the modern language review volume 30 issue 2 1935 [doi 10.2307%2f3716095] alexander a. parker --...

8/10/2019 The Modern Language Review Volume 30 issue 2 1935 [doi 10.2307%2F3716095] Alexander A. Parker -- Notes on the Religious Drama in Medival Spain

1/14

Notes on the Religious Drama in Medival Spain and the Origins of the "Auto Sacramental"Author(s): Alexander A. ParkerReviewed work(s):Source: The Modern Language Review, Vol. 30, No. 2 (Apr., 1935), pp. 170-182Published by: Modern Humanities Research AssociationStable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/3716095.Accessed: 05/09/2012 16:44

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2/14

NOTES ON

THE

RELIGIOUS

DRAMA

IN

MEDIAEVAL

SPAIN AND THE ORIGINS OF THE

AUTO SACRAMENTAL

THE

history

of

the

drama

in mediaeval

Spain

has never

been

adequately

studied. This is

chiefly

due to the

paucity

of

texts,

notices

and documents.

Spain

has

indeed been

unfortunate

in

the

loss

of her earliest

literary

works,

and it

is in

the

drama,

both

religious

and

secular,

that

this loss

is

perhaps

most

seriously

felt.

The

subject

is

important

enough

to

justify

an

attempt

to remedy this deficiency in view of the unique development of the

Miracles

and Moralities into

the Auto Sacramental

and

the

perfection

given

to this

type

of drama

by

Calderon.

The scantiness

of

the

material

upon

which

to work

precludes

for

the

time

being

a

complete

and final

study

of

this

question.

Nevertheless,

insufficient

attention

has been

paid

to

those

documents

whose

discovery

has

rewarded

painstaking

search,

and

their full

significance

has

been missed.

The whole

question

of

the

origin

and

early

history

of the Auto Sacramental

is still

unnecessarily

obscure,

and

it is with the intention

of

throwing

some

light

on

this that

I

have

endeavoured

in this

article

to summarise

most

of the

existing

and

little-known evidence as

to the

medieval church

drama

in

Spain.

The first fact that strikes

us

is

the tardiness

of

the

development

of the

religious

drama

when

compared

with that of

other countries.

This

is

easily

understandable

in

view of

the

peculiar position

of

Spain

in

mediaeval

Europe.

But,

though Spain

developed

much

later than France

or

Eng-

land,

she followed

the

same

lines. The

liturgical

drama, i.e.,

plays per-

formed

in

the

churches

at

Christmas

and

Easter

as

part

of

the Divine

Office, arose in the same

way.

Two Easter

tropes

from Silos showing the

earliest

and

normal

European

form

prove

this to have been

the

case.1

But

there

is no

connecting

link

between

this and

the

fragment

of

the

vernacular

liturgical

play,

the Misterio de

los

Reyes

Magos,

a

fairly

ad-

vanced

version

of the

Stella

theme

which

seems to date from

the

middle

of

the

twelfth

century.

Even

if

these

few lines had

not

survived,

the

existence

of the

Christmas

and Easter

plays

in

Spain

would

have

been

proved

from

the

often-quoted

passage

in

the

thirteenth-century

Code of

Law, the SietePartidas,which also proves that the gayascienqia,cultivated

with

enthusiasm in

Spain by

king,

courtier and

professional singer

alike,

1

C.

Lange,

Die

lateinischen

Osterfeiern

Munich,

1887),

pp.

24-5.


3/14

ALEXANDER A. PARKER

had the same effect

on

the

liturgical

drama

as it had

in

France. This

minstrel

and folk

spirit

had

triumphed

to

such an extent that

not

only

had it produced a secular and popular drama, juegos de escarnio, but it

had

pushed

its

way

into

the

very

churches

and become a

grave

cause of

scandal. Clerics

are

forbidden

to sanction the

performance

of such

plays

in

churches or to have

any part

whatever in their

production.

But,

the

law

continues,

there are

plays

which clerics

may produce;

these are the

Nativity

of

Christ,

in

which

the

Angel

appears

to the

Shepherds,

the

visit

of the

Magi,

and the Resurrection. These

plays

should be acted

with

respect

and

devotion,

and

only

in the

larger

cities where the

bishops

can

superintend their production. They should not be performed in villages

nor for financial

profit.

This

reveals

the

existence

and

popularity

of the two

main

groups

of

liturgical

plays,

but

it

also reveals how

the civil authorities assisted

the

Church

in her

endeavour to check all abuses.

This was as severe

an ad-

ministrative

problem

in

Spain

as in

France,

and

the

abuses

proved

as

difficult to eradicate.1

The Feast

of

Fools,

the

Boy Bishop,

Obispillo,

and

the sword dance

known

as

the

Degollacion,

were all difficult

to

suppress.

Notices

of the

Boy

Bishop

in

Spanish

cathedrals

can

still

be

found in the

sixteenth

century.

