"Reinar, despues de morir" : Imagery, Themes, and Their Relation to

Reinar después de morir: Imagery, Themes,
and Their Relation to Staging
J. E. Varey
Reinar después de morir is a play of great lyrical sweep. At first sight,
the staging of the play might appear to be of little consequence. A reader
might well suppose that a radio version, in which the listener's imagination,
spurred on by the poetic imagery, would be given free rein, would have as
great an impact as a stage production. Nevertheless, I believe that an investigation into the way in which the play was probably staged does add to the
depth of our reaction to the play and assists us in understanding the dramatist's
purpose. The intention of the present article is to carry out such an investigation, and to discuss the way in which the mise en scène reinforces the
imagery and points up the themes of the play.
A comedia, as Bruce Wardropper has pointed out/ is poetically coherent,
and the dramatist uses metaphors and images to guide the audience towards
an intuitive appreciation of his purpose. Various strands of imagery run throughout this play, one of the most effective being that of the hunter and the
hunted. Ironically, it is Inés who is first seen in the role of the hunter. In
the second cuadro of Act I she appears onstage "en traje de caza, con escopeta,"
and accompanied by a single servant (stage direction, I, v. 623).^ Night is
falling, and she is both tired, as a result of the day's exertions, and sad: "Pedro
no viene" (I, v. 628). Although the audience is aware of the vows of constancy
which the Prince has made in the previous cuadro, Inés's sadness has thus
an immediate cause; at the same time, seen in the context of a dying sun,
her sadness foreshadows the tragedy of her end. The saudade sung by Inés
and Violante reinforces the impact of the scene:
Minha saudade,
caro penhor meu
¿a quern direi eu
tamanha verdade?
166
Vélez de Guevara
Na minha vontade
de noite e de dia
siempre vos vería.
Saudade minha
¿cuando vos vería?
O, w. 690-98)
Inés sleeps, and is awakened by the Prince. She recounts a dream:
D. a INES.
PRINCIPE.
D . a INES.
Soñaba
que la vida me quitaba . . .
¿Quién?
Un león coronado,
y a mis dos hijos, ¡ay cielo!,
de mis brazos ajenaba
y airado los entregaba
(aun no cesa mi recelo)
a dos brutos que inhumanos
los apartaron de mí.
(I, w. 752-60)
Pedro stills her fears, but Inés goes on to tell him that whilst hunting she had
seen that day a dove lamenting its lost mate and envied the vine which embraced
an elm:
Pues un tronco bruto goza
posesión más bien lograda,
yo apenas gozo el bien
cuando todo el bien me falta.
Y como en la tortolilla
he visto más declaradas
mis sospechas temerosas,
siendo yo tan desdichada,
no es mucho, Pedro, que tema
llegar a imitar sus ansias.
(I, w. 787-96)
The quiet idyll of the lovers is then interrupted by the arrival of the King,
the Infanta, and the King's retinue, reinforcing visually the fears of Inés and
underlining the simplicity of her life by contrast with that of the Court.
The hunting theme is further developed in the second cuadro of Act II.
Brito, the gracioso and the Prince's servant, warns Violante that the Infanta
is approaching:
Pretendiendo
hallar en esa ribera,
por no perder el trofeo,
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167
una garza que del aire
hoy ha derribado, entiendo
que ha de llegar.
(II, w. 406-11)
Whereas the audience saw Inés on foot, armed only with an escopeta, the
Princess rides on horseback, "con un escuadrón soberbio/de pájaros . . .
armada" (II, w. 414-15). The Infanta comes on the stage-on foot, obviouslywith the two advisers of the King, and accompanied by huntsmen. In the
confrontation which follows, Inés speaks directly, Blanca allusively. Blanca
tells Inés that the Prince is to marry her, and warns Inés that she has aimed
too high. Her speech is built around the image of hawking:
Inés,
suspended un poco el vuelo
con que altiva habéis volado,
reducios a vuestro centro,
y sírvaos de corrección,
de aviso y de claro ejemplo
que a una blanca garza, hija
de la hermosura del viento,
volé esta tarde, y, altiva,
cuando ya llegaba al cielo,
la despedazó en sus garras
un gerifalte soberbio,
enfadado de mirar
que a su coronado cetro
desvanecida intentase
competir. Esto os advierto.
