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

embroidered on his doublet, would
have been a vivid visual reminder of the Order to which he belongs and
of the ideals he fails to put into practice. The Master would also
have been richly dressed, and the Catholic Kings, of course, would
have worn costumes appropriate to their station and intended to
impress a contemporary audience. The peasants, by contrast, would have
worn simple costumes, reflecting their way of life, except for the
wedding at the end of Act Two. At the beginning of Punishment Without
Revenge the Duke appears 'disguised' (1.89), undoubtedly dressed in
dark clothes which are not merely suited to the late hour at which he
is consorting with prostitutes, but are also a symbolic pointer to the
darker side of his nature. In Act Three, by contrast, he is 'handsomely dressed as a soldier' (3.255), his military uniform a visual image of his role on the
battlefield as the 'mighty lion of the Church' and also of the victory
which he claims to have won over his baser instincts. In The Knight
from Olmedothe dark clothing worn by Alonso when he visits Inés at
night in Act One, and by Rodrigo when he watches her house, are
traditional enough, but also point, in Alonso's case, to the
less-thaninnocent nature of his behaviour, and in Rodrigo's, to the
dangerous character of his jealousy. And in Act Two, when Fabia enters 'with a rosary and walking-stick and wearing spectacles' (2.451) and Tello
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'wearing a scholar's cap' (2.491), the effect may be comic, but their costumes also suggest the
disparity between what the two individuals are and what they are
pretending to be.
    In Golden Age
theatre music also played a significant part. During the interval
between the acts of plays musical interludes were often introduced,
but the plays themselves also contained music of different kinds. In
Act One of Fuente Ovejuna the peasants sing a song of welcome
to the Commander (1.405-19); in Act Two they have two songs in
celebration of the wedding of Laurencia and Frondoso (2.509-16,
546-69); and in Act Three, after the Commander's death, their song
expresses their loyalty to the Catholic Kings and wishes them a long
life. In each case, music is used in order to celebrate love and
harmony and, to that extent, is an earthly image of that perfect
harmony which characterizes a divinely inspired universe. 2 The Knight from Olmedo has fewer songs, but all are important, in
particular the doom-laden song sung by the peasant in Act Three
(3.473-6, 484-9). In Punishment Without Revenge the Duke alludes in
Act One to music as a remedy for melancholy (1.184). Towards the end
of the act music would undoubtedly have accompanied the arrival of
Casandra at the Duke's estate when the party enters 'with pomp and splendour' (1.809). Its suggestion of the harmony which ought to accompany their
marriage is, of course, ironically at odds with the private feelings
of the individuals concerned.
____________________
2
See Victor Dixon, Lope de Vega, Fuente Ovejuna ( Warminster, 1989), 29-30.
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TRANSLATOR'S NOTE
    Spanish Golden Age drama is written almost entirely in verse. Unlike
their Elizabethan counterparts, Lope de Vega and his contemporaries
favoured an octosyllabic line, in part because it allowed for
lightness and speed and enabled the play to unfold with the pace which
restless and easily bored Spanish audiences demanded. In addition,
all the Spanish playwrights, following Lope's example, employed a
variety of stanza forms, which ranged from three to ten lines and
which were characterized by complex rhyme schemes, or else by a
pattern of assonance in the last word of alternate lines which was
easily achieved in Spanish and which also had a rhyming effect.
English translators of Spanish plays have frequently abandoned both the
octosyllabic line and rhyme in the belief that unrhymed iambic
pentameter is more suited to English or British actors, but this only
creates further