Don Francisco de Quevedo

Francisco de Quevedo, by
Eulogio Florentino Sanz

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Title: Don Francisco de Quevedo Drama en Cuatro Actos
Author: Eulogio Florentino Sanz
Editor: R. Selden Rose
Release Date: November 17, 2006 [EBook #19847]
Language: Spanish
Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1
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FRANCISCO DE QUEVEDO ***

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DON FRANCISCO DE QUEVEDO

DRAMA EN CUATRO ACTOS
POR
EULOGIO FLORENTINO SANZ
EDITED BY R. SELDEN ROSE, PH.D.
INSTRUCTOR IN SPANISH IN THE UNIVERSITY OF
CALIFORNIA
GINN AND COMPANY BOSTON--NEW
YORK--CHICAGO--LONDON
ATLANTA--DALLAS--COLUMBUS--SAN FRANCISCO
COPYRIGHT, 1917, BY R. SELDEN ROSE ALL RIGHTS
RESERVED =The Athenæum Press= GINN AND
COMPANY--PROPRIETORS--BOSTON--U.S.A.
* * * * *

PREFACE
The features of "Don Francisco de Quevedo" that led to its selection as
a text for the use of students of the second or even first year are its
historical background, its ease and purity of style, and the sustained
interest of the plot. As regards the chief character, Quevedo, he is in a
large measure the embodiment of the whole literary spirit of the first
half of the seventeenth century and at the same time the champion of
political reform. The play is written in Castilian of such simplicity that
it presents almost no syntactical difficulties, and at the same time
embodies a useful vocabulary. The development of the plot, the
struggle between Olivares and Quevedo, is thoroughly logical and is
aided by scenes so intensely dramatic that they hold the interest of the
reader at all times. Some of these scenes, so characteristic of even the
best plays of the Romantic School, to-day seem to verge on the
melodramatic. For this reason the student should be reminded that the
heroic thunder of this kind of play was most acceptable to the

theater-goers of the middle of the last century. A sense of humor, then,
should temper any critical attitude on the part of those who may be
inclined to take our play's shortcomings or exaggerations too seriously.
The fact that Florentino Sanz is comparatively unknown will justify the
detailed Biographical Sketch.
The text is a careful reproduction of that of the first edition, Madrid,
1848, except, of course, for frequent corrections in punctuation. Only
the important stage directions have been retained; others that in great
profusion specify the facial expression and tone of voice of the actors
have been rejected in many places as more cumbersome than useful.
R.S.R.

CONTENTS
EULOGIO FLORENTINO SANZ HISTORICAL INTRODUCTION
VERSIFICATION DON FRANCISCO DE QUEVEDO NOTES
VOCABULARY

EULOGIO FLORENTINO SANZ
BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH
The name of Eulogio Florentino Sanz is little known outside of Spain,
where for more than seventy years it has been closely linked with his
chief dramatic achievement, "Don Francisco de Quevedo," and with his
translations from Heine. Now and then the plea that something be done
toward bringing out an edition of his works has found expression but
met with no response. To read his scattered verses it is necessary to
search the pages of that wilderness of papers, dailies, weeklies,
monthlies, and annuals, which appeared in Madrid between 1840 and
1870. Though we are told that he wrote much, it is none the less true
that he published next to nothing. In 1848, at the age of twenty-seven

he was freely spoken of as one of the most promising of his generation
of poets and dramatists. Vanity and indolence at maturity prevented his
fulfilling the promise.
His boyhood was spent in Arévalo in the province of Ávila, where he
was born March 11, 1821. The village priest taught him Latin, and later
he may have been a student at the University of Valladolid. Of the
years that passed before he came to Madrid we know little besides a
few anecdotes. According to one of these Sanz paid youthful court to
the daughter of a glazier whose ruin was threatened by lack of business.
The daughter told young Florentino of her father's difficulties in the
course of an evening interview, whereupon the ambitious lover quickly
organized a band of followers and broke all the windows in Arévalo.
Early in February of 1843 he was in Madrid, where he began to write
for the newspapers. Two years later a few poems published in the
Semanario Pintoresco, El Heraldo, and La Risa won him some
recognition. He now identified himself with the group of romantic
poets who held their meetings in the famous Café del Príncipe. His
sonnet