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The Mexican Background of Alarcón

(Printed from Bulletin Hispanique page proof, dated May 27, 1940)

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  02 December 2020

Dorothy Schons
Dorothy Schons*
Affiliation:
University of Texas
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Extract

It is generally conceded that what differentiates the best work of Alarcón from that of his contemporaries in Spain is the serious moral purpose and the very practical code of morality that he develops. His best plays are also marked by realism of plot and characterization. They are, moreover, remarkably clean and free from objectionable elements. This is the spirit of his best plays and this is the spirit, too, of sixteenth-century Mexico as he knew it.

Type
Research Article
Information
PMLA , Volume 57 , Issue 1 , March 1942 , pp. 89 - 104
Copyright
Copyright © Modern Language Association of America, 1942

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References

Note 1 in page 89 Joaquín Garcia Icazbalceta in “La antigua ciudad de México,” Obras, Biblioteca de autores mexicanos, i, (Mexico, 1896), p. 361, note 2, says: “Roberto Thompson, que estuvo en México en 1556, dice que la cuidad no tenía arriba de mil qui nientos vecinos españoles, pero que los indios avecindados en los barrios pasaban de trescientos mil.” By the end of the century, of course, the proportion of Spaniards was larger, but the natives still outnumbered the Europeans. The Biblioteca will hereafter be referred to as B. A. M.

Note 2 in page 89 Icazbalceta. “La Iglesia y convento de San Francisco de México,” Obras, ii (Mexico, 1896), p. 385.

Note 3 in page 89 See Francisco del Paso y Troncoso, “Comédies en langue nahualt,” in Congrès international des Américanistes, XIIe session (Paris, 1902), p. 1, 2, and P. Mariano Cuevas, Historia de la iglesia en México, (I Tlalpam, 1921), p. 383.

Note 4 in page 90 José María Vigil, Reseña histórica de la literatura mexicana, Mexico, n. d., p. 102.

Note 5 in page 90 The stage setting of the Franciscan plays in Mexico was undoubtedly far in advance of any used in Spain at that time. That was the Indian contribution. As the Indians were astonishingly talented in the arts and crafts, they represented very concretely everything that happened on the stage. See the description of the stage setting of Adán y Em, 1538, in Fray Toribio de Benavente o Motolinía, Historia de los indios de la Nueva España (Barcelona, 1914), Part i, Chapter 15.

Note 6 in page 90 Motolinía, op. cit., loc. cit. No title is given for this play. It was performed in 1539.

Note 7 in page 90 Motolinía, op. cit., loc. cit.: “Tornaba luego el santo a proceder en el sermón, y salían unas hechiceras muy bien contrahechas, que con bebedizos en esta tierra muy fácilmente hacen malparir a las preñadas ...”

Note 8 in page 90 Ibid.

Note 9 in page 90 Ibid.

Note 10 in page 90 Francisco de Icaza. “Orígenes del teatro en México,” Boletín de la Real Academia Española, 1915, p. 58, p. 60, note 1.

Note 11 in page 90 Ibid.

Note 12 in page 91 Francisco del Paso y Troncoso, Sacrificio de Isaac, Auto en lengua mexicana (Florence, 1899), “Advertencia,” p. 4. Icaza, who discusses this auto in the article abovementioned, expresses surprise that the missionaries should have presented a play dealing with the subject of sacrifice inasmuch as the terrible sacrificial rites of the Aztec religion had not yet been forgotten. The play was undoubtedly used, however, to teach the Indians that human sacrifice is wrong, since God in the auto expressly forbids it.

Note 13 in page 91 For the drama in Spain consult J. P. W. Crawford, The Spanish Drama before Lope de Vega (Philadelphia, 1922).

Note 14 in page 91 Archivo Histórico Nacional, Madrid, Sección vii, Suprema Inauisición, Libro IV, “Registro de cartas y despachos,” 1–1050 ff. A letter of April 16, 1600, referring to books, says in part: “vienen sin hacerse en ellos las enmiendas que están mandadas por el catálogo, y en la persona que visita los libros allí hay descuido. Suplicamos a V. Sa. mande ... que de aquí adelante hay en el visitarlos muy particular cuidado.”

