Pride and Prejudice: Some Thoughts on Lope de Vega's "El Villano en su Rincon"

Abstract

M ANY CRITICS HAVE COMMENTED on the puzzling ambiguities of Lope's El villano en su rincdn. To date, the most illuminating general study of the play is still that of Professor Everett W. Hesse: key to the understanding of the play in its several plots is the concept of love as a force which transcends every barrier, uniting persons of unequal rank, arousing a sympathetic understanding and mutual respect, stimulating an aspiration for the higher things in life and prompting forgiveness rather than vengeance.' This interpretation of the play has been strongly reinforced by a recent article of Professors Andrews, Armistead, and Silverman, concerning the symbolism of the espejo. The word is, as they have discovered, synonymous with beloved one.2 They have also found that the expression mirarse en uno como en un espejo means tenerle mucho amor y complacerse en sus gracias o en sus acciones (p. 35, n. 15). The authors relate their discovery to many passages of the play in which is used, but not, strangely enough, to that climactic scene in which the King, wishing to impress upon Juan Labrador the duties the latter owes him, confronts him with three symbols of kingship-among them the espejo, and admonishes him: Vasallo que no se mira / en el rey, este muy cierto / que sin concierto ha vivido, / y que vive descompuesto.' Here, it would appear, the King is reminding his recalcitrant subject of the love he should feel for the monarch instead of the fear and distrust he has felt.