Lope de Vega's picaresque comedies: their chronology, and the matters of morality and laughter

In this paper, the matter of Lope de Vega's picaresque comedies is tackled. In search of a panoramic, general image of the genre, that allows to see its evolution or its versions, the chronology of the corpus that facilitates to determine the period of production -from 1587 until 1606, approximately-, is analyzed. Taking those dates as a starting point, some of the comedies' distinctive characteristics -such as, the usage of the words "picafio", or "picaro" when describing its characters; the urge for a better status in society; and the forgery of a noble lineage, among others- are studied, as well as the complex subjects that laughter and morality represent.