Juan Ruiz de Alarcon

Juan Ruiz de Alarcón y Mendoza (Taxco, 1572/1581?-Madrid, August 4, 1639) was a Golden Age writer from New Spain who promoted different varieties of dramaturgy. Among his works, The Suspicious Truth stands out, a comedy that constitutes one of the key works of Spanish-American Baroque theater and is comparable to the best pieces by Lope de Vega or Tirso de Molina.

His literary production belongs to the character comedy genre. He forged a style built from characters with very well-defined identities, deep and difficult to understand on a first reading. He dominated the game of words, and the ingenious associations between these and the ideas resulted in a language full of sayings, capable of to express a great wealth of meanings.

Alarcón's thought is moralizing, as befits the baroque period. The world is a hostile and deceptive space where appearances prevail over virtue and truth. He attacks the customs and social vices of the time, an aspect that markedly distinguished him from the theater of Lope de Vega, with whom he did not come to sympathize. He is the most psychologist and courteous of the Baroque playwrights and his works always focus on urban settings, as in The walls hear and The privileged breasts . His output, scant in quantity when compared to that of other contemporary playwrights, possesses great quality and overall unity, and was highly influential and imitated in foreign theatre, particularly French.

All this has earned Alarcón to be considered an influential playwright of the Spanish Baroque. He was not well appreciated by his contemporaries and his work remained forgotten until well into the XIX century, when she was rescued by Juan Eugenio Hartzenbusch. Despite the fact that his production was developed in Spain, the thought generated in New Spain due to his works was important for his later heyday and the influence of traditions between both regions is inherent in the way of reflecting the lifestyle in said times.

Biography

Recorded by Juan Ruiz de Alarcón, by E. Gimeno, Mexico through the centuries.

News about the childhood of Juan Ruiz de Alarcón are scarce, so the exact place and date of his birth are not known. Although according to the playwright himself, he was born in Mexico City in 1580 or 1581, most studies consider the town of Taxco (in the current state of Guerrero) as his true birthplace.

His opponents claimed that his maternal grandfather was Jewish and that his paternal grandfather was the son of a priest from Buenache de Alarcón and a Moorish slave; however, the notoriety of different members of his lineage in New Spain society and their good reception by the peninsular aristocracy indicate that he came from a noble family well related to the Castilian nobility, but settled in New Spain.

He studied, from 1596 to 1598, the baccalaureate in Canons, at the Royal and Pontifical University of Mexico. Around 1600 he had to leave for the University of Salamanca, thanks to the chaplaincy of Gaspar Ruiz de Montoya, where he would learn civil law and I would delve into canon law.

During his stay in Salamanca, according to several authors, Alarcón began to stand out as the author of dramatic pieces and essays. In 1606 he went to Seville with the purpose of practicing as a litigator in commercial and canonical matters. There he met Miguel de Cervantes Saavedra, who would later influence his works, such as The cave of Salamanca and The similar to himself .

In the first months of 1607, he decided to return to New Spain. Two years later he obtained a law degree and unsuccessfully competed for several professorships. He did not get his doctorate, perhaps due to lack of financial resources. Thanks to Viceroy Luis de Velasco y Castilla, Alarcón's friend, he was able to rise in the viceregal bureaucracy, as he was appointed lieutenant corregidor. When Velasco left for Spain, in 1611, Ruiz de Alarcón embarks along with the viceroy's retinue.

Upon his arrival in Madrid, the most fruitful stage of his literary production began. His first works to be performed were Las paredes oyen and Los pechos privilegiados, both with moderate success. He soon became known in the Madrid literary circle, although he never established deep ties with any of its members. On the contrary, he earned the enmity of Lope de Vega, Luis Vélez de Guevara, Luis de Góngora, Francisco de Quevedo and others. Many satirical roundups and veiled allusions to Alarcón have been preserved, who was always ridiculed for his physique —he was hunchbacked— and for his American origin. The New Spanish, for his part, responded to most of the attacks on him and never left to write.

Students of the taxqueño have raised a hypothesis about the possible collaboration of Ruiz de Alarcón and Tirso de Molina, one of the most famous writers of his time and who most influenced his work. There is no written evidence about the collaboration of both, although it is assumed that at least two of Tirso's comedies, published in the Segunda parte (Madrid, 1635), belong to Alarcón. For Castro Leal, however, the fact that comedies by others appear in a volume by Tirso in no way proves that they belong to Alarcón.

With the accession to the throne of Felipe IV, in 1621, the theater gained great importance in the royal court. Alarcón soon established an advantageous friendship with the son-in-law of the powerful Count-Duke of Olivares, Ramiro Núñez de Guzmán, in whose shadow he grew even more as a poet. Between 1622 and 1624 he wrote The Punished Friendship , The Owner of the Stars and most of his plays.

