Spanish Golden Age Drama & Linguistics: Playwrights and Grammar

Spanish Golden Age Theater: Key Playwrights

Short works, often comical, were interspersed between longer plays. These humorous one-act burlesques, or entremeses, frequently featured erotic themes or bizarre characters, adding variety to theatrical performances.

Lope de Vega: Master of Spanish Comedy

Lope de Vega, a prolific writer with probably over 300 plays, championed the national comedy, or Comedia Nueva. Despite his humble origins and scandalous life, he became an established figure in the theatrical world, though not fixed at court.

Characteristics of Lope de Vega's Work

• Characterized by a mixture of popular and cultured elements.
• Conscious of his diverse audience in the public courtyards, he aimed to satisfy all by various means.

Types of Lope de Vega's Comedies

• Swashbuckling Comedies: La Dama Boba (The Lady Simpleton)
• Palatine Comedies: El Perro del Hortelano (The Dog in the Manger)
• Serious Dramas: Peribáñez y el Comendador de Ocaña (Peribáñez and the Commander of Ocaña), Fuente Ovejuna (Sheepwell)
• Tragedies: El Caballero de Olmedo (The Knight of Olmedo)
• Courtly Theater: Plays often centered on themes of love.

Tirso de Molina: Lope's Prominent Disciple

Tirso de Molina, Lope's most prominent disciple, was highly relevant in the first quarter of the 17th century. His theatrical activities were sometimes declared scandalous.

Features of Tirso de Molina's Plays

• He followed Lope's model but incorporated new elements of comedy and intellectual penetration, with a particular focus on psychological concerns.
• He was especially interested in the female condition.
• Considered one of the geniuses of comedy, his works include Don Gil de las Calzas Verdes (Don Gil of the Green Breeches), La Vergüenza en Palacio (Shame in the Palace), and El Burlador de Sevilla y Convidado de Piedra (The Trickster of Seville and the Stone Guest).

The Trickster of Seville and Don Juan

El Burlador de Sevilla marks the first appearance of the Don Juan character, a myth that generated a very long lineage in Spanish and universal literature. Don Juan is portrayed as a gentleman of good family, with relaxed moral conduct, unknown morality and conscience, whose sexual pleasure is compounded by the vanity of mockery.

Calderón de la Barca: Philosophical Dramatist

Calderón de la Barca's career can be divided into two stages: the first with works for public theaters, and the second, in which he primarily wrote works for the palace, often of chivalrous or mythological inspiration, and mystery plays (autos sacramentales). He became a priest and focused on these later forms.

Characteristics of Calderón's Second Stage Works

• His works reflect a deep concern for religious, philosophical, and moral themes, making his theater much more reflective than Lope's.
• His reflective dramas possess a high intellectual tone and are highly complex, influenced by Góngora, resulting in extremely complicated and metaphorical language.
• He offers a pessimistic view of human nature, focusing on the confrontation between reason and passions, the intellectual and the instinctive, understanding and will in his dramas.
• The figure of the gracioso (comic character) becomes more complex, though still providing comic relief.

Among his notable works are: El Médico de su Honra (The Physician of his Honor), El Pintor de su Deshonra (The Painter of his Dishonor), La Hija del Aire (The Daughter of the Air), La Vida es Sueño (Life is a Dream), El Alcalde de Zalamea (The Mayor of Zalamea), El Hijo del Sol, Faetón (The Son of the Sun, Phaeton), Eco y Narciso (Echo and Narcissus), La Dama Duende (The Phantom Lady), and El Gran Teatro del Mundo (The Great Theater of the World).

Linguistic Concepts

Morphological Units in Language

Morphology aims to define and describe its units, which include the word, the root, the base, and the morpheme.

The Word: A Fundamental Unit

The word is defined as the minimum free form that can change its position. Its features include:

• Separability: Two units can insert others.
• Potential Pause: Defines the unit and is integrated by inseparable units, which are several morphemes.

The Moneme: Minimal Meaning Unit

A moneme is a minimal meaning unit, divided into:

• Lexemes: Refer to meaning (e.g., 'cat', 'run').
• Morphemes: Subdivided into:
  • Grammatical Morphemes: Indicate gender, number, person, mood (e.g., '-s' for plural, '-ed' for past tense).
  • Derivational Morphemes: Prefixes and suffixes that change the meaning or part of speech (e.g., 'un-', '-ness').

The Pronoun 'Se' in Spanish Grammar

The Spanish pronoun 'se' has various uses:

• Reflexive: The action reflects back on the subject. Examples: Se peina (He/She combs himself/herself), Se pone el abrigo (He/She puts on his/her coat).
• Pseudoreflexive: The verb is inherently reflexive or pronominal. Example: Se fue (He/She left).
• Reciprocal: The action is done mutually. Example: Se acarician (They caress each other).
• Dative (Ethical Dative/Intensifier): Adds emphasis or indicates completion. Example: Se lo bebió todo (He/She drank it all up).
• Variant of 'le'/'les' (Indirect Object Pronoun): Used before 'lo', 'la', 'los', 'las'. Example: Se lo dijeron (They told it to him/her/them).
• Impersonal: Refers to an unspecified subject. Example: Se invita a todos (Everyone is invited).
• Passive: Forms a passive construction. Example: Se aprobaron todos los exámenes (All exams were approved).