[684] Calderon, like many other authors of the Spanish theatre, has, as we have seen, been a magazine of plots for the dramatists of other nations. Among those who have borrowed the most from him are the younger Corneille and Gozzi. Thus, Corneille’s “Engagements du Hasard” is from “Los Empeños de un Acaso”; “Le Feint Astrologue,” from “El Astrólogo Fingido”; “Le Géolier de soi même,” from “El Alcayde de sí mismo”; besides which, his “Circe” and “L’Inconnu” prove that he had well studied Calderon’s show pieces. Gozzi took his “Pubblico Secreto” from the “Secreto á Voces”; his “Eco e Narciso” from the play of the same name; and his “Due Notti Affanose” from “Gustos y Disgustos.” And so of others.
[685] These few meagre facts, which constitute all we know about Moreto, are due mainly to Ochoa (Teatro Español, Paris, 1838, 8vo, Tom. IV. p. 248); but the suggestion he makes, that Moreto was probably concerned in the violent death of Medinilla, mourned by Lope de Vega in an elegy in the first volume of his Works, seems to rest on no sufficient proof, and to be quite inconsistent with the regard felt for Moreto by Lope, Valdivielso, and other intimate friends of Medinilla. As to Moreto’s works, I possess his Comedias, Tom. I., Madrid, 1677 (of which Antonio notes an edition in 1654); Tom. II., Valencia, 1676; and Tom. III., Madrid, 1681, all in 4to;—besides which I have about a dozen of his plays, found in none of them. Calderon, in his “Astrólogo Fingido,” first printed by his brother in 1637, alludes to Moreto’s “Lindo Don Diego,” so that Moreto must have been known as early as that date; and in the “Comedias Escogidas de los Mejores Ingenios,” Tom. XXXVI., Madrid, 1671, we have the “Santa Rosa del Perú,” the first two acts of which are said to have been his last work, the remaining act being by Lanini, but with no intimation when Moreto wrote his part of it. This old collection of Comedias Escogidas contains forty-six plays attributed in whole or in part to Moreto.
[686] “Los mas Dichosos Hermanos.” It is the first play in the third volume; and though it does not correspond in its story with the beautiful legend as Gibbon gives it, there is a greater attempt at the preservation of the truth of history in its accompaniments than is common in the old Spanish drama.
[687] Comedias de Lope de Vega, Tom. XXIV., Zaragoza, 1641, f. 16.
[688] “The Aunt and the Niece” is from Lope’s “De quando acá nos vino,” and “It cannot be” from his “Mayor imposible.” There are good remarks on these and other of Moreto’s imitations in Martinez de la Rosa, Obras, Paris, 1827, 12mo, Tom. II. pp. 443-446. But the excuses there given for him hardly cover such a plagiarism as his “Valiente Justiciero” is, from Lope’s “Infanzon de Illescas.” As usual, however, in such cases, Moreto improved upon his model. Cancer y Velasco, a contemporary poet, in a little jeu d’esprit, represents Moreto as sitting down with a bundle of old plays to see what he can cunningly steal out of them, spoiling all he steals. (Obras, Madrid, 1761, 4to, p. 113.) But in this, Cancer was unjust to Moreto’s talent, if not to his honesty.
[689] In 1664 Molière imitated the “Desden con el Desden” in his “Princesse d’Élide,” which was represented at Versailles by the command of Louis XIV., with great splendor, before his queen and his mother, both Spanish princesses. The compliment, as far as the king was concerned in it, was a magnificent one;—on Molière’s part, it was a failure, and his play is now no longer acted. The original drama of Moreto, however, is known wherever the Spanish language is spoken, and a good translation of it into German is common on the German stage.
Atento, Señor, he estado,
Y el successo no me admira,
Porque esso, Señor, es cosa,