Ramón de la Cruz

Background

Ramón de la Cruz was born on 28 March in 1731 in Madrid, Spain and lived there throughout his life.

Career

Ramon was a protégé of the Duke of Alba and of the Duchess of Benavente, in whose palace he resided for many years until his death in 1794. At the beginning of his literary career, he wrote Neoclassical tragedies and comedies, often no more than translations from French and Italian models. He also rewrote some of Calderón's autos which had been popular in the previous century. The most famous of his translations was Hamlet (1772), based on a French version of Shakespeare's tragedy. In certain of his plays with musical accompaniment, such as Quién complace a la deidad acierta a sacrificar (1758), he reacted against the Italian opera and created a new dramatic form closely linked to the Spanish comedia tradition of the 17th century. After 1762 Ramón de la Cruz dedicated himself almost exclusively to the sainete, a typically Spanish dramatic form developed from Lope de Rueda's 16th century pasos and Cervantes' entremeses. The sainete is a short comic interlude, popular in character, often written in the octosyllabic verse of the Spanish ballad, and containing interspersed songs. In Ramón de la Cruz's sainetes appear all types and costumes of the Spanish 18th century. Perhaps the most interesting are El Rastro por la mañana (1770), El Prado por la noche (1764), and La Pradera de San Isidro (1766), in which he depicts the life of Madrid in his time. In the face of the intellectually fashionable literary attitudes imported from France and England, he maintained a firm faith in native literary traditions.

Achievements

• Ramon is the author of three hundred sainetes, little farcical sketches of city life, written to be played between the acts of a longer play. He published a selection in ten volumes (Madrid, 1786–1791). The best of his pieces, such as Las Tertulias de Madrid, are specimens of satiric observation.

Works

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  • De tres. ninguna (Spanish Edition)

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  • El gracioso engaño creído del duende fingido (Spanish Edition)

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  • Fandango de candil, El (Spanish Edition)

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  • Fantasma del lugar, La (Spanish Edition)

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  • Hospital de la moda, El (Spanish Edition)

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  • La embarazada ridícula (Spanish Edition)

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  • La falsa devota (Spanish Edition)

    (Este libro ha sido convertido a formato digital por una c...)