Since 1625 he had served in the Council of the Indies, thanks to the intercession of his friend Ramiro Núñez de Guzmán. First he held the position of interim relator and in 1627 he was proposed for an ecclesiastical prebend in America, which was not accepted. His economic position improved remarkably, as stated in a document dated 1628. He also recognized Lorenza de Alarcón as his daughter, born with Ana de Cervantes around 1620.

During the first months of 1639, Alarcón's health began to deteriorate. He stopped attending the meetings of the Council of the Indies and was replaced in his position as rapporteur.On August 1, he dictated his will, where he records all his debts and debtors. He died on the morning of August 4 and was buried in the parish of San Sebastián.

Work

He published twenty two-volume comedies; the first, with eight, in 1628 (The favors of the world, Industry and luck, The walls hear, The similar himself, The cave of Salamanca, Moving to improve oneself, Everything is lucky and The unfortunate man in pretending); the second, with twelve, in 1634 (The endeavors of a deceit, The owner of the stars, Friendship punished, The Manganilla from Melilla, Win friends, The suspicious truth, The Antichrist, The weaver from Segovia, The Test of Promises, The Privileged Breasts, Cruelty for Honor and The Examination of Husbands). Some more comedies were published in different collections, such as Whoever goes wrong ends badly, There is no evil that does not come for good and Guilt seeks punishment, and the wrong revenge. Other works by Alarcón are Siempre ayuda la verdad, a comedy with a moralizing intent, and Some feats of the many of don García Hurtado de Mendoza (1622, written in collaboration).

The dramatic work of Juan Ruiz de Alarcón can be classified into two large groups. The first, the historical comedy, deals with themes from the history of Spain —especially from the Reconquest period—, whose sources were Juan de Mariana and Jerónimo Zurita. These works, with an almost serialized plot, include characters full of bravery and fidelity, in order to represent moralizing ideals related to the tradition of Castilian honor. This moralizing tendency feeds almost all of his comedies, especially Win Friends . Two works that escape the common mold of Alarconian historical comedies are La amistad punizada, set in Sicily, and The owner of the stars, a drama about honor and good manners. whose backdrop is Crete.

The moralizing comedies, whose intention is eminently ethical, are the best known of the Alarconian set. The best known are, without a doubt, The Suspicious Truth and The Walls Hear, which are Alarcón's most valued works and those that have exerted the most influence on subsequent literature. The proof of promises, based on a story by Don Juan Manuel, is another dramatic piece that has been well received by specialized critics.

Chronologically, the work of Juan Ruiz de Alarcón can be classified into three groups. The first (1607-1612), conceived during his stay in Seville and New Spain, reflects Alarcón's frustrated interest in imitating the comedy of entanglements. The second group (1613-1618) is the playwright's most famous: character comedies showing his failed claims to achieve a place at court. The last of them (1619-1625) contains comedies that address the issue of honor and its derived conflicts.

Part One (1628)

The favors of the world

Recorded by Juan Ruiz Alarcón, by Eduardo Gallo.

In this complex plot with a marked love character, there is an unequal love situation: lady Anarda, from the most rancid Castilian aristocracy, has fallen in love with the nobleman García Ruiz de Alarcón —possible ancestor of the playwright—, but both must survive to the intrigues of his enemy Juan de Luna and Doña Julia. The noble and generous Don García, personification of the playwright, triumphs in love thanks to his perseverance, since he never let himself fall before the unbeatable tests that fate presented him.

In Los favores del mundo, Alarcón introduces a substantial modification to his dramatic style. Despite the fact that, at first glance, it is a comedy of entanglements, its ending is left open for readers who are familiar with the reformist position of the New Spanish playwright. The prince, as can be seen in some final verses, is not willing to give up Anarda, even though she has married Garci Ruiz. This resource, for an audience accustomed to the closed endings of lopesque dramas, could seem disconcerting.

Because it is a social comedy, Alarcón punishes falsehoods in matters of love, ridiculing the lack of credibility in such dramatic situations. This is the case of Los favores del mundo, where a brave gallant is discovered incapable of daunting himself in the face of any obstacle. This work, according to Castro Leal, could be considered a "bridge of transition" in the dramatic work of the taxqueño, in which it is believed that Alarcón begins to experiment with the comedy of characters —abandoning the comedy of entanglements— and to achieve a more careful structure. It also represents Alarcón's dramatic duality: on the one hand he manages free will, on the other he defends divine omnipotence.

Industry and luck

The Sevillian-style comedy La industria y la suerte, as it builds an intermediate and transitory theatrical model in relation to the interior groupings, represents a key piece in the dramatic production of Juan Ruiz de Alarcón and points towards the formation of a properly Alarconian theatrical subgenre. By then, Alarcón has completely distanced himself from the dramatic formula of the New Comedy and his structural dramatic action is based on the contrasts of protagonists and villains. Alarcón criticizes the vices of high society, which can only be overcome through good feelings, as evidenced by the fact that in his stories the noble hidalgos triumph over the malevolent aristocrats and marry ladies from an increasingly stratified society.

