Las acotaciones de Calderón

This paper intends to outline a panorama of the stage directions present in the seven plays by Calderón de la Barca of which the autograph manuscript has been preserved, in order to observe the modifications they suffered when the texts were transmitted to other ancient testimonies, with some specific references to modern critical editions. The analysis intends to show if there is regularity in this process, either towards the amplification, or towards the reduction, of the stage directions written by Calderón. It has been verified, however, that neither Calderón was regular in his writing practice with respect to the stage directions, nor were the following testimonies, no matter if they were printed editions or company manuscripts, although the genre and the scenic complexity of the plays seem to be behind the behaviour of the poet. Only in the Vera Tassis editions a conscious and quite systematic work regarding the stage directions has been perceived, tending in general to the addition of explicit indications that could be deduced from the dialogue, with the intention, presumably, of facilitating the reading of the texts.