brielito? There is no intrigue, no plot, no surprise,
no catastrophe, no illusion, no _quid pro quo_; no attempt at
disguising a character to make it seem another--not even the little
complication that comes of two men provoking each other as enemies,
and then discovering that they are father and son. If Don Diego now,
were to catch his nephew and kill him out of hand in the cellar, and
prepare a banquet and have a dish of the victim's flesh served up to
his bride, well disguised with spice and bay leaves, there would be
some spirit in the thing."...

I could not, in fact, conceal my enjoyment of the scene, which seemed
to me a masterpiece of nature, grace, and interesting comedy. The poet
however called me to order, abusing me for deserting to the hostile
camp.

"I beg your pardon," said I. "It was a mistake. And yet--does it not
strike you, too, that this scene is not altogether bad?"

"How should you be able to judge?--a mere novice who never wrote a
line in your life! Pray what is there in this scene in the least
remarkable, or pathetic, or historical?"

"But it is nature itself. I feel that I have seen in the real world
just what the author has set on the stage."

"Gaby! simpleton! that is exactly what makes it so bad. Have you not
observed that in 'Frederick the Second,' in 'Catharine of Russia,' in
'The Slave of Negroponte,' and other fine works, nothing ever takes
place that has the smallest resemblance to real life? Is not
everything in those plays strange, startling, exceptional, wonderful,
and surprising? That is why they are so good. The poets of to-day do
not choose to imitate those of my time, and hence art has fallen to
the lowest depths."

"And yet, begging your pardon," I said, "I cannot help thinking--The
play is wretched, I quite agree, and when you say so there must be a
good reason for it. But the idea here seems to me a good one, since I
fancy the author has intended to censure the vicious system of
education which young girls get nowadays."...

"And who asks the author to introduce all this philosophy?" said the
pedant. "What has the theatre to do with moralizing? In the 'Magician
of Astrakhan,' in 'Leon and the Asturias Gave Heraldry to Spain,' and
in the 'Triumphs of Don Pelayo'--plays that all the world admires--did
you ever find a passage that describes how girls are to be brought
up?"

"I have certainly read or heard somewhere that the theatre was to
serve the purposes of entertain