1
See especially Chapter 4 of Nicolás Fernández de Moratín.
2
Gálvez wrote the following works for the stage: (Comedies): Los figurones literarios, El egoísta, La familia a la moda; (One Act Plays): Saúl, Safo, Un loco hace ciento; (Tragedies) La delirante, Amnón, Blanca de Rossi, Zinda, Ali Bek, Florinda; (Zarzuela): El Califa de Bagdad.
3
For the masculine dramatist's view on the role of women in society, see Kathleen Kish, «A School for Wives: Women in Eighteenth-Century Spanish Theater».
4
The romance heroico (or romance endecasílabo, 11 syllable verses with assonant rhyme) was a popular verse form for tragedians of the time, including García de la Huerta and Jovellanos (Tomás Navarro Tomás, Métrica española 295-96). The rhyme scheme for La delirante is as follows: Act I, i/a; Act II, e/o; Act III, a/a; Act IV, a/o; Act V, e/a.
5
Hirsch applies these words to the character Gwendolen in George Eliot' s Daniel Deronda (Mother/Daughter 79), but they also accurately describe Gálvez's Elizabeth.
6
Except in the case of Leonor, Gálvez probably based the other characters of La delirante on historical figures identifiable during or after the reign of Elizabeth I (1558-1603). Lord Pembroke (Henry Herbert, Earl of Pembroke, 1534-1601) and Lady Pembroke (Mary Sidney, 1561-1621?) were well-known members of the Elizabethan court, along with the dashing Earl of Essex (Robert Devereux, 1566-1601), a favorite of the Queen (who was forty years older than the young courtier). For Arlington, perhaps Gálvez adopted a figure who lived a century after Elizabeth's time and who had much fame as a court schemer (Henry Bennet, Earl of Arlington, 1618-1685). I have found no historical antecedent for Leonor; Mary Stuart, Queen of Scots (1542-1587), had only one child, James I (1566-1618), who reigned after Elizabeth. In La delirante Gálvez also affirms that Mary, Queen of Scots, and the Duke of Norfolk (probably modeled on the historical figure Thomas Howard, 1536-1572) married and that Leonor was their daughter. In reality, Norfolk was executed before the proposed marriage with Mary occurred.
7
Leonor's condition of delirio is not characterized by screaming or uncontrolled, convulsive behavior; rather, her mental illness originates from a distorted memory and a rejection of the reality around her. As explained in the Diccionario enciclopédico de la lengua castellana, «El delirante no necesita estar furioso... se suele delirar con calma, con sosiego, con tranquilidad».
8
The brief discussion here outlines Chodorow's ideas in The Reproduction of Mothering and her article, «Mothering, Object-Relations, and the Female Oedipal Configuration».
9
All quotations from La delirante are from the upcoming book, La voz malagueña en el teatro de la Ilustración española: cinco obras selectas de María Rosa Gálvez (Amnón, La delirante, Safo, Los figurones literarios, Un loco hace ciento).