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5 translated pages

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                  STAMP 4                  THE YEAR
                  40 M.                        of 1837.
            
                                    
                                          
                  Madame,
      
                  When on 20 November 1833
            Your Majesty issued a decree creating
            a Commission to propose what
            could be convenient regarding the rights
            of dramatic writers, the establishment of
            drama schools, laws that deal with the
            author's profession, and, in general, the
            policing of spectacles; You clearly
            declared your Royal Will to be convinced
            of the decadence in which these important
            areas are currently found, as the theatre is,
            according to the same decree, an
            element of civilization that is linked
            with the prosperity of many
            industries, Your Majesty wished
            a complete legislative project
            where all the stimuli that could
            be given to an art that You wished
            to favour were gathered and that would
            compile the best improvements
            that could be done in relation
            to this area of the administrative service.
            For causes that it is

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            not worth while to specify, the results of
            such benevolent intentions had
            stopped and the work of the
            Commission had not produced
            the effect expected. Although
            the lack of this law was felt in all
            the areas embraced by the said
            decree, there are nevertheless some
            in which public opinion or necessity
            have influenced favourably, facilitating
            substantial improvements. However.
            there is one area, that of the rights of
            dramatic writers, which is totally ignored,
            and bear the burden of the greatest
            impunity; when, according to the regulation
            of free press currently in force, they had
            to be guaranteed. All dramatic
            productions staged in any theatre or printed
            and even those that have not yet
            been represented or printed, are
            quickly reproduced in the rest of the
            theatres in the Peninsula without
            prior authorisation, without the
            knowledge of the author and sometimes
            against his will. The consequences of
            this practice are not only the deprivation
            of their property, taking away the just
            profit that for their work they should
            be expecting, but also they constitute
            the reason why dramatic works

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            are represented disfigured and full
            of mutilations either because of errors
            in the copies provided or because of
            the ignorance of the actors, or the
            lack of guidance that the author
            could communicate to them, provoking
            an incalculable harm to the writers who
            dedicate themselves to write for the theatre
            and the violation of rights of property,
            guaranteed by our institutions and the
            institutions of all civilized countries.
            Therefore
            
            
            
            We beseech Your Majesty to issue a
            decree in which it is ordered that literary
            property is to be respected in all its parts,
            and thereby ordering that in no theatre
            in the Peninsula may any dramatic
            production be represented without the
            author's prior consent and an agreement
            that could secure him a compensation for
            his rights, and also prohibiting that the
            fact that play is already printed could serve
            as an excuse to contravene this general
            rule.
            Madrid 4 February 1837
            
                              Madame
            
                        A.L.R.P. de V.M.
            
            Manuel Breton            Gretorio Romero
            de los Herreros            Larrañaga
            
            Antonio Garcia Gutierrez
            
            Juan Eugenio            Eugenio de Ochoa
            Hartzenbusch

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Section 4
Circular
      
The complaints that several writers submitted to the august Queen in a
report dated on 4 February referring to the violation of the right of literary
property regarding dramatic works, have specifically caught the attention
of Her Majesty. The 24th and 26th laws of the Book 8th, 16th title of the
Novisima recopilacion guarantee and protect this property in general.
However the spirit of ignorance and preoccupation that, eager to
kill any source of enligthenment and life for the community,
consider the theatre with a patronising tendency as no more than a necessary
indulgence and treated it with distain and constantly disputed the application
of the aforementioned laws in favour of the dramatic art, an element of
civilization to which the prosperity of many industries is attached.
      
That is the reason why the right of property of the dramatic writers is
still ignored. The works represented in any theatre are frequently
reproduced in the rest of theatres in the Peninsula,* without prior
authorisation and knowledge of his author and even sometimes against
his will. This abuse does not only deprive writers from their property,
diminishing their just product of their labour but it is also the reason
why their works are represented defigured and counterfeited because of the lack
of fidelity in the copies furtively provided.
      
Informed Her Majesty of the need to stop this abuse,
She has decided for the Ministry under my charge to draft a bill that
declares, defines and assures the corresponding rights of literary property taking
into account all its peculiarities in order to submit it for deliberation by the
Cortes (Parliament).
      
But Her Majesty, who is pleased by the extraordinary flight that the Spanish
drama has taken in this era of freedom, that seems
      
      
      
      
      
      

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to promise for the reign of her august Daughter a new Golden
Age of national poetry, is equally aware that the damages suffered by
writers require a more urgent solution, and in order to provide for it,
She has furthermore decided in a provisional manner while the
said bill is yet to be discussed, approved and sanctioned, that dramatic works
as with all property, are placed under the immediate protection of the
authorities, and because these productions have a special nature with
two different realities, one in the theatre and another in the press, it
will not be possible hereinafter to represent a dramatic work in any
theatre, even when it is in print, or have been represented in another
or others without [the prior] consent of its author or owner.
      
By royal order I communicate Your Excellency for you to give the
adequate publicity to this resolution of Her Majesty and to ensure its
exact compliance. May God be with you for many years.

Madrid 5 May 1837
      
      
      
      
      
      


Translation by: José Bellido based on a previous translation by Lisa Surwillo (University of Toronto Press, 2007) pp. 155-160