The Play of Illusion in Cervantess Interludes

8/18/2019 The Play of Illusion in Cervantess Interludes

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Bulletin of the Comediantes, Volume 56, Number 2, 2004, pp. 367-385

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DOI: 10.1353/boc.2004.0014

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THE PLAY OF ILLUSION IN

CERVANTES'S INTERLUDES

VINCENT MARTIN

University of Delaware

All of us, then, men and women alike, must fall in with

our role and spend life in making our play as perfect as possible — to the complete inversion of current theory.

—Plato, Laws 803c

As a curtain raiser to the reading of his interludes,1 Cervantes flauntshis play of illusion through an ironic reference to a non-extant, never completed, or perhaps wholly illusory comedia titled El engaño a losojos. The joke, of course, is on the reader: the "historical" or "verisimi-lar" prologue is part of the "act," part of the "engaño a los ojos,"2 and weshould take the writer's prefatory remarks on theater with a grain of salt.3Although this play element and its underlying concept of "illusion" clear-ly serve as a theoretical support for all theater, what we find in Cervan-tes's interludes is a masterful blend of these ludic ingredients that cometogether to stage forms of reality that reflect the social imaginary of sev-enteenth-century Spain as well as the human condition.

In a provocative essay on Cervantes's interludes, Anne Cruz has effec-tively argued that these short pieces "cannot entirely break away from thenormalizing roles assigned to theatrical production by seventeenth-centu-ry Spain's social systems. Their indeterminacy notwithstanding, theentremeses remain, in the end, only partially successful in deferring cul-

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turai authority and control" (120). The assumption here, of course, is thatdeferring cultural authority and control is Cervantes's artistic goal. Butdoes Cervantes actually wish to break away from the established genre or rather master it, and thereby receive public acknowledgement (i.e., fame)of this mastery, à la Lope de Vega? In light of this critical stance, anddespite the caution necessary for reading Cervantes's prologue, I suggestthat we keep in mind the author's following claim: "fui el primero querepresentase las imaginaciones y los pensamientos escondidos del alma,sacando figuras morales al teatro con general y gustoso aplauso de los

oyentes" (58-59). Rather than the deferment of cultural authority and con-trol, this "gustoso aplauso" seems to have been Cervantes's true goal,4which, not coincidentally, matches Lope's objective as spelled out sixyears earlier in his Arte nuevo de hacer comedias en este tiempo:

y escribo por el arte que inventaronlos que el vulgar aplauso pretendieron,

porque, como las paga el vulgo, es justo

hablarle en necio para darle gusto. (Rozas 182)Johan Huizinga's classic study Homo Ludens: A Study of the Play

Element in Culture5 stresses a point that seems to underscore Cervantes'saesthetic project, and which often seems to be overlooked by our con-temporary critical interests, namely, that play is an end unto itself and nota means to another end; it is the "fun-element that characterizes theessence of play" (3). Huizinga highlights the "limitedness" of play: "It is'played out' within certain limits of time and place. It contains its own

course and meaning"; in this sense, play is "an interlude in our dailylives" (9). Huizinga's "limitedness" of play is taken a step further byVictor Turner, who discusses play (and ritual) as "liminality": "In limi-nality [...] the social order may seem to have been turned upside down,[...] people 'play' with the elements of the familiar and defamiliarizethem. Novelty emerges from unprecedented combinations of familiar ele-ments" (27). If Cervantes's interludes do not "break away from the nor-malizing roles assigned to theatrical production" it is because all play, all

games, have rules which establish a sense of order, and this, according toHuizinga, is a "very positive feature of play: it creates order, is order. Intoan imperfect world and into the confusion of life it brings a temporary, alimited perfection" (10).


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The open-endedness of Cervantes's interludes underscores JuliánMarías 's reflection that "Cervantes hace lo que la filosofía hará, natural-mente de otra manera: introducir la posibilidad como forma de realidad'(Cervantes 244). At the same time, this insistence on what Anne Cruzcalls "deferring formal closure" (119) expands the boundaries of the playas game, for both characters and spectators. The common link to bothnotions seems to lie in Cervantes's theatrical (and novelistic) practice of "illusion" which, as Huizinga points out, is "a pregnant word whichmeans literally 'in-play' (from inlusio, illudere or inludere)" (11). Whilethe word ilusión clamors in its absence from Cervantes's texts, the notionitself clearly shapes both the author's dramatic and narrative writing.