(II, w. 491-506)
"Mucha la Infanta / se ha declarado," comments Alvar González, aside to Coello
(II, w. 507-08). Inés replies proudly that she is Doña Inés de Castro Cuello de
Garza,-* and that "casada / con el príncipe Don Pedro / estoy primero que vos"
(II, w. 519-21 ). The Infanta warns her not to forget that "la que cayó del cielo /
era garza." "Y blanca y todo," replies Inés (II, w. 536-37). The play on the name
of the Infanta draws the attention of the audience to the Garza of Inés's surname,
pointing up the directness of the warning which the Infanta had given her
through the description of her day's hawking. Inés's retort angers the Infanta:
"¿Vos me respondéis a mí, / equívocos desacuerdos?" (II, w. 539-40). Inés replies
by admitting that she has done wrong, but almost immediately reinforces her
original statement: "Sí dije (¡válgame el cielo!) / que era blanca" (II, w . 544-45).
In Act III, the image of hunting is introduced by a voice offstage, the entrance
of a hunter, and the remark, offstage, by Brito that "Estos son / cazadores de
Coimbra" (III, w. 5-6). They are hunting a deer, and the hunted animal is
linked at once with Inés:
Vélez de Guevara
168
PRINCIPE.
BRITO.
PRINCIPE.
BRITO.
¡Ay, Doña Inés de mi vida!
Parecióme que acosada,
mal hallada y perseguida,
hacia la fuente llegaba.
¿Quién, señor?
Mi Inés divina.
¿Otro agüerito tenemos?
(III, w. 10-15)
When the Prince informs Brito that the King has gone to Coello to hunt,
Brito extends the hunting image, referring to the two counsellors as sacres
who wish to imprison the garza who is Inés. The Prince reacts indignantly:
¿Por dicha,
aquestos sacres villanos
se atreverán a mi dicha?
Porque guardada mi garza
y alentada de sí misma,
aunque con tomos la cerquen,
aunque airados la persigan,
remontará tanto el vuelo
que la perderán de vista.
Y los sacres altaneros,
cuando vean que examina
por las campañas del aire
toda la región vacía,
cansados de remontarse
en mirándola vecina
del cielo, que es centro suyo,
y en él a Inés, esculpida,
si la buscan garza errante,
la hallarán estrella fija.
(III, w. 96-114)
The image of hawking weaves together two strands of images: those which
mirror ascent and descent, and those which derive from the hierarchy of
birds. The heron is attacked by saker hawks (sacres) and by the proud white falcon, which clearly represents the Infanta: "un gerifalte soberbio, / enfadado de
mirar / que a su coronado cetro / desvanecida intentase / competir" (II, w.
502-06). It is noteworthy that these images do not refer to the eagle, the
sovereign of birds, and in Act II the King is excluded from the attack on
Inés. But in Act I Inés had dreamt of a Hon tearing her children from her
hands and handing them over to "dos brutos que inhumanos / los apartaron
de mí" (I> w - 759-60). The Hon—the king of beasts-clearly represents the
King and foreshadows the role he plays in Act III, as is underlined by the
description of the beast as "un león coronado" (I, v. 754), and thus the hierarchical imagery of the dream parallels that of the hawking sequences. ' The
J. E. Varey
169
inhuman brutes of the dream are the equivalent of the two saker hawks, and
their inhumanity towards the children is repaid at the end of the play by a
cruel death:
Por las espaldas les quiten
los corazones villanos;
y para mayor tormento,
procuren, si puede ser,
que los dos los puedan ver
antes que les falte aliento;
y luego para escarmiento,
con dos crueles arpones,
entre horror y confusiones,
queden mil pedazos hechos.^
(III, w. 671-80)
The natural imagery of the countryside—flowers, trees, water, heavenly
bodies—provides the metaphorical background to the action of the play. It is
sufficient here to note the various components which go to make up this body
of imagery:
(a) the natural setting: In the first cuadro of Act I, the Prince recounts
how all natural things pay homage to Inés; she is "dueño de aves y plantas /
y de todo cuanto ve / el Cielo en la tierra hermosa" (I, w. 47-49). Brito in
Act I describes Inés in terms of nature (I, w. 177-90). When the Prince relates
to the Infanta his first meeting with Inés, he pictures her in a garden, seated
beside running water and looking at her own reflection (I, w. 499-510).
