This article was downloaded by: [University of Glasgow]On: 21 December 2014, At: 00:22Publisher: RoutledgeInforma Ltd Registered in England and Wales Registered Number: 1072954Registered office: Mortimer House, 37-41 Mortimer Street, London W1T 3JH,UK

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Lope's Novelas a MarciaLeonardaYvonne Yarbro-Bejarano aa University of Washington , USAPublished online: 09 Jul 2010.

To cite this article: Yvonne Yarbro-Bejarano (1980) Lope's Novelas a Marcia Leonarda ,Kentucky Romance Quarterly, 27:4, 459-472, DOI: 10.1080/03648664.1980.9933407

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LOPE’S NOVELAS A MARCIA LEONARDA

Yvonne Yarbro-Bejarano

The sensation created by reading Lope de Vega’s Novelas a Marcia Leonurdu is not unlike that of viewing a collage made by cutting up and pasting together several well-known paintings. The effect is original, but strangely familiar. All the elements of the paintings are there, but they have been forced into new relationships, subordinated to the needs of a new whole, which in turn has been shaped by the particular talent of the new artist. In Lope’s novelus the essential theoretical concerns present in one form or another throughout the genre’s development are still recog- nizable, though Lope manipulates them to suit his own personal and artistic ends: the preoccupation with the form’s lack of literary prestige, the attempt to balance its “low,” entertaining nature with moralistic or didactic exemplariness, the reflection of contemporary society in the pursuit of verisimilitude.’ Yet the overall unity and structure of the Novelus u Marcia Leonurdu differ from the traditional nove2u to the extent that the collage differs from the paintings of which it is made. Lope’s deviation from the norm responds in part to his own artistic orientation- poetic and dramatic rather than novelistic-in part to the provocation of Cervantes’ Novelus ejemplares. Once we familiarize ourselves with the works on their own terms, we can see that what Lope has done is present an alternative to the short story as it was known in his time which is at least as valid in its own right, and which has more in common with Cervantes’ novelas than the differences in technique would seem to war- rant.

me Novela as “Low ”Form Lope sets forth his theory of the novelu in the brief Prologue to his

first, “Las fortunas de Diana,” published in La Filomena in 162 1. Leaving aside for a moment the machinery of the frame, we are first struck by the stress which Lope lays on the lowliness of the genre. He declares that he is treading on strange ground (“porque mandarme que escriba una novela ha sido novedad para mi”): and takes care to point out that although in the Arcadiu (1598) and the Peregrino en su paaia (1604) “hay alguna parte de este ghero y estilo . . . es grande la diferencia y m& humilde el modo” (NML, p. 27). Lope is working within the traditional evaluation of the novela when he recognizes its non-status. The novela is generally regarded

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460 Kentucky Romance Quarterly

as an unprestigious genre since it represents a departure from esteemed forms and concerns: it can claim no sanction from any of the venerated classical traditions; it is dedicated to the pleasure and agreeable pastime of the common reader; its antecedents are not the auctores, but rather that abundant bourgeois tradition of popular narrative, devoid of literary pretension, which supplied the avid demands of readers and listeners of the preceding centurie~.~

In Spain, the novela never frees itself completely from these liumble origins, though they are often used to some advantage by the novelist. At times, authors defend the cultivation of an unprestigious and entertaining form by claiming a moralistic or didactic purpose for the tales, even though the entertainment itself may be the primary concern. Other authors shield themselves with the genre’s lowliness to escape stringent criticism by traditional criteria. In the preliminary pieces to the Chzman de Alfarache, Mateo Alemh hastened to warn the reader not to rniss the “consejo” which lies hidden in the “conseja.” Cervantes, in spite of a similar moralistic claim for his Novelus ejemplures, insisted on the un- prepossessing nature of the forms he cultivated, asserting that he was concerned only with writing works of entertainment.

Lope’s emphasis on the humble mode of the novela stems partially from a desire to denigrate Cervantes’ achievement while pointing out his own accomplishment in more prestigious genres. As Francisco Rico notes, the pastoral novel (Arcadia) and the Byzantine epik in prose (Peregrino) were “g6neros literarios harto mejor definidos y-a ojos de la Bpoca-de dignidad artistica muy superior, como avalada por una rica tradici6n de arranque cl8sic0.”~ In “La desdicha por la honra,” the first of thie three novelus which appeared in La Circe in 1624, Lope goes even farther to identify himself with the superior literary tradition: “en esta descoafianza y fuerza que hago a mi inclinacih, que halla mayor deleite en rnayores estudios . . .” (NML, p. 73).