In a brief article that points in the right direction for our undertaking,Patricia Kenworthy synthesizes Cervantes's interludes thus: "losentremeses pueden ser considerados como piezas dramáticas que drama-tizan la creación del ilusionismo" (235). I suggest that these pieces dram-atize the creation of ilusión rather than that of ilusionismo (i.e., prestidig-itation or magic). Nevertheless, Kenworthy hits the nail on the head by

concluding that Cervantes is an "originalísimo teórico de la ilusión comodefinidora de la esencia dramática" (238).Three years after the publication of Kenworthy's reflections on the

idea of illusion in Cervantes's interludes, Julián Marías published hisBreve tratado de la ilusión, in which the Spanish philosopher illuminatesa blind spot in modernity's comprehension of the uniquely Spanish phe-nomenon of ilusión, which lies at the very heart of Cervantes's literaryart.6 In his philosophico-philological meditations on the concept of ilusión, Marías discovers a "positive" sense — "el que tiene en expre-siones como 'tener ilusión' por algo o por alguien; hacer una cosa 'conilusión'" (Breve 15) — that is inseparable from the traditional "negative"(Breve 14) sense of this word, namely, the sense of ilusión as burla,engaño, or sueño, and which ultimately stems from the Latin ludus (Breve11-15).7 Half of Cervantes's interludes center on the main action of ilusión as burla or engaño? and they are curiously grouped together asthe final four plays of the collection: El vizcaíno fingido, El retablo de lasmaravillas, La cueva de Salamanca, and El viejo celoso.

The plot of El vizcaíno fingido is the playing-out of a harmless practi-cal joke, a burla or ilusión in the "negative" sense of the word, which hasno ultimate purpose other than the pure joy taken in playing a prank onwomen such as Cristina and Brígida: "Cuando las mujeres son como


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éstas, es gusto el burlallas; cuanto más, que esta burla no ha de pasar delos tejados arriba; quiero decir, que ni ha de ser ofensa de Dios, ni condaño de la burlada; que no son burlas las que redundan en desprecioajeno" (163).9 Since this play begins in medias res, it is not initially clear if "women like these" refers to the fact that they are prostitutes, typicalvictims of pranks, or whether it is a reference to them as deceivers/

pranksters, alluding to some earlier deception/prank to which Solórzanofell victim, whatever that might have been. As the play progresses, textu-al evidence points to the latter, and Quiñones 's final words serve as a cul-

mination of retaliation and an admonishment to the merry pranksters,Cristina and Brígida: "todo saldrá en la colada" (186).10Since it is apparent from the text that Solórzano knows his victim but

she does not recognize him, Carroll Johnson's hypothesis of a previousencounter between Solórzano and Cristina in a coach seems probable:"on that previous occasion when they enjoyed each other's company, sheremoved (at least) the veil covering her face, while he, the visiting gen-tleman, remained embozado" (16). This would explain the role of moneyin this prank; it would also explain the relevance of Cristina's andBrigida's discussion of the law of 1611, "generally known as the pre-mática de los coches" (Johnson 7). Whatever the motive behindSolórzano's prank, Cervantes underscores Cristina's awareness of her involvement in previous deceptions (ilusión) and her expectation(ilusión) that her future business dealings, with her face fully revealed,will be free from all such deceptions: "quitando la ocasión de queninguno se llame engaño si nos sirviese, pues nos ha visto" (167).

Solórzano convinces his friend Quiñones to assist him in the pres-

tidigitation of two chains which will allow him to even the score in hisongoing "game" with the "ninfa" Cristina: "a pesar de la taimería destasevillana, ha de quedar esta vez burlada" (163). If Carroll Johnson's sug-gestion is correct, Solórzano is giving Cristina a taste of her own medi-cine, avenging deception with deception, ilusión with ilusión. Central tothe action of this interlude is the "contest" between Cristina and

Solórzano, the Greek idea of agon, which, as Huizinga has underscored,is "an essential part of the play concept" (30). This notion is driven homein Huizinga's explanation that "[p]lay is battle and battle play" (41).Although Solórzano is on the offensive in this "battle" (of the sexes, of wits), we must keep in mind the fact that his raid is actually an ambush;Cristina has no idea who he is, nor that she is engaged in combat/play.


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Solórzano 's first strike takes the form of courtship as play/illusion,with the inherent sense of amorous language as play/illusion: "ha muchosdías que deseo servir a vuesa merced, obligado de su hermosura, buenas

partes y mejor término" (169). Cristina quickly takes up this game and plays it with him: "Beso a vuesa merced las manos por la que me hahecho en acordarse de mí en tan provechosa ocasión" (170). Solórzano'smock seduction of Cristina — ilusión in the "negative" sense — awakensCristina's "positive" sense of this term, for it is out of desire that her hopes and expectations emerge: "El deseo es el ámbito en que se engen-

dra la ilusión" (Marías, Breve 61). After the initial flattery of the suaveSolórzano, Cristina and Brígida are subjected to the ridiculous pseudo-Basque of the Castilian Quiñones as the next step in the language game:"Vamos que vino que subes y bajas, lengua es grillos y corma es pies"(179). The illusion of Quiñones 's intemperance, which will illusorily leadto his excessive generosity, seals the deal in Cristina's mind, and shedrops her guard in order to secure the golden chain. Solórzano's prank isso well planned, predicting in advance the victim's every move, that

Cristina can do nothing but fall into the trap and ultimately recognize thatshe has been duped, that the deceiver has been deceived: "Ahora bien, yoquedo burlada" (186). The fact that Solórzano brings into play the silver-smith and the alguacil as unwitting partners in crime only intensifies hissheer mastery of ilusión, in both senses of the word.