In

Lerida

and

Gerona

this

popular

ceremony,

there

called the

Bisbato,

was not

finally

abolished

until the end

of that

century.2

The Council

of Toledo of

1324

vainly attempted

to

forbid all

dancing

in

churches.

That

of Aranda

in

1473

prohibited

all

larvas,

ludos,

monstra,

spectacula, figmenta

et

tumultuationes,

but

hastened to

add:

per

hoc

tam

honestas

repraesentationes

et

devotas,

quae

populum

ad

devotionem

movent,

tam

in

praefatis

diebus

quam

in aliis

non

intendimus

prohibere.3

This

pantomimic

spirit,

later

cloaked

in

baroque

symbolism,

continued in the

tarasca wheeled in the procession before the performance of the Autos

Sacramentales,

and can

still

be

recognised

to-day

in the

grotesque

figures

carried

round

in

Spanish

Holy-Week

processions.

The evolution

of the

liturgical

drama

into

the Miracle

plays,

i.e.,

re-

ligious plays

dealing

with

Old

and New Testament

subjects

and

the

lives

of

the

Saints,

performed

publicly

in

the

open by

the

Guilds,

occurred

in

Europe

in the thirteenth

century.

But

it is not until the

fourteenth

1

As early as 589 the famous third Council of Toledo, in the presence of King Reccared

and

St

Leander,

had

prohibited

all

pantomimic

behaviour in the

churches. Cf. Cardinal

J.

S.

Aguirre,

CoUectio

Maxima Conciliorum Omnium

Hispaniae

et

Novi

Orbis

(Rome,

1693),

I,

p.

348.

2

M.

Mil

y

Fontanals,

Origenes

del Teatro

Catalan ,

in

Obras

Completas

(Barcelona,

1895),

vI,

pp.

213-14.

8

Mansi,

Sacrorum

Conciliorum

Nova

et

Amplissima

Collectio

(Paris,

1902),

xxxn,

col. 397.

171


4/14

172

Notes on

the

Religious

Drama in

Mediaeval

Spain

century

that we

find

any

notice of this transition

in

Spain,

and it is

not

until

the

following century

that

we

can

definitely

point

to

any

fully

developed Miracle plays. It is in Catalonia that documents bearing on

this

are

most

numerous.

It

was the

institution

of the feast of

Corpus

Christi

with

its

outdoor

procession

that first

brought

these church

dramas

into the

open.

The

consueta

of

Gerona

Cathedral,

dated

1360, which,

to the

best of

my

knowledge,

has

not

yet

been

printed

in

full,

apparently gives

some

account of these

new

dramatic

performances.

It is there

recordedl

that

the feast of

Corpus

Christi

(probably

introduced

into

Gerona

by

Berenguer

de

Palaciolo,

who

died

in

1314)

was celebrated

by

a

procession

through the streets in which giant figures were borne along, and in which

the

benleficiaries

of

the

cathedral

performed

plays

in the

public

squares.

The

plays

were the

Sacrifice

of

Isaac,

the

Dream and

Selling of

Joseph,

and

other

sacred

subjects .

Freiherr von

Schack

took

it

for

granted

that

these were

plays,

and this

has

never

been

questioned.

It

is,

however,

extremely

unlikely

that

these

repraesentationes

were at this date

anything

more than

processional

tableaux or

pageants,

in

view

of

the fact

that it

was

not until a

very

much

later date that similar

tableaux

were trans-

formed

into

plays

at

Valencia and

Barcelona.

It

is

impossible

to believe

that

Gerona

could have

been some

sixty

or

seventy

years

in advance of

these other

much

more

important

cities.2

The

continued

popularity

and

development

of the

liturgical

drama

and

its

survival

well into the

sixteenth

century

would also make

it

unlikely

that

Miracle

plays

were

really

established

by

1360. But

the

liturgical

drama tended to

widen its

scope

in the

direction

of

the

Miracle

plays,

and

became connected

with

feasts

other than

Christmas

and Easter.

The

Prophetae

was

always

popular,

and the recitation of the

Sibyl

survived

in several churches in

Catalonia

for

many

years.3

In

Gerona

a

liturgical

play

treating

of

St

Stephen s

martyrdom

was

regularly performed

in the

sanctuary

when

the

Saint s

memory

was

read at

the second

vespers

of

Christmas.4

And in

1473

it

was

decided that

plays

should

be acted

every

Sunday

unless

the

feast of

St

Thomas

Aquinas

should

fall on

a

Sunday;

nevertheless,

on one

occasion

when

this

did

happen

a

play

of

the

Tempta-

tion

of

Christ was

produced

in the

afternoon. A

year

later

the

Chapter

1

See the account of the consueta given by Fr. Jos6 de la Canal in Espana Sagrada

(Madrid,

1832),

XLV,

pp.

15ff.,

especially

p.

24.

2

The

original

text of

the

document

would

help

to throw some

light

on

this

question.

Fr.

