With these may be compared Cañete's verses inspired by some dry leaves (IV, p. 120) and Rodriguez Ferrer's Las Ruinas.

As will be shown more clearly in the following section, this strain is the more significant because it occurs in journals of various kinds and in the work of young men who developed subsequently in quite dissimilar ways. It is the more remarkable because there is in the sum less of disillusionment, melancholy, mal du siècle, Weltschmerz (or whatever other expression the age used to describe itself) in the writings of the greatest Spanish Romantics than in those of other countries. Spain has her Espronceda, it is true, as England has her Byron, France her Musset, Germany her Heine, and Italy her Leopardi. But in French Romanticism we have also a gradation of tristesse, the mal du siècle of Chateaubriand and Sénancour, the gentle sadness of Millevoye, the calms and storms of Lamartine and Victor Hugo, the philosophical pessimism of Alfred de Vigny. In Italy Ugo Foscolo writes the Ultime lettere di Jacopo Ortis and in a famous sonnet shows himself 'avverso al mondo, avversi a me gli eventi '; Silvio Pellico cries 'Il più bel giorno di mia vita sarà quello de mia morte !'; Giusti, 'poeta del riso,' is also a poitrinaire; Mazzini and Guerrazzi have their moments of bitter reaction; Carlo Bini and Nicolini are avowed followers of Byron; Alessandro Poerio is a disciple as well as a friend of Leopardi; Giovanni Prati at least approaches pessimism. And this list could be indefinitely enlarged at will. But what, outside the work of Espronceda, have we in Spain? Apparently nothing: a fatalism which deserves closer study, but of disillusion, melancholy, pessimism? A few verses by the Duque de Rivas, Pastor Diaz, Miguel de los Santos Alvarez, and some half dozen others; the bitter desengaño of Figaro. Nothing else: except in the periodical literature such as that which we are studying. The psychology of each nation is not unlike; the development of Romanticism in each national literature follows a broadly similar course. But chronology and past history differ; and all the greatest geniuses in Spain-except one— are directed into another channel. The stream of disillusion flows in Spain as elsewhere, but it is a narrower stream and a more secluded. For that reason alone it is worth while to study the Alhambra.

III.

EL DIARIO DE BARCELONA, 1833-9.

I should not have had occasion to study the Diario de Barcelona but for certain facts relative to Manuel de Cabanyes and his Preludios de mi lira. It is an old established newspaper of no apparent literary

importance, mainly political and commercial in tendency, a supporter of throne and altar, and more than a little interested in events of general appeal from abroad. I have been through the files from 1833 to 1839, and with especial care through those of the years 1833 and 1834.

The literary opinions expressed and the estimates given of current books and plays are generally orthodox, with a distinct bias towards the conservative. En el orden literario,' says an article entitled Vanidad y Orgullo, and dated July 29, 1833, 'también se han introducido estas dos flaquezas de la condición humana. En las letras la vanidad no hace más que ostentarse con gala, oportuna o inoportunamente, pero el orgullo es el padre de la amarga sátira y del descarado sarcasmo.' This is the conventional anti-Romantic complaint, slightly disguised by the cloak of morality which bedecks a considerable number of the Diario's leading articles of this period. Neither the tributes to the popularity of Chateaubriand, nor the eulogies of Larra's Doncel de Don Enrique el Doliente, nor even the frequent allusions to Scott and the Waverley Novels, can be said to show the hand of any writer of merit or interest.

After 1835 the same statement may be made of the literary side of the paper in general. But between 1833 and 1835 there are a few contributions of an unusual character which give the Diario a place with its more literary contemporaries in this article.

It is evident from a perusal of these-which are all unsigned-that there was on the staff of the paper at least one writer who shared to an uncommon degree the pessimistic or pseudo-pessimistic outlook on life which we have seen in the Alhambra. In the present periodical we can trace something like a connected philosophy of illusion in which any reader of Leopardi, Vigny and Schopenhauer will recognise points of similarity with the thought of each.

This may best be illustrated by quotations, which are mainly taken from a leading article dated June 23, 1833:

He aquí el fruto de la mayor parte de los afanes de la vida y el objeto final de casi todos los delirios y locuras de los hombres. Si del corto círculo de nuestra existencia sobre la tierra se quitasen las ilusiones, apenas quedarían algunos puntos de goce verdadero.... Las pasiones que con más violencia agitan el corazón humano se ceban en la ilusión....¿Qué otra cosa es la gloria humana que una ilusión?...Aún las pasiones más innobles, como por ejemplo la avaricia, se alimentan principalmente de la ilusión....

The writer then considers the nature of love, which, he says, only lives by virtue of its illusory elements. Take these away and only what is grossly material remains. Nor is any other pleasure more stable. In other words, there is no true happiness at all. No existe el reino de la felicidad sino en nuestra fantasía.'

How then is life worth living? Schopenhauer's palliative of æsthetic contemplation is recalled by one suggested remedy, Vigny's praise of noble deeds by another. The writer's solution is, however, the religious one, and the article ends upon a conventional note.

