As Melveena McKendrick notes, “[u]nder the auspices of Lope de Vega, Spain’s commercial theatre became probably the most successful theatre ever in terms of the number of plays written and the number of people, proportionate to population of course, who flocked to see them” (1989: 72). This raises a number of complex questions. How and why did this cultural phenomenon emerge? Were the twin demands of art and commerce complementary and/or contradictory? If Early Modern Spanish dramatists were so successful at the time, why is it that they no longer figure as prominently in the collective consciousness as their French and English counterparts? Was the quantity of the drama matched in terms of quality? For the purposes of this discussion, I will focus on Calderón de la Barca…
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Citation: Wheeler, Duncan . "Comedia - Early Modern / Golden Age Spanish Theatre". The Literary Encyclopedia. First published 23 August 2011 [https://www.litencyc.com/php/stopics.php?rec=true&UID=17652, accessed 27 November 2024.]
