This study of Alarcón’s drama is posited on the view that in the general run of his plays he shows a particular interest in the issue of deception, its necessity, and its conditional legitimacy. It is true that this is not a totally new view, and that published criticism has not been altogether indifferent or blind to the role of mendacity and social pretence in Alarcón’s drama. This need not surprise us of course, since deception constitutes a fundamental structural device in the majority of social and situational comedies and not just in those of Alarcón. However, the argument presented in this book is, firstly, that this is a thematic concern which runs through the body of Alarcón’s work and plays an important if not a predominant part in it; and secondly, that Alarcón deals with it in a way that is more intellectually complex and morally serious way than has previously been recognised. That said, it should not be forgotten that Alarcón’s plays are no less witty and well-paced than the best of those of his contemporaries. Indeed, it is abundantly clear from his comedias that as a dramatist he was both alert to the practical importance of keeping his audience interested and amused, and eager to display his own creative skill in the creation of lively dialogue, ironic situation, and deft versification.

However, with regard to the central subject of this study – Alarcón’s own treatment of the theme of deception – the question arises as to what it was about Alarcón, or the times in which he lived, that caused him to be interested in this issue. It should be remembered that Alarcón began his career as a playwright in Madrid during a period of extensive social change. In the words of J. H. Elliott, ‘Madrid […] was a boomtown. In 1561, when Philip II chose it as his capital, it was little more than an overgrown village. By 1621 it had a population approaching 150,000, almost as large as that of Seville’. But if Seville was the greatest mercantile city in Spain in the early 1600s, Madrid was without doubt the social capital, and the massive increase in its population led to a multiplication of its social structures and modalities.