Tirso de Molina

Gabriel Téllez (c. 24 March 1583 – c.  20 February 1648), also known as Tirso de Molina, was a Spanish Baroque dramatist, poet, and Roman Catholic monk. He is primarily known for writing The Trickster of Seville and the Stone Guest, the play from which the character Don Juan originates. His work also includes female protagonists and the exploration of sexual issues.

Life and career
Gabriel Téllez was born in Madrid. He studied at Alcalá de Henares. He joined the mendicant Order of the Blessed Virgin Mary of Mercy on 4 November 1600, and entered the Monastery of San Antolín at Guadalajara, Spain on 21 January 1601. He had been ordained as a priest by 1610.

He had been writing plays for ten years when he was sent by his superiors on a mission to the West Indies in 1615; as a result, he resided in Santo Domingo from 1616 to 1618. After returning to Europe in 1618, he resided at the Mercedarian monastery in Madrid, took part in the proceedings of the Academia Poética de Madrid, competed in the literary tournaments, and wrote for the stage.

His first publication, the incomplete Cigarrales de Toledo (a work licensed in 1621, but not published until 1624), is a miscellany of short tales, novellas, verses, and three plays. One of the novellas, Los tres maridos burlados, which may have been derived from Francesco Cieco da Ferrara's Mambriano, and the play entitled El vergonzoso en palacio are considered to demonstrate wit and ingenuity. The preface to Cigarrales de Toledo states that Tirso de Molina had already written three hundred plays.

He opposed culteranismo in the Cigarrales de Toledo, and made enemies through his attacks on it in pieces such as Amar por arte mayor and La celosa de si misma. The tone of some of his productions caused his rivals to denounce him as a corrupter of public morals to the council of Castile in 1625, and, though no legal action was taken against him, he may have been reprimanded privately. In 1626, it was thought to be advisable to transfer him to Salamanca, and Tirso de Molina left Madrid, determined to not write more for the stage. Although one of his plays, La huerta de San Juan, is dated as being written in 1626, there is no proof that he started writing it after his departure from Madrid, and it is suspected that he did not write anything for eight years.

He had not lost his interest in theatre, having published twelve representative pieces as the first part of his dramatic works (1626). At the same time, he worked on the behalf of his order, causing him to become the superior of the monastery at Trujillo in 1626; he was elected later to the posts of reader in theology and definidor general, and in May 1632, he was appointed as chronicler of the Order of Mercy. His Deleitar aprovechando (1635) is a counterpart of the Cigarrales de Toledo; a sequel was promised to this collection of tales, lyrics, and autos, but, as in the case of the Cigarrales de Toledo, the continuation never appeared.

Twelve plays constitute the third part of his dramatic works published in 1634; the plays were supposedly edited by the writer's nephew, Francisco Lucas de Ávila; however, Ávila may have been a cover identity for himself. The second section of the plays (1635), the printing of which was paid for by the confraternity of St Jerome, contains four plays by Tirso de Molina, and eight written by him in collaboration with other dramatists, including Juan Ruiz de Alarcón; however, Tirso de Molina still did the majority of the writing. The fourth and fifth compilations of his dramatic works (1635 and 1636) each contain twelve plays; the haste with which these five volumes were issued may indicate the author's desire to save some part of his work from destruction, and the appearance of his nephew's name on the titlepages of the last four volumes may indicate his desire to avoid conflict with the authorities. A sixth volume of dramatic pieces, consisting of comedies, was announced; however, the project was abandoned. Dramatic composition may have still been a part of Tirso's leisure as his age increased, as indicated by how the fragmentary autograph copy of Las quinas de Portugal is dated 8 March 1638, despite the fact that his active career as a dramatist ended two years earlier. He was absorbed by other duties. As official chronicler of his order, he compiled the elaborate Historia de la Merced (his religious order), which occupied him until 24 December 1639, and which was not published until 1973. As a tribute to the count de Sastago, who had accepted the dedication of the fourth part of the plays, and who may have helped to defray the publishing expenses, Tirso de Molina is said to have compiled the Genealogía de la casa de Sastago (1640), but the ascription of this genealogical work is disputed. On 29 September 1645, Tirso de Molina became the superior of the monastery at Soria, where he died.

Legacy


It is only within the last century that it has become possible to give an outline of his life and only a fraction of his plays have been preserved. The earliest of his extant pieces is dated 1605; in 1624, he had written three hundred plays, and in 1634, he stated that he had composed four hundred within the previous twenty years; however, not more than eighty of his plays are currently in existence. Tirso de Molina is known as the author of The Trickster of Seville and the Stone Guest, the piece in which Don Juan is first presented onstage. However, whether or not other works are correctly attributed to him is disputed; as thought by scholars such as Fernando Cantalapiedra and Alfredo Rodríguez, El Burlador de Sevilla and El Condenado por desconfiado may have been written by Andrés de Claramonte.

His works cover multiple genres and scenarios. El Condenado por desconfiado describes a philosophical enigma, while Prudence in Woman is a historical interpretation. Averígüelo Vargas and La villana de Vallecas (The Peasant Woman of Vallecas) write about female characters.

His reputation may have extended beyond the Pyrenees in his own lifetime, as indicated by how James Shirley's Opportunity is derived from El Castigo del penséque; however, his name was almost forgotten until the end of the 18th century, when some of his pieces were recast by Dionisio Solis and later by Juan Carretero.

The height of his fame occurred between 1839 and 1842, when an incomplete edition of his plays was published by Juan Eugenio Hartzenbusch. He is now accepted as one of the greatest dramatists of Spain.

In 2012, Tirso's Condenado por Desconfiado was performed as Damned by Despair at the Olivier Theatre in London, in a new version by Frank McGuinness.