This work shows, once again, the duality of character that Alarcón always demonstrated. Here he develops, for the first time in his theater, an unorthodox heartthrob: free from divine dictate and guided solely by his reason and his thoughts. The multiplicity of actions contained in Industry and Luck manages to create a unique dramatic framework in Alarconian literature, with which he consecrates character comedy definitively.

Walls hear

The plot, original by Alarcón, is based on the pretension made to Doña Ana de Contreras by the discreet and devoted Don Juan de Mendoza, whom critics consider a reflection of the playwright's alter ego.

It is one of the best-known works of classical Spanish theater, as it addresses one of the most famous themes: unrequited love and the perseverance of someone who has truly fallen in love. This romantic archetype belongs to Don Juan: a man tenacious and misshapen who feels for Doña Ana a pure, deep love, with well-planted roots, which confronts the rhetoric and gallantry of Don Mendo, who is only moved by passion.

As already mentioned, Alarcón's work is basically a work of characters, where the playwright's vision of love stands out. The most prominent is Don Juan, owner of virtues that Alarcón believed he possessed. This is when the autobiographical traits of The walls hear are reinforced: don Juan triumphs over his rival because of his passionate love for doña Ana.

Alarcón strikes a wonderful balance between irony and comedy of tangles, although he lacks dramatic tension as all the important secrets of the plot are revealed at the end. Castro Leal perceives in this a sample of the literary maturity of the New Spanish playwright.

The outcome of The walls hear is generally interpreted by critics as a punishment or didactic example, although it works more as repression or censorship. The purpose as a moralizing intention, although its purpose is not to punish, but to inform with authority that a wrong has been done.

The similar to himself

It is one of Alarcón's first works, probably written during his stay in Seville, since the plot takes place in the city's commercial environment. It has been criticized for being a «comedy for mere entertainment, poorly plotted, with situations that are too free, lack of unity of action, lack of interest; in short, all the defects of a first work". Despite the fact that he does not achieve a perfect harmony between form and matter, Alarcón manages to master the action and the character of his characters in this sitcom, which he will perfect later in works like The Suspicious Truth.

Some critics classify it as a comedy with moralizing intent, although it can also be seen as a mixed piece of intrigue and character, revolving around the amorous whims of two young people. It is one of Alarcón's lesser-known pieces, and can be classified as a drama oriented towards entanglement. Most scholars agree that it is one of the first works of Juan Ruiz de Alarcón —performed before 1621. and written, probably, in 1606—, since its style is that of a very superficial level of love, which slows down the handling of the action based on complicated scenes that end in a marriage. Thus, it does not deviate from the model imposed by Lope and his sitcoms.

It has a certain stylistic relationship with the short novel El curio impertinente, whose author, Miguel de Cervantes Saavedra, inserts it into the first part of The ingenious hidalgo Don Quixote de la Mancha. Sergio Fernández, a renowned specialist in the life and work of the playwright from Taxco, indicates that El resemblance to himself may be an adaptation of the aforementioned novel by Cervantes.

The cave of Salamanca

The plot of this work takes place in the famous cave of Salamanca, a legendary enclave where, according to the tradition of the popular imagination of Castile, the Devil taught class. Many Spanish writers, mainly in the Renaissance and Baroque, dealt with the subject, but the one that gained the most fame was the entremés La cueva de Salamanca, by Miguel de Cervantes.

Alarcón, who lived for some time in Salamanca, is inspired by the Cervantes entremés for this work. Enrico, his main character, is clearly an allusion to the wise New Spanish Enrico Martínez. In his comedy, the inclination that the writer always felt for magic and the occult sciences is noted —it is proven by his library, analyzed by Margarita Peña—, Knowing that it was a difficult subject to address, and to adjust to the moralizing code of In his time, Alarcón denies that the Salamanca cave is a den of evil powers, nor that magic is a lawful science. It even contains a discussion, conducted in a scholastic tone, on illicit arts.

It may be that La cueva de Salamanca was conceived as a game of visual rhetoric aimed at training the viewer for the visual agility of stage activity, in the opinion of critics such as Agustín Millares Carlo and Willard F. King is "magic comedy with moral theses, pure entertainment, almost farce." It does not have a fixed conflict, on the contrary, the author wanders throughout the approach of the work. Scholars have coincided in judging this comedy as empty, whose main stage values reside in the paraphernalia behind a simple anecdote.

Moving to get better

This character comedy reflects, like Todo es ventura and Los favores del mundo, the failed attempt of Juan Ruiz de Alarcón to excel at the court of Madrid. It is also, like many other works by its author, a mixture of intrigue and action designed solely to entertain an audience eager for lively and ingenious representations.

Although it seems that this comedy seems to duplicate the love situations imposed by the New Comedy, a careful reading of the script shows that the irony and sarcasm handled by Alarcón reveals an ambiguous order, especially in the endings. From here the deep animosity of the playwright for the nobility is manifested, which he will always try to ridicule.

