*DURAN, DON AGUSTIN, a Spanish critical and miscellaneous writer of great influence and reputation, was born at Madrid towards the close of the 18th century; we are not told by his biographers in what year, but as he was admitted to practice as au advocate in 1817, and the legal age for such admission is in Spain fixed at twenty-four, the date of his birth cannot be later than 1793. He lost his mother early ; his father, who was physician to the royal family, was unable to send him to the usual places of education on account of his ill health, to which he was from childhood a martyr. At Vergara, to which he was sent for the benefit of the country air, be went through a course of reading such as his own pleasure dictated, the old romaucea, the story of the Cid, and the comedies of Calderon and Moreto, and when he returned to Madrid ha had completely forgotten what Latin and mathematics he had learned. He was also such a firm believer in ghosts that, to cure him, his father found it necessary to make him go through the discipline of attending a course of dissections. Under the guidance of Manuel Quintana, the poet, and Alberto Lista, the literary historian, both friends of the elder Duran, and both, till very lately, still living friends of the younger, he soon recovered his lost ground, and if we may believe his Spanish biographers, made such progress in metaphysics as to "comprehend easily the works of Kant and his disciples," but as in the last work that Duran has published he avows himself to be utterly unacquainted with German, their state menta seem to require modification. Though admitted an advocate he never appears to have pursued the law, but to have occupied him self with politics and literature. In 1821 he obtained an appointment in the "Direction general de eatudios," or department of public instruc tion, which he lost in consequence of his political opinions being of a liberal cast, on the French invasion of 1823 ; in 1834 he was named secretary of the board for the inspection of printing-houses, and soon afterwards one of the secretaries of the national library at Madrid. In the Galeria de Eaparealea Celebrea; it is said that he was the principal librarian, but this appears to be a mistake ; in the ' Catalogo del Muaeo de Antiguedades,' by Castellanos de Losada, himself an official of the library, it is stated that the then principal librarian was Petal°, author of El Bibliotecario,' and that Duran, who was dismissed for political causes in 1840 and re-appointed in 1843, is now the elder librarian (Bibliotecario decano) and second in rank, the first being Breton de los Herreroa, the noted dramatist.
The first work by which Duran became known was his essay On the influence which modern criticism has exercised on the decline of the Spanish drama, and the manner in which that drama ought to be considered to form a proper estimate of its peculiar merits,' Madrid, 1828. In this production, which contained much that was novel to the Spanish reader, but much that was otherwise to those acquainted with the writings of Schlegel, Duran, who had for a short time been induced to submit to the now antiquated French school of criticism, returned to his youthful allegiance to Calderon and Lope do Vega, and contended for the principles of testheties, to which the epithet of rornantio' has been generally applied. Ills book came exactly at the right moment. A complete revolution has taken place in the state, of the Spanish drama, mainly produced by this work of Duran, and by the encouragement which ha gave in society to the young author.
who showed a disposition to adopt his principles, and undoubtedly the most brilliant epoch in its history since the time of Canizaree is that of the last quarter of a century. His next step was also one that had been suggested by the example of the Germans. He pub liahed in 1828 a Romancer° de Romances Moriscos,' or collection of the old Spanish ballads on Moorish subjects, on the plan of that of Dapping. Duran remarks in his preface on the attention that had been paid of late year. to the elder Spanish literature in Germany, France, and England, and observes that in a abort time the Spaniards would have to go to foreign libraries to study the works that belonged to themseleea. The observation is so true, that of the materials for recent collections of Spanish ballads, some are to be found only at Prague and some at the British Museum. The success of Duran'e ' Romancers' was great, and it was followed up in subsequent year. by Romiumeres ' on other subjects and other collections by the same editor, till a series was formed which was indispensable in every good Spanish library. In 1849 and 1851 he re-edited the whole of the ballads as a portion of the extensive Biblioteca de Autores Espalioles; issued at Madrid by Aribau and Rivadeneyra, the greatest and most useful undertaking that has been ventured on for the last century by a Spanish publisher. The new edition is called 'Romancers General,' or Collection of Spanish ballade anterior to the 1Sth century, cor rected, arranged, classified, and annotated by Don Agnetin Duran, and ounpies two volumes of more than 600 pages earl, closely printed in double columns. In the prefaces the author does not forget to acknowledge his obligations to foreign critics who have treated of the subject. in particular to Ferdinand Wolff of Vienna, and in biblio graphical notices appended he treats in full of ell previous collections of the ballads in a way to supersede all bibliography on the subject of an earlier date. Duran has written several but not numerous articles in various periodioals on literary topics, in particular one in the 'Itevieta de Madrid' Lope de Vega.' Some years ago ho commenced the publication of what was intended to be an extensive collection of the old Spanish comedies, with critical remarks, but it was dropped in a short time for went of encouragement, after a few numbers of ' Tirso de Molina' had been issued. lie has completed in manuscript a history of the Spauieh theatre from its origin to the middle of the 18th century, including a bibliography of all the plays extant, which is likely when it appears to supersede even the valuable history by Schack. In poetry he has been chiefly successful in pro ducing excellent imitations of the older Spanish writers, with all the peculiarities of their antiquated language applied to modern events, the marriage of Queen Christina, &c. As a political writer he manifests, like many other writers of his country, RD exaggerated notion of its import anoe, and what seems to an Englishman a very Inadequate notion of the services rendered to it by England in the Peninsular war : thus be concludes a violent philippic against England by the observation that "Spain has almost always been the shield of Europe, almost always it lute repressed social catastrophes, and always Europe has been ungrate ful." Don Agustin is a knight of the order of Carlos III., which he received in 1888, and a member of the Royal Spanish Academy.