Tirso de Molina summary

Written and fact-checked by The Editors of Encyclopaedia Britannica

Below is the article summary. For the full article, see Tirso de Molina.

Tirso de Molina , orig. Gabriel Téllez, (born March 9?, 1584, Madrid, Spain—died March 12, 1648, Soria), Spanish playwright. As a friar of the Mercedarian Order from 1601, he wrote its official history (1637). Inspired by Lope de Vega, he drew upon a wide range of sources and styles for his dramas. Tirso wrote a vast number of works, of which only about 80 have survived. His best-known play, the tragedy The Seducer of Seville (1630), introduced the legendary hero-villain Don Juan. Noted for portraying the psychological conflicts of his characters, he also wrote the tragedy The Doubted Damned (1635) and Antona García (1635), which analyzed mob emotion. Though he also excelled in comedy, he was the greatest Spanish tragedian of his time.

comedy Summary

Comedy, type of drama or other art form the chief object of which, according to modern notions, is to amuse. It is contrasted on the one hand with tragedy and on the other with farce, burlesque, and other forms of humorous amusement. The classic conception of comedy, which began with Aristotle in

tragedy Summary

Tragedy, branch of drama that treats in a serious and dignified style the sorrowful or terrible events encountered or caused by a heroic individual. By extension the term may be applied to other literary works, such as the novel. Although the word tragedy is often used loosely to describe any sort