Félix Lope de Vega y Carpio
New Rules for Writing Plays at This Time
Arte nuevo de hacer comedias en este tiempo
Traducción
de
Arte nuevo de hacer comedias en este tiempo
Vega, Lope de. “New Rules for Writing Plays at This Time”, Victor Dixon (ed.). En Arte nuevo de hacer comedias en este tiempo dirigido a la Academia de Madrid de Lope de Vega, edición, prólogo y coordinación de Felipe Pedraza, Festival de Teatro Clásico de Almagro/Sociedad Estatal de Conmemoraciones Culturales, Almagro, 2009.
Joan Oleza Simó
(Investigador principal)
Victor Dixon
(Traductor)
Revenga García, Nadia
(Revisor)
English · Verso · 388 versos
https://playcode.fly.dev/plays/EMOTHE0116_NewRulesForWritingPlaysAtThisTime
Act I
(Addressed to the academy of Madrid)
They've told me, learned gentlemen, who are
the cream of Spain's intelligentsia
2
(and whose Academy will soon outshine
3
not only those that Cicero so labelled,
4
in envy of the Greeks, near Lake Averno
5
in Italy, but also that of Athens,
6
in whose renowned Lyceum, led by Plato,
7
such eminent philosophers assembled),
8
to write a set of rules for plays that's based
9
on what will satisfy our public's taste.
10
It seems an easy matter, and indeed
11
it would be so for any one of you,
12
who's written fewer of them, and knows more
13
about the established laws -and everything;
14
but what in this regard must give me pause
15
is having written them without such laws.
16
It wasn't that I didn't know those precepts.
17
I read, thank heaven, the volumes that contain them
18
when first I learnt the rudiments of grammar;
19
the sun had not ten times traversed the skies
20
between the Ram and Fish before my eyes.
21
Rather, in fact it was because I found
22
the plays performed in Spain around that time
23
were written not as those who'd led the way
24
considered that they should be everywhere,
25
but scribbled by a host of barbarous men
26
who taught the common folk their own crude ways,
27
and so they flooded in on such a scale
28
that any playwright now who keeps the rules
29
dies without fame or recompense, because
30
for those who lack the light to guide their art
31
Custom, not reason, plays the greater part.
32
It's true that I have written on occasion
33
according to the precepts so few know,
34
but when by contrast I see sally forth
35
monstrosities replete with stage effects,
36
and how the common folk and women flock
37
to canonize such lamentable labours,
38
I too revert to that barbaric custom,
39
and when I plan to write a play, I put
40
the precepts firmly under lock and key,
41
and ban Plautus and Terence from my room,
42
so that they may not cry me shame (for Truth
43
will often shout aloud from silent books),
44
and substitute the rules that were invented
45
by those who sought the plaudits of the mob,
46
for since it is the mob that pays, it's right
47
to act the fool to give such fools delight.
48
True comedy, like any kind of poem
49
or poesis , has its specific aim,
50
a purpose which has been established as:
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to imitate the actions of mankind
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and represent the customs of the day.
53
Moreover, any imitative poem
54
consists of three components, which are discourse,
55
sweet-sounding verse, and harmony or music.
56
All this it shared with tragedy, from which
57
it differs only in that it depicts
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the acts of common folk, but tragedy
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the deeds of kings and others so exalted.
60
See in how many ways ours can be faulted!
61
Such comedies indeed were labelled acts
62
as aping those of ordinary men.
63
In Spain Lope de Rueda set the example
64
by following those precepts, and today
65
you'll find such plays in prose by him in print
66
that simply feature rude mechanicals,
67
and how a farrier's daughter fared in love.
68
Thus it's become the custom now to give
69
those comedies in which the ancient precepts
70
retain their force the name of entremeses ,
71
for these are set among the common folk,
72
since entremeses never feature kings;
73
and so it shows a sorry lack of style,
74
when those who've come to scorn the ancient rules
75
write comedies with kings in, fit for fools.
76
In his Poetics Aristoteles
77
describes, though not too clearly, how plays started,
78
the rivalry of Athens and Megara
79
concerning which had had theatre first;
80
for the Megarians claimed that Epicharmus
81
invented it, but the Athenians, Magnes.
