Published by Boydell & Brewer Inc.

Lope de Vega (1562-1635), widely regarded as the architect of the drama of the Spanish Golden Age, was known by his contemporaries as the `monster of Nature' on account of his creativity as a playwright. Claiming to have written more than a thousand plays, he created plots and characters notable for their energy, inventiveness and dramatic power, and which, in contrast to French classical drama, combine the serious and the comic in their desire to imitate life. Fuente Ovejuna, based on Spanish history, and revealing how tyranny leads to rebelliion, is perhaps his best-known play. The Knight from Olmedo is a moving dramatization of impetuous and youthful passion which ends in death. Punishment without Revenge, Lope's most powerful tragedy, centres on the illicit relationship of a young wife with her stepson and the revenge of a dishonoured husband. These three plays, grouped here in translations which are faithful to the original Spanish, vivid and intended for performance, embody the very best of Lope's dramatic art. ABOUT THE SERIES: For over 100 years Oxford World's Classics has made available the widest range of literature from around the globe. Each affordable volume reflects Oxford's commitment to scholarship, providing the most accurate text plus a wealth of other valuable features, including expert introductions by leading authorities, helpful notes to clarify the text, up-to-date bibliographies for further study, and much more.

Why does Christianity feel the need to impose its customs and beliefs on the rest of the world? Using a cultural studies approach, CHRISTIAN ENCOUNTERS WITH THE OTHER covers the Renaissance through to the present. It spans much of the globe, discussing a range of authors and their works and the social forces that help shape missionary movements.

Chronological surveys of national musical cultures (in Italy, France, the Netherlands, Germany, England, and Spain), genre studies (Mass, motet, madrigal, chanson, instrumental music, opera), as well as essays on intellectual and cultural developments and concepts relevant to music (music theory, printing, the Protestant Reformation and the corresponding Catholic movement, humanism, the concepts of "Renaissance" and "Baroque").

Translation into English verse, with facing annotated Castilian of Lope de Vega's three American plays. It is with joy and sadness simultaneously that I write this preface to this elegant and superb contribution to the theater of the Spanish Golden Age: With sadness because its author, Kenneth A. Stackhouse, has passed on to a better world; with joy because Ken's beloved wife, Marcia, asked me subsequently to write this preface, unaware perhaps that Ken had earlier asked my advice on this project. If this is not synchronicity - dare I say Providence - I don't know what is. I have perused Ken's informed and meticulous study, which clarifies many issues with respect to the three Lope de Vega plays on what used to be called the Conquest and is now termed the Encounter of America and Spain. I have also perused, with awe and admiration, Professor Stackhouse's superb verse translations of La famosa comedia del Nuevo Mundo descubierto por Cristobal Colon, (The Famous Drama of the Discovery of the New World By Christopher Columbus), El Arauco domado (The Conquest of Araucania), and El Brasil restituido (Brazil Restored). To date, only the first work has had the benefit of a critical text a

Original publication and copyright date: 2006.