Castro y Bellvís, Guillén de

Castro y Bellvís, Guillén de (gēlyān` dā käs`trō ē bĕlvēs`), 1569–1631, Spanish dramatist, best known of the Valencian group of playwrights of the Golden Age. Three of his plays dramatize episodes from Don Quixote. His masterpiece, Las mocedades del Cid [the youthful adventures of the Cid], is a historical drama that furnished Corneille with the material for his play Le Cid. Castro enjoyed considerable success during his lifetime.

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Castro y Bellvís, Guillén de

(born 1569, Valencia, Spain—died 1631, Madrid) Spanish playwright. Of his approximately 50 plays, the best-remembered is The Youth of the Cid (c. 1599), on which Pierre Corneille based his Le Cid (1637). Castro's play is notable for its naturalistic dialogue. He was one of the earliest playwrights to deal with the difficulties of marriage, as in The Unhappy Marriages of Valencia. He drew heavily on traditional Castilian ballads and based three of his plays on novels by Miguel de Cervantes.