Harlan: Moreto’s “El desden” 
45 
fers Alberto to her other suitors, but is piqued by the rumor 
of his engagement to another. When she falls in love with 
Juan, it is a good thing for Alberto that the two are identical. 
He does nothing by way of making her fall in love with him, 
except increase her love for him by his attentions to Laura. 
Claudia chooses between Alberto and Federico, in the end, 
but she is not at all driven as is Diana. Her original scorn 
toward her suitors in general is overcome by the fact of falling 
in love and not that Alberto has met her on her own ground 
and defeated her. Nor has her original feeling any motiva- 
tion as has Diana’s ; it is purely arbitrary on the part of the 
author. 
Only in the most general sense, in that two women who do 
not favor their lovers in the beginning are brought around to 
being in love in the end, can it be said that these two plays 
are even similar. J ealousy, which plays but an incidental part 
in El desden con el desden, is the only means common to both, 
and the element of desden, which is the keynote of Moreto’s 
play, is negligible in Los desprecios en quien ama. 
% 
