Valor, agravio y mujer.

• Author: Mujica, Barbara

Among the works fast moving into the Spanish canon are the plays of the Golden Age author Ana Caro, a contemporary of Calderon, who achieved a significant following during her lifetime. As Lola Luna reminds the reader in her introduction, women as well as men went to the theater in the Golden Age, and plays such as Valor, agravio y mujer delighted female spectators. Although the works of female playwrights were neglected for centuries, an increasing number are now available to the modern audience, thanks to the efforts of scholars such as Lola Luna.

Valor, agravio y mujer is a reworking of the Don Juan myth, but from a feminine perspective. Don Juan courts Leonor in Seville, then abandons her, fleeing to Flanders. Instead of weeping over Don Juan's treachery like the female victims in Tirso's better known El Burlador de Sevilla, Leonor leaves for the north disguised as a man in order to take vengeance. Going by the name Leonardo, she arrives in Flanders to discover that the fickle Don Juan is now pursuing another woman, Estela, a countess from Brussels, who immediately falls for Leonardo.

Caro exploits this typically baroque muddle of disguises, mistaken identities, and amorous rivalries to poke fun at conventional gender stereotypes. Pretending to be Estela, Leonor invites Don Juan to a tryst at night in a dark, secluded corner where he will be unable to recognize her. Once she has him at her feet swearing eternal fidelity, she (still impersonating Estela) accuses him of having betrayed a worthy noblewoman in Seville. Caught off guard, Don Juan stammers and hedges. This flustered, spluttering Don Juan is a mockery of the arrogant seducer depicted by male playwrights. In this scene and throughout the play, the female protagonist is fully in control. Later, when Don Juan boasts that he is willing to take on the entire world, his stance seems ludicrous. Caro has already reduced him to a silly, vulnerable figure.

The play climaxes when Leonor/Leonardo lures Don Juan into a duel. In an obvious parody of the traditional male-honor hero, Leonor/Leonardo brags and struts and threatens. She/He out-swears Don Juan and vaunts the sense of honor that makes it impossible for a gentleman to back down. On the one hand, Caro...