Resumen de Secret love and public service in "El mayordomo de la duquesa de Amalfi", by Lope de Vega and "The Duchess of Malfi", by John Webster
The real story of Giovanna D'Aragona, the widowed Duchess of Amalfi, murdered by her brothers for marrying her steward, captured the imagination of two of the most important playwrights of the European late Renaissance: Lope de Vega and John Webster's play, has attracted a huge body of criticism, Lope's El mayordomo de la duquesa de Amalfi has mostly been ignored by recent scholarship. This book seeks to reddress this critical imbalance, providing a comparative reading of both plays and suggesting that the reason why the English masterpiece has obscured the qualities of Lope' work lies in the very different ways the literary history of both nations has been written.
If John Webster was fascinated by the unruly and dignified widow, Lope, as the title of his play suggests, seems to have been more interested in her steward, Antonio Bologna. Lope's emphasis on the male half of the couple provides the focus for this study, whose main contention is that the interest the story had for a Renaissance audience lay, not only in the awkward social position of the widow, but in the even more complex situation of Antonio Bologna, risen tragically to high degree through marriage and learning. The emotionally charged debate surrounding upward social mobility is the backdrop to the bloody tragedy which unfolds in both texts.
