5 - ‘Quien en virtud emplea su ingenio …’: Lope de Vega'sReligious Poetry

Summary

Lector, no hay sílaba aquí

que de oro puro no sea,

que a quien en virtud emplea

su ingenio sucede así.

[Reader, there is no syllable here made of other than pure gold; It happens thus to those who put their wit to the service of virtue.]

Lope de Vega's religious poetry remains the least-known section of his work. While the Rimas sacras (1614) have attracted a significant degree of attention over recent years, this collection forms a comparatively small part of his copious religious lyrical production, estimated at around six-hundred-thousand lines, a substantial part of it still awaiting modern editions and studies that take account of its role and relevance within the broad landscape of Golden Age sacred poetry.

Lope wrote on religious subjects throughout his career: his earliest documented collection is his Los cinco misterios dolorosos de la Pasión y muerte de Nuestro Señor Jesucristo con su sagrada resurrección (1582?), followed almost two decades later by his hagiography of the patron saint of Madrid, Isidro (1599). A particularly fruitful period commenced around 1612, and in the space of four years Lope published his Cuatro soliloquios (1612), the partly versified Pastores de Belén (1612), his Contemplativos discursos and Segunda parte del desengaño del hombre (1613), the Rimas sacras (1614), the Conceptos divinos al santísimo sacramento y a la Virgen Nuestra Señora (1615) and the Alabanzas al glorioso san José (1616). This flurry of spiritual works was followed by the Revelaciones de algunas cosas dignas de ser notadas de la Pasión de Cristo published in 1621. La Virgen de la Almudena first appeared ‘suelta’ [individually] in 1623 but was reissued with the Triunfos divinos, con otras rimas sacras in 1625. The Soliloquios amorosos de un alma a Dios came out in 1626, followed by his Corona trágica in 1627 and the Sentimientos a los agravios de Cristo, Nuestro Bien, por la nación hebrea which was probably printed in 1632. In addition, Lope wrote a number of individual short compositions for events such as justas poéticas (poetry competitions), including those celebrated in honour of St Teresa (1614) and St Isidro (1620, 1622).

With excessive frequency the majority of these works have been read as illustrations of spiritual turbulence of which there is no categorical evidence.