FOREIGN DRAMA ON ENGLISH AND AMERICAN STAGE 157 



spiritual conflict between her loyalty to the memory of Andres and 

 her infatuation for Ramon, who wins her at last in marriage. At the 

 wedding feast, the young bridegroom drinks heavily, and becomes 

 arrogant and boastful. Maria Rosa's latent suspicions are aroused. 

 The guests depart. She is alone with Ramon. Little by little, by her 

 flattery and caresses, she cajoles him into confessing that he killed 

 the foreman, and fastened the guilt upon Andres. Then, as he claims 

 another kiss, she stabs him to the heart. 



The New York Dramatic Mirror of October 1, 1913, announces that 

 Miss Dorothy Donnelly will soon be seen in a new production of 

 Maria Rosa. 



If newspaper predictions always came true there would be one more 

 Spanish play deserving of mention in this series, the Electra of Perez 

 Goldos (1845-), which was presented in Madrid in 1901 with such 

 pronounced success that the American press at once announced that 

 Miss Julia Marlowe would give the play in English. This is the last 

 we have ever heard of it. But such occurrences are common enough. 

 In this case it is easy to see why Miss Marlowe, after reading the play, 

 changed her mind. Electra deals with a situation which is not a living 

 issue in the United States today. A young girl disappointed in love 

 is coerced into a convent. Certain of the characters with modern, 

 free-thinking tendencies combat the influence exerted by an emissary 

 of the church and finally after a deliberate falsehood has been proven, 

 the young girl and her lover are reunited. Throughout the play the 

 ecclesiastical influence in Spain is made to appear in a bad light. In 

 1901 a play with such anti-clerical tendencies was regarded in Spain 

 as daring and it created a stir. English-speaking people have long 

 ceased to have a vital interest in such a problem. A modern Ameri- 

 can audience would be bored by it. 



The theater of Spain, like Spain itself, has always been, and still 

 is, something that we do not fully understand. The civilization and 

 culture of Spain are to a certain extent Latin, it is true, like that of 

 Italy, but Spain is not as hospitable to outsiders as is Italy. Edu- 

 cated foreigners have not flocked to Madrid, Grenada and Seville as 

 they have to Rome, Florence and Venice to make their home. Spain 



