Abstract

This work reviews the resources that are used in dramatic works of Calderón de la Barca for the treatment of the representatives of the authority; that is, the presence on stage of what Gonzalo Correas calls «names of honor», for which the protocol of the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries imposes very strict guidelines, is analyzed. The study is based on a selection of works in which representatives of political, military and ecclesiastical power, and characters of different rank, sex and age participate.

Abstract

In Calderón’s plays, metatheatrical elements are especially concentrated in the last verses, where the characters break the theatrical illusion and address the audience to refer to aspects of the work itself and its representation, in search of applause. This article analyzes the endings of 73 calderonian plays and classifi es captatio benevolentiae formulas that appear in them, related to the Baroque taste for metaliterary artifi ce. The study of the chronological evolution of the selection of such references, so codified, is not only essential to understanding the modus scribendi of Calderón, but can also be considered a new tool for the dating of certain works.