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Written in Lope's more mature years, at the time of his greatest activity, and probably corrected or rewritten seven years later, this play contains few of the inaccuracies and obscure passages so common to many of his works, reveals to us much of interest in Spanish daily life and in a way reflects the condition of the Spanish capital during the reign of Philip IV, which certainly was one of the most brilliant in the history of the kingdom.
These are probably the only editions of the play with which Ticknor was familiar when he made his classification of it, for certainly he could not reconcile it with his definition of "comedies on common life," but he could easily accord it with his definition of "comedias de capa y espada."
The increasing study of Spanish in high schools and colleges has made necessary the preparation of a text of a simpler character than those now in common use. In the present text, especially in the first selections, the language has been simplified so that reading may be begun at a very early stage in the pupil's work.
Unlike Shakespeare, whose rare good fortune it was to establish a language as well as found a national drama, Lope de Vega took up a language which had been in use and which had served as a medium of literary expression many centuries before he was born, and with it established the Spanish drama. Here again Lope conformed to common usage.
That Lope did not approve entirely of the higher social life of his time is brought out all through the play and revealed in the hero, for the contemporaries and friends of the latter considered him an original. But in him we find more nearly the common Spanish conception of chivalry and honor.
Though a conservative and a monarchist, he loved the common people, and he delighted in describing their customs and in collecting their traditions. In his tales of manners and customs he idealized the simple life of the country folk almost beyond recognition, and he worked over and embellished their traditions to suit his taste.
In general, scenes in which subordinates or common people appear are in prose, while those between nobles are in verse. When the action is of ordinary pitch, this verse is very simple; but when the action reaches a high pitch, the verse form becomes complicated. Examples of this are to be seen in Act III, Scene V, and Act IV, Scenes V and VI.
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