"El secreto oficio de la abeja": A Sociopolitical Metaphor in the "Celestina" Author(s): Cristina Guardiola Source: Diacritics, Vol.

36, No. 3/4, Theories of Medieval Iberia (Fall - Winter, 2006), pp. 147155 Published by: The Johns Hopkins University Press Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/20204147 . Accessed: 25/04/2013 05:58
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"EL SECRETO

OFICIO

DE

LA

ABEJA" A SOCIOPOLITICAL METAPHOR IN THE CELESTINA

CRISTINA GUARDIOLA

Rojas returns again and again human relationships. ?Stephen Enabled Gilman,

in La Celestina

to the theme of the disruption de Rojas

of

The Spain of Fernando

the loco amor felt by the clandestine lovers Cal by the old bawd Celestina, isto and Melibea exposes a society living in disorder and conflict. Calisto and Melibea's transgressive desire, and those who make it possible, may be seen as directly contradict ing moral and social laws upon which the tragicomedy claims to be predicated. Most of the characters in the work live their lives as transgression; their disorderly conduct leads inevitably to their death and destruction [Baranda 9]. The negative example offered by

to un this work was, according toMaravall, what led early readers such as Quevedo derstand how the work: "debaxo del nombre de Comedia, ense?a a vivir bien, moral y pol?ticamente, acreditanto las virtudes y disfamando los vicios [under the title of Comedy, teaches one to live well, both moral and politically, accrediting virtues and discrediting 19].1 The Celestina lays bare its social and moralistic message [qtd. inMaravall the by exposing corruption of social and moral values prevalent in this late fifteenth work. century Bringing together the aristocratic world of courtly love (already brought low through the Calisto's crass treatment of waspish Melibea) and the bawdy world of vices]" the whorehouse, Rojas debases the people and passions therein. Connecting both worlds through her comings and goings is Celestina. Characterized as abeja, a political animal used in theMiddle Ages and early modern period that informs the ideal structure of soci ety, Celestina exposes a satire of society and its corruption of moral values. As the Sig?ese and prologue indicate, the tragicomedy was written with a dual and moral intent. The author wrote to disabuse the many "galanes y enamorados mancebos [handsome young men and enamored youth]" of his country from the cruel and evil fires of love, but also to expose "enga?os de las alcahuetas y malos y lisonjeros simientes [the the deceits deceptions of procuresses and evil sycophantic servants]." In the Celestina, of the bawd and servants Sempronio and (later) P?rmeno complicate the narrative and move it to its tragic conclusion. As Celestina and Sempronio set out to profit by Calisto's lovesickness, they are met with opposition from P?rmeno. The initial resistance P?rmeno puts up to defend himself and his master from the economic lust felt by Celestina and Sempronio serves to expose a conflict in social class. The heedless attainment of wealth demonstrated by the servants contradicts amore aristocratic principle that was perceived to guide economic thought in the Middle Ages [Maravall 60]. Celestina's spoken ad age, "[a] tuerto o a derecho, nuestra casa hasta el techo [by hook or by crook, our house
1. All translations, unless otherwise noted, are mine.

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through the roof]," exposes her unmitigated greed and contrasts sharply with Calisto's more courtly (if yet parodie) examples of largesse. The alcahuetaos greed is not merely it belies a certain Schadenfreude felt for Calisto's woes. Like "cirurjanos opportunistic, [ante] los descalabrados [surgeons before patients with head trauma]," Celestina pur sues Calisto in search of money, which at this particular moment in history was slipping through the hands of her real-life counterparts and into those of state-appointed brothel keepers. As Lacarra notes, the granting of royal mercedes for the incomes derived from prostitution to royal towns or notable persons became prevalent during the reign of Fer dinand and Isabel [40]. One must imagine women such as Celestina doubly feeling the pinch from this seemingly "catholic" imposition. Income from the alcahueta livelihood from all of Castile certainly must have been dwindling. At the same time, the alcahueta 's dishonest way of living was being usurped by speciously honorable citizens who no doubt maligned the prostitutes on whom their wealth was gained. Despite the growing danger of her increasingly clandestine profession, Celestina shows little shame or fear. Indeed, her sense of "honor" for the puter?a is so brightly and enthusiastically expressed in the work bearing her name that one wonders if itmight not stem from some ironical understanding of royal patronage. skill as bawd has led to an analysis of women-led Celestina's social structures within the novel in dialogue. Opposite the fleeting microsociety and Lu inhabited by Melibea crecia, Celestina's proletarian-based community doggedly continues, its reduced state, a reflection of the Catholic Kings' tightening restrictions imposed on prostitution. Margin alized from control over the town's sexual economy, Celestina is no longer courted by priests and ministers. Her brothel has been reduced drastically in number. Its continued existence perhaps only is due to her frank enjoyment of all things sexual. Celestina gives us a colorful account of her past regrets and her delight in the management of society's illegal pleasures.
Celestina. jor le espera, que [Gjozad tiempo vuestras viene frescas mocedades, que se arrepiente, moca, que como quien tiempo tiene y me

