The author has, however, succeeded admirably in exhibiting a striking contrast in the characters of two Spanish grandees:--the one is a base courtier, named Manrique; while the other, Garcia de Castro, in all his sentiments and actions is a correct representative of the spirit of ancient Spanish chivalry in its purest dignity. In the patriotic portraiture of this character, La Huerta’s whole soul is developed;[608] and the national spirit which pervades the tragedy, doubtless contributed in no small degree to ensure its celebrity. La Huerta’s tragedy of _Agamemnon Vengado_, is a work of trivial importance compared with Rachel. It is founded on the prose translation of the Electra of Sophocles, which Perez de Oliva produced two hundred years earlier;[609] but it is a remarkable, and by no means unsuccessful attempt to unite the romantic and the classic forms, according to the conditions required by a modern audience. La Huerta wrote his Agamemnon in compliance with the wishes of some ladies of Madrid, who were desirous of seeing a tragedy in the Grecian costume. The place of the chorus is, after the French manner, supplied by a female confidante. Part of the scenes are entirely taken from Sophocles, others are those of the original remoulded, and some are new. From the beginning to the end of the tragedy, the poetic language is admirably preserved; and the alternation of the rhymeless iambics with octaves and lyric metres, completes the beauty of the whole.[610] Finally, La Huerta adapted Voltaire’s _Zaire_ to the Spanish stage. After he had unquestionably acquired the right of pronouncing a decided opinion on the literature of his country, he published his _Theatro Hespañol_; and in his prefaces to some of the volumes of that collection, he launched forth his invectives against the French drama.[611] La Huerta’s _Theatro Hespañol_ is a classic selection from the incalculable store of Spanish dramas; and the selection is certainly well made consistently with the plan which he had adopted. With the view of marking his hostility towards the Gallicists, he selected only those Spanish comedies which are particularly distinguished for elegant ingenuity in point of invention and execution. Thus upwards of three-fourths of the whole collection consists of _comedias de capa y espada_, chiefly from the pen of Calderon. But for this very reason the work does not properly fulfil its title, as it exhibits the Spanish theatre only under one point of view. La Huerta has not even selected a single piece from Lope de Vega, because the plays of that great dramatist were not sufficiently elegant for his purpose: neither has he granted a place to the most beautiful of Calderon’s heroic comedies, being deterred from inserting them by their irregularity; and in conformity with the plan he had laid down, he could with still less propriety admit an _Auto_ into his collection. By this work he, however, attained the objects he had in view, which