_=Los malhechores del bien.=_--No other play of Benavente has provoked so great an outcry as _Los malhechores del bien_. On the surface it is a clever comedy containing an arraignment of misguided charity. It was received by the audience as anti-religious propaganda. On the night of its first performance many people left the theater by way of protest. It does not seem necessary to regard a dramatist as anti-clerical because he censures and ridicules the abuses and the patronizing attitude of religious organizations. The fact that they are religious is really accidental. The fault lies in the frailty of human nature. One Spanish reviewer very sensibly treats the play as a simple comedy and deprecates the storm of disapproval that greeted its appearance.[i.9] It is worth noting that side by side with serious efforts Benavente produced between 1904 and 1906 four pieces marked exclusively by the search for comic effect. Especially amusing is _Las cigarras hormigas_, the longest member of the _Teatro_, a rollicking three act comedy, literally crammed with fun from beginning to end. =Period of Maturity.=--_Los buhos_ was first performed in February, 1907, and _La malquerida_ in December, 1913. To the seven years between these dates belong twenty-five theatrical pieces that reveal Benavente as a mature, confident, versatile dramatist. So perplexing is the succession of different types of plays that they can be logically discussed only by disregarding chronology and making divisions according to subject matter. =Moral Tendency.=--Prepared as a reader might be, after perusal of the problem plays, to anticipate further changes, he could scarcely expect from Benavente's pen simple sketches written with no other aim than to uphold humble virtues. Yet in some cases that is exactly what we find. A definite moral tone is observable in a large portion of Benavente's recent output. _Los buhos_ is a beautiful treatment of the pure affection entertained by two scholars, father and son, for two friends who are mother and daughter. _Por las nubes_ suggests emigration to South America as a remedy for the struggling middle classes; in this play there is a resort to the expedient of making one of the characters (a physician) a mouth-piece for the author's opinions. _¡A ver qué hace un hombre!_ is a plea for the unemployed workman. _Hacia la verdad_ furnishes a eulogy of simple pleasures. _De cerca_ is a literary gem that shows how the distrust existing between rich and poor may be overcome if they can learn to understand the common humanity that binds them. _La fuerza bruta_ and _La losa de los sueños_ glorify the spirit of sacrifice.