00:01:16.140was born in 1562 in Madrid, one year after it was proclaimed the official capital of Spain, and he
00:01:27.360died in 1635. So for much of López's life, he lived through a time of, you know, Spanish dominance in the
00:01:37.960world, and actually this entire period from the 16th century to the 17th century, the output
00:01:46.120plays, creative writing from Spain alone was more vast than the rest of Europe combined. It was a
00:01:54.700genuine flourishing of the arts, of culture, and obviously López Vega himself was very, very close
00:02:02.840to all of this, being in the heart of it, in the thick of it, in Madrid, though not necessarily all of
00:02:09.880his life. As I say, he had quite a turbulent life. He was actually exiled from Madrid at one point in
00:02:16.000his life because he wrote a somewhat libelous play against another member of the nobility, and so he
00:02:25.000had to wait for relations to smooth over again for that. Perhaps one of the most remarkable little
00:02:32.300events in his life was actually, in 1588, López Vega himself was aboard one of the battleships
00:02:41.100in the Spanish Armada, and if anyone knows the history of the Spanish Armada, you know, well enough,
00:02:47.800you'll know not only was it an English victory, but actually as well that very, very few of the ships
00:02:54.940actually managed to get back to Spain safely. And fortunately for us, and it is because if it had died
00:03:02.380there, we wouldn't have this play now, which was written later in the early 1600s, López Vega managed to
00:03:09.340survive the Spanish Armada as well. So a very, very impressive man. He was, you know, he was everything
00:03:16.720you'd expect from a Spaniard as well, you know, living it up in the theatres. You know, he had this whole sort of
00:03:24.600life that you can now conjure in your head from all those sorts of things. In fact, just sort of codify
00:03:31.580everything. He was jailed, exiled, married, and on the Armada all in the same year, all around 1588. So
00:03:41.280yeah, a very, very adventurous life. And his plays are an enduring part of Spanish culture. Fuente
00:03:49.980over who there is amongst his most famous plays. And it's one that I studied at drama school. And so
00:03:56.920it's actually been a lot of fun revisiting it all these years later to present it to you here today.
00:04:03.200At the time that López Vega was writing, we're seeing a true transformation of theatre's place
00:04:11.720within Spanish society. You know, moving away from those medieval centuries where we had sort of
00:04:18.380religious dramas that were put on by the church. And of course, they were a place of high ideals and
00:04:25.280morals. And, you know, theatre performance was used as a means of moral instruction. Now, of course,
00:04:32.440that is also true of López Vega's plays. Most plays have some sort of moral lesson to them,
00:04:39.140of course. But the primary aim of López Vega's plays, and naturally from that, his popularity, was the fact
00:04:48.740that he just wrote his plays first and foremost as entertainment. He wrote them for mass appeal. A cynic may
00:04:58.420call them slop, though if they do be slop, they'd be a very, very high strand of it. It's very, very good. But it is
00:05:07.980theatre for the masses, all of this to say. And López Vega actually wrote a guide in 1609 called The New Art
00:05:16.340of Writing Plays, where we'll talk about this a bit more after I've gone through the story with you. But
00:05:23.180really deconstructing the old way of storytelling, the neoclassical Greek form of plays, and creating what
00:05:32.300we would think of today as sort of the new modern drama, the genesis of the new drama. But within his
00:05:40.380new art for writing plays, Vega really emphasises the fact that you need to write first and foremost
00:05:47.180for your audience. You know what they want, and it's your job as a playwright actually to give it to
00:05:54.460them. As he's quoted as saying, we who live to please, must please to live. And for those of you
00:06:00.780who might fairly, you know, criticise for lacking artistic integrity, you know, a sense of bravery
00:06:07.260and danger and experimentation, and, you know, to accuse López Vega of just playing it very, very safe,
00:06:13.920we have to remember, of course, the type of people who were attending these theatres back during
00:06:20.940López Vega's contemporary age, and obviously being a contemporary of Shakespeare too. Though
00:06:26.220naturally, the two never met one another, is the fact that these audiences at the time were, you know,
00:06:35.020labourers, you know, mainly from the lower end of society. And these people could be very, very feral.