This evaluation of the novela, besides revealing the desire to outshine Cervantes, is consistent with Lope’s literary theory, which nurtured a deep respect for tradition and the auctores. As Alan Trueblood points out, Lope and his contemporaries valued poetry much more than prose.’ Among the prose genres, the novela was the obvious parvenu. Trueblood quotes the following passage from the Introduction to the Rimas (1602) to demon- strate Lope’s attitude: “Los que no han estudiado . . . quisieran que todo estuviera lleno de cuentos y novelas, cosa indigna de hombres d’e letras; pues no es justo que sus libros anden entre mechicos e igncrantes” (Experience, p. 351, n. 37). In his earlier years Lope considered such “natural” works as his romances and comedias inferior to those which adhered to the “artistic” humanistic and classical tradition. Trueblood, expanding Menhdez Pidal’s conclusions, shows how the opposition of Art and Nature gradually gave way to a concept in which the two were fused

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(Experience, p. 509): as Lope puts it, “asi con sus preceptos y rigores cultiva el arte naturales flores.” Josk Montesinos has shown how Lope admired his Spanish predecessors’ “conceptos” but sought to elevate native meters and forms: “En el Lope miis popular y tradicional no falta nunca un rasgo, un matiz culto, clbico, renacentista.”6 In the same manner, Lope will attempt to dignify the lowly novela with erudite digressions, thus raising it from the level of mere anecdotal entertainment to that of didactic exemplariness.

Entertainment versus Exemplariness Lope’s estimation of the novela as a low form is a response both to

esthetic concerns and to the personal need to feel artistically superior. Similarly, the emphasis he places on the genre’s exemplary possibilities is also conditioned by the desire to surpass Cervantes as well as by the desire to lend artistic dignity to the form. After a begrudging compliment (“no le falt6 gracia y estilo a Miguel Cervantes,” [NML, p. 281 ), Lope proceeds to what he feels are the Novelas ejernplares’shortcomings: “Confieso que son libros de grande entretenimiento y que podrian ser ejemplares . . . per0 habian de escribirlos hombres cientificos o por lo menos grandes corte- sanos, gente que halla en 10s desengarios notables sentencias y aforismos” (NML, p. 28). Lope’s criticism is the most eloquent testimony to the non-traditional character of the exemplariness of the Novelas ejernplares. In spite of Cervantes’ stated moralistic intention, the ultimate creative result was not read that way by his contemporaries, but rather as excellent entertainment. Lope does not yet wish to compete openly on this ground, though of course entertainment is at the heart of his novelistic as well as his dramatic technique. He soft-pedals the novela’s capacity for entertain- ment, insinuating that this is after all appropriate for a low form, and emphasizes its more weighty possibilities.

Chndido Ayll6n has remarked on the strong attraction which Lope and Cervantes each felt for the field of natural endeavor of the other.’ Cervantes, the prose master, composed verse all his life, but had sufficient insight to realize that he lacked the necessary flash of poetic genius which characterizes Lope. This missing element he calls “gracia”: “Yo, que siempre trabajo y me desvelo / por parecer que tengo de poeta / la gracia que no quiso darme el Cielo.”* Lope’s awareness that he is not by “inclination” a prose writer is felt throughout the novelas. He likewise denotes the inherent gift as “gracia” in his reluctant recognition of Cervantes’ narrative art (‘‘No le falt6 gracia y estilo”). Lope knows that he cannot beat Cervantes at his own game. But far from admitting his own shortcomings, he turns his attention to an area where he feels that he can outdo Cervantes, that of exemplary erudition. There is no doubt that the “hombre cientificb” invoked at this point to remedy the failings of the novela is none other than Lope hirn~elf.~

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This is not the only instance in which Lope attempted to combat literary rivals with the erudition he esteems so highly. D h a s o Alanso has pointed to the same self-conscious cultivation of “arte” in its most erudite manifestations-replete with inherited topoi, citing of authorities, and references to the pseudo-scientific theories of the day-as a reaction and defense against Luis de Gbngora and his cruelly incisive line ‘‘con raz6n Vega por lo siempre llana.”” Against Gbngora, who complicates with mere words and metaphors, Lope proposed a complication of‘ ideas, especially in certain sonnets from La Circe. The emphasis on erudition in the novelas i s similarly motivated, though now Lope’s rival is none other than Cervantes himself, and this time he sets unprestigious entertainment against “arte.”

