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The Four Elemental Jewels in Calderón'sA secreto agravio, secreta venganza

1987; Liverpool University Press; Volume: 64; Issue: 1 Linguagem: Inglês

10.1080/1475382872000364065

1469-3550

Frederick A. de Armas,

Spanish Literature and Culture Studies

Click to increase image sizeClick to decrease image sizeBSS Subject Index: A SECRETO AGRAVIO, SECRETA VENGANZA [P. CALDERÓN]CALDERÓN DE LA BARCA, PEDRO (1600–1681)SYMBOLISM/SYMBOLS Notes 1. H. N. Wethered, The Mind of the Ancient World. A Consideration of Pliny's ‘Natural History’ (London: Longmans Green, 1937), 181. 2. Albertus Magnus, Book of Minerals, ed. and trans., Dorothy Wyckoff (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1967), 57. 3. Alfonso X, Rey de Castilla, Lapidario, ed. María Brey Mariño (Madrid: Castalia, 1968), 12. 4. Edward M. Wilson, ‘The Discretion of Don Lope de Almeida’, reprinted in Critical Studies of Calderón's Comedias, ed. J. E. Varey (Westmead, England: Gregg International in association with Tamesis, 1973), 23-24. 5. The notion of the divine school of nature was a commonplace. In La vida es sueño, for example, Clotaldo acknowledges that much of Segismundo's wisdom comes from ‘la muda naturaleza’ which is a ‘divina escuela’. Diez comedias del Siglo de Oro, ed. José Martel and Hymen Alpern, rev. Leonard Mades (New York: Harper and Row, 1968; 2nd ed.), vv. 1029, 1031. 6. Talk not of gems, the orient list, The diamond, topaz, amethyst, The emerald mild, the ruby gay; Talk of my gem, Anne Hathaway! Charles Dibdin, ‘To the Idol of Mine Eyes and the Delight of Mine Heart, Anne Hathaway’, cited in George Frederick Kunz, Shakespeare and Precious Stones (Philadelphia: J. B. Lippincott, 1916), 41–42. 7. Dámaso Alonso, Góngora y el ‘Polifemo’ (Madrid: Gredos, 1974), Vol. 2, 255. These gems appear in the Panegírico al Duque de Lerma. 8. R. J. W. Evans, Rudolf II and his World (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1973), 196. 9. ‘The interaction of contraries is one of the major issues of Renaissance thought’. Robert Grudin, Mighty Opposites. Shakespeare and Renaissance Contrariety (Berkeley: Univ. of California Press, 1979), 14. 10. Edgar Wind, Pagan Mysteries in the Renaissance (London: Faber and Faber, 1958), 81. 11. All references to A secreto agravio, secreta venganza are from Pedro Calderón de la Barca, Obras completas, ed. A. Valbuena Briones (Madrid: Anguilar, 1966; 5th ed.), II. 12. Calderón refers to these two plants with opposite virtudes in several of his comedias: Agradecer y no amar, Mejor está que estaba and Peor está que estaba. On this subject see Felipe Picatoste, ‘Concepto de la naturaleza deducido de las obras de don Pedro Calderón de la Barca’, reprinted in Manuel Durán and Roberto González Echevarría, Calderón y la crítica: historia y antología (Madrid: Gredos, 1976), vol. 1., 230–31. 13. Much of the poetry of the Golden Age directs its attention to certain patterns in nature such as the four elements, each having its creatures. Yet, Góngora and Calderón break down this separation between the elements, creating trans-elemental imagery. On this subject see M. J. Woods, The Poet and the Natural World in the Age of Góngora (Oxford: Oxford U.P., 1978), 114ff. See also Edward M. Wilson, ‘The Four Elements in the Imagery of Calderón’, reprinted in Critical Studies of Calderón's Comedias, 191-207; and my study, ‘The Four Elements: Key to an Interpretation of Villamediana's Sonnets’, The Hispanic Journal, IV (1982), 61–79. 14. Garcilaso de la Vega, Obras completas, ed. Elias L. Rivers (Madrid: Castalia, 1981), 206. 15. Robert Grudin, Mighty Opposites, 46. 16. Albertus Magnus, Book of Minerals, 70; Pliny, Naturalis Historia, Bk. 37, ch. 15; ‘no consumirle el fuego …’, Sebastián de Covarrubias, Tesoro de la lengua, Castellana o Española, ed. Martín de Riquer (Barcelona: Horta, 1943), 469; ‘The stone is so hard that it can be wrought neither by iron nor fire, nor, they say, by anything at all except goat's blood’, Saint Augustine, The City of God, ed. Thomas Merton (New York: Random House, 1950), 768; ‘… esta piedra es indomable, ni el hierro, ni el fuego no es possible a comprehenderla, ni a sujetarla ni a hazer impressión en ella’, Gaspar de Morales, Libero de las virtudes y propiedades maravillosas de las piedras preciosas (Madrid, 1605), cited in: Alan K. G. Paterson, ‘The Alchemical Marriage in Calderón's El médico de su honra’, Romanistisches Jahrbuch, XXX (1979), 277. 