Ruiz de Alarcón y Mendoza, Juan

Ruiz de Alarcón y Mendoza, Juan 

Born 1581, in Taxco, Mexico; died Aug. 4, 1639, in Madrid. Spanish playwright.

Ruiz de Alarcón wrote the heroic play The Weaver of Segovia (1634; Russian translation, 1946). His most important works are comedies of character, which reveal human vices and affirm humanistic principles of morality. These comedies include The Suspect Truth (written before 1619; Russian translation, 1941) and The Walls Have Ears (1622). Ruiz de Alarcón influenced the development of the comedy of character in the literatures of other countries.

WORKS

Obras completas, vols. 1–2. Mexico City-Buenos Aires [1957–59].
Comedias, 2nd ed. Madrid, 1875.

REFERENCES

Istoriia zapadnoevropeiskogo teatra, vol. 1. Moscow, 1956.
Plavskin, Z. I. “O ‘komedii kharakterov’ Alarkona.” In Romanogermanskaia filologiia: Sb. statei v chest’ akad. V. F. Shishmareva. [Leningrad] 1957.
Brenes, C. O. El sentimiento democrático en el teatro de J. Ruiz de Alarcón. [Valencia] 1960.
Poesse, W. Ensaye de una bibliografía de J. Ruiz de Alarcón y Mendoza. Valencia, 1964.

A. L. SHTEIN