Their love is seen in terms of nature: "hicimos tan dulce unión / reciprocando
las almas, / que girasol de su luz, / . . . / vivo en ella tan unido . . ." (I, w.
555-59). Their children are "dos pimpollos y dos ramas" (I, v. 574). Their
love is such that nature itself copies them:
mi amor
es tan grande que no hay planta
que para amar no me imite,
no hay árbol que con las ramas
esté tan unido como
lo estoy con mi esposa amada.
(I, w. 585-90)
In the second cuadro of this act, the Prince finds Inés again asleep beside
running water, "al margen de aquel cristal / que la fuente vierte" (I, w. 722-23),
and he expresses his love for her in terms of nature (I, w. 797-816). In the
first cuadro of Act III, the hierarchy of flowers is utilised to throw into relief
the beauty of Inés: "La rosa, reina de todas, / mirando a mi Inés divina /
quedó corrida de verla, / pálida y envejecida" (III, w. 37-40); the carnation
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Vélez de Guevara
and the jasmine admit her superiority (III, w. 41-52). After Inés has been
led away to die in Act III, the Prince appears onstage and describes the natural
beauties of the garden of the quinta (III, w. 472-81). The Infanta describes
her death in terms of flowers:
hallé unaflorherniosa, pero ajada,
quitando (¡oh dura pena!)
la fragancia a una candida azucena,
dejando el golpe airado''
un hermoso clavel desfigurado,
trocando, con airado desconsuelo,
una nube de fuego en duro yelo.
(III, w. 575-81)
(b) the heavenly bodies: Brito's relación in Act I describes Inés as seen at
dawn, and she herself vies with the sun: "dando al Aurora / celos, el Sol parece
que enamora / el Oriente divino / de Inés, Sol para el Sol más peregrino" (I,
w. 127-30); her bedchamber is "la esfera que tu Sol esconde" (I, v. 166); she is
"aurora en carne humana" (I, v. 187), and her sons two stars: "todo un cielo
abreviado/y al sol de dos luceros abrazado" (I, w. 189-90). In the second
cuadro oí Act I, the Prince calls Inés "mi hermoso sol" (I, v. 740). But this
series of images is used also for other purposes. The heavenly bodies serve to
denote the passage of time (II, w. 113-16), and the daily sinking of the sun is a
reminder of the inevitability of death. It can also be interpreted as an image of
the vagaries of Fortune. "Mañana será otro día," comments the Prince to Egas
Coello, and the latter, deputed to guard the Prince, facilitates his escape whilst
declaring that his loyalty is "en cualquier aurora . . . / muy de español" (II,
w. 258-60). The sun imagery becomes in Acts II and III clearly associated with
the hawking episodes. The Infanta is sure that Inés is spurred on by ambition.
The Prince swears that "si la buscan garza errante, / la hallarán estrella fija"
(III, w. 113-14), and the same imagery is ironically picked up again in the final
cuadro, when the Prince is yet unaware that Inés is dead:
Y Portugal será en mi casamiento
todofiestas,saraos y contento,
o en público saldré con ella al lado:
un vestido bordado
de estrellas la he de hacer, siendo adivina,
porque conozcan, siendo Inés divina,
que cuando la prefiero,
si ellas estrellas son, ella es lucero.
(III, w. 53845)
The preparations for the marriage are finally turned into directions for the
funeral:
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171
Vos, Condestable, advertid
que os encarguéis del entierro,
llevándola desde aquí
a Alcobaza con gran pompa
honrándome en ella a mí.
Y porque yo gusto de ello,
el camino haréis cubrir
de antorchas blancas que envidie
el estrellado zafir
todas diez y siete leguas,
que también lo hiciera así
si como son diez y siete
fueran diez y siete mil.
GII.w. 728-40)
In her death she becomes, not a star, but a "muerto serafín" (III, v. 748).
The day/night antithesis has already been mentioned. Other similar dichotomies are established in the play, notably that between love and violence. The
Infanta's role requires that she display a controlled anger, and this is suggested
by violent images. In a soliloquy in Act I she is able to unburden herself:
¿Han sucedido a mujer
como yo tales desaires?
¿Cómo es posible que viva
quien ha oído semejante
injuria? ¡Al arma! ¡Venganza!
