a task of great difficulty, inasmuch as the terms usually employed, such as comedy, tragedy and the like, do not apply here. There is not explicitness enough in the division current in Spain, which recognizes three categories:—(1) comedias de capa y espada, the subjects of which are drawn from everyday life and in which the persons appear as simple caballeros; (2) comedias de ruido or de teatro, in which kings and princes are the leading characters and the action is accompanied with a greater display of dramatic machinery; (3) comedias divinas or de santos. Some other arrangement must be attempted. In the first place, Lope’s work belongs essentially to the drama of intrigue; be the subject what it may, it is always the plot that determines everything else. Lope in the whole range of his dramatic works has no piece comparable to La Verdad Sospechosa of Ruiz de Alarcon, the most finished example iii Spanish literature of the comedy of character; and the comedy of manners is represented only by El Galán Castrucho, El Anzuelo de Fenisa, and one or two others. It is from history, and particularly Spanish history, that
Lope has borrowed more than from any other source. It would in
fact be difficult to say what national and patriotic subjects, from the
reign of the half-fabulous King Pelayo down to the history of his
own age, he has not put upon the stage. But it is to the, class
of capa y espada—also called novelesco, because the subjects are
almost always love intrigues complicated with affairs of honour—that
Lope’s most celebrated plays belong. In these he has, most
fully displayed his powers of imagination (the subjects being all
invented) and his skill in elaborating a plot. Among the plays of
this class which are those best known in Europe, and most frequently
imitated and translated, may be specially mentioned Los Ramilletes
de Madrid, La Boba para los Otros y Discreta para si, El Perro del
Hortelano, La Viuda de Valencia, and El Maestro de Danzar. In
some of them Lope has sought to set forth some moral maxim, and
illustrate its abuse by a living example. Thus, on the theme that
“poverty is no crime,” we nave the play entitled Las Flores de
Don Juan, in which he shows in the history of two brothers the
triumph of virtuous poverty over opulent vice; at the same time
he attacks indirectly the institution of primogeniture, which often
places in the hands of an unworthy person the honour and substance
of a family when the younger members would be much better
qualified for the trust. Such pieces are, however, rare in Lope’s
repertory; in common with all other writers of his order in Spain,
with the occasional exception of Ruiz de Alarcón, his sole aim is to
amuse and stir his public, not troubling himself about its instruction.
The strong point of such writers is and always will be their management
of the plot. As has been said by Le Sage, a good judge:
“The Spaniards are our masters in the art of planning and skilfully
working out a plot; they know how to set forth their subject with
infinite art and in the most advantageous light.” It is not necessary
to dwell here upon the other varieties of comedy represented in
Lope’s works, that is, the comedias divinas, fiestas (mythological
dramas for the most part), entremeses and autos. In none of them has
he produced anything of the highest order, or even comparable to
the better performances of his contemporaries and successors.
To sum up, Lope found a poorly organized drama, plays being composed sometimes in four acts, sometimes in three; and, though they were written in verse, the structure of the versification was left far too much to the caprice of the individual, writer. The style of drama then in vogue he adopted, because the Spanish public liked it. The narrow framework it afforded he enlarged to an extra-ordinary degree, introducing everything that could possibly furnish material for dramatic situations,—the Bible, ancient mythology, the lives of the saints, ancient history, Spanish history, the legends of the middle ages, the writings of the Italian novelists, current events, Spanish life in the 17th century. Before him manners and the conditions of persons and characters had been barely sketched; with fuller observation and more careful description he created real types, arid gave to each social order the language and drajsery appropriate to it. The old comedy was awkward and poor in its versification; he introduced order into the use of all the forms of national poetry, from the old romance couplets to the rarest lyrical combinations borrowed from Italy. Hence he was justified in saying that those who should come after him had only to go on along the path which he had opened up.
Bibliography.—Hugo Albert Rennert, The Life of Lope de Vega (Glasgow, 1904) ; C. A. de la Barrera, Nueva Biografía de Lope de Vega (Madrid, 1890); C. Pérez Pastor, Proceso de Lope de Vega por libelos contra unos cómicos (Madrid, 1901), to which is appended Datos desconocidos para la vida de Lope de Vega. For Lope’s literary theories and doctrine of dramatic art, reference may be made to M. Menéndez y Pelayo, Historia de las Ideas Estéticas en España, and to A. Morel Fatio, La Comédie espagnole du XVIIᵐᵉ siècle (8vo, Paris, 1885). The Obras Sueltas were published by Francisco Cerdá y Rico (21 vols. 4to, Madrid, 1776–1779). A complete edition of the Obras de Lope de Vega, edited by M. Menéndez y Pelayo, has been undertaken by the Spanish Academy. Rennert’s biography contains an admirable bibliography of Lope’s plays and autos. (A. M.-Fa; J. F.-K.)
