Spanish Baroque literature - AbsoluteAstronomy.com

Spanish Baroque literature is the literature

Literature

Literature is the art of written works, and is not bound to published sources...

written in Spain

Spain

Spain , officially the Kingdom of Spain languages]] under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages. In each of these, Spain's official name is as follows:;;;;;;), is a country and member state of the European Union located in southwestern Europe on the Iberian Peninsula...

during the Baroque

Baroque

The Baroque is a period and the style that used exaggerated motion and clear, easily interpreted detail to produce drama, tension, exuberance, and grandeur in sculpture, painting, literature, dance, and music...

.

The literary Baroque took place in Spain in the middle of the Golden Age

Golden Age

The term Golden Age comes from Greek mythology and legend and refers to the first in a sequence of four or five Ages of Man, in which the Golden Age is first, followed in sequence, by the Silver, Bronze, and Iron Ages, and then the present, a period of decline...

of Spanish Literature. Spain was governed in that period by Philip II

Philip II of Spain

Philip II was King of Spain, Portugal, Naples, Sicily, and, while married to Mary I, King of England and Ireland. He was lord of the Seventeen Provinces from 1556 until 1581, holding various titles for the individual territories such as duke or count....

, Philip III

Philip III of Spain

Philip III , also known as Philip the Pious, was the King of Spain and King of Portugal and the Algarves, where he ruled as Philip II , from 1598 until his death...

and Philip IV

Philip IV of Spain

Philip IV was King of Spain between 1621 and 1665, sovereign of the Spanish Netherlands, and King of Portugal until 1640...

, the last reigning until 1665.

During the previous century, Spain had reached its greatest unity and territorial extension. Through inheritances, diplomatic conquests, agreements or royal marriages, Flanders

Flanders

Flanders is the community of the Flemings but also one of the institutions in Belgium, and a geographical region located in parts of present-day Belgium, France and the Netherlands. "Flanders" can also refer to the northern part of Belgium that contains Brussels, Bruges, Ghent and Antwerp...

, Germany

Germany

Germany , officially the Federal Republic of Germany , is a federal parliamentary republic in Europe. The country consists of 16 states while the capital and largest city is Berlin. Germany covers an area of 357,021 km2 and has a largely temperate seasonal climate...

, Hungary

Hungary

Hungary , officially the Republic of Hungary , is a landlocked country in Central Europe. It is situated in the Carpathian Basin and is bordered by Slovakia to the north, Ukraine and Romania to the east, Serbia and Croatia to the south, Slovenia to the southwest and Austria to the west. The...

, Naples

Naples

Naples is a city in Southern Italy, situated on the country's west coast by the Gulf of Naples. Lying between two notable volcanic regions, Mount Vesuvius and the Phlegraean Fields, it is the capital of the region of Campania and of the province of Naples...

, Portugal

Portugal

Portugal , officially the Portuguese Republic is a country situated in southwestern Europe on the Iberian Peninsula. Portugal is the westernmost country of Europe, and is bordered by the Atlantic Ocean to the West and South and by Spain to the North and East. The Atlantic archipelagos of the...

and Sicily

Sicily

Sicily is a region of Italy, and is the largest island in the Mediterranean Sea. Along with the surrounding minor islands, it constitutes an autonomous region of Italy, the Regione Autonoma Siciliana Sicily has a rich and unique culture, especially with regard to the arts, music, literature,...

, as well as new and rich territories in the Americas, came under the sceptre of Charles V

Charles V, Holy Roman Emperor

Charles V was ruler of the Holy Roman Empire from 1519 and, as Charles I, of the Spanish Empire from 1516 until his voluntary retirement and abdication in favor of his younger brother Ferdinand I and his son Philip II in 1556.As...

. Then, the "Philips" lost, one by one, all the European territories. This caused serious religious, political, internal and international problems.

Historical frame

During this century under the House of Austria

Habsburg Spain

Habsburg Spain refers to the history of Spain over the 16th and 17th centuries , when Spain was ruled by the major branch of the Habsburg dynasty...

Spain entered a period of progressive decay. As in the 16th century, the monarchs delegated their power to unpopular court favourites.

Philip III

Philip III of Spain

Philip III , also known as Philip the Pious, was the King of Spain and King of Portugal and the Algarves, where he ruled as Philip II , from 1598 until his death...

