Harlan: Moreto’s “El desden” 
39 
CHAPTER VII 
DE COSARIO A COSARIO, Lope de Vega 
De eosario a cosario , by Lope de Vega, is found in the nine- 
teenth “Parte” of his works, Valladolid, 1627. It is also in- 
cluded in the Torno comprensivo de seis de sus comedias, 
Brussels, 1649. 102 The date of composition of the play is placed 
between 1618-162X. 103 
Fitzmaurice-Kelly 104 mentions De eosario a cosario among 
the plays suggested as having influenced Moreto. 
Alonso Cortes rejects the idea of similarity between the two 
plays. 105 
Schaeffer 106 gives the similarity between the plays as being 
“die gegenseitigen Bestrebungen der Liebenden, sich durch 
Eifersucht zu stacheln”. 
The first act of De -cosario a cosario 107 finds Don Juan, a 
wealthy widower, in Madrid with his friend Fernando, who is 
in love with Lisarda, who does not show him much favor. 
Juan is warned by Fernando that people will be after his 
money, and to be careful, which care he exercises on Celia, 
whom they meet on the street, and who, being attracted by 
Juan’s appearance, asks him to buy her some gloves. He says 
that is not one of the things his memorandum on how to act 
in Madrid permits him to do. Celia feels rebuffed and bribes 
Mendo, Juan’s servant, to bring the latter to her house that 
night. Lisarda, told by Lucindo and Teodoro, two gallants, 
that Fernando has been talking to Celia on the street, becomes 
very angry, and when Fernando presents Juan, she shows him 
much favor. At Celia’s house that evening, Juan and Celia 
flatter each other, each thinking he is deceiving the other. He 
is warned by Fernando to be careful and Ines warns Celia. 
In the second act Lisarda upbraids Fernando for neglect 
of her since the arrival of Juan, and he tells her that Juan 
102 Barrera, op. cit., pp. 446, 450. 
103 Milton A. Buchanan, The Chronology of Lope de Vega’s plays, University of 
Toronto Studies, 1922, p. 21. 
104 op. cit., p. 274. 
105 op. cit., p. 21. 
106 op. cit., p. 159. 
107 Based on the text of the Biblioteca de autores espanoles, Vol. XLI, torno 3, pp. 
484-505. 
