Benavente y Martínez, Jacinto (häthēn`tō bā'nävān`tā ē märtē`nĕth), 1866–1954, Spanish dramatist, b. Madrid. He was awarded the 1922 Nobel Prize in Literature. His best-known play is Los intereses creados (1907, tr. Bonds of Interest, 1917), a farce written on the pattern of the Italian commedia dell'arte. In 1916 he wrote a second part to this play, La ciudad alegre y confiada [the gay and confident city]. La malquerida (1913, tr. The Passion Flower, 1920), on the Phaedra theme, was popular with the public and the critics. His plays fall into four classes: social satires, psychological dramas, children's plays, and allegorical-morality plays. He was at his best in sparkling satires of aristocratic and upper middle-class life.

Bibliography

See study by M. Peñuelas (tr. 1969).

Benavente y Martínez, Jacinto

(born Aug. 12, 1866, Madrid, Spain—died July 14, 1954, Madrid) Spanish dramatist. His most celebrated work, The Bonds of Interest (1907), was based on the Italian commedia dell'arte; his 1913 tragedy La malquerida was also popular. During the Spanish Civil War he was detained by the authorities for a time, but he reestablished himself in official favour with Lo increíble (1941). One of the foremost Spanish dramatists of the 20th century, he continued to write until the end of his life, producing more than 150 plays. He received the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1922.