Calderon's Duelos de Amor y Lealtad: A Metaphor for Seventeenth Century Spanish Politics‪.‬

IN Duelos de amor y lealtad, Calderon dramatizes the historical episode of a slave uprising in Tyre, related by Justin in his Historiae Philippicae (c.AD 300). Calderon avails himself of Justin's historical account in order to discuss comprehensive issues of government and, probably, to create a metaphor of contemporary Spanish political events. A close look at Calderon's contemporary history and the play, illustrates how the playwright uses the ancient Phoenician revolt to draw attention to the Catalan Revolt and to Don Juan Jose of Austria's 'pronunciamiento' of 1677. An analogy between the play and concurrent political events could have been especially significant for a seventeenth century Spanish audience, a significance not as apparent to the modern public. In his article "Calderon and Insurrection", David Lanoue links Duelos de amor y lealtad to the Catalan Revolt of 1640. He sees an analogy between the vernal equinox the Persians celebrate, on the night in which they murder their masters, and the day of the annual festival of Corpus Christi, in which Catalan peasants murdered the viceroy Santa Coloma and other figures of royal authority. In the play, the Persians used their traditional celebration of the vernal equinox as a pretext to plan and commit the cold-blooded murders of their masters. Similarly, the day of Corpus Christi (on which harvesters traditionally entered Barcelona to be hired) served the Catalan peasants as a pretext to enter the city and commit their murders. Lanoue rightly argues that since the religious celebration of the vernal equinox does not appear in Calderon's primary source, the author may have invented the festival in order to recall the Catalan insurrection for his audience. (1)