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This paper analises how the prophet Elijah is represented in the Spanish theatre in the 16th and 17th centuries. The following plays are commented on: Tragaedia Jezabelis, Tragoedia cui nomen inditum Achabus (both belonging to Jesuit college drama), La mujer que manda en casa by Tirso de Molina, La viña de Nabot by Rojas Zorrilla, La representación de la vida y rapto de Elías profeta by Matías de los Reyes, and El vengador de los cielos y rapto de Elías by Bances Candamo. Matías de los Reyes' play is here subject to critical scrutiny for the first time; a modern edition is still due. The most relevant results are: Jesuit drama anticipates some of the developments of the Elijah theme that take place later in popular and court theatre; playwrights work quite unrestrainedly in reshaping the Biblical material, and they tend to tighten the temporal and causal connections of events and characters. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper deals with the controversial inclusion of Lope de Vega's Roma abrasada in the genre of tragedy. Paying attention to the context of the first play which Lope himself referred to as a “tragedy", Roma abrasada is set against the tradition of the late 16th century tragedy in order to study how it follows it and how –maybe due to the new perspective of the comedia nueva– it deviates from it, opening (although quite imperfectly) the way for what would eventually become the “tragedia española". [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]