Note 15 in page 91 The text of the decree of 1598 is reproduced in Fernández del Castillo, “Libros y libreros del siglo xvi,” Publicaciones del Archivo General de la Nación, vi (Mexico, 1914), p. 533 ff. As the decree says “de cuatro o cinco años a esta parte,” the date when this censorship went into effect must have been 1593 or 1594.

Note 16 in page 92 Torquemada, Los veinte i un libros rituales i monarchia indiana (Madrid, 1723), Book xx, Chapter 79.

Note 17 in page 92 Torquemada, op. cit., Book xvii, Chapter 8. Mendieta, Historia eclesiástica indiana (Mexico, 1870), Part i, Book iv, Chapter 20.

Note 18 in page 92 Torquemada, op. cit., Book xx, Chapter 79.

Note 19 in page 92 See Fray Juan Baptista, A Jesu Christo S. N. ofrece este sermonario en lengua mexicana su indigno sieruo ..., (Mexico, 1606). The copy in the García Collection lacks the title page, but it is given by José T. Medina in La imprenta en México, II, (México, 1909), p. 30. The celebrated Bernardino de Sahagún, in Histoire générale des choses de la Nouvelle-Espagne, Paris, 1880, says in the Prologue to the Tenth Book: “Si l'on veut porter une sérieuse attention sur la prédication évangélique et apostolique, on verra clairement que les prédicateurs catholiques ont pour devoir de s'occuper des vertus et des vices, dans le but de détourner des uns et d'attirer vers les autres.”

Note 20 in page 92 Torquemada, op. cit., loc. cit. See also Juan Bautista, “Prólogo del autor,” in Confessionario en lengua mexicana y castellana, (Mexico, 1599), reproduced by Icazbalceta, Bibliografia mexicana del siglo 16 (Mexico, 1886), p. 350 fi“. Francisco del Paso y Troncoso has translated an Indian play which deals with the theme of the glutton. He calls it La petite Vieille et le gamin son petit fils. This was published in the Comédies en langue nahualt already mentioned. The existence of such a play may indicate a tradition. Though it is a farce, the glutton is punished.—Fernández Guerra y Orbe, A., Don Juan Ruiz de Alarcón y Mendoza (Madrid, 1871), p. 127, 129–130, speaks of the farces performed in Mexico.

Note 21 in page 93 Rémi Simeon, Dictionnaire de la langue nahualt ou mexicaine (Paris, 1885).

Note 22 in page 93 Torquemada, op. cit., loc. cit.: “introduxe las Representaciones de los exemplos los Domingos, y hice en la Lengua Mexicana estas dichas Comedias, o Representaciones, que fueron de mucho fruto a estas gentes, y aora lo son; porque desde entonces ià se acostumbran, por algunos Ministros, en muchas partes, o haciendolas ellos de nuevo, o aprovechandose de las muchas que yo tengo hechas, y otras, que el P. Fr. Juan Bautista ... hiço de mucha elegancia y erudición.”

Note 23 in page 93 Icazbalceta, “Introducción” in Coloquios espirituales y sacramentales ... del presbítero Fernán González de Eslava (Mexico, 1877), p. xxiii, note 1.

Note 24 in page 93 Léo Rouanet, Colección de autos, farsas y coloquios del siglo XVI, Biblioteca Hispánica vols. v-viii. Such plays as La residencia del hombre (ix and l), Auto de la lepra de Naamán (xviii), Auto del Emperador Juveniano (xxiii), Aucto de la Verdad y la Mentira (xv) and others have a serious moral purpose. Most of them, however deal with general virtues and vices and the emphasis is usually on plot rather than on character. The Aucto de Tobías (xxi) is a better example, perhaps, of the type of play that must have gone into the making of the Alarconian comedia de carácter.

Note 25 in page 93 Such plays as Egloga de Crislino y Febea by Juan del Encina; Egloga nueva by Diego Durán (?); La comedia pródiga by Luis de Miranda; Farsa del matrimonio, Farsa de la hechicera, Farsa de Tamar—all by Diego Sánchez de Badajoz; the plays of Torres Naharro, and others too numerous to mention. See Crawford, op. cit., pp. 34, 51, 78, 81, 106, 110 et passim.

Note 26 in page 94 See my “Apuntes y documentos nuevos para la biografía de Don Juan Ruíz de Alarcón y Mendoza,” Boletín de la Real Academia Española de la Historia, xcv (Madrid, 1929), p. 68.

