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TIRSO DE MOLINA

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Originally appearing in Volume V26, Page 1013 of the 1911 Encyclopedia Britannica.
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TIRSO DE See also:

MOLINA , the See also:pseudonym of See also:Gabriel Tellez (1571–1648), See also:Spanish dramatist. See also:Born at See also:Madrid in See also:October 1571, he studied at the See also:Alcala de Henares, joined the See also:Order of See also:Mercy on the 4th of See also:November 1600, and made his religious profession in the Monastery of See also:San Antolin at See also:Guadalajara on the 21st of See also:January 16o1. He was a dramatist of ten years' See also:standing when he was sent by his superiors on a See also:mission to the See also:West Indies in 1615; returning to See also:Europe in 1617, he resided at the Mercenarian monastery in Madrid, took See also:part in the proceedings of the Academia poetica de Madrid, founded by See also:Sebastian Francisco de Medrano, competed in the See also:literary tournaments then in See also:vogue, and wrote copiously for the See also:stage. His first publication, the incomplete Cigarrales de See also:Toledo (licensed in 1621, but apparently not published till 1624), is a See also:miscellany, containing See also:short tales, novels, verses and three plays; one of the novels, Los Tres maridos burlados, probably derived from Il Cieco da See also:Ferrara's Mambriano, and the See also:play entitled El Vergonzoso en palacio are admirable examples of witty contrivance. The See also:preface to the Cigarrales de Toledo (the second part of which was never printed) states that Tirso de Molina had already written three See also:hundred plays, and at this See also:period of his career he was second only to his friend Lope de See also:Vega in popularity. He avowed himself hostile to culteranismo in the Cigarrales de Toledo, and made numerous enemies by his attacks on the new school in such pieces as Amar See also:por arte See also:mayor and La Celosa de si misma. The realistic See also:character of some of his productions provided his unsuccessful rivals with an excuse for denouncing him as a corrupter of public morals to the See also:council of See also:Castile in 1625, and, though no legal See also:action was taken against him, he appears to have been reprimanded privately. In 1626 it was deemed advisable to See also:transfer him to See also:Salamanca, and Tirso de Molina See also:left Madrid determined to write no more for the stage. Though one of his plays, La Huerta de San Juan, is dated 1626, there is no See also:proof that it was begun after his departure from Madrid, and he seems to have kept to his See also:resolution for eight years. But he had not lost his See also:interest in the See also:theatre, and See also:felt justified in See also:publishing twelve representative pieces as the first part of his dramatic See also:works (1626). This may be taken as a formal protest against the weakness of those who had sacrificed him to hypocritical clamour. In other respects he was submissive, and worked zealously on behalf of his order in which he See also:rose to important positions; he became See also:superior of the monastery at See also:Trujillo in 1626, was elected later to the posts of reader in See also:theology and definidor See also:general, and in May 1632 was appointed chronicler of the Order of Mercy.

His Deleitar aprovechado (1635) is a devout counterpart of the Cigarrales de Toledo, much inferior to its predecessor in interest; a sequel was promised to this collection of pious tales, pious lyrics, and autos, but, as in the See also:

case of the Cigarrales de Toledo, the continuation never appeared. Twelve plays constitute the third part of his dramatic works which was published (before the second) in 1634 under the nominal editorship of the writer's See also:nephew Francisco See also:Lucas de See also:Avila, but the existence of this nephew is doubtful. The second part (1635), the See also:printing of which was paid for by the confraternity of St See also:Jerome, contains four plays by Tirso de Molina, and eight written by him in collaboration with other dramatists; one of these collaborators was See also:Ruiz de See also:Alarcon (q.v.), but the See also:internal See also:evidence goes to show that Tirso de Molina was the predominant spirit in these literary partnerships. The See also:fourth part of Tirso's dramatic works (1635) and the fifth(1636) each contain twelve plays; the haste with which these five volumes were issued indicates the natural See also:desire of a See also:great author to See also:save some part of his See also:work from destruction, and the See also:appearance of a supposititious nephew's name on the See also:title-pages of the last four volumes indicates the equally natural desire of a prominent See also:monk to avoid conflict with the authorities. A See also:sixth See also:volume of dramatic pieces, consisting of See also:light comedies, was announced; but the project was abandoned. That dramatic See also:composition still entertained the scanty leisure of Tirso's old See also:age is shown by the fact that the fragmentary autograph copy of See also:Las Quinas de See also:Portugal is dated the 8th of See also:March 1638; but his active career as a dramatist ended two years earlier. He was absorbed by other duties. As See also:official chronicler of his order, he compiled the elaborate Historia de la merced, which occupied him till the 24th of See also:December 1639, and still survives in See also:manuscript. As a See also:tribute to the See also:count de Sastago, who had accepted the See also:dedication of the fourth part of the plays, and who had probably helped to defray the publishing expenses, Tirso de Molina is said to have compiled the Genealogia de la casa de triage (164o), but the ascription of this genealogical work is disputed. On the 29th of See also:September 1645 Tirso de Molina became superior of the monastery at See also:Soria, and died there on the 12th of March 1648. It is only within the last few years that it has become possible to give an outline of his See also:life; it will always be impossible for posterity to do See also:justice to his See also:genius, for but a fraction of his plays have been preserved. The earliest of his extant pieces is dated 1605 and bears no sign of immaturity; in 1624 he had written three hundred plays, and in 1634 he stated that he had composed four hundred within the previous twenty years; of this immense See also:production not more than eighty plays are in existence.

Tirso de Molina is universally known as the author of El Burlador de Sevilla y convidado de piedra, the piece in which See also:

Don Juan is first presented on the stage; but El Burlador de Sevilla represents only one aspect of his genius. No less remarkable than his See also:representation of perverse depravity in El Burlador de Sevilla is his dramatic treatment of a philosophical See also:enigma in El Condenado por desconfiado. Though manifestly attracted by exceptional cases, by every See also:kind of moral See also:aberration, by the infamous and the terrible, his range is virtually unlimited. He reveals him-self as a See also:master of See also:historical See also:interpretation in La Prudencia de la mujer and of tragical pathos in La Venganza de Tamar; his sympathetic, malicious wit finds dramatic expression in El Vergonzoso en palacio and Don Gil de las calzas verdes, and the See also:fine See also:divination of feminine character in Averiguelo Vargas and La Villana de Vallecas is incomparable. Tirso de Molina has neither Lope de Vega's inventive resource, nor his See also:infinite See also:seduction; he has neither Calder6n's idealistic visions, nor his See also:golden See also:music; but he exceeds Lope in massive intellectual See also:power and in See also:artistic self-See also:restraint, and he exceeds Calder6n in See also:humour, in creative See also:faculty, and in dramatic See also:intuition. That his reputation extended beyond the See also:Pyrenees in his own lifetime may be gathered from the fact that J. See also:Shirley's Opportunity is derived from El Castigo del penseque; but he was neglected in See also:Spain itself during the See also:long period of Calderbn's supremacy, and his name was almost forgotten till the end of the 18th See also:century, when some of his pieces were timidly recast by Dionisio See also:Solis and later by Juan Carretero. The See also:renaissance of his fame, however, See also:dates from 1839–1842, when an incomplete but serviceable edition of See also:hip plays was published by See also:Hartzenbusch; and he is now accepted as among the greatest dramatists of Spain.

End of Article: TIRSO DE MOLINA

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