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Back to article: AGUSTIN MORETO Y CAVANA (1618-1661)

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MORETO Y CAVANA, AGUSTIN (1618-1661), Spanish dramatist and playwright, was baptized at Madrid on the 9th of April 1618. He graduated at Alcala in December 1639, and resided in Madrid till 1654, when he removed to Toledo, took orders, and became chaplain to the primate Baltasar de Moscoso y Sandoval. He died at Toledo on the 28th of October 1661, while engaged on Santa Rosa, a play which was completed by Pedro Francisco Lanini. The first volume of his dramas was published in 1654; the second and third volumes appeared in 1676. The most celebrated of his pieces is El Desden con el Desden, imitated by Moliere in La Princesse d'Elide, by Gozzi in La Principessa filosofa, and by Schreyvogel in Donna Diana. It is characteristic that four episodes in El Desalt con el Desalt are taken from four separate plays of Lope de Vega's (La Vengadora de las mujeres, Las Milagros del desprecio, De Corsario 4 corsario, and La Hermosa fea). Moreto borrows from Castro, Tirso de Molina and others to an extent which is indicated at length in Fitzmaurice-Kelley's Litterature espagnole (Paris, 1904), but his adaptation shows great dexterity and charm.