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Máximo Manso: The molde and the hechura 103 H. L. Boudreau Anales galdosianos [Publicaciones periódicas]. Año XII, 1977 No reader of Galdós remains long unaware that the important figures in his works bear names with both a real and a metaphoric dimension. Often the authorial comment thus made is obvious but ironic (Don Inocencio, Doña Cándida), sometimes it is clear and direct (Benigna, Víctor), and on occasion the implied comparison is openly explained by the author (Torquemada) or a character (Licurgo). Instances are not lacking when the symbolism is so unambiguous as to be anti-esthetic (José María Cruz, Electra), but then some of these seemingly unsubtle ones (Cruz del Águila) go on to form the basis of the most complex of thematic and structural metaphoric developments. The Shoemaker study of the character of José Ido del Sagrario reveals how elaborate and meaningful such metaphor can be even in the case of a secondary character 104 . Máximo Manso's name is no exception to such onomastics, and critics have known this from the beginning, at least in a general way. A closer look, however, may reveal more than has been suspected. If the Diccionario de la Real Academia defines manso as « benigno y suave » and as « sosegado », it also gives us a sixth acceptance that includes « buey que sirve de guía a los demás ». The latter can serve as a point of departure toward the enlargement of the term as Galdós conceived it within the context of his novel. The modesty of dictionaries notwithstanding, a popular acceptance of the word (obviously an extension of the buey -not masculine- suggestion) is «cuckold» or « no bravo »; that is, one who is taken advantage of or used by others. Unamuno saw this clearly when he re- elaborated the Galdós material in Niebla . The Augusto Pérez/Eugenia/Mauricio triangle is closely modeled on Manso/Irene/Manuel. 105 103 A minimally altered version of this paper was presented at the Galdós Seminar, conducted under the auspices of the Modern Language Association at its Annual Meeting. December 28, 1974 in New York City. 104 William G. Shoemaker, «Galdós' Literary Creativity: D. José Ido del Sagrario », in Estudios sobre Galdós (Valencia: Editorial Castalia, 1970). 105 Ricardo Gullón, « El amigo Manso : Nivola galdosiana », in Técnicas de Galdós ( Madrid: Taurus Ediciones , 1970), p. 80. 78
Anales galdosianos [Publicaciones periódicas]. Año XII, 1977 The «cuckold» meaning is, however, richer than this might suggest. It will be remembered that when Manso accompanied Irene and the children to the theater to see some Christmas plays, one of those witnessed was a travesty entitled El Nacimiento del Hijo de Dios , of which the protagonist-narrator says, « lo más repugnante de aquella farsa increíble era un pastor zafio y bestial, pretendiente a la mano de María, y que en la escena del templo y en el resto de la obra se permitía groseras libertades de lenguaje a propósito de la mansedumbre de San José. » 106 Five years after the publication of El amigo Manso , Galdós returned, with Fortunata y Jacinta , to the matter of the mansedumbre of San José in the naming and imagined cuckoldry of José Ido del Sagrario 107 in a novel in which the triangle situation is echoed with variation after variation in a series of trios. With his marriage to Fortunata, Maxi invites the cuckolding which soon follows, resulting in a pregnancy he imagines to have a supernatural cause. The all but identical first names of Manso and Rubín (Máximo/Maximiliano) is suggestive. Part of the novelist's interest in each case -despite the differences between the two characters- is to satirize with the inflated first name and then to portray men who, in important senses, live on the fringes of life and come to grief when they enter into it without full understanding of their own natures and those of others. As their stories begin Maximiliano and Máximo are living the «life of the mind» (pharmacy/philosophy), cared for by a mother figure (Doña Lupe/Doña Javiera). They then enter the affective world through interest of an amorous nature (although not fully understood as such because of their unworldliness) in an inappropriate woman (Fortunata/Irene) whose natural affections turn to a man more suited to her emotional needs (Juanito/Manuel). The competition is unequal and both Maximiliano and Máximo are defeated, whereupon they withdraw once more from the world, the former into lofty, rationalistic madness, the latter into death, i.e., the nonexistence with which the novel began. Maximiliano, in his final wise madness, says: « No contamos con la Naturaleza... Protestamos contra sus lecciones admirables, que no entendemos, y cuando queremos que nos obedezca, nos coge y nos estrella, como el mar estrella a los que pretenden gobernarlo » 108 . Máximo begins his story with: « Yo no existo » (9). In both characters Galdós is portraying the conflict between the natural and the rational and the two men share both real and figurative mansedumbre . The similarity of names having led us to 106 Benito Pérez Galdós, El amigo Manso (Buenos Aires: Espasa Calpe, 1955), p. 65. Future references to this edition will be cited parenthetically in the text. 107 Shoemaker, p. 117. 108 Benito Pérez Galdós, Fortunata y Jacinta (Madrid: Ediciones Hernando, 1968), p. 1036. 79
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