Celestina, Ballads, Jorge Manrique & 15th Century Theater

La Celestina (1499)

The play was first published anonymously, attributed to an anonymous author, and focused on the characters of Melibea and Callisto. It consisted of 16 acts. Later, it was attributed to Fernando de Rojas. In 1502, it was printed with a new title, Tragicomedy of Calisto and Melibea, and with 5 new acts. The work is known mainly as La Celestina. La Celestina is a very long work in dialogue. Some consider it a novel, others a play, while others think it is a dialogued novel.

Style: Cultured and popular language.

Characters: Divided into two groups: the upper class, such as Calisto and Melibea, and the popular class, such as Celestina, prostitutes, and servants.

Topics: Love, death, greed, selfishness, avarice, class struggle.

The Ballads

"Old Ballads" refers to the set of ballads from the late Middle Ages. The romances written by these educated poets are "new romances." Alongside the old ballads and new romances, there are also modern oral ones. The origin of the romances in the late Middle Ages can be found in the decomposition of epics. It could also be seen as an independent genre born of *cantares de gesta* (songs of deeds), the result of a poet's invention. The Romance is defined as an epic-lyric poem.

Many features of the ballads are related to popular song and epic feats. The most common resources are repetitions, enumerations, antitheses, the use of formulas and epic epithets, frequent dialogues, and didactic simplicity. They are classified into four groups:

• Epic theme
• Border (Castilian and Moorish)
• French-themed
• Romantic epic and lyric

Jorge Manrique

A member of a powerful Castilian family, Jorge Manrique devoted his life to politics and war. His poetry reflects courtly love lyricism, continuing the tradition of courtly love, but with innovations from Petrarch. The verses on the death of his father are what made Jorge Manrique one of the most important authors of Spanish literature (it is an elegy). The verses deal with typically medieval subjects and the final tribute to his father. The poem is composed of stanzas of *pie quebrado* (broken foot), and its style is simple.

15th Century Theater

There were poems and *danzas macabras* (macabre dances), in which a sinister Death invites every man to dance, from the humblest to the most powerful.

• Religious Theater: Different works, called *autos*, were represented on the feast of Corpus Christi.
• Profane Theater: The rise of the nobility was essential, who began to host dramatic representations in their palaces. Popular theater became courtly theater. Juan del Encina, who excelled as a musician, poet, actor, and playwright at the court of the Dukes of Alba, played a significant role in this transformation.