agora yo fago por algunas me me preciava, quando quando quer?an, no me quiere, caducado sabe Dios mi buen he; nadie que ya, mal pecado, que cosa otra desseo. Besaos sino gozarme de y abr?caos, que a m? no me queda a la mesa se vello. Mientra de la cinta arriba todo est?ys, perdona; quando no quiero las tassa, pues poner que el rey no la pone, aparte, que yo s? por se?ys horas dex? perder quando que nunca de importunos os acusen, y la vieja Celestina maxcar?

mochachas

de dentera con sus botas enzias c?mo lo rey s y holg?ys, putillos, nublado de las questioncillas, lestina 231-32]

de los manteles. ?Bend?gaos Dios loquillos, traviessos; En esto av?a de parar el que au?s tenido; mira no derribes la mesa! [Ce

las migajas

[Celestina. [EJnjoy theflower of y our fresh and lively age. For he who waits for a better time, will repent for time lost, as I do now repent for thefew hours I lost when I was young, when men did esteem me, and when they loved me, for now, to my misfortune, I am past my prime; nobody loves me, although God knows my true desire. So kiss and embrace one another, since I have nothing else to do but delight in the sight of you. While you sit at the table, anything from the waist up is pardoned; when you are alone by yourselves, I will not clap afine on your heads, since the king does not impose any such taxation. And I know from these young girls that they will never accuse you of inappropriate behavior, and old Celestina here will grind her teeth down to the gums from the crumbs of the tablecloth. God love you, how you laugh and delight, you mischievous scamps;

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this was how the argument you had was to end; don't topple the table!]2 The banquet scene serves as an ideal location to describe Celestina's still-abundant sexual appetite. Presiding at the head of the table, Celestina acts as master of ceremonies and doles out not food but sexual partners. She enforces a specific code of behavior, and orders them to act according to her will. Her flippant comparison to the king, moreover, reflects her ability to exert a psychosexual power over her salacious guests and allows one to see them in terms of the spheres of interest they control. Celestina's leadership position within the underbelly of society thus may be seen as a perverse reflection of the king's power. Her importance to the people of her town had gone beyond that of servants in and prostitutes. Caballeros both young and old, clergy of all ranks were welcomed her house. In a parody of the misa de amores, churchmen would throw off their caps to herald her arrival. Lucrecia reveals, "No ay ni?o ni viejo en toda la cibdad que no lo sepa [There is neither young nor old in all the city who does not know her name]" [Celestina 152]. Her registry of all female children born in the town shows just how few escaped her jurisdiction. As surgeon tomore than five thousand virgins, her notorious prominence had extended tomany women in the town. Itwould not be implausible to suggest that she held power over many. P?rmeno describes in exquisite detail what had been the dealings of Celestina while he had been in her service. Many were the men who courted her favor, and many the women who sought her remedies. Under the pretext of her many oficios, all doors had been open to Celestina. And when the doors of the more chaste were to have been kept closed, as may be seen through her later seduction of Melibea, Celestina might have opened them through witchcraft. In her zeal for all things sexual or her dedication to the seamier professions of soci ety, one may see how important Celestina believes herself to be. She is, as Severin has noted, "fiercely proud" of her role in society, as "the lord of misrule in her own town" [17-18]. Rojas's creation of a subversive society of women's misrule, governed by an empowered bawd and witch, may be furthered by her characterization as abeja. The bee for social organization, appearing in classical literature (Ar istotle, Politics, History of Animals; Seneca, Epistulae Morales), medieval bestiaries and St. Thomas doctrinal theories (The Aberdeen Bestiary; John of Salisbury, Policraticus; and humanist epistles (Petrarch, Epistolae familiares)? Aquinas, De regimineprincipum), Most texts refer to the natural organization of bees as an ideal model for human society. As social creatures in the animal world, bees submit to a ruler. Aquinas considered man was often favored as amodel

