Three Major Plays Read online

  OXFORD WORLD'S CLASSICS

  THREE MAJOR PLAYS

  LOPE DE VEGA ( 1562-1635) was one of the three great dramatists of the most vital political and cultural period in Spanish history, the Golden Age, when Spain ruled much of the western world. Born in Madrid, where he spent most of his life, Lope's passionate and impulsive nature led to his involvement in numerous sexual relationships, even after he took holy orders at the age of 51, and often landed him in serious trouble with the law.

  Lope's sexual appetites were equalled only by his energy as a writer. During a literary career of some fifty-five years, he wrote both poetry and prose and, it was claimed, more than 2,000 plays. At a time when the theatre was beginning to flourish in Spain, Lope largely shaped the three-act play, with its exciting action, vivid characterization, and mixture of serious and comic elements, which would be adopted by his contemporaries and successors.

  Drawing for his material on history, the Bible, and contemporary life, Lope's theatre had a vitality which thrilled contemporary audiences and made him the most popular dramatist of his day. Fuente Ovejuna, The Knight from Olmedo, and Punishment Without Revenge are three of Lope's greatest plays and exemplify not only the characteristic themes of his drama -- love, honour, revenge -- but also his consummate artistry.

  GWYNNE EDWARDSis Professor of Spanish at the University of Wales, Aberystwyth. He has written critical studies of Lorca and Buñuel, as well as of Spanish theatre and cinema in general. He has also translated more than forty Spanish plays, of which more than twenty have been published and performed professionally.

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  OXFORD WORLD'S CLASSICS

  THREE MAJOR PLAYS

  LOPE DE VEGA ( 1562-1635) was one of the three great dramatists of the most vital political and cultural period in Spanish history, the Golden Age, when Spain ruled much of the western world. Born in Madrid, where he spent most of his life, Lope's passionate and impulsive nature led to his involvement in numerous sexual relationships, even after he took holy orders at the age of 51, and often landed him in serious trouble with the law.

  Lope's sexual appetites were equalled only by his energy as a writer. During a literary career of some fifty-five years, he wrote both poetry and prose and, it was claimed, more than 2,000 plays. At a time when the theatre was beginning to flourish in Spain, Lope largely shaped the three-act play, with its exciting action, vivid characterization, and mixture of serious and comic elements, which would be adopted by his contemporaries and successors.

  Drawing for his material on history, the Bible, and contemporary life, Lope's theatre had a vitality which thrilled contemporary audiences and made him the most popular dramatist of his day. Fuente Ovejuna, The Knight from Olmedo, and Punishment Without Revenge are three of Lope's greatest plays and exemplify not only the characteristic themes of his drama -- love, honour, revenge -- but also his consummate artistry.

  GWYNNE EDWARDSis Professor of Spanish at the University of Wales, Aberystwyth. He has written critical studies of Lorca and Buñuel, as well as of Spanish theatre and cinema in general. He has also translated more than forty Spanish plays, of which more than twenty have been published and performed professionally.

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  OXFORD WORLD'S CLASSICS

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  OXFORD WORLD'S CLASSICS LOPE DE VEGA

  Fuente Ovejuna The Knight from Olmedo Punishment Without Revenge

  Translated with an Introduction and Notes by GWYNNE EDWARDS

  Oxford New York OXFORD UNIVERSITY PRESS 1999

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  Translation and Editorial Matter à Gwynne Edwards 1999

  First published as an Oxford World's Classics paperback 1999

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  British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data Data available

  Library of Congress Cataloging in Publication Data

  Vega, Lope de, 1562-1635. [Plays. English. Selections] Three major plays / Lope de Vega; translated with an introduction and notes by Gwynne Edwards. ( Oxford world's classics) I. Edwards, Gwynne. II. Vega, Lope de, 1562-1635. Fuente Ovejuna. English. III. Vega, Lope de, 1562-1635. Caballero de Olmedo. English. IV. Vega, Lope de, 1562-1635. Castigo sin venganza. English. V. Title. VI. Series: Oxford world's classics ( Oxford University Press) PQ6459.A2 1999 862'.3 -- dc21 98-26991 ISBN 0-19-283337-5

  1 3 5 7 9 10 8 6 4 2

  Typeset by Ace Filmsetting Ltd, Frome, Somerset Printed in Great Britain by Cox & Wyman Ltd, Reading, Berkshire

