25.
48
Sagrada Biblia (Barcelona: Editorial Herder,
1967), p. 66.
49
,
Mendez Plancarte shows that Sor Juana is in error
about the administering of the sacrament in the San Hermenegildo auto, " . . . nuestro Auto padece un rare deliz
doctrinal, cuando su Hermenegildo, al rechazar la Comunion
del Obispo Arrieno, niego la validez de su Orden Sacerdotal
y de su consagracion Eucaristia por el hecho de ser hereje
:i4
y cismatico . . , ," p, ixxx.
Frank J. Warnke, Versions of Barooue (New Haven:
Yale University Press, 1972), pp. 198-199.
51
In La semilla ;v la cizana ( O . C , III, p. 590) Calderon expressed the belief that plays should contain a balance cf good and evil characters.
Also, in Milton Marx,
The Enjoyment of Drama (New York, 1941), p. 25 is found:
"In order te make the struggle or conflict exciting, which
is one of the synonjnns of dramatic, the play^-right must
maize the odds fairly even."
52
Ann Livermore, A Short History of Spanish Music
(Bristol:
Western Printing Services, 1972), p. 92.
53
Sergio Fernandez, Autos sacramentales de Sor Juana
Ines de la Cruz (Mexico:
Universidad Nacional Autonoma de
Mexico, 197c), p. xi.
Everett W, Hesse, "Calderon's Popularity in the
Spanish Indies," Hispanic Review, XXIII (1955)» p. 12.
Monterde, Sor Juana Ines de 1^ Cruz:
Pbras com-
pletas, p, xiii.
Albert G. Salceda, "Cronologia del teatro de Sor
Juana" Abside, XVII (1953), p. 335.
215
57
A university group from Our Lady of the Lake
University, San Antonio, Texas performed the entire festival (loa, sarao, sainetes, and comedia) of Los empenos de
una casa at the Third Siglo de Pro Drama Festival at the
Chamizal National Memorial between El Paso and Juarez.
5S
Jose Juan Arrom, "Cambiantes imagenes de la muJer
en el teatro de la America virreinal" Latin American Theatre Review, 12/1 (Fall, 1978), pp. 5-15.
59
Charles David Key, El gracioso en £l teatro de la
peninsula (Madrid:, 195^).
60
Angel Valbuena Briones, Literatura hispanoamericana
(Bancelona: Aguilar, S. A,, 1952), p. 135.
61
The social code governing honor revolved around
the notion that loss of reputation is a thousand times
worse than life. However, a man's reputation did not rest
upon the propriety of his personal conduct, but also on
the actions of all women for whom he was morally responsible.
Thus, any censurable act commitfed by one of these
women obliged him to cleanse the dishonor by shedding blood
in order to obliterate his disgrace and save his reputation.
Even the slightest breath of suspicion of dishonor
v;as sufficient to require such action. The custom of mak-
216
ing the woman the repository of one's personal dignity
and reputation furnished an endless number of dramatic
conflicts.
62
Sergio Fernandez, Homenajes a Sor Juana, a Lopez
Velarde, a Jose Gorostiza (Mexico:
SepSetentas, 1972),
p. 41,
63
Leonard, Baroque Times in Pld Mexico, p. 176,
64
Joseph A, Feustle, Jr., "Hacia una interpretacion
de Los emipenos de una casa de Sor Juana Ines de la Cruz,"
Explicacion de textos literarios, 1-2 (1975), 147.
65
Verfremdung means "mcJking strange,"
Feustle
writes, "Estas salid.as fuera del personaje que se representa J las acciones perversas producen un efecto muy
modern.!, m.uy semejante al V-ef f eht, que logra Brecht en
su teatro y ^ue senala Lionel Abel en su libre Metatheatre
(New York:
Hill and T/ang, 1963), p. 1^8,
66
Flynn mentions the technique in Sor Juana Ines de
la Cruz, p. 45; Anderson-Imbert in Historia de la literatura hispanoamericana, p. 45 of the 197C edition; and
Mendez Plancarte in volume III of Sor Juana's Pbras completas , p. 664 and p. 671.
;i7
67
Margaret Sayers Peden, "Sor Juana In's de la Cruz:
(TI
The i^'ourth L a b y r i n t h , " B u l l e t i n of the Comediantes (Spring
- ^
-^ / »
i: .
^ O .
68
Emilio Carilla, La literatr:ra barroca en Eisnanoamerica (Madrid:
Anaya Book Co., Inc., 1972), p. 18,
69
Karl Vossler, in Investigaciones linguisticas
(Mexico), III (193P), p. 64,
70
Peden, "Sor Juana Ines de la Cruz:
Labyrinth," p. 43,
The Fourth
Juan de la Srxina, Egloga de Placida 2. Vitoriano
(Zaragoza:
Editorial Sbro, S, L., 1966), pp. 71-73.
