Jacinto Benavente y Martinez was born in Madrid on Aug. 12, 1866, the youngest son of a prominent pediatrician. He grew up in an atmosphere of learning, wealth, and social ease. His father loved the theater, maintained a large library, and practiced among aristocratic families, writers, and actors. A precocious child, Benavente learned several languages by the age of 16 and delighted in visiting the circus and in performing plays for household servants and friends.

In 1882 he enrolled in the University of Madrid to study law but gave up his studies 2 years later when his father died. Benavente lived an easy, comfortable life. He dressed elegantly, attended fashionable parties, and became a part of the refined but decadent bourgeois society depicted in most of his plays. About 1890, before he had established his reputation as a playwright, he worked successfully as an actor and gained a firsthand knowledge of staging techniques, which he later applied to his own productions.

In 1892 Benavente published his first work, Teatro fantastico (Fantastic Theater), eight short sketches based on dreams and fantasies. The following year he wrote a volume of poetry, Versos, and the prose work Cartas de mujeres (Letters from Women), which attests to his insight into the behavior of women and to his preference for feminine protagonists. In almost all his plays the only really strong characters are women; the men usually remain shadowy and unconvincing.

In 1894 Benavente's first play, El nido ajeno (Another's Nest), was staged. Its dramatic technique represented a stunning contrast to the grandiloquent style of Jose Echegaray. Benavente replaced action with a skillful, ingenious dialogue and emphasized the social and moral climate of the play at the expense of plot conflict. Rather than exploring the traditional concept of honor, he centered the story in the thoughts and feelings of the feminine protagonist