Serafín and Joaquín Álvarez Quintero are brothers, and write in
collaboration. They are among the most popular and prolific playwrights
of the day in Spain. Neither qualification is necessarily flattering,
but the comedies of the Quinteros[A] have many permanent beauties which
speak well for the taste of the contemporary Spanish audience. Even in
their farces they are never vulgar, never coarse, and they are not to be
confounded with the many amusers of the crowd in Madrid, the Ramos
Carrións, the Vital Azas, the Carlos Arniches, etc. Their work possesses
a distinction and color which lift it into the realm of literature.
[Footnote A: Picón and Mariano de Cavia write "los Quinteros", but other
Spaniards seem to prefer "los Quintero".]
I
The brothers Quintero have never made public the details of their
private life, and no article of importance seems yet to have been
published concerning them. From a little semi-serious _Autobiografía_,
originally printed in _Alma española_ (1904), and from various other
sources, the following facts have been gleaned:
Don Serafín was born on March 26, 1871, and don Joaquín on Jan. 20,
1873, in Utrera, 20 miles from Seville. To this capital the family moved
"when the two boys together measured a yard in height", and there they
attended the Instituto. Their dramatic talent appeared at the earliest
possible age, and they composed and acted plays in the _patio_ of
their own house before any other stage could be provided. Their ages were
16 and 15 when _Esgrima y amor_, a farce, was produced at the Teatro
Cervantes in Seville (Jan. 30, 1888). Their father took them to Madrid
in October of the same year, in order to give their talents a broader
field. Success did not come at once. For nine years, to provide a
livelihood, they held positions in the Treasury department (_Hacienda_).
During this period they labored desperately at writing, rising at dawn
to get in some hours before the office work began at eight. They founded
a weekly paper, _El pobrecito hablador_, which was respected and
admired, but was not a financial success. Their writing was done at
first over the signature _El diablo cojuelo_. In the _Autobiografía_
they speak in feeling terms of the ten years of severe and unrewarded
labor which laid the foundation of their later popularity. Before the
appearance of _El ojito derecho_, their first hit, they had only three
plays produced in Madrid, all very ordinary farces. But they must have
been storing up material for future use, for in 1900 they declared[B]
that they had 51 plays on hand in manuscript. In 1897 the "entremés" _El
ojito derecho_ and the one-act comedy _La reja_ attracted favorable
notice; they were both in the vein which has given them most popularity,
namely, the depiction of Andalusian customs. In 1898 a musical comedy,
_La buena sombra_, completed the victory, and since that date they
have seen produced, between long and short, an average of nearly five plays
a year. In 1900 _Los galeotes_, a four-act comedy, and their first
full-sized piece, was crowned with the approbation of the Spanish
Academy, but not until about 1904 do we find the brothers Quintero
accepted on a par with Benavente as entitled to rank among the chief
figures of modern Spanish literature. In 1907 they were both presented
with the cross of Alfonso XII. Don Serafín was elected to the Academy
on March 27, 1913. The brothers spend their winters in Madrid, and their
summers in the quaint northern town of Fuenterrabía, where they find
ideal conditions for composition and rest.[C]
[Footnote B: In a letter to the _Heraldo de Madrid_. See
_Ilustración española y americana_, 1900 (II) p. 258.]
[Footnote C: The Teatro Álvarez Quintero, which has recently been
founded in Madrid, receives from them only its name; they have neither
financial nor managerial connection with it.]
The collaboration of the two brothers has excited wonder in many, for it
approximates to mutual thought. It is so intimate that it can hardly be
imagined possible in any but two persons who have been accustomed to
work and think together from childhood. Their intellectual harmony is so
perfect that on one occasion, as a test, the younger composed a
_copla_ of four lines; the first two were then given to the elder, who
completed the stanza with the identical words of his brother. Their method
of composition is described by them as a continuous conversation. They plan
their plays while walking out of doors, in the morning; thus they
discuss characters, outline the plot, division into acts and scenes, and
even dialog. When the whole and the details are well in mind, the actual
writing is done by don Serafín. He reads the result to his brother as he
proceeds, and the latter comments or corrects. Details of style are
settled in the same viva voce way, better adapted to the drama than to
other forms of composition.