Jose

de

la Canal

merely

states

that

los

beneficiados

dela catedral

representaban

l

sacrificio

de

Isaac,

etc. He

would

not

have

realised that

the word

repraesentatio

probably

used

here),

as

well

as

its

vernacular

equivalent,

did

not

necessarily

imply

any

dramatic action.

a

Milh

y

Fontanals,

op.

cit.,

pp.

294-311.

4

Recorded

in a

document of

1380,

Espana

Sagrada,

XLV,

p.

17.


5/14

ALEXANDER A. PARKER

agreed

to

preserve

the

customary

Resurrection

play performed

at

matins

on Easter

morning

which

some

members

suggested

should

be abolished.1

The abolition of this Easter

play

was

again

the

subject

of discussion

by

the

Chapter

in

1534.

An

acta

capitular

of that

year

records the decision

of the

Chapter

to

continue the

annual

performance

of this

traditional

play,

quae

vulgo

dicitur les

tres

Maries,

and the rules

they

laid

down

for its

production

in

a

more

edifying

manner.

2

The

play

seems to

have been

a

rather

late

version of

the

Quem

quaeritis

type,

to

which

had

been added

various

scenes

representing

the

episode

of

the

Centurion-this

must have

been

part

of a

Passion

play-the apparition

of

Christ

to

St

Mary Magda-

len, and the incredulity of St Thomas. But these additional scenes had

given

rise to

abuses of

some sort which were considered

detrimental

to

the

devotional

spirit

of

the

original

play,

and

the

Chapter

decided to

forbid them. In this

way

the

liturgical

drama

expanded

towards the

more extensive

range

of

the

Miracles,

but

was reduced

to its

former

simplicity

by

reformatory

measures.

These same

reformatory

measures,

in

conformity

with the

process

of

centralisation

then

coming

to a

head,

gradually

unified

and

stereotyped

the

liturgy

in all

Spanish

churches. The

liturgical plays then finally disappeared, and the Corpus Christi autos,

by

that

time

completely

secularised,

alone survived.

But as

late as

1581

a

Nativity play

was

still

being performed

in the cathedral

at

Huesca.3

Liturgical

plays

were

popular

in

Valencia Cathedral.

These

required

some

form of

scenery

and mechanical devices.

On

the Feast

of

Pentecost,

for

instance,

a

dove

descended from

the

roof

in

the midst of

bursting

fire-

works

intended

to

represent

the

tongues

of

fire.

This

celebration,

known

as la

Colometa,

was also

popular

at

Lerida.

It

was forbidden

at

Valencia

by Bishop

Vidal

de

Blanes

(1356-9),

but

it was soon

revived.

In

1469 the

High

Altar

caught

fire;

it was then

definitely prohibited.

An

attempt

was

made

to abolish

it

at

Lerida

in

1518,

but

so

great

was the

popular outcry

that

it

had

to be restored.4

There were also

pageants

in the cathedral

at Valencia

in which

the

clerks

represented

various New Testament

figures,

and

during

the

Christmas matins

a

statue

portraying

the

Virgin

and Child

was

let down

from

the

roof.

In

1440

Eve is

mentioned

as one

of

the

characters

in the

Christmas

play,

and in

1531 some form

of

the

Prophetae

was

still

being

Mila

y

Fontanals,

op.

cit.,

p.

210.

2

This

interesting

document

is

too

lengthy

to

reproduce

here.

It can

be read

in

Espaia

Sagrada,

XLV,

pp.

23-4.

3

R.

del

Arco,

Misterios,

Autos

Sacramentales

y

otras

fiestas en

la

Catedral

de

Huesca ,

in Revista

de

Archivos,

Bibliotecas

y

Museos

(1920),

xu,

p.

263. See

also Mila

y

Fontanals,

op.

cit.,

p.

217

n.

4

Mila

y

Fontanals,

op.

cit.,

pp.

212-13.

173


6/14

174

Notes

on the

Religious

Drama

in

Mediceval

Spain

acted.

In

1520

scenery

was

installed in

the

choir

in which the walls and

towers

of

Bethlehem were

painted.1

Three

plays

written for

the

Feast

of the Assumption reveal this gradual transition from the simple litur-

gical play

to

the more

developed

Miracle

while still intended for

perform-

ance

in

church.

The best of these is

the

fragment

described

by

Merimee,2

which

dates

perhaps

from the end of the fourteenth

century

and

which

may

have

been

performed

annually

at

Valencia.

The

Catalan

Repre-

sentacio de

la

asumpcio

de

madona Santa

Maria,

of

unknown

origin,

is

also

of the

late

fourteenth

century.3

The

third

of

these

is the

well-known

Misterio de Elche which

is still

performed

at the

present day.

As it

now

stands the text is of the first half of the sixteenth century, but the play

must have

originated

at least a

century

earlier.4

These

late

liturgical

plays

were therefore no

monopoly

of the

larger

cities,

and the smaller

the

town

or

village

the

more

jealously

would

it

guard

its

own

particular play.

Elche

is not

the

only

town that has

preserved

the

tradition.

