The Art of Dying: Mira de Amescua’s La hija de Carlos V and Ximénez de Enciso’s La mayor hazaña de Carlos V

Abstract

Charles V was a popular figure on the early modern stage; plays offered nostalgic glimpses of a warrior king who conquered foreign lands and stifled the spread of heresy. This article examines two plays that dramatize Charles V’s life: Mira de Amescua’s La hija de Carlos V and Ximenez de Enciso’s La mayor hazana de Carlos V. Instead of serving audiences the normal rations of a swashbuckling Charles, these plays push aside the battles and the pageantry in order to emphasize the inner conflict that troubled the emperor during his final years. I analyse how these two plays use stage directions and performative cues to depict the emperor’s abdication and retirement to Yuste, finding that the plays engage with vanitas, the still-life visual reminders of human mortality, and the ars moriendi literary tradition in order to promote the concept of a good death.