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Mabbe's Paganization of the Celestina

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  02 December 2020

Helen Phipps Houck
Helen Phipps Houck*
Affiliation:
Wellesley College
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Extract

The Celeslina's probable influence on the early stages of the English drama through the adaptation published in 1530, its direct though perhaps slight influence on the English realistic novel, and its much greater indirect influence through its stepchild, the picaresque novel, lend interest to the translation published in 1631 by James Mabbe, or “Maybe,” as he may have pronounced his name, since he uses the punning pseudonym Don Diego Puede-ser. Despite numerous errors, some as elementary as confusing subject and object or turning a grandson into a nephew, Mabbe's work is a brilliant achievement. It does not read like a translation; nor does it read like the Spanish Celestina. Apparently the translator set himself to erase the vertical line of the Middle Ages completely, to paganize the work, and to make it represent the Renaissance spirit as he felt it.

Type
Research Article
Information
PMLA , Volume 54 , Issue 2 , June 1939 , pp. 422 - 431
Copyright
Copyright © Modern Language Association of America, 1939

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References

1 The Spanish edition used for this study, Celestina, Tragicomedia de Calixto y Melibea (Madrid: Espasa-Calpe, 1932) is based on the 1499 Burgos redaction (reproduced in 1902 by Foulché-Delbosc and in 1913 by Huntington) and includes in parentheses the additions found in the principal subsequent editions: Sevilla, 1501 (reproduced by Foulché-Delbosc in 1900); Sevilla, 1502; Valencia, 1514 (reproduced by Krapf in 1900).—The edition used of Mabbe's translation is of the series “Broadway Translations”: Celestina or the Tragicomedy of Calisto and Melibea / Translated from the Spanish by James Mabbe / anno 1631 / Also An Interlude of Calisto and Melebea (sic) / (for the first time accurately reproduced from the Original Copy) / Printed by John Rastell / circa 1530 / Edited with Introduction on the Picaresque Novel, and Appendices, by H. Warner Allen, late Scholar of University College, Oxford; Taylorian Scholar in Spanish Language and Literature (London: George Routledge and Sons, Ltd. [n.d.]).

2 A textual comparison of Mabbe's work with the original is somewhat vitiated by the impossibility of determining which edition he used among the several available. Moreover, as H. Warner Allen points out in his Introduction to the Broadway Translation, Mabbe must have collated the Spanish edition, in some passages, with the French and Italian translations. However, the difficulty is really unimportant, for Mabbe used one of the editions in twenty-one acts, among which the differences are slight and do not affect the broad comparison and conclusions of this study. Allen, in his Appendix, collates the variants of the principal editions.

3 50; 24. Throughout the study, citations to the Celestina are given in this form, the first numeral referring to the original work and the second to Mabbe's translation.

4 202; 142.

4a But at times in Rojas the language of the aristocratic characters is excessively ornate and inclined to diflfuseness.

5 195; 137.

6 Celestina's conjuration of Pluto. 96–97; 61–62.

7 25–26; 9–10.

8 32–35; 14–15.

9 117; 124. 104; 68. 66; 36. 56; 29. 323; 237. 327; 238.

10 208; 146. 169; 118. 203; 142. 253; 180. 327; 239.

11 103; 66. 231; 163. 100; 65. 327; 237.

12 37; 15. 36; 15. 38; 16. 204; 143. 359; 263. 309; 224. 356; 260. 347; 253.

13 202; 142.

14 118; 79.

15 110; 72.

16 24; 43.

17 165; 115.

18 112; 74. 213; 157. 319; 232. 234; 167. 212; 151. 52; 25. 213; 151. 105; 68. 212; 151. Ibid. 288; 205. 54; 27. 72; 41. 135; 92. 299; 214.

19 147; 100.

20 117; 78. 144; 100.

21 117; 78.

22 142; 99.

23 193–195; 135–137.

24 P. 166.

25 232, 254; 166, 181.

26 271; 193. A second example is quoted later. The third occurs in a biblical reference and hence does not suit Mabbe's purpose.

27 217; 155.

28 237; 169.

29 252; 179.

30 324; 236.

31 271; 193.

32 339–342; 247–249.

33 351; 256.