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José Echegaray y Eizaguirre (1832-1916) | |
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Spanish politician, writer, and mathematician, the leading dramatist of the last quarter of the 19th century. Along with poet Frédéric Mistral, he was awarded the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1904. Echegaray began to write plays at the age of forty-two. His style changed little during his career. Echegaray's works are noted for their high degree of technical skill and their ability to keep audiences engaged despite relatively simple and melodramatic plots. "My dear fellow, I don't exactly know what you mean by a dramatic spring. All I can tell you is that I have not the slightest interest in plays where love does not preponderate – above all unfortunate love, for I have enough of happy love at home." (Don Julian in The Great Galeoto, 1881) José Echegaray y Eizaguirre was born in Madrid to parents of Basque descent. The family moved to Murcia, where his father held a professorship in Greek at the Institute of Murcia. At the age of fourteen Echegaray returned to Madrid. In 1853 he graduated from the Escuela de Caminos and became in 1858 a professor of mathematics of the same institute. After a short period as a practicing engineer, Echegaray taught mathematics until 1868. Echegaray's papers and treatments appeared in El Imparcial, the Revista contemporánea, Ilustración española y americana, the Diario de la marina de la Habana, El liberal, and other newspapers and magazines. Between the years 1859 and 1860 he published several articles on free trade. Echegaray's scientific works, such as Problems in Analytical Geometry (1865) and Modern Theories of Physics (1866), gained him fame as the foremost Spanish mathematician of his time. "Time was when every cultured person knew Latin," he once said. "Time will come – and it is not very far off – when every cultured person will have to know mathematics!" Echegaray served in various official posts. He was named minister of commerce in the 1860s and elected to the Cortes, the Spanish parliament in 1869. He also played a major role in developing the Banco de España. In 1866 he was admitted to the Academy of Exact Sciences of Madrid. Echegaray's first drama, EL LIBRO TALONARIO, was produced in 1874 at the theatro Espanol under the pseudonym Jorge Hayaseca y Eizaguirre. The work was born in temporary exile in Paris during the period of the First Republic (1873-74). Echegary wrote it to show to his brother, a noted playright, how easily it could be done, as playing a game of chess or solving a mathematical problem. After General Manuel Pavia's coup d'état, which ended Emilio Castelar's short-lived republic, he returned to Spain and was appointed minister of the Treasury. After a prominent political career, Echegaray devoted himself over the next decades to writing, producing average of two plays a year. About half of his sixty plays were composed in verse. His most popular works include LA ESPOSA DEL VENGADOR (1874), EN PUÑO DE LA ESPADA (1875), and O LOCURA O SANTIDAD (1877), which was translated into English in 1895 and brought him international recognition. In the story Lorenzo Avendaño inherits a fortune, but after discovering that he is not the real heir of the wealth, he tries to give it back. However, his greedy relatives have other plans, and Lorenzo is placed in an asylum. Influenced by the work of the great Norwegian dramatist Henrik Ibsen, Echegaray began to explore social issues. EL HIJO DE DON JUAN (1892, The Son of Don Juan), written in prose, was inspired especially by Ibsen's The Ghosts, both dealing with venereal diseases. EL GRAN GALEOTO (1881, The Great Galeoto), his best-known work, depicted melodramatic consequences of gossips with frenzy and moral mission. Rumor spreads that a play by a young writer, Ernesto, depicts his relationship to Don Julián's young wife Teodora. Don Julián defends his wife in a duel with a Viscount, and dies – believing that the gossip was true. Ernesto kills the Viscount and leaves with Teodora. The title of the play refers to Galahad, the knight who brought Lancelot and Queen Guinevere together. The Great Galeoto was received with international appreciation and it was produced in Athens in 1895, Paris in 1896, and in Boston in 1900. "Although the public consistently received Echegaray's plays with enthusiasm, the young intellectuals and writers of the day criticized extreme sentiment and exaggerated style of his dramas as artificial and outmoded. Critics attributed his "originality" to eclectic influences from the general European theatre, notably French naturalism and Ibsen... While the neoromantic elements of Echegaray's plays have historical significance in that they reflect the popular taste of his day, they have little appeal for present-day audiences." (Andrés Franco in McGraw-Hill Encyclopedia of World Drama, vol. 2, ed. by Stanley Hochman, 1984) From the 1870s to the early 1900s, Echegaray was the leading Spanish dramatist. He was elected to the Royal Spanish Academy in 1894 and in 1904 he served briefly as head of the Treasury. The literary generation that followed Echegaray, the so-called Generation of 1898, saw that his dramas represented the old neoromantic school – virtue is rewarded and vice punished. However, often Echegaray's innocent characters were also vulnerable to unforeseen consequences of fate and they were punished as well as the wicked. In 1912 Echegaray was awarded the Order of the Golden Fleece by King Alfonso XII. Echegaray's enemies were shocked when he was awarded the Nobel Prize, which they believed belonged to the novelist Benito Pérez Galdós (1843-1920), who ended his career as a playwright. Echegaray died in Madrid on September 14, 1916. Echegaray's work opened the way for the later playwrights, such as Jacinto Benavente, to revolutionize Spanish drama. For further reading: Echegaray: Su tiempo y su teatro by F. Henán (1880); Los grandes españoles: Echegaray by Antón del Olmet García A. Caraffa (1912); Un théâtre d'idées en Espagne: le théâtre de José Echegaray by H. de Curzon (1912); Echegaray: Su obra dramática by A. Gallego y Burín (1917); Modern Continental Playwrights by F.W. Chandler (1931); José Echegaray by A. Martinez de Olmedilla (1947); Echegaray by J. Mathías (1970); Lenguaje dramático y lenguaje retórico by M.I. Martín Fernandez (1981); McGraw-Hill Encyclopedia of World Drama, vol. 2, ed. by Stanley Hochman (1984); Nobel Prize Winners, ed. by Tyler Wasson (1987); Encyclopedia of World Literature in the 20th Century, vol. 2, ed. by Steven R. Serafin (1999) Selected works:
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