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Published online by Cambridge University Press: 02 December 2020
The year 1966 marks the fiftieth anniversary of José Echegaray's death, and as yet a definitive study of his theater has not been made. Therefore, it would seem to be an appropriate time to take the first step toward a more complete examination of his work in order to point out several characteristics which are incompatible with the superficial labels attached to him and which blind one to the more meaningful ideas often present in his plays.
1 The most vehement comment is by César Barja: “No hay que devanarse los sesos para clasificar a Echegaray: es un romántico rabioso, y romántico rabioso es todo su teatro.” Libros y autores modernos (New York: Hafner, 1933), p. 274.
2 For example, E. Allison Peers: “the history of the Spanish stage showed him that the public could always be attracted by melodrama.” A History of the Romantic Movement in Spain, (Cambridge: Univ. Press, 1940), ii, 349.
3 Angel del Río: “Su teatro está irremisiblemente anticuado aunque no se le puede negar altura de concepción ni dominio de los efectismos y resortes emocionales.” Historia, de la literatura española (New York: Holt, Rinehart and Winston, 1963), ii, 172.
4 As would be expected, Echegaray is placed in a more favorable light in the preface by Amando Lázaro Ros to the Nobel Edition of his Teatro escogido (Madrid: Aguilar, 1959); however, no new facts are presented.
5 For more information about this, see Américo Castro, “Cervantes y Pirandello,” Santa Teresa y otros ensayos (Santander, 1926), pp. 219–231.
6 Milano: A. Mondadori, 1930, p. 35.
7 Ma non è una cosa seria, Il giuoco delle parti (Verona: A. Mondadori, 1960), p. 112.
8 Andremo (Eduardo Gómez de Baquero), Pirandello y compañía (Madrid: Mundo Latino, n.d.), p. 26.
9 “Pirandello e Pérez Galdós,” Convivium, xi (1939), 621–626.
10 These characters are not misanthropic, nor are they, like Ibsen's Brand, chiefly guided by religious motives.
11 Teatro escogido, p. 378.
12 The Drama of Luigi Pirandello (New York: Dover, 1957), p. 189.
13 Il berretto a sonagli, La giara, Il piacere dell'onestà (Verona: A. Mondadori, 1958), p. 122.
14 Teatro escogido, p. 443.
15 Madrid: José Rodríguez, 1887, p. 54.
16 Teatro escogido, p. 742.
17 This is the facet of Pirandello's thought that has most of ten led to Italian-Spanish comparisons. In Unamuno's Niebla Augusto Pérez also behaves thus.
18 Madrid: José Rodríguez, 1891, p. 87.
19 Teatro escogido, pp. 646–647.
20 Augusto Martínez Olmedilla, José Echegaray (Madrid: Sáez, 1949), p. 10.