Spanish Golden Age Theater: Lope, Tirso, and Calderón
Short Works of the Spanish Golden Age
- Starters: One-act humorous works.
- Loas: Introductions intended to win public favor.
- Bailes and Jácaras: Ballads and sung performances.
- Mojigangas: Humorous performances featuring animal costumes.
- Follas: Musical and dance-based humor.
Lope de Vega: The National Comedy
Lope de Vega successfully cultivated lyric and narrative forms while creating the Comedia Nueva (National Comedy).
Features of Lope's Theater
Representations in the corrales mixed cultured and popular elements to satisfy all audiences, appealing to both the vulgar and the learned.
Major Works
- Swashbuckling Comedy: La dama boba
- Palatine Comedy: The Dog in the Manger
- Serious Comedy: Peribáñez and the Commander of Ocaña and Fuenteovejuna
- Tragedies: The Knight of Olmedo
Analysis of Key Plays
- Fuenteovejuna: Features the invention of the collective character of the people, rebellion, and tyrannicide.
- The Knight of Olmedo: Considered a tragedy due to its three basic ingredients: love, death, and destiny.
- Peribáñez and the Commander of Ocaña: Focuses on individual honor.
- La dama boba: A swashbuckling comedy set in an urban context.
Tirso de Molina: The Disciple of Lope
Tirso de Molina was the foremost disciple of Lope. He modeled his work on the Lopesco style while defending the new comedy and incorporating intellectual and psychological insight.
Major Works
- Entangling Comedy: Don Gil of the Green Breeches
- Tragicomedy: The Trickster of Seville and the Stone Guest
The Trickster of Seville marks the first appearance of the character Don Juan.
Calderón de la Barca
Calderón's career is divided into two stages: early works for the stage and later dramas. Eventually, he focused exclusively on religious plays and autos sacramentales.
Features of Calderón's Drama
More reflective than Lope, Calderón's dramas possess a high intellectual tone and great complexity. He offers a pessimistic view of human nature, focusing on the confrontation between reason and passion, the intellectual and the instinctive, and understanding versus will.
Major Works
- Serious Comedy: Life is a Dream and The Mayor of Zalamea
Analysis of Key Plays
- Life is a Dream: Follows Prince Sigismund, imprisoned in a tower since childhood, and his intrigue with Rosaura. Themes include fate, free will, life as a dream, self-control, and justice.
- The Mayor of Zalamea: Addresses issues of justice and the impunity of the nobility. It dramatizes an incident from 1580 during the march to Lisbon under the Duke of Alba.