Fuente Ovejuna Study Guide

Lope de Vega was born in 1562 to Felices de Vega Carpio and his wife, Francisca. It is said that de Vega dictated verses before the age of 5 and wrote plays by 12. He was educated at a Jesuit school in Madrid and later at the University of Alcalá de Henares. Around 1583, after graduating and serving a year in the Spanish Navy, de Vega began writing plays. He also fell in love with Elena Osorio, and the pair were in a relationship until 1587, when she fell in love with someone else. De Vega responded to this betrayal by publishing libellous attacks against Elena and her family. He was tried for libel in 1588 and banished from Madrid for eight years. Defying the sentence, de Vega returned to elope with Isabel de Urbina Alderete y Cortinas. He later moved to Valencia, Toledo, and then later moved near Salamanca, where he entered the service of the Duke of Alba. After his wife died in childbirth in 1594, de Vega began relationships with numerous women, and in 1598 he married Juana De Guarda, the daughter of a wealthy Madrid butcher, while beginning an affair with a well-known actress. Around that time, de Vega published several poems and poetic narratives, and by 1604 he had written around 230 three-act plays. In the early 17th century, de Vega was employed as a secretary by the Duke of Sessa. Carlos Felix, de Vega’s favorite son, died around this time, followed soon after by Juana’s death in 1612. Two years later, de Vega joined the priesthood, but he still kept up his romantic affairs and playwriting. De Vega lived until 1635, when he died of scarlet fever. De Vega is regarded as one of the most important writers in Spanish literature. Estimates suggest that de Vega wrote 1500 plays over his lifetime, the most famous of which was Fuente Ovejuna, written in 1619.

Fuente Ovejuna is based on a true historical incident that took place in the village of Fuenteovejuna, part of the Kingdom of Castile, in 1476. At the time, Spain was divided into several Christian Kingdoms: Castile, Aragon, Leon, Navarre, and Portugal, with Castile and Aragon as the two major kingdoms. In 1469, Henry IV ruled Castile, and his half-sister Princess Isabel of Castile married King Ferdinand (called Fernando in the play) of Aragon, forming an alliance between these two kingdoms. King Henry IV’s death in 1474 led to division: Isabel and Ferdinand claimed Castile for themselves, while Henry’s daughter Juana and her husband, King Alfonso of Portugal, also claimed Castile. Then, in 1476, in support of Juana and Alfonso’s claim, Rodrigo Téllez Girón, the Master of the Military Order of Calatrava (a city in Castile), turned on Isabel and Ferdinand and attacked and seized the town of Ciudad Real as described in the play. The same year, the Commander of the Order of Calatrava, Fernán Gómez de Guzmán, was killed by the citizens of Fuente Ovejuna in revenge for his cruel and brutal behavior towards them. When the villagers were interrogated and tortured, their only response was “Fuente Ovejuna did it,” providing the foundation for the climax of the play. It’s been suggested that Lope de Vega also wrote Fuente Ovejuna as a commentary on Philip III, who was the King of Spain while de Vega was writing. Philip III was a weak ruler who gave most of his power to a lesser Duke, and so the play suggests that rulers’ primary goal should be to attain peace and justice, and they should avoid being easily manipulated.

Fuente Ovejuna was written during the Spanish Golden Age. During this period, art and literature flourished in Spain while the Spanish Empire became more politically powerful under the Habsburgs, from approximately 1556 to 1659. Lope de Vega is perhaps the most important and prolific playwright of the time, as he created the three-act comedia structure that became popular throughout Spanish drama. Alongside Fuente Ovejuna, his most famous plays are The Dog in the Manger, Punishment without Revenge, and The Knight from Olmeda. Another notable playwright during the Spanish Golden Age (and widely considered to be Lope de Vega’s literary successor) is Pedro Calderón de la Barca, whose plays Life is a Dream, The Mayor of Zalamea, and The Phantom Lady also focus on the themes of Christian morality, honor, and revenge. Lope de Vega’s works are often compared to Shakespeare’s because of their verse mixed with their populist language, and Fuente Ovejuna’s themes of honor and morality can be similarly found in Henry IV Part 1 and 2, Henry V, and Julius Caesar, while its plot of a poorer collective rising up against a powerful tyrant can be found in Coriolanus. Lastly, because the play is based on a historical incident that occurred about 150 years prior to when Lope de Vega was writing it, various sources for the play have been suggested: Francisco de Rades y Andrada’s Chronica de las tres Ordenes y Cavallerías de Santiago, Calatrava, y Alcántara; and two histories published by Sebastián de Covarrubias Horozco, the Emblemas morales and the Tesoro de la lengua castellana.