Nor are we without examples of persons of native lineage preparing comedies for their fellows. About 1625, Bartholome de Alva, a descendant of the native kings of Tezcuco, wrote three comedies, in Nahuatl, drawing his plots from Lope de Vega. It is quite as likely that another Alva rose from the Nahuas of Nicaragua, and prepared for their amusement the production I now present.
For these various reasons I class it among aboriginal productions.
§ 5. The Dramatis Personæ of The Güegüence.
The central figure of the drama, and the personage from whom it derives its name, is The Güegüence. This is a Nahuatl word, from the root hue, old; huehue is "old man;" to this is added what grammarians call the "reverencial" termination tzin, denoting reverence or affection, and we have, intercalating the euphonic n, huehuentzin, which, in the vocative, becomes huehuentzé. It means, therefore, "the honored elder," or "the dear old man," and may be used, as it is in the play, either as a proper name or as a common noun. In his description of the Nahuas of Nicaragua, Oviedo gives the word huehue, and tells us that it was applied to certain old men of influential position, who were elected by the natives as rulers of the villages, and that they in turn selected the war-chief, whose duty it was to look to the defence of the community. The name was, therefore, one familiar to the Nicaraguans, though the character would seem to be drawn as a burlesque or satire.
He is, in fact, anything but a respectable person. His indifference to truth, his cynical impudence, his licentious jokes about and before his sons, and the unscrupulous tricks of which he boasts, are calculated to detract from the element of the comic in his portraiture, for those who have been accustomed to the higher productions of humor. But it would be an error to allow this sentiment to affect much our estimate of the influence of the play. As Lessing very well observes, the true value of comedy is to train us to see the ridiculous and the absurd, wherever it is, in flagitious as well as in merely inconsiderate actions, as thus the observer is prompted to morality as well as forethought.[47]
As I have said, his character is a marked type of the peculiar form of humor which the native mind preferred, and of the class of actions in which it especially found amusement, to wit, in that jocularity which is assumed to deceive and get the better of one's neighbor. This is strikingly shown by the number of words in the Nicaraguan patois which express such actions. Thus, chamarrear is to take advantage of some one by a joke; trisca is a conversation in which some one is made ridiculous; féfere is an idle tale with which a hearer is cajoled; dar un caritazo is to deceive a person by a trick, etc. This is the humor in the Güegüence. The old man nearly always has a selfish aim to gain by his jokes and his stories; they are intended to further his own interests, and, at the close of the play, he, on the whole, comes out victorious by these questionable measures.
As the drama was formerly represented, the Güegüence wore the most magnificent apparel of any of the actors. Chains of gold, strings of silver coins, and ornaments of steel draped his person. Indeed, all the participants vied with each other in extravagant costumes. Their garments were fantastically adorned with feathers and flowers, and set off with sashes and handkerchiefs of brilliant colors.
The two sons of Güegüence, Don Forcico and Don Ambrosio, are drawn in as strong contrast as possible. The former follows the paternal example faithfully, and sustains his parent in all his tricks and lies; the latter as invariably opposes and exposes the old man's dishonesty. The bitter words which pass between them, however, must not be taken in dead earnest; they, too, are only half serious, and do not lead to any separation of interests.
The Governor Tastuanes appears on the scene in Spanish costume, with a staff and sabre. His name, however, seems to be from the Nahuatl, probably a corruption of tlatoani, chief, lord.[48] He is little more than a lay figure, designed to draw forth the ruses of Güegüence.
The Alguacil, the Secretary and Registrar appear in what is supposed to be full official dress, with their staffs of office.