This study examines Lope de Vega's three extant plays concerning Spain's activity in America in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries with the intention of revealing the dramatist's thought concerning his nation's overseas enterprise and his attitudes toward the conquerors and natives of America. To determine Lope's opinions, the author has compared each play with its sources, showing where the dramatist has followed his sources and where he has departed from them. Lope's attitudes are most probably perceived when he departs from information offered by his sources.

Zusammenfassung
"Against the many issues raised in sixteenth- and seventeenth-century fictional and nonfictional accounts of Spain's Conquest of America, Shannon considers the ideological dimension of Lope's three extant plays on the overseas enterprise. By contributing a well documented study of these less well known dramas, Shannon provides a useful scholarly monograph that surpasses a narrow formal focus and penetrates the ethical and intellectual content of what emerges as Lope's polemical response to the unresolved questions concerning the heroics and the atrocities of the Conquest." (Teresa S. Soufas, Tulane University)
"As we approach the quincentennial celebration of Spain's discovery of the New World, everything dealing with this topic will be closely examined. Professor Shannon's study, therefore, is a timely one which provides a comparison between historical document and popular theatre - the work of several New World chroniclers and the subsequent transformation of their writings into a form with public appeal by Spain's master dramatist, Lope de Vega. This study exhaustively documents Lope's departure from his sources and demonstrates how Lope blended and altered fact and fiction for poetic effect." (Patricia E. Grieve, Columbia University) "...this extremely conscientious, well-documented account of three relatively little-known plays adds considerably to our knowledge of Lope's dramatic procedures and his engagement with contemporary issues." (Melveena McKendrick, Bulletin of Hispanic Studies)
"Shannon offers new insights into Lope's work with sources and into his New World dramas. These are worthy and, more important, timely achievements. His study is, therefore, informative and laudable, both for its perspicacity and for the wealth of historical detail." (James Mandrell, Hispanic Review)