Lope de vega carpio biography template

Born November 25th, 1562, about two years before Marlowe and Shakespeare, Lope Félix de Vega Carpio would outlive them both. The first Spanish dramatist to make a living as a playwright--and now considered the greatest of all Spanish playwrights--Lope is said to have written over 2,200 plays, over 500 of which have survived!

Today, Lope would be considered a prodigy.

Lope de vega street

At the age of five, he could read Latin, as well as Spanish, and had begun composing poetry. At fourteen, he was a student at the Imperial College at Madrid, but ran off with a classmate and joined a military expedition against Portugal.

Fortunately, the Bishop of Avila came upon Lope and, sensing the young boy's talent, took him under his wing. Under the Influence of the Bishop, Lope enrolled at the University of Alcalá and graduated with a bachelor's degree. He was on the verge of following in the the Bishop's footsteps and becoming a priest when, suddenly, he fell violently in love, revealing a passion that would l