The Celestina as an Arte de Amores

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The "Celestina" as an "arte de amores"Author(s): Edwin J. WebberSource: Modern Philology, Vol. 55, No. 3 (Feb., 1958), pp. 145-153Published by: The University of Chicago PressStable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/434958 .

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FEBRUARY1958VOLUME LV

NUMBER 3odrnPyTHE CELESTINA AS AN ARTE DE AMORES

EDWIN J. WEBBERHEphraserte e moreshouldallto mind the name of Ovid, pre-ceptorand model of amorousad-venture n theMiddle Ages and Renais-sance. However,the word arte s taken

heretomeannotonlytheknowledgendpractice f ove and a handbookoflove--as inArs amatoria-but also a taleof oveartistically old. In the following iscus-sionofthegeneric rigin ftheCelestina,otherqualifications illbe added.In fourteenth-centurypain,wefindntheLibrode buenamor naturalaccept-anceofOvid'sreputations a poetof ove.The archpriest uanRuiz tellsus this nthewordswhichVenusaddressed o him:Sy eyeres vydio, lquefu6micriado,En 61 allardsablas, ue 'oveyo mostrado,Muchasbuenasmaneras araenamorado:Panfilo Nas6ndemifu6demostrado.1The Libro de buenamorwas, in fact,ahandbookfor overs, hought claimedtobe somethingmore than a manual oftechnique. t was composedwithan ex-pressed didactic and moral purpose,namely, o instruct heintelligent eader

in the wiles and deceitful ubtletiesofworldly ove, to the end that he mightsuccessfullyscape its snares.JuanRuizexplains t in thisway:Fiz' esta chicaescripturan memoria ebien6 conpuse stenuevo ibro, n que sonescriptas lgunas maneras6 maestrfassotilezas ngafiosasel ocoamordelmundo,que usan algunospara pecar. ... E Dios sabeque ami ntengi6non u6 e ofazer ordarmanera epecar in ormaldezir;mas u6 orredugir, todapersona memoriauenadebien brar darensienproebuenas ostum-bres6 castigos e salvagi6n, porque eantodos pergebidosse puedanmejor uardardetantasmaestrfasomo lgunos sanpor lloco mor.2The inspiration orthephrasing ftheseaims probablyderivedfrom Ovid-notfrom the medieval Ovidian imitation,Pamphilusde amore,primarily ut fromthe originalworks, heArs amatoria ndthe Remedia amoris. In the Pamphilus,however, he archpriest aw a divertingtale embodyingOvid's preceptson loveand incorporated t in the Libro as amajorepisode.1Juan Ruiz, Libro de buen amor, ed. J. Cejador(Madrid, 1946-51), I, 162 (strophe 429). 2 bid., I, 11-12.

[MODERN PHIOLLOGY, February, 1958] 145

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146 EDWIN J.WEBBERThis moralisticnterpretationfOvid,popular in the late Middle Ages, wasexemplifiedgain nthefollowing entury

by Juan Rodriguez de la C0mara'sBursarioor Epistolas de Ouidio (that is,the Heroides). n the prologue, n wordssimilar o thoseofJuanRuiz, the authorRodriguez proclaimed the high moralaims of that collectionof love letters,saying:A utilidat prouechoe os omnes6ueneshizeeste ratado... La materia este ratadoes de amor ifitoe illifito, onesto des-honesto,uerdoy loco.La intingi6nuyaesloar a vnas de amor icitoy honesto, s'Ycomo a Pendlope, ue am6 a su maridoUlixes;y a otrasreprehendee amordes-honesto, sy como a Islifleque am6 aJas6n, u huespet... A otrasreprehendeelocoamor, s$yomo Oenone,a qual am6aParis eyendo ifio,or o qualnon o deuieraamar, a son osnifiosnconstantesor a suvariable edat.La vtilidat s que le$do estetratado,ayamos noticia de las manerasdiuersas eamar.3From at least the early fourteenthcenturyn Spain, then,Ovid served as amentor ndguide n amorousmatters,ndhisworkswere storehousefexamples fboth good and bad love. The literaryform of these sources ranged fromthedramaticPamphilus-attributedto him-through the more yrico-narrativeovemanuals and Metamorphoseso the ele-

