Los Melindres De Belisa by Lope De Vega

6

Figueroa

Melissa Figueroa Cornell University

Theorizing, Stating, and Teaching Los melindres de Belisa by Lope de Vega

Theoretical Approach: Selecting the scenes

I have chosen the first scene in which Belisa appears on stage (scene 2) and the following one in which Belisa comments on the faults of her suitors (scene 3) for my analysis. These scenes are good points of departure for understanding not only the enredos of the play but also the different anxieties, fears, and problematic obsessions of sixteenth- and seventeenth-century Spain[1]. Georgina Dopico-Black suggests that “the anxieties that attach to the body of the married woman in early modern Spain point beyond themselves: to larger cultural and political questions, to the difficulties and the dangers of reading, to the tenacious interconnectedness of gender, religion, race, nation, and interpretation. (xiv)”. As a bride-to-be, it is not surprising that Belisa embodies not only the worries of other characters’ concerned with her status, such as her uncle and her mother, but also the concerns of the spectators of the play as well.

If we analyze the second scene, since its first moment there is expectation and anxiety surrounding the suitors or possible grooms-to-be who are located on the other side of the celosía and Belisa’s position: “Las celosías impiden/ que no veas la calle”. Therefore, as Belisa’s body is secluded and closed off from the outside, her own body becomes a metaphor for the fear of the female body that also has to be closed. In fact, celosía has often been read as the hymen. Thus, we can read this scene in the same manner that Dopico-Black reads Fray Luis de León’s La perfecta casada: “The homology between closure of anatomical openings and enclosure within the house, on one hand, and between the sensual and the sexual openings of woman’s body, on the other, suggest that female garrulity (the open mouth) in La perfecta casada can be equated with harlotry (the open sex) (94)”. Since Belisa is not yet married we cannot speak of a fully open body. What is more dangerous and threatening about Belisa, however, is her open mouth. The DRAE’s definition of “melindre” can be illustrative in this regard: “Delicadeza afectada y excesiva en palabras, acciones y ademanes”. The same meaning had already appeared in the Covarrubias’ Tesoro de la lengua castellana o española: “De allí [fruta dulce] vino a significar este nombre el regalo con que suelen hablar algunas damas, a las cuales por esta razón llaman melindrosas” (1266). If Belisa is menacing to other characters (and spectators) and must be controlled by them, is not only because they have to find a perfect match for her but also because she talks too much: they cannot control her words (the melindres).

Belisa and Flora’s dialogue about the men who are walking across the celosía activates a representation of different social fears and anxieties of the period, which will be even more accentuated in the next scene. The first caballero, called “el del overo”, is just the author’s excuse to play with all the rhetoric effects of the celosía as a metaphor:

BEL. Del estuche

Saqué un cuchillo y los di

De puñaladas allí.

FLO. ¡Quién hay que tal gracia escuche!

¿Mataste la celosía?

BEL. Hice, a lo menos, lugar

Por donde pude mirar

Quien por la calle venía.

However, the second and last reference in the scene, the “aceitero” represents the period’s fear of contamination by the other: either the Jew or the Muslim[2]. The other —just as we can read the female’s body— is distinguished by his mark (another interesting point to analyze in Belisa’s idea of branding Felisardo-Pedro’s face). If we read the “aceitero” as the other then we can understand why he is on the outer side of the celosía. He cannot be part of Belisa’s suitors; he must be excluded. But this reading is problematic since Belisa falls in love precisely with a slave, a “cristiano bautizado”. It is the “cristiano bautizado”, the bearer of a social and religious mark, who awakens Belisa’s desire. I propose then to read Belisa’s calentura, after seeing the aceitero and Flora’s reprimand, as the sexual arousal that is going to be enflamed by the coming of a slave into her own house: Felisardo-Pedro is on the inner side of the celosía. It is interesting that the calentura, which Flora is trying to attenuate, is interrupted by the arrival of the authority figures of the uncle and the mother. Both uncle and mother are the ones who try to govern and control Belisa’s desire.