Critics have pointed out the impunity of the two men at the end of the play, which stands in stark contrast to the mockery endured by the twowomen (See Johnson 17 and Canavaggio 366). However, we must notlose sight of the fact that that is the only logical structure of this prank,since it is a retaliatory act designed as a way to settle the score in thegame between Solórzano and Cristina. While the men win a dinner, thewomen get their just "deserts." Round two is over, but we may notassume that a truce has been called. As the play begins in medias res, sotoo does it end. This structure confirms Anne Cruz's assertion that the

interludes defer "formal closure" (119), since Cervantes has presented tous a single moment in the continuous, and in this sense "dramatic," playof illusion in human life. As the interlude begins with the new prank

devised to be played "esta vez" (163), we are led to expect Cristina'sretaliation beyond our frame of vision. In this sense, the reader/spectator also experiences the "positive" side of ilusión.

In these four pieces that center on a hoax, it is desire that draws the


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double-edged sword of ilusión: desire for material goods and retaliation{Vizcaino), desire for social status (Retablo), desire for knowledge of thesupernatural (Cueva), and sexual desire (Cueva and Viejo). While AnneCruz considers Cervantes's interludes to be caught "within the circulari-ty and deception of desire" (133), Julián Marías shows how ilusión stemsfrom the psychic life of desire, and he brings to light the dramatic natureof ilusión. It is worth tracing briefly Marias's discussion of the "positive"sense of ilusión in order to shed light on this concept so central toCervantes's interludes. Marias's first step toward the explanation of the

"dramatic" nature of

ilusión is to show what he calls the "condición futu-riza" (Breve 40) of ilusión, the "futurición de la vida humana" (Breve 41),that is, ilusión as something present that points to something in thefuture. 1 ! That pointing toward the future, which has not yet happened andis therefore not yet real, "introduce una 'irrealidad' en la realidad humana,como parte integrante de ella, y hace que la imaginación sea el ámbitodentro del cual la vida humana es posible" (Marías, Breve 40). Here iswhere we begin to see the inseparability between the "positive" and "neg-ative" senses of ilusión: "lo que nos ilusiona puede resultar ilusorio; elobjeto de la ilusión puede fallar; a la ilusión la acecha la posibilidad de ladesilusión" (Marías, Breve 41). In El vizcaíno fingido, Cristina's desireintroduces an unreal element (the chain) into her reality; she counts her chickens before they are hatched. And indeed, her hopes and expectationsare ultimately foiled; her ilusión is indeed ambushed by desilusión.

Marias's next step is to show the temporal structure of ilusión, asopposed to desire, "el cual puede tener un carácter momentáneo" (Breve62). Marías explains how ilusión presupposes a past experience that is

conjured up from the imagination in order to appear again as somethingnew. The result is a mental déjà vu, something already seen by the eye of the mind and summoned to reappear in order to stir up ilusiones (hopes,expectations, etc.). Since ilusión is a phenomenon made up of both tem-

poral and personal elements, as opposed to the strictly psychic or psy-chological structure that shapes desire, "aparecen en ella indisoluble-mente la necesidad de eternidad y la evidencia de que el tiempo seguiráfluyendo y pasando" (Marías, Breve 52). And this temporal structure iswhat differentiates ilusión and desire, making ilusión "un acontecimientodramático de la vida humana" (Marías, Breve 52), "un ingrediente o una

posibilidad de la vida personal" (Marías, Breve 63). Ilusión has a dra-matic character because it is "algo que le pasa a alguien," while desire,


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which takes place "en la vida psíquica,"12 is merely a "componente nodramático de las estructuras dramáticas de la vida biográfica" (Marías,Breve 63). In El vizcaínofingido, Cristina's desire for the chain allows the prank to be played on her, and this is the "dramatic" element of ilusión towhich Marias is referring. This key psychological factor opens the door for the action to take place, for Cristina's "positive" sense of ilusión to beset in motion, although it will ultimately be met by the "negative" senseand by desilusión.