giacal epistles fthe Heroides.But Ovid was not alone. The preoccu-pationofthe Librodebuen mor nd theBursariowithmatters flove,as wellasthemoralizing oneofthe twoprologues,calltomind lso thefigurefTerence ndoneoftheaspectsofhisreputationwhichhad originated n the finalyears of the

decadence of the Roman theater.4 othTerence and Plautus were condemned,alongwith the obscene skitsand panto-mimes which were standard theatricalfare. The Church Fathers universallydenounced hestagefor ts corruptingn-fluence.To Tertullian (De spectaculis),the theaterwas the churchof the devil.Lactantius remarks ccusinglythat thesubjectsof comediesare thedishonoringofvirgins r the loves ofharlots,'wordsthat were repeatedand vastly dissemi-nated by Isidore in his Etymologiae.AAugustinealso was particularlyharshwith the theater,and on occasion hesingledout Terence as the targetof hiswrath for incitingyouth to adulterouspassion.7 In the fifteenth enturyinSpain, Terencewas stillconsidered o bea poet of love. The poet RodrigoDiezcitedhim as the logical authority n acertain morousmatter;8 nd at the endofthecentury lonsoOrtiz tillcouldbe-come aroused by the depravityof theancientstage and cited the exampleofTerence's characterAntipho, "burningwith ust."9But in consonancewiththe medievaltendency o findmoralteachingsn eventhe most suspect of classical literature,Terence was redeemed as a more re-spectable representative f the comedywriters. or example, lthough choesof4 See Edwin J. Webber, "Plautine and TerentianCantares in Fourteenth-Century Spain," HispanicReview, XVIII (1950), 93-107, and Webber, "TheLiterary Reputation of Terence and Plautus inMedieval and Pre-Renaissance Spain," ibid., XXIV(1956), 191-206.5Lactantius, Divine Institutes i. 22, ed. A. Robertsand J. Donaldson, in The Ante-NiceneFathers, VII(Buffalo, 1886), 187.6Isidorus, Etymologiaexviii. 46.7Augustine, De civitate Dei ii. 7, 8, 12, etc.;Confessionum . 26.8Auzias March, Les Obres, II, ed. A. Pages(Barcelona, 1914), 324., "Antipho apud Terentium libidine exardescens"(A. Ortiz, De educatione et obitu Principis Johannis[MS 368, Universityof Salamanca library],fol. 35).

3Juan Rodriguez de la COmara, El Bursario, inObras, ed. A. Paz y Melia (Madrid, 1884), p. 198.This was translated froma Latin original, as MariaRosa Lida de Malkiel pointed out in "Juan Rodriguezdel Padr6n: Influencia," Nueva revista de filologiahispdnica, VIII (1954), 37-38.



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THE "CELESTINA" AS AN"ARTE DE AMORES" 147the old denunciations everberatedgainin Boccaccio's defense fpoetry, erenceand Plautus thistimewerespared:

At onetime utrageousongswere ung nthe tage fthetheatreymimesndactorsandspongersndthe ike;but, ccordingoCicero, he ancientRomansabolished ndrepudiatedhem..... There avebeen ertainso-called omicpoets,who,to be sure, n-cluded few pright en uch s TerencendPlautus, utwho or hemost artdefiledhebright lory fpoetrywith heir ilthyrea-tions.1ITerence, in fact, by now served as asourceofmonitory xamples.The tradi-tional "Epitaph," included in manymanuscriptsfhiscomedies, alledatten-tionto the manners nd customs epictedby Terence, among them the tricksofscheming, eceitful ervants nd cunningbawds and panders.He who reads thesecomedies, t is said,will be forewarned."11WalterBurley'spopularLiber de vita etmoribusphilosophorum, ritten n theearlyfourteenthentury nd translatedinto Spanish probablyin the followingcentury, ecorded hat Terencehad writ-ten a very elegantbook of comedies nwhichhehad observed ocialcustoms ndthatfromheseonemightearn oprotectone's self from many dangers.12 AndEnrique de Villena (early fifteenthen-tury), in a discussionof the evil thatwicked servantsoften ommit, uggestedlikewise hat whoeverread the comediesofTerencewould learn about thisprob-lem.'3

