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Article PRESENT STATE OF THE SPANISH THEATRE. ← Page 4 of 5 →
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Present State Of The Spanish Theatre.
sures are a part of our manners : they must be suffered to sink into disuse before they can be successfully combatted , ancl then they are no longer dangerous . - ^ Cervantes seeing that his indirect attack had not succeeded , chose rather to palliate what he could not correct . He introduced in one of his pieces two allegorical personages , Comedy and Curiosity . A part of the dialogue between these was as follows : —
Curiosity . ' Comedy . Comedy . ' What desirest thou of me ? Curiosity . ' I wish to know why thou hast quitted the sock , buskins , and mantle ? For what reason hast thou reduced to three , the five acts which formerly made thee so grave , noble , and stately ? I see thee pass in the twinkling of an eye from Spain into Flanders : thou
confoundest time and places , and art no longer the same , person . Give me some account of thyself , for thou knowest I was ever thy friend . ' Comedy . 'lama " little changed by time , which wished to improve me . I was formerly a good creature enough ; and , if thou considerestmewell , thou wilt find that I am not now a bad one , although I may have wandered a little from the paths traced out for me by Plautus , de
Terence , and all the ancients with whom thou art acquainted . I - scribe a thousand events , not by my words as formerly , but in action , and for this purpose it is sometimes necessary for me to remove from one place to another . I am like a map of the world , in which London is within a finger ' s breadth of Rome . It is of little consequence to persons who see and hear me , whether or not I go from Europe to Asia , provided I do not leave the threatve . Thought is agile , and can follow me wherever I lead , without being fatigued or losing
sight of me . ' Beneath this irony Cervantes endeavoured to convey instruction to his cotemporaries ; but the necessity he was under of pleasing , and especially of living , forced him to compose as others did . Bad taste was perpetuated , for that Monster of Nature , as Cervantes calls him , the famous Lopes de Vega , who filled the world with comedies , then made his . He wrote upwards of eihteen hundred
theaappearance g trical pieces ; but the most whimsical and incongruous incidents , the most extravagant language , a jargon almost unintelligible , and the most disgusting bombast , compose the greatest part of the whole . However , the facility of certain thoughts , and . the happy manner in ivhich " they are expressed , are astonishing ; yet still the offences committed against true taste in every line , renders the reading of
this author difficult , and makes us pay dearly for a few strokes of genius . It must not be imagined that all the Spaniards are enthusiasts in their admiration of Lopes de Vega . He has , amongst his countrymen , more than one learned and judicious critic , who has endeavoured to circumscribe within the rules which Nature seems to dictate , the invention of comic authors , and the taste of the public . There never was a more fertile pen than that of Lopes de Vega . According to a calculation made of his works , what he wrote amounted
Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software.
Present State Of The Spanish Theatre.
sures are a part of our manners : they must be suffered to sink into disuse before they can be successfully combatted , ancl then they are no longer dangerous . - ^ Cervantes seeing that his indirect attack had not succeeded , chose rather to palliate what he could not correct . He introduced in one of his pieces two allegorical personages , Comedy and Curiosity . A part of the dialogue between these was as follows : —
Curiosity . ' Comedy . Comedy . ' What desirest thou of me ? Curiosity . ' I wish to know why thou hast quitted the sock , buskins , and mantle ? For what reason hast thou reduced to three , the five acts which formerly made thee so grave , noble , and stately ? I see thee pass in the twinkling of an eye from Spain into Flanders : thou
confoundest time and places , and art no longer the same , person . Give me some account of thyself , for thou knowest I was ever thy friend . ' Comedy . 'lama " little changed by time , which wished to improve me . I was formerly a good creature enough ; and , if thou considerestmewell , thou wilt find that I am not now a bad one , although I may have wandered a little from the paths traced out for me by Plautus , de
Terence , and all the ancients with whom thou art acquainted . I - scribe a thousand events , not by my words as formerly , but in action , and for this purpose it is sometimes necessary for me to remove from one place to another . I am like a map of the world , in which London is within a finger ' s breadth of Rome . It is of little consequence to persons who see and hear me , whether or not I go from Europe to Asia , provided I do not leave the threatve . Thought is agile , and can follow me wherever I lead , without being fatigued or losing
sight of me . ' Beneath this irony Cervantes endeavoured to convey instruction to his cotemporaries ; but the necessity he was under of pleasing , and especially of living , forced him to compose as others did . Bad taste was perpetuated , for that Monster of Nature , as Cervantes calls him , the famous Lopes de Vega , who filled the world with comedies , then made his . He wrote upwards of eihteen hundred
theaappearance g trical pieces ; but the most whimsical and incongruous incidents , the most extravagant language , a jargon almost unintelligible , and the most disgusting bombast , compose the greatest part of the whole . However , the facility of certain thoughts , and . the happy manner in ivhich " they are expressed , are astonishing ; yet still the offences committed against true taste in every line , renders the reading of
this author difficult , and makes us pay dearly for a few strokes of genius . It must not be imagined that all the Spaniards are enthusiasts in their admiration of Lopes de Vega . He has , amongst his countrymen , more than one learned and judicious critic , who has endeavoured to circumscribe within the rules which Nature seems to dictate , the invention of comic authors , and the taste of the public . There never was a more fertile pen than that of Lopes de Vega . According to a calculation made of his works , what he wrote amounted