The inseparability of both senses of ilusión is a fundamental aspect of

Cervantes's treatment of this concept since it creates the structure for theludic agon expounded on by Huizinga. In the first four interludes of thecollection, which do not center on a hoax but rather present "una serie decuadros" in which "la figura está en función del diálogo" (Casalduero23), there is a clear demarcation of battle lines: between battle-wearyspouses pleading for a truce in the form of divorce (El juez de los divor-cios); between three prostitutes vying for the services of a recently wid-owed pimp (El rufián viudo, llamado Trampagos); between a group of

incompetent candidates contending for the position of town mayor (Laelección de los alcaldes de Daganzo); and between two second-rate suit-ors fighting it out for the hand of a servant girl (La guarda cuidadosa). Inthe final four interludes that center on a hoax, and in which "la figura estáen función de la acción" (Casalduero 23), agonistic limits are also estab-lished: between two aristocratic young gentlemen determined to avengetwo deceptive prostitutes (Vizcaino); between two con artists who cheatinnocent country bumpkins for lucrative ends (El retablo de las maravi-llas); and between a cheating wife and her jealous husband (La cueva deSalamanca and El viejo celoso). In all eight interludes, one or both sideshave great hopes or expectations — ilusión in the "positive" sense — thatmay or may not be realized. These hopes and dreams point toward a self-fulfillment, toward a self-discovery, a creative act of human reality that isconstantly at work, and constantly at risk of falling into desilusión.

Marías notes that without the ilusiones of human life, understood herein the "positive" sense, life becomes little more than "un tedioso procesorutinario amenazado por el aburrimiento" (Breve 56). This "transcenden-

tal" (stricto sensu) feature of illusion makes it virtually synonymous with both play and theater, and the role of the audience as other is implicitlyhighlighted. The structure of Cervantes's play of illusion shapes not onlythe dialogues and actions of the author's interludes, but it also serves as a


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theoretical support for much of his narrative fiction. Exemplary in thisregard is Don Quixote's episode with the dukes (Don Quijote II, 30-57),where the fabrication and manipulation of images and ilusiones, in boththe "positive" and "negative" senses, allow the duke and duchess to side-step the ever-present threat of boredom as it gives both Quixote andSancho hopes and expectations that will ultimately lead to desilusión.That same manipulation of images and actors, of hopes and dreams, thatsame blurring of the lines between actor and spectator, is what holdstogether the group of interludes centered on the "negative" sense of ilusión.

The three remaining plays of our group of "hoax interludes" are simi-lar to Vizcaino with respect to their treatment of the dual concept of ilusión. Like Vizcaino, which underscores that this spoof is a follow-up toa previous one, El retablo de las maravillas also refers to an ongoingseries of deceptions, this time actually informing the reader/spectator of the previous one carried out by the swindlers Chanfalla and Chirinos:"este nuevo embuste, que ha de salir tan a luz, como el pasado del lio-vista" (189). This reference is relevant in that it divulges to the audiencethe fact that these two con artists pounce on the Achilles heel of sharedsocial values, in this case, gullibility and superstition, in order to maketheir dishonest living. The new hoax consists of the staging of an imagi-nary puppet show, fashioned by the celebrated and illusory Italian sageTontonelo, which only pure Christians and those of legitimate birth will

be able to see: "que ninguno puede ver las cosas que en él se muestran,que tenga alguna raza de confeso, o no sea habido y procreado de sus

padres de legítimo matrimonio" (191). Once again, the couple seizes

upon the gullibility and superstitions of an ignorant community.However, in this case, a veritable chink in the social armor is revealed inthe form of the question of honor — "la negra honrilla" (200) — and thewidespread fear of being considered illegitimate or of an impure line-age — "dos tan usadas enfermedades" (192) — opens the door to chicanery.We must not lose sight of the tremendous irony in the fact that the towns-

people allow themselves to be turned into puppets in order to uphold their notion of honor, while the deceptive stage directors, who represent theface of emerging capitalism, care not a whit for their own honor.

Unlike Vizcaino, where the deception is a reaction to a previous decep-tion and could therefore be considered a justified act of revenge that pitsdeceiver against deceiver, the hoax in Retablo depends on the agon of city


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slickers set against innocent country bumpkins, and the former's thor-ough understanding of the social imaginary of honor in seventeenth-cen-tury (rural) Spain. It is, of course, a cheeky reversal of the locus commu-nis "menosprecio de corte y alabanza de aldea" that sets in motion the"positive" sense of ilusión through the "negative" sense. The postmodernnotion of "social imaginary," a term coined by Greek-French thinker Cornelius Castoriadis, is a rather alluring concept through which we mayapproach Cervantes's interludes in general, and the Retablo in particular,since it not only ties in with play and illusion, but also at the heart of this

idea lies the sense of (self-)creation by a community:I call these significations imaginary because they do not cor-respond to, or are not exhausted by, references to "rational" or "real" elements and because it is through a creation that theyare posited. And I call them social because they are and theyexist only if they are instituted and shared by an impersonal,anonymous collective. (8)

In the case of Retablo, the workings of the social imaginary significa-tions are played out on the intrahistorical stage of the spectators-made-actors who appropriate the creative role of stage director and take the

play/game to an unexpected level of social interaction. In this sense, it isconvenient to keep in mind Charles Taylor's description of the socialimaginary as

the ways in which people imagine their social existence, howthey fit together with others, how things go on between themand their fellows, the expectations that are normally met, andthe deeper normative notions and images that underlie theseexpectations. (106)

Through their seemingly harmless prank, ilusión in the "negative"sense, Chanfalla and Chirinos dig up and manipulate those "deeper nor-mative notions and images" that underlie communal hopes and expecta-

tions, ilusión in the "positive" sense. This is the basic structure of ilusiónof all four "hoax interludes": a weak point in the social imaginary isattacked (agon) in order that burla may give rise to hopes and dreams. Inthe end, however, the "negative" sense of ilusión will reign supreme,


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since this is Cervantes's play with the concept and with the characters of his interludes. Even in the cases of El retablo de las maravillas, La cuevade Salamanca, or El viejo celoso, where the victims remain unaware — or at least not fully aware —of the prank even at the end of the play, and thusexperience no sense of desilusión, the audience is indeed aware of theroguery, and this actually intensifies the tragic irony revealed in thedenouement, a structural element that these interludes share with manytragicomedias of the seventeenth century. What sets Retablo apart is pre-cisely the creative element of the social imaginary underscored by

Castoriadis, the ability of the townspeople not only to witness the marvelsof the puppet show, but also to create those "images that underlie theseexpectations" (Taylor 106) and, what is more, to take this ludic imaginary

beyond the established playing field.The unnamed gobernador of the town proposes that the marvelous

puppet show promised by Chanfalla y Chirinos be staged in celebrationof the afternoon wedding ceremony between his goddaughter JuanaCastrada, daughter of the regidor Juan Castrado, and the unnamednephew of the town mayor, Benito Repollo. The prank creates hopes andexpectations; ilusión begets ilusión. After a sardonic discussion of thefashionable poets/playwrights and the current state of the theater inMadrid, due to the fact that the gobernador — a.k.a. "el LicenciadoGomecillos" (195) — fancies himself a poet (ilusión), the scammersexplain the rules of the game to their dupes. The spectators of the playwithin the play are thus given the illusory tools of legitimacy which willenable them to see the non-existent marvels and to examine their own

questionable consciences. All the fantastic scenes to be staged before the

ingenuous audience play with their deepest sense of fear and desire, emo-tions which will give way to the dramatic phenomenon of ilusión. Thecreative act of making the scenes appear is left to the audience, since theentire enactment is of course a sham. It is curious to consider at this pointVictor Turner's reflection on the notion of "performance" as "an act of creative retrospection" and a "'restored' experience," taking experienceas a "willing or wishing forward" (18). This futurition of performance

puts it in line with Marias's previously cited discussion of ilusión; and thecreative function of these concepts underscores their intimate link to thesocial imaginary significations at play in this interlude:


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[Cjreation, as the work of the social imaginary, of the institut-ing society (societas instituons, not societas instituía), is themode of being of the social-historical field, by means of whichthis field is. Society is self-creation deployed as history.(Castoriadis 13).

The creative act of the social imaginary — qua societas instituans — produces a new system of notions and images (ilusión) that does not existin the previously established social context. In Retablo, this phenomenon

is clearly perceived as a self-creative act, since the townspeople are reliv-ing (and "wishing forward") their own cultural history, their own cultur-al experience, their own being, through allusions to their system of val-ues and beliefs, and their primal fears. They are creating themselves asthey create the fantastic images, shadows reflected on the screen of their social imaginary.

Inasmuch as "culture arises in the form of play, that it is played fromthe very beginning" (Huizinga 46), the social structure in formation in

this interlude is not merely societas instituans, but also societas ludens.While the internal spectators are playing their role quite well as architectsof images, they go beyond the borders of the game and break all the rules

by incorporating into their ilusión the quartermaster and the soldiers to be billeted: "Yo apostaré que los envía el sabio Tontonelo" (205). It is in noway coincidental that "reality" invades the set just as Chanfalla explainsto an increasingly dubious, though ever zealous, group of interactivespectators that "[fjodas las reglas tienen excepción" (204). Their serious

play absorbs a character (i.e., the quartermaster) that is not part of the pre-fabricated set of imaginary puppets to be displayed by Chanfalla andChirinos. This transgression signifies the socio-historical "mode of

being" of the townspeople who are eager to discover tangible evidence of their cohesive normality, their oneness, and of the quartermaster's com-

plete and utter alterity. It is proof of honor as a social construct; and assuch, society as flux must continue to create new images, to (re-)createitself, through play. The final scene, which recalls the end of theMaritornes episode in Don Quijote (I, 16) — "el gato al rato, el rato a la

cuerda, la cuerda al palo" (227) — as well as the pre-Cervantine interludesthat end in fisticuffs, fills everyone except the quartermaster and Rabelinwith the positive sense of ilusión: the townspeople find evidence thatthere is someone more illegitimate than they, and the two stage managers


