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ADELARDO LOPEZ DE AYALA Y HERRERA (18...

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Originally appearing in Volume V03, Page 72 of the 1911 Encyclopedia Britannica.
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LOPEZ DE See also:AYALA Y See also:HERRERA (1828–1879)  , See also:Spanish writer and politician, was See also:born at Guadalcanal on the 1st of May 1828, and at a very See also:early See also:age began See also:writing for the See also:theatre of his native See also:town . The titles of these juvenile performances, which were played by amateurs, were Salga See also:por donde saliere, Me voy 4 Sevilla and La See also:Corona y el Fugal . As travelling companies never visited Guadalcanal, and as ladies took no See also:part in the representations, these three plays were written for men only . See also:Ayala persuaded his See also:sister to appear as the heroine of his See also:comedy, La primera Dama, and the innovation, if it scandalized some of his townsmen, permitted him to develop his See also:talent more freely . In his twentieth See also:year he matriculated at the university of See also:Seville, but his career as a student was undistinguished . In Seville he made acquaintance with See also:Garcia Gutierrez, who is reported to have encouraged his dramatic ambitions and to have given him the benefit of his own experience as a playwright . Early in 1850 Ayala removed his name from the university books, and settled in See also:Madrid with the purpose of becoming a professional dramatist . Though he had no See also:friends and no See also:influence, he speedily found an opening . A four-See also:act See also:play in See also:verse, Un Hombre de Estado, was accepted by the managers of the Teatro Espanol, was given on the 25th of See also:January 1851, and proved a remarkable success . Henceforward Ayala's position and popularity were secure . Within a twelve-See also:month he became more widely known by his Castigo y Perden, and by a more humorous effort, Los dos Guzmanes; and shortly afterwards he was appointed by the Moderado See also:government to a See also:post in the See also:home See also:office, which he lost in 1854 on the See also:accession to See also:power of the Liberal party . In 1854 he produced See also:Rioja, perhaps the most admired and the most admirable of all his See also:works, and from 1854 to 1856 he took an active part in the See also:political See also:campaign carried on in the See also:journal El Padre Cobos .

A zarzuela, entitled Guerta a muerte, for which Emilio Arrieta composed the See also:

music, belongs to 1855, and to the same collaboration is due El Agente de Matrimonios . At about this date Ayala passed over from the Moderates to the Progressives, and this political manoeuvre had its effect upon the See also:fate of his plays . The performances of Los Comuneros were attended by members of the different parties; the utterances of the different characters were taken to represent the author's See also:personal opinions, and every speech which could be brought into connexion with current politics was applauded by one See also:half of the See also:house and derided by the other half . A zarzuela, named El See also:Conde de Castralla, was given amid much uproar on the 20th of See also:February 1856, and, as the piece seemed likely to cause serious disorder in the theatre, it was suppressed by the government after the third performance . Ayala's rupture with the Moderates was . now See also:complete, and in 1857, through the See also:interest of O'Donnell, he was elected as Liberal See also:deputy for See also:Badajoz . His political changes are difficult to follow, or to explain, and they have been unsparingly censured . So far as can be judged, Ayala had no strong political views, and drifted with the current of. the moment . He took part in the revolution of 1868, wrote the " Manifesto of See also:Cadiz," took office as colonial See also:minister, favoured the candidature of the duc de See also:Montpensier, resigned in 1871, returned to his early Conservative principles, and was a member of Alfonso XII.'s first See also:cabinet . Meanwhile, however divided in See also:opinion as to his political conduct, his countrymen were practically unanimous in admiring his dramatic See also:work; and his reputation, if it gained little by El Nuevo See also:Don Juan, was greatly increased by El Tanto por Ciento and El Tejado de Vidrio . His last play, Consuelo, was given on the 3oth of See also:March 1878 . Ayala was nominated to the post of See also:president of See also:congress shortly before his See also:death, which occurred unexpectedly on the 3oth of January 1879 . The best of his lyrical work, excellent for finish and intense sincerity, is his Epistola to Emilio Arrieta, and had he chosen to dedicate himself to lyric See also:poetry, he might possibly have ranked with the best of See also:Spain's See also:modern singers; as it is, he is a very considerable poet who affects the dramatic See also:form .

In his later writings he deals with modern society, its vices, ideals and perils; yet in many essentials he is a See also:

manifest See also:disciple of See also:Calderon . He has the See also:familiar Calderonian limitations; the substitution of types for characters, of eloquence for vital See also:dialogue . Nor can he equal the See also:sublime lyrism of his See also:model; but he is little inferior in poetic conception, in dignified idealization, and in picturesque imagery . And it may be fairly claimed for him that in El Tejado de Vidrio and El See also:Tanta por Ciento he displays a very exceptional See also:combination of satiric intention with romantic See also:inspiration . By these plays and by Rioja and Consuelo he is entitled to be judged . They will at least ensure for him an See also:honourable See also:place in the See also:history of the modern Spanish theatre . A complete edition of his dramatic works, edited by his friend and See also:rival Tamayo y Baus, has been published in seven volumes (Madrid, 1881–1885) . (J . F.-K.) AYE-AYE, a word of uncertain signification (perhaps only an exclamation), but universally accepted as the designation of the most remarkable and aberrant of all the Malagasy lemurs (see See also:PRIMATES) . The aye-aye, Chiromys (or Daubentonia) madagascariensis, is an See also:animal with a superficial resemblance to a See also:long-haired and dusky-coloured See also:cat with unusually large eyes . It has a broad rounded See also:head, See also:short See also:face, large naked eyes, large hands, and long thin fingers with pointed claws, of which the third is remarkable for its extreme, slenderness . The 'See also:foot resembles that of the other lemurs in its large opposable See also:great toe with a See also:flat See also:nail; but all the other toes have pointed compressed claws .

Tail long and bushy . See also:

General See also:colour dark See also:brown, the See also:outer See also:fur being long and rather loose, with a woolly under-coat . Teats two, . inguinal in position . The aye-aye was discovered by See also:Pierre Sonnerat in 178o, the specimen brought to See also:Paris by that traveller being the only one known until 186o . Since then many others have been obtained, and one lived for several years in the gardens of the Zoological Society of See also:London . Like so many lemurs, it is completely nocturnal in its habits, living either alone or in pairs, chiefly in the See also:bamboo forests . Observations upon See also:captive specimens have led to the conclusion that it feeds principally on juices, especially of the See also:sugar-See also:cane, which it obtains by tearing open the hard woody circumference of the stalk with its strong incisor See also:teeth; but it is said also to devour certain See also:species of See also:wood-See also:boring caterpillars, which it obtains by first cutting down with its teeth upon their burrows, and then• picking them out of their See also:retreat with the claw of its attenuated See also:middle See also:finger., It constructs large See also:ball-like nests of dried leaves, lodged in a See also:fork of the branches of a large See also:tree, and with the opening on one See also:side . Till recently the aye-aye was regarded as representing a See also:family by itself—the Ch'iromyidae; but the See also:discovery that it resembles the other lemurs of See also:Madagascar in the structure of the inner See also:ear, and thus differs from all other members of the See also:group, has led to the conclusion that it is best classed as a subfamily (Chiromyidae) of the Lemuridae, (R .

End of Article: ADELARDO LOPEZ DE AYALA Y HERRERA (1828–1879)
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