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diff --git a/.gitattributes b/.gitattributes new file mode 100644 index 0000000..d7b82bc --- /dev/null +++ b/.gitattributes @@ -0,0 +1,4 @@ +*.txt text eol=lf +*.htm text eol=lf +*.html text eol=lf +*.md text eol=lf diff --git a/LICENSE.txt b/LICENSE.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..6312041 --- /dev/null +++ b/LICENSE.txt @@ -0,0 +1,11 @@ +This eBook, including all associated images, markup, improvements, +metadata, and any other content or labor, has been confirmed to be +in the PUBLIC DOMAIN IN THE UNITED STATES. + +Procedures for determining public domain status are described in +the "Copyright How-To" at https://www.gutenberg.org. + +No investigation has been made concerning possible copyrights in +jurisdictions other than the United States. Anyone seeking to utilize +this eBook outside of the United States should confirm copyright +status under the laws that apply to them. diff --git a/README.md b/README.md new file mode 100644 index 0000000..2256d1c --- /dev/null +++ b/README.md @@ -0,0 +1,2 @@ +Project Gutenberg (https://www.gutenberg.org) public repository for +eBook #54928 (https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/54928) diff --git a/old/54928-0.txt b/old/54928-0.txt deleted file mode 100644 index db499da..0000000 --- a/old/54928-0.txt +++ /dev/null @@ -1,23388 +0,0 @@ -The Project Gutenberg EBook of History of Spanish Literature, vol. 1 (of 3), by -George Ticknor - -This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere in the United States and most -other parts of the world at no cost and with almost no restrictions -whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or re-use it under the terms of -the Project Gutenberg License included with this eBook or online at -www.gutenberg.org. If you are not located in the United States, you'll have -to check the laws of the country where you are located before using this ebook. - - - -Title: History of Spanish Literature, vol. 1 (of 3) - -Author: George Ticknor - -Release Date: June 17, 2017 [EBook #54928] - -Language: English - -Character set encoding: UTF-8 - -*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK SPANISH LITERATURE *** - - - - -Produced by Josep Cols Canals, Ramon Pajares Box, and the -Online Distributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net -(This file was produced from images generously made -available by The Internet Archive/Canadian Libraries) - - - - - - -TRANSCRIBER’S NOTE - - * Italics are denoted by underscores as in _italics_, and small caps - are represented in upper case as in SMALL CAPS. - - * Obvious printer errors have been silently corrected. - - * Original spelling was kept, but variant spellings were made - consistent when a predominant usage was found. - - * Footnotes have been renumbered into a single series and placed at - the end of the paragraph that includes each anchor. - - * Footnotes inside a footnote are not numbered, but marked with [*] - and placed at the end of the main footnote. They are found at - footnotes [23], [142], [154] and [251]. - - * The anchor placements for footnote [543] (p. 331) and footnote - [696] (p. 421) are conjectured. No anchors were found in the - printed original. - - * Caesuras in split verses have been marked as “ · ”. - - - - - HISTORY - OF - SPANISH LITERATURE. - - VOL. I. - - - - - HISTORY - OF - SPANISH LITERATURE. - - - BY - GEORGE TICKNOR. - - - IN THREE VOLUMES. - - VOLUME I. - - - NEW YORK: - HARPER AND BROTHERS, 82 CLIFF STREET - M DCCC XLIX. - - - - - Entered according to Act of Congress, in the year 1849, by - GEORGE TICKNOR, - in the Clerk’s Office of the District Court of the District of - Massachusetts. - - - - -PREFACE. - - -In the year eighteen hundred and eighteen I travelled through a large -part of Spain, and spent several months in Madrid. My object was to -increase a very imperfect knowledge of the language and literature -of the country, and to purchase Spanish books, always so rare in the -great book-marts of the rest of Europe. In some respects, the time of -my visit was favorable to the purposes for which I made it; in others, -it was not. Such books as I wanted were then, it is true, less valued -in Spain than they are now, but it was chiefly because the country was -in a depressed and unnatural state; and, if its men of letters were -more than commonly at leisure to gratify the curiosity of a stranger, -their number had been materially diminished by political persecution, -and intercourse with them was difficult because they had so little -connection with each other, and were so much shut out from the world -around them. - -It was, in fact, one of the darkest periods of the reign of Ferdinand -the Seventh, when the desponding seemed to think that the eclipse was -not only total, but “beyond all hope of day.” The absolute power -of the monarch had been as yet nowhere publicly questioned; and his -government, which had revived the Inquisition and was not wanting in -its spirit, had, from the first, silenced the press, and, wherever -its influence extended, now threatened the extinction of all generous -culture. Hardly four years had elapsed since the old order of things -had been restored at Madrid, and already most of the leading men of -letters, whose home was naturally in the capital, were in prison or -in exile. Melendez Valdes, the first Spanish poet of the age, had -just died in misery on the unfriendly soil of France. Quintana, in -many respects the heir to his honors, was confined in the fortress of -Pamplona. Martinez de la Rosa, who has since been one of the leaders of -the nation as well as of its literature, was shut up in Peñon on the -coast of Barbary. Moratin was languishing in Paris, while his comedies -were applauded to the very echo by his enemies at home. The Duke de -Rivas, who, like the old nobles of the proudest days of the monarchy, -has distinguished himself alike in arms, in letters, and in the civil -government and foreign diplomacy of his country, was living retired -on the estates of his great house in Andalusia. Others of less mark -and note shared a fate as rigorous; and, if Clemencin, Navarrete, and -Marina were permitted still to linger in the capital from which their -friends had been driven, their footsteps were watched and their lives -were unquiet. - -Among the men of letters whom I earliest knew in Madrid was Don José -Antonio Conde, a retired, gentle, modest scholar, rarely occupied -with events of a later date than the times of the Spanish Arabs, -whose history he afterwards illustrated. But, far as his character -and studies removed him from political turbulence, he had already -tasted the bitterness of a political exile; and now, in the honorable -poverty to which he had been reduced, he not unwillingly consented -to pass several hours of each day with me, and direct my studies in -the literature of his country. In this I was very fortunate. We read -together the early Castilian poetry, of which he knew more than he -did of the most recent, and to which his thoughts and tastes were -much nearer akin. He assisted me, too, in collecting the books I -needed;--never an easy task where bookselling, in the sense elsewhere -given to the word, was unknown, and where the Inquisition and the -confessional had often made what was most desirable most rare. But Don -José knew the lurking-places where such books and their owners were to -be sought; and to him I am indebted for the foundation of a collection -in Spanish literature, which, without help like his, I should have -failed to make. I owe him, therefore, much; and, though the grave has -long since closed over my friend and his persecutors, it is still a -pleasure to me to acknowledge obligations which I have never ceased to -feel. - -Many circumstances, since the period of my visit to Spain, have -favored my successive attempts to increase the Spanish library I then -began. The residence in Madrid of my friend, the late Mr. Alexander -Hill Everett, who ably represented his country for several years at -the court of Spain; and the subsequent residence there, in the same -high position, of my friend, Mr. Washington Irving, equally honored -on both sides of the Atlantic, but especially cherished by Spaniards -for the enduring monument he has erected to the history of their early -adventures, and for the charming fictions, whose scene he has laid in -their romantic country;--these fortunate circumstances naturally opened -to me whatever facilities for collecting books could be afforded by the -kindness of persons in places so distinguished, or by their desire to -spread among their countrymen at home a literature they knew so well -and loved so much. - -But to two other persons, not unconnected with these statesmen and men -of letters, it is no less my duty and my pleasure to make known my -obligations. The first of them is Mr. O. Rich, formerly a Consul of the -United States in Spain; the same bibliographer to whom Mr. Irving and -Mr. Prescott have avowed similar obligations, and to whose personal -regard I owe hardly less than I do to his extraordinary knowledge of -rare and curious books, and his extraordinary success in collecting -them. The other is Don Pascual de Gayangos, Professor of Arabic in the -University of Madrid,--certainly in his peculiar department among -the most eminent scholars now living, and one to whose familiarity -with whatever regards the literature of his own country, the frequent -references in my notes bear a testimony not to be mistaken. With the -former of these gentlemen I have been in constant communication for -many years, and have received from him valuable contributions of books -and manuscripts collected in Spain, England, and France for my library. -With the latter, to whom I am not less largely indebted, I first became -personally acquainted when I passed in Europe the period between 1835 -and 1838, seeking to know scholars such as he is, and consulting, -not only the principal public libraries of the Continent, but such -rich private collections as those of Lord Holland in England, of M. -Ternaux-Compans in France, and of the venerated and much-loved Tieck in -Germany; all of which were made accessible to me by the frank kindness -of their owners. - -The natural result of such a long-continued interest in Spanish -literature, and of so many pleasant inducements to study it, has -been--I speak in a spirit of extenuation and self-defence--_a book_. In -the interval between my two residences in Europe I delivered lectures -upon its principal topics to successive classes in Harvard College; -and, on my return home from the second, I endeavoured to arrange -these lectures for publication. But when I had already employed much -labor and time on them, I found--or thought I found--that the tone of -discussion which I had adopted for my academical audiences was not -suited to the purposes of a regular history. Destroying, therefore, -what I had written, I began afresh my never unwelcome task, and so -have prepared the present work, as little connected with all I had -previously done as it, perhaps, can be, and yet cover so much of the -same ground. - -In correcting my manuscript for the press I have enjoyed the counsels -of two of my more intimate friends; of Mr. Francis C. Gray, a scholar -who should permit the world to profit more than it does by the large -resources of his accurate and tasteful learning, and of Mr. William -H. Prescott, the historian of both hemispheres, whose name will not -be forgotten in either, but whose honors will always be dearest to -those who have best known the discouragements under which they have -been won, and the modesty and gentleness with which they are worn. To -these faithful friends, whose unchanging regard has entered into the -happiness of all the active years of my life, I make my affectionate -acknowledgments, as I now part from a work in which they have always -taken an interest, and which, wherever it goes, will carry on its pages -the silent proofs of their kindness and taste. - - Park Street, Boston, 1849. - - -I cannot dismiss the last sheet of this History, without offering my -sincere thanks to the conductors of the University Press at Cambridge, -and to Mr. George Nichols, its scholarlike corrector, for the -practised skill and conscientious fidelity with which, after it was in -type, my work has been revised and prepared for publication. - - - - - CONTENTS - OF - VOLUME FIRST. - - - FIRST PERIOD. - - THE LITERATURE THAT EXISTED IN SPAIN BETWEEN THE FIRST APPEARANCE - OF THE PRESENT WRITTEN LANGUAGE AND THE EARLY PART OF THE REIGN - OF THE EMPEROR CHARLES THE FIFTH, OR FROM THE END OF THE TWELFTH - CENTURY TO THE BEGINNING OF THE SIXTEENTH. - - - CHAPTER I. - - INTRODUCTION. - - Origin of Modern Literature 3 - Its Origin in Spain 4 - Its earliest Appearance there 5 - Two Schools 5 - The National School 6 - It appears in troubled Times 6 - The Arab Invasion 7 - Christian Resistance 8 - Christian Successes 8 - Battle of Navas de Tolosa 9 - Earliest National Poetry 10 - - - CHAPTER II. - - EARLY NATIONAL LITERATURE. - - Appearance of the Castilian 11 - Poem of the Cid 12 - Its Hero 13 - Its Subject 15 - Its Character 16 - Book of Apollonius 24 - Saint Mary of Egypt 25 - Three Holy Kings 26 - All anonymous 27 - Gonzalo de Berceo 28 - His Works 28 - His Versification 29 - His San Domingo 30 - His Milagros de la Vírgen 30 - - - CHAPTER III. - - ALFONSO THE WISE, OR THE LEARNED. - - His Birth 35 - Letter to Perez de Guzman 36 - His Death 38 - His Cántigas 39 - Galician Dialect 40 - Querellas and Tesoro 44 - His Ultramar 45 - Castilian Prose 46 - Fuero Juzgo 47 - Setenario 49 - Espejo 49 - Fuero Real 49 - Siete Partidas 49 - Character of Alfonso 54 - - - CHAPTER IV. - - LORENZO SEGURA AND DON JUAN MANUEL. - - Juan Lorenzo Segura 56 - His Anachronisms 57 - His Alexandro 58 - Los Votos del Pavon 60 - Sancho el Bravo 61 - Don Juan Manuel 61 - His Life 62 - His Works 64 - Letter to his Brother 68 - His Counsels to his Son 69 - His Book of the Knight 69 - His Conde Lucanor 70 - His Character 74 - - - CHAPTER V. - - ALFONSO THE ELEVENTH.--ARCHPRIEST OF HITA.--ANONYMOUS - POEMS.--THE CHANCELLOR AYALA. - - Alfonso the Eleventh 76 - Poetical Chronicle 77 - Beneficiado de Ubeda 78 - Archpriest of Hita 78 - His Works 79 - His Character 84 - Rabbi Don Santob 86 - La Doctrina Christiana 88 - Una Revelacion 88 - La Dança General 89 - Fernan Gonzalez 91 - Poema de José 95 - Rimado de Palacio 99 - Castilian Literature thus far 103 - Its Religious Tone 103 - Its Loyal Tone 103 - Its Popular Character 104 - - - CHAPTER VI. - - OLD BALLADS. - - Popular Literature 106 - Four Classes of it 108 - First Class, Ballads 108 - Theories of their Origin 109 - Not Arabic 110 - National and Indigenous 111 - Redondillas 111 - Asonantes 112 - Easy Measure and Structure 113 - General Diffusion 114 - Their Name 115 - Their History 116 - Their great Number 118 - Preserved by Tradition 119 - When first printed 120 - First Ballad-book 126 - Other Ballad-books 128 - Romancero General 128 - Not to be arranged by Date 129 - - - CHAPTER VII. - - OLD BALLADS CONCLUDED. - - Ballads of Chivalry 131 - On Charlemagne 132 - Historical Ballads 134 - On Bernardo del Carpio 135 - On Fernan Gonzalez 138 - On the Infantes de Lara 139 - On the Cid 140 - On various Historical Subjects 145 - Loyalty of the Ballads 145 - Ballads on Moorish Subjects 146 - On National Manners 148 - Character of the Old Ballads 153 - Their Nationality 154 - - - CHAPTER VIII. - - CHRONICLES. - - Second Class of Popular - Literature 156 - Chronicles and their Origin 157 - Royal Chronicles 157 - Crónica General 158 - Its Divisions and Subjects 159 - Its Poetical Portions 161 - Its Character 166 - Chronicle of the Cid 166 - Its Origin 167 - Its Subject 169 - Its Character 172 - - - CHAPTER IX. - - CHRONICLES CONTINUED. - - Chronicles of Alfonso the Wise, - Sancho the Brave, and - Ferdinand the Fourth 173 - Chronicle of Alfonso the - Eleventh 175 - Chronicles of Peter the Cruel, - Henry the Second, John - the First, and Henry the - Third 177 - Chronicle of John the Second 183 - Chronicles of Henry the Fourth 187 - Chronicles of Ferdinand and - Isabella 189 - Royal Chronicles cease 190 - - - CHAPTER X. - - CHRONICLES CONCLUDED. - - Chronicles of Particular Events 192 - El Passo Honroso 193 - El Seguro de Tordesillas 195 - Chronicles of Particular Persons 197 - Pero Niño 197 - Alvaro de Luna 198 - Gonzalvo de Córdova 200 - Chronicling Accounts of Travels 202 - Ruy Gonzalez de Clavijo 203 - Columbus 206 - Balboa, Hojeda, and Others 211 - Romantic Chronicles 212 - Don Roderic 212 - Character of the Chronicles 215 - - - CHAPTER XI. - - ROMANCES OF CHIVALRY. - - Origin of Romantic Fiction 218 - Appearance in Spain 220 - Amadis de Gaula 221 - Its Date 221 - Its Author, Lobeira 221 - Portuguese Original lost 223 - Translated by Montalvo 223 - Its Success 224 - Its Story 225 - Its Character 229 - Esplandian 231 - Family of Amadis 233 - Influence of the Amadis 234 - Palmerin de Oliva 235 - Primaleon and Platir 236 - Palmerin of England 236 - Family of Palmerin 238 - - - CHAPTER XII. - - ROMANCES OF CHIVALRY CONCLUDED. - - Various Romances 241 - Lepolemo 242 - Translations from the French 243 - Carlo Magno 244 - Religious Romances 245 - The Celestial Chivalry 246 - Period of Romances 249 - Their Number 249 - Founded in the State of Society 250 - Knight-errantry no Fiction 251 - Romances believed to be true 252 - Passion for them 253 - Their Fate 254 - - - CHAPTER XIII. - - THE EARLY DRAMA. - - Religious Origin of the Modern - Drama 255 - Its Origin in Spain 257 - Earliest Representations 258 - Mingo Revulgo 260 - Rodrigo Cota 261 - The Celestina 262 - First Act 263 - The Remainder 264 - Its Character 267 - Its Popularity 268 - Imitations of it 269 - - - CHAPTER XIV. - - THE EARLY DRAMA CONTINUED. - - Juan de la Enzina 273 - His Works 274 - His Representaciones 275 - Eclogues in Form 276 - Religious and Secular 276 - First acted Secular Dramas 277 - Their Character 278 - Portuguese Theatre 282 - Gil Vicente 282 - Writes partly in Spanish 283 - Auto of Cassandra 285 - O Viudo 289 - Other Dramas 290 - His Poetical Character 292 - - - CHAPTER XV. - - THE EARLY DRAMA CONCLUDED. - - Slow Progress of the Drama 293 - Escriva 293 - Villalobos 294 - Question de Amor 294 - Torres Naharro 295 - His Propaladia 295 - His Eight Dramas 296 - His Dramatic Theory 296 - La Trofea 298 - La Hymenea 299 - Intriguing Story and Buffoon 301 - His Versification 303 - His Plays acted 304 - No Popular Drama founded 305 - - - CHAPTER XVI. - - PROVENÇAL LITERATURE IN SPAIN. - - Provence 306 - Its Language 307 - Connection with Catalonia 308 - With Aragon 309 - Provençal Poetry 310 - Its Character 311 - In Catalonia and Aragon 312 - War of the Albigenses 312 - Provençal Poetry under Peter - the Second 313 - Under Jayme the Conqueror 314 - His Chronicle 315 - Ramon Muntaner 318 - His Chronicle 318 - Provençal Poetry decays 322 - - - CHAPTER XVII. - - CATALONIAN AND VALENCIAN POETRY. - - Floral Games at Toulouse 326 - Consistory of Barcelona 328 - Poetry in Catalonia and Valencia 329 - Ausias March 331 - His Poetry 332 - Jaume Roig 333 - His Poetry 334 - Decay of Catalonian Poetry 337 - Decay of Valencian 338 - Influence of Castile 338 - Poetical Contest at Valencia 338 - Valencians write in Castilian 340 - Preponderance of Castile 340 - Prevalence of the Castilian 343 - - - CHAPTER XVIII. - - COURTLY SCHOOL IN CASTILE. - - Early Influence of Italy 346 - Religious 347 - Intellectual 348 - Political and Commercial 349 - Connection with Sicily 350 - With Naples 351 - Similarity in Languages 351 - Italian Poets known in Spain 351 - Reign of John the Second of - Castile 352 - His Poetical Court 354 - Troubadours and Minnesingers 355 - Poetry of John 356 - Marquis of Villena 357 - His Arte Cisoria 360 - His Arte de Trobar 361 - His Trabajos de Hércules 362 - Macias el Enamorado 364 - - - CHAPTER XIX. - - THE COURTLY SCHOOL CONTINUED. - - The Marquis of Santillana 366 - Connected with Villena 370 - Imitates the Provençals 371 - Imitates the Italians 372 - Writes in the Fashionable Style 373 - His Comedieta de Ponza 375 - His Proverbs 377 - His Letter to the Constable of - Portugal 378 - His Character 378 - Juan de Mena 379 - Relations at Court 380 - His Works 382 - Poem on the Seven Deadly Sins 383 - His Coronation 383 - His Labyrinth 384 - His Character 387 - - - CHAPTER XX. - - COURTLY SCHOOL CONTINUED. - - Progress of the Language 389 - Villasandino 391 - Francisco Imperial 393 - Other Poets 393 - Prose-writers 394 - Gomez de Cibdareal 395 - His Letters 395 - Perez de Guzman 398 - His Friends the Cartagenas 399 - His Poetry 400 - His Generaciones y Semblanzas 401 - - - CHAPTER XXI. - - THE MANRIQUES, THE URREAS, AND JUAN DE PADILLA. - - Family of the Manriques 403 - Pedro Manrique 403 - Rodrigo Manrique 404 - Jorge Manrique 406 - His Coplas 406 - Family of the Urreas 410 - Lope de Urrea 411 - Gerónimo de Urrea 411 - Pedro de Urrea 411 - Padilla el Cartuxano 412 - - - CHAPTER XXII. - - PROSE-WRITERS OF THE LATTER PART OF THE FIFTEENTH CENTURY. - - Juan de Lucena 415 - His Vita Beata 416 - Alfonso de la Torre 417 - His Vision Deleytable 417 - Diego de Almela 418 - His Valerio de las Historias 419 - Alonso Ortiz 420 - His Tratados 420 - Fernando del Pulgar 420 - His Claros Varones 421 - His Letters 422 - Romantic Fiction 424 - Diego de San Pedro 424 - His Carcel de Amor 424 - Question de Amor 426 - - - CHAPTER XXIII. - - THE CANCIONEROS AND THE COURTLY SCHOOL CONCLUDED. - - Fashion of Cancioneros 428 - Cancionero of Baena 428 - Cancioneros of Estuñiga, etc. 430 - First Book printed in Spain 431 - Cancionero General 432 - Its different Editions 433 - Its Devotional Poetry 433 - Its First Series of Authors 435 - Its Canciones 437 - Its Ballads 438 - Its Invenciones 438 - Its Motes 439 - Its Villancicos 440 - Its Preguntas 440 - Its Second Series of Authors 441 - Its Poems at the End 442 - Number of its Authors 443 - Rank of many of them 443 - Character of their Poetry 444 - Reign of Ferdinand and Isabella 444 - State of Letters 445 - - - CHAPTER XXIV. - - DISCOURAGEMENTS OF SPANISH CULTURE AT THE END OF THIS PERIOD, - AND ITS GENERAL CONDITION. - - Spanish Intolerance 446 - Persecution of Jews 446 - Persecution of Moors 446 - Inquisition, its Origin 447 - Its Establishment in Spain 448 - Its first Victims Jews 448 - Its next Victims Moors 449 - Its great Authority 450 - Punishes Opinion 451 - State of the Press 451 - Past Literature of Spain 452 - Promise for the Future 453 - - - SECOND PERIOD. - - THE LITERATURE THAT EXISTED IN SPAIN FROM THE ACCESSION OF THE - AUSTRIAN FAMILY TO ITS EXTINCTION; OR FROM THE BEGINNING OF THE - SIXTEENTH CENTURY TO THE END OF THE SEVENTEENTH. - - CHAPTER I. - - CONDITION OF SPAIN DURING THESE TWO CENTURIES. - - Periods of Literary Glory 457 - Period of Glory in Spain 458 - Hopes of Universal Empire 458 - These Hopes checked 459 - Luther and Protestantism 460 - Protestantism in Spain 460 - Assailed by the Inquisition 461 - Protestant Books forbidden 461 - The Press subjected 462 - Index Expurgatorius 462 - Power of the Inquisition 463 - Its Popularity 465 - Protestantism driven from Spain 466 - Learned Men persecuted 466 - Religious Men persecuted 467 - Degradation of Loyalty 468 - Increase of Bigotry 468 - Effect of both on Letters 469 - Popular Feeling 470 - Moral Contradictions 470 - The Sacrifices that follow 471 - Effect on the Country 471 - - - CHAPTER II. - - ITALIAN SCHOOL OF BOSCAN AND GARCILASSO. - - State of Letters at the End of - the Reign of Ferdinand and - Isabella 473 - Impulse from Italy 474 - Spanish Conquests there 475 - Consequent Intercourse 476 - Brilliant Culture of Italy 477 - Juan Boscan 478 - He knows Navagiero 479 - Writes Poetry 480 - Translates Castiglione 481 - His Coplas Españolas 482 - His Imitation of the Italian - Masters 483 - Its Results 485 - Garcilasso de la Vega 486 - His Works 489 - His First Eclogue 490 - His Versification 493 - His Popularity 495 - Italian School introduced 496 - - - CHAPTER III. - - CONTEST CONCERNING THE ITALIAN SCHOOL. - - Followers of Boscan and - Garcilasso 497 - Fernando de Acuña 497 - Gutierre de Cetina 500 - Opponents of Boscan and - Garcilasso 501 - Christóval de Castillejo 501 - Antonio de Villegas 503 - Gregorio de Silvestre 505 - Controversy on the Italian - School 507 - Its final Success 508 - - - CHAPTER IV. - - DIEGO HURTADO DE MENDOZA. - - His Birth and Education 510 - His Lazarillo de Tórmes 511 - Its Imitations 512 - He is a Soldier 514 - Ambassador of Charles the - Fifth 514 - A Military Governor 515 - Not favored by Philip the - Second 516 - He is exiled from Court 516 - His Poetry 517 - His Satirical Prose 519 - His Guerra de Granada 520 - His Imitation of Tacitus 522 - His Eloquence 526 - His Death 527 - His Character 528 - - - CHAPTER V. - - DIDACTIC POETRY AND PROSE.--CASTILIAN LANGUAGE. - - Early Didactic Poetry 529 - Luis de Escobar 529 - Alonso de Corelas 531 - Gonzalez de la Torre 531 - Didactic Prose 531 - Francisco de Villalobos 532 - Fernan Perez de Oliva 534 - Juan de Sedeño 536 - Cervantes de Salazar 536 - Luis Mexia 537 - Pedro Navarra 537 - Pedro Mexia 537 - Gerónimo de Urrea 538 - Palacios Rubios 539 - Alexio de Vanegas 539 - Juan de Avila 540 - Antonio de Guevara 540 - His Relox de Príncipes 541 - His Década de los Césares 543 - His Epístolas 543 - His other Works 545 - The Diálogo de las Lenguas 546 - Its Probable Author 546 - State of the Castilian Language - from the Time of Juan de - Mena 547 - Contributions to it 548 - Dictionaries and Grammars 549 - The Language formed 550 - The Dialects 550 - The Pure Castilian 551 - - - CHAPTER VI. - - HISTORICAL LITERATURE. - - Chronicling Period gone by 553 - Antonio de Guevara 553 - Florian de Ocampo 554 - Pedro Mexia 555 - Accounts of the New World 556 - Fernando Cortés 556 - Francisco Lopez de Gomara 557 - Bernal Diaz 558 - Gonzalo Fernandez de Oviedo 559 - His Historia de las Indias 560 - His Quinquagenas 562 - Bartolomé de las Casas 563 - His Brevísima Relacion 565 - His Historia de las Indias 566 - Vaca, Xerez, and Çarate 567 - Approach to Regular History 568 - - - - - HISTORY - OF - SPANISH LITERATURE. - - - FIRST PERIOD. - - - THE LITERATURE THAT EXISTED IN SPAIN BETWEEN THE FIRST - APPEARANCE OF THE PRESENT WRITTEN LANGUAGE AND THE EARLY PART OF - THE REIGN OF THE EMPEROR CHARLES THE FIFTH; OR FROM THE END OF - THE TWELFTH CENTURY TO THE BEGINNING OF THE SIXTEENTH. - - - - - HISTORY - OF - SPANISH LITERATURE. - - - FIRST PERIOD. - - - - -CHAPTER I. - -DIVISION OF THE SUBJECT.--ORIGIN OF SPANISH LITERATURE IN TIMES OF -GREAT TROUBLE. - - -In the earliest ages of every literature that has vindicated for itself -a permanent character in modern Europe, much of what constituted its -foundations was the result of local situation and of circumstances -seemingly accidental. Sometimes, as in Provence, where the climate was -mild and the soil luxuriant, a premature refinement started forth, -which was suddenly blighted by the influences of the surrounding -barbarism. Sometimes, as in Lombardy and in a few portions of France, -the institutions of antiquity were so long preserved by the old -municipalities, that, in occasional intervals of peace, it seemed as if -the ancient forms of civilization might be revived and prevail;--hopes -kindled only to be extinguished by the violence amidst which the first -modern communities, with the policy they needed, were brought forth -and established. And sometimes both these causes were combined with -others, and gave promise of a poetry full of freshness and originality, -which, however, as it advanced, was met by a spirit more vigorous than -its own, beneath whose predominance its language was forbidden to rise -above the condition of a local dialect, or became merged in that of -its more fortunate rival;--a result which we early recognize alike in -Sicily, Naples, and Venice, where the authority of the great Tuscan -masters was, from the first, as loyally acknowledged as it was in -Florence or Pisa. - -Like much of the rest of Europe, the southwestern portion, now -comprising the kingdoms of Spain and Portugal, was affected by nearly -all these different influences. Favored by a happy climate and soil, by -the remains of Roman culture, which had lingered long in its mountains, -and by the earnest and passionate spirit which has marked its people -through their many revolutions down to the present day, the first -signs of a revived poetical feeling are perceptible in the Spanish -peninsula even before they are to be found, with their distinctive -characteristics, in that of Italy. But this earliest literature of -modern Spain, a part of which is Provençal and the rest absolutely -Castilian or Spanish, appeared in troubled times, when it was all but -impossible that it should be advanced freely or rapidly in the forms it -was destined at last to wear. For the masses of the Christian Spaniards -filling the separate states, into which their country was most -unhappily divided, were then involved in that tremendous warfare with -their Arab invaders, which, for twenty generations, so consumed their -strength, that, long before the cross was planted on the towers of the -Alhambra, and peace had given opportunity for the ornaments of life, -Dante, Petrarca, and Boccaccio had appeared in the comparative quiet of -Lombardy and Tuscany, and Italy had again taken her accustomed place at -the head of the elegant literature of the world. - -Under such circumstances, a large portion of the Spaniards, who -had been so long engaged in this solemn contest, as the forlorn -hope of Christendom, against the intrusion of Mohammedanism[1] and -its imperfect civilization into Europe, and who, amidst all their -sufferings, had constantly looked to Rome, as to the capital seat of -their faith, for consolation and encouragement, did not hesitate again -to acknowledge the Italian supremacy in letters,--a supremacy to which, -in the days of the Empire, their allegiance had been complete. A school -formed on Italian models naturally followed; and though the rich and -original genius of Spanish poetry received less from its influence -ultimately than might have been anticipated, still, from the time of -its first appearance, its effects are too important and distinct to be -overlooked. - - [1] August Wilhelm von Schlegel, Ueber Dramatische Kunst, - Heidelberg, 1811, 8vo, Vorlesung XIV. - -Of the period, therefore, in which the history of Spanish literature -opens upon us, we must make two divisions. The first will contain the -genuinely national poetry and prose produced from the earliest times -down to the reign of Charles the Fifth; while the second will contain -that portion which, by imitating the refinement of Provence or of -Italy, was, during the same interval, more or less separated from the -popular spirit and genius. Both, when taken together, will fill up -the period in which the main elements and characteristics of Spanish -literature were developed, such as they have existed down to our own -age. - - * * * * * - -In the first division of the first period, we are to consider the -origin and character of that literature which sprang, as it were, from -the very soil of Spain, and was almost entirely untouched by foreign -influences. - -And here, at the outset, we are struck with a remarkable circumstance, -which announces something at least of the genius of the coming -literature,--the circumstance of its appearance in times of great -confusion and violence. For, in other portions of Europe, during -those disastrous troubles that accompanied the overthrow of the Roman -power and civilization, and the establishment of new forms of social -order, if the inspirations of poetry came at all, they came in some -fortunate period of comparative quietness and security, when the minds -of men were less engrossed than they were wont to be by the necessity -of providing for their personal safety and for their most pressing -physical wants. But in Spain it was not so. There, the first utterance -of that popular feeling which became the foundation of the national -literature was heard in the midst of the extraordinary contest which -the Christian Spaniards, for above seven centuries, urged against -their Moorish invaders; so that the earliest Spanish poetry seems but -a breathing of the energy and heroism which, at the time it appeared, -animated the great mass of the Spanish Christians throughout the -Peninsula. - -Indeed, if we look at the condition of Spain, in the centuries that -preceded and followed the formation of its present language and -poetry, we shall find the mere historical dates full of instruction. -In 711, Roderic rashly hazarded the fate of his Gothic and Christian -empire on the result of a single battle against the Arabs, then just -forcing their way into the western part of Europe from Africa. He -failed; and the wild enthusiasm which marked the earliest age of -the Mohammedan power achieved almost immediately the conquest of -the whole of the country that was worth the price of a victory. The -Christians, however, though overwhelmed, did not entirely yield. On -the contrary, many of them retreated before the fiery pursuit of -their enemies, and established themselves in the extreme northwestern -portion of their native land, amidst the mountains and fastnesses of -Biscay and Asturias. There, indeed, the purity of the Latin tongue, -which they had spoken for so many ages, was finally lost, through that -neglect of its cultivation which was a necessary consequence of the -miseries that oppressed them. But still, with the spirit which so long -sustained their forefathers against the power of Rome, and which has -carried their descendants through a hardly less fierce contest against -the power of France, they maintained, to a remarkable degree, their -ancient manners and feelings, their religion, their laws, and their -institutions; and, separating themselves by an implacable hatred from -their Moorish invaders, they there, in those rude mountains, laid deep -the foundations of a national character,--of that character which has -subsisted to our own times.[2] - - [2] Augustin Thierry has in a few words finely described the - fusion of society that originally took place in the northwestern - part of Spain, and on which the civilization of the country still - rests: “Reserrés dans ce coin de terre, devenu pour eux toute la - patrie, Goths et Romains, vainqueurs et vaincus, étrangers et - indigènes, maîtres et esclaves, tous unis dans le même malheur, - oublièrent leurs vieilles haines, leur vieil éloignement, leurs - vieilles distinctions; il n’y eut plus qu’un nom, qu’une loi, - qu’un état, qu’un langage; tous furent égaux dans cet exil.” Dix - Ans d’Études Historiques, Paris, 1836, 8vo, p. 346. - -As, however, they gradually grew inured to adversity, and understood -the few hard advantages which their situation afforded them, they -began to make incursions into the territories of their conquerors, -and to seize for themselves some part of the fair possessions, once -entirely their own. But every inch of ground was defended by the same -fervid valor by which it had originally been won. The Christians, -indeed, though occasionally defeated, generally gained something by -each of their more considerable struggles; but what they gained could -be preserved only by an exertion of bravery and military power hardly -less painful than that by which it had been acquired. In 801, we find -them already possessing a considerable part of Old Castile; but the -very name now given to that country, from the multitude of castles with -which it was studded, shows plainly the tenure by which the Christians -from the mountains were compelled to hold these early fruits of their -courage and constancy.[3] A century later, or in 914, they had pushed -the outposts of their conquests to the chain of the Guadarrama, -separating New from Old Castile, and they may, therefore, at this date, -be regarded as having again obtained a firm foothold in their own -country, whose capital they established at Leon. - - [3] Manuel Risco, La Castilla y el mas Famoso Castellano, Madrid, - 1792, 4to, pp. 14-18. - -From this period, the Christians seem to have felt assured of final -success. In 1085, Toledo, the venerated head of the old monarchy, was -wrested from the Moors, who had then possessed it three hundred and -sixty-three years; and in 1118, Saragossa was recovered: so that, from -the beginning of the twelfth century, the whole Peninsula, down to -the Sierra of Toledo, was again occupied by its former masters; and -the Moors were pushed back into the southern and western provinces, -by which they had originally entered. Their power, however, though -thus reduced within limits comprising scarcely more than one third -of its extent when it was greatest, seems still to have been rather -consolidated than broken; and after three centuries of success, more -than three other centuries of conflict were necessary before the fall -of Granada finally emancipated the entire country from the loathed -dominion of its misbelieving conquerors. - -But it was in the midst of this desolating contest, and at a period, -too, when the Christians were hardly less distracted by divisions among -themselves than worn out and exasperated by the common warfare against -the common enemy, that the elements of the Spanish language and poetry, -as they have substantially existed ever since, were first developed. -For it is precisely between the capture of Saragossa, which insured to -the Christians the possession of all the eastern part of Spain, and -their great victory on the plains of Tolosa, which so broke the power -of the Moors, that they never afterwards recovered the full measure of -their former strength,[4]--it is precisely in this century of confusion -and violence, when the Christian population of the country may be -said, with the old chronicle, to have been kept constantly in battle -array, that we hear the first notes of their wild, national poetry, -which come to us mingled with their war-shouts, and breathing the very -spirit of their victories.[5] - - [4] Speaking of this decisive battle, and following, as he always - does, only Arabic authorities, Conde says, “This fearful rout - happened on Monday, the fifteenth day of the month Safer, in - the year 609 [A. D. 1212]; and with it fell the power of the - Moslems in Spain, for nothing turned out well with them after - it.” (Historia de la Dominacion de los Árabes en España, Madrid, - 1820, 4to, Tom. II. p. 425.) Gayangos, in his more learned - and yet more entirely Arabic “Mohammedan Dynasties in Spain,” - (London, 1843, 4to, Vol. II. p. 323,) gives a similar account. - The purely Spanish historians, of course, state the matter still - more strongly;--Mariana, for instance, looking upon the result of - the battle as quite superhuman. Historia General de España, 14a - impresion, Madrid, 1780, fol., Lib. XI. c. 24. - - [5] “And in that time,” we are told in the old “Crónica General - de España,” (Zamora, 1541, fol., f. 275,) “was the war of the - Moors very grievous; so that the kings, and counts, and nobles, - and all the knights that took pride in arms, stabled their horses - in the rooms where they slept with their wives; to the end - that, when they heard the war-cry, they might find their horses - and arms at hand, and mount instantly at its summons.” “A hard - and rude training,” says Martinez de la Rosa, in his graceful - romance of “Isabel de Solís,” recollecting, I suspect, this very - passage,--“a hard and rude training, the prelude to so many - glories and to the conquest of the world, when our forefathers, - weighed down with harness, and their swords always in hand, slept - at ease no single night for eight centuries.” Doña Isabel de - Solís, Reyna de Granada, Novela Histórica, Madrid, 1839, 8vo, - Parte II. c. 15. - - - - -CHAPTER II. - -FIRST APPEARANCE OF THE SPANISH AS A WRITTEN LANGUAGE.--POEM OF -THE CID.--ITS HERO, SUBJECT, LANGUAGE, AND VERSE.--STORY OF THE -POEM.--ITS CHARACTER.--ST. MARY OF EGYPT.--THE ADORATION OF THE -THREE KINGS.--BERCEO, THE FIRST KNOWN CASTILIAN POET.--HIS WORKS AND -VERSIFICATION.--HIS SAN DOMINGO DE SILOS.--HIS MIRACLES OF THE VIRGIN. - - -The oldest document in the Spanish language with an ascertained date -is a confirmation by Alfonso the Seventh, in the year 1155, of a -charter of regulations and privileges granted to the city of Avilés -in Asturias.[6] It is important, not only because it exhibits the new -dialect just emerging from the corrupted Latin, little or not at all -affected by the Arabic infused into it in the southern provinces, but -because it is believed to be among the very oldest documents ever -written in Spanish, since there is no good reason to suppose that -language to have existed in a written form even half a century earlier. - - [6] See Appendix (A.), on the History of the Spanish Language. - -How far we can go back towards the first appearance of poetry in this -Spanish, or, as it was oftener called, Castilian, dialect is not so -precisely ascertained; but we know that we can trace Castilian verse -to a period surprisingly near the date of the document of Avilés. It -is, too, a remarkable circumstance, that we can thus trace it by works -both long and interesting; for, though ballads, and the other forms of -popular poetry, by which we mark indistinctly the beginning of almost -every other literature, are abundant in the Spanish, we are not obliged -to resort to them, at the outset of our inquiries, since other obvious -and decisive monuments present themselves at once. - - * * * * * - -The first of these monuments in age, and the first in importance, is -the poem commonly called, with primitive simplicity and directness, -“The Poem of the Cid.” It consists of above three thousand lines, and -can hardly have been composed later than the year 1200. Its subject, as -its name implies, is taken from among the adventures of the Cid, the -great popular hero of the chivalrous age of Spain; and the whole tone -of its manners and feelings is in sympathy with the contest between -the Moors and the Christians, in which the Cid bore so great a part, -and which was still going on with undiminished violence at the period -when the poem was written. It has, therefore, a national bearing and a -national character throughout.[7] - - [7] The date of the only early manuscript of the Poem of the Cid - is in these words: “Per Abbat le escribio en el mes de Mayo, en - Era de Mill è CC..XLV años.” There is a blank made by an erasure - between the second C and the X, which has given rise to the - question, whether this erasure was made by the copyist because - he had accidentally put in a letter too much, or whether it is - a subsequent erasure that ought to be filled,--and, if filled, - whether with the conjunction _è_ or with another C; in short, the - question is, whether this manuscript should be dated in 1245 or - in 1345. (Sanchez, Poesías Anteriores, Madrid, 1779, 8vo, Tom. - I. p. 221.) This year, 1245, _of the Spanish era_, according - to which the calculation of time is commonly kept in the elder - Spanish records, corresponds to our A. D. 1207;--a difference - of 38 years, the reason for which may be found in a note to - Southey’s “Chronicle of the Cid,” (London, 1808, 4to, p. 385,) - without seeking it in more learned sources. - - The date of _the poem itself_, however, is a very different - question from the date of _this particular manuscript_ of it; - for the _Per Abbat_ referred to is merely the copyist, whether - his name was Peter Abbat or Peter the Abbot, (Risco, Castilla, - etc., p. 68.) This question--the one, I mean, of the age of - _the poem itself_--can be settled only from internal evidence - of style and language. Two passages, vv. 3014 and 3735, have, - indeed, been alleged (Risco, p. 69, Southey’s Chronicle, p. - 282, note) to prove its date historically; but, after all, they - only show that it was written subsequently to A. D. 1135. (V. - A. Huber, Geschichte des Cid, Bremen, 1829, 12mo, p. xxix.) The - point is one difficult to settle; and none can be consulted - about it but natives or _experts_. Of these, Sanchez places it - at about 1150, or half a century after the death of the Cid, - (Poesías Anteriores, Tom. I. p. 223,) and Capmany (Eloquencia - Española, Madrid, 1786, 8vo, Tom. I. p. 1) follows him. Marina, - whose opinion is of great weight, (Memorias de la Academia de - Historia, Tom. IV. 1805, Ensayo, p. 34,) places it thirty or - forty years before Berceo, who wrote 1220-1240. The editors of - the Spanish translation of Bouterwek, (Madrid, 1829, 8vo, Tom. - I. p. 112,) who give a fac-simile of the manuscript, agree with - Sanchez, and so does Huber (Gesch. des Cid, Vorwort, p. xxvii.). - To these opinions may be added that of Ferdinand Wolf, of Vienna, - (Jahrbücher der Literatur, Wien, 1831, Band LVI. p. 251,) who, - like Huber, is one of the acutest scholars alive in whatever - touches Spanish and Mediæval literature, and who places it about - 1140-1160. Many other opinions might be cited, for the subject - has been much discussed; but the judgments of the learned men - already given, formed at different times in the course of half - a century from the period of the first publication of the poem, - and concurring so nearly, leave no reasonable doubt that it was - composed as early as the year 1200. - - Mr. Southey’s name, introduced by me in this note, is one that - must always be mentioned with peculiar respect by scholars - interested in Spanish literature. From the circumstance, that - his uncle, the Rev. Herbert Hill, a scholar, and a careful and - industrious one, was connected with the English Factory at - Lisbon, Mr. Southey visited Spain and Portugal in 1795-6, when - he was about twenty-two years old, and, on his return home, - published his Travels, in 1797;--a pleasant book, written in the - clear, idiomatic, picturesque English that always distinguishes - his style, and containing a considerable number of translations - from the Spanish and the Portuguese, made with freedom and - spirit rather than with great exactness. From this time he never - lost sight of Spain and Portugal, or of Spanish and Portuguese - literature; as is shown, not only by several of his larger - original works, but by his translations, and by his articles - in the London Quarterly Review on Lope de Vega and Camoens; - especially by one in the second volume of that journal, which was - translated into Portuguese, with notes, by Müller, Secretary of - the Academy of Sciences at Lisbon, and so made into an excellent - compact manual for Portuguese literary history. - -The Cid himself, who is to be found constantly commemorated in Spanish -poetry, was born in the northwestern part of Spain, about the year -1040, and died in 1099, at Valencia, which he had rescued from the -Moors.[8] His original name was Ruy Diaz, or Rodrigo Diaz; and he was -by birth one of the considerable barons of his country. The title of -_Cid_, by which he is almost always known, is believed to have come to -him from the remarkable circumstance, that five Moorish kings or chiefs -acknowledged him in one battle as their _Seid_, or their lord and -conqueror;[9] and the title of _Campeador_, or Champion, by which he is -hardly less known, though it is commonly supposed to have been given -to him as a leader of the armies of Sancho the Second, has long since -been used almost exclusively as a popular expression of the admiration -of his countrymen for his exploits against the Moors.[10] At any rate, -from a very early period, he has been called _El Cid Campeador_, or The -Lord Champion. And he well deserved the honorable title; for he passed -almost the whole of his life in the field against the oppressors of his -country, suffering, so far as we know, scarcely a single defeat from -the common enemy, though, on more than one occasion, he was exiled and -sacrificed by the Christian princes to whose interests he had attached -himself. - - [8] The Arabic accounts represent the Cid as having died of - grief, at the defeat of the Christians near Valencia, which fell - again into the hands of the Moslem in 1100. (Gayangos, Mohammedan - Dynasties, Vol. II. Appendix, p. xliii.) It is necessary to read - some one of the many Lives of the Cid in order to understand - the Poema del Cid, and much else of Spanish literature; I will - therefore notice four or five of the more suitable and important. - 1. The oldest is the Latin “Historia Didaci Campidocti,” written - before 1238, and published as an Appendix in Risco. 2. The next - is the cumbrous and credulous one by Father Risco, 1792. 3. - Then we have a curious one by John von Müller, the historian of - Switzerland, 1805, prefixed to his friend Herder’s Ballads of - the Cid. 4. The classical Life by Manuel Josef Quintana, in the - first volume of his “Vidas de Españoles Célebres” (Madrid, 1807, - 12mo). 5. That of Huber, 1829; acute and safe. The best of all, - however, is the old Spanish “Chronicle of the Cid,” or Southey’s - Chronicle, 1808;--the best, I mean, for those who read in order - to enjoy what may be called the literature of the Cid;--to which - may be added a pleasant little volume by George Dennis, entitled - “The Cid, a Short Chronicle founded on the Early Poetry of - Spain,” London, 1845, 12mo. - - [9] Chrónica del Cid, Burgos, 1593, fol., c. 19. - - [10] Huber, p. 96. Müller’s Leben des Cid, in Herder’s Sämmtliche - Werke, zur schönen Literatur und Kunst, Wien, 1813, 12mo, Theil - III. p. xxi. - -But, whatever may have been the real adventures of his life, over which -the peculiar darkness of the period when they were achieved has cast a -deep shadow,[11] he comes to us in modern times as the great defender -of his nation against its Moorish invaders, and seems to have so -filled the imagination and satisfied the affections of his countrymen, -that, centuries after his death, and even down to our own days, poetry -and tradition have delighted to attach to his name a long series of -fabulous achievements, which connect him with the mythological fictions -of the Middle Ages, and remind us almost as often of Amadis and Arthur -as they do of the sober heroes of genuine history.[12] - - [11] “No period of Spanish history is so deficient in - contemporary documents.” Huber, Vorwort, p. xiii. - - [12] It is amusing to compare the Moorish accounts of the - Cid with the Christian. In the work of Conde on the Arabs of - Spain, which is little more than a translation from Arabic - chronicles, the Cid appears first, I think, in the year 1087, - when he is called “the Cambitur [Campeador] who _infested_ the - frontiers of Valencia.” (Tom. II. p. 155.) When he had taken - Valencia, in 1094, we are told, “Then the Cambitur--_may he be - accursed of Allah!_--entered in with all his people and allies.” - (Tom. II. p. 183.) In other places he is called “Roderic the - Cambitur,”--“Roderic, Chief of the Christians, known as the - Cambitur,”--and “the Accursed”;--all proving how thoroughly he - was hated and feared by his enemies. He is nowhere, I think, - called Cid or Seid by Arab writers; and the reason why he appears - in Conde’s work so little is, probably, that the manuscripts - used by that writer relate chiefly to the history of events in - Andalusia and Granada, where the Cid did not figure at all. - The tone in Gayangos’s more learned and accurate work on the - Mohammedan Dynasties is the same. When the Cid dies, the Arab - chronicler (Vol. II. App., p. xliii.) adds, “May God not show him - mercy!” - -The Poem of the Cid partakes of both these characters. It has sometimes -been regarded as wholly, or almost wholly, historical.