Un Nuevo ámbito para La vida de Lazarillo de Tormes

Resum

In the text of La vida de Lazarillo de Tormes that has been handed down to us the last paragraph of the foreword constitutes the beginning of the work, as attested by the brusque change of narrator. The pronoun ella referring to Vuestra Merced, the addressee of Lázaros statement, shows that that person is a lady. She asks for information about the caso (affair) because she is worried by the rumours she has heard about the archpriest of San Salvador cohabiting. He is her confessor and her secrets might be betrayed by a dissolute cleric. The meaning of the Lazarillo de Tormes changes completely if, instead of focusing on the servant of many masters, we direct our attention to the behaviour of the masters themselves, all associated with the Church, except the vain, idle squire. The historical references, the ideological content, the lexical coincidences and the bibliographical influences that emerge in the Lazarillo leave no doubt as to the identity of the author: the Erasmist Alfonso de Valdés. The Libro del caballero Cifar and Tirante el Blanco are two of the works that leave their mark on his two Diálogos and the Lazarillo.