everal
followers or imitators. The comedies of manners and satirical plays are
generally the work of Eusebio Blasco, Ramos Carrion, Echegaray the
younger, Estremada, Alverez, though there are others whose names are
legion. Echegaray is really a man of genius. A clever engineer and
professor of mathematics, he was Minister of Finance during the early
days of the Revolution. His first play took the world of Madrid by
surprise and even by storm. _La Esposa del Vengador_ had an
unprecedented success, and at least thirty subsequent dramas, in prose
and in verse, have made this mathematician, engineer, and financier one
of the most famous men of his day. His art and his methods are purely
Spanish. I have already referred to the phenomenal success of Perez
Galdos's _Electra_ within the last few months. It must, however, be
ascribed chiefly to the moment of its presentation rather than to any
superlative merit in the drama. It is well written, which is what may be
said of almost all Spanish plays, for the language is in itself so
dignified and so beautiful that, if it be only pure and not disfigured
by foreign slang, it is always sonorous and charming. To the state of
the popular temper, however, and the coincidence of the political events
already referred to must be ascribed the fact that a piece like
_Electra_ should cause the fall of a Government, and bring within
dangerous distance the collapse of the monarchy itself. The excitement
which it still produces, wherever played, is now in a great part due to
the foolish action of some of the bishops and the fact that individual
clerics use their pulpits to condemn it, and attempt to forbid its being
read or seen.

Spain is not particularly rich in great actors, although she has always
a goodly number who come up to a fair standard of excellence. The great
actors of the day in Madrid are Maria Guerrero and Fernando Diaz de
Mendoza. They obtained a perfect ovation during the last season in the
play, _El loco Dios_, of Echegaray--a work which gives every opportunity
for the display of first-class talent in both actors, and which led to a
fury of enthusiasm for the popular dramatist, which must have recalled
to him the early days of his great successes.

Since the beginning of the eighteenth century, Spain has had three great
Academies, which, even in the troublous times of her history, have done
good work in the domains of history, language, and the fine arts; but it
is since the