At

Vallibona,

for

instance,

in

the

province

of

Castell6n,

a short

rendering

of

the

Sacrifice

of

Isaac

still survives as

part

of

the

Corpus

Christi

procession,

and some

villages

in the north

of

the same

province

still

perform

on

the feast

of

St

Anthony

the Abbot a

play

in

his honour. The

oldest of

the various

versions

is

apparently

the

one

performed

at

Cinctorres.5

In Mallorca

these

liturgical

plays

seem

to

have reached

their

highest development

round the

year

1420 when

the

accounts of Palma Cathedral

show

the

greatest

expenditure

for

this

purpose.

The

plays performed

were known

as

consuetas, cobles,

auctos,

obras and

representacions.

Some of

these have

survived

in

a late

sixteenth-century

MS.

collection.

They approximate

to

the

Miracles

by presenting

an

unusually

wide

variety

of

subjects

from

the Old

and New

Testaments

and the

lives

of

the Saints.

Those which

dramatise these latter themes are

apparently

later than

1450,

and others

are of

still later date.

Some,

however,

give

evidence

of

greater antiquity.

In 1594

their

performance

was

prohibited by

the

Bishop

of

Mallorca,

but

they

very

likely

survived this

destructive

attempt

as the

tradition has

not

been

entirely

lost.6

Two

fragments

of a

liturgical play

dramatising

the conversion

of

Mary Magdalen

were discovered

among papers

taken

1

H.

Merimee,

L Art

Dramatique

d

Valencia

(Toulouse,

1913),

pp.

6ff.

2

Ibid.,

pp.

45ff.

3

This was the first

play published by

Juan

Pie,

Autos

Sagramentals

del

sigle

XIV ,

in

the Revista de la Asociacion Artistico-Arqueol6gicaBarcelonesa,July-October, 1898.

4

See

Mila

y

Fontanals,

pp.

218-21. The text

is

reproduced

on

pp.

341-7.

An

account

of

it

by

C.

Vidal

y

Valenciano

is also

reprinted

here

as

Appendix

ii,

pp.

324-40.

Cf.

F.

Pedrell,

La Festa

d Elche,

ou

le

drame

liturgique

espagnol,

1906.

5

E. Julia

Martinez,

Representaciones

teatrales de caracter

popular

en la

provincia

de

Castellbn ,

in the

Boletin de

la

Real

Academia

Espaiola

(1930),

xvII,

pp.

99-105.

6

G.

Llabres,

Repertorio

de

Consuetas

representadas

en las

iglesias

de

Mallorca,

siglos

XV

y

XVI ,

in the

Revista

de

Archivos,

Bibliotecas

y

Museos

(1901),

v,

pp.

920-7.


7/14

ALEXANDER

A.

PARKER

from a

Mallorcan convent. The

MS.

is

said

to date from the fourteenth

century,

and the

play,

which

is

in the

vernacular,

appears

to be

quite

an

original work.1

The

Corpus

Christi

procession

eventually

brought

the

liturgical

drama

out into the

open,

and

the

civic character

of the

procession

(in

Valencia

the

Bishop

transferred its

organisation

to the

municipal

authorities in

1372)

also

freed it

from the

control of the

clergy,

and

by making

it

a

people s

drama

paved

the

way

for

the

future

Auto

Sacramental.

Never-

theless,

the

development

was

extremely

slow. In

England

the full

cycle

of Miracle

plays

was

complete

by

the fourteenth

century.

In

the

same

century in Spain there were still no plays but only pageants . There were

two different lines

of

development,

one

Catalonian

and

Valencian,

the

other

Castilian and

Andalusian.

The former

process

of

development

can

be

seen

most

clearly

in

Valencia.2

The

procession

was

inaugurated

in that

city

in

1355.

It

was

composed

of

a

series

of

pageants

on carts

drawn

through

the

streets.

These carts

were

called

entramesos,

later

roques,

and

are

first

found

mentioned

in 1373.

A

document of 1400

refers

to

scenery

on

the

carts

and

to musicians.

The

carts

formed a series

of

tableaux,

representing, among

other

things,

St

George

and the

Dragon,

Jacob s

Ladder,

St

Peter s

Keys

and Noah s

Ark.

At

first and for

many years

the

figures

were

statues,

except

that

at times men were

disguised

as

lions and

other

animals.

It

is

not

until

1400 and 1404 that we

find

these

statues

being replaced

by

men,

who then

sang

some lines written for them.

Rudimentary

dramatic

action

was

introduced

in

1414,

and

by

1425

a

few

of

these

tableaux

had at last become

plays

of

some sort.

The words entrames

and

representacio

used of

these

spectacles

has

led

many

writers to

presume

that

they

were

plays

from

the

first. The

actual

development

of the tableaux into

plays

can be seen in the three Valencian

Miracles

that have survived.3

They

are called

entramesos

de

peu

or

misteris.

The Paradis

terrenal,

the

customary

treatment of the

Fall,

is

the

development

of

the

original

tableau

representing

Adam

and

Eve. In

1404

there

is

mention

of tornar Adan e

Eva,

which

reveals that

they

were

then

no more

than

figures.

