From: Cervantes: Bulletin of the Cervantes Society of America
17.2 (1997): 143-45.
Copyright © 1997, The Cervantes Society of America
| REVIEW |
|
Cervantes, Miguel de. Eight Interludes. Trans. and ed. Dawn L.
Smith. Everyman Series. London: Orion House, 1996. 178 pp.
Students and instructors in Comparative Literature
programs throughout the English-speaking world have reason to be thankful
for what Dawn Smith and the Everyman editors have wrought here, a solid critical
edition (in English) of the eight one-act plays Cervantes published in 1615.
Although this volume is essentially a translation of Nicholas Spadaccini's
scholarly edition of
|
|
||
| 144 | REVIEW | Cervantes |
|
|
||
Cervantes's Entremeses (Cátedra, 1982), Professor Smith has
supplemented the text with a number of valuable critical tools that will
assist both students and teachers.
The edition begins with a very effective eight-page
schematic chronicle of Cervantes's life and times. The most important events
in the author's biography are placed in context and proper perspective
vis-à-vis contemporary literary, artistic and historical landmarks.
Undergraduates should find this an invaluable feature. The general introduction
that follows is well documented (40 endnotes) and covers a variety of subjects
related to Cervantes's dramatic production. Smith touches upon historical
and cultural issues like the development of the public theater in Spain during
Cervantes's lifetime, the origin and evolution of the entremés
subgenre, and the circumstances surrounding Cervantes's belated decision
to publish six —a number later expanded to eight— unperformed
interludes that he had penned in previous years.
Each interlude is subsequently prefaced by
its own particular introduction, with the exception of The Widowed Pimp
(El rufián viudo) and The Election of the Magistrates of
Daganzo (La elección de los alcaldes de Daganzo), which
share the same introduction. In the prefatory remarks for The Man Who
Pretended to Be from Biscay (El vizcaíno fingido), for
example, Smith provides a valuable explanation of the social significance
of the work as both a reflection and a criticism of the 1611
“Premática de los coches,” a misguided attempt to legislate
morality by clamping down on the use of coaches for amorous liaisons. Modern-day
students with little or no understanding of the sexual practices of Cervantes's
day will benefit from the knowledge that prostitutes in seventeenth-century
Spain were accustomed to plying their trade in what amounted to horse-drawn
brothels. As Smith points out, the 1611 regulation had serious implications
for both sexes: on the one hand, the government was attempting to prevent
prostitutes from masquerading as high-born ladies; on the other, it was a
sincere effort to improve the physical fitness of Spanish men, who were becoming
soft and effeminate. Smith's introduction contextualizes the action of the
play by adding this significant but often overlooked socio-historical note.
Wisely following the example set by Spadaccini,
Smith supplements the text with twenty-one pages of notes that are very useful
and often enlightening; in many cases, scholarly references and suggestions
for further investigation are provided. Veteran teachers and researchers
in the field (such as this reviewer) tend to prefer the footnote style of
the Spadaccini edition over the endnotes used here, but the new economic
realities of publication seem to have dictated the demise of the older, more
reader-friendly format. The notes are followed by a section entitled
“Cervantes and His Critics,” in which Smith provides the reader
with a concise history of the critical reception of Cervantes's short dramatic
works, a range of commentary that stretches from the mid-1700s to the present.
For the most part, Smith's account is both enlightening and accurate. On
page 170, however, Smith has Marcelino Menéndez y Pelayo commenting
on the Interludes in 1941, a date which follows the noted Spanish
scholar's death by almost thirty years. The last two figures of the date
given have surely been transposed.
|
|
||
| 17.2 (1997) | REVIEW | 145 |
|
|
||
The volume concludes with two pages of
bibliographic references that students may find helpful for research purposes
and/or further reading on the subject. Happily, the number of typographical
errors is small. This reviewer found one of the characters in The Divorce
Court Judge claiming to have been “decieved” (18); in footnote
150, reference is made to the country of “Abyssina”; and the heading
of pages 117-25 refer to the Cave of “Salamanac.” Aside from these
spelling infelicities, I found the text to be free of annoying
distractions.
Although the Everyman edition of Cervantes's
Interludes is not likely to become a standard text for any doctoral
or master's program in Spanish or Hispanic letters, it certainly has a place
as a critical guide for programs that feature the works of notable authors
in translation. The present edition is reasonably priced and very serviceable.
As such, it is to be recommended for any course or program in which translations
of Cervantes's work are dealt with in a serious, scholarly fashion.
| E. T. Aylward |
| University of South Carolina |
|
|
Prepared with the help of Sue Dirrim |
|
| Fred Jehle jehle@ipfw.edu | Publications of the CSA | H–Cervantes |
| URL: http://www.h-net.org/~cervantes/csa/articf97/aylward.htm | ||