A Critical Edition of Juan Bautista Diamante's La reina María Estuarda (eBook)

Contents 8
Foreword 10
Introduction 12
1. A Brief Biography of Juan Bautista Diamante 13
2. A Brief Biography of Mary Stuart 18
3. An Analysis of La reina Mar& #237
4. Sources of La reina Mar& #237
5. La reina Mar& #237
6. Diamante's Mythology 43
7. The Queens' Encounter 46
8. The Present Edition 48
9. The Language of the Play 51
10. Conclusion 54
La reina Mar& #237
1. Versification of La reina Mar& #237
2. La reina Mar& #237
3. Notes and Variants 193
Appendix I — Schiller's Maria Stuart, Act III, scene iv 213
Appendix II — Boursault's Marie Stuard, Act II, scene x 222
Bibliography 224
Index 230
B 230
C 230
D 230
E 230
F 231
G 231
H 231
J 231
K 231
M 231
P 231
R 232
S 232
T 232
V 232

1. A Brief Biography of Juan Bautista Diamante. (p. 4)

The name Juan Bautista Diamante is unfamiliar to all but the most avid and widely read of the Sigh de Oro scholars. In an age of giants such as Lope de Vega Carpio, Tirso de Molina and Pedro Calderon de la Barca, whose impact on the Spanish theatre remains strong after more than three centuries, Diamante appears as little more than a footnote or an aside in the typical history of Spanish literature.

George Ticknor`s three-volume study of Spanish letters accords him less than two pages of insignificant criticism (II 416-417). As in the case of many of his contemporaries, our dramatist eludes detailed categorization since most of his biographical data is unavailable save in the form of studies by Emilio Cotarelo y Mori, Ramon Mesonero Romanes, Karl Kipka and a few others.

Most of his production has been lost in the three hundred years since his death and hence, the little criticism that does appear pertains only to the approximately fifty plays now in existence. Most of these works contain various themes of religious content and show a solid formation in his biblical and hagiographical training.

His most famous play, El honrador de su padre, a rendition of the Cid legend based largely on Pierre Corneille`s Le Cid (Kipka 191-199),2 appeared in 1657 and his La reina Maria Estuarda was first performed three years later.

Who was this Diamante? He was born August 29, 1625 in Madrid of either Greek-Sicilian and Castilian (Cotarelo 272-278) or Portuguese- Spanish ancestry (Mesonero vii). From all accounts, he attended school in Madrid and studied canon law at Alcala de Henares, during many of his student years he found himself in trouble with the law, largely because of his fondness for sword play.

Like Lope, Tirso and Calderon, Diamante entered a religious order, although this vocation did not affect activities or his problems with the law. He eventually entered the Order of St. John of Jerusalem, where his sword and piety would both feel at home.

During most of his life, he continued his amorous affairs and dueling, sometimes both simultaneously. His ecclesiastical connections had one advantage for Diamante, for they removed him from secular jurisdiction and harsh sentencing, his privileged status saved him on countless occasions.

In his quieter moments, he used his pen to glorify the Lord, the Catholic Saints and Spain in his comedias, has and autos. We have no clear indications as to when he began to write in earnest for the theatre, Kipka (191-199) mentions El honrador as the oldest surviving work.

Mary Parker (54) places El veneno para si in 1653 and believes it the oldest. Unfortunately, neither author makes a solid case for either work`s primacy and we must take both critics` opinions with a measure of scepticism.

Diamante has left few non-dramatic writings with which to judge him or with which to trace his sources and inspiration. Much of the information pertinent to El honrador, El veneno or La reina Maria Estuarda exists only in the form of conjectures or has been established through external information.