James Fitzmaurice-Kelly

“ On the 29th of September 1645 Tirso de Molina became superior of the monastery at Soria, and died there on the 12th of March 1648.
It is only within the last few years that it has become possible to give an outline of his life; it will always be impossible for posterity to do justice to his genius, for but a fraction of his plays have been preserved. ”

“ TIRSO DE MOLINA, the pseudonym of Gabriel Tellez (1571–1648) , Spanish dramatist. Born at Madrid in October 1571, he studied at the Alcalá de Henares, joined the Order of Mercy on the 4th of November 1600, and made his religious profession in the Monastery of San Antolin at Guadalajara on the 21st of January 1601. He was a dramatist of ten years standing when he was sent by his superiors on a mission to the West Indies in 1615 ”

“ That dramatic composition still entertained the scanty leisure of Tirso’s old age is shown by the fact that the fragmentary autograph copy of Las Quiuas de Portugal is dated the 8th of March 1638; but his active career as a dramatist ended two years earlier. ”