In 1913, Benavente was elected to membership in the Spanish Academy. He is widely quoted on educational and political, as well as literary affairs. He has ideals for a greater freedom than now exists in Spain and other European countries. He has traveled widely, seeing his plays performed and making friends in Russia, England, South America, and the United States. _The Passion Flower_ (_La Malquerida_), the tragedy of peasant life with colorful setting and tense emotion, has been popular in America, as a film, and as a play with Nance O’Neil as actress. The Theatre Guild of New York and the Jewish Art Theatre gave careful study to the interpretation of _The Bonds of Interest_. As in many of his plays the serious lesson is not stressed to interfere with the artistry. One of his best characterizations is Nevé, heroine of _El Hombrecito_, often compared to Ibsen’s Nora of _A Doll’s House_. Benavente believes that the inner meaning of a play must be revealed by the mind or emotions of the spectator or reader. He is deeply indebted--a debt which English and American readers share--for the intuitive, careful translations and editing of several series of his plays by John Garrett Underhill (Scribner’s, New York, 1917-1925). Only in such interpretation can one fully appreciate the strength and fineness of character-drawing, the satirical thesis, the fantasy and poetry blended in such plays as _The Governor’s Wife_, _The Prince Who Learned Everything out of Books_, _Saturday Night_, _The Other Honor_, and _The Necklace of Stars_, with its fanciful charm and sermonic lesson of love to one’s neighbor. In Ernest Boyd’s _Studies from Ten Literatures_ there is a good summary of his life and work which includes 144 plays. Mr. Boyd raises the question, “Has he been overestimated?” Possibly it is an echo of French criticism. Valuable material is found, also, in Storm Jameson’s _Modern Drama in Europe_ and _A Study of the Modern Drama_ by Barrett H. Clark (New York, 1925). A new intensive study is _Jacinto Benavente_ by Walter Starkie (New York, 1925). [Illustration: _Copyright by Underwood & Underwood, N. Y._ JACINTO BENAVENTE]