Of the plays in the present volume, _Doña Clarines_ is not pretentious,
but within its limits it is better worked out than is sometimes the
case. It is a character study, sketched in broad lines without
over-subtlety. In the exceptionally blunt, straightforward and withal
womanly figure of the heroine the Quinteros have created an exceptional
personage, certainly, whose striking qualities they have succeeded in
reproducing without caricature and with eminent fairness. The person who
speaks plain truth at all times and in all places would not be the most
agreeable neighbor in the world, perhaps, for few of us can afford to be
subjected at every instant to the moral X-ray, and if all human beings
were patterned after the protagonist, society, as we know it, could not
exist. But the average man leans the other way, duplicity is rampant,
and one Clarines in a village is a refreshing acid to cut the prevailing
smug concealment of thought. That the straight path is the only safe one
is the moral of the play, as it is of _Peer Gynt_.
As a drama _Doña Clarines_ has unusual qualities both for acting and
reading. The minor figures are, as always, closely observed; the types
are clearly distinguished, and Tata, the old servant, who combines
loyalty with forwardness, is wonderfully well rendered. _Doña Clarines_
has been translated into Italian by Giulio de Frenzi, under the title
_Siora Chiareta_, and there is also an adaptation in the Venetian
dialect.
_Mañana de sol_ is more delicate and subtle. It is one of the dainty
sketches in which poetic fancy and sympathetic humor transform figures
in themselves trivial and even ridiculous into personifications of
enduring passion. By some alchemy of art doña Laura and don Gonzalo,
aged, infirm and crochety, are transmuted into symbols of the eternal
youth of love. To expand the four-line _dolora_ (no. XLIII) of
Campoamor into such a gem calls for real creative power. The esteem in
which _Mañana de sol_ is held on the continent is shown by the fact
that it has been translated into French, German and Italian.