17. The cloud that darkens the sun is often used in Golden-Age drama to point to the threat of dishonour. In La Estrella de Sevilla the eponymous heroine is described as the sun darkened by the cloud of the lustful intentions of King Sancho. The sol niger is associated in this comedia with Saturn. See my study: ‘The Hunter and the Twins: Astrological Imagery in La estrella de Sevilla’, Bulletin of the Comediantes, XXXII (1980), 1 1–20. In A secreto agravio, Don Lope uses this image in the second act when he fears that his wife is unfaithful (437). 18. The relationship between rumour, breath and air in Calderón's El médico de su honra has been discussed by Daniel L. Heiple, ‘Gutierre's Witty Diagnosis in El médico de su honra’, in Critical Perspectives on Calderón de la Barca, eds. Frederick A. de Armas, David Gitlitz and José Antonio Madrigal (Lincoln, Nebraska: SSSAS, 1981), 85. 19. On this subject see Edward M. Wilson, ‘The Discretion of Don Lope de Almeida’, 23–24. 20. Wayne Shumaker, The Occult Sciences in the Renaissance (Berkeley: Univ. of California Press, 1972), 177. 21. Wayne Shumaker, The Occult Sciences in the Renaissance (Berkeley: Univ. of California Press, 1972), 195. According to Pliny, it was once thought that diamonds were only ‘born’ or engendered in mines next to gold. Bk. 37, ch. 15. 22. On the relationship between honour and limpieza de sangre see, for example, Américo Castro, De la edad conflictiva (Madrid: Taurus, 1961); and Pierre Ullman, ‘A Theme of Del rey abajo, ninguno, and its Analogy with limpieza de sangre’, Romanic Review, LVII (1965), 25–34. 23. C. G. Jung, Mysterium Coniunctionis, trans. R. F. C. Hull (New York: Bollingen Foundation, 1963); and Charles Nicholl, The Chemical Theatre (London: Routledge and Kegan Paul, 1980). ‘This idea of conjoining the separated opposites of matter is often described as the “Chymicall Wedding” and depicted in alchemical emblems as a coitus, often between a naked king and queen’ (38–39). 24. For the importance of the diamond in these two comedias see Robert Y. Valentine, ‘The Rhetoric of Therapeutic Symbols in Calderón's El médico de su honra’, Bulletin of the Comediantes, XXXII (1980), 40; and Alan K. G. Paterson, art. cit., 277–78. 25. For a description of the jewel called firmeza see Jean Sarrailh, ‘Firmeza’, RFE, XXII (1935), 57. Calderón refers to both the firmeza and the cupido de diamantes in El monstruo de los jardines, a play that also contains a man disguised as a jewel merchant. 26. On the subject see Peter W. Evans, ‘Language and Structure in La villana de Vallecas’, FMLS, XIV (1978), 32–41. 27. Tirso de Molina, Obras, ed. María del Pilar Palomo (Barcelona: Editorial Vergara, 1968), 723. 28. T. E. May, ‘The Folly and the Wit of Secret Vengeance: Calderón's A secreto agravio, secreta venganza’, in Critical Studies of Calderón's Comedias, 45. 29. Alexander A. Parker, ‘Towards a Definition of Calderonian Tragedy’, BHS, XXXIX (1962), 222–37. 30. The stone is described as an antidote for poison in Pliny's Naturalis Historia 37, 15. See also Joan Evans and Mary S. Serjeantson, eds., English Medieval Lapidaries (London: Oxford U.P., 1933), 121; H. W. Seager, Natural History in Shakespeare's Time (New York: Ams Press, 1971; rpt. 1896), 84; and Albertus Magnus, Book of Minerals, 71. 31. On blue as the colour of jealousy see William L. Fichter, ‘Color Symbolism in Lope de Vega’, Romanic Review XVIII (1927), 220–31; and Madelaine W. Nichols, ‘A Study in the Golden Age’, in Homenaje a Archer M. Huntington (Wellesley, Mass.: Wellesley College, 1952), 457–76. 32. George Frederick Kunz, Natal Stones (New York: Tiffany, 1909), 5. 33. Marsilio Ficino, The Book of Life, ed. and trans. Charles Boer (Irving, Texas: Spring Publications, 1980), 153. 34. Marsilio Ficino, The Book of Life, 153. 35. Among the different talismans, he discusses one for longevity: ‘The ancients made an image of Saturn on the stone Feyrizech, that is, the sapphire, for the sake of longevity, making it at the hour of Saturn, with Saturn rising. Its form was an old man sitting on a high chair …’, Marsilio Ficino, The Book of Life, 146. 36. Edgar Wind, Pagan Mysteries in the Renaissance, 50. 37. C. G. Jung, Mysterium coniunctionis, 3. 