As an introduction to these translated plays Marilyn Ekdahl Ravicz describes at length the psychologic-aesthetic set of the indigenous Nahuatl and carefully traces the Spaniards’ awareness of his adapt ability to a Hispano-Christian goal: the acceptance and practice of a new religion. As her subtitle suggests, this is the transition from the overt symbolism of the grizzled skull-rack to that of the passion of Christ on the Hill of the Skull. The literary expression of the Aztecs was highly developed. There were certainly present at the time of the Conquest certain characteristics one comes to associate with the seventeenth century Baroque, yet the mother country herself had almost a century to go before evolving a similar form of expression.
Mrs. Ravicz has begun this stimulating work with a presentation of some pre-Hispanic poetry as examples of the style which would have to be adapted if those quite necessary elements of stylistic demand and aesthetic satisfaction were to be met. She then passes to the setting in which this dramatic style developed. It was indeed rather a potpourri from the sixteenth-century Spaniard’s Aristotelian viewpoint, since in this highly complex, religion oriented culture there had developed a combination of drama and dance, both comic and serious, set to musical accompaniment, which not only delighted the masses, but also served as a part of the literary entertainments the great lords traditionally held for their fellow princes.
In the second, longer part of the introduction the author presents the background of the development of the didactic theatre. In her brief review of the Spanish theatre up to the time of Cervantes she quite accurately sees its application to educational purposes as merely an intensification of its original purpose, along with the appropriate linguistic and stylistic alterations needed for acceptance by the Meso-American audience. The arrival of the Franciscans as early as 1523, followed by the Dominicans, Augustinians, Jesuits, and Carmelites, gave the Spaniards ample workers in the fields for the conversion of souls, for religious instruction was certainly the work of the priests. The use of theatrical presentations to this end was perforce Horatian in tone, entertaining and instructive at the same time.
The bulk of the volume consists of seven Nahautl plays: The Sacrifice of Isaac, The Merchant, The Adoration of the Kings, The Final Judgment, How the Blessed St. Helen Found the Holy Cross, The Destruction of Jerusalem, and Souls and Testamentary Executors. Each has an introduction and a closing commentary. The reader is warned that the presentation of content, not the parallelism of literary style was the author-translator’s goal. Despite her claim, however, there is present a strong suggestion of a literary style, which, if not a familiar one, still possesses a certain charm.
To the cultural anthropologist, the Latin-American scholar, the student of religion or drama this book will certainly have appeal. In presenting a group of plays never before available to the English reader, Mrs. Ravicz has done admirable service. She concludes her book with copious notes to the introductory materials as well as the plays themselves. These are followed by an exhaustive bibliography relating to early colonial drama and its presentation, and finally, an index.
It is only unfortunate that the proofreading was not as carefully done as was the research for this engaging work.