Mudarse por mejorse is the first work that announces the beginning of Alarcón's evolutionary process, in which he will free his characters from the fatality that is imposed on them by divine predestination. He will not put his theater at the service of the sacralization that was lived in his time, on the contrary, he will develop his stage art far from conventionalisms and guided solely by reason and feelings. It is considered the last Alarconian comedy of transition, since dramatic parameters similar to those of Las paredes oyen are already in sight.

Everything is lucky

Todo es ventura belongs to the stage in which Alarcón began to experiment with comedy of characters and is chronologically subsequent to his first works. Castro Leal warns that here Alarcón begins to create a better dramatic structure, based on intrigue and action, in order to outline the differences between his characters.

In Todo es ventura the hero, and almost all the characters, is capable of taking ownership of their own destiny and changing it, through well-thought-out actions and challenges to destiny and all circumstances. It is part of the second stage of Alarcon's work, according to Juan Oleza and Teresa Ferrer. For Castro Leal, this stage of his production comprises most of the works written during his second stay in Madrid, between 1613 and 1618.

The wretch in pretending

This work has important points of contact with The suspicious truth, Alarcón's masterpiece. Both comedies deal with the theme of the liar who plots lies to achieve his mission and, as punishment for their lies, both leading men lose the woman they love so much and for whom they have fought so hard. Even so, the psychological makeup of the main characters in the two works is radically different in many ways.

The unfortunate man in pretending recounts the fight of a man against his own destiny, in which his only weapons are perseverance, courage and will, although his ironic point of view —a resource that always handled Alarcón - hinders the appreciation of these features. At first, Arsenio, the leading man in The Unfortunate in Pretending , appears as a person who is patient in the face of adversity and incapable of pretending, although throughout the plot his multiple deceptions are discovered.

Part Two (1634)

The efforts of a hoax

Segvnda part of the comedies of the Iuan Rvyz de Alarcón y Mendoza, Rapporteur of the Council of Indias (Barcelona, 1634).

Composed between 1623 and 1625, references to Madrid abound, which makes it possible to highlight the costumbrista aspect that maintains numerous points of contact with the courtly novel of the centuries XVI and XVII: courtships, challenges, entanglements, unexpected encounters and various evocations of places of the Villa and Court.

Unlike the vast majority of Alarconian leading men, Los empeños de un engaño shows how one can lie for love, in a world where lies represent the mask of a discourse of power. Also noteworthy is the presence of Teodora, one of the most prominent female characters in the Alarcón universe.

In Los empeños de un engaño, Alarcón delves into the painting of characters to cement his social criticism. In this case, what could have been an honor drama with which he could censor social behavior, he is frustrated by the attitude of some characters. Alarcón, as a lesson, should rehearse comedy more before venturing into tragedy and drama. Thus, at the end of his works, all the villains will metaphorically suffer a painful punishment for their sins.

The owner of the stars

Licurgus, from the island of Crete, lives in self-imposed exile from Sparta, where he left to prevent a grim horoscope from coming true. One night he finds the king of Crete in the bed of Diana, his wife, and instead of murdering the one who has dishonored him, he commits suicide, thus mocking the tragic destiny that the stars had imposed on him. Exasperated reason has led him to this: to avoid fatality at the cost of sacrifice. This ethical-political drama gives a quite original, although somewhat exaggerated, denouement to the eternal conflict of loyalty in the sovereign-vassal relationship.

The owner of the stars is, as we have already seen, a drama of epic proportions that shows the desire and inclination of the playwright for historical and mythological themes, as was usual in baroque literature. Ruiz de Alarcón strives to reproduce the rhetoric and the dominant literary models in order to be recognized as a playwright worthy of the best literary circle of his time. The owner of the stars, together with The Antichrist, represents this desire, which, however, ended in failure.

Friendship punished

The Punished Friendship is the narration of an event that occurred in Sicily, during the aegis of the tyrant Dion of Syracuse —who, unlike other kings of Alarconian literature, did not achieve his redemption. Ricardo, an honest and just man, manages to marry, after many adversities, the sovereign's daughter. On the other, Filipo, cruel and flattering, receives his punishment at the end of the play. It has not been well appreciated by critics, who consider it blurry and lacking in action.

One of Alarcón's most appreciated values is friendship, as he demonstrates throughout his production. Here he devises a drama where the ethical intention predominates, seeing in Filipo the bad friend he betrays to satisfy only his own interest. Despite the fact that the plot is woven around a love conflict, he allows the work to be catalyzed as a critique of the passions of power.

The Manganilla of Melilla

Like The Cave of Salamanca, this work also alludes to magical and esoteric topics. Captain Venegas, a brave and daring man, used a trick (manganilla) to achieve his triumph over the Moors. Through this matter, Alarcón uses historical sources to stage one of his best achieved historical dramas.

