Three Major Plays by Lope de Vega, Gwynne Edwards Read Free Book Online

selfevident, and it is no accident that there should be so many
soliloquies, for at such moments characters reveal their most private
thoughts. By the time Lope wrote this play -- he was 69 -- his
experience of life and of love was considerable, and it shows.
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29
For a more detailed analysis of the play from this point of view, see
Gwynne Edwards , "Lope and Calderón: The Tragic Pattern of El castigo
sin venganza", Bulletin of the Comediantes , 33: 2 ( 1981), 107-20.
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THE STAGING OF GOLDEN AGE PLAYS
    All three plays presented in this volume were written for and performed in the public theatres or corrales which developed in Spain, particularly in Madrid, in the last quarter of the sixteenth century. 1 These were, as the word suggests, large rectangular courtyards in
which the stage, with its projecting apron, was placed at one end. For
economic reasons the staging of plays was relatively simple, and such
great emphasis was placed on quick-moving action that complex
scene-changes would have been impossible. Much was left, therefore, to
the imagination of the audience.
    These factors result, in Fuente Ovejuna, for example, in a seamless, almost cinematic flow of action, a new
scene beginning where the previous one ends without any interruption;
the fact that the location has moved from, say, the village to the
house of Fernán Gómez, or to the Court of the Catholic Kings, is
indicated only by the appearance on stage of the relevant characters.
Sometimes the location of a scene is pinpointed as well in the
dialogue, as in Act One of The Knight from Olmedo when Rodrigo and
Fernando keep watch on Inés's house: 'Why come here merely to see the
house?' (1.514). Again, the fact that in Act Three Alonso travels to
Olmedo not long before dawn is suggested by the text: 'How dark it is!
So full | Of fearful shadows till the dawn | Begins to place its
golden feet | On bright and flowered carpets' (3.461-4). In this
context it is, of course, important to remember that, in the absence
of stagelighting, the performances of plays in the corrales took
place during daytime. Audiences were therefore required to imagine
that the stage-action in a particular scene was set at night, and were
clearly attuned to doing so.
    Although use could be made of the balconies and windows of the buildings immediately behind the stage of the corrales, the three
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1
The most detailed studies of the physical characteristics of the
Spanish stage, as well as of its development during the Golden Age,
are those by H. A. Rennert, The Spanish Stage in the Time of Lope de Vega ( New York, 1909; 2nd edn. 1963), and N. D. Shergold , A History of the Spanish Stage from Medieval Times until the End of the Seventeenth Century ( Oxford, 1967).
    -xxxii-

plays translated here suggest that only the main stage was used for
their performance. This said, there are several occasions when the
curtained 'discovery space' at the back of the stage might have been
used. At the end of Act One of Fuente Ovejuna, for example,
Frondoso could have hidden there from the Commander, as could Frondoso
and Laurencia in Act Two when her father and uncle approach. In the
final act of Punishment Without Revenge, the Duke may have hidden
there to listen to the conversation of Federico and Casandra, and
later in the act it was probably the place where "The bodies are
revealed" (3.978), the curtains being dramatically pulled back to reveal
the bloodstained corpses.
    Stage furniture, like scenery, was reduced to a minimum. In Fuente Ovejuna it seems likely that the only furniture required would have been
benches on which the villagers would sit at the beginning of Act Two
and for the council meeting in Act Three, and more impressive chairs for
the Catholic Kings in the scenes at Court. Much more importance,
however, would have been given to the visual and symbolic impact of
costumes. The Commander's red cross,