_El Sombrero de tres picos_ was written and published in 1874. It made
its first appearance on August 2, 9, 16th [p. xii] of that year, in
numbers 23, 24, 25, of the _Revista Europea_, was issued in book form
immediately, and has passed through thirteen editions. Alarcón has given
two accounts of its genesis--one in the original form of the preface to
the book, and the other in his _Historia de mis libros_. They are not
mutually exclusive, though the second mentioned, which the author has
allowed to stand, forgets much that is confided in the first.[3]
The success of the story was immediate and deserved. The pseudo-modest
praise, "the least bad of my books," applied by Alarcón to _El
Escándalo_, might be transferred and made positive here. The skill of
construction, the exact sense of propriety that preserves every decency
while yielding no shred of the interest, the really admirable dialogue,
and the beautifully Spanish atmosphere of it all, make us wish that the
author's judgment had led him oftener into these ways, where alone his
desire fails to outrun [p. xiii] his performance. Alarcón has written
sensational sermons--witness _El Escándalo_; psychological romance, with
the psychology left out, as in _La Pródiga_; infantile melodrama, in _El
Niño de la Bola_; and utter balderdash, as _El Final de Norma_; but _El
Sombrero_ is not like any of these. It is worthy of the rank it holds
among the longer short stories of literature, a strong, objective piece
of work, without shade of self-consciousness; a fine story, in short,
admirably told. Aside from its purely æsthetic value, the book is a
precious document to the student of the history of manners and customs
in Spain, both in its lines and in the much that is to be read between
them.
Adolfo Bonilla y San Martín has recently published a short account of
the sources of _El Sombrero_.[4] He takes it back to a well-known story
of the _Decameron_ (day 8, novel 8), and reprints two popular ballads,
to one of which, already published by Agustín Durán in his _Romancero
General_ (Vol. 2, p. 409), Alarcón in his preface acknowledges his
indebtedness. The other ballad seems from language and form to be
younger; the content of the two is almost identical. It is not my
purpose in the present place to enlarge on Bonilla's article, though I
suspect that the theme in its cruder forms is considerably older than
Boccaccio; he has given us all that served as the first-hand sources of
our story, and more, and he seems to me beyond any doubt to be in the
right in holding that the differences to be noted between these sources
and the novel are Alarcón's own, not the product of some other model, to
him (Bonilla) unknown. To my mind this conclusion [p. xiv] should be
more strongly put. In his preface Alarcón tells us where he found the
story, and makes direct reference to the Durán _Romancero_; had he had
another, more strictly decorous, version at hand, one in short better
suited to his need, he had surely mentioned it. Bonilla seems to me to
take far too seriously the closing lines of the preface, which, to one
without the pale, seem simply a graceful confession of faith in the
basic decency of Spain. For the sources of the book, then, Alarcón's
preface and Bonilla's essay must seem a sufficient guide.
The text here printed is that of the thirteenth Spanish edition. Two
passages have been omitted; one (after page 6, line 28 of this text)
touching taxes and imposts, as being unduly difficult, and of no help to
the story: the curious may find it in the notes. The other, a bare two
lines, had too much local color for dignified appearance in the American
classroom. The only other changes the editor has allowed himself are
occasional deviations from the somewhat arbitrary system of
capitalization followed in the model.
My friend Professor De Haan, of Bryn Mawr College, did me the favor of
making a collation of this text with that of the first edition in book
form, which, as it appeared so promptly after the other, is probably to
all intents and purposes identical with that of the serial. The
differences to be noted between the first and thirteenth editions are
altogether matters of style, except in the preface, where, as noted, the
end is very different in the two. As I have not had access to all the
editions, I cannot say with certainty when the revision was made: it is
likely that it came when Alarcón prepared the definitive edition of his
works [p. xv] for the _Colección de Escritores Castellanos_: in which
case the first revised edition would be the eighth or ninth. The changes
are often interesting as showing the working of the better second
thought;--here the flow of the syntax is made a little smoother, there a
harsh word has been suppressed. In general the text has gained by the
author's later attention, though there is an occasional spot where the
style seems fresher and more vigorous in the older form.
_El Sombrero de tres picos_ has been much translated and has been used
as material for at least four comic operas. Alarcón mentions two, one
French, one Belgian, in _Historia de mis Libros_ (page 247); I have been
unable, so far, to find out anything about these. A third, by M. Giró,
is spoken of by Albert Soubies, _Histoire de la Musique_, Espagne, XIX
siècle, Paris, 1900, page 54. The title of this one is _El Sombrero de
tres picos_, and it was brought out at Madrid. The fourth, _Der
Korregidor_, music by Hugo Wolff, libretto by Rosa Mayreder, was first
given at Mannheim in 1896.