Juan del Encina’s Nativity Eclogues: A New English Translation

Abstract

Juan del Encina has long been recognized as a crucial figure in Iberian drama, yet few of his works have been translated into English. Encina wrote plays, poetry, and music in the late fifteenth and early sixteenth centuries, and scholars have traditionally regarded Encina’s writing as a turning point in early Spanish drama, both because of the secular material included in his plays and because Encina supervised the publication of his own works. He is also credited with contributing to the professionalization of Spanish theater by depicting the court of his patrons, the Duke and Duchess of Alba, as a site of theatrical performance. Encina’s innovative dramas interweave courtly, religious, and pastoral drama with metafictional elements. Atiya presents translations of two plays included in Encina’s 1496 Cancionero, a printed compilation of poetic, dramatic, and musical works.