México
This article examines the conflict between perceptions of fiction versus reality, as depicted in Lope de Vega's Lo fingido verdadero (1608), which dramatizes the hagiographic legend of San Ginés (Genesius of Rome). Analysis focuses throughout on the interplay between the representation of ideas and affects in the drama's soliloquies, as well as in its overarching metatheatrical structure. Of special interest are the three modes of ambiguity that shape the soliloquy scene of Ginés's rehearsal in Act 3, where I ponder the ambivalence between what the character says and his internal thoughts presented through stage direction and other metatheatrical cues, thereby highlighting the contrast between two layers of performance within the tragicomedy. This analysis of the protagonist's characterization through spoken discourse and scenic configuration invites reflections on the innovative nature of this tragicomedy, whose likely composition date situates it in the crucial period of artistic innovation and growing influence long associated with the almost contemporary Arte nuevo de hacer comedias (1609).