VEGA, Lope de

Lope Félix de Vega y Carpio, one of the most important poets and playwrights of Spain’s Golden Age, was born in Madrid in 1562.

In his personal life, he is known for having married several times and also having affairs with several different lovers.

Lope was also a soldier, a secretary for various nobleman and also served in the priesthood during the latter years of his life. But Lope is best remembered as an extremely prolific writer who wrote in a variety of genres, including novels, plays, and different forms of poetry – from lyric and dramatic poetry to traditional, arte menor and Italian Renaissance verse forms.

All told, he was the author of 3,000 sonnets, three novels, four novellas, nine epic poems, three didactic poems and well over a thousand plays, most of them comedies.

He stood out among his contemporaries for the way in which he geared his plays to the common people, using easily understood language and employing themes and dramatic devices aimed at holding the attention of his audiences.

Lope was a friend of Francisco de Quevedo and an enemy of Juan Ruiz de Alarcón, Miguel de Cervantes and Luis de Góngora.

He died in 1635.

Links:

http://www.cervantesvirtual.com/bib_autor/lope/a_biografico.shtml

http://www.los-poetas.com/h/biolope.htm

http://www.e-libro.net/autores/autor.asp?id_autor=2210

Sign up to our newsletter: