biography
| name: |
Rojas Villandrando, Agustín de
|
pronunciation:
[rokhas vilyandran
| sex:
| male
|
| lived:
| (c.1572–c. 1625)
|
| biography:
| Actor and dramatist, born in Madrid, Spain His most important work is a delightful picaresque novel, El viaje entretenido, laced with theatrical gossip. It relates the adventures and conversations of four friends: Rojas himself, the actor Agustín Solano, and the two actor-managers Nicolás de los Ríos and Miguel Ramírez, and is based on Roja's experiences as a strolling player from c.1600 to 1603. A living pícaro, Rojas was taken prisoner at La Rochelle while serving as a soldier; he later joined pirate ships sailing against the English; travelled in Italy and elsewhere; sought sanctuary after killing a man in Málaga and persuaded a strange woman to pay 300 ducats for his pardon, then begged alms to support her; wrote semons in payment for meals; and eventually left Granada in 1600 for the stage. In 1610 he appeared in Zamora to claim a title of nobility, and is last heard of in 1618, when he again laid claim to the privileges due to him as an hidalgo. As well as 40 or 50 loas which are included in El viaje entretenido, he wrote the play El natural desdichado. This has been considered an antecedent to Calderón's La vida es sueño. El buen repúblico (Salamanca, 1611) is a satire on government banned by the Inquisition for the allegedly superstitious nature of its content. |
|
|