Alarcón, as was usual for him, makes a bitter criticism of the ignoble vice of lying. In La manganilla de Melilla, lies are a resource used by the protagonists and antagonists to achieve their ends, although at the end of the story they lose credit and respect in society and, what is worse, the object of his desire - be it love or power. Sergeant Pepper, a character in this comedy, lies impelled by his enormous desire to possess Darja and Alima, captive Moors.

Gain friends

It is also known by the names of What is worth a lot costs a lot and Whoever deprives advises well. The argument revolves around justice and Castilian honor in the times of King Pedro I the Cruel. A man must avenge the death of his brother and the consequent dishonor of his family, but at the same time he must fight against his feelings.

The New Spanish playwright's treatment of the subject of nobility stands out, a moral code and convictions quite accepted at the time. Alarcón approaches it with a happy and passionate interest. At the same time, he attacks the ambition and lack of scruples shown by politicians, obsessed with obtaining power and canonries at any cost. At the end of the story, all the characters, even the villains, retain their characteristic traits that were not violated throughout the plot.

The women of the Alarconian theater are usually not very deep characters, less complex than the men and full of psychological simplicity. One of the few exceptions to this rule is Dona Ana from Ganar amigos, whose tragic greatness —acquired throughout history— gives her a certain air of a Greek theater heroine.

Winning Friends reveals a remarkable advance in Alarcón's dramatic technique. The plot is woven without violence, designing the most important characteristics of the characters. The playwright, in order to achieve greater consistency and variety, makes greater use of stage resources and avoids long speeches devoid of meaning. Many times the narration becomes more of a monologue than a drama, since the verse is clean, direct, fluid, concise and fair. In order to endow his piece with elegance, Alarcón even resorts to cult galas in the Gongorino style.

. Criticism of lies is the dominant intention, but it cannot be classified as a didactic or moralizing text. It was written between 1618 and 1621, before the death of King Philip III, whom the dedication assumes is alive. Pedro Henríquez Ureña, was performed in 1624 and its final text appeared in the Second part of the Alarconian comedies, in 1634.

The play's main setting is Madrid, where the liar Don García meets Jacinta and Lucrecia. The main character is really in love with Doña Lucrecia and, in order to win her over, he invents a whole network of lies that give meaning to the story. In the end, Don García admits his mistakes and receives a well-deserved punishment for his lies.

This is Alarcón's most famous moralist comedy, where each character has a certain importance that makes them different from the rest. The suspicious truth, which some interpretations define as "irony of the theatrical procedures in vogue", is also a work where the comedy of characters triumphs over the comedy of entanglements, since the plot revolves around ridiculing the figure of the liar Don García, center of all vices.

The Antichrist

It was composed between 1623 and 1625. During its premiere an incident occurred that Luis de Góngora recounted to Hortensio Félix Paravicino:

Comedy, I mean Antichristby Don Juan de Alarcón, premiered last Wednesday. They threw him away to lose that day with a certain shrapnel that they buried in the middle of the courtyard, of such an infernal smell, that he fainted many of those who could not leave quickly.

This event occurred when the actor representing the angel refused to fly and was replaced by one of the actresses. Góngora himself took advantage of the incident to mock Alarcón in one of his sonnets and Lope de Vega was jailed because he was accused of placing the vial.

It is a work of correct versification, which tells the story of the Antichrist, the villain par excellence of Alarconian theater. This infernal being, a descendant of Judas Iscariot, commits a string of horrendous crimes that are finally punished by an angel and two characters: Sofia, incarnation of humanity, and Balán, symbol of nature, two worlds united to defeat evil.
The Antichrist is a work with enormous use of theatrical machinery;

Through the spectacular text, Alarcón illustrates or explains the res, suggests the supernatural, creates special effects, advances the plot, provokes admiratio and even laughter, among many other aspects. Certainly, such a fine work never merited the snail with oil of a fetish tuff that Juan Pablo Rizo placed to inculcate Lope de Vega, or by order of the same Lope and Mira de Amescua, or by instructions of Quevedo, according to the different hypotheses. The poetic of the Novohispano playwright is surprising by the knowledge of the matter that deals, by the particular structuring of the plot, by the trace of memorable characters, by the care in the versification that supports contents and, by the use of the resources provided by the theater to create visual compositions that fulfill dramatic functions more the objectives that are recommended to the artistic creations: Twelve, delectare and Move..

