as proof of its continued popularity. Besides
these many editions of the play, numerous novels, poems, and operas have
appeared from time to time. For the most complete bibliography down to
1907 the reader is again referred to that of the official historian of
Teruel, Gascon y Guimbao. We must now turn our attention to the author
of the best dramatic treatment of the legend.

#IV. Life of Hartzenbusch#. Juan Eugenio Hartzenbusch, born in 1806,
was the only son of a German cabinet-maker who had wandered to Spain
from his home near Cologne, married a Spanish girl, and opened up a shop
in Madrid. The son inherited from his German father and Spanish mother
traits of character that were exemplified later in his life and
writings. From his father he received a fondness for meditation,
conscientious industry in acquiring sound scholarship, and the patience
needed for the continual revision of his plays; from his mother came his
ardent imagination and love of literature. Childhood and youth were for
him a period of disappointment and struggle against adversity. Less than
two years old when his mother died after a short period of insanity
caused by the sight of bloodshed in the turbulent streets of Madrid in
1808, he was left to the care of a brooding father who had little
sympathy with his literary aspirations, but who did wish to give him the
best education he could afford. He received a common school education
and was permitted to spend the four years from 1818 to 1822 in the
College of San Isidro. As a result of the political troubles in Spain in
1823, the father's business, never very prosperous, fell away and the
son had to leave college to help in the workshop. He was thus compelled
to spend a large part of his time in making furniture, although his
inclination was toward literature.

His leisure was given to study and to the acquirement of a practical
knowledge of the dramatic art, gained for the most part from books,
because of his father's dislike of the theater and because of the lack
of money for any unnecessary expenditure. He translated several French
and Italian plays, adapted others to Spanish conditions, and recast
various _comedias_ of the _Siglo de Oro_, with a view to making them
more suitable for presentation. He tried his hand also at original
production and succeeded in getting some of his plays on the stage, only
to have them withdrawn almost immediately. Undiscouraged by repeated
failure, he continued