This is to say that the reputation fTerence s a "poetof ove" placedhim na position nalogous othatofOvid ntheMiddle Ages and earlyRenaissance.Asfurther videnceoftheiraffinity,t maybe pointed utthatthenameofOvidwasoccasionallyplaced by medievalscholarsamongthe writers fcomedy.A particu-lar work ofhis was notalways specified,and itmight ogically e assumedthathewas included n the basis ofthedramaticPamphilusdeamore.f thisweregenerallytrue, heexplanation fOvid'sreputationas a writer fcomedywould be simple. twas not so, however.To Dante's com-mentator acopodellaLana, for xample,theMetamorphoseslsowas an example fcomedy;'4ndtheHeroideswas translatedinto Italian with the title,La Comediadell'Epistoled'Ovidio.15n short, hen,notonlywereOvidand Terence onsideredobe authorities pon mattersoflove, butboth were consideredto be writersofcomedy.The foregoinguggests hat therewasin existence,n the late MiddleAgesandthe earlyRenaissance,the conceptofanamatorygenre n someway relatedwiththe conceptofcomedy.This genre s theone I refer o as theartede amores.What would be some distinguishingfeaturesof the artede amores?Subjectmatterof an amatorynatureis funda-mental,of course.Withrespectto form,it is evident hat t pretended o identifyitself with comedy.The Ovidian Pam-philusdeamorewouldbe a good exampleof dramaticamatorycomedy. But, justas comedyn thisperiodwasnotnecessari-

10oGiovanni Boccaccio, Genealogia deorum gen-tiliumxiv. 14, 19; translation is by C. Osgood (ed.),Boccaccio on Poetry (Princeton, 1930), pp. 70, 93.11Vincentde Beauvais, Speculum historiale Strass-burg, ca. 1473) vi. 72:"Natus in excelsis tectis Carthaginis altaeRomanis ducibus bellica praeda fui.Descripsi mores hominum, uuenumque senumque,Qualiter et serui decipiant dominosQuid meretrix, quid leno dolls confingatauarus:Haec quicunque legit, sic puto, cautus erit."12Walter Burley, Liber de vita et moribus philo-sophorum, d. H. Knust (Tiibingen, 1886), pp. 342-43.

la Enrique de Villena, Tratado de la consolagi6n, d.J. Soler [R. Foulch6-Delbosc], Revue hispanique,XLI(1917), 177.14Dante Alighieri, Comedia di Dante degli Alla-gherii col commento de Jacopo della Lana, ed. L.Scarabelli (Bologna, 1866), I, 97.15W. Cloetta, Beitrdgezur LiteraturgeschichteesMittelaltersund der Renaissance (Halle, 1890-92), I,41, n. 4.



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148 EDWIN J. WEBBERlydramatic n form,o theartedeamoresmightnot be whollyor exclusively ra-matic. The De amoreofAndreasCapel-lanus was essentially n ars amatoria nthe Ovidian sense, composedlargely ndialogue.' Althoughthe external sem-blance of drama belied the expositorynature of these Rules of Love, the Deamore cannot be excluded for lack ofartisticunityor plot. For the Heroides,too,was called a comedy, nd inthiscon-ceptionwe findourselves rather argestep removedfromthe dramaticform.Utterly acking n dramatic tructures awhole, heepistles ftheHeroides, ever-theless, are individual dramatic mono-logues. t is in thisfeature, believe, hatwe findthe commongroundof the dia-logued comedyand the epistolary orm:namely, he feature f"exchange," itherexplicit r implicit-on theonehand,theexchange f pokendialogue;ontheother,theexchange f ove letters.As thealter-nating peeches f hedramatic haractersrevealed theirthoughts nd feelings, odid the poetic epistles or declamatoryletters onvey hepassionatemessagesoflovers.This characteristicpistolary ea-ture of the amatory comedywas madetransparentby Juan Rodriguez de laCimara (alreadymentioned s thetrans-latoroftheHeroides), n the occasionofsendingto his lady, as he says, "vna demisepistolas n sonde comedia"; that s,"one of my epistles, n the manner ofcomedy.""17These unequivocal wordsofRodriguez ndicated that the sendingofan amorousmissive-in thisinstance an