Lope’s Theory: History and Practice Lope not only weights the definition of the genre in favor of what he

considers his own strong points, but is willing to invent a tradition which better suits his purposes:

En tiempo menos discreto que el de agora, aunque de m h hombres sabios, llamaban a las novelas “cuentos.” Estos se sabian de mennoria, y nunca, que yo me acuerde, 10s vi escritos, porque se reducian sus fibulas a una manera de libros que parecian historias y se llamaban en lenguaje puro castellano “caballerias,” como si dijbsemos: ‘Hechos grandes de caballeros valerosos.’ Fueron en esto 10s espaiiolles inge- niosisimos, porque en la invenci6n ninguna naci6n del mundo les ha hecho ventaja, como se ve en tantos Esplandianes, Febos, Palmerines, Lisuartes, Florembelos, Esferamundos y el celebrado Amad is, padre de toda esta miquina, que compuso una dama portuguesa. El Boyardo, el Ariosto y otros siguieron este gbnero, si bien en verso. WML, pp. 27-28)

He ignores the Boccaccian tradition which perfected the illusion of the historical particular, and aligns himself with a Spanish oral tradition which culminates in the chivalresque novel, a genre noted for its fantastical inverisimilitude. In this way he avoids comparison with prose masters and sidesteps the obligation of creating a world which cultivates the illidsion of reality. Instead he associates “invencibn” with the verbal gift of “irgenio,” the exact opposite of Cervantes’ concept of the term. In the “Viaje del Parnaso,” Cervantes rightfully defines himself in terms of this key talent: “Yo soy aquel que en la invenci6n excede 1 a muchos” (p. 81). In his novelistic practice, “invenci6n” is related to the imaginative action or “desatino” around which the noveia unfolds, the strange event which at the same time must appear probable, as he specifies in the “Viaje”: “Yo he abierto en mis Novelas un camino / por do la lengua castellana puede /

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mostrar con propiedad un desatino” (p. 81). The Cervantine novela consistently shows the deliberate internalization of the action in the characters. The “desatino” thus leaves the level of superficial action to contribute to the inner development of the protagonists.” Lope firmly establishes “invencibn” on the level of verbal virtuosity when he confi- dently assumes that he will be able to write his novela, “habiendo hallado tantas invenciones para mil comedias” (NML, p. 28).

Although Lope’s theorizing is interesting insofar as it reveals attitudes which differ from the mainstream tradition of the novela, Lope means us to take it neither too seriously nor too dogmatically. Walter Pabst con- demns “Las fortunas de Diana” and “La desdicha por la honra” as victims of the author’s novelistic theories.’* In his opinion the first suffers from an overload of erudition in an attempt to follow the theory just discussed; the second suffers from too vigorous a rejection of that theory, falling into the diffuse inconsequentiality of “cuanto se viniere a la pluma” (NML, p. 74). But these are doubtful readings. In the first place, Lope does not really structure his novelas in accordance with his theories at all. In practice, as we shall see, he chooses a frame structure which constantly intrudes into the story line, setting up a rhythmical alternation between frame and story. The formula proposed in “Las fortunas” (anecdote plus didactic digression) would only partially apply to the ‘‘sto~y” and not to the frame. Second, it is unnecessary to suppose that because Lope does not insist on entertainment in his first novela, this is not a desired effect. In the later novelas, entertainment i s allowed to come to the forefront more explicitly. Similarly, the ideal of exemplary erudition held up at the beginning of the first novela is never really rejected or abandoned in the following three.

Finally, to retain the correct perspective one must keep in mind the presence of liberal doses of irony all around. Not for nothing does Lope align himself, at the beginning of “Las fortunas,” with Ariosto in his topsy-turvy account of the tradition of the novela. Lope shows a masterful ironizing of an inherited genre which is similar to Ariosto’s. Part and parcel of the inheritance of the novela is the much touted duality of entertain- ment and exemplary instruction. Both come in for their fair share of irony in Lope. After indulging in a literary discussion of Garcilaso’s merits, Lope pokes fun at his own erudite parenthesis: L‘Atr6vome a vuestra merced con lo que se me viene a la pluma, porque sk que como no ha estudiado retcirica no sabri cuinto en ella se reprehenden las digresiones largas” (NML, p. 61). In even bolder fashion, he punctuates a lengthy, rather pedantic description of the palace of the Turk with direct addresses such as “aqui doble vuestra merced la hoja” and “cosa que la cuentan y la escriben, y que podrl vuestra merced no creer sin ser descortks a la novela ni a la grandeza del Turco” (NML, pp. 102-03). Conversely, in “La desdicha” he puts on a great show of having no higher goal than to provide

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entertainment, then immediately calls on an auctor to back his statement: “Demb que yo he pensado que tienen las novelas 10s mismos preceptos que las comedias, cuyo fin es haber dado su autor contento y gusto al pueblo, aunque se ahorque el arte; y esto, aunque va dicho al descuido, fue opini6n de Aristoteles” (NML, p. 74).

