Abstract
This essay deals with the court-play El vellocino de oro, by Lope de Vega, performed at Aranjuez at the beginning of Philip the Fourth’s reign. Critics have already explained the panegyrical meaning of the play, the link between Jason’s myth and Habsburg genealogical claims, and the equation the very dialogue suggests between Jason and the King. In addition, Jason’s story contained an explanation of the origins of ship traffic, a topic that had become as socially, economically and politically relevant as ideologically controversial at seventeenth-century Europe. The article studies how this topic is presented and developed in the play and reaches the conclusion that, in spite of the fact that moralistic rejection was dominant in Spanish didactical prose and lyrical poetry, Lope de Vega approaches the topic from a point of view that merges epic poetry and political discourse: he celebrates Jason’s invention and, so doing, he highlights navigation’s crucial role in Hispanic Monarchy.
Highlights
This essay deals with the court-play El vellocino de oro, by Lope de Vega, performed at Aranjuez at the beginning of Philip the Fourth’s reign
The article studies how this topic is presented and developed in the play and reaches the conclusion that, in spite of the fact that moralistic rejection was dominant in Spanish didactical prose and lyrical poetry, Lope de Vega approaches the topic from a point of view that merges epic poetry and political discourse: he celebrates Jason’s invention and, so doing, he highlights navigation’s crucial role in Hispanic Monarchy
Pues, significar el poder de la navegación y las riquezas que con ellas se adquieren, fingieron haber aquella nave Argos (que se atrevió la primera a desasirse de la tierra y entregarse a los golfos del mar) conquistado el vellocino, piel de un carnero, que en vez de lana daba oro, cuya hazaña mereció que fuese consagrada a Palas, diosa de las armas, y trasladada al firmamento por una de sus constelaciones, en premio de sus peligrosos viajes, habiendo descubierto al mundo que se podían con el remo y con la vela abrir caminos entre los montes de las olas, y conducir por ellos al paso del viento las armas y el comercio a todas partes
Summary
This essay deals with the court-play El vellocino de oro, by Lope de Vega, performed at Aranjuez at the beginning of Philip the Fourth’s reign.
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