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Although it is doubtless quite true that there has been in modern Spain no writer of short stories who rivals Guy de Maupassant, nor has there been any writer of longer stories who may compare favorably with Honoré de Balzac, yet, as a whole, the Spain of the nineteenth century has probably been pictured as faithfully as France by native authors.
In his rôle of manager and playwright Lope de Rueda showed no remarkable genius, but he began a movement which was to reach its culmination and perfection under the leadership of no less a personage than the great Lope himself. Between the two Lopes there lived and wrote a number of dramatic authors of diverse merit.
Lope de Rueda's work was continued by the Valencian bookseller, Juan de Timoneda, and by his fellow actors, Alonso de la Vega and Alonso de Cisneros. In this interim there took place a struggle between the popular and classic schools. The former was defended by such authors as Juan de la Cueva and Cristóbal de Virués, while the latter was espoused by Gerónimo Bermúdez and others.
Encouraged by the king's love of art and letters, the great painters like Velázquez and Ribera vied with each other in creating masterpieces for princely patrons, and great authors like Lope, Quevedo, and Calderón sharpened their wits to please a literary public.
It would appear from some of his works that his son, Lope Félix, to whom he dedicated the last volume mentioned above, was lost at sea the same year, and that his favorite daughter, Antonia Clara, eloped with a gallant at the court of Philip IV. Four days before his death Lope composed his last work, El Siglo de Oro, and on August 27, 1635, after a brief serious illness, the prince of Spanish drama and one of the world's greatest authors, Lope Félix de Vega Carpio breathed his last in the little home in the Calle de Francos, now the Calle de Cervantes.
But to those who wish to study in these stories the growth of contemporary Spanish fiction, it is suggested that the authors be taken up in the order in which they are given in the Introduction. To the stories by Spanish authors have been added two by Spanish-American writers, the one a native of Costa Rica, the other of Chile. These stories are excellent and well worth reading.
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Otros Mirando