Speculum prudentiae? Means of Kingship and the Functioning of Tragedy in Calderón’s El médico de su honra

Abstract

Abstract Chapter 4 examines Calderón’s El médico de su honra, arguing that the play is driven by widespread susceptibility to several vices of excess which are shown by Aristotle and Aquinas to be opposed to prudence and the mean, especially temerity, precipitation, negligence, and haste. The chapter begins with key Thomist definitions and the link to Aristotelian prudence, suggested by the play’s consistent foregrounding of proportion, prudence, and the mean. The first half of the chapter then focuses on King Pedro’s appearances throughout the play, to show that he repeatedly errs in precisely these ways, demonstrating negligence, precipitation, and rashness, often because of excessive sensitivity regarding his royal image. This allows for renegotiation of the traditional dichotomy of Pedro as ‘just’ vs ‘cruel’: his imprudence, read in Aristotelian-Thomist terms, provides a clearer explanation for his conduct and his controversial judgement at the play’s climax, as well as a more profound understanding of his human frailties and sensitivities. The second half of the chapter extends this Aristotelian-Thomist framework to other characters, notably Mencía, Enrique, and Gutierre, presenting Calderón’s characterization in terms which are more psychologically plausible. The chapter also illuminates the play’s model of causation, whereby repeated moral errors shared by several characters form a collective hamartia and allow harmless coincidences to spiral into a tragic conclusion that inspires pity and fear. The chapter therefore also contributes to discussion of El médico as Aristotelian tragedy, reclaiming the usefulness of particular terms from the Poetics—in modified form—for interpretation of Calderón’s techniques.