Despida el pecho volcanes
hasta quedar satisfecha.
(I, w. 609-15)
In Act II, the same imagery is repeated:
Que a no ser dentro de mí
tan bizarra y tan galante,
¿cómo pudiera pasar
por el tropel de desaires
que me han sucedido? ¿Cómo,
sin que abortara volcanes
que en cenizas convirtieran
a quien intentó agraviarme
atrevido y poco atento?
(II, w. 133-41)
A similar antithesis is that which contrasts the living, glowing figure of the
Inés of Act I with the lifeless corpse of the end of the play. Her skin is white
as alabaster, but Brito describes the way in which she blushed:
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Vélez de Guevara
ella, amoi ostentando,
aunque de honestidad indicios dando
a la nieve divina,
de púrpura corriendo otra cortina,
que de tales mujeres
siempre son los recatos sumilleres.
(I, w. 195-200)
In her death, says the Infanta,
arroyos de coral vi desatados
de una garganta tan hermosa y bella
que aun mi lengua no puede encarecella,
pues su tersa blancura
cabal dechado fue de su hermosura
(III, w. 587-91)
and, as she lies in state, the Prince notes that "por su cuello, ¡penafiera!,/
corre la púrpura helada/en claveles desatada" (III, w. 701-03). But she is
now "transformadla] / en estatua de marfil" (III, w. 715-16).
Much of this imagery is Petrarchan in origin, and similar effects can be
found in contemporary dramatists and poets. In the Canción real a una
mudanza, ascribed by Gracián to Antonio Mira de Amescua, we find a series of
images which describe the unhappy lot of the poet: the finch brought down
by the hunter's arrow, the lamb seized by the wolf, the proud general who
loses battle and life, the beauty attacked by a disfiguring disease, the vessel
which strikes on the rock, and the heron attacked by the eagle:
Rica con sus penachos y copetes,
ufana y loca, con altivo vuelo
se remonta la garza a las estrellas,
y aliñando sus blancos martinetes,
procura parecer allá en el cielo
la reina sola de las aves bellas;
y por ser ella de ellas
la que más altanera se remonta,
ya se encubre y trasmonta
a los ojos del lince más atentos,
y se contempla reina de los vientos.
Mas ¡ay! que en la alta nube
el águila la ve y al cielo sube,
donde con pico y garra
el pecho candidísimo desgarra
del bello airón, que quiso
volar tan alto con tan corto aviso."
In this poem the heron is quite clearly an Icarus figure, and deserving of its
fate. Nevertheless, the canción underlines the way in which the dramatist is
J. E. Varey
173
deriving one of his basic extended images from a corpus of emblematic situations
which were part of the common poetical heritage of the seventeenth century. '
Within the context of the play, however, this image comes to form part of a rich
pattern which, underlining the pathos of the situation, sets it against a background of Fortune and constancy, of the beauties of nature, and of life and death.
Vélez de Guevara has presented in this play not so much the sixteenthcentury contrast of the virtues of the country life with the vices of the town
but rather a contrast of the natural spontaneous love of the Prince and Inés
with the cramped etiquette and devious politics of the Court. The love of
Inés is mirrored in the constant references toflowers,trees, and clear streams;
the Infanta is formal, arrogant, and concerned with conventions, with appearances and rank. Inés speaks always of her love; Blanca speaks always of her
honour. Inés lives in the quiet rural charm of Mondego; Blanca, amid the arid
pomp of the Court. Inés is in the right; she is no adulteress, but married, in
her eyes, to her love. She is not a village girl (and hence the play presents no
clash of class), but of noble family. Blanca, however, is a princess; the marriage
she wishes for is one of state, not of love. The machinations of the Court
crush the fragile blossom that was Inés. But the love of Pedro and Inés is
constant, and it triumphs in the end. The death of the King comes too late to
save Inés. The decision, taken by the King for reasons of state, is unnecessary—
in this sense the play can be said to be anti-Machiavellian-but inevitable;^ and
the inevitable brings with it the disasters which the audience has foreseen.
How, then, does the dramatist employ stagecraft to strengthen the impact
of his imagery and to underline his theme? To what extent does the play rely
on stage techniques? Let us look first of all at the use of costume.
