PÉREZ de MONTALBÁN, JUAN. – Spanish poet and dramatist, born in Madrid in 1602, died there on 25 June 1638. He studied theology at Alcalá and became a priest in 1625.
A friend and imitator of Lope de Vega, to whom P.’s poem El Orfeo en lengua castellana (1624) was attributed, he incurred Quevedo’s enmity with the famous miscellany Para todos. Exemplos morales, humanos y divinos (1633). He wrote 58 highly uneven dramatic works. Some, such as No hay vida como la honra; La más constante mujer and Un castigo en dos venganzas, enjoyed extraordinary success. Among the comedies on sacred subjects are: S. Maria Egipetaca; El divino portugués s. Antonio de Padua; El hijo del Serafín, s. Pedro de Alcántara. Modern criticism considers him one of the best minor dramatists of Spain’s Golden Age.
BIM.: G. W. Bacon, The life and dramatic works of Doctor P. de M., in Revista hispánica, 26 (1912), pp. 1–474.
Giuseppe Maria Valverde