What lies behind Pabst’s and most critics’ condemnation of the3e little works is the disappointment of certain expectations. They have been conditioned by Cervantes’ novelas to expect a novelistic development of anecdote, character, and structure. What they fail to realize is that Lope is proposing something quite different. Within his conception of the genre, anecdote is of relatively little importance. Like conventional structure, it is one more element to ironize. In order to comprehend rightly Lope’s handling of the novela it is important to bear in mind his chronological relationship to Cervantes, not in terms of whether he comes up to certain novelistic standards established by the Novelas ejemplares, but in terms of his novelas’ position on the trajectory of the genre in its decadence or decline. Nothing pejorative is implied, but only that the seedling !planted by Boccaccio’s hand had definitely come to full flowering in the Novelas ejemplares. Given Lope’s artistic ego, it was not admissible merely to repeat another’s success. Given his natural talent, it was not possible. Instead, much of the method of the Novelas a Marcia Leonarda centers on a new ironic manipulation of a genre which has already reached its zenith. Lope exploits the formula within the form. This manipulation is mani- fested either in parody of content and structure (we have already seen how Lope ironized the theoretical concerns of entertainment and exempla- riness) or in artistic self-consciousness. The other important factor to keep in mind in evaluating Lope’s treatment of the novela is that his are not the product of a novelist by trade or genius but of a poet and dramatkt. Lope is out of his element, and this situation affects both the way the novelas are structured as well as the author’s attitude towards himself in the act of novelistic creation.

Unity and Structure

The density achieved by the subtle interplay of style, theme, structure, and philosophy of life in the Abencerraje and the novelas of Cervantes and Mateo Alemiin i s the tour de force of the prose master. The multidimen- sionality of the novela and the organic relationship of the parts to the whole reach the peak of perfection in Cervantes. Lope unifies his novelas in an altogether different way. They do not display the complex, many- layered relationships characteristic of novelistic style and structure. The unity of Lope’s novelas lies in the equilibrium of outer and inner stimcture, of frame and story, of literature and life.

Lope’s use of the frame differs radically from that of Cervamtes or

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Alemh. He does not imbed his tale in a larger narrative framework as they do, but rather falls back on a ruse which served him well in the poetic sphere, that of being commanded to compose by a lady. The novelas are built on the same artifice as Lope’s famous “soneto de repente”:

Un soneto me manda hacer Violante, que en mi vida me he visto en tanto aprieto; catorce versos dicen, que es soneto, burla burlando van 10s tres delante.

y estoy a la mitad de otro cuarteto, mas si me veo en el primer terceto, no hay cosa en 10s cuartetos que me espante.

y parece que entr6 con pie derecho pues fin con este verso le voy dando.

que voy 10s trece versos acabando; contad si son caterce y estd hecho.13

Yo pens6 que no hallara consonante

Por el primer terceto voy entrando,

Ya estoy en el segundo y aun sospecho

Compare the opening of “Las fortunas”: “NO he dejado de obedecer a vuestra merced por ingratitud sin0 por temor de no acertar a servirla; porque mandarme que escriba una novela ha sido novedad para mi” (NM;, p. 27). With slight variations, this will be the underlying mechanism for the remaining novelas as well.

As in the sonnet, in the novelas the poet’s “yo,” or personality, is placed in the center of attention. Most importantly, there is the same insistence on the “yo” as artist, involved in the act of literary creation. The keynote for both the sonnet and the novelas is the making of literature out of the very process of making literature. In the novelas there is perhaps more urgency in the “aprieto”: Lope is tackling an unfamiliar genre with the spectre of Cervantes looming large in his imagination. But through this structural device he quickly turns debt to credit, spotlighting himself as the virtuoso who performs brilliantly and easily under stress. By ironizing the stylized literary conventions of the novela and exposing the building blocks of the form, he calls attention to his technical facility.

Instead of masterfully smoothing over the always difficult points of transition as do Cervantes and Alemh, or awkwardly stumbling on them for want of technique as did less skilled novelists such as Timoneda and Graciln Dantisco, Lope brazenly displays himself at work. He takes dehght in revealing the mechanics of the form for all to see. The emphasis, of course, is on himself as literary mechanic. The present progressive tense captures him in the very act of composition, again as in the sonnet: “Por no impedir el curso de este amor habemos llegado aqui sin tomar en la

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boca a Alejandro, caballero insigne de esta ciudad, que voy encubriendo, y notablemente rendido a la hermosura de esta dama” (NML, p. 70). This verbal echo in “La desdicha” of the “soneto de repente” (‘troy entrando,” “le voy dando,” etc.) underlines the similarity of procedure. Lope further ironizes novelistic formulas and dramatizes his role as literary technician when he cautions “no se olvide, pues, vuestra merced de Zulema, que asi se llamaba, que me importa para adelante que le tenga en la mcmoria” (NML, p. 124). Elsewhere he advises her to discard a letter (NML, p. 149) or a romance (NML, p. 42), and to shift the building blocks as she sees fit (“quite y ponga lo que fuere servida,” (NML, p. 153). At times he is content to comply with convention, though ironically pointing out its formulistic character: “Parkcerne que dice vuestra merced que claro estaba eso, y que, si habia mujer en esta casa, se habia de enamorar del disfrazado mozo” (NML, p. 52). At other times he builds the expectation of the fulfillment of the formula only to overturn the set pattern: “llrunibase Susana, per0 no la parecia en la castidad como en el nombre, porque pus0 10s ojos . . . Aqui claro esti que vuestra merced dice: ‘en don Felis’. Pues engafibse, que era mhs lindo Mendocica” (NML, p. 156). Lope could have added: “Burla burlando va la novela delante.”

