LOPE DE

RUEDA (1510?–1565?)  , Spanish dramatist, was born early in the 16th century at Seville, where, according to Cervantes, he worked as a metal-beater . His name first occurs in 1554 as acting at Benavente, and between 1558 and 1561 he was manager of a strolling company which visited Segovia, Seville, Toledo, Madrid, Valencia and Cordova . In the last-named city Rueda fell ill, and on the 21St of March 1565 made a will which he was too exhausted to sign; he probably died shortly afterwards, and is said by Cervantes to have been buried in Cordova cathedral . He was twice married; first to a disreputable actress named Mariana, who became the mistress of the duke de Medinaceli; and second to Rafaela Angela, who bore him a daughter . His works were issued posthumously in 1567 by Timoneda, who toned down certain passages in the texts . Rueda's more ambitious plays are mostly adapted from the Italian; in Eufemia he draws on Boccaccio, in Medora he utilizes Giancarli's Zingara, in Armelina he combines Raineri's Attilia with Cecchi's Servigiale, and in Los Enganados he uses Gl'Ingannati, a comedy produced by the Intronati, a literary society at Siena . These follow the original so closely that they give no idea of Rueda's talent; but in his pasos or prose interludes he displays an abundance of riotous humour, great knowledge of low life, and a most happy gift of dialogue . His predecessors mostly wrote for courtly audiences or for the study; Rueda with his strollers created a taste for the drama which he was able to gratify, and he is admitted both by Cervantes and Lope de Vega to be the true founder of the national theatre . His works have been reprinted by the marquis de la Fuensanta del Valle in the Coleccion de libros taros o cursosos, vols. xxiii. and xxiv .