List of Lope de Vega's plays in English translation explained

Lope de Vega was a Spanish Golden Age poet and playwright. One of the most prolific writers in history, he was said to have written 2,200 plays (an average of nearly one per week for his entire adult life), though fewer than 400 survive today. In addition, he produced volumes of short and epic poems as well as prose works. For this fecundity, Cervantes nicknamed him the "Monster of Nature". His example crystallized the style of Spanish comedias for generations.

Over 50 English translations of Lope's plays have been published, all but three of them after 1900. As multiple translations of several plays have been made, this covers only about two dozen Spanish originals. By far, the most frequently translated play is Fuente Ovejuna (The Sheep Well), followed by The Dog in the Manger, The Knight of Olmedo, The Silly Lady, Peribáñez and the Comendador of Ocaña, and Capulets and Montagues.

Translations

Key

Spanish Title — The original comedia or auto that serves as the basis of the English text.
English Title — The title of the English text, as it appears in the particular translation. Because one Spanish title may suggest alternate English titles (e.g. Fuente Ovejuna, The Sheep Well, All Citizens are Soldiers), sorting by this column is not a reliable way to group all translations of a particular original together; to do so, sort on Spanish Title.
Year — The year of the translation's first publication. Some translations may have been written or produced earlier than this date, and some were republished subsequently, but this is not noted here.
Publication — The publication in which the translation first appeared. When the publication consisted only of the single named play this information is not repeated, except in cases where the publication title is used as an external link to the work, or when it is matched with an ISBN.
Notes — May indicate the style of translation or significant republications; all works are 3-act comedias unless noted.

