Its hero, Juan Tenorio, is the first Don Juan in world literature. The best-known drama by Tirso de Molina is The Scamp of Seville, or The Stone Guest (El Burlador de Sevilla y convivado de pietra, 1619–20 published 1630), which is based on a folk tale of a young roué who insults a dead man and pays dearly for his blasphemy. Observing the general social disharmony and moral decline in Spain, Tirso de Molina, like many of his contemporaries, turned to religion as a means of improving morals. His plays express all the artificiality and deceptiveness of life. They reflect the end of the humanists’ faith in man’s nature and express disillusionment with love as an elevated emotion ennobling the soul and with honor in the sense of unconditional devotion to the good of society. At the same time, however, his works belong to the baroque age. Tirso de Molina developed the principles of Renaissance drama established by L. Tirso de Molina also wrote comedies, in which he combined plots typical of cloak-and-sword plays-the classic example being Don Gil Greenpants (1615, published 1635)-with profound psychological insight, as in Jealous of Herself. Other works include religious and philosophical dramas, the best known being The Doubted Damned (1614–15, published 1634), and autos (one-act allegorical dramas). Some of his plays deal with biblical subjects, for example, Tamara’s Revenge and More Is Less (1614, published 1627), and with hagiography, notably a trilogy on the life of St. Tirso de Molina wrote several plays on historical themes, such as The Luck of Don Alvaro de Luna and the Unhappy Fate of Ruy Lopes d’Alvalos (1615–21, published 1635) and Woman’s Wisdom (1630–33, published 1634). Approximately 90 have survived however, the authorship of a number of them remains in dispute. The preface to the third collection indicates that he had written 400 plays.
Between 16, Tirso de Molina published five collections of plays. The collection To Delight While Being of Use (1635) is a pious antithesis to Villas of Toledo. His first published book, Villas of Toledo (1621), is similar to the genre of the pastoral romance united by a general plot, it comprises several short prose works and three plays, including A Bashful Youth in the Palace (1605–06). He held high positions in the monastic Mercenarian order and became the historian for the order in 1632. Tirso de Molina studied at the University of Alcalá de Henares. Born 1571 or circa 1583 in Madrid died Mar. His fame rests on El burlador de Sevilla (1630 tr. , 1584?–1648, outstanding dramatist of the Spanish Golden Age, b.
Molina, Tirso de: see Tirso de Molina Tirso de Molina His dramas, influenced by Lope de Vega, excel in wit and sympathetic characterization. He joined the Mercedarian monks in 1601 and wrote a history of the order (1637–39). He also wrote short novels, included in his prose collection Los cigarrales de Toledo (1621). by James Shirley as The Opportunity, 1640). The Saint and the Sinner, 1954), Marta la piadosa, and El castigo del pensé que (tr. Among the 300 or 400 plays by Tirso de Molina are El vergonzoso en palacio, La prudencia en la mujer, El condenado por desconfiado (tr. The Love Rogue, 1924), the earliest known literary version of the Don Juan legend. of Fray Gabriel Téllez (gäbrēĕl` tĕl`yĕth), 1584?–1648, outstanding dramatist of the Spanish Golden Age, b. Tirso de Molina (tēr`sō dā mōlē`nä), pseud.