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New-World Spanish Series
With notes, exercises, andvocabulary byCarlos Everett Conant, Ph.D.
Professor of Modern Languages
University of Chattanooga
Yonkers-on-Hudson, New YorkWORLD BOOK COMPANY1918
WORLD BOOK COMPANY
Established, 1905, by CASPAR W. HODGSON
Publishers of New-World Spanish Series,which includes Hall's All Spanish Method,Hall's Poco a poco, Phipp's Páginassudamericanas, Uribe's Por tierras mejicanas,Allen's Fábulas y cuentos, MartínezSierra's Teatro de ensueño, Benavente's Elpríncipe que todo lo aprendió en los libros,Benavente's Los intereses creados, Tamayoy Baus's Más vale maña que fuerza.
1918
No apology need be offered for the introduction to American schools ofanother selection from the works of so eminent a dramatist as ManuelTamayo y Baus (1829-1898).
The proverbio here presented, while one of his less pretentious works,was produced when Tamayo was at the prime of his dramatic power andpopularity, and well exemplifies his consummate skill in the teaching of amoral lesson by the ingenious and artistic handling of a situation chosenfrom the commonplaces of everyday life.
Más vale maña que fuerza was first presented at the Teatro de laZarzuela in Madrid, November 26, 1866, less than six months before theinitial appearance on the same stage, May 4, 1867, of the author'smasterpiece, Un drama nuevo.
The situation treated in Más vale maña que fuerza was suggested by a
one-act French comedy entitled La diplomatie du ménage, by Mme. Caroline
Berton, which was first given at the Théâtre Français, January 6, 1852.
Otherwise, Tamayo's work is entirely original.
With the exception of orthographic changes made in conformity with thelatest rules of the Royal Spanish Academy, the text is that of the fourthvolume of Obras de D. Manuel Tamayo y Baus, published by the Sucesoresde Rivadeneyra, Madrid, 1900.
The piece is well adapted for reading in the second year of high school,or in the latter part of the first year course in college, aftercompletion of selections in an easy Spanish reader.
Habitación decorosamente amueblada. A la izquierda una chimenea, y sobreella un espe