This book is a Spanish/English edition of Lope de Vega's La discreta enamorada. The core of the book consists of two texts: a critical edition of Lope's play in Spanish and Donald R. Larson's English translation/adaptation of that work. Common to the two texts are explanatory notes focusing on historical, cultural, and literary references. The Spanish text is further clarified by elucidations of difficult words or passages. The texts are preceded by a substantial introduction (discussing conventions of comedy, the comedia de capa y espada and its variation known as the comedia urbana, the political, social, and economic contexts of early 17th-century Madrid) and are followed by a critical apparatus that lists important variants that may be found in previous editions of Lope's play.

Leading Golden Age theatre experts examine the ways that comedias have been adapted and reinvented, offering a broad performance history of the genre for scholars and practicioners alike. This volume brings together twenty-six essays from the world's leading scholars and practitioners of Spanish Golden Age theatre. Examining the startlingly wide variety of ways that Spanish comedias have been adapted, re-envisioned, and reinvented, the book makes the case that adaptation is a crucial lens for understanding the performance history of the genre. The essays cover a wide range of topics, from the early stage history of the comedia through numerous modern and contemporary case studies, as well as the transformation of the comedia into other dramatic genres, such as films, musicals, puppetry, and opera. The essays themselves are brief and accessible to non-specialists. This book will appeal not only to Golden Age scholars and students but also to theater practitioners, as well as to anyone interested in the theory and practice of adaptation. Harley Erdman is Professor of Theaterat the University of Massachusetts, Amherst Susan Paun de Garcia is Professor of Spanish at Denison University. Contributors: Sergio Adillo Rufo, Karen Berman, Robert E. Bayliss, Laurence Boswell, Bruce R.Burningham, Amaya Curieses Irarte, Rick Davis, Harley Erdman, Susan L. Fischer, Charles Victor Ganelin, Francisco Garcia Vicente, Alejandro Gonzalez Puche, Valerie Hegstrom, Kathleen Jeffs, David Johnston, Gina Kaufmann, Catherine Larson, Donald R. Larson, Barbara Mujica, Susan Paun de Garcia, Felipe B. Pedraza Jimenez, Veronika Ryjik, Jonathan Thacker, Laura L. Vidler, Duncan Wheeler, Amy Williamsen, Jason Yancey

How should a seventeenth-centry Spanish verse play be presented to a contemporary English-speaking audience? For many reasons, but most usually the lack of playable modern translations, the plays of the seventeenth-century Spanish Comedia have appeared infrequently on the stages of the English-speaking world. Once such translations began to appear in the final decades of the twentieth century, productions followed and audiences were once again given the opportunity of discovering the enormous riches of this theatre. The bringing of Spanish seventeenth-century verse plays to the contemporary English-speaking stage involves a number of fundamental questions. Are verse translations preferable to prose, and if so, what kind of verse? To what degree should translations aim to be "faithful"? Which kinds of plays "work", and which do not? Which values and customs of the past present no difficulties for contemporary audiences, and which need to be decoded in performance? Which kinds of staging are suitable, and which are not? To what degree, if any, should one aim for "authenticity" in staging? And so on. In this volume, a distinguished group of translators, directors, and scholars explores these and related questions in illuminating and thought-provoking essays. EDITORS: Susan Paun de Garcia and Donald Larson are Associate Professors of Spanish at the Universities of Denison and Ohio State respectively. OTHER CONTRIBUTORS: Isaac Benabu, Catherine Boyle, Victor Dixon, Susan Fischer, Michael Halberstam, David Johnston, Catherine Larson, A. Robert Lauer, Dakin Matthews, Anne McNaughton, Barbara Mujica, James Parr, Dawn Smith, Jonathan Thacker, Sharon Voros