[13] But there -is too free and romantic a spirit in it for history. It contains, -indeed, few of the bolder fictions found in the subsequent chronicles -and in the popular ballads. Still, it is essentially a poem; and in -the spirited scenes at the siege of Alcocer and at the Cortes, as well -as in those relating to the Counts of Carrion, it is plain that the -author felt his license as a poet. In fact, the very marriage of the -daughters of the Cid has been shown to be all but impossible; and thus -any real historical foundation seems to be taken away from the chief -event which the poem records.[14] This, however, does not at all touch -the proper value of the work, which is simple, heroic, and national. -Unfortunately, the only ancient manuscript of it known to exist is -imperfect, and nowhere informs us who was its author. But what has been -lost is not much. It is only a few leaves in the beginning, one leaf in -the middle, and some scattered lines in other parts. The conclusion is -perfect. Of course, there can be no doubt about the subject or purpose -of the whole. It is the development of the character and glory of the -Cid, as shown in his achievements in the kingdoms of Saragossa and -Valencia, in his triumph over his unworthy sons-in-law, the Counts of -Carrion, and their disgrace before the king and Cortes, and, finally, -in the second marriage of his two daughters with the Infantes of -Navarre and Aragon; the whole ending with a slight allusion to the -hero’s death, and a notice of the date of the manuscript.[15] - - [13] This is the opinion of John von Müller and of Southey, - the latter of whom says, in the Preface to his Chronicle, (p. - xi.,) “The poem is to be considered as metrical history, not as - metrical romance.” But Huber, in the excellent Vorwort to his - Geschichte, (p. xxvi.,) shows this to be a mistake; and in the - introduction to his edition of the Chronicle, (Marburg, 1844, - 8vo, p. xlii.,) shows further, that the poem was certainly not - taken from the old Latin Life, which is the proper foundation for - what is historical in our account of the Cid. - - [14] Mariana is much troubled about the history of the Cid, and - decides nothing (Historia, Lib. X. c. 4);--Sandoval controverts - much, and entirely denies the story of the Counts of Carrion - (Reyes de Castilla, Pamplona, 1615, fol., f. 54);--and Ferreras - (Synopsis Histórica, Madrid, 1775, 4to, Tom. V. pp. 196-198) - endeavours to settle what is true and what is fabulous, and - agrees with Sandoval about the marriage of the daughters of the - Cid with the Counts. Southey (Chronicle, pp. 310-312) argues both - sides, and shows his desire to believe the story, but does not - absolutely succeed in doing so. - - [15] The poem was originally published by Sanchez, in the first - volume of his valuable “Poesías Castellanas Anteriores al - Siglo XV.” (Madrid, 1779-90, 4 tom., 8vo; reprinted by Ochoa, - Paris, 1842, 8vo.) It contains three thousand seven hundred and - forty-four lines, and, if the deficiencies in the manuscript were - supplied, Sanchez thinks the whole would come up to about four - thousand lines. But he saw a copy made in 1596, which, though not - entirely faithful, showed that the older manuscript had the same - deficiencies then that it has now. Of course, there is little - chance that they will ever be supplied. - -But the story of the poem constitutes the least of its claims to our -notice. In truth, we do not read it at all for its mere facts, which -are often detailed with the minuteness and formality of a monkish -chronicle; but for its living pictures of the age it represents, and -for the vivacity with which it brings up manners and interests so -remote from our own experience, that, where they are attempted in -formal history, they come to us as cold as the fables of mythology. -We read it because it is a contemporary and spirited exhibition of -the chivalrous times of Spain, given occasionally with an Homeric -simplicity altogether admirable. For the story it tells is not only -that of the most romantic achievements, attributed to the most -romantic hero of Spanish tradition, but it is mingled continually -with domestic and personal details, that bring the character of the -Cid and his age near to our own sympathies and interests.[16] The -very language in which it is told is the language he himself spoke, -still only half developed; disencumbering itself with difficulty -from the characteristics of the Latin; its new constructions by no -means established; imperfect in its forms, and ill furnished with the -connecting particles in which resides so much of the power and grace -of all languages; but still breathing the bold, sincere, and original -spirit of its times, and showing plainly that it is struggling with -success for a place among the other wild elements of the national -genius. And, finally, the metre and rhyme into which the whole poem -is cast are rude and unsettled: the verse claiming to be of fourteen -syllables, divided by an abrupt cæsural pause after the eighth, yet -often running out to sixteen or twenty, and sometimes falling back -to twelve;[17] but always bearing the impress of a free and fearless -spirit, which harmonizes alike with the poet’s language, subject, and -age, and so gives to the story a stir and interest, which, though we -are separated from it by so many centuries, bring some of its scenes -before us like those of a drama. - - [16] I would instance the following lines on the famine in - Valencia during its Siege by the Cid:-- - - Mal se aquexan los de Valencia · que non sabent ques’ far; - De ninguna part que sea · no les viene pan; - Nin da consejo padre à fijo, · nin fijo à padre: - Nin amigo à amigo nos · pueden consolar. - Mala cuenta es, Señores, · aver mengua de pan, - Fijos e mugieres verlo · morir de fambre. - - vv. 1183-1188. - - Valencian men doubt what to do, · and bitterly complain, - That, wheresoe’er they look for bread, · they look for it in vain. - No father help can give his child, · no son can help his sire, - Nor friend to friend assistance lend, · or cheerfulness inspire. - A grievous story, Sirs, it is, · when fails the needed bread, - And women fair and children young · in hunger join the dead. - - From the use of _Señores_, “Sirs,” in this passage, as well as - from other lines, like v. 734 and v. 2291, I have thought the - poem was either originally addressed to some particular persons, - or was intended--which is most in accordance with the spirit of - the age--to be recited publicly. - - [17] For example:-- - - Ferran Gonzalez non vió alli dos’ alzase · nin camara abierta - nin torre.--v. 2296. - - Feme ante vos yo · è vuestras fijas, - Infantes son è · de dias chicas.--vv. 268, 269. - - Some of the irregularities of the versification may be owing to - the copyist, as we have but one manuscript to depend upon; but - they are too grave and too abundant to be charged, on the whole, - to any account but that of the original author. - -The first pages of the manuscript being lost, what remains to us begins -abruptly, at the moment when the Cid, just exiled by his ungrateful -king, looks back upon the towers of his castle at Bivar, as he leaves -them. “Thus heavily weeping,” the poem goes on, “he turned his head and -stood looking at them. He saw his doors open and his household chests -unfastened, the hooks empty and without pelisses and without cloaks, -and the mews without falcons and without hawks. My Cid sighed, for he -had grievous sorrow; but my Cid spake well and calmly: ‘I thank thee, -Lord and Father, who art in heaven, that it is my evil enemies who have -done this thing unto me.’” - -He goes, where all desperate men then went, to the frontiers of the -Christian war; and, after establishing his wife and children in a -religious house, plunges with three hundred faithful followers into -the infidel territories, determined, according to the practice of his -time, to win lands and fortunes from the common enemy, and providing -for himself meanwhile, according to another practice of his time, by -plundering the Jews as if he were a mere Robin Hood. Among his earliest -conquests is Alcocer; but the Moors collect in force, and besiege him -in their turn, so that he can save himself only by a bold sally, in -which he overthrows their whole array. The rescue of his standard, -endangered in the onslaught by the rashness of Bermuez, who bore it, is -described in the very spirit of knighthood.[18] - - [18] Some of the lines of this passage in the original (vv. 723, - etc.) may be cited, to show that gravity and dignity were among - the prominent attribute of the Spanish language from its first - appearance. - - Embrazan los escudos · delant los corazones, - Abaxan las lanzas apuestas · de los pendones, - Enclinaron las caras · de suso de los arzones, - Iban los ferir · de fuertes corazones, - A grandes voces lama · el que en buen ora nasceò: - “Ferid los, cavalleros, por · amor de caridad, - Yo soy Ruy Diaz el Cid · Campeador de Bibar,” etc. - - Their shields before their breasts, · forth at once they go, - Their lances in the rest, · levelled fair and low, - Their banners and their crests · waving in a row, - Their heads all stooping down · toward the saddle-bow; - The Cid was in the midst, · his shout was heard afar, - “I am Ruy Diaz, · the champion of Bivar; - Strike amongst them, Gentlemen, · for sweet mercies’ sake!” - There where Bermuez fought · amidst the foe they brake, - Three hundred bannered knights, · it was a gallant show. - Three hundred Moors they killed, · a man with every blow; - When they wheeled and turned, · as many more lay slain; - You might see them raise their lances · and level them again. - There you might see the breast-plates · how they were cleft in twain, - And many a Moorish shield · lie shattered on the plain, - The pennons that were white · marked with a crimson stain, - The horses running wild · whose riders had been slain.[19] - - [19] This and the two following translations were made by Mr. - J. Hookham Frere, one of the most accomplished scholars England - has produced, and one whom Sir James Mackintosh has pronounced - to be the first of English translators. He was, for some years, - British Minister in Spain, and, by a conjectural emendation - which he made of a line in _this very poem_, known only to - himself and the Marquis de la Romana, was able to accredit a - secret agent to the latter in 1808, when he was commanding a - body of Spanish troops in the French service on the soil of - Denmark;--a circumstance that led to one of the most important - movements in the war against Bonaparte. (Southey’s History of the - Peninsular War, London, 1823, 4to, Tom. I. p. 657.) The admirable - translations of Mr. Frere from the Poem of the Cid, are to be - found in the Appendix to Southey’s Chronicle of the Cid; itself - an entertaining book, made out of free versions and compositions - from the Spanish Poem of the Cid, the old ballads, the prose - Chronicle of the Cid, and the General Chronicle of Spain. Mr. - Wm. Godwin, in a somewhat singular “Letter of Advice to a Young - American on a Course of Studies,” (London, 1818, 8vo,) commends - it justly as one of the books best calculated to give an idea of - the age of chivalry. - - It is proper I should add here, that, except in this case of - the Poem of the Cid, where I am indebted to Mr. Frere for the - passages in the text, and in the case of the Coplas of Manrique, - (Chap. 21 of this Period,) where I am indebted to the beautiful - version of Mr. Longfellow, the translations in these volumes are - made by myself. - -The poem afterwards relates the Cid’s contest with the Count of -Barcelona; the taking of Valencia; the reconcilement of the Cid to the -king, who had treated him so ill; and the marriage of the Cid’s two -daughters, at the king’s request, to the two Counts of Carrion, who -were among the first nobles of the kingdom. At this point, however, -there is a somewhat formal division of the poem,[20] and the remainder -is devoted to what is its principal subject, the dissolution of this -marriage in consequence of the baseness and brutality of the Counts; -the Cid’s public triumph over them; their no less public disgrace; and -the announcement of the second marriage of the Cid’s daughters with -the Infantes of Navarre and Aragon, which, of course, raised the Cid -himself to the highest pitch of his honors, by connecting him with the -royal houses of Spain. With this, therefore, the poem virtually ends. - - [20] This division, and some others less distinctly marked, have - led Tapia (Historia de la Civilización de España, Madrid, 1840, - 12mo, Tom. I. p. 268) to think, that the whole poem is but a - congeries of ballads, as the Iliad has sometimes been thought to - be, and, as there is little doubt, the Nibelungenlied really is. - But such breaks occur so frequently in different parts of it, - and seem so generally to be made for other reasons, that this - conjecture is not probable. (Huber, Chrónica del Cid, p. xl.) - Besides, the whole poem more resembles the Chansons de Geste of - old French poetry, and is more artificial in its structure, than - the nature of the ballad permits. - -The most spirited part of it consists of the scenes at the Cortes, -summoned, on demand of the Cid, in consequence of the misconduct of the -Counts of Carrion. In one of them, three followers of the Cid challenge -three followers of the Counts, and the challenge of Munio Gustioz to -Assur Gonzalez is thus characteristically given:-- - - Assur Gonzalez · was entering at the door, - With his ermine mantle · trailing along the floor; - With his sauntering pace · and his hardy look, - Of manners or of courtesy · little heed he took; - He was flushed and hot · with breakfast and with drink. - “What ho! my masters, · your spirits seem to sink! - Have we no news stirring from the Cid, · Ruy Diaz of Bivar? - Has he been to Riodivirna, · to besiege the windmills there? - Does he tax the millers for their toll? · or is that practice past? - Will he make a match for his daughters, · another like the last?” - Munio Gustioz · rose and made reply:-- - “Traitor, wilt thou never cease · to slander and to lie? - You breakfast before mass, · you drink before you pray; - There is no honor in your heart, · nor truth in what you say; - You cheat your comrade and your lord, · you flatter to betray; - Your hatred I despise, · your friendship I defy! - False to all mankind, · and most to God on high, - I shall force you to confess · that what I say is true.” - Thus was ended the parley · and challenge betwixt these two.[21] - - [21] - Asur Gonzalez entraba · por el palacio; - Manto armino è un · Brial rastrando: - Bermeio viene, · ca era almorzado. - En lo que fabló · avie poco recabdo. - “Hya varones, quien · vió nunca tal mal? - Quien nos darie nuevas · de Mio Cid, el de Bibar? - Fues’ á Riodouirna · los molinos picar, - E prender maquilas · como lo suele far’: - Quil’ darie con los · de Carrion a casar’?” - Esora Muno Gustioz · en pie se levantó: - “Cala, alevoso, · malo, è traydor: - Antes almuerzas, · que bayas à oracion: - A los que das paz, · fartas los aderredor. - Non dices verdad · amigo ni à Señor, - Falso à todos · è mas al Criador. - En tu amistad non · quiero aver racion. - Facertelo decir, que · tal eres qual digo yo.” - - Sanchez. Tom. I., p. 359. - - This passage, with what precedes and what follows it, may be - compared with the challenge in Shakspeare’s “Richard II.,” Act IV. - -The opening of the lists for the six combatants, in the presence of the -king, is another passage of much spirit and effect. - - The heralds and the king · are foremost in the place. - They clear away the people · from the middle space; - They measure out the lists, · the barriers they fix, - They point them out in order · and explain to all the six: - “If you are forced beyond the line · where they are fixed and traced, - You shall be held as conquered · and beaten and disgraced.” - Six lances’ length on either side · an open space is laid; - They share the field between them, · the sunshine and the shade. - Their office is performed, · and from the middle space - The heralds are withdrawn · and leave them face to face. - Here stood the warriors of the Cid, · that noble champion; - Opposite, on the other side, · the lords of Carrion. - Earnestly their minds are fixed · each upon his foe. - Face to face they take their place, · anon the trumpets blow; - They stir their horses with the spur, · they lay their lances low, - They bend their shields before their breasts, · their face to the - saddle-bow. - Earnestly their minds are fixed · each upon his foe. - The heavens are overcast above, · the earth trembles below; - The people stand in silence, · gazing on the show.[22] - - [22] - Los Fieles è el rey · enseñaron los moiones. - Librabanse del campo · todos aderredor: - Bien gelo demostraron · à todos seis como son, - Que por y serie vencido · qui saliese del moion. - Todas las yentes · esconbraron aderredor - De seis astas de lanzas · que non legasen al moion. - Sorteabanles el campo, · ya les partien el sol: - Salien los Fieles de medio, · ellos cara por cara son. - Desi vinien los de Mio Cid · à los Infantes de Carrion, - Ellos Infantes de Carrion · à los del Campeador. - Cada uno dellos mientes · tiene al so. - Abrazan los escudos · delant’ los corazones: - Abaxan las lanzas · abueltas con los pendones: - Enclinaban las caras · sobre los arzones: - Batien los cavallos · con los espolones: - Tembrar querie la tierra · dod eran movedores. - Cada uno dellos mientes · tiene al só. - - Sanchez, Tom. I. p. 368. - - A parallel passage from Chaucer’s “Knight’s Tale”--the combat - between Palamon and Arcite (Tyrwhitt’s edit., v. 2601)--should - not be overlooked. - - “The heraudes left hir priking up and down, - Now ringen trompes loud and clarioun, - There is no more to say, but est and west, - In gon the speres sadly in the rest; - In goth the sharpe spore into the side: - Ther see men who can just and who can ride.” - - And so on twenty lines farther, both in the English and the - Spanish. But it should be borne in mind, when comparing them, - that the Poem of the Cid was written two centuries earlier than - the “Canterbury Tales” were. - -These are among the most picturesque passages in the poem. But it -is throughout striking and original. It is, too, no less national, -Christian, and loyal. It breathes everywhere the true Castilian spirit, -such as the old chronicles represent it amidst the achievements and -disasters of the Moorish wars; and has very few traces of an Arabic -influence in its language, and none at all in its imagery or fancies. -The whole of it, therefore, deserves to be read, and to be read in the -original; for it is there only that we can obtain the fresh impressions -it is fitted to give us of the rude but heroic period it represents: of -the simplicity of the governments, and the loyalty and true-heartedness -of the people; of the wide force of a primitive religious enthusiasm; -of the picturesque state of manners and daily life in an age of trouble -and confusion; and of the bold outlines of the national genius, which -are often struck out where we should least think to find them. It -is, indeed, a work which, as we read it, stirs us with the spirit -of the times it describes; and as we lay it down and recollect the -intellectual condition of Europe when it was written, and for a long -period before, it seems certain, that, during the thousand years which -elapsed from the time of the decay of Greek and Roman culture, down to -the appearance of the “Divina Commedia,” no poetry was produced so -original in its tone, or so full of natural feeling, picturesqueness, -and energy.[23] - - [23] The change of opinion in relation to the Poema del Cid, - and the different estimates of its value, are remarkable - circumstances in its history. Bouterwek speaks of it very - slightingly,--probably from following Sarmiento, who had not - read it,--and the Spanish translators of Bouterwek almost agree - with him. F. v. Schlegel, however, Sismondi, Huber, Wolf, and - nearly or quite all who have spoken of it of late, express a - strong admiration of its merits. There is, I think, truth in the - remark of Southey (Quarterly Review, 1814, Vol. XII. p. 64): - “The Spaniards have not yet discovered the high value of their - metrical history of the Cid, as a poem; they will never produce - any thing great in the higher branches of art, till they have - cast off the false taste which prevents them from perceiving it.” - - Of all poems belonging to the early ages of any modern nation, - the one that can best be compared with the Poem of the Cid is - the Nibelungenlied, which, according to the most judicious among - the German critics, dates, in its present form at least, about - half a century after the time assigned to the Poem of the Cid. A - parallel might easily be run between them, that would be curious. - - - In the Jahrbücher der Literatur, Wien, 1846, Band CXVI., M. - Francisque Michel, the scholar to whom the literature of the - Middle Ages owes so much, published, for the first time, what - remains of an old poetical Spanish chronicle,--“Chrónica Rimada - de las Cosas de España,”--on the history of Spain from the death - of Pelayo to Ferdinand the Great;--the same poem that is noticed - in Ochoa, “Catálogo de Manuscritos,” (Paris, 1844, 4to, pp. - 106-110,) and in Huber’s edition of the Chronicle of the Cid, - Preface, App. E. - - It is a curious, though not important, contribution to our - resources in early Spanish literature, and one that immediately - reminds us of the old Poem of the Cid. It begins with a prose - introduction on the state of affairs down to the time of Fernan - Gonzalez, compressed into a single page, and then goes on through - eleven hundred and twenty-six lines of verse, when it breaks off - abruptly in the middle of a line, as if the copyist had been - interrupted, but with no sign that the work was drawing to an - end. Nearly the whole of it is taken up with the history of the - Cid, his family and his adventures, which are sometimes different - from those in the old ballads and chronicles. Thus, Ximena is - represented as having three brothers, who are taken prisoners by - the Moors and released by the Cid; and the Cid is made to marry - Ximena, by the royal command, against his own will; after which - he goes to Paris, in the days of the Twelve Peers, and performs - feats like those in the romances of chivalry. This, of course, - is all new. But the old stories are altered and amplified, like - those of the Cid’s charity to the leper, which is given with a - more picturesque air, and of Ximena and the king, and of the - Cid and his father, which are partly thrown into dialogue, not - without dramatic effect. The whole is a free version of the old - traditions of the country, apparently made in the fifteenth - century, after the fictions of chivalry began to be known, and - with the intention of giving the Cid rank among their heroes. - - The measure is that of the long verses used in the older Spanish - poetry, with a cæsural pause near the middle of each, and the - termination of the lines is in the _asonante_ a-o.[*] But in all - this there is great irregularity;--many of the verses running - out to twenty or more syllables, and several passages failing to - observe the proper _asonante_. Every thing indicates that the old - ballads were familiar to the author, and from one passage I infer - that he knew the old poem of the Cid:-- - - Veredes lidiar a porfia · e tan firme se dar, - Atantos pendones obrados · alçar e abaxar, - Atantas lanças quebradas · por el primor quebrar, - Atantos cavallos caer · e non se levantar, - Atanto cavallo sin dueño · por el campo andar. - - vv. 895-899. - - The preceding lines seem imitated from the Cid’s fight before - Alcocer, in such a way as to leave no doubt that its author had - seen the old poem:-- - - Veriedes tantas lanzas · premer è alzar; - Tanta adarga à · foradar è pasar; - Tanta loriga falsa · desmanchar; - Tantos pendones blancos · salir bermeios en sangre; - Tantos buenos cavallos · sin sos duenos andar. - - vv. 734-738. - - [*] For the meaning of _asonante_, and an explanation of - _asonante_ verse, see Chap. VI. and the notes to it. - -Three other poems, anonymous like that of the Cid, have been placed -immediately after it, because they are found together in a single -manuscript assigned to the thirteenth century, and because the language -and style of at least the first of them seem to justify the conjecture -that carries it so far back.[24] - - [24] The only knowledge of the manuscript containing these three - poems was long derived from a few extracts in the “Biblioteca - Española” of Rodriguez de Castro;--an important work, whose - author was born in Galicia, in 1739, and died at Madrid, in 1799. - The first volume, printed in 1781, in folio, under the patronage - of the Count Florida Blanca, consists of a chronological account - of the Rabbinical writers who appeared in Spain from the earliest - times to his own, whether they wrote in Hebrew, Spanish, or - any other language. The second, printed in 1786, consists of a - similar account of the Spanish writers, heathen and Christian, - who wrote either in Latin or in Spanish down to the end of - the thirteenth century, and whose number he makes about two - hundred. Both volumes are somewhat inartifically compiled, and - the literary opinions they express are of small value; but their - materials, largely derived from manuscripts, are curious, and - frequently such as can be found in print nowhere else. - - In this work, (Madrid, 1786, fol., Vol. II. pp. 504, 505,) and - for a long time, as I have said, there alone, were found notices - of these poems; but all of them were printed at the end of the - Paris edition of Sanchez’s “Coleccion de Poesías Anteriores - al Siglo XV.,” from a copy of the original manuscript in the - Escurial, marked there III. K. 4to. Judging by the specimens - given in De Castro, the spelling of the manuscript has not been - carefully followed in the copy used for the Paris edition. - -The poem with which this manuscript opens is called “The Book of -Apollonius,” and is the reproduction of a story whose origin is -obscure, but which is itself familiar to us in the eighth book of -Gower’s “Confessio Amantis,” and in the play of “Pericles,” that has -sometimes been attributed to Shakspeare. It is found in Greek rhyme -very early, but is here taken, almost without alteration of incident, -from that great repository of popular fiction in the Middle Ages, the -“Gesta Romanorum.” It consists of about twenty-six hundred lines, -divided into stanzas of four verses, all terminating with the same -rhyme. At the beginning, the author says, in his own person,-- - - In God’s name the most holy · and Saint Mary’s name most dear, - If they but guide and keep me · in their blessed love and fear, - I will strive to write a tale, · in mastery new and clear, - Where of royal Apollonius · the courtly you shall hear. - -The new mastery or method--_nueva maestría_--here claimed may be -the structure of the stanza and its rhyme; for, in other respects, -the versification is like that of the Poem of the Cid; showing, -however, more skill and exactness in the mere measure, and a slight -improvement in the language. But the merit of the poem is small. It -contains occasional notices of the manners of the age when it was -produced,--among the rest, some sketches of a female _jongleur_, of the -class soon afterwards severely denounced in the laws of Alfonso the -Wise,--that are curious and interesting. Its chief attraction, however, -is its story, and this, unhappily, is not original.[25] - - [25] The story of Apollonius, Prince of Tyre, as it is commonly - called, and as we have its incidents in this long poem, is the - 153d tale of the “Gesta Romanorum” (s. l., 1488, fol.). It is, - however, much older than that collection. (Douce, Illustrations - of Shakspeare, London, 1807, 8vo, Vol. II. p. 135; and Swan’s - translation of the Gesta, London, 1824, 12mo, Vol. II. pp. - 164-495.) Two words in the original Spanish of the passage - translated in the text should be explained. The author says,-- - - Estudiar querria - Componer un _romance_ de nueva _maestría_. - - _Romance_ here evidently means _story_, and this is the earliest - use of the word in this sense that I know of. _Maestría_, like - our old English _Maisterie_, means _art_ or _skill_, as in - Chaucer, being the word afterwards corrupted into _Mystery_. - -The next poem in the collection is called “The Life of our Lady, Saint -Mary of Egypt,”--a saint formerly much more famous than she is now, and -one whose history is so coarse and indecent, that it has often been -rejected by the wiser members of the church that canonized her. Such -as it appears in the old traditions, however, with all its sins upon -its head, it is here set forth. But we notice at once a considerable -difference between the composition of its verse and that of any -Castilian poetry assigned to the same or an earlier period. It is -written in short lines, generally of eight syllables, and in couplets; -but sometimes a single line carelessly runs out to the number of ten or -eleven syllables; and, in a few instances, three or even four lines are -included in one rhyme. It has a light air, quite unlike the stateliness -of the Poem of the Cid, and seems, from its verse and tone, as well as -from a few French words scattered through it, to have been borrowed -from some of the earlier French Fabliaux, or, at any rate, to have been -written in imitation of their easy and garrulous style. It opens thus, -showing that it was intended for recitation:-- - - Listen, ye lordlings, listen to me, - For true is my tale, as true can be; - And listen in heart, that so ye may - Have pardon, when humbly to God ye pray. - -It consists of fourteen hundred such meagre, monkish verses, and is -hardly of importance, except as a monument of the language at the -period when it was written.[26] - - [26] St. Mary of Egypt was a saint of great repute in Spain and - Portugal, and had her adventures written by Pedro de Ribadeneyra - in 1609, and Diogo Vas Carrillo in 1673; they were also fully - given in the “Flos Sanctorum” of the former, and, in a more - attractive form, by Bartolomé Cayrasco de Figueroa, at the end - of his “Templo Militante,” (Valladolid, 1602, 12mo,) where they - fill about 130 flowing octave stanzas, and by Montalvan, in the - drama of “La Gitana de Menfis.” She has, too, a church dedicated - to her at Rome on the bank of the Tiber, made out of the graceful - ruins of the temple of Fortuna Virilis. But her coarse history - has often been rejected as apocryphal, or at least as unfit to be - repeated. Bayle, Dictionaire Historique et Critique, Amsterdam, - 1740, fol., Tom. III. pp. 334-336. - -The last of the three poems is in the same irregular measure and -manner. It is called “The Adoration of the Three Holy Kings,” and -begins with the old tradition about the wise men that came from the -East; but its chief subject is an arrest of the Holy Family, during -their flight to Egypt, by robbers, the child of one of whom is cured of -a hideous leprosy by being bathed in water previously used for bathing -the Saviour; this same child afterwards turning out to be the penitent -thief of the crucifixion. It is a rhymed legend of only two hundred and -fifty lines, and belongs to the large class of such compositions that -were long popular in Western Europe.[27] - - [27] Both of the last poems in this MS. were first printed by - Pidal in the Revista de Madrid, 1841, and, as it would seem, from - bad copies. At least, they contain many more inaccuracies of - spelling, versification, and style than the first, and appear to - be of a later age; for I do not think the French Fabliaux, which - they imitate, were known in Spain till after the period commonly - assigned to the Apollonius. - - * * * * * - -Thus far, the poetry of the first century of Spanish literature, like -the earliest poetry of other modern countries, is anonymous; for -authorship was a distinction rarely coveted or thought of by those who -wrote in any of the dialects then forming throughout Europe, among the -common people. It is even impossible to tell from what part of the -Christian conquests in Spain the poems of which we have spoken have -come to us. We may infer, indeed, from their language and tone, that -the Poem of the Cid belongs to the border country of the Moorish war in -the direction of Catalonia and Valencia, and that the earliest ballads, -of which we shall speak hereafter, came originally from the midst of -the contest, with whose very spirit they are often imbued. In the same -way, too, we may be persuaded that the poems of a more religious temper -were produced in the quieter kingdoms of the North, where monasteries -had been founded and Christianity had already struck its roots deeply -into the soil of the national character. Still, we have no evidence to -show where any one of the poems we have thus far noticed was written. - -But as we advance, this state of things is changed. The next poetry we -meet is by a known author, and, comes from a known locality. It was -written by Gonzalo, a secular priest who belonged to the monastery -of San Millan or Saint Emilianus, in the territory of Calahorra, far -within the borders of the Moorish war, and who is commonly called -Berceo, from the place of his birth. Of the poet himself we know -little, except that he flourished from 1220 to 1246, and that, as he -once speaks of suffering from the weariness of old age,[28] he probably -died after 1260, in the reign of Alfonso the Wise.[29] - - [28] It is in Sta. Oria, st. 2. - - Quiero en mi vegez, maguer so ya cansado, - De esta santa Virgen romanzar su dictado. - - [29] Sanchez, Poesías Anteriores, Tom. II. p. iv.; Tom. III. pp. - xliv.-lvi. As Berceo was ordained Deacon in 1221, he must have - been born as early as 1198, since deacon’s orders were not taken - before the age of twenty-three. See some curious remarks on the - subject of Berceo in the “Examen Crítico del Tomo Primero de el - Anti-Quixote,” (Madrid, 1806, 12mo, pp. 22 et seq.,) an anonymous - pamphlet, written, I believe, by Pellicer, the editor of Don - Quixote. - -His works amount to above thirteen thousand lines, and fill an octavo -volume.[30] They are all on religious subjects, and consist of rhymed -Lives of San Domingo de Silos, Santa Oria, and San Millan; poems on -the Mass, the Martyrdom of San Lorenzo, the Merits of the Madonna, the -Signs that are to precede the Last Judgment, and the Mourning of the -Madonna at the Cross, with a few Hymns, and especially a poem of more -than three thousand six hundred lines on the Miracles of the Virgin -Mary. With one inconsiderable exception, the whole of this formidable -mass of verse is divided into stanzas of four lines each, like those -in the poem of Apollonius of Tyre; and though in the language there -is a perceptible advance since the days when the Poem of the Cid was -written, still the power and movement of that remarkable legend are -entirely wanting in the verses of the careful ecclesiastic.[31] - - [30] The second volume of Sanchez’s Poesías Anteriores. - - [31] The metrical form adopted by Berceo, which he himself calls - the _quaderna via_, and which is in fact that of the poem of - Apollonius, should be particularly noticed, because it continued - to be a favorite one in Spain for above two centuries. The - following stanzas, which are among the best in Berceo, may serve - as a favorable specimen of its character. They are from the - “Signs of the Judgment,” Sanchez, Tom. II. p. 274. - - Esti sera el uno · de los signos dubdados: - Subira a los nubes · el mar muchos estados, - Mas alto que las sierras · è mas que los collados, - Tanto que en sequero · fincaran los pescados. - - Las aves esso mesmo · menudas è granadas - Andaran dando gritos · todas mal espantadas; - Assi faran las bestias · por domar è domadas, - Non podran à la noche · tornar à sus posadas. - - And this shall be one of the signs · that fill with doubts and - fright: - The sea its waves shall gather up, · and lift them, in its might, - Up to the clouds, and far above · the dark sierra’s height, - Leaving the fishes on dry land, · a strange and fearful sight. - - The birds besides that fill the air, · the birds both small and - great, - Shall screaming fly and wheel about, · scared by their coming - fate; - And quadrupeds, both those we tame · and those in untamed state, - Shall wander round nor shelter find · where safe they wonned of - late. - - There was, no doubt, difficulty in such a protracted system of - rhyme, but not much; and when rhyme first appeared in the modern - languages, an excess of it was the natural consequence of its - novelty. In large portions of the Provençal poetry, its abundance - is quite ridiculous; as in the “Croisade contre les Hérétiques - Albigeois,”--a remarkable poem, dating from 1210, excellently - edited by M. C. Fauriel, (Paris, 1837, 4to,)--in which stanzas - occur where the same rhyme is repeated above a hundred times. - When and where this quaternion rhyme, as it is used by Berceo, - was first introduced, cannot be determined; but it seems to - have been very early employed in poems that were to be publicly - recited. (F. Wolf, Ueber die Lais, Wien. 1841, 8vo, p. 257.) The - oldest example I know of it, in a modern dialect, dates from - about 1100, and is found in the curious MS. of Poetry of the - Waldenses (F. Diez, Troubadours, Zwickau, 1826, 8vo, p. 230) used - by Raynouard;--the instance to which I refer being “Lo novel - Confort,” (Poésies des Troubadours, Paris, 1817, 8vo, Tom. II. p. - 111,) which begins,-- - - Aquest novel confort de vertuos lavor - Mando, vos scrivent en carita et en amor: - Prego vos carament per l’amor del segnor, - Abandona lo segle, serve a Dio cum temor. - - In Spain, whither it no doubt came from Provence, its history is - simply,--that it occurs in the poem of Apollonius; that it gets - its first known date in Berceo about 1230; and that it continued - in use till the end of the fourteenth century. - - The thirteen thousand verses of Berceo’s poetry, including even - the Hymns, are, with the exception of about twenty lines of - the “Duelo de la Vírgen,” in this measure. These twenty lines - constitute a song of the Jews who watched the sepulchre after - the crucifixion, and, like the parts of the demons in the old - Mysteries, are intended to be droll, but are, in fact, as Berceo - himself says of them, more truly than perhaps he was aware, “not - worth three figs.” They are, however, of some consequence, as - perhaps the earliest specimen of Spanish lyrical poetry that has - come down to us with a date. They begin thus:-- - - Velat, aliama de los Judios, - Eya velar! - Que no vos furten el fijo de Dios, - Eya velar! - Car furtarvoslo querran, - Eya velar! - Andre è Piedro et Johan, - Eya velar! - - Duelo, 178-9. - - Watch, congregation of the Jew, - Up and watch! - Lest they should steal God’s son from you, - Up and watch! - For they will seek to steal the son, - Up and watch! - His followers, Andrew, and Peter, and John, - Up and watch! - - Sanchez considers it a _Villancico_, to be sung like a litany - (Tom. IV. p. ix.); and Martinez de la Rosa treats it much in the - same way. Obras, Paris, 1827, 12mo, Tom. I. p. 161. - - In general, the versification of Berceo is regular,--sometimes - it is harmonious; and though he now and then indulges himself - in imperfect rhymes, that may be the beginning of the national - _asonantes_ (Sanchez, Tom. II. p. xv.) still the license he - takes is much less than might be anticipated. Indeed, Sanchez - represents the harmony and finish of his versification as quite - surprising, and uses stronger language in relation to it than - seems justifiable, considering some of the facts he admits. Tom. - II. p. xi. - -“The Life of San Domingo de Silos,” with which his volume opens, -begins, like a homily, with these words: “In the name of the Father, -who made all things, and of our Lord Jesus Christ, son of the glorious -Virgin, and of the Holy Spirit, who is equal with them, I intend to -tell a story of a holy confessor. I intend to tell a story in the plain -Romance, in which the common man is wont to talk to his neighbour; for -I am not so learned as to use the other Latin. It will be well worth, -as I think, a cup of good wine.”[32] Of course, there is no poetry in -thoughts like these; and much of what Berceo has left us does not rise -higher. - - [32] San Domingo de Silos, st. 1 and 2. The Saviour, according - to the fashion of the age, is called, in v. 2, _Don_ Jesu - Christo,--the word then being synonymous with Dominus. See a - curious note on its use, in Don Quixote, ed. Clemencin, Madrid, - 1836, 4to, Tom. V. p. 408. - -Occasionally, however, we find better things. In some portions of his -work, there is a simple-hearted piety that is very attractive, and in -some, a story-telling spirit that is occasionally picturesque. The -best passages are to be found in his long poem on the “Miracles of -the Virgin,” which consists of a series of twenty-five tales of her -intervention in human affairs, composed evidently for the purpose of -increasing the spirit of devotion in the worship particularly paid to -her. The opening or induction to these tales contains, perhaps, the -most poetical passage in Berceo’s works; and in the following version -the measure and system of rhyme in the original have been preserved, so -as to give something of its air and manner:-- - - My friends, and faithful vassals · of Almighty God above, - If ye listen to my words · in a spirit to improve, - A tale ye shall hear · of piety and love, - Which afterwards yourselves · shall heartily approve. - - I, a master in Divinity, · Gonzalve Berceo hight, - Once wandering as a Pilgrim, · found a meadow richly dight, - Green and peopled full of flowers, · of flowers fair and bright, - A place where a weary man · would rest him with delight. - - And the flowers I beheld · all looked and smelt so sweet, - That the senses and the soul · they seemed alike to greet; - While on every side ran fountains · through all this glad retreat, - Which in winter kindly warmth supplied, · yet tempered summer’s heat. - - And of rich and goodly trees · there grew a boundless maze, - Granada’s apples bright, · and figs of golden rays, - And many other fruits, · beyond my skill to praise; - But none that turneth sour, · and none that e’er decays. - - The freshness of that meadow, · the sweetness of its flowers, - The dewy shadows of the trees, · that fell like cooling showers, - Renewed within my frame · its worn and wasted powers; - I deem the very odors would · have nourished me for hours.[33] - - [33] - Amigos è vasallos de · Dios omnipotent, - Si vos me escuchasedes · por vuestro consiment, - Querriavos contar un · buen aveniment: - Terrédeslo en cabo por · bueno verament. - - Yo Maestro Gonzalvo de · Berceo nomnado - Iendo en Romeria · caeci en un prado, - Verde è bien sencido, · de flores bien poblado, - Logar cobdiciaduero · pora ome cansado. - - Daban olor sobeio · las flores bien olientes, - Refrescaban en ome · las caras è las mientes, - Manaban cada canto · fuentes claras corrientes, - En verano bien frias, · en yvierno calientes. - - Avie hy grand abondo · de buenas arboledas, - Milgranos è figueras, · peros è mazanedas, - E muchas otras fructas · de diversas monedas; - Mas non avie ningunas · podridas nin acedas. - - La verdura del prado, · la olor de las flores, - Las sombras de los arbores · de temprados sabores - Refrescaronme todo, · è perdi los sudores: - Podrie vevir el ome · con aquellos olores. - - Sanchez, Tom. II. p. 285. - -This induction, which is continued through forty stanzas more, of -unequal merit, is little connected with the stories that follow; the -stories, again, are not at all connected among themselves; and the -whole ends abruptly with a few lines of homage to the Madonna. It -is, therefore, inartificial in its structure throughout. But in the -narrative parts there is often naturalness and spirit, and sometimes, -though rarely, poetry. The tales themselves belong to the religious -fictions of the Middle Ages, and were no doubt intended to excite -devout feelings in those to whom they were addressed; but, like the -old Mysteries, and much else that passed under the name of religion at -the same period, they often betray a very doubtful morality.[34] - - [34] A good account of this part of Berceo’s works, though, - I think, somewhat too severe, is to be found in Dr. Dunham’s - “History of Spain and Portugal,” (London, 1832, 18mo, Tom. IV. - pp. 215-229,) a work of merit, the early part of which, as in - the case of Berceo, rests more frequently than might be expected - on original authorities. Excellent translations will be found - in Prof. Longfellow’s Introductory Essay to his version of the - Coplas de Manrique, Boston, 1833, 12mo, pp. 5 and 10. - -“The Miracles of the Virgin” is not only the longest, but the most -curious, of the poems of Berceo. The rest, however, should not be -entirely neglected. The poem on the “Signs which shall precede the -Judgment” is often solemn, and once or twice rises to poetry; the story -of María de Cisneros, in the “Life of San Domingo,” is well told, and -so is that of the wild appearance in the heavens of Saint James and -Saint Millan fighting for the Christians at the battle of Simancas, -much as it is found in the “General Chronicle of Spain.” But perhaps -nothing is more characteristic of the author or of his age than the -spirit of childlike simplicity and religious tenderness that breathes -through several parts of the “Mourning of the Madonna at the Cross,”--a -spirit of gentle, faithful, credulous devotion, with which the Spanish -people in their wars against the Moors were as naturally marked as they -were with the ignorance that belonged to the Christian world generally -in those dark and troubled times.[35] - - [35] For example, when the Madonna is represented looking at the - cross, and addressing her expiring son:-- - - Fiio, siempre oviemos · io è tu una vida; - Io à ti quisi mucho, · è fui de ti querida; - Io sempre te crey, · è fui de ti creida; - La tu piedad larga · ahora me oblida? - - Fiio, non me oblides · è lievame contigo, - Non me finca en sieglo · mas de un buen amigo; - Juan quem dist por fiio · aqui plora conmigo: - Ruegote quem condones · esto que io te digo. - - St. 78, 79. - - I read these stanzas with a feeling akin to that with which I - should look at a picture on the same subject by Perugino. They - may be translated thus:-- - - My son, in thee and me · life still was felt as one; - I loved thee much, and thou lovedst me · in perfectness, my son; - My faith in thee was sure, · and I thy faith had won; - And doth thy large and pitying love · forget me now, my son? - - My son, forget me not, · but take my soul with thine; - The earth holds but one heart · that kindred is with mine,-- - John, whom thou gavest to be my child, · who here with me doth - pine; - I pray thee, then, that to my prayer · thou graciously incline. - - * * * * * - -I cannot pass farther without offering the tribute of my homage to two -persons who have done more than any others in the nineteenth century to -make Spanish literature known, and to obtain for it the honors to which -it is entitled beyond the limits of the country that gave it birth. - -The first of them, and one whose name I have already cited, is -Friedrich Bouterwek, who was born at Oker in the kingdom of Hanover, -in 1766, and passed nearly all the more active portion of his life at -Göttingen, where he died in 1828, widely respected as one of the most -distinguished professors of that long favored University. A project -for preparing by the most competent hands a full history of the arts -and sciences from the period of their revival in modern Europe was -first suggested at Göttingen by another of its well-known professors, -John Gottfried Eichhorn, in the latter part of the eighteenth century. -But though that remarkable scholar published, in 1796-9, two volumes -of a learned Introduction to the whole work which he had projected, -he went no farther, and most of his coadjutors stopped when he did, -or soon afterwards. The portion of it assigned to Bouterwek, however, -which was the entire history of elegant literature in modern times, -was happily achieved by him between 1801 and 1819, in twelve volumes -octavo. Of this division, “The History of Spanish Literature” fills the -third volume, and was published in 1804;--a work remarkable for its -general philosophical views, and by far the best extant on the subject -it discusses; but imperfect in many particulars, because its author -was unable to procure a large number of Spanish books needful for his -task, and knew many considerable Spanish authors only by insufficient -extracts. In 1812, a translation of it into French was printed, in two -volumes, by Madame Streck, with a judicious preface by the venerable -M. Stapfer;--in 1823, it came out, together with its author’s brief -“History of Portuguese Literature,” in an English translation, made -with taste and skill, by Miss Thomasina Ross;--and in 1829, a Spanish -version of the first and smallest part of it, with important notes, -sufficient with the text to fill a volume in octavo, was prepared by -two excellent Spanish scholars, José Gomez de la Cortina, and Nicolás -Hugalde y Mollinedo,--a work which all lovers of Spanish literature -would gladly see completed. - -Since the time of Bouterwek, no foreigner has done so much to promote a -knowledge of Spanish literature as M. Simonde de Sismondi, who was born -at Geneva in 1773, and died there in 1842, honored and loved by all -who knew his wise and generous spirit, as it exhibited itself either -in his personal intercourse, or in his great works on the history of -France and Italy,--two countries, to which, by a line of time-honored -ancestors, he seemed almost equally to belong. In 1811, he delivered in -his native city a course of brilliant lectures on the literature of the -South of Europe, and in 1813, published them at Paris. They involved an -account of the Provençal and the Portuguese, as well as of the Italian -and the Spanish;--but in whatever relates to the Spanish Sismondi was -even less well provided with the original authors than Bouterwek had -been, and was, in consequence, under obligations to his predecessor, -which, while he takes no pains to conceal them, diminish the authority -of a work that will yet always be read for the beauty of its style -and the richness and wisdom of its reflections. The entire series of -these lectures was translated into German by L. Hain in 1815, and into -English with notes by T. Roscoe in 1823. The part relating to Spanish -literature was published in Spanish, with occasional alterations and -copious and important additions by José Lorenzo Figueroa and José -Amador de los Rios, at Seville, in 2 vols. 8vo, 1841-2,--the notes -relating to Andalusian authors being particularly valuable. - -None but those who have gone over the whole ground occupied by Spanish -literature can know how great are the merits of scholars like Bouterwek -and Sismondi,--acute, philosophical, and thoughtful,--who, with an -apparatus of authors so incomplete, have yet done so much for the -illustration of their subject. - - - - -CHAPTER III. - -ALFONSO THE WISE.--HIS LIFE.--HIS LETTER TO PEREZ DE GUZMAN.--HIS -CÁNTIGAS IN THE GALICIAN.--ORIGIN OF THAT DIALECT AND OF THE -PORTUGUESE.--HIS TESORO.--HIS PROSE.--LAW CONCERNING THE -CASTILIAN.--HIS CONQUISTA DE ULTRAMAR.--OLD FUEROS.--THE FUERO -JUZGO.--THE SETENARIO.--THE ESPEJO.--THE FUERO REAL.--THE SIETE -PARTIDAS AND THEIR MERITS.