epistolary illancico-was an actionchar-acteristicof comedy. Pedro Manuel deUrrea, speakingat the turnof the cen-tury n his Penitenciade amor, xpressedthe concept even more explicitly, ig-nificantlyairingTerencewith the culti-vators ftheepistolaryorm f he "senti-mental novel": "Este artede amoresestAya muyvsada en estamaneraporcartasyporgenasque dize el Terencio;ynatural-mente es estylo del Terencio lo quehablan en ayuntamiento."'sBut if most writers haracterized hearte de amores n termsofcomedy, omefoundinspirationn identifyingt withtragedy.When we observe that in thefifteenthentury conventional-infact,almostobligatory-terminationor taleof llicitor ll-fated ovewas thedeathofone or bothof the protagonists, e findthis dentificationatural.Not onlythe tragediesof Seneca butalso theHeroides f Ovid helpedRoiq deCorella n the secondhalfofthe fifteenthcenturyto compose his brief artes deamores n tragicstyle. The Heroides, tmay be argued,mightas logicallyhavebeen called tragedy as comedy. Eachepistle s a lovelament, dramaticmono-logue;and severalweredrawnbyOvid inconsiderablemeasurefrom arliertrage-dies. Corella's contemporary, ernandode la Torre, n fact suggestivelyinkedthesetwo forms n a discussion fwomenof antiquitywho werenotable protago-nistsin adventuresof ove. Singlingoutthose womenwhowerewilling o die forlove alone,he considered hemworthy fmore glory than those who sacrificedthemselveshrough mere enseofduty;which glory,he says, "los oradores epoetasen susepistolas tragedias ongela

18 In the fourteenth-centuryCatalan translation,the Latin paragraph headings, "Mulier ait"..."Homo ait," are rendered variously by "Al qual lafembra diu"... "A la qual tu respondras axi" ..."A la qual la fembra respon"... "A la qual dirasaxi," etc. (ed. A. Pages [Castell6 de la Plana, 1930],passim).17Juan Rodriguez de la Cmara, El siervo ibre deamor, Obras, p. 44; see also E. J. Webber, "Plautineand Terentian Cantares," pp. 106-7.

s18 edro Manuel Jim6nez de Urrea, Penitencia deamor,ed. R. Foulch6-Delbosc (Barcelona and Madrid,1902), p. 3. This illuminatingstatement is the sourceof the phrase used in this paper.



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THE "CELESTINA"ASAN ARTE DE AMORES" 149niegan."'1There can be littledoubtthatthe epistles referred o here are theHeroides.One of Corella's workswas entitled"tragedy," namely, the Tragedia deCaldesa,so calledforthe unfaithfuladywhowas the causefor hecomplaint.20Forits comparativelyhortmonologueform,thedeceived over's amentwas doubtlessindebted o theHeroides, nd for tsstyleand tone perhaps, also, to Boccaccio'slyrico-narrativematorymodels. In an-othersimilarmonologue, alled La His-toria de Jeson e Medea, the latter ad-dressesher ament,nottoJason, s intheHeroides, ut to the ladies.21 orella fol-lowed Ovid in the first art,but it wasSeneca's Medea which erved as a modelin the second.But it is in another ate-fifteenth-cen-turyworkthat we findthe unequivocalidentificationftragedywiththe artedeamores,n this nstanceblendedwiththeallied genreof the chivalresquenovel. Irefer to the fragmentaryncunabulumwith this title: "Tragedia ordenadeperMossenGras, a qualespartde a gran bradel actes del famoscauallerLangalotdelLac, en la qual se mostra laramentuantles solasias en les cosesde amordanyen;corn ls qui vertaderamentmenningunacosa los desobliga."22he close filiationsunderlined urthery theheadingofthelast chapter: Exclamacio que fa lo actor

dolentsedelsdans,perills congoxes ueamor se procuraper causa de aquestsdesdenys mal tractes ue als enamorats... ," and herethe textbreaksoff.23utwe are told enoughso that we may seethat the artede amores s a genrewhich,thoughprimarilydentified ithcomedy,mayalso call itself tragedy."Whilethepartial preoccupation fthenovels of chivalrywith amorousadven-ture coincidesn thisrespectwith heartedeamores nd the narrativemethod fthechivalresque novel also coincides oc-casionallywith hetechnique f theama-torygenre, t cannot be said to fitthisconception roperly.Withinthe conceptof the arte de amores,however,mustbeincluded the so-called "sentimentalnovel." To Urrea,as we have seen,thedistinctivefeatureof the non-dramaticformwas the use ofletters o relate thestory.His ownPenitenciade amorwas acase inpoint. trictlypeaking, heepistlewas commonly sed in the fifteenthen-tury n conjunctionwith pokendialogueor withnarrative ridges uppliedby theauthor-who sometimes articipateds acharacterof the novel-or with both.Such was the fashion throughout hecentury, rom hewidelyknownHistoriade duobus amantibus of Aneas SilvioPiccolomini nd the Siervo ibrede amor,down to the Cdrcelde amor,ArnalteyLucenda, Grimaltey Gradissa,GriselyMirabella, ndothers. haracteristicara-graphheadings n theseworks re nota-tions such as "Pimphilo a Fiometa,""Fiometa a si misma," "Carta de Gri-malte Gradissa," Fabla elautor," tc.Apopulardevice, oo,was the ntercalationof versewithin he prosework, t timesartisticallyntegratedna lyrico-narrativewhole. Importantas a model for thisvariety of amatory comedy was Boc-