82
Elius Donatus tells us drama had
83
its roots in ancient sacrificial rites;
84
he states that tragedy began with Thespis
85
(following Horace, who had said the same),
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and comedy with Aristophanes.
87
The Odyssey of Homer was composed
88
in comic vein, and yet his Iliad was
89
a tragedy applauded as a model,
90
which I was imitating when I called
91
my own Jerusalem a "tragic epic",
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whereas the Inferno , Purgatory and Heaven
93
by that famed poet Dante Aligheri
94
all call a comedy, although Manetti
95
says in his prologue that it is a pity.
96
The comic play, regarded with suspicion,
97
as all men know, fell silent for a while,
98
and so it was that satire had its birth,
99
but proved more savage, and more quickly died,
100
and so allowed New Comedy to appear.
101
Choruses were its basis, only later
102
were individual persons introduced;
103
though Terence, as Menander had before him,
104
scorned and eschewed the choruses as tedious.
105
Terence was more attentive to the precepts,
106
and never sought to raise the comic style
107
to tragic grandeur (something which in Plautus
108
so many have regarded as a vice),
109
being in this more prudent, more precise.
110
Tragedy's plots are based on history,
111
but those of comedy are humble fictions,
112
and comedy was said to be "flat-footed"
113
on that account, though also since the actor
114
played on an simple stage and wore no buskins.
115
It had its kinds: paliata, atelana,
116
togata, tabernaria, pantomime...
117
-as many then as at the present time.
118
With Attic elegance the men of Athens
119
used comedies to castigate its vices
120
and foolish customs, and awarded prizes
121
both to their writers and to their performers;
122
and Tully therefore said they were a mirror
123
of human life, an image of the truth,
124
which is so noble a description that
125
it means they vie with history for renown.
126
Think then; don't they deserve a glorious crown?
127
But I suspect you're muttering to each other
128
I'm just translating books, and boring you
129
by listing such a muddled mass of facts.
130
You must believe I needed to remind you
131
of some such matters, so that you might see
132
you're wanting me to give a set of rules
133
for writing comedies in Spain today,
134
where all those written go against the rules;
135
and asking how they should be now, despite
136
those ancient precepts, which are based on Reason,
137
is seeking my opinion from experience,
138
and not that set of rules, for they depict
139
a truth the unlettered mob all contradict.
140
If you want rules, I beg you clever men
141
to read the very learned Robortello
142
of Utina on Aristotle's treatise,
143
as well as what he wrote in De comedia ;
144
you'll find what many books diffusely say,
145
for all is in confusion here today.
146
But if you want opinions on the plays
147
that hold the stage at present, when the mob
148
must formulate their own laws for producing
149
the vile chimera of that comic monster,
150
I'll state my own -begging your pardon, since
151
I must obey the mandate of my master-,
152
gloss over the misjudgement of the mob,
153
and say how I would wish plays to be written,
154
now keeping to the rules is "in your dreams",
155
seeking a mean between those two extremes.
156
First choose your subject-matter; don't be bothered,
157
despite the precepts, if it features kings,
158
although I understand the prudent Philip,
159
who ruled in Spain as master of us all,
160
was angry when he saw a king involved,
161
whether he held it contravened the rules,
162
or thought a person so august and holy
163
should not be shown consorting with the lowly.
164
Yet ancient comedy affords a model,
165
for there we find that Plautus featured gods,
166
as Jupiter in his Amphitryon shows.
167
It pains me to approve of it, God knows,
168
for Plutarch, when discoursing on Menander,
169
is critical of ancient comedy.
170
But since we stray so far now from the rules,
171
and here in Spain commit crime after crime,
172
let men of learning hold their tongue this time.
173
To mix the tragic and the comic modes,
174
Terence with Seneca, perhaps producing,
175
like Pasiphae of Crete, a Minotaur,
176
makes one part serious, one ridiculous;
177
and that variety gives great delight.
178
Nature provides a pattern clear to see;
179
its beauty lies in such variety.
180
One needs to bear in mind the matter covered
181
should have a single action, and ensure
182
the plot-line is in no way episodic;
183
I mean, does not involve extraneous things
184
that deviate from the essential aim,
185
and that no part of it could be removed
186
without the whole play crashing to the ground.
