CASTRO Y BELLVÍS, GUILLÉN. – Spanish dramatist, born in Valencia in 1569, died in Madrid on 28 July 1631, one of the founders of the Accademia dei Notturini.
Highly esteemed by Lope and praised by Cervantes, he moves from the pre-Lope forms of the earlier Valencian school (El conde de Irba, El caballero bobo, etc.) toward decidedly realistic forms, renewed by the impulse of the Fénix (Los mal casados de Valencia, El conde Alarcos, the two parts of Las Mocedades, etc.), and then returns to his first manner, but with more energetic and complex psychological elaboration (El nieto de su padre, La tragedia por los celos, etc.). His theatre is characterized by a fervent love of «romances», especially historical and chivalric ones, and by a predilection for the problems of married life and its conflicts, while sober measure, sweetness of versification, and a lack of exaggeration still make it agreeable to read, from his works of mythological coloring (Dido y Eneas, etc.) to those of Cervantine flavor (El curioso impertinente, La fuerza de la sangre, etc.), and to the Las Mocedades of mature technique and heroic, grandly simple character, animated by a most noble patriotic sentiment.
His few religious comedies, such as the Degollación de San Juan Bautista and El mejor esposo, on the familiar theme of the «celos» of St. Joseph, are carefully elaborated but of little literary value.