Audiences of Empire: Lope de Vega, the Spanish History Play, and Me

LOPE DE VEGA (1562-1635), poet/playwright of unrivaled popularity during Spain’s Golden Age of literature (including Miguel de Cervantes and Calderón de la Barca), rescued theater from ineffective conventions and claimed authorship of some 1800 titles. Many of the almost 500 existing plays are stagings of pivotal events and protagonists from national history. Lope entertains his eager public with colorful stories of the passions, heroism and villainy of the high and mighty blending these wi...