“Your olive is the laurel of my head”: Lope de Vega and the Search for Aulic Parnassus

Abstract

The present article aims to deal with the flattering literary strategies deployed in the last works of Lope with the purpose of approaching the spheres of power, that is, his possible patrons. I am interested, above all, in giving an account of the intra-history of some of the poems written by Lope in his last years, the circumstances in which they were written, their intended audience and the purpose they were elaborated for. Therefore the intention of this article is to offer a set of poems —some of them, very little known—, that, in our opinion, will show how we should take with some preven-tion the reiterated lamentations of the so-called «Phoenix of Wits» about the lack of support and appreciation from the orbit of the powerful, especially from Philip IV and the Count-Duke of Olivares.

https://doi.org/10.17398/2660-7301.42.63