19 Fernando de la Torre, Cancionero y obras enprosa, ed. A. Paz y Melia (Dresden, 1907), p. 85.20Joan RoiC de Corella, Obres, ed. R. Miquel yPlanas (Barcelona, 1913), pp. 123-29.21 Ibid., pp. 203-30.22 Trag dia ordenade per Moss8n Gras (Barcelona,1496), sig. A3. The combination of the chivalresqueand the sentimental with thetragic (epitomized by the"trfgicos metros" of the lovers' epitaph) was foundin the Estoria de dos amadores, part of the Siervo librede amor, cited above (n. 17). The blending of motifsand styles in various literaryforms s typifiedforthechivalric novel proper by the sentimental tone and

tragic conclusion of the Don Tristdn de Leonis, ed. A.Bonilla (Madrid, 1912), pp. 358-76. 23 Tran~dia. sig. Asv.



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150 EDWIN J.WEBBERcaccio's Ameto, ntitled-we will note--Commedia elleninfe liorentine.24To recapitulatet thispoint:outofthemedievaltradition fOvid and Terence,primarily, heredevelopedin the earlyyearsof the Renaissancethe conceptionof a looselydefinedgenrewhich offeredaccountsofamorous xperience, othex-emplary nd reprehensible.ome of theworks, t was claimed,were composedwith moral intent.Rangingfromshortmonologues o compositions f consider-able length,he worksmight ewrittennprose r n verse r na combinationf hetwo. Identified rimarily ithcomedy--as the contemporarymind conceivedofcomedy-and secondarilywith tragedy,the action ofthe artede amores ypicallywas presented itherby dialogue, uxta-posed monologues, pistles,or a hetero-geneousmixture,with the occasionalas-sistanceofnarrative assages.The arte de amores, specially n theshape of the "sentimentalnovel"--themostwidely ultivated orm fthegenre-grew morepopular s thefifteenthen-turyprogressed. oward the end of thecentury, should iketo suggest, youngman-let us callhimFernando eRojas--conceivedof the idea of writing n ex-emplaryarte de amores modeled moreclosely along the linesof dramatic com-edy than any that he had ever seenbefore n Spain. As Urrea told us, thiswouldmeanpresentingheartedeamores,not ntheform fepistles, ut nthe formof scenes, n whichgroupsof charactersengage ndialogue.What model or models, then,wouldFernandodeRojas logically ollow ncom-posing an arte de amoresin dramaticstyle?The potential ources f theconceptof

dramatic comedy which might haveguidedhimwere, n fact,three: (1) themedieval Latin elegiac comedies, 2) thecomedies of Plautus and Terence,and(3) the talian humanisticomedies.Com-plementaryo theseand representingheobviousmodelfordramatic ragedywerethetragedies fSeneca.A brief iscussionof several featuresof the Celestinawillshow the manner n whichRojas com-bined the conceptof the arte de armoreswith elements rom ll of these. n everyinstance, I speak only of the originalsixteen-act ersion.The title.-Comparativelytrivial byitself,but of contributive alue, is theformof the title: Comedia de Calisto eMelibea.No existing lassicalcomedywasnamedforboth its hero and its heroine,nor was any of the Italian humanisticcomedies. he "sentimental ovels,"how-ever,bore such titles as La Historia deGriselyMirabella,Tractadode amoresdeArnalte y Lucenda, Breve tractado deGrimalte Gradissa, tc.For a workwrit-ten n strictly ramatic tyle, he titleofComediade Calisto e Melibeawas whollylogical and withinthe traditionof theartede amores.The language.-Like their classicalforerunners,he elegiac and Italian hu-manisticcomedieswere writtenn Latin.If it had been conceived strictly s ahumanistic omedy, s is quite commonlybelieved,25he Celestinawould normally25This popular belief is exemplifiedby the follow-ing conclusion of F. Castro Guisasola, Observacionessobre as fuentes iterarias de "La Celestina" (Madrid,1924), pp. 187-88: "El examen de la importanciarelativa de esas fuentes creo nos lieva a sentar dosconclusiones capitalisimas respecto a la indole de laTragicomedia, a saber: que la Tragicomedia es en elfondo una obra terenciana, una comedia escrita aimitaci6n de las latinas de Terencio, bien que por noestar hecha con vistas a la escena no se ha tenido encuenta su extensi6n, y alguna vez ni aun la excesivacrudeza de los hechos, resultando de este modo undrama irrepresentable; y segundo, que dentro de esa

comedia va como intercalada ... una extensa colecci6nde sentencias y de moralidades de autores y escritoresdistinguidos, no pareciendo, en efecto, sino que el24La comedia delle nymphe fierentine (Rome,

1478), fol. 2v: "Et il nostro Messere Giouani, auctordelle presente comedia...."; fol. 6: "Incomincia laComedia delle nymphefierentine...."



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THE "CELESTINA" ASAN"ARTE DE AMORES" 151have beenwrittenn Latin, too, like thecontemporary lays Fernandusservatus,the Historiabaetica, nd-some fifteenrtwentyyears ater-the Hispaniola. Theartede amoresof the fifteenthentury,however,was commonly omposed n thevernacular, nd Fernando de Rojas fol-lowed normalprocedureby writing heCelestinan Spanish.The act division.-The Celestinacom-prised sixteen acts. Donatus and laterTerentiancommentatorsssumeda five-act divisionforthe classical comedies-afactwell known n the last decade ofthefifteenthentury,whentheCelestinawasdoubtlessconceived nd first ublished.26The Italian humanisticplays, on theother hand-being based upon earliermanuscriptmodels-were commonly i-vided ntoan irregular umber fsectionsrangingfromfiveto several times thatnumber.The Poliscena,forexample,hasthirteen; Philogenia, fifteen; Chrysis,eighteen;Philodoxus, wenty; oliodorus,twenty-six.hat is to say thatRojas, notconcernedprimarilywithwriting neo-classical comedyas such, n imitation fTerenceorPlautus,permitted imself hefreedom bserved n otherrelatedworks,usingas manyscenes as he needed to tellthestory.Themoral im.-At least from he timeof the Libro de buen amor,the artedeamoreshad implicitly r explicitlypro-fessed moral iminrelatingtsamorousadventures.The Celestina concurred n

this.The rubric,whichprobablyheadedthe work n the first dition s wellas inthe edition of Seville (1501), reads asfollows:"Sfguese a comedia de Calistoy Melibea,compuesta n reprehensi6nelos locos enamorados, ue vencidos n sudesordenado petitoa sus amigas lamane dizensersu dios. Assi mesmofechaenauiso de los engafios e las alcahuetas emalos e lisonjerossiruientes."27 s thetraditionalpitaphpointed ut,Terence'scomedieswere considered o be a sourceof similar doctrine, but the rubricaldeclaration ftheCelestina ecalled, oo,the similar ntroductoryemarksof theItalianhumanisticomedies oliscena ndPaulus and theChrysis,n which heau-thor's tatement fpurposecomes at theconclusion.The ove ffair fCalisto nd Melibea.-The personal, ntimate, nd passionatelove affair f thisyounggentleman ndyoung lady had no parallel in Romancomedy.Thistypeof oveaffair,owever,was familiarin Ovidian tradition, nSeneca's Phaedra, in the Italian hu-manisticcomedy, nd-needless to em-phasize-in the "sentimental ovel."28The initial intrigue hat Rojas chosewas appropriate or n artedeamores: heyoung lover Calisto, in the face ofMelibea's resistance, urnsforassistanceto the go-betweenCelestina. The storyexisted n tsoriginal ramatic ormntheelegiaccomedyPamphilusdeamore,aterin the essentiallynarrative version inwhichJuanRuiz incorporatedhePam-utor, rindiendo culto a su 6poca, se propuso alescribir su comedia ir corroborando frase a frase lasde sus interlocutorescon sentencias o razonamientosde fll6sofos escritores nsignesde los mIs autorizadosen su tiempo."26Though early published editions of Terence'scomedies did not always indicate the act divisionstypographically,no student of Terence could fail toknow Donatus' analyses and thus the division intofive acts (cf. T. W. Baldwin, Shakspere's Five-ActStructureUrbana, Ill., 1947], pp. 97-119). Even whenonly scene divisions were indicated (by names ofcharacters), the scenes were not called "acts," as inthe Celestina.

