ABSTRACT
The similarity between the English and the Spanish theatre resides not only in the audacious neglect of the unities of time and place, and in the mingling of comic and tragic elements: these could still be regarded as merely negative features, i.e. that they would not, or could not, comply with the rules and with reason (synonymous terms in the opinion of certain critics). The similarity, indeed, resides much deeper in the innermost substance of the works and in their fundamental configurations which make iconoclastic form a real necessity, so that its validity is also the source of its significance. What they have in common is the spirit of romantic poetry, in the context of drama. But—to keep matters within their proper perspective — in our view, the Spanish theatre is almost wholly romantic until its decline since 116the beginning of the eighteenth century; whereas the English theatre is romantic to perfection only in its founder and greatest master, Shakespeare.