--CHARACTER OF ALFONSO. - - -The second known author in Castilian literature bears a name much more -distinguished than the first. It is Alfonso the Tenth, who, from his -great advancement in various branches of human knowledge, has been -called Alfonso the Wise, or the Learned. He was the son of Ferdinand -the Third, a saint in the Roman calendar, who, uniting anew the crowns -of Castile and Leon, and enlarging the limits of his power by important -conquests from the Moors, settled more firmly than they had before been -settled the foundations of a Christian empire in the Peninsula.[36] - - [36] Mariana, Hist., Lib. XII. c. 15, ad fin. - -Alfonso was born in 1221, and ascended the throne in 1252. He was a -poet, much connected with the Provençal Troubadours of his time,[37] -and was besides so greatly skilled in geometry, astronomy, and the -occult sciences then so much valued, that his reputation was early -spread throughout Europe, on account of his general science. But, as -Mariana quaintly says of him, “He was more fit for letters than for the -government of his subjects; he studied the heavens, and watched the -stars, but forgot the earth, and lost his kingdom.”[38] - - [37] Diez, Poesie der Troubadours, pp. 75, 226, 227, 331-350. A - long poem on the influence of the stars was addressed to Alfonso - by Nat de Mons (Raynouard, Troub., Tom. V. p. 269); and besides - the curious poem addressed to him by Giraud Riquier of Narbonne, - in 1275, given by Diez, we know that in another poem this - distinguished Troubadour mourned the king’s death. Raynouard, - Tom. V. p. 171. Millot, Histoire des Troubadours, Paris, 1774, - 12mo, Tom. III. pp. 329-374. - - [38] Historia, Lib. XIII. c. 20. The less favorable side of - Alfonso’s character is given by the cynical Bayle, Art., - _Castile_. - -His character is still an interesting one. He appears to have -had more political, philosophical, and elegant learning than any -other man of his time; to have reasoned more wisely in matters of -legislation; and to have made further advances in some of the exact -sciences;--accomplishments that he seems to have resorted to in the -latter part of his life for consolation amidst unsuccessful wars with -foreign enemies and a rebellious son. The following letter from him -to one of the Guzmans, who was then in great favor at the court of -the king of Fez, shows at once how low the fortunes of the Christian -monarch were sunk before he died, and with how much simplicity he could -speak of their bitterness. It is dated in 1282, and is a favorable -specimen of Castilian prose at a period so early in the history of the -language.[39] - - [39] This letter, which the Spanish Academy calls “inimitable,” - though early known in MS., seems to have been first printed by - Ortiz de Zuñiga (Anales de Sevilla, Sevilla, 1677, fol., p. - 124). Several old ballads have been made out of it, one of which - is to be found in the “Cancionero de Romances,” por Lorenço de - Sepúlveda (Sevilla, 1584, 18mo, f. 104). The letter is found in - the preface to the Academy’s edition of the Partidas, and is - explained by the accounts in Mariana, (Hist., Lib. XIV. c. 5,) - Conde, (Dominacion de los Árabes, Tom. III. p. 69,) and Mondejar - (Memorias, Lib. VI. c. 14). The original is said to be in the - possession of the Duke of Medina-Sidonia. Semanario Pintoresco, - 1845, p. 303. - -“Cousin Don Alonzo Perez de Guzman: My affliction is great, because -it has fallen from such a height that it will be seen afar; and as it -has fallen on me, who was the friend of all the world, so in all the -world will men know this my misfortune, and its sharpness, which I -suffer unjustly from my son, assisted by my friends and by my prelates, -who, instead of setting peace between us, have put mischief, not under -secret pretences or covertly, but with bold openness. And thus I find -no protection in mine own land, neither defender nor champion; and yet -have I not deserved it at their hands, unless it were for the good -I have done them. And now, since in mine own land they deceive, who -should have served and assisted me, needful is it that I should seek -abroad those who will kindly care for me; and since they of Castile -have been false to me, none can think it ill that I ask help among -those of Benamarin.[40] For if my sons are mine enemies, it will not -then be wrong that I take mine enemies to be my sons; enemies according -to the law, but not of free choice. And such is the good king Aben -Jusaf; for I love and value him much, and he will not despise me or -fail me; for we are at truce. I know also how much you are his, and -how much he loves you, and with good cause, and how much he will do -through your good counsel. Therefore look not at the things past, but -at the things present. Consider of what lineage you are come, and that -at some time hereafter I may do you good, and if I do it not, that -your own good deed shall be its own good reward. Therefore, my cousin, -Alonzo Perez de Guzman, do so much for me with my lord and your friend, -that, on pledge of the most precious crown that I have, and the jewels -thereof, he should lend me so much as he may hold to be just. And if -you can obtain his aid, let it not be hindered of coming quickly; but -rather think how the good friendship that may come to me from your -lord will be through your hands. And so may God’s friendship be with -you. Done in Seville, my only loyal city, in the thirtieth year of my -reign, and in the first of these my troubles. - - Signed, THE KING.”[41] - - [40] A race of African princes, who reigned in Morocco, and - subjected all Western Africa. Crónica de Alfonso XI., Valladolid, - 1551, fol., c. 219. Gayangos, Mohammedan Dynasties, Vol. II. p. - 325. - - [41] Alonzo Perez de Guzman, of the great family of that name, - the person to whom this remarkable letter is addressed, went - over to Africa in 1276, with many knights, to serve Aben Jusaf - against his rebellious subjects, stipulating that he should not - be required to serve against Christians. Ortiz de Zuñiga, Anales, - p. 113. - -The unhappy monarch survived the date of this very striking letter -but two years, and died in 1284. At one period of his life, his -consideration throughout Christendom was so great, that he was elected -Emperor of Germany; but this was only another source of sorrow to -him, for his claims were contested, and after some time were silently -set aside by the election of Rodolph of Hapsburg, upon whose dynasty -the glories of the House of Austria rested so long. The life of -Alfonso, therefore, was on the whole unfortunate, and full of painful -vicissitudes, that might well have broken the spirit of most men, and -that were certainly not without an effect on his.[42] - - [42] The principal life of Alfonso X. is that by the Marquis - of Mondejar (Madrid, 1777, fol.); but it did not receive its - author’s final revision, and is an imperfect work. (Prólogo de - Cerdá y Rico; and Baena, Hijos de Madrid, Madrid, 1790, 4to, - Tom. II. pp. 304-312.) For the part of Alfonso’s life devoted to - letters, ample materials are to be found in Castro, (Biblioteca - Española, Tom. II. pp. 625-688,) and in the Repertorio Americano - (Lóndres, 1827, Tom. III. pp. 67-77); where there is a valuable - paper, written, I believe, by Salvá, who published that journal. - -So much the more remarkable is it, that he should be distinguished -among the chief founders of his country’s intellectual fame,--a -distinction which again becomes more extraordinary when we recollect -that he enjoys it not in letters alone, or in a single department, but -in many; since he is to be remembered alike for the great advancement -which Castilian prose composition made in his hands, for his poetry, -for his astronomical tables, which all the progress of science since -has not deprived of their value; and for his great work on legislation, -which is at this moment an authority in both hemispheres.[43] - - [43] The works attributed to Alfonso are:--IN PROSE: 1. Crónica - General de España, to be noticed hereafter. 2. A Universal - History, containing an abstract of the history of the Jews. 3. - A Translation of the Bible. 4. El Libro del Tesoro, a work on - general philosophy; but Sarmiento, in a MS. which I possess, says - that this is a translation of the Tesoro of Brunetto Latini, - Dante’s master, and that it was not made by order of Alfonso; - adding, however, that he has seen a book entitled “Flores de - Filosofía,” which professes to have been compiled by this king’s - command, and may be the work here intended. 5. The Tábulas - Alfonsinas, or Astronomical Tables. 6. Historia de todo el Suceso - de Ultramar, to be noticed presently. 7. El Espéculo ó Espejo - de todos los Derechos; El Fuero Real, and other laws published - in the Opúsculos Legales del Rey Alfonso el Sabio (ed. de la - Real Academia de Historia, Madrid, 1836, 2 tom., fol.). 8. Las - Siete Partidas.--IN VERSE: 1. Another Tesoro. 2. Las Cántigas. - 3. Two stanzas of the Querellas. Several of these works, like - the Universal History and the Ultramar, were, as we know, only - compiled by his order, and in others he must have been much - assisted. But the whole mass shows how wide were his views, and - how great must have been his influence on the language, the - literature, and the intellectual progress of his country. - -Of his poetry, we possess, besides works of very doubtful genuineness, -two, about one of which there has been little question, and about the -other none; his “Cántigas,” or Chants, in honor of the Madonna, and his -“Tesoro,” a treatise on the transmutation of the baser metals into gold. - -Of the Cántigas, there are extant no less than four hundred and one, -composed in lines of from six to twelve syllables, and rhymed with a -considerable degree of exactness.[44] Their measure and manner are -Provençal. They are devoted to the praises and the miracles of the -Madonna, in whose honor the king founded in 1279 a religious and -military order;[45] and in devotion to whom, by his last will, he -directed these poems to be perpetually chanted in the church of Saint -Mary of Murcia, where he desired his body might be buried.[46] Only a -few of them have been printed; but we have enough to show what they -are, and especially that they are written, not in the Castilian, -like the rest of his works, but in the Galician; an extraordinary -circumstance, for which it does not seem easy to give a satisfactory -reason. - - [44] Castro, Biblioteca, Tom. II. p. 632, where he speaks of the - MS. of the Cántigas in the Escurial. The one at Toledo, which - contains only a hundred, is the MS. of which a fac-simile is - given in the “Paleographía Española,” (Madrid, 1758, 4to, p. - 72,) and in the notes to the Spanish translation of Bouterwek’s - History (p. 129). Large extracts from the Cántigas are found in - Castro, (Tom. II. pp. 361, 362, and pp. 631-643,) and in the - “Nobleza del Andaluzia” de Argote de Molina, (Sevilla, 1588, - fol., f. 151,) followed by a curious notice of the king, in Chap. - 19, and a poem in his honor. - - [45] Mondejar, Memorias, p. 438. - - [46] Mondejar, Mem., p. 434. His body, however, was in fact - buried at Seville, and his heart, which he had desired should - be sent to Palestine, at Murcia, because, as he says in his - testament, “Murcia was the first place which it pleased God I - should gain in the service and to the honor of King Ferdinand.” - Laborde saw his monument there. Itinéraire de l’Espagne, Paris, - 1809, 8vo, Tom. II. p. 185. - -The Galician, however, was originally an important language in Spain, -and for some time seemed as likely to prevail throughout the country as -any other of the dialects spoken in it. It was probably the first that -was developed in the northwestern part of the Peninsula, and the second -that was reduced to writing. For in the eleventh and twelfth centuries, -just at the period when the struggling elements of the modern Spanish -were disencumbering themselves from the forms of the corrupted Latin, -Galicia, by the wars and troubles of the times, was repeatedly -separated from Castile, so that distinct dialects appeared in the -two different territories almost at the same moment. Of these, the -Northern is likely to have been the older, though the Southern proved -ultimately the more fortunate. At any rate, even without a court, which -was the surest centre of culture in such rude ages, and without any of -the reasons for the development of a dialect which always accompany -political power, we know that the Galician was already sufficiently -formed to pass with the conquering arms of Alfonso the Sixth, and -establish itself firmly between the Douro and the Minho; that country -which became the nucleus of the independent kingdom of Portugal. - -This was between the years 1095 and 1109; and though the establishment -of a Burgundian dynasty on the throne erected there naturally brought -into the dialect of Portugal an infusion of the French, which never -appeared in the dialect of Galicia,[47] still the language spoken in -the two territories under different sovereigns and different influences -continued substantially the same for a long period; perhaps down to -the time of Charles the Fifth.[48] But it was only in Portugal that -there was a court, or that means and motives were found sufficient for -forming and cultivating a regular language. It is therefore only in -Portugal that this common dialect of both the territories appears with -a separate and proper literature;[49] the first intimation of which, -with an exact date, is found as early as 1192. This is a document -in prose.[50] The oldest poetry is to be sought in three curious -fragments, originally published by Faria y Sousa, which can hardly be -placed much later than the year 1200.[51] Both show that the Galician -in Portugal, under less favorable circumstances than those which -accompanied the Castilian in Spain, rose at the same period to be a -written language, and possessed, perhaps, quite as early, the materials -for forming an independent literature. - - [47] J. P. Ribeiro, Dissertaçoes, etc., publicadas per órdem da - Academia Real das Sciencias de Lisboa, Lisboa, 1810, 8vo, Tom. I. - p. 180. A glossary of French words occurring in the Portuguese, - by Francisco de San Luiz, is in the Memorias da Academia - Real de Sciencias, Lisboa, 1816, Tom. IV. Parte II. Viterbo - (Elucidario, Lisboa, 1798, fol., Tom. I., Advert. Preliminar., - pp. viii.-xiii.) also examines this point. - - [48] Paleographía Española, p. 10. - - [49] A. Ribeiro dos Santos, Orígem, etc., da Poesía Portugueza, - in Memorias da Lett. Portugueza, pela Academia, etc., 1812, Tom. - VIII. pp. 248-250. - - [50] J. P. Ribeiro, Diss., Tom. I. p. 176. It is _possible_ the - document in App., pp. 273-275, is older, as it appears to be - from the time of Sancho I., or 1185-1211; but the next document - (p. 275) is _dated_ “Era 1230,” which is A. D. 1192, and is, - therefore, the oldest _with a date_. - - [51] Europa Portugueza, Lisboa, 1680, fol., Tom. III. Parte IV. - c. 9; and Diez, Grammatik der Romanischen Sprachen, Bonn, 1836, - 8vo, Tom. I. p. 72. - -We may fairly infer, therefore, from these facts, indicating the vigor -of the Galician in Portugal before the year 1200, that, in its native -province in Spain, it is somewhat older. But we have no monuments -by which to establish such antiquity. Castro, it is true, notices a -manuscript translation of the history of Servandus, as if made in 1150 -by Seguino, in the Galician dialect; but he gives no specimen of it, -and his own authority in such a matter is not sufficient.[52] And in -the well-known letter sent to the Constable of Portugal by the Marquis -of Santillana, about the middle of the fifteenth century, we are told -that all Spanish poetry was written for a long time in Galician or -Portuguese;[53] but this is so obviously either a mistake in fact, or -a mere compliment to the Portuguese prince to whom it was addressed, -that Sarmiento, full of prejudices in favor of his native province, and -desirous to arrive at the same conclusion, is obliged to give it up as -wholly unwarranted.[54] - - [52] Bibl. Española, Tom. II. pp. 404, 405. - - [53] Sanchez, Tom. I., Pról., p. lvii. - - [54] After quoting the passage of Santillana just referred to, - Sarmiento, who was very learned in all that relates to the - earliest Spanish verse, says, with a simplicity quite delightful, - “I, as a Galician, interested in this conclusion, should be glad - to possess the grounds of the Marquis of Santillana; but I have - not seen a single word of any author that can throw light on the - matter.” Memorias de la Poesía y Poetas Españoles, Madrid, 1775, - 4to, p. 196. - -We must come back, therefore, to the “Cántigas” or Chants of Alfonso, -as to the oldest specimen extant in the Galician dialect distinct from -the Portuguese; and since, from internal evidence, one of them was -written after he had conquered Xerez, we may place them between 1263, -when that event occurred, and 1284, when he died.[55] Why he should -have chosen this particular dialect for this particular form of poetry, -when he had, as we know, an admirable mastery of the Castilian, and -when these Cántigas, according to his last will, were to be chanted -over his tomb, in a part of the kingdom where the Galician dialect -never prevailed, we cannot now decide.[56] His father, Saint Ferdinand, -was from the North, and his own early nurture there may have given -Alfonso himself a strong affection for its language; or, what perhaps -is more probable, there may have been something in the dialect itself, -its origin or its gravity, which, at a period when no dialect in Spain -had obtained an acknowledged supremacy, made it seem to him better -suited than the Castilian or Valencian to religious purposes. - - [55] - Que tolleu - A Mouros Neul e Xeres, - - he says (Castro, Tom. II. p. 637); and Xerez was taken in 1263. - But all these Cántigas were not, probably, written in one period - of the king’s life. - - [56] Ortiz de Zuñiga, Anales, p. 129. - -But however this may be, all the rest of his works are in the language -spoken in the centre of the Peninsula, while his Cántigas are in the -Galician. Some of them have considerable poetical merit; but in general -they are to be remarked only for the variety of their metres, for an -occasional tendency to the form of ballads, for a lyrical tone, which -does not seem to have been earlier established in the Castilian, and -for a kind of Doric simplicity, which belongs partly to the dialect he -adopted and partly to the character of the author himself;--the whole -bearing the impress of the Provençal poets, with whom he was much -connected, and whom through life he patronized and maintained at his -court.[57] - - [57] Take the following as a specimen. Alfonso beseeches the - Madonna rather to look at her merits than at his own claims, and - runs through five stanzas, with the choral echo to each, “Saint - Mary, remember me!” - - Non catedes como - Pequei assas, - Mais catad o gran - Ben que en vos ias; - Ca uos me fesestes - Como quen fas - Sa cousa quita - Toda per assi. - Santa Maria! nenbre uos de mi! - - Non catedes a como - Pequey greu, - Mais catad o gran ben - Que uos Deus deu; - Ca outro ben se non - Uos non ei eu - Nen ouue nunca - Des quando naci. - Santa Maria! nenbre uos de mi! - - Castro, Bibl., Tom. II. p. 640. - - This has, no doubt, a very Provençal air; but others of the - Cántigas have still more of it. The Provençal poets, in fact, as - we shall see more fully hereafter, fled in considerable numbers - into Spain at the period of their persecution at home; and that - period corresponds to the reigns of Alfonso and his father. In - this way a strong tinge of the Provençal character came into the - poetry of Castile, and remained there a long time. The proofs of - this early intercourse with Provençal poets are abundant. Aiméric - de Bellinoi was at the court of Alfonso IX., who died in 1214, - (Histoire Littéraire de la France, par des Membres de l’Institut, - Paris, 4to, Tom. XIX. 1838, p. 507,) and was afterwards at the - court of Alfonso X. (Ibid., p. 511.) So were Montagnagout, and - Folquet de Lunel, both of whom wrote poems on the election of - Alfonso X. to the throne of Germany. (Ibid., Tom. XIX. p. 491, - and Tom. XX. p. 557; with Raynouard, Troubadours, Tom. IV. p. - 239.) Raimond de Tours and Nat de Mons addressed verses to - Alfonso X. (Ibid., Tom. XIX. pp. 555, 577.) Bertrand Carbonel - dedicated his works to him; and Giraud Riquier, sometimes called - the last of the Troubadours, wrote an elegy on his death, already - referred to. (Ibid., Tom. XX. pp. 559, 578, 584.) Others might be - cited, but these are enough. - -The other poetry attributed to Alfonso--except two stanzas that remain -of his “Complaints” against the hard fortune of the last years of his -life[58]--is to be sought in the treatise called “Del Tesoro,” which -is divided into two short books, and dated in 1272. It is on the -Philosopher’s Stone, and the greater portion of it is concealed in an -unexplained cipher; the remainder being partly in prose and partly in -octave stanzas, which are the oldest extant in Castilian verse. But the -whole is worthless, and its genuineness doubtful.[59] - - [58] The two stanzas of the Querellas, or Complaints, still - remaining to us, are in Ortiz de Zuñiga, (Anales, p. 123,) and - elsewhere. - - [59] First published by Sanchez, (Poesías Anteriores, Tom. I. - pp. 148-170,) where it may still be best consulted. The copy he - used had belonged to the Marquis of Villena, who was suspected - of the black art, and whose books were burnt on that account - after his death, temp. John II. A specimen of the cipher is - given in Cortinas’s translation of Bouterwek (Tom. I. p. 129). - In reading this poem, it should be borne in mind that Alfonso - believed in astrological predictions, and protected astrology by - his laws. (Partida VII. Tít. xxiii. Ley 1.) Moratin the younger - (Obras, Madrid, 1830, 8vo, Tom. I. Parte I. p. 61) thinks that - both the Querellas and the Tesoro were the work of the Marquis - of Villena; relying, first, on the fact that the only manuscript - of the latter known to exist once belonged to the Marquis; and, - secondly, on the obvious difference in language and style between - both and the rest of the king’s known works,--a difference which - certainly may well excite suspicion, but does not much encourage - the particular conjecture of Moratin as to the Marquis of - Villena. - -Alfonso claims his chief distinction in letters as a writer of prose. -In this his merit is great. He first made the Castilian a national -language by causing the Bible to be translated into it, and by -requiring it to be used in all legal proceedings;[60] and he first, by -his great Code and other works, gave specimens of prose composition -which left a free and disencumbered course for all that has been done -since,--a service perhaps greater than it has been permitted any other -Spaniard to render the prose literature of his country. To this, -therefore, we now turn. - - [60] Mariana, Hist., Lib. XIV. c. 7; Castro, Bibl., Tom. I. - p. 411; and Mondejar, Memorias, p. 450. The last, however, is - mistaken in supposing the translation of the Bible printed at - Ferrara in 1553 to have been that made by order of Alfonso, since - it was the work of some Jews of the period when it was published. - -And here the first work we meet with is one that was rather compiled -under his direction, than written by himself. It is called “The Great -Conquest beyond Sea,” and is an account of the wars in the Holy Land, -which then so much agitated the minds of men throughout Europe, -and which were intimately connected with the fate of the Christian -Spaniards still struggling for their own existence in a perpetual -crusade against misbelief at home. It begins with the history of -Mohammed, and comes down to the year 1270; much of it being taken from -an old French version of the work of William of Tyre, on the same -general subject, and the rest from other less trustworthy sources. But -parts of it are not historical. The grandfather of Godfrey of Bouillon, -its hero, is the wild and fanciful Knight of the Swan, who is almost as -much a representative of the spirit of chivalry as Amadis de Gaul, and -goes through adventures no less marvellous; fighting on the Rhine like -a knight-errant, and miraculously warned by a swallow how to rescue -his lady, who has been made prisoner. Unhappily, in the only edition of -this curious work,--printed in 1503,--the text has received additions -that make us doubtful how much of it may be certainly ascribed to -the time of Alfonso the Tenth, in whose reign and by whose order the -greater part of it seems to have been prepared. It is chiefly valuable -as a specimen of early Spanish prose.[61] - - [61] La Gran Conquista de Ultramar was printed at Salamanca, by - Hans Giesser, in folio, in 1503. That additions are made to it - is apparent from Lib. III. c. 170, where is an account of the - overthrow of the order of the Templars, which is there said to - have happened in the year of the Spanish era 1412; and that it - is a translation, so far as it follows William of Tyre, from an - old French version of the thirteenth century, I state on the - authority of a manuscript of Sarmiento. The Conquista begins - thus:-- - - “Capitulo Primero. Como Mahoma predico en Aravia: y gano toda la - tierra de Oriente. - - “En aql. tiēpo q̄ eraclius emperador en Roma q̄ fue buē Xpiano, - et mātuvo gran tiēpo el imperio en justicia y en paz, levantose - Mahoma en tierra de Aravia y mostro a las gētes necias sciēcia - nueva, y fizo les creer q̄ era profeta y mensagero de dios, y que - le avia embiado al mundo por saluar los hombres qēle creyessen,” - etc. - - The story of the Knight of the Swan, full of enchantments, duels, - and much of what marks the books of chivalry, begins abruptly - at Lib. 1. cap. 47, fol. xvii., with these words: “And now the - history leaves off speaking for a time of all these things, in - order to relate what concerns the Knight of the Swan,” etc.; - and it ends with Cap. 185, f. lxxx., the next chapter opening - thus: “Now this history leaves off speaking of this, and turns - to relate how three knights went to Jerusalem,” etc. This story - of the Knight of the Swan, which fills 63 leaves, or about a - quarter part of the whole work, appeared originally in Normandy - or Belgium, begun by Jehan Renault and finished by Gandor or - Graindor of Douay, in 30,000 verses, about the year 1300. (De - la Rue, Essai sur les Bardes, etc., Caen, 1834, 8vo, Tom. III. - p. 213. Warton’s English Poetry, London, 1824, 8vo, Vol. II. p. - 149. Collection of Prose Romances, by Thoms, London, 1838, 12mo, - Vol. III., Preface.) It was, I suppose, inserted in the Ultramar, - when the Ultramar was prepared for publication, because it was - supposed to illustrate and dignify the history of Godfrey of - Bouillon, its hero; but this is not the only part of the work - made up later than its date. The last chapter, for instance, - giving an account of the death of Conradin of the Hohenstauffen, - and the assassination in the church of Viterbo, at the moment - of the elevation of the host, of Henry, the grandson of Henry - III. of England, by Guy of Monfort,--both noticed by Dante,--has - nothing to do with the main work, and seems taken from some later - chronicle. - -Castilian prose, in fact, can hardly be said to have existed earlier, -unless we are willing to reckon as specimens of it the few meagre -documents, generally grants in hard legal forms, that begin with the -one concerning Avilés in 1155, already noticed, and come down, half -bad Latin and half unformed Spanish, to the time of Alfonso.[62] -The first monument, therefore, that can be properly cited for this -purpose, though it dates from the reign of Saint Ferdinand, the father -of Alfonso, is one in preparing which, it has always been supposed, -Alfonso himself was personally concerned. It is the “Fuero Juzgo,” or -“Forum Judicum,” a collection of Visigoth laws, which, in 1241, after -his conquest of Córdova, Saint Ferdinand sent to that city in Latin, -with directions that it should be translated into the vulgar dialect, -and observed there as the law of the territory he had then newly -rescued from the Moors.[63] - - [62] There is a curious collection of documents, published by - royal authority, (Madrid, 1829-33, 6 tom. 8vo,) called “Coleccion - de Cédulas, Cartas, Patentes,” etc., relating to Biscay and - the Northern provinces, where the Castilian first appeared. - They contain nothing in that language so old as the letter of - confirmation to the Fueros of Avilés by Alfonso the Seventh - already noted; but they contain materials of some value for - tracing the decay of the Latin, by documents dated from the year - 804 downwards. (Tom. VI. p. 1.) There is, however, a difficulty - relating both to the documents in Latin and to those in the - early modern dialect; e. g. in relation to the one in Tom. V. p. - 120, dated 1197. It is, that we are not certain that we possess - them in precisely their _original_ form and integrity. Indeed, - in not a few instances we are sure of the opposite. For these - Fueros, Privilegios, or whatever they are called, being but - arbitrary grants of an absolute monarch, the persons to whom they - were made were careful to procure confirmations of them from - succeeding sovereigns, as often as they could; and when these - confirmations were made, the original document, if in Latin, was - sometimes translated, as was that of Peter the Cruel, given by - Marina (Teoría de las Cortes, Madrid, 1813, 4to, Tom. III. p. - 11); or, if in the modern dialect, it was sometimes copied and - accommodated to the changed language and spelling of the age. - Such confirmations were in some cases numerous, as in the grant - first cited, which was confirmed thirteen times between 1231 and - 1621. Now it does not appear from the published documents in - this Coleccion what is, in each instance, the true date of the - particular version used. The Avilés document, however, is not - liable to this objection. It is extant on the original parchment, - upon which the confirmation was made in 1155, with the original - signatures of the persons who made it, as testified by the most - competent witnesses. See _post_, Vol. III., Appendix (A), near - the end. - - [63] Fuero Juzgo is a barbarous phrase, which signifies the - same as Forum Judicum, and is perhaps a corruption of it. - (Covarrubias, Tesoro, Madrid, 1674, fol., _ad verb._) The first - printed edition of the Fuero Juzgo is of 1600; the best is that - by the Academy, in Latin and Spanish, Madrid, 1815, folio. - -The precise time when this translation was made has not been decided. -Marina, whose opinion should have weight, thinks it was not till the -reign of Alfonso; but, from the early authority we know it possessed, -it is perhaps more probable that it is to be dated from the latter -years of Saint Ferdinand. In either case, however, considering the -peculiar character and position of Alfonso, there can be little doubt -that he was consulted and concerned in its preparation. It is a regular -code, divided into twelve books, which are subdivided into titles and -laws, and is of an extent so considerable and of a character so free -and discursive, that we can fairly judge from it the condition of the -prose language of the time, and ascertain that it was already as far -advanced as the contemporaneous poetry.[64] - - [64] See the Discurso prefixed to the Academy’s edition, by Don - Manuel de Lardizabal y Uribe; and Marina’s Ensayo, p. 29, in Mem. - de la Acad. de Hist., Tom. IV., 1805. Perhaps the most curious - passage in the Fuero Juzgo is the law (Lib. XII. Tít. iii. Ley - 15) containing the tremendous oath of abjuration prescribed to - those Jews who were about to enter the Christian Church. But - I prefer to give as a specimen of its language one of a more - liberal spirit, viz., the eighth Law of the Primero Titolo, or - Introduction, “concerning those who may become kings,” which in - the Latin original dates from A. D. 643: “Quando el rey morre, - nengun non deve tomar el regno, nen facerse rey, nen ningun - religioso, nen otro omne, nen servo, nen otro omne estrano, se - non omne de linage de los godos, et fillo dalgo, et noble et - digno de costumpnes, et con el otorgamiento de los obispos, et - de los godos mayores, et de todo el poblo. Asi que mientre que - fórmos todos de un corazon, et de una veluntat, et de una fé, - que sea entre nos paz et justicia enno regno, et que podamos - ganar la companna de los angeles en el otro sieglo; et aquel que - quebrantar esta nuestra lee sea escomungado por sempre.” - -But the wise forecast of Saint Ferdinand soon extended beyond the -purpose with which he originally commanded the translation of the -old Visigoth laws, and he undertook to prepare a code for the -whole of Christian Spain that was under his sceptre, which, in its -different cities and provinces, was distracted by different and often -contradictory _fueros_ or privileges and laws given to each as it -was won from the common enemy. But he did not live to execute his -beneficent project, and the fragment that still remains to us of what -he undertook, commonly known by the name of the “Setenario,” plainly -implies that it is, in part at least, the work of his son Alfonso.[65] - - [65] For the Setenario, see Castro, Biblioteca, Tom. II. pp. - 680-684; and Marina, Historia de la Legislacion, Madrid, 1808, - fol., §§ 290, 291. As far as it goes, which is not through the - first of the seven divisions proposed, it consists, 1. of an - introduction by Alfonso; and 2. of a series of discussions on the - Catholic religion, on Heathenism, etc., which were afterwards - substantially incorporated into the first of the Partidas of - Alfonso himself. - -Still, though Alfonso had been employed in preparing this code, he did -not see fit to finish it. He, however, felt charged with the general -undertaking, and seemed determined that his kingdom should not continue -to suffer from the uncertainty or the conflict of its different systems -of legislation. But he proceeded with great caution. His first body -of laws, called the “Espejo,” or “Mirror of all Rights,” filling five -books, was prepared before 1255; but though it contains within itself -directions for its own distribution and enforcement, it does not seem -ever to have gone into practical use. His “Fuero Real,” a shorter -code, divided into four books, was completed in 1255 for Valladolid, -and perhaps was subsequently given to other cities of his kingdom. -Both were followed by different laws, as occasion called for them, -down nearly to the end of his reign. But all of them, taken together, -were far from constituting a code such as had been projected by Saint -Ferdinand.[66] - - [66] Opúsculos Legales del Rey Alfonso el Sabio, publicados, - etc., por la Real Academia de la Historia, Madrid, 1836, 2 tom. - fol. Marina, Legislacion, § 301. - -This last great work was undertaken by Alfonso in 1256, and finished -either in 1263 or 1265. It was originally called by Alfonso himself -“El Setenario,” from the title of the code undertaken by his father; -but it is now always called “Las Siete Partidas,” or The Seven Parts, -from the seven divisions of the work itself. That Alfonso was assisted -by others in the great task of compiling it out of the Decretals, and -the Digest and Code of Justinian, as well as out of the Fuero Juzgo -and other sources of legislation, both Spanish and foreign, is not to -be doubted; but the general air and finish of the whole, its style and -literary execution, must be more or less his own, so much are they in -harmony with whatever else we know of his works and character.[67] - - [67] “El Setenario” was the name given to the work begun in the - reign of St. Ferdinand, “because,” says Alfonso, in the preface - to it, “all it contains is arranged by sevens.” In the same way - his own code is divided into seven parts; but it does not seem - to have been cited by the name of “The Seven Parts” till above a - century after it was composed. Marina, Legislacion, §§ 292-303. - Preface to the edition of the Partidas by the Academy, Madrid, - 1807, 4to, Tom. I. pp. xv.-xviii. - -The Partidas, however, though by far the most important legislative -monument of its age, did not become at once the law of the land.[68] -On the contrary, the great cities, with their separate privileges, -long resisted any thing like a uniform system of legislation for the -whole country; and it was not till 1348, two years before the death of -Alfonso the Eleventh, and above sixty after that of their author, that -the Partidas were finally proclaimed as of binding authority in all -the territories held by the kings of Castile and Leon. But from that -period the great code of Alfonso has been uniformly respected.[69] It -is, in fact, a sort of Spanish common law, which, with the decisions -under it, has been the basis of Spanish jurisprudence ever since; and -becoming in this way a part of the constitution of the state in all -Spanish colonies, it has, from the time when Louisiana and Florida were -added to the United States, become in some cases the law in our own -country;--so wide may be the influence of a wise legislation.[70] - - [68] Much trouble arose from the attempt of Alfonso X. to - introduce his code. Marina, Legislacion, §§ 417-419. - - [69] Marina, Legis., § 449. Fuero Juzgo, ed. Acad., Pref., p. - xliii. - - [70] See a curious and learned book entitled “The Laws of - the Siete Partidas, which are still in Force in the State of - Louisiana,” translated by L. Moreau Lislet and H. Carleton, New - Orleans, 1820, 2 vols. 8vo; and a discussion on the same subject - in Wheaton’s “Reports of Cases in the Supreme Court of the United - States,” Vol. V. 1820, Appendix; together with various cases in - the other volumes of the Reports of the Supreme Court of the - United States, e. g. Wheaton, Vol. III. 1818, p. 202, note (a). - “We may observe,” says Dunham, (Hist. of Spain and Portugal, Vol. - IV. p. 121,) “that, if all the other codes were banished, Spain - would still have a respectable body of jurisprudence; for we - have the experience of an eminent advocate in the Royal Tribunal - of Appeals for asserting, that, during an extensive practice of - twenty-nine years, scarcely a case occurred which could not be - virtually or expressly decided by the code in question.” - -The Partidas, however, read very little like a collection of statutes, -or even like a code such as that of Justinian or Napoleon. They -seem rather to be a series of treatises on legislation, morals, and -religion, divided with great formality, according to their subjects, -into Parts, Titles, and Laws; the last of which, instead of being -merely imperative ordinances, enter into arguments and investigations -of various sorts, often discussing the moral principles they lay down, -and often containing intimations of the manners and opinions of the -age, that make them a curious mine of Spanish antiquities. They are, -in short, a kind of digested result of the opinions and reading of a -learned monarch, and his coadjutors, in the thirteenth century, on -the relative duties of a king and his subjects, and on the entire -legislation and police, ecclesiastical, civil, and moral, to which, in -their judgment, Spain should be subjected; the whole interspersed with -discussions, sometimes more quaint than grave, concerning the customs -and principles on which the work itself, or some particular part of it, -is founded. - -As a specimen of the style of the Partidas, an extract may be made -from a law entitled “What meaneth a Tyrant, and how he useth his power -in a kingdom when he hath obtained it.” - -“A tyrant,” says this law, “doth signify a cruel lord, who by force, -or by craft, or by treachery, hath obtained power over any realm or -country; and such men be of such nature, that, when once they have -grown strong in the land, they love rather to work their own profit, -though it be in harm of the land, than the common profit of all, for -they always live in an ill fear of losing it. And that they may be -able to fulfil this their purpose unencumbered, the wise of old have -said that they use their power against the people in three manners. -The first is, that they strive that those under their mastery be ever -ignorant and timorous, because, when they be such, they may not be -bold to rise against them nor to resist their wills; and the second -is, that they be not kindly and united among themselves, in such wise -that they trust not one another, for, while they live in disagreement, -they shall not dare to make any discourse against their lord, for fear -faith and secrecy should not be kept among themselves; and the third -way is, that they strive to make them poor, and to put them upon great -undertakings, which they can never finish, whereby they may have so -much harm, that it may never come into their hearts to devise any thing -against their ruler. And above all this, have tyrants ever striven to -make spoil of the strong and to destroy the wise; and have forbidden -fellowship and assemblies of men in their land, and striven always to -know what men said or did; and do trust their counsel and the guard of -their person rather to foreigners, who will serve at their will, than -to them of the land, who serve from oppression. And, moreover, we say, -that, though any man may have gained mastery of a kingdom by any of -the lawful means whereof we have spoken in the laws going before this, -yet, if he use his power ill, in the ways whereof we speak in this law, -him may the people still call tyrant; for he turneth his mastery which -was rightful into wrongful, as Aristotle hath said in the book which -treateth of the rule and government of kingdoms.”[71] - - [71] Partida II. Tít. I. Ley 10, ed. Acad., Tom. II. p. 11. - -In other laws, reasons are given why kings and their sons should be -taught to read;[72] and in a law about the governesses of king’s -daughters, it is declared:-- - - [72] Partida II. Tít. VII. Ley 10, and Tít. V. Ley 16. - -“They are to endeavour, as much as may be, that the king’s daughters -be moderate and seemly in eating and in drinking, and also in their -carriage and dress, and of good manners in all things, and especially -that they be not given to anger; for, besides the wickedness that lieth -in it, it is the thing in the world that most easily leadeth women to -do ill. And they ought to teach them to be handy in performing those -works that belong to noble ladies; for this is a matter that becometh -them much, since they obtain by it cheerfulness and a quiet spirit; and -besides, it taketh away bad thoughts, which it is not convenient they -should have.”[73] - - [73] Partida II. Tít. VII. Ley 11. - -Many of the laws concerning knights, like one on their loyalty, and -one on the meaning of the ceremonies used when they are armed,[74] -and all the laws on the establishment and conduct of great public -schools, which he was endeavouring, at the same time, to encourage, -by the privileges he granted to Salamanca,[75] are written with even -more skill and selectness of idiom. Indeed, the Partidas, in whatever -relates to manner and style, are not only superior to any thing that -had preceded them, but to any thing that for a long time followed. -The poems of Berceo, hardly twenty years older, seem to belong to -another age, and to a much ruder state of society; and, on the other -hand, Marina, whose opinion on such a subject few are entitled to -call in question, says, that, during the two or even three centuries -subsequent, nothing was produced in Spanish prose equal to the Partidas -for purity and elevation of style.[76] - - [74] Partida II. Tít. XXI. Leyes 9, 13. - - [75] The laws about the Estudios Generales,--the name then given - to what we now call Universities,--filling the thirty-first - Título of the second Partida, are remarkable for their wisdom, - and recognize some of the arrangements that still obtain in many - of the Universities of the Continent. There was, however, at that - period, no such establishment in Spain, except one which had - existed in a very rude state at Salamanca for some time, and to - which Alfonso X. gave the first proper endowment in 1254. - - [76] Marina, in Mem. de la Acad. de Hist., Tom. IV., Ensayo, p. - 52. - -But however this may be, there is no doubt, that, mingled with -something of the rudeness and more of the ungraceful repetitions -common in the period to which they belong, there is a richness, an -appropriateness, and sometimes even an elegance, in their turns of -expression, truly remarkable. They show that the great effort of their -author to make the Castilian the living and real language of his -country, by making it that of the laws and the tribunals of justice, -had been successful, or was destined speedily to become so. Their -grave and measured movement, and the solemnity of their tone, which -have remained among the characteristics of Spanish prose ever since, -show this success beyond all reasonable question. They show, too, the -character of Alfonso himself, giving token of a far-reaching wisdom and -philosophy, and proving how much a single great mind happily placed -can do towards imparting their final direction to the language and -literature of a country, even so early as the first century of their -separate existence.[77] - - [77] As no more than a fair specimen of the genuine Castilian of - the Partidas, I would cite Part. II. Tít. V. Ley 18, entitled - “Como el Rey debe ser granado et franco”: “Grandeza es virtud que - está bien á todo home poderoso et señaladamente al rey quando - usa della en tiempo que conviene et como debe; et por ende dixo - Aristóteles á Alexandro que él puñase de haber en si franqueza, - ca por ella ganarie mas aina el amor et los corazones de la - gente: et porque él mejor podiese obrar desta bondat, espaladinol - qué cosa es, et dixo que franqueza es dar al que lo ha menester - et al que lo meresce, segunt el poder del dador, dando de lo suyo - et non tomando de lo ageno para darlo á otro, ca el que da mas de - lo que puede non es franco, mas desgastador, et demas haberá por - fuerza á tomar de lo ageno quando lo suyo non compliere, et si de - la una parte ganare amigos por lo que les diere, de la otra parte - serle han enemigos aquellos á quien lo tomare; et otrosi dixo que - el que da al que non lo ha menester non le es gradecido, et es - tal come el que vierte agua en la mar, et el que da al que lo non - meresce es como el que guisa su enemigo que venga contra él.” - - - - -CHAPTER IV. - -JUAN LORENZO SEGURA.--CONFUSION OF ANCIENT AND MODERN MANNERS.--EL -ALEXANDRO, ITS STORY AND MERITS.--LOS VOTOS DEL PAVON.--SANCHO -EL BRAVO.--DON JUAN MANUEL, HIS LIFE AND WORKS, PUBLISHED AND -UNPUBLISHED.--HIS CONDE LUCANOR. - - -The proof that the “Partidas” were in advance of their age, both as to -style and language, is plain, not only from the examination we have -made of what preceded them, but from a comparison of them, which we -must now make, with the poetry of Juan Lorenzo Segura, who lived at the -time they were compiled, and probably somewhat later. Like Berceo, he -was a secular priest, and he belonged to Astorga; but this is all we -know of him, except that he lived in the latter part of the thirteenth -century, and has left a poem of above ten thousand lines on the life of -Alexander the Great, drawn from such sources as were then accessible -to a Spanish ecclesiastic, and written in the four-line stanza used by -Berceo.[78] - - [78] The Alexandro fills the third volume of the Poesías - Anteriores of Sanchez, and was for a long time strangely - attributed to Alfonso the Wise, (Nic. Antonio, Bibliotheca - Hispana Vetus, ed. Bayer, Matriti, 1787-8, fol., Tom. II. p. 79, - and Mondejar, Memorias, pp. 458, 459,) though the last lines of - the poem itself declare its author to be Johan Lorenzo Segura. - -What is most obvious in this long poem is its confounding the manners -of a well-known age of Grecian antiquity with those of the Catholic -religion, and of knighthood, as they existed in the days of its author. -Similar confusion is found in some portion of the early literature of -every country in modern Europe. In all, there was a period when the -striking facts of ancient history, and the picturesque fictions of -ancient fable, floating about among the traditions of the Middle Ages, -were seized upon as materials for poetry and romance; and when, to fill -up and finish the picture presented by their imaginations to those who -thus misapplied an imperfect knowledge of antiquity, the manners and -feelings of their own times were incongruously thrown in, either from -an ignorant persuasion that none other had ever existed, or from a -wilful carelessness concerning every thing but poetical effect. This -was the case in Italy, from the first dawning of letters till after the -time of Dante; the sublime and tender poetry of whose “Divina Commedia” -is full of such absurdities and anachronisms. It was the case, too, -in France; examples singularly in point being found in the Latin poem -of Walter de Chatillon, and the French one by Alexandre de Paris, on -this same subject of Alexander the Great; both of which were written -nearly a century before Juan Lorenzo lived, and both of which were -used by him.[79] And it was the case in England, till after the time -of Shakspeare, whose “Midsummer Night’s Dream” does all that genius -can do to justify it. We must not, therefore, be surprised to find it -in Spain, where, derived from such monstrous repositories of fiction -as the works of Dares Phrygius and Dictys Cretensis, Guido de Colonna -and Walter de Chatillon, some of the histories and fancies of ancient -times already filled the thoughts of those men who were unconsciously -beginning the fabric of their country’s literature on foundations -essentially different. - - [79] Walter de Chatillon’s Latin poem on Alexander the Great was - so popular, that it was taught in the rhetorical schools, to the - exclusion of Lucan and Virgil. (Warton’s English Poetry, London, - 1824, 8vo, Vol. I. p. clxvii.) The French poem begun by Lambert - li Cors, and finished by Alexandre de Paris, was less valued, but - much read. Ginguené, in the Hist. Lit. de la France, Paris, 4to, - Tom. XV. 1820, pp. 100-127. - -Among the most attractive subjects that offered themselves to such -persons was that of Alexander the Great. The East--Persia, Arabia, and -India--had long been full of stories of his adventures;[80] and now, in -the West, as a hero more nearly approaching the spirit of knighthood -than any other of antiquity, he was adopted into the poetical fictions -of almost every nation that could boast the beginning of a literature, -so that the Monk in the “Canterbury Tales” said truly,-- - - [80] Transactions of the Royal Society of Literature, Vol. I Part - II. pp. 5-23, a curious paper by Sir W. Ouseley. - - “The storie of Alexandre is so commune, - That every wight, that hath discretion, - Hath herd somewhat or all of his fortune.” - -Juan Lorenzo took this story substantially as he had read it in the -“Alexandreïs” of Walter de Chatillon, whom he repeatedly cites;[81] but -he has added whatever he found elsewhere, or in his own imagination, -that seemed suited to his purpose, which was by no means that of -becoming a mere translator. After a short introduction, he comes at -once to his subject thus, in the fifth stanza:-- - - [81] Coplas 225, 1452, and 1639, where Segura gives three Latin - lines from Walter. - - I desire to teach the story · of a noble pagan king, - With whose valor and bold heart · the world once did ring: - For the world he overcame, · like a very little thing; - And a clerkly name I shall gain, · if his story I can sing. - - This prince was Alexander, · and Greece it was his right; - Frank and bold he was in arms, · and in knowledge took delight; - Darius’ power he overthrew, · and Porus, kings of might, - And for suffering and for patience · the world held no such wight. - - Now the infant Alexander · showed plainly from the first, - That he through every hindrance · with prowess great would burst; - For by a servile breast · he never would be nursed, - And less than gentle lineage · to serve him never durst. - - And mighty signs when he was born · foretold his coming worth: - The air was troubled, and the sun · his brightness put not forth, - The sea was angry all, · and shook the solid earth, - The world was wellnigh perishing · for terror at his birth.