Tirso de Molina (tēr`sō dā mōlē`nä), pseud. of Fray Gabriel Téllez (gäbrēĕl` tĕl`yĕth), 1584?–1648, outstanding dramatist of the Spanish Golden Age, b. Madrid. His fame rests on El burlador de Sevilla (1630; tr. The Love Rogue, 1924), the earliest known literary version of the Don Juan legend. Among the 300 or 400 plays by Tirso de Molina are El vergonzoso en palacio [the bashful man at the palace], La prudencia en la mujer [prudence in a woman], El condenado por desconfiado (tr. The Saint and the Sinner, 1954), Marta la piadosa [pious Martha], and El castigo del pensé que (tr. by James Shirley as The Opportunity, 1640). He also wrote short novels, included in his prose collection Los cigarrales de Toledo (1621). He joined the Mercedarian monks in 1601 and wrote a history of the order (1637–39). His dramas, influenced by Lope de Vega, excel in wit and sympathetic characterization.

Tirso de Molina

orig. Gabriel Téllez

(born March 9?, 1584, Madrid, Spain—died March 12, 1648, Soria) Spanish playwright. As a friar of the Mercedarian Order from 1601, he wrote its official history (1637). Inspired by Lope de Vega, he drew upon a wide range of sources and styles for his dramas. Tirso wrote a vast number of works, of which only about 80 have survived. His best-known play, the tragedy The Seducer of Seville (1630), introduced the legendary hero-villain Don Juan. Noted for portraying the psychological conflicts of his characters, he also wrote the tragedy The Doubted Damned (1635) and Antona García (1635), which analyzed mob emotion. Though he also excelled in comedy, he was the greatest Spanish tragedian of his time.