LOPE DE VEGA (1562-1635), the most famous of the Spanish Golden Age playwrights, is allegedly the most prolific of all time with over 300 plays still surviving. The best-known outside Spain, apart from Fuente Ovejuna, are Peribanez (c.1612), also published by NHB and also concerning a peasant who murders a Lord and The Dog in the Manger (c.1613), a comedy of intrigue.Laurence Boswell is an actor, author and director. His other translations include damned for despair, Don Gil of the Green Britches and The painter of Dishonour. He also wrote the acclaimed fairy-tale thriller Beauty and the Beast seen at the Young Vic.
