Lope de Vega’s posthumous fame

At his time Lope de Vega, in spite of his private scandals, his low social status and the lack of patronage, is a legendary man, is the «Nature Monster», is the prolific poetic genius par excellence, both in poetry and drama; is the absolute protagonist of all literary wars; is admired and criticized at the same time; everything good is «Lope’s». He personally creates his own image of well-educated poet and tries to autopromote himself with all kind of strategies, even if most of them produce the opposite effect. When he dies, Fama Póstuma, collected and edited by Pérez de Montalbán, represents the top of his contemporary celebration. Nevertheless, his fame starts declining quite soon, and posterity finds it hard to recognize him a relative popularity even in Spain for many and complex historical and cultural reasons that have nothing to do with his talent, huge production and marvellous lyricism.