Three

years

later the

characters were

repre-

sented

by

a man

and

a woman.

By

1435

it is

entitled

l entrames

del

Paradis

terrenal,

but

it

could

only

have

presented

action and

dialogue

1 The fragments together with a short study were published by J. M. Quadrado, who

discovered

them,

in the

Palma review La

Unidad

Cat6lica

(1871).

This

article was

reprinted

as

Appendix

I to Mila

y

Fontanals,

op.

cit.,

pp.

313-23.

2

Merimee,

op.

cit.,

pp.

9ff.

3

Merimee,

op.

cit.,

pp.

25ff.;

Mila

y

Fontanals,

op.

cit.,

pp.

222-8.

See also this

latter

work,

pp.

231, 348-9,

for

two other

Catalan

fifteenth-century plays,

dealing

with

miracles

worked

by

St

Vincent

Ferrer,

which survived

through

oral

tradition and

were

printed

in

the

eighteenth century.

175


8/14

176

Notes

on the

Religious

Drama

in

Mediceval

Spain

of

the

most

primitive

kind,

for

it is

not until 1517 that the

list

of

actors

corresponds

to the text as

we

now

know it.

Its

development

did not

cease

there:

by

1587 it had been

considerably enlarged,

and in 1654 it was still

a

roca. The

St

Christopher

is

first

referred to as one of the

roques

in

1451. There

is

no reason to think that

it was

then

anything

more than

a

statue

of the

Saint

with the

child

Jesus.

In

1527

the account books

record a

salary

paid

to a man for

representing

the

Saint,

but

there is

no

mention

of

any

other

characters with whom he could have carried on

a

dialogue.

In

1531

it

is referred

to

as l entrames

de

peu

de

Sent

Chripstofol,

and

it

would then have

been

a

very

simple play.

It is

not until

1553 that

among the list of the misteris we find the Cristofolab sos pelegrins. The

appearance

of the

pilgrims

for

the first

time

gives

us

the

full

play

as we

now know

it.

It

continued

to

expand:

in

1587

salaries

were

paid

to

more

than

twenty

actors

who took

part

in

it.

The

third

play,

the Misteri

de

la

Degolla,

is

composed

of three

separate

episodes:

the

adoration

of

the

Magi,

the

flight

into

Egypt

and the massacre

of

the

Innocents. These had

been

three

separate

tableaux. The

Magi

are first referred to as a tableau

in

1408;

in

1432

Angels

were added who

sang

some

verse;

in 1517

dialogue

was introduced. The flight into Egypt appears as a tableau in 1451; it is

not

called

a misteri until

1547,

and

only

in

1587

has

it

the full

number

of

actors

required by

the

text

as known to us.

The

Innocents formed a

tableau earlier than

1404;

by

1408

they

had

ceased to

be

statues,

but

Herod does not

appear

as

a

character

until

1547

when the

play

is

called

a misteri

et

representaci6,

and

by

that

date

it had

been

united

with the

misteri

of the

Magi.

It

must have been after 1587 that

the

trilogy

was

completed

as in

the extant text.

It is

evident,

therefore,

that

real

Miracle

plays only

came

into

being

in

Valencia

between 1500 and 1550.

What

is

true of

Valencia must be

true also of

Barcelona.

Though

the

Corpus

Christi

procession

was

inaugurated

there as

early

as

1322,

repre-

sentacions

and

entramesos

are first mentioned

in

1394.

The

whole

organi-

sation

was

on a

much

more lavish

scale

and the order

of

the

procession1

shows

that

the

pageants

far

outnumbered

those of

Valencia.

As there

were

in

all

108

different

representacions

the

procession

must have

been

a

magnificent

spectacle.

The

subjects

of

the tableaux

were

arranged

in

historical

order and formed one

huge cycle

that

practically

exhausted

all the outstanding Old and New Testament scenes and characters, as

well

as

the

lives of all

the

local

Saints.

But how

many

of these

eventually

became

plays

is not

known.

A

municipal

document dated

April

20,

1453,

gives

detailed

instructions for the construction and

arrangement

of some

1

Mila

y

Fontanals,

op.

cit.,

Appendix

vu,

pp.

374-9.


9/14

ALEXANDER

A. PARKER

of

the

entramesos,

revealing

considerable

ingenuity

and

artistic

sense,

but

it

is

evident

from

this

document

that none of

these

pageants

can be called

plays, though some of the characters sang. The entramesappellat Bellem

reveals, however,

the

first

step

towards

dramatic

action

consisting

in

the

movement of

characters,

but

there

still seems

to be

no

dialogue:

E

en

laltre

porxo

de

part

dreta

stara la Maria

ajonollada,

e en

lo

mig

de

la

diffa-

rencia

dels dits

dos

porxos

stara lo

infant

Jesus

tot

nuu

lensant

raigs

de si

mateix

vers lo

qual

infant

los

dits

Maria

e

Josep segons

dit

es

agenollats

contemplaran.

