Calderón's «Autos»: Eighteenth-century «sueltos» and «relaciones»
Edward Meryon Wilson
Emmanuel College Cambridge, England
The bibliography of Calderón's autos has received some attention already. The edition of the Primera parte of 1677 (supervised by the author) and its reprints of 1690 and 1715, together with their relation to the Pando editions of 1717, was the subject of an article in BHS some years ago1. Material printed years ago by Pérez Pastor helps to establish the piratical nature of the edition of twelve autos supposedly printed by «Sebastián de Cormellas» of «Barcelona»2 in 1701. The Pando editions and their relation to that of Apontes (1759) were described in this journal in two articles of 1959 and 19623. More work remains to be done on the autos printed in Calderón's lifetime and on the volumes of «Cormellas» and of Apontes; meanwhile a bibliography of autos printed singly and of isolated speeches from a few autos after the Pando editions may throw some light on their popularity and on their transmission.
Two of the descriptions that follow commemorate performances given before Ferdinand VI and his Queen Barbara de Braganza in the Buen Retiro palace in 1747. They alone contain all the literary matter associated with the Corpus festival: A Dios por razón de estado consists of a loa, an entremés, the auto itself and a fin de fiesta; La nave del mercader has a loa, an entremés, the auto and a baile. From the order given in the two printings we can deduce the order of the performances and the fact that A Dios por razón de estado was the second auto performed, as after it came the fin de fiesta and not just a baile. The loas are those printed for each auto in Pando's edition. (There are no other has in any of the prints described below but these). The entremeses, baile and fin de fiesta, with their allusions to Ferdinand and Barbara, appear to have been written specially for these performances. According to la Barrera Calderón wrote entremeses called La tarasca de Alcorcón and El asturiano en el Retiro, and Cotarelo later repeated the attributions4. These are the titles of the two pieces that accompanied A Dios por razón de estado; they clearly have no place in the Calderón canon.
La protestación de la fe, a certainly authentic auto by Calderón, the autograph manuscript of which is preserved in the Biblioteca Nacional, was originally written for the Corpus celebrations of 1656; it was based on the conversion of Queen Christina of Sweden, and its performance was forbidden on political grounds. The printer Antonio Sanz, in a note attached to the autograph, tells us that it was performed in Madrid from 9 June until 9 July of 1752. The separate edition clearly precedes the reprints by Apontes, which also contain the text. It is therefore the editio princeps of this auto and can be dated 1752-57. Recently it has been reproduced in facsimile by Don Antonio Pérez Gómez of Cieza5.
The other sueltos are undated. There is no imprint on one edition of La primer flor del Carmelo or on that of La vacante general; but on the last item there is an arrangement of printers' ornaments like that used by Diego López de Haro of Seville for a play entitled Saber desmentir sospechas (sometimes attributed to Calderón). López de Haro printed from 1724 to 17566. Two printings of La devoción de la Misa and another of La primer flor were issued by Alonso del Riego of Valladolid, whose work spanned the years 1714 to 17627.
The descriptions follow. In them I describe first the title-page (T.P.) or head-title (H.T.) and the incipit, including the initial stage direction and the first two lines of verse. The following line gives the format, a collation of the gatherings, page-numbers or their absence, blank pages, ornaments (if any) in the text, and so forth. The running headlines (R.H.) follow, with their variants, where variants exist. Finally I give the colophon. After this I record the library or libraries in which the suelto may be found, and occasionally the work of reference in which a description of it occurs. I reproduce the two forms of long s (f) and (ƒ), because their use means that they antedate the (unknown) year in which these forms went out of fashion. Other minutiae may help to date the undated items when we know more about Spanish printers' fashions. (Running headlines in italic capitals, for instance, seem to me to indicate a relatively early date and were used by Sevillian printers in the first half of the century). The variants in running headlines can tell us a good deal about how the work in question was printed.
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No colophon. No imprint. No date.
