The New International Encyclopædia/Montalván, Juan Perez de

MONTALVÁN, mōn′tȧl-vän′, Juan Perez de (1602-38). A Spanish dramatist. With the degree of doctor of theology, he joined the priestly Congregation of Saint Peter at Madrid. Already a successful dramatist at seventeen, he passed under the influence of Lope de Vega, who urged him to the composition of his Orfeo (1624), a work produced in competition with Jauregui's Orfeo. In the same year he produced some eight tales, which were translated into French and published at Paris as early as 1644. A prose work, the Vida y purgatorio de San Patricio (1627), deals with the familiar legend of Saint Patrick's Purgatory, and afforded the material whence Calderon was to derive his play on the subject. A collection containing tales and other compositions more or less dramatic in form is the Paratodos (1632). It is as a playwright that Montalván stands highest, ranking as one of the more important of the dramatists next in consequence to Lope and Calderon. He himself prepared two editions of his pieces, published in 1638 and 1639 and reprinted in 1652. The favorite among the dramas is the Amantes de Teruel. Selected plays of Montalván may be found in vol. xlv. of the Biblioteca de autores españoles.