He plays constantly with the traditional concept of verisimilitude, as does Cervantes. At times he presents himself as eyewitness of the “’historia verdadera”: “le restituyeron [a Guzmh el bravo] la libertad de g;ozar de su patria donde yo le conoci” (NML, p. 178). At others he mocks carrying the inclusion of concrete detail too far: “y dhdole 10s brazos y una cadena, de las que llaman ‘banda’, de peso de ciento y cincuenta escudos (que soy tan puntual novelador, que aun he querido que no le quede a vuestra merced este escriipulo de lo que pesaba)” (NML, p. 82). The spirit of the novelas is one of unbridled play, and the name of the game is literature. The technique adopted in the frame is designed to break the artistic illusion by unveiling the framework which supports it.

In such a setting, the usual care lavished on characterization or on the development and resolution of the anecdote ceases to be of importance. For this reason, the final recognition by Diana of Celio is tossed off in much the same tone as what immediately precedes or follows it (AWL, p. 71). The duel between Felisardo and Alejandro is suspended at its most dramatic point for a digression on musicians (NML, p. 81). Such throwing away of climactic moments is hardly unintentional in a master dramatist. It indicates not that Lope failed in his attempt to imitate the Cervantine model, but that he was at least partially successful in his attempt to reshape the form according to his own talents and interests. Critics who condemn Lope’s novelus for the reduction of the form to formula reveal a basic misunderstanding of how the fictions work, since that reduction is fundamental to his procedure. Martin Gabriel Albinio, for exam!ple, falls into this error when he criticizes Lope for displaying a “bizantismo sin

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a h a , reducido a la simple aventura” or when he complains that his protagonists “no se mueven simb6licamente, sin0 de una manera capri- chosa que 81 mismo pone de relieve deshaciendo el encanto de la novela con ironia imp~rtuna.”’~

The grand external structure of the Decumeron also rests on the alternation of frame and story, life and literature. In Boccaccio, as Luigi Russo pointed out, the exciting illusion of reality and of spontaneous creation in the tales (which he refers to as “poiesis”) is contained by the dance-like, stylized “literature” of the frame.-’’ In Lope this order is reversed: the tales themselves are purposefully given the character of literary convention and formula while the illusion of life is cultivated in the intruding “yo” of the frame. A constant throughout Lope’s literary career is the projection of himself into the public eye in his dual role of artist and lover. Both roles are embraced by the artifice of the frame: Marta de Nevares thinly veiled as Marcia Leonarda) commands her lover to write novelus for her. The intimate atmosphere of the works has been much commented upon; Bruce Wardropper goes so far as to envision the reader of the published works as outsider, eavesdropper, or voyeur.16

But Lope’s treatment of the life/literature theme is in its own right at least as complex as Cervantes’. It must not be forgotten that the image of himself which Lope projects in the frame is no less literary than the conventions he ironizes in the tales; it is his persona, his carefully culti- vated public image. Many critics accept too literally the artifice of the novelus’ external structure or confuse Lope the man with the Lope who narrates, ironizes, digresses, and amuses his lover in the frame of the novela. When George Cirot insinuates that the real value of the novelas lies in the intrusion of Lope’s personality even more than in the subject pr~per ,~’ he is unwittingly paying a compliment to Lope’s ability to blur the boundaries between literature and life. Lope deliberately cultivated this confusion, especially in regard to his personal life and literary per- sona.”

Exemplariness and the Social Focus In spite of very basic differences in the handling of the novela which

reveal Lope’s poetic and dramatic rather than novelistic orientation,” there are, in the novelus’ reflection of contemporary society, many points of contact with Cervantes and Alemiin. Lope’s characters experience the same social milieu and are obliged to cope with the same obstacles. Like Alemiin’s Dorido, Celio in “Las fortunas” is forced to disguise his true feelings upon learning of Diana’s disappearance. He must put on an external show to save face and “volver por su persona” in a grotesque parade around the city: “se visti6 apriesa y con turbados pasos y desco- lorido rostro pas6 por todas partes donde Feniso le dijo que le culpaban,

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de cuya vista quedaron 10s que le murmuraban comdos” (NML, p. 39). Like Dorido, he can find release when shielded from the watching eyes of society: “Celio, desde que sali6 de la imperial Toledo, sin m h camino que su amor, en el primer monte se quej6 a gritos” (NML. p. 46).

