The thorny question of time in Celestina : Proposed stage directions

Abstract

In this twenty-one act work of prose dialogues, no indications of time passing –other than those the characters happen to note– occur. However, a strong case can be made for implicit time, unmarked time that passes between the events of the work. In the Tragicomedia de Calisto y Melibea, these unseen bits of time can be reconstructed from non-sequential parts of the dialogue and made to describe the implicit time that lapses. A modern edition might include some stage directions which would add important information for new readers of the work. In fact, almost three weeks of lapsed time can be plotted, in addition to the month in which the authors extended the love affair of the title protagonists.