La polémica en torno a la Aprobación del Padre Fray Manuel de Guerra y Ribera (1682-1684) y la moralización de la Comedia

Abstract

Father Guerra’s ecclesiastical aprobación to the Verdadera V Parte de Comedias de Calderón, which constitutes nothing less than an apologia of the theatre of his age, unleashed a veritable polemic concerning the moral legitimacy of the comedia. Between 1682 and 1684 we can list no fewer than 18 written texts, published or reprinted for and against the theatre. If it is true that the «1682 polemic» (the result of a century of debates and quarrells), took many of its arguments form past occasions, it also offers a number of «novelties», amongst which the «moralisation» of the comedia takes pride of place. The 1682 polemicists, both apologists and antagonists of the comedia, underline the fact that the theatre has in some ways purified itself, leaving behind the indecent behaviour and practices of the past. But each camp interprets the purification in a different manner. The apologists use the idea of purification to defend the comedia; their oponents claim that this purification is only at surface level, a feature that makes the theatre all the more dangerous, hiding its diabolical nature behind a thin veil of morality. From these starting points certain authors reappraise the theatre of the Ancient World in order to denounce the theatrical practices of their own times, seen as being of the worst possible kind.

Keywords

• ethical controversy (theater)
• Guerra y Ribera fray Manuel de