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In 1890, in an article titled “Die Nachhamung spanischer Komödien in England unter der ersten Stuarts”, the German scholar A.L. Stiefel solidly demonstrated the clear textual relationship between James Shirley’s The Opportunity and Tirso de Molina’s El castigo del penseque. In 2003, following an intriguing footnote in that article, which pointed to five more dramatic Spanish sources, I postulated another transtextual relationship concerning Shirley’s The Royal Master and Lope de Vega’s El villano en su rincón. My analysis focused on the specific motif that he named “the reluctance to see the king” in the character of the English fool Bombo and the Spanish farmer Juan Labrador. However, after a review of the two plays, it seems clear that there are more textual relationships than the one disclosed in my previous study. Relying on Gerald Genette’s category of transtextuality, this article widens further the scope of the motif, explores its relationship with the topic of court versus country life, unearths architextual transferences of elements of plot and characters, proposes affinities based on the palatine affiliation of both plays and the similarities in the use of the dramatic method of matchmaking, and, finally, reveals the creative use that the Caroline playwright made of his Spanish source.

Dentro de la variedad de interpretaciones que ha planteado la crítica teatral sobre El villano en su rincón, de Lope de Vega, propone el presente artículo un análisis de las implicaciones políticas e ideológicas que posee la mencionada comedia con respecto al paradigma cortesano en cuanto modelo de organización y forma específica de gobierno característica de la Europa moderna. La incorporación de Juan Labrador al servicio de la Corte, por imperativo del rey Ludovico, resuelve felizmente el conflicto dramático que nace del aislamiento del villano, considerando la centralidad que adquiere la figura del monarca en la comedia lopesca. The avalaible scholarship has generated a number of different interpretations of Lope de Vega's El villano en su rincón: this article puts forward an analysis of the play's political and ideological implications within the paradigm of the Court, which was the main model of organization and government of premodern Europe. Given the centrality of monarch in Lope's comedias, a happy ending is provided for the dramatic conflict (arising from the peasant's voluntary isolation) when Juan Labrador, following king Ludovico's wishes, becomes a member of the Court.