NUREZ DE ARCE, del Heflin, GASPAR ( 1834 1903 ). A Spanish playwright and lyric poet, born at Valladolid. Before he was twenty he was asso ciated with the editorial staff of the Madrid jour nal El Obscrrador. Ile soon gained considerable repute by his contributions to the periodical La Iberia, as correspondent for which he went through the African eampaign (1859-60). He entered the Cortes in 1865, and after the troubles of 1868 he became Civil Governor of Barcelona. In 1882 he became Minister of Colonial Affairs un der Sagasta. Nunez de arse is of decided merit, both as a dramatist and as a lyric poet, and his verse enjoys widespread popularity in Spanish America as well as in Spain. In 1875 he pub lished a collection of lyrics under the title of Grito.9 del combatc, a title indicative of the pas sion and patriotic energy of most of them. Since it appeared, he has produced other poems of some length, that have likewise won popular favor: the Idilio; the like the Idilio, in 1878; the Ultima lamentarian de Lord Byron (1878) ; the Feetigo (1879, one of the most famed of his works and one which has provoked much imita tion, creating a school of his followers in the legend), a graphic description of the crime and remorse of a modern Cain; the Vision de Fray Martin (1880), a psychological study of Luther; La pesea (1884), a charming idyll; and Maruja.
As a dramatist, he has written both alone and in collaboration with Antonio Hurtado. His indi vidual works are the comedies, Deudas de la honra, Quien debe page, and Justicia providen dial, in all of which he cultivates the drama of manners, already made successful by Tamayo y Bans and Ayala, and the Ha: dc (eral. a tragedy both historical and psychological in its tenden cies. This last piece deals with the story of Philip II. and his son, Don Carlos. The editions of his lyrics are legion. That of Gritos del con 1891) contains also his prose Dis corso sobre la. poesia. His chief plays are to be found in the Obras dranufticaN eseagidas (Madrid, 1879). Consult also the study of him by Menen dez y Pelayo, in volume ii. of Novo y Colson's Autores drainotieos contemporthieas, reprinted in the critic's Estudios de critiea literaria (1884).