(1598-1621) inherited a great empire in bankruptcy, and the hostility of England and the Netherlands. The Duke of Lerma moved the court to Valladolid in 1600; six years later it returned to Madrid. He signed a truce with England in 1604, and later with the Netherlands (1609-1621). He expelled the morisco

Morisco

Moriscos or Mouriscos , meaning "Moorish", were the converted Christian inhabitants of Spain and Portugal of Muslim heritage. Over time the term was used in a pejorative sense applied to those nominal Catholics who were suspected of secretly practicing Islam.-Demographics:By the beginning of the...

s from the Peninsula

Iberian Peninsula

The Iberian Peninsula , sometimes called Iberia, is located in the extreme southwest of Europe and includes the modern-day sovereign states of Spain, Portugal and Andorra, as well as the British Overseas Territory of Gibraltar...

(1609), a decision which impoverished agriculture and commerce in the country.

The Duke of Uceda

Uceda

Uceda is a municipality located in the province of Guadalajara, Castile-La Mancha, Spain. According to the 2004 census , the municipality has a population of 1,575 inhabitants....

succeeded the Duke of Lerma. Spain then took part in the Thirty Years' War

Thirty Years' War

The Thirty Years' War was fought primarily in what is now Germany, and at various points involved most countries in Europe. It was one of the most destructive conflicts in European history....

. The nobility increased their power, while the economy stagnated and copper coinage started to replace gold and silver.

Philip IV

Philip IV of Spain

Philip IV was King of Spain between 1621 and 1665, sovereign of the Spanish Netherlands, and King of Portugal until 1640...

granted power to the Count-Duke of Olivares, who tried to maintain Spanish supremacy over France in a war begun in 1635, and control over the Netherlands.

Fiscal pressure and general political disquiet caused revolts in Portugal, Catalonia, Aragon, Navarre and Andalusia. The palace of Buen Retiro was built, where lavish court events were held.

The Count-Duke was replaced by Luis Menéndez de Haro

Luis de Haro

Luis Méndez de Haro, 6th Marquis of Carpio, Grandee of Spain, , , was a Spanish nobleman, political figure and general....

. At his resignation, an influential nun, María de Jesús de Ágreda, became the king's advisor. In 1648 Spain signed the Treaty of Westfalia

Peace of Westphalia

The Peace of Westphalia was a series of peace treaties signed between May and October of 1648 in Osnabrück and Münster. These treaties ended the Thirty Years' War in the Holy Roman Empire, and the Eighty Years' War between Spain and the Dutch Republic, with Spain formally recognizing the...

, by which some territories were lost, and Holland obtained its independence.

In 1659 the war with France ended with the Peace of the Pyrenees. Poverty, epidemics and high taxes caused an alarming drop in population and encouraged rapid migration from the country to the city. Many areas were left depopulated, which harmed the national economy.

Charles II

Charles II of Spain

Charles II was the last Habsburg King of Spain and the ruler of large parts of Italy, the Spanish territories in the Southern Low Countries, and Spain's overseas Empire, stretching from the Americas to the Spanish East Indies...

(1665-1700) was the last Spanish king in the House of Austria

Habsburg Spain

Habsburg Spain refers to the history of Spain over the 16th and 17th centuries , when Spain was ruled by the major branch of the Habsburg dynasty...

. Since he was four years old when he inherited the throne, his mother, Mariana of Austria

Mariana of Austria

Mariana of Austria was Queen consort of Spain as the second wife of King Philip IV, who was also her maternal uncle...

, was appointed regent, with the cooperation of a council of notables.

During his reign, Portugal (annexed to Spain during the reign of Philip II in 1580) obtained its independence. Continuous war with France highlighted Spain's decay relative to the power of that nation.

Charles II was weak and sickly and nicknamed the "Bewitched". He had no children by either of his wives and named Philip of Anjou, the future Philip V

Philip V of Spain

Philip V was King of Spain from 15 November 1700 to 15 January 1724, when he abdicated in favor of his son Louis, and from 6 September 1724, when he assumed the throne again upon his son's death, to his death.Before his reign, Philip occupied an exalted place in the royal family of France as a...

