SOURCE: “More on Martínez de la Rosa's Literary Atrophy or Creative Sagacity,” in Hispanofila, Vol. 31, No. 3, May, 1988, pp. 29-36.

In the following essay, Mayberry asserts that Martínez de la Rosa's tragedies display little artistic innovation, and rather rely on a formula derived from Sophocles's Oedipus Rex.

Martínez de la Rosa is well known to students of Spanish literature as the author of La conjuración de Venecia, the play that introduced Romantic drama to Spain. Somewhat less well known is his Aben-Humeya, the play composed in French and performed in France before being translated into Spanish and performed in Madrid in 1836. Almost totally consigned to oblivion today are his other five tragedies.¹ The purpose of this paper is to examine all of Martínez de la Rosa's tragedies, their numerous similarities, and the sources which led to the development of Martínez' tragic formula.

In...