VEGETABLE (Late Lat. vegetabilis, full of life, animating, from vegetare, frequentative of vegere to quicken, arouse, vegetus,
vigorous, active, cf. vigor, strength, vigour, &c.), a word used as a general term for plants (q.v.), and specifically, in popular language, of such plants as can be eaten by man or animals, whether cooked or raw, and whether the whole of such plants are edible, or only the leaves or the roots or tubers. Among such edible or culinary plants or portions of plants, a further distinction is made popularly between “fruits” and
“vegetables,” for which see Fruit.
For the botany and cultivation of vegetables see under the specific names, e.g. Potato, Turnip, &c. &c., and generally, Horticulture.
VEGETABLE MARROW, Cucurbita Pepo, var. ovifera, the
most important of the gourds (q.v.), used as an esculent, furnishing
in good seasons a very large supply for the table. They are
best when eaten quite young and not over-boiled, the flesh being
then tender, and the flavour sweet and nutty. The Custard
Marrow, or crown gourd, bears a peculiar-looking flattened fruit
with scalloped edges, which has a sweeter and less nutty flavour
than the true marrow. A very distinct form known as Pen-y-Byd
has a delicate creamy white nearly globular fruit, with a firm
flesh. The bush marrows are more bushy in habit and taller
and more sturdy in growth.
Vegetable marrows require a warm situation and a rich soil free from stagnant moisture. They do well on a rubbish or old-dung heap, or in a warm border on little hillocks made up with any fermenting material, to give them a slight warmth at starting. The seeds should be sown in a warm pit in April, and forwarded under glass, but in a very mild heat; the plants must be shifted into larger pots, and be gradually hardened previous to being planted out, when the mild weather sets in in May or June. The use of hand-glasses makes it possible to transplant earlier than would otherwise be advisable. The seeds may be sown early in May in pots under a hand-glass, or towards the end of May in the open ground, if heat is not at command. The true vegetable marrow bears fruit of an oblong-elliptical shape, about 9 in. long, pale-greenish while young, with whitish flesh, and scarcely any indication of ribs; when mature it is of a pale yellow colour. There is a variety which is more oblong, grows to 15 or 18 in., and has the surface slightly marked by irregular longitudinal obtuse ribs. The shoots may be allowed to run along the surface of the ground, or they may be trained against a wall or paling, or on trellises. As the gourds cross readily, care is necessary to keep any particular variety true. One of the best vegetable marrows is called Moore’s Vegetable Cream.
VEGETARIANISM, a comparatively modern word, which
came into use about the year 1847, as applied to the practice of
living upon foods from which fish, flesh and fowl are excluded.
There have from time to time been various sects or schools of
thought that have advocated narrower views. Some of these
have excluded all animal products—such as milk and eggs and
cheese. Some have excluded all cooked foods, and have
preached the virtues of fruits and nuts and grains in their natural
ripe state. Some have abstained from all underground-grown
roots and tubers, and have claimed special benefits from using
only those fruits and vegetables that are grown in the sunlight.
Some have given up all grain and pulse foods, and have declared
that old age can be best resisted by living entirely upon fruits,
salads, nuts, soft water and milk products. Some have added
fish to their dietary; but, speaking generally, all who are called
vegetarians will be found to abstain from the use of flesh and
fowl and almost invariably also from fish as food.
The fact, however, must not be overlooked that while vegetarian societies claim as “vegetarians” all who abstain from flesh foods, there is a large and growing number of people who repudiate the name of “vegetarian” because of its associations, but who none the less, for some of the reasons detailed below, abstain from eating anything that has been killed. The Order of the Golden Age, for example, with its headquarters at Barcombe Hall, Paignton, South Devon, adopted the words “Fruitarian” and “Fruitarianism” to denote the dietary of its members. The rule laid down by the Order is abstinence so far as possible from all foods which are obtained by the cruel infliction of pain, and the minimum that is set is complete “abstinence from flesh and fowl,” while net-caught fish may be used by associate members.
