Any dramatist writing during Spain’s Golden Age was acutely aware that he was writing for a public obsessed byfe, salvación, gracia divina, condenaciónand of courseDios. Bartolomé Bennassar claims that ‘las cuestiones de la fe preocupaban en las conversaciones corrientes, en las plazas, a lo largo de los caminos’.¹ The establishment of the Inquisition in Spain in 1478 to maintain religious homogeneity throughout the Peninsula, coupled with the Council of Trent’s efforts to christianise the masses from the mid-sixteenth century onwards, obviously contributed to the religious fanaticism which swamped Spain in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries.² Within this...

In spite of the fact that Isidro was not canonised until 1622, he was popularly acclaimed saint andpatrón de Madridfrom the beginning of the thirteenth century when his body was transferred from the cemetery of San Andrés to the altar of the church.¹ According to Francisco Moreno, ‘Sin esperar a que la autoridad eclesiástica correspondiente diese el oportuno visto bueno, muchos hombres y mujeres de Madrid, a la vista de los milagros hechos, según el diácono Juan, el mismo día del traslado, le concedieron espontáneamente en privado y públicamente el honroso título de santo, y empezaron a considerarle...

With the publication of Lionel Abel’s seminal work on metatheatre,² critics were provided not only with a basic definition of the concept of metadrama, but also with specific terminology with which to analyse self-referential plays.³ According to Abel, metaplays are

Theatre pieces about life seen as already theatricalized. By this I mean that the persons appearing on the stage in these plays are there not simply because they were caught by the playwright in dramatic postures as a camera might catch them, but because they themselves knew they were dramatic before the playwright took note of them. What dramatized them...

Lo fingido verdadero, described by Menéndez y Pelayo as ‘de las más notables del repertorio religioso de Lope’, was probably written about 1608, but first appeared in print inDecimasexta parte de las comediasin 1621.¹ Traditionally categorised as acomedia de santos, it is essentially a dramatisation of the conversion and martyrdom of St Genesius, patron saint of actors, as well as the representation of the rise to power of the Roman emperor Diocletian.² Act I of the play presents Diocleciano’s transition from soldier to emperor following the deaths of the emperor Aurelio and his sons Carino and Numeriano....

Written in 1610 and first published in 1621,La buena guardapresents the plight of Clara,abadesa, who is forced to confront the effects of both human and divine love.¹ Based on the legend of themonja sacristana, a devoted nun who abandons the monastery with her lover and who is replaced by the Virgin or an angel in her absence,La buena guardafocuses on the flight of Clara with Félix, themayordomo.² The play opens with a diatribe against female vanity as Carrizo, thesacristánof themonasterio, criticises the female preoccupation with physical appearance.³ Subsequently, the action...