Note 3 — EL SOMBRERO DE TRES PICOS

The two may be said to complete each other, the original preface giving the account of Alarcón's first dealings with the subject, the other telling of the real writing of the book. In the preface he says that the material was turned over at first, in conference, by a number of literary men, at some date not given, but evidently of the earlier part of Alarcón's career: and that it was "assigned" to José Joaquín Villanueva, who planned a zarzuela with the title El que se fue a Sevilla, but died before his work was fairly under way. Nothing more was done until 1866, when José Zorrilla came back to Spain from Mexico. The matter was suggested to him and he planned a comedy, but did not write it. In the Historia de mis libros we read that the idea of working out the theme came back to Alarcón in connection with the promise of a short story to a popular periodical in Havana; that his interest grew as he worked at it, and that he was led by the merit friends found in the story to keep it for the Madrid public. (See preface to first edition of El Sombrero de tres picos, Madrid, 1874, beginning with chabacanería; i. e. after p. 4, line 15 of the present text; Alarcón Historia de mis libros, pp. 244-249).