187
All need not happen in a single day,
188
though Aristotle counselled that it should,
189
because we lost respect for him before
190
by mixing baser, comic elements
191
with tragedy's sententious seriousness.
192
The events should happen in as short a time
193
as possible, unless, that is, the plot
194
is based on history, and some years must pass,
195
or if a character must make a journey,
196
though time-shifts that result may well be placed in
197
the gaps between the acts, and if that licence
198
gives such offence to people "in the know",
199
those who find plays offend them shouldn't go.
200
How many now are scandalized to see
201
years pass in plays the precepts say may cover
202
only the hours between sunrise and sunset;
203
they wouldn't even give all twenty-four!
204
I find the fiery temper of a Spaniard
205
who sits to see a play will not be calmed
206
unless he's told a story, in two hours,
207
from Genesis right up to Judgment Day;
208
and I say, if the aim is to delight,
209
whatever serves that purpose must be right.
210
Write out the plot in prose, dividing it
211
into three acts, three sequences of time,
212
contriving, if you can, within each one,
213
not to disrupt the time-frame of a day.
214
Captain Virués, a fine, outstanding author,
215
first used the three-act structure, for before him,
216
since plays were only little children then,
217
they crawled, like year-old infants, on all fours;
218
and when eleven or twelve I wrote some like them,
219
in four short acts, in just four gatherings,
220
since each in its eight pages held one act,
221
because back then a little entremés
222
would be performed in all three intervals.
223
Now there's just one, if that, and then a jig,
224
though in comedy the dance is so important
225
that Aristotle gives it his approval
226
-and others write of it, like Athenaeus,
227
Plato, and Xenophon (though he rebukes
228
Callipedes for making it licentious)
229
and so it seems quite like the ancient chorus.
230
Distinguishing two sections in the action,
231
show how the plot develops from the start
232
up to the point when things begin to change,
233
but don't allow the outcome to be obvious
234
until you reach the very final scene,
235
for once the audience guess the end they turn
236
their faces to the exit, and their backs
237
on actors who've been three hours on the go;
238
how all concludes is all they want to know.
239
The stage should very rarely be left empty,
240
without a person speaking. If there are
241
such gaps, you'll find the public will get restless.
242
Besides, the play will go on much too long,
243
which is a serious fault, and that apart,
244
avoiding them displays more skill and art.
245
Begin then, using plain and simple language,
246
not serious thoughts or fanciful conceits,
247
when you portray two characters or three
248
in conversation on domestic things;
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but when the person you depict is seeking
250
to counsel or persuade for or against,
251
such aphorisms and conceits are called for,
252
and this is truly imitating life,
253
for when a man's advising or persuading
254
to one view or another, he adopts
255
a style quite different from his usual speech.
256
Aristides the rhetorician says
257
the language in a comedy should be
258
plain, clear and comprehensible, and based
259
on people's everyday, habitual parlance,
260
insisting on the other hand that when
261
the context is political, the lexis
262
should be high-sounding, ornamented, striking.
263
Don't cite the scriptures, or distort the discourse
264
by using far-fetched terms, for if the task
265
is imitating speech, we do not want
266
Metauros, demiurges and Pancayas,
267
centaurs and hippogriffs parading by us.
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If the king speaks, assume as best you may
269
a regal gravitas , and if they greybeard,
270
contrive a modest, mild sententiousness;
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portray your lovers in such tender terms
272
as will extremely move all those who listen;
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cast your soliloquies in such a way
274
that he who speaks them will be quite transformed,
275
and being changed, change those who hear; he should
276
put questions to himself, and answer them.
277
If he complains, take care he always shows
278
the courtesy we owe to womankind.
279
Don't let your ladies be unladylike,
280
and if they should disguise themselves as men,
281
since such cross-dressing never fails to please,
282
ensure they do in ways that may be excused.
283
Beware the impossible, for imitation
284
must only seek verisimilitude.
