SOURCE: “The Monarch/Mother in the ‘Comedias’ of Tirso de Molina,” in Crítica Hispánica, Vol. 9, Nos. 1-2, 1987, pp. 39-49.

[In the following essay, Chittenden studies the development of female characters in de Molina's plays, outlining their roles and comparing them with one another.]

As critics have frequently noted, the presence of the madre in the comedia is very rare. As a matter of fact, among the 256 female characters in the 61 plays that we know to have been written by Tirso de Molina, there are only 15 madres whose role as a mother plays a significant part in the development of the drama. Reigning female monarchs are likewise scarce, there being only 13 in Tirso's comedias. In the category of monarch/mother we find only four: Irene, in La república al revés; Tetis, in El Aquiles; Elena, in El árbol del mejor fruto; and María de Molina, in La prudencia en la mujer. Each of these women shows herself to be a strong character, who, in her concern for his future, counsels her son wisely and well. In this study I shall give a brief outline of the role of each of these personages in the drama in which she appears, compare the four with Tirso's female characters in general and with each other, and discuss the probable chronology and evolution of the monarch/mother in Tirso's works.

It is noteworthy that these four plays have historical or mythological settings which explain in large part the presence of the monarch/mother. La república al revés, according to the introduction of Doña Blanca de los Ríos Lampérez, is “un trozo de Historia novelada” (1: 375). It is the story of the Greek ruler, Irene, who has acted as empress during the minority of her son Constantino IV, and who subsequently is arrested by her son, who gives the order that she be put to death by the garrote. Ultimately Irene is saved by Tarso, a shepherd, and by the Greek soldiers who support her because Constantino has proved to be a ruthless and tyrannical ruler who persecutes Christians and lets robbers and adulterers go free. Finally Irene judges everyone, ordering that Constantino be imprisoned and his eyes put out, although his wife, Carola, begs that he be forgiven. Irene responds to her, “Juez de la causa de Dios / he de ser; no me enternezco / con ruegos; llevadle preso / a una torre” (3.20). The play ends as Irene returns to the palace, with order now restored in the kingdom.

El Aquiles, which is Tirso's only play based on a mythological theme, tells of how Tetis, Achilles' mother, abets him in a love affair with Deidamia in order to keep his mind off war and fighting and thereby protect his life. Because Deidamia has been promised to another by her father, King Licomedes, Tetis plots for Achilles to gain admission to the palace by dressing as a woman and posing as Deidamia's cousin. This ruse is successful, and soon Deidamia realizes that her “cousin” is really Achilles in disguise. They become lovers, but at the end of the play Ulysses finds Achilles and shames him into revealing that he is a man, convincing him to go off to fight against Troy.

The plot of El árbol del mejor fruto concerns Elena and her son, Cloro, a shepherd who bears a striking resemblance to Constantino, the son of the Roman Emperor Constancio. When Constantino is killed by some robbers, the Emperor comes for his body and sees Cloro, whereupon Elena reveals to him that he is their son, born before Constancio married another. Cloro, incidentally, has always believed that he is more than just a shepherd. Constancio makes Elena his empress; Cloro, who is now called Constantino, is recognized as emperor and goes off to fight Magencio, who has taken Rome in an effort to make himself emperor. Cloro accepts Christ, defeats the forces of Magencio and then sets out for Jerusalem with Elena to look for the cross made of wood from the Tree of Life (El Árbol de la Vida) of the Garden of Eden on which Christ was crucified. Elena tortures a Jew named Judas in order to make him reveal the whereabouts of the cross, and then she and Cloro, along with several others, go to find it. The play ends praising Christ and the cross, el árbol del mejor fruto. Judas becomes a Christian and Elena is to have a great church built on the spot where they found the cross.

The best known of these four dramas, La prudencia en la mujer, is based on the Crónica de don Fernando Cuarto, attributed to Fernán Sánchez de Tovar. It deals with the period after the death of Sancho IV in 1295, when his widow, Doña María de Molina, acted as regent for her son Fernando IV, and with the early days of Fernando's reign. The queen overcomes plots by various nobles, led by Don Enrique and Don Juan, to usurp the throne; an attempt to have Fernando poisoned by Ismael, a Jewish doctor; and the ingratitude and hostility of her son, influenced by the unscrupulous nobles. Through all of these problems María remains unwavering and strong, and finally at the end she is vindicated, the scheming nobles flee or are exiled, and Fernando remains on the throne.

