Lope's «comedias bizantinas» in their Spanish and Italian theatrical contexts

Abstract

In this paper I will attempt to explain the birth of Lope de Vega's comedias bizantinas —located in the tumultuous Mediterranean Sea and starring captives and corsairs, loyal lovers, Christians and Moors— in their Spanish and Italian theatrical contexts. After studying the presence of their main plots, themes and motifs in Spanish and Italian sixteenth-century theatre, I will show that their first theatrical precedents appeared around 1580, when some Spanish playwrights decided to put the classical models aside in an attempt to satisfy their audience. In order to do so, they adapted all kinds of literary sources (such as novelle and novelas bizantinas , romances de cautivos , etc.), and also their historical background (corsair attacks, captivity in Africa...). Up until then, both in Spanish and in Italian theatre, such stories were only used —with a few exceptions— in prologues and in inserted stories told by some character, without breaking the Aristotelian rules and in accordance with classical patterns. The extreme freedom involved in the comedias bizantinas and many other plays by Lope had a profound influence on Italian theatre.