The theatre of the Golden Century / Lope de Vega       Lope de Vega (1562-1635) Lope de Vega is a precocious and verbose theatre author. His first play is performed by a professional troupe, when he is only 12 years old. With a production of about 2000 works for the theatre, of which 40 are auto-sacrementales and more than 400 Comedia, he remains one of the most prolific authors of any country or of any time. In Spain he occupies a place equivalent to a Shakespeare or a Molière. Contrary to Cervantes, he is under the patronage of the high nobility from adolescence. A seducer by nature, he is nonetheless ordained priest at the age of 49. His life is thus punctuated by romantic abductions and mystical crises sometimes even leading to flagellation. In 1609, he publishes The New Art in Making Comedies, a dissertation that gives birth to the new Spanish comedy or Comedia, composed of three acts and constructed around a very complex plot. He prefers the comedies of honour, in phase with Spanish society, and he says himself : Situations of honour (honra) are best because they move everybody profoundly. The intellectuals reproach Lope de Vega for favouring facility and for always describing typical situations, as for example the theme of marriage. He retorted : I write according to the art invented by those who long for the applause of the public. It is the common people who pay: it is right to address them in their language and according to their tastes; equally meaning that the theatre belongs to all social classes. His best comedies of manners are the origin of a national theatre whose influence is profound, notably among French authors.