Tirso de Molina's Idea of Tragedia

Tirso employs the term tragedia to describe the events in only four of his plays: Los amantes de Teruel, Amazonas en las Indias, Escarmientos para el cuerdo, and La venganza de Tamar. These dramas do not conform at all to the Classical notions of tragedy proffered by Aristotle and Horace and introduced into Spanish criticism via the Italian humanists by Alonso López Pinciano, Francisco Cascales and Jusepe Antonio González de Salas; rather they adhere to the ideas expressed by the early Medieval grammarians Donatus, Diomedes and Evanthius and brought directly into the Golden Age via Dante by Reniassance Spanish dramatists and commentators. The crux of this Medieval notion used by Tirso is the popular phrase Tragoedia est heroicae fortunae in adversis comprehensio, which should not be confused with the structural definitions based on Aristotle and Horace. (DHD)