Lope de Vega's Los españoles en Flandes
Subtitle: a critical edition
By: edited by Veronica M. Sauter.
Contributors: Sauter, Veronica M., 1953-
Series: Ibérica,; vol. 17; Ibérica (New York, N.Y.) ;; v. 17.
Publisher: P. Lang; Lang AG International Academic Publishers, Peter
Published: 1997
Place of publication: New York
Language: spa; eng
Number of pages: 286
Subjects: Vega, Lope de, 1562-1635.; Spain -- History -- Philip II, 1556-1598 -- Drama.; Netherlands -- History -- Wars of Independence, 1556-1648 -- Drama.
Other titles: Españoles en Flandes
Description: This first critical edition of Lope de Vega's obscure historical play based on the Spanish victory at Gembloux on January 30, 1578 challenges all previous literary assessments of Los espanoles en Flandes (The Spaniards in Flanders) as a meaningless dramatic product. While Lope strictly adhered to Alonso Vazquez's factual account for the historical thread, the 'Phoenix' demonstrates his creative genius in the use of the Gypsy language (germanesca) and the commercial (ships, spices, soft goods) imagery dominant in the trivial fictional subplot. Indeed, trade, especially of foodstuffs and specifically of wheat as evidenced in the name of the gracioso and protagonist of the secondary plot, Salvado (bran or chaff of wheat), provides the primary focus of the play. If mercantilism was a deliberate pursuit of economic interests in order to buttress the state (J. I.

Israel), then Lope's spectators would have recognized the simple dichotomy of the main and secondary plots as analogous, respectively, to the dual politique and socio-economic approach to government. In this light, Los espanoles en Flandes offers an objective and poignant view of the realities which powered Imperial Spain's war machinery in the Low Countries during the late sixteenth and early seventeenth centuries.
Notes: Text in Spanish; introductory matters and notes in English.
Includes bibliographical references (p. [269]-286).