VEGA CARPIO, va'gf). LOPE FELIX DE, generally called Lope de Vega (1562-1635). The most ingenious dramatiQ poet of Spain, sur named El Fenix de Espafia. Born in Madrid, November 25, 1562, lie received his elementary training there at the Imperial college under the Jesuits. The earliest of his extant plays, El rerdadero amantr, was written when he was thirteen years old. It is almost certain that he took part in an expedition against the Azores (1582). His licrinosnra rlr .liqu'lira (1602), a long poetical continuation of the Orlando Purioso of Ariosto, is far inferior to the work of the Italian. After his return from the scene of Spain's naval humiliation. Lope wrote the .1readia (1598), a pastoral novel, in mingled prose and verse, which, under fictitious names, introduces love epif:odes in which the author and sour of his friviDk had figured. The epic is a pat riot ie attack upon Sir Francis Drake. In 1599 appeared a religions poem, the San Isidro, in which he celebrated the life and deeds of the patron saint Of Madrid. TO 1602 may he ascribed the Rimas, a collect ion of sonnets, and to 1604 the prose rOlaanee El peregrino en sn patria. The Peregrino contains also four autos (religious dramas) and a list of more than 200 plays that lie hail already composed. With dcrusalen conquislada (published 1(i09) he undertook to surpass 'lasso; but the epic of the Italian is in every way superior to Lope's poem.
After some Nvorks of minor importance, such as the Soliloquies published under the name of tiabriel 1'adccopeo, there came Ids bealHiful re ligious pastoral, Pastures de Eden. After the death of his second wife (1612) he took holy orders in 1614. Ills piety appears to have been sincere even if his life was not blameless, and he gave renewed expression to Ins religions feelings in the Triunfo de la fd on el Japdo (1618). lie essayed the prose tale in four stories, Las tortuous de Diana, El desdiehado per la honra, La pradente venganza, and (luzman cl Bravo. The Trianfos divines is a collection of religious lyrics, and the Corona trdgica (1627) is a re ligious epic intended as a defense of Mary Stuart, Queen of Scots. As a poetical logue and eulogy of more than 300 Spanish poets, he composed his Laurel de Apolo, which can hardly be considered as a model of just criticism. The Dorotca (1632) is a prose ro mance in dramatic form, in which the author un doubtedly embodied many personal experiences; on this account its biographical value has been somewhat stressed. It was a favorite work with Lope himself. Under the pseudonym of "the lieenciado Tom6 Burguillos" he produced in 1634 certain Rimas and the mock-heroic poem (halo moquia. This is both witty and interesting.
Lope was a poet of great versatility. He es sayed nearly every kind of writing, but it is on the stage that his genius showed itself in many ways unexcelled. While his dramatic work is
paired by many imperfections, his faults are atoned for by his exuberant invention, by the skill with which lie develops character, and by the unfailing spiritedness of his dialogue. His fertility is unparalleled. Ile is supposed to have written between 1500 and 1800 plays (comcdias), in addition to several hundred autos (re ligious pieces) and entrameses (interludes). Of these there are extant about 400 comedies and about 40 autos. In the comic and the tragic vein, Lope treated all manner of subjects—historical, legendary, picaresque, re ligious, and those that have to do with every-day life. It was lie who gave the greatest develop ment to the stock comic character called the gracioso; and lie first gave dramatic emphasis to the pundonor, or point of honor, as an all pervading principle of Spanish cultured life. Of his many pieces the following may he given spe cial mention: El castigo sin rroganza Porfiar liusta. morir; La estrella de Sevilla, which is one of the best of all; El mrjor alcalde el Re/; El aeero de Madrid; La eselara de su galon; El pert-0 del hm-trlano: La holm para los otros y discrete pore si ; Los eautivos de Arqcl ; Si no rirran las El prineipe perfcto; Los Tellos de Mcneses; and La. Puente Ovejuna.
For printed editions of Lope's works, consult the Coleeeidn de las ohms surltas de Lope de Vega (21 vols., Madrid, 1876-791; the plays and other works contained in vols. xxiv., xxxv., xli., and xlii. of the Rihlietcco de autores espaholes( ib., 1859 et seq. ) ; Com (Wigs inMitas ( 1873) ; La Dorotea, accidn en prosa (ib., 1886); and especially the definitive edition of his Obras, publieadas por la. Real .leademio Espanola, which, begun at Madrid, 1890, has prefixed to its first volume the Nurra bloyrafia of C. A. de la Barrera, and, carried on under the editorship of M. Menionlez y Pelay°, who prepares the Obscrra ciones yzrn1iniivazes, hos already reached the twelfth volume. Consult also V. Fox ( Lord Hol Sonic Account of the Life and Writings of Lope Felix de Vega Carpi() (London, 1806, and again 1817) ; Fitzmauriee-Kelly, .1 History of Spanish Literature (New York, 1898) ; Fa-hie1li, ilrillparzer and Lope de Vega (Berlin, 1894) ; Dorer, Dic Lope de Vega Litteratur in Deutsch land (ib., 1877) ; Forster, Sonic French and Spanish Men of Letters (London, 1891) ; Orill parzer, Studien iiber das spanische Theater, in his Werke, vol. viii. (Stuttgart, 1871) ; C. H. Lewes, The Spanish Drama: Lope de Vega and Calderon (London, 1846) ; Ludwig, Lope dr, Vegas Dranien tuns dery karolingisehen Sagen kreise (Berlin, 189S) ; Wurzbach, Lope de (Leipzig, 1898) ; and NenConlez y Pelap), Est adios de critiea literaria, serie ii, (Madrid, 1895).