, grandson of Louis XIV of France

Louis XIV of France

Louis XIV , known as Louis the Great or the Sun King , was a Bourbon monarch who ruled as King of France and Navarre. His reign, from 1643 to his death in 1715, began at the age of four and lasted seventy-two years, three months, and eighteen days...

his heir. Even before his death, other European monarchs had been attracted to Spanish territory. His death without direct descendents prompted the War of Spanish Succession.

Characteristics of the Baroque

The Baroque is characterized by the following features:

Pessimism: The Renaissance had been not successful in its purpose of imposing the harmony and the perfection over the world, as the humanists tried, and neither had made man happier; war and social inequalities continued; misery and calamity were common throughout Europe. An intellectual pessimism became more and more marked, together with a carefree character (of which the period's comedies and rogue narrations - on which the picaresque novels are based) give testimony.

Disappointment: As Renaissance ideals failed and, in the case of Spain, political power continued to ebb, disappointment grew and was manifest in literature which in many cases recalled that of two centuries before, as in the Dance from the Death or the Songs to the death of my father by Manrique
Jorge Manrique
Jorge Manrique was a major Spanish poet, whose main work, the Coplas a la muerte de su padre , is still read today...

. According to Quevedo, life is formed by "successions of deceased": the new born ones become them, from the diaper to the shroud. In conclusion, nothing temporal has importance, it is necessary only to obtain eternal salvation.
Preoccupation about the passage of time.
Loss of confidence in the ideals of the Renaissance.

In view of the crisis of the Baroque, Spanish writers reacted in several ways:

Escapism: The avoidance of reality, through singing past feats and glories, or through presenting an ideal world in which problems are resolved and order prevails; this is the case of the theater of Lope de Vega and his followers. Others, meanwhile, took refuge in the world of art and mythology, as in the case of Luis de Góngora.
Satire: Another group of writers chose to make fun of the reality, like Quevedo, Góngora on some occasions, and in the picaresque novel.
Stoicism: Complaints on the vanity of the world, the fleetingness of beauty, life, and fame. The greatest exponent of this was Calderón de la Barca in the autos sacramentales.
Moralizing: Criticizing the defects and vices, and proposing models of conduct in line with the political and religious ideology of their time, typefied by the narrative and doctrinal prose of Gracián and of Saavedra Fajardo.

Miguel de Cervantes

The narrative of the 17th century opens with the figure of Miguel de Cervantes, who returned to Spain in 1580 after ten years absence.

His first printed work was The Galatea (1585). It is a pastoral novel (see Spanish Renaissance literature

Spanish Renaissance literature

Spanish Renaissance literature is the literature written in Spain during the Renaissance.-Introduction:The political, religious, literary, and war relations between Italy and Spain since the second half of the 15th century caused a remarkable cultural interchange between these two countries...

) in six books of verse and prose, according to the model of the Diana of Montemayor; although it breaks with the tradition when introducing realistic elements, like the murder of a shepherd, or the agility of certain dialogues.

In 1605 he published The Ingenious Gentleman Don Quixote of La Mancha, with immediate success.

In 1613 the Exemplary novels appeared. They are a collection of twelve short novels that look for an ideal, although this is not always clear.

In 1615, Cervantes published the second part of Don Quixote.

In 1617, a year after Cervantes died, The works of Persiles and Sigismunda appeared. It draws on the Byzantine and Greek novelists such as Heliodorus

Heliodorus of Emesa

Heliodorus of Emesa, from Emesa, Syria, was a Greek writer generally dated to the third century AD who is known for the ancient Greek novel or romance called the Aethiopica or sometimes "Theagenes and Chariclea"....

(3rd century CE) and his The Ethiopian Story of Theagenes and Chariclea. It relates, in four books, how Periandro and Auristela travel from northern territories of Norway or Finland to Rome to receive Christian marriage. As is typical of this subgenre, throughout the trip they experience a variety of trials, mishaps, and delays: captivity by Barbarians, the jealousy and machinations of rivals. The work takes advantage of resources of the Exemplary Novels - especially the italianizing ones - puzzles, confusions, disguises, etc.

