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The commedia dell'arte and the Circus in the Work of Jacinto Benavente

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  23 January 2009

David George
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Extract

Jacinto Benavente (1866–1954) is one of Spain's forgotten dramatists. In an interview contained in an article published recently in the newspaper Ya to commemorate the twenty-fifth anniversary of Benavente's death, the theatre director José Luís Alonso said: ‘se puede decir que, prácticamente, ha caído en el olvido, mientras que otros autores de su tiempo, un claro ejemplo lo tenemos en Valle-Inclán, han conseguido hoy su plenitud’ [one can say that Benavente has been almost completely forgotten, while other authors of his day (Valle-Inclán is a good example) have today come into their own]. Benavente is today hardly ever performed in Spain, unlike his contemporaries Valle-Inclán and García Lorca. His preoccupation with middle and upper-class characters, and his unwillingness to treat social themes in a radical manner go a long way towards explaining this lack of interest in him. Benavente's plays may seem rather trivial and old-fashioned when compared with Valle-Inclán's bitterly satirical es-perpentos or Lorca's powerful folk tragedies, yet during his lifetime he was Spain's most frequently-performed dramatist. His work is varied, including fantasy plays, dramas on rural themes, and plays satirizing polite society. He received the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1922. His best work was written relatively early in his life, and the high point of his dramatic output is generally considered to be Los intereses creados (The Bonds of Interest), first performed in 1907, and based on the commedia dell'arte. This, however, is not the only work by Benavente in which commedia characters appear: in the period up to 1916 the author frequently deals with the commedia dell'arte, and his play El hijo de Polichinela (Polichinela's Son) appeared as late as 1927.

Type
Articles
Information
Theatre Research International , Volume 6 , Issue 2 , Spring 1981 , pp. 92 - 109
Copyright
Copyright © International Federation for Theatre Research 1981

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References

Notes

1. Gener, Paz, ‘Benavente hoy’, Ya, 29 07 1979, p. 14.Google Scholar All translations of Spanish and French quotations are my own, and I have translated only those titles whose meaning is not obvious to the non-specialist reader.

2. There is a vast bibliography of interest on the history and development of the commedia dell'arte, for example, Lea, K. M., Italian Popular Comedy, 2 vols. (Oxford, 1934)Google Scholar; Duchartre, Pierre Louis, La Comédie italienne (Paris, 1924)Google Scholar (The English version is The Italian Comedy, translated by Weaver, Randolph T. (London, 1929Google Scholar; reprinted New York, 1966)); Sand, Maurice, Masques et bouffons, 2 vols. (Paris, 1860)Google Scholar (The English version is The History of the Harlequinade, 2 vols. (London, 1915)); and Beaumont, C. W., The History of Harlequin (London, 1926; reprinted New York, 1967)Google Scholar.

3. Watteau has numerous paintings of commedia dell'arte subjects, such as Arlecchino galante (1716), Mezzetin (1717?), L'Amour au théâtre italien (1718), and the famous Gilles (1717–1719?). These paintings are reproduced in L'opera completa di Watteau, edited by Macchia, Giovanni (Milan, 1968).Google Scholar

4. See, among others, Alonso, D., ‘De El caballero de Illescas a Los internes creados’, Revista de Filología Española, 50 (1967) (1970), 1–24CrossRefGoogle Scholar; Cabrera, R. M., ‘El picaro en las literaturas hispánicas’, Actas, 3 (1970), 163–73Google Scholar; Buceta, Erasmo, ‘En torno de Los intereses creados’, Hispania, vol. 4, no. 5 (1921), 211–22CrossRefGoogle Scholar; Selma, José Vila, introduction to his edition of Los intereses creados (Madrid, 1968)Google Scholar; and Fernando Lázaro Carreter, introduction to his edition of the play (Madrid, 1972), pp. 28–32. Benavente himself deals in rather vague terms with the subject of the sources of the play in ‘Hoy hace años … Veintitrés del estreno de Los intereses creados’, in Obras completas, 11 vols. (Madrid, 1940–1958), XI (1958), 45–7. Ferreres, Rafael, Verlaine y los modernistas españoles (Madrid, 1975)Google Scholar, suggests that the influence of Verlaine can be seen in some of the scenes of Los intereses (pp. 224–7).

5. In Obras completas, XI, 498–803.

6. ibid., p. 654.