Inés is clearly intended to be dressed in a way which befits her rank, but
also simply, in order to mirror the message of the song in Act I. She is "cortesana en el aseo,/labradora en guardar fe" (I, w. 17-18). The Infanta, on the
other hand, although we are given no direct indication of her attire, must
surely be imagined as dressed in the Court scenes in a much stiffer and more
imposing fashion: a Velazquez princess, whose wide-hooped skirt limits her
actions and imposes on her a certain rigidity. Inés is seen also dressed en traje
de caza, and as we have noted, her appearance with her single maid contrasts
with the subsequent entry of the King, the Infanta, and the royal retinue.
Properties assist the audience in forming their judgement of the characters: Inés's
escopeta is simply an indication of her activities on that day, but when we see
her in Act II embroidering on her balcony, her simple and gentle activity
is intended to form a contrast with the implied violence of the armed squadron
which is seen approaching and later appears onstage. In the third cuadro of
Act III, the Prince enters bearing a caña:
a esta caña animado,
que poi lo humilde sólo la he estimado,
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Vélez de Guevara
pues al verla me ofiece
que en lo humilde a mi esposa se parece.
(III, w. 478-81)
He thus himself sees the caña as a symbol of humility, but the audience would
react to it as a symbol of fragility (remember, for instance, Peribáñez's "¡Oh
caña . . . !"). In this way the irony of the Prince's description of the flowerfilled garden is heightened. But the most interesting use of costume comes
immediately afterwards when "Salen el Condestable y Ñuño con lutos" (stage
direction, III, v. 490). For now it is the spectators who are deceived, and not
the Prince. They had been prepared to see the Prince shocked by the news of
the death of Inés, but the mourning is worn, they discover, not for Inés, but
for the King. They are in no way prepared for the death of the King, which
points up the fragility of human life and at the same time the futility of human
scheming. The obstacle to the Prince's marriage is removed, but already the
machinations of the Court have brought about the death of Inés.
Physical actions are also used to bring out the theme. The hunting and
hawking scenes of Acts II and III serve to add a physical dimension to the
poetic imagery. Other actions are more subtly related to the theme. When
Inés is first described to us by Brito, she is seen as asleep, and then waking
from her sleep. When the Prince comes upon her in the second cuadro of
Act I, the situation is repeated, since he finds her asleep by the fountain
(echoing, therefore, in some respects his very first meeting with her, when
he found her-as he told Blanca-seated by running water and, lost to the
world, gazing on her own reflection). The description of Brito in Act I shows
Inés waking to a sun-filled dawn, a dawn of love and happiness (although
there are clouds of doubt in the blue sky); at the end of the play, the curtains
are drawn back to reveal the recumbent body of Inés, but this time it is the
sleep of death which has claimed her.
The role playing in which the courtiers engage also serves as a contrast to
the simple love and faith of the Prince and Inés. The Prince is censured by the
King for openly displaying his lack of affection for the Infanta: "he reparado
que sale / a vuestro rostro un disgusto / que os divierte de lo afable" (I, w.
388-90), whilst, continues the King, "Doña Blanca disimula,/y aunque la
causa no sabe, / piensa sin duda que es ella / causa de vuestros pesares" (I,
w. 395-98). He asks his son at least to feign affection: "Hacedme gusto de
verla / con amoroso semblante" (I, w. 399400). We see immediately how,
although he asks leave to kiss the Infanta's hand, she is immediately aware
"que no sale / ese cortesano afecto / de marido ni de amante" (I, w. 420-22).
The withdrawal of the hand is an obvious gesture which underlines their
relationship. The Infanta's tone is imperious and domineering—"Yo, señor,
soy vuestra esposa" (I, v. 423)-and their exchanges are staccatto:
J. E. Yarey
INFANTA.
PRINCIPE.
INFANTA.
175
Decid.
Atended.
Ya oigo.
Pasad, Príncipe, adelante.
(I, w. 433-34)
The Prince begins his relación, and clearly the Infanta must be seen not to
perceive immediately the drift of his speech. He says, aside:
(4p«rfe.)(Confusa, hasta ver el fin,
será fuerza que se halle.
Mas supuesto que es forzoso
el decirlo y declararme,
rompa el silencio la voz,
pues no puedo excusarme.)