E

los

dessus dits

angels

cantaran

gloria

in

excelsis.

E de

continent

vinguen

los III

Reys

qui

munten

per

la

porta

del dit

entrames,

muntant

per

la

scala

que aqui fara

lo dit

mossen

Qalom

e adorardn

infant

Jesus.

The

representacions

of

Valencia

and Barcelona

were

therefore

more

than

a

century

behind

the

English pageants .

It is

likely

that

they

would

have followed the

same ultimate

line of

development

into

a whole

cycle

of

Miracle

plays

had

not

the

new

spirit

of

Europe brought

with

it

altered

conditions. The

history

of the

Auto

Sacramental

might

then

have

been

different;

but

we

must

not

look for

its

origins

in

Catalonia.

Backward as

Catalonia

was in

comparison

with France or

England,

it

yet seems to have been in advance of the rest of

Spain,

a fact not at all

surprising.

In

other cities the

process

of

secularisation

which

finally

produced

the

Auto was

delayed

for

many years.

Nothing

is

known of

the

Corpus

Christi

procession

at

Seville until the

year

1454.

There

was then

only

one roca

(in

contrast to

Barcelona s

108)

which

carried

persons repre-

senting

Christ,

the

Virgin,

the

four

Evangelists,

St Dominic and St

Francis.2

Plays

are

not mentioned

until the

following century,

and

it

is

here

that

we see the

distinctive

Spanish

development

of

the

future

Auto

in contrast to the more European development of the Catalan Misteri.

Liturgical

plays

must have

been

performed

in

the

cathedral in the

four-

teenth

century,

but

they appear

to have

centred on the new

feast

of

Corpus

Christi.

Though

not

connected with the

recitation of

the

Office

of

the

feast,

they yet

remained

liturgical

in the

widest sense of the

word

in that

they

were

regularly

performed

in

the

sanctuary

as

part

of

the

service and

not in

the

open.

In

1579

a

sumptuous

catafalque

was

erected

in

the choir of the

cathedral for

ceremonies

connected with the

transla-

tion of

the

remains

of

sovereigns.

This left no

space for the performance

of the

plays,

which

were therefore

acted

in

the

west

porch.

This

remained

A.

Balaguer,

De

las

antigas

representacions

dramaticas

y

en

especial

dels

entremesos

catalans ,

in El

Calendari

Catald,

September

22,

1871,

reprinted

as

Appendix

vI

to

Mila

y Fontanals,

op.

cit.,

p.

369.

2

J. Gestoso

y

Perez,

La Fiesta del

Corpus

Christi en Sevilla

(Seville,

1910),

p.

94.

M.L.R.

XXX

12

177


10/14

178

Notes

on

the

Religious

Drama in

Mediaeval

Spain

the

custom in

succeeding

years,

until

the

plays

found

their

way

into

the

public

squares

where

they

were later

exclusively

performed.1

Here

we

have the Spanish Auto Sacramental as a development of the liturgical

drama

without

the

intermediate

form of the

Miracle

play

evolved

from

a

pageant .

It

was

able to

develop

as

it

did

because

it was not

hindered

in

Castile

and

Andalusia,

as

it

would have

been

in

Catalonia,

by

having

as its

parents

a whole

cycle

of

plays.

The

Auto

is

a

distinctly

Castilian

production.

Ih

other

Andalusian

cities

the Auto

followed

the same

lines

of

develop-

ment.

At

C6rdoba autos

were

produced

in the cathedral

to

the accom-

paniment of music and dancing.2 Milaga witnessed the production of

liturgical plays

within

its

cathedral on

Christmas

night

and

Corpus

Christi. Dances

formed

part

of

the

Corpus

Christi

plays

which

were first

performed

in the

cathedral and then

again

at

various

stages

of the

pro-

cession. In

1562 the

Chapter

decided

that

they

should

in

future

be

per-

formed in

the

Chapel

of St Barbara

and

not

in

the choir.

In

1574

they

announced

that

all

performances

would henceforth

be

given

in the

porch.3

At

Valladolid

the church

plays

appear

to

have

found

their

way

earlier

into

the

streets,

since

the

Corpus

Christi

festivities

all

through

the fif-

teenth

century

included

juegos

and

entremeses.

We

have no

clue as to

the

nature

of these

spectacles,

but

they may

have

been at least

rudimentary

autos

since the method of

their

production

foreshadows

the future

pro-

cedure

at

Madrid. The carros

in

the

procession

were

in

charge

of

the

oficios,

but under the

supervision

of the

corregidor

and the

regidores

who

saw

to

it

that

they

fulfilled

their

obligations.

They

continually

insisted

upon

devout

and

edifying performances,

decreeing

in 1504:

...que

se

han

de

hacer

e se

hagan

los

juegos

e

alegrias

como

mnejor

mas debotamente e

pueden

hacer,

no

haziendo

juegos

torpes

e

suzios.

