It is in two acts; and the catastrophe--which consists of the confusion of the author and his family at the failure of his performance--is brought on with skill, and with an effect much greater than the simplicity of the action had promised. The piece, therefore, was received with a favor which even Moratin and his friends had not anticipated. The poet, who is its victim, was recognized at once to be Comella. Some of the inferior characters, whether justly or not, were appropriated to other persons who figured at the time, and the “New Play” was acknowledged to be a brilliant satire;--severe indeed, but well merited and happily applied. From this time, therefore, which was 1792, Moratin, notwithstanding the exasperated opposition of the adherents of the old school, had secured for himself a permanent place on the national stage, and, what is more remarkable, this little drama, almost without a regular action and founded on interests purely local, was, for the sake of its wit and originality, translated and successfully represented both in France and Italy.[386] [386] From a letter of Moratin, published in the Semanario Pintoresco, (1844, p. 43,) it seems that Comella and his friends prevented for some time the representation of the “Comedia Nueva,” and that the permission to act it was not granted till it had undergone five different examinations, and not till the very day for which it had been announced was come. The applause of the public, however, made amends to Moratin for the trouble which the intrigues of his rivals and enemies had given him. “The Baron,” which is in two acts and in verse, was at first prepared to be sung; and, without the permission of the author, was altered to an acting drama and performed in public during his absence from Spain. On his return, he improved it by material additions, and produced it again in 1803. It is the least effective of his theatrical performances; but it triumphed over a cabal, which supported a drama written on the same subject and represented at the same time, in order to interfere with its success.