Produced by Stan Goodman,ásvalemañ Nieves Rodríguez and the PG Online Distributed Proofreading Team.
With notes, exercises, and vocabulary by Carlos Everett Conant, Ph.D.
Professor of Modern Languages University of Chattanooga
_Yonkers-on-Hudson, New York_ WORLD BOOK COMPANY 1918
WORLD BOOK COMPANY Established, 1905, by CASPAR W. HODGSON
YONKERS-ON-HUDSON, NEW YORK 2126 PRAIRIE AVENUE, CHICAGO
Publishers of New-World Spanish Series, which includes _Hall's_ All Spanish Method, _Hall's_ Poco a poco, _Phipp's_ Páginas sudamericanas, _Uribe's_ Por tierras mejicanas, _Allen's_ Fábulas y cuentos, _Martínez Sierra's_ Teatro de ensueño, _Benavente's_ El príncipe que todo lo aprendió en los libros, _Benavente's_ Los intereses creados, _Tamayo y Baus's_ Más vale maña que fuerza.
No apology need be offered for the introduction to American schools of another selection from the works of so eminent a dramatist as Manuel Tamayo y Baus (1829-1898).
The _proverbio_ here presented, while one of his less pretentious works, was produced when Tamayo was at the prime of his dramatic power and popularity, and well exemplifies his consummate skill in the teaching of a moral lesson by the ingenious and artistic handling of a situation chosen from the commonplaces of everyday life.
_Más vale maña que fuerza_ was first presented at the Teatro de la Zarzuela in Madrid, November 26, 1866, less than six months before the initial appearance on the same stage, May 4, 1867, of the author's masterpiece, _Un drama nuevo_.
The situation treated in _Más vale maña que fuerza_ was suggested by a one-act French comedy entitled _La diplomatie du ménage_, by Mme. Caroline Berton, which was first given at the Théâtre Français, January 6, 1852. Otherwise, Tamayo's work is entirely original.
With the exception of orthographic changes made in conformity with the latest rules of the Royal Spanish Academy, the text is that of the fourth volume of _Obras de D. Manuel Tamayo y Baus_, published by the Sucesores de Rivadeneyra, Madrid, 1900.
The piece is well adapted for reading in the second year of high school, or in the latter part of the first year course in college, after completion of selections in an easy Spanish reader.
Habitación decorosamente amueblada. A la izquierda una chimenea, y sobre ella un espejo; dos butacas al lado de la chimenea; un balcón; a la derecha, dos puertas; un piano; un velador con un quinqué encendido; un costurero, libros y otros objetos; puerta en el foro.