De Vega, Lope

Lope de Vega (1562-1635) was Spain's first great playwright. The most prolific dramatist in the history of the theatre, he is believed to have written some 1500 plays of which about 470 survive. He established the conventions for the Spanish "comedia "in the last decade of the 16th century, influenced the development of the "zarzuela", and wrote numerous "autosacramentales". He is regarded as the founder of the Spanish commercial theatre and the most influential writer of Spain's Golden Age. In his "New Art of Writing Plays" ("c". 1609), Lope analysed the essentials of drama and admitted that