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Development of the “Entremes” Before Lope de Rueda
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 02 December 2020
Extract
The entremes, or passo, for the words were early synonymous, is a short dramatic composition, burlesque or farcical in character, used as a passing-scene for purposes of comic relief. In considering these scenes, especially in the early years of their development before they can be looked upon as forming a well-established literary genre, one of the most important considerations is their essentially parasitic character. Scenes that are in every wise entremeses may be found frequently in Spanish plays of the first half of the sixteenth century. What must first and above all determine whether a given passage is or is not entremes in character, is its intercalation as essentially independent of the plot of the play. Other than this, the delimitations of these scenes are by no means fixed and definite. It must be understood, moreover, that the early writers did not in all probability look upon them as actual entremeses. The earliest known uses of the word with reference to a dramatic composition are found in a composition by Horozco frequently cited, and in the prologue to the Comedia de Sepúlveda where the author seems to show a very excellent understanding of their function: “No os puede dar gusto el sujeto ansi desnudo de aquella gracia con que el proceso dél suelen ornar los recitantes y otros muchos entremeses que intervienen por ornamento de la comedia, que no tienen cuerpo en el sujeto della.” Nevertheless, whether looked upon as such or not, these detached scenes contain in germ the future entremes, and cannot be ignored in a consideration of its origin and development.
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- Copyright © Modern Language Association of America, 1922
References
1 The one case in which allegory enters the field of the early entremes, that of Timoneda's Passo de la Razon y la Fama, may be looked upon as an exception and treated apart. In two others, Fama appears, but it is for comic effect, and not as an allegorical figure.
2 Cancionero de Sebastián de Horozco, p. 167.
3 Revista española de literatura, historia y arte, Vol. I, Madrid, 1901.
4 Kohler, Representaciones de Juan del Encina, p. 11.
5 Comedia hecha por Lucas Fernandez, ca. 1500.
6 Kohler, Sieben spanische dramatische Eklogen, Vol. XXVII, Gesellschaft für romanische Literatur, p. 158, Dresden, 1911.
7 Idem p. 157.
8 Kohler thinks it was probably composed between 1507 and 1509. It appears first in the Cancionero of 1509. Cf. Representaciones de Juan del Encina. Bibl. Romanica. Intro. p. 10.
9 Crawford, Spanish Pastoral Drama, p. 34.
10 Crawford, Spanish Pastoral Drama, p. 35.
11 Carolina Michaelis de Vasconcellos doubts the possibility of dating this play from the oft-cited letter of Stazio Gadio: cf. Revista de filología española, V, 1918, pp. 337-366, where she says, “Atendendo às ultimas frases da carta, que todos alegam convictos, a favor da sua hipotesi, julgando que a frase sobre as forças e acidenles de amor indica o assunto da comedia, eu acho todavia muito duvidoso, e de maneira nenhuma indubitavel, que a representada fosse a de Placida y Vitoriano.” (P. 362.)
12 Kohler dates it prior to 1511. Cf. Sieben spanische dramatische Eklogen, pub. cit. p. 168.
13 Crawford, “Echarse Pullas:—A Popular Form of Tenzone,” Romanic Rev. VI, 150-164.
14 Roraera-Navarro, “Observaciones sobre la Comedia Tidea,” Mod. Phil. XIX, pp. 187-198. He does not think this scene a passo because of a possible, though slight, relationship to the play.
15 The earliest known edition is dated 1552. Whether this is the editio princeps is not certain. Cf. Morel-Fatio, Bulletin Hispanique, II, 239.
16 R. E. House, “Sources of Bartolomé Palau's Farsa Salamantina,” Romanic Rev., IV, 311-322.
17 R. E. House, Romanic Rev., IV, 314, has called attention to the striking resemblance between these scenes and certain passages in the Tesorina.
18 Lines 1584-1789.
19 Lines 1840-1894.