27Comedia de Calisto y Melibea (Seville, 1501), ed.R. Foulch6-Delbosc (Barcelona and Madrid, 1900),p. 5.28R. Schevill, Ovid and the Renascence in Spain(Berkeley, 1913), pp. 120-23, placed the Celestina inthe stream of Ovidian tradition but, given the scopeof his survey, limited himself to pointing out remi-niscences or evident borrowings from Ovid. MariaRosa Lida de Malkiel emphasized Rojas' originalityin the characterization of the lovers in "Originalidadde La Celestina" (La Naci6n [Buenos Aires], 16 deEnero, 1949. Segunda Secci6n: Artes-Letras,pp. 3-4).



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152 EDWIN J.WEBBERphilus nhisLibro debuen mor strophes653-891), and again in dramaticformnLeonardoBruni's talianhumanisticome-dyPoliscena. The possibleavailability fthe Poliscena in Spain cannot be fur-ther ttested thoughtwas in print lse-whereas early as 1478), but the Pam-philuswas printed hereat least once--in Zaragoza in the 1480's.29 Those whoargue so persuasively (Men6ndez Pe-layo,30 onilla,31 astroGuisasola32) hatRojas knew the Pamphilus plot onlythroughthe Libro de buen amor mustnecessarilymply hat hewas ignorant f,or disregarded, ne or anotherpossibledramatic model and chose to restore odramatic form the narrativeversiontowhich Juan Ruiz had reduced theoriginal.Thiswould leave to coincidence,moreover,heexplanation fthe nalogiesbetween heCelestina nd theItalianhu-manistic omedies-in particular he Po-liscena. t is an elementaryact thatthebasic plot of the Celestina s not a Ter-entianplot but derivesratherfrom hesimple ntriguefthePamphilus directlyor indirectly). he Poliscena, ikewise,sdoubtless aseduponthatcomedy.33oththe Celestina and the Poliscena, then,deviatefrom heTerentian lotalongthesame line ofdirectionthatis, ifone as-sumesthattheyweremeantto be imita-tions fTerence).Bothplayswerewritteninprose;bothweredivided nto n irregu-lar numberof acts-Poliscena into thir-teen, Celestina nto sixteen.Both playsstatea similarmoral ntention t thebe-ginning, oth thenrelatetheargument f

the play. The two plays open with theyoungmanmadly n lovewiththeyounglady,whom he mustpossessor die. Hisservant s informed f thissituation ndpresently rrangesto place the problemin the hands ofa go-between. he bawdsuccessfully erforms er duty,and theyoung man obtains the object of hisdesire. There are similarities, herefore,not only in the basic intrigue-whichwould be natural, given the commonpointofdeparture-butin the manner festablishinghe trajectory f the action,as well as in certainexternal eatures fthe work. To attribute hisresemblanceto coincidences to strain ne's credulity.I prefer o believe,as MenendezPelayostronglyelt, hatRojas was familiarwiththePoliscena.The tragic nding.-Previouslyone ofthe mostpuzzlingof the Celestinaprob-lems, the tragic outcome was withoutprecedent r critical ustifications thedenouement fa comedy.As thedenoue-mentof an artede amores, owever, hetragicendingwas a commonplace.Whatin strictly ramatic radition that is, inthe traditionof tragedyand comedy)wouldhaveto be labeleda daringnnova-tion was scarcelyworthy f comment nthe tradition of the currently opularamatorygenre.Since from hebeginning, owever, heCelestinawas identified ithcomedy, heroleoftragedy s a generic onceptcallsforfurtheromment. ong studyof thetheory ftragedy nd comedyup to theRenaissancein Spain has convincedmethat thedramaticnatureof the Celestinacould not be explained olely n terms fTerentian omedy;much ess could it beexplained solely in terms of Senecantragedy.Despite a structural imilaritybetween the Celestina and Seneca'sPhaedra in the succession of elementswhich led to the tragic conclusion-

