Innovation and conflict have always characterized early modern Spanish theater. The dramatic
text transformed and reincarnated with each interpretation onstage was in a constant state of
flux in the Golden Age. As a result of the influence of Aristotle's Poetics and the literary
theory established during the Italian Renaissance especially by Franciscus Robortellus's In
librum Aristotelis de arte poetica explicationes (1548) which demonstrated how an Aristotelian
approach to tragedy served as a similarly useful approach to comedy most scholars in sixteenth
century Spain tended to contemplate dramatic theory in a more formal theoretical and
rhetorical manner. In subsequent years several theater practitioners began exploring the
implications of performance and audience reception from a different perspective liberating
dramatic theory from the arguably uncompromising precepts that had previously dictated literary
and theatrical practice. These playwrights stopped reflecting on past theory and concentrated
on present theatrical practice turning to audiences for cues as to their expectations.
