SOLVED AT LAST.

Auckland Star, Volume LXVI, Issue 55, 6 March 1935, Page 15

SOLVED AT LAST.

300-YEAR-OI.D MYSTERY. MADRID, February 4. After 300 years the name has at last been discovered of the gallant who abducted Antonia, illegitimate daughter of Lo|M! de Vega, greatest Spanish playwright and one of the most prolific writers the world has known, for lie wrote over 2000 plays, and which incident hastened the death of the author. Lope de Vega never recovered from the shock of the disappearance of his favourite child who lived with him and cared for him although she was but 17 years of age. He"" died 12 months later. Augustin G. de Amezua. member of the Spanish academy, after several years' research, has proved that the seducer was a gentleman in waiting of King Felipe IV. named Cristobal Tenorio y Azofeijo de Villalba. His high rank caused the name of the young spark to be silenced and investigators often puzzled over the identity of the young man who put an end to the fertile labour of Lope's pen; although it must be taken into account that the author who wrote laboriously in longhand over 2000 plays and which formed the basis of the Spanish theatre for several centuries was 72 years old when Antonia and Cristobal ran off. Lope's work and his private life had left his health somewhat affected by the time he had reached the seventies. Antonia was daughter of Lope <le Vega and Marta de Nevares, who left her husband to live with t]ie playwright. Autonia was evidently a gay young girl and neither she nor Cristobal Tenorio showed any scruples about the fact that she took away with her a considerable quantity of jewellery and other valuables. Cristobal ,Tenorio soon tired of his association with the playwright's daughter and left her after a few months. She did not go back to console the. last days of her father. He disowned her completely and made no mention of her in his will. After Cristobal left her she found other friends among the nobility of the court. On her death in 16C4, at the age of 47 she left what was those days quite a considerable fortune.