72
Douglas M. Carey, "Asides and Interiority in Spanish Literature of the Golden Age," Diss. Duke University,
197C
73
U s e Heckel, "Los sainetes de Sor Juana xnes de
la Cruz," Revista Iberoamericana, number 25 (Pctober 1947),
p, 138.
74
Hildburg Schilling, Teatro profano en la hueva
Espana (Mexico: Im.prenta Universitaria, 195°), P. 240.
75
Many Spanish Americans drop the "s" in a word and
218
the Castillian Spanish is marked by the sibilant _s sound
of the letter.
These lines call to mind the famous lines cf
Segisr/jndc in Calderon's La vida es sueno:
de mi!
"lAy, misero
IAy infelicel"
77
These lines bring to mind Moratin's play. La comedia nueva £ e_]. cafe.
In this play I)on Eleuterio, after
staging El_ gran cerco de Viena, premiises never to write
another play.
73
Segel in The Baroque Poem, p. 89, writes, "Pn
reading much Baroque religious and meditative poetry, one
is often struck by the emphasis on conflict and, related
to this, the extensive use of military imagery."
79
Emilio Cotarelo y Mori, Coleccion de entremeses,
loas, bailes, Jacaras ^ rooJigangas (Madrid:
Casa Editorial
Bailly-Bailliere, 1911), p. xxiii.
80
Ibid, p. XX, and pp. 36C, 391, and 424.
81
Agustin de RoJas Villandrando wrote forty loas
that were published in ViaJe entretenido (16P4).
He was
an important loa writer in the period between the early
loas and those of Calderon and Sor Juana,
219
82
Jean-Louis Flecniaitoska, La loa (Macrid:
Sociedad
general espanola de libreria, S. A., 1975), p. 1P3.
Joseph A, Meredith, Introito and Loa in the Spanish Drama of the Sixteenth Century (Philadelphia:
Uni-
versity of Pennsylvania Press, 1928),
F, Garcia Pavon, Teatro menor del siglo r/II (Madrid:
Taurus Ediciones, S. A., 1954),
For the Mendez Plancarte, Cotarelo, and Flecniakoska
studies refer to num^bers 1, 79, and 82 respectively.
84
Meredith, Introito and Loa in the Spanish Drama
of the Sixteenth Century, chapter six et passim.
85
The following works contain some limited information on Sor Juana's loa.
Pasquariello, "The Evolution of
the Loa in Spanish America" (See number 4 above); Flynn,
Sor Juana Ines de la Cruz (See number 4 above); Chavez,
Ensaye de psicologia de Sor Juana Ines de la Cruz (See
number 8 above); and Arroyo, Razon v pasion de Sor Juana
(See number 9 above).
Pasouariello, p. 8,
87
Flynn, no page number.
George S, Duckworth, The Complete Roman Drama
) nr-,
(New York:
Random House, 1942).
Cotarelo, p. xxiii,
90
Padre Diego Calleja, Vida de Sor Juana (Mexico:
Antigua Libreria de Robredo, 1936), pp, 18-19.
91
The most complete study devoted only to the loa
is La loa by Flecniakoska.
Hov</ever, as already noted, he
omits the loas by Calderon a^nd Sor Juana.
92
Emilio Abreu Gomez, Carta Atenagorica, Respuesta
a Sor Filotea (Mexico: Ediciones Betas, 193^).
93
John E. Englekirk et al., An Anthology of Spanish
American Literature (New York:
1968), pp. 71-72.
Appleton-Century-Crofts,
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Ca.rta Atenagorica, Resouesta a Sor
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,
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Ser.blanzas de Sor Juana, Mexico:
Ediciones Letras de Mexico, 1958,
Anderson-Imbert, Enrique,
noamericano,
Historia de la literatura hispa-
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Fondo de Cultura Economica,
197P.
Arias-Larreta, Abraham,
Literatura colonial,
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Imprenta Lopez, 1970,
Arroyo, Anita,
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San Juana:
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,
Razon y pasion de amior. Mexico:
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Calleja, Diego,
Vida de Sor Juana,
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Antigua
Libreria de Robredo, 1956.
Carey, Douglas M,
"Asides and Interiority in Spanish Lit-
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Carilla, Emilio.
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Diss.
Duke University 1970.
La literatura barroca en Hispanoamerica,
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Chavez, Ezequiel.
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Jacaras v mojiganr.as.
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The Auto Sacramental and the Para-
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Chapel Hill:
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Tne Com.nlete Roman Drama.
