Masterpieces of modern Spanish drama (1917)

Masterpieces of modern Spanish drama, edited, with a preface by Barrett H. Clark. Publisher New York, Duffield & company, 1917

  • The Great Galeoto, by José Echegaray, translated by Eleanor Bontecou
  • The Duchess of San Quentin, by Benito Pérez Galdós, translated by Philip M. Hayden
  • Daniela, by Angel Guimerá, translated by John Garrett Underhill

From the Preface:

The drama of Spain, early and modern, has in English-speaking countries been sadly neglected. It is a regrettable fact that one of the most gorgeous and passionate outbursts of national dramatic genius has received but scant attention from English readers. Cervantes’ name is at least not unknown to the great mass of readers in every language, but to the majority of English and Americans, Lope de Vega, Tirso de Molina, and Calderon — to mention only the greatest of dozens of dramatists of the time — are a closed book. About fifteen Calderon plays are available in some form in English translation or adaptation, only two or three of Lope and, to my knowledge, not one of Tirso. Of the eighteenth century lesser lights I should venture to say that there is in English no translation. The case is the same with the dramatists of the early nineteenth century, if we except one or two notable translations and studies, like that recently issued by the Hispanic Society (a translation of Un drama nuevo). And yet this period saw a rebirth of the national spirit in the drama unequalled in any other country save France.

Barrett H. Clark.

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