[706] The first of these scenes is taken, in a good degree, from the “Novelas,” ed. 1637, p. 86; but the scene with the astrologer is wholly the poet’s own, and parts of it are worthy of Ben Jonson. It should be added, however, that the third act of the play is technically superfluous, as the action really ends with the second. But we could not afford to part with it, so full is it of spirit and humor.
[707] I have already noticed plays of Lope and Cervantes that set forth the cruel condition of Christian Spaniards in Algiers, and must hereafter notice the great influence this state of things had on Spanish romantic fiction. But it should be remembered here, that many dramas were founded on it, besides those I have had occasion to mention. One of the most striking is by Moreto, which has some points of resemblance to the one spoken of in the text. It is called “El Azote de su Patria,” (Comedias Escogidas, Tom. XXXIV., 1670),—and is filled with the cruelties of a Valencian renegade, who seems to have been an historical personage.
[708] In the Comedias Escogidas, there are, at least, twenty-five plays written wholly or in part by Matos, the earliest of which is in Tom. V., 1653. From the conclusion of his “Pocos bastan si son Buenos,” (Tom. XXXIV., 1670), and, indeed, from the local descriptions in other parts of it, there can be no doubt that Matos Fragoso was at one time in Italy, and very little that this drama was written at Naples, and acted before the Spanish Viceroy there. One volume of the plays of Matos Fragoso, called the first, was printed at Madrid, 1658, 4to. Other separate plays are in Duran’s collection, but not, I think, the best of them. Villaviciosa wrote a part of “Solo el Piadoso es mi Hijo,” of “El Letrado del Cielo,” of “El Redentor Cautivo,” etc. The apologue of the barber, in the second act of the last, is, I think, taken from one of Leyba’s plays, but I have it not now by me to refer to, and such things were too common at the time on a much larger scale to deserve notice, except as incidental illustrations of a well-known state of literary morals in Spain. Fragoso’s life is in Barbosa, Tom. II. pp. 695-697. I have eighteen of his plays in separate pamphlets, besides those in the Comedias Escogidas.
[709] The “Triunfos de Amor y Fortuna” appeared as early as 1660, in Tom. XIII. of the Comedias Escogidas.
[710] The “Varias Poesías” of Solís were edited by Juan de Goyeneche, who prefixed to them an ill-written life of their author, and published them at Madrid, 1692 (4to). His Comedias were first printed in Madrid, 1681, as Tom. XLVII. of the Comedias Escogidas. The “Gitanilla,” of which I have said that it has been occasionally reproduced from Cervantes, is to be found in the “Spanish Gypsy” of Rowley and Middleton; in the “Preciosa,” a pleasant German play by P. A. Wolff; and in Victor Hugo’s “Notre Dame de Paris”; besides which certain resemblances to it in the “Spanish Student” of Professor Longfellow are noticed by the author.
[711] Candamo’s plays, entitled “Poesías Cómicas, Obras Póstumas,” were printed at Madrid, in 1722, in 2 vols., 4to. His miscellaneous poems, “Poesías Lyricas,” were published in Madrid, in 18mo, but without a date on the title-page, while the Dedication is of 1729, the Licencias of 1720, and the Fe de Erratas, which ought to be the latest of all, is of 1710. This, however, is a specimen of the confusion of such matters in Spanish books; a confusion which, in the present instance, is carried into the contents of the volume itself, the whole of which is entitled “Poesías Lyricas,” though it contains idyls, epistles, ballads, and part of three cantos of an epic on the expedition of Charles V. against Tunis; nine cantos having been among the papers left by its author to the Duke of Alva. The life of Candamo, prefixed to the whole, is very poorly written. Huerta (Teatro, Parte III. Tom. II. p. 196) says he himself bought a large mass of Candamo’s poetry, including six cantos of this epic, for two rials; no doubt, a part of the manuscripts left to the Duke.
[712] He boasts of it in the opening of his “Cesar Africano.”
[713] At first, only airs were introduced into the play, but gradually the whole was sung. (Ponz, Viage de España, Madrid, 12mo, Tom. VI., 1782, p 152. Signorelli, Storia dei Teatri, Napoli, 1813, 8vo, Tom. IX. p. 194.) One of these zarzuelas, in which the portions that were sung are distinguished from the rest, is to be found in the “Ocios de Ignacio Alvarez Pellicer de Toledo,” s. l. 1635, 4to, p. 26. Its tendency to approach the Italian opera is apparent in its subject, which is “The Vengeance of Diana,” as well as in the treatment of the story, in the theatrical machinery, etc.; but it has no poetical merit. A small volume, by Andres Dávila y Heredia, (Valencia, 1676, 12mo), called “Comedia sin Música,” seems intended, by its title, to ridicule the beginnings of the opera in Spain; but it is a prose satire, of little consequence in any respect. See ante, pp. 160, 237, 361, 399.
[714] See “Selva sin Amor,” with its Preface, printed by Lope de Vega at the end of his “Laurel de Apolo,” Madrid, 1630, 4to;—Benavente, Joco-Seria, 1645, and Valladolid, 1653, 12mo, where such pieces are called entremeses cantados;—Calderon’s Púrpura de la Rosa;—Luzan, Poética, Lib. III. c. 1;—Diamante’s Labyrinto de Creta, printed as early as 1667, in the Comedias Escogidas, Tom. XXVII.;—Parra, El Teatro Español, Poema Lírico, s. l. 1802, 8vo, notas, p. 295;—C. Pellicer, Orígen del Teatro, Tom. I. p. 268;—and Stefano Arteaga, Teatro Musicale Italiano, Bologna, 8vo, Tom. I., 1785, p. 241. The last is an excellent book, written by one of the Jesuits driven from Spain by Charles III., and who died at Paris in 1799. The second edition, 1783-88, is the amplest and best.
[715] Comedias de Antonio de Zamora, Madrid, 1744, 2 tom., 4to. The royal authority to print the plays gives also a right to print the lyrical works, but I think they never appeared. His life is in Baena, Tom. I. p. 177, and notices of him in L. F. Moratin, Obras, ed. Acad., Tom. II., Prólogo, pp. v.-viii.