In the third scene, in which Belisa comments on her suitors’ faults, she is not just controlling both uncle and mother by her melindres but is offering them as well the spectators a reflection about sixteenth- and seventeenth-century Spain. The first suitor, “el calvo letrado”, presents a reflection on religion:

BEL. Cuando yo fuera mujer

espiritual y santa,

y para vencer la carne

-gran enemigo del alma-

quisiera una calavera

tener de noche en la cama,

lindamente me venía

un hombre al lado con calva.

Belisa is stating her distinction from a religious woman. She is presenting herself as a woman of action and not as a woman of contemplation. I do not argue that these different points are opposites but rather that Belisa makes that distinction. In claiming that she is not a religious woman, she emphasizes sexual desire: “y para vencer la carne/ -gran enemigo del alma-”. As a non-religious woman expressed in the phrase “cuando yo fuera”, Belisa does not need to “vencer la carne”.

The second suitor, “el maestre de campo”, evokes the linguistic differentiation of the other in relation to the accepted way of speak, thus the reflection turns to language. Here, “Pues llamarle yo ‘mi ojo’/ era ser negra” we can see how speaking can be a way of representing the other. In fact, it seems that Belisa has been in contact with the other to the extent that she can articulate and imitate its linguistic difference. The third and fifth suitors, “el portugués” and “el francés”, are no less innocent references to the Spanish relation with other European nations. Their inclusion in the text –and the following rejection from Belisa- shows how Spain built itself excluding what was outside of it. Both the Portuguese and the French can request Belisa’s hand but, if we read the passage as a political allegory, then they cannot succeed[3]. In his “Desemitización y europeización en la cultura española desde la época de los Reyes Católicos hasta la expulsión de los moriscos”, Milhou posits that during the reign of the Catholic Monarchs, King Fernando II of Aragon and Isabella I of Castile, Spain started to suppress its Oriental traditions in order to welcome European ones, a process that would last until the seventeenth century. This may have been a conscious move on their part, but there are contrary indications. According to Milhou, there is an incompatibility between the Oriental and the European tradition; one seems to exclude the other (57). It is striking how this process of europeización did not entirely suppress the Oriental or Moorish legacy in Spain or its representation[4]. Although these processes cannot be entirely completed, one must argue that, during the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, Spain was closing itself off to Europe as well[5].

The last suitor, “el caballero de Santiago”, offers Belisa an excuse to reflect on Spain and its political and military power. If the mother is interested in the political status of the “caballero de Santiago”, Belisa pays more attention to the affection of wives and husbands:

LIS. Pues dime: ¿en qué hallaste falta

en don Luis, mozo y galán,

cuyos pechos esmaltaba

un lagarto de Santiago?

BEL. ¡Calla, madre, que me espantas!

¿No dicen que las mujeres

a sus maridos abrazan?

Con un lagarto en el pecho,

en mi vida lo abrazara!

This dialogue is a rich passage that informs the spectator (and the reader) about mother-daughter relations and also sexuality. First, Lisarda places great emphasis on the description of don Luis. He is the only one of Belisa’s suitors that Lisarda praises for his physical attributes—“mozo y galán”—while the others were praised for their political and economic status: In fact, I wanted to emphasize Lisarda’s enthusiasm when I interpreted her role.

Lisarda’s enthusiasm for don Luis is suspicious: first, he is the last suitor she mentions as if he were the last resort; second, it seems the Lisarda expresses an enthusiasm that allows us to see her as a libidinous being and that, later in the play, is going to generate conflict with her own family. Lisarda’s allusion to the “lagarto de Santiago” can be, with precaution, read as the mark of the original sin: the sexual arousal and temptation represented by the serpent[6]. I would like to suggest that this passage puts the sexual desire of Lisarda on stage and defines her as a cougar, as Anthony J. Grubbs shows in “The Cult of the Cougar in the Comedia: Lisarda in Lope de Vega’s Los melindres de Belisa”. What frightens Belisa about Lisarda’s remarks about don Luis is not only the representation of the “lagarto” but the access thus granted to her mother’s sexual fantasies. Her reaction cannot be other than: “¡Calla, madre, que me espantas!” If we read Belisa’s reaction as a representation of the primal scene, defined as a scene of sexual intercourse between the parents and observed (or fantasized) by a child, who usually interprets it as an act of violent aggression on the part of the father[7]; then, we can understand Belisa’s violent rejection to don Luis’s “lagarto”. In fact, we can read the “lagarto” as a phallic object. I include the picture of “Reptile dreams” (1996) by the New Yorker, Cliff Bernie to illustrate this:

Tiberio’s explanation is not a helpful one if we read this scene from its sexual connotations:

TIB. Sobrina, llámase así

qquella cruz colorada,

que es espada y no es lagarto.

Again, this exploration of sexuality is interrupted by the arrival of an unexpected guest.

Practical Approach: Representing the scenes

I have been working with Teatrotaller, a theatrical organization from Cornell University. Teatrotaller has been staging plays both in Spanish and English at Cornell University for the last fifteen years. The organization describes itself as follows:

Teatrotaller, (Spanish for "Theater-workshop"), was founded in 1993 by a group of enthusiastic and energetic students in the Cornell campus. With the idea of preserving and promoting Spanish, Latin American and Latino cultures through theater, Teatrotaller has devoted itself to the production of plays in Spanish and "Spanglish." Now, fifteen years later, Teatrotaller holds a well earned reputation for excellence in artistic performances. Teatrotaller has also performed internationally in Leige, Belgium; Puebla, Chiapas, and Mexico City, Mexico; Jerusalem; and Toronto, as well as locally (New York City, Boston, and Philadelphia).[8]

Debra Castillo, the director of Teatrotaller and a renowned critic of Latin American literature, was kind enough to organizing a group of young actors to film these two scenes. First, we had a reading to determine the timing and the roles of the different characters. In this first meeting, we were engaged in a conversation about Lope de Vega, the language of the play, and the multiple layers of signification contained within the scenes. Since the actors are not native Spanish speakers, the language of the play was a particular challenge. Second, we had an informal rehearsal to talk about props and, then, we had a formal rehearsal using all the props and with memorized dialogues. Loredana Comparone, a Ph.D candidate in the Department of Romance Studies, agreed to direct the scenes. She has a lot of theater experience. In fact, she successfully directed “Casa Matriz”, a play by the Argentinean playwright, Diana Raznovich, focused on the relationship between an old mother and a daughter. It is a funny and yet profound play in which a woman rents the service of a specialized mother, supplied by Casa Matriz, in order to experience again her conflicted relationship with her mother.[9]

The filming of these two scenes has been extremely enjoyable and informative. We have learned not only about staging a play but about the different anxieties, fears, and values of early modern Spain.

Things to keep in mind…

1.. What are things that students, scholars, performers HAVE to know about this play to understand it?
2.. How does your work (in pedagogy, research, or performance) illustrate this? What are the teachable/researchable/performable points you have discovered and wrestled with?
3.. How could this play enrich your practice of teaching, production, or research? What could others learn from this play?

Works Consulted

Covarrubias, Sebastián Horozco de. Tesoro de la lengua castellana o española. Ed. by Ignacio

Arellano y Rafael Zafra. Universidad de Navarra: Editorial Iberoamericana, 2006.

Delicado, Francisco. La Lozana Andaluza. Ed. by Claude Allaigre. Madrid: Cátedra, 1985.

Dopico-Black, Georgina. Perfect Wives, Other Women. Adultery and Inquisition in Early

Modern Spain. Durham & London: Duke University Press, 2001.

Fuchs, Barbara. Exotic Nation. Pennsylvania: University of Pennsylvania Press, 2008.

González Alcantud, José A. Lo moro. Las lógicas de la derrota y la formación del estereotipo

islámico. Barcelona: Anthropos, 2002.

Lope de Vega y Carpio, Félix. Los melindres de Belisa

Macey, David. The Penguin Dictionary of Critical Theory. England: [Unknown Binding], 2002.