Francisco de Quevedo

Francisco de Quevedo wrote towards 1604 his first work of prose fiction : the picaresque novel

Picaresque novel

The picaresque novel is a popular sub-genre of prose fiction which is usually satirical and depicts, in realistic and often humorous detail, the adventures of a roguish hero of low social class who lives by his wits in a corrupt society...

titled The Life Story of the Sharper
Sharper
A sharper is an older term, common since the seventeenth-century, for thieves who use trickery to part an owner with his or her money possessions. Sharpers vary from what are now known as con-men by virtue of the simplicity of their cons, which often were impromptu, rather than carefully...

called Don Pablos, example of wanderers and mirror of scrooges.

Quevedo also wrote satirical, political and moral prose works where a stoic morality predominates, where subjects like the criticism of archetypes of the society of the Baroque, the constant presence of death in the life of man, and Christian fervor whereupon the politics has to conduct itself.

The first of his Dreams dates from 1605: The Dream of the Judgment narrates the resurrection of the dead, who must answer for the manner of their life. It is a social satire against professions or trades: jurists, doctors, butchers...

In 1619 he wrote the Politics of God, government of Christ and tyranny of Satan, a political treatise which expounds a doctrine of good government, or 'mirror of princes', for a righteous king, who should have Jesus Christ for model of conduct. It is a treatise in conformity with Spanish anti-Machiavellism, proposing a politics free of intrigue and unconnected with bad influences.

Towards 1636 Quevedo concluded his last great satirical prose: The hour of everybody and the Fortune with prudence, unpublished until 1650. In it, Jupiter requests Fortune to give for one hour what each individual truly deserves. This makes plain the falsity of appearances, and the hidden truth under the veils of the hypocrisy. Operating by antithesis Quevedo shows doctors who are in fact executioners, the rich as poor but thieving, and a whole gallery of social types, offices and states is presented, all implacably satirized.

Marcus Brutus (1644) arises from glosses or commentaries to the biography that Plutarch wrote on this Latin statesman in his Parallel lives.

Baltasar Gracián

The most important work of the second half of the century is The Critical one (1651-1657) of the Aragonese Jesuit Baltasar Gracián (1601-1658). With it, the Spanish novel is solved in concepts or abstractions. The idea prevails over the concrete figure. It is a philosophical novel written in form of allegory of the human life.

Gracián cultivated didactic prose in treatises of moral intention and practical purpose, like The Hero (1637), The Politician don Fernando the Catholic (1640) or The Discreet one (1646). In them he creates a full series that exemplifies the exemplary, prudent and sagacious man, and the qualities and virtues that must adorn him.

The Manual oracle and art of prudence is a set of three hundred aphorisms composed to help the reader prevail in the complex world-in-crisis of the 17th century. (An English version of this dense treatise has been sold as a manual of self-help for executives and has obtained a recent publishing success.)

He also wrote a rhetoric of Baroque literature, that starts from the texts to redefine the figures of speech of the time, because they did not relate to the classical models. It is a treaty on the concept, which he defines as "an act of the understanding which expresses the correspondence that is found between the objects". That is to say, a concept is every association between ideas or objects. To their classification and dissection Gracián dedicated his Art of talent, treatise on the witticism (1642), extended and reviewed in the later Witticism and art of talent (1648).

The style of Gracián is dense and polysemous. It is constructed of brief sentences, abundant plays on words, and the ingenious association of concepts.

Gracián's attitude to life is one of disillusionment, based on the decay of Spanish society. The world is seen as a hostile space full of deceit and illusion triumphing over virtue and truth, where Man is a self-interested and malicious being. Many of his books are manuals of behavior that allow the reader to succeed gracefully in spite of the maliciousness of his fellow men. For this, he must be prudent and wise, have knowledge of life and the motivations of others, until the point to behave "to the occasion" and "to play of the" dissimulation.

Gracián is recognized as precursor of existentialism

Existentialism

Existentialism is a term applied to a school of 19th- and 20th-century philosophers who, despite profound doctrinal differences, shared the belief that philosophical thinking begins with the human subject—not merely the thinking subject, but the acting, feeling, living human individual...

, he also influenced French moralists like La Rochefoucauld

La Rochefoucauld

La Rochefoucauld can refer to:People:* Antoine de La Rochefoucauld* Count Antoine de La Rochefoucauld , 19th century Rosicrucian* François de La Rochefoucauld , French author...

, and, in the 19th century, the philosophy of Schopenhauer.

