The auto sacramental El mayor desengaño has traditionally been attributed to Tirso de Molina in most bibliographic repertoires, primarily due to its shared title with his homonymous hagiographic play. In this article, I propose that the play should instead be attributed to Mira de Amescua, as El mayor desengañodisplays notable similarities with three of his other sacramental plays —La fe de Hungría, La santa Margarita, and Las pruebas de Cristo. These include the recurring motif of the profanation of a consecrated host, as well as the reuse of specific scenes and extended verse passages. To support this attribution, I begin by exam-ining the origin and expansion of this anti-Jewish motif across artistic traditions, before turning to a detailed analysis of its representation in the four plays under discussion
The auto sacramental El mayor desengaño has traditionally been attributed to Tirso de Molina in most bibliographic repertoires, primarily due to its shared title with his homonymous hagiographic play. In this article, I propose that the play should instead be attributed to Mira de Amescua, as El mayor desengaño displays notable similarities with three of his other sacramental plays—La fe de Hungría, La santa Margarita, and Las pruebas de Cristo. These include the recurring motif of the profanation of a consecrated host, as well as the reuse of specific scenes and extended verse passages. To support this attribution, I begin by examining the origin and expansion of this anti-Jewish motif across artistic traditions, before turning to a detailed analysis of its representation in the four plays under discussion.