[82] - - [82] - Quiero leer un libro · de un rey noble pagano, - Que fue de grant esforcio, · de corazon lozano, - Conquistó todel mundo, · metiol so su mano, - Terné, se lo compriere, · que soe bon escribano. - - Del Princepe Alexandre, · que fue rey de Grecia, - Que fue franc è ardit · è de grant sabencia. - Venció Poro è Dário, · dos Reyes de grant potencia, - Nunca conosció ome su par · en la sufrencia. - - El infante Alexandre · luego en su ninnéz - Comenzó à demostrar · que seríe de grant prez: - Nunca quiso mamar leche · de mugier rafez, - Se non fue de linage · è de grant gentiléz. - - Grandes signos contiron · quando est infant nasció: - El ayre fue cambiado, · el sol escureció, - Todol mar fue irado, · la tierra tremeció, - Por poco quel mundo · todo non pereció. - - Sanchez, Tom. III. p. 1. - -Then comes the history of Alexander, mingled with the fables and -extravagances of the times; given generally with the dulness of a -chronicle, but sometimes showing a poetical spirit. Before setting out -on his grand expedition to the East, he is knighted, and receives an -enchanted sword made by Don Vulcan, a girdle made by Doña Philosophy, -and a shirt made by two sea fairies,--_duas fadas enna mar_.[83] The -conquest of Asia follows soon afterwards, in the course of which the -Bishop of Jerusalem orders mass to be said to stay the conqueror, as he -approaches the Jewish capital.[84] - - [83] Coplas 78, 80, 83, 89, etc. - - [84] Coplas 1086-1094, etc. - -In general, the known outline of Alexander’s adventures is followed, -but there are a good many whimsical digressions; and when the -Macedonian forces pass the site of Troy, the poet cannot resist the -temptation of making an abstract of the fortunes and fate of that -city, which he represents as told by Don Alexander himself to his -followers, and especially to the Twelve Peers, who accompanied him in -his expedition.[85] Homer is vouched as authority for the extraordinary -narrative that is given;[86] but how little the poet of Astorga cared -for the Iliad and Odyssey may be inferred from the fact, that, instead -of sending Achilles, or Don Achilles, as he is called, to the court of -Lycomedes of Scyros, to be concealed in woman’s clothes, he is sent, -by the enchantments of his mother, in female attire, to a convent of -nuns, and the crafty Don Ulysses goes there as a peddler, with a pack -of female ornaments and martial weapons on his back, to detect the -fraud.[87] But, with all its defects and incongruities, the “Alexandro” -is a curious and important landmark in early Spanish literature; and -if it is written with less purity and dignity than the “Partidas” of -Alfonso, it has still a truly Castilian air, in both its language and -its versification.[88] - - [85] Coplas 299-716. - - [86] Coplas 300 and 714. - - [87] Coplas 386, 392, etc. - - [88] Southey, in the notes to his “Madoc,” Part I. Canto xi., - speaks justly of the “sweet flow of language and metre in - Lorenzo.” At the end of the Alexandro are two prose letters - supposed to have been written by Alexander to his mother; but I - prefer to cite, as a specimen of Lorenzo’s style, the following - stanzas on the music which the Macedonians heard in Babylon:-- - - Alli era la musica · cantada per razon, - Las dobles que refieren · coitas del corazon, - Las dolces de las baylas, · el plorant semiton, - Bien podrien toller precio · à quantos no mundo son. - - Non es en el mundo · ome tan sabedor, - Que decir podiesse · qual era el dolzor, - Mientre ome viviesse · en aquella sabor - Non avrie sede · nen fame nen dolor. - - St. 1976, 1977. - - _Las dobles_ in modern Spanish means the tolling for the - dead;--here, I suppose, it means some sort of sad chanting. - -A poem called “Los Votos del Pavon,” The Vows of the Peacock, which -was a continuation of the “Alexandro,” is lost. If we may judge from -an old French poem on the vows made over a peacock that had been a -favorite bird of Alexander, and was served accidentally at table after -that hero’s death, we have no reason to complain of our loss as a -misfortune.[89] Nor have we probably great occasion to regret that we -possess only extracts from a prose book of advice, prepared for his -heir and successor by Sancho, the son of Alfonso the Tenth; for though, -from the chapter warning the young prince against fools, we see that -it wanted neither sense nor spirit, still it is not to be compared to -the “Partidas” for precision, grace, or dignity of style.[90] We come, -therefore, at once to a remarkable writer, who flourished a little -later,--the Prince Don Juan Manuel. - - [89] Los Votos del Pavon is first mentioned by the Marquis - of Santillana (Sanchez, Tom. I. p. lvii.); and Fauchet says, - (Recueil de l’Origine de la Langue et Poésie Française, Paris, - 1581, fol., p. 88,) “Le Roman du Pavon est une continuation des - faits d’Alexandre.” There is an account of a French poem on - this subject, in the “Notices et Extraits des Manuscrits de la - Bibliothèque Nationale,” etc., (Paris, an VII. 4to,) Tom. V. p. - 118. Vows were frequently made in ancient times over favorite - birds (Barante, Ducs de Bourgogne, ad an. 1454, Paris, 1837, 8vo, - Tom. VII. pp. 159-164); and the vows in the Spanish poem seem - to have involved a prophetic account of the achievements and - troubles of Alexander’s successors. - - [90] The extracts are in Castro, (Tom. II. pp. 725-729,) and the - book, which contained forty-nine chapters, was called “Castigos - y Documentos para bien vivir, ordenados por el Rey Don Sancho - el Quarto, intitulado el Brabo”; _Castigos_ being used to mean - _advice_, as in the old French poem, “Le _Castoiement_ d’un Père - a son Fils”; and _Documentos_ being taken in its primitive sense - of _instructions_. The spirit of his father seems to speak in - Sancho, when he says of kings, “que han de governar regnos e - gentes con ayuda de çientificos sabios.” - -Lorenzo was an ecclesiastic,--_bon clérigo é ondrado_,--and his home -was at Astorga, in the northwestern portion of Spain, on the borders of -Leon and Galicia. Berceo belonged to the same territory, and, though -there may be half a century between them, they are of a similar spirit. -We are glad, therefore, that the next author we meet, Don John Manuel, -takes us from the mountains of the North to the chivalry of the South, -and to the state of society, the conflicts, manners, and interests, -that gave us the “Poem of the Cid,” and the code of the “Partidas.” - -Don John was of the blood royal of Castile and Leon; grandson of -Saint Ferdinand, nephew of Alfonso the Wise, and one of the most -turbulent and dangerous of the Spanish barons of his time. He was born -in Escalona, on the 5th of May, 1282, and was the son of Don Pedro -Manuel, an Infante of Spain,[91] brother of Alfonso the Wise, with -whom he always had his officers and household in common. Before Don -John was two years old, his father died, and he was educated by his -cousin, Sancho the Fourth, living with him on a footing like that on -which his father had lived with Alfonso.[92] When twelve years old -he was already in the field against the Moors, and in 1310, at the -age of twenty-eight, he had reached the most considerable offices in -the state; but Ferdinand the Fourth dying two years afterwards, and -leaving Alfonso the Eleventh, his successor, only thirteen months old, -great disturbances followed till 1320, when Don John Manuel became -joint regent of the realm; a place which he suffered none to share -with him, but such of his near relations as were most involved in his -interests.[93] - - [91] Argote de Molina, Sucesion de los Manueles, prefixed to the - Conde Lucanor, 1575. The date of his birth has been heretofore - considered unsettled, but I have found it given exactly by - himself in an unpublished letter to his brother, the Archbishop - of Toledo, which occurs in a manuscript in the National Library - at Madrid, to be noticed hereafter. - - [92] In his report of his conversation with King Sancho, when - that monarch was on his death-bed, he says, “The King Alfonso - and my father in his lifetime, and King Sancho and myself in his - lifetime, always had our households together, and our officers - were always the same.” Farther on, he says he was brought up - by Don Sancho, who gave him the means of building the castle - of Peñafiel, and calls God to witness that he was always true - and loyal to Sancho, to Fernando, and to Alfonso XI., adding - cautiously, “as far as this last king gave me opportunities to - serve him.” Manuscript in the National Library at Madrid. - - [93] Crónica de Alfonso XI., ed. 1551, fol., c. 19-21. - -The affairs of the kingdom during the administration of Prince John -seem to have been managed with talent and spirit; but at the end of -the regency the young monarch was not sufficiently contented with -the state of things to continue his grand-uncle in any considerable -employment. Don John, however, was not of a temper to submit quietly to -affront or neglect.[94] He left the court at Valladolid, and prepared -himself, with all his great resources, for the armed opposition which -the politics of the time regarded as a justifiable mode of obtaining -redress. The king was alarmed, “for he saw,” says the old chronicler, -“that they were the most powerful men in his kingdom, and that they -could do grievous battle with him, and great mischief to the land.” He -entered, therefore, into an arrangement with Prince John, who did not -hesitate to abandon his friends, and go back to his allegiance, on the -condition that the king should marry his daughter Constantia, then a -mere child, and create him governor of the provinces bordering on the -Moors, and commander-in-chief of the Moorish war; thus placing him, in -fact, again at the head of the kingdom.[95] - - [94] Ibid., c. 46 and 48. - - [95] Crónica de Alfonso XI., c. 49. - -From this time we find him actively engaged on the frontiers in a -succession of military operations, till 1327, when he gained over -the Moors the important victory of Guadalhorra. But the same year -was marked by the bloody treachery of the king against Prince John’s -uncle, who was murdered in the palace under circumstances of peculiar -atrocity.[96] The Prince immediately retired in disgust to his estates, -and began again to muster his friends and forces for a contest, into -which he rushed the more eagerly, as the king had now refused to -consummate his union with Constantia, and had married a Portuguese -princess. The war which followed was carried on with various success -till 1335, when Prince John was finally subdued, and, entering anew -into the king’s service, with fresh reputation, as it seemed, from a -spirited rebellion, and marrying his daughter Constantia, now grown up, -to the heir-apparent of Portugal, went on, as commander-in-chief, with -an uninterrupted succession of victories over the Moors, until almost -the moment of his death, which happened in 1347.[97] - - [96] Mariana, Hist., Lib. XV. c. 19. - - [97] Ibid., Lib. XVI. c. 4. Crónica de Alfonso XI., c. 178. - Argote de Molina, Sucesion de los Manueles. - -In a life like this, full of intrigues and violence,--from a prince -like this, who married the sisters of two kings, who had two other -kings for his sons-in-law, and who disturbed his country by his -rebellions and military enterprises for above thirty years,--we should -hardly look for a successful attempt in letters.[98] Yet so it is. -Spanish poetry, we know, first appeared in the midst of turbulence and -danger; and now we find Spanish prose fiction springing forth from the -same soil, and under similar circumstances. Down to this time we have -seen no prose of much value in the prevailing Castilian dialect, except -in the works of Alfonso the Tenth, and in one or two chronicles that -will hereafter be noticed. But in most of these the fervor which seems -to be an essential element of the early Spanish genius was kept in -check, either by the nature of their subjects, or by circumstances of -which we can now have no knowledge; and it is not until a fresh attempt -is made, in the midst of the wars and tumults that for centuries seem -to have been as the principle of life to the whole Peninsula, that -we discover in Spanish prose a decided development of such forms as -afterwards became national and characteristic. - - [98] Mariana, in one of those happy hits of character which are - not rare in his History, says of Don John Manuel, that he was “de - condicion inquieta y mudable, tanto que a muchos parecia nació - solamente para revolver el reyno.” Hist., Lib. XV. c. 12. - -Don John, to whom belongs the distinction of producing one of these -forms, showed himself worthy of a family in which, for above a century, -letters had been honored and cultivated. He is known to have written -twelve works; and so anxious was he about their fate, that he caused -them to be carefully transcribed in a large volume, and bequeathed -them to a monastery he had founded on his estates at Peñafiel, as a -burial-place for himself and his descendants.[99] How many of these -works are now in existence is not known. Some are certainly among -the treasures of the National Library at Madrid, in a manuscript -which seems to be an imperfect and injured copy of the one originally -deposited at Peñafiel. Two others may, perhaps, yet be recovered; -for one of them, the “Chronicle of Spain,” abridged by Don John from -that of his uncle, Alfonso the Wise, was in the possession of the -Marquis of Mondejar in the middle of the eighteenth century;[100] -and the other, a treatise on Hunting, was seen by Pellicer somewhat -later.[101] A collection of Don John’s poems, which Argote de Molina -intended to publish in the time of Philip the Second, is probably lost, -since the diligent Sanchez sought for it in vain;[102] and his “Conde -Lucanor” alone has been placed beyond the reach of accident by being -printed.[103] - - [99] Argote de Molina, Life of Don John, in the ed. of the Conde - Lucanor, 1575. The accounts of Argote de Molina, and of the - manuscript in the National Library, are not precisely the same; - but the last is imperfect, and evidently omits one work. Both - contain the four following, viz.:--1. Chronicle of Spain; 2. - Book of Hunting; 3. Book of Poetry; and 4. Book of Counsels to - his Son. Argote de Molina gives besides these,--1. Libro de los - Sabios; 2. Libro del Caballero; 3. Libro del Escudero; 4. Libro - del Infante; 5. Libro de Caballeros; 6. Libro de los Engaños; - and 7. Libro de los Exemplos. The manuscript gives, besides the - four that are clearly in common, the following:--1. Letter to - his brother, containing an account of the family arms, etc.; 2. - Book of Conditions, or Libro de los Estados, which may be Argote - de Molina’s Libro de los Sabios; 3. Libro del Caballero y del - Escudero, of which Argote de Molina seems to make two separate - works; 4. Libro de la Caballería, probably Argote de Molina’s - Libro de Caballeros; 5. La Cumplida; 6. Libro de los Engeños, - a treatise on Military Engines, misspelt by Argote de Molina, - Engaños, so as to make it a treatise on _Frauds_; and 7. Reglas - como se deve trovar. But, as has been said, the manuscript has a - hiatus, and, though it says there were twelve works, gives the - titles of only eleven, and omits the Conde Lucanor, which is the - Libro de los Exemplos of Argote’s list. - - [100] Mem. de Alfonso el Sabio, p. 464. - - [101] Note to Don Quixote, ed. Pellicer, Parte II. Tom. I. p. 284. - - [102] Poesías Anteriores, Tom. IV. p. xi. - - [103] I am aware there are poems in the Cancioneros Generales, by - a Don John Manuel, which have been generally attributed to Don - John Manuel, the Regent of Castile in the time of Alfonso XI., - as, for instance, those in the Cancionero of Antwerp (1573, 8vo, - ff. 175, 207, 227, 267). But they are not his. Their language - and thoughts are quite too modern. Probably they are the work - of Don John Manuel who was Camareiro Mòr of King Emanuel of - Portugal, († 1524,) and whose poems, both in Portuguese and in - Spanish, figure largely in the Cancioneiro Gerale of Garcia - Rresende, (Lisboa, 1516, fol.,) where they are found at ff. - 48-57, 148, 169, 212, 230, and I believe in some other places. - He is the author of the Spanish “Coplas sobre los Siete Pecados - Mortales,” dedicated to John II. of Portugal, († 1495,) which - are in Bohl de Faber’s “Floresta,” (Hamburgo, 1821-25, 8vo, - Tom. I. pp. 10-15,) taken from Rresende, f. 55, in one of the - three copies of whose Cancioneiro then existing (that at the - Convent of the Necessidades in Lisbon) I read them many years - ago. Rresende’s Cancioneiro is now no longer so rare, being in - course of publication by the Stuttgard Verein. The Portuguese - Don John Manuel was a person of much consideration in his time; - and in 1497 concluded a treaty for the marriage of King Emanuel - of Portugal with Isabella, daughter of Ferdinand and Isabella of - Spain. (Barbosa, Biblioteca Lusitana, Lisboa, 1747, fol., Tom. - II. p. 688.) But he appears very little to his honor in Lope de - Vega’s play entitled “El Príncipe Perfeto,” under the name of Don - Juan de Sosa. Comedias, Tom. XI., Barcelona, 1618, 4to, p. 121. - -All that we possess of Don John Manuel is important. The imperfect -manuscript at Madrid opens with an account of the reasons why he had -caused his works to be transcribed; reasons which he illustrates by the -following story, very characteristic of his age. - -“In the time of King Jayme the First of Majorca,” says he, “there was a -knight of Perpignan, who was a great Troubadour, and made brave songs -wonderfully well. But one that he made was better than the rest, and, -moreover, was set to good music. And people were so delighted with -that song, that, for a long time, they would sing no other. And so the -knight that made it was well pleased. But one day, going through the -streets, he heard a shoemaker singing this song, and he sang it so ill, -both in words and tune, that any man who had not heard it before would -have held it to be a very poor song, and very ill made. Now when the -knight heard that shoemaker spoil his good work, he was full of grief -and anger, and got down from his beast, and sat down by him. But the -shoemaker gave no heed to the knight, and did not cease from singing; -and the further he sang, the worse he spoiled the song that knight -had made. And when the knight heard his good work so spoiled by the -foolishness of the shoemaker, he took up very gently some shears that -lay there, and cut all the shoemaker’s shoes in pieces, and mounted his -beast and rode away. - -“Now, when the shoemaker saw his shoes, and beheld how they were cut -in pieces, and that he had lost all his labor, he was much troubled, -and went shouting after the knight that had done it. And the knight -answered: ‘My friend, our lord the king, as you well know, is a good -king and a just. Let us, then, go to him, and let him determine, as -may seem right, the difference between us.’ And they were agreed to do -so. And when they came before the king, the shoemaker told him how all -his shoes had been cut in pieces and much harm done to him. And the -king was wroth at it, and asked the knight if this were truth. And the -knight said that it was; but that he would like to say why he did it. -And the king told him to say on. And the knight answered, that the king -well knew that he had made a song,--the one that was very good and had -good music,--and he said, that the shoemaker had spoiled it in singing; -in proof whereof, he prayed the king to command him now to sing it. And -the king did so, and saw how he spoiled it. Then the knight said, that, -since the shoemaker had spoiled the good work he had made with great -pains and labor, so he might spoil the works of the shoemaker. And the -king and all they that were there with him were very merry at this and -laughed; and the king commanded the shoemaker never to sing that song -again, nor trouble the good work of the knight; but the king paid the -shoemaker for the harm that was done him, and commanded the knight not -to vex the shoemaker any more.[104] - - [104] A similar story is told of Dante, who was a contemporary - of Don John Manuel, by Sachetti, who lived about a century after - both of them. It is in his Novella 114, (Milano, 1815, 18mo, - Tom. II. p. 154,) where, after giving an account of an important - affair, about which Dante was desired to solicit one of the city - officers, the story goes on thus:-- - - “When Dante had dined, he left his house to go about that - business, and, passing through the Porta San Piero, heard a - blacksmith singing as he beat the iron on his anvil. What he - sang was from Dante, and he did it as if it were a ballad, - (_un cantare_,) jumbling the verses together, and mangling and - altering them in a way that was a great offence to Dante. He - said nothing, however, but went into the blacksmith’s shop, - where there were many tools of his trade, and, seizing first the - hammer, threw it into the street, then the pincers, then the - scales, and many other things of the same sort, all which he - threw into the street. The blacksmith turned round in a brutal - manner, and cried out, ‘What the devil are you doing here? Are - you mad?’ ‘Rather,’ said Dante, ‘what are _you_ doing?’ ‘_I_,’ - replied the blacksmith, ‘_I_ am working at my trade; and you - spoil my things by throwing them into the street.’ ‘But,’ said - Dante, ‘if you do not want to have me spoil your things, don’t - spoil mine.’ ‘What do I spoil of yours?’ said the blacksmith. - ‘You sing,’ answered Dante, ‘out of my book, but not as I wrote - it; I have no other trade, and you spoil it.’ The blacksmith, - in his pride and vexation, did not know what to answer; so he - gathered up his tools and went back to his work, and when he - afterward wanted to sing, he sang about Tristan and Launcelot, - and let Dante alone.” - - One of the stories is probably taken from the other: but that of - Don John is older, both in the date of its event and in the time - when it was recorded. - -“And now, knowing that I cannot hinder the books I have made from being -copied many times, and seeing that in copies one thing is put for -another, either because he who copies is ignorant, or because one word -looks so much like another, and so the meaning and sense are changed -without any fault in him who first wrote it; therefore, I, Don John -Manuel, to avoid this wrong as much as I may, have caused this volume -to be made, in which are written out all the works I have composed, and -they are twelve.” - -Of the twelve works here referred to, the Madrid manuscript contains -only three. One is a long letter to his brother, the Archbishop of -Toledo, and Chancellor of the kingdom, in which he gives, first, an -account of his family arms; then the reason why he and his right -heirs male could make knights without having received any order of -knighthood, as he himself had done when he was not yet two years old; -and lastly, the report of a solemn conversation he had held with Sancho -the Fourth on his death-bed, in which the king bemoaned himself -bitterly, that, having for his rebellion justly received the curse of -his father, Alfonso the Wise, he had now no power to give a dying man’s -blessing to Don John. - -Another of the works in the Madrid manuscript is a treatise in -twenty-six chapters, called “Counsels to his Son Ferdinand”; which is, -in fact, an essay on the Christian and moral duties of one destined by -his rank to the highest places in the state, referring sometimes to the -more ample discussions on similar subjects in Don John’s treatise on -the Different Estates or Conditions of Men, apparently a longer work, -not now known to exist. - -But the third and longest is the most interesting. It is “The Book -of the Knight and the Esquire,” “written,” says the author, “in the -manner called in Castile _fabliella_,” (a little fable,) and sent to -his brother, the Archbishop, that he might translate it into Latin; a -proof, and not the only one, that Don John placed small value upon the -language to which he now owes all his honors. The book itself contains -an account of a young man who, encouraged by the good condition of -his country under a king that called his Cortes together often, and -gave his people good teachings and good laws, determines to seek -advancement in the state. On his way to a meeting of the Cortes, where -he intends to be knighted, he meets a retired cavalier, who in his -hermitage explains to him all the duties and honors of chivalry, and -thus prepares him for the distinction to which he aspires. On his -return, he again visits his aged friend, and is so delighted with his -instructions, that he remains with him, ministering to his infirmities -and profiting by his wisdom, till his death, after which the young -knight goes to his own land, and lives there in great honor the rest -of his life. The story, or little fable, is, however, a very slight -thread, serving only to hold together a long series of instructions -on the moral duties of men, and on the different branches of human -knowledge, given with earnestness and spirit, in the fashion of the -times.[105] - - [105] Of this manuscript of Don John in the Library at Madrid, I - have, through the kindness of Professor Gayangos, a copy, filling - 199 closely written folio pages. - -The “Conde Lucanor,” the best known of its author’s works, bears -some resemblance to the fable of the Knight and the Esquire. It is a -collection of forty-nine tales,[106] anecdotes, and apologues, clearly -in the Oriental manner; the first hint for which was probably taken -from the “Disciplina Clericalis” of Petrus Alphonsus, a collection of -Latin stories made in Spain about two centuries earlier. The occasion -on which the tales of Don John are supposed to be related is, like the -fictions themselves, invented with Eastern simplicity, and reminds us -constantly of the “Thousand and One Nights,” and their multitudinous -imitations.[107] - - [106] It seems not unlikely that Don John Manuel intended - originally to stop at the end of the twelfth tale; at least, he - there intimates such a purpose. - - [107] That the general form of the Conde Lucanor is Oriental may - be seen by looking into the fables of Bidpai, or almost any other - collection of Eastern stories; the form, I mean, of separate - tales, united by some fiction common to them all, like that of - relating them all to amuse or instruct some third person. The - first appearance in Europe of such a series of tales grouped - together was in the Disciplina Clericalis; a remarkable work, - composed by Petrus Alphonsus, originally a Jew, by the name of - Moses Sephardi, born at Huesca in Aragon in 1062, and baptized as - a Christian in 1106, taking as one of his names that of Alfonso - VI. of Castile, who was his godfather. The Disciplina Clericalis, - or Teaching for Clerks or Clergymen, is a collection of - thirty-seven stories, and many apophthegms, supposed to have been - given by an Arab on his death-bed as instructions to his son. It - is written in such Latin as belonged to its age. Much of the book - is plainly of Eastern origin, and some of it is extremely coarse. - It was, however, greatly admired for a long time, and was more - than once turned into French verse, as may be seen in Barbazan - (Fabliaux, ed. Méon, Paris, 1808, 8vo, Tom. II. pp. 39-183). That - the Disciplina Clericalis was the prototype of the Conde Lucanor - is probable, because it was popular when the Conde Lucanor was - written; because the framework of both is similar, the stories of - both being given as counsels; because a good many of the proverbs - are the same in both; and because some of the stories in both - resemble one another, as the thirty-seventh of the Conde Lucanor, - which is the same with the first of the Disciplina. But in the - tone of their manners and civilization, there is a difference - quite equal to the two centuries that separate the two works. - Through the French version, the Disciplina Clericalis soon became - known in other countries, so that we find traces of its fictions - in the “Gesta Romanorum,” the “Decameron,” the “Canterbury - Tales,” and elsewhere. But it long remained, in other respects, a - sealed book, known only to antiquaries, and was first printed in - the original Latin, from seven manuscripts in the King’s Library, - Paris, by the Société des Bibliophiles (Paris, 1824, 2 tom. - 12mo). Fr. W. V. Schmidt--to whom those interested in the early - history of romantic fiction are much indebted for the various - contributions he has brought to it--published the Disciplina anew - in Berlin, 1827, 4to, from a Breslau manuscript; and, what is - singular for one of his peculiar learning in this department, he - supposed his own edition to be the first. It is, on account of - its curious notes, the best; but the text of the Paris edition - is to be preferred, and a very old French prose version that - accompanies it makes it as a book still more valuable. - -The Count Lucanor--a personage of power and consideration, intended -probably to represent those early Christian counts in Spain, who, like -Fernan Gonzalez of Castile, were, in fact, independent princes--finds -himself occasionally perplexed with questions of morals and public -policy. These questions, as they occur, he proposes to Patronio, -his minister or counsellor, and Patronio replies to each by a tale -or a fable, which is ended with a rhyme in the nature of a moral. -The stories are various in their character.[108] Sometimes it is an -anecdote in Spanish history to which Don John resorts, like that of -the three knights of his grandfather, Saint Ferdinand, at the siege of -Seville.[109] More frequently, it is a sketch of some striking trait -in the national manners, like the story of “Rodrigo el Franco and his -three Faithful Followers.”[110] Sometimes, again, it is a fiction of -chivalry, like that of the “Hermit and Richard the Lion-Hearted.”[111] -And sometimes it is an apologue, like that of the “Old Man, his Son, -and the Ass,” or that of the “Crow persuaded by the Fox to sing,” -which, with his many successors, he must in some way or other have -obtained from Æsop.[112] They are all curious, but probably the most -interesting is the “Moorish Marriage,” partly because it points -distinctly to an Arabic origin, and partly because it remarkably -resembles the story Shakspeare has used in his “Taming of the -Shrew.”[113] It is, however, too long to be given here; and therefore a -shorter specimen will be taken from the twenty-second chapter, entitled -“Of what happened to Count Fernan Gonzalez, and of the answer he gave -to his vassals.” - - [108] They are all called _Enxiemplos_; a word which then meant - _story_ or _apologue_, as it does in the Archpriest of Hita, - st. 301, and in the “Crónica General.” Old Lord Berners, in his - delightful translation of Froissart, in the same way, calls the - fable of the Bird in Borrowed Plumes “an Ensample.” - - [109] Cap. 2. - - [110] Cap. 3. - - [111] Cap. 4. - - [112] Capp. 24 and 26. The followers of Don John, however, have - been more indebted to him than he was to his predecessors. Thus, - the story of “Don Illan el Negromantico” (Cap. 13) was found by - Mr. Douce in two French and four English authors. (Blanco White, - Variedades, Lóndres, 1824, Tom. I. p. 310.) The apologue which - Gil Blas, when he is starving, relates to the Duke of Lerma, - (Liv. VIII. c. 6,) and “which,” he says, “he had read in Pilpay - or some other fable writer,” I sought in vain in Bidpai, and - stumbled upon it, when not seeking it, in the Conde Lucanor, Cap. - 18. It may be added, that the fable of the Swallows and the Flax - (Cap. 27) is better given there than it is in La Fontaine. - - [113] Shakspeare, it is well known, took the materials for his - “Taming of the Shrew,” with little ceremony, from a play with - the same title, printed in 1594. But the story, in its different - parts, seems to have been familiar in the East from the earliest - times, and was, I suppose, found there among the traditions of - Persia by Sir John Malcolm. (Sketches of Persia, London, 1827, - 8vo, Vol. II. p. 54.) In Europe I am not aware that it can be - detected earlier than the Conde Lucanor, Cap. 45. The doctrine of - unlimited submission on the part of the wife seems, indeed, to - have been a favorite one with Don John Manuel; for, in another - story, (Cap. 5,) he says, in the very spirit of Petruchio’s jest - about the sun and moon, “If a husband says the stream runs up - hill, his wife ought to believe him, and say that it is so.” - -“On one occasion, Count Lucanor came from a foray, much wearied and -worn, and poorly off; and before he could refresh or rest himself, -there came a sudden message about another matter then newly moved. And -the greater part of his people counselled him, that he should refresh -himself a little, and then do whatever should be thought most wise. And -the Count asked Patronio what he should do in that matter; and Patronio -replied, ‘Sire, that you may choose what is best, it would please me -that you should know the answer which Count Fernan Gonzalez once gave -to his vassals. - -“‘The story.--Count Fernan Gonzalez conquered Almanzor in Hazinas,[114] -but many of his people fell there, and he and the rest that remained -alive were sorely wounded. And before they were sound and well, he -heard that the king of Navarre had broken into his lands, and so he -commanded his people to make ready to fight against them of Navarre. -And all his people told him, that their horses were aweary, and that -they were aweary themselves; and although for this cause they might not -forsake this thing, yet that, since both he and his people were sore -wounded, they ought to leave it, and that he ought to wait till he and -they should be sound again. And when the Count saw that they all wanted -to leave that road, then his honor grieved him more than his body, -and he said, “My friends, let us not shun this battle on account of -the wounds that we now have; for the fresh wounds they will presently -give us will make us forget those we received in the other fight.” And -when they of his party saw that he was not troubled concerning his own -person, but only how to defend his lands and his honor, they went with -him, and they won that battle, and things went right well afterwards. - - [114] Fernan Gonzalez is the great hero of Castile, whose - adventures will be noticed when we come to the poem about them; - and in the battle of Hazinas he gained the decisive victory - over the Moors which is well described in the third part of the - “Crónica General.” - -“‘And you, my Lord Count Lucanor, if you desire to do what you ought, -when you see that it should be achieved for the defence of your own -rights and of your own people and of your own honor, then you must not -be grieved by weariness, nor by toil, nor by danger, but rather so act -that the new danger shall make you forget that which is past.’ - -“And the Count held this for a good history[115] and a good counsel; -and he acted accordingly, and found himself well by it. And Don John -also understood this to be a good history, and he had it written in -this book, and moreover made these verses, which say thus:-- - - [115] “Y el Conde tovo este por buen exemplo,”--an old Castilian - formula. (Crónica General, Parte III. c. 5.) Argote de Molina - says of such phrases, which abound in the Conde Lucanor, that - “they give a taste of the old proprieties of the Castilian”; - and elsewhere, that “they show what was the pure idiom of our - tongue.” Don John himself, with his accustomed simplicity, says, - “I have made up the book with the handsomest words I could.” (Ed. - 1575, f. 1, b.) Many of his words, however, needed explanation - in the reign of Philip the Second, and, on the whole, the - phraseology of the Conde Lucanor sounds older than that of the - Partidas, which were yet written nearly a century before it. - Some of its obsolete words are purely Latin, like _cras_ for - _to-morrow_, f. 83, and elsewhere. - - “Hold this for certain and for fact, - For truth it is and truth exact, - That never Honor and Disgrace - Together sought a resting-place.” - -It is not easy to imagine any thing more simple and direct than -this story, either in the matter or the style. Others of the tales -have an air of more knightly dignity, and some have a little of the -gallantry that might be expected from a court like that of Alfonso -the Eleventh. In a very few of them, Don John gives intimations that -he had risen above the feelings and opinions of his age: as, in one, -he laughs at the monks and their pretensions;[116] in another, he -introduces a pilgrim under no respectable circumstances;[117] and in a -third, he ridicules his uncle Alfonso for believing in the follies of -alchemy,[118] and trusting a man who pretended to turn the baser metals -into gold. But in almost all we see the large experience of a man of -the world, as the world then existed, and the cool observation of one -who knew too much of mankind, and had suffered too much from them, -to have a great deal of the romance of youth still lingering in his -character. For we know, from himself, that Prince John wrote the Conde -Lucanor when he had already reached his highest honors and authority; -probably after he had passed through his severest defeats. It should -be remembered, therefore, to his credit, that we find in it no traces -of the arrogance of power, or of the bitterness of mortified ambition; -nothing of the wrongs he had suffered from others, and nothing of those -he had inflicted. It seems, indeed, to have been written in some happy -interval, stolen from the bustle of camps, the intrigues of government, -and the crimes of rebellion, when the experience of his past life, -its adventures, and its passions, were so remote as to awaken little -personal feeling, and yet so familiar that he could give us their -results, with great simplicity, in this series of tales and anecdotes, -which are marked with an originality that belongs to their age, and -with a kind of chivalrous philosophy and wise honesty that would not be -discreditable to one more advanced.[119] - - [116] Cap. 20. - - [117] Cap. 48. - - [118] Cap. 8.--I infer from the Conde Lucanor, that Don John knew - little about the Bible, as he cites it wrong in Cap. 4, and in - Cap. 44 shows that he did not know it contained the comparison - about the blind who lead the blind. - - [119] There are two Spanish editions of the Conde Lucanor: the - first and best by Argote de Molina, 4to, Sevilla, 1575, with a - life of Don John prefixed, and a curious essay on Castilian verse - at the end,--one of the rarest books in the world; and the other, - only less rare, published at Madrid, 1642. The references in the - notes are to the first. A reprint, made, if I mistake not, from - the last, and edited by A. Keller, appeared at Stuttgard, 1839, - 12mo, and a German translation by J. von Eichendorff, at Berlin, - in 1840, 12mo. Don John Manuel, I observe, cites Arabic twice in - the Conde Lucanor, (Capp. 11 and 14,)--a rare circumstance in - early Spanish literature. - - - - -CHAPTER V. - -ALFONSO THE ELEVENTH.--TREATISE ON HUNTING.--POETICAL CHRONICLE.-- -BENEFICIARY OF UBEDA.--ARCHPRIEST OF HITA; HIS LIFE, WORKS, AND -CHARACTER.--RABBI DON SANTOB.--LA DOCTRINA CHRISTIANA.--A -REVELATION.--LA DANÇA GENERAL.--POEM ON JOSEPH.--AYALA; HIS RIMADO DE -PALACIO.--CHARACTERISTICS OF SPANISH LITERATURE THUS FAR. - - -The reign of Alfonso the Eleventh was full of troubles, and the unhappy -monarch himself died at last of the plague, while he was besieging -Gibraltar, in 1350. Still, that letters were not forgotten in it we -know, not only from the example of Don John Manuel, already cited, but -from several others which should not be passed over. - -The first is a prose treatise on Hunting, in three books, written under -the king’s direction, by his Chief-huntsmen, who were then among the -principal persons of the court. It consists of little more than an -account of the sort of hounds to be used, their diseases and training, -with a description of the different places where game was abundant, -and where sport for the royal amusement was to be had. It is of small -consequence in itself, but was published by Argote de Molina, in the -time of Philip the Second, with a pleasant addition by the editor, -containing curious stories of lion-hunts and bull-fights, fitting it -to the taste of his own age. In style, the original work is as good as -the somewhat similar treatise of the Marquis of Villena, on the Art -of Carving, written a hundred years later; and, from the nature of the -subject, it is more interesting.[120] - - [120] Libro de la Monteria, que mando escrivir, etc., el Rey Don - Alfonso de Castilla y de Leon, ultimo deste nombre, acrecentado - por Argote de Molina, Sevilla, 1582, folio, 91 leaves,--the text - not correct, as Pellicer says (note to Don Quixote, Parte II. c. - 24). The Discurso of Argote de Molina, that follows, and fills - 21 leaves more, is illustrated with curious woodcuts, and ends - with a description of the palace of the Pardo, and an eclogue in - octave stanzas, by Gomez de Tapia of Granada, on the birth of the - Infanta Doña Isabel, daughter of Philip II. - -The next literary monument attributed to this reign would be important, -if we had the whole of it. It is a chronicle, in the ballad style, -of events which happened in the time of Alfonso the Eleventh, and -commonly passes under his name. It was found, hidden in a mass of -Arabic manuscripts, by Diego de Mendoza, who attributed it, with little -ceremony, to “a secretary of the king”; and it was first publicly -made known by Argote de Molina, who thought it written by some poet -contemporary with the history he relates. But only thirty-four stanzas -of it are now known to exist; and these, though admitted by Sanchez to -be probably anterior to the fifteenth century, are shown by him not to -be the work of the king, and seem, in fact, to be less ancient in style -and language than that critic supposes them to be.[121] They are in -very flowing Castilian, and their tone is as spirited as that of most -of the old ballads. - - [121] This old rhymed chronicle was found by the historian Diego - de Mendoza among his Arabic manuscripts in Granada, and was sent - by him, with a letter dated December 1, 1573, to Zurita, the - annalist of Aragon, intimating that Argote de Molina would be - interested in it. He says truly, that “it is well worth reading, - to see with what simplicity and propriety men wrote poetical - histories in the olden times”; adding, that “it is one of those - books called in Spain _Gestas_,” and that it seems to him curious - and valuable, because he thinks it was written by a secretary of - Alfonso XI., and because it differs in several points from the - received accounts of that monarch’s reign. (Dormer, Progresos - de la Historia de Aragon, Zaragoza, 1680, fol., p. 502.) The - thirty-four stanzas of this chronicle that we now possess were - first published by Argote de Molina, in his very curious “Nobleza - del Andaluzia,” (Sevilla, 1588, f. 198,) and were taken from him - by Sanchez (Poesías Anteriores, Tom. I. pp. 171-177). Argote - de Molina says, “I copy them on account of their curiosity as - specimens of the language and poetry of that age, and because - they are the best and most fluent of any thing for a long time - written in Spain.” The truth is, they are so facile, and have so - few archaisms in them, that I cannot believe they were written - earlier than the ballads of the fifteenth century, which they so - much resemble. The following account of a victory, which I once - thought was that of Salado, gained in 1340, and described in the - “Crónica de Alfonso XI.,” (1551, fol., Cap. 254,) but which I now - think must have been some victory gained before 1330, is the best - part of what has been published:-- - - Los Moros fueron fuyendo - Maldiziendo su ventura; - El Maestre los siguiendo - Por los puertos de Segura. - - E feriendo e derribando - E prendiendo a las manos, - E Sanctiago llamando, - Escudo de los Christianos. - - En alcance los llevaron - A poder de escudo y lança, - E al castillo se tornaron - E entraron por la matanza. - - E muchos Moros fallaron - Espedaçados jacer; - El nombre de Dios loaron, - Que les mostró gran plazer. - - The Moors fled on, with headlong speed, - Cursing still their bitter fate; - The Master followed, breathing blood, - Through old Segura’s opened gate;-- - - And struck and slew, as on he sped, - And grappled still his flying foes; - While still to heaven his battle shout, - “St. James! St. James!” triumphant rose. - - Nor ceased the victory’s work at last, - That bowed them to the shield and spear, - Till to the castle’s wall they turned - And entered through the slaughter there;-- - - Till there they saw, to havoc hewn, - Their Moorish foemen prostrate laid; - And gave their grateful praise to God, - Who thus vouchsafed his gracious aid. - - It is a misfortune that this poem is lost. - -Two other poems, written during the reign of one of the Alfonsos, as -their author declares,--and therefore almost certainly during that of -Alfonso the Eleventh, who was the last of his name,--are also now known -in print only by a few stanzas, and by the office of their writer, who -styles himself “a Beneficiary of Ubeda.” The first, which consists, -in the manuscript, of five hundred and five strophes in the manner of -Berceo, is a life of Saint Ildefonso; the last is on the subject of -Saint Mary Magdalen. Both would probably detain us little, even if they -had been published entire.[122] - - [122] Slight extracts from the Beneficiado de Ubeda are in - Sanchez, Poesías Anteriores, Tom. I. pp. 116-118. The first - stanza, which is like the beginning of several of Berceo’s poems, - is as follows:-- - - Si me ayudare Christo · è la Virgen sagrada, - Querria componer · una faccion rimada - De un confesor que fizo · vida honrada, - Que nació en Toledo, · en esa Cibdat nombrada. - -We turn, therefore, without further delay, to Juan Ruiz, commonly -called the Archpriest of Hita; a poet who is known to have lived at the -same period, and whose works, both from their character and amount, -deserve especial notice. Their date can be ascertained with a good -degree of exactness. In one of the three early manuscripts in which -they are extant, some of the poems are fixed at the year 1330, and -some, by the two others, at 1343. Their author, who seems to have been -born at Alcalá de Henares, lived much at Guadalaxara and Hita, places -only five leagues apart, and was imprisoned by order of the Archbishop -of Toledo between 1337 and 1350; from all which it may be inferred, -that his principal residence was Castile, and that he flourished in the -reign of Alfonso the Eleventh; that is, in the time of Don John Manuel, -and a very little later.[123] - - [123] See, for his life, Sanchez, Tom. I. pp. 100-106, and Tom. - IV. pp. ii.-vi.;--and for an excellent criticism of his works, - one in the Wiener Jahrbücher der Literatur, 1832, Band LVIII. - pp. 220-255. It is by Ferdinand Wolf, and he boldly compares the - Archpriest to Cervantes. - -His works consist of nearly seven thousand verses; and although, in -general, they are written in the four-line stanza of Berceo, we find -occasionally a variety of measure, tone, and spirit, before unknown in -Castilian poetry; the number of their metrical forms, some of which are -taken from the Provençal, being reckoned not less than sixteen.[124] -The poems, as they have come to us, open with a prayer to God, composed -apparently at the time of the Archpriest’s imprisonment; when, as one -of the manuscripts sets forth, most of his works were written.[125] -Next comes a curious prose prologue, explaining the moral purpose of -the whole collection, or rather endeavouring to conceal the immoral -tendency of the greater part of it. And then, after somewhat more of -prefatory matter, follow, in quick succession, the poems themselves, -very miscellaneous in their subjects, but ingeniously connected. -The entire mass, when taken together, fills a volume of respectable -size.[126] - - [124] Sanchez, Tom. IV. p. x. - - [125] Ibid., p. 283. - - [126] The immoral tendency of many of the poems is a point that - not only embarrasses the editor of the Archpriest, (see p. xvii. - and the notes on pp. 76, 97, 102, etc.,) but somewhat disturbs - the Archpriest himself. (See stanzas 7, 866, etc.) The case, - however, is too plain to be covered up; and the editor only - partly avoids trouble by quietly leaving out long passages, as - from st. 441 to 464, etc. - -It is a series of stories, that seem to be sketches of real events -in the Archpriest’s own life; sometimes mingled with fictions and -allegories, that may, after all, be only veils for other facts; and -sometimes speaking out plainly, and announcing themselves as parts -of his personal history.[127] In the foreground of this busy scene -figures the very equivocal character of his female messenger, the chief -agent in his love affairs, whom he boldly calls _Trota-conventos_, -because the messages she carries are so often to or from monasteries -and nunneries.[128] The first lady-love to whom the poet sends her is, -he says, well taught,--_mucho letrada_,--and her story is illustrated -by the fables of the Sick Lion visited by the other Animals, and of -the Mountain bringing forth a Mouse. All, however, is unavailing. The -lady refuses to favor his suit; and he consoles himself, as well as he -can, with the saying of Solomon, that all is vanity and vexation of -spirit.[129] - - [127] St. 61-68. - - [128] There is some little obscurity about this important - personage (st. 71, 671, and elsewhere); but she was named Urraca, - (st. 1550,) and belonged to the class of persons technically - called _Alcahuetas_, or “Go-betweens”; a class which, from the - seclusion of women in Spain, and perhaps from the influence - of Moorish society and manners, figures largely in the early - literature of the country, and sometimes in the later. The - Partidas (Part. VII. Tít. 22) devotes two laws to them; and - the “Tragicomedia of Celestina,” who is herself once called - Trota-conventos, (end of Act. II.,) is their chief monument. Of - their activity in the days of the Archpriest a whimsical proof is - given in the extraordinary number of odious and ridiculous names - and epithets accumulated on them in st. 898-902. - - [129] St. 72 etc., 88 etc., 95 etc. - -In the next of his adventures, a false friend deceives him and carries -off his lady. But still he is not discouraged.[130] He feels himself to -be drawn on by his fate, like the son of a Moorish king, whose history -he then relates; and, after some astrological ruminations, declares -himself to be born under the star of Venus, and inevitably subject to -her control. Another failure follows; and then Love comes in person to -visit him and counsels him in a series of fables, which are told with -great ease and spirit. The poet answers gravely. He is offended with -Don Amor for his falsehood, charges him with being guilty, either by -implication or directly, of all the seven deadly sins, and fortifies -each of his positions with an appropriate apologue.