ABSTRACT
In contrast to England, the political and intellectual history of eighteenth-century Spain offers a notoriously dreary prospect, yet that 'very fact is relevant to the emergence of toreo. The picador, however, soon became the buffoon of toreo. Characteristically, the anti-aristocratic sentiment in toreo remained purely symbolic. Romanticism may thus be seen as a movement peculiarly suited to Spanish conditions, but one which was embodied fully not in poetry or drama, as in Germany and England, not in politics, as in France and the United States, but in toreo. Philistine hostility constitutes a form of pressure upon the arts which helps, for better or worse, to add form to the outline of a particular art at a particular moment in history. And, conversely, art, according to the inclusive theory, similarly gives form to society, for whatever fundamentally influences men will take ultimately some manner of social shape.
