e gives it just as much of a setting as will suffice, and
seems satisfied with that. The impression of his books, on the whole,
is a gloomy one. He who sees life clearly must perchance see it
darkly, and few see it more clearly than Galdos. Yet his admirers will
not have it that he is pessimistic, because Nature herself is not
pessimistic. Even the sadness of nightfall ought not to be considered
gloomy, they say, with much show of reason, since it is only the
preparation for another day.

[Signature: William Henry Bishop]

THE FIRST NIGHT OF A FAMOUS PLAY, IN THE YEAR 1807

From 'The Court of Charles IV.' Copyright 1888, by W.S. Gottsberger.
Reprinted by permission of George G. Peck, publisher, New York

[Gabriel, a boy of sixteen, has taken service as page with a
very charming actress of the Principe Theatre. Between this
theatre and La Cruz exists the same sort of hostility as
between the rival theatres at Venice when Goldoni inaugurated
his reform. La Cruz represents the new and "natural" spirit
in the drama, as against the absurd artificial tradition that
had prevailed up to that time. A part of Gabriel's duties is
to go and hiss the plays at that theatre. The principal
occasion of this kind is when he accompanies a band, led by a
rival playwright, to the first performance of 'El Si de las
Ninas' (The Maidens' Yes), by the famous Moratin, the leading
piece of the new school.]

"What an opening!" he [the rival poet and playwright] exclaimed, as he
listened to the first dialogue between Don Diego and Simon. "A pretty
way to begin a comedy! The scene a village inn! What can happen of any
interest in a village inn? In all my plays, and they are many,--though
never a one has been represented,--the action opens in a Corinthian
garden, with monumental fountains to the right and left, and a temple
of Juno in the background; or in a wide square with three regiments
drawn up, and in the background the city of Warsaw, with a bridge, and
so forth. And just listen to the twaddle this old man is made to talk!
He is about to marry a young girl who has been brought up by the nuns
of Guadalajara. Well, is that very remarkable? Is not that a matter of
every-day occurrence?"

Pouring out these remarks, that confounded poet did not allow me to
hear a word of the piece, and though I answered all his comments with
humbly acquiescent monosyllab