ABSTRACT
This chapter highlights the importance of the Duke of Lerma and his network of patronage relationships in the Spanish dramas on favorites. A common pattern in these dramas is their protagonists embodiment of Neostoic virtues, as in La paciencia en la fortuna, an unpublished play attributed to Lope de Vega, which is closely analyzed in this chapter. This play forms part of a propagandistic campaign to defend the position of Lerma and, more particularly, is associated with a larger group of Spanish dramas intended to emphasize the positive virtues of the king’s favorite minister. This chapter argues that the protagonist of La paciencia en la fortuna, the favorite Gastón de Moncada, assumes both Senecan and Christian attributes: he adheres to the Stoic virtue of patience and remains loyal to an apparently unjust king, similar to a martyr who suffers the pains by which God tests his faith.