The weaver of Segovia

Dating between 1616 and 1619, this piece concentrates Alarcon's intention to improve good government. Its first part is anonymous and the second is original by Alarcón, anticipating the romantic drama of the 18th century. The characters in this work escape the common mold of Alarconian characters. Fernando and Ana Ramírez de Vargas flee from Suero and Julián Peláez, their father's murderers.
According to Lillian von der Walde,

The weaver of Segovia is the fascinating contribution of Juan Ruiz de Alarcón and Mendoza to the subgenero 'comedia de bandoleros'. Its argument reports enormous interest and its plot is magnificently constructed: with many actions, more incorporation of suspense and provocation to the admiratio, among other aspects. The characters are drawn with complex profiles, the versification performs several functions, and the attractive and significant spectacularity for the staging is assured. It does not miss, therefore, the success it obtains in the tables over the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, mainly; it is the only work of the playwright that is represented in New Spain, in the Colosseum of Mexico City, although by 1794 it is forbidden by virtue, perhaps, of the “disarrangement of moral ideas”, as Alberto Lista says in relation to the content of this comedy.

The test of promises

The main characters in this work, dated to the end of 1617, —Don Mendo, Doña Ana, Beltrán and the Count— appear in other works by Ruiz de Alarcón such as The walls hear, The Husband Examination, The Segovia Weaver, The Privileged Breasts, Winning Friends and The Suspicious Truth . By radically polarizing the psychology of his characters, Alarcón intends to define them through individual traits derived from his social condition. In this comedy, an examination of the ethical behavior of all the social classes present in the Alarconian theater begins, both rich and poor.

The best outlined character is Don Juan, the archetype of pride and greed. He is a selfish man, the first character in Alarconian comedies with a well-established typology. The entanglement and the causes allow the emotional and moral profiles of the characters to begin to be defined, regardless of whether or not they are in tune with the typology of contemporary theater.

As in La cueva de Salamanca, Alarcón's humanistic and cultural training led him to address subjects almost forgotten at the time, such as magic. In The test of promises the playwright puts magic at the service of man, whom he considers the most perfect creature. This play is also an adaptation of the story De lo que contesçió to a dean of Santiago with don Illán, contained in Book of enxiemplos del Conde Lucanor et de Patronio, of the infant Don Juan Manuel.

The privileged breasts

It is also known as Never much cost little. It is Alarcón's most famous political drama, as it includes many indirect references to the situation of the Spanish government at that time. Courtly justice and natural law are the themes of this work. In The privileged breasts, royalty is once again punished for its vices and bad government. The playwright wishes to represent the Court as a tangle of intrigues, which finally falls before the firmness and honor that Nature has shown, personified by doña Jimena.

The plot of the work is based on the great General History of Spain by Juan de Mariana, specifically on an episode from the 11th century, in which King Alfonso V of León is involved and several princesses of the Kingdom of Castile. This is one of the most conventional works by Alarcón, fond of straying from the literary archetype of the time. The main conflict resides in the loyalty and honor that every vassal must render to his king, an allusion, perhaps, to the political crisis of the time of the Duke of Lerma and the Duke of Uceda. The entire first act focuses on this issue.

The vast majority of the characters in this comedy, especially Rodrigo de Villagómez and Elvira, are well-defined characters in which the passion and dignity with which they express their feelings stands out. They are, therefore, unique types within the character painting of the Alarconian theater, which brought its author so much fame. With The privileged breasts Alarcón manages to flatter royalty, at the same time that he achieves a well accomplished theatrical work.

Cruelty for honor

Conceived between 1619 and 1622, it is grouped within the comedies that revolve around the conflict of honor. Through a reflection marked by very well achieved monologues, Alarcón defines his vision of what a good government should be: fair, honest and benevolent towards its subjects. He also shows that, in the name of a code of honor, crimes can be committed. many cruel and pointless atrocities.
The impostor Nuño Aulaga is “a complex man, forced to repair the insults received and prevented from carrying it out through socially endorsed means; he chooses an illegal way to achieve his goals of socioeconomic promotion and intimate reparation (not honor restitution), but he is also moved by love for his son. ” He is discovered and requests Sancho Aulaga, the son of him to kill him. who does it consciously and in solidarity, from which derives his tragic condition:
Such an honorable rigor soul has mercy; which is generous cruelty cruelty for honor.
(vv. 2703-2706)
In the third act, Sancho finds out that he is not Nuño's son, so he did not commit any patricide.

The Husband Test

Its authorship has been disputed, although most critics agree in declaring it original by Alarcón. Doña Inés stands out, one of his best female characters, who is courted by gentlemen of different personalities. The sharp psychological observations of this The tale has its origin in an Italian narrative, which inspired The Merchant of Venice, by William Shakespeare, and Les visionaries, by Jean Desmarets.

It reflects, better than any other comedy, Alarcón's proclivity for inserting popular proverbs, both from America and Spain, into his works. Lots of witty expressions help the author to more clearly express his conflict. In addition, one can already notice in The husband exam an attempt by Ruiz de Alarcón to balance aesthetic forms and Alarcón's eternal commitment to truth and moral values. Thus, it can be concluded that The Husband Examination represents the zenith of a culture that is torn between absolute truth and elegant rhetoric.

