Emotion, Satire, And a Sense of Place: Two Spanish Rivers in Lope De Vega's Sonnets‪.‬

In the criticism on the poetry of Lope de Vega (1562-1635), relatively little formal study exists on the use of certain topographical elements found frequently in his work. Whereas scholarship has tended to focus on themes such as love, absence, and spirituality, especially with respect to his sonnets, less attention has been given to related geographical elements which are often intertwined with some of these same themes. One such element is Lope's use of rivers. The purpose of this study is to examine the ways in which Lope makes use of certain Spanish rivers throughout two very divergent periods in his sonnet writing, and to show the development of how he uses these same rivers with respect to his overall sonnet development. This study will focus on two rivers: the Betis, or Guadalquivir, River in Seville, and the Manzanares River, running through Madrid. The two poetry collections from which this study will draw its examples are the Rimas humanas (1602) and the Rimas humanas y divinas del licenciado Tome de Burguillos (1634). While an exhaustive study of Lope's use of rivers (either in Spain or elsewhere in the world) would be impossible for the length of this study, these two rivers were chosen for their significance in Spain and, in particular, in Lope's sonnets throughout approximately the last thirty years of his life. While the Guadalquivir is often seen as an icon of splendor and magnificence, the Manzanares receives a much more nuanced treatment. To some extent it is idealized, yet it more often than not receives a parodic treatment, especially as Lope ages and matures into the sonnet writer known to the public as Burguillos. More importantly, in Lope's earlier sonnets of the Rimas, these rivers are used as loci for genuine emotional discharge, often laden with Petrarchist conventions and focused primarily on love. However, with the Burguillos collection, rivers are seen as a vehicle for creating satire and to some extent for deconstructing earlier models of emotional representation. In sum, whereas these two rivers are to be taken more seriously by an earlier Lope compelled to make public his emotions, the later Lope consciously uses them to engage in more ludic poetic discourse.