Other prosists of the baroque

Lope de Vega
Lope de Vega
Félix Arturo Lope de Vega y Carpio was a Spanish playwright and poet. He was one of the key figures in the Spanish Golden Century Baroque literature...

stands out, whose well-known Novels to Marcia Leonarda can be singled out. They are a collection of miscellaneous novels, brief works, of amorous thematic and intricate technique, in which verse and prose are mixed. Charged with erudition, and subject to frequent and tedious digressions, they are set in exotic atmospheres --moriscos, Jews
Jews
The Jews , also known as the Jewish people, are a nation and ethnoreligious group originating in the Israelites or Hebrews of the Ancient Near East. The Jewish ethnicity, nationality, and religion are strongly interrelated, as Judaism is the traditional faith of the Jewish nation...

, etc.-- .
Mateo Alemán y de Enero (Seville, 1547 - Mexico, 1615) was the author of the picaresque novel
Picaresque novel
The picaresque novel is a popular sub-genre of prose fiction which is usually satirical and depicts, in realistic and often humorous detail, the adventures of a roguish hero of low social class who lives by his wits in a corrupt society...

Life of the rascal Guzmán de Alfarache, published in 1599. This work established the canon of the genre. It achieved a formidable success in Spain and Europe, and was well-known as "the rascal of Alemán". In 1604 the second part of the Guzmán de Alfarache was published in Lisbon. The European success of this work was formidable: it was translated almost immediately into Italian in the Venetian presses of Barezzi in 1606; published in German in Munich in 1615; J. Chapelain translated the two parts of the novel to the French and published them in Paris in 1620; two years later the English version was printed in London by James Mabbe who, in an extraordinary prologue, says of the rascal Guzmán that he was "similar to a ship, that sails on the brink of the shore, and never finishes taking port".
Alonso de Castillo Solórzano
Alonso de Castillo Solórzano
Alonso de Castillo was Spanish novelist and playwright.He is stated to have been baptized October 1, 1584). Nothing is known of his youth, and he is next heard of at Madrid in 1619 as a man of literary tastes...

(1584 - 1648), native of Tordesillas (Valladolid), was a very popular novelist, author of The girl of the lies Teresa de Manzanares (1632), Adventures of the Trapaza Bachelor (1637) and The marten of Seville and hook of the bags (1642). They are picaresque works in which novels, poems and some entremés
Entremés
Entremés, is a short, comic theatrical performance of one act, usually played during the interlude of a performance of a long dramatic work, in the 16th and 17th centuries in Spain. Later it became the sainete....

are mixed, as we have already seen in Lope de Vega.
Not without reason the Madrilenian María de Zayas y Sotomayor (1590-1661) is considered an important novelist of the century. In 1637 her Loving and exemplary novels appear, a collection of ten stories in which the erotic thematic creates conflicting and surprising situations.
Luis Vélez de Guevara
Luís Vélez de Guevara
Luis Vélez de Guevara was a Spanish dramatist and novelist.Velez de Guevara was born at Écija and was of Jewish converso descent...

(1579-1644), Sevillian, a follower of Francisco de Quevedo and author of The devil cojuelo (1641), a social satire accompanied by allegorical figures.
Antonio de Solís y Ribadeneyra
Antonio de Solís y Ribadeneyra
Antonio de Solís y Ribadeneyra was a Spanish dramatist and historian. His work includes drama, poetry, and prose, and he has been considered one of the last great writers of Spanish Baroque literature....

(1610-1686), born in Alcala de Henares, was a dramatist and student of law at the University of Salamanca. His plays brought him fame which led to his post as secretary to the Count of Oropesa and later service at the royal courts of Philip IV and Charles II. Eventually appointed official chronicler of the Indies, his work Historia de la Conquista de Mexico (1684) is considered one of the last great works of Golden Age prose and it remained a standard European source on the Americas up through the Enlightenment.

This half of the century closes with the Life and facts of Estebanillo González
Estebanillo González
La vida y hechos de Estebanillo González, hombre de buen humor, Life and facts of Estebanillo González, man of good humour, is a Spanish picaresque novel, written as a genuine autobiography of a rogue , but for some scholars, it is a work of fiction...

, man of good humor (Antwerp, 1646). It narrates his life (1608-1646) as servant of many masters, and soldier in several causes. It displays many characteristic themes of the picaresque genre: swindles, fights, deceits, drunkenness, robberies and prostitution.

