Disguised Discourse: Emblems in Lope de Vega's El castigo sin venganza

Given the wide circulation of emblem books in sixteenth- and seventeenth-century Europe, their influence on literature was almost inevitable. When reading Lope de Vega's El castigo sin venganza, or seeing it on stage, one cannot avoid experiencing the constant collision between images and plot that gives rhythm to the play. The images are emblematized, thus underscoring an action or revealing a mode of thought. In El castigo Federico's amorous situation is expressed through images or word-emblems, many of which can be found in emblem literature during Lope's time. The word-emblems create a type of discourse on truth—on what Federico knows to be true—that lends to the play's thematic and structural movement of love, suffering, and death.