98 



DRAM A. 



Lopede 

 Vegm' Wi- 

 dow of V- 



i.:. 



he would Have thoughthimself abridginghis own dnuua- 

 tic liberty, if lie had introduced morality projx 

 called, lie has wished to draw the m.tmurs ;' !;,> 

 .!-\mcii -ucll ;is He MW tin-in, not such a- they 

 ought to have been, and he has left it to the spcctatoi s 

 to ilraw a moral lor themselves. The mo-t licentious 

 spirit of gall.mtrv, coloured by a sort of decency, and 

 feebly restrained bj - honour, but never by a fi-nse of du- 

 ty i . of his comedies. (fthe)NK-t 

 exhibits lively pa.--.ions, they rush to their gratification 

 with a vehemence truly Spanish ; it' he paint - the Milter 

 and sentimental affections, they are breathed with inex- 

 haustible tediousiu-ss, and conveyed in language full of 

 ({nibble and affectation. That love excuses every thinp, 

 was then the favourite maxim of good company in Spain, 

 ami the personages of Lope de Vega, ladies as well as gen- 

 tlemen, net quite conformably to the maxim. Treasons 

 and rascalities the most detestable are introduced as 

 things of course, and murder is by no means rare. On 

 the slightest occasion, men of rank draw their swords, 

 and, if one or other is killed, it is hardly spoken of. In 

 this species of his pieces, it is however confessed, that 

 there reigns a great deal of the natural, and that its ex- 



res.- ion never injures his poetical colouring. Of this 

 escription of his pieces, " The Widow of Valencia" 

 (/^j yiada de Valencia') forms no unfavourable exam- 

 pj e ^ 33 ih e pj ot j g we j] supported, and as it has the rare 

 merit of unity of action. The scene is laid at Valencia 

 in the time of the carnival. Leonarda, a young, beau- 

 tiful, and rich widow, but very capricious, has formed 

 the resolution of never marrying again. She comes 

 on die stage with a book in her hand, and tells us, that 

 though she is neither a devotee nor a bel esprit, she reads 

 for her amusement both profane and devout books, and 

 that she deigns not to honour with a look the swarm of 

 adorers who persecute her. After a great many spiri- 

 ted and sage remarks, which the widow makes on the 

 vanity of admiration, her roguish waiting-woman con- 

 trives to make her conclude them before a mirror, and in 

 this situation she is found to her great mortification by 

 her uncle. The old gentleman, however, consoles her, by 

 proving the utility of looking-glasses, and advises her 

 to a second marriage. In reply to which, she expatiates 

 on the consequences of rash engagements, and with great 

 pleasantry draws the picture of a man of fashion of Ma- 

 drid in the 16th century. The uncle leaves her, and 

 the scene changes. Three of the lovely widow's admi- 

 rers present themselves before her gates, and each of 

 them expresses, in a sonnet of one prolonged metaphor, 

 their secret wishes and hopes. As they have no occa- 

 sion to congratulate each other on the kindness of their 

 mistress, they make a common confidence, and each re- 

 lates a burlesque adventure, which had happened to 

 him that night before the mansion of Leonardo. Leo- 

 narda, however, returns from the church in great haste, 

 for she had seen a young man for whom she had conceiv- 

 ed a passion, which altered her views alxnit matrimony. 

 She wishes to bring him to her house, but resolves that 

 he shall be ignorant whose it is. Her coachman Urba- 

 no, who is also the gracioso or buffoon of the pit < 

 charged with this commission. He goes off' to fulfil it, 

 and in the meantime the three lovers arrive masked, but 

 without design, in the same manner. They are disgui- 

 sed as hawkers of books and prints. Their reception 

 and dismission by Leonarda has considerable gaiety. 

