Abstract
Lope de Vega’s comedia La fuerza lastimosa met with great success in the seventeenth century, in Spain and in adaptations abroad. This article explores reasons for its popularity then and argues for renewed appreciation now. Fine lyrical passages, grim foreshadowing, and the masterful design of its first act, with an escalating crisis well into the second, establish a stunning tragic dilemma. Steeped in cultural tradition and referencing historical events (from the Romancero to the Spanish Armada and Lope’s own biography), La fuerza then veers away from tragedy, with progressively more genial twists and turns. Among its fascinations are mothers and children, attempted wife-murder, cross-dressing in both directions, a perpetually baffled king, and more than usual abuse of the unity of time, all culminating in an exuberantly overstuffed and crowd-pleasing conclusion.
