"Las pullas de Isabel(a)" between Lope and Góngora: Models, verses and paratexts of Virtud pobreza y mujer.

Abstract

This article studies the relationship between two plays: Las firmezas de Isabela, by Luis de Góngora, and Virtud, pobreza y mujer, by Lope de Vega. After establishing the composition date of the latter, I will demonstrate that it was Lope who might have been inspired by Góngora, rather than the other way around (a debated issue). I will also consider the various different threads of Góngora's comedy pointed out by scholars. Furthermore, I will explore how traces of Las firmezas de Isabela can be seen in the first act of Virtud, pobreza y mujer, while in the rest of his play Lope follows other models (the Byzantine genre and a novella by Masuccio Salernitano). At the same time, it seems clear that Isabel's astonishing virtue is related to aspects of Lope's Arte nuevo. However, the controversial dedication that Lope wrote for his play when he published it in his Parte XX (1625), as well as the autobiographical echoes with which he dressed up his protagonist (which have hitherto remained hidden), suggest that Lope was determined -both by writing Virtud, pobreza y mujer and by publishing it- to defy Las firmezas de Isabela: A reference point for his own play, but one nevertheless written by his adversary, whose dramatic work was to a large extent a reaction against Lope's art.