Madrid, Biblioteca Nacional: T/1185
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Madrid, Biblioteca Nacional: T/10856, T/25321
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London, The London Library: P.1052.(l)
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Madrid, Biblioteca Nacional: T/25346
London, British Museum: 12330.l.14.(13) [fragment only]
[The British Museum volume was assembled by Carlos Frederico Trampe in 1758]
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[H.T. p. 17] AUTO SACRAMENTAL | ALEGORICO, | LA NAVE DEL MERCADER, | DE D. PEDRO CALDERON DE LA BARCA. | [fourteen names of abstract characters and thirteen names of actors] | [rule] [begins] Suena un Clarin en la Nave negra, y dando vuelta ƒe vè en la proa la Culpa con | eƒpada, plumas, y vengala, y algunos de Marineros. |
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[H.T. p. 53] BAYLE | DEL MEDICO PACIFICO. | PERSONAS. | [Six names in two columns, rule, plus one item under the rule] [begins] Salen cantando, y baylando las qua-| tro mugeres, y los quatro hombres, | Ramirez, y Ribas detràs: eƒte de | Vejete, y los demas de | Aldeanos. |
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| [pp. 53-56] | ||
Madrid, Biblioteca Nacional: T/12550
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LA PRIMER FLOR DEL CARMELO [H.T.] Fol. I. | LA PRIMER FLOR DEL CARMELO. | AVTO SACRAMENTAL | HISTORIAL ALEGORICO. | De Don Pedro Calderon de la Barca. | PERSONAS. | [Persons in three columns, italics; four persons given in the last line] [begins] Sale Luzbèl, trayendo aƒsidas de las manos à la Avari-| cia, y à la Laƒcivia, como por | fuerça. |
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Quarto. A-C4 D2. Pages 1-27 [ + 1 blank] [R.H. verso] Auto Sacramental, [recto] La primer Flor del Carmelo. [No colophon] FIN. | [three ornaments] |
Madrid, Biblioteca Nacional: T/25347
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LA PRIMER FLOR DEL CARMELO [H.T.] AVTO | SACRAMENTAL | HISTORIAL ALEGORICO, | INTITVLADO | LA PRIMER FLOR | DEL CARMELO. | DE DON PEDRO CALDERON DE LA BARCA. | [rule] | [persons in four columns, italics; five persons given in the last line] | [rule] | JORNADA PRIMERA. [begins] Sale Luzbèl, trayendo aƒsidas de las | manos à la Avaricia, y à la Laƒ- | civia, como porfuerça [sic]. |
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Quarto. A-C4 D2. No page numbers. Last page blank. [R.H. verso] Auto Sacramental, [recto] La primer Flor del Carmelo. [Colophon] FIN. | Impreƒƒo en Valladolid: En la Imprenta de Alonƒo | del Riego, Impreƒƒor de la Real Univerƒida d [sic], y | del Santo Oficio de la Inquiƒicion, donde ƒe ha- | llarà eƒte, y otros de diferentes titulos: Y Co- | medias, Hiƒtorias, Coplas, Eƒtampas, y diferen- | tes generos de Libros. Vive à la Calle de la | Libreria. |
Madrid, Biblioteca Nacional: T/7010
London, London Library: P. 1055.(1). Bears the stamp of W. B. Chorley
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LA PROTESTACIÓN DE LA FE [H.T.] +| AUTO SACRAMENTAL | ALEGORICO, | PROTESTACION | DE LA FÉ. | DE DON PEDRO CALDERON DE LA BARCA. | PERSONAS QUE HABLAN EN ÉL, | [persons in three columns, italics; vertical rules between the columns of persons] | [rule] [begins] Suena dentro la Muƒica, y ƒale | oyendola la Heregìa veƒtido [sic] de Ma-| rinero, con un pedazo de remo | en la mano. |
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Quarto. A-C4 D2. No page numbers. [R.H.
verso] Auto
Sacramental, [recto] Proteƒtacion de la Fè. [colophon] [wavy line after FIN. at the end of the text] EL IMPRESSOR AL LECTOR. ESTE Auto llegò à mis manos, yà hace años, en borrador, conforme lo | eƒcriviò ƒu Autor Don Pedro Calderon de la Barca, cuyo Original con- | ƒervo en mi poder, con otros de los mas cèlebres Poetas Eƒpañoles; y pare- | ciendome no deƒmerecer en nada à los que en ƒeis Tomos ƒalieron al Publico, | para que eƒte no carecieƒƒe del guƒto de ƒu repreƒentacion, determinè darle al | Theatro, y à inƒtancias de los Curioƒos à la Prenƒa, porque en todo le tenga | cumplido. Và fielmente impreƒƒo, y con las Aprobaciones, y Licencias que | debe; ad- | virtiendo, que los verƒos, que ƒe encuentren entre dos eƒtrellas, no | ƒon de Don Pedro Calderon. VALE. Antonio Sanz. |
Madrid, Biblioteca Nacional: T/5617
London, British Museum: 11728.a.70
Detroit, Wayne State University Library: No. 445
Chapel Hill, University of North Carolina Library: No. 1523
Reproduced in facsimile by Don Antonio Pérez y Gómez in Don Pedro Calderón de la Barca, Obras menores (Siglos XVII y XVIII). El ayre de la almena, XXIV. Cieza (Murcia), 1969.
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LA VACANTE GENERAL [H.T.] [Oblong frame of ornaments with short sides coming to a point, in which is printed] Plieg. 3. | AUTO | SACRAMENTAL | ALEGORICO, | INTITULADO | LA | VACANTE | GENERAL | DE D. PEDRO CALDERON DE LA BARCA. | PERSONAS | [persons in three columns, in italics] [begins] Sale la Muƒica en tropa, y detrás San Juan Baptista con un Baƒton, y en él una | tarxeta con eƒta letra: OMNES PROPHETAE, ET LEX USQUE AD JOAN-| NEM PROPHETAVERUNT, Matthaei, cap. 11, num. 13. |
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Quarto. A-C4. [1] 2-24 pages. [R.H. verso] LA VACANTE GENERAL, [recto] DE DON PEDRO CALDERON DE LA BARCA. |
[no colophon]
London, London Library: P.1055.(18)
[Note: The ornamental frame inside which is specified the number of gatherings occurs also in a suelta of the comedia entitled (Saber desmentir sospechas printed by Diego López de Haro of Seville]
Joseph Blanco
White in 1822 told his readers how at Christmas at parties there
were amusements such as «singing,
dancing, and, not unfrequently, speeches, taken from the old
Spanish plays, and known by the name of Relaciones. Recitation was considered
till lately as an accomplishment both in males and females; and
persons who were known to be skilled in that art, stood up at the
request of the company to deliver a speech with all the
gesticulation of our old school of acting»
8.
