Sound and affect in early comedies by Lope

Abstract

This article analyses the use of assonances in the romances included by Lope de Vega in his early comedies, by comparing them to other author's observations on the role of auditory features and by examining their role in the contemporary debate on mimesis. We contend that assonances on /u/ and /o/ occur very frequently in scenes charged with negative affects. Thus, we conclude that with his comedia nueva Lope de Vega created a poetic form in which affects acquired a very high degree of expressiveness in the sonic structure of the verse.