in Celestina have been made with the aid ofGarci-G?mez's of abeja references at Cibertextos: found http://aaswebsv.aas.duke.edu/celestina/index.html. to include are just a few of the texts known It is unknown 3. These the apian how reference. to at texts Fernando de The the Uni these had been known Aristotle many Rojas. importance of of it likely that Rojas would have been familiar makes with his works, and at versity of Salamanca online edition, at the have known him through Aquinas. (The Hospital of St. Thomas Aquinas as a was 1413 in sick scholars Salamanca [Rashdall 89-90].) hospital University founded for of he is celebrated de la Torre, As an example in La vision deleitable renown, of Alfonso of Aristotle's the very least would student of the University of Salamanca led by the personified standing, ("the philosopher") finds Aristotle Both John In his work, Under century. of the fifteenth enters 's house into Nature and of Truth and Reason, seated other thinkers among many impressive principally [qtd. in the middle and Thomas were known to the late medieval

2. Translations

allegories

inGilman 336]. Seneca and Celestina lays out the influence thephilosopher had on the Castilian
fifteenth public. century. of Salisbury Aquinas

Middle Ages. Renais The political significance of the bee did not end with these texts and the
sance debates about tion of a Christian issue with Aristotle's monarchy The Prince. often used symbolism comparison of bee begins to man. the bee as an example. it in his Educa Erasmus includes to sour with Thomas Hobbes (De cive), who takes

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more

social than the bee, but basing his knowledge on Aristotle, encouraged the compari son and emphasized man's unique need to subsist in a ruled and orderly community [De 1.1]. Each man endeavors to fulfill his own particular interests, but regimine principum beyond those interests he ismoved to fulfill the common good, which is promoted by a just king. The industrious nature of the bee, which similarly allows its collective to flour ish, thus may be likened to that of man.

The descriptions of the body politic exposed in these political writings lay bare the possible satire in the Celestina text. Celestina, as abeja, promotes her own desires above those of the society. She reneges on her word with the servants and refuses to share the wealth fleeced from Calisto. Her greed becomes apparent early on in the text, and quickly causes the distrust and antipathy felt by the servants. Motivating that greed is the desire to return to her past status (social as well as economic, one must imagine), which prompts her visit first to Calisto and then toMelibea. Celestina is propelled by her own individual yearnings, which run contrary to the greater common good. Perhaps wishing to recuper ate her past glory and heedless of the dishonor and shame she will bring upon two houses, Celestina is quick to take up her procuress hat and cure Calisto of his love malady. She likens her oficio to the "secret office of the bee": La mayor gloria, que al secreto officio del abeja se da, a la quai los discretos deven ymitar, es que todas las cosas por ella tocadas convierte en mejor de lo
que son. Desta todo manera su rigor me he ?vido con las cahare?as su yra razones y esquivas de su Melibea; traygo conuertido en miel, en mansedumbre,

aceleramiento

en sossiego.

