‘The Barke Is Bad, but the Tree Good’ : Hispanophilia, Hispanophobia and Spanish Honour in English and Dutch Plays (c. 1630-1670)

Abstract

In the seventeenth century, Spain featured prominently on the English and Dutch stages. Although this foreign influence has been overlooked in the past, especially in the Dutch context, scholars have recently broadened the scope of their analysis to Spain, but the tendency to focus on the image of the Spaniard in predominantly Hispanophobic terms remains widespread. This ‘Black Legend Spaniard’, demonizing the Spanish as the enemy, shows only one side of the coin. Taking the ‘typically Spanish’ characteristic of ‘honour’ as an example, this chapter explores how Spanish characters are presented on the English and Dutch stages, evincing that ‘honour’ was not only an exponent of a vengeful Spanish nature and that such characters could also be viewed as a source of inspiration.