[372] “La Razon contra la Moda” (Madrid, 12mo, 1751) appeared without the name of the translator, and contains a modest defence of the French rules, in the form of a Dedication to the Marchioness of Sarria. Utility is much insisted upon; and the immorality of the elder drama is vigorously, but covertly, attacked.
[373] I know the plays of Moratin, the elder, only in the pamphlets in which they were originally published, and I believe they have never been collected. The “Don Sancho Garcia” was first printed in 1771, with the name of Juan del Valle, and in 1804 with the name of its author, accompanied the last time by some unfortunate prose imitations of Young’s “Night Thoughts,” and other miscellanies, which follow it into the third volume of their author’s works, 1818. Latre’s rifacimenti are printed in a somewhat showy style, probably at the expense of the minister of state, Aranda, under the title of “Ensayo sobre el Teatro Español,” Madrid, 1773, small folio. Latassa (Bib. Nueva, Tom. V. p. 513) gives some account of their author, who died in 1792. The “Anzuelo de Fenisa” and the “Estrella de Sevilla,” as set to the three unities by Trigueros, were printed both in Madrid and London. Of the last person, Candido M. Trigueros, it may be added, that he enjoyed a transient reputation in the latter part of the eighteenth century, and that his principal work, “La Riada,” in four cantos of irregular verse, (Sevilla, 1784, 8vo,) on a disastrous inundation of Seville that had just occurred, was demolished by a letter of Vargas, and a satirical tract which Forner published under the name of Antonio Varas. I do not know when he died, but an account of most of his life and many of his works may be found in the Biblioteca of Sempere y Guarinos, Tom. VI.
[374] The “Obras de Yriarte” (Madrid, 1805, 8 tom. 12mo) contain all his plays, except the first one, written when he was only eighteen years old, and called “Hacer que Hacemos,” or Much Cry and Little Wool. The play of Melendez Valdes is in the second volume of his Works, 1797.
[375] Ayala’s tragedy has been often printed. The “Raquel” is in Huerta’s Works, (Tom. I., 1786,) with his translations of the “Electra” of Sophocles, and the “Zaïre” of Voltaire. The original edition of the Raquel is anonymous, and without date or place of publication.
[376] I have the eighth edition of the “Delinquente Honrado,” 1803; still printed without its author’s name. It was so popular that it was several times published surreptitiously, from notes taken in the theatre, and was once turned into bad verse, before Jovellanos permitted it to appear from his own manuscript. (See Vol. VII. of his Works, edited by Cañedo.) It is somewhat singular, that, just about the time the “Delinquente Honrado” appeared in Spain, Fenouillet published in France a play, yet found in the “Théatre du Second Ordre,” with the exactly corresponding title of “L’Honnête Criminel.” But there is no resemblance in the plots of the two pieces.
[377] “Desengaño al Teatro Español,” three tracts, s. l. 12mo., pp. 80. Huerta, Escena Española Defendida, Madrid, 1786, 12mo, p. xliii. How long autos maintained their place in Spain may be seen from the fact, that very few are forbidden in the amplest Index Expurgatorius,—that of 1667, (p. 84,)—and that those few are, I believe, all Portuguese.
[378] Ramon de la Cruz y Cano, Teatro, Madrid, 1786-91, 10 tom. 12mo, Tom. IX. p. 3.
[379] L. F. Moratin, Obras, Tom. II. Parte I., Prólogo.
[380] Teatro de Don Ramon de la Cruz. In the Preface, he replies to Signorelli, who, in the seventh chapter of the ninth book of his “Storia dei Teatri,” makes a rude attack upon him, chiefly for sundry translations, which La Cruz does not seem to have printed. The “Coleccion de Sainetes tanto impresos como inéditos de Don Ramon de la Cruz, con un Discurso Preliminar de Don Agustin Duran,” etc., was printed at Madrid in 1843, 2 tom. 8vo. A notice of the life of the author is in Baena, Hijos, etc., Tom. IV., p. 280.
At about the same time that Ramon de la Cruz was amusing the society of Madrid with his popular dramas and farces, Juan Ignacio Gonzalez del Castillo was equally successful in the same way at Cadiz. He was, however, little known beyond the limits of Andalusia till 1845, when Don Adolfo de Castro published, in his native city, a collection of his “Saynetes,” filling two volumes, 12mo. In the variety of their tone, in their faithfulness to the national manners, and in the gayety of their satire, they resemble those of La Cruz; but they are a little more carefully finished than his, and somewhat less rich and genial.