AGUSTIN

DURAN (1789-1862)  , Spanish scholar, was born in 1789 at Madrid, where his father was court physician . He was sent to the seminary at Vergara, whence he returned learned in the traditions of Spanish romance . In 1817 he began the study of philosophy and law at the university of Seville, and in due course was admitted to the bar at Valladolid . From 1821 to 1823 he held a post in the education department at Madrid, but in the latter year he was suspended on account of his political opinions . In 1834 he became secretary of the board for the censorship of the press, and shortly afterwards obtained a post in the national library at Madrid . The revolution of 184o led to his dismissal; but he was reinstated in 1843, and in 1854 was appointed chief librarian . Next year, however, he retired to devote himself to his literary work . In 1828, shortly after his first discharge from office, he published anonymously his Discurso sobre el injlujo que ha tenido la critica moderna en la decadencia del teatro antiguo; this treatise greatly influenced the younger dramatists of the day . He next endeavoured to interest his fellow-countrymen in their ancient, neglected ballads, and in the forgotten dramas of the 17th century . Five volumes of a Romancero general appeared from 1828 to 1832 (republished, with considerable additions, in 2 vols . 1849-1851), and Talia espanola (1834), a reprint of old Spanish comedies . Duran's Romancero general is the fullest collection of the kind and is therefore unlikely to be superseded, though the texts are inferior to those edited by Menendez y Pelayo .