The Theatre Espagnol by Simon NicolasHenri Linguet, published in Paris in 1770, provides the French public with a wide recollection of entire plays of the seventeenth century Spanish theatre, translated into French, from Lope de Vega to Bances Candamo. It is an influential translation because of its dissemination among the Romantic theorists, as it is the last and main preromantic French translation of Lope de Vega's theatre. The translation strategy of Linguet is described in relation with three constraints: Ideology, poetics, and theoretical approach. The ideological interest for the Spanish leyenda negra emerges in the choice of the corpus of Lope de Vega's plays, and can be also observed analysing some specimen of Linguet's translations. The poetics of Linguet, especially his ideas about the Spanish theatre, is explained with some quotes from his own essays about the European theatre (two prologues and a commentary of Voltaire's theatre). Throughout his life, Linguet changes his ideas concerning the Spanish theatre, arriving at a more and more positive evaluation. At the same time, he changes his ideas about translation: The Théâtre Espagnol is prepared following a target-oriented approach, which tends to adapt the source-text to French classical taste; ten years later, Linguet criticises his own translations and supports a source-oriented translation strategy.