CANIZARES, JOSÉ DE

CANIZARES, José de. — Spanish playwright,
b. in Madrid on 4 July 1676 and d. there on 14 Sept. 1750,
in whose prolific output (comedies, entremeses, loas,
zarzuelas, bailes, etc.), in which frequent refashionings
of the best dramatic creations of the previous century
occur, the skill in weaving plots and delineating types
and characters, the ingenuity of dialogue, and the vein
of lively lyricism, all serve to highlight a picturesque
sense of Madrid life that finds expression in typical,
witty and burlesque turns of phrase, which Goya would
give the most vivid interpretation decades later; not
infrequently, however, the comedy turns harsh and
biting.
A keen sense of history and a sure intuition of the
major figures of the national theatre enable him to
effect the felicitous pairing of the two great mystics,
St John of the Cross and St Teresa of Jesus, in A cual
mejor, confesada y confesor, as well as the revival of
the drama of Don Carlos (El príncipe don Carlos) and
the events of Henry III (El rey Enrique III, llamado el
enfermo). Notable within the framework of his dramatic
production are El dómine Lucas and El picarillo de España,
señor de la Gran Canaria, an original fusion of truth and
mockery around a character at once picaresque and
chivalrous, the boundaries between reality and fiction
blurring in an atmosphere of eighteenth-century grace.
He is also the author of refashioned versions of works
by Racine and Metastasio.