Why did Miguel de Cervantes write plays during Spain’s Golden Age?

Miguel de Cervantes wrote plays during the early years of Spain’s Golden Age primarily to earn a living, as he struggled financially throughout much of his life. During the 1580s, fixed theatre sites were becoming established in major Spanish cities, creating an expanding market and a public with an "insatiable demand" for new entertainment.12

Cervantes actively sought to participate in this burgeoning industry, contracting with theatrical managers such as Gaspar de Porras and Rodrigo Osorio to supply stage works. While he claimed to have written 20 or 30 plays during this period, he eventually found himself overshadowed by the immense productivity and popularity of Lope de Vega, whose work defined the era's national style and rendered Cervantes’s earlier dramatic efforts relatively old-fashioned. Despite his lack of commercial success as a dramatist, Cervantes continued to attempt to get his plays accepted by managers before eventually turning to other employment, such as working as a commissary of provisions, when it became clear he could not sustain himself through literature alone.1