[Celestina

179]4

4. Castro source for inventionibus nisi

Guisasola

notes

the existence

Celestina sunt

to bees. The 's reference imitandae [Bees are to be

of an index of Petrarchan Index lists two sententiae imitated in inventiveness]"

sententiae regarding and "Apibus

as probable bees: in "Apes nulla esset

Gloria did

inventa converterent be no glory for the bees in aliud et in melius [There would if they into something else or something those things they find better]" 140-41]. [138, transform which Castro the seventh letter of Petrarch's Guisasola familiares, Epistulae They are taken from thus: summarizes not re non est. . . summa est: Apes in inven ac mella miri

De

hac

amplius

quam flores,

unicum non

consilium

cujus

quae quales acceperint, sensum sed verba Macrobius conficiunt. Ejus autem non modo permixtione quadam . . .Nos non tam magna in Satumalibus autem, apes imitari contigerunt, quibus posuit. . . .Haec ex non pudeat. imitatione visa sunt de apium quae dicerem, quarum exemplo esset occurrent in cordis absconde.... Nulla electiora alveario cunctis quae quidem api fica bus gloria nisi in aliud et melius inventa converterent. [140-41] on inventiveness reads: and talent. A

tionibus

imitandae,

referunt,

sed ceras

The more

quote

is taken from

Petrarch's

letter

to Tommaso

da Messina,

comprehensive [I]n this matter you to realize tion

(yet by no means I cannot that

complete)

translation

of the passage

give much more is the source [Seneca] which through

than a single piece of advice_In loftiest advice of this advice. His an astonishing process produce wax

short about

I want inven

is to imitate

the bees

and honey

from the flowers they leave behind. Macrobius

sense

in his Saturnalia reported not only the

so that to me at the very time he seemed to be follow of Seneca but the very words to of it he seemed be in and this advice his disapproving by what he reading writing, ing from from the flowers Seneca but instead culled did. For he did not try to produce honey he had found them on the stems.... them whole and in the very form in which produced These select and are the things I thought I should say about in the beehive conceal the better ones diligence and preserve them their example, the bees. From imitating of your heart and hold on to them with lest anything should possibly perish. steadfastly,

the greatest

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[The greatest glory, which is given to that secret office of the Bee, which the discreet ought to imitate, is that whatever she comes into contact with she turns into a better substance. Thus I have dealt with Melibea 's cold and disdainful treatment of me; but all her scorn I have turned into honey; her anger into mild ness; her fury into gentleness.]

Recounting, with not a little bravado, her meeting with Melibea, Celestina underscores to Calisto the exemplary behavior of her actions and equates them with the bee. Celestina describes in exquisite detail her second meeting with Calisto's beloved and emphasizes her industry. By thinking quickly on her feet, she was able to respond toMelibea's bel ligerence, subdue the young lady, and gain her confidence. As the industrious bee of Petrarch's seventh epistle, Celestina has improved upon the person with whom she had come into contact. In doing so, she facilitated the lover's encounter and made possible to the anonymous author of the Celestina comentada, the their illicit passions. According passage evokes Seneca's Epistulae morales:

ido Apes ut aiunt debemus immitari quae vagantur etflores ad mel faciendum neos carpunt, deinde quicquid attulere disponunt [ac] per favos digerunt. [84.3; qtd. in Cel. comentada 249] [We should follow, men say, the example of the bees, thatflit about and cull the flowers suitable for producing honey, and then arrange and assort in their hon eycomb cells all that they have brought in.] The dulcet etymology notion that Celestina's Melibea engaged of Melibea's alcahueta name, as suggested by Cejador y Frauca, furthers the employment is directly related to her beelike qualities.

is the ideal flower, and Celestina the ideal culler. The digressing conversations in by Celestina and Melibea eventually prompt the lady's surrender to Calisto. Eliciting Melibea's feelings for Calisto, Celestina thus is able to arrange the lovers' first meeting and enable their love. One might see Celestina's culling capabilities in the rende vous she also arranges between P?rmeno and Are?sa. This twinned encounter, parodie for the more decorous exchanges between the servant and harlot than noble and lady, shows how well Celestina can turn a woman's initial disinclination into the sweetest honey of the bee's secret office. As indicated in the aforementioned epistle, the qualities exhibited by the bee are worthy of imitation, and one may then see who she is and what she does: both honorable and good. If the prudent should imitate her, as Celestina claims in the prior quote, one must see the bawd as an object of emulation, a walking speculum principis, a prince among people.5 Itwould not be implausible to suggest that she thinks

