A critical edition of Jose de Valdivielso's "El angel de la guarda" (Spain)
Description
This dissertation is a critical edition with preliminary study of a religious comedia by Jose de Valdivielso: El angel de la guarda. While his autos have been edited and have been the subject of critical study, his theater, although transcribed has not been examined critically. Critics seem to agree that Valdivielso's comedias do not compare to his autos, and that very little if any work has been done in depth The objective of this dissertation is dual: to make an accurate and annotated edition of the play, and to present a critical study of Valdivielso's style through his imagery and its usage as a tool to teach a theological lesson to the vulgo Doze autos sacramentales y dos comedias divinas, Toledo, 1622, forms the basis of this critical edition of El angel de la guarda. A copy of the text was obtained from the Hispanic Society in New York and collated with the Braga, 1624 edition in the Harvard University Library and Manuscript #15277 in the Biblioteca Nacional at Madrid. The variants of the edition of 1624 and the manuscript are included in the notes to the text The importance of El angel de la guarda, however, is not so much due to its ideological and literary merits as a play, but to Valdivielso's unique method of using imagery as a teaching tool. Through the visual magic of the stage, this imagery explains the relationship between God and man Valdivielso's strikingly unorthodox attitude toward the honor code is implicit through this comedia and has been dealt with to a certain extent by Professor Wardropper