SHADOW OF THE KING: PRIVANZA AND PERCEPTIONS OF ROYAL POWER IN SEVENTEENTH-CENTURY SPANISH THEATER by CARL AUSTIN WISE (Under the Direction of Elizabeth R. Wright) ABSTRACT Privanza, a political institution in which the monarch relinquishes his authority to a favorite, brings the concept of subjectivity to the forefront in seventeenth-century Spain by introducing questions of manipulation, control, and self-representation. Using theater as means of exploring political favoritism, seventeenth-century playwrights Lope de Vega and Antonio Mira de Amescua present privanza as a test against a king’s ability to maintain his autonomy against an institution which, it was thought, owed its very existence to a courtier’s ability to manipulate the monarch into submission. Lope and Mira internalize this struggle and offer scenarios in which the kings voluntarily hand themselves over to bondage. By presenting a series of week kings who allow their voluntades to become enslaved, the playwrights suggest that the monarch’s true power emanates from his ability to recognize and to control his internal self. Privanza, however, proves to be a constant danger to a king’s efforts to realize this potential, and offers example after example of kings who fail to enforce their own autonomy. INDEX WORDS: Privanza, Privado, Royal Favorite, Antonio Mira de Amescua, Spanish Drama, Comedia nueva, Golden Age Spanish Theater, Bernardo de Cabrera, Carvajal Brothers, Alvaro de Luna, Rodrigo Calderón, Lope de Vega, Seventeenth-Century Spanish Theater SHADOW OF THE KING: PRIVANZA AND PERCEPTIONS OF ROYAL POWER IN SEVENTEENTH-CENTURY SPANISH THEATER by CARL AUSTIN WISE B.A., Birmingham-Southern College, 2003 M.A., The University of Georgia, 2005 A Dissertation Submitted to the Graduate Faculty of The University of Georgia in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY ATHENS, GEORGIA 2011 © 2011 Carl Austin Wise All Rights Reserved SHADOW OF THE KING: PRIVANZA AND PERCEPTIONS OF ROYAL POWER IN SEVENTEENTH-CENTURY SPANISH THEATER by CARL AUSTIN WISE Major Professor: Elizabeth R. Wright Committee: Dana Bultman Nicolas Lucero Electronic Version Approved: Maureen Grasso Dean of the Graduate School The University of Georgia August 2011 iv ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS First and foremost, I could not have asked for a better advisor, and I thank Elizabeth Wright for her constant dedication to my growth as a scholar. I am also very grateful to Dana Bultman and Nicolas Lucero for offering guidance and invaluable advice throughout all stages of this project. I owe a special debt of gratitude to Catherine Jones for helping me with award applications, and for constantly insuring that I met all of UGA’s graduate requirements. I want to also thank all of my professors in the Romance Languages department for their friendship and their kindness in sharing their expertise through my many graduate seminars. To Teresa Perez- Gamboa, thank you for always insuring I had an ideal teaching schedule. Equally important, Tom Bavis, Maryanna Axson, Sharon Yen, and Amy Duran provided constant technical and administrative support that made working in Gilbert Hall a pleasure. To my undergraduate professors Barbara Domcekova and Janie Spencer at Birmingham-Southern, thank you for introducing me to the richness of Spanish and Hispanic studies. I still follow your examples when I teach my own students. I also am grateful to my colleagues from the doctoral program, Mitch McCoy, Karen Pollard, Celia Peris-Peris, Aurora Thorgerson, Julia Barnes, Joey Warner, Diego del Pozo, and Amy Hernandez, who were and continue to be a constant source of encouragement and advice. Much of my dissertation depended on consulting archival manuscripts that are not easily available, and I am indebted to the University of Georgia’s Graduate School for their generosity in funding my research. The Dean’s Award allowed me to collect valuable manuscripts at the Hispanic Society of America in New York City, and the Dissertation Completion Award v provided me ample time to dedicate to this study. I also am very grateful to the University of Georgia Library’s Interlibrary Loan department for quickly processing my many requests to locate obscure publications, and to Fred Olive at the University of Alabama at Birmingham’s Sterne Library for generously allowing me access to their collections. Last but not least, I owe a tremendous debt of gratitude to my parents for their steadfast support and encouragement, and to my brother Chase, whose friendship I have valued for my entire life. vi TABLE OF CONTENTS Page ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS........................................................................................................... iv CHAPTER 1 THE EXHALTED IMAGE ...........................................................................................1 Introduction..............................................................................................................1 Sombra del rey.......................................................................................................11 Privanza and Theater .............................................................................................21 2 LEGENDARY INJUSTICE: MAD KINGS AND MURDERED PRIVADOS IN LOPE DE VEGA’S LA INOCENTE SANGRE............................................................26 Legend as Source Material ....................................................................................28 Pillars of Justice: The Christian Prince..................................................................36 La inocente sangre.................................................................................................43 La Peña de Martos .................................................................................................55 3 ECLIPSED AUTONOMY IN ANTONIO MIRA DE AMESCUA’S ALVARO DE LUNA PLAYS.............................................................................................................63 Ensnaring the Monarch..........................................................................................70 Celestial cycles ......................................................................................................74 La próspera fortuna...............................................................................................81 La adversa fortuna.................................................................................................88 vii 4 BAROQUE PERCEPTIONS: PRIVANZA AND MACHIAVELLIAN FAILURES IN ANTONIO MIRA DE AMESCUA’S BERNARDO DE CABRERA PLAYS .....99 El arte de mover voluntades.................................................................................101 Perceptions of Power ...........................................................................................104 Próspera fortuna..................................................................................................109 Adversa fortuna....................................................................................................122 5 CONCLUSION..........................................................................................................134 REFERENCES ............................................................................................................................138 1 CHAPTER 1 THE EXHALTED IMAGE Introduction After the death of Queen Margaret of Austria in 1611, witnesses at her funeral describe the grief-stricken Philip III as the center of attention, and yet, no one actually saw him. Measures were taken to draw everyone’s gaze toward the monarch – lavish curtains draped his box and candles surrounded the space where he was believed to be watching the mass, and yet he was also conspicuously invisible. One attendee describes how Philip remained completely hidden from view: … y tiene una ventana al Altar mayor, a la parte de la Epístola, donde su Majestad oyó la Vigilia y Missa de las Honras, por auerse ansimismo determinado, no avia de baxar, ni estar en la yglesia en publico, sino retirado en la ventana dicha, la qual se cubrió de cortinas de demasco negro, por las quales su Magestat vio, y no fue visto ni juzgado de la yglesia. (Gomez de Mora 75) Finally, a line of grandees began emerging from the king’s covered box and marched toward the tomb. The somber ceremony was dramatically choreographed, and like a bride on her wedding day, the processional was designed to build suspense and anticipation when everyone would finally get a glimpse of the king. When Philip at last stepped into the dark nave of the St. Geronimo Royal Convent, no less than eighty-two ushers lit candles at the door where he emerged, and, according to witnesses, he dramatically appeared amidst a spectacular display of candlelight. Despite the fact 2 that every eye in the church was now gazing on his royal person, Philip still maintained an aura of invisibility, donning a large hat with a black veil so no one could actually see his face: alli [su Magestad] estuvo con sus hijos, y su Magestad tenía una loba de bayeta y montera, y assi como se sentó se baxaron todos los grandes assentarse a la iglesia en los vancos que estavan alrededor del tumbulo todos cubiertos las cabeças. (Gomez de Mora 79) The monarch was a ghostly, faceless image that was rendered an untouchable apparition through careful theatrics and special lighting effects. While black drapes and veils hid the king from the crowd, however, attendee Gomez de Mora reports that Lerma, the king’s privado, or favorite minister, was sitting in plain view in an aposento