Others

Who goes badly ends up badly

It stages the story of the Moorish Román Ramírez, impersonator of Teófilo and Fausto. The Spanish Inquisition learns of the case and locks up the Moor, who is finally subjected to a very long process. Alarcón takes up the issue and turns it into one of his best-achieved dramatic pieces. The original by Alarcón is not known for sure, as some verses have been lost. In 1852, when editing his complete works, Hartzenbusch achieved the best version of this text, which includes a philological revision. It was first published by the Sevillian printer Francisco de Leefdael, in the middle of the century XVIII. It did not appear in the two parts of Alarcón's works published between 1628 and 1624, but was widely praised in the 19th century by Juan Eugenio Hartzenbusch and Agustín Millares.

Castro Leal, one of the most well-known scholars of Alarcón, dates Whoever goes wrong ends up badly between 1601 and 1603. Fernández Guerra, however, places the date of its creation in 1616 or 1617, since its quality and its versification are much higher than those of the first Alarconian comedies.

The versification of Whoever goes wrong ends up in a bad way is very remarkable, since Alarcón uses resources little used until then in Spanish Baroque theater, such as the high percentage of redondillas, used only by Guillén de Castro. He also highlights the good structure of the comedy, the handling of the dramatic sense and the use of poetry. Agustín Millares considers it, without a doubt, "a collaborative comedy", although the rest of the critics consider it, without hesitation, the unique and exclusive fruit of Juan Ruiz de Alarcón.

There is no evil that does not come for good

He is also known by the names Don Domingo de don Blas and The wealthy don Domingo de don Blas. His plot mixes a love affair with historical circumstances. Two ladies, Leonor and Constanza, star in the story, but they shine before Don Domingo, the greatest character in the comedy: sensible, independent, reflective, the archetype of the ideal bourgeois who knows how to act heroically if time requires it. In addition, Don Domingo he is a loyal vassal and proud subject of King Alfonso.

The writing and style undoubtedly reveal that it is a work by Alarcón. It is not known for sure why it was not published in his comedies. It is also not known when There is no evil that does not come for good came to light, although it is conjectured that it was written before 1630.

The suspicious truth

Non-dramatic work in verse

• A grid and four tenths on the subject that will then be seen
• Academic opinion of Bricián Díez Cruzate, when he was a doctor at the University of Mexico (1609-1613)
• Décima del licendo don Juan Ruiz de Alarcón, natural de México
• Romance against Don Francisco de Quevedo
• Juan Ruiz de Alarcón y Mendoza a don Diego Agreda y Vargas
• To Dr. Cristóbal Pérez de Herrera, the graduate don Juan Ruiz de Alarcón and Mendoza
• A don Gonzalo de Céspedes y Meneses, the graduate don Juan Ruiz de Alarcón and Mendoza
• To the Holy Christ who was found in Prete, the city of the lower Palatinate, removed from the Cross and torn apart by the Calvinists, restored by the Catholics, the Juan Ruiz de Alarcón directs these sonnets
• De don Juan Ruiz de Alarcón en la muerte del Conde de Villamedina (21 August 1622)
• Elogio descriptivo a las fiestas que His Majesty of King Filipo IIII did for his person in Madrid, on 21 August 1623 years, to the celebration of the concerts between the very Carlos Estuardo, Prince of England, and the very Mary of Austria, Infanta of Castile, the Duke Adelantado.
• The licensed don Juan Ruiz de Alarcón and Mendoza, the same (José Camerino)
• To the volcano in fires of Vesuvius, the licensed don Juan Ruiz de Alarcón and Mendoza, Rapporteur of the Council of Indias. Epigram XXIX
• Sonero dedicated to the same matter as the previous
• Sátira contra don Francisco de Quevedo
• Juan Ruiz de Alarcón and Mendoza, Rapporteur of the Council of the Indies. The author. Tenth

Style

First part of the comedies of Don Juan Ruiz de Alarcón.

Juan Ruiz de Alarcón inaugurated the genre of character comedy in Spanish-American literature. The handling of his characters is an essential feature in all of his work. The writer tries to reflect in his characters the vices of the time: lies, gossip and ambition; characters that generally suffer punishment at the end of the work. Alarcón never strays from the prevailing moralism in the literature of the Golden Age, on the contrary, he remains firm in it. His comedies, because of his breath that preludes romanticism, and because of his ironic realism, place him in a prominent place in Spanish baroque literature.

Despite the fact that he developed almost all his production in Spain and that his work practically ignores the reality in the colonies, Alarcón's roots and upbringing in New Spain make him an indisputable figure of the Spanish-American baroque. Having assimilated Spanish, however, is a constant in his theatrical work, in order to validate Hispanic hegemony in America and strengthen his belonging to the government system.