Religious prose shines with Luis de Molina (1628-1696), originally from Teruel but settled in Rome. His quietist doctrine can be read in Spiritual guide (1675), a manual of contemplative mysticism which despises action.

Poetry

Luis de Góngora

Luis de Góngora y Argote was a Spanish Baroque lyric poet. Góngora and his lifelong rival, Francisco de Quevedo, are widely considered to be the most prominent Spanish poets of their age. His style is characterized by what was called culteranismo, also known as Gongorism...

and Francisco de Quevedo

Francisco de Quevedo

Francisco Gómez de Quevedo y Santibáñez Villegas was a Spanish nobleman, politician and writer of the Baroque era. Along with his lifelong rival, Luis de Góngora, Quevedo was one of the most prominent Spanish poets of the age. His style is characterized by what was called conceptismo...

were the two most important poets.
They were enemies and composed many bitter (and funny) satirical pieces attacking each other.

Luis de Góngora
Luis de Góngora
Luis de Góngora y Argote was a Spanish Baroque lyric poet. Góngora and his lifelong rival, Francisco de Quevedo, are widely considered to be the most prominent Spanish poets of their age. His style is characterized by what was called culteranismo, also known as Gongorism...

Góngora's lyric collection consists of numerous sonnets, odes, ballads, songs for guitar, and of certain larger poems, such as the Soledades

Soledades

Las Soledades is a poem by Luis de Góngora, composed in 1613 in silva in eleven- and seven- syllable lines: hendecasyllables and heptasyllables ....

and the Polifemo, the two landmarks of culteranismo

Culteranismo

Culteranismo is a stylistic movement of the Baroque period of Spanish history that is also commonly referred to as Góngorismo...

Francisco de Quevedo
Francisco de Quevedo
Francisco Gómez de Quevedo y Santibáñez Villegas was a Spanish nobleman, politician and writer of the Baroque era. Along with his lifelong rival, Luis de Góngora, Quevedo was one of the most prominent Spanish poets of the age. His style is characterized by what was called conceptismo...

Quevedo's poetry first appeared in an anthology by Pedro de Espinosa, Flowers of Illustrious Poets (1605). Quevedo was a master of conceptismo

Conceptismo

Conceptismo is a literary movement of the Baroque period of Spanish literature. It began in the late 16th century and lasted through the 17th century....

, a movement in opposition to culteranismo.

The theater

Theatrical performances of this time took place in open sites, squares or fixed corrals: the corrals of comedies. They began around two in the afternoon and lasted until dusk. In general they did not have seats, and spectators remained standing throughout the performance. The nobility occupied balconies and windows of houses that surrounded the square or led to the corral, and ladies attended the spectacle with their faces covered with masks or obscured behind lattice windows. The function began with a performance on guitar of a popular piece; immediately, songs accompanied with diverse instruments were sung. The praise came soon, species of explanation of the merits of the work and synthesis of its argument. The main comedy or work then started, and in the intervals dances were executed or entremeses

Entremés

Entremés, is a short, comic theatrical performance of one act, usually played during the interlude of a performance of a long dramatic work, in the 16th and 17th centuries in Spain. Later it became the sainete....

represented.

The stage was a simple platform and the decoration a curtain. The changes of scene were announced by one of the actors.

The poet wrote the comedy, paid by the director, to whom he yielded all the rights on the work, represented or printed, to modify the text. The works lasted three or four days in the billboard, or (with exceptions) fifteen days for a successful comedy.

Juan de la Cueva

Juan de la Cueva

Juan de la Cueva was a Spanish dramatist and poet.He was born in Seville of an aristocratic family.Towards 1579, he began writing for the stage. His plays, fourteen in number, were published in 1588, and are the earliest manifestations of the dramatic methods developed by Lope de Vega...

, in the second half of the 16th century, introduced two elements of great importance for the boom of this artistic production: popular ethics, that gave origin to the comedies of national historical character, and the freedom to compose plays considering popular taste. Lope de Vega and Tirso de Molina took these characteristics to their furthest extent.

