Who was Lope de Vega, and what was the comedia?

Lope de Vega and the comedia

Lope de Vega y el Arte nuevo de hacer comedias

1609. Lope de Vega, born in Madrid in 1562, sailed with the Armada in 1588 (he claimed), loved scandalously, was exiled from the court and became the most prolific…

Where: Spain, Madrid

What happened

Lope de Vega, born in Madrid in 1562, sailed with the Armada in 1588 (he claimed), loved scandalously, was exiled from the court and became the most prolific playwright in history: he boasted of 1,070 plays by 1625, and some 300–400 survive, with Fuenteovejuna, Peribáñez, El caballero de Olmedo and El perro del hortelano among them. In 1609 he published the Arte nuevo de hacer comedias, a verse manifesto for the Spanish comedia: three acts, comic and tragic mixed 'as in nature', the classical unities ignored and the public pleased. The formula filled the corrales, the open-air theatres of Madrid and Seville, for a century and was continued by Tirso de Molina and Calderón. Ordained a priest in 1614, the 'Fénix de los ingenios' died in Madrid on 27 August 1635.

Say it

Lope de Vega escribió cientos de obras de teatro.

Lope de Vega wrote hundreds of plays.

Why it matters

Lope created a national theatre at the moment Shakespeare was creating England's; the comedia's verse forms and plots are still staged, and his phrase 'el vulgo paga' describes popular culture to this day.

Connected

• The Siglo de Oro (c. 1492–1681)
• The Armada sails against England (30 May 1588–October 1588)
• Don Quixote is published (January 1605)

• Before: Don Quixote is published
• After: The expulsion of the Moriscos

Sources

1. Apunte biobibliográfico de Lope de Vega — Biblioteca Virtual Miguel de Cervantes
2. Cronología de Lope de Vega — Biblioteca Virtual Miguel de Cervantes