sublime and vulgar, the grotesque and
beautiful, the student is referred to _Don Alvaro_.

The classical conventionality that each kind of literature should have
its prescribed form and that the various literary genres should be kept
apart was disregarded by Hartzenbusch. In this play we see a mingling of
scenes in prose with those in verse, we find the versification varied
according to the nature of the scenes, a mingling of dramatic dialogue
and lyrical expression of sentiment and passion. The action of the play
in its first form was impeded by the excessive lyricism of some of the
scenes; although notably reduced, this lyric element is still quite
apparent in the scene between Marsilla and Zulima in the first act, for
example; or between Marsilla and Isabel in the last. In the first
version Mari-Gomez, later changed to Teresa with the suppression of most
of her garrulity, was made to serve as a _graciosa_ and thus relieve the
tenseness of the serious scenes.

As to the three dramatic unities so dear to the Classicists, those of
time and place are disregarded. The action shifts from Valencia to
Teruel; the time occupied covers the last six days of the _plazo_ given
Marsilla in which to gain name and fortune and return home to claim
Isabel for wife. The unity of action, the one essential unity in any
work of art, is carefully preserved. In the first version could be seen
something of the Romantic tendency to complicate the plot by the
introduction of an excessive number of characters and needless episodes,
but in its final form the plot is simple and nothing is permitted to
interfere with its dramatic development.

In the first version there was also some tendency to abuse the new
freedom from conventionality in language, a tendency to seek out unusual
words and phrases for the sake of their picturesqueness, rather than for
their artistic appropriateness. In the polishing and toning-down
process, such words and phrases were eliminated, so that the play in its
final form serves as a good illustration of the permanent enrichment of
the literary language by the Romanticists. Likewise, in its
versification, it offers a good example of the metrical variety found in
the Spanish dramatists of the Golden Age and revived by the
Romanticists.

#VIII. Versification.# Only the fundamental principles of Spanish
versification will be noted here. For a more adequate treatment the
student is referred to such works as Andres Bello