The Spanish dramatist Tirso de Molina (1584-1648), to whom is attributed the initiation of the Don Juan theme, ranks as one of the three greatest dramatists of Spain's Golden Age of literature.

The identity of the family of Tirso de Molina and most of the facts of his life remain obscure. Born Gabriel Téllez in Madrid, he studied at the University of Alcalá and in 1601 entered the Order of the Merced as a monk. He probably initiated his career as a dramatist about 1605 with El vergonzoso en palacio (The Bashful Man at Court). After representing his order in Santo Domingo in the West Indies from 1616 to 1618, he returned to Madrid, where in 1621 he published his first book, Los cigarrales de Toledo (The Orchards of Toledo), a miscellany. Tirso was chronicler of the Order of the Merced in 1637 and prior of a monastery in Soria in...