«Sine Cerere et Baccho friget Venus»: un proverbio clásico en Lope de Vega

This article examines the appearance of a classical proverb (“sine Cerere et Baccho friget Venus”) in Lope de Vega’s works. After showing that Lope uses it in at least ten texts, we explain that he must have found it, rather than in the original source, in a rhetorical manual, as these books used the proverb as an example of metonymy. In addition, we show that Lope only uses the proverb after the Arcadia, maybe led by his ambitions to become a prestigious author, and that most mentions of the proverb date from Philip III’s reign. Finally, we classify the uses according to whether they respond to rhetorical, love, religious, courtly, or burlesque interests, explaining how each affects the use of the proverb.