Ruiz de Alarcón

Juan Ruiz de Alarcón was born in Mexico City around 1581, to a father who worked--probably as an administrator--in the Taxco mines, and a mother descended from one of Spain's most illustrious families, the Mendozas. Juan studied law at the University of Mexico, but sailed to Spain in early 1600 in order to take his bachelor's degrees at the renowned University of Salamanca, which he did later in 1600 in Canon Law and then in 1602 in Civil Law.

He continued his studies towards a Licentiate in Law--roughly equivalent to our modern Master's degree--which he finished in 1605, without, however, taking the degree. Instead, he practiced law for a while in Seville, then returned to Mexico in 1608, and in 1609 received the licentiate from the University of Mexico. He completed his studies for his doctorate fairly soon thereafter, but never received the degree, in all likelihood because of the rather substantial costs attached to the ceremony.

He worked as a legal adviser for a while, as an advocate, and as an interim investigating judge, all the while trying repeatedly and unsuccessfully to gain a teaching chair at the University. After five years, he returned to Spain, settling in Madrid and entering on a frustrating life of job-seeking at court. At the same time, purely as a way of making money apparently, he threw himself into the heady literary and theatrical life of the capital, eventually having a number of his plays performed.

For ten years, he pursued this double life, until he finally secured first an interim and then a permanent appointment to the Royal Council of the Indies--rather like an appeals court for Spanish colonies in the New World. Apparently, when political success came, he all but stopped his literary efforts--although he did have two volumes of his plays published (in 1628 and 1634), perhaps because some of them had been pirated and previously published with false attributions to his theatrical rival Lope de Vega. After thirteen years of legal service to the crown, he died in August, 1639.

                                                        --    from the Antaeus Study Guide

Ruiz de Alarcón (y Mendoza), Juan

b. c. 1581,, Taxco, Mex.
d. Aug. 4, 1639, Madrid

Mexican-born Spanish dramatist of the colonial era who was the principal dramatist of early 17th-century Spain after Lope de Vega and Tirso de Molina.

Born into a prosperous family in Mexico, Ruiz de Alarcón went to Spain in 1600 to study at the University of Salamanca, from which he graduated in about 1602. After studying further at the University of Mexico, he settled permanently in Spain in about 1611 and held several government posts, being appointed to the Council for the Indies in 1626. He wrote plays for his own enjoyment rather than for financial reward.

Less prolific than his contemporaries, Ruiz de Alarcón wrote about 25 plays, most of which were published in two separate volumes in 1628 and 1634, respectively. His plays are notable for their superb plot construction, psychological subtlety, and ethical teachings. Most of his comedies of life in Madrid centre on a defect in a person's character: La verdad sospechosa ("The Suspicious Truth") is a study of inveterate lying; Las paredes oyen ("The Walls Have Ears") concerns slander; La prueba de las promesas ("The Proof of the Promises") is an attack on ingratitude; Mudarse por mejorarse ("To Change Oneself to Improve Oneself") inveighs against the fickleness of lovers. A skinny hunchback, Ruiz de Alarcón and his deformities were mercilessly ridiculed by rival dramatists, especially Lope de Vega.

                                                -- from The Encyclopedia Britannica