[131] - - [130] When the affair is over, he says quaintly, “_El_ comiò la - vianda, è a _mi_ fiso rumiar.” - - [131] St. 119, 142 etc., 171 etc., 203 etc. Such discoursing as - this last passage affords on the seven deadly sins is common in - the French Fabliaux, and the English reader finds a striking - specimen of it in the “Persone’s Tale” of Chaucer. - -The Archpriest now goes to Doña Venus, who, though he knew Ovid, is -represented as the wife of Don Amor; and, taking counsel of her, is -successful. But the story he relates is evidently a fiction, though -it may be accommodated to the facts of the poet’s own case. It is -borrowed from a dialogue or play, written before the year 1300, by -Pamphylus Maurianus or Maurilianus, and long attributed to Ovid; -but the Castilian poet has successfully given to what he adopted -the coloring of his own national manners. All this portion, which -fills above a thousand lines, is somewhat free in its tone; and the -Archpriest, alarmed at himself, turns suddenly round and adds a series -of severe moral warnings and teachings to the sex, which he as suddenly -breaks off, and, without any assigned reason, goes to the mountains -near Segovia. But the month in which he makes his journey is March; -the season is rough; and several of his adventures are any thing but -agreeable. Still he preserves the same light and thoughtless air; and -this part of his history is mingled with spirited pastoral songs in -the Provençal manner, called “Cántigas de Serrana,” as the preceding -portions had been mingled with fables, which he calls “Enxiemplos,” or -stories.[132] - - [132] St. 557-559, with 419 and 548. Pamphylus de Amore, F. A. - Ebert, Bibliographisches Lexicon, Leipzig, 1830, 4to, Tom. II. p. - 297. P. Leyseri Hist. Poet. Medii Ævi, Halæ, 1721, 8vo, p. 2071. - Sanchez, Tom. IV. pp. xxiii., xxiv. The story of Pamphylus in - the Archpriest’s version is in stanzas 555-865. The story of the - Archpriest’s own journey is in stanzas 924-1017. The _Serranas_ - in this portion are, I think, imitations of the _Pastoretas_ - or _Pastorelles_ of the Troubadours. (Raynouard, Troubadours, - Tom. II. pp. 229, etc.) If such poems occurred frequently in - the Northern French literature of the period, I should think - the Archpriest had found his models there, since it is there he - generally resorts; but I have never seen any that came from north - of the Loire so old as his time. - -A shrine, much frequented by the devout, is near that part of the -Sierra where his journeyings lay; and he makes a pilgrimage to -it, which he illustrates with sacred hymns, just as he had before -illustrated his love-adventures with apologues and songs. But Lent -approaches, and he hurries home. He is hardly arrived, however, when he -receives a summons in form from Doña Quaresma (Madam Lent) to attend -her in arms, with all her other archpriests and clergy, in order to -make a foray, like a foray into the territory of the Moors, against -Don Carnaval and his adherents. One of these allegorical battles, -which were in great favor with the Trouveurs and other metre-mongers -of the Middle Ages, then follows, in which figure Don Tocino (Mr. -Bacon) and Doña Cecina (Mrs. Hung-Beef), with other similar personages. -The result, of course, since it is now the season of Lent, is the -defeat and imprisonment of Don Carnaval; but when that season closes, -the allegorical prisoner necessarily escapes, and, raising anew such -followers as Mr. Lunch and Mr. Breakfast, again takes the field, and is -again triumphant.[133] - - [133] St. 1017-1040. The “Bataille des Vins,” by D’Andeli, may be - cited, (Barbazan, ed. Méon, Tom. I. p. 152,) but the “Bataille de - Karesme et de Charnage” (Ibid., Tom. IV. p. 80) is more in point. - There are others on other subjects. For the marvellously savory - personages in the Archpriest’s battle, see stanzas 1080, 1169, - 1170, etc. - -Don Carnaval now unites himself to Don Amor, and both appear in state -as emperors. Don Amor is received with especial jubilee; clergy and -laity, friars, nuns, and _jongleurs_, going out in wild procession to -meet and welcome him.[134] But the honor of formally receiving his -Majesty, though claimed by all, and foremost by the nuns, is granted -only to the poet. To the poet, too, Don Amor relates his adventures of -the preceding winter at Seville and Toledo, and then leaves him to go -in search of others. Meanwhile, the Archpriest, with the assistance -of his cunning agent, _Trota-conventos_, begins a new series of love -intrigues, even more freely mingled with fables than the first, and -ends them only by the death of Trota-conventos herself, with whose -epitaph the more carefully connected portion of the Archpriest’s works -is brought to a conclusion. The volume contains, however, besides this -portion, several smaller poems on subjects as widely different as the -“Christian’s Armour” and the “Praise of Little Women,” some of which -seem related to the main series, though none of them have any apparent -connection with each other.[135] - - [134] St. 1184 etc., 1199-1229. It is not quite easy to see how - the Archpriest ventured some things in the last passage. Parts of - the procession come singing the most solemn hymns of the Church, - or parodies of them, applied to Don Amor, like the _Benedictus - qui venit_. It seems downright blasphemy against what was then - thought most sacred. - - [135] Stanzas 1221, 1229 etc., 1277 etc., 1289, 1491, 1492 etc., - 1550 etc., 1553-1681. - -The tone of the Archpriest’s poetry is very various. In general, a -satirical spirit prevails in it, not unmingled with a quiet humor. -This spirit often extends into the gravest portions; and how fearless -he was, when he indulged himself in it, a passage on the influence -of money and corruption at the court of Rome leaves no doubt.[136] -Other parts, like the verses on Death, are solemn, and even sometimes -tender; while yet others, like the hymns to the Madonna, breathe the -purest spirit of Catholic devotion; so that, perhaps, it would not be -easy, in the whole body of Spanish literature, to find a volume showing -a greater variety in its subjects, or in the modes of managing and -exhibiting them.[137] - - [136] Stanzas 464, etc. As in many other passages, the Archpriest - is here upon ground already occupied by the Northern French - poets. See the “Usurer’s Pater-Noster,” and “Credo,” in Barbazan, - Fabliaux, Tom. IV. pp. 99 and 106. - - [137] Stanzas 1494 etc., 1609 etc. - -The happiest success of the Archpriest of Hita is to be found in -the many tales and apologues which he has scattered on all sides to -illustrate the adventures that constitute a framework for his poetry, -like that of the “Conde Lucanor” or the “Canterbury Tales.” Most of -them are familiar to us, being taken from the old store-houses of Æsop -and Phædrus, or rather from the versions of these fabulists common in -the earliest Northern French poetry.[138] Among the more fortunate of -his very free imitations is the fable of the Frogs who asked for a -King from Jupiter, that of the Dog who lost by his Greediness the Meat -he carried in his Mouth, and that of the Hares who took Courage when -they saw the Frogs were more timid than themselves.[139] A few of them -have a truth, a simplicity, and even a grace, which have rarely been -surpassed in the same form of composition; as, for instance, that of -the City Mouse and the Country Mouse, which, if we follow it from Æsop -through Horace to La Fontaine, we shall nowhere find better told than -it is by the Archpriest.[140] - - [138] The Archpriest says of the fable of the Mountain that - brought forth a Mouse, that it “was composed by Isopete.” Now - there were at least two collections of fables in French in the - thirteenth century, that passed under the name of Ysopet, and - are published in Robert, “Fables Inédites,” (Paris, 1825, 2 tom. - 8vo); and as Marie de France, who lived at the court of Henry - III. of England, then the resort of the Northern French poets, - alludes to them in the Prologue to her own Fables, they are - probably as early as 1240. (See Poésies de Marie de France, ed. - Roquefort, Paris, 1820, 8vo, Tom. II. p. 61, and the admirable - discussions in De la Rue sur les Bardes, les Jongleurs et les - Trouvères, Caen, 1834, 8vo, Tom. I. pp. 198-202, and Tom. III. - pp. 47-101.) To one or both of these Isopets the Archpriest went - for a part of his fables,--perhaps for all of them. Don Juan - Manuel, his contemporary, probably did the same, and sometimes - took the same fables; e. g. Conde Lucanor, Capp. 43, 26, and 49, - which are the fables of the Archpriest, stanzas 1386, 1411, and - 1428. - - [139] Stanzas 189, 206, 1419. - - [140] It begins thus, stanza 1344:-- - - Mur de Guadalaxara · un Lunes madrugaba, - Fuese à Monferrado, · à mercado andaba; - Un mur de franca barba · recibiol’ en su cava, - Convidol’ à yantar · e diole una faba. - - Estaba en mesa pobre · buen gesto è buena cara, - Con la poca vianda · buena voluntad para, - A los pobres manjares · el plaser los repara, - l’agos del buen talante · mur de Guadalaxara. - - And so on through eight more stanzas. Now, besides the Greek - attributed to Æsop and the Latin of Horace, there can be found - above twenty versions of this fable, among which are two in - Spanish, one by Bart. Leon. de Argensola, and the other by - Samaniego; but I think the Archpriest’s is the best of the whole. - -What strikes us most, however, and remains with us longest after -reading his poetry, is the natural and spirited tone that prevails -over every other. In this he is like Chaucer, who wrote a little later -in the same century. Indeed, the resemblance between the two poets is -remarkable in some other particulars. Both often sought their materials -in the Northern French poetry; both have that mixture of devotion and -a licentious immorality, much of which belonged to their age, but some -of it to their personal character; and both show a wide knowledge -of human nature, and a great happiness in sketching the details of -individual manners. The original temper of each made him satirical -and humorous; and each, in his own country, became the founder of -some of the forms of its popular poetry, introducing new metres and -combinations, and carrying them out in a versification which, though -generally rude and irregular, is often flowing and nervous, and always -natural. The Archpriest has not, indeed, the tenderness, the elevation, -or the general power of Chaucer; but his genius has a compass, and his -verse a skill and success, that show him to be more nearly akin to the -great English master than will be believed, except by those who have -carefully read the works of both. - -The Archpriest of Hita lived in the last years of Alfonso the Eleventh, -and perhaps somewhat later. At the very beginning of the next reign, -or in 1350, we find a curious poem addressed by a Jew of Carrion to -Peter the Cruel, on his accession to the throne. In the manuscript -found in the National Library at Madrid, it is called the “Book of the -Rabi de Santob,” or “Rabbi Don Santob,” and consists of four hundred -and seventy-six stanzas.[141] The measure is the old _redondilla_, -uncommonly easy and flowing for the age; and the purpose of the poem is -to give wise moral counsels to the new king, which the poet more than -once begs him not to undervalue because they come from a Jew. - - [141] There are at least two manuscripts of the poems of this - Jew, from which nothing has been published but a few poor - extracts. The one commonly cited is that of the Escurial, used - by Castro, (Biblioteca Española, Tom. I. pp. 198-202,) and by - Sanchez (Tom. I. pp. 179-184, and Tom. IV. p. 12, etc.). The one - I have used is in the National Library, Madrid, marked B. b. 82, - folio, in which the poem of the Rabbi is found on leaves 61 to - 81. Conde, the historian of the Arabs, preferred this manuscript - to the one in the Escurial, and held the Rabbi’s true name to - be given in it, viz. _Santob_, and not _Santo_, as it is in the - manuscript of the Escurial; the latter being a name not likely - to be taken by a Jew in the time of Peter the Cruel, though very - likely to be written so by an ignorant monkish transcriber. The - manuscript of Madrid begins thus, differing from that of the - Escurial, as may be seen in Castro, ut sup.:-- - - Señor Rey, noble, alto, - Oy este Sermon, - Que vyene desyr Santob, - Judio de Carrion. - - Comunalmente trobado, - De glosas moralmente, - De la Filosofia sacado, - Segunt que va syguiente. - - My noble King and mighty Lord, - Hear a discourse most true; - ’T is Santob brings your Grace the word, - Of Carrion’s town the Jew. - - In plainest verse my thoughts I tell, - With gloss and moral free, - Drawn from Philosophy’s pure well, - As onward you may see. - - The oldest notice of the Jew of Carrion is in the letter of - the Marquis of Santillana to the Constable of Portugal, from - which there can be no doubt that the Rabbi still enjoyed much - reputation in the middle of the fifteenth century. - - Because upon a thorn it grows, - The rose is not less fair; - And wine that from the vine-stock flows - Still flows untainted there. - - The goshawk, too, will proudly soar, - Although his nest sits low; - And gentle teachings have their power, - Though ’t is the Jew says so.[142] - - [142] - Por nascer en el espino, - No val la rosa cierto - Menos; ni el buen vino, - Por nascer en el sarmyento. - - Non val el açor menos, - Por nascer de mal nido; - Nin los exemplos buenos, - Por los decir Judio. - - These lines seem better given in the Escurial manuscript as - follows:-- - - Por nascer en el espino, - La rosa ya non siento, - Que pierde; ni el buen vino, - Por salir del sarmiento. - - Non vale el açor menos, - Porque en vil nido siga; - Nin los enxemplos buenos, - Porque Judio los diga. - - The manuscripts ought to be collated, and this curious poem - published. - - After a preface in prose, which seems to be by another hand, and - an address to the king by the poet himself, he goes on:-- - - Quando el Rey Don Alfonso - Fynò, fyncò la gente, - Como quando el pulso - Fallesçe al doliente. - - Que luego no ayudava, - Que tan grant mejoria - A ellos fyncava - Nin omen lo entendia. - - Quando la rosa seca, - En su tiempo sale - El agua que della fynca, - Rosada que mas vale. - - Asi vos fyncastes del - Para mucho tu far, - Et facer lo que el - Cobdiciaba librar, etc. - - One of the philosophical verses is very quaint:-- - - Quando no es lo que quiero, - Quiero yo lo que es; - Si pesar he primero, - Plaser avré despues. - - If what I find, I do not love, - Then love I what I find; - If disappointment go before, - Joy sure shall come behind. - - I add from the unpublished original:-- - - Las mys canas teñilas, - Non por las avorrescer, - Ni por desdesyrlas, - Nin mancebo parescer. - - Mas con miedo sobejo - De omes que bastarian[*] - En mi seso de viejo, - E non lo fallarian. - - My hoary locks I dye with care, - Not that I hate their hue, - Nor yet because I wish to seem - More youthful than is true. - - But ’t is because the words I dread - Of men who speak me fair, - And ask within my whitened head - For wit that is not there. - - [*] buscarian? - -After a longer introduction than is needful, the moral counsels begin, -at the fifty-third stanza, and continue through the rest of the work, -which, in its general tone, is not unlike other didactic poetry of the -period, although it is written with more ease and more poetical spirit. -Indeed, it is little to say, that few Rabbins of any country have given -us such quaint and pleasant verses as are contained in several parts of -these curious counsels of the Jew of Carrion. - -In the Escurial manuscript, containing the verses of the Jew, are -other poems, which were at one time attributed to him, but which it -seems probable belong to other, though unknown, authors.[143] One of -them is a didactic essay, called “La Doctrina Christiana,” or Christian -Doctrine. It consists of a prose prologue, setting forth the writer’s -penitence, and of one hundred and fifty-seven stanzas of four lines -each; the first three containing eight syllables, rhymed together, -and the last containing four syllables unrhymed,--a metrical form not -without something of the air of the Sapphic and Adonic. The body of -the work contains an explanation of the creed, the ten commandments, -the seven moral virtues, the fourteen works of mercy, the seven deadly -sins, the five senses, and the holy sacraments, with discussions -concerning Christian conduct and character. - - [143] Castro, Bibl. Esp., Tom. I. p. 199. Sanchez, Tom. I. p. - 182; Tom. IV. p. xii. - - I am aware that Don José Amador de los Rios, in his “Estudios - Históricos, Políticos y Literarios sobre los Judios de España,” - a learned and pleasant book published at Madrid in 1848, is of - a different opinion, and holds the three poems, including the - Doctrina Christiana, to be the work of Don Santo or Santob of - Carrion. (See pp. 304-335.) But I think the objections to this - opinion are stronger than the reasons he gives to support it; - especially the objections involved in the following facts, viz.: - that Don Santob calls himself a Jew; that both the manuscripts - of the Consejos call him a Jew; that the Marquis of Santillana, - the only tolerably early authority that mentions him, calls him a - Jew; that no one of them intimates that he ever was converted,--a - circumstance likely to have been much blazoned abroad, if it had - really occurred; and that, if he were an unconverted Jew, it is - wholly impossible he should have written the Dança General, the - Doctrina Christiana, or the Ermitaño. - - I ought, perhaps, to add, in reference both to the remarks made - in this note, and to the notices of the few Jewish authors in - Spanish literature generally, that I did not receive the valuable - work of Amador de los Rios till just as the present one was going - to press. - -Another of these poems is called a Revelation, and is a vision, in -twenty-five octave stanzas, of a holy hermit, who is supposed to have -witnessed a contest between a soul and its body; the soul complaining -that the excesses of the body had brought upon it all the punishments -of the unseen world, and the body retorting, that it was condemned to -these same torments because the soul had neglected to keep it in due -subjection.[144] The whole is an imitation of some of the many similar -poems current at that period, one of which is extant in English in a -manuscript placed by Warton about the year 1304.[145] But both the -Castilian poems are of little worth. - - [144] Castro, Bibl. Esp., Tom. I. p. 200. By the kindness of - Prof. Gayangos, I have a copy of the whole. To judge from the - opening lines of the poem, it was probably written in 1382:-- - - Despues de la prima · la ora passada, - En el mes de Enero · la noche primera - En cccc e veiynte · durante la hera, - Estando acostado alla · en mi posada, etc. - - The first of January, 1420, of the Spanish Era, when the scene is - laid, corresponds to A. D. 1382. A copy of the poem printed at - Madrid, 1848, 12mo, pp. 13, differs from my manuscript copy, but - is evidently taken from one less carefully made. - - [145] Hist. of Eng. Poetry, Sect. 24, near the end. It appears - also in French very early, under the title of “Le Débat du - Corps et de l’Ame,” printed in 1486. (Ebert, Bib. Lexicon, Nos. - 5671-5674.) The source of the fiction has been supposed to be a - poem by a Frankish monk (Hagen und Büsching, Grundriss, Berlin, - 1812, 8vo, p. 446); but it is very old, and found in many forms - and many languages. See Latin Poems attributed to Walter Mapes, - and edited for the Camden Society by T. Wright (1841, 4to, pp. 95 - and 321). It was printed in the ballad form in Spain as late as - 1764. - -We come, then, to one of more value, “La Dança General,” or the Dance -of Death, consisting of seventy-nine regular octave stanzas, preceded -by a few words of introduction in prose, that do not seem to be by the -same author.[146] It is founded on the well-known fiction, so often -illustrated both in painting and in verse during the Middle Ages, that -all men, of all conditions, are summoned to the Dance of Death; a kind -of spiritual masquerade, in which the different ranks of society, from -the Pope to the young child, appear dancing with the skeleton form of -Death. In this Spanish version it is striking and picturesque,--more -so, perhaps, than in any other,--the ghastly nature of the subject -being brought into a very lively contrast with the festive tone of -the verses, which frequently recalls some of the better parts of -those flowing stories that now and then occur in the “Mirror for -Magistrates.”[147] - - [146] Castro, Bibl. Española, Tom. I. p. 200. Sanchez, Tom. I. - pp. 182-185, with Tom. IV. p. xii. I suspect the Spanish Dance of - Death is an imitation from the French, because I find, in several - of the early editions, the French Dance of Death is united, as - the Spanish is in the manuscript of the Escurial, with the “Débat - du Corps et de l’Ame,” just as the “Vows over the Peacock” seems, - in both languages, to have been united to a poem on Alexander. - - [147] In what a vast number of forms this strange fiction - occurs may be seen in the elaborate work of F. Douce, entitled - “Dance of Death,” (London, 1833, 8vo,) and in the “Literatur - der Todtentänze,” von H. F. Massmann (Leipzig, 1840, 8vo). To - these, however, for our purpose, should be added notices from the - Allgemeine Deutsche Bibliothek, (Berlin, 1792, Vol. CVI. p. 279,) - and a series of prints that appeared at Lubec in 1783, folio, - taken from the paintings there, which date from 1463, and which - might well serve to illustrate the old Spanish poem. See also K. - F. A. Scheller, Bücherkunde der Sässisch-niederdeutschen Sprache, - Braunschweig, 1826, 8vo, p. 75. The whole immense series, whether - existing in the paintings at Basle, Hamburg, etc., or in the - old poems in all languages, one of which is by Lydgate, were - undoubtedly intended for religious edification, just as the - Spanish poem was. - -The first seven stanzas of the Spanish poem constitute a prologue, in -which Death issues his summons partly in his own person, and partly in -that of a preaching friar, ending thus:-- - - Come to the Dance of Death, all ye whose fate - By birth is mortal, be ye great or small; - And willing come, nor loitering, nor late, - Else force shall bring you struggling to my thrall: - For since yon friar hath uttered loud his call - To penitence and godliness sincere, - He that delays must hope no waiting here; - For still the cry is, Haste! and, Haste to all! - -Death now proceeds, as in the old pictures and poems, to summon, -first, the Pope, then cardinals, kings, bishops, and so on, down to -day-laborers; all of whom are forced to join his mortal dance, though -each first makes some remonstrance, that indicates surprise, horror, or -reluctance. The call to youth and beauty is spirited:-- - - Bring to my dance, and bring without delay, - Those damsels twain, you see so bright and fair; - They came, but came not in a willing way, - To list my chants of mortal grief and care: - Nor shall the flowers and roses fresh they wear, - Nor rich attire, avail their forms to save. - They strive in vain who strive against the grave; - It may not be; my wedded brides they are.[148] - - [148] I have a manuscript copy of the whole poem, made for me by - Professor Gayangos, and give the following as specimens. First, - one of the stanzas translated in the text:-- - - A esta mi Danza traye de presente - Estas dos donçellas que vedes fermosas; - Ellas vinieron de muy mala mente - A oyr mis canciones que son dolorosas. - Mas non les valdran flores ny rosas, - Nin las composturas que poner solian. - De mi si pudiesen partir se querrian, - Mas non puede ser, que son mis esposas. - - And the two following, which have not, I believe, been printed; - the first being the reply of Death to the Dean he had summoned, - and the last the objections of the Merchant:-- - - _Dice la Muerte._ - - Don rico avariento Dean muy ufano, - Que vuestros dineros trocastes en oro, - A pobres e a viudas cerrastes la mano, - E mal despendistes el vuestro tesoro, - Non quiero que estedes ya mas en el coro; - Salid luego fuera sin otra peresa. - Ya vos mostraré venir à pobresa.-- - Venit, Mercadero, a la dança del lloro. - - _Dice el Mercader._ - - A quien dexaré todas mis riquesas, - E mercadurias, que traygo en la mar? - Con muchos traspasos e mas sotilesas - Gané lo que tengo en cada lugar. - Agora la muerte vinó me llamar; - Que sera de mi, non se que me faga. - O muerte tu sierra á mi es gran plaga. - Adios, Mercaderes, que voyme á finar! - -The fiction is, no doubt, a grim one; but for several centuries it -had great success throughout Europe, and it is presented quite as -much according to its true spirit in this old Castilian poem as it is -anywhere. - -A chronicling poem, found in the same manuscript volume with the -last, but very unskilfully copied in a different handwriting, -belongs probably to the same period. It is on the half-fabulous, -half-historical achievements of Count Fernan Gonzalez, a hero of the -earlier period of the Christian conflict with the Moors, who is to -the North of Spain what the Cid became somewhat later to Aragon and -Valencia. To him is attributed the rescue of much of Castile from -Mohammedan control; and his achievements, so far as they are matter -of historical rather than poetical record, fall between 934, when the -battle of Osma was fought, and his death, which occurred in 970. - -The poem in question is almost wholly devoted to his glory.[149] It -begins with a notice of the invasion of Spain by the Goths, and comes -down to the battle of Moret, in 967, when the manuscript suddenly -breaks off, leaving untouched the adventures of its hero during the -three remaining years of his life. It is essentially prosaic and -monotonous in its style, yet not without something of that freshness -and simplicity which are in themselves allied to all early poetry. Its -language is rude, and its measure, which strives to be like that in -Berceo and the poem of Apollonius, is often in stanzas of three lines -instead of four, sometimes of five, and once at least of nine. Like -Berceo’s poem on San Domingo de Silos, it opens with an invocation, -and, what is singular, this invocation is in the very words used by -Berceo: “In the name of the Father, who made all things,” etc. After -this, the history, beginning in the days of the Goths, follows the -popular traditions of the country, with few exceptions, the most -remarkable of which occurs in the notice of the Moorish invasion. There -the account is quite anomalous. No intimation is given of the story of -the fair Cava, whose fate has furnished materials for so much poetry; -but Count Julian is represented as having, without any private injury, -volunteered his treason to the king of Morocco, and then carried it -into effect by persuading Don Roderic, in full Cortes, to turn all the -military weapons of the land into implements of agriculture, so that, -when the Moorish invasion occurred, the country was overrun without -difficulty. - - [149] See a learned dissertation of Fr. Benito Montejo, on the - Beginnings of the Independence of Castile, Memorias de la Acad. - de Hist., Tom. III. pp. 245-302. Crónica General de España, Parte - III. c. 18-20. Duran, Romances Caballerescos, Madrid, 1832, 12mo, - Tom. II. pp. 27-39. Extracts from the manuscript in the Escurial - are to be found in Bouterwek, trad. por J. G. de la Cortina, - etc., Tom. I. pp. 154-161. I have a manuscript copy of the first - part of it, made for me by Professor Gayangos. For notices, see - Castro, Bibl., Tom. I. p. 199, and Sanchez, Tom. I. p. 115. - -The death of the Count of Toulouse, on the other hand, is described as -it is in the “General Chronicle” of Alfonso the Wise; and so are the -vision of Saint Millan, and the Count’s personal fights with a Moorish -king and the King of Navarre. In truth, many passages in the poem so -much resemble the corresponding passages in the Chronicle, that it -seems certain one was used in the composition of the other; and as the -poem has more the air of being an amplification of the Chronicle than -the Chronicle has of being an abridgment of the poem, it seems probable -that the prose account is, in this case, the older, and furnished the -materials of the poem, which, from internal evidence, was prepared for -public recitation.[150] - - [150] Crónica General, ed. 1604, Parte III. f. 55. b, 60. a-65. - b. Compare, also, Cap. 19, and Mariana, Historia, Lib. VIII. c. - 7, with the poem. That the poem was taken from the Chronicle - may be assumed, I conceive, from a comparison of the Chronicle, - Parte III. c. 18, near the end, containing the defeat and death - of the Count of Toulouse, with the passage in the poem as given - by Cortina, and beginning “Cavalleros Tolesanos trezientos y - prendieron”; or the vision of San Millan (Crónica, Parte III. c. - 19) with the passage in the poem beginning “El Cryador te otorga - quanto pedido le as.” Perhaps, however, the following, being a - mere rhetorical illustration, is a proof as striking, if not as - conclusive, as a longer one. The Chronicle says, (Parte III. c. - 18,) “Non cuentan de Alexandre los dias nin los años; mas los - buenos fechos e las sus cavallerías que fizo.” The poem has it, - in almost the same words:-- - - Non cuentan de Alexandre · las noches nin los dias; - Cuentan sus buenos fechos · e sus cavalleryas. - -The meeting of Fernan Gonzalez with the King of Navarre at the battle -of Valparé, which occurs in both, is thus described in the poem:-- - - And now the King and Count were met · together in the fight, - And each against the other turned · the utmost of his might, - Beginning there a battle fierce · in furious despite. - - And never fight was seen more brave, · nor champions more true; - For to rise or fall for once and all · they fought, as well they - knew; - And neither, as each inly felt, · a greater deed could do; - So they struck and strove right manfully, · with blows nor light - nor few. - - Ay, mighty was that fight indeed, · and mightier still about - The din that rose like thunder · round those champions brave and - stout: - A man with all his voice might cry · and none would heed his shout; - For he that listened could not hear, · amidst such rush and rout. - - The blows they struck were heavy; · heavier blows there could not be; - On both sides, to the uttermost, · they struggled manfully, - And many, that ne’er rose again, · bent to the earth the knee, - And streams of blood o’erspread the ground, · as on all sides you - might see. - - And knights were there, from good Navarre, · both numerous and bold, - Whom everywhere for brave and strong · true gentlemen would hold; - But still against the good Count’s might · their strength proved weak - and cold, - Though men of great emprise before · and fortune manifold. - - For God’s good grace still kept the Count · from sorrow and from - harm, - That neither Moor nor Christian power · should stand against his - arm, etc.[151] - - [151] - El Rey y el Conde · ambos se ayuntaron, - El uno contra el otro · ambos endereçaron, - E la lid campal alli · la escomençaron. - - Non podrya mas fuerte · ni mas brava ser, - Ca alli les yva todo · levantar o caer; - El nin el Rey non podya · ninguno mas façer, - Los unos y los otros · façian todo su poder. - - Muy grande fue la façienda · e mucho mas el roydo; - Daria el ome muy grandes voces, · y non seria oydo. - El que oydo fuese seria · como grande tronydo; - Non podrya oyr voces · ningun apellido. - - Grandes eran los golpes, · que mayores non podian; - Los unos y los otros · todo su poder façian; - Muchos cayan en tierra · que nunca se ençian; - De sangre los arroyos · mucha tierra cobryan. - - Asas eran los Navarros · cavalleros esforçados - Que en qualquier lugar · seryan buenos y priados, - Mas es contra el Conde · todos desaventurados; - Omes son de gran cuenta · y de coraçon loçanos. - - Quiso Dios al buen Conde · esta gracia façer, - Que Moros ni Crystyanos · non le podian vençer, etc. - - Bouterwek, trad. Cortina, p. 160. - -This is certainly not poetry of a high order. Invention and dignified -ornament are wanting in it; but still it is not without spirit, and, -at any rate, it would be difficult to find in the whole poem a passage -more worthy of regard. - -In the National Library at Madrid is a poem of twelve hundred and -twenty lines, composed in the same system of quaternion rhymes that -we have already noticed as settled in the old Castilian literature, -and with irregularities like those found in the whole class of poems -to which it belongs. Its subject is Joseph, the son of Jacob; but -there are two circumstances which distinguish it from all the other -narrative poetry of the period, and render it curious and important. -The first is, that, though composed in the Spanish language, it is -written wholly in the Arabic character, and has, therefore, all the -appearance of an Arabic manuscript; to which should be added the fact, -that the metre and spelling are accommodated to the force of the Arabic -vowels, so that, if the only manuscript of it now known to exist be -not the original, it must still have been originally written in the -same manner. The other singular circumstance is, that the story of the -poem, which is the familiar one of Joseph and his brethren, is not told -according to the original in our Hebrew Scriptures, but according to -the shorter and less interesting version in the eleventh chapter of the -Koran, with occasional variations and additions, some of which are due -to the fanciful expounders of the Koran, while others seem to be of the -author’s own invention. These two circumstances taken together leave -no reasonable doubt that the writer of the poem was one of the many -Moriscos who, remaining at the North after the body of the nation had -been driven southward, had forgotten their native language and adopted -that of their conquerors, though their religion and culture still -continued to be Arabic.[152] - - [152] Other manuscripts of this sort are known to exist; but I - am not aware of any so old, or of such poetical value. (Ochoa, - Catálogo de Manuscritos Españoles, etc., pp. 6-21. Gayangos, - Mohammedan Dynasties in Spain, Tom. I. pp. 492 and 503.) As - to the spelling in the Poem of Joseph, we have _sembraredes_, - _chiriador_, _certero_, _marabella_, _taraydores_, etc. To avoid - a hiatus, a consonant is prefixed to the second word; as “cada - _g_uno” repeatedly for _cada uno_. The manuscript of the Poema - de José, in 4to, 49 leaves, was first shown to me in the Public - Library at Madrid, marked G. g. 101, by Conde, the historian; but - I owe a copy of the whole of it to the kindness of Don Pascual de - Gayangos, Professor of Arabic in the University there. - -The manuscript of the “Poem of Joseph” is imperfect, both at the -beginning and at the end. Not much of it, however, seems to be lost. It -opens with the jealousy of the brothers of Joseph at his dream, and -their solicitation of their father to let him go with them to the field. - - Then up and spake his sons: · “Sire, do not deem it so; - Ten brethren are we here, · this very well you know;-- - That we should all be traitors, · and treat him as a foe, - You either will not fear, · or you will not let him go. - - “But this is what we thought, · as our Maker knows above: - That the child might gain more knowledge, · and with it gain our - love, - To show him all our shepherd’s craft, · as with flocks and herds - we move;-- - But still the power is thine to grant, · and thine to disapprove.” - - And then they said so much · with words so smooth and fair, - And promised him so faithfully · with words of pious care, - That he gave them up his child; · but bade them first beware, - And bring him quickly back again, · unharmed by any snare.[153] - - [153] The passage I have translated is in Coplas 5-7, in the - original manuscript, as it now stands, imperfect at the beginning. - - Dijieron sus filhos: · “Padre, eso no pensedes; - Somos diez ermanos, · eso bien sabedes; - Seriamos taraidores, · eso no dubdedes; - Mas, empero, si no vos place, · aced lo que queredes. - - “Mas aquesto pensamos, · sabelo el Criador; - Porque supiese mas, · i ganase el nuestro amor, - Enseñarle aiemos las obelhas, · i el ganado mayor; - Mas, enpero, si no vos place, · mandad como señor.” - - Tanto le dijeron, · de palabras fermosas, - Tanto le prometieron, · de palabras piadosas, - Que el les dió el ninno, · dijoles las oras, - Que lo guardasen a el · de manos enganosas. - - Poema de José, MS. - -When the brothers have consummated their treason, and sold Joseph to a -caravan of Egyptian merchants, the story goes on much as it does in the -Koran. The fair Zuleikha, or Zuleia, who answers to Potiphar’s wife in -the Hebrew Scriptures, and who figures largely in Mohammedan poetry, -fills a space more ample than usual in the fancies of the present poem. -Joseph, too, is a more considerable personage. He is adopted as the -king’s son, and made a king in the land; and the dreams of the real -king, the years of plenty and famine, the journeyings of the brothers -to Egypt, their recognition by Joseph, and his message to Jacob, with -the grief of the latter that Benjamin did not return, at which the -manuscript breaks off, are much amplified, in the Oriental manner, and -made to sound like passages from “Antar,” or the “Arabian Nights,” -rather than from the touching and beautiful story to which we have been -accustomed from our childhood. - -Among the inventions of the author is a conversation which the -wolf--who is brought in by his false brethren, as the animal that had -killed Joseph--holds with Jacob.[154] Another is the Eastern fancy, -that the measure by which Joseph distributed the corn, and which was -made of gold and precious stones, would, when put to his ear, inform -him whether the persons present were guilty of falsehood to him.[155] -But the following incident, which, like that of Joseph’s parting in -a spirit of tender forgiveness from his brethren[156] when they sold -him, is added to the narrative of the Koran, will better illustrate the -general tone of the poem, as well as the general powers of the poet. - - [154] - Rogo Jacob al Criador, · e al lobo fue a fablar; - Dijo el lobo: “No lo mando · Allah, que a nabi[*] fuese a matar, - En tan estranna tierra · me fueron á cazar, - Anme fecho pecado, · i lebanme a lazrar.” - - MS. - - [*] _Nabi_, Prophet, Arabic. - - [155] - La mesura del pan · de oro era labrada, - E de piedras preciosas · era estrellada, - I era de ver toda · con guisa enclabada, - Que fazia saber al Rey · la berdad apurada. - · · · · · · · · · · · · - E firio el Rey en la mesura · e fizola sonar, - Pone la á su orella · por oir e guardar; - Dijoles, e no quiso · mas dudar, - Segun dize la mesura, · berdad puede estar. - - MS. - - It is Joseph who is here called king, as he is often in the - poem,--once he is called emperor, though the Pharaoh of the - period is fully recognized; and this costly measure, made of - gold and precious stones, corresponds to the cup of the Hebrew - account, and is found, like that, in the sack of Benjamin, where - it had been put by Joseph, (after he had secretly revealed - himself to Benjamin,) as the means of seizing Benjamin and - detaining him in Egypt, with his own consent, but without giving - his false brethren the reason for it. - - [156] - Dijo Jusuf: “Ermanos, · perdoneos el Criador, - Del tuerto que me tenedes, · perdoneos el Señor, - Que para siempre e nunca · se parta el nuestro amor.” - Abrasò a cada guno, · e partiòse con dolor. - - MS. - -On the first night after the outrage, Jusuf, as he is called in the -poem, when travelling along in charge of a negro, passes a cemetery on -a hill-side where his mother lies buried. - - And when the negro heeded not, · that guarded him behind, - From off the camel Jusuf sprang, · on which he rode confined, - And hastened, with all speed, · his mother’s grave to find, - Where he knelt and pardon sought, · to relieve his troubled mind. - - He cried, “God’s grace be with thee still, · O Lady mother dear! - O mother, you would sorrow, · if you looked upon me here; - For my neck is bound with chains, · and I live in grief and fear, - Like a traitor by my brethren sold, · like a captive to the spear. - - “They have sold me! they have sold me! · though I never did them - harm; - They have torn me from my father, · from his strong and living arm, - By art and cunning they enticed me, · and by falsehood’s guilty - charm, - And I go a base-bought captive, · full of sorrow and alarm.” - - But now the negro looked about, · and knew that he was gone, - For no man could be seen, · and the camel came alone; - So he turned his sharpened ear, · and caught the wailing tone, - Where Jusuf, by his mother’s grave, · lay making heavy moan. - - And the negro hurried up, · and gave him there a blow; - So quick and cruel was it, · that it instant laid him low; - “A base-born wretch,” he cried aloud, · “a base-born thief art thou; - Thy masters, when we purchased thee, · they told us it was so.” - - But Jusuf answered straight, · “Nor thief nor wretch am I; - My mother’s grave is this, · and for pardon here I cry; - I cry to Allah’s power, · and send my prayer on high, - That, since I never wronged thee, · his curse may on thee lie.” - - And then all night they travelled on, · till dawned the coming day, - When the land was sore tormented · with a whirlwind’s furious sway; - The sun grew dark at noon, · their hearts sunk in dismay, - And they knew not, with their merchandise, · to seek or make their - way.[157] - - [157] As the original has not been printed, I transcribe the - following stanzas of the passage I have last translated:-- - - Dio salto del camello, · donde iba cabalgando; - No lo sintio el negro, · que lo iba guardando; - Fuese a la fuesa de su madre, · a pedirla perdon doblando, - Jusuf a la fuesa · tan apriesa llorando. - - Disiendo: “Madre, sennora, · perdoneos el Sennor; - Madre, si me bidieses, · de mi abriais dolor; - Boi con cadenas al cuello, · catibo con sennor, - Bendido de mis ermanos, · como si fuera traidor. - - “Ellos me han bendido, · no teniendoles tuerto; - Partieronme de mi padre, · ante que fuese muerto; - Con arte, con falsia, ellos · me obieron buelto; - Por mal precio me han · bendido, por do boi ajado e cucito.” - - E bolbiose el negro · ante la camella, - Requiriendo à Jusuf, · e no lo bido en ella; - E bolbiose por el camino · aguda su orella, - Bidolo en el fosal · llorando, que es marabella. - - E fuese alla el negro, · e obolo mal ferido, - E luego en aquella ora · caio amortesido; - Dijo, “Tu eres malo, · e ladron conpilido; - Ansi nos lo dijeron tus señores · que te hubieron bendido.” - - Dijo Jusuf: “No soi · malo, ni ladron, - Mas, aqui iaz mi madre, · e bengola a dar perdon; - Ruego ad Allah i a · el fago loaiçon, - Que, si colpa no te tengo, · te enbie su maldicion.” - - Andaron aquella noche · fasta otro dia, - Entorbioseles el mundo, · gran bento corria, - Afallezioseles el sol · al ora de mediodia, - No vedian por do ir · con la mercaderia. - - Poema de José, MS. - -The age and origin of this remarkable poem can be settled only by -internal evidence. From this it seems probable that it was written -in Aragon, because it contains many words and phrases peculiar to -the border country of the Provençals,[158] and that it dates from -the latter half of the fourteenth century, because the four-fold -rhyme is hardly found later in such verses, and because the rudeness -of the language might indicate even an earlier period, if the tale -had come from Castile. But in whatever period we may place it, it -is a curious and interesting production. It has the directness and -simplicity of the age to which it is attributed, mingled sometimes -with a tenderness rarely found in ages so violent. Its pastoral air, -too, and its preservation of Oriental manners, harmonize well with -the Arabian feelings that prevail throughout the work; while in its -spirit, and occasionally in its moral tone, it shows the confusion of -the two religions which then prevailed in Spain, and that mixture of -the Eastern and Western forms of civilization which afterwards gives -somewhat of its coloring to Spanish poetry.[159] - - [158] This is apparent also in the addition sometimes made of an - _o_ or an _a_ to a word ending with a consonant, as _mercadero_ - for _mercader_. - - [159] Thus, the merchant who buys Joseph talks of Palestine as - “the Holy Land,” and Pharaoh talks of making Joseph a Count. But - the general tone is Oriental. - -The last poem belonging to these earliest specimens of Castilian -literature is the “Rimado de Palacio,” on the duties of kings and -nobles in the government of the state, with sketches of the manners and -vices of the times, which, as the poem maintains, it is the duty of -the great to rebuke and reform. It is chiefly written in the four-line -stanzas of the period to which it belongs; and, beginning with a -penitential confession of its author, goes on with a discussion of the -ten commandments, the seven deadly sins, the seven works of mercy, -and other religious subjects; after which it treats of the government -of a state, of royal counsellors, of merchants, of men of learning, -tax-gatherers, and others; and then ends, as it began, with exercises -of devotion. Its author is Pedro Lopez de Ayala, the chronicler, of -whom it is enough to say here, that he was among the most distinguished -Spaniards of his time, that he held some of the highest offices -of the kingdom under Peter the Cruel, Henry the Second, John the -First, and Henry the Third, and that he died in 1407, at the age of -seventy-five.[160] - - [160] For the Rimado de Palacio, see Bouterwek, trad. de Cortina, - Tom. I. pp. 138-154. The whole poem consists of 1619 stanzas. For - notices of Ayala, see Chap. IX. - -The “Rimado de Palacio,” which may be translated “Court Rhymes,” was -the production of different periods of Ayala’s life. Twice he marks the -year in which he was writing, and from these dates we know that parts -of it were certainly composed in 1398 and 1404, while yet another part -seems to have been written during his imprisonment in England, which -followed the defeat of Henry of Trastamara by the Duke of Lancaster, in -1367. On the whole, therefore, the Rimado de Palacio is to be placed -near the conclusion of the fourteenth century, and, by its author’s -sufferings in an English prison, reminds us both of the Duke of Orleans -and of James the First of Scotland, who, at the same time and under -similar circumstances, showed a poetical spirit not unlike that of the -great Chancellor of Castile. - -In some of its subdivisions, particularly in those that have a lyrical -tendency, the Rimado resembles some of the lighter poems of the -Archpriest of Hita. Others are composed with care and gravity, and -express the solemn thoughts that filled him during his captivity. But, -in general, it has a quiet, didactic tone, such as beseems its subject -and its age; one, however, in which we occasionally find a satirical -spirit that could not be suppressed, when the old statesman discusses -the manners that offended him. Thus, speaking of the _Letrados_, or -lawyers, he says:[161]-- - - [161] _Letrado_ has continued to be used to mean a _lawyer_ in - Spanish down to our day, as _clerk_ has to mean a _writer_ in - English, though the original signification of both was different. - When Sancho goes to his island, he is said to be “parte de - letrado, parte de Capitan”; and Guillen de Castro, in his “Mal - Casados de Valencia,” Act. III., says of a great rogue, “engaño - como letrado.” A description of Letrados, worthy of Tacitus for - its deep satire, is to be found in the first book of Mendoza’s - “Guerra de Granada.” - - - When entering on a lawsuit, · if you ask for their advice, - They sit down very solemnly, · their brows fall in a trice. - “A question grave is this,” they say, · “and asks for labor nice; - To the Council it must go, · and much management implies. - - “I think, perhaps, in time, · I can help you in the thing, - By dint of labor long · and grievous studying; - But other duties I must leave, · away all business fling, - Your case alone must study, · and to you alone must cling.”[162] - - [162] The passage is in Cortina’s notes to Bouterwek, and - begins:-- - - Si quisiers sobre un pleyto · d’ ellos aver consejo, - Pónense solemnmente, · luego abaxan el cejo: - Dis: “Grant question es esta, · grant trabajo sobejo: - El pleyto sera luengo, · ca atañe a to el consejo. - - “Yo pienso que podria · aquí algo ayudar, - Tomando grant trabajo · mis libros estudiar; - Mas todos mis negoçios · me conviene á dexar, - E solamente en aqueste · vuestro pleyto estudiar.” - -Somewhat farther on, when he speaks of justice, whose administration -had been so lamentably neglected in the civil wars during which -he lived, he takes his graver tone, and speaks with a wisdom and -gentleness we should hardly have expected:-- - - True justice is a noble thing, · that merits all renown; - It fills the land with people, · checks the guilty with its frown; - But kings, that should uphold its power, · in thoughtlessness look - down, - And forget the precious jewel · that gems their honored crown. - - And many think by cruelty · its duties to fulfil, - But their wisdom all is cunning, · for justice doth no ill; - With pity and with truth it dwells, · and faithful men will still - From punishment and pain turn back, · as sore against their will.