Page:The New International Encyclopædia 1st ed. v. 12.djvu/510

* liOFEZ. 452 LOPEZ DE AYAXA. his father, jirepared secretly for a forcible an- nexation to Paraguay of parts of Brazil, the Argentine Kepublic, and liolivia. In 1862 he succeeded his father in the Presidency, and in 1804 he called on Brazil to withdraw her troops from Uruguay, where a civil war was in prog- ress, in which Brazil had intervened. Upon the refusal of Brazil he took possession of the Province of Matto Grosso. In 1805 he invaded the Brazilian Province of Rio Grande do Sul, Bending 8000 troops through the territory of the Argentine Kepublic for that purpose, and when the Argentine Government protested he declared ■war against it. Congress now conferred upon liim extraordinary powers, and lie invaded the Ar- gentine Kepublic before the declaration of war had readied Buenos Ayrcs. Brazil, Uruguay, and the Argentine Repulilic entered into an alliance against him, and in ISfiU invaded Para- guay. The war lasted four years, Lopez recruit- ing' liis forces by a conscription of all persons betwei'n the ages of twelve and seventy, and offer- ing a desperate resistance to the enemy. In 1868 the Brazilian fleet l)onJ)arded Asuncion, and Lo- pez, spurred to madness by liis reverses, arrested and put to torture many of the civil officers of the Government and the foreign dii)loiiiatic corps on a cliargc of conspiracy. A number were ex- ecuted, among them his own brother ami sister, and the lives of some of the members of the American mission were saved only by the timely arrival of an American squadron. Finally, on March 1, 1870, Lopez, who had gradually been driven into the north of Paraguay, was overtaken by tlic Brazilian cavalrj* at the Aquidaban River and killed. From Europe Lopez had brought with liim a certain Jlrs. Lynch as his mistress. She was a woman of great force of cliaracter and inllucnced his career decidedly. After his dcatli slie was allowed to remain in Paraguay unmolested. LOPEZ, Xarciso (1709-1851). A Spanish- American soldier and filibuster, born in Vene- zuela. He entered the Spanish .service, and was at one time intrusted with important commands; but, having lost the favor of the Spanish Gov- ernment, he came to the United States, and in 1849, 1850, and 1851 planned, with the aid of Governor Quitman of Mississippi and other Southerners, to seize Cuba. The first expedition failed bei'aise of the interference of the United States authorities. The second landed in Cuba, but was soon driven out. The third and most important was fitted out at New' Orleans. Lopez oflfered the chief command to Jcll'erson Davis, then a United States Senator, who, however, declined and suggested Robert E. Lee, who like- wise declined. Lopez then decided to command the expedition himself, and on ,ugust .3, 1851, sailed with about 500 followers on the steamer Pompero. The filibusters succeeded in landing on the coast of Cuba about sixty miles from Havana, but were soon attacked by an over- Xvhclming force and killed, captured, or dispersed. A great many of the captives were executed, while others were imprisoned, Lopez himself ■was taken, and was garroted at Havana, Septem- ber 1. 1851. LOPEZ DE AYALA, lO'path dA a-ya'14, Adel.rdo (1828-79). A Spanish dramatist and poet, born in the District of Seville. May 1, 1828. He studied law at the University of Seville and then went to Madrid. There, before he was twenty-one years of age, he produced his first drama, El honibre de estado, which won praise from the critics, and was performed in 1851. In 1857 he was elected a Deputy to the Cortes from Badajoz. Acquiescing in the revolution of 1868, he accommodated himself also to later changes in the Administration, and was a member of the first Cabinet under Alfonso XII. He died rather suddenly at Madrid, .January 30, 1879, be- ing then president of the Congress. In literature Ayala is a figure of the period following that of the nineteenth century Romanticism in Spain, and his work is marked by good taste and temperance of expression. His lyrics are few in number, but are of rather high poetic merit, especially his sonnets. One of these, the Dame, Seiior, la firriie voluntud, was set to music by his friend Arricta and is sung every year at the services in com- memoration of his death. The best of the lyrics is the Epislola in octaves, addressed to Arricta. As a dramatist, Ayala represents a psychological tendency in Spanish letters. This tendency is clear in Ayala's very first play, the Uoiiibic de estado, dealing with the tragic story of a per- sonage of the seventeenth centurj', the statesman and lover Don Rodrigo Calderon. Several minor dramas followed, and for a while the pl^ct gave himself up to the writing of :ai:ziiclas or vainle- ville plays. In 1854 ajjpeared the Uioja, a piece superior in many ways to the Hoinhre dc cslado. The moral purpose is manifest in the Tcjado de ridrio, a drama of much merit. A still greater development in art is seen in the Tanto por clento (So Much Per Cent.), a piece merciless in its .sociological analysis. Not long after the ap- pearance of this play he was presented with a gold crown paid for by public subscription. Ayala's dramatic fame rcaclied its height with the Consuclo ( 1878). As in the Tantu pur ririito, he here attacks the element of jiositivism in our modern life. Con.sult the edition of his Obnis (plays and dramas) in the Coleccidn de escri- tores castella)ios, 7 vols., lyrics in vol. vii. : Blanco-Garcfa, La literatura cspatlola en el sirjlo A7.V., parte segiinda (Madrid, 1891). LOPEZ DE AYALA, Pedro (1332-1407). A Spanish author, born in 1332, He was of noble origin and held office under Peter the Cruel. Henrv 11., John I., and Henry III., becoming Grand Chancellor of the Realm in 1398. He was twice made captive by enemies of his country, once by the Black Prince and again at Aljubar- rota (1385), and during this second captivity he spent fifteen months in an iron cage at Oviedes. Although he was incessantly active in politi- cal life, Ayala none the less seems to have found leisure to carry on literary pursuits. In Spanish literature of the fourteenth century he assumes a distinguished place by reason of his historical labors, his translations, and his verse. As a translator he rendered into Cas- tilian Guido delle Colonne's IJistnria Troiana, parts of Livy's work, and Boccaccio's De Casi- bus Virorum Illustriiim. His knowdedge of Livy's methods stood him in good stead in his Cronicas de los reyes de Castilla, a work show- ing a tendency to avoid legendary accounts, to sift evidence carefully, and to record personal experience. In his long poem, the Rirnado de Palacio — a name given to it by others — he in- corporates matter of personal experience. The poem is satirical and didactic. Its earlier part is in the cuaderna via, the quatrain stanza that