LOS INTERESES CREADOS, los in'ta ra'ses kra'a-dos ((The Bonds of Interest)), by Jacinto Benavente, the most popular and widely-known production of Spanish letters during the 20th century, was first presented at Madrid, 9 Dec. 1907. With this comedy the modern movement in Spanish art attained full maturity, the play taking its place immediately among the classics of the stage. The theme is the duality of human nature in the conflict be tween the real and the ideal, ever present to the Spaniard in the persons of Don Quixote and Sancho Panza, but here transferred to the domain of the will and embodied in Leander and his servant, the rogue Crispin, to whom falls the task of grovelling that his master may rise. The philosophy of the play is prag matic, while life is depicted as a series of ap proximations incapable of unification. In feel ing and technique, 'Los Intereses Creados' belongs to the neo-romantic school, of which it must be accounted one of the finest exam ples. Delicacy of poetic feeling is combined with an unfailing many-sided humanity in a portrayal of varied lights and shades, which is reinforced by the vivid colors of the satiric picaresque tradition, and couched in a diction which is among the most notable specimens of modern Spanish prose. Although employing
the forms of the Italian commedia deli' one Benavente as in his other an absolute de-artificialization of theatric effect. A continuation, 'La Ciudad Alegre y Confiada,' followed in 1916, but in this the intellectual element is directly predominant, both in con ception and style, the second part being wholly distinct from its predecessor.
'Los Intereses Creados' has been translated into the principal European languages. It is included in Benavante's 'Teatro' (Vol. XVI, Madrid 1908), having previously been issued independently by the Sociedad de Autores Espafioles. The English version is published in the 'Plays by Jacinto Benavente' (New York 1917).