CASTRO Y BELLVÍS, Guillén. - Spanish playwright, b. in Valencia in 1569, d. in Madrid on 28 July 1631, one of the founders of the Academia de los Nocturnos.
Highly esteemed by Lope and praised by Cervantes, he moved from the pre-Lopean forms of the earlier Valencian school (El conde de Irlos, 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.), only to return to his earlier manner but with greater energy and more complex psychological elaboration (El nieto de su padre, La tragedia por los celos, etc.). His theater is characterized by a fervent love for romances, especially historical and chivalric ones, and a preference for the problems of married life and its conflicts, while sober measure, sweetness of versification, and lack of exaggeration make his works still pleasant to read, from those of mythological coloring (Dido y Eneas, etc.) to those with a Cervantine flavor (El curioso impertinente, La fuerza de la sangre, etc.) to Las Mocedades, which display mature technique and heroic grandeur of simple style, enlivened by a most noble patriotic sentiment.
His few religious plays, such as Degollación de San Juan Bautista and El mejor esposo, on the well-known theme of the "jealousy" of St. Joseph, are carefully crafted and of notable literary value.