Guillén de Castro y Bellvís

Guillén de Castro y Bellvís (born 1569, Valencia, Spain—died July 28, 1631, Madrid) was the most important and representative of a group of Spanish dramatists that flourished in Valencia. He is remembered chiefly for his work Las mocedades del Cid (1599?), upon which the French playwright Pierre Corneille based his famous drama Le Cid (1637). Castro’s play clearly shows his strength in the use of natural dialogue. After an active military and civil service career in Valencia and Italy, he settled in Madrid, where his friend the playwright Lope de Vega helped him to find outlets for his work. Castro is considered the first playwright to have dealt with the seamier aspects of marriage, as in Los mal casados de Valencia (“The Unhappy Marriages of Valencia”). Attracted to the culture of Castile, he drew heavily upon the traditional ballads of the region, and three of his plays are based upon novels by Miguel de Cervantes. A haughty man, he antagonized his patrons and lived his last years in penury.