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expectations (ilusión), this time in the imagination of the naive husband.Pancracio 's will to knowledge (ilusión) opens the door for the student toturn the hiding gentlemen visitors into diaboli ex machina: "¿No se con-tentará vuesa merced con que le saque de aquí dos demonios en figurashumanas, que traigan a cuestas una canasta llena de cosas fiambres ycomederas?" (223). The women object to the demonic plan, fearful thatthe student is going to reveal the original deception of infidelity.Pancracio, however, is intrigued, and he accepts the offer to see devilsand their food, provided that no danger or fright come to anyone in his

house: "si ha de ser sin peligro y sin espantos, yo me holgaré de ver esosseñores demonios y a la canasta de las fiambreras" (223). Thrown into therole of puppeteer, with an audience prepared to behold the marvelousspectacle, the student, by manipulating the function of superstition in thesocial imaginary, now brings the devils out in the form of the sexton andthe barber, their faces blackened by the coal. As a final coup de théâtre,Pancracio agrees to allow the devils to dine with his household and thestudent in order that he may continue to hear and see marvels of necro-

mancy. The dinner table is the ultimate symbol of his own cuckoldry(ilusión) brought about by his will (ilusión) to taste the secret fruit of the"ciencias que se enseñan en la Cueva de Salamanca" (229).

El viejo celoso, the last of the "hoax interludes," also revolves aroundthe theme of infidelity. In this case, however, the deception (ilusión) is

planned out extemporaneously through Lorenza's conversation with her neighbor Hortigosa, who sparks a desire in the presumably innocentyoung wife and creates hopes and expectations (ilusión) in her imagina-tion. While in Cueva Leonarda simply portrays Pancracio as a nuissancewhom she would rather see not return — "Allá darás, rayo, en casa de AnaDíaz. Vayas, y no vuelvas; la ida del humo" (211) — the audience of Viejois clearly aware of the reasons for Lorenza's dissatisfaction with her hus-

band. And these reasons, which go beyond his jealousy and suspicions,are not coincidentally the same as the complaints raised in the first inter-lude of the collection, El juez de los divorcios, a play that not only fore-shadows these last two interludes, but also serves as their inevitablefinale.

The extreme jealousy of the putrefying husband Cañizares has led himto lock his young wife away in the house with the hopes and expectations(ilusión) that she serve as his faithful nurse, and that she never discover the sexual joys of life. The key that locks her in and which he keeps hid-


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den is, comically, a symbol of the husband's impotence, as Lorenzaunabashedly reveals: "yo duermo con él y jamás le he visto ni sentido quetenga llave alguna" (236). As in Cueva and Juez, marriage is depicted inthis piece as both play and war (agon), a sense of this sacramental con-tract also pointed out by Huizinga in his study on play: "To archaic manmarriage is a 'contrat à épreuves'" (83). The present interlude illuminatesthe various senses of épreuve in the agonistic contract between Lorenzaand Cañizares, all of which are overcome by the agile wife and her Celestinesque neighbor through a bawdy play of innuendo, imagination,

and climax (both sexual and dramatic).Hortigosa's encroachment across the forbidden threshold of Cañizares's house is a direct result of the old man's senility, whereby heis doubly the agent of his own undoing, the unwitting cause of thedesilusión of his ilusión: "Milagro ha sido éste, señora Hortigosa, el nohaber dado la vuelta a la llave mi duelo, mi yugo y mi desesperación"(23 1). The neighbor next builds up the hopes and expectations in Lorenzaof relieving her frustration and boredom, which we have seen is an essen-tial objective of ilusión: "lo que ha de hacer, hágalo luego, que estoy tan

aburrida, que no me falta sino echarme una soga al cuello, por salir de tanmala vida" (236). Hortigosa exits, allowing Cañizares time to returnhome and briefly grill his wife; the neighbor then returns to the couple'shome, this time with the "ginjo verde" (233) concealed behind a piece of leather embossed with figures of four characters from Orlando furioso,which Hortigosa pretends she needs to sell in order to bail her son out of

prison (ilusión). Although Cañizares has no idea that he is at this verymoment being cuckolded, he nevertheless feels the sting of the "nettle-

like" neighbor (ortiga), which marks the shattering of his ilusión, for asLorenza tells her neighbor when the play opens: "éste es el primero día,después que me casé con él, que hablo con persona de fuera de casa"(231).

