Lope Félix de Vega Carpio (1562-1635), Spain's greatest dramatist, wrote so many plays that Cervantes called him "Nature's mental colossus." Among his sources were history, folklore, saints' lives, the Bible, New World travel reports, mythology, and contemporary events.

Lope de Vega was born in Madrid on Dec. 12, 1562. King Philip II had recently named Madrid capital of the vast Spanish Empire; soon it became an international center swarming with bureaucrats, diplomats, grandees, hidalgos, soldiers, poets, dramatists, actors, actresses, thugs, picaros, judges, magistrates, wild-eyed dreamers, and foreigners from nearly everywhere.

In Lope's childhood, plays were given in corrales, or open courtyards, owned by religious societies. These societies rented their courtyards to producers of plays; the income was used to care for the old and the indigent, thus early identifying Spanish drama with ecclesiastical philanthropy. By the time of Lope's young adulthood, plays at the Corral of the Cross...