Lope de Vega

At the end of the 16th century Lope de Vega created the new comedy: to a theme of romantic character is added another theme, historical or legendary, of moriscos, of captives, or religious. It concludes with a happy ending. Constructed on three days, the redondilla or the décima

Décima

A décima refers to a ten-line stanza of poetry, and the song form generally consists of forty-four lines...

is used in the dialogues, the romance

Romantic love

Romance is the pleasurable feeling of excitement and mystery associated with love.In the context of romantic love relationships, romance usually implies an expression of one's love, or one's deep emotional desires to connect with another person....

in the narrations, the sonnet

Sonnet

A sonnet is one of several forms of poetry that originate in Europe, mainly Provence and Italy. A sonnet commonly has 14 lines. The term "sonnet" derives from the Occitan word sonet and the Italian word sonetto, both meaning "little song" or "little sound"...

in the monologues and the tercet

Tercet

A tercet is composed of three lines of poetry, forming a stanza or a complete poem. English-language haiku is an example of an unrhymed tercet poem...

in serious situations.

The new art to make comedies, written in 1609, is a humorous defense of his theater. He shows scorn about the rigid interpretation that the theorists of the Renaissance --mostly Italian-- had done of the Aristotelian ideas on the theatre, and he proposes as values, naturalness as opposed to artifice, variety as opposed to unity, and considering popular taste.

Among his prolific dramatic production, some works can be singled out:

Peribáñez and the Commander of Ocaña (1604-12) is a tragicomedy set in 1406 in Toledo: Peribáñez understands that the Commander of Ocaña has overwhelmed him with honors to harass his woman. After killing him he wins the royal pardon.

Around 1614 Lope composed one of his better tragicomedies: Fuenteovejuna. Following the Chronicle of the three orders (Toledo, 1572) of Francisco de Rades, it shows the abuses by the Commander Fernán Gómez de Guzmán of the neighbors of Fuenteovejuna and of Laurencia, newly married with Frondoso. The murder of the Commander by the town and pardon by the Catholic Monarchs

Catholic Monarchs

The Catholic Monarchs is the collective title used in history for Queen Isabella I of Castile and King Ferdinand II of Aragon. They were both from the House of Trastámara and were second cousins, being both descended from John I of Castile; they were given a papal dispensation to deal with...

in the light of the evidence finishes off the action. A popular revolt triggered by abuse of power is presented, but only concerning a particular injustice, and submission to the king is emphasized.

The Knight of Olmedo (about 1620-25), tragedy rooted in the Celestina, is based on a popular cantar

Cantar de gesta

A cantar de gesta is the Spanish equivalent of the Old French medieval chanson de geste or "songs of heroic deeds".The most important cantares de gesta of Castile were:...

: Don Alonso dies at the hands of Don Rodrigo, jealous at losing Doña Ines.

The best mayor, the King is about the dignity of the farmer: Don Tello, haughty nobleman, abuses Elvira, engaged to the farmer Sancho. Alfonso VII allows her to recover her reputation, making her marry Don Tello, and then executes Don Tello, to make the --now noble-- widow marry Sancho.

Calderón de la Barca

The other great dramatist of the 17th century was Pedro Calderón de la Barca (1600-1681). His most famous work is Life is a dream (1635), a philosophical drama in which Segismundo, son of the king of Poland, is chained in a tower because of the fateful predictions of the royal astrologers. Meanwhile, Rosaura proclaims in the Court that her honor has been violated by Duke Astolfo. Duke Astolfo courts Estrella in order to become king. The aggressiveness of Segismundo explodes when he is released from his tower, where he returns, chained, believing he has dreamed his experience of freedom. When a riot rescues him again, his will overcomes the predictions: he dominates his condition, marries Rosaura with Astolfo, and accepts the hand of Estrella.

The garrotte better given could have been released in 1636 or 37. It was printed in 1651. From 1683 on it received the title of The mayor of Zalamea. It presents the rape of Isabel, daughter of Pedro Crespo, by the captain Alvaro de Ataide. Pedro Crespo being named mayor, he executes de Ataide. The king listens to his defense and Crespo presents his reasons. This customary drama of honor follows the subject so Lope-like of the honor of the peasant.

Historical frame

Characteristics of the Baroque

Miguel de Cervantes

Francisco de Quevedo

Baltasar Gracián

Other prosists of the baroque

Poetry

The theater

Lope de Vega

Calderón de la Barca

See also