THE RELIGIOUS DRAMAS OF TIRSO DE MOLINA

MALBONE WATSON GRAHAM

Tirso de Molina is the pen name of that great Spanish dramatist of the Golden Age who succeeded so well in banishing from the boards his real name. The contrary usages of the encyclopedias establish this fact. The New International records the pen name in order to refer us to the works of Fray Gabriel Téllez, while the Britanica places the entry under Téllez and there mentions the fact that the pen name is by far the better known. With the waning of the fame of Calderón, the reputation of Lope de Vega and Tirso has steadily increased. Continued study of both of these men of genius tends to enlarge the estimate of them held hitherto. Each has gifts enough to bring to greater heights and to more adequate display the qualities by which they adorned the Spanish stage.

It was a wide and notable variety of dramatic works that Tirso in his monkish cell produced for national edification. Attention may be called to the reasons assigned for his preference for a pen name under which to acknowledge them. The common justification for his action has been held to be a sense of shame that restrained him from ascribing to a name well known in ecclesiastical circles the authorship of plays whose language as well as whose plots often left much to be desired from a moral standpoint. It is well known that envious foes tried to direct toward him the watchful eyes of the Inquisition which, among less admirable things, did much to limit the license of the stage in that period. There are others, of a milder spirit, who see in Tirso's action the outcroppings of a natural modesty; and it may well be said of him, as of few other literary men of equal prominence, that biographical data are woefully scanty throughout his writings. He cannot be accused of unduly blowing his own horn.

Of the four hundred comedies Tirso wrote, of which only some eighty have come down to us, a considerable number come under the head of religious dramas. The term needs definition. Most of the minor manuals, as well as some of the extended histories of Spanish literature, do not attempt to classify the varieties of dramatic composition that are usually included under this head. Ford and Northup make no distinctions. Salcedo y Ruiz speaks of biblical dramas and religious dramas, not with the intention of characterizing the former as non-religious, but presumably marking the latter as non-biblical. Ticknor made no formal division. Even the learned Menéndez y Pelayo, with all his care and exactness, did not set himself to mark off the different spheres in which one or the other characteristic prevails. In his essays on Tirso in the second volume of his Estudios de Crítica Literaria, he discusses at some length the theological nature of The Doubter Damned, but limits himself to a single sentence about the varieties of religious drama: "With that elemental religious teaching there may be made nativity plays, allegorical plays for Corpus Christi, comedies of the lives of saints, dramatic legends like the Antichrist of Alarcón, and the like." Crawford considers that all may be counted as "liturgical drama." Fitzmaurice Kelly speaks of autos as a dramatic form peculiar to Spain. The word is first used of any play, then of a religious play like the medieval mysteries, then of a dramatized exposition of the mystery of the Holy Eucharist to be played in the open on Corpus Christi Day. A recent Spanish literary historian singles out as the unique contribution of Spain to religious drama a narrower limitation, the production of the auto sacramental, a one-act play written in praise of the Eucharist. The religious plays did not have this limitation. It is this author's judgment, supported by the great authority of Menéndez y Pelayo, that Spain's "is the only literature in the world that has a theological drama. Mysteries and Moralities were written in France, but autos no."

In the works of Tirso are found all these classes of religious drama. The biblical dramas include, from the Old

Testament, The Vengeance of Tamar, The Woman Who Rules Her Home, depicting the character of Jezebel, and The Best Gleaner, which gives the story of Ruth. The New Testament has been drawn upon for the story of Herod and for the parables of The Prodigal Son and The Rich Fool. The autos are represented by The Heavenly Protectress, The Divine Beekeeper, and others. Some are allegorical representations suitable for any solemn occasion. The plays based on the lives of different saints may be called ecclesiastical dramas, for they seem evidently intended not merely for edification, but particularly for preserving and increasing the faith of believers in the ecclesiastical system and its dogmas. Saint Jane and The Lady of the Olive Grove display this type. The Heavenly Nymph is an example of the dramatized legend, while The Choice Based on Virtue and The Doubter Damned are properly presentations of theological problems.

