Tirso de Molina enjoys enduring popularity as a writer of irreverent comedies, though his critical reputation as a major dramatist rests largely on his more serious works.

Generally credited as the creator of Don Juan, one of the most famous characters in literature, Tirso de Molina (1580-1648) is largely unknown to English readers. He wrote within an extraordinary literary milieu (the Spanish Golden Age--Velazquez, Ribera, Cervantes...) and left his own mark. This book presents three of his best known works, never before translated in one collection: the Don Juan play, a theological play and a court comedy. Don Juan is recognized as a masterpiece of psychological portraiture and has been the subject of countless analyses, and diagnosed as a misogynist, a repressed homosexual, a misanthrope, a narcissist. However he may be interpreted, the reader senses that in Don Juan, Tirso was probing a dark area of the human spirit. The playwright is known for his realistic and penetrating psychological portraits of women. His female characters are forceful, cunning, witty and courageous, and their frank and unabashed sexuality is striking for the age--so much so that Tirso was censured and eventually banished from Madrid.

Richly varied collection of 10 plays from 16th through 20th centuries. The Vigilant Sentinel by Miguel de Cervantes; Fuente Ovejuna by Lope de Vega; Life Is a Dream by Pedro Calderon de la Barca; Blood Wedding by Federico García Lorca, 6 more. Preface by John Gassner. Introduction and notes on each play.

Obsessed with his own salvation, the hermit Paulo dedicates himself to ten years of prayerful penance. When his faith wavers, the ever-watchful Devil seizes the moment to convince him that he shares the fate of one Enrico, a notorious Neapolitan gangster destined for damnation. Swearing vengeance, Paulo lashes out against God and assembles a band of rival outlaws. I'll match Enrico in mad badness. So, we're damned, both of us, are we? Then I'll be revenged on the whole world. And yet, even as their villainous crimes escalate, the possibility of redemption hovers over the two men, perhaps within reach. A fast-paced adventure story embracing bandits and beautiful women between glimpses of heaven and hell, this subversive and at times riotous exploration of faith and the transformative power of love races across the Italian landscape, relishing the unpredictability of fate, an extraordinary array of characters and their very real dilemmas. Sinner I am - pray for me. Damned by Despair, written in 1635 by the great Spanish dramatist Tirso de Molina, is brought to vivid life in Frank McGuinness's new version, whichopens at the National Theatre, London, in October 2012.

Some writers present her as a representative of the symbolic order: invested with sacred powers and ultimate authority, she rebukes transgressors and negotiates their return to God's grace and lawful society."--Jacket.

This collection of essays grew out of a National Endowment for the Humanities Institute directed by Frederick A. de Armas and contains essays by the director, some of the visiting faculty, and the participants. The book seeks to develop the link between mythology and the comedia through a number of approaches, including astrology, cartomancy, pre-Socratic elemental cosmology, iconography, hagiography, metamorphoses, Lacanian psychoanalysis, Jungian principles, the philosophy of Schopenhauer, Santayana's poetics, syncretism, gender studies, and Vedic theories.