Book contents
- Frontmatter
- Dedication
- Contents
- Illustrations
- Preface
- Part I Las Trezientas and Carajicomedia
- Part II Cultural Ideology: Gender Roles
- Part III Political Satire and Ideology
- Conclusion: The Purpose and Fate of Carajicomedia
- Part IV A Paleographic Edition of Carajicomedia Carajicomedia
- Appendix A Carajicomedia: A Modern Spanish Edition and Translation
- Appendix B The Erotic Language of Carajicomedia
- Bibliography
- Index
Conclusion: The Purpose and Fate of Carajicomedia
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 21 May 2021
- Frontmatter
- Dedication
- Contents
- Illustrations
- Preface
- Part I Las Trezientas and Carajicomedia
- Part II Cultural Ideology: Gender Roles
- Part III Political Satire and Ideology
- Conclusion: The Purpose and Fate of Carajicomedia
- Part IV A Paleographic Edition of Carajicomedia Carajicomedia
- Appendix A Carajicomedia: A Modern Spanish Edition and Translation
- Appendix B The Erotic Language of Carajicomedia
- Bibliography
- Index
Summary
We actually know very little that is factual about the aims of the individuals who wrote Carajicomedia's two poems or about its audience, and we do not fully understand their motives—or why the work disparages Hernán Núñez, Ambrosio Montesino, Juan de Hempudia and others. We also do not know if the original text differs from the version printed in Juan Viñao's Cancionero de obras de burlas. Someone else, perhaps Viñao himself, might have added the initial rubrics to the first and second poems and identified many of Carajicomedia's stanzas with their corresponding numbers in Las Trezientas. However, even though plagued with uncertainties, this printed text must answer all questions about its aims, authors, referents, and nature. The possible answers to these questions, however, make a compelling case for considering Carajicomedia as not only entertainment but also propaganda directed by one powerful political faction against another. One does not make rankless people the only targets of such vitriol.
We can also infer much about Carajicomedia by the date of the publication of its model. There is no doubt that the work parodies the 1499 edition of Las Trezientas; however, when this appeared, Hernán Núñez was a relatively young tutor of the second son of the Count of Tendilla, who happened to have been granted a commission in the Order of Santiago but was otherwise unworthy of note. In the years that followed, Núñez rose in Castilian society, eventually becoming a “regidor” (alderman) of Granada. However, he only developed a reputation as one of Spain's leading classicists after he moved to Alcalá de Henares in 1513 and joined the team that created the Polyglot Bible. Towards 1519, he was considered for and was eventually appointed to the chair of Greek at the Complutense. He then moved to Salamanca and became the successor of Nebrija in 1523.
This sequence of events is important, because, as we have stated, the last few years of Isabel I's reign (†1504) have been proposed as the probable moment of Carajicomedia's composition. However, given Núñez's very minor reputation at the end of this queen's reign and the publication of Carajicomedia in 1519, it is more plausible to think that he did something later in life during his stay at Alcalá that rubbed Carajicomedia's authors up the wrong way. The most probable reason for their scorn was Núñez's support of the Comuneros.
- Type
- Chapter
- Information
- Carajicomedia: Parody and Satire in Early Modern SpainWith an Edition and Translation of the Text, pp. 219 - 228Publisher: Boydell & BrewerPrint publication year: 2015