comedia

Spanish name for a play, either tragedy or comedy, in the 17th century (the golden age of Spanish theatre).

Contemporary writers divided comedias into two main types. Comedias de ruido (or tramoyas or apariencias) were machine or spectacle plays, in which the characters wore sumptuous clothes against splendid scenery and were usually monarchs and nobles. Comedias de ingenio were plays of wit or intrigue, in which the characters were of the lesser nobility or even middle class and wore the ordinary dress of the day.

A subdivision of the latter was the comedia de capa y espada (cloak-and-sword play), in which characters disguised themselves in cloaks for amorous intrigue and fought duels. In the 19th century this type of play became very popular, and the term came to mean any romantic costume play with a love interest and swordplay.