Lope de Vega

Felix Lope de Vega y Carpio was a Spanish playwright, poet and novelist who was a key figure in the Spanish Golden Age of Baroque literature. In the literature of Spain he is often considered second only to Miguel de Cervantes. Born in 1562 and dying in 1635, he wrote Fuenteovejuna, among a very large number of plays. He is known by the titles Phoenix of Wits and Monster of Nature. He renewed the literary life of Spanish theatre when it became mass culture and, with the playwrights Pedro Calderon de la Barca and Tirso de Molina, defined the characteristics of Spanish Baroque theatre. His output includes three thousand sonnets.