The painful practical realities of seventeenth-century dentistry underpin the dramatic action of El médico de su honra . While a number of critics have used thematic evidence to argue whether King Pedro will have Coquín's teeth extracted, it should first be recognized that the king's threat to have all of Coquín's teeth extracted constitutes a death threat. The present study argues that the fates of Coquín and Mencía are intimately connected. In fact, they are so inextricably intertwined that after the apariencia of Mencía's bloody bed—a visual spectacle that resembles a bloody mouth—Coquín's death is no longer dramatically or thematically necessary. Mencía has bled to death in imitation of the same threat directed against Coquín. Reading the play from Gutierre's point of view, we recognize that Gutierre's fear of King Pedro's male teeth makes him turn against Mencía, a more vulnerable female target. In Gutierre's mind, Coquín and Mencía are allied, among other factors, by their less-than-masculine sexuality. King Pedro has threatened Coquín with death because of the clown's rampant expressiveness and its threat of disorder. Similarly, Gutierre arranges Mencía's murder in part out of a fear of her expressiveness and its inherent threat to male honor and male order.

The motif of verticality underlies the depiction of Queen Jezabel as the Babylonian queen Semiramis. By expanding her royal gardens, Jezabel seeks to emulate the Hanging Gardens of Babylon, which were built by Semiramis. The motif of verticality also relates to the joint struggles of Jezabel's opponents, Elías and Nabot, to lead the Israelites to the garden-city of the New Jerusalem. In the Apocalypse, the New Jerusalem is described as a garden-city surrounded by a high wall and located on a mountaintop. Each of its three principal features (the garden, the wall, and the mountain) comprises an arena of conflict in the play. (MOL)

As Daniel Eisenberg has shown in his examination of Las semanas del jardín and the whole of the Cervantine canon, Cervantes consistently promoted rural life over an urban existence. Not surprisingly, this preference guides the actions of the captives fleeing Los baños de Argel . The importance of landscape has been underestimated in scholarly appreciations of this comedia , especially regarding the role of Agimorato's garden, a setting which never appears on stage but which nonetheless offers a variety of symbolic and practical meanings. Francisco Nieva, the director of a rare production of Los baños , notes that the characters often take a back seat to the setting: "Los personajes son fugaces primeros planos, pronto fundidos en el barullo de las calles, con los ecos del mar, el viento del desierto, los vergeles de Argel." In contrast to the infidel and labyrinthine city of Algiers, the sea and garden represent the natural world wherein lies the possibility of freedom.

El lenguaje de La gran sultana se enreda con juegos de palabras, soliloquios, rompecabezas, oxímorones, y oraciones íntimas. Mientras se desenlaza la trama, también se revela la verdadera identidad de Madrigal, el esclavo soberbio. Tan chistoso, sorprendente, cruel, y creador como cualquier pícaro, Madrigal cambia de opinión cada dos por tres, y cambia de trabajo igual de rápido. Procuro demostrar que sus poderes creadores y transformativos sobresalen en su habla rica y excéntrica, y que sus palabras secretas o “codificadas” se derivan de sus múltiples oficios. Madrigal se metamorfosea de “cocinero” desgraciado en sastre poco hábil, intérprete confuso, maestro disparatado, y sacerdote falso. Este fanfarrón nos miente al decir que enseña a hablar a un elefante, pero a la vez nos avisa que sí conoce los motivos más profundos del dramaturgo.

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