Helen Burke Ledbury a Thesis Submitted to the University of Sheffield in Candidature for the Degree of Doctor of Philosophy Depa
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THE TRAGEDIES OF MAMA RosA GkLvEZ DE CABRERA (1768-1806) Helen Burke Ledbury A thesis submitted to the University of Sheffield in candidature for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy Department of Hispanic Studies April 2000 ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS The researchpresented in this thesiswas carriedout betweenOctober 1994and April 2000 in the Departmentof HispanicStudies at the Universityof Sheffieldunder the supervisionof Dr. Philip Deacon.The projectwas supportedfor threeyears as part of the UniversityFees and Bursary Scheme. A period of archivalresearch in July 1996was fundedaccording to the termsof the PetrieWatson Exhibition. I would like to thank Professor A. A. Heathcote for supporting my initial applications for funding and Professor N. Round for subsequentlyaccepting me as a postgraduate student, Dr. Tim Lewis for enrolling me as Graduate Tutor in Spanishin the Modem LanguagesTeaching Centre, and Dr. JohnEngland for encouragingand supporting me as a tutor in the Department of Hispanic Studies. The successfulcompletion of this thesisis due,in part, to Dr Philip Deacon whose expert guidance through the initial phasesand scrupulous direction during the final stagesof my project haveproved invaluable. Dr. Deacon'ssupervision has been both intellectuallydemanding and rigorous throughout and I would Re to thank him for his advice, practical support and ongoing interest in my work. I must also acknowledge the support of colleagues,especially Jane Woodin, Isabel Diez, Antonio Barriga, Nashy Bonelli, Puri Trabada and Julia Falc6n and the understanding and loyalty of friends, especiallyNuria Gon7Aez, Jordi Doce, Catherine Smith, Barry Rawlins, Cristina Vald6s, Isabel Vencesli and Rekha Narula. I must expressmy deepestgratitude to Valerieand Vincent Burke, who always ensuredI was neverdenied an opportunityto further my knowledgeand learning. Mark Ledbury'sunfailing encouragement at eachstage of this thesishas proved a sourceof strengthand happiness. I would like to thank him for his wisdom,patience and care,but aboveaH, for his enthusiasm. H SUMMARY The aim of this thesis is to advancean understandingof the author's corpus of tragic plays, eight in total. ChapterOne explorescontinuities and changesin Gilvez's critical fortunesin the last two hundredyears. Chapter Two examinesthe author's commitment to write tragedyin the light of notionsof the genrein eighteenth-centurySpain, situating GAIvez'sinnovation and experimentation with genericconstants both ancientand modem in the contextof the contemporarydebate on theatre. The remainingeight chaptersare dedicatedto analysesof aesthetic,structural and thematic elementsof each play: Afi-Bek, set in Mameluke Egypt, whose ensemblecast of characters and uncompromising portrayal of cruelty and barbarity perplexed contemporary critics; Safil, which dramatised the final hours in the life of this Biblical figure in the uni-personal mel6logo format; Sa/b, which depicted the Greek poet's passionate yet solemn act of suicide; Florinda, which interrogated the legend of the Moorish Conquest of Spain; Blanca de Rossi, in which elementsof the emergent Gothic style animated the familiar tragic dilemma between public duty and personal honour; Amn6n, which recast the Biblical story of Amnon and Tamar and engaged with earlier treatments by Calder6n de la Barca and Tirso de Molina; Zinda which addressedissues of slavery, colonialism and nationhood, drawing on elements and techniques associated with sentimental comedy; La defirante, in which Gilvez approached the historical account of the rivalry between Tudor and Stuart, through the character of Leonor, Mary Stuart's daughter. The systematic analysis of these plays reveals GAIvez as a self-conscious and skilful tragedian, able to fuse the conventions of ancient models of tragedy with the devices of new dramatic and literary forms to create a body of tragic writing which is at once experimental, innovative and essentiallyclassicising. iii CONTENTS Introduction 1 Chapter One GAIvez's Critical Fortunes 6 Chapter Two G9vez and the Fortunes of Tragedy 24 Chapter Three Aft-Bek 41 Chapter Four Said 63 Chapter Five Safo 80 Chapter Six Florinda 93 ChapterSeven Blanca de Rossi 110 ChapterEight Amn6n 127 ChapterNine Zinda 143 ChapterTen La defirante 156 Conclusion 172 Bibliography 175 IV ABBREVIATIONS A. H.N. Archivo lEst6rico Nacional,Madrid A. H. P.M. Archivo flistörico de Protocolos, Madrid A.M. M. Archivo Municipal,Madrid B.N. M. BibliotecaNacional, Madrid B.M. M. Bibhoteca-I-list6ricaMunicipal, Madrid Caftos Teatro de los Caflosdel Peral,Madrid Cruz Teatro de la Cruz, Madrid Principe Teatro del Principe, Madrid BIBLIOGRAPHIC REFERENCES Works are