Doña Clarines y Mañana de Sol

Do?a Clarines y Ma?ana de Sol

The Project Gutenberg eBook, Do?a Clarines y Ma?ana de Sol, by Seraf��n y Joaqu��n ��lvarez Quintero, Edited by S. Griswold Morley
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Title: Do?a Clarines y Ma?ana de Sol
Author: Seraf��n y Joaqu��n ��lvarez Quintero
Editor: S. Griswold Morley
Release Date: June 22, 2005 [eBook #16109]
Language: Spanish
Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1
***START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK DO?A CLARINES Y MA?ANA DE SOL***
E-text prepared by Stan Goodman, Nieves Rodr��guez, and the Project Gutenberg Online Distributed Proofreading Team

Heath's Modern Language Series
DO?A CLARINES Y MA?ANA DE SOL
por
SERAF��N Y JOAQU��N ��LVAREZ QUINTERO
Edited with Introduction, Notes and Vocabulary by
S. GRISWOLD MORLEY, PH.D. Assistant Professor of Spanish, University of California
D. C. Heath & Co., Publishers Boston New York Chicago
1915

PREFACE
At present writing it seems to be a fact that no Spanish comedy written within the last thirty years, perhaps fifty, and making any pretense to literary worth, is available for use as a text in the United States. With the intention of filling part of the gap, as well as of introducing to students two contemporary Spanish dramatists, very well known in their own country, and very well worth while, I have selected these two short plays of the brothers ��lvarez Quintero. While they are not the most important works of these authors, they are probably the best adapted to school use. The many Andalusian forms in most of the Quintero comedies debar them wholly, and in others continental plainness of speech is an obstacle. _Do?a Clarines_ and _Ma?ana de sol_ are not too difficult, are written in bright and idiomatic Castilian, are entirely fit for class use, and are reprinted without the alteration or omission of a word in the original. They may well be read in the first year of a college course in Spanish, or in the second year of the high school. The editing has not been done with an eye to the needs of absolute beginners.
As no critical writing worth mentioning has yet been directed toward the brothers Quintero, notwithstanding their great popularity in Spain and Italy, the introduction is perforce in the nature of pioneer work.
I wish to express my very sincere gratitude to the authors of these comedies, who first gave their courteous authorization to reprint, and then extended their generosity so far as to furnish information which would have been wholly inaccessible otherwise. Without their graciously manifested kindness, this book could obviously never have appeared.
Various colleagues have helped in the interpretation of difficult idioms; to all of them I convey my hearty thanks, and in particular to Professor Schevill and Professor Bransby of the University of California.
S.G.M.
UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA, February, 1915.

INTRODUCTION
Seraf��n and Joaqu��n ��lvarez 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 Carri��ns, the Vital Azas, the Carlos Arniches, etc. Their work possesses a distinction and color which lift it into the realm of literature.
[Footnote A: Pic��n 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 _Autobiograf��a_, originally printed in _Alma espa?ola_ (1904), and from various other sources, the following facts have been gleaned:
Don Seraf��n was born on March 26, 1871, and don Joaqu��n 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