7. See de la Serna, Ramón Gómez, Nuevos retratos contemporáneos (Buenos Aires, 1945), p. 93.Google Scholarde Onís, Federico, Jacinto Benavente (New York, 1923), p. 12Google Scholar, denies that this is the case. Lewis, Marcia Simpson, ‘The Modernismo of Jacinto Benavente’ (unpublished Ph.D. dissertation, University of Illinois, 1967), p. 97Google Scholar, considers that Benavente never provided sufficient evidence to suggest that this was the case.

8. See Obras completas, X (1956), p. 795.

9. All three may be conveniently read in Obras completas: La fuerza bruta in III (fifth edition, n.d.), 345–81, Los cachorros in IV (fifth edition, 1962), 81–141, and ¡Clown! in X, 797–834.

10. All these essays can be read in Obras completas: ‘El circo’ in XI, 64–6; ‘Los payasos del circo’, which is part of Pan y letras, in VI (fifth edition, 1963), 687–8; ‘Los “clowns”’ and ‘El poema del circo’, which are part of Vilanos (1905), in VI, 525–7 and 551–3 respectively; and ‘Carnaval’ in XI, 99–102. I have only been able to date Vilanos, but the themes and style of the others suggest that they belong roughly to the same period. Page references to these essays given in the text are to the appropriate volume of Obras completas.

11. The Théâtre des Funambules owed its fame to the mime Jean-Gaspard Deburau, who played the role of Pierrot there from around 1815 until his death in 1846.

12. Benavente's interest in Shakespeare is illustrated by the fact that he translated King Lear, in which the theme of the wise fool is, of course, very important, and Hamlet. He also wrote a play entitled El bufón de Hamlet (Hamlet's Clown), which was performed after his death (see Penuelas, Marcelino C., Jacinto Benavente (New York, 1968), p. 173)Google Scholar, and his Cuento de amor (A Tale of Love) is an adaptation of Twelfth Night.

13. In Critiques, edited by Barrucand, Victor (Paris, 1917), pp. 421–2 (p. 422).Google Scholar

14. A later, enlarged version of Teatro fantástico contains two additional works on commedia dell'arte themes, Comedia italiana and La blancura de Pierrot (The Whiteness of Pierrot), one for two porcelain figures, El encanto de una hora (The Charm of an Hour), and one which is described as a ‘comedia de marionetas’, La senda del amor (The Path of Love). Teatro fantástico may be conveniently read in Obras completas, VI, 319–418; Cuento de primavera is to be found on 347–402. Page references given in the text are to this edition.

15. When referring to or quoting from Spanish or French texts I shall give the commedia dell'arte masks their Spanish or French and not their English names.

16. ‘El teatro de fantasía de Benavente’, Cuadernos hispanoamericanos, 320–1 (1977), 308–26 (p. 320).

17. In Critiques, pp. 204–5 (p. 207).

18. Starkie, Walter, Jacinto Benavente (London, 1924), pp. 26–7.Google Scholar

19. Darío, Rubén, ‘La joven literatura’, in España contemporánea, Obras completas, 21 vols. (Madrid, 1923–1929), XXI (1929), 88–100 (p. 94).Google Scholar

20. Los intereses creados, edited by Lázaro Carreter, pp. 49–50. Subsequent references are given in the text of the article. I have translated the Spanish ‘Cuadro’ as ‘Act’.

21. It should be pointed out that Crispin was basically a French creation, and Duchartre says that he is ‘the French son of Scaramouche’ (The Italian Comedy, p. 249). There is a useful account of his development in seventeenth and eighteen-century French literature in the introduction to Lesage, Alain René, Crispin rival de son maître, edited by Lawrenson, T. E. (London, 1961), pp. 33–40.Google Scholar

22. ‘El teatro de fantaía’, pp. 317–18.

23. La ciudad alegre y confiada, in Obras completas, III, 1125–1214 (p. 1131). Subsequent references are given in the text of the article.

24. In Drama y sociedad en la obra de Benavente (1894–1914) (New York, 1974), pp. 246–7.

25. I am indebted to the following for help in the preparation of this article: Mr J. B. Hall, Mr J. McCarthy, Dr E. Holt, and Mr G. F. Evans of the Department of Romance Studies, University College, Swansea; Dr D. G. Walters, of the Department of Hispanic Studies, University of Glasgow; and Dr D. Hook, of the Department of Spanish and Spanish-American Studies, King's College, London. My thanks are also due to the staff of the Inter Library Loans section of the Library of University College, Swansea, and to Mrs Gillian Evans, of the Department of Romance Studies at Swansea, who prepared the typescript.