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  CONTENTS Introduction vii

  The Staging of Golden Age Plays xxxii

  Translator's Note xxxv

  Select Bibliography xxxvii

  Chronology of Lope de Vega's Life xl

  FUENTE OVEJUNA 1

  THE KNIGHT FROM OLMEDO 81

  PUNISHMENT WITHOUT REVENGE 169

  Explanatory Notes 267

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  INTRODUCTION

  The Golden Age

  The Spanish Golden Age, in which Lope de Vega was one of the brightest jewels, embraced, broadly speaking, the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, when Spain was, in territorial terms, the most powerful nation in the world. In 1492, with the conquest of Granada, the Catholic Kings, Ferdinand and Isabella, had succeeded in ending the Muslim domination of Spain which had lasted for eight centuries, and in unifying, both in a political and a religious sense, a country which had long been divided. The same year also witnessed, significantly, Columbus's discovery of the Indies, a momentous event which would lead in the years which followed to Spain's conquest and exploitation of the New World. U
nder Charles I, the grandson of the Catholic Kings who succeeded to the Spanish throne in 1516, Spain's influence in Europe also increased significantly, for in 1519 he was elected Holy Roman Emperor (as Charles V of Austria), which meant that large areas of northern Europe were effectively under Spanish control. He was, in short, the most powerful ruler in Europe, with an empire in the New World which grew larger by the year. 1

  In 1556 Charles, exhausted by his efforts, abdicated in favour of his son Philip II, who ruled Spain almost until the end of the sixteenth century. Less imperialist in outlook than his father, Philip's dream, nevertheless, was to be the sole ruler of a Catholic Europe, as well as to spread the Catholic faith in the New World, regardless of the cruelty and suffering which this might involve. By the end of the sixteenth century, however, the image of a powerful and successful country scarcely concealed the underlying reality of serious and rapid decline, due in no small measure to the economic demands of maintaining a large empire. The wealth imported from the New World, though vast, proved insufficient, and led to inflation in Spain itself. High taxation became crippling, Spanish industry gradually declined,

  ____________________ 1 Authoritative studies of the history of the Golden Age include J. H. Elliot, Imperial Spain, 1469-1716 ( London, 1963) and J. Lynch, Spain under the Hapsburgs, 2 vols. ( Oxford, 1964 and 1969).

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  and agriculture was seriously affected as countrypeople abandoned the land in the hope of a better life in the towns and cities. When Philip II died in 1598, his prophecy that God had given him many kingdoms but no son fit to rule over them was uncannily accurate.

  Philip III ( 1598-1619) and his successor Philip IV ( 1619-65) lost little time in handing over power to a succession of powerful royal favourites in order to spend their leisure in often facile amusements. During their reigns Spanish influence in Europe was slowly whittled away, while at home the economic situation reached a stage where devaluation became common, the cost of collecting taxes became greater than the value of the taxes themselves, and neither soldiers serving overseas nor the palace guards at home received their wages. When Philip IV died in 1665 he was replaced by his wife Mariana of Austria, acting as regent until their son, Charles II, came of age. The result of constant inbreeding, he was, however, a sickly individual whose poor health in a way mirrored that of his country. His death in 1700 at the age of 40 marked not only the end of Spain's Golden Age but also the end of the Spanish Habsburg dynasty.

  In cultural terms Spain's achievements during the two centuries in question reflect her political and territorial supremacy, though, paradoxically, the greatest triumphs in the arts occurred during the years of Spanish decline. Lope de Vega, born six years after the accession of Philip II, achieved his greatest theatrical successes during the reigns of Philip III and Philip IV, a period which also witnessed the flowering of many other dramatists, and which in that respect was the equal of its English counterpart. These were years which saw too the publication of Cervantes Don Quijote, as well as a string of picaresque novels which would eventually influence English writers such as Fielding, Smollett, and even Dickens. Velázquez ( 1599-1660), arguably the greatest Spanish painter, was Court painter to Philip IV. It was the age, too, of the greatest works of the Spanish poets Francisco de Quevedo ( 1580-1645) and Luis de Góngora ( 1561-1627). In short, at a time when Spain's political and economic fortunes were increasingly shaky, there occurred in the arts an outburst of creative energy the like of which Spain would never experience subsequently. 2

  ____________________ 2 On the cultural achievements of Spain during the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, see P. E. Russell (ed.), Spain: A Companion to Spanish Studies ( London, 1973).

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  Lope de Vega's Life and Work

  Lope Félix de Vega Carpio was born in Madrid on 25 November 1562, the son of Felices de Vega Carpio and his wife, Francisca, both from the area around Santander. From his father Lope seems to have inherited an impulsive nature, a combination of erotic and religious tendencies, and a capacity for writing verse, for it is said that he dictated verses before the age of 5 and was writing plays at the age of 12. He received his early education at a Jesuit school in Madrid and later at the University of Alcalá de Henares, near Madrid, where he was a student until about 1582. His impulsive nature is revealed by the fact that at the age of 12 or 13 he ran away from school with a friend, but was eventually caught and sent home. His early twenties also saw the beginning of his involvement in amorous affairs which would greatly complicate his life. 3

