Jacinto Benavente y Martínez
Jacinto
Benavente y Martínez, (b. Aug. 12, 1866,
Madrid, Spain—d. July 14, 1954, Madrid),
one of the foremost Spanish dramatists
of the 20th century, who was awarded the
Nobel Prize for Literature in 1922. He
returned drama to reality by way of
social criticism: declamatory verse
giving way to prose, melodrama to
comedy, formula to experience, impulsive
action to dialogue and the play of
minds. Benavente showed a preoccupation
with aesthetics and later with ethics.
The
extent to which he broadened the scope
of the theatre is shown by the range of
his plays—e.g., Los intereses creados
(performed 1903, published 1907; The
Bonds of Interest, performed 1919), his
most celebrated work, based on the
Italian commedia dell’arte; Los
malhechores del bien (performed 1905;
The Evil Doers of Good); La noche del
sábado (performed 1903; Saturday Night,
performed 1926); and La malquerida
(1913; “The Passion Flower”), a rural
tragedy with the theme of incest. La
malquerida was his most successful play
in Spain and in North and South America.
Señora Ama (1908), said to be his own
favourite play, is an idyllic comedy set
among the people of Castile.
In 1928
his play Para el cielo y los altares
(“Toward Heaven and the Altars”),
prophesying the fall of the Spanish
monarchy, was prohibited by the
government. During the Spanish Civil War
Benavente lived in Barcelona and
Valencia and was for a time under
arrest. In 1941 he reestablished himself
in public favour with Lo increíble (“The
Incredible”). His extraordinary
productivity as a dramatist (he wrote
more than 150 plays) recalled Spain’s
Golden Age and the prolific writer Lope
de Vega. With the exception, however, of
the harsh tragedy La infanzona (1948;
“The Ancient Noblewoman”) and El lebrel
del cielo (1952), inspired by Francis
Thompson’s poem “Hound of Heaven,”
Benavente’s later works did not add much
to his fame.
