Of Jose Zorilla as a poet there is little need to speak.  His countrymen read his voluminous works, but they are not of any real value.  Campoamor describes his Dorloras as “poetic compositions combining lightness, sentiment, and brevity with philosophic importance.”  His earlier works were studied from Shakespeare and from Byron, who was the star of the age when Campoamor began to write.  His most ambitious work, the Universal Drama, is “after Dante and Milton.”  He is a great favourite with his fellow-countrymen, both as poet and companion.  He is a member of the Academy and a Senator.

It is impossible, however, to do more than indicate a few of the writers who are leaders in the literature of Spain to-day.  There has, in fact, been an immense impulse in the production of books of all classes within the last twenty or thirty years.  In fiction, Spain once more aspires to have a characteristic literature of her own, in place of relying on translations from the French, as was the case for a brief time before her political renaissance began.

A notable departure has been the foundation of the Folklore Society, and the publication up to the present time of eleven volumes under the name of Biblioteca de las Tradiciones Populares Espanolas, under the direction of Senor Don Antonio Machado y Alvarez.  In the introduction to the first volume, the Director tells us that, with the help of the editor of El Folklore Andaluz and his friends, D. Alejandro Guichot y Sierra and D. Luis Montolo y Raustentrauch, he has undertaken this great work, which arose out of the Bases del Folklore Espanol, published in 1881, and the two societies established in 1882, the Folklore Andaluz and Folklore Extremeno.  These societies have for object the gathering together, copying, and publishing of the popular beliefs, proverbs, songs, stories, poems, the old customs and superstitions of all parts of the Peninsula, including Portugal, as indispensable materials for the knowledge and scientific reconstruction of Spanish culture.  In this patriotic and historical work many writers have joined, each bringing his quota of garnered treasure-trove, presenting thus, in a series of handy little volumes, a most interesting collection of the ancient customs, beliefs, and, in fact, the folklore of a country exceptionally rich in widely differing nationalities.

Many of the tales, which it would seem even at the present time, especially in Portugal and Galicia, are told in the evening, and have rarely found their way into print, have the strong stamp of the legitimate Eastern fable, and bear a great family resemblance to those of the Arabian Nights.  As, in fact, the Thousand and One Nights was very early published in Spanish, it is probable that its marvellous histories were known verbally to the people of the Iberian continent for many centuries, and have coloured much of its folklore. The Ingenious Student