Golden-Age Spanish drama shows a constant concern with the woman who will not simply accept marriage as her natural role. This was all the more striking in a male-dominant Mediterranean society in an age of rigid social codes. Dr McKendrick's book takes this large theme and analyses it. She shows the identifiable types of mujer varonil portrayed, and the kinds of motivation which the dramatists imagined for them. She traces the literary ancestry of the interest back beyond Lope - though Lope is the principal figure in her account; and she very neatly and convincingly shows the balance of literary convention and human interest involved. The book gives a historic dimension to an interest we think of wrongly as modern, and gives an insight into Spanish social history as well as the drama.