[163] - - [163] The original reads thus:-- - - _Aqui fabla de la Justicia._ - - Justicia que es virtud · atan noble e loada, - Que castiga los malos · e ha la tierra poblada, - Devenla guardar Reyes · é la tien olvidada, - Siendo piedra preciosa · de su corona onrrada. - - Muchos ha que por cruesa · cuydan justicia fer; - Mas pecan en la maña, · ca justicia ha de ser - Con toda piedat, · e la verdat bien saber: - Al fer la execucion · siempre se han de doler. - - Don José Amador de los Rios has given further extracts from the - Rimado de Palacio in a pleasant paper on it in the Semanario - Pintoresco, Madrid, 1847, p. 411. - -There is naturally a good deal in the Rimado de Palacio that savors -of statesmanship; as, for instance, nearly all that relates to royal -favorites, to war, and to the manners of the palace; but the general -air of the poem, or rather of the different short poems that make it -up, is fairly represented in the preceding passages. It is grave, -gentle, and didactic, with now and then a few lines of a simple and -earnest poetical feeling, which seem to belong quite as much to their -age as to their author. - - * * * * * - -We have now gone over a considerable portion of the earliest Castilian -literature, and quite completed an examination of that part of it -which, at first epic, and afterwards didactic, in its tone, is found -in long, irregular verses, with quadruple rhymes. It is all curious. -Much of it is picturesque and interesting; and when, to what has been -already examined, we shall have added the ballads and chronicles, -the romances of chivalry and the drama, the whole will be found to -constitute a broad basis, on which the genuine literary culture of -Spain has rested ever since. - -But, before we go farther, we must pause an instant, and notice some -of the peculiarities of the period we have just considered. It extends -from a little before the year 1200 to a little after the year 1400; -and, both in its poetry and prose, is marked by features not to be -mistaken. Some of these features were peculiar and national; others -were not. Thus, in Provence, which was long united with Aragon, and -exercised an influence throughout the whole Peninsula, the popular -poetry, from its light-heartedness, was called the _Gaya Sciencia_, -and was essentially unlike the grave and measured tone, heard over -every other, on the Spanish side of the mountains; in the more northern -parts of France, a garrulous, story-telling spirit was paramount; and -in Italy, Dante, Petrarca, and Boccaccio had just appeared, unlike all -that had preceded them, and all that was anywhere contemporary with -their glory. On the other hand, however, several of the characteristics -of the earliest Castilian literature, such as the chronicling and -didactic spirit of most of its long poems, its protracted, irregular -verses, and its redoubled rhymes, belong to the old Spanish bards in -common with those of the countries we have just enumerated, where, at -the same period, a poetical spirit was struggling for a place in the -elements of their unsettled civilization. - -But there are two traits of the earliest Spanish literature which -are so separate and peculiar, that they must be noticed from the -outset,--religious faith and knightly loyalty,--traits which are hardly -less apparent in the “Partidas” of Alfonso the Wise, in the stories of -Don John Manuel, in the loose wit of the Archpriest of Hita, and in the -worldly wisdom of the Chancellor Ayala, than in the professedly devout -poems of Berceo and in the professedly chivalrous chronicles of the Cid -and Fernan Gonzalez. They are, therefore, from the earliest period, to -be marked among the prominent features in Spanish literature. - -Nor should we be surprised at this. The Spanish national character, -as it has existed from its first development down to our own days, was -mainly formed in the earlier part of that solemn contest which began -the moment the Moors landed beneath the Rock of Gibraltar, and which -cannot be said to have ended, until, in the time of Philip the Third, -the last remnants of their unhappy race were cruelly driven from the -shores which their fathers, nine centuries before, had so unjustifiably -invaded. During this contest, and especially during the two or three -dark centuries when the earliest Spanish poetry appeared, nothing -but an invincible religious faith, and a no less invincible loyalty -to their own princes, could have sustained the Christian Spaniards -in their disheartening struggle against their infidel oppressors. It -was, therefore, a stern necessity which made these two high qualities -elements of the Spanish national character,--a character all whose -energies were for ages devoted to the one grand object of their prayers -as Christians and their hopes as patriots, the expulsion of their hated -invaders. - -But Castilian poetry was, from the first, to an extraordinary degree, -an outpouring of the popular feeling and character. Tokens of religious -submission and knightly fidelity, akin to each other in their birth -and often relying on each other for strength in their trials, are, -therefore, among its earliest attributes. We must not, then, be -surprised, if we hereafter find, that submission to the Church and -loyalty to the king constantly break through the mass of Spanish -literature, and breathe their spirit from nearly every portion of -it,--not, indeed, without such changes in the mode of expression as the -changed condition of the country in successive ages demanded, but still -always so strong in their original attributes as to show that they -survive every convulsion of the state and never cease to move onward -by their first impulse. In truth, while their very early development -leaves no doubt that they are national, their nationality makes it all -but inevitable that they should become permanent. - - - - -CHAPTER VI. - -FOUR CLASSES OF THE MORE POPULAR EARLY LITERATURE.--FIRST CLASS, -BALLADS.--OLDEST FORM OF CASTILIAN POETRY.--THEORIES ABOUT THEIR -ORIGIN.--NOT ARABIC.--THEIR METRICAL FORM.--REDONDILLAS.-- -ASONANTES.--NATIONAL.--SPREAD OF THE BALLAD FORM.--NAME.--EARLY NOTICES -OF BALLADS.--BALLADS OF THE SIXTEENTH CENTURY, AND LATER.--TRADITIONAL -AND LONG UNWRITTEN.--APPEARED FIRST IN THE CANCIONEROS, THEN IN THE -ROMANCEROS.--THE OLD COLLECTIONS THE BEST. - - -Everywhere in Europe, during the period we have just gone over, the -courts of the different sovereigns were the principal centres of -refinement and civilization. From accidental circumstances, this was -peculiarly the case in Spain, during the thirteenth and fourteenth -centuries. On the throne of Castile, or within its shadow, we have -seen a succession of such poets and prose-writers as Alfonso the Wise, -Sancho, his son, Don John Manuel, his nephew, and the Chancellor Ayala, -to say nothing of Saint Ferdinand, who preceded them all, and who, -perhaps, gave the first decisive impulse to letters in the centre of -Spain and at the North.[164] - - [164] Alfonso el Sabio says of his father, St. Ferdinand: “And, - moreover, he liked to have men about him who knew how to make - verses (_trobar_) and sing, and Jongleurs, who knew how to play - on instruments. For in such things he took great pleasure, and - knew who was skilled in them and who was not.” (Setenario, - Paleographía, pp. 80-83, and p. 76.) See, also, what is said - hereafter, when we come to speak of Provençal literature in - Spain, Chap. XVI. - -But the literature produced or encouraged by these and other -distinguished men, or by the higher clergy, who, with them, were the -leaders of the state, was by no means the only literature that then -existed within the barrier of the Pyrenees. On the contrary, the spirit -of poetry was, to an extraordinary degree, abroad throughout the whole -Peninsula, so far as it had been rescued from the Moors, animating -and elevating all classes of its Christian population. Their own -romantic history, whose great events had been singularly the results of -popular impulse, and bore everywhere the bold impress of the popular -character, had breathed into the Spanish people this spirit; a spirit -which, beginning with Pelayo, had been sustained by the appearance, -from time to time, of such heroic forms as Fernan Gonzalez, Bernardo -del Carpio, and the Cid. At the point of time, therefore, at which -we are now arrived, a more popular literature, growing directly out -of the enthusiasm which had so long pervaded the whole mass of the -Spanish people, began naturally to appear in the country, and to assert -for itself a place, which, in some of its forms, it has successfully -maintained ever since. - -What, however, is thus essentially popular in its sources and -character,--what, instead of going out from the more elevated classes -of the nation, was neglected or discountenanced by them,--is, from -its very wildness, little likely to take well-defined forms, or to be -traced, from its origin, by the dates and other proofs which accompany -such portions of the national literature as fell earlier under the -protection of the higher orders of society. But though we may not be -able to make out an exact arrangement or a detailed history of what -was necessarily so free and always so little watched, it can still be -distributed into four different classes, and will afford tolerable -materials for a notice of its progress and condition under each. - -These four classes are, first, the BALLADS, or the poetry, both -narrative and lyrical, of the common people, from the earliest times; -second, the CHRONICLES, or the half-genuine, half-fabulous histories -of the great events and heroes of the national annals, which, though -originally begun by authority of the state, were always deeply imbued -with the popular feelings and character; third, the ROMANCES OF -CHIVALRY, intimately connected with both the others, and, after a time, -as passionately admired as either by the whole nation; and, fourth, the -DRAMA, which, in its origin, has always been a popular and religious -amusement, and was hardly less so in Spain than it was in Greece or in -France. - -These four classes compose what was generally most valued in Spanish -literature during the latter part of the fourteenth century, the whole -of the fifteenth, and much of the sixteenth. They rested on the deep -foundations of the national character, and therefore, by their very -nature, were opposed to the Provençal, the Italian, and the courtly -schools, which flourished during the same period, and which will be -subsequently examined. - - * * * * * - -THE BALLADS.--We begin with the ballads, because it cannot reasonably -be doubted that poetry, in the present Spanish language, appeared -earliest in the ballad form. And the first question that occurs in -relation to them is the obvious one, why this was the case. It has been -suggested, in reply, that there was probably a tendency to this most -popular form of composition in Spain at an age even much more remote -than that of the origin of the present Spanish language itself;[165] -that such a tendency may, perhaps, be traced back to those indigenous -bards of whom only a doubtful tradition remained in the time of -Strabo;[166] and that it may be seen to emerge again in the Leonine -and other rhymed Latin verses of the Gothic period,[167] or in that -more ancient and obscure Basque poetry, of which the little that has -been preserved to us is thought to breathe a spirit countenancing such -conjectures.[168] But these and similar suggestions have so slight a -foundation in recorded facts, that they can be little relied on. The -one more frequently advanced is, that the Spanish ballads, such as we -now have them, are imitations from the narrative and lyrical poetry -of the Arabs, with which the whole southern part of Spain for ages -resounded; and that, in fact, the very form in which Spanish ballads -still appear is Arabic, and is to be traced to the Arabs in the East, -at a period not only anterior to the invasion of Spain, but anterior to -the age of the Prophet. This is the theory of Conde.[169] - - [165] The Edinburgh Review, No. 146, on Lockhart’s Ballads, - contains the ablest statement of this theory. - - [166] The passage in Strabo here referred to, which is in Book - III. p. 139, (ed. Casaubon, fol., 1620,) is to be taken in - connection with the passage (p. 151) in which he says that both - the language and its poetry were wholly lost in his time. - - [167] Argote de Molina (Discurso de la Poesía Castellana, in - Conde Lucanor, ed. 1575, f. 93. a) may be cited to this point, - and one who believed it tenable might also cite the “Crónica - General,” (ed. 1604, Parte II. f. 265,) where, speaking of the - Gothic kingdom, and mourning its fall, the Chronicle says, - “Forgotten are its songs, (_cantares_,)” etc. - - [168] W. von Humboldt, in the Mithridates of Adelung and Vater, - Berlin, 1817, 8vo, Tom. IV. p. 354, and Argote de Molina, ut - sup., f. 93;--but the Basque verses the latter gives cannot be - older than 1322, and were, therefore, quite as likely to be - imitated from the Spanish as to have been themselves the subjects - of Spanish imitation. - - [169] Dominacion de los Árabes, Tom. I., Prólogo, pp. - xviii.-xix., p. 169, and other places. But in a manuscript - preface to a collection which he called “Poesías Orientales - traducidas por Jos. Ant. Conde,” and which he never published, - he expresses himself yet more positively: “In the versification - of our Castilian ballads and _seguidillas_, we have received - from the Arabs _an exact type_ of their verses.” And again he - says, “From the period of the infancy of our poetry, we have - rhymed verses according to _the measures used by the Arabs - before the times of the Koran_.” This is the work, I suppose, to - which Blanco White alludes (Variedades, Tom. II. pp. 45, 46). - The theory of Conde has been often approved. See Retrospective - Review, Tom. IV. p. 31, the Spanish translation of Bouterwek, - Tom. I. p. 164, etc. - -But though, from the air of historical pretension with which it -presents itself, there is something in this theory that bespeaks our -favor, yet there are strong reasons that forbid our assent to it. -For the earliest of the Spanish ballads, concerning which alone the -question can arise, have not at all the characteristics of an imitated -literature. Not a single Arabic original has been found for any one -of them; nor, so far as we know, has a single passage of Arabic -poetry, or a single phrase from any Arabic writer, entered directly -into their composition. On the contrary, their freedom, their energy, -their Christian tone and chivalrous loyalty, announce an originality -and independence of character that prevent us from believing they -could have been in any way materially indebted to the brilliant, but -effeminate, literature of the nation to whose spirit every thing -Spanish had, when they first appeared, been for ages implacably -opposed. It seems, therefore, that they must, of their own nature, be -as original as any poetry of modern times; containing, as they do, -within themselves proofs that they are Spanish by their birth, natives -of the soil, and stained with all its variations. For a long time, too, -subsequent to that of their first appearance, they continued to exhibit -the same elements of nationality; so that, until we approach the -fall of Granada, we find in them neither a Moorish tone, nor Moorish -subjects, nor Moorish adventures; nothing, in short, to justify us in -supposing them to have been more indebted to the culture of the Arabs -than was any other portion of the early Spanish literature. - -Indeed, it does not seem reasonable to seek, in the East or elsewhere, -a foreign origin for the mere _form_ of the Spanish ballads. Their -metrical structure is so simple, that we can readily believe it to -have presented itself as soon as verse of any sort was felt to be a -popular want. They consist merely of those eight-syllable lines which -are composed with great facility in other languages as well as the -Castilian, and which in the old ballads are the more easy, as the -number of feet prescribed for each verse is little regarded.[170] -Sometimes, though rarely, they are broken into stanzas of four lines, -thence called _redondillas_ or roundelays; and some of them have rhymes -in the second and fourth lines of each stanza, or in the first and -fourth, as in the similar stanzas of other modern languages. Their -prominent peculiarity, however, and one which they have succeeded in -impressing upon a very large portion of all the national poetry, is one -which, being found to prevail in no other literature, may be claimed -to have its origin in Spain, and becomes, therefore, an important -circumstance in the history of Spanish poetical culture.[171] - - [170] Argote de Molina (Discurso sobre la Poesía Castellana, - in Conde Lucanor, 1575, f. 92) will have it that the ballad - verse of Spain is quite the same with the eight-syllable verse - in Greek, Latin, Italian, and French; “but,” he adds, “it is - properly native to Spain, in whose language it is found earlier - than in any other modern tongue, and in Spanish alone it has - all the grace, gentleness, and spirit that are more peculiar - to the Spanish genius than to any other.” The only example he - cites in proof of this position is the Odes of Ronsard,--“the - most excellent Ronsard,” as he calls him,--then at the height - of his euphuistical reputation in France; but Ronsard’s odes - are miserably unlike the freedom and spirit of the Spanish - ballads. (See Odes de Ronsard, Paris, 1573, 18mo, Tom. II. pp. - 62, 139.) The nearest approach that I recollect to the mere - _measure_ of the ancient Spanish ballad, where there was no - thought of imitating it, is in a few of the old French Fabliaux, - in Chaucer’s “House of Fame,” and in some passages of Sir Walter - Scott’s poetry. Jacob Grimm, in his “Silva de Romances Viejos,” - (Vienna, 1815, 18mo,) taken chiefly from the collection of - 1555, has printed the ballads he gives us as if their lines - were originally of fourteen or sixteen syllables; so that one - of his lines embraces two of those in the old Romanceros. His - reason was, that their epic nature and character required such - long verses, which are in fact substantially the same with - those in the old “Poem of the Cid.” But his theory, which was - not generally adopted, is sufficiently answered by V. A. Huber, - in his excellent tract, “De Primitivâ Cantilenarum Popularium - Epicarum (vulgo, _Romances_) apud Hispanos Formâ,” (Berolini, - 1844, 4to,) and in his preface to his edition of the “Chrónica - del Cid,” 1844. - - [171] The only suggestion I have noticed affecting this statement - is to be found in the Repertorio Americano, (Lóndres, 1827, Tom. - II. pp. 21, etc.,) where the writer, who, I believe, is Don - Andres Bello, endeavours to trace the _asonante_ to the “Vita - Mathildis,” a Latin poem of the twelfth century, reprinted by - Muratori, (Rerum Italicarum Scriptores, Mediolani, 1725, fol., - Tom. V. pp. 335, etc.,) and to a manuscript Anglo-Norman poem, - of the same century, on the fabulous journey of Charlemagne - to Jerusalem. But the Latin poem is, I believe, singular in - this attempt, and was, no doubt, wholly unknown in Spain; - and the Anglo-Norman poem, which has since been published by - Michel, (London, 1836, 12mo,) with curious notes, turns out - to be _rhymed_, though not carefully or regularly. Raynouard, - in the Journal des Savants, (February, 1833, p. 70,) made the - same mistake with the writer in the Repertorio; probably in - consequence of following him. The imperfect rhyme of the ancient - Gaelic seems to have been different from the Spanish _asonante_, - and, at any rate, can have had nothing to do with it. Logan’s - Scottish Gael, London, 1831, 8vo, Vol. II. p. 241. - -The peculiarity to which we refer is that of the _asonante_,--an -imperfect rhyme confined to the vowels, and beginning with the last -accented one in the line; so that it embraces sometimes only the very -last syllable, and sometimes goes back to the penultimate or even the -antepenultimate. It is contradistinguished from the _consonante_, or -full rhyme, which is made both by the consonants and vowels in the -concluding syllable or syllables of the line, and which is, therefore, -just what _rhyme_ is in English.[172] Thus, _feróz_ and _furór_, _cása_ -and _abárca_, _infámia_ and _contrária_, are good _asonantes_ in the -first and third ballads of the Cid, just as _mál_ and _desleál_, -_voláre_ and _caçáre_, are good _consonantes_ in the old ballad of the -Marquis of Mantua, cited by Don Quixote. The _asonante_, therefore, is -something between our blank verse and our rhyme, and the art of using -it is easily acquired in a language like the Castilian, abounding in -vowels, and always giving to the same vowel the same value.[173] In the -old ballads, it generally recurs with every other line; and, from the -facility with which it can be found, the same _asonante_ is frequently -continued through the whole of the poem in which it occurs, whether -the poem be longer or shorter. But even with this embarrassment, -the structure of the ballad is so simple, that, while Sarmiento has -undertaken to show how Spanish prose from the twelfth century downwards -is often written unconsciously in eight-syllable _asonantes_,[174] -Sepúlveda in the sixteenth century actually converted large portions -of the old chronicles into the same ballad measure, with little change -of their original phraseology;[175] two circumstances which, taken -together, show indisputably that there can be no wide interval between -the common structure of Spanish prose and this earliest form of Spanish -verse. If to all this we add the national recitatives in which the -ballads have been sung down to our own days, and the national dances by -which they have been accompanied,[176] we shall probably be persuaded, -not only that the form of the Spanish ballad is as purely national in -its origin as the _asonante_, which is its prominent characteristic, -but that this form is more happily fitted to its especial purposes, and -more easy in its practical application to them, than any other into -which popular poetry has fallen in ancient or modern times.[177] - - [172] Cervantes, in his “Amante Liberal,” calls them - _consonancias_ or _consonantes dificultosas_. No doubt, their - greater difficulty caused them to be less used than the - _asonantes_. Juan de la Enzina, in his little treatise on - Castilian Verse, Cap. 7, written before 1500, explains these two - forms of rhyme, and says that the old romances “no van verdaderos - consonantes.” Curious remarks on the _asonantes_ are to be found - in Renjifo, “Arte Poetica Española,” (Salamanca, 1592, 4to, Cap. - 34,) and the additions to it in the edition of 1727 (4to, p. - 418); to which may well be joined the philosophical suggestions - of Martinez de la Rosa, Obras, Paris, 1827, 12mo, Tom. I. pp. - 202-204. - - [173] A great poetic license was introduced before long into the - use of the _asonante_, as there had been, in antiquity, into - the use of the Greek and Latin measures, until the sphere of - the _asonante_ became, as Clemencin well says, extremely wide. - Thus, _u_ and _o_ were held to be _asonante_, as in Ven_u_s and - Min_o_s; _i_ and _e_, as in Par_i_s and mal_e_s; a diphthong with - a vowel, as gr_a_c_ia_ and _a_lm_a_, c_ui_t_a_s and b_u_rl_a_s; - and other similar varieties, which, in the times of Lope de Vega - and Góngora, made the permitted combinations all but indefinite, - and the composition of _asonante_ verses indefinitely easy. Don - Quixote, ed. Clemencin, Tom. III. pp. 271, 272, note. - - [174] Poesía Española, Madrid, 1775, 4to, sec. 422-430. - - [175] It would be easy to give many specimens of ballads made - from the old chronicles, but for the present purpose I will take - only a few lines from the “Crónica General,” (Parte III. f. - 77. a, ed. 1604,) where Velasquez, persuading his nephews, the - Infantes de Lara, to go against the Moors, despite of certain - ill auguries, says, “_Sobrinos estos agueros_ que oystes mucho - son buenos; _ca nos dan a entender que ganaremos muy gran_ algo - de lo ageno, e _de lo nuestro non perderemos_; e _fizol muy mal - Don Nuño_ Salido _en non venir combusco_, e _mande Dios que - se arrepienta_,” etc. Now, in Sepúlveda, (Romances, Anvers, - 1551, 18mo, f. 11), in the ballad beginning “Llegados son los - Infantes,” we have these lines:-- - - _Sobrinos esos agueros_ - Para nos gran bien serian, - Porque _nos dan a entender_ - Que bien nos sucediera. - _Ganaremos grande_ victoria, - _Nada no se perdiera_, - _Don Nuño lo hizo mal - Que convusco non venia_, - _Mande Dios que se arrepienta_, etc. - - [176] Duran, Romances Caballerescos, Madrid, 1832, 12mo, Prólogo, - Tom. I. pp. xvi., xvii., with xxxv., note (14). - - [177] The peculiarities of a metrical form so entirely national - can, I suppose, be well understood only by an example; and I - will, therefore, give here, in the original Spanish, a few lines - from a spirited and well-known ballad of Góngora, which I select, - because they have been translated into _English asonantes_, by - a writer in the Retrospective Review, whose excellent version - follows, and may serve still further to explain and illustrate - the measure:-- - - Aquel rayo de la guerra, - Alferez mayor del r_é_yn_o_, - Tan galan como valiente, - Y tan noble como fi_é_r_o_, - De los mozos embidiado, - Y admirado de los vi_é_j_o_s, - Y de los niños y el vulgo - Señalado con el d_é_d_o_, - El querido de las damas, - Por cortesano y discr_é_t_o_, - Hijo hasta alli regalado - De la fortuna y el ti_e_mp_o_, etc. - - Obras, Madrid, 1654, 4to, f. 83. - - This rhyme is perfectly perceptible to any ear well accustomed - to Spanish poetry, and it must be admitted, I think, that, - when, as in the ballad cited, it embraces two of the concluding - vowels of the line, and is continued through the whole poem, the - effect, even upon a foreigner, is that of a graceful ornament, - which satisfies without fatiguing. In English, however, where - our vowels have such various powers, and where the consonants - preponderate, the case is quite different. This is plain in the - following translation of the preceding lines, made with spirit - and truth, but failing to produce the effect of the Spanish. - Indeed, the rhyme can hardly be said to be perceptible except to - the eye, though the measure and its cadences are nicely managed. - - “He the thunderbolt of battle, - He the first Alferez t_i_tl_e_d, - Who as courteous is as valiant, - And the noblest as the f_i_erc_e_st; - He who by our youth is envied, - Honored by our gravest anc_ie_nts, - By our youth in crowds distinguished - By a thousand pointed f_i_ng_e_rs; - He beloved by fairest damsels, - For discretion and pol_i_ten_e_ss, - Cherished son of time and fortune, - Bearing all their gifts div_i_n_e_st,” etc. - - Retrospective Review, Vol. IV. p. 35. - - Another specimen of English _asonantes_ is to be found in - Bowring’s “Ancient Poetry of Spain” (London, 1824, 12mo, p. 107); - but the result is substantially the same, and always must be, - from the difference between the two languages. - -A metrical form so natural and obvious became a favorite at once, and -continued so. From the ballads it soon passed into other departments -of the national poetry, especially the lyrical. At a later period, -the great mass of the true Spanish drama came to rest upon it; and -before the end of the seventeenth century more verses had probably been -written in it than in all the other measures used by Spanish poets. -Lope de Vega declared it to be fitted for all styles of composition, -even the gravest; and his judgment was sanctioned in his own time, and -has been justified in ours, by the application of this peculiar form -of verse to long epic stories.[178] The eight-syllable _asonante_, -therefore, may be considered as now known and used in every department -of Spanish poetry; and since it has, from the first, been a chief -element in that poetry, we may well believe it will continue such as -long as what is most original in the national genius continues to be -cultivated. - - [178] Speaking of the ballad verses, he says, (Prólogo á las - Rimas Humanas, Obras Sueltas, Tom. IV., Madrid, 1776, 4to, - p. 176,) “I regard them as capable, not only of expressing - and setting forth any idea whatever with easy sweetness, but - carrying through _any_ grave action in a versified poem.” His - prediction was fulfilled in his own time by the “Fernando” of - Vera y Figueroa, a long epic published in 1632, and in ours by - the very attractive narrative poem of Don Ángel de Saavedra, Duke - de Rivas, entitled “El Moro Exposito,” in two volumes, 1834. The - example of Lope de Vega, in the latter part of the sixteenth and - beginning of the seventeenth centuries, no doubt did much to give - currency to the _asonantes_, which, from that time, have been - more used than they were earlier. - -Some of the ballads embodied in this genuinely Castilian measure are, -no doubt, very ancient. That such ballads existed in the earliest -times, their very name, _Romances_, may intimate; since it seems to -imply that they were, at some period, the only poetry known in the -_Romance_ language of Spain; and such a period can have been no other -than the one immediately following the formation of the language -itself. Popular poetry of some sort--and more probably ballad poetry -than any other--was sung concerning the achievements of the Cid as -early as 1147.[179] A century later than this, but earlier than the -prose of the “Fuero Juzgo,” Saint Ferdinand, after the capture of -Seville in 1248, gave allotments or _repartimientos_ to two poets who -had been with him during the siege, Nicolas _de los Romances_, and -Domingo Abad _de los Romances_, the first of whom continued for some -time afterwards to inhabit the rescued city and exercise his vocation -as a poet.[180] In the next reign, or between 1252 and 1280, such -poets are again mentioned. A _joglaressa_, or female ballad-singer, is -introduced into the poem of “Apollonius,” which is supposed to have -been written soon after the year 1250;[181] and in the Code of Laws of -Alfonso the Tenth, prepared about 1260, good knights are commanded to -listen to no poetical tales of the ballad-singers except such as relate -to feats of arms.[182] In the “General Chronicle,” also, compiled -soon afterwards by the same prince, mention is made more than once of -poetical gestes or tales; of “what the ballad-singers (_juglares_) sing -in their chants, and tell in their tales”; and “of what we hear the -ballad-singers tell in their chants”;--implying that the achievements -of Bernardo del Carpio and Charlemagne, to which these phrases refer, -were as familiar in the popular poetry used in the composition of this -fine old chronicle as we know they have been since to the whole Spanish -people through the very ballads we still possess.[183] - - [179] See the barbarous Latin poem printed by Sandoval, at the - end of his “Historia de los Reyes de Castilla,” etc. (Pamplona, - 1615, fol., f. 193). It is on the taking of Almeria in 1147, and - seems to have been written by an eyewitness. - - [180] The authority for this is sufficient, though the fact - itself of a man being named from the sort of poetry he composed - is a singular one. It is found in Diego Ortiz de Zuñiga, - “Anales Ecclesiasticos y Seglares de Sevilla,” (Sevilla, 1677, - fol., pp. 14, 90, 815, etc.). He took it, he says, from the - _original_ documents of the _repartimientos_, which he describes - minutely as having been used by Argote de Molina, (Preface and - p. 815,) and from documents in the archives of the Cathedral. - The _repartimiento_, or distribution of lands and other spoils - in a city, from which, as Mariana tells us, a hundred thousand - Moors emigrated or were expelled, was a serious matter, and the - documents in relation to it seem to have been ample and exact. - (Zuñiga, Preface, and pp. 31, 62, 66, etc.) The meaning of the - word _Romance_ in this place is a more doubtful matter. But if - _any_ kind of popular poetry is meant by it, what was it likely - to be, at so early a period, but ballad poetry? The verses, - however, which Ortiz de Zuñiga, on the authority of Argote de - Molina, attributes (p. 815) to Domingo Abad de los Romances, are - not his; they are by the Arcipreste de Hita. See Sanchez, Tom. - IV. p. 166. - - [181] Stanzas 426, 427, 483-495, ed. Paris, 1844, 8vo. - - [182] Partida II. Tít. XXI. Leyes 20, 21. “Neither let - the singers (_juglares_) rehearse before them other songs - (_cantares_) than those of military gestes, or those that relate - feats of arms.” The _juglares_--a word that comes from the Latin - _jocularis_--were originally strolling ballad-singers, like the - _jongleurs_, but afterwards sunk to be jesters and _jugglers_. - See Clemencin’s curious note to Don Quixote, Parte II. c. 31. - - [183] Crónica General, Valladolid, 1604, Parte III. ff. 30, 33, - 45. - -It seems, therefore, not easy to escape from the conclusion, to which -Argote de Molina, the most sagacious of the early Spanish critics, -arrived nearly three centuries ago, that “in these old ballads is, in -truth, perpetuated the memory of times past, and that they constitute -a good part of those ancient Castilian stories used by King Alfonso in -his history”;[184] a conclusion at which we should arrive, even now, -merely by reading with care large portions of the Chronicle itself.[185] - - [184] El Conde Lucanor, 1575. Discurso de la Poesía Castellana - por Argote de Molina, f. 93. a. - - [185] The end of the Second Part of the General Chronicle, and - much of the third, relating to the great heroes of the early - Castilian and Leonese history, seem to me to have been indebted - to older poetical materials. - -One more fact will conclude what we know of their early history. It -is, that ballads were found among the poetry of Don John Manuel, the -nephew of Alfonso the Tenth, which Argote de Molina possessed, and -intended to publish, but which is now lost.[186] This brings our slight -knowledge of the whole subject down to the death of Don John in 1347. -But from this period--the same with that of the Archpriest of Hita--we -almost lose sight, not only of the ballads, but of all genuine Spanish -poetry, whose strains seem hardly to have been heard during the horrors -of the reign of Peter the Cruel, the contested succession of Henry of -Trastamara, and the Portuguese wars of John the First. And even when -its echoes come to us again in the weak reign of John the Second, which -stretches down to the middle of the fifteenth century, it presents -itself with few of the attributes of the old national character.[187] -It is become of the court, courtly; and therefore, though the old and -true-hearted ballads may have lost none of the popular favor, and were -certainly preserved by the fidelity of popular tradition, we find no -further distinct record of them until the end of this century and the -beginning of the one that followed, when the mass of the people, whose -feelings they embodied, rose to such a degree of consideration, that -their peculiar poetry came into the place to which it was entitled, and -which it has maintained ever since. This was in the reigns of Ferdinand -and Isabella, and of Charles the Fifth. - - [186] Discurso, Conde Lucanor, ed. 1575, ff. 92. a, 93. b. The - poetry contained in the Cancioneros Generales, from 1511 to 1573, - and bearing the name of Don John Manuel, is, as we have already - explained, the work of Don John Manuel of Portugal, who died in - 1524. - - [187] The Marquis of Santillana, in his well-known letter, - (Sanchez, Tom. I.,) speaks of the _Romances e cantares_, but very - slightly. - -But these few historical notices of ballad poetry are, except those -which point to its early origin, too slight to be of much value. -Indeed, until after the middle of the sixteenth century, it is -difficult to find ballads written by known authors; so that, when we -speak of the Old Spanish Ballads, we do not refer to the few whose -period can be settled with some accuracy, but to the great mass found -in the “Romanceros Generales” and elsewhere, whose authors and dates -are alike unknown. This mass consists of above a thousand old poems, -unequal in length and still more unequal in merit, composed between the -period when verse first appeared in Spain and the time when such verse -as that of the ballads was thought worthy to be written down; the whole -bearing to the mass of the Spanish people, their feelings, passions, -and character, the same relations that a single ballad bears to the -character of the individual author who produced it. - -For a long time, of course, these primitive national ballads existed -only in the memories of the common people, from whom they sprang, and -were preserved through successive ages and long traditions only by the -interests and feelings that originally gave them birth. We cannot, -therefore, reasonably hope that we now read any of them exactly as they -were first composed and sung, or that there are many to which we can -assign a definite age with any good degree of probability. No doubt, -we may still possess some which, with little change in their simple -thoughts and melody, were among the earliest breathings of that popular -enthusiasm which, between the twelfth and the fifteenth centuries, -was carrying the Christian Spaniards onward to the emancipation of -their country; ballads which were heard amidst the valleys of the -Sierra Morena, or on the banks of the Turia and the Guadalquivir, with -the first tones of the language that has since spread itself through -the whole Peninsula. But the idle minstrel, who, in such troubled -times, sought a precarious subsistence from cottage to cottage, or -the thoughtless soldier, who, when the battle was over, sung its -achievements to his guitar at the door of his tent, could not be -expected to look beyond the passing moment; so that, if their unskilled -verses were preserved at all, they must have been preserved by those -who repeated them from memory, changing their tone and language with -the changed feelings of the times and events that chanced to recall -them. Whatever, then, belongs to this earliest period belongs, at the -same time, to the unchronicled popular life and character of which it -was a part; and although many of the ballads thus produced may have -survived to our own day, many more, undoubtedly, lie buried with the -poetical hearts that gave them birth. - -This, indeed, is the great difficulty in relation to all researches -concerning the oldest Spanish ballads. The very excitement of the -national spirit that warmed them into life was the result of an age -of such violence and suffering, that the ballads it produced failed -to command such an interest as would cause them to be written down. -Individual poems, like that of the Cid, or the works of individual -authors, like those of the Archpriest of Hita or Don John Manuel, were, -of course, cared for, and, perhaps, from time to time transcribed. -But the popular poetry was neglected. Even when the special -“Cancioneros”--which were collections of whatever verses the person who -formed them happened to fancy, or was able to find[188]--began to come -in fashion, during the reign of John the Second, the bad taste of the -time caused the old national literature to be so entirely overlooked, -that not a single ballad occurs in either of them. - - [188] _Cancion_, _Canzone_, _Chansos_, in the Romance language, - signified originally any kind of poetry, because all poetry, - or almost all, was then sung. (Giovanni Galvani, Poesia dei - Trovatori, Modena, 1829, 8vo, p. 29.) In this way, _Cancionero_ - in Spanish was long understood to mean simply a collection of - poetry,--sometimes all by one author, sometimes by many. - -The first printed ballads, therefore, are to be sought in the earliest -edition of the “Cancioneros Generales,” compiled by Fernando del -Castillo, and printed at Valencia in 1511. Their number, including -fragments and imitations, is thirty-seven, of which nineteen are -by authors whose names are given, and who, like Don John Manuel of -Portugal, Alonso de Cartagena, Juan de la Enzina, and Diego de San -Pedro, are known to have flourished in the period between 1450 and -1500, or who, like Lope de Sosa, appear so often in the collections of -that age, that they may be fairly assumed to have belonged to it. Of -the remainder, several seem much more ancient, and are, therefore, more -curious and important. - -The first, for instance, called “Count Claros,” is the fragment of -an old ballad afterwards printed in full. It is inserted in this -Cancionero on account of an elaborate gloss made on it in the Provençal -manner by Francisco de Leon, as well as on account of an imitation of -it by Lope de Sosa, and a gloss upon the imitation by Soria; all of -which follow, and leave little doubt that the ballad itself had long -been known and admired. The fragment, which alone is curious, consists -of a dialogue between the Count Claros and his uncle, the Archbishop, -on a subject and in a tone which made the name of the Count, as a true -lover, pass almost into a proverb. - - “It grieves me, Count, it grieves my heart, - That thus they urge thy fate; - Since this fond guilt upon thy part - Was still no crime of state. - For all the errors love can bring - Deserve not mortal pain; - And I have knelt before the king, - To free thee from thy chain. - But he, the king, with angry pride - Would hear no word I spoke; - ‘The sentence is pronounced,’ he cried; - ‘Who may its power revoke?’ - The Infanta’s love you won, he says, - When you her guardian were. - O cousin, less, if you were wise, - For ladies you would care. - For he that labors most for them - Your fate will always prove; - Since death or ruin none escape, - Who trust their dangerous love.” - “O uncle, uncle, words like these - A true heart never hears; - For I would rather die to please - Than live and not be theirs.”[189] - - [189] The whole ballad, with a different reading of the passage - here translated, is in the Cancionero de Romances, Saragossa, - 1550, 12mo, Parte II. f. 188, beginning “Media noche era por - hilo.” Often, however, as the adventures of the Count Claros are - alluded to in the old Spanish poetry, there is no trace of them - in the old chronicles. The fragment in the text begins thus, in - the Cancionero General (1535, f. 106. a):-- - - Pesame de vos, el Conde, - Porque assi os quieren matar; - Porque el yerro que hezistes - No fue mucho de culpar; - Que los yerros por amores - Dignos son de perdonar. - Suplique por vos al Rey, - Cos mandasse de librar; - Mas el Rey, con gran enojo, - No me quisiera escuchar, etc. - - The beginning of this ballad in the complete copy from the - Saragossa Romancero shows that it was composed before clocks were - known. - -The next is also a fragment, and relates, with great simplicity, an -incident which belongs to the state of society that existed in Spain -between the thirteenth and sixteenth centuries, when the two races were -much mingled together and always in conflict. - - I was the Moorish maid, Morayma, - I was that maiden dark and fair,-- - A Christian came, he seemed in sorrow, - Full of falsehood came he there. - Moorish he spoke,--he spoke it well,-- - “Open the door, thou Moorish maid, - So shalt thou be by Allah blessed, - So shall I save my forfeit head.” - “But how can I, alone and weak, - Unbar, and know not who is there?” - “But I’m the Moor, the Moor Mazote, - The brother of thy mother dear. - A Christian fell beneath my hand, - The Alcalde comes, he comes apace, - And if thou open not thy door, - I perish here before thy face.” - I rose in haste, I rose in fear, - I seized my cloak, I missed my vest, - And, rushing to the fatal door, - I threw it wide at his behest.[190] - - [190] The forced alliteration of the first lines, and the - phraseology of the whole, indicate the rudeness of the very early - Castilian:-- - - Yo mera mora Morayma, - Morilla d’un bel catar; - Christiano vino a mi puerta, - Cuytada, por me enganar. - Hablome en algaravia, - Como aquel que la bien sabe: - “Abras me las puertas, Mora, - Si Ala te guarde de mal!” - “Como te abrire, mezquina, - Que no se quien tu seras?” - “Yo soy el Moro Maçote, - Hermano de la tu madre, - Que un Christiano dejo muerto; - Tras mi venia el alcalde. - Sino me abres tu, mi vida, - Aqui me veras matar.” - Quando esto oy, cuytada, - Comenceme a levantar; - Vistierame vn almexia, - No hallando mi brial; - Fuerame para la puerta, - Y abrila de par en par. - - Cancionero General, 1535, f. 111. a. - -The next is complete, and, from its early imitations and glosses, it -must probably be quite ancient. It begins “Fonte frida, Fonte frida,” -and is, perhaps, itself an imitation of “Rosa fresca, Rosa fresca,” -another of the early and very graceful lyrical ballads which were -always so popular. - - Cooling fountain, cooling fountain, - Cooling fountain, full of love! - Where the little birds all gather, - Thy refreshing power to prove; - All except the widowed turtle - Full of grief, the turtle-dove. - There the traitor nightingale - All by chance once passed along, - Uttering words of basest falsehood - In his guilty, treacherous song: - “If it please thee, gentle lady, - I thy servant-love would be.” - “Hence, begone, ungracious traitor, - Base deceiver, hence from me! - I nor rest upon green branches, - Nor amidst the meadow’s flowers; - The very wave my thirst that quenches - Seek I where it turbid pours. - No wedded love my soul shall know, - Lest children’s hearts my heart should win; - No pleasure would I seek for, no! - No consolation feel within;-- - So leave me sad, thou enemy! - Thou foul and base deceiver, go! - For I thy love will never be, - Nor ever, false one, wed thee, no!” - -The parallel ballad of “Rosa fresca, Rosa fresca,” is no less simple -and characteristic; Rosa being the name of the lady-love. - - “Rose, fresh and fair, Rose, fresh and fair, - That with love so bright dost glow, - When within my arms I held thee, - I could never serve thee, no! - And now that I would gladly serve thee, - I no more can see thee, no!” - - “The fault, my friend, the fault was thine,-- - Thy fault alone, and not mine, no! - A message came,--the words you sent,-- - Your servant brought it, well you know. - And naught of love, or loving bands, - But other words, indeed, he said: - That you, my friend, in Leon’s lands - A noble dame had long since wed;-- - A lady fair, as fair could be; - Her children bright as flowers to see.” - - “Who told that tale, who spoke those words, - No truth he spoke, my lady, no! - For Castile’s lands I never saw, - Of Leon’s mountains nothing know, - Save as a little child, I ween, - Too young to know what love should mean.”[191] - - [191] These two ballads are in the Cancionero of 1535, ff. 107 - and 108; both evidently very old. The use of _carta_ in the - last for an unwritten message is one proof of this. I give the - originals of both for their beauty. And first:-- - - Fonte frida, fonte frida, - Fonte frida, y con amor, - Do todas las avezicas - Van tomar consolacion, - Sino es la tortolica, - Que esta biuda y con dolor. - Por ay fue a passar - El traydor del ruyseñor; - Las palabras que el dezia - Llenas son de traicion: - “Si tu quisiesses, Señora, - Yo seria tu seruidor.” - “Vete de ay, enemigo, - Malo, falso, engañador, - Que ni poso en ramo verde - Ni en prado que tenga flor; - Que si hallo el agua clara, - Turbia la bebia yo: - Que no quiero aver marido, - Porque hijos no haya, no; - No quiero plazer con ellos, - Ni menos consolacion. - Dejame, triste enemigo, - Malo, falso, mal traidor, - Que no quiero ser tu amiga, - Ni casar contigo, no.” - - The other is as follows:-- - - “Rosa fresca, Rosa fresca, - Tan garrida y con amor; - Quando yos tuve en mis brazos, - No vos supe servir, no! - Y agora quos serviria, - No vos puedo aver, no!” - “Vuestra fue la culpa, amigo, - Vuestra fue, que mia, no! - Embiastes me una carta, - Con un vuestro servidor, - Y en lugar de recaudar, - El dixera otra razon: - Querades casado, amigo, - Alla en tierras de Leon; - Que teneis muger hermosa, - Y hijos como una flor.” - “Quien os lo dixo, Señora, - No vos dixo verdad, no! - Que yo nunca entre en Castilla, - Ni alla en tierras de Leon, - Si no quando era pequeño, - Que no sabia de amor.” - -Several of the other anonymous ballads in this little collection are -not less curious and ancient, among which may be noted those beginning, -“Decidme vos pensamiento,”--“Que por Mayo era por Mayo,”--and -“Durandarte, Durandarte,”--together with parts of those beginning, -“Triste estaba el caballero,” and “Amara yo una Señora.”[192] Most of -the rest, and all whose authors are known, are of less value and belong -to a later period. - - [192] These ballads are in the edition of 1535, on ff. 109, 111, - and 113. - -The Cancionero of Castillo, where they appeared, was enlarged and -altered in eight subsequent editions, the last of which was published -in 1573; but in all of them this little collection of ballads, as -originally printed in the first edition, remained by itself, unchanged, -though in the additions of newer poetry a modern ballad is occasionally -inserted.[193] It may, therefore, be doubted whether the General -Cancioneros did much to attract attention to the ballad poetry of the -country, especially when we bear in mind that they are almost entirely -filled with the works of the conceited school of the period that -produced them, and were probably little known except among the courtly -classes, who placed small value on what was old and national in their -poetical literature.[194] - - [193] One of the most spirited of these later ballads in the - edition of 1573, begins thus (f. 373):-- - - Ay, Dios de mi tierra, - Saqueis me de aqui! - Ay, que Ynglaterra - Ya no es para mi. - - God of my native land, - O, once more set me free! - For here, on England’s soil, - There is no place for me. - - It was probably written by some homesick follower of Philip II. - - [194] Salvá (Catalogue, London, 1826, 8vo, No. 60) reckons nine - Cancioneros Generales, the principal of which will be noticed - hereafter. - -But while the Cancioneros were still in course of publication, a -separate effort was made in the right direction to preserve the old -ballads, and proved successful. In 1550, Stevan G. de Nagera printed, -at Saragossa, in two successive parts, what he called a “Silva de -Romances,” the errors of which he partly excuses in his Preface, on the -ground that the memories of those from whom he gathered the ballads -he publishes were often imperfect. Here, then, is the oldest of the -proper ballad-books; one obviously taken from the traditions of the -country. It is, therefore, the most curious and important of them all. -A considerable number of the short poems it contains must, however, be -regarded only as fragments of popular ballads already lost; while, on -the contrary, that on the Count Claros is the complete one, of which -the Cancionero, published forty years earlier, had given only such -small portions as its editor had been able to pick up; both striking -facts, which show, in opposite ways, that the ballads here collected -were obtained, as the Preface says they were, from the memories of the -people. - -As might be anticipated from such an origin, their character and tone -are very various. Some are connected with the fictions of chivalry, -and the story of Charlemagne; the most remarkable of which are those -on Gayferos and Melisendra, on the Marquis of Mantua and on Count -Irlos.[195] Others, like that of the cross miraculously made for -Alfonso the Chaste, and that on the all of Valencia, belong to the -early history of Spain,[196] and may well have been among those -old Castilian ballads which Argote de Molina says were used in -compiling the “General Chronicle.” And finally, we have that deep, -domestic tragedy of Count Alarcos, which goes back to some period in -the national history or traditions of which we have no other early -record.[197] Few among them, even the shortest and least perfect, are -without interest; as, for instance, the obviously old one in which -Virgil figures as a person punished for seducing the affections of a -king’s daughter.[198] As specimens, however, of the national tone which -prevails in most of the collection, it is better to read such ballads -as that upon the rout of Roderic on the eighth day of the battle that -surrendered Spain to the Moors,[199] or that on Garci Perez de Vargas, -taken, probably, from the “General Chronicle,” and founded on a fact of -so much consequence as to be recorded by Mariana, and so popular as to -be referred to for its notoriety by Cervantes.