1911 Encyclopædia Britannica/Rojas Zorrilla, Francisco de

ROJAS ZORRILLA, FRANCISCO DE (1607–c. 1660), Spanish dramatist, was born at Toledo; the only circumstance recorded of his life is that he became a knight of Santiago in 1644. The exact date of his death is unknown. His plays were published in 1640-45; the best of his dramatic compositions, Del Rey abajo Ninguno, is not included in the collection and was printed separately under the title of Garcia del Castañar. Of his other pieces, apart from their intrinsic merit, an international interest attaches to No hay padre siendo rey, which was borrowed by Rotrou for his Venceslas; to Donde hay agravios no hay zelos and the Amo criado, which were imitated by Scarron in his Jodelet Souffleté and Maître Valet; to Entre Bobos anda el juego, the source of Thomas Corneille's Don Bertrand de Cigarral, as well as of Scarron's Don Japhet d'Armenie; to Obligados y ofendidos, from which are derived Les Généreux Ennemis by Boisrobert, Les Illustres Ennemis by Thomas Corneille, and Scarron's Écolier de Salamanque; and to La traición busca el castigo, upon which are based Vanbrugh's False Friend and Le Sage's Traître puni. Rojas Zorrilla's power of conveying a tragic impression is manifest in Garcia del Castañar; his chief defect is his persistent preciosity of diction.