00:06:42.580And if they didn't like what you were performing, you know, food would be thrown at the actors. And,
00:06:48.640you know, there would be a lot of abuse heckled, and all these sorts of things that seem a bit
00:06:53.840inconceivable to us today. But nonetheless, López Vega obviously just wants to keep their attention
00:07:00.700and just keep them happy for a good two hours. And that, in and of itself, does require its own
00:07:07.960particular type of talent. In fact, to give some sort of comparison between López Vega and Shakespeare,
00:07:15.380I actually have here a terrific quote from the American literary critic Brandon Matthews,
00:07:21.120where he goes on to say that Shakespeare came forward after the English drama had already
00:07:26.240developed a variety of forms, and he found the road broken for him by Marlowe and Kidd,
00:07:32.500by Lyle and Green. At first he followed in their footsteps, however far beyond them he was to
00:07:38.540advance in the end. López Vega, on the other hand, was a pioneer. He it was who blazed new trails in
00:07:46.040which all the succeeding playwrights of Spain gladly trod. Shakespeare seems to have cared little for
00:07:52.300invention, borrowing his plots anywhere and everywhere, and reserving his imagination for
00:07:58.340the interpretation of tales first told by others. Lope, on the other hand again, abounded rather in
00:08:05.280invention than in the interpreting imagination. He was wonderfully fusened and prolific, unsurpassed in
00:08:12.200productivity even by Defoe or Dumas. It was he who made the pattern that Calderon, and all the rest
00:08:18.880were to employ. It was he who worked out the formula of the Spanish commedia, often not a comedy at all
00:08:25.440in our English understanding of the term, but rather a play of intrigue, peopled with hot-blooded heroes
00:08:31.680who wore their hearts on their sleeves, and who carried their hands on the hilts of their swords.
00:08:37.000And I think that that is a very fair assessment, personally. I think that López Vega's place
00:08:42.840in Spanish culture really can't be understated. So with all of this lead up to the play and the story
00:08:50.280itself, shall we begin to talk about what happens in Fuente over Juna.
00:09:01.920Our story begins in 1476, during the War of the Castilian Succession. Alfonso V, King of Portugal,
00:09:11.280has ambitions in Castile and seeks to establish Portuguese power over the region by ensuring that
00:09:18.080his wife, Joanna, is placed on its throne. Checking Alfonso's strength stands the alliance of King
00:09:24.560Ferdinand of Aragon and Isabella of Castile, who marshal their armies. And in the town of Almagro,
00:09:31.980the commander of the order of Calatrava, Fernan Gómez de Guzman, waits for the arrival of the Grand
00:09:39.520Master, flanked by his cronies, Ortuño and Flores. Upon the Grand Master's arrival, Commander Guzman
00:09:47.660impresses him on how the young master has risen with such prestige. You honour me as you should.