In the biblical dramas Tirso has chosen well-known Bible stories that have decided elements of the dramatic and lend themselves readily to the treatment offered by such a master hand. The dramatist has embellished the original narrative with touches that add a romantic tinge, and has supplied details unknown to the Scriptures, derived perhaps from some Jewish commentary or Christian tradition. Where these failed him, he invented incidents or circumstances to enhance the interest of the theme or add vividness to the plot. These additions, while surprising to one who has been accustomed to the biblical form of the tales, are usually consistent with the original story and are not in themselves historically impossible. Sometimes they suggest a motive not supplied by the narrative as recorded and which varies from that most commonly accepted. These additions are always interesting and are not dragged in to bear witness to the author's biblical learning. Just why any of the Hebrew or Ammonite characters should make reference to Greek or Roman mythology is not apparent to the reader of today, but the matter was not one of concern either to the dramatist or to his hearers. The swift onward march

of the story, the steadily developing elements of romance or tragedy in the plot, the brightness of the dialogue, the smooth movement of the verse, outweigh any minor inconsistencies.

Let us look a little more in detail at some of these plays. In The Best Gleaner we have a vivid picture of the long period of famine and of the consequent suffering in the land of Moab. The extremities to which they are put during this famine lead to the eating of their own children, and there arises an interesting philosophical and theological discussion relating to the parts of father and mother in the production and care of children. The Israelite Elimelech, though wellto-do, refuses to give of his substance to help the starving, but his charitable wife, Naomi, succors them in private. Ruth is introduced as the daughter of the Moabite king. She secretly adopts the Hebrew faith, looking forward to the fulfillment in her own person of one of the Messianic prophecies relating to Bethlehem, and hence is willing to accompany her mother-in-law on her return to the land of promise.

In the second act some of the longer speeches fall into digressions of a philosophical nature, and are followed by rapid fire dialogue in the short staccato style of which Tirso is fond, and which furnishes interest and entertainment. In the third act the scene changes to Judah, and the new romance in the life of Ruth appears. The reader is surprised to see the calculating self-interest shown by Ruth as she plans to secure the protection, and then the affection, of her wealthy kinsman, Boaz. In this feature of his play Tirso withdraws the more idyllic elements so conspicuous in the original story. Boaz falls in love with the beautiful foreign widow at first sight and sets himself to satisfy the legal conditions of the situation and then to secure Ruth as his bride. The providential fulfillment of the ancient prophecy, which really postdated the events here recorded, is strongly emphasized.

The Vengeance of Tamar offers a realistic picture of an oriental court such as that of David must have been, with

the evil effects of harem life clearly portrayed. One of the non-biblical features is the sudden falling in love of the crown prince Amnon, who has long been immune to romantic experiences. His affections become set upon the beautiful daughter of David, Tamar, who is a sister of Absalom. The picture of David, warrior and poet and a too indulgent father, is both life-like and true to the biblical narration. When Tamar goes, at the king's request, to comfort Amnon in his illness by her charming presence as well as by her culinary skill, she treats Amnon's protestations of love as those of a crazy man, and puts them off by a pretense of affection, although she is really betrothed to Joab, captain of the king's victorious armies. When, on a later visit, Amnon forcibly wrongs Tamar, Joab is not allowed to wreak vengeance on the evildoer, the author leaving that to the victim's brother. The bitter lamentations of Tamar, and her life of deepest distress until her shame shall have been removed by vengeance, are striking and powerful elements in this picture. And there is a series of sketches in which the characteristics of the various sons of David are vividly set forth. It is not a matter of surprise that Tamar rejoices as over her redemption when Amnon is treacherously slain while a guest in his brother's house. Perhaps Tirso, as a Spaniard, believing in the code of honor, did not feel that there was any incongruity between such treachery and the Christian ethics he upheld, or he may have regarded it as reflecting the ethical spirit of early Judean times. (Certainly it does not come well from the mouth of an American, whose countrymen make frequent appeal to "the unwritten law," to cast verbal stones at either author or character.) The final scenes, in which David utters his paternal love for the wholly unworthy heir apparent and grieves unconsolably over his tragic end, bring to a close one of the most impressive and best executed dramas that Tirso has given us.

Fitzmaurice Kelly, the foremost British authority on Spanish literature, hails The Divine Beekeeper as "Tirso's best attempt at religious drama." It is not based on a biblical theme, but is not unbiblical in tone. It is a mystical