Las dobles bodas reales de de 1615: el triunfo del Lope-personaje sobre el Lope cortesano

This essay is the second part of a study about the construction of Lope de Vega’s literary double, in a constant and vain search for royal patronage, as a strategy of self-promotion in those works, both dramatic and non-dramatic, where the poet tries to display himself as the official chronicler of the double royal weddings of 1599 and 1615. The young Lope, through the masks that represent him, proudly exhibits his life transformed into literature, even in its burlesque aspect, in order to use it for his courtly ambitions. The middle-aged Lope multiplies his masks, ready to mock his own lyric myth. Finally, the old playwright, in a stroke of genius, gives Belardo the opportunity to redeem himself becoming Burguillos, parodying his own courtly literary practice. In this way, Burguillos’ final triumph implies the definitive victory of Lope the character over the Lope the courtier.