Tirso de Molina

Spanish dramatist and playwright

• Born: 1580(?)
• Birthplace: Madrid, Spain
• Died: February 1, 1648
• Place of death: Almazán, Soria, Spain

Tirso de Molina, who introduced the figure of Don Juan into world literature, was one of the most influential dramatists of the Spanish Golden Age. Both a man of letters and a clergyman, he cultivated a wide variety of dramatic genres, poetry, narrative fiction, and historical works. He was one of numerous disciples of Lope de Vega Carpio. In his comedias, he followed the guidelines of Lope de Vega’s comedia nueva.

Early Life

Tirso de Molina (TEER-soh day-moh-LEE-nah) was the pseudonym of Gabriel Téllez. He was born in Madrid though his date of birth, early years, and family origins have always been a source of debate and controversy. In the 1920’s, a prominent Tirso critic, Blanca de los Ríos, stated that Tirso was born in 1584, based upon a birth certificate dated March 9 of that year for a “Fray Gabriel,” whose mother was Gracia Juliana. Ríos also believed that Tirso’s father might have been the duke of Osuna. One scholar has argued that on January 25, 1638, Tirso had stated at the court of the Inquisition in Toledo that he was fifty-seven years old, suggesting that his year of birth was 1580 or 1581. More recently, research suggests that Tirso may have been the son of the count of Molina Herrera, Andrés López, and Juana Téllez. Vázquez fixed the writer’s date of birth in 1579, probably on March 24.

Tirso entered into the Mercedarian order in 1600 as a novice after studying the humanities in Madrid. After professing in 1601, he pursued the study of theology and the arts in Toledo and Guadalajara. It was not until Tirso completed his studies, in 1609, that he began his career as a playwright.

Life’s Work

Between 1610 and 1616, Tirso lived in Toledo, where he wrote his first plays under his pseudonym, Tirso de Molina. His early works include El vergonzoso en palacio(wr. 1611?; The Bashful Man at Court , 1991); La villana de La Sagra (wr. c. 1611; the village woman of La Sagra), a play of love and intrigue; and Don Gil de las calzas verdes (wr. 1615?, pb. 1635; Don Gil of the Green Breeches , 1991). His comedias share the same themes of humor, intrigue, love, deceit, and disguise (often a woman dressed as a man). From the beginning of his career, he gained the reputation, among some members of the Church, of a frivolous and profane writer, in spite of his religious and devotional plays such as the hagiographical trilogy La Santa Juana (wr. 1613-1614). Despite the reaction of the Church, Tirso’s popularity reached the highest levels of society, gaining the approval of King Philip III’s prime minister, Francisco Gómez de Sandoval y Rojas, the duke de Lerma, and that of the monarch himself, whom Tirso admired.

After spending two years in the Americas, in Santo Domingo, where he obtained the title of definidor, or member of the Mercedarian order’s government, he returned to Spain in 1618 to attend the general chapter in Guadalajara, and then he taught theology in Segovia and Toledo until 1620. For his lectures, he earned the title of teacher, presentado, of theology.

By about 1622, he was back in Madrid, writing profusely and participating in poetry contests, among other activities, which were organized by the literary academies. This was the time when his literary production and political activities relating to his order reached their height. Two of his most famous plays were written during this period, although some critics question his authorship of them. El condenado por desconfiado (wr. 1615?, pb. 1634; The Saint and the Sinner , 1952; also known as Damned for Despair, 1986) explores questions of salvation and free will, and in El burlador de Sevilla (pb. 1630; The Love Rogue , 1924), he forged the universal figure of Don Juan. Also of this period is Los cigarrales de Toledo (wr. 1621, pb. 1624; the country houses of Toledo), a prose miscellany including several stories told by different narrators following the model of Giovanni Boccaccio’s Decameron: O, Prencipe Galetto (1349-1351; The Decameron, 1620). Other works of this period include El amor médico (wr. 1621?; love medicine) and a play of intrigue, La fingida Arcadia (wr. 1622?; the feigned arcady), which is not only a commentary on Lope de Vega Carpio’s pastoral novel La Arcadia (1598) but also a political satire. Also, Tirso wrote the historical play La prudencia en la mujer (wr. 1627-1633; Prudence in Woman , 1964), inspired by the medieval Spanish queen, María de Molina.

When Philip III died in 1621, his sixteen-year-old son, Prince Philip, inherited the throne, becoming Philip IV . This was unfortunate for Tirso and the many others who opposed the new monarch and his prime minister, the count-duke of Olivares, a quite unpopular figure. A period of repression and persecution began for many intellectuals and members of the previous reign. While Tirso praised Philip III in plays such as La villana de Vallecas (wr. 1620?; the village woman of Vallecas), he harshly criticized his son Philip IV’s reign in several other plays. For example, in Prudence in Women, Tirso used a historical play to criticize his own time. As a result of Tirso’s open enmity for the government, in 1625, he was condemned by the committee for reform of the Council of Castile (Junta de Reformación) to stop writing. Tirso unsuccessfully attempted to have this sentence revoked. Subsequently, he was expulsed from the court to the convent of Trujillo, where he was named comendador (commander).

Despite the condemnation and sentence, Tirso was able to publish a group of plays in five parts. The first was written in Seville (1627) and the third in Tortosa (1634), while the second and fourth (1635), and fifth (1636) were published in Madrid. He wrote a second miscellany text, Deleytar aprovechando (pb. 1635; teaching while entertaining), which included the narrative El bandolero (the bandit) and some autos sacramentales (religious plays in one act celebrating the Eucharist).

Tirso was named general chronicler of the Mercedarian order in 1632, where he was tasked with writing the order’s history. It was in this capacity that he wrote the Historia general de la orden de Nuestra Señora de las Mercedes (wr. 1639; general history of the order of our lady of mercy). He was transferred to Cuenca, possibly because of conflicts with the ecclesiastic authorities, and was deprived of his position of chronicler.

In 1645, Tirso was named comendador of the monastery of Soria, where he had been sent to live, and in 1647, he gained the title of definidor of Castile. He died one year later, in February of 1648, in Almazán, Soria.

Significance

Tirso is considered, with Lope de Vega Carpio and Pedro Calderón de la Barca, one of the most important and prolific playwrights of the Spanish Baroque in a period where the nueva comedia was at its peak. Critics believe that he wrote about four hundred comedias, although only eighty-four of them actually exist and only fifty-four are his without doubt. In his plays, he followed Lope de Vega’s style, while conferring on his work a personal touch of wit, humor, and erudition, and creating characters with deep psychological traits (particularly strong women) as well as universal passions.

However, like many other figures of his period, Tirso’s popularity decreased in the eighteenth century, almost falling into oblivion, only to be recovered one century later. His texts were studied and edited by Spanish playwright Juan Eugenio Hartzenbusch (1806-1880), and later by Emilio Cotarelo y Mori (1857-1936). Subsequently, other editions of his works were produced, notably those of scholars Blanca de los Ríos Lampérez (1862-1956) and María del Pilar Palomo Vázquez.

It is perhaps Tirso’s character, Don Juan, that most assured his international fame, since it inspired Molière, Corneille, Lord Byron, George Bernard Shaw, Alexandre Dumas, and Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart (Don Giovanni, 1787), among others. One of the most-performed plays in Spain is Don Juan Tenorio (pr., pb. 1844), by the nineteenth century writer, José Zorrilla y Moral.

Bibliography

Levin, Leslie. Metaphors of Conversion in Seventeenth-Century Spanish Drama. London: Tamesis Books, 1998. Explores the metaphor of “conversion” in seventeenth century Spanish poetry, preaching, and painting. Levin argues that the three media made use of the same body of sources and symbols, while they concentrated on the use of metaphors to communicate the experience of conversion. Includes analysis of Tirso’s The Saint and the Sinner.

Stoll, Anita K., and Dawn L. Smith, eds. Gender, Identity, and Representation in Spain’s Golden Age. Lewisburg, Pa.: Bucknell University Press, 2000. This volume examines issues of gender, identity, and representation in Golden Age Spanish theater and prose. Includes a chapter on cross-dressing in Tirso’s El amor médico and El Aquiles by Anita K. Stoll, who argues that cross-dressing female characters reveal the “illusiveness of sexual categories” and drew audiences for precisely this reason.

Thacker, Jonathan. Role Play and the World as Stage in the Comedia. Liverpool, England: Liverpool University Press, 2002. Analyzes the concept of “reinventing the self” in Spanish Golden Age theater, using role theory. Thacker argues that playwrights such as Lope de Vega, Tirso, and Calderon used role-playing to criticize their societies more than has been previously asserted.