Reframing the entremez in the Iberian Peninsula¹

Since the beginning of the early-modern period, theatre has been a privileged “contact zone” (Pratt 1991) for the intersection of different languages and cultures in the Iberian Peninsula. The entremez (a short farce) was a popular genre that occupied a canonical though secondary place in the structure of the theatrical show. This genre is characterized by a strong-paced rhythm and a quick development of a linear plot, of comical nature, typically depicting social stereotypes. However, its subsidiary status, less prone to scrutiny and/or criticism, may have promoted its translation in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries. To unveil yet another episode of the history of translation of Portuguese and Castilian entremezes, this chapter will start with a brief description of the genre. It will then focus on a case study concerning the Entremés del Poeta/Entremez do Poeta D. Tristão, introducing the textual traditions of these short farces within the Spanish and Portuguese cultural systems. Afterwards attention will be drawn to the singularities of the Portuguese text: (i) the different stage directions, (ii) the shifts in the nature and quality of comic effects, and finally (iii) the passages in Spanish within the Portuguese translation.