The figure of the merchant in Fenisa's Hook by Lope de Vega

In Lope de Vega's extensive theatrical production, merchants do not often appear. When they do, they are not usually protagonists nor have a positive connotation. Exceptions to this are two plays of Italian sources, El anzuelo de Fenisa (Fenisa's Hook) and Virtud, pobreza y mujer (Virtue, poverty and woman). The article carries out a detailed comparison between the tenth novella of the eighth day of the Decameron and El anzuelo de Fenisa. In his comedy Lope retains the overall structure of the novella and its main elements, but he also introduces structural innovations, such as a second plot line, and above all ends up neutralizing the implications of social dynamization that the merchant had more widely in the Decameron. In El anzuelo de Fenisa, through the character of Lucindo, the social strata opposition between the urban middle nobility and the world of merchants is avoided.