At times, like Cervantes, Lope uses these social tensions to mottvate the action, as when Otavio defends Celio so eloquently against the “e:nvidia” and “murmuraci6n” of his offended friends that Octavio’s sister, Diana, falls in love with Celio. More superficially, Don Felis in ‘‘Guzmh el bravo” is almost done in not once but twice at the hands of ‘‘envicliosos.” He recovers from the first encounter which left him with forty wounds only to risk losing his head in the second W M L , pp. 176-77). In “La prudente venganza,” the workings of the plot are made to depend on the external sign-language of clothing and churchgoing (NML, p. 127). At other times, the reflection of contemporary society provides an atmo- sphere in which the plot develops and the characters move, a touchstone of reality counter-balancing the stylization of literary convent:ion. Al- though Lope mocks the theoretical demands for verisimilitude, he con- sistently provides the intimate detail which conveys a vivid impression of what day-to-day living was like in his social milieu. Lope excelled in filling out his novelas with what Rico calls a “deliciosa maraiia de menutlencias” (NML, p. 72). These down-to-earth details range from Laura and Fenisa’s practical discussion concerning the former’s inheritance and dowry (NML, p. 11 l) , to the references to the steady flow of wealth into the ‘‘opulenta Sevilla” (NML, p. 108) which serves as the backdrop of “La prudente venganza,” to the mention of Marcelo’s magnificent coach, “el mayor deleite de las mujeres” (NML, p. 128).

Another correlation between Lopes’s novelas and those of Cervantes is the relationship between the form’s reflection of contemporary society and its exemplariness. The true exemplariness of the novela is not to be sought in the authors’ traditional, explicit statements of moralistic or didactic intention, but rather in the attitude revealed indirectly through the treatment of their society’s values and ideals. The Cervantine novela opposes certain social values and attitudes, not through explicit mor- alizing, but through exemplary entertainment. The contemporary social milieu generates the “desatino” or unusual event which constitutes the plot of the noveZa, but the characteristic response to certain situations is changed. Carrizales, for example, instead of focusing his dying energy on injured honor or lust for vengeance, submits his own actions lo moral scrutiny.

Lope, in his theorizing on the novela, puts great emphasis on the value of exemplary erudition, hoping to elevate the form and to surpass Cer- vantes. In practice, however, he mocks his own erudite pretensions. It would seem that we have here a classic example of the novelist who says

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Yvonne Yarbro-Bejarano 469

one thing and does another. There is an ironic compliance with traditional demands of exemplariness on the surface, while what really matters is the possibility of entertaining which the form offers. Although Lope thus rejects the traditional definition of exemplariness, we do not expect from him any redefinition in social terms, since he links the novela with the chivalresque novel and the comedia (NML, p. 38). These are the very genres which Cervantes sought to replace with his new literature of exemplary entertainment and imagination.20 Vicente Llorhs and Marcos Morinigo have pointed out the relationship between the tremendous popularity of the chivalresque novels and the desire of the sixteenth- century Spaniard to cling to the heroic ideals of the past.’’ Lope’s comediu is closely related to the romancero’s lengendary-historical world which represents in part the collective expression of medieval, national ideals.*’ The comedia took over from the chivalresque novel the function of providing the same audience with the anachronistic vision of themselves they wanted to see, in spite of the ever-widening gap between past and present, ideals and reality. The Canon and the Curate in the Quijote equate the readers of chivalresque novels with the comedia audience, and level the same criticism at both genres (I, 48). Cervantes’ condemnation of the chivalresque novel and, by extension, of the comedia, goes beyond esthetic concerns such as the literal confusion of literature and life or the lack of verisimilitude. Although such concerns are included in Cervantes’ judg- ment, the ultimate target of his irony is literature which keeps alive aging ideals. He opposes entertainment which allows people to escape into illusions of the past.

One might have supposed that Lope would continue to uphold the ideals and values of his society in his novelas as he does in his plays.23 But even in the comediu Montesinos has detected an element which ironizes the aspirations and illusions of Spanish society: the figura de donaire, who opposes the galan’s %ed de milagros y sed de aventuras.”24 Besides providing this ideological counterpoint, the gracioso frequently breaks the dramatic illusion “con alusiones a las convenciones de la comedia” (Estu- dios, p. 67) . Montesinos was the first to point out how Lope himself adopts the role of the figura de donaire in his detached, ironic contempla- tion of his life in literature, especially in the Dorotea. Michael Ruggerio and Francisco Yndurhin have developed the idea of Lope as figura de donaire, who evaluates his work within his work, particularly in the novelas, with their constant laying bare of the artistic framew~rk.’~