And

be careful

not

to let any of was

those

things

that you

have

plucked Familiarum:

remain

with

you

too

long, for the bees would enjoy no glory if they did not transform those things they found
into something else which better. [Bernardo, Rerum Libri I-VIII 1.8,

41, 46]
5. The Celestina comentada glosses the text with two additional sources. Two Renaissance

legal codes [Tiraquellus, Legibus connubialibus; Guillermus Benedictus, Caput Rainuntius/ help
the text's interpretation. The Caput Rainuntius Seneca's and also adds: repeats reinforce epistle, totum examen rex caret "Et sic vivunt apes, quod, dilabitur. Tarnen ac?leo. Nee amisso, rege apum a quo detraxit natura voluit eum esse saevum et prin telum, quod est dignum exemplus regibus that when their king dies, the entire hive disperses. the king However, [And thus live bees, cipibus of the bees is a worthy lacks a stinger. for Nature kings did not wish that he be cruel The Legibus and so she took his arms; states: "Apes which omnium and princes]." connubialibus

example

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herself

a queen

bee.6

The Aberdeen Bestiary describes the bees foraging with a subtle sexuality not ap parent in the previous epistles. In the bestiary, a king bee leads a devoted following to enticing gardens. A locus amoenus of flowers, meadows, flowing river, and pleasant riv erbanks awaits the hungry bees. Thus no peoples serve their king with the devotion shown by the bees. [...] Their devotion is such that no bees dare leave their living areas in search of food, un less the king has gone first and has claimed his place at the head of theflight. Their flight takes them over a scented landscape, where there are gardens of flowers, where a stream flows through meadows, where there are pleasant places on its banks. There, young people play lively games, there men exercise fields, there you find release from care. [Aberdeen Bestiary 63v-64r] The in the

space is shared by young people, wherein lively games and lack of care may be tinged with the hue of sensuality. It is a garden of pleasure, and calls tomind the garden of colored lilies and roses that isMelibea's huerta. Having led Calisto to the garden's sweet

delights and its nighttime diversions, Celestina has provided her devoted and enamored client with the ideal amorous repast. Like the king bee returning to the hive, with the bountiful news of her successful to an enamored Calisto and eavesdrop flight, Celestina conveys Melibea's willingness ping servants. Celestina's exaggerated emphasis meno to anger. In an aside he irascibly exclaims:
?Ass?, que me ass?, a la vieja Tras todo porque esto anda venga ella oy

of her role in the matter provokes

P?r

cargada todo

de mentiras el d?a con sus

como rodeos.

abeja

y a m?

arrastren!

[Celestina

185]
[Ha! All for the old woman and for me nothing, because like the Bee she comes home laden with lies (as the Bee does with honey)! That [Calisto's reward] is what she's been beating the bus h for all day long.] Celestina's rhetoric emphasizes her sly cleverness not only in describing her role in se ducing Melibea but also in procuring a deserving reward. She receives a new cape and tunic as recompense for her troubles, which causes P?rmeno's surly displeasure. P?rmeno believes himself in need while Celestina has received plenty, and doubts that the promise to share all will extend to the clothing Calisto has given her. P?rmeno's vituperations underscore the criticism of the old bawd's activities. Celestina's house is a brothel and house of assignation as well as a center of commerce and light industry [Deyermond, Female Societies 6]. Her competent dealings with Calisto contain the potential for a re turn to a more profitable time [Severin 18]. Despite her resigned words about the future, Celestina's wistful reminiscences of past days show just how much they still lingered in her mind. however undoubtedly remembered these days. His grumblings against her, offered, speak volumes. She is not like the bee of the venerable hypocritically
in reges choose the most of all in kings]" in Cel.

P?rmeno

formosissima comentada,

deligunt

[Bees

beautiful

things

[qtd.

