through strictly dramatic means, falls readily into the classification of pure cerebral drama. The indeterminate nature of the dialogue, the shyness and hesitancy of the characters through whom it is carried on, contrast strikingly with the truth that is so fondly sought, but which is revealed at the denouement by an anti-antithesis as something equally indeterminate, in whose dubiety lies the only certitude that we know. The piece is in the author's latest manner, where the conversation has attained a simple luminousness of phrase almost directly revelatory of the spirit.
Spanish criticism of Benavente, although laudatory, and frequently keenly sensitive, is regrettably in great part superficial, and seldom for any sustained flight, seriously intelligent. Much that has been written is occasional, composed in haste at the time of the production of the plays with which it deals, exhibiting not unnaturally the defects peculiar to reviews which have been improvised for the newspapers or other periodicals, and by no means enhanced in authority when incorporated afterward without revision in books. Volumes of far from promising antecedents, unfortunately often attain extensive circulation. Manuel Bueno's Teatro español contemporáneo, published in 1909 and since widely read, is probably better known abroad than any other general work dealing with the modern Spanish theatre. In addition to its occasional character, the criticisms included date from a period from two to seven years less recent than that of the book. Although frequently most apt, they betray little penetration. The plays, moreover, are assumed to have been composed in the order in which they were originally performed, which is notoriously far from the fact. Gaps of ten years, replete with struggle and growth, are glossed over by all critics with indiscriminate eulogy. This blemish disfigures the anthology in two volumes, edited with an introduction and an epilogue by Alejandro Miquis, and entitled Las mejores páginas de Jacinto Benavente. It is a work, however, which is much more soundly documented, of superior range, and perhaps as satisfying as any other not rising above the empiric point of view. José Francos