In the novelas, Lope’s role as figura de donaire is not confined to this ironic commentary on the literary process, but extends to his mocking attitude towards his heroes, who parallel the galanes of the comedia. Just as the first novela ironized literary conventions, “La desdicha por la honra” and ‘‘Guzmh el bravo” poke fun at the ossified social myths of honor and valor. Marcel Bataillon has noted how Lope confronts the

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470 Kentucky Romance Quarterly

problem of pure blood in “La desdicha” from a perspective unlike that of the comedia.26 Lope negates the equation of honor and Old Christian and gently condemns Felisardo for feeling obliged to act in accordance with these ideals. If in the title of the novela Lope discreetly refers to Felisar- do’s “desdicha por la honra,” in the text he speaks his mind with more candor: “verl vuestra merced el valor de un hombre de nuestra patria, tan necio por su honra, que si lo fuera el fin como el principio, la lhstima le cubriera de olvido y la pluma de silencio” (NML, p. 75).

In “La desdicha” Lope criticizes the concept of honor in its relation- ship to pure blood; “La prudente venganza” speaks out against the bloody vengeance of offenses against marital honor, in direct contradicticln to the perspective adopted in the comedia. However, it would be misleading to state that this exemplary stance is the true motivating force behind the novela itself, though Lope would have us believe that it is: “no es ejemplo que nadie debe imitar, aunque aqui se escriba para que lo sea a las mujeres que con desordenado apetito aventuran la vida y la honra a tim breve deleite” (NML, p. 14). That we should not take Lope’s explicit moralizing too seriously is borne out by the fact that he is simultaneously cultivating the illusion of writing for a woman who was all too willing, as was Lope himself, to disregard such exemplary advice.

Like Cervantes, Lope attacks the rigid poses of his contemlporaries through laughter. But whereas Cervantes lets his characters betray them- selves and one another in novelistic situations, Lope himself deflates their pompous posturing in his role as figura de donaire. In two novelas he fixes on the extravagant moustache as a symbol of overblown self-esteem easily ironized. Felisardo “no llev6 bien que le hablase en la braveza ni en el cuidado de 10s bigotes, que aunque no habia 10s estantales que les-ponen agora.. . no 10s traia con descuido y porque se levantaban COIL s610 el cuidado de las manos, 10s llamaba ‘10s obedientes. ” (NML, p. 80). Don Felis in “GuzmQ el bravo” is another representative of the “valierite” that Lope ironizes by grossly exaggerating his feats. Don Felis terrorizes his opponents merely by exposing his moustache: “Ponia terror don Felis en la postura que estaba, levantada la visera, por donde s610 descubria 10s airados ojos y 10s bigotes negros, como rayos de luto de las muertes que amenazaba” (NML, p. 177). The reduction of anecdote to formula for the purpose of literary play parallels the reduction of character to stereotype for the purpose of irony. Eduardo Carles Blat’s analysis of these two heroes reveals once again a misunderstanding of their conception:

El desdichado por la honra y GuzmQ el bravo son dos sere:s entelk- quicos, dos idealistas suprahumanos, dos temerarios, que de sus ciegos empeiios o de su colosal potencia fisica hacen ballesta para dis- pararse . . . a la realizacibn de 10s m b descabellados proyectos . . . sin que sus arrebatados destinos logren conmovernos ni por un instante. En

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Yvonne Yurbro-Bejarano 471

la locura . . . de kstos, agitados dementes, no hay nada que excite a la simpatia ni a la admiraci6n. . . .*’

The vocabulary of Carles Blat’s criticism actually hints at what Lope sets out to do: depict in a humorous, exaggerated fashion the “agitados dementes” which people his comedias and the collective fantasy of his compatriots. They are Lope’s Don Quijotes. In spite of the great differ- ences in technique between the Novelas ejemplares and the Novelas a Marcia Leonurda, their function vis-a-vis contemporary society is the same: to correct through laughter and exemplary entertainment the attitudes and values which made of Golden Age Spain an age of conflict.

UNIVERSITY OF WASHINGTON

NOTES

1. For a detailed discussion of the origins of the form in Boccaccio, subsequent development in Bandello, and the tradition of the genre in Spain see the author’s unpublished dissertation “The Tradition of the novela in Spain, from Pedro Mexia (1540) to Lope de Vega’s Novelas a March Leonarda,” Haward University, 1976. The present study of Lope’s novelas is a revision of the last chapter.

2. Novelas a Marcia Leomrda, ed. Francisco Rico (Madrid: Alianza Editorial, 1969), p. 27; hereafter NML.

3. Vittore Branca, Boccaccio medievale (Fireme: G. C . Sansoni, 1970), p. 9. 4. Prologue to his edition of the Novelas a Marcia Leonarda, p. 10. 5 . Experience and Artistic Expression in Lope de Vega (Cambridge, Mass.:

Harvard University Press, 1974), p. 351. 6. Introduction to his edition of Lope de Vega: Poesias liricas (Madrid: Edi-

ciones de “La Lectura,” 1960), I, x. 7. “La novela corta romhtica: Cervantes y Lope,” c1, 132 (1964), 218. The

same article appears with the title “Sobre Cexvantes y Lope: La novella,” in RF, 75

8. “El viaje del Pamaso,” in Obras completas, ed. Angel Valbuena h a t madrid: Aguilar, 1967), p. 66.

9. The technique is reminiscent of Cervantes’ own oblique reference to himself as the reformer of imaginative literature in the Qugote’s second escrutinio which introduces “El curioso impertinente.”

10. “Lope poeta fdosbfico,” in Poesia espaiiola (Madrid: Editorial Gredos, 1966), p. 461.

11. A representative example is Anselmo’s self-appraisal at the end of “El curioso impertinente” (“yo fui el fabricador de mi deshonra”).

12. Novellentheorie und Novellendichtung; zur Geschichte ihrer Antinomie in den romanischen Literaturen (Heidelberg: C . Winter, 1967), p. 160. Spanish transla-

(1963) 273-88.

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412 Kentucky Romance Quarterly

tion La novela corta en la teoria y en la creacibn literaria (Madrid: Editoriad Gredos, 1972) is by Rafael de la Vega.

13. Lope de Vega: Poesias liricas, I, 187-88. 14. “Heliodoro y la novela espaiiola,” Cuadernos de Literatura, 8 (1950:1,219. 15. Letture critiche del “Decameron” (Bari: Laterza, 1956), p. 25. 16. “Lope de Vega’s Short Stories: Priesthood and the Art of Literary Seduc-

tion,” in Medieval and Renaissance Studies, Proc. of the Southeastern Institute of Medieval and Renaissance Studies, Summer 1966 (Chapel Hill, North Carolina: University of North Carolina Press, 1966), p. 59.

17. “Independamment du sujet, il y a quelque chose qui peut nous attirtz et nous siduire: la maniere m h e , c’esta-dire Lope, son style, sa personnalit6 teUe clu’elle s’y r&$le. . . ce d6vait etre un homme delicieux. Non! le temps qu’on passe avec lui n’est pas perdu,” in “Valeur litteraite des nouvelles de Lope de Vega,” BH, 28 (1926), 331.

18. The most well-known example of Lope’s literarization of his life is the treatment of his affair with Elena Osorio, from the boastful indiscretion of “Mira, Zaide, que te aviso” in his youth to the thoughtful and ironic contemplation of the Dorotea in his maturity. See Trueblood’s Experience and Artistic Expression in Lope de Vega.

19. Florence L. Yudin studies the a f f ~ t i e s of Lope’s novelas with the comedia in “The novela corta as comedia: Lope’s Las fortunas de Diana,” BHS, 45 (1968),

20. See Stephen Gilman’s “Los inquisidores literarios de Cervantes,’’ in Actas del Tercer Congreso Internacional de Hispanistas (Mkxico: Colegio de MMco, 1970), and the discussion of Cervantes in the present author’s unpublished dissertation.

21. Vicente Llor6ns, “La intencih del Quijote,” in Literatura, historhi, politica (Madrid: Editorial Revista de Occidente, 1967), pp. 205-22; Marcos A. Morhigo, “El teatro como sustituto de la novela en el siglo de oro,”RUBA, 2 (1957), 41411.

22. See Am6rico Castro’s De la edad conflictiva (Madrid: Taurus, 1972) for a seminal presentation of these ideas.

23. From recent conversations with Albert Sicroff, I am becoming aware that this view of Lope’s comedia is being questioned. Studies of ironic techniques in the theater of Lope may make it necessary to modify Castro’s categorical statement that the majority-oriented comedia represented the “portavoz . . . de la casta triunfante” (Edad, p. 30).

181-88.

24. Estudios sobre Lope (MBxico: Colegio de MBxico, 1951), p. 55. 25. “Lope and his Role as Figura del donaire,”RF, 78 (1966), 64-89. hi Lope de

Vega como novelador (Santander : Universidad Internacional MenBndez Pela yo [Bole- tin Oficial del Estado] , 1962), Francisco Y n d u r h comments, ‘barece este: mod0 de comentar la fibula novelesca al que tiene ecnomendado en la comedia el gracioso cuando subraya una situacih tbpica o cualquier manierimo” (p. 47).

26. “La desdicha por la honra: genesis y sentido de una novela de Lope,”NRFH, 1(1947), 1342.

27. “Las novelas ejemplares de Lope,” Fknix, 4 (1935), 558-59.

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