  Around 1583 Lope fell passionately in love with Elena Osorio, the daughter of an actor-manager for whom he had agreed to write plays. The relationship lasted until 1587, when Elena began to show her affections for someone else, a betrayal which Lope attempted to avenge by publishing libellous attacks against her and her family. Tried for libel in 1588, he was banished from Madrid for eight years and from Castile for two. Defying the sentence, despite the threat of execution, Lope returned to Madrid in order to elope with Isabel de Urbina Alderete y Cortinas, daughter of the King at Arms, whom he married without her parents' permission before joining his brother on the San Juan, a ship which was part of the Spanish Armada bound for England. After his return he lived in Valencia until 1590 when, his banishment from Castile over, he moved to Toledo and then to Alba de Torres, near Salamanca, where he entered the service of the Duke of Alba. After the death of his wife in 1595 he began a series of relationships with various women: an involvement with Antonia Trillo de Armento in 1596 led to his appearance before the courts; in 1598 he married Juana de Guarda, the daughter of a wealthy Madrid butcher; and shortly afterwards he embarked on

  ____________________ 3 One of the most detailed accounts of Lope's life and work is that by Karl Vossler, Lope de Vega y su tiempo ( Madrid, 1940). See too Gerald Brenan, The Literature of the Spanish People ( Cambridge, 1953), in particular ch. 9.

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  an extramarital affair with Micaela de Luján, a beautiful and wellknown actress whose husband was out of the country. The relationship lasted for some eight years and produced a large number of children.

  During these years Lope worked in the service of various noblemen and, when his second wife died in 1613, he became a priest. Despite this, his amorous exploits continued, for two years later he began an affair with Marta de Nevares Santoyo, a married woman living with her husband in Madrid. Lope took her to live with him but she later became blind and insane, dying in 1632. It was one of several tragedies which clouded Lope's last years. In 1634 his 16year-old daughter, Antonia, ran off with an influential courtier, and in the same year his son Lope was drowned in the Caribbean. Lope himself died one year later, on 27 August 1935.

  Lope de Vega's amorous drive was surpassed only by his energy as a writer, for his literary works embraced prose and poetry, as well as drama. A pastoral novel, Arcadia, appeared in 1598, while his last work was a prose piece in dialogue form -- La Dorotea -- which drew on his early love affair with Elena Osorio. He also wrote several epic poems and various volumes of shorter poems. But it was, of course, as a dramatist that he was most prolific, the phrase used by Cervantes to describe him -- monstruo de naturaleza (monster of Nature) -suggesting his amazing productivity. Lope boasted of writing a play a day, and one of his contemporaries, Juan Pérez de Montalbán, claimed after Lope's death that 1,800 secular plays and 400 religious plays had been performed. Modern scholarship points to around 340 extant plays -- many have disappeared -- which are definitely by Lope. These alone are ten times as many plays as Shakespeare wrote, and as many as all the works of the other Elizabethan and Jacobean dramatists put together.

  More than any other dramatist, Lope gave the theatre of the Golden Age its definitive form, paving the way for younger dramatists such as Tirso de Molina and Calderón. Its principal characteristics, demonstrated in the plays and set out in his poetic essay, The New Art of Writing Plays (Arte nuevo de hacer comedias), consisted of: mixing the comic and the serio
us; breaking the classical unities of action, time, and place; making the characters speak in an appropriate style; and combining entertainment with a moral purpose. As far as subject matter is concerned, Lope's range was very great

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  indeed. 4 Many of his plays belong to the tradition of the comedia de capa y espada (cloak-and-dagger plays): light comedies of love and jealousy in which the characters belong to the lower nobility. Many other amorous comedies, however, fall outside this category, for their characters come from a higher social class, one of the bestknown being The Dog in the Manger (El perro del hortelano) ( 161315), its characters well drawn and its plot cleverly managed. Another fertile source for Lope's imagination was the Bible, which provided him with material for two kinds of play extremely popular at the time: comedias a lo divino (religious plays) and comedias de santo (plays about saints). An example of the former is The Beautiful Esther (La hermosa Ester) ( 1610). History also yielded many powerful stories. From ancient history came Against Bravery there is no Misfortune (Contra valor no hay desdicha) ( 1625-30), which dramatizes the rise of Cyrus of Persia, while from more recent Spanish history Lope fashioned plays which had lessons for the present. Such is The Duke of Viseo (El Duque de Viseo) ( 1608-9), in which the innocent Duke becomes the victim of a suspicious king, of envy, and of circumstances, the play serving as a warning for those who rule and administer justice. Lope's most famous 'historical' play is, though, Fuente Ovejuna ( 1612-14), its action set in the fifteenth century during the reign of Ferdinand and Isabella. Within this historical context, Lope focuses on the abuses perpetrated upon the inhabitants of the village of Fuente Ovejuna by Fernán Gómez de Guzmán, their overlord and Commander of the Order of Calatrava.