The trick of leading the young lover to the wife's bedroom concealed behind the embossed leather, while the husband is distracted by the four male figures who provoke his insane jealousy, underscores the play of illusion as "engaño a los ojos" (63) in all four of these "hoax interludes."The modernity of this representational praxis anticipates the same gamethat René Magritte would present in his La trahison des images of 1929,reminding us that what we see is not a pipe (Ceci ? 'est pas une pipe). Bytaking the embossed figures as men in his house, Cañizares is blinded to


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the fact that a real man is actually present, and indeed threatening hishonor. That is, he is betrayed by images. When Cañizares loses his tem-

per and throws Hortigosa out of the house, Lorenza feigns anger (ilusión)and stomps off into her room where Cañizares thinks she is pouting, butwhere she is actually living out her own ilusión. The audience can onlysee the husband and Cristina, but the sounds of Lorenza's discoveries andsatisfaction coming from behind the door signal the culmination of thewife's ilusión and desilusión: "Ahora echo de ver quién eres, viejomaldito, que hasta aquí he vivido engañada contigo" (248). The symbol-

ic staging of Cañizares outside the door that he is unable to penetrate,while his wife fulfills her fantasies, creates the climactic tension which is brought to an apparent anticlimax through a literal "engaño a los ojos," aswe see in the stage directions: "Al entrar Cañizares, dánle con una bacíade agua en los ojos; él vase a limpiar; acuden sobre él Cristina y DoñaLorenza, y en este ínterin sale el Galán y vase" (249). Lorenza now pre-tends that her performance — in the sense of "creative retrospection,""restored experience," "wishing forward" (Turner 18) — behind the door

was merely staged to retaliate for Cañizares's improper treatment of their neighbor, and the husband remains unaware of the cuckoldry that has justtaken place in his presence. The play ends with the entrance into thehouse of the alguacil, musicians, a dancer, and the neighbor Hortigosa: acomplete desilusión for the jealous old husband whose goal it was to keepeveryone out of his house. And the curtain speech that Lorenza andCristina address to the female audience members underscores their

ilusión and a likely reprise:

Doña Lorenza. Aunque mi esposo está mal con las vecinas, yo beso a vuesas mercedes las manos, señoras vecinas.Cristina.Y yo también; mas si mi vecina me hubiera traído

mi frailecico, yo la tuviera por mejor vecina; yadiós señoras vecinas. (252)

The fact that the patsies in these last three pieces remain unaware of the ruses played on them, while the tricks are explicit to the audience,

intensifies the play of ilusión and desilusión, and it signals society's leadrole in its own unraveling. The order of play is momentarily restored atthe end of each of these four "hoax interludes," thus introducing into thesocial imaginary "la posibilidad como forma de realidad" (Marías,


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Cervantes 244). Formal closure is indeed deferred, as Anne Cruz has

asserted, and it is because the irreality brought into play by the futuritionof ilusión can never delineate the ultimate limit of ludus. Solórzano andCristina (Vizcaíno) will surely meet up again; Chanfalla and Chirinos(Retablo) have already expressed their preparation for a repeat perform-ance (ilusión); the student from Salamanca (Cueva) will doubtless pullanother prank on a gullible interlocutor, and Leonarda will most likelydeceive her husband again; and Lorenza and Cristina (Viejo) will certain-ly invoke again the help of Hortigosa in order to restage a similar decep-tion.

The social imaginary in these pieces consists of an endless series of hopes and expectations, continually executed through the Cervantine playof "engaño a los ojos." Human desire generates the pregnant concept of ilusión through play, which presents itself to us as "an interlude in ourdaily lives" (Huizinga 9). These burlesque "histories" are cyclical, and wemust see the arrangement of these pieces as a "dramatic" symbol of regeneration and re-creation that takes us from marital strife that leads todesire for divorce (ilusión), to infidelity (ilusión), and, implicitly, back again. They depict that vicious circle of human relationships that JamesJoyce described as "a commodius vicus of recirculation" (3). In the lastanalysis, Cervantes's interludes represent the never-ending reading/writ-ing of a never-ending action, an ilusión in the "negative" sense that ulti-mately imbues the reader/spectator with the "positive" sense of this "dra-matic" phenomenon.

NOTES

1. Whether or not Cervantes wrote his interludes to be read and not performed, as NicholasSpadaccini argues, until recently we have indeed been limited to the act of reading and to the mentalvisualization of these pieces. The 2000-2001 season performance of Maravillas de Cervantes by ElsComediants may just have been the catalyst for change that contemporary companies needed. Thefive pieces gathered and intertwined for this unique spectacle that so brilliantly captured the ludic ele-ment of Cervantes's interludes were Los habladores, La cueva de Salamanca, La elección de los

alcaldes de Daganzo, El viejo celoso, and El retablo de las maravillas. A roundtable discussion onthis production took place at the ????? Jornadas de Teatro Clásico (Almagro, 2000) and was chron-icled by María Ángela Celis Sánchez. More recently, in 2004, Els Joglars debuted their stunning and