The themes for his comedies were drawn from many different sources. In The Test of Promises a short story from El Conde Lucanor by don Juan Manuel is repeated. The Examination of Husbands is similar to The Merchant of Venice by William Shakespeare, because both are inspired by a common Italian source. From the apocryphal Gospels comes The Antichrist. Cruelty for honor derives from an episode in the history of Aragon. El tejedor de Segovia is a strange anticipation of the romantic drama. Whoever goes wrong ends up in trouble, which is about a Moorish pact with the devil, is inspired by the popular tradition of an inquisitorial process in Cuenca.

Critics have alluded, time and time again, to his critical dissidence, his discursive limits, irregularities in the theatrical structure and his subversive ideology, which makes Ruiz de Alarcón a playwright full of eccentricities. His dramatic work It has no parallel in the history of Spanish-American literature.

His most successful work, The Suspicious Truth, about a man who lies about everything and has no respect for anyone, inspired Le menteur by Pierre Corneille and The Liar by the Venetian playwright Carlo Goldoni.

The fact that Alarcón's dramatic work was minimal compared to that of Lope or Tirso gave him a second place among contemporary literary critics. It was not until the 19th century, thanks to scholars such as Juan Eugenio Hartzenbusch —who published his Complete Works and a study—, that New Spain began to be valued among Latin American writers. The Spanish critic was the first to identify Le menteur by Pierre Corneille —who believed he was adapting a work by Lope— as a French translation of The suspicious truth of Alarcon.

Already in the 20th century, the Spanish philologist and writer Marcelino Menéndez y Pelayo referred to Alarcón in the following terms:

Ruiz de Alarcón must be held by a Spanish American, who only because of his birth and degree of licentiate can appear in the annals of Mexico. All his literary activity took place in the Peninsula: the allusions or reminiscences of his native country are very rare.

Pedro Henríquez Ureña was one of the first American intellectuals to study the playwright from Taxco. Later they followed Alfonso Reyes, Julio Jiménez Rueda and Antonio Castro Leal. Alarcón's literary revaluation corresponded to an ideological current characterized by nationalism and the search for cultural identity born as a result of the Mexican Revolution. For the tercentenary of his death, in 1939, Alarcón was already recognized as the greatest figure of New Spanish letters, along with Sor Juana Inés de la Cruz.

Despite the fact that Latin American scholars insist on placing Alarcón within the set of New Spanish customs and traditions, Spanish critics allude to linking the playwright to the peninsular reality. This controversy has sparked an intense debate among specialists in New Spain, still unresolved. Since the eighties, most critics have chosen to study Juan Ruiz de Alarcón within the Indian context, without ever forgetting that he developed his work in Spain.

Editions of his works

Old

Monument to Juan Ruiz de Alarcón in Mexico City.

• Part 1 of the comedies of Don Iuan Rvyz de Alarcón y Mendoza. Madrid, by Iuan Gonçalez, at the expense of Alonso Pérez, 1628.
• Segvnda part of the comedies of the Iuan Rvyz de Alarcón y Mendoza, Rapporteur of the Council of Indias. Barcelona: Sebastian de Cormellas, 1634.
• Selected comediesed. by Juan Eugenio Hartzenbusch. Madrid: Rivadeneyra, 1825.
• Chosen comedies by Juan Ruiz de AlarcónIsaac Núñez Arenas. Madrid: RAE, 1867.

Modern

There is a modern edition of the Complete Dramatic Works (from the princeps editions of the two Parts of 1628 and 1634) supervised by Ysla Campbell, from the Autonomous University of Ciudad Juárez, who had already published six volumes in January 2015 (The Owner of the Stars, ed. by Ricardo Vigueras, vol. X; The proof of promises, edited by Leonor Fernández, vol.XVII, Moving to improve oneself, edited by Frank Casa, vol.VI, Industry and Luck i>, edited by Adriana Ontiveros, vol. II, La manganilla de Melilla, ed. by Nieves Rodríguez, vol. XII and Los favores del mundo, ed. Ysla Campbell, vol. I)

• The suspicious truth Ed Barry. Paris: Garnier Frères, 1904.
• The suspicious truthAgustin del Saz. Madrid: 1929.
• Theatre (The Suspect Truth, The Walls Listen)ed. of Alfonso Reyes. Madrid: Espasa-Calpe, 1937.
• The suspicious truthEduardo Juliá. Zaragoza: Ebro, 1939.
• Complete worksed. of Agustin Millares Carlo, 3 vols. Mexico: FCE, 1957-1968.
• ComediasMargit Frenk. Caracas: Ayacucho, 1982.
• The suspicious truthAlba V. Ebersole. Madrid: Chair, 1984.
• The walls hear / The suspicious truthed. by Juan Oleza and Teresa Ferrer. Barcelona: Planet, 1986.
• Getting Better / The Suspect TruthManuel Sito Alba. Barcelona: Plaza and Janés, 1987.
• Four comedies (The walls hear, The suspicious truth, The privileged breasts, Win friends)Antonio Castro Leal. Mexico: Porrúa, 1988.
• The suspicious truthed. by Juan María Marín Martínez. Madrid: Espasa-Calpe, 1990.