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ECHEGARAY Y EIZAGUIRRE, JOSE (1833– )

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Originally appearing in Volume V08, Page 871 of the 1911 Encyclopedia Britannica.
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ECHEGARAY Y EIZAGUIRRE, JOSE (1833– ) , See also:

Spanish mathematician, statesman and dramatist, was See also:born at See also:Madrid in See also:March 1833, and was educated at the See also:grammar school of See also:Murcia, whence he proceeded to the Escuela de Caminos at the See also:capital. His exemplary See also:diligence and unusual mathematical capacity were soon noticed. In 1853 he passed out at the See also:head of the See also:list of See also:engineers, and, after a brief See also:practical experience at See also:Almeria and See also:Granada, was appointed See also:professor of pure and applied See also:mathematics in, the school where he had lately been a See also:pupil. His Problemas de geometria analitica (1865) and Teorias modernas de la fisica unidad de See also:las fuerzas materiales (1867) are said to be esteemed by competent See also:judges. He became a member of the Society of See also:Political See also:Economy, helped to found La Revista, and took a prominent See also:part in propagating See also:Free See also:Trade doctrines in the See also:press and on the See also:platform. He was clearly marked out. for See also:office, and when the popular See also:movement of 1868 overthrew the See also:monarchy, he resigned his See also:post for a See also:place in the revolutionary See also:cabinet. Between 1867 and 1874 he acted as See also:minister of See also:education and of See also:finance; upon the restoration of the See also:Bourbon See also:dynasty he withdrew from politics, and won a new reputation as a dramatist. As See also:early as 1867 he wrote La Hija natural, which was rejected, and remained unknown till 1877, when it appeared with the See also:title of See also:Para tal culpa tal Pena. Another See also:play, La Ultima Noche, also written in 1867, was produced in 1875; but in the latter See also:year Echegaray was already accepted as the successful author of El. See also:Libra talonarlo, played at the Teatro de Apolo on the 18th of See also:February 1874, under the transparent See also:pseudonym of Jorge Hayaseca. Later in the same year Echegaray won a popular See also:triumph with La Esposa del vengador, in which the See also:good and See also:bad qualities—the See also:clever stagecraft and unbridled extravagance—of his later See also:work are clearly noticeable. From 1874 onwards he wrote, with varying success, a prodigious number of plays.

Among the most favourable specimens of his See also:

talent may be. mentioned En el puno de la espada (1875); 0 locura o santidad (1877), . which has been translated into See also:Swedish and See also:Italian; En el seno de la muerte (1879), of which there exists an admirable See also:German version by Fastenrath. El gran Galeoto (1881), perhaps the best of Echegaray's plays in conception and See also:execution, has been translated into several See also:languages, and still holds the See also:stage. The humorous See also:proverb, I Piensa mal y acertards? exemplifies the author's limitations, but the See also:attempt is interesting as an instance of ambitious versatility. His susceptibility to new ideas is illustrated in such pieces as See also:Mariana (1892), See also:Mancha que limpia (1895), El Hijo de See also:Don Juan (1892), and El Loco Dios (1900): these indicate a See also:close study of See also:Ibsen, and El Loco Dios more especially might be taken for an unintentional See also:parody of Ibsen's symbolism. Echegaray succeeded to the See also:literary See also:inheritance of See also:Lopez de See also:Ayala and of Tamayo y Bans; and though he possesses neither the poetic See also:imagination of the first nor the instinctive tact of the second, it is impossible to deny that he has reached a larger See also:audience than either. Not merely in See also:Spain, but in every See also:land where Spanish is spoken, and in cities as remote from Madrid as See also:Munich and See also:Stockholm, he has met with an appreciation in-comparably beyond that accorded to any other Spanish dramatist of See also:recent years. But it would be more than usually rash to prophesy that this exceptional popularity will endure. There have been signs of a reaction in Spain itself, and Echegaray's return to politics in 1905 was significant enough. He applies his mathematics to the See also:drama; no writer excels him in artful construction, in the arrangement of dramatic scenes, in See also:mere theatrical technique, in the focusing of See also:attention on his See also:chief personages. These are valuable gifts in their way, andEchegaray has, moreover, a powerful, gloomy imagination, which is momentarily impressive. In the See also:drawing of See also:character, in the invention of felicitous phrase, in the contrivance of verbal See also:music, he is deficient. He alternates between the use of See also:verse and See also:prose; and his hesitancy in choosing a See also:medium of expression is amply justified, for the writer's prose is not more distinguished than his verse.

These serious shortcomings may explain the diminution of his See also:

vogue in Spain; they will certainly tell against him in the estimate of posterity. (J.

End of Article: ECHEGARAY Y EIZAGUIRRE, JOSE (1833– )

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