Abstract

As indicated at the beginning of this paper, it deals with a small number of unpublished plays by a late 16th - early 17th century writer. Apart from incorporating his production to the history of drama, I try to lay emphasis on the fact that he, being an amateur playwright, was responsible for the performance of his own plays, at an age when theatre was rapidly becoming commercial and professional. The way his personal circumstances influenced his own creative work is also taken into account. This author has certainly to be viewed within his own time and personal and literary history.

Abstract

This paper studies José de Valdivieso’s En los mayores peligros se conoce la amistad (Friendship is best acknowledged when in danger) one of the five autos sacramentales (Eucharistic morality plays) staged at the Corpus Christi feast in Seville, in 1619, by Diego de Vallejo. It also bears the title La amistad en el peligro (Friendship when in danger), and has never been published in a modern critical edition, though two published records (1622 and 1624) bear witness to the play, of which there are two 17 th Century manuscript versions extant. This article, based on contemporary records, studies the historical socio-religious- urban context of the Corpus Christi feast in Seville and virtually reconstructs the play’s performance, on pageant wagons, and its subsequent procession within the town.

Abstract

In the 16th century, Europe witnesses the triumph of the pre-capitalist economy, personified by the merchant. This new situation brought the rejection of the humanists, who wrote about the society’s decadence of values and the destruction of social status. Ruiz de Alarcón wrote La industria y la suerte, a play in which he describes the confrontation between the Sevillian traders and the nobility. Arnesto, the merchant, represents the corruption brought on by money, and, because of that, Don Juan defeats him in his attempt to gain Blanca’s love by the play’s end.