Francisco de Rojas Zorrilla - Encyclopedia

GEOGRAPHICAL NAMES

FRANCISCO DE ROJAS ZORRILLA (1607-c. 1660), Spanish dramatist, was born at Toledo; the only circumstance recorded of his life is that he became a knight of Santiago in 1644. The exact date of his death is unknown. His plays were published in 1640-45; the best of his dramatic compositions, Del Rey abajo Ninguno, is not included in the collection and was printed separately under the title of Garcia del Castanar. Of his other pieces, apart from their intrinsic merit, an international interest attaches to No hay padre siendo rey, which was borrowed by Rotrou for his Venceslas; to Donde hay agravios no hay zelos and the Amo criado, which were imitated by Scarron in his Jodelet Sot-iiete and Maitre Valet; to Entre Bobos anda el juego, the source of Thomas Corneille's Don Bertrand de Cigarral, as well as of Scarron's Don Japhet d'Armenie; to Obligados y ofendidos, from which are derived Les Genereux Ennemis by Boisrobert, Les Illustres Ennemis by Thomas Corneille, and Scarron's Ecolier de Salamanque; and to La traiciOn busca el castigo, upon which are based Vanbrugh's False Friend and Le Sage's Traitre puni. Rojas Zorrilla's power of conveying a tragic impression is manifest in Garcia del Castafiar; his chief defect is his persistent preciosity of diction.