(I, w. 485-90)
The Prince concludes his speech and leaves the stage, and the Infanta, as we
have seen, explodes with rage. The whole scene is stiff and formal, and the
audience can clearly see the lack of true sympathy between the characters.
The effectiveness of the love scenes in the second cuadro is thus much enhanced,
but when the Court appears onstage, the direct dialogue of Inés and the Prince
is replaced by asides:
INFANTA.
D.a INES.
REY.
PRINCIPE.
ALVAR.
EGAS.
VIOLANTE.
(Aparte.) Ahora empieza mi venganza.
(Aparte.) Ahora empiezan mis celos.
(Aparte. ) Ahora empieza mi castigo.
(Aparte.) Ahora empieza mi tormento.
(Aparte.) Ahora se enoja el Rey.
(Aparte.) Ahora se quieta el reino.
(Aparte a BRITO.) Ahora te echan a galeras.
(I, w. 845-51)
Each character is now living within his own shell, concerned with his own
interests and fears. The harmony of the earlier part of the scene has been
broken-frank exchanges have given way to reactions hidden from the other
characters—and the effect is only partly lightened by Violante's speech, which
leads on to a short exchange with Brito. The tension is relieved, but only for
a few moments, as the King and Inés come face to face and, each aside, inform
the audience of their emotional reactions: that of Inés is quiet determination
tinged with fear, and that of the King, astonishment at her beauty and a feeling
of tenderness. The sympathy which the King feels for Inés (and which continues throughout the play and eventually leads to his death) is symbolised by
the way in which he lifts her to her feet as she kneels before him. But, aside, the
Infanta shows her chagrin (I, w. 882-83), and the act ends with the Prince
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Vélez de Guevara
and Inés separated, a separation which is underlined by their leaving the stage
by different doors:
PRINCIPE.
D. a INES.
PRINCIPE.
D. a INES.
PRINCIPE.
D. a INES.
Adiós, Inés de mi vida.
Adiós, adorado dueño.
¡Muerto voy!
¡Yo voy sin alma!
¡Qué desdicha!
¡Qué tormento!
(I, w . 909-12)
Once again, the physical action emphasises the emotional response.
In Act II the Infanta is again presented as proud and gravely offended,
"agraviada, / ofendida y despreciada" (II, w. 10-11). She makes her position
quite clear to the King, in imperious fashion, and storms off the stage. The
Prince is now committed to the castle of Santarem, and Egas Coello is put
in charge of him. But the double-dealing of the counsellor is made patent
by his speeches and, no doubt, by the cringing way in which he addresses the
Prince. As the Prince gives Brito a message for Inés, he is seen to be weeping
(II, v. 322), and thus must be interpreted as a sensitive—though not sentimental—lover. He faints at the news of her death (stage direction, III, v. 600).
In the second cuadro of Act II, the timid way in which the killing of Inés
isfirstbroached by Alvar González is shown by the broken speeches:
ALVAR.
REY.
ALVAR.
REY.
ALVAR.
REY.
ALVAR.
REY.
ALVAR.
REY.
ALVAR.
. . . y así, fuera buen acuerdo
apartar a Doña Inés
de Portugal.
¿Cómo puedo,
si está casada?
Señor,
cuando aqueste impedimento,
que es el mayor, no se pueda
remediar...
Dadme consejo.
Me parece que la vida
de I n é s . . .
¿Qué decís?
Entiendo
Declaraos; ¿por qué teméis?
¡Acabad!
Tengo por cierto
que peligrará.
¿Por qué?
Señor, porque en sólo eso
consistía el que pudiese
gozar la Infanta a Don Pedro.
(II, w . 610-24)
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J. E. Varey
Broken speeches are used to suggest emotion in the third cuadro:
D. a INES.
PRINCIPE.
D. a INES.
PRINCIPE.
D. a INES.
PRINCIPE.
D. a INES.
Tu padre . . .
Habla.
Pretende
Acaba, amores.
Dispone...
¿Qué te turbas?
Que te cases.