By

1541 the Munici-

pality

had

already

taken

charge

of

the

productions,

and the

gradual

process

of

centralisation,

which

finally

made Calder6n

the

sole

poet

of the

autos

in

Spain, begins

to have

effect

in Valladolid

in

1551,

when the re-

gidores

summoned

a

professional

actor-manager,

one

Alonso

de

Madrid,

to

superintend

andformalizar

the

performances.4

This

extraordinarily

late

development

of

the

Spanish

religious

drama

would lead one to

suspect

that

the

Morality

type,

so

much

in

vogue

in

Europe in the fifteenth century, never appeared in Spain, or at most

never had time to

flourish

before

purely

mediaeval

conditions had altered.

1

J. Sanchez

Arjona,

El Teatro en

Sevilla

(Madrid,

1887),

pp.

39-40.

2

R.

Ramirez de

Arellano,

El

Teatro

en

Cordoba

Ciudad

Real,

1912),

pp.

19ff.

3

N. Diaz de

Escovar,

El Teatro en,

Malaga (Malaga,

1896),

pp.

20-2.

4

N.

Alonso

Cortes,

El

Teatro en

Valladolid ,

in Boletin

de

la

Real

Academia

Espaiola

(1917),

iv,

pp.

601-5.


11/14


12/14

180

Notes

on the

Religious

Drama in

Mediceval

Spain

Christmas

plays produced

the

Autos del Nacimiento cultivated

by Lope

de

Vega,

Valdivielso,

Mira de

Amescua,

and

Velez

de

Guevara,

but

left

untouched

by

Calderon

except

in his auto El Tesoro

Escondido,

a most

original

but

remote

development

of this

theme.1

The

transition from

these

early plays

to

the

future

Auto Sacramental

is

seen

in

the famous

sixteenth-century

C6dice de Autos

Viejos

published

by

Rouanet. Here

we

find

the

definite introduction of

allegory

and con-

sequently

the first

examples

of

belated

Moralities;

such

plays

are

called

farsas.

We

find

also,

for

the

first time

in

Castilian,

plays

that can be

called

Miracles;

these are

known

as

autos.

The

collection

also

contains

some

farsas del sacramentowhich are the purest type of Autos Sacramentales f

the

adjective

sacramental

be taken

literally.

These are

developments

of

late

fifteenth-century

loas and

coloquiospeculiar

to

Castile

and

Andalusia,

which

were discussions

on

the Doctrine

of the

Real Presence and

which

were

made to

precede

the

performance

of

the

autos,2

supplying

the

sacra-

mental element and

consequently

the

necessary

connexion

with

the

feast,

a

connexion

required

by

the

liturgical

origin

of the

auto. These

farsas

sacramentales

tended to die

out-any

serious

insistence on the

sacramental element would have strangled the young auto-but they

survive with their

original

introductory

function in

Calderon s

loas,

which,

apart

from

the

conventional

apotheosis

at the

close

of

most of his

autos,

are

usually

the

only

strictly

sacramental

part.

Even the

best

of

critics have

not

been

clear as

to the

early

history

of

the

auto.

It is

still

commonly

stated that there are

two

kinds,

the

Auto

del

Nacimiento,

and

the

Auto

Sacramental,

the

former

being

a

develop-

ment of

the

Miracle

plays

(Misterios),

the

latter of the

Moralities.

3

This

is

too

simple

an

explanation.

It is

evident

that the

Nativity

auto

is

a

direct

survival

of the

earliest form

of

liturgical

drama. The

Auto Sacra-

mental

develops

from

a fusion of the

sixteenth-century

Miracles

(autos,

1

The

Nativity

plays

seem

to have

survived in

Calder6n s

time in different

parts

of the

country.

An

example

of

one of

these

is the Auto

del

Nacimiento de

Cristo

Nuestro Redentor

by

Juan

Francisco

de

Ustaroz,

published

in

the

Revue

Hispanique (1929),

LXXVI,

pp.

346-9.

It

has almost

as

much

simplicity

of

style

and treatment as

the

Nativity

plays

of

Encina.

2

E.

Cotarelo

y

Mori

considered

that

the Farsa

Sacramental

by

Hernan

Lbpez

de

Yanguas,

published

in 1520

but

probably

written some

years

earlier,

earns the distinction of

being

the

first Auto Sacramental

( El

Primer Auto

Sacramental del Teatro

Espafiol

y

noticias

de

su

Autor ,

in the

Revista

de

Archivos,

Bibliotecas

y

Museos

(1902),

viI,

pp.

251-72).

This is absurd. The Auto Sacramental was no new genre that suddenly sprang to life, but

the

gradual

fusion

of

separate

dramatic

traditions,

and it is

impossible

to

point

to this

fusion as

being

first

exemplified

in

any

one

particular

play.

The

innovation

of

the

sacra-

mental

element,

though

a

unique Spanish

phenomenon,

is the

least

important

of

these

traditions.

In

any

case,

Sanchez

Arjona

published

several

coloquios

considerably

older

than

Yanguas

Farsa and no

less sacramental .