249, fn 15]. 6. Given the Celestina see

just as easily son between Celestina's ist gender

one could the reign of the Catholic monarchs, a man as a woman. see a in in To direct of sovereignty compari too far; and bawd perhaps to understand it is suggestive nevertheless, goes queen use of normative, construction in light of the transgressive essential gender conflicting to that Isabelline characteristics and critics used supporters identify her. 's composition during the embodiment

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bestiary.7 The old prostitute, whose occupations range from restoring virgins to witch craft, undermines the moral laws that shielded women from any damage to her honor. As to the medieval Pastor insists [192], the singular importance of marriage and motherhood woman circumscribed her role and limited her movement outside of private space, mak ing her an easy target for deception. The price of her ignorance of the outside world was the cause of her disgrace. As any sexual dishonor, for obvious reasons of unquestionably and lineage patrimony, complicated the woman's responsibilities within the male-domi return to prominence would only further nated ethos of the Middle Ages, Celestina's the antithesis of the medieval society's values. Yet Elicia's lament for her mentor's death would seem to describe a saintlier woman. As Elicia bemoans her situation, the portrait of an exemplar is repeated: Elicia. ?Ay que ravio, ay mezquina, que salgo de seso, ay que no hallo qui?n lo sienta como yo; no hay quien pierda lo que yo pierdo! ?O qu?nto mejores y m?s honestas fueran mis l?grimas en passi?n ajena que en la propia m?a! ?Adonde yr?, que pierdo madre, manto y abrigo; pierdo amigo y tal que nunca faltava de m? marido? ?O Celestina, sabia, honrrada y autorizada, qu?ntas faltas me encobr?as con tu buen saber! T? trabajavas, yo holgaua; t? sal?as fuera, yo
estova encerrada; t? rota, yo vestida; t? entravas contino como abeja por casa,

subvert the patrimonial order of society. In her many professions, Celestina embodies

yo destruya, que otra cosa no sab?a hazer. ?O bien y gozo mundano, que mientra eres posseydo eres menospreciado, y jam?s te consientes conoscer hasta que te de tantas muertes, mal fin ayan Calisto causadores Melibea, y perdemos! ?O
vuestros amores, en mal sabor se conviertan vuestros dulces plazeres, t?rnese

lloro vuestra gloria,

tom?ys los hurtados

trabajo vuestro descanso;

solazes se conviertan

las yeruas

deleytosas,
se os

donde
tornen

en culebras;

los cantares

lloro; los sombrosos ?rboles del huerto se sequen con vuestra vista; sus flores olorosas se tornen de negra color. [298] [Elicia. O, I grow mad, wretch that I am, I grow mad, no one's grief is like mine, no one that has what I have lost! O how much better and more honest would my tears be for another person's loss than mine own! Where shall I go, now that I have lost a mother, protection? I have lost a friend, and such a one that I had never felt the lack of a husband. O wise Celestina, honored and of great author ity; how often did you cover my faults by your singular wisdom! You worked while I played, you went out while I stayed at home; you were in tatters while I dressed well, you constantly maintained our home like a bee, while I did nothing but destroy
you are

it,for I did not know what

you are less esteemed!

to do. O worldly
You never

happiness
let us know

and joy, while

how much you

possessed

were until we lost you! O Calisto and Melibea, occasioners of so many deaths, some let ill befall your love, may your sweet pleasures turn into bitterness, your
joy turn into sorrow, your leisure turn into worry; may the pleasant grasses

where you took your stolen solace turn into snakes; may your songs be turned into despair; may the shady trees of the garden wither with your looking on them; may its sweet scented flowers turn black!] Celestina was Elicia's everything. And while Elicia seems to sincerely grieve over the loss of her mistress, her lament very pointedly includes a sense of the material loss that
7. Shipley's bestiary Medieval Association on the ironic undermining paper of the Pacific conference of not in its entirety. A summary has been unfortunately published

references

in La Celestina

may be found inLa Cor?nica 2 (1975): 22-23.

