Spanish literature of the present century possesses no definite character, although several writers can bear comparison with the best Spanish authors of other periods. Every school and style has been copied: Byron, Schiller, Goethe, Victor Hugo, and Dumas. The earliest author of any importance is Quintana, a correct and inspired poet. His odes on “La Imprenta,” “Panteon del Escorial,” and “Batalla de Trafalgar” are very good. Martinez de la Rosa, Lista, and Nicasio Gallegos form a group of able versifiers. Espronceda is a constant imitator of Byron, although his legend of “El Estudiante de Salamanca” is original, and a very fine composition. Zorrilla is the best representative of the romantic school of 1830-40: his works are sometimes unequal, and his legends are his best lyrical compositions. His finest dramas are “Don Juan Tenorio” and “El Zapatero y el Rey.” The “Romances” and drama of “Don Alvaro de Luna,” by the Duke of Rivas, have been very popular; but no author is so deservingly so as Breton de los Herreres, an excellent writer, who has left behind nearly one hundred comedies, some of which, “Marcela,” “Muerete y veras,” “El pelo de la dehesa,” etc., are perfect in their way. III _SPORT_ The Bull-fight, or rather Bull Feast (Fiesta de Toros), is a modern sport. Bulls were killed in ancient amphitheaters, but the present modus operandi is modern, and, however based on Roman institutions, is indubitably a thing devised by the Moors of Spain, for those in Africa have neither the sport, the ring, nor the recollection. The principle was the exhibition of horsemanship, courage and dexterity with the lance; for in the early bull-fight the animal was attacked by gentlemen armed only with the Rejon, a short projectile spear about four feet long. This was taken from the original Iberian spear, the Sparus of Sil. Ital. (viii. 523), the Lancea of Livy (xxxiv. 15), and is seen in the hands of the horsemen of the old Romano-Iberian coinage. To be a good rider and lancer was essential to the Spanish Caballero. This original form of bull-fight (now only given on grand occasions) is called a Fiesta Real. Such a one Philip IV. exhibited on the Plaza Mayor of Madrid before Charles I. of England; Ferdinand VII. in 1833, at the ratification of the Juramento, the swearing allegiance to Isabella II.; and Alfonso XII., on his marriages, January 23, 1878, and November 29, 1879. These Fiestas Reales form the coronation ceremonial of Spain, and the Caballeros en Plaza represent our champions. Bulls were killed, but no beef eaten; as a banquet was never a thing of Iberia.