La Estrella de Sevilla as a Mirror of the Courtly Scene—and of its Anonymous Dramatist (Luis Velez???)

Abstract

One of the unsolved mysteries of comedia scholarship has been: Who wrote La Estrella de Sevilla ? Early critics amassed considerable circumstantial evidence to attribute the play, respectively, to Lope and to Claramonte. In a note to his introduction to the 1939 Reed-Dixon edition, John M. Hill used internal evidence from the text to draw the following profile of the author: "1) he was an Andalusian; 2) he was a skillful dramatist, highly versed in all dramatic resources with an undeniable instinct for the tragic and the pathetic; 3) he was thoroughly familiar with the writings of Quevedo; 4) he was thoroughly versed in conceptismo and cultismo and did not hesitate to employ the one or the other, or both, when it suited his purpose; 5) he was likely familiar with Sevilla and fond of the city, with a liking and a familiarity gained by extensive residence therein." For Hill, the only dramatist to combine these characteristics was Luis Vélez de Guevara. Drawing further on both circumstantial and internal evidence, the present study proposes adding these features to Hill's profile of the author of La Estrella de Sevilla : 6) he had a general knowledge of astrology and was familiar with the poems of astrological nature which the Conde de Villamediana had written about Francelisa; 7) he was familiar with the literary scene in Madrid and specifically with the vejamen that followed the celebrations of the Plaza in August, 1623; 8) he was opposed to the new regime of Philip IV and the Count-Duke of Olivares. Applying these characteristics, the study concludes, tentatively, that La Estrella de Sevilla was not penned by Vélez. (CGP)