Abstract
Most critics now accept that the theme of marital honour is not always treated in exactly the same way in Golden-Age drama. However, it was not until after the war that scholars began consistently to suggest that some plays, once thought to be unquestioning in their support of a certain attitude to marital honour, were implicitly critical of that attitude. Four plays in particular, each one presided over by a suspiciously flawed or at least ambiguous ruler, were mentioned in this context: El castigo sin venganza, El medico de su honra, A secreto agravio, secreta venganza and El pintor de su deshonra.1 Since then, it has been argued cogently that even such a play as Los comendadores de Cordoba, ‘safely’ presided over by King Ferdinand the Catholic, presents the protagonist in such a light that we cannot take his vengeance at face value.2 The portrayal of conjugal honour in La locura por la honra and La victoria de la honra has also revealed significant ironies.3
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