Tagalog literature; a historico-critical study.

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FRANCISCO BALAGTAS 57
intended to satirize the existing social and racial distinction.
This same argument was the one used 'by the plebeian Bonifacio
several decades after, when the Filipinos revolted against the
Spanish authority.
Besides these productions, Baltazar collaborated with Fr.
Rivas in writing the Claus mentioned above.
It mrust not be supposed that Baltazar wrote only comedies
and moro-moro plays. He was also a master-workman in the
lyrical compositions. Of elegies, sonnets, love songs, dirges, dalits, karagatans, kundimans and kumintangs, he had a voluminous collection. It is believed that at his death he left two trunks
full of his literary jewels, but a big fire at Udyong in 1892 destroyed them, so that only those preserved by his sons and by
those close to him, usually by means of memory. came down to us.
One thing more must not be forgotten about our poet. He
was very much different from his contemporaries in that, because they were unschooled, their production though full of
lofty imaginations are nothing but of local and provincial interest; while he, learned as he was, had his works abound in the
gems of literary thoughts, morals, and studied advices.
Baltazar was a prolific writer. The belief has descended to
us to the effect that at one sitting, he could compose a moromoro play which will take several evenings to stage. And, as
the story goes, one afternoon, as he sat playing panguingue, he
was reminded of a dramatic performance which he had to stage.
Notwithstanding that it was about time to begin the play, the
audience eagerly waiting for it, and the actors not being rehearsed, he still continued playing till the twelfth hour. When
he came, he sat at the prompter's box, dictated spontaneously
the parts to the actors, and the play went on as if it were prepared long beforehand, and to the usual, satisfaction of the audience. We are also informed by one of her grand daughters
that his attention when writing was so concentrated that a cigarette burning his fingers would not even detract him from
his work.
In fact, the truth remains that even if he did not leave to
the world his immortal Florante at Laura, he is still a great

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Baltazar's prison masterpiece is a capital book of the Fi-.