Spanish Comedies and HIstorical Contexts in the 1620s.

William R. Blue. (Penn State Studies in Romance Literatures.) University Park, PA: The Pennsylvania State University Press, 1996. xi + 259 pp. $42.50. ISBN 0-271-01546-2.

William R. Blue's latest book evokes, invokes, and even provokes as it lays before the reader a felicitous weaving of contemporary theory and analysis of selected comedias from an important period in Spanish literary, cultural, and historical life.

In his introduction Blue describes both the pageantry of a royal procession and the mockery of a Carnival parade wherein are found the order of a highly stratified society, a metaphor for Spanish comedia itself standing halfway between these two modes of public presentation. There follows a concise summary of clerical opposition to public theater, seen as a threat to gender and rank distinctions, a threat to social fabric as a whole. The question becomes who should "re-right/re-write the world" (19) in the face of alleged moral decay.

Northrop Frye's anatomies and Terry Eagleton's skepticism ground chapter 1, "Comedy and Love." With studies of Calderon's Casa con dos puertas mala es de guardar and Tirso's La celosa de simisma, among others, Blue argues that metaphor for the power structure defines arranged marriages, with the myth of mutual love depending on the recognition of the Other's merit. "Comedy and Madrid," the title of chapter 2, trades on the geography of the city, the growing pains it felt during the decade, and their effects upon relationships; the house (in, for example, Tirso's En Madrid y en una casa and La villana de Vallecas) operates like a theater where the pursuits of desire (Lacanian and otherwise) are exhibited. Chapter 3, "Comedy and Economy," reveals Blue's comprehensive understanding of Castilian economy and a perceptive analysis of Calderon's La dama duende, a play where exchange and the individual's position in society are closely linked. Lope's Amor, pleito y desafio receives consideration in chapter 4, "Comedy and Legal Matters," though a lack of a strong theoretical underpinning here does not yield a clear analysis. However, the final chapter, "Comedy and the Self," brings the reader a step toward the book's synthesis, for Blue travels from Parker's pronouncements on character to Althusser, Freud, and Lacan, pursuing definitions of the self in plays like Lope's La moza del cantaro and Tirso's La celosa de simisma. Blue's aim is to find a space for a female consciousness, to map out the boundaries of traditional frames that are transgressed, and to underscore the effects of carnival and theater. A change of clothing - so fundamental to the nature of role - threatens traditional order, and in this Blue returns to the moralists to show just how right they were in believing that theater did challenge established order.

The book suggests questions: Was there a development throughout the 1620s in the areas Blue has chosen? Does a noticeable change in tone occur around 1630 and the atmosphere of La vida es sueno? The 1620s do provide a useful context, and the same could - should - be said for the teens, 1630s, 1640s, and so on (consider the work by Frederick de Armas and Margaret R. Greer on Calderon's mythological and court plays) yet precisely that context requires elaboration. What could be strengthened is a sense of the whole, of how law, self, economics tie together. A summary of the 1610s might clarify the dramatists' concerns of the 1620s.

Regardless of Blue's approach, his clear articulation expands the import of the selected texts; even the occasional pun is welcome as part and parcel of comedia discourse and of the writer's sharp mind. A better understanding of the decade with succinct and insightful conclusions emerges. Finally, jargon is reduced to an absolute minimum, proving that understanding difficult theory, once ably synthesized, need not require sending away for a decoder ring.

CHARLES GANELIN Purdue University