Abstract
The Spanish comedia nueva was one of the most popular theatrical genres in the seventeenth-century Low Countries. The adaptations of these plays were performed in Dutch and Flemish theatres. This study aimed to explain the popularity of this genre. The conclusion is that the emotional effects were responsible for the popularity of these plays that were translated from Spanish. These tragicomedies offered a drastic alternative for the emotional prescriptions found in the oeuvre of Jacob Cats, Joost van den Vondel, and Pieter Cornelisz Hooft. This way, comedia nueva offered Dutch and Flemish spectators a refuge from emotional and social expectations.