San Tirso de Toledo, Lope de Vega’s Lost Tragedy

Abstract

This paper studies the series of fictional circumstances surrounding Lope’s lost tragedy, San Tirso de Toledo (1597), which was specifically commissioned by the town hall of Toledo to show that the city had a new patron saint, as the Jesuit Jerónimo Román de la Higuera wanted. It recounts the clash of opinions that the issue provoked between the town hall and the primate cathedral, as well as how Lope took sides in the matter. The study also provides the likely source of the tragedy and its exact date.