A SHAMEFUL REVENGE
by María de Zayas y Sotomayor, 1637

Set in the prosperous Italian city of Milan, which throughout the seventeenth century was a Spanish possession, María de Zayas y Sotomayor's "A Shameful Revenge" (La mas infame venganza) tells of the tragic fate of Olivia, whose plight is all the more painful because of the constraints that society placed on young women of her class. Her father, a Spanish gentleman who has held a command in the army and squandered much of his considerable inheritance, does not improve his fortunes by marrying a woman who, though equal in rank, is not rich. The couple have a comfortable if quite modest existence, however, and they are gladdened by the birth of their daughter Olivia and then, six years later, a son. The narrator calls the son Don Juan, stating that she will conceal his true identity so as not to blacken the family's reputation.

When Olivia grows up, a man by the name of Carlos becomes infatuated with her beauty. From a wealthier, more highly placed family than Olivia's and the son of a senator who has ambitions for an advantageous match, Carlos does not desire to marry her but merely to possess her. Although Olivia is flattered by his attentions and turns down the possibility of a more suitable husband, she resists his advances. Frustration grows on both sides as Olivia repeatedly meets Carlos's passionate outpourings by protesting that granting favors would bring dishonor. Then, allowing herself to believe in a betrothal vow, she surrenders.

The pair's period of happiness is brief. Olivia's father is killed in war, and her mother dies soon after. Matters becomes more complicated when her brother, who has been absent for some time, returns to Milan. Instead of thinking of a dowry for his sister, Juan intends to enjoy his inheritance to the full, but after killing a prominent Milanese in a gaming house he is forced to flee to Naples. During Juan's two-year absence the relationship between Olivia and Carlos changes. Attentive at first, Carlos soon tires of her, especially when she presses him to marry her and restore the reputation that she is all too conscious of having forfeited.

At this point Carlos's father intervenes. He urges his son to marry Camilla, a 20-year-old woman of modest beauty but great wealth, and to sever all connections with Olivia. Carlos does not do exactly as his father wishes, but Olivia is persuaded to go into a convent. True to type, Carlos tires of Camilla soon after the wedding and tries once again to take up with Olivia. In her despair Olivia summons Juan, but, like Carlos, he too is duplicitous. When Olivia relates her misfortunes, his response is that she must, as a fallen woman, take the veil. He also takes possession of her jewels and promptly sells them off, using the proceeds to ensure that he is not prosecuted for the murder he had earlier committed and to win friends in Milan.

Although Carlos is at first lulled into a false sense of security, he later grows uneasy over Juan's return. Juan first tries to seduce Camilla, and when she resists his advances, he decides on more violent methods. He calls at Carlos's house disguised as a woman and, after threatening Camilla with his dagger, rapes her. As he leaves the house, he loudly declares that he has achieved his purpose of revenging his sister's lost honor. Camilla's distress is compounded by the guilt she feels for not having disclosed Juan's earlier attentions. After retiring to a convent for a year, she returns home, where Carlos, unable to relate to her, poisons her. After prolonged suffering she welcomes death. Most probably going off in search of Juan, though it is not known if he ever finds him, Carlos then disappears without a trace, and his father is obliged to marry again to avoid dying without an heir. Olivia alone might be thought happy, for as a nun she has exchanged the deceits of men for the truth of God.

"A Shameful Revenge," whose chronologically straightforward narrative is interrupted by a number of lyrics, is related by an omniscient third-person storyteller. Despite the general critical principle recommending caution over such an identification, it is in this instance particularly tempting to recognize the female narrator as none other than the author herself. The narrator openly intervenes at every turn to side with the unfortunate women in the story. Women are presented as naturally vulnerable, and they have not been prepared to defend themselves against the insidious wiles and brutal attacks of predatory men. They are only too aware of the standards expected of them in a society governed by the requirement to maintain both the status and the wealth of the family and also the moral standards of Catholicism, which were enforced far more strictly on inexperienced females than on cynical males.

Passivity, which is emphasized by the extreme violence practiced by the men, and confinement to home or convent, which contrasts with the opportunities for traveling available to Juan and Carlos, add to the women's misery. At risk whenever they venture out, the women lack distractions, for they are obliged to wait patiently and to brood over problems that profoundly disturb them but that remain beyond their capacity to resolve. The narrator, who thinks it important to comment, a little primly, that "as I have never yet been the victim of deception, I am ill-placed to draw the moral," does not venture any positive proposals for the betterment of women's lot. Instead, readers are simply invited to consider for themselves whether of not all of the misfortunes resulted from men's wiles or from women's weakness.

Offered as a tale based on real-life events, though research casts doubts on the claim, which is also made by Marguerite de Navarre in her Heptameron and by the authors of a number of similar collections, "A Shameful Revenge" attracts attention to its characters by identifying them according to social relationship within settings that are taken to be familiar to readers. Except in general terms, there is scant description of persons, places, or events. The focus is on the development of the action, and the narrator skips across decades and banishes characters from the scene once they have served their function. From the outset the narrator's moralizing comments prepare readers for disasters to come, though their nature or agency cannot be exactly foreseen. The moral issues that are raised are explored at some length in dialogues between Olivia and Carlos, with space also allowed for lyrical development, but otherwise the treatment of thought processes is quite summary. We are told, simply and briefly, that this or that consideration moved the characters to take a certain action. Like many of the stories found in Renaissance and seventeenth-century collections, which it also resembles in the violence of its depiction of the consequences of sexual passions in a closed society, "A Shameful Revenge" is particularly suitable for being read aloud, and the impact in mixed company can be especially powerful.

—Christopher Smith