Encina, Juan del

Encina or Enzina, Juan del (both: hwän dĕl ānthē`nä), 1469?–c.1530, Spanish dramatist, musician, and poet, b. Encino. He served as court musician to the duke of Alba in Italy, and in 1513 his play Plácida y Victoriano was presented in Rome. His Cancionero (1496) contains several plays as well as musical compositions and a treatise on poetry. His best-known works, the Églogas, are pastoral religious plays in imitation of Vergil. Encina was ordained a priest in 1519. His works followed Italian influence in combining humanist culture with popular drama.

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Encina, Juan del 

Born 1469 in Encinas, Salamanca Province; died 1529 in Salamanca. Spanish poet, dramatist and composer.

Encina’s principal works, which were collected in his Songbook (1496), combine medieval traditions and Renaissance tendencies. Encina’s fourteen plays called eclogues marked the beginning of secular theater in Spain. Several of his plays, including A Play About a Fight (published 1509), Mingo Gil (1494), and Pascuala (1494), were written in the spirit of folk farces. Encina celebrated earthly joys and love in such pastoral eclogues as Plácida and Vitoriano (staged 1513).

REFERENCES

Istoriia zapadnoevropeiskogo teatra, vol. 1. Edited by S. S. Mokul’skii. Moscow, 1956. Pages 265–68.
Andrews, J. R. Juan del Encina: Prometheus in Search of Prestige. Berkeley-Los Angeles, 1959.