ALARCON Y MENDOZA, Jtr_kx Rutz DE, one of the most eminent of Spanish drama tists, b. at the t. of Tasco, in Mexico, about the end of the 16th c. He belonged to the ancien family of the Ruizes of Alarcon, of which a branch had emigrated to America. Having studied at the college that had been instituted in Mexico, he removed to Spain, he is mentioned as Relator del real cons(jo de las Indias (reporter of the royal council of the Indies) in 1622 The success that early attended his pieces, joined to the haughty disdain with which, in the consciousness of his own powers, lie treated the opinion both of the public and of his brother-writers, excited the envy and jealousy of his contempo raries, so that he became the object of venomous epigrams by the most famous poets of the time, in which the deformed upstart from New Spain, with his pride and contempt uousness, was held up to public ridicule. This kind of persecution continued till his death, which occurred in 1639. Even during his lifetime, his best pieces were attributed to others, and were printed and represented under the names of more favored poets. This early withdrawal and oblivion of his name, together with the scarcity of his works, have been the cause that he has seldom been mentioned and still less appreciated by historians of literature, even down to the latest times. Yet some of the best critics rank him next to Calderon and Lope de Vega as a dramatic writer. Besides many single or detached pieces printed in collections, lie published a number in his annedia$ (vol. i., Madrid, 1628;
vol. ii., Barcelona, 1634). Hartzenbusch began a collected edition at Madrid. 1848. A. attempted almost all the kinds of drama in vogue in his time; and was especially eminent in the heroic, as the best specimens of which may be mentioned El lejedor de Segoria and Gana r Amigos, or La que much° rale macho Mesta. A.'s mastery in delineating char acter is shown in the Comedias de Costumbres, or character-comedies, of which he may be held as the creator. The best known are La Verdad Sospeehosa (imitated by Corneille in his 3lenteur) and Las Paredes Oyen (Walls have Ears), which are yet represented on the Spanish stage. Of his comedies of intrigue, the best specimen is Todo es rentnra. It does not appear that A. wrote any or sacramental allegorical dramas, though his two pieces, El Antichrist° and Queen mal ande en mal aeuba, betray a tendency to ascetic mysticism. Although, through the artifices of his contemporaries, as well as the éclat of Lope de Vega's and Calderon's dramas, the compositions of A. were soon driven from the stage, yet he remains, together with Tirso de Molina, the most distinguished and criginal among the successors of Lope. Lope and Calderon, the emypinei of that age, are the only dramatists that excel A. Combining, in no mean degree, the characteristics of both, he excels them in purity of language and elevation of moral feeling.