29 F. Vindel, El Arte tipogrdfico en Zaragoza duranteel siglo XV (Madrid, 1949), pp. 38-39.s30M. Men6ndez Pelayo, Origenes de la novela(Madrid, 1905-15), III, lvii-lxvi.a3A. Bonilla, "Antecedentes del tipo celestinescoen la literatura latina," RH, XV (1906), 372-86.32 Pp. 92-94.r3For a detailed summary of the plot see J. deVallata, Poliodorus, ed. J. M. Casas HornmsMadrid,1953), pp. 43-46.



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THE "CELESTINA" AS AN"ARTE DE AMORES" 153namely, hearrangementf the elementsofpursuit, ejection,ove laments, erviceof a go-between,death of the hero,lament and suicide of the heroine, ndlament of the father-in the natureoftheir ontent he ndividual lements aveonlya general, venremote, esemblance.From tragedy, s fromcomedyand avariety of other sources, Rojas drewwhat he needed to tell his story. f inPhaedra he had glimpsed ome patterndetailwhich would servehim as an ap-propriateconclusion for his exemplaryarte de amores, t was elsewhere hat hesought the materials with which heworked ut thedesign.But Rojas' skill nusingto artistic d-vantage the conventional istinction e-tween ragedynd comedysnoteworthy.The world he created n his dramatizedartede amores s closely llied to that ofcomedy,but onlyup to a certainpointin theaction;for hepeoplewho seem tobe undergoing he harmlesstrials andfrustrationsftheworld ofcomedy ud-denlybeginto speakand act withdeadlyseriousness, nd presently hree violentdeathsrevealthat, n fact,nota comedybut a tragedy s transpiring.Much as Ihave said on another occasion-when,however, also was distractedby themirage fTerentianmitation or tsownsake-it seems evidentthat,wishing ocompose plotwhichwoulddramaticallyepitomize the tragic consequences ofreprehensiblections,Rojas thoughttoheightenheeffectfthetragic fallfromhappyestate"byintroducingt suddenlyinto the midst of the obliviousnessof

comedy.34 he conventional cceptanceoftheconception fdistinct tyles fferedan excellent pportunity,n juxtaposingthem,forproviding he contrastwhichwould drive home the professedmoralaimsof theCelestina.To conclude: utoftheprevalent eliefthattheCelestinawas, above all, an imi-tation fTerentian omedy hat omehowwent astrayand resulted n the uniquework which we now call tragicomedy,there arise various ncongruities ifficultto account for-puzzles whichare com-monly xplained n terms fan imperfectknowledgeof classical dramatic art. If,however, ne assumes thatRojas set outto compose n artede amores n dramaticstyle nd forhisdialogueform rewupona varietyof available models-includingTerence, Plautus, Seneca, possibly thePamphilus de amore,and one or moreItalian humanisticomedies-somemajorincongruities r inconsistencies re re-solved.NORTHWESTERN UNIVERSITY

a4Edwin J.Webber, "Tragedy and Comedy in theCelestina," Hispania, XXXV (1952), 318-20.35C. Samon. (Aspetti del retoricismonella "Celes-tina" [Rome, 1953], pp. 169-72), hesitatingto ascribeRojas' dialogue technique to either the Latin or thehumanistic comedy exclusively, considers it highlyoriginal; on pp. 197-221 etpassimhe calls the Celestina"colta, retorica, cavalleresca, 'cortesana,' " and seesin it similaritiesto the sentimental novel. S. Gilman'schapter on genre in The Artof"La Celestina" (Madi-son, 1956), pp. 194-206, stresses Rojas' originality ntermsof the dialogue form.This paper was in press when Maria Rosa Lidade Malkiel's review of Poliodorus (ed. cited above, n.33) appeared (Nueva revista de filologia hispdnica, X119561,415-39). There she has focused her attentionon the relatively little studied problem of the Italianhumanistic comedy and its relation to the Celestina.Her conclusions should assist students of the Celes-tina in reviewing their notions concerning the ante-cedents ofthe tragicomedy.

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The Celestina as an Arte de Amores

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