CASTILLO  SOLbRZANO, ALONSO DE (1584?-1647?),

Spanish novelist and playwright, is stated to have been baptized at Tordesillas near Valladolid on 1st October 1584 . Nothing is known of his youth, and he is next heard of at Madrid in 1619 as a man of literary tastes . While in the service of the marquis de Villar, he issued his first work, Donaires del Parnaso (1624–1625), two volumes of humorous poems; his Tardes entretenidas (1625) and Jornadas alegres (1626) proved that he was a novelist by vocation . Shortly afterwards he joined the household of the marquis da los Velez, viceroy of Valencia, and published in quick succession three clever picaresque novels: La Nina de los embustes, Teresa de Manzanares (1634), Las Aventuras del Bachiller Trapaza (1637), and a continuation entitled La Garduna de Sevilla y Anzuelo de las balsas (1642) . To these shrewd cynical stories he owes his reputation . He followed the marquis de los Velez in his disastrous campaign in Catalonia, and accompanied him to Rome, where the defeated general was sent as ambassador . Castillo Sol6rzano's death occurred (probably at Palermo) before 1648, but the exact date is uncertain . His prolonged absence from Madrid prevented him from writing as copiously for the stage as he would other-wise have done; but he was popular as a playwright both at home and abroad . His Marques del Cigarral and El Mayorazgo fcguron are the sources respectively of Scarron's Don Jophet d'Armenie and L'Heritier ridicule . Among his numerous remaining works may be mentioned Las Harpias en Madrid (1633), Fiestas del Jardin (1634), Los Alivios de Casandra (164o) and the posthumous Quinta de Laurel (1649); the witty observation of these books forms a singular contrast to the prim devotion of his Sagrario de Valencia (1635) . His versatility and graceful style deserve the highest praise . (J .