La moza de cántaro | Page 6

(4) The cambaleo was composed of five
men and a woman and remained several days in each village. (5) The
garnacha was a little larger than the cambaleo and could represent four
plays and several autos and entremeses. (6) The bojiganga represented
as many as six comedias and a number of autos and entremeses, had
some approach at regular costumes, and traveled on horseback. (7) The
farándula was composed of from ten to fifteen players, was well
equipped and traveled with some ease. (8) The compañía was the most
pretentious theatrical organization composed of thirty persons, capable
of producing as many as fifty pieces and accustomed to travel with
dignity due the profession. Of still greater simplicity were the theaters
where these variously classified actors gave their plays. In the villages
and towns they were simply the plaza or other open space in which the
rude stage and paraphernalia were temporarily set up. Quoting from
Cervantes, Ticknor says of the theater of Lope de Rueda: "The theater
was composed of four benches, arranged in a square, with five or six
boards laid across them, that were thus raised about four palms from
the ground. The furniture of the theater was an old blanket drawn aside
by two cords, making what they called the tiring-room, behind which
were the musicians, who sang old ballads without a guitar." In the
larger cities such simplicity cannot be expected in the later
development of the theater, for there the interest and resources were
greater. In this respect Madrid, the capital, may be considered as
representative of the most advanced type. In that city the plays were
given in corrales or open spaces surrounded on all sides by houses
except the side nearest the street. By the beginning of the seventeenth
century these corrales were reduced to two principal ones--the Corral
de la Pacheca (on the site of the present Teatro Español) and the Corral
de la Cruz, in the street of the same name. The windows of the houses
surrounding these corrales, with the adjoining rooms, formed
aposentos which were rented to individuals and which were entered
from the houses themselves. At the end farthest from the entrance of
the corral was the stage, which was raised above the level of the

ground and covered by a roof. In front of the stage and around the walls
were benches, those in the latter position rising in tiers. On the left
hand and on a level with the ground was the cazuela or women's
gallery. The ground to the rear of the benches in front of the stage was
open and formed the "standing-room" of the theater. With the exception
of the stage, a part of the benches and the aposentos, the whole was in
the open air and unprotected from the weather. In such unpretentious
places the masterpieces of Lope de Vega and of many of his successors
were presented. With this environment in mind we shall proceed to a
brief review of the dramatic works of el Fénix de los ingenios.
Lope de Vega found the Spanish drama a mass of incongruities without
form, preponderating influence, or type, he left it in every detail a
well-organized, national drama, so perfect that, though his successors
polished it, they added nothing to its form.[3] When or how he began
this great work, it is not certain. He says in his works that he wrote
plays as early as his eleventh year and conceived them even younger,
and we have one of his plays, El Verdadero Amante, written, as has
been mentioned, when he was twelve, but corrected and published
many years later. Of all his plays written before his banishment, little is
known but it is natural to suppose that they resembled in a measure the
works of predecessors, for this period must be considered the
apprenticeship of Lope. Though written for the author's pleasure, they
were evidently numerous, for Cervantes says that Lope de Vega "filled
the world with his own comedias, happily and judiciously planned, and
so many that they covered more than ten thousand sheets." That his
merit was soon appreciated is evident from the fact that theatrical
managers were anxious to have these early compositions and that
during his banishment he supported himself and family in Valencia by
selling plays and probably kept the best troupes of the land stocked
with his works alone. Of the number of his works the figures are almost
incredible. In El Peregrino en su Patria, published in 1604, he gives a
list of his plays, which up to that time numbered two hundred and
nineteen; in 1609 he says, in El Arte Nuevo de hacer Comedias, that the
number was then four hundred and eighty-three; in prologues or
prefaces of his works Lope tells us that