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and to recover some of its economic and
cultural brilliance.
idly produced, most scholars of the drama
have praised Lope's achievement at the
same time that they are obliged to struggle
with some organizing principle to catego-
rize his plays. Broadly they may be divided
into religious, mythological, pastoral, his-
torical, and comedies of manners. The most
important of his plays are those that focus
on concepts of honor, justice, and the rela-
tions among social classes.
Among Lope's best play is
Fuenteovejuna
(Sheep's well, ca. 1612-14), the story of a
village who rises up against the tyranny of
its overlord and then assumes the collective
guilt for his death. Royal investigators can-
not persuade or force anyone to identify
the slayer of the
comendador
(commander).
Each resident, when asked who killed the
tyrant, will only respond
“Fuenteovejuna.”
In the end the king decrees that since it
would be unjust to punish all and since the
citizens are moved by the virtues of a shared
love and solidarity, he must pardon them
all. Over the centuries the perennial rele-
vance of resistance to oppression and col-
lective responsibility have given this play
an ongoing resonance. In
Peribáñez y el
comendador de Ocaña
(
Peribañez and the Com-
mander of Ocaña,
ca. 1610) the title charac-
ter is a respected farmer whom the local
comendador
raises to the rank of
HIDALGO
with command of a company of peasant
soldiers. The villainous commander hopes
to get rid of him so as to seduce his bride.
Peribáñez, however, confronts and slays the
comendador,
justifying his action on the
ground that he has now attained the rank
of gentleman and has a right to defend his
family honor in a way not permitted to
mere peasants. The
comendador,
by promot-
ing Peribáñez, has thus guaranteed his own
doom. In this play, as in
Fuenteovejuna,
a
Lope de Vega Carpio, Félix
(1562-1635)
Spanish dramatist
Although of humble origin Lope de Vega,
thanks to clerical patronage, received a clas-
sical education and attended the University
of Alcalá. He soon embarked on a pattern of
life that would last for many decades: a
restless combination of literary activity, the
pursuit of women, and travel about Spain
and overseas (including participation in the
A
RMADA
's failed invasion of England in
1588). A bewildering succession of wives
and mistresses, legal tangles, and even a
period of banishment from M
ADRID
compli-
cated his financial situation. Some of his
difficulties were resolved when he entered
the priesthood in 1614, although this
change in status by no means ended his
romantic attachments.
If Lope de Vega's lifestyle was picturesque,
his literary achievement was prodigious.
Aside from a wide range of works in poetry
and prose he was the most fecund of all
playwrights. While he speaks in an autobio-
graphical passage of writing 1,500 plays,
other sources suggest that the total reached
1,800 or even 2,000. Of these only 500 have
survived, due to the careless manner in
which texts were distributed and preserved
during his era. The author alludes to about
100 plays that he wrote in just one day each.
Lope, as he was popularly called by his con-
temporaries, was variously hailed as a “phoe-
nix,” a “marvel,” or even a “monster” due to
his unnatural facility and productivity.
Although some critics have questioned
the worth of an output so vast and so rap-
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