1
There are good reasons for thinking that a first Parte fell foul of some prohibition in 1625-6; Lyra published what could be saved from an early volume, in a town relatively secure from the vigilance of the Consejo de Castilla. The appearance of Doze comedias and circumstances of publication also suggest that Lyra pirated the plays. For a reconstruction of this story, see A. K. G. Paterson, «Tirso de Molina. Two Bibliographical Studies», Hispanic Review, 35 (1967), 43-68.
2
In 1621, Lope
claimed that «las comedias
salen mejores, como muestra la experiencia»
(Decimaséptima
parte, ¶ 4r); despite his professed distaste for
publishing plays, Lope clearly took pride in his printed
volumes.
3
Biblioteca Nacional, Madrid, T/1479212; collation, A - D4 (D3 and D4 contain the Entremés gracioso del morogueco). The head-title reads: Num. 191. | LA VENGANZA DE THAMAR. | COMEDIA | FAMOSA, | DEL DOCTOR FELIPE GODINEZ. |. Colophon: En Sevilla, por FRANCISCO | DE LEEFDAEL, en la casa del | Correo Viejo. |. Leefdael operated in Sevilla from 1701 to about 1730 (see Francisco Escudero, Tipografía hispalense (Madrid, 1894), p. 47).
4
Tirso de Molina, Obras dramáticas completas, edited by Blanca de los Ríos, 3 vols. (Madrid, 1946-58), in, 368b. Hereafter cited as Blanca.
5
«El doctor Godínez tiene grandísima facilidad, conocimiento y sutileza para este género de poesía [i. e. theatre], particularmente en las comedias divinas; porque entonces tiene más lugar de valerse de su ciencia, erudición y doctrina», wrote Montalbán in the Memorial de los que escribían comedias en Castilla (part of Para todos, Madrid, 1632). In the Perinola, Quevedo makes a bitter rejoinder to this praise; Godínez's fame rests on autos, sacramental and Inquisitorial.
6
See C. Roth, A History of the Marranos (Philadelphia, 1932), pp. 383 and 397; and J. Caro Baroja, Los judíos en la España moderna y contemporánea, 3 vols. (Madrid, 1962), II, 226-7.
7
Lope de Vega, Cartas completas, 2 vols. (Buenos Aires, 1948), II, 178.
8
It has been argued that the S ending does not belong to Tirso. However, two details of the S ending belong firmly to Tirso's adaptation of his source, 2 Samuel, XIII. First, David draws the S version to a close with a promise of arranging Tamar's marriage to Joab; this love motif is Tirso's own invention, and a second writer would hardly have caught up and terminated a subsidiary theme belonging to Tirso and not to the source. Secondly, it was also part of Tirso's adaptation to make Absalón into the actual murderer; in S, this detail is preserved:
|
Again, an independent reviser would have tended to overlook this detail.
9
«After transforming Act II of La venganza de Tamar for his
first act, Calderón goes on to copy out Tirso's third act
for his second. In the absence of autograph copies of the two
plays, it is not certain to what extent the variations between the
extant texts indicate changes introduced by Calderón, but
his departure from Tirso can have amounted to no more than a
superficial revision»
(A. E. Sloman, The Dramatic
Craftsmanship of Calderón (Oxford, 1958), p. 106).
10
The suelta is catalogued C.108.bbb.20. The head-title reads: LOS CABELLOS DE ABSALON. | COMEDIA | FAMOSA. | De Don Pedro Calderon. |