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him in
order to take revenge on her wayward husband. In Lope's Act One they
meet suddenly, before the Duke's marriage, and also without knowing
one another's identity -- Federico rescues her when her carriage
becomes stuck in a ford -- and are immediately attracted to each other: a
case of 'love at first sight'. There is thus an instinctive mutual
attraction between the two young people
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20
On the single performance of the play and possible reasons for its suppression, see C. A. Jones (ed.), Lope de Vega, El castigo sin venganza ( Oxford, 1966), 2-5.
21
The version of the Bandello story in Historias trágicas is included in C. F. A. van Dam (ed.), Lope de Vega, El castigo sin venganza ( Gronigen, 1928).
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which is not present in the source, and which, when in Act Two
Casandra has been abandoned by the Duke, makes her relationship with
Federico much more than an act of revenge. Again, the Duke's absence
from home at this vital juncture occurs in different circumstances, for
here he is not called away for reasons of business but summoned by the
Pope to assist him in the war against his enemies -- a vital change
which anticipates the Duke's return in Act Three as a reformed
character, resolved to abandon his former way of life and to prove
himself a good husband. Given his change of heart, the discovery of
his wife's infidelity is the more ironic, and it is also brought about
in the play in a more striking way -- not through a servant but by
the receipt of an anonymous note. And what happens subsequently is very
different from the source material. There the Marquis has the young
couple arrested, and they are executed after the Court has been made
aware of their crime. In Lope's play the Duke secretly verifies their
guilt and, having done so, incites Federico to murder an 'enemy' who
is held prisoner in the next room and whose face is concealed. The
enemy, unknown to Federico, is Casandra, and when the murder has been
carried out the Duke summons his courtiers, accusing Federico of
having killed Casandra because she is pregnant with the Duke's child
and because he, being illegitimate, fears the loss of his inheritance.
Federico is immediately seized and killed, therefore, without the
incestuous relationship becoming public knowledge, and consequently
without the Duke's honour and reputation being publicly damaged. To
himself the Duke justifies the action not in terms of honour avenged
but as a divine punishment which he, given his religious conversion,
has been called upon to administer.
    The punishment -- revenge issue -- its importance encapsulated in the
play's title -- is one which requires close consideration. Indeed,
Lope himself seems to have hesitated over what to call his play, and
to have made up his mind only when he had finished writing it. It has
been suggested, for example, that the title is unsatisfactory because
the punishment imposed on Casandra and Federico by the Duke is not
without a strong element of personal revenge on his part. 22 On the other hand, it has been pointed out that Casandra and Federico
deserve to be punished for the sin they have committed,
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22
See C. F. A. van Dam (ed.), Lope de Vega, El castigo sin venganza ( Madrid, 1968), 20.
    -xxvii-

and to that extent the Duke's argument that he is acting as God's representative on earth is justified. 23 Accordingly, the title of the play points not to human revenge but to
divine punishment, though it is perfectly true that the Duke's
soliloquies are not devoid of 'thoughts of private vengeance and the
laws of honour'. 24 The latter,
demanding that an offence against one's honour and reputation be
avenged, required too that, if the offence became public knowledge,
the vengeance should be a public one, and that, if the offence remained
secret, the vengeance should also be secret, thereby avoiding public
disgrace. Indeed, no sooner has the Duke claimed that his