A Translation of Leandro Fernandez De Moratns El S de las Nias / An Innocent Girls Consent

Description

Following the Wars of the Spanish Succession in the early years of the eighteenth century, France sent a prince to become King Felipe V of Spain. With him came French Neo-Classicism into the Spanish court, an effect lasting into the nineteenth century. During this period the dramatists in Spain most often wrote translations of French plays, or their own, according to the strict Neo-Classical rules of time, place and action. Leandro Fernndez de Moratn was schooled by his father and the fathers friends in the Neo-Classic traditions, but he felt the differences between the French sense of good taste and the Spanish spirit that appreciates, even thrives on, the pleasures and sorrows of our human drama. In the play El s de las nias , Moratn adheres to the Neo-Classical rules. The action of the play takes place in one location during the course of one night. The main characters are all of the same social class in spite of significant economic differences. The play is a delightful farce, although in the early nineteenth century it was seen and even banned as sacrilegious by Spains Catholic Church. It is a love story about an older man, never married, who hopes to wed a young girl who will love and care for him in his dotage. His wealth will sustain not only the girl, but her impoverished mother who favors the marriage for her own benefits. Without the mothers knowledge the girl has met and fallen in love with a handsome young army officer who gave her a false name. In fact, he is the nephew and presumed heir of the older man. For a work of the early nineteenth century, El s de las nias was much more lively and popular than others, and, even today and in translation it is a very vibrant play.