(II, vv. 679-81)
The use of songs is evident enough in the play. In Act I, the first song
extols the love of Pedro for Inés, and is replied to, in a sense, by Inés and
Violante's song, which also underlines her fears and sorrow at their being
apart. Violante's song in the second cuadro of Act III is again a sad song of
love, whilst the song in the third cuadro, "¿Dónde vas el caballero, / dónde vas,
triste de ti?" (III, w. 552-53) is an inspired use of a popular ballad. The Prince
is half-prepared by it for the sad news which he is to receive immediately from
the Infanta, and the disembodied voice, which comes from backstage, adds an
eerie and supernatural quality which would be entirely lost if the message
were transmitted in some more down-to-earth fashion. A Senecan ghost has been
transmuted into a lyrical harbinger of death.
The images of ascent and descent are further underlined in the second
cuadro of Act III, when the King visits the quinta and finds Inés on the
balcony. Inés and her servant Violante appear on the balcony: "Salen a un
balcon Doña Inés y Violante con almohadillas" (stage direction, HI, v. 152):
"Pues sentadas / esto que falta del día / estemos en el balcón" (III, w. 155-57).
Violante sings a song of love against a background of flower-filled fields, but
armed men are seen approaching, described in lines taken from an old ballad:
"Por los campos de Mondego / caballeros vi asomar" (II, w. 174-75). Enter,
on the open stage, the King, his two counsellors, and his retinue. They speak
between themselves, and the King orders Inés to be brought before him. At
this point, Egas Coello catches sight of her on the balcony above them. The
actors onstage can clearly see the two actresses above:
REY.
EGAS.
REY.
. . . Llamad, pues, a Doña Inés.
Puesta en el balcón está
haciendo labor.
Coello,
¿visteis tan gran beldad?
(III, w . 214-17)
She is called down into the presence of the King—"mirad que su Magestad /
manda que al punto bajéis"—and replies: "Ponerme a los pies del Rey / será
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Vélez de Guevara
subir, no bajar" (III, w. 233-37). Inés disappears from the sight of the audience,
descends an internal staircase, and, fourteen lines later, reappears on the open
stage with her two children. She kneels before him, but this time the King's
response is very different from that of Act II. She argues that she is truly
married to the Prince, but the King replies angrily:
Callad,
noramala para vos,
Doña Inés, que os despeñáis,
pues si es como vos decís,
será fuerza que muráis.
(III, w. 275-79)
The image of this speech is linked with that of the hawking episodes. Inés
is aspiring too high and is therefore in danger of a fall. But we have just
seen, physically on the stage, Inés at a higher level than the King. The King
has summoned her, and she has descended from this level and knelt before
him. But the effect of the previous stage picture remains. The two defenceless women, their only weapons their needles, seated quietly at their embroidery and singing of love, are disturbed by the arrival of the mailed figures,
who are concerned only with matters of state. The King realises his
situation; he is, he claims, "de pies y manos atado," and this is the lot of
all mortals:
También el hombre en naciendo
parece, si le miráis,
de pies y manos atado,
reo de desdichas ya,
y no cometió más culpa
que nacer para llorar.
Vos nacisteis muy hermosa,
esa culpa tenéis, mas . . .
(Aparte.)
No sé, vive Dios, qué hacerme.
(III, w. 292-300)
Urged on by the evil counsellors, he condemns Inés and her children to death,
and thus the prophecy of the dream of Act I comes true. Only later in the
act, and after the King's death, is the hollow nature of the reasons of state
revealed. And the stage picture of this cuadro has underlined the truth of the
situation: Inés was not an ambitious woman, out for a crown at all costs, an
Icarus who dared to get too near the sun. If she was above the King, it was her
love and her constancy which gave her the right to be considered as higher
in moral standing. And willingly, at his command, she came down to his
level and even knelt before him.9
J. E. Varey
179
The final cuadro ends with the "discovery" of the dead body of Inés. Whilst
in technique it echoes the neo-classical precept that, whilst violence could not
be enacted on the stage, the results of violence could be thus displayed, the
effect is the reverse of gruesome/" The curtain which is drawn back to reveal
the bloodless body of Inés echoes the description of Inés which Brito gives
in the first cuadro of Act I. That spring morning, Brito had stolen into Inés's
bedchamber and pulled back the curtain to reveal her asleep with her children,
and on awakening, she blushed:
ella, amor ostentando,
aunque de honestidad indicios dando
a la nieve divina,
de pútpura corriendo otra cortina,
que de tales mujeres
siempre son los recatos sumilleres.
