| Summary: | <p>This study examines the <em>comedia de privanza</em> in Spain in the reign of Philip III (1598-1621). The accession of Philip III to the Spanish crown saw the raising of the Duke of Lerma to office as the most powerful <em>privado</em>, or favourite, in Spain since the infamous medieval privado, Don Álvaro de Luna. In response, Spain’s <em>corrales</em> saw an explosion of plays that explored every nuance, both political and philosophical, of the nature of <em>privanza</em>. This study traces the development of this theatrical genre, focussing on the works of one minor and three major playwrights: Salucio del Poyo, Lope de Vega, Vélez de Guevara and Mira de Amescua. It identifies Salucio del Poyo as the first playwright to pen a <em>comedia de privanza</em>, and analyses the literary features that he established and that would become characteristic of the genre. The following chapters will show how each playwright, in his own way, both imitated and innovated upon Poyo’s initial examples in order to suit his own abilities and agenda. It demonstrates the individual traits of each playwright, and the ways in which they each responded to the events they saw unfurl in Philip’s court, but it also attempts to show the overarching development of the genre as Philip’s reign progressed. Therefore, the thesis seeks to answer the following questions: what are the literary and thematic characteristics of the <em>comedia de privanza</em> as established in the earliest years of Philip III’s reign by Salucio del Poyo? How do later playwrights develop and innovate on the first examples of the genre? And finally, what was the relationship between these plays and contemporary political thought and events?</p>
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