His play is called The Spanish Gipsy. The main
plot is the same as in the Spanish pieces; but there runs through it a
tragic underplot of the loves of Rodrigo and Dona Clara, which is
taken from another tale of Cervantes, La Fuerza de la Sangre. The
reader who is acquainted with La Gitanilla of Cervantes, and the plays
of Montalvan, Solis, and Middleton, will perceive that my treatment of
the subject differs entirely from theirs."
Now the autorial originality, properly considered, is threefold.
There is, first, the originality of the general thesis, secondly, that
of the several incidents or thoughts by which the thesis is developed,
and thirdly, that of manner or tone, by which means alone an old
subject, even when developed through hackneyed incidents or
thoughts, may be made to produce a fully original effect- which, after
all, is the end truly in view.
But originality, as it is one of the highest, is also one of the
rarest of merits. In America it is especially and very remarkably
rare:- this through causes sufficiently well understood. We are
content perforce, therefore, as a general thing, with either of the
lower branches of originality mentioned above, and would regard with
high favour indeed any author who should supply the great
desideratum in combining the three. Still the three should be
combined; and from whom, if not from such men as Professor Longfellow-
if not from those who occupy the chief niches in our Literary
Temple- shall we expect the combination? But in the present
instance, what has Professor Longfellow accomplished? Is he original
at any one point? Is he original in respect to the first and most
important of our three divisions? "The [subject] of the following
play," he says himself, "is taken [in part] from the beautiful play of
Cervantes, 'La Gitanilla.
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