(I, w. 195-200)
Now the drawing back of the curtain which reveals the discovery can cause no
such reaction, for she is "transformadfa] / en estatua de marfil" (III, w.
715-16). The new King, in a final symbolic action, crowns the dead body so
that she may indeed reinar después de morir.
Action and dialogue, costumes and properties, levels of actions and discoveries, are all utilised in this play to reinforce its total impact. A static play
in some respects, the force of Reinar después de morir lies in the lyrical sweep
of the poetry, and the dramatist has made use of his visual imagination and
skill to create a stage experience which ensures that the force of that poetry
is brought home as fully and as clearly as possible to the audience.
Notes
1 Bruce W. Wardropper, "The Implicit Craft of the Spanish Comedia," in Studies in
Spanish Literature of the Golden Age Presented to Edward M. Wilson, ed. R. O. Jones
(London, 1973), pp. 339-56.
2 All quotations are taken from the Clásicos Castellanos edition, by Manuel Muñoz
Cortés (Madrid, 1959), in which Reinar después de morir appears together with El Diablo
está en Cantillana.
3 Mitchell D. Triwedi, "Inés de Castro, 'cuello de garza': Una nota sobre el Reinar
después de morir de Luis Vélez de Guevara," Hispano, 5, No. 15 (1961-62), 1-7, notes that
"entre los poetas medievales no era raro decir que la mujer de cuello alto, bien formado y
elegante, lo tenía de garza."
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Vélez de Guevara
4 I therefore disagree with Triwedi when he states that the symbolism of the hawking
cannot be equated to the symbolism of Inés's dream, "pues Inés no sueña con aves, sino
con fieras" (p. 4).
5 On the question of responsibility for the tragic outcome of the play, see Alison
Weber, "Hamartia in Reinar después de morir," BCom, 28, No. 2 (1976), 89-95.
6 The canción is to be found in the Oxford Book of Spanish Verse, ed. J. B. Trend,
2nd ed. (Oxford, 1940), pp. 215-19.
7 Cf. also the description of the heron in Calderón's £7 médico de su honra, ed.
A. Valbuena Brioncs, Clásicos Castellanos (Madrid, 1965). Enrique apostrophises the
heron:
. . . que subes
tan remontada, que tocas
por las campañas azules
de los palacios del Sol
los dorados balaustres.
(II, w. 92-96)
Mencía replies that
. . . la garza
de tal instinto presume,
que volando hasta los cielos,
rayo de pluma sin lumbre,
ave de fuego con alma,
con instinto alada nube,
pardo cometa sin fuego,
quieren que su intento burlen
azores reales; y aun dicen
que, cuando de todos huye,
conoce al que ha de matarla;
y asi antes que con él luche,
el temor la hace que tiemble,
se estremezca y se espeluce.
(II, w. 99-112)
8 Laurence W. Cor, "La reine morte and Reinar después de morir," RomN, 13
(1971-72), 402-08, states that "The Spanish author gives the impression that the king
would prefer to abandon his kingdom rather than put Inés to death. The responsibility
for her death rests on the counselors" (p. 405). This view does not allow for the antiMachiavellian tone of the play. On the raison d'Etat, see Charles V. Aubrun, "Régner
après la mort de Vélez de Guevara et La reine morte de Montherlant," in Le théâtre
tragique, ed. Jean Jacquot (Paris, 1965), pp. 191-97, especially pp. 193-95. The question
of the extent of responsibility attached to the Prince has also to be taken into account,
as argued by Weber. See note 5 above.
9 On a similar use of the balcony by Lope de Vega to indicate moral superiority,
see my 'The Essential Ambiguity in Lope de Vega's Peribáñez: Theme and Staging,"
ThR, 1 (1976), 157-78, especially pp. 165-66.
J. E. Varey
181
10 Contrast, foi example, the discovery of the body of the garrotted Captain in the
final cuadro of Act III of Calderón's El alcalde de Zalamea, or, in an earlier play, the
discoveries of atrocities in Act III of Cervantes' Los baños de Argel: "Córrese vna
cortina; descúbrese Francisquito atado a vna coluna, en la forma que pueda mouer a
mas piedad "-Obras completas de Miguel de Cervantes Saavedra, Comedias y Entremeses, ed. Rodolfo Schevill and Adolfo Bonilla (Madrid, 1915), I, 332.