Note 27 in page 94 Tratado de las supersticiones ... de los naturales de la Nueva España (1629), (Mexico, 1892).

Note 28 in page 94 See my Apuntes, pp. 76–78.

Note 29 in page 94 Icazbalceta, “La instrucción pública en México durante el siglo xvi,” Biblioteca de autores mexicanos, i, p. 262: “La forzosa comunicación cuotidiana con los indígenas, y lo muy extendida que estaba entre los criollos la lengua mexicana, ocasionó la introducción de muchas palabras de ella en el trato común ...”

Note 30 in page 94 “Prólogo,” Sermonario (Icazbalceta, Bibliografía mexicana, p. 362).

Note 31 in page 94 The ideas in Alarcón's plays are to be found in Juan Bautista's Sermonario and in other missionary writers.

Note 32 in page 94 The dramatized ejemplo was advocated as a means of purifying the drama by the interlocutors of the anonymous Diálogos de las comedias (1620?), published by D. Emilio Cotarelo y Mori, Bibliografía de las controversias sobre la licitud del teatro en España (Madrid, 1904). See pp. 225–230.

Note 33 in page 95 Biblioteca de autores españoles, xx, (Madrid, 1852), p. 62. This will be referred to hereafter as B. A. E. Also compare the concluding lines of Quien engaña más a quien.

Note 34 in page 95 Even the Huehuetlatolli, conversations between a father and a son, supposedly of Aztec origin (translated by Juan Bautista, Alonso de Molina, Juan de Torquemada and others), show the influence of the Disciplina clericalis, Castigos y documentos del Rey Don Sancho, El libro de los castigos by Don Juan Manuel and other similar Christian forms. See Colección de documentos para la historia mexicana, published by Antonio Peñafiel (Mexico, 1897).

Note 35 in page 95 B. A. E., xx, pp. xxx-xxxii.

Note 36 in page 95 González Peña, Historia de la literatura mexicana (Mexico, 1928), pp. 12–13. The Dominicans and Augustinians even had chairs in the University of Mexico as can be gathered from a letter in the Archivo de Indias, Audiencia de México, “Cartas y expedientes del Virrey vistos en el Consejo,” 58-3-18.

Note 37 in page 96 Libros y libreros del siglo XVI, pp. 263–281.

Note 38 in page 96 It is not to be supposed that these primitive dramatists concerned themselves with literary theory. Yet it seems likely that they unconsciously applied, as did Italian critics, the Averroistic interpretation of the Aristotelian “enthymeme” or example. Thus teaching by example came to be the tradition in New Spain. The Horatian principle of the “utile et dulce” was never lost sight of, yet the “utile” was given the preference. This may explain why Alarcón emphasized the useful, whereas Lope chose what was pleasant.

Note 39 in page 96 Icazbalceta, Bibliografía, p. 414, quotes the letter of Father Morales in which this play is described: “que no parecía ser sola representación, como se vió claramente en el efecto que obró el Señor, de un nunca visto sentimiento y lágrimas y conversión de muchos a su divino servicio, publicando lo que no habían hecho muchos sermones les había Dios comunicado con estra obra, y que bastara a convertir turcos que se hallaran presentes ...”

Note 40 in page 96 Archivo de Indias, Audiencia de México, “Cartas ... ”: 58-3-15: “En esta ciudad se havía comenzado (antes de mi venida) el uso de las comedias y después creció y se multiplicaron compañías que no prohibí por las causas que en Castilla no se prohiben y parecerme más fuertes aquí algunas delias.”

Note 41 in page 97 Published in Gallardo, Ensayo de una biblioteca española de libros raros y curiosos, iv (Madrid 1889), p. 253 ff.

Note 42 in page 97 J. T. Medina, Biblioteca hispano-americana, ii (Santiago, Chile, 1900), p. 154, quotes this passage from La aurora de Cristo (Seville, 1616).

Note 43 in page 97 G. T. Northup, An Introduction to Spanish Literature (Chicago, 1925), p. 284.

Note 44 in page 97 I (Madrid, 1893), p. lviii.

Note 45 in page 97 In Grandeza mejicana (Madrid, 1829).

Note 46 in page 97 Juan de Grijalva, Crónica de la orden. de ... San Agustín ... (Mexico, 1624), p. 21, speaks with bitterness of the treatment accorded criollos in Spain and in Mexico.

