Abstract

The complementary parts of Calderón’s La hija del aire represent the disastrous consequences provoked by bad government, corruption, and lust for power and is a prime example of the crises that occur as a result of such vices.The play’s lessons are projected beyond the stage onto the political arena of 17th Century Spain. The First Part’s central figure, Semíramis, is controlled by her lust for power and tyranny and governs accordingly. The model of government her imprudent son, Ninías, represents in the Second Part is equally harmful to the nation. His inexperience and indolence regarding matters of state lead to political and social instability. Both leaders, then, are equally incapable of controlling the passions that cloud reason (jealousy, vengeance, resentment) and of following the middle path that leads to virtue, the so-called via mediocritas.The corrupt and licentious regent that is controlled by court favorites and by his primitive instincts provokes the degeneration of the state and places its very existence at stake. By staging the behaviors of nefarious monarchs, both parts of the play promote the need for leaders to control their basic instincts and to follow the teachings of good government, as reflected in the speculum principis genre. In this sense, La hija del aire emerges as a poetic and dramatic representation that situates itself with other dramas that allegorically represent the crises of power occurring within Early Modern Spain.

Abstract

Este artículo presenta el estudio y análisis de un paso paródico de La hija del aire de Calderón de la Barca, engastado dentro de un entremés homónimo del siglo XVIII. Se documenta la popularidad que alcanzó la obra original en los escenarios madrileños, para después prestar atención al modo en que se inserta la parodia en la trama del entremés y los procedimientos llevados a cabo para lograr la deformación burlesca del pasaje calderoniano. Finaliza el trabajo con la transcripción del texto.