Antonio Hurtado de Mendoza was a Spanish dramatist. Hurtado was born in Castro Urdiales, Cantabria. He became page to the count de Saldaña (son of the duke de Lerma), and was recognized as a rising poet by Cervantes in the Viaje del Parnaso (1614). He rose rapidly into favor under Philip IV, who appointed him private secretary, commissioned from him comedias palaciegas for the royal theatre at Aranjuez, and in 1623 conferred on him the orders of Santiago and Calatrava. Most of his contemporaries and rivals paid court to el discreto de palacio, and Mendoza seems to have lived on the friendliest terms with all his brother dramatists except Ruiz de Alarcón. He is said to have been involved in the fall of Olivares, and died unexpectedly at Zaragoza on 19 September 1644
