La gran Semíramis de Cristóbal de Virués : une méditation humaniste de l’histoire

Abstract

The plot of Cristóbal de Virués’ tragedy La gran Semíramis (c. 1580) is based on a tradition stemming from Greek historians active around 400 b. C. We know it mainly by later compilations, composed during the Roman Civil Wars and the Early empire. Virués ingeniously dramatizes the legend of the Assyrian Queen Semiramis, providing cohesion to her story trough repetition and analogy and thereby achieving an unity distinct from the famous unity of action advocated by Aristotle. Furthermore, the playwright deviated as little as possible from the facts conveyed by historians, as if to acknowledge that tragedy required stric adherence to the truth and not to the Aristotelian verisimilitude. His method owes much to a critical sense akin to Humanism, since he selects and combines his sources according to classical criteria of antiquity, accuracy and rational consistency. The few incidents of the drama that do not arise from the ancient legend suggst a political interpretation : the Macchiavellian prince is the corollary of a state which tends to an unlimited expansion and therefore to world empire. Virués’ Humanist turn of mind is revealed also in the fact that the play’s politics emerges from a careful contemplation of history.

Keywords

• Cristóbal de Virués
• Semiramis
• tragedy
• Classical Tradition
• Humanistical History