“ He rose rapidly into favour under Philip IV., who appointed him private secretary, commissioned from him comedias palaciegas for the royal theatre at Aranjuez, and in 1623 conferred on him the orders of Santiago and Calatrava. Most of his contemporaries and rivals paid court to “el discreto de palacio,” and Mendoza seems to have lived on the friendliest terms with all his brother-dramatists except Ruiz de Alarcón. ”