There is general agreement among scholars who study the comedia that Tirso created the most true to life and well drawn female characters to be found in that genre. Manuel de Montoliú says of him:

parece haber estudiado perfectamente la complicada y enigmática alma femenina. Sus mujeres astutas, intrigantes, resueltas y apasionadas contrastan vivamente con sus hombres tímidos, que se resignan a ser juguete del bello sexo. Y es que la fogosidad de las pasiones femeninas, que muchas veces queda oculta bajo la capa de las conveniencias sociales, sólo es conocida en toda su realidad en el secreto de la confesión, y Gabriel Téllez, rico de estas lecciones aprendidas en el ejercicio de su ministerio, encontró en el teatro un campo para desplegar el conocimiento así adquirido de la complicada alma femenina. (596)

This opinion is shared by many others, such as Karl Vossler, who notes in Tirso a certain tendency toward the emancipation of women (114), and Melveena McKendrick, who says “And no one would deny that Tirso had a taste for the creation of female characters with remarkable resources of personality” (201).¹

Although among Tirso's female characters there are some who are almost superhuman and Amazon-like in their strength, the majority of his women are coquettish, cunning, and occasionally unscrupulous in achieving their ends. One thinks of Marta la Piadosa pretending to have taken a vow of chastity in order to avoid marrying the man her father has chosen for her, or of the cleverness and deceit of Jusepa in Por el sótano y el torno in finding a way to meet a suitor from the house across the road. The four monarch/mothers stand in contrast to these more covert schemers in their open resolve and perseverence in trying to help their sons, regardless of the consequences for them personally.

In comparing our four monarch/mothers with each other, one quickly notes many similarities. As has just been stated, they have in common their devotion to their sons and their determination to help them by both word and deed. They are all strong willed and forceful characters. Each speaks of her concept of herself as a mother, gives advice and counsel to her son, guards his life and happiness, to some degree incurs his ingratitude or wrath, and ultimately puts duty above all else.

The degree of hostility on the part of the four sons ranges from the complaints of Achilles and Cloro to the order of the imprisonment of Doña María by Fernando and Constantino's command that his mother be killed. Achilles, who blames Tetis for having left him to be raised by Quirón, says to her:

                    El ser primero
te debo, pues que nací
de ti, pero no el postrero,
que del sustento adquirí. (1.6)(2)
.....A Quirón me encomendaste;
forma quejas, madre, de él
si tan diverso me hallaste,
que yo estimo ser cruel
en más que ser tu hijo. (1.6)

Cloro bemoans the fact that he does not know who his father is, saying “pues nunca mi ingrata madre / me ha dicho quién es mi padre” (1.3). Later he calls Elena “rigurosa madre” and expresses again his anger that she will not reveal his father's name (1.7).

Irene receives much more cruel treatment from Constantino, who gives this order to Andronio:

                    Corre
donde mi madre está presa
y con diligencia y priesa,
dentro de la misma torre
la da un garrote. (2.3)

In La prudencia en la mujer Fernando likewise deals harshly with his mother, speaking to Don Juan:

Pues sois ya mi mayordomo,
y estáis, Infante, agraviado,
tomad a mi madre cuentas,
hacelda alcances y cargos
de las rentas de mis reinos:
y si no igualan los gastos
a los recibos, prendelda. (3.6)

He later comes to realize, however, that Don Juan and the other nobles have raised false accusations against Doña María.

The wisdom and loyalty of the monarch/mothers is seen in the way they advise their sons in order to help them solve their problems. Tetis tells Achilles to dress as a woman in order to be with Deidamia and win her affection. In an amusing scene Achilles practices walking on high heels, curtsying to the king, and learning how to act as a “lady” of the court. Tetis says to him:

Todo es fácil a quien ama.
Cuando estés en la presencia
del Rey, haz la reverencia
que te he enseñado de dama;
vuélvela a ensayar aquí. (2.1)

She adds:

Hijo, en la dificultad
tu ciego amor te ha metido;
ten con las acciones cuenta
que te enseñé. (2.1)

Elena supports Cloro in his new found Christian faith and urges him to look for the cross, saying, “Hijo, el cielo es en tu ayuda. / Por la señal vencerás / de la cruz: no esperes más” (2.6).

Later, she exhorts him to continue his search:

Hijo, Cristo es el Eterno;
quien no le adora se ofusca;
la cruz soberana busca,
noble asombro del infierno:
vamos a Jerusalén. (2.10)

Irene gives sound advice to Constantino as to how to be a good emperor. She hands him a sword, a globe, and a cross. Upon giving him the globe she reveals her apprehension about his capacity to rule, cautioning him:

Tenlo bien, siendo prudente,
que con la prudencia sola
gobernarás bien tu gente,
porque como el mundo es bola
rodaráse fácilmente.
La Cruz que ves de ese modo,
es la ley de Dios, y estima
su ley, a que te acomodo,
que por aqueso está encima,
porque Dios es sobre todo. (1.2)

The fullest and most comprehensive advice is given by Doña María to Fernando. In a scene that reminds one of Polonius and Laertes, she says to him:

El culto de vuestra ley,
Fernando, encargaros quiero;
que éste es el móvil primero
que ha de llevar tras sí al rey;
y guiándoos por él vos,
vivid, hijo, sin cuidado,
porque no hay razón de estado
como es el servir a Dios.
Nunca os dejéis gobernar
de privados, de manera
que salgáis de vuestra esfera,
ni les lleguéis tanto a dar
que se arrojen de tal modo
al cebo del interés,
que os fuercen, hijo, después
a que se lo quitéis todo.
Con todos los grandes sed
tan igual y generoso
que nadie quede quejoso
de que a otro hacéis más merced:
tan apacible y discreto,
que a todos seáis amable;
mas no tan comunicable
que os pierdan, hijo, el respeto. (3.1)

She further warns him to respect and cheer his vassals, not to let the court jesters counsel him, to value his armed forces, and to choose wise doctors in whom he has confidence.

The above-mentioned similarities among these four characters relate chiefly to positive traits. It is in the differences that we find the more negative characteristics. Everett Hesse speaks of two aspects of the mother archetype in the comedia—the benevolent and the malevolent. He says, “Its malevolent aspect can be destructive; having received life from Mother-Earth people are ultimately buried in her in death. The act of involvement in another person's affairs can be carried to an extreme by a domineering mother who prevents her child from having a life of its own” (72). According to Hesse, Tetis serves as an excellent example of this negative side—“a monster who seeks to dominate her son, forcing him to don feminine garb. In [this play] we see the mythological fight between mother and son in which the growing power of the male corresponds to the increasing awareness of his identity” (70-71). This view of Tetis does not take into account her motherly love and concern for Achilles' safety and well being. Her reaction when Achilles chides her for entrusting his upbringing to Quirón and threatens to go off to war reveals her affection for him:

¡Ay hijo del alma mía!
Ese valor ha de ser
mi muerte, y yo he de perder,
perdiéndote, mi alegría. (1.7)

Although the other three mothers do not dominate their sons to such a degree—indeed María de Molina and Irene withdraw to the country in order to give their sons a free hand—both Irene and Elena exhibit other negative characteristics. Elena believes that the end justifies the means as she has Judas tortured in order to make him reveal the place where the cross can be found. Her cruelty is somewhat mitigated by the fact that Judas is converted to Christianity and thereby redeemed at the end, and that the traitor, Lisinio, is resusitated from the dead and likewise saved through Christian forgiveness. For her part, Irene shows little sympathy as she punishes her son's treacherous acts by ordering his eyes put out and sending him to prison at the end of La rúpublica al revés, in spite of Carola's plea for mercy. Her sense of justice prevails over her motherly affection, and she shows herself to be a severe and firm judge.

It is more difficult to find flaws in María de Molina's character. In addition to advising her son well and showing great regard for his welfare, she is also a very self-sacrificing mother, selling all of her jewels and even her most treasured wimple in order to have the money that Fernando needs. A compassionate person, throughout the play she forgives those who plot against her, in contrast to Irene and Elena. Although her forgiveness of her enemies might be perceived as a sign of weakness, in my opinion it stands as a fine example of the Christian spirit.

Turning to the chronology and evolution of the monarch/mother, we are faced with the problem of dating Tirso's plays. Doña Blanca sets the probable date of El Aquiles at 1611 or 1612 and the date of El árbol del mejor fruto at 1621. Ruth Lee Kennedy places La república al revés at 1615 or 1616 and concludes that La prudencia en la mujer was written between 1621 and 1623, with the strong likelihood that the date of composition was August of 1622.³

In an examination of the development of the monarch/mother from Tetis and Irene to Elena and María de Molina, one finds certain foreshadowings of the characters of Elena and María in the two earlier personages. Doña Blanca refers to Tetis as “deidad mitológica con alma de madre cristiana. Una de las madres que aparecen como en esbozo desde el amanecer del teatro de Tirso” (1: 1895). Elena is a much more fully delineated character than Tetis as she supports and abets Cloro in his search for the cross, even after his wife leaves him because he has been converted to Christianity. In so doing, she proves herself to be a devoted Christian mother, the fulfillment of the figure suggested by Tetis.

Even more striking, however, are the similarities between Irene and María. As we have already seen, they have in common their strong wills, their loyalty to their sons, their giving advice to their sons, and their having been rejected by their sons. Additionally, as Doña Blanca notes, there are several other ways in which the two plays are alike (1: 377-78). Ernest Templin and Ion Agheana have, in fact, mentioned these plays as an example of Tirso's self-plagiarism.⁴ Both Irene and María retire to the country, where they are greeted enthusiastically by the peasants. Both of them praise the simple rural life and speak of its joys in contrast to the more complex life of the court. Finally, in each play, the young king at one point is hidden in a tree in order to protect him from his enemies.

A careful analysis of these four queens, then, leads to the conclusion that María is, indeed, the culmination of the monarch/mother that Tirso sketched out in his earlier plays. Tetis and Irene, in particular, serve as prototypes for María, who appears as the intelligent, prudent, magnanimous, self-sacrificing and forceful ideal Christian mother. María herself says that she is a woman with three souls when she speaks to the disloyal nobles:

Si porque es el rey un niño
y una mujer quien le ampara,
os atrevéis ambiciosos
contra la fe castellana;
tres almas viven en mí:
la de Sancho, que Dios haya;
la de mi hijo, que habita
en mis maternas entrañas,
y la mía, en quien se suman
esotras dos: ved si basta
a la defensa de un reino
una mujer con tres almas. (1.2)

In speaking of La prudencia en la mujer, McKendrick says that it is “concerned, not with female leadership as are Lope's [plays], but with leadership in general and/or with individuals, with human beings, who are called or who force their way to leadership” (199). She continues, “The focus [in this play] is much wider. In dealing with remarkable individuals, it embraces, not half the human race, but mankind as a whole” (199).

Several critics of the comedia have suggested that the virtuous and majestic María de Molina is a representation of the Virgin Mary.⁵ Certainly as a woman of high moral standards, a chaste widow, the defender of the crown and the faith, and a symbol of loyalty and trust, María embodies the ideals and qualities associated with the Blessed Virgin, and, of course, she even bears the same name. It is for these reasons, perhaps, that she endures as a great patriotic and religious figure for Spaniards of all times.

Notes

1. For additional comments by critics about Tirso's female characters, see Vossler 111-14.

2. All quotations are from the three volume collection of Tirso's works edited by Doña Blanca de los Ríos Lampérez.

3. For Doña Blanca's dating of El Aquiles, see 1: 1887; for El árbol del mejor fruto, see 3: 309. Kennedy dates La república al revés in her article in Reflexión 2; La prudencia en la mujer, in the PMLA article.

4. Agheana mistakenly attributes the examples taken from La república al revés and La prudencia en la mujer to Wade's article on self-plagiarism in Tirso, rather than to Templin. Templin's article on this case of Tirso's self-plagiarism supposes La prudencia en la mujer to precede La república al revés and therefore assumes that the latter is derived from the former.

5. Among those espousing this view are Moir (96); MacCurdy, in the introduction to his edition of the play (28); and Margaret Wilson (93-94). Agheana sees her as symbolizing Spain and as a “timeless moral symbol” (50).

Works Cited

Agheana, Ion Tudor. The Situational Drama of Tirso de Molina. Madrid: Playor, 1973.

Hesse, Everett. “The Mother Archetypes in the Comedia.” Proceedings of the Second Annual Golden Age Spanish Drama Symposium. 8-10 March, 1982. El Paso: The University of Texas at El Paso (1982): 62-72.

Kennedy, Ruth Lee. “La prudencia en la mujer and the Ambient that Brought It Forth.” PMLA 63 (1948): 1131-90.

———.“Tirso's La república al revés and Its Debt to Mira's La rueda de la fortuna.” Reflexión 2 2 (1973): 39-50.

McKendrick, Melveena. Woman and Society in the Spanish Drama of the Golden Age. London and New York: Cambridge University Press, 1974.

Montoliú y de Togores, Manuel. Literatura castellana. Barcelona: Cervantes, 1929.

Téllez, Gabriel (Tirso de Molina). El burlador de Sevilla y convidado de piedra and La prudencia en la mujer. Ed. Raymond R. MacCurdy. New York: Dell, 1965.

Téllez, Gabriel (Tirso de Molina). Tirso de Molina: Obras dramáticas completas. Ed. Doña Blanca de los Ríos Lampérez. 3 vols. Madrid: Aguilar, 1946-58.

Templin, Ernest H. “Another Instance of Tirso's Self-plagiarism.” Hispanic Review 5 (1937): 176-80.

Vossler, Karl. Lecciones sobre Tirso de Molina.Madrid. Taurus, 1965.

Wade, Gerald E. “Tirso's Self-Plagiarism in Plot.” Hispanic Review 4 (1936): 55-65.

Wilson, Edward M. and Duncan Moir. A Literary History of Spain. The Golden Age: Drama 1492-1700. London: Benn, 1971.

Wilson, Margaret. Tirso de Molina. Boston: Twayne, 1977.