Don Francisco de Quevedo | Page 3

1854 the tide turned. The revolution of July found him writing his
second play, "Los Achaques de la Vejez."[3] The conclusion of the last
act had to be postponed while Sanz was taking part in the popular
rising which he had so earnestly sought. While he was waiting for his
share of the rewards of victory the play was produced at the Príncipe on
the evening of October 13. On the fourteenth there appeared in La
Iberia the following notice, written probably by his devoted friend
Pedro Calvo Asensio:

Los Achaques de la Vejez. This notable comedy by the gifted and
well-known author Don Eulogio Florentino Sanz was played
[Footnote 3: The original manuscript of this play is preserved in the
Biblioteca Nacional at Madrid. At the end of Act I appears the date
Junio 13, 1854. At the end of the second Julio 5, 1854, and on the last
sheet Setiembre 25, 1854.]
last night with brilliant success. At the end of the second act the author
was called upon the stage, and at the end of the play the enthusiasm of
the audience grew to such extraordinary proportions that Sr. Sanz was
again called upon to appear. However, we were denied the satisfaction
of seeing him, as he had left the theater. The actors also were called
before the curtain amidst tumultuous applause as a just reward for their
signal success in the presentation of the play. The audience was as we
had expected, large and select. Our conviction that the management
may look forward to well-filled houses gives us great satisfaction.
The writing of this play was in a measure Sanz's answer to the
challenge of his enemies and detractors to repeat the success of "Don
Francisco de Quevedo." By this second triumph his fame and
reputation were firmly established. This time the theme is a domestic
one developed with even greater skill than that displayed in the earlier
play. As might be expected, Act I, scene iv, contains a pessimistic and
cynical allusion to the tangled politics that preceded the revolution.
By a royal order of November 11 Sanz was appointed secretary of the
first class to the Spanish legation in Berlin.[4] This appointment he
probably owed to the good offices of his friend Nicomedes Pastor Díaz.
Sanz took possession of his new post on the ninth of January, 1855,
after having made the journey from Madrid in the company of Gregorio
Cruzada Villamil. In June he was granted four months' leave of absence
on account of ill health due to the severity of the climate. In August he
was made Commander of the Order of Charles III in recognition of his
distinguished service. His final resignation from the post was received
in November of 1856. He left Berlin for Madrid on February 1, 1857.
[Footnote 4: All the papers relating to Sanz's diplomatic career are

preserved in the Archivo del Ministerio del Estado. They were
collected at the instance of his "widow," who desired that she be
accorded a pension in keeping with the dignity of the posts held by her
distinguished husband. The papers are filed under Personal Español,
Letra S, Año 1853. Número 159. Expediente relativo a Sanz, don
Eulogio Florentino.]
His only poem surely written in Berlin is the "Epístola a Pedro."[5] It is
a tender tribute to the memory of the poet Enrique Gil, who had died in
Berlin ten years before. Its verses are among the most delicately
beautiful that Sanz ever wrote. The poem opens with an expression of
the longing which Sanz feels for his beloved Spain, and above all for
Madrid:
Pues recuerda la patria, a los reflejos de su distante sol, el desterrado
como recuerdan su niñez los viejos.
[Footnote 5: Pedro is Don Pedro Calvo Asensio, the editor-in-chief of
La Iberia, in which the poem first appeared. It was later republished in
1881 in the "Almanaque de La Iberia."]
He stands before the grave of Enrique Gil and mourns for the poet who
died unwept in a foreign land. In deep sincerity of feeling no other
poem of Sanz approaches the "Epístola." Fortunately it has been given
to the public both in Menéndez y Pelayo's "Cien Mejores Poesías" and
in "The Oxford Book of Spanish Verse."
These two years of residence in Berlin had a profound effect upon the
temper of Sanz's later verse. It was only natural that his removal from
the turmoil of life in Madrid, with its petty jealousies and quarrels,
literary and political, should exercise a broadening and sobering
influence upon his muse. After this date the flow of idle humorous
verse ceased. Inspired chiefly by the exquisite delicacy of Heine's lyrics,
he set himself to imitation and translation of his German model. It is
not too much to say that all his