3

E.g.,

A. Valbuena

Prat,

Literatura

Dramitica

Espaiola

(Barcelona, 1930),

pp.

15-16;

A.

Lacalle,

Velez

de

Guevara: Autos

(Madrid,

1931),

p.

xi.


13/14

ALEXANDER A. PARKER

themselves

recently

secularised

liturgical plays)

with

the

Moralities

(farsas),

owing

its

subject-matter chiefly

to the

former

and

its

technique

chiefly to the latter, and such direct sacramental elements as it may

possess

to

the

farsas

del

sacramento,

a

peculiarly

Spanish phenomenon.

It

is

misleading

to state

that the

farsas

and not

the

early

autos are

alone

representative

of the Auto

Sacramental.

This is much too

restrictive

a

use

of the word

sacramental,

since it denies the

later

fully-formed

autos

any

biblical

or

hagiological

subject-matter,

and thus overlooks

the

dis-

tinction

regularly

made

by

Calderon

himself

between Auto

sacramental

alegorico

and Auto historial

aleg6rico.

This distinction of

Calder6n s

applies simply to the nature of the theme, and it is unnecessary to point

out

that

his autos

of the

second

class are no less sacramental

than

those

of

the

first.

It is

true,

however,

that some of the

Autos

Sacramentales,

and

the

most

characteristic

ones,

are

pure

and

highly developed

Moralities.

But others

could

only

have

arisen from a fusion

of

the

Moralities

with

the

Miracles,

of

the

farsas

with

the

autos.

Allegory,

which

derives

from

the

farsas,

is the

only

feature which

essentially

distinguishes

the

Auto

Sacramental

from

the

Comedia,

the

question

of

length

being

really

im-

material.1

The

autos,

when

left to

themselves, produced

the

comedias

biblicas

and

the

comedias de santos.

To

conclude

briefly.

The survival of the

mediaeval

church

drama

in

Spain permitted

it to achieve

at

the

hands

of

Calder6n a

poetical

and

technical

perfection

denied

it in other

countries.

This

survival in

an

age

when literature

had

become

a conscious art

is

clearly

to

be

attributed to

the

remarkable

backwardness

of its

development

in

Spain,

a

point

which

has not been

realised

by

historians of

the

early Spanish

theatre.

So

primi-

tive

and

rudimentary

were the

Miracles

and Moralities in

sixteenth-

century

Spain

that

they

had

not,

as in

France,

fallen into a state of

decay

and

consequent

disrepute

when

professional

and

talented

dramatists

began

to

appear.

Their artistic

potentialities

were

still

evident,

and

these

dramatists

therefore took

over these

simple plays

and imbued

them

with

a

style

and

spirit

that

made

them

acceptable

to the

learned and

cultured

without

estranging

the

sympathies

of the humble

by

a

lack of

popular

1

Even

Ludwig

Pfandl s

historical

conception

of the

auto is

misleading,

due

to the

belief,

widely

held

but

erroneous,

that the

Auto Sacramental

is

exclusively

eucharistic

in aim

and

character.

He

writes,

for

instance,

of

Timoneda s

autos:

Freilich

ist auch hier

der

Anfang

noch nicht Vollendung, und die Elemente des profanen und des allgemein religiosen

Dramas

vermischen

sich mit

jenen

des eucharistischen

solange,

bis

Calderon die

reine und

exklusive

Form

des auto

sacramental

geschaffen

hat

(Geschichte

der

spanischen

National-

literatur

in

ihrer Blutezeit

(Freiburg

im

Breisgau,

1929),

p.

120).

It is

precisely

this Ver-

mischung

of

these

different

elements,

still crude

in

Timoneda,

that

produces

the

Auto

Sacramental,

and

that lies

essentially

behind

the construction

of

Calder6n s

reine

und

exklusive

Form of the auto.

This

is

a

point

that I

hope

to make

clear in a

detailed

study

of

Calder6n s

autos.

181


14/14

182

Notes

on

the

Religious

Drama

in

Mediceval

Spain

appeal.

These

plays

were also

peculiarly

suited

to

embody

one

of

the

great

national

ideals

of the

time-the

struggle against

the

Reformation.

For this reason as well as for the fact that it continued to draw its life

from

the

people

though

it owed

its form to the

genius

of cultured

poets,

the

mediseval

religious

drama was able to become one of the most

national

manifestations

of

Spanish

literature

and,

with

Calderon,

something

splendid

and

unique

in the

history

of the

stage.

But,

apart

from

these

literary

reasons

for the survival of this

type

of

drama,

there is a

cul-

tural

reason which

must

not

be

overlooked,

and

which of itself

might

have achieved

the

same

result,

the

fact,

namely,

that the

Renaissance

in

Spain was never permitted to break with the traditions of mediaevallife

and

culture,

but,

on

the

contrary,

was so

directed as to

revivify

them

and

make them

bloom

afresh.

ALEXANDER

A.

PARKER.

CAMBRIDGE.

the modern language review volume 30 issue 2 1935 [doi 10.2307%2f3716095] alexander a. parker --...

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