Abstract

This essay intends analyzing the disguise of madness in Calderón’s La Cisma de Ingalaterra, not only as a concrete element of the performance that contributes to Pasquin’s connotation, but also as a dramatic metaphor that is used by Calderón in order to bring on stage the subversion of order and the unmasking of fiction and hypocrisy. concept, whose dramatic construction can be established from symbolic functions of costume. Second, it analyses Pasquin’s clownish aspect, his acting like a theatrical sign of multiple meanings, because it translates a fictional madness that expresses itself at a visual, a verbal and a mimic level at the same time. Moreover, the article deals with some scenic sources based on the concept of inversion, starting from Pasquin’s fiction of madness that, on one hand, is similar to the emblematic figures of the ««fou sage» and the «seeing-blind», and that, on the other hand, points out Enrique’s loss of wisdom.

Abstract

Sourced in Pedro de Ribadeneira’s Historia eclesiástica del scisma del reyno de Inglaterra (1588, 1593), Lope de Vega’s comedy, El amor desatinado, and Calderón de la Barca’s tragedy, La cisma de Ingalaterra, attenuate the monstrous portrayal of Henry VIII and Anne Boleyn that distinguishes their source text. These changes can be attributed primarily to aesthetic choices and generic necessities, fi rst, because Lope echoes Ribadeneira’s monstrous characterization of Elizabeth and her parents in his poems, La Dragontea, La corona trágica, and Rimas humanas, but not in El amor desatinado. Furthermore, Lope changes Ribadeneira’s narrative of Henry and Anne to fit a comedic structure and characterization that is less scandalous and more ridiculous than that of the Historia. Similarly, Calderon’s adaptation of Ribadeneira’s account features a more complex and dignified Henry that corresponds with the tragic decorum necessary when representing monarchs on the stage.