Now then for my magnificence! my battle! my
noise! and my procession!
The Critic.

Sheridan was very proud of Pizarro. When he
printed it, he explained that as two translations of Kotze-
bue's Spaniards in Peru had already been published, the
public were in possession of all the material necessary to form a
judgment on the merits and defects of the play performed at
Drury Lane Theatre. And he added "To Her, whose approba-
tion of this drama and whose peculiar delight in the applause
it has received from the Public, have been to me the highest
gratification its success has produced -- I dedicate this play." If
these were not the declarations of conscious merit, there is no
such thing as modesty extant.

The story of this masterpiece is another example, or series of
examples, of Sheridan's procrastination. He based his play on a
literal translation, telling John Graham that he laboured for
months on his "improvements," and even for purposes of
meditation sought the seclusion of Hounslow Heath where he
"studied for it, writing it principally at the Black Dog at
Bedfont."

In the autumn of 1798a German, apparently Constantine
Geiwsweiler, brought him a translation of Der Spanier in Peru,
oder Rolla's Tod, whose capabilities, despite its execrable Eng-
lish, he perceived at a glance. He purchased it for one hundred
pounds, giving notice at once in the playbills that "a grand
new drama from the German of Kotzebue is in preparation."

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