cited for the first time in full, and are referred to subsequentlyby short title. SPELLING Original spelling, accentuation and punctuation have been preserved. V INTRODUCTION This thesis focuses on the eight original tragedies of the MAlaga-born poet and playwright Maria Rosa Gilvez de Cabrera. These plays form part of an extensive and varied literary oeuvre which establishedthe author's reputation as the most prominent woman writer of her generation: Sea qual se fuese el lugar que esta ilustre dama debe ocupar entre los demis poetas de la nacion, no se la podri privar del m6rito de dar i su sexo un grande exemplo, cultivando las nobles artes, y de ser, sino la finica poetisa espaftola,i lo menos la principal y mis fecunda.1 Gilvez composed a number of original poems and dramatic works in addition to translating several French plays for the Spanish stage, and succeededin publishing most of this body of writing before her untimely death in 1806.2The first works to appear in print, an original tragedy, a short comic piece and two translations, were included in the six-volume anthology of contemporary drama Teatro nuevo eSpai)01.3The subsequent three-volume Obras pojticasý printed at the Imprenta Real, contained the most substantial and significant corpus of Gilvez's writing and comprised thirteen original poems, one translation and nine original plays; however it did not mark the culmination 4 of her literary endeavours. Three further poems were printed during the author's lifetime, two in contemporaryliterary journals and the other as an occasionalpoem in a separateedition, while two original andtwo translatedcomedies exist only in manuscript form.' A seriesof letters written by or on behalf of Gilvez to her patrons,the censors andcontemporary critics, in additionto documentaryevidence which confirmsthat ten of her plays were performed in Madrid in 1801 and 1805, completethe picture of an energeticwriter who participatedactively in the literary cultureof her day.' Chapter One traces GAlvez's critical fortunes from the first contemporary responsesto her writing, through to the most recent modem scholarship,analysing changesand continuitiesin the ways that critics and historianshave understoodthe author and her work. I argue that the often disdainfultone adoptedby contemporary commentatorsoriginated in their consternationat the ambition and complexity of the author's corpus of tragic writing. Although modem scholarshave rediscoveredthe pertinenceof Gilvez's poetic and dramaticsubject matter, they have often overlooked I the significanceof her experimentsand innovations in tragedy, a genre which her contemporariesconsidered to be the noblestdramatic form, and one for which women writers were thoughtill-suited. Chapter Two begins with a brief considerationof documentaryevidence and other writings in which the author outlined a commitmentto revive the fortunes of Spanishtragedy. I contendthat through her work, Gilvez aimedto constructan identity not as a woman,but as a writer and,above all, as a tragedian.In the rest of this section,I explorenotions of tragedyin eighteenth-centurySpain, and situateGilvez's engagement with generic constantsboth ancient and modem in the context of the contemporary debateon theatre. Chapter Three examinesAfi-Bek, which triggered a venomousattack from a contemporary critic and which continues to perplex scholars,who tend to regard it as the author's least successfulplay. Using the specific criticisms of the contemporary reviewer as a starting point, I argue that Gilvez's deliberate subversion of the concept of tragic hero in this play has been consistently misinterpreted and undervalued. As such, this tragedy might be regarded as one of the author's most richly experimental works. Chapters Four and Five are dedicated to Safil and Safo respectively. My examinationof these one-act dramas,often dismissedas minor pieces,in part draws inspirationfrom the author's treatmentof the act of suicidein each.To a certainextent both works engagedwith new developmentsin musico-dramaticgenres, while remaining firmly anchoredin the conventionsof Greeklyric tragedy. In Chapter Six I argue that Gilvez's determinationto experimentwith the conventionsof tragedy prompted her to overturn the myth of the national hero in Florinda. Although the legendaryaccount of the invasion of the Moors was firn-dy entrenchedin Spanishfolklore, Gilvez was the first writer to placeFlorinda at the centre of the narrative.This leads to a novel reinterpretationof a fundamentalnarrative of Spanishnational identity. ChapterSeven is dedicatedto Blanca de Rossi, which dramatisesthe virtuous suicide of an historical figure whose place in the literary imaginationof Italy can be comparedwith that of Florinda.and Spain.I considerthe ways in which Gilvez injected elementsof the emergentGothic style into the ancienttragic dilemmabetween public duty andpersonal