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will accompany Celestina's death. Without her, Elicia suddenly realizes the desperation of her situation. While she had been alive, Celestina had been like a bee in its hive, cull ing the sexual favors of young women for the benefit of her brothel. Now that Celestina is gone, her house is on the verge of collapse.8 Yet the construction of Celestina's organized and productive honeycomb was founded on the destruction of the beehive of medieval fabric society. In damaging the honor of young women, she destroyed the honeycombed of her community. Celestina's activities, likened to the honey-producing have bee, pro duced the destructive delights of Calisto and Melibea's love (and shown them to be no worthier than those of false servants and their whores). As their affair has been conducted inMelibea's huerta, Celestina's apprentice plausibly extends the apian allusion through her curse on their love and their garden. The "viciosas flores [sweetly scented flowers]" of their garden turn black in this curse and will no longer produce either honey or money. Oddly enough, it is perhaps through Elicia's curse that the social ills Celestina carried out are punished. The demise of the lovers (regardless of the instrumentality of the curse) as well as the deaths of false servants and the bawd carry out the moral lesson and allow for the return of social order. But what kind of social order may be restored after so many deaths? Maravall's de scription of the Celestina's Zeitgeist demonstrates "la profunda ra?z de la crisis social del XV [... de] individuos en tan grave estado de desconcierto psicol?gico y moral no puede seguirse m?s que una sociedad no menos desacorde [the profound root of the social crisis of the fifteenth century . . . from individuals with grave psychological and moral confu sion, cannot but yield a society of equal or greater disorder]" [151-52]. The lust and greed exhibited by so many of the work's characters show the torn social fabric of a fictive, its actual counterpart showed a fondness for chivalric fifteenth-century society. While a which social order that had never truly existed, Celestina's world fictions, displayed The and servants exposed the falseness of courtly and chivalric gallantry.9 love thought to ennoble man reveals a mere fa?ade for the lust felt for the sublime beloved, who ever was less than what she appears. There is no distinction between refined sentiment and base passion in the Celestina; themeans to that pleasure may be found only at the hands of a greedy old bawd. Thus the enamored youths of Rojas's introductions of fictive nobles

are exposed as fools at the mercy of deceiving servants and bawds. In this sense, Rojas's work resembles the Carajicomedia, whose protagonist, the Guadalajaran Diego Fajardo, enlists various alcahuetas and prostitutes to cure his impotence. The military service that rewarded his father so thoroughly becomes an ironic metaphor for the son's sexual prow ess (or lack thereof) in the brothels of Castile and Valencia.10 Diego Fajardo's impotence

Celestina's employed. survival.

8. Following death Only

one could see in the interpretation made available by the Caput Rainuntius, the complete gone are the many dispersal of her "hive." Already girls she once Elicia hate for its the work leads one to doubt remains, though her self-professed

9. The rebirth of courtly culture inSpain's late Middle Ages produced an image of nobility that had little to do with everyday life.Nobility not only entailed knowing how tofight well. Garnered
the images in epic poetry and chivalric noble from fictions, life encompassed tion of society, and a chivalric ethic and aesthetic [Ruiz 83]. was a nobleman 10. Die jo Fajardo and heir to the prizes garnered from service to the Catholic a particular percep

his father's military he held a monopoly victories, Kings. As recompense for the knight's military over all the manceb?as in the conquered 16; Moreno [Alonso 19]. kingdom of Granada Mengibar son and show him a world where sex is bought Alcahuetas the adventurous and sold. accompany The sordid world the whole in the encompasses of the prostitute of life. Diego's life and prick hang a battlefield the forays the lands, and the brothel balance becomes his upon which through during an enemy of overwhelming of flaccid pixas must assail than the the since Diego Celestina, critique Fajardo's deeper of Granadan conquests campaign. of his father's army conos. sexual The Carajicomedia debase exploits cuts even the military

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is but a way to see Calisto, a pitiful present example of past noble ancestry. Calisto does not deal with his father's judges but with alcahuetas. (One need only remember Celesti na's threats prior to her death, as well as Areusa's reproaches to Centurio to underscore the importance of the latter.) The power of the magistrate gives way to the power of the prostitute, and all are laid low by money. In the Celestina, the alcahuetaos upside-down world seemingly has encompassed the entire town. Procuring the sweet Melibea for love sick Calisto, Celestina has culled her last flower. All who are associated with the dishonor of Calisto and Pleberio's houses tragically end. The queen bee has died, and those of her hive have dispersed.

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