La carta de Lope de Vega al príncipe de Esquilache y los poemas fúnebres a Catalina de la Cerda

Abstract

In the Laurel de Apolo (1630), Lope de Vega inserts a funeral sonnet for Catalina de la Cerda, a sonnet also contained in a letter addressed «To the Prince». In this article, we will prove that this letter was not addressed to the soon to-be Felipe IV, as Lopian epistolary editors unanimously accept, but to Francisco de Borja y Aragón, Prince of Esquilache. We also demonstrate that both Lope’s sonnet and the Esquilache’s «Elegy» also mentioned in the Laurel, are not dedicated to the old Duchess of Lerma, as scholars usually propose, but to a lady-in-waiting who died in 1627: «the most celebrated lady-in-waiting ever at Palace», in Gascón de Torquemada’s words.

Keywords

• Vega Lope de
• Esquilache Príncipe de
• Cerda Catalina de la
• Funeral Poetry