Lope de Rueda

• Born: 1510?
• Birthplace: Seville, Spain
• Died: 1565
• Place of death: Cordoba, Spain

Other Literary Forms

Lope de Rueda is known solely for his drama.

Achievements

A precursor of the Spanish Golden Age dramatists, Lope de Rueda was instrumental in the popularization of theater in the middle of the sixteenth century. Distancing himself from the liturgical works then in vogue and the pastoral coloquios that were occasionally performed for the Renaissance elite, he created comical plays in everyday language that appealed to uncultured, rowdy audiences. He was the first in Spain to write pasos brief, dramatic interludes in prose in which ordinary characters confronted one another.

Often pasos were based on popular proverbs or stories. The Olives, for example, the seventh paso in El deleitoso, is based on the Spanish equivalent of “Don’t count your chickens before they hatch.” In this popular paso, Agueda and her husband, Toruvio, are engaged in a loud argument about the price for which their daughter Mencigüela should sell their olives in the plaza. Both parents shove and coax the girl in an effort to convince her. Finally, Mencigüela’s cries and her parents’ screams attract the attention of their neighbor Aloxa, who offers to buy the olives himself in the interest of peace and quiet. It is then that the bumpkins admit that Toruvio has just planted the olive trees that afternoon. It will be thirty years before they produce enough fruit to sell in the plaza.

The language of the pasos is that of the common people. Often, it is witty and racy and includes local jargon. After Lope de Rueda’s time, this type of sketch became an integral part of Spanish drama. Miguel de Cervantes was influenced by Lope de Rueda when he wrote his entremeses, short theatrical interludes to be performed between the acts of a longer play. In his prologue to Ocho comedias y ocho entremeses (1615; eight plays and eight interludes), Cervantes describes the primitive nature of Lope de Rueda’s theater and the excellence of his verses. Cervantes considered Lope de Rueda to be the initiator of theater in Spain, noting that it was he who took the comedia “out of swaddling clothes . . . and dressed it in elegance and ostentation.” Lope de Rueda contributed more to the art of acting and to the germination of theater groups than to the development of dramatic literature. Marcelino Menéndez y Pelayo and Fernando González Ollé both argue that Lope de Rueda’s importance as a writer has been exaggerated because during his lifetime he was known as an actor rather than as a playwright.

On the other hand, the Spanish critic Francisco García Pavón writes that if it had not been for Fernando de Rojas, author of the lengthy novelesque drama Comedia de Calisto y Melibea (1499, rev. ed. 1502 as Tragicomedia de Calisto y Melibea; commonly known as La Celestina; Celestina, 1631), Lope de Rueda would be considered the father of Spanish dramatic literature. Celestina, too long and unwieldy to be performed in the original version, continued to be read in Lope de Rueda’s time, although primarily by the intellectual elite. Lope de Rueda was undoubtedly familiar with the work and was influenced by Rojas’s use of everyday language, his depiction of picaresque types, and his use of prose rather than verse for drama. Lope de Rueda wrote all of his pasos and dramas in prose, using verse only for his coloquios.

The popular bent of Lope de Rueda’s pasos is characteristic of much of Spanish drama throughout the centuries. Lope de Vega Carpio, who was instrumental in the creation of a Spanish national theater at the end of the sixteenth century, wrote for the masses and drew much of his material from folk stories, popular ballads, proverbs, and historical events familiar to his audience. The depiction of popular types (the bumpkin, the ruffian, the thief, the cuckold) was common in Spanish Golden Age theater. The gracioso, a stock comic character in Golden Age plays, has roots in Lope de Rueda’s pasos—not in his gullible simpletons, but in his cunning, conniving lackeys. Lope de Rueda’s influence can be discerned in the sainetes (one-act farces) of the eighteenth century playwright Ramón de la Cruz, and in the quick-witted banter of the servant-class characters in the plays of Leandro Fernández de Moratín. The zarzuelas (musical comedies) of the late nineteenth century revitalized many of the types popularized by Lope de Rueda. The proletarian nature of much contemporary Spanish theater reflects long-standing tastes and traditions that were established during the time of Lope de Rueda. The early twentieth century author Ramón María del Valle-Inclán wrote short one-act plays called esperpentos, as well as longer works in which he cultivated, embellished, and transformed the savor and wit of the language of the common people. The popular theater known as género chico that was cultivated by such writers as Carlos Arniches at the beginning of the twentieth century depicts many of the same social types as Lope de Rueda. Finally, the social theater of contemporary writers such as Antonio Buero Vallejo, Alfonso Sastre, José Ruibal, and Antonio Martínez Ballesteros—all very different from one another—reinforces the strong link between the Spanish stage and the common people that has existed since Lope de Rueda’s time.

In addition to the pasos, Lope de Rueda wrote four full-length plays or comedias, two dialogues or coloquios in verse, and several pastoral and religious dramas. Unlike the pasos, the comedias and coloquios were directed at the upper strata of Spanish society, although the author made no attempt at a realistic portrayal of the aristocracy.

The chronology of Lope de Rueda’s plays is not known, but the coloquios are thought to be his first works. They take place in a pastoral atmosphere, into which magical and mythological beings constantly intervene. The comedias probably represent the next step in Lope de Rueda’s development. These are mostly adaptations of Italian dramas that were popularized by Italian playwrights who traveled with road companies through Spain during the first part of the sixteenth century. Lope de Rueda’s lack of care in structuring and plotting his comedias indicates that he may have been more interested in expanding the repertoire of his own drama company than in creating truly original plays. The comedias contain several pasos that are loosely interwoven into the action. The pasos that make up El deleitoso and Registro de representantes are thought to be Rueda’s last works. Most of Lope de Rueda’s plays were published posthumously by Juan de Timoneda in 1567.

Biography

During the early sixteenth century, Spain was at the height of its glory. The nation was newly unified as a result of the conquest of Granada, the last Moorish stronghold, in 1492. Religious and patriotic zeal had led to the expulsion of the Jews that same year. Christopher Columbus had sailed to America, and by the time Lope de Rueda was born, probably around 1510, the exploration of the New World was under way. When Rueda was only about nine, Hernán Cortés set out for Mexico. By 1532, Francisco Pizarro had begun the conquest of Peru, thereby tapping a seemingly inexhaustible source of wealth. Charles V, king of Spain and heir to an empire on which “the sun never set,” struggled against the Protestants, the French, the Papacy, and the Ottoman Turks with varying degrees of success and reached the acme of his powers by the middle of the century. It is easy to forget that, during this period of triumph and expansion, much of the Spanish population lived in poverty, ignorance, and fear, alternating between despair and wild fantasies of sudden good fortune.

The Spain that Lope de Rueda portrayed in his pasos is that of the pícaro, the street tough, the petty criminal, the student, the gypsy, the bumpkin. This was the Spain that the dramatist knew personally. He was born into a family of artisans and was by trade a gold beater (one who works gold leaf). Almost nothing is known about his early years, but it can be assumed that being of humble background, he received little formal education. Facts about Lope de Rueda’s life are sparse. One of the most significant sources of information is Cervantes.

Spanish theater was in its infancy during Lope de Rueda’s youth. During the Middle Ages, theatrical works—which were usually religious in nature—were normally performed in churches. During the early Renaissance, plays began to be performed in the palaces of the social and intellectual elite and, later, in the public plazas. The eclogues and farces of such early contributors to the Spanish stage as Juan del Encina, Lucas Fernández, and Gil Vicente were accessible to the general public. In the early sixteenth century, Italian theater groups were traveling across Spain, performing in towns and villages, and Spanish theater companies were forming. As a youth in Seville, Lope de Rueda probably saw some primitive productions and decided to become an actor. Emilio Cotarelo y Mori, one of the foremost authorities on early Spanish theater, conjectured that Lope de Rueda joined a traveling company, thus initiating his apprenticeship in theatrical theory and practice. Then, tired of performing the works of others, he determined to write his own plays. Lope de Rueda apparently knew Italian, since his comedias are adaptations of Italian works, but whether he actually traveled to Italy is not known. Documentation exists proving that in 1542 and 1543, Lope de Rueda, by then manager of his own company, performed in Seville.

During the first half of the sixteenth century, the importance of theater was increasing rapidly in Spain. Festivals and celebrations of many types included theatrical productions. For example, the festivities in honor of the wedding of Juana, daughter of Charles V, to João of Portugal included several plays. The first recorded use of the word comediante (actor) was in 1534, in a directive from Charles V regarding the adornment and dress of theatrical performers.

During this period, Lope de Rueda achieved great success as an actor. According to testimonials by his contemporaries, his gifts for mimicry and gesture were appreciated enthusiastically by all kinds of audiences, and he performed with equal success before boisterous, uncultured street crowds and before noblemen and kings. He often performed the role of the simpleton and was known for his ability to manipulate his voice and to reproduce the speech of the most ignorant elements of Spanish society. Whether the plays he performed were his own or those of other playwrights probably made no difference to his spectators, for whom he and not the text was the main attraction. His fame as an actor lasted for generations.

In spite of the joy and laughter he brought to others, Lope de Rueda’s life was filled with adversity. In 1551 or 1552, he married a woman known only as Mariana, a famous singer and dancer at the court of the duke of Medinaceli. She died soon afterward, and, in 1560, Lope de Rueda married Ángela Rafaela Trilles. His second wife bore him a daughter, Juana Luisa, who also died.

During most of his life, Lope de Rueda experienced severe financial problems. In order to get by, he had to pawn possessions and rely heavily on loans. Like his sly, maneuvering lackeys and thieves, he was concerned primarily with survival; the descriptions of hunger and poverty in his pasos were undoubtedly drawn from his own struggles. His last will and testament mentions some of the debts that he incurred during his lifetime.

From 1551 until 1559, Lope de Rueda lived in Valladolid, although he continued to travel to other cities with his troupe. He was active in theater productions in Segovia, Seville, Valencia, and Toledo. He performed at court twice, in 1554 and in 1561.

Of particular importance with respect to the development of Spanish theater is the fact that, in 1552, the municipal council put Lope de Rueda in charge of public theatrical productions and agreed to pay him a fixed annual salary. In 1558, he requested authorization to build a number of houses to be used as corrales—primitive open-air theaters. These events reflect the growing importance of theater in Spain. Yet the support of the city of Valladolid apparently did not eradicate Lope de Rueda’s financial worries. He was poor and in debt when he died in Cordoba in 1565. Actor, director, manager, playwright, Lope de Rueda was the first complete theater man in Spanish history.

Analysis

Lope de Rueda’s pasos are short, anecdotal skits designed to entertain; they contain no philosophical or moral message. Although they depict the subculture of the poor, the pasos were not construed as instruments of social reform. Survival, not injustice, is Lope de Rueda’s primary theme.

The Pasos

Even so, the pasos provide a telling picture of the situation of the poor during the early part of the sixteenth century. Hunger is a constant preoccupation. In nearly all the pasos, characters are concerned about where they will obtain their next meal. In the first paso of El deleitoso, Luquitas and Alameda spend the afternoon enjoying themselves in a pastry shop, then worry about how to avoid punishment from their master, Salcedo. The entire first part of the play consists of comments on the excellence of the buñuelos, or doughnuts, that the servants have eaten. The dialogue reveals that for Alameda, especially, the visit to the pastry shop has been a special treat because he is not accustomed to eating so well.

In the second paso, Salcedo tries to frighten Alameda by pretending to be a ghost. One of the first questions Alameda asks his disguised master is whether ghosts eat, and if so, what. In the fourth paso, a hungry traveler arrives in a village, where he claims to be the friend of a certain Licenciado Xáquima, from whom he expects hospitality. Licenciado Xáquima is even poorer and hungrier than he, but feeling obligated, he invites the traveler to dinner, even though he has no money to provide a meal. In order to extricate Xáquima from this embarrassing situation, Bachiller Brazuelos hides him under the table and promises to tell the traveler that his host was called away by the archbishop on important business, but when the guest arrives, Brazuelos ruins everything by telling him the truth. In the fifth paso, two thieves distract their victim by describing an imaginary land full of good things to eat. All of these sketches reveal the extreme importance that getting food had for the Spanish underclass.

Because they are needy, Lope de Rueda’s paso characters are crafty and manipulative. Among the indigent, survival demands nimble wits. An astute liar or thief is the object of admiration. In El rufián cobarde y barrera, the fifth paso of Registro de representantes, the thief Sigüenza brags about his “art,” which consists of bringing home “four or five bags and purses,” without buying even “the leather that they’re made of.” In the first paso of El deleitoso, Alameda is impressed with Luquitas’s talent for filching. Hunger breeds distrust and selfishness. In Tantico pan, a paso from Rueda’s comedia, Medora, Perico uses all of his resources to protect a piece of bread from Ortega, who labors to bargain it away.

Those who are dull are exploited. The simple, or simpleton, is a stock Lope de Rueda character, an object of hilarity rather than of compassion; just as Lope de Rueda shows no moral contempt for petty thieves, so he shows no sympathy for their victims. In the fifth paso of El deleitoso, for example, two thieves who are “dizzy with hunger” pounce on a victim and succeed with their scheme because he is too stupid to see through it.

Hunger makes many of Lope de Rueda’s characters irrational or gullible. The two bumpkins in the seventh paso, known as The Olives, fantasize about a windfall precisely because they are so poor. Mendrugo, the simpleton of the fifth paso, falls for the thieves’ story because the image of a land filled with delicacies that cry, “Eat me! Eat me!” is irresistible to a pauper. In many of Lope de Rueda’s pasos, clever swindlers play on the dreams of their victims to cheat them out of their last coin.

To the characters who populate Lope de Rueda’s underworld, the universe is a chaotic interplay of incomprehensible forces. An individual must be alert because unexpected turns of events can catch him off guard and because the strong and the clever routinely abuse the weak. Lope de Rueda’s characters are plagued by superstition and fear. They feel menaced by external forces and by one another. Alameda is afraid of ghosts, which makes him easy to manipulate; he and Luquitas are both afraid of their master. In El rufián cobarde y barrera, the braggart-thug Sigüenza is afraid to fight Estepa, who punishes him for his cowardice by running away with Sebastiana, Sigüenza’s girlfriend.

The pasos depict a fixed group of stock characters, the most common of which is the simpleton. Much of the humor of the pasos derives from the simpleton’s candor, gullibility, and lack of verbal sophistication. Typically, the simpleton is manipulated by a more clever character who tells him what to do or say, but the simpleton misunderstands the instructions and says or does the wrong thing. One of the most amusing exchanges in the fourth paso, Los lacayos ladrones, of Registro de representantes, is a conversation between a lackey named Molina and a constable, in which the thief Madrigalejo puts words into Molina’s mouth:

Constable: Where are you from?

Madrigalejo: Say from Salamanca.

Molina: We’re from Salamanca, si. . . .

Constable: What did you come here for?

Madrigalejo: Say to see the country.

Molina: To see the country, sir.

In the end, the cunning Madrigalejo involves his companion to the point that the constable arrests Molina, even though he is innocent.

A typical example of Lope de Rueda’s wordplay occurs in the first paso of El deleitoso. Luquitas wants Alameda to tell their master that they went to buy onions and cheese, when they were really amusing themselves at the doughnut baker’s shop. Alameda has no qualms about lying, but in spite of Luquitas’s coaching, he keeps getting confused and finds himself spilling out the truth. Luquitas assures Salcedo that instead of buñolera (doughnut baker), Alameda meant vendedera (saleswoman), but confused the words because both end in “a,” a meaningless explanation, since in Spanish, most feminine nouns end in “a.”

Another source of wordplay is the simpleton’s inability to pronounce correctly or to choose the correct term. In the fifth paso of El deleitoso, Mendrugo pronounces the word for “bishop” obispeso, instead of obispo, as he should. In the second, Alameda mistakes cilicio (hair shirt used by penitents) for silencio (silence). Cervantes frequently uses this same type of wordplay in his entremeses.

Several jokes involve the simpleton’s inability to follow directions. In the sixth paso of El deleitoso, a petty noble named Brezano sends his servant Cebadón to pay the rent, giving him careful instructions about how to proceed, but Cebadón gets confused and gives the money to the wrong person.

The master, the lackey, and the petty noble are other stock types that appear in Lope de Rueda’s pasos. A shade more clever than the simpleton, these characters are nevertheless not intelligent enough to know better than to trust him. Salcedo gets his ear cuffed by Alameda; Brezano loses his money by trusting it to Cebadón.

Two other stock characters are the student and the cuckold. Typically, the student is a shrewd, manipulative type who seduces a woman with the full, if unwitting cooperation of her husband. In the third paso of Lope de Rueda’s El deleitoso, Bárbara convinces Martín, her husband, that she is ill in order to stay at home with their guest, a student named Gerónimo. While Martín goes to the doctor for cures, Bárbara and Gerónimo go out together. When Martín runs into them in the street, Bárbara convinces him that the student is taking her to church, where she will be cloistered for nine days. Martín, noting how much better Bárbara seems to be feeling, gives them his blessing.

Lope de Rueda’s individual pasos—that is, those that are not incorporated into his comedias—were probably the product of his mature years. Although most critics consider them to be minor works, they established many of the themes, situations, character types, and techniques that would be exploited during the Golden Age and beyond. The resources that Lope de Rueda had at his disposal were extremely limited in comparison with those that would become available to playwrights by the end of the century. Men such as Lope de Rueda laid the groundwork for the flowering of Spanish theater.

The Comedias

In terms of the development of dramatic literature in Spain, Lope de Rueda’s comedias are far less important than his pasos. Contrived and unoriginal, they consist of a series of tableaux, some of which are unrelated to the action. The plots typically hinge on mistaken identity and implausible turns of fortune. Standard characters include lost or stolen children who reappear as adults, separated twins, and disguised nobles. In general, the comedias lack the autochthonous flavor of later Spanish theater, although the servants, gypsies, and blacks who appear in Lope de Rueda’s comedias express themselves with the same piquancy, vigor, and regional flair as his paso characters.

In spite of their primitive nature, Lope de Rueda’s comedias are full of vitality. The wordplay and fast-moving dialogue of the comic characters and the inclusion of earthy types such as the slave, the lackey, the gypsy, and the simpleton—most of which would appear in the independent pasos—indicate that the comedias represented a significant step in Lope de Rueda’s development.

Los engañados

Los engañados (the deceived) is an example of Lope de Rueda’s early attempts. The play consists of ten scenes, preceded by an argumento del autor, in which the playwright establishes the time and place of the action and provides some background material. The plot involves a case of mistaken identity. Fabricio and Lelia are twins who, despite being of different sexes, are almost identical. Lost during the sacking of Rome, Fabricio has been separated from his family for many years. Verginio, the twins’ father, arranges for Lelia to marry Gerardo, Clavela’s father, with whom he has made a lucrative financial arrangement. When Verginio goes to Rome from Módena, where he is presently living, he leaves Lelia in a monastery, where the girl learns that her beloved, Lauro, has foresaken her for Clavela. Disguised as a page, Lelia leaves the monastery, takes the name “Fabio,” and enters into Lauro’s service in order to dissuade him from pursuing his relationship with Clavela. To complicate matters, Clavela becomes interested in Fabio.

In the meantime, Fabricio appears in Módena, where Gerardo and Verginio take him for Lelia and nearly everyone else takes him for Fabio. Gerardo, believing Fabricio to be a woman in disguise, leaves him in the company of his daughter, only to find the two of them kissing when he returns. Believing himself to be dishonored, Gerardo becomes enraged. Lauro, hearing that his servant Fabio was kissing Clavela, vows to kill him, but Lelia’s deception is revealed to him just in time. Realizing how much Lelia cares for him, Lauro abandons Clavela and marries his first love. Fabricio’s true identity is also revealed, and he marries Clavela.

For the most part, Lope de Rueda advances the action through dialogue. The important dramatic events occur off stage and are recounted by third parties. The primitive nature of the work is evident from the author’s failure to exploit the dramatic possibilities of his story. For example, the audience does not witness the encounters between Lauro and Lelia or between Fabricio and Clavela. Furthermore, Fabricio and Lelia never appear on stage at the same time. Dramatic highlights are apparently inserted at random. In the fourth scene, Lauro speaks passionately to his supposed servant of his love for Clavela, which causes Lelia (disguised as Fabio) to faint. No other dramatic action occurs on stage until, in the sixth scene, Fabricio appears and is mistaken for Lelia or Fabio by the other characters.

Many of the exchanges do not advance the action at all, but serve only to elicit laughter. For example, at the beginning of the first scene, Gerardo asks Verginio for Lelia’s hand in marriage but is interrupted by the simpleton Pajares, who, dressed as a woman, has soiled his clothes by falling into a latrine. The description of this mishap is highly amusing but adds little to the development of the plot. The third scene consists of a long paso that depicts a dispute between the saucy black slave Guiomar and Julieta, a maid. The argument contributes nothing to the dramatic action, but allows the author to display his gift for creating raunchy, substandard language. Although Guiomar’s mispronunciations and misusages reflect to some degree the speech of blacks during the sixteenth century, many of her linguistic idiosyncrasies are Lope de Rueda’s inventions.

Los engañados is closely modeled after Gl’ Ingannati, an anonymous Italian play that was performed in Siena in 1531 and was itself inspired by another work, the thirty-sixth novella of Matteo Bandello. Lope de Rueda follows the action of the Italian play quite closely, maintaining the same title, plot, and even some of the characters’ names. He did eliminate a few scenes from the original work, but his most significant innovation was the introduction of comic characters and the inclusion of several pasos.

Bibliography

Adams, Kenneth, Ciaran Cosgrove, and James Whiston, eds. Spanish Theatre: Studies in Honour of Victor F. Dixon. Rochester, N.Y.: Tamesis, 2001. A collection of studies on various aspects of the theater in Spain. Bibliography.

Hesler, R. “A New Look at the Theater of Lope de Rueda.” Educational Theatre Journal (1964): 47-54. Hesler examines the Spanish theater during the time of Lope de Rueda, including his dramatic works.

Listerman, R. W. “Lope de Vega’s Formula for Success: Practiced Previously by Lope de Rueda.” Language Quarterly (1977): 23-24. The essay examines the similarities between the structures of Lope de Vega Carpio’s works and those of Lope de Rueda, demonstrating the latter’s influence on the former.

Rueda, Lope de. Las cuatro comedias. Madrid: Cátedra, 2001. A collection of Lope de Rueda’s comedies that also contains criticism and interpretation of his works. Bibliography. In Spanish.