There are, moreover, signs in these files of the journal (1833-5) that the mal du siècle was affecting this writer or others, but it is unnecessary to give these in detail. Critical notices of Chateaubriand and Lamartine betray their authors, poems on Autumn and Melancholy are not uncommon; there is more (generally in verse) on Illusion; a eulogy of the Night Thoughts of Young; and an article on Ruins which is typical of the pre-Romantic period:

Todos los hombres tienen una secreta inclinación a las ruinas, dice un autor célebre, y ninguno hay que no sienta en sí mismo la verdad de esta aserción. Ya sea que un oculto instinto nos mueva a buscar cierta analogía entre la destrucción de los grandes monumentos con la fragilidad de nuestra existencia, ya sea que la infinidad de nuestro pensamiento a quien no limita el tiempo ni el espacio se deleite en transportarse a épocas que ya pasaron, y busque una especie de comunicación con los siglos que le precedieron. Y qué buscamos en las ruinas? El poder del tiempo, la rapidez de los acontecimientos humanos, la vanidad del hombre y de su orgullo, y el imperio destructor e indestructible de la muerte....Todo desierto es sublime, porque el alma se abandona más libremente a sus meditaciones, y porque siempre es grande y magnífico el aspecto de la naturaleza....

It should be clear that such work as this, characterising two years of the life of a newspaper which in the years preceding and following it is all but barren of literary merit, argues the presence on the staff of a man of considerable gifts and power, and also of clearly marked Romantic tendencies. One thinks at once of Cabanyes' friend Roca y Cornet ('Cintio') who was certainly a contributor at this time, and an important one, since he was able to contribute, besides the review of the Preludios which was published shortly before the poet's death, two odes upon the loss of a writer who was after all but a boy of little more than village fame at the time'. There are arguments against Roca y Cornet's authorship, but it seems best to leave the question open pending researches in the archives of the Diario de Barcelona which are being made at present?. 1 I say 'two' odes on the strength of Molins' assertion (Diccionario de escritores catalanes del siglo 19, sub. Cabanyes') that Roca y Cornet was the author of the ode on pp. 1973-4 signed Silvio,' as well as that on pp. 1953-4 over the name' Cintio.' I have no proof of the fact, but both stylistic considerations and what we know of Cabanyes' life and friendship with Cintio' inclines me strongly to accept it. I hope to return to the whole subject of Cabanyes shortly.

2 The editorial staff of the Diario de Barcelona has most kindly examined the relevant files with the object of discovering who was responsible for the articles in question or the identity of the principal writers of unsigned articles. Nothing, however, has been discovered up to the present, and the further search among the papers relating to that period which with characteristic courtesy the editor promises to make is of necessity delayed owing to the disorganisation caused by a change in locale of the offices of the journal. As the discovery does not affect the main question, I have therefore deferred the consideration of this detail.

The most important point seems to be the tone of the articles during these years, showing, in conjunction with the articles cited in the preceding sections, how the spirit of the age was invading periodical literature of the day to an extent which has perhaps not yet been fully realised.

LIVERPOOL.

E. ALLISON PEERS.

NOTES ON LESSING'S HAMBURGISCHE

DRAMATURGIE'.'

I.

THE PLAYS OF THE HAMBURG REPERTORY.

IT is hardly surprising that students of the Hamburgische Dramaturgie have not given the Repertory of the Hamburg Theatre the same careful attention as they have bestowed on the theory and criticism which Lessing based on the plays he witnessed. The harsh things that have been said of the literary aspect of the Hamburg Entreprise' are, it must frankly be admitted, none too harsh; but the value of accurate information about the pieces performed is not to be gainsaid; in fact, it is indispensable for a right appreciation of the attitude of Lessing to the theatre of his time. The identification of the translations of foreign plays, which I have attempted to establish, has, I think, some value in view of the opinion which has been hitherto generally held that an identification is impossible. The few cases to which, owing to the lack of materials in our libraries, I have been obliged to attach a point of interrogation, offer no insuperable difficulties; and I trust that these investigations may induce some one in closer touch with the German libraries to supply the missing information. It may be unreasonable to hope that an enterprising German publisher will one day give us a convenient reprint of these plays; but a series of those which Lessing discusses in detail would certainly be a boon; and it is much to be regretted that the beginning made some sixteen years ago by Sauer and Jacoby to a series of Quellenschriften zur Hamburgischen Dramaturgie with Weisse's Richard III, has never been continued.

In the beginning of December, 1767, when the publication of the

1 The war and the consequent increase in the difficulties of printing are compelling many workers in the field of literary research to an unwilling obedience to the Horatian nonum prematur in annos.' The present notes are drawn from a critical edition, completed some years ago, of the Dramaturgie, which awaits more favourable conditions for publication. The reader is referred to my previous articles and notes in this Review, Vol. XII, pp. 157 ff., 312 ff.; xш, pp. 482 ff.; xiv, pp. 68 ff.

2 Cosack, Materialien zu Lessings Hamburgischen Dramaturgie, 2nd ed., Paderborn, 1891, p. 53, says, for instance, that es in den meisten Fällen kaum festzustellen wird, welche Übersetzungen bei den Aufführungen in Hamburg benutzt wurden.' Petersen, in his latest edition (Berlin, Bong, 1916), gives little more information than Cosack.