[200] - - [195] Those on Gayferos begin, “Estabase la Condessa,” “Vamonos, - dixo mi tio,” and “Assentado esta Gayferos.” The two long ones on - the Marquis of Mantua and the Conde d’ Irlos begin, “De Mantua - salió el Marqués,” and “Estabase el Conde d’ Irlos.” - - [196] Compare the story of the angels in disguise, who made the - miraculous cross for Alfonso, A. D. 794, as told in the ballad, - “Reynando el Rey Alfonso,” in the Romancero of 1550, with the - same story as told in the “Crónica General” (1604, Parte III. - f. 29);--and compare the ballad, “Apretada està Valencia,” - (Romancero, 1550,) with the “Crónica del Cid,” 1593, c. 183, p. - 154. - - [197] It begins, “Retrayida està la Infanta,” (Romancero, 1550,) - and is one of the most tender and beautiful ballads in any - language. There are translations of it by Bowring (p. 51) and by - Lockhart (Spanish Ballads, London, 1823, 4to, p. 202). It has - been at least four times brought into a dramatic form;--viz., by - Lope de Vega, in his “Fuerza Lastimosa”; by Guillen de Castro; - by Mira de Mescua; and by José J. Milanes, a poet of Havana, - whose works were printed there in 1846 (3 vols. 8vo);--the three - last giving their dramas simply the name of the ballad,--“Conde - Alarcos.” The best of them all is, I think, that of Mira de - Mescua, which is found in Vol. V. of the “Comedias Escogidas” - (1653, 4to); but that of Milanes contains passages of very - passionate poetry. - - [198] “Mandó el Rey prender Virgilios” (Romancero, 1550). It is - among the very old ballads, and is full of the loyalty of its - time. Virgil, it is well known, was treated, in the Middle Ages, - sometimes as a knight, and sometimes as a wizard. - - [199] Compare the ballads beginning, “Las Huestes de Don - Rodrigo,” and “Despues que el Rey Don Rodrigo,” with the “Crónica - del Rey Don Rodrigo y la Destruycion de España” (Alcalá, 1587, - fol., Capp. 238, 254). There is a stirring translation of the - first by Lockhart, in his “Ancient Spanish Ballads,” (London, - 1823, 4to, p. 5,)--a work of genius beyond any of the sort known - to me in any language. - - [200] Ortiz de Zuñiga (Anales de Sevilla, Appendix, p. 831) gives - this ballad, and says it had been printed two hundred years. If - this be true, it is, no doubt, the oldest _printed_ ballad in the - language. But Ortiz is uncritical in such matters, like nearly - all of his countrymen. The story of Garci Perez de Vargas is in - the “Crónica General,” Parte IV., in the “Crónica de Fernando - III.,” c. 48, etc., and in Mariana, Historia, Lib. XIII. c. 7. - -The genuine ballad-book thus published was so successful, that, in -less than five years, three editions or recensions of it appeared; that -of 1555, commonly called the Cancionero of Antwerp, being the last, -the amplest, and the best known. Other similar collections followed; -particularly, one in nine parts, which, between 1593 and 1597, were -separately published at Valencia, Burgos, Toledo, Alcalá, and Madrid; a -variety of sources, to which we no doubt owe, not only the preservation -of so great a number of old ballads, but much of the richness -and diversity we find in their subjects and tone;--all the great -divisions of the kingdom, except the southwest, having sent in their -long-accumulated wealth to fill this first great treasure-house of the -national popular poetry. Like its humbler predecessor, it had great -success. Large as it was originally, it was still further increased -in four subsequent recensions, that appeared in the course of about -fifteen years; the last being that of 1605-1614, in thirteen parts, -constituting the great repository called the “Romancero General,” from -which, and from the smaller and earlier ballad-books, we still draw -nearly all that is curious and interesting in the old popular poetry of -Spain. The whole number of ballads found in these several volumes is -considerably over a thousand.[201] - - [201] See Appendix (B), on the Romanceros. - -But since the appearance of these collections, above two centuries ago, -little has been done to increase our stock of old Spanish ballads. -Small ballad-books on particular subjects, like those of the Twelve -Peers and of the Cid, were, indeed, early selected from the larger -ones, and have since been frequently called for by the general favor; -but still it should be understood, that, from the middle and latter -part of the seventeenth century, the true popular ballads, drawn -from the hearts and traditions of the common people, were thought -little worthy of regard, and remained until lately floating about -among the humbler classes that gave them birth. There, however, as if -in their native homes, they have always been no less cherished and -cultivated than they were at their first appearance, and there the old -ballad-books themselves were oftenest found, until they were brought -forth anew, to enjoy the favor of all, by Quintana, Depping, and Duran, -who, in this, have but obeyed the feeling of the age in which we live. - -The old collections of the sixteenth century, however, are still -the only safe and sufficient sources in which to seek the true old -ballads. That of 1593-1597 is particularly valuable, as we have already -intimated, from the circumstance, that its materials were gathered -so widely out of different parts of Spain; and if to the multitude -of ballads it contains we add those found in the Cancionero of 1511, -and in the ballad-book of 1550, we shall have the great body of the -anonymous ancient Spanish ballads, more near to that popular tradition -which was the common source of what is best in them than we can find it -anywhere else. - -But, from whatever source we may now draw them, we must give up, at -once, all hope of arranging them in chronological order. They were -originally printed in small volumes, or on separate sheets, as they -chanced, from time to time, to be composed or found,--those that were -taken from the memories of the blind ballad-singers in the streets by -the side of those that were taken from the works of Lope de Vega and -Góngora; and just as they were first collected, so they were afterwards -heaped together in the General Romanceros, without affixing to them -the names of their authors, or attempting to distinguish the ancient -ballads from the recent, or even to group together such as belonged -to the same subject. Indeed, they seem to have been published at all -merely to furnish amusement to the less cultivated classes at home, -or to solace the armies that were fighting the battles of Charles the -Fifth and Philip the Second, in Italy, Germany, and Flanders; so that -an orderly arrangement of any kind was a matter of small consequence. -Nothing remains for us, therefore, but to consider them by their -_subjects_; and for this purpose the most convenient distribution will -be, first, into such as relate to fictions of chivalry, and especially -to Charlemagne and his peers; next, such as regard Spanish history -and traditions, with a few relating to classical antiquity; then such -as are founded on Moorish adventures; and lastly, such as belong to -the private life and manners of the Spaniards themselves. What do not -fall naturally under one of these divisions are not, probably, ancient -ballads; or, if they are such, are not of consequence enough to be -separately noticed. - - - - -CHAPTER VII. - -BALLADS ON SUBJECTS CONNECTED WITH CHIVALRY.--BALLADS FROM SPANISH -HISTORY.--BERNARDO DEL CARPIO.--FERNAN GONZALEZ.--THE LORDS OF -LARA.--THE CID.--BALLADS FROM ANCIENT HISTORY AND FABLE, SACRED AND -PROFANE.--BALLADS ON MOORISH SUBJECTS.--MISCELLANEOUS BALLADS, AMATORY, -BURLESQUE, SATIRICAL, ETC.--CHARACTER OF THE OLD SPANISH BALLADS. - - -_Ballads of Chivalry._--The first thing that strikes us, on opening any -one of the old Spanish ballad-books, is the national air and spirit -that prevail throughout them. But we look in vain for many of the -fictions found in the popular poetry of other countries at the same -period, some of which we might well expect to find here. Even that -chivalry, which was so akin to the character and condition of Spain -when the ballads appeared, fails to sweep by us with the train of its -accustomed personages. Of Arthur and his Round Table the old ballads -tell us nothing at all, nor of the “Mervaile of the Graal,” nor of -Perceval, nor of the Palmerins, nor of many other well-known and famous -heroes of the shadow land of chivalry. Later, indeed, some of these -personages figure largely in the Spanish prose romances. But, for a -long time, the history of Spain itself furnished materials enough for -its more popular poetry; and therefore, though Amadis, Lancelot du Lac, -Tristan de Leonnais, and their compeers, present themselves now and -then in the ballads, it is not till after the prose romances, filled -with their adventures, had made them familiar. Even then, they are -somewhat awkwardly introduced, and never occupy any well-defined place; -for the stories of the Cid and Bernardo del Carpio were much nearer to -the hearts of the Spanish people, and had left little space for such -comparatively cold and unsubstantial fancies. - -The only considerable exception to this remark is to be found in -the stories connected with Charlemagne and his peers. That great -sovereign--who, in the darkest period of Europe since the days of -the Roman republic, roused up the nations, not only by the glory -of his military conquests, but by the magnificence of his civil -institutions--crossed the Pyrenees in the latter part of the eighth -century, at the solicitation of one of his Moorish allies, and -ravaged the Spanish marches as far as the Ebro, taking Pamplona and -Saragossa.[202] The impression he made there seems to have been the -same he made everywhere; and from this time the splendor of his great -name and deeds was connected in the minds of the Spanish people -with wild imaginations of their own achievements, and gave birth to -that series of fictions which is embraced in the story of Bernardo -del Carpio, and ends with the great rout, when, according to the -persuasions of the national vanity, - - “Charlemain with all his peerage fell - By Fontarabbia.” - - [202] Sismondi, Hist. des Français, Paris, 1821, 8vo, Tom. II. - pp. 257-260. - -These picturesque adventures, chiefly without countenance from history, -in which the French paladins appear associated with fabulous Spanish -heroes, such as Montesinos and Durandarte,[203] and once with the noble -Moor Calaynos, are represented with some minuteness in the old Spanish -ballads. The largest number, including the longest and the best, are -to be found in the ballad-book of 1550-1555, to which may be added a -few from that of 1593-1597, making together somewhat more than fifty, -of which only twenty occur in the collection expressly devoted to the -Twelve Peers, and first published in 1608. Some of them are evidently -very old; as, for instance, that on the Conde d’ Irlos, that on the -Marquis of Mantua, two on Claros of Montalban, and both the fragments -on Durandarte, the last of which can be traced back to the Cancionero -of 1511.[204] - - [203] Montesinos and Durandarte figure so largely in Don - Quixote’s visit to the cave of Montesinos, that all relating to - them is to be found in the notes of Pellicer and Clemencin to - Parte II. cap. 23, of the history of the mad knight. - - [204] These ballads begin, “Estabase el Conde d’ Irlos,” which is - the longest I know of; “Assentado esta Gayferos,” which is one - of the best, and cited more than once by Cervantes; “Media noche - era por hilo,” where the counting of time by the dripping of - water is a proof of antiquity in the ballad itself; “A caça va el - Emperador,” also cited repeatedly by Cervantes; and “O Belerma, - O Belerma,” translated by M. G. Lewis; to which may be added, - “Durandarte, Durandarte,” found in the Antwerp Romancero, and in - the old Cancioneros Generales. - -The ballads of this class are occasionally quite long, and approach -the character of the old French and English metrical romances; that -of the Conde d’ Irlos extending to about thirteen hundred lines. The -longer ballads, too, are generally the best; and those, through large -portions of which the same _asonante_, and sometimes, even, the same -_consonante_ or full rhyme, is continued to the end, have a solemn -harmony in their protracted cadences, that produces an effect on the -feelings like the chanting of a rich and well-sustained recitative. - -Taken as a body, they have a grave tone, combined with the spirit of -a picturesque narrative, and entirely different from the extravagant -and romantic air afterwards given to the same class of fictions in -Italy, and even from that of the few Spanish ballads which, at a later -period, were constructed out of the imaginative and fantastic materials -found in the poems of Bojardo and Ariosto. But in all ages and in all -forms, they have been favorites with the Spanish people. They were -alluded to as such above five hundred years ago, in the oldest of -the national chronicles; and when, at the end of the last century, -Sarmiento notices the ballad-book of the Twelve Peers, he speaks of -it as one which the peasantry and the children of Spain still knew by -heart.[205] - - [205] Memorias para la Poesía Española, Sect. 528. - - * * * * * - -_Historical Ballads._--The most important and the largest division of the -Spanish ballads is, however, the historical. Nor is this surprising. -The early heroes in Spanish history grew so directly out of the -popular character, and the early achievements of the national arms -so nearly touched the personal condition of every Christian in the -Peninsula, that they naturally became the first and chief subjects of -a poetry which has always, to a remarkable degree, been the breathing -of the popular feelings and passions. It would be easy, therefore, to -collect a series of ballads,--few in number as far as respects the -Gothic and Roman periods, but ample from the time of Roderic and the -Moorish conquest of Spain down to the moment when its restoration was -gloriously fulfilled in the fall of Granada,--a series which would -constitute such a poetical illustration of Spanish history as can be -brought in aid of the history of no other country. But, for our present -purpose, it is enough to select a few sketches from these remarkable -ballads devoted to the greater heroes,--personages half-shadowy, -half-historical,--who, between the end of the eighth and the beginning -of the twelfth century, occupy a wide space in all the old traditions, -and serve alike to illustrate the early popular character in Spain, -and the poetry to which that character gave birth. - -The first of these, in the order of time, is Bernardo del Carpio, -concerning whom we have about forty ballads, which, with the accounts -in the Chronicle of Alfonso the Wise, have constituted the foundations -for many a drama and tale, and at least three long heroic poems. -According to these early narratives, Bernardo flourished about the year -800, and was the offspring of a secret marriage between the Count de -Saldaña and the sister of Alfonso the Chaste, at which the king was -so much offended, that he kept the Count in perpetual imprisonment, -and sent the Infanta to a convent; educating Bernardo as his own son, -and keeping him ignorant of his birth. The achievements of Bernardo, -ending with the victory of Roncesvalles,--his efforts to procure -the release of his father, when he learns who his father is,--the -falsehood of the king, who promises repeatedly to give up the Count de -Saldaña and as often breaks his word,--with the despair of Bernardo, -and his final rebellion, after the Count’s death in prison,--are all -as fully represented in the ballads as they are in the chronicles, -and constitute some of the most romantic and interesting portions of -each.[206] - - [206] The story of Bernardo is in the “Crónica General,” Parte - III., beginning at f. 30, in the edition of 1604. But it must be - almost entirely fabulous. - -Of the ballads which contain this story, and which generally suppose -the whole of it to have passed in one reign, though the Chronicle -spreads it over three, none, perhaps, is finer than the one in which -the Count de Saldaña, in his solitary prison, complains of his son, -who, he supposes, must know his descent, and of his wife, the Infanta, -who, he presumes, must be in league with her royal brother. After a -description of the castle in which he is confined, the Count says:-- - - The tale of my imprisoned life - Within these loathsome walls, - Each moment, as it lingers by, - My hoary hair recalls; - For when this castle first I saw, - My beard was scarcely grown, - And now, to purge my youthful sins, - Its folds hang whitening down. - Then where art thou, my careless son? - And why so dull and cold? - Doth not my blood within thee run? - Speaks it not loud and bold? - Alas! it may be so, but still - Thy mother’s blood is thine; - And what is kindred to the king - Will plead no cause of mine: - And thus all three against me stand;-- - For the whole man to quell, - ’T is not enough to have our foes, - Our heart’s blood must rebel. - Meanwhile, the guards that watch me here - Of thy proud conquests boast; - But if for me thou lead’st it not, - For whom, then, fights thy host? - And since thou leav’st me prisoned here, - In cruel chains to groan, - Or I must be a guilty sire, - Or thou a guilty son! - Yet pardon me, if I offend - By uttering words so free; - For while oppressed with age I moan, - No words come back from thee.[207] - - [207] - Los tiempos de mi prision - Tan aborrecida y larga, - Por momentos me lo dizen - Aquestas mis tristes canas. - Quando entre en este castillo, - Apenas entre con barbas, - Y agora por mis pecados - Las veo crecidas y blancas. - Que descuydo es este, hijo? - Como a vozes no te llama - La sangre que tienes mia, - A socorrer donde falta? - Sin duda que te detiene - La que de tu madre alcanças, - Que por ser de la del Rey - Juzgaras qual el mi causa. - Todos tres sois mis contrarios; - Que a un desdichado no basta - Que sus contrarios lo sean, - Sino sus propias entrañas. - Todos los que aqui me tienen - Me cuentan de tus hazañas: - Si para tu padre no, - Dime para quien las guardas? - Aqui estoy en estros hierros, - Y pues dellos no me sacas, - Mal padre deuo de ser, - O mal hijo pues me faltas. - Perdoname, si te ofendo, - Que descanso en las palabras, - Que yo como viejo lloro, - Y tu como ausente callas. - - Romancero General, 1602, f. 46. - - But it was printed as early as 1593. - -The old Spanish ballads have often a resemblance to each other in their -tone and phraseology; and occasionally several seem imitated from some -common original. Thus, in another, on this same subject of the Count -de Saldaña’s imprisonment, we find the length of time he had suffered, -and the idea of his relationship and blood, enforced in the following -words, not of the Count himself, but of Bernardo, when addressing the -king:-- - - The very walls are wearied there, - So long in grief to hold - A man whom first in youth they saw, - And now see gray and old. - And if, for errors such as these, - The forfeit must be blood, - Enough of his has flowed from me, - When for your rights I stood.[208] - - [208] This is evidently among the older ballads. The earliest - printed copy of it that I know is to be found in the “Flor de - Romances,” Novena Parte, (Madrid, 1597, 18mo, f. 45,) and the - passage I have translated is very striking in the original:-- - - Cansadas ya las paredes - De guardar en tanto tiempo - A un hombre, que vieron moço - Y ya le ven cano y viejo. - Si ya sus culpas merecen, - Que sangre sea en su descuento, - Harta suya he derramado, - Y toda en servicio vuestro. - - It is given a little differently by Duran. - -In reading the ballads relating to Bernardo del Carpio, it is -impossible not to be often struck with their resemblance to the -corresponding passages of the “General Chronicle.” Some of them are -undoubtedly copied from it; others possibly may have been, in more -ancient forms, among the poetical materials out of which we know -that Chronicle was in part composed.[209] The best are those which -are least strictly conformed to the history itself; but all, taken -together, form a curious and interesting series, that serves strikingly -to exhibit the manners and feelings of the people in the wild times of -which they speak, as well as in the later periods when many of them -must have been written. - - [209] The ballad beginning “En Corte del casto Alfonso,” in the - ballad-book of 1555, is taken from the “Crónica General,” (Parte - III. ff. 32, 33, ed. 1604,) as the following passage, speaking - of Bernardo’s first knowledge that his father was the Count of - Saldaña, will show:-- - - _Quando_ Bernaldo _lo supo - Pesóle_ a gran demasia, - Tanto que _dentro en el cuerpo - La sangre se le volvia_. - Yendo _para su posada_ - Muy grande llanto hacia, - _Vistióse paños de luto_, - Y delante el Rey se iba. - _El Rey quando_ asi _le vió_, - Desta suerte le decía: - “_Bernaldo_, por aventura - _Cobdicias la muerte mia_?” - - The Chronicle reads thus: “E el [Bernardo] _quandol supo_, que - su padre era preso, _pesol_ mucho de coraçon, e _bolbiosele la - sangre en el cuerpo_, e fuesse _para su posada_, faziendo el - mayor duelo del mundo; e _vistióse paños de duelo_, e fuesse - para el Rey Don Alfonso; e _el Rey, quando lo vido_, dixol: - ‘_Bernaldo, cobdiciades la muerte mia?_’” It is plain enough, - in this case, that the Chronicle is the original of the ballad; - but it is very difficult, if not impossible, from the nature - of the case, to show that any particular ballad was used in - the composition of the Chronicle, because, we have undoubtedly - none of the ballads in the form in which they existed when the - Chronicle was compiled in the middle of the thirteenth century, - and therefore a correspondence of phraseology like that just - cited is not to be expected. Yet it would not be surprising, if - some of these ballads on Bernardo, found in the Sixth Part of - the “Flor de Romances,” (Toledo, 1594, 18mo,) which Pedro Flores - tells us he collected far and wide from tradition, were known - in the time of Alfonso the Wise, and were among the Cantares de - Gesta to which he alludes. I would instance particularly the - three beginning, “Contandole estaba un dia,” “Antesque barbas - tuviesse,” and “Mal mis servicios pagaste.” The language of those - ballads is, no doubt, chiefly that of the age of Charles V. and - Philip II., but the thoughts and feelings are evidently much - older. - -The next series is that on Fernan Gonzalez, a popular chieftain, whom -we have already mentioned, when noticing his metrical chronicle; and -one who, in the middle of the tenth century, recovered Castile anew -from the Moors, and became its first sovereign Count. The number of -ballads relating to him is not large; probably not twenty. The most -poetical are those which describe his being twice rescued from prison -by his courageous wife, and those which relate his contest with King -Sancho, where he displayed all the turbulence and cunning of a robber -baron, in the Middle Ages. Nearly all their facts may be found in the -Third Part of the “General Chronicle”; and though only a few of the -ballads themselves appear to be derived from it as distinctly as some -of those on Bernardo del Carpio, still two or three are evidently -indebted to that Chronicle for their materials and phraseology, while -yet others may possibly, in some ruder shape, have preceded it, and -contributed to its composition.[210] - - [210] Among the ballads taken from the “Crónica General” is, I - think, the one in the ballad-book of 1555, beginning “Preso esta - Fernan Gonzalez,” though the Chronicle says (Parte III. f. 62, - ed. 1604) that it was a Norman count who bribed the castellan, - and the ballad says it was a Lombard. Another, which, like the - two last, is very spirited, is found in the “Flor de Romances,” - Séptima Parte, (Alcalá, 1597, 18mo, f. 65,) beginning “El Conde - Fernan Gonzalez,” and contains an account of one of his victories - over Almanzor not told elsewhere, and therefore the more curious. - -The ballads which naturally form the next group are those on the Seven -Lords of Lara, who lived in the time of Garcia Ferrandez, the son of -Fernan Gonzalez. Some of them are beautiful, and the story they contain -is one of the most romantic in Spanish history. The seven Lords of -Lara, in consequence of a family quarrel, are betrayed by their uncle -into the hands of the Moors, and put to death; while their father, -by the basest treason, is confined in a Moorish prison, where, by a -noble Moorish lady, he has an eighth son, the famous Mudarra, who -at last avenges all the wrongs of his race. On this story there are -about thirty ballads; some very old, and exhibiting either inventions -or traditions not elsewhere recorded, while others seem to have come -directly from the “General Chronicle.” The following is a part of one -of the last, and a good specimen of the whole:--[211] - - [211] The story of the Infantes de Lara is in the “Crónica - General,” Parte III., and in the edition of 1604 begins at f. - 74. I possess, also, a striking volume, containing forty plates, - on their history, by Otto Vaenius, a scholar and artist, who - died in 1634. It is entitled “Historia Septem Infantium de Lara” - (Antverpiae, 1612, fol.); the same, no doubt, an imperfect copy - of which Southey praises in his notes to the “Chronicle of the - Cid” (p. 401). Sepúlveda (1551-84) has a good many ballads on the - subject; the one I have partly translated in the text beginning,-- - - Quien es aquel caballero - Que tan gran traycion hacia? - Ruy Velasquez es de Lara, - Que à sus sobrinos vendia. - - The corresponding passage of the Chronicle is at f. 78, ed. 1604. - - - What knight goes there, so false and fair, - That thus for treason stood? - Velasquez hight is that false knight, - Who sold his brother’s blood. - Where Almenar extends afar, - He called his nephews forth, - And on that plain he bade them gain - A name of fame and worth. - The Moors he shows, the common foes, - And promises their rout; - But while they stood, prepared for blood, - A mighty host came out. - Of Moorish men were thousands ten, - With pennons flowing fair; - Whereat each knight, as well he might, - Inquired what host came there. - “O, do not fear, my kinsmen dear,” - The base Velasquez cried, - “The Moors you see can never be - Of power your shock to bide; - I oft have met their craven set, - And none dared face my might; - So think no fear, my kinsmen dear, - But boldly seek the fight.” - Thus words deceive, and men believe, - And falsehood thrives amain; - And those brave knights, for Christian rights, - Have sped across the plain; - And men ten score, but not one more, - To follow freely chose: - So Velasquez base his kin and race - Has bartered to their foes. - -But, as might be anticipated, the Cid was seized upon with the first -formation of the language as the subject of popular poetry, and has -been the occasion of more ballads than any other of the great heroes of -Spanish history or fable.[212] They were first collected in a separate -ballad-book as early as 1612, and have continued to be published and -republished at home and abroad down to our own times.[213] It would -be easy to find a hundred and sixty; some of them very ancient; some -poetical; many prosaic and poor. The chronicles seem to have been -little resorted to in their composition.[214] The circumstances of -the Cid’s history, whether true or fictitious, were too well settled -in the popular faith, and too familiar to all Christian Spaniards, -to render the use of such materials necessary. No portion of the old -ballads, therefore, is more strongly marked with the spirit of their -age and country; and none constitutes a series so complete. They give -us apparently the whole of the Cid’s history, which we find nowhere -else entire; neither in the ancient poem, which does not pretend to -be a life of him; nor in the prose chronicle, which does not begin so -early in his story; nor in the Latin document, which is too brief and -condensed. At the very outset, we have the following minute and living -picture of the mortification and sufferings of Diego Laynez, the Cid’s -father, in consequence of the blow he had received from Count Lozano, -which his age rendered it impossible for him to avenge:-- - - [212] In the barbarous rhymed Latin poem, printed with great - care by Sandoval, (Reyes de Castilla, Pamplona, 1615, f. 189, - etc.,) and apparently written, as we have noticed, by some one - who witnessed the siege of Almeria in 1147, we have the following - lines:-- - - Ipse Rodericus, _Mio Cid_ semper vocatus, - _De quo cantatur_, quod ab hostibus haud superatus, - Qui domuit Moros, comites quoque domuit nostros, etc. - - These poems must, by the phrase _Mio Cid_, have been in Spanish; - and, if so, could hardly have been any thing but ballads. - - [213] Nic. Antonio (Bib. Nova, Tom. I. p. 684) gives 1612 as - the date of the oldest Romancero del Cid. The oldest I possess - is of Pamplona (1706, 18mo); but the Madrid edition, (1818, - 18mo,) the Frankfort, (1827, 12mo,) and the collection in Duran, - (Caballerescos, Madrid, 1832, 12mo, Tom. II. pp. 43-191,) are - more complete. The most complete of all is that by Keller, - (Stuttgard, 1840, 12mo,) and contains 154 ballads. But a few - could be added even to this one. - - [214] The ballads beginning, “Guarte, guarte, Rey Don Sancho,” - and “De Zamora sale Dolfos,” are indebted to the “Crónica del - Cid,” 1593, c. 61, 62. Others, especially those in Sepúlveda’s - collection, show marks of other parts of the same chronicle, or - of the “Crónica General,” Parte IV. But the whole amount of such - indebtedness in the ballads of the Cid is small. - - - Sorrowing old Laynez sat, - Sorrowing on the deep disgrace - Of his house, so rich and knightly, - Older than Abarca’s race. - For he saw that youthful strength - To avenge his wrong was needed; - That, by years enfeebled, broken, - None his arm now feared or heeded. - But he of Orgaz, Count Lozano, - Walks secure where men resort; - Hindered and rebuked by none, - Proud his name, and proud his port. - While he, the injured, neither sleeps, - Nor tastes the needful food, - Nor from the ground dares lift his eyes, - Nor moves a step abroad, - Nor friends in friendly converse meets, - But hides in shame his face; - His very breath, he thinks, offends, - Charged with insult and disgrace.[215] - - [215] The earliest place in which I have seen this - ballad--evidently very old in its _matériel_--is “Flor de - Romances,” Novena Parte, 1597, f. 133. - - Cuydando Diego Laynez - En la mengua de su casa, - Fidalga, rica y antigua, - Antes de Nuño y Abarca, - Y viendo que le fallecen - Fuerças para la vengança, - Porque por sus luengos años, - Por si no puede tomalla, - Y que el de Orgaz se passea - Seguro y libre en la plaça, - Sinque nadie se lo impida, - Loçano en nombre y en gala. - Non puede dormir de noche, - Nin gustar de las viandas, - Nin alçar del suelo los ojos, - Nin osa salir de su casa, - Nin fablar con sus amigos, - Antes les niega la fabla, - Temiendo no les ofenda - El aliento de su infamia. - - The pun on the name of Count _Lozano_ (Haughty or Proud) is of - course not translated. - -In this state of his father’s feelings, Roderic, a mere stripling, -determines to avenge the insult by challenging Count Lozano, then the -most dangerous knight and the first nobleman in the kingdom. The result -is the death of his proud and injurious enemy; but the daughter of the -fallen Count, the fair Ximena, demands vengeance of the king, and the -whole is adjusted, after the rude fashion of those times, by a marriage -between the parties, which necessarily ends the feud. - -The ballads, thus far, relate only to the early youth of the Cid in -the reign of Ferdinand the Great, and constitute a separate series, -that gave to Guillen de Castro, and after him to Corneille, the -best materials for their respective tragedies on this part of the -Cid’s story. But at the death of Ferdinand, his kingdom was divided, -according to his will, among his four children; and then we have -another series of ballads on the part taken by the Cid in the wars -almost necessarily produced by such a division, and in the siege of -Zamora, which fell to the share of Queen Urraca, and was assailed by -her brother, Sancho the Brave. In one of these ballads, the Cid, sent -by Sancho to summon the city, is thus reproached and taunted by Urraca, -who is represented as standing on one of its towers, and answering him -as he addressed her from below:-- - - Away! away! proud Roderic! - Castilian proud, away! - Bethink thee of that olden time, - That happy, honored day, - When, at Saint James’s holy shrine, - Thy knighthood first was won; - When Ferdinand, my royal sire, - Confessed thee for a son. - He gave thee then thy knightly arms, - My mother gave thy steed; - Thy spurs were buckled by these hands, - That thou no grace might’st need. - And had not chance forbid the vow, - I thought with thee to wed; - But Count Lozano’s daughter fair - Thy happy bride was led. - With her came wealth, an ample store, - But power was mine, and state: - Broad lands are good, and have their grace, - But he that reigns is great. - Thy wife is well; thy match was wise; - Yet, Roderic! at thy side - A vassal’s daughter sits by thee, - And not a royal bride![216] - - [216] This is a very old, as well as a very spirited, ballad. - It occurs first in print in 1555; but “Durandarte, Durandarte,” - found as early as 1511, is an obvious imitation of it, so that it - was probably old and famous at that time. In the oldest copy now - known it reads thus, but was afterwards changed. I omit the last - lines, which seem to be an addition. - - A fuera, a fuera, Rodrigo, - El soberbio Castellano! - Acordarte te debria - De aquel tiempo ya passado, - Quando fuiste caballero - En el altar de Santiago; - Quando el Rey fue tu padrino, - Tu Rodrigo el ahijado. - Mi padre te dio las armas, - Mi madre te dio el caballo, - Yo te calze las espuelas, - Porque fuesses mas honrado, - Que pensé casar contigo. - No lo quiso mi pecado; - Casaste con Ximena Gomez, - Hija del Conde Loçano. - Con ella uviste dineros, - Conmigo uvieras estado. - Bien casaste, Rodrigo, - Muy mejor fueras casado; - Dexaste hija de Rey, - Por tomar la de su vasallo. - - This was one of the most popular of the old ballads. It is often - alluded to by the writers of the best age of Spanish literature; - for example, by Cervantes, in “Persiles y Sigismunda,” (Lib. III. - c. 21,) and was used by Guillen de Castro in his play on the Cid. - -Alfonso the Sixth succeeded on the death of Sancho, who perished -miserably by treason before the walls of Zamora; but the Cid quarrelled -with his new master, and was exiled. At this moment begins the old -poem already mentioned; but even here and afterwards the ballads form -a more continuous account of his life, carrying us, often with great -minuteness of detail, through his conquest of Valencia, his restoration -to the king’s favor, his triumph over the Counts of Carrion, his old -age, death, and burial, and giving us, when taken together, what -Müller the historian and Herder the philosopher consider, in its main -circumstances, a trustworthy history, but what can hardly be more than -a poetical version of traditions current at the different times when -its different portions were composed. - -Indeed, in the earlier part of the period when historical ballads -were written, their subjects seem rather to have been chosen among -the traditional heroes of the country, than among the known and -ascertained events in its annals. Much fiction, of course, was mingled -with whatever related to such personages by the willing credulity of -patriotism, and portions of the ballads about them are incredible to -any modern faith; so that we can hardly fail to agree with the good -sense of the canon in Don Quixote, when he says, “There is no doubt -there was such a man as the Cid and such a man as Bernardo del Carpio, -but much doubt whether they achieved what is imputed to them”;[217] -while, at the same time, we must admit there is no less truth in the -shrewd intimation of Sancho, that, after all, the old ballads are too -old to tell lies. At least, some of them are so. - - [217] “En lo que hubo Cid, no hay duda, ni menos Bernardo del - Carpio; pero de que hicieron las hazañas que dicen, creo que hay - muy grande.” (Parte I. c. 49.) This, indeed, is the good sense - of the matter,--a point in which Cervantes rarely fails,--and it - forms a strong contrast to the extravagant faith of those who, on - the one side, consider the ballads good historical documents, as - Müller and Herder are disposed to do, and the sturdy incredulity - of Masdeu, on the other, who denies that there ever was a Cid. - -At a later period, all sorts of subjects were introduced into the -ballads; ancient subjects as well as modern, sacred as well as profane. -Even the Greek and Roman fables were laid under contribution, as if -they were historically true; but more ballads are connected with -Spanish history than with any other, and, in general, they are better. -The most striking peculiarity of the whole mass is, perhaps, to be -found in the degree in which it expresses the national character. -Loyalty is constantly prominent. The Lord of Buitrago sacrifices his -own life to save that of his sovereign.[218] The Cid sends rich spoils -from his conquests in Valencia to the ungrateful king who had driven -him thither as an exile.[219] Bernardo del Carpio bows in submission to -the uncle who basely and brutally outrages his filial affections;[220] -and when, driven to despair, he rebels, the ballads and the chronicles -absolutely forsake him. In short, this and the other strong traits of -the national character are constantly appearing in the old historical -ballads, and constitute a chief part of the peculiar charm that invests -them. - - [218] See the fine ballad beginning “Si el cavallo vos han - muerto,”--which first appears in the “Flor de Romances,” Octava - Parte (Alcalá, 1597, f. 129). It is boldly translated by Lockhart. - - [219] I refer to the ballad in the “Romancero del Cid” beginning - “Llego Alvar Fañez a Burgos,” with the letter following - it,--“El vasallo desleale.” This trait in the Cid’s character - is noticed by Diego Ximenez Ayllon, in his poem on that hero, - 1579, where, having spoken of his being treated by the king with - harshness,--“Tratado de su Rey con aspereza,”--the poet adds,-- - - Jamas le dio lugar su virtud alta - Que en su lealtad viniese alguna falta. - - Canto I. - - [220] On one of the occasions when Bernardo had been most foully - and falsely treated by the king, he says,-- - - Señor, Rey sois, y haredes - A vuestro querer y guisa. - - A king you are, and you must do, - In your own way, what pleases you. - - And on another similar occasion, another ballad, he says to the - king,-- - - De servir no os dejaré - Mientras que tenga la vida. - - Nor shall I fail to serve your Grace - While life within me keeps its place. - - * * * * * - -_Ballads on Moorish Subjects._--The Moorish ballads form a brilliant -and large class by themselves, but none of them are as old as the -earliest historical ballads. Indeed, their very subjects intimate -their later origin. Few can be found alluding to known events or -personages that occur before the period immediately preceding the -fall of Granada; and even in these few the proofs of a more recent -and Christian character are abundant. The truth appears to be, that, -after the final overthrow of the Moorish power, when the conquerors -for the first time came into full possession of whatever was most -luxurious in the civilization of their enemies, the tempting subjects -their situation suggested were at once seized upon by the spirit of -their popular poetry. The sweet South, with its picturesque, though -effeminate, refinement; the foreign, yet not absolutely stranger, -manners of its people; its magnificent and fantastic architecture; the -stories of the warlike achievements and disasters at Baza, at Ronda, -and at Alhama, with the romantic adventures and fierce feuds of the -Zegris and Abencerrages, the Gomeles and the Aliatares;--all took -strong hold of the Spanish imagination, and made of Granada, its rich -plain and snowcapped mountains, that fairy land which the elder and -sterner ballad poetry of the North had failed to create. From this -time, therefore, we find a new class of subjects, such as the loves of -Gazul and Abindarraez, with games and tournaments in the Bivarrambla, -and tales of Arabian nights in the Generalife; in short, whatever -was matter of Moorish tradition or manners, or might by the popular -imagination be deemed such, was wrought into Spanish ballad poetry, -until the very excess became ridiculous, and the ballads themselves -laughed at one another for deserting their own proper subjects, and -becoming, as it were, renegades to nationality and patriotism.[221] - - [221] In the humorous ballad, “Tanta Zayda y Adalifa,” (first - printed, Flor de Romances, Quinta Parte, Burgos, 1594, 18mo, f. - 158,) we have the following:-- - - Renegaron de su ley - Los Romancistas de España, - Y ofrecieronle a Mahoma - Las primicias de sus galas. - Dexaron los graves hechos - De su vencedora patria, - Y mendigan de la agena - Invenciones y patrañas. - - Like renegades to Christian faith, - These ballad-mongers vain - Have given to Mahound himself - The offerings due to Spain; - And left the record of brave deeds - Done by their sires of old, - To beg abroad, in heathen lands, - For fictions poor and cold. - - Góngora, too, attacked them in an amusing ballad,--“A mis Señores - poetas,”--and they were defended in another, beginning “Porque, - Señores poetas.” - -The period when this style of poetry came into favor was the century -that elapsed after the fall of Granada; the same in which all classes -of the ballads were first written down and printed. The early -collections give full proof of this. Those of 1511 and 1550 contain -several Moorish ballads, and that of 1593 contains above two hundred. -But though their subjects involve known occurrences, they are hardly -ever really historical; as, for instance, the well-known ballad on the -tournament in Toledo, which is supposed to have happened before the -year 1085, while its names belong to the period immediately preceding -the fall of Granada; and the ballad of King Belchite, which, like -many others, has a subject purely imaginary. Indeed, this romantic -character is the prevalent one in the ballads of this class, and gives -them much of their interest; a fact well illustrated by that beginning -“The star of Venus rises now,” which is one of the best and most -consistent in the “Romancero General,” and yet, by its allusions to -Venus and to Rodamonte, and its mistake in supposing a Moor to have -been Alcayde of Seville, a century after Seville had become a Christian -city, shows that there was, in its composition, no serious thought of -any thing but poetical effect.[222] - - [222] “Ocho á ocho, diez á diez,” and “Sale la estrella de - Venus,” two of the ballads here referred to, are in the Romancero - of 1593. Of the last there is a good translation in an excellent - article on Spanish Poetry in the Edinburgh Review, Vol. XXXIX. p. - 419. - -These, with some of the ballads on the famous Gazul, occur in the -popular story of the “Wars of Granada,” where they are treated as if -contemporary with the facts they record, and are beautiful specimens of -the poetry which the Spanish imagination delighted to connect with that -most glorious event in the national history.[223] Others can be found -in a similar tone on the stories, partly or wholly fabulous, of Muça, -Xarifé, Lisaro, and Tarfé; while yet others, in greater number, belong -to the treasons and rivalries, the plots and adventures, of the more -famous Zegris and Abencerrages, which, as far as they are founded in -fact, show how internal dissensions, no less than external disasters, -prepared the way for the final overthrow of the Moorish empire. Some of -them were probably written in the time of Ferdinand and Isabella; many -more in the time of Charles the Fifth; the most brilliant, but not the -best, somewhat later. - - [223] Among the fine ballads on Gazul are, “Por la plaza de San - Juan,” and “Estando toda la corte.” - - * * * * * - -_Ballads on Manners and Private Life._--But the ballad poetry of Spain -was not confined to heroic subjects drawn from romance or history, or -to subjects depending on Moorish traditions and manners; and therefore, -though these are the three largest classes into which it is divided, -there is yet a fourth, which may be called miscellaneous, and which is -of no little moment. For, in truth, the poetical feelings even of the -lower portions of the Spanish people were spread out over more subjects -than we should anticipate; and their genius, which, from the first, -had a charter as free as the wind, has thus left us a vast number of -records, that prove at least the variety of the popular perceptions, -and the quickness and tenderness of the popular sensibility. Many of -the miscellaneous ballads thus produced--perhaps most of them--are -effusions of love; but many are pastoral, many are burlesque, -satirical, and _picaresque_; many are called _Letrillas_, but have -nothing epistolary about them except the name; many are lyrical in -their tone, if not in their form; and many are descriptive of the -manners and amusements of the people at large. But one characteristic -runs through the whole of them. They are true representations of -Spanish life. Some of those first printed have already been referred -to; but there is a considerable class marked by an attractive -simplicity of thought and expression, united to a sort of mischievous -shrewdness, that should be particularly noticed. No such popular -poetry exists in any other language. A number of these ballads occur -in the peculiarly valuable Sixth Part of the Romancero, that appeared -in 1594, and was gathered by Pedro Flores, as he himself tells us, in -part least, from the memories of the common people.[224] They remind -us not unfrequently of the lighter poetry of the Archpriest of Hita -in the middle of the fourteenth century, and may, probably, be traced -back in their tone and spirit to a yet earlier period. Indeed, they are -quite a prominent and charming part of all the earliest Romanceros, not -a few of them being as simple, and yet as shrewd and humorous, as the -following, in which an elder sister is represented lecturing a younger -one, on first noticing in her the symptoms of love:-- - - [224] For example, “Que es de mi contento,” “Plega á Dios que si - yo creo,” “Aquella morena,” “Madre, un cavallero,” “Mal ayan mis - ojos,” “Niña, que vives,” etc. - - - Her sister Miguela - Once child little Jane, - And the words that she spoke - Gave a great deal of pain. - - “You went yesterday playing, - A child like the rest; - And now you come out, - More than other girls dressed. - - “You take pleasure in sighs, - In sad music delight; - With the dawning you rise, - Yet sit up half the night. - - “When you take up your work, - You look vacant and stare, - And gaze on your sampler, - But miss the stitch there. - - “You’re in love, people say, - Your actions all show it;-- - New ways we shall have, - When mother shall know it. - - “She’ll nail up the windows, - And lock up the door; - Leave to frolic and dance - She will give us no more. - - “Old aunt will be sent - To take us to mass, - And stop all our talk - With the girls as we pass. - - “And when we walk out, - She will bid our old shrew - Keep a faithful account - Of what our eyes do; - - “And mark who goes by, - If I peep through the blind, - And be sure and detect us - In looking behind. - - “Thus for your idle follies - Must I suffer too, - And, though nothing I’ve done, - Be punished like you.” - - “O sister Miguela, - Your chiding pray spare;-- - That I’ve troubles you guess, - But not what they are. - - “Young Pedro it is, - Old Juan’s fair youth; - But he’s gone to the wars, - And where is his truth? - - “I loved him sincerely, - I loved all he said; - But I fear he is fickle, - I fear he is fled! - - “He is gone of free choice, - Without summons or call, - And ’t is foolish to love him, - Or like him at all.” - - “Nay, rather do thou - To God pray above, - Lest Pedro return, - And again you should love,” - - Said Miguela in jest, - As she answered poor Jane; - “For when love has been bought - At cost of such pain, - - “What hope is there, sister, - Unless the soul part, - That the passion you cherish - Should yield up your heart? - - “Your years will increase, - But so will your pains, - And this you may learn - From the proverb’s old strains:-- - - “‘If, when but a child, - Love’s power you own, - Pray, what will you do - When you older are grown?’”[225] - - [225] The oldest copy of this ballad or _letra_ that I have - seen is in the “Flor de Romances,” Sexta Parte, (1594, f. 27,) - collected by Pedro Flores, from popular traditions, and of which - a less perfect copy is given, by an oversight, in the Ninth Part - of the same collection, 1597, f. 116. I have not translated the - verses at the end, because they seem to be a poor gloss by a - later hand and in a different measure. The ballad itself is as - follows:-- - - Riño con Juanilla - Su hermana Miguela; - Palabras le dize, - Que mucho le duelan: - “Ayer en mantillas - Andauas pequeña, - Oy andas galana - Mas que otras donzellas. - Tu gozo es suspiros, - Tu cantar endechas; - Al alua madrugas, - Muy tarde te acuestas; - Quando estas labrando, - No se en que te piensas, - Al dechado miras, - Y los puntos yerras. - Dizenme que hazes - Amorosas señas: - Si madre lo sabe, - Aura cosas nueuas. - Clauara ventanas, - Cerrara las puertas; - Para que baylemos, - No dara licencia; - Mandara que tia - Nos lleue a la Yglesia, - Porque no nos hablen - Las amigas nuestras. - Quando fuera salga, - Dirale a la dueña, - Que con nuestros ojos - Tenga mucha cuenta; - Que mire quien passa, - Si miro a la reja, - Y qual de nosotras - Boluio la cabeça. - Por tus libertades - Sere yo sugeta; - Pagaremos justos - Lo que malos pecan.” - “Ay! Miguela hermana, - Que mal que sospechas! - Mis males presumes, - Y no los aciertas. - A Pedro, el de Juan, - Que se fue a la guerra, - Aficion le tuue, - Y escuche sus quexas; - Mas visto que es vario - Mediante el ausencia, - De su fe fingida - Ya no se me acuerda. - Fingida la llamo, - Porque, quien se ausenta, - Sin fuerça y con gusto, - No es bien que le quiera.” - “Ruegale tu a Dios - Que Pedro no buelua,” - Respondio burlando - Su hermana Miguela, - “Que el amor comprado - Con tan ricas prendas - No saldra del alma - Sin salir con ella. - Creciendo tus años, - Creceran tus penas; - Y si no lo sabes, - Escucha esta letra: - Si eres niña y has amor, - Que haras quando mayor?” - - Sexta Parte de Flor de Romances, Toledo, 1594, 18mo, f. 27. - -A single specimen like this, however, can give no idea of the great -variety in the class of ballads to which it belongs, nor of their -poetical beauty. To feel their true value and power, we must read large -numbers of them, and read them, too, in their native language; for -there is a winning freshness in the originals, as they lie imbedded -in the old Romanceros, that escapes in translations, however free or -however strict;--a remark that should be extended to the historical as -well as the miscellaneous portions of that great mass of popular poetry -which is found in the early ballad-books, and which, though it is all -nearly three centuries old, and some of it older, has been much less -carefully considered than it deserves to be. - -Yet there are certainly few portions of the literature of any country -that will better reward a spirit of adventurous inquiry than these -ancient Spanish ballads, in all their forms. In many respects, they -are unlike the earliest narrative poetry of any other part of the -world; in some, they are better. The English and Scotch ballads, with -which they may most naturally be compared, belong to a ruder state of -society, where a personal coarseness and violence prevailed, which did -not, indeed, prevent the poetry it produced from being full of energy, -and sometimes of tenderness, but which necessarily had less dignity -and elevation than belong to the character, if not the condition, of a -people who, like the Spanish, were for centuries engaged in a contest -ennobled by a sense of religion and loyalty; a contest which could not -fail sometimes to raise the minds and thoughts of those engaged in -it far above such an atmosphere as settled round the bloody feuds of -rival barons or the gross maraudings of a border warfare. The truth -of this will at once be felt, if we compare the striking series of -ballads on Robin Hood with those on the Cid and Bernardo del Carpio; -or if we compare the deep tragedy of Edom o’ Gordon with that of the -Conde Alarcos; or what would be better than either, if we would sit -down to the “Romancero General,” with its poetical confusion of Moorish -splendors and Christian loyalty, just when we have come fresh from -Percy’s “Reliques,” or Scott’s “Minstrelsy.”