Lady Boba: A Woman of Little Sense

David Johnston is Professor of Hispanic Studies at Queen’s University Belfast. His principal research lies in theatre, and the theory and practice of literary translation. He is co-director of the Queen’s-based research forum Betwixt and Between: Translation and Cultural Encounter. He’s a multi-award winning translator for the stage, and has written versions of over thirty plays from Spain, Latin America and France for professional performance around the world. In the early 1990s, he won The Observer Special Award for Achievement in Theatre and London Weekend Television’s New Plays on Stage Award. He has had work performed on television and radio. Lope de Vega (1562-1635), acknowledged as Spain's most lyrical and energetic dramatist, was a prolific and complusive writer. He treated an enormous range of subjects, often mingling comedy with tragedy, to the horror of the classicists, and defended his methods in his 'Arte nuevo de hacer comedias en este tiempe', published in 1609.