Lope de Vega

Lope de Vega helped define the comedia nueva, a flexible Spanish stage form that mixed tragic and comic elements. His 1609 treatise Arte nuevo de hacer comedias explained many of the theatrical principles behind that practice.

Frequently read plays include Fuenteovejuna, The Dog in the Manger, and Peribanez and the Commander of Ocana. Fuenteovejuna is especially famous for its collective village resistance to abuse of power.

Lope de Vega was famous even in his own lifetime for extraordinary productivity. Exact totals vary by source, but hundreds of plays survive or are attributed to him from the Spanish Golden Age.

Lope and Miguel de Cervantes were contemporaries in Spain's Golden Age literary culture. Cervantes admired Lope's popularity while also criticizing the commercial theater system that Lope came to dominate.