Generic Contaminatio in Huerto deshecho: A Structural Constant in Lope de Vega’s Late Poetry

Abstract

In this work, we propose a journey through Lope de Vega’s Huerto deshecho, an elegy written by the poet in his last years. We part from the idea coined by critics for the work of a generic contaminatio taking into account especially the epic and the satirical discourse. To this mixture is added the clear presence of poetic species such as the eclogue, the elegy or the ode plus a poetic «I» that in addition to structuring the poem leaves precise traces of his erudition. All these elements converge in a broader idea: delimiting the characteristics of the non-playwright Lope in his last period of production, without neglecting the itinerary that makes this authorial construction from his first compositions poetic, narrative and miscellaneous.