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innovative production of El retablo de las maravillas: Cinco variaciones sobre un tema de

Cervantes. We can only hope that this impetus will continue.2.For a discussion on this same technique in the Prologue to Don Quijote, see Tom Lathrop.3.As Jacobo Sanz Hermida warns us in his introduction to these short pieces: "no parece del todoconveniente creer al píe de la letra las palabras declaradas por Cervantes en este Prólogo, sin anteshaberlas tamizado de ese tufillo vehemente que le impulsa a realizar cierto alarde teórico sobre laconcepción del teatro [...], que ha de ser considerado en su justa medida, en parte como un simpleejercicio ensayístico de carácter retórico, supeditado a unos condicionamientos externos negativos"(20). Quotations from Cervantes's Entremeses are from Jacobo Sanz Hermida's edition. Page num-

bers will be indicated in parentheses.4.In the same prologue, Cervantes writes of these dramatic pieces that he is publishing: "Querríaque fuesen las mejores del mundo"; that adjective would naturally depend on the public's inclination,and the author invites the reader to be the judge: "tú lo verás" (63). Edward H. Friedman has also

pointed out this objective in Cervantes's dramaturgy: "Two factors delineate Cervantes' venture intodrama: his intense desire to succeed as a playwright and his ultimate rejection by a public indoctri-nated in Lope's comedia" (15).5.Huizinga underscores in his foreword to this book that he had repeatedly insisted on the phrase"the play element of culture" and not "the play element in culture" because, he says, "it was not myobject to define the place of play among all the other manifestations of culture, but rather to ascer-tain how far culture itself bears the character of play" (i).6.Juan Luis Suárez has discussed this concept in terms of Calderón 's dramatic art (212).7.To define and give examples of this "negative" sense, Marias cites the Vulgate, Alfonso dePalencia's Universal vocabulario en latin y en romance, Covarrubias 's Tesoro de la lengua castellanao española, and the Diccionario de Autoridades (Breve 11-14).8.For a discussion on pranks in early modern Spain, see Marc Vitse and Monique JoIy.9.Casalduero notes the lightheartedness of this prank as "muy típica de Cervantes y que hay que

subrayar para que se vea la diferencia con la picaresca" (203).10.Sanz Hermida cites the entry for this idiom in the Diccionario de Autoridades: "Frase vulgar quese dice por aquel a quien se le ha advertido muchas veces no haga alguna cosa mala, y no se enmien-da, y como amenaza se le dice que 'todo saldrá en la colada'; esto es, que todo lo pagará junto" (186).1 1 . Marías is unmistakably following Ortega y Gasset, who underscored the predominant role of thefuture in human life and coined the term futuricion in Spanish: "No es el presente o el pasado lo

primero que vivimos, no; la vida es una actividad que se ejecuta hacia delante, y el presente o el pasa-do se descubre después, en relación con ese futuro. La vida es futurición, es lo que aún no es" (420).12.In his sketch of the "psychological" sense of desire, Marias is thinking of the modem philoso-

phers who have discussed desire as one of the passions of the soul, following Descartes's definitionin Article 86 of his Les pass ions de l'âme of 1649: "The passion of Desire is an agitation of the soul,caused by the spirits, which disposes it to will for the future the things it represents to itself to be suit-


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able. Thus we desire not only the presence of absent good but also the preservation of the present,

and in addition the absence of evil, both what we already have and what we believe we might receivein time to come" (66).

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Celis Sánchez, María Angela. "Crónica del coloquio sobre la representación de Maravillas deCervantes" Calderón, sistema dramático y técnicas escénicas. Actas de las XXIII Jornadasde Teatro Clásico. Almagro, 11, 12 y 13 de julio de 2000. Ed. Felipe B. Pedraza Jiménez etal. Corral de Comedias 12. Almagro: Universidad de Castilla-La Mancha, 2001. 429-37.

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Descartes, René. The Passions of the Soul. Ed. and trans. Stephen Voss. Indianapolis: Hackett, 1989.Egido, Luciano G. La cueva de Salamanca. Salamanca: Ayuntamiento de Salamanca, 1994.Friedman, Edward H. The Unifying Concept: Approaches to the Structure of Cervantes''Comedias.

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Joyce, James. Finnegan's Wake. 1939. New York: Viking, 1966.Kenworthy, Patricia. "La ilusión dramática en los Entremeses de Cervantes." Cervantes, su obra y su

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_____ . Cervantes clave española. Humanidades. El Libro de Bolsillo 1501. Madrid: Alianza, 1990.Ortega y Gasset, José. "¿Qué es filosofia?" Obras completas. Vol. 7. Madrid: Alianza, 1 983. 275-438.Plato. The Collected Dialogues of Plato. Ed. Edith Hamilton and Huntington Caims. Trans. Lane

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Documents

The Play of Illusion in Cervantess Interludes