285
Your comic shouldn't prate on lofty matters,
286
or spout conceits like some that we have heard
287
in certain plays imported from abroad,
288
and characters should absolutely never
289
belie what they themselves have said before;
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I mean, fail to recall, as Sophocles
291
is criticized for letting Oedipus
292
forget that he himself had murdered Laius.
293
Conclude your episodes of action neatly
294
with aphoristic wit, with well-turned verses,
295
in order that when actors leave the stage
296
the audience isn't left dissatisfied.
297
Set out the situation in Act One,
298
and in Act Two so complicate the plot
299
that hardly anyone can guess before
300
the middle of Act Three how it will end.
301
Continually beguile the public's fancy,
302
and when you find they think they know what's coming,
303
make things turn out in quite another way.
304
Shrewdly select the verse-forms you employ
305
to fit the various matters that you deal with.
306
The décima is suited to complaints,
307
the sonnet's fine for characters left waiting;
308
narrative speeches call for ballad-metre,
309
though they sound splendid in ottava rima ;
310
tercets will serve for solemn, weighty matters,
311
and redondillas for romantic scenes.
312
Don't fail to use rhetorical devices
313
such as anadiplosis (repetition
314
of single words), anaphora (that is,
315
a set of lines that all begin the same),
316
aporia (or doubts), and ironies,
317
plus exclamations and apostrophes.
318
Deceiving with the truth is a device
319
that Miguel Sánchez used in all his plays
320
and audiences have liked, so that he's worthy
321
to be remembered for discovering it.
322
Ambiguous speech and devious double-entendre
323
have always gone down well with common folk,
324
for each spectator fancies he alone
325
is smart enough to grasp what's being said.
326
Matters of honour are the best as subjects;
327
they powerfully move all kinds of folk;
328
and so do acts of high heroic virtue,
329
for virtue is admired on every hand;
330
and so we see that if an actor happens
331
to play a traitor, everyone so hates him
332
that when he goes out shopping they won't serve him,
333
and common people shun him when they meet him;
334
but if he plays a hero, all acclaim him,
335
and even men of rank bow down before him,
336
seek out, reward, make much of and adore him.
337
Each act should be four gatherings, no more;
338
ninety-six pages is the proper length
339
to suit the time and audiences' patience.
340
When you're satirical, be sure your strictures
341
aren't blatant or direct, for comedies,
342
as well you know , in Greece and Italy
343
were banned by law for giving such offence.
344
Mock without malice; if you put to shame,
345
don't hope to win applause or merit fame.
346
These those among you who are not so bothered
347
about the ancient rules may take as maxims,
348
for time permits no more on this occasion;
349
and also it's the actor-manager
350
who must provide, for all three kinds of play
351
Vitruvius lists, the settings that Valerius
352
and Horace or Crinitus specify:
353
their painted cloths, their leafy trees or bowers,
354
their hovels, houses or fake marble towers.
355
On costumes we might turn to Julius Pollux,
356
if that were necessary, though in Spain
357
you're liable to see in plays today,
358
as well as many other barbarous things,
359
Turks wearing Christian ruffs about their necks,
360
and Ancient Romans sporting fancy kecks.
361
But I can hardly say that anyone's
362
more barbarous than I am, since I dare
363
to give you rules against the rules, and merely
364
go with the flow where Italy and France
365
will label me an arrant ignoramus.
366
What can I do though, if the plays I've written,
367
including one I finished just this week,
368
add up to -let me count-four eighty-three?
369
For but for half a dozen, all the rest
370
sinned grievously against the hallowed precepts.
371
In fine, I stand by what I've done, and know
372
that though they might, if different, have been better,
373
they'd not have proved as pleasing as they did;
374
for sometimes what is anything but right
375
will for that very reason give delight.
376
You want to know why comedy can hold
377
the mirror up to nature, what it offers
378
to young and old, beyond its witty sallies,
379
its cultured language and its eloquence?
380
What weighty thoughts appear amid its jesting,
381
what serious matters mingle with its play?
382
How faithless servants prove, how full of guile
383
and trickery all women always are,
384
how wretched, stupid and inept are lovers,
385
how rarely good beginnings turn out well?
386
Don't hold debates about the ancient rules;
387
go to the play, and pay close heed -that way,
388
you'll find it tell you all there is to say.
389