Antonio Hurtado de Mendoza
Encyclopedia
Biography
Hurtado was born in Castro UrdialesCastro Urdiales
Castro Urdiales is a seaport of northern Spain, in the autonomous community of Cantabria, situated on the bay of Biscay.Castro Urdiales is a modern town, although its castle and the Gothic-style parish church of Santa María de la Asunción, date from the Middle Ages. Its chief industries are...
, Cantabria
Cantabria
Cantabria is a Spanish historical region and autonomous community with Santander as its capital city. It is bordered on the east by the Basque Autonomous Community , on the south by Castile and León , on the west by the Principality of Asturias, and on the north by the Cantabrian Sea.Cantabria...
.
He became page to the count de Saldaña (son of the duke de Lerma), and was recognized as a rising poet by Cervantes
Cervantes
-People:*Alfonso J. Cervantes , mayor of St. Louis, Missouri*Francisco Cervantes de Salazar, 16th-century man of letters*Ignacio Cervantes, Cuban composer*Jorge Cervantes, a world-renowned expert on indoor, outdoor, and greenhouse cannabis cultivation...
in the Viaje del Parnaso (1614). He rose rapidly into favor under Philip IV
Philip IV of Spain
Philip IV was King of Spain between 1621 and 1665, sovereign of the Spanish Netherlands, and King of Portugal until 1640...
, who appointed him private secretary, commissioned from him comedias palaciegas for the royal theatre at Aranjuez
Aranjuez
Aranjuez is a town lying 48 km south of Madrid, in the southern part of the Community of Madrid. It is located at the confluence of the Tagus and Jarama rivers, 48 km from Toledo. As of 2009, it has a population of 54,055.-History:...
, and in 1623 conferred on him the orders of Santiago
Order of Santiago
The Order of Santiago was founded in the 12th century, and owes its name to the national patron of Galicia and Spain, Santiago , under whose banner the Christians of Galicia and Asturias began in the 9th century to combat and drive back the Muslims of the Iberian Peninsula.-History:Santiago de...
and Calatrava
Order of Calatrava
The Order of Calatrava was the first military order founded in Castile, but the second to receive papal approval. The papal bull confirming the Order of Calatrava as a Militia was given by Pope Alexander III on September 26, 1164.-Origins and Foundation:...
. Most of his contemporaries and rivals paid court to el discreto de palacio, and Mendoza seems to have lived on the friendliest terms with all his brother dramatists except Ruiz de Alarcón
Ruíz de Alarcón
Ruíz de Alarcón is a Spanish noble name. The name Alarcón was first given to Ferren Martínez de Ceballos by Alfonso VIII of Castile after the former had successfully driven the Moors from the fortress of Alarcón near Cuenca in 1177...
. He is said to have been involved in the fall of Olivares
Olivares
Olivarez might refer to:* Olivarez, Seville, a municipality in the Seville province of Spain* House of Olivares* Gaspar de Guzmán, Count-Duke of Olivares, seventeenth-century Spanish statesman* Olivarez de Júcar, Spain, a municipality in Cuenca...
, and died unexpectedly at Zaragoza
Zaragoza
Zaragoza , also called Saragossa in English, is the capital city of the Zaragoza Province and of the autonomous community of Aragon, Spain...
on 19 September 1644.
His theatrical works include numerous entremés
Entremés
Entremés, is a short, comic theatrical performance of one act, usually played during the interlude of a performance of a long dramatic work, in the 16th and 17th centuries in Spain. Later it became the sainete....
works.
Only one of his plays, Querer por solo querer, was published with his consent; it is included in a volume (1623) containing his semi-official account of the performances at Aranjuez in 1622. The best edition of Mendoza's plays and verses bears the title of Obras liricas y comicas, divinas y humanas (1728). Much of his work does not rise above the level of graceful and accomplished verse; but that he had higher qualities is shown by El marido hace mujer, a brilliant comedy of manners
Comedy of manners
The comedy of manners is a genre of play/television/film which satirizes the manners and affectations of a social class, often represented by stock characters, such as the miles gloriosus in ancient times, the fop and the rake during the Restoration, or an old person pretending to be young...
, which forms the chief source of Molière
Molière
Jean-Baptiste Poquelin, known by his stage name Molière, was a French playwright and actor who is considered to be one of the greatest masters of comedy in Western literature...
's École des maris.
The Fiesta que se hizo en Aranjuez and Querer por solo querer were translated into English by Sir Richard Fanshawe, afterwards ambassador at Madrid
Madrid
Madrid is the capital and largest city of Spain. The population of the city is roughly 3.3 million and the entire population of the Madrid metropolitan area is calculated to be 6.271 million. It is the third largest city in the European Union, after London and Berlin, and its metropolitan...
, in a posthumous volume published in 1671.
Theatre
- Amor con amor se paga
- El marido hace mujer y el trato muda costumbre (1631–32)
- Cada loco con su tema o el montañés indiano (1630)
- No hay amor donde no hay agravio
- Los empeños del mentir
- Más merece quien más ama (after 1634)
- Querer por solo querer
- Ni callarlo ni decirlo
- Los empeños del mentir (written with Francisco de QuevedoFrancisco de QuevedoFrancisco Gómez de Quevedo y Santibáñez Villegas was a Spanish nobleman, politician and writer of the Baroque era. Along with his lifelong rival, Luis de Góngora, Quevedo was one of the most prominent Spanish poets of the age. His style is characterized by what was called conceptismo...
) - Quien más miente, más medra (written with Francisco de QuevedoFrancisco de QuevedoFrancisco Gómez de Quevedo y Santibáñez Villegas was a Spanish nobleman, politician and writer of the Baroque era. Along with his lifelong rival, Luis de Góngora, Quevedo was one of the most prominent Spanish poets of the age. His style is characterized by what was called conceptismo...
in 1631)