Lope de Vega

Lope de Vega (1562-1635), full name Lope Félix de Vega Carpio, also known as Lope, Spanish playwright and poet, one of the most prolific and gifted writers of Spain's Golden Age.

Lope de Vega was born on November 25, 1562, in Madrid, the son of an artisan. He was educated at the University of Alcalá de Henares. He was a soldier in the Azores campaign of 1583; in 1588 he served in the Armada, having been banished from Madrid earlier that year on a charge of libel resulting from an imprudent love affair. In 1614, following the death of his second wife, Lope became a priest. He continued, however, his ambitious literary and personal life and amassed great wealth and fame. His last years were marked by personal tragedy and loneliness; he died on August 27, 1635, in his Madrid house.

Lope is considered the founder of the Spanish national drama. His biographer Juan Pérez de Montalván attributes more than 2,000 plays (comedias), including about 400 religious pieces (autos sacramentales), directly to his hand. The plays are divided into three acts and are usually characterized by love as a motivating factor and the rapid solution of plot complications very near the end of the drama. The works are thought to suffer, however, from a lack of individuality in character portrayal. Typical examples of Lope's work include Noche de San Juan (St John's Eve), one of his last plays; Maestro de danzar (Dance Teacher), one of his first; and El acero de Madrid (c. 1613, The Steel of Madrid), the source clearly of Le Médecin malgré lui (1666, The Doctor in Spite of Himself) by the French dramatist Molière. Some of Lope's plays are still performed, especially Fuenteovejuna (1612-c. 1614; trans. 1961), Peribáñez (1614-1616; trans. 1961), La dama boba (1613, The Foolish Lady), and The Knight of Olmedo (1620-1625; trans. 1961).