Abstract

The present article examines the authorship of the comedy Los empeños de un acaso. This work was published in several editions with two different titles: Los empeños de un acaso and Los empeños que se ofrecen. This could explain that the comedy was attributed in different editions to Calderón de la Barca and Juan Pérez de Montalbán. This paper defends Calderón’s authorship: although the Golden Age Comedy in general shares certain stylistic conventions, it is clear that Calderón reiterates specific issues and treatments in his swashbuckling comedies. In this context, the article deals with three different aspects: the mention of the locus amoenus, the allusion to Madrid as a populous city, and some metaliterary commentaries.