BELMONTE BERMÚDEZ, LUIS. — Spanish poet and playwright, b. in Seville probably in 1587, d. about 1650. An imaginative and brilliant author of some 25 plays (several written in collaboration with Rojas Zorrilla, Castro, Vélez de Guevara and others), poems and novellas; at times skilful but often uneven and careless, capable of mystical attitudes and, at the same time, of satirical and moralising themes.
Among his dramas, particular mention should be made of some of a religious character, such as *Las siete estrellas de Francia* on St Bruno, *El mejor amigo el muerto* written in collaboration with Rojas Zorrilla, and, in particular, *El diablo predicador*, on a theme already treated by Lope de Vega in *Fray Diablo*.
In this play, which would provide inspiration for *Don Álvaro* by the Duke of Rivas, the episodic and picaresque element almost stifles the supernatural one, that of Satan, who, as punishment for the persecutions he has wreaked on the religious of a convent, is condemned by God to become one of their beggar friars and preacher. In the fine and lyrical comedy *La renegada de Valladolid*, in which one seems to glimpse a reflection of *Condenado por desconfiado* by Tirso, the figure of the protagonist is portrayed with energy and vividness: a woman who, though having vowed herself to God, follows her fiancé overseas, only to be taken prisoner by the infidels with him. Loved by the pasha, she ends up converting to Islam, but on the day she meets her brother, who has been shipwrecked on those shores, and her fiancé, she repents of having renounced her religion and forgotten her land and family, and, having obtained a galley by deceit, flees with them towards her homeland and freedom.
Among his remaining works, two religious poems should be noted: the ten cantos of *Vida del Patriarca s. Ignacio* and the *Aurora de Cristo* (1616), and two of a historical character, namely *El cisme del Jorduan* on the events in Peru, and *Hispàlica* (1609), one of his best works, which has as its subject the conquest of Seville by Ferdinand III. He is also generally attributed *Historia y descubrimiento de las regiones australes por el general d. Pedro Fernández de Quirós*, which he accompanied as official chronicler. His novellas, about a dozen in number, have all been lost.