Note 47 in page 97 A person having a mixture of Negro and Indian blood.

Note 48 in page 98 Fernández-Guerra y Orbe cites this passage (op cit., pp. 272–273), taking it to refer to the Alcázar. All contemporary writers speak of the fortress-like character of the Alcázar, hence the reference can not be to it. I take it they are speaking of the houses of Madrid in general, for the conversation begins as follows:

Hernando. ¡Lindo lugar!
García. El mejor:
Todos, con él, son aldeas.

Note 49 in page 98 See “Obras de García Icazbalceta,” in B. A. M., xii (Mexico, 1898), p. 175 ff.

Note 50 in page 98 Idem. pp. 177–178.

Note 51 in page 98 Alonso de Zorita, Historia de la Nueva España (Madrid, 1909) p. 200. Manuel Romero de Terreros, Arte colonial (Mexico, 1916), p. 108.

Note 52 in page 99 Romero de Terreros, op. cit., p. 116, note. Adrían Téllez Pizarro, Apuntes acerca de los cimientos de los edificios en la Ciudad de México (Mexico, 1900), p. 7. Luis González Obregón, Epoca colonial, México Viejo (Mexico), 1900, p. 140.

Note 53 in page 99 B. A. E., xx, 147.

Note 54 in page 99 Teatro de las grandezas de Madrid (Madrid, 1623), p. 12.

Note 55 in page 99 B. A. M., xii, 178–179.

Note 56 in page 99 B. A. E., xx, 88.

Note 57 in page 100 B. A. E., xx, 344.

Note 58 in page 100 B. A. M., xii, 178.

Note 59 in page 100 B. A. E., xx, 182.

Note 60 in page 100 Memoria histórica de las obras del desagüe de México, i (Mexico, 1902), pp. 77–87. Also see Fernández-Guerra y Orbe, op cit., pp. 84–93.

Note 61 in page 101 B. A. M., xii, p. 180.

Note 62 in page 101 González de Eslava, Hernán, Coloquios espirituales y sacramentales (Mexico, 1877): “Coloquio cuarto de los cuatro doctores de la iglesia,” p. 63. The coloquios were written between 1560 and 1600 and the first edition was published in Mexico in 1610.

Note 63 in page 101 Luis González Obregón, Las calles de México, Mexico, 1924, p. 231. A modern map also shows a “Calle de las Chocheras.”

Note 64 in page 101 Téllez Pizarro, op. cit., p. 32.

Note 65 in page 101 Fernández-Guerra y Orbe (op. cit., pp. 93–94) cites a passage from this play describing the Mexican flood.

Note 56 in page 101 B. A. E., xx, p. 80.

Note 67 in page 102 Remi Siméon, op. cit.

Note 68 in page 102 “Francisco de Terrazas y otros poetas del siglo xvi,” in Obras de García Icazbalceta, B. A. M., ii, p. 235; p. 237: “Con la casa de agua al través dimos.”

Note 69 in page 102 Archivo de Indias, 58-2-11.

Note 70 in page 102 Obras de García Icazbalceta, B. A. M., ii, p. 282. See also Mendieta, op. cit., Book iv, Chapter 33.

Note 71 in page 102 Op. cit. Coloquio séptimo de Jonas profeta. See also Gil González Davila, Teatro eclesiástico de la primitiva iglesia de las Indias occidentales (Madrid, 1649), p. 33.

Note 72 in page 102 Mendieta, op. cit., Part i, Book iii, Chapter 33.

Note 73 in page 103 It is true, of course, that the Renaissance was very much occupied with the doctrine of the gentleman. Il cortigiano had suggested a code for gentlemen which France and Spain were quick to copy. Therefore Alarcón's code owes something to this literature of the gentleman.

Note 74 in page 103 Translated by Francisco del Paso y Troncoso and published in Florence in 1900.

Note 75 in page 103 See note 34.

Note 76 in page 103 Op. cit., A la consagración del Doctor Don Pedro Moya de Contreras, p. 37.

Note 77 in page 103 The actual source of both plays is of course Juan Manuel's famous Exemplo xii in El Conde Lucanor.

Note 78 in page 104 B. A. E., xx, 8.

Note 79 in page 104 B. A. E., xx, 181.

Note 80 in page 104 Eslava, op. cit., Del bosque divino donde Dios tiene sus aves y animales, p. 125.