Shameless Thread Bragging On My Nephew. [View all]

[Ikonoklast]

My sister's son is an assistant professor at Syracuse of classic Spanish literature and is also a researcher of early Spanish playwrights. He wrote his doctoral dissertation on the works of the 17th century Spanish playwright and poet Félix Arturo Lope de Vega y Carpio.

Lope de Vega was a prolific playwright who is considered to be the Spanish Shakespeare. It is thought that he wrote over 1300 plays of which only 300 have survived.

Last year while doing further research in Barcelona at the Spanish National Library on the author and other playwrights and poets, my nephew discovered a comedic play previously thought to be lost, "Women and Servants", written by Lope de Vega circa 1613-1614.

The story takes place in Madrid and stars two sisters, Violante and Luciana, and their lovers, Claridán and Teodoro, one a waiter and the other the secretary of Count Próspero.

These two couples, whose love for each other remains secret, find their relationships put to a test with the appearance of two new suitors: Count Próspero himself, who chases after Luciana, and the rich Don Pedro, who courts Violante with the approval of her father.

This initial scene leads to a game of hide-and-seek and confused identities in which Luciana must intervene to stay close to her lover. These entanglements give way to several very comical scenes, and the house in which they occur becomes a place where all actors are at the mercy of the tricks played by the two women and their lovers.

Today, for the first time in over three centuries the play "Women and Servants" was performed before a live audience.

http://www.alphagalileo.org/ViewItem.aspx?ItemId=138248&CultureCode=en
http://www.thehistoryblog.com/archives/28825