La Prueba de Los Ingenios

La prueba was first published in 1617, when Lope included it as the first play of the first collection of his works whose publication he oversaw. In spite of this prominent position in Lope's corpus, the play is comparatively unknown. In the introduction to this edition, Ostlund suggests that the relative obscurity of the play is partly due to its provocative themes.

La prueba de los ingenios includes sexual themes touching on homoerotic desire, transvestism, and gender equality, bucking the traditional seventeenth century Spanish norms. In a drama containing themes still popular today, Lope de Vega presents a defense of women, primarily through the character of Florela, in response to misogynist criticism found in Juan Huarte de San Juan's popular Examen de ingenios para las ciencias of 1575, which argued that women were incapable of ingenio. Florela unequivocally demonstrates otherwise.

Although interest in La prueba has increased considerably over the last two decades, as evidenced by the growing body of critical studies discussed in the introduction, the text itself has not been readily available in print until now.