Book contents
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- Preface
- Acknowledgments
- Note on texts and notes
- Introduction
- 1 La vida es sueño: Calderón's idea of a theatre
- 2 La dama duende
- 3 Calderón and Tirso: El galán fantasma
- 4 El secreto a voces: language and social illusion
- 5 Toward tragedy
- 6 El médico de su honra
- 7 Herod and Hercules: theatrical space and the body
- 8 El mágico prodigioso and the theatre of alchemy
- 9 The illusions of history
- 10 Authority and illusion: En la vida todo es verdad y todo mentira
- 11 The use of myth: Eco y Narciso
- 12 Prometheus and the theatre of the mind
- 13 Calderón's last play: the comedia as technology and romance
- Notes
- Index
6 - El médico de su honra
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 01 March 2010
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- Preface
- Acknowledgments
- Note on texts and notes
- Introduction
- 1 La vida es sueño: Calderón's idea of a theatre
- 2 La dama duende
- 3 Calderón and Tirso: El galán fantasma
- 4 El secreto a voces: language and social illusion
- 5 Toward tragedy
- 6 El médico de su honra
- 7 Herod and Hercules: theatrical space and the body
- 8 El mágico prodigioso and the theatre of alchemy
- 9 The illusions of history
- 10 Authority and illusion: En la vida todo es verdad y todo mentira
- 11 The use of myth: Eco y Narciso
- 12 Prometheus and the theatre of the mind
- 13 Calderón's last play: the comedia as technology and romance
- Notes
- Index
Summary
Ludovico … Una imagen
de la muerte, un bulto veo
que sobre una cama yace:
dos velas tiene a los lados,
y un crucifijo delante.
(1, 344b–5a)(I see an image of death, I see a form lying prostrate in bed: two candles beside it and a crucifix at the head.)
Gutierretrato en honor, y así pongo
mi mano en sangre bafiada
a la puerta; que el honor
con sangre, señor, se lava.
(1, 348b)(I deal in honor, and thus I place my blood-bathed hand on the door; for tainted honor, sir, is cleansed with blood.)
The images that Calderón conjures up at the end of El médico de su honra – Dona Mencía's prostrate figure awaiting death, and the bloodied hand of Gutierre her husband – are almost unforgettable theatrical encounters. The words evoke vivid presences which fix our attention. They are images, visible emblems. Just as the bloodied hand which marks Gutierre's door is a rubric of his actions (“Los que de un oficio tratan,/ponen, señor, a las puertas/un escudo de sus armas”) (“Those who practice a profession, sir, place a coat of arms on their door”) (1, 348b, emphasis mine), so too Mencía's corpse becomes emblematic of his crime. Calderón looks to incite the admiratio of his audience during these two final moments; he drives toward the naked, unmediated apprehension of these images. He elicits a primary emotional response of wonder, horror, dread, and, perhaps, pity. El médico is the ultimate honor play; it is by definition meant to stir the passions, to “move everyone forcefully.”
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- Information
- The Limits of Illusion: A Critical Study of Calderón , pp. 68 - 81Publisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 1984