[226] - - [226] If we choose to strike more widely, and institute a - comparison with the garrulous old Fabliaux, or with the overdone - refinements of the Troubadours and Minnesingers, the result - would be yet more in favor of the early Spanish ballads, which - represent and embody the excited poetical feeling that filled - the whole nation during that period when the Moorish power was - gradually broken down by an enthusiasm that became at last - irresistible, because, from the beginning, it was founded on a - sense of loyalty and religious duty. - -But, besides what the Spanish ballads possess different from the -popular poetry of the rest of Europe, they exhibit, as no others -exhibit it, that nationality which is the truest element of such poetry -everywhere. They seem, indeed, as we read them, to be often little -more than the great traits of the old Spanish character brought out -by the force of poetical enthusiasm; so that, if their nationality -were taken away from them, they would cease to exist. This, in its -turn, has preserved them down to the present day, and will continue to -preserve them hereafter. The great Castilian heroes, such as the Cid, -Bernardo del Carpio, and Pelayo, are even now an essential portion of -the faith and poetry of the common people of Spain; and are still, -in some degree, honored as they were honored in the age of the Great -Captain, or, farther back, in that of Saint Ferdinand. The stories of -Guarinos, too, and of the defeat of Roncesvalles are still sung by the -wayfaring muleteers, as they were when Don Quixote heard them in his -journeying to Toboso; and the showmen still rehearse the adventures of -Gayferos and Melisendra, in the streets of Seville, as they did at the -solitary inn of Montesinos, when he encountered them there. In short, -the ancient Spanish ballads are so truly national in their spirit, -that they became at once identified with the popular character that -had produced them, and with that same character will go onward, we -doubt not, till the Spanish people shall cease to have a separate and -independent existence.[227] - - [227] See Appendix, B. - - - - -CHAPTER VIII. - -SECOND CLASS.--CHRONICLES.--ORIGIN.--ROYAL CHRONICLES.--GENERAL -CHRONICLE BY ALFONSO THE TENTH.--ITS DIVISIONS AND SUBJECTS.--ITS MORE -POETICAL PORTIONS.--ITS CHARACTER.--CHRONICLE OF THE CID.--ITS ORIGIN, -SUBJECT, AND CHARACTER. - - -CHRONICLES.--Ballad poetry constituted, no doubt, originally, the -amusement and solace of the whole mass of the Spanish people; for, -during a long period of their early history, there was little division -of the nation into strongly marked classes, little distinction in -manners, little variety or progress in refinement. The wars going on -with unappeased violence from century to century, though by their -character not without an elevating and poetical influence upon all, -yet oppressed and crushed all by the sufferings that followed in their -train, and kept the tone and condition of the body of the Spanish -nation more nearly at the same level than the national character was -probably ever kept, for so long a period, in any other Christian -country. But as the great Moorish contest was transferred to the -South, Leon, Castile, and indeed the whole North, became comparatively -quiet and settled. Wealth began to be accumulated in the monasteries, -and leisure followed. The castles, instead of being constantly in a -state of anxious preparation against the common enemy, were converted -into abodes of a crude, but free, hospitality; and those distinctions -of society that come from different degrees of power, wealth, and -cultivation grew more and more apparent. From this time, then, the -ballads, though not really neglected, began to subside into the lower -portions of society, where for so long a period they remained; while -the more advanced and educated sought, or created for themselves, -forms of literature better suited, in some respects, to their altered -condition, and marking at once more leisure and knowledge, and a more -settled system of social life. - -The oldest of these forms was that of the Spanish prose chronicles, -which, besides being called for by the changed condition of things, -were the proper successors of the monkish Latin chronicles and legends, -long before known in the country, and were of a nature to win favor -with men who themselves were every day engaged in achievements such -as these very stories celebrated, and who consequently looked on the -whole class of works to which they belonged as the pledge and promise -of their own future fame. The chronicles were, therefore, not only the -natural offspring of the times, but were fostered and favored by the -men who controlled the times.[228] - - [228] In the code of the Partidas, (circa A. D. 1260,) good - knights are directed to listen at their meals to the reading - of “las hestorias de los grandes fechos de armas que los otros - fecieran,” etc. (Parte II. Título XXI. Ley 20.) Few knights - at that time could understand Latin, and the “_hestorias_” - in Spanish must probably have been the Chronicle now to be - mentioned, and the ballads or gestes on which it was, in part, - founded. - - * * * * * - -I. _General Chronicles and Royal Chronicles._--Under such -circumstances, we might well anticipate that the proper style of -the Spanish chronicle would first appear at the court, or in the -neighbourhood of the throne; because at court were to be found the -spirit and the materials most likely to give it birth. But it is still -to be considered remarkable, that the first of the chronicles in the -order of time, and the first in merit, comes directly from a royal -hand. It is called in the printed copies “The Chronicle of Spain,” -or “The General Chronicle of Spain,” and is, no doubt, the same work -earlier cited in manuscript as “The History of Spain.”[229] In its -characteristic Prologue, after solemnly giving the reasons why such a -work ought to be compiled, we are told: “And therefore we, Don Alfonso, -... son of the very noble King Don Fernando, and of the Queen Doña -Beatrice, have ordered to be collected as many books as we could have -of histories that relate any thing of the deeds done aforetime in -Spain, and have taken the chronicle of the Archbishop Don Rodrigo, ... -and of Master Lucas, Bishop of Tuy, ... and composed this book”; words -which give us the declaration of Alfonso the Wise, that he himself -composed this Chronicle,[230] and which thus carry it back certainly -to a period before the year 1284, in which he died. From internal -evidence, however, it is probable that it was written in the early -part of his reign, which began in 1252; and that he was assisted in -its composition by persons familiar with Arabic literature and with -whatever there was of other refinement in the age.[231] - - [229] It is the opinion of Mondejar that the original title of - the “Crónica de España” was “Estoria de España.” Memorias de - Alfonso el Sabio, p. 464. - - [230] The distinction Alfonso makes between _ordering_ the - _materials_ to be collected by others (“mandamos ayuntar”) - and _composing_ or _compiling_ the _Chronicle_ himself - (“composimos este libro”) seems to show that he was its author - or compiler,--certainly that he claimed to be such. But there - are different opinions on this point. Florian de Ocampo, the - historian, who, in 1541, published in folio, at Zamora, the - first edition of the Chronicle, says, in notes at the end of - the Third and Fourth Parts, that some persons believe only the - first three parts to have been written by Alfonso, and the - fourth to have been compiled later; an opinion to which it is - obvious that he himself inclines, though he says he will neither - affirm nor deny any thing about the matter. Others have gone - farther, and supposed the whole to have been compiled by several - different persons. But to all this it may be replied,--1. That - the Chronicle is more or less well ordered, and more or less well - written, according to the materials used in its composition; and - that the objections made to the looseness and want of finish in - the Fourth Part apply also, in a good degree, to the Third; thus - proving more than Florian de Ocampo intends, since he declares it - to be certain (“sabemos por cierto”) that the first three parts - were the work of Alfonso. 2. Alfonso declares, more than once, in - his Prólogo, whose genuineness has been made sure by Mondejar, - from the four best manuscripts, that his History comes down to - his own times, (“fasta el nuestro tiempo,”)--which we reach only - at the end of the Fourth Part,--treating the whole, throughout - the Prólogo, as his own work. 3. There is strong internal - evidence that he himself wrote the last part of the work, - relating to his father; as, for instance, the beautiful account - of the relations between St. Ferdinand and his mother, Berenguela - (ed. 1541, f. 404); the solemn account of St. Ferdinand’s death, - at the very end of the whole; and other passages between ff. 402 - and 426. 4. His nephew Don John Manuel, who made an abridgment of - the Crónica de España, speaks of his uncle Alfonso the Wise as if - he were its acknowledged author. - - It should be borne in mind, also, that Mondejar says the edition - of Florian de Ocampo is very corrupt and imperfect, omitting - whole reigns in one instance; and the passages he cites from the - old manuscripts of the entire work prove what he says. (Memorias, - Lib. VII. capp. 15, 16.) The only other edition of the Chronicle, - that of Valladolid, (fol., 1604,) is still worse. Indeed, it is, - from the number of its gross errors, one of the worst printed - books I have ever used. - - [231] The statement referred to in the Chronicle, that it was - written four hundred years after the time of Charlemagne, is, of - course, a very loose one; for Alfonso was not born in 1210. But - I think he would hardly have said, “It is now full four hundred - years,” (ed. 1541, fol. 228,) if it had been full four hundred - and fifty. From this it may be inferred that the Chronicle was - composed before 1260. Other passages tend to the same conclusion. - Conde, in his Preface to his “Árabes en España,” notices the - Arabic air of the Chronicle, which, however, seems to me to have - been rather the air of its age throughout Europe. - -It is divided, perhaps not by its author, into four parts: the first -opening with the creation of the world, and giving a large space to -Roman history, but hastening over every thing else till it comes to -the occupation of Spain by the Visigoths; the second comprehending the -Gothic empire of the country and its conquest by the Moors; the third -coming down to the reign of Ferdinand the Great, early in the eleventh -century; and the fourth closing in 1252, with the death of Saint -Ferdinand, the conqueror of Andalusia and father of Alfonso himself. - -Its earliest portions are the least interesting. They contain such -notions and accounts of antiquity, and especially of the Roman empire, -as were current among the common writers of the Middle Ages, though -occasionally, as in the case of Dido,--whose memory has always been -defended by the more popular chroniclers and poets of Spain against the -imputations of Virgil,[232]--we have a glimpse of feelings and opinions -which may be considered more national. Such passages naturally become -more frequent in the Second Part, which relates to the empire of the -Visigoths in Spain; though here, as the ecclesiastical writers are -almost the only authority that could be resorted to, their peculiar -tone prevails too much. But the Third Part is quite free and genial in -its spirit, and truly Spanish; setting forth the rich old traditions of -the country about the first outbreak of Pelayo from the mountains;[233] -the stories of Bernardo del Carpio,[234] Fernan Gonzalez,[235] -and the Seven Children of Lara;[236] with spirited sketches of -Charlemagne,[237] and accounts of miracles like those of the cross made -by angels for Alfonso the Chaste,[238] and of Santiago fighting against -the infidels in the glorious battles of Clavijo and Hazinas.[239] - - [232] The account of Dido is worth reading, especially by those - who have occasion to see her story referred to in the Spanish - poets, as it is by Ercilla and Lope de Vega, in a way quite - unintelligible to those who know only the Roman version of it as - given by Virgil. It is found in the Crónica de España, (Parte I. - c. 51-57,) and ends with a very heroical epistle of the queen - to Æneas;--the Spanish view taken of the whole matter being in - substance that which is taken by Justin, very briefly, in his - “Universal History,” Lib. XVIII. c. 4-6. - - [233] Crónica de España, Parte III. c. 1, 2. - - [234] Ibid., Capp. 10 and 13. - - [235] Ibid., Capp. 18, etc. - - [236] Ibid., Cap. 20. - - [237] Ibid., Cap. 10. - - [238] Ibid., Cap. 10, with the ballad made out of it, beginning - “Reynando el Rey Alfonso.” - - [239] Ibid., Capp. 11 and 19. A drama by Rodrigo de Herrera, - entitled “Voto de Santiago y Batalla de Clavijo,” (Comedias - Escogidas, Tom. XXXIII., 1670, 4to,) is founded on the first of - these passages, but has not used its good material with much - skill. - -The last part, though less carefully compiled and elaborated, is in -the same general tone. It opens with the well-known history of the -Cid,[240] to whom, as to the great hero of the popular admiration, a -disproportionate space is assigned. After this, being already within -a hundred and fifty years of the writer’s own time, we, of course, -approach the confines of more sober history, and finally, in the reign -of his father, Saint Ferdinand, fairly settle upon its sure and solid -foundations. - - [240] The separate history of the Cid begins with the beginning - of Part Fourth, f. 279, and ends on f. 346, ed. 1541. - -The striking characteristic of this remarkable Chronicle is, that, -especially in its Third Part, and in a portion of the Fourth, it is -a translation, if we may so speak, of the old poetical fables and -traditions of the country into a simple, but picturesque, prose, -intended to be sober history. What were the sources of those purely -national passages, which we should be most curious to trace back and -authenticate, we can never know. Sometimes, as in the case of Bernardo -del Carpio and Charlemagne, the ballads and gestes of the olden -time[241] are distinctly appealed to. Sometimes, as in the case of the -Children of Lara, an early Latin chronicle, or perhaps some poetical -legend, of which all trace is now lost, may have constituted the -foundations of the narrative.[242] And once at least, if not oftener, -an entire and separate history, that of the Cid, is inserted without -being well fitted into its place. Throughout all these portions, -the poetical character predominates much oftener than it does in -the rest; for while, in the earlier parts, what had been rescued of -ancient history is given with a grave sort of exactness, that renders -it dry and uninteresting, we have in the concluding portion a simple -narrative, where, as in the account of the death of Saint Ferdinand, -we feel persuaded that we read touching details sketched by a faithful -and affectionate eyewitness. - - [241] These _Cantares_ and _Cantares de Gesta_ are referred to in - Parte III. c. 10 and 13. - - [242] I cannot help feeling, as I read it, that the beautiful - story of the Infantes de Lara, as told in this Third Part of - the Crónica de España, beginning f. 261 of the edition of 1541, - is from a separate and older chronicle; probably from some old - monkish Latin legend. But it can be traced no farther back than - to this passage in the Crónica de España, on which rests every - thing relating to the Children of Lara in Spanish poetry and - romance. - -Among the more poetical passages are two at the end of the Second Part, -which are introduced, as contrasts to each other, with a degree of art -and skill rare in these simple-hearted old chronicles. They relate to -what was long called “the Ruin of Spain,”[243] or its conquest by the -Moors, and consist of two picturesque presentments of its condition -before and after that event, which the Spaniards long seemed to regard -as dividing the history of the world into its two great constituent -portions. In the first of these passages, entitled “Of the Good Things -of Spain,”[244] after a few general remarks, the fervent old chronicler -goes on: “For this Spain, whereof we have spoken, is like the very -Paradise of God; for it is watered by five noble rivers, which are -the Duero, and the Ebro, and the Tagus, and the Guadalquivir, and the -Guadiana; and each of these hath, between itself and the others, lofty -mountains and sierras;[245] and their valleys and plains are great -and broad, and, through the richness of the soil and the watering -of the rivers, they bear many fruits and are full of abundance. And -Spain, above all other things, is skilled in war, feared and very bold -in battle; light of heart, loyal to her lord, diligent in learning, -courtly in speech, accomplished in all good things. Nor is there land -in the world that may be accounted like her in abundance, nor may any -equal her in strength, and few there be in the world so great. And -above all doth Spain abound in magnificence, and more than all is she -famous for her loyalty. O Spain! there is no man can tell of all thy -worthiness!” - - [243] “La Pérdida de España” is the common name, in the older - writers, for the Moorish conquest. - - [244] “Los Bienes que tiene España” (ed. 1541, f. 202);--and, on - the other side of the leaf, the passage that follows, called “El - Llanto de España.” - - [245] The original, in _both_ the printed editions, is _tierras_, - though it should plainly be _sierras_ from the context; but this - is noticed as only one of the thousand gross typographical errors - with which these editions are deformed. - -But now reverse the medal, and look on the other picture, entitled -“The Mourning of Spain,” when, as the Chronicle tells us, after the -victory of the Moors, “all the land remained empty of people, bathed -in tears, a byword, nourishing strangers, deceived of her own people, -widowed and deserted of her sons, confounded among barbarians, worn out -with weeping and wounds, decayed in strength, weakened, uncomforted, -abandoned of all her own.... Forgotten are her songs, and her very -language is become foreign and her words strange.” - -The more attractive passages of the Chronicle, however, are its long -narratives. They are also the most poetical;--so poetical, indeed, that -large portions of them, with little change in their phraseology, have -since been converted into popular ballads;[246] while other portions, -hardly less considerable, are probably derived from similar, but -older, popular poetry, now either wholly lost, or so much changed by -successive oral traditions, that it has ceased to show its relationship -with the chronicling stories to which it originally gave birth. -Among these narrative passages, one of the most happy is the history -of Bernardo del Carpio, for parts of which the Chronicle appeals to -ballads more ancient than itself, while to the whole, as it stands -in the Chronicle, ballads more modern have, in their turn, been much -indebted. It is founded on the idea of a poetical contest between -Bernardo’s loyalty to his king, on the one side, and his attachment to -his imprisoned father, on the other. For he was, as we have already -learned from the old ballads and traditions, the son of a secret -marriage between the king’s sister and the Count de Sandias de Saldaña, -which had so offended the king, that he kept the Count in prison from -the time he discovered it, and concealed whatever related to Bernardo’s -birth; educating him meantime as his own son. When, however, Bernardo -grew up, he became the great hero of his age, rendering important -military services to his king and country. “But yet,” according to the -admirably strong expression of the old Chronicle,[247] “when he knew -all this, and that it was his own father that was in prison, it grieved -him to the heart, and his blood turned in his body, and he went to his -house, making the greatest moan that could be, and put on raiment of -mourning, and went to the King, Don Alfonso. And the king, when he saw -it, said to him, ‘Bernardo, do you desire my death?’ for Bernardo until -that time had held himself to be the son of the King, Don Alfonso. And -Bernardo said, ‘Sire, I do not wish for your death, but I have great -grief, because my father, the Count of Sandias, lieth in prison, and -I beseech you of your grace that you would command him to be given up -to me.’ And the King, Don Alfonso, when he heard this, said to him, -‘Bernardo, begone from before me, and never be so bold as to speak to -me again of this matter; for I swear to you, that, in all the days that -I shall live, you shall never see your father out of his prison.’ And -Bernardo said to him, ‘Sire, you are my king, and may do whatsoever you -shall hold for good, but I pray God that he will put it into your heart -to take him thence; nevertheless, I, Sire, shall in no wise cease to -serve you in all that I may.’” - - [246] This remark will apply to many passages in the Third Part - of the Chronicle of Spain, but to none, perhaps, so strikingly - as to the stories of Bernardo del Carpio and the Infantes de - Lara, large portions of which may be found almost verbatim in - the ballads. I will now refer only to the following:--1. On - Bernardo del Carpio, the ballads beginning, “El Conde Don Sancho - Diaz,” “En corte del Casto Alfonso,” “Estando en paz y sosiego,” - “Andados treinta y seis años,” and “En gran pesar y tristeza.” 2. - On the Infantes de Lara, the ballads beginning, “A Calatrava la - Vieja,” which was evidently arranged for singing at a puppet-show - or some such exhibition, “Llegados son los Infantes,” “Quien es - aquel caballero,” and “Ruy Velasquez de Lara.” All these are - found in the older collections of ballads; those, I mean, printed - before 1560; and it is worthy of particular notice, that this - same General Chronicle makes especial mention of _Cantares de - Gesta_ about Bernardo del Carpio that were known and popular when - it was itself compiled, in the thirteenth century. - - [247] See the Crónica General de España, ed. 1541, f. 227, a. - -Notwithstanding this refusal, however, when great services are wanted -from Bernardo in troubled times, his father’s liberty is promised -him as a reward; but these promises are constantly broken, until he -renounces his allegiance, and makes war upon his false uncle, and -on one of his successors, Alfonso the Great.[248] At last, Bernardo -succeeds in reducing the royal authority so low, that the king again, -and more solemnly, promises to give up his prisoner, if Bernardo, on -his part, will give up the great castle of Carpio, which had rendered -him really formidable. The faithful son does not hesitate, and the -king sends for the Count, but finds him dead, probably by the royal -procurement. The Count’s death, however, does not prevent the base -monarch from determining to keep the castle, which was the stipulated -price of his prisoner’s release. He therefore directs the dead body to -be brought, as if alive, on horseback, and, in company with Bernardo, -who has no suspicion of the cruel mockery, goes out to meet it. - - [248] Crónica Gen., ed. 1541, f. 236. a. - -“And when they were all about to meet,” the old Chronicle goes on, -“Bernardo began to shout aloud with great joy, and to say, ‘Cometh -indeed the Count Don Sandias de Saldaña!’ And the King, Don Alfonso, -said to him, ‘Behold where he cometh! Go, therefore, and salute him -whom you have sought so much to behold.’ And Bernardo went towards him, -and kissed his hand; but when he found it cold, and saw that all his -color was black, he knew that he was dead; and with the grief he had -from it, he began to cry aloud and to make great moan, saying, ‘Alas! -Count Sandias, in an evil hour was I born, for never was man so lost -as I am now for you; for, since you are dead, and my castle is gone, I -know no counsel by which I may do aught.’ And some say in their ballads -(_cantares de gesta_) that the king then said, ‘Bernardo, now is not -the time for much talking, and therefore I bid you go straightway forth -from my land,’” etc. - -This constitutes one of the most interesting parts of the old General -Chronicle: but the whole is curious, and much of it is rich and -picturesque. It is written with more freedom and less exactness of -style than some of the other works of its noble author; and in the -last division shows a want of finish, which in the first two parts is -not perceptible, and in the third only slightly so. But everywhere -it breathes the spirit of its age, and, when taken together, is not -only the most interesting of the Spanish chronicles, but the most -interesting of all that, in any country, mark the transition from its -poetical and romantic traditions to the grave exactness of historical -truth. - -The next of the early chronicles that claims our notice is the one -called, with primitive simplicity, “The Chronicle of the Cid”; in some -respects as important as the one we have just examined; in others, -less so. The first thing that strikes us, when we open it, is, that, -although it has much of the appearance and arrangement of a separate -and independent work, it is substantially the same with the two hundred -and eighty pages which constitute the first portion of the Fourth -Book of the General Chronicle of Spain; so that one must certainly -have been taken from the other, or both from some common source. The -latter is, perhaps, the more obvious conclusion, and has sometimes been -adopted;[249] but, on a careful examination, it will probably be found -that the Chronicle of the Cid is rather taken from that of Alfonso -the Wise, than from any materials common to both and older than both. -For, in the first place, each, in the same words, often claims to be -a translation from the same authors; yet, as the language of both is -frequently identical for pages together, this cannot be true, unless -one copied from the other. And, secondly, the Chronicle of the Cid, in -some instances, corrects the errors of the General Chronicle, and in -one instance at least makes an addition to it of a date later than that -of the Chronicle itself.[250] But, passing over the details of this -obscure, but not unimportant, point, it is sufficient for our present -purpose to say, that the Chronicle of the Cid is the same in substance -with the history of the Cid in the General Chronicle, and was probably -taken from it. - - [249] This is the opinion of Southey, in the Preface to his - “Chronicle of the Cid,” which, though one of the most amusing and - instructive books, in relation to the manners and feelings of the - Middle Ages, that is to be found in the English language, is not - quite so wholly a translation from its three Spanish sources as - it claims to be. The opinion of Huber on the same point is like - that of Southey. - - [250] Both the chronicles cite for their authorities the - Archbishop Rodrigo of Toledo, and the Bishop Lucas of Tuy, - in Galicia, (Cid, Cap. 293; General, 1604, f. 313. b, and - elsewhere,) and represent them as dead. Now the first died in - 1247, and the last in 1250; and as the General Chronicle of - Alfonso X. was _necessarily_ written between 1252 and 1282, and - _probably_ written soon after 1252, it is not to be supposed, - either that the Chronicle of the Cid, or any other chronicle in - the _Spanish_ language which the General Chronicle could use, - was already compiled. But there are passages in the Chronicle of - the Cid which prove it to be later than the General Chronicle. - For instance, in Chapters 294, 295, and 296 of the Chronicle - of the Cid, there is a correction of an error of two years in - the General Chronicle’s chronology. And again, in the General - Chronicle, (ed. 1604, f. 313. b,) after relating the burial of - the Cid, by the bishops, in a vault, and dressed in his clothes, - (“vestido con sus paños,”) it adds, “And thus he was laid where - he still lies” (“_E assi yaze ay do agora yaze_”); but in the - Chronicle of the Cid, the words in Italics are stricken out, and - we have instead, “And there he remained a long time, till King - Alfonso came to reign (“E hy estudo muy grand tiempo, fasta que - vino el Rey Don Alfonso a reynar”); after which words we have - an account of the translation of his body to another tomb, by - Alfonso the Wise, the son of Ferdinand. But, besides that this - is plainly an addition to the Chronicle of the Cid, made later - than the account given in the General Chronicle, there is a - little clumsiness about it that renders it quite curious; for, in - speaking of St. Ferdinand with the usual formulary, as “he who - conquered Andalusia, and the city of Jaen, and many other royal - towns and castles,” it adds, “As the history will relate to you - _farther on_ (“Segun que adelante vos lo contará la historia”). - Now the history of the Cid has nothing to do with the history - of St. Ferdinand, who lived a hundred years after him, and is - never again mentioned in this Chronicle; and therefore the little - passage containing the account of the translation of the body of - the Cid, in the thirteenth century, to its next resting-place - was probably cut out from some other chronicle which contained - the history of St. Ferdinand, as well as that of the Cid. My own - conjecture is, that it was cut out from the abridgment of the - General Chronicle of Alfonso the Wise made by his nephew Don - John Manuel, who would be quite likely to insert an addition so - honorable to his uncle, when he came to the point of the Cid’s - interment; an interment of which the General Chronicle’s account - had ceased to be the true one. Cap. 291. - - It is a curious fact, though not one of consequence to this - inquiry, that the remains of the Cid, besides their removal - by Alfonso the Wise, in 1272, were successively transferred - to different places, in 1447, in 1541, again in the beginning - of the eighteenth century, and again, by the bad taste of the - French General Thibaut, in 1809 or 1810, until, at last, in 1824, - they were restored to their original sanctuary in San Pedro de - Cardenas. Semanario Pintoresco, 1838, p. 648. - -When it was arranged in its present form, or by whom this was done, we -have no notice.[251] But it was found, as we now read it, at Cardenas, -in the very monastery where the Cid lies buried, and was seen there -by the youthful Ferdinand, great-grandson of Ferdinand and Isabella, -who was afterwards emperor of Germany, and who was induced to give the -abbot an order to have it printed.[252] This was done accordingly in -1512, since which time there have been but two editions of it, those -of 1552 and of 1593, until it was reprinted in 1844, at Marburg, in -Germany, with an excellent critical preface in Spanish, by Huber. - - [251] If it be asked what were the authorities on which the - portion of the Crónica General relating to the Cid relies for - its materials, I should answer:--1. Those cited in the Prólogo - to the whole work by Alfonso himself, some of which are again - cited when speaking of the Cid. Among these, the most important - is the Archbishop Rodrigo’s “Historia Gothica.” (See Nic. Ant., - Bibl. Vet., Lib. VIII. c. 2, § 28.) 2. It is probable there were - Arabic records of the Cid, as a life of him, or part of a life of - him, by a nephew of Alfaxati, the converted Moor, is referred to - in the Chronicle itself, Cap. 278, and in Crón. Gen., 1541, f. - 359. b. But there is nothing in the Chronicle that sounds like - Arabic, except the “Lament for the Fall of Valencia,” beginning - “Valencia, Valencia, vinieron sobre ti muchos quebrantos,” which - is on f. 329. a, and again, poorly amplified, on f. 329. b, - but out of which has been made the fine ballad, “Apretada esta - Valencia,” which can be traced back to the ballad-book printed by - Martin Nucio, at Antwerp, 1550, though, I believe, no farther. - If, therefore, there be any thing in the Chronicle of the Cid - taken from documents in the Arabic language, such documents were - written by Christians, or a Christian character was impressed on - the facts taken from them.[*] 3. It has been suggested by the - Spanish translators of Bouterwek, (p. 255,) that the Chronicle - of the Cid in Spanish is substantially taken from the “Historia - Roderici Didaci,” published by Risco, in “La Castilla y el mas - Famoso Castellano” (1792, App., pp. xvi.-lx.). But the Latin, - though curious and valuable, is a meagre compendium, in which - I find nothing of the attractive stories and adventures of the - Spanish, but occasionally something to contradict or discredit - them. 4. the old “Poem of the Cid” was, no doubt, used, and - used freely, by the chronicler, whoever he was, though he never - alludes to it. This has been noticed by Sanchez, (Tom. I. pp. - 226-228,) and must be noticed again, in note 28, where I shall - give an extract from the Chronicle. I add here only, that it is - clearly the Poem that was used by the Chronicle, and not the - Chronicle that was used by the Poem. - - [*] Since writing this note, I learn that my friend Don Pascual - de Gayangos possesses an Arabic chronicle that throws much light - on this Spanish chronicle and on the life of the Cid. - - [252] Prohemio. The good abbot considers the Chronicle to have - been written in the lifetime of the Cid, i. e. before A. D. 1100, - and yet it refers to the Archbishop of Toledo and the Bishop of - Tuy, who were of the thirteenth century. Moreover, he speaks - of the intelligent interest the Prince Ferdinand took in it; - but Oviedo, in his Dialogue on Cardinal Ximenes, says the young - prince was only eight years and some months old when he gave the - order. Quinquagena, MS. - -As a part of the General Chronicle of Spain,[253] we must, with a -little hesitation, pronounce the Chronicle of the Cid less interesting -than several of the portions that immediately precede it. But still, -it is the great national version of the achievements of the great -national hero who freed the fourth part of his native land from the -loathed intrusion of the Moors, and who stands to this day connected -with the proudest recollections of Spanish glory. It begins with the -Cid’s first victories under Ferdinand the Great, and therefore only -alludes to his early youth, and to the extraordinary circumstances -on which Corneille, following the old Spanish play and ballads, has -founded his tragedy; but it gives afterwards, with great minuteness, -nearly every one of the adventures that in the older traditions are -ascribed to him, down to his death, which happened in 1099, or rather -down to the death of Alfonso the Sixth, ten years later. - - [253] Sometimes it is necessary earlier to allude to a portion - of the Cid’s history, and then it is added, “As we shall relate - farther on”; so that it is quite certain the Cid’s history - was originally regarded as a necessary portion of the General - Chronicle. (Crónica General, ed. 1604, Tercera Parte, f. 92. b.) - When, therefore, we come to the Fourth Part, where it really - belongs, we have, first, a chapter on the accession of Ferdinand - the Great, and then the history of the Cid connected with that - of the reigns of Ferdinand, Sancho II., and Alfonso VI.; but the - whole is so truly an integral part of the General Chronicle and - not a separate chronicle of the Cid, that, when it was taken out - to serve as a separate chronicle, it was taken out as _the three - reigns_ of the three sovereigns above mentioned, beginning with - one chapter that goes back ten years before the Cid was born, - and ending with five chapters that run forward ten years after - his death; while, at the conclusion of the whole, is a sort of - colophon, apologizing (Chrónica del Cid, Burgos, 1593, fol., f. - 277) for the fact that it is so much a chronicle of these three - kings, rather than a mere chronicle of the Cid. This, with the - peculiar character of the differences between the two that have - been already noticed, has satisfied me that the Chronicle of the - Cid was taken from the General Chronicle. - -Much of it is as fabulous[254] as the accounts of Bernardo del Carpio -and the Children of Lara, though perhaps not more so than might be -expected in a work of such a period and such pretensions. Its style, -too, is suited to its romantic character, and is more diffuse and grave -than that of the best narrative portions of the General Chronicle. But -then, on the other hand, it is overflowing with the very spirit of the -times when it was written, and offers us so true a picture of their -generous virtues, as well as their stern violence, that it may well be -regarded as one of the best books in the world, if not the very best, -for studying the real character and manners of the ages of chivalry. -Occasionally there are passages in it like the following description of -the Cid’s feelings and conduct, when he left his good castle of Bivar, -unjustly and cruelly exiled by the king, which, whether invented or -not, are as true to the spirit of the period they represent, as if the -minutest of their details were ascertained facts. - - [254] Masdeu (Historia Crítica de España, Madrid, 1783-1805, - 4to, Tom. XX.) would have us believe that the whole is a fable; - but this demands too much credulity. The question is discussed - with acuteness and learning in “Jos. Aschbach de Cidi Historiæ - Fontibus Dissertatio,” (Bonnæ, 4to, 1843, pp. 5, etc.,) but - little can be settled about individual facts. - -“And when he saw his courts deserted and without people, and the -perches without falcons, and the gateway without its judgment-seats, he -turned himself toward the East and knelt down and said, ‘Saint Mary, -Mother, and all other Saints, graciously beseech God that he would -grant me might to overcome all these pagans, and that I may gain from -them wherewith to do good to my friends, and to all those that may -follow and help me.’ And then he went on and asked for Alvar Fañez, -and said to him, ‘Cousin, what fault have the poor in the wrong that -the king has done us? Warn all my people, then, that they harm none, -wheresoever we may go.’ And he called for his horse to mount. Then -spake up an old woman standing at her door and said, ‘Go on with good -luck, for you shall make spoil of whatsoever you may find or desire.’ -And the Cid, when he heard that saying, rode on, for he would tarry -no longer; and as he went out of Bivar, he said, ‘Now do I desire you -should know, my friends, that it is the will of God that we should -return to Castile with great honor and great gain.’”[255] - - [255] The portion of the Chronicle of the Cid from which I have - taken the extract is among the portions which least resemble the - corresponding parts of the General Chronicle. It is in Chap. - 91; and from Chap. 88 to Chap. 93 there is a good deal not - found in the parallel passages in the General Chronicle, (1604, - f. 224, etc.,) though, where they do resemble each other, the - phraseology is still frequently identical. The particular passage - I have selected was, I think, suggested by the first lines that - remain to us of the “Poema del Cid”; and perhaps, if we had the - preceding lines of that poem, we should be able to account for - yet more of the additions to the Chronicle in this passage. The - lines I refer to are as follows:-- - - De los sos oios tan fuertes · mientre lorando - Tornaba la cabeza, · e estabalos catando. - Vio puertas abiertas · e uzos sin cañados, - Alcándaras vacias, · sin pielles e sin mantos, - E sin falcones e sin · adtores mudados. - Sospiró mio Cid, ca · mucho avie grandes cuidados. - - Other passages are quite as obviously taken from the poem. - -Some of the touches of manners in this little passage, such as -the allusion to the judgment-seats at his gate, where the Cid in -patriarchal simplicity had administered justice to his vassals, and the -hint of the poor augury gathered from the old woman’s wish, which seems -to be of more power with him than the prayer he had just uttered, or -the bold hopes that were driving him to the Moorish frontiers,--such -touches give life and truth to this old chronicle, and bring its times -and feelings, as it were, sensibly before us. Adding its peculiar -treasures to those contained in the rest of the General Chronicle, we -shall find, in the whole, nearly all the romantic and poetical fables -and adventures that belong to the earliest portions of Spanish history. -At the same time, we shall obtain a living picture of the state of -manners in that dark period, when the elements of modern society were -just beginning to be separated from the chaos in which they had long -struggled, and out of which, by the action of successive ages, they -have been gradually wrought into those forms of policy which now give -stability to governments and peace to the intercourse of men. - - - - -CHAPTER IX. - -EFFECTS OF THE EXAMPLE OF ALFONSO THE TENTH.--CHRONICLES OF HIS -OWN REIGN, AND OF THE REIGNS OF SANCHO THE BRAVE AND FERDINAND THE -FOURTH.--CHRONICLE OF ALFONSO THE ELEVENTH, BY VILLAIZAN.--CHRONICLES -OF PETER THE CRUEL, HENRY THE SECOND, JOHN THE FIRST, AND HENRY THE -THIRD, BY AYALA.--CHRONICLE OF JOHN THE SECOND.--TWO CHRONICLES OF -HENRY THE FOURTH, AND TWO OF FERDINAND AND ISABELLA. - - -The idea of Alfonso the Wise, simply and nobly expressed in the opening -of his Chronicle, that he was desirous to leave for posterity a record -of what Spain had been and had done in all past time,[256] was not -without influence upon the nation, even in the state in which it then -was, and in which, for above a century afterwards, it continued. -But, as in the case of that great king’s project for a uniform -administration of justice by a settled code, his example was too much -in advance of his age to be immediately followed; though, as in that -memorable case, when it was once adopted, its fruits became abundant. -The two next kings, Sancho the Brave and Ferdinand the Fourth, took -no measures, so far as we know, to keep up and publish the history of -their reigns. But Alfonso the Eleventh, the same monarch, it should -be remembered, under whom the “Partidas” became the law of the land, -recurred to the example of his wise ancestor, and ordered the annals of -the kingdom to be continued, from the time when those of the General -Chronicle ceased down to his own; embracing, of course, the reigns -of Alfonso the Wise, Sancho the Brave, and Ferdinand the Fourth, or -the period from 1252 to 1312.[257] This is the first instance of the -appointment of a royal chronicler, and may, therefore, be regarded -as the creation of an office of consequence in all that regards the -history of the country, and which, however much it may have been -neglected in later times, furnished important documents down to the -reign of Charles the Fifth, and was continued, in form at least, till -the establishment of the Academy of History in the beginning of the -eighteenth century. - - [256] It sounds much like the “Partidas,” beginning, “Los sabios - antiguos que fueron en los tiempos primeros, y fallaron los - saberes y las otras cosas, tovieron que menguarien en sus fechos - y en su lealtad, si tambien no lo quisiessen para los otros que - avien de venir, como para si mesmos o por los otros que eran en - su tiempo,” etc. But such introductions are common in other early - chronicles, and in other old Spanish books. - - [257] “Chrónica del muy Esclarecido Príncipe y Rey D. Alfonso, el - que fue par de Emperador, y hizo el Libro de las Siete Partidas, - y ansimismo al fin deste Libro va encorporada la Crónica del Rey - D. Sancho el Bravo,” etc., Valladolid, 1554, folio; to which - should be added “Crónica del muy Valeroso Rey D. Fernando, - Visnieto del Santo Rey D. Fernando,” etc., Valladolid, 1554, - folio. - -By whom this office was first filled does not appear; but the Chronicle -itself seems to have been prepared about the year 1320. Formerly it -was attributed to Fernan Sanchez de Tovar; but Fernan Sanchez was a -personage of great consideration and power in the state, practised -in public affairs, and familiar with their history, so that we can -hardly attribute to him the mistakes with which this Chronicle abounds, -especially in the part relating to Alfonso the Wise.[258] But, whoever -may have been its author, the Chronicle, which, it may be noticed, is -so distinctly divided into the three reigns, that it is rather three -chronicles than one, has little value as a composition. Its narrative -is given with a rude and dry formality, and whatever interest it -awakens depends, not upon its style and manner, but upon the character -of the events recorded, which sometimes have an air of adventure about -them belonging to the elder times, and, like them, are picturesque. - - [258] All this may be found abundantly discussed in the “Memorias - de Alfonso el Sabio,” by the Marques de Mondejar, pp. 569-635. - Clemencin, however, still attributes the Chronicle to Fernan - Sanchez de Tovar. Mem. de la Acad. de Historia, Tom. VI. p. 451. - -The example of regular chronicling, having now been fairly set at the -court of Castile, was followed by Henry the Second, who commanded his -Chancellor and Chief-Justiciary, Juan Nuñez de Villaizan, to prepare, -as we are told in the Preface, in imitation of the ancients, an account -of his father’s reign. In this way, the series goes on unbroken, and -now gives us the “Chronicle of Alfonso the Eleventh,”[259] beginning -with his birth and education, of which the notices are slight, but -relating amply the events from the time he came to the throne, in -1312, till his death in 1350. How much of it was actually written -by the chancellor of the kingdom cannot be ascertained.[260] From -different passages, it seems that an older chronicle was used freely -in its composition;[261] and the whole should, therefore, probably be -regarded as a compilation made under the responsibility of the highest -personages of the realm. Its opening will show at once the grave and -measured tone it takes, and the accuracy it claims for its dates and -statements. - - [259] There is an edition of this Chronicle (Valladolid, 1551, - folio) better than the old editions of such Spanish books - commonly are; but the best is that of Madrid, 1787, 4to, edited - by Cerdá y Rico, and published under the auspices of the Spanish - Academy of History. - - [260] The phrase is, “Mandó á Juan Nuñez de Villaizan, Alguacil - de la su Casa, que la ficiese trasladar en Pergaminos, e fizola - trasladar, et escribióla Ruy Martinez de Medina de Rioseco,” etc. - See Preface. - - [261] In Cap. 340 and elsewhere. - -“God is the beginning and the means and the end of all things; and -without him they cannot subsist. For by his power they are made, and by -his wisdom ordered, and by his goodness maintained. And he is the Lord; -and, in all things, almighty, and conqueror in all battles. Wherefore, -whosoever would begin any good work should first name the name of God, -and place him before all things, asking and beseeching of his mercy -to give him knowledge and will and power, whereby he may bring it to -a good end. Therefore will this pious chronicle henceforward relate -whatsoever happened to the noble King, Don Alfonso, of Castile and -Leon, and the battles and conquests and victories that he had and did -in his life against Moors and against Christians. And it will begin in -the fifteenth year of the reign of the most noble King, Don Fernando, -his father.”[262] - - [262] Ed. 1787, p. 3. - -The reign of the father, however, occupies only three short chapters; -after which, the rest of the Chronicle, containing in all three hundred -and forty-two chapters, comes down to the death of Alfonso, who -perished of the plague before Gibraltar, and then abruptly closes. Its -general tone is grave and decisive, like that of a person speaking with -authority upon matters of importance, and it is rare that we find in it -a sketch of manners like the following account of the young king at the -age of fourteen or fifteen. - -“And as long as he remained in the city of Valladolid, there were -with him knights and esquires, and his tutor, Martin Fernandez de -Toledo, that brought him up, and that had been with him a long time, -even before the queen died, and other men, who had long been used -to palaces, and to the courts of kings; and all these gave him an -ensample of good manners. And, moreover, he had been brought up with -the children of men of note, and with noble knights. But the king, of -his own condition, was well-mannered in eating, and drank little, and -was clad as became his estate; and in all other his customs he was -well conditioned, for his speech was true Castilian, and he hesitated -not in what he had to say. And so long as he was in Valladolid, he -sat three days in the week to hear the complaints and suits that came -before him; and he was shrewd in understanding the facts thereof, and -he was faithful in secret matters, and loved them that served him, each -after his place, and trusted truly and entirely those whom he ought -to trust. And he began to be much given to horsemanship, and pleased -himself with arms, and loved to have in his household strong men, that -were bold and of good conditions. And he loved much all his own people, -and was sore grieved at the great mischief and great harm there were -in the land through failure of justice, and he had indignation against -evil-doers.”[263] - - [263] Ed. 1787, p. 80. - -But though there are few sketches in the Chronicle of Alfonso the -Eleventh like the preceding, we find in general a well-ordered account -of the affairs of that monarch’s long and active reign, given with -a simplicity and apparent sincerity which, in spite of the formal -plainness of its style, make it almost always interesting, and -sometimes amusing. - -The next considerable attempt approaches somewhat nearer to proper -history. It is the series of chronicles relating to the troublesome -reigns of Peter the Cruel and Henry the Second, to the hardly less -unsettled times of John the First, and to the more quiet and prosperous -reign of Henry the Third. They were written by Pedro Lopez de Ayala, -in some respects the first Spaniard of his age; distinguished, as -we have seen, among the poets of the latter part of the fourteenth -century, and now to be noticed as the best prose-writer of the same -period. He was born in 1332,[264] and, though only eighteen years -old when Peter ascended the throne, was soon observed and employed -by that acute monarch. But when troubles arose in the kingdom, Ayala -left his tyrannical master, who had already shown himself capable of -almost any degree of guilt, and joined his fortunes to those of Henry -of Trastamara, the king’s illegitimate brother, who had, of course, -no claim to the throne but such as was laid in the crimes of its -possessor, and the good-will of the suffering nobles and people. - - [264] For the Life of Ayala, see Nic. Antonio, Bib. Vet., Lib. X. - c. 1. - -At first, the cause of Henry was successful. But Peter addressed -himself for help to Edward the Black Prince, then in his duchy of -Aquitaine, who, as Froissart relates, thinking it would be a great -prejudice against the estate royal[265] to have a usurper succeed, -entered Spain, and, with a strong hand, replaced the fallen monarch -on his throne. At the decisive battle of Naxera, by