Deception and fictional pact: farce and metadrama in auto d’El-Rei Seleuco, by Luís de Camões

Abstract

Upon discussing metadrama and a “play within a play”, one often thinks about the Spanish Siglo de Oro or William Shakespeare, in England. However, we find traces of metadrama ever since the 16th century. In Portugal, the 1500s already counted at least six plays with this theme. This paper intends to focus on the proximities between the dramatic form of farce and metadrama in Auto d’el-Rei Seleuco, written by Luís de Camões in the second half of the 16th century. This play’s main plot — concerning Seleucus I Nicator and his family — has very few elements to categorize it as such. One may observe, however, the presence of an episode of little over 200-verse length, worthy of a farce. Here, in a short preparation to the play that follows, we see a kind of deception typical from the farce in an episode that brings to the stage the preparations for the main representation, discussing the makings of a play, and therefore could only be described as metadramatic. Thus, in this essay we propose a discussion on whether the elements of farse help construct the “play within a play” atmosphere perceived in the text, mostly based in the hypothesis presented by Márcio Muniz (2015; 2019), amongst other authors, to support our debate in this paper.