Manuel Tamayo y Baus

His most famous work was 'A New Drama' (1867), inspired by Shakespeare's theatre, where he mixed the theme of the play within a play with adultery.

Later works, such as 'The Snowball' (1856) place Tamayo in the high comedy of Realism.

He triumphed with 'Rich female' (1854), and 'Madness of Love' (released on January 12, 1855), a historical drama about the jealous Queen Juana the insane and her husband Philip the Handsome, showing the influence of the German playwright Friedrich Schiller. An adaptation for the screen was filmed by Juan de Orduña and interpreted by Aurora Bautista. When her love collides with the interests of the State, the nobles ask her to defend Castile against her husband. When he died, she cries and shows a true love for him, oblivious to the reason of state.

It is provided with his tragedy 'Virginia' (1853).

Son of actors and playwrights and relative of influential politicians, his early years were spent traveling with the theatre company belonging to their parents. His first steps were taken within a Romanticism that was beginning to be old fashioned, but gradually progressed toward Realism and high comedy, joining the neoclassical comedy. He started by making adaptations, like the one titled 'Joan of Arc' (1847), on Schiller's 'The Maid of Orleans', one of his reference authors, or more or less clear imitations, as 'An adventure of Richelieu', inspired by Alexandre Dumas.