Convergences between Public and Private: The Role of Secondary Plot in "Los españoles en Flandes" by Lope de Vega

Abstract

Of the seven plays that Lope de Vega devoted to the conflict that the Spanish monarchy maintained in Flanders (1568-1648), Los españoles en Flandes is the one that has received the most attention from critics. The way in which the subplot of this drama—in particular, the love triangle formed by the soldiers Durán and Chavarría and their mistress, Marcela—echoes and amplifies the main historical event that Lope dramatizes in the play (the disloyalty of the Flemish nobles to Philip II after the signing of the Perpetual Edict in February 1577 to appease the States of Flanders) has not been sufficiently pondered, however, by scholars and deserves a deeper reflection that accounts for the close relationship between the public and the private in this play. The study of this relationship is the main objective of this article, in which I analyze how Lope makes the private and the public cohere in Los españoles en Flandes by drawing a parallel between the fragile political situation Philip II faces in Flanders and the difficult circumstance Chavarría must confront in his personal life. The latter, victim, like his monarch, of an act of disloyalty carried out by his lover and his friend, stands in Lope's play as a moral counterpoint to the duplicitous behavior of the Flemish nobles thanks to the public dimension his figure acquires as a result of the analogy Lope draws between his situation and that of the king.