La moza de cántaro | Page 9

y Portocarrero and was, although a water-maid, a
relative of the Duke of Medina, his resistance had vanished. Then with
a sweeping and silent bow to the fiancée the actor approached the front
of the stage to pronounce this brief address to the public:
Aquí Puso fin á esta comedia Quien, si perdiere este pleito, Apela á Mil
y Quinientas. MIL Y QUINIENTAS ha escrito: Bien es que perdón
merezca.
From the gradas and barandillas, from the windows and desvanes,
from all the seats, but especially from those which filled the patio, there
must have gone forth then amid clamorous applause a unanimous shout
of admiration, of enthusiasm, and very just national pride. "¡Vítor,
Lope!" shrieked that tumultuous multitude time and again. "Long live
el Fénix de los ingenios! Long live Lope de Vega!"]
[Note 7: See Comedias Escogidas, Vol. I, p. xxviii, and Gassier, Le
Théâtre Espagnol, p. 60.]
[Note 8: Ticknor, History of Spanish Literature, Vol. II, p. 275.]
The "Watermaid" belongs to the largest class of Lope's plays--the class
in which he excelled--comedias de capa y espada. Ticknor erroneously
classes it as a comedy "founded on common life" or as styled by others
comedia de costumbres, but it is probable he did so without making
himself thoroughly familiar with the comedy in its full form. Zerolo is
very emphatic in attributing it to the class of comedias de capa y
espada, for he says: "Más que ninguna otra, reune esta obra las
circunstancias que caracterizan á las comedias de capa y espada, como
embozos, equívocos, etc." Were the leading character what her name
implies--a humble servant--and were the other characters of her rank,

the play might well be classed as a comedia de costumbres; but that it
belongs to the larger class is established by the fact that the intrigue is
complicated, the question of love and rank is prominent, and the
characters are of the nobility.[9] Any opposing irregularities in
language or action may be explained by the period represented, for the
time is that of the early years of the reign of the young monarch, Philip
IV, a brilliant though corrupt epoch of Spanish history well worthy of a
moment's notice.
[Note 9: The Ticknor collection in the Boston Public Library contains
two copies of the play; the one is entitled "La Moza de Cántaro,
comedia en cinco actos por Lope Félix de Vega Carpio y refundida por
Cándido María Trigueros, Valencia, 1803," and the other, idem, "con
anotaciones, Londres" (probably about 1820). These are probably the
only editions of the play with which Ticknor was familiar when he
made his classification of it, for certainly he could not reconcile it with
his definition of "comedies on common life," but he could easily accord
it with his definition of "comedias de capa y espada." (See Ticknor's
History of Spanish Literature, Vol. II, pp. 243 and 275.) Quoting from
Lista's classification, Romualdo Alvarez Espino says: "Comedias de
costumbres in which are painted vices of certain persons who, since in
that epoch they could not be represented to be of the nobility, were
drawn from the dregs of the people. Perhaps his very object in these
compositions drew Lope away from the culture and urbanity which
distinguish him in others; but fortunately they are few. Let us mention
as examples El rufian Castrucho, La Moza de Cántaro, El sabio en su
casa, La doncella Teodor." (Romualdo Alvarez Espino, Ensayo
Histórico Crítico del Teatro Español, p. 116. See also, Alfred Gassier,
Le Théâtre Espagnol, p. 38.) In the broader sense of the term, comedias
de costumbres could easily include not only the Moza de Cántaro but
generally all comedias de capa y espada, for true comedy is the
presentation of the customs of society in a diverting manner. However,
the Spanish critics usually narrow the class to include only the dramas
of Lope which deal with the lower strata of social life and make the
error of classing the Moza de Cántaro among them. This error may be
explained by the fact that the critics, especially those cited above, have
probably referred directly or indirectly to the refundida edition of the

play which makes prominent the part of the servants and minimizes the
rôles of the masters.]
Philip III died in 1621, leaving the vast realm which he had inherited
from his father, the gloomy though mighty Philip II, to his son, a youth
of sixteen years, who came to the throne under the title of Philip IV. If
Philip III was ruled by Lerma and Uceda, Philip IV, in his turn, was
completely under the domination of the unprincipled Olivares, and his
accession initiated one of the most interesting and most corrupt reigns
that Spain has ever known. Philip himself was weak and
pleasure-loving, but has never been regarded