Joseph E. Gillet described a set of two-leaf relaciones from the
Biblioteca Nacional9,
and many more from comedias by Lope, Pérez de
Montalbán, Calderón, Moreto and other dramatists
found their way into print in the late years of the seventeenth
century and through the eighteenth into the nineteenth. I myself
described some taken from Calderón's comedias and autos in the Homenaje a J. A. van Praag
(Amsterdam, 1956), but unfortunately they were not accurately
printed there pp. 140-44. I therefore reprint them here, together
with a few more that I have found in recent years.
All are two-leaf quartos, so transcriptions of the head-titles, incipits, conclusions and colophons will suffice. They are all undated, but limits can be established for those which name the printer in the colophon. The «Colegio de nuestra Señora de la Assumpcion» was a Jesuit establishment that came to an end in 1767; its earliest known dated production is of 173010. Don Luis de Ramos y Coria, most of whose productions were undated, printed from 1790 until 182311. Don Rafael García Rodríguez apparently began to print in 1805 and died in 184412. Even after the autos were suppressed by law, relaciones from them continued to be printed and -presumably- to be recited also.
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RELACIONES AMAR Y SER AMADO Y LA DIVINA FILOTEA RELACION | DEL AUTO SACRAMENTAL, | INTITULADO: | LA DIVINA PHILOTEA. | DE DON PEDRO CALDERON. [begins]
[ends]
[colophon] Impreƒƒo en Cordoba: En el Colegio de nueƒtra Señora de la | ASSUMPCION. |
London, British Museum: 12330.l.1.(84)
Cambridge, University Library: Hisp. 7.81.151.
[Speech by El Príncipe, Pando, I.170-72]
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LA DEVOCIÓN DE LA MISA RELACION | DEL AUTO SACRAMENTAL | INTITULADO: | LA DEVOCION DE LA | MISSA. | DE DON PEDRO CALDERON. [begins]
[ends]
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[vertical line between the columns of the text]
London, British Museum: 12330.l.1.(86), (87) and (89).
Cambridge, University Library: Hisp. 7.81.160.
[Speech by Pasqual Vivas, Pando, III. 170-72]
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EL LIRIO Y LA AZUCENA [block: a vase of flowers] | RELACION | DEL AUTO SACRAMENTAL, | INTITULADO: | EL LYRIO, | Y | LA AZUCENA. | DE D. PEDRO CALDERON. [begins]
[ends]
[vertical line between the columns of the text] [colophon] En Cordoba: En el Colegio de Nueƒtra Señora de la | ASSUMPCION. |
Cambridge, University Library: Hisp. 7.81.146.
[Speech by La Discordia, Pando, III.129-32]
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LO QUE VA DEL HOMBRE A DIOS Num. 240. | RELACION | DEL AUTO SACRAMENTAL, | QUE SE INTITULA | LO QUE VÁ | DEL HOMBRE A DIOS. [begins]
[ends]
[colophon] En Córdoba, en la Imprenta de Don Luis de | Ramos y Coria, Calle de Armas. |
Valdenebro, 1904.
Madrid, Biblioteca Nacional: U/9497.(183)
[Speech by El Príncipe, Pando III.9-13]
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LAS ÓRDENES MILITARES RELACION | DEL AUTO SACRAMENTAL | INTITULADO: | LAS ORDENES | MILITARES. | DE DON PEDRO CALDERON. [begins]
[ends]
[colophon] Impreƒƒo en Cordoba: En el Colegio de nneƒtra [sic] Señora de la | ASSUMPCION. |
London, British Museum: 12330.l.1.(89)
[Speech by La Culpa, Pando, I. 101-04]
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LA VACANTE GENERAL Num. 40. RELACION DEL AUTO SACRAMENTAL. | LA VACANTE | GENERAL. [begins]
[ends]
[colophon] Con licencia: En Cordoba, en la Imprenta de Don Luis | de Ramos y Coria, Calle de Armas Num. 4. |
tēgo
...Madrid, Biblioteca Nacional: U/9497.(173)
[Speech by La Iglesia, Pando IV.272-75]
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EL VENENO Y LA TRIACA Num. 206. | RELACION | DEL AUTO | SACRAMENTAL | INTITULADO: | EL VENENO Y LA TRIACA. | DE DON PEDRO CALDERON DE LA BARCA. [begins]
[ends]
[colophon] Con licencia: En Córdoba, en la Imprenta de Don Rafael Garcia | Rodriguez, Calle de la Librería. |
New York, The Hispanic Society of America
Madrid, Biblioteca Nacional: U/9497. (120)13
London, British Museum: 11450.h.6.(7)
Valdenebro, 2170