Monarchy, Political Culture, and Drama in Seventeenth-Century Madrid

In early modern Spain, theater reached the height of its popularity during the same decades in which Spanish monarchs were striving to consolidate their power. Jodi Campbell examines thirty-three Golden Age Spanish plays by four playwrights, analyzing their portrayals of kingship to explore the political perspectives and interests of the audience. This study demonstrates that popular drama in Madrid, rather than unquestioningly supporting the absolutist policies of the monarchy, favored the idea of reciprocal obligations between subjects and monarch.