00:09:54.100How often have I risked my life on your behalf in these dangerous times? And who intervened with
00:10:00.800his holiness when the question of your youth put your succession in doubt? The master swears this to
00:10:07.480be true by the holy crosses that grace their breasts. The commander is pleased and offers him
00:10:13.500in this council. Don Rodrigo Teogiron, Grand Master of Calatrava. I remember the day your father gave up
00:10:22.400that title and propose that you should succeed him. I remember an eight-year-old boy swearing a vow of
00:10:29.800allegiance, his election confirmed on oath by a host of high commanders, six anointed kings and pious,
00:10:37.440the holy father of Rome. I remember a boy of sixteen, weeping as he buried his uncle, his loyal regent's
00:10:46.720Juan Pacheco, Grand Master of Santiago. I watched that boy take up the heavy burden of power, and today
00:10:55.500I address a youth who must make a man's decision. Since the death of King Enrique, one question has
00:11:02.340echoed through our land. Who should sit on the throne of Castile? Ferdinand, great king of Aragon, makes his claim
00:11:10.380through his marriage to Isabella, Enrique's sister. But your family support Alfonso, king of Portugal, and his claim
00:11:18.000through his wife, Princess Juana, Enrique's only natural child. Blood and honour demand that you support your cousin
00:11:26.620Alfonso's cause. And to that end, I have come here to urge you, master, to assemble all the knights of Calatrava
00:11:34.660and take Suedad Real, a place of vital strategic significance, forming as it does a gateway between
00:11:42.320Andalusia and Castile. Minimal forces will be required. The city is defended by a handful of civilians
00:11:49.140and a collection of minor nobility. Master, it's time to silence those who claim that the crimson cross
00:11:55.880you wear is too heavy for your young shoulders. Remember the counts of Verwenna, from whom you draw
00:12:02.360most noble blood, and let their triumphs drive you on to heights of even greater glory. Remember the
00:12:09.560lords of Vienna, and all the brave generals of that line, whose many victories are almost too numerous to
00:12:15.940be carried aloft, even on the wings of fame herself. It's time for you to go to war, and dip your as yet
00:12:23.680untried sword in the blood of your enemies. Let its blade match the cross on your breast, for how can I
00:12:30.420truly call you master of the Holy Cross, when one is crimson and the other white? It's time, Rodrigo, for you to
00:12:39.200write your own burning page in the proud history of your illustrious kinsmen.
00:12:44.940Duty and honour compels the master to agree, and the two warriors move to siege Suedad Real.
00:12:51.940In the nearby town of Fuente Ovuhuna, the peasants gossip about the commander. The town is his fife, and beneath his
00:12:59.880veneer of chivalry, the townsfolk know his nature as a lecherous and oppressive overlord. He demands the obedience of the women,
00:13:08.940humiliating their husbands and besmirching their honour, yet the mayor's daughter, Lorencia, refuses. She has no desire for the
00:13:16.380commander, or the trinkets he offers in exchange for submission. Lorencia values her honour above all else, and she defends it with a
00:13:24.860sharp tongue and a strong will. Her closest friend, Pasquala, sees a wisdom in Lorencia's chastity, being sensible of empty
00:13:32.940promises, and the lures of men. Captain Flores arrives in the town, and recounts the deeds that the knights of Calatrava
00:13:40.380achieved at Suedad Real. All of its nobles were put to the sword, and its other inhabitants flogged through the streets, the
00:13:48.460commander being hostile to all notions of clemency. The common people congregate in the town square, awaiting their lord's return. Upon his arrival, he is
00:13:58.940addressed by Esteban, the mayor of Fuente of Ahuna, and father of Lorencia. Esteban is fawning, and offers up many
00:14:07.260handmade gifts. The commander accepts them curtly, and the townsfolk disperse. Lorencia is then interrogated by the
00:14:15.260commander, who means to have her, but she resists the attempt to be taken to his residence. In the next scene, King
00:14:21.900Ferdinand and Queen Isabella discuss their plans for a counter-offensive, after a survivor from Suedad Real
00:14:28.700recounts a brutal sacking. Act 1 ends with Lorencia and Frendoso, by the stream, where the maiden has been
00:14:36.220washing her clothes. Rumours abound that the two are in love, and they are not unfounded. As Lorencia herself
00:14:43.660admits, she does feel she possesses many of love's symptoms. Alas, the romance is ruined when the
00:14:51.420commander approaches and tries to force himself on the poor woman, but she is saved by Frendoso when he
00:14:57.740seizes the commander's crossbow. Lorencia flees with her honour enduring, and the knight and the peasant
00:15:04.460are left to confront one another. Peasant lout, the girl has gone now. Put down my crossbow.
00:15:11.660Put it down! Do you hear me, boy? No, my lord. A man in love is deaf to all insults,
00:15:19.660and I'd be a fool to put this down. You'd just pick it up and kill me. Do you think a man of my rank
00:15:26.540could turn his back and walk away? Retreat before a peasant child? Stand fast and shoot me through the
00:15:33.900heart. I won't break my oath of chivalry. I don't ask that. I understand the obligation of your rank,
00:15:41.820but I've my own obligations, one of which is to stay alive. So I'll take your crossbow and leave.
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