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A Freudian Character in Lope de Vega
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 14 February 2022
Translated by
Extract
One of the most attractive aspects of our national theatre is that it continually offers the most unexpected surprises. These surprises are multiplied within a dramatic world as extensive as that created by Lope de Vega. Furthermore, these surprises are seen in their fullest clarity when the illuminating light of modern ideas are turned on the art forms of the seventeenth century. This happens when we reread The Outrageous Saint. At first this comedy makes a very unsatisfactory impression. From a normal point of view, the monstrousness of the theme seems explicable only by supposing that Lope, always impulsive, had given way to irresponsible and uncontrolled fantasies. But after reading Freud and the works of other modern psychoanalysts—something that at first sight appears irrelevant to the understanding of an author of the Golden Age—we realize that Lope's play was far in advance of its time.
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- Research Article
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- Copyright © 1962 The Tulane Drama Review
References
Notes
* Rank presumably did not read The Outrageous Saint.—E.B.
1 Gerardo comments on this as follows:
You grant me the name of old man and suppress the word father, you're so mad, even my name is now unfit for your lips.
Leonido in the second act becomes indignant when Gerardo calls him son: “I'll throw a gag in your mouth / if you call me your son again.“
2 In this regard note the following:
Anzures.
Have you seen Elvira?
Sancho.
Never.
I say never because Elvira since she was a child has grown in the same state that now so many admire her. Many years have passed since I saw her because when I saw her on the rampart I did not recognize her, and for sure hers then I was. I envy two things, Count.
Anzures.
Can they be told?
Sancho.
The man that will enjoy such beautiful and pretty limbs as can be seen in Elvira….
When Elvira insists that she will defend her city, Don Sancho exclaims:
Look, sister, you are a monster, because even with all your beauty you have crazy thoughts.
Also note the scene of the King Don Sancho with Bellido Dolfos:
Bellido.
Send her a note that you want to marry her.
Sancho.
You must be crazy.
Bellido.
Has not any King married his sister? Besides, this will not be to make her your wife or to importune the Pope, but to obtain that while the matter is discussed, she will open the doors of Toro.
Sancho.
You disconcert me and I am amazed at your ingenuity; but Elvira will not want me for her husband.
Bellido.
There are already songs and even in bed the child sleeps with the songs that have been made in the turrets of Toro, and even a thousand nations are fully aware of your story and everyone has known that you fell in love with her, so it will not be impossible to her that you want to be her husband.
Likewise note the scene of soldiers with guitars near the rampart of Toro:
Flores.
Is it not a bad action that this King Don Sancho harasses an angel?
Lain
They say that it is jealous envy that someone else in the world will enjoy such a pretty and discreet woman.
3 A devoted Freudian would find erotic symbols in these objects, but it is not necessary to look for such exaggerated examples in order to be able to diagnose the “Leonido case.”
4 Note that Leonido's father miraculously regains his sight in this scene.
For example:
Nail me to You on Your cross and You will have me safe with three nails. —Sonnet of “The Good Custody and Sacred Rimes”