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A younger contemporary, Jose´ de Can˜izares, contributed more substantially to the renewal of the theatre, not only as dramatist but also as official censor of plays. Among his more important works are the magic comedies Don Juan de Espina, El anillo de Giges (“Giges’ Ring”), Marta la Romarantina, and Juana la rabicortona, though he also composed mythological, heroic, and saints’ plays. Another curious dramatist was Juan Salvo y Vela, though perhaps not as distinctive as some critics have suggested, given the extraordinary figures who inhabited the theatrical world of the time. A tailor by profession, Salvo composed many saints’ plays, but his most famous works were the series of five magic plays entitled El ma´gico de Salerno (“The Magician from Salerno”), produced between 1715 and 1720, in three of which the magician protagonist is female. The fact that many of these comedies gave rise to sequels is proof of their success and of the need to offer follow-up story lines based on characters and plots already well received by audiences. In magic plays the magicians manipulate the world in order to make it conform to the desires of characters suffering from some abuse of power or social injustice. This interference with reality often leads to a more harmonious state of affairs and new roles for the protagonists, sometimes including the magician. As the century advances magicians become transformed into more secularized and middle-class characters with power over the world around them, resulting from an informed knowledge of Nature (i. e., knowledge acquired – in the best Enlightenment tradition – through study and experience), not a gift acquired through a pact with the devil or by divine grace, as was the case before.
This theatrical subgenre, which often pokes fun at belief in magic, reflects changes in a society becoming increasingly secular and valuing
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The Enlightenment and Neoclassicism
Technological and scientific progress. A similarly evolving pattern can be seeninheroic plays onmilitary themes which become more bourgeois, giving rise to dialogue which suggests a more enlightened mentality. Comella (1751–1812) and Zavala y Zamora (1762–?) are the authors who best reflect this change at the end of the century, composing plays which feature personalities from contemporary European history such as Comella’s Federico II, rey de Prusia (“Frederick II, King of Prussia,” 1788) and Pedro el Grande, zar de Moscovia (“Peter the Great, Czar of Muscovy,” 1796), or Zavala’s plays on Charles II of Sweden, which become a series based on the same historical character.
In a similar way the attention given to women in this type of theatre, making them rulers of the destinies of others, is symptomatic of the new position that women slowly and with difficulty were gaining in society. Women are protagonists in magic comedies of the second half of the century, especially in the plays of Valladares and in works on military and sentimental themes of the same period, notably Comella’s Mar´ıa Teresa de Austria en Landau (“Maria Theresa of Austria at Landau,” 1793).
During the second half of the century the secularizing process accelerates and plots become more related to issues close to the spectator and less associated with subjects deriving from mythology or antiquity. This explains why we also find sentimental comedies as part of popular theatre, differentiated from the Neoclassical model. The fact that authors like Valladares inEl trapero de Madrid (“The Junkman of Madrid,” 1782) and El fabricante de pan˜os (“The Cloth-maker,” 1784), or Vicente Rodr´ıguez de Arellano in La reconciliacio´n o los dos hermanos (“The Reconciliation, or the Two Brothers,” 1800), or Comella in the renowned series on Cecilia, or Zavala in El amor constante o la holandesa (“Constant Love, or The Dutch Girl,” 1787), experimented with this type of story with its strong Enlightenment connotations is evidence of an interest in adopting new forms of behavior. The themes formed part of the dominant aesthetic trend and show how different playwrights sought ways to reduce the distance between the contrasting dramatic traditions in vogue at the end of the century. This style of theatre, deriving from existing narrative texts (not for nothing are many plots lifted wholesale from novels), opened the way to new bourgeois attitudes.
Neoclassical theatre
Although drama in the classical style was often presented as something foreign – imported from France – the fact is that in sixteenth-century Spain there had been a demand for plays in the classical style, with Cervantes foremost among the campaigners, and the demand had been met.
Neoclassical versus popular theatre
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The Neoclassical conventions were set out authoritatively in Luzan’s 1737 treatise, but in the first half of the century there were few authors who adopted the Neoclassical style. Initial activity centered on literary history in an attempt to resurrect Spanish classical models which might serve to win people over to the new style and domesticate it. Agust´ın de Montiano y Luyando (1697-1764) wrote a history of Spanish tragedy and composed two original tragedies, Virginia (1750) and Ataulfo (1753). Blas Antonio de Nasarre (1689-1751) made a parallel effort on behalf of comedy, publishing Cervantes’ plays which Nasarre saw as a reaction against Baroque theatre and Lope’s style. In a similar attempt to domesticate Neo-classicism Tomas Sebastian y Latre and Bernardo de Iriarte (1735-1814) adapted comedies and sainetes from classical Spanish theatre.
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