 In the second act, the favourite youth C'amillns makes 

 hi* appearance, and hesitates for a long time whether to 

 hazard the adventure which iy proposed to him. l.'r- 

 bano draws a doctor's cap (capirote) over his eyes, and 

 brings him thus, after a great many windings and turn-. 



to the apartment of Leonardo. She i* masked. A l>nma. 

 llation i served up, of which the ioung v ~"~r 

 man scarcely dares to taste, in hi- tears tor the possible 

 of his adventure; whilst he compares 



il'to Alexander alxuit to swallow the Mi-p' 



L;C from his physician. After a tender intu 

 the doctor's cap is replaced over hi 

 ken home. Several days are supposed lobe pas- 

 in one scene after another, in the course of which !' 

 decency of the widow's conclu from being ir- 



reproachable. At h i many singular changes 



and incidents, chance unravels the plot, after the :ui- 



thor. as a passing amusement, has made a I'air and ho- 

 nourable lover of the widow to be killed by the sword. 

 I'amillus finds the fair unknown one to be a beaut v 

 whom he had long admired, and is very happy to be- 

 come her husband. 



The spiritual comedies of Lope de Vega, pourtray j^ j e 

 the religion of his tunes as faithfully as his comedies Vega's 

 of intrigue point its manners. A true piety in the ritual < 

 old Catholic sense, strangely founded in the most ab- "** 

 fcurd chimeras ; but chimeras often, ennobled by the 

 genius of a bold and strong poctrv, presents us with 

 a creation unlike any other species of composition. The 

 mixture of poetry, however, is very different iii dif- 

 ferent pieces of this theological drama. Those, of 

 which the subject is taken from the lives of the saints, 

 have much more poetry than the comedies of the holy 

 sacrament. Both of them were represented with great 

 pomp, machinery, and music; in tact, with all the ap- 

 paratus of the genuine opera. Of all his pieces, his 

 Lives of the Saints are the most irregular. In these 

 are introduced promiscuously, buffoons, saints, alle- 

 gorical personages, peasants, I :dents, the in- 

 fant Jesus, the eternal Father, the devil, and all that 

 heterogeneous fancy could bring together. In the His comedy 

 comedy of St Nicholas of Tolentine, (a modern saint, :' st Ni- 

 whom Lope has made the hero of one of his spiritual clilapf 

 pieces,) the scene opens by a conversation of students, ' 

 who emulously bring forward their wit, and ,-chola-- 

 tic erudition. Among these theologians, is the future; 

 saint; and his piety shines greatly in this society, which 

 is a little profane. The devil, who is prudently mask- 

 ed, mixes himself with the comedy. A skeleton ap- 



in the air. The heavens open, and the eternal 

 Father is seen seated on his tribunal between Justice 

 and Mercy, who alternately make their remonstrances 

 to him. To this scene another succeeds, which n; 

 us acquainted with a love intrigue between a Dame 

 Rosalie and a Don Feniso. The saint again appear.-, 

 and makes a sermon in Hedondeli.i verses. Having al- 

 ready become a canon, his parents testify their ioy at 

 having such a son ; and thus ends the first act. In the 

 second act, the saint prays in the sliajx? of a sonnet ; 

 the heavens are opened, and he is taken up thither by 

 the power of faiUi. 1 Ie reappears, however, and the 

 devil comes to tempt him. A little afterwards, there 

 is a view of purgatory, and the souls which are roasting 

 therein. The devil returns with a number of serpents, 

 li.'ii-, and other frightful animals ; but a religious per- 

 son of the convent chases him off with a huge besom, 

 in a scene which the author purposely makes bur- 

 lesque (graciosamciiie.) 



The autos, or comedies of the holy sacrament, were Comedict of 

 sufficiently absurd, but more simple and serious; in the holy SB- 



c, more full of theological discussion, and so 

 full of alfegory and divinity, that it is difficult to con- 

 ceive their having been intelligible to the common 

 people: Hut the prologues ami the interludes (Eti- 

 tremexs y snyncler) appear to have been intended a 