38. Albertos Magnus, Book of Minerals, 61. He describes the starless sphere as sapphire; the stars as adamas (diamond) or beryl; the Sun and Mars as the carbuncle or ruby; and the dark cloudiness of the Moon and certain stars in stones such as the amethyst. Thus, the four colours are blue, white, red and dark. 39. D. W. Robertson, A Preface to Chaucer (Princeton: Princeton U.P., 1962), 78. 40. Obras de Lope de Vega publicadas por la Real Academia Española, ed. M. Menéndez Pelayo (Madrid: Sucesores de Rivadeneyra, 1894), IV, 532. 41. Although the passage seems to point to a direct relation between saints, stones, qualities, elements and planets, the last two are not clearly established. One possible reading of the links in the passage may be as follows: Not all gem arrangements are divided into triads, quaternities or divisions of twelve. The loa to Calderón's auto sacramental, El pintor de su deshonra, describes six stones, six qualities and six moments during Christ's passion. The jewels are: rubí, amatista, espineh, esmeralda, topacio and diamante. Only the diamond has the same quality as in La juventud de san Isidro and A secreto agravio. It represents propósito firme. As for the three theological virtues, they are included as the tres quilates of the ruby. Pedro Calderón de la Barca, Obras completas, III, 823–28. 42. Obras de Lope de Vega, IV, 532. 43. The contemplation of stones should not lead towards the world but away from it. On this subject see Abbot Suger's discussion of the ‘many colored gems’ adorning the doors at the church of St Denis. These gems lead to ‘worthy meditation’ on the ‘diversity of the sacred virtues’. D. W. Robertson, A Preface to Chaucer, 76–77. The opposite movement, from the stones of virtue to their loss through worldly pursuits, is also possible. ‘Beauty of soul, spiritual insight, knowledge, memory, understanding and free will are the precious gems given by God to man at his entrance into life … Sin it is that robs man of the priceless stone of the grace of God’, Sister M. Francis de Sales McGarry, The Allegorical and Metaphorical Language in the Autos Sacramentales of Calderón (Washington: The Catholic Univ. of America, 1937), 139. 44. ‘The Emerald if put in drink is suitable for deadly venoms, and for venomous bites and punctures of stings’, H. W. Seager, Natural History in Shakespeare's Time, 105. 45. Walter Holzinger, ‘Ideology, Imagery and the Literalization of Metaphor in A secreto agravio, secreta venganza,’ BHS, LIV (1977), 203–14. 46. Walter Holzinger, ‘Ideology, Imagery and the Literalization of Metaphor in A secreto agravio, secreta venganza,’ BHS, LIV (1977), 209. 47. H. W. Seager, Natural History in Shakespeare's Time, 105; Joan Evans and Mary S. Serjeantson, eds. English Medieval Lapidaries, 85. 48. ‘… the metaphoric flames of the castle of desire, with the soul beset by the fires of passion, become for the audience the visual image of the soul burning in the literal fires of hell’, op. cit., 210. 49. N. H. Wethered, The Mind of the Ancient World, 181. 50. Edwin Honig has noted that Don Lope ‘is a man consumed by his own choler’, Calderón and the Seizures of Honor (Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard U.P., 1972), 40. The choleric man is under the influence of Mars since both humour and planet share hot and dry qualities. There are indeed references to Don Lope as both choleric and martial in A secreto agravio. We can also relate planet and humour to a gemstone. A red jewel such as the ruby may express the influences of the red planet, Mars. Don Lope's choleric and martial nature as symbolized by the ruby, facilitates his success at war. We have seen how stones can have opposing meanings. The sapphire, for example, refers to both jealousy and devotion. The ruby can thus stand for bodi martial pursuits and charity. As with the sapphire, the ruby expresses its lower quality in the play, while the higher virtue is absent. 51. Calderón often describes the celestial realms in terms of precious stones. In La vida es sueño, for example, he speaks of papel de diamante and cuadernos de zafiro (11. 634-35). These recall the colours of the two highest spheres according to Albertos Magnus, as outlined in note 38. For other examples see Sister M. Francis de Sales McGarry, The Allegorical and Metaphorical Language in the Autos Sacramentales of Calderón, 139.