Ferdinand is the foil to the Comander ; good male authority

Begins as war of succession to Castilian crown, in end Ferdinand usurps

her authority to speak with her; monarchs plural appearance is
symbolic value to resolve what Lope and ppl at his time would accept
as figures of legitimate justice.
Isabella won the war; forged a unity government over Iberian peninsula
minus Portugal and set Spain over the course of its empire.
Laurencia is a strong character in the play; if the Comander represents
Arte nueva
Give the public what it wants, they buy the tickets
Lecture
Theatre is mimetic, imitates life; synthetic and combines artistic
elements. Combination of movement, gesture, voice, masques,
dialogues, interactive dialogues. Interpretative; spectators and
dramatists interpret the work of art. Pre verbal; words are elaboration
of dramatic action.
Theatre is temporal; period of time for it to evolve and present itself.
And it cannot be repeated and it is ephemeral.
Plastic art; different art and movement, never the same thing twice.
Francis Fergusson
Theatre text can be read as musical notation can be read; takes
practice. Cognitive
Aristotle; not a series of prescriptions, despite what the Renaissance
academicians claimed, close observation of poetic arts in Greek
(drama: tragedy and comedy). Art having in common the imitation;
humans have histrionic quality. Separation of comedy and tragedy;
Perspective vis--vis spectators and performances (heroes higher than
us, hero higher than us with fatal flaw, creating fear and pity); comedy
involving people lower than us, we look down at them and laugh at
them. Tragedy (Chapter 6); imitation of action of certain magnitude
Six elements common to drama; plot, character, theme,
language, diction, music, spectacle. Unity of action; time and place.
Discovery first in Italy, interpreted in Spain in 1580s;
Royal Academy of Madrid critiquing Lope and demanding that he
defend his practices, and that is where arte nueve comes in.

Medieval dramatic tradition is murky and lost in Spain; few texts are
fragments. Liturgical plays (auto de, but not auto sacramentales that
we know); plays staged around sermons, feast days.
Historionic sensibility in Aristotle put to use in religious
framework, and then it evolves from it. Fragments that predate 16th
century that are religious in nature. In 16th century, we see more
surviving texts: Juan de Encina, court of Ferdinand and Isabella, wrote
dramatic dialogues. Lyrical religious play that might be played in the
court; pasos de Lope de Rueda, grandfather of entremes gender;
pastoral plays, tragedies in 1580s.
Los tragicos, early in 1580s before Lope comes on scene. That
aesthetic is fading in and Lope establishes the: establishment of
mature, highly conventional theatre thanks to Lope and others. This
coincided with establishment of first theatre (1579, corral de la Cruz;
1580, corral de la Principe).
Men in bottom floor; women sit in first floor; adjacent buildings,
windows opened up like theatre boxes for people who could pay more.
Autor de comedias is not the author but rather the director of plays;
financial undertakings, purchasing plays from dramaturgo (playwright).
Playwright not linked to any company, they sold works to whoever
would buy them; after play was sold to autor, it would belong to
him/company.
Plays known for special effects and machinery; sunsets, ships passing
in distance, animal sacrifice in Numancia; stage a large wooden
platform, behind it was a curtain, that curtain could be drawn for
sudden revelations (like bloody body of Mencia spread out). No lighting
effects in corales; performed in broad daylight. In court, broader
budget, more complicated stage machinery (tramoyas) and light effect.
In beginning of scene, there would be some reference to
clothing and time and day. Lots of performances a day in the theatre;
loa, recited dramatic prologue; then first act of comedias, then
intermission of acts 1 and 2, an entremes would be performed. In Act
2, a summary of the action in the first speech (further); after 2nd act,
jachara (sung romance with picaro, racy, underworld), baile; then 3rd
act; and finally, fin de fiesta (music, dance, or jachara).
Lope fixes division of action in 3 acts; calls it comedias nuevas to
distinguish it from ; each act is 1000 lines; no scene division in act,
except group of people exit and others entrance that signals change of
scene. Liberties are blantantly taking; aristic. Polymetric verse; use of
different styles for different effects (octosyllabic works predominate;
redondillas, group of 4 lines with 8 syllables for dramatic lines, abba;
romances to tell stories 8 syllable lines goes to an indeterminate

length, assonant rhyme ; sonnets to tell love; hendecsyllabic, 11

syllabic lines for long serious speeches; octavas-reales, royal octets (8
lines long, each line has 11 syllables), lofty serious literary tone
adopted from Italianate theatre.) Verse changes exist
Plays integrate song, music, theatre, dance. Caters to taste of average
music goer. In the time, the audience time were not referreed to as
spectators but as oyentes (went to hear a comedy, not to see a
comedy).
Its a business,
Jose Antonio Maravall, Culture of the Baroque; seminal work. Idea that
Baroque culture in Spain was a mass culture, and a guided culture that
served a purpose in the patriarchal hegemony of the time; escape
valve and bring ppl back into the fold.
Educated men; saints lives, fuente ovejuna; ballad traditions, lyric
traditons and transforms them in 3 act plays. Lope was such a master
of poetry that that he would write songs that people would write