VICTORIAN [without] Chispa!
CHISPA. Go to bed, Pero Grullo, for the cocks are crowing.
VICTORIAN. Ea! Chispa! Chispa!
CHISPA. Ea! Senor. Come with me, ancient Baltasar, and bring water
for the horses. I will pay for the supper tomorrow. [Exeunt.]
Now here the question occurs- what is accomplished? How has the
subject been forwarded? We did not need to learn that Victorian was in
love- that was known before; and all that we glean is that a stupid
imitation of Sancho Panza drinks in the course of two minutes (the
time occupied in the perusal of the scene) a bottle of vino tinto,
by way of Pedro Ximenes, and devours a stewed kitten in place of a
rabbit.
In the beginning of the play this Chispa is the valet of
Victorian; subsequently we find him the servant of another; and near
the denouement he returns to his original master. No cause is
assigned, and not even the shadow of an object is attained; the
whole tergiversation being but another instance of the gross
inconsequence which abounds in the play.
The authors deficiency of skill is especially evinced in the scene
of the eclaircissement between Victorian and Preciosa. The former
having been enlightened respecting the true character of the latter by
means of a letter received at Guadarrama, from a friend at Madrid (how
wofully inartistical is this!), resolves to go in search of her
forthwith, and forthwith, also, discovers her in a wood close at hand.
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