Juan Ruiz de Alarcón y Mendoza

Juan Ruiz de Alarcón y Mendoza (circa 1581-1639), Spanish dramatist of the Golden Age. He was born in Mexico, studied law in Spain, and in 1626 became a member of the governing body for the Spanish colonies. He wrote about 20 plays; but his main contributions to Spanish literature are the so-called comedies of ethics, plays with a moral purpose. He showed how lying and slander bring disaster to sinners in his best-known plays Las paredes oyen (Walls Have Ears) and La verdad sospechosa (The Suspicious Truth). The latter play inspired Le menteur (The Liar) by the French dramatist Pierre Corneille.