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Encina, Juan de la.
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Ecrloga de Placida y Vitoriano.
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Homenajes a Sor Juana, a Lopez Velarde,
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Sor Juaina Ines de la Cruz,
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Sor Juana Ines de la Cruz (Vida
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Garcia Pavon, F,
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Pvid/The Metamorphoses. New York: The
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Austin:
University of Texas Press, 1966,
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225
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EL DIVINO NARCISO AND ITS LOA
Les ^aganos
-OS CristianoUd
Occidente
Celo
America
Religio:
—J w o
x<* x-4, c:: _L -^ '.' -J,
-1- ^ivmo ^.arciso
.\arc ISO .v^nrist
La '-racia
/•^ ,'~\ >^ '^ '">
Dos CO
s le
L V.A .
». W U.
La 3 i n a ~ o s a 1
1
N a t u r a l e z a riu.mana
1
1
1 La
!
•- ">
Eco (L u %
?r;
icr _-ropie
Soberbia
228
i
[ Ninfas X
229
APPENDIX B
THE STRUCTURAL ORGANIZATION OF THE ECHO-DE^/ICE
OF EL DIVINO NARCISO
I.
A,
Soberbia:
Tente, pues que yo te tengo
Sco:
1. TENGO
Amor Propio:
Refiere tu ansiosa pena
Eco:
2. PENA
Soberbia:
Di la causa de tu rabia
See:
3. RABIA
Musica with a sad tone repeats the echoes: Tengo
pena rabia.
Amor Propio:
Pues eres tan sabia,
iDinos que accidentes
tienes, o que sientes?
1 2
3
Eco:
Tengo Pena, Rabia . . .
B,
Amor Propio:
iPues que has echado de ver?
Sco:
4. DE//ER
Soberbia:
iDe cue estas asi, o por que?
Eco:
5. QUE
Amor Propio:
iHay novedad en Narciso?
Eco:
6. NARGI.SO
Musica with a sad tone repeats the echoes: De ver
que Narciso
Soberbia:
Dines, d-qus te hizo
para ese accidente,
o si es solam.ente . . , ?
4
5
6
Eco:
De ver que Narciso , , ,
C
Soberbia - Eco
7
Amor Propio - Eco 8
Soberbia - Eco
9
Amor Propio asks question
Eco 7, 8, 9
D.
Amor Propio - Eco IC
Soberbia - Eco
11
Amor Propio - Eco 12
Soberbia asks question
Sco 10, 11, 12
230
V.I.
Eco gives a summary of all twelve echoes of the
part in a hexasilabo that rhymes a b b a .
Tengo Pena, Rabia
De ver^que Narciso
a un Ser Quebradizo
Quiere, a mi me agravia.
231
APPENDIX C
THE EIGHTEEN EXTANT SORJUANIAN LOAS
Loas Preceding an Auto or Comedia
A.
Sacramental Loas
1,
Loa for El Divino Narciso, 498 lines.
The auto was
first published in 1690, but no mention of the loa
was made.
2,
The loa does accompany the auto in 1S9C.
Loa for EJ. martir del Sacramento, San Hermenegildo,
498 lines.
3,
No date, first published in 1692,
Lea for El cetro de Jose, 464 lines.
No date, first
published in 1692.
B,
Secular Loas
4,
Loa for Los empenos de una casa, 535 lines.
1680?,
staged October 4, 1683, first published in 1592.
5,
Loa for .Imor es mas Isberinto, 642 lines.
11, 1539.
January
This loa is unique since it is classi-
fied as independent:
Lca a los anos del excelent-
isimo senor Conde d.e Galve and also it precedes a
comedia, first published in 1692.
Numbers 8 ?nd 16
below are similar in that they apparently precede
another worh, but not plays by Sor Juana.
;.
Independent Leas
(Note number 5 above and y ^ 1^ "be-
low)
A.
Birthdav Loas
6,
Loa en celebracion de los anos del Rey Nuestro
252
• > ! •
Senor Don Carlos II, 593 lines, written between
167^1678, first published in 1692,
7. Lea a lo£ anos del Rev (II), 515 lines, November
6, 1681 or 82. Although Mendez Plancarte classified this play as one of the "Otras Loas," it
preceded a play by Calderon titled En esta vida
todo es verdad ^ todo es mentira. Note number
14 below also,
3. Loa a los anos del Rey (III), 449 lines. November 6, 1681 or 82, first published in 1692, cf no,
17.
9.
Loa a los anos del Rey (IV), 620 lines, November 6, 1683,
10,
Loa a los anos del Rey (V), 417 lines, November 6, 1684,
11,
Loa a los anos de la Reina Nuestra Senora, Dona
Maria Luisa de Borbon, 451 lines. April 24,
1681, 1682 or 1683.
12.
Loa a los anos de la Reina Madre, Dona Mariana
de Austria, Nuestra Senora, 270 lines. Written
between 1688 and 1690.
13.
Loa a los felices anos del Senor Virrey Marques
de la Laguna, 533 lines, December 24, 1680-82,
14,
Loa al ano que cumplio el Senor Don Jose de la
Cerda, primog;enito del Senor Virrey Marques de
253
la Laguna, 461 lines, July 5, 1680, This loa
is listed by Mendez Plancarte under "Otras
Loas," as is number 8 above, although it apparently preceded a comedia titled No puede
ser by Agustin Moreto.
15.
Loa a los anos del Reverendisimo Padre Maestro
Fray Diego Velasquez de la Cadena, 480 lines.
November 13, 1687 or 1688.
16.
Encomiastico poema a los anos de la Excelentisima Senora Condesa de Galve, 5 ^ lines.
16S9 or 1690, more likely 1689. This loa, because of its title, often has not been considered as one.
B,
Non-Birthday Loas
17,
Loa de 1^ concepcion, 435 lines. Written between 1670-1675» "the oldest extant play, first
published in 1955 in volume III of Obras completas by A, Mendez Plancarte, cf number 8,
18,
Loa en las huertas donde fue a divertirse la
Excelentisima Senora Condesa de Paredes,
Marquesa de la Laguna, 365 lines, ^Vritten
after November 1680 and before July 1685.
23^
III,
A Summary of the Length of the Sorjuanian Loa
General Length
Number of Loas
Exact Number of Lines
270
565, 595
^17, ^35, ^ 9 , ^51,
4 6 1 , 464, 480, 498,
498
315, 555, 535, 540
620, 624
1.)
2.)
3.)
200 lines
500 "
400 "
1
2
9
4.)
500
"
5.)
600
"
4
2
a,)
Shortest = 270 lines
b.) Longest
« 624 lines
c.)
= 475 lines
Average
255
Appendix D
The following is a list of the works treated in this
study. After each title the generic nature of the work,
comedia, auto, and loa, will be given along with the corresponding page number, within parentheses, on which information on a particular play is found.
El Divino Narciso, auto (pp, 27-58),
The Narcissus-Echo fable, pp. 22 et passim.
El cetro de Jose, auto (pp, 58-69).
El martir del Sacramento, San Hermenegildo, auto (pp. 69-
Los empenos de una casa, comedia (pp, 87-106)
Amor es mas laberinto, comedia, (pp. 106-117).
Sainete primero de palacio, sainete, (pp. 117'-119).
Sainete segundo, sainete, (pp. 119-125)•
Sarao de cuatro naciones, sarao, (pp. 125-128).
The introduction to the loa, (pp. 129-143).
The following eighteen plays are loas and only the pages
on which information is given will be indicated.
El martir del Sacramento, San Hermenegildo, pp. 147-149).
El cetro de Jose, pp. 149-151.
El Divino Narciso, pp. 151-156.
Los empenos de una casa, pp. 156-157.
Amor es mas laberinto, pp. 157-160.
236
Loa en celebracion de los anos del rey nuestro Senor don
Carlos II, pp. 161-162.
Lca a los anos del rey (II), pp. 162-164.
Loa _a los anos del rey (III), pp. 164-166.
Loa a los anos del rey (IV), pp. 166-170.
Loa a los anos del rey (V), op. 170-172.
Loa a los anos de la reina nuestra Senora, dona M.aria Luisa
de Borbon, p. 172.
Lca 31 los aiios de la reina madre, dona Mariana de Austria,
nuestra Senora, pp. 173-17^.
Loa a los f?1ices ancs del senor virrey marcues de la Laguna,
pp. 174-176.
Loa a l aiio que cumiplio e l Senor don J o s e de l a Cerda, p r i m e genito
,; c 2.
senor virrey mar:;ues de la La,~ana, pp. 176-17-*
Encomiast!CO poema a los anos de la excelentisima sencra
Jondesa. de
*-. _i, -1. • C
,
1- P
.
-i- I ••-
-•
-^ -i- »
Loa a 1 OS a.n.os del reverendisim-o nacre maestro fray Diego
;ez de la Cadena, pp. 181-12^.
Loa de In voncetcicn, pp. _c-^-x2o.
Loa en
1
-, ^
'^uertas '^ond? fue a divertirse la exC'^lentisima
3 3nora condesa de Paredes, marquesa ie la Laguna, ^z,
192.
I'la-