SOLIS Y RIBADENEIRA, soles' e re va-da'ne'era, Antonio de, Spanish dramatist and historian: b. Alcala de Henares, 18 July 1610; d. 1686. Educated at the University of Salamanca, he there imbibed a strong love for literature and more especially for the stage; and already, at the age of 17, he had written a drama. At 22 he made a success with his play (Gitanilla,' which is still frequently seen in revivals of the Spanish stage. From this time on he continued to produce dramas, most of which met with popular favor. His reputation gained for him the position of royal secretary. This brought him into close connection with the royal family and, in a sense, shaped his life, making him one of the favorite dramatic writ ers of the private court theatre, and conse quently of the theatres of the capital. Solis was a master of intricate plot and characteriza tion, and as such was deservedly popular in his day, and some of the best of his dramas are still played in Spain. His Spanish is excel lent and free from the exaggerated style of his age and his versification is very harmonious. He wrote many dramas, but his greatest work and the one by which he will probably be longest remembered is his 'Conquest of Mex ico,' which is one of the greatest histories ever written if it be judged from its literary and artistic excellence. Here his Spanish is al
most perfect; his style rich, harmonious and beautiful and his handling of his subject is mas terly. Yet his work has one great fault; he sees his whole story through the eyes of the Spanish adventurers and fails to comprehend that the exploited Aztecs had any rights, since Spain was Christian and they heathen. He is, therefore, out of sympathy with the great tragedy of his story, which is probably not strange when the age in which he lived is taken into consideration. Yet this one fault makes it fall short of being as really great a history as it is a literary work. The latter years of his life Solis, who never could suc cessfully manage his pecuniary affairs and who was constantly in debt, retired to a monastery and ceased to write for the stage. Consult any good history of either Spanish or Mexican lit erature. A fair appreciation of his work is to be found in Ticknor's 'History of Spanish Lit erature' (New York 1854).