The Poetic Appendix to Rimas (1609 [1602]) and Its Relevance in Lope de Vega's Self-Fashioning as a Writer

Abstract

In this work, I analyze the twelve praise worthy poems that frame the Lope de Vega’s Rhymes (1611 [1602]). The approach is that these poems contribute to figure Lope as an author, in spite of the formulaic load that pervades them, as well as offering the possibility of approaching a specific rhetoric in compositions of this kind. The analysis is done in the backlight of three aspects which are exposed in the first pages: the conceptual difference between the terms 'empirical writer' and 'textual author', the conditions of production and reception of the Rhymes, and the Phoenix’s efforts to obtain sustenance and fame. Once these pragmatic elements have been established, the appendix poems are analyzed both from their most outstanding stylistic aspects as well as from their themes and motifs.