Table

Spanish Title	English Title	Year	Translator	Publication	Notes
Castalvines y Monteses	Romeo and Juliet. A Comedy	1770	Anonymous		"A perversion of Lope's play"
El padre engañado	The Father Outwitted	1805	Holcroft, Thomas?	The Theatrical Recorder, Vol. II, No. 7.	prose; 1-act interlude; reprinted in 1811 as
Castalvines y Monteses	Castalvines y Monteses	1869	Cosens, F. W.		blank verse
	The Punishment of the Flirtatious Wife	19??	Chambers, Jane		prose
El Perro del hortelano	The Dog in the Manger	1903	Chambers, W. H. H.	In Alfred Bates: The Drama	prose
El mayor Alcalde el Rey	The King the Greatest Alcalde	1918	Underhill, John Garrett	Poet Lore (1918)	prose & verse; reprinted in and
Lo Cierto por lo dudoso	A Certainty for a Doubt	1936	Underhill, John Garrett		prose & verse
El Perro del hortelano	The Gardener's Dog	1936	Underhill, John Garrett		prose & verse
Fuente Ovejuna	Fuente Ovejuna (The Sheep Well)	1936	Underhill, John Garrett		prose & verse
Peribáñez y el Comendador de Ocaña	Peribanez	1937	Price, Eva Rebecca
El nuevo mundo descubierto por Cristóbal Colón	The discovery of the New World by Christopher Columbus	1950	Fligelman, Frieda		prose
Fuente Ovejuna	Fuente Ovejuna	1959	Campbell, Roy	Eric Bentley, ed (1959):	blank verse; reprinted in Eric Bentley, ed (1985):
Peribáñez y el Comendador de Ocaña	Peribáñez	1961	Booty, Jill		prose
Fuente Ovejuna	Fuente Ovejuna	1961	Booty, Jill		prose
El Perro del hortelano	The Dog in the Manger	1961	Booty, Jill		prose
El caballero de Olmedo	The Knight from Olmedo	1961	Booty, Jill		prose
El castigo sin venganza	Justice Without Revenge	1961	Booty, Jill		prose
La dama boba	The Stupid Lady	1962	Jones, Willis Knapp
Fuente Ovejuna	Fuente Ovejuna	1962	Flores, Angel & Kittel, Muriel		prose & verse; reprinted in Great Spanish Plays in English Translation (1991)
Peribáñez y el Comendador de Ocaña	Peribáñez and the Comendador of Ocaña	1964	Starkie, Walter		prose & verse
La Fianza Satisfecha	A Bond Honored	1966	Osborne, John	A Bond Honoured: A Play (from Lope De Vega)	reprinted in Lope de Vega: Plays Two
Auto sacramental de la circuncisión y sangría de Cristo nuestro bien	For our sake	1969	Barnes, R[ichard] G.	In Three Spanish sacramental plays: For our sake	1-act religious play
Fuente Ovejuna	Fuente Ovejuna	1969	Colford, William E.
Fuente Ovejuna	All Citizens are Soldiers	1969	Fainlight, Ruth & Sillitoe, Alan
El caballero de Olmedo	The Knight of Olmedo	1972	King, Willard F.
La dama boba	The Lady Simpleton	1976	Oppenheimer, Max
El mayordomo de la duquesa de Amalfi	The Duchess of Amalfi's Steward	1985	Rodriguez-Badendyck, Cynthia
Lo fingido verdadero	Acting is Believing	1986	McGaha, Michael
El anzuelo de Fenisa	Fenisa's Hook, or, Fenisa the Hooker	1988	Gitlitz, David M.
Fuente Ovejuna	Fuente Ovejuna	1989	Mitchell, Adrian	In Two Plays
El castigo sin venganza	Lost in a Mirror (It Serves Them Right)	1989	Mitchell, Adrian	In Two Plays
Fuente Ovejuna	Fuente Ovejuna	1989	Dixon, Victor
Peribáñez y el Comendador de Ocaña	Peribáñez and the Comendador of Ocaña	1990	Lloyd, James
El Perro del hortelano	The Dog in the Manger	1990	Dixon, Victor
Lo fingido verdadero	The Great Pretenders	1992	Johnston, David	Two Plays
El caballero de Olmedo	The Gentleman from Olmedo	1992	Johnston, David	Two Plays
Los locos de Valencia	Madness in Valencia	1998	Johnston, David
La dama boba	Lady Nitwit	1998	Oliver, William I.
Castalvines y Monteses	Castelvins and Monteses	1998	Rodriguez-Badendyck, Cynthia
Los trabajos de Jacob	The Trials of Jacob; or, Sometimes Dreams Come True	1998	McGaha, Michael		prose & verse
Castelvins y Monteses	Castelvins and Monteses	1998	Rodriguez-Badendyck, Cynthia	Carleton Renaissance Plays in Translation, 30
Fuente Ovejuna	Fuente Ovejuna	1999	Edwards, Gwynne	Lope de Vega: Three Major Plays	blank octosyllables
El caballero de Olmedo	The Knight from Olmedo	1999	Edwards, Gwynne	Lope de Vega: Three Major Plays	blank octosyllables
El castigo sin venganza	Punishment Without Revenge	1999	Edwards, Gwynne	Lope de Vega: Three Major Plays	blank octosyllables
El mejor mozo de España	The Best Boy in Spain	1999	Gitlitz, David M.
La dama boba	Wit's End	2000	Friedman, Edward H.	Wit's End; an adaptation of Lope de Vega's La dama boba
El Niño Inocente de la Guardia	The Innocent Child	2001	Jacobs, Michael	Lope de Vega: Plays One
Las paces de los reyes y judía de Toledo(?)	The Jewess of Toledo	2001	Jacobs, Michael	Lope de Vega: Plays One
	The Labyrinth of Desire	2001	Jacobs, Michael	Lope de Vega: Plays Two
El nuevo mundo descubierto por Cristóbal Colón	The New World Discovered by Christopher Columbus	2001	Shannon, Robert M.
Fuente Ovejuna	Fuenteovejuna	2002	Applebaum, Stanley		linear prose translation, with Spanish text
El Perro del hortelano	The Dog in the Manger	2004	Johnston, David
El mayordomo de la duquesa de Amalfi	The Duchess of Amalfi's Steward	2005	Edwards, Gwynne	Three Spanish Golden Age Plays	blank octosyllables
Castalvines y Monteses	The Capulets and Montagues	2005	Edwards, Gwynne	Three Spanish Golden Age Plays	blank octosyllables
Fuente Ovejuna	Fuenteovejuna	2018	Racz, Gregary J.	The Golden Age of Spanish Drama	verse
El Perro del hortelano	The Dog in the Manger	2018	Racz, Gregary J.	The Golden Age of Spanish Drama	verse
Lo fingido verdadero	The Actor and the Emperor or, Make-believe Come True	2020	Matthews, Dakin	UCLA: The Comedia In Translation And Performance	verse

Related translations

The Star of Seville, previously attributed to Lope but no longer judged to be by him, is not included in this list. English translations include those by Philip M. Hayden (1916) in, Sir Henry Thomas (1935), Elizabeth C. Hullihen (1955), and Steven Strange (1998) . Fanny Kemble's five-act 1837 is based on an earlier précis by Lord Holland.

La Dorotea, a genre-bending closet drama or novel in prose dialogue with interspersed poems, is also not included. It was translated by Alan S. Trueblood and Edwin Honig (1985) .

References

Book: Vega, Lope de . Edwards . Gwynne . Lope de Vega: Three major plays . 1999 . Oxford University Press . 978-0-19-954017-4 . 0 . .
Book: Vega, Lope de . Brewster . William T. . Matthews . Brander . Lope de Vega . Brander Matthews . Introduction . The New Art of Writing Plays . 1914 . Dramatic Museum of Columbia University . New York . en.
Book: Pane , Remigio Ugo . 1944 . English translations from the Spanish, 1484-1943 . New Brunswick . Rutgers University Press . none.
Web site: Translations - Lope de Vega . Comedia in Translation . 2020-08-19.

External links

Online bibliography

A Bibliography Of Spanish Comedias In English Translation

Additional translated texts available online