The Concepts of Fortune and Fate in the Comedia of Lope de Vega

BULLETIN OFTHECOMEDIANTES Vol. IIApril, 1950No. 1 Published twice a year by the Comediantes,, an informal group of all those interested in the comedia. Editor: Everett W. Hesse, University of Wisconsin, Madison 6. Published with the cooperation of the Department of Spanish and Portuguese, University of Wisconsin, Mrs» Virginia Kaye, Secretary. THE CONCEPTS CF FORTUNE AND FATE IN TPE COMEDIA OF LOPE DE VEGA by Öeleh L. Sears, Texas State College for Women, Denton. (Abstract of Doctoral Dissertation Prepared at the University of California at Los Angeles, under the Direction of Professor E. H. Templin.) Lope de Vega inherited from earlier periods two concepts of Fortune; an independent power of pagan ancestry, which is often associated with -human iniquity and ignorance as the cause of disasters to virtuous princes and privados, and against which virtue is no protection; and a Christian Fortune, a semidivine minister who carries out God's predestinations for mankind and presides over the distribution of worldly goods according to a divinely decreed pattern. The identification of Fortune and Providence, which the comedia often makes, explains the fact that Fortune is permitted to perform miracles similar to those which Heaven performs. Fortune likewise seems to serve divine purposes when she helps to restore to their rightful positions persons of noble or royal birth who are living in obscurity or exile, in plays like El hijo venturoso and Dios hace reyes; and in El caballero del Sacramento she aids Providence in performing miracles and magic in order to secure for the protagonist riches, a crown, and the girl he loves as a reward for his heroic and devout sacrafice to save the Blessed Sacrament from fire« Fortune, Fate, the stars, and time are loosely assimilated into the supernatural or spiritual realm which is associated with God and Heaven. In the same manner in which pagan deities were interpreted allegorically, the Fates in the comedias were apparently considered fictitious representations of God and His providence . The predestinations of. the characters of such prophecy-plays as Contra valor no hay desdicha aind Lo nue ha de ser, although attributed to the pagan gods and the Fates, are to be understood as signifying God's predestinations for men, just as are the divine prophecies in historical plays like El mejor mozo de España. Pagan deities, allegorical figures, the prophet Merlin, and the -many HOrish or gypsy fortune-tellers and astrologers who appear in the plays to indicate coming events, also serve divine, purposes. Spiritual matters are seldom distinguished clearly from material matters in Lope's comedias. Desirable worldly goods are in some measure confused with spiritual aspirations; the reward for virtue is often conceived of, not exclu- sively as a matter of life after death, but also as material prosperity here on earth; and God's punishment for men's sins frequently appears to be the loss of the same material or worldly satisfactions· Since Fortune and Fate are thus associated with God's purposes and God is made the author of both fate and fortune, fatalism, whether it is classical in origin or only the natural inclination of men to see in events a plan or purpose, is identified with divine determinism. Lope exploits in many plays the inevitability of this determinism. Since they are of divine origin, it may be assumed that these predestinations have allowed for the operation of man's free will, but Lope, untroubled by explanations and reconciliations, does not usually make clear the rôle which the will plays. Heaven makes known its purposes in the comedia through divine revelation or by means of prophetic figures, astrological predictions, prophetic dreams, omens, intuitions, and mysterious accidents or errors. Almost every prophetic device is condemned or ridiculed by one of the dramatis personae,often the gracioso; yet almost without exception the predictions are fulfilled. The Church, of course, condemned all forms of divination and was extremely cautious in crediting instances of divine communications to men. The fact that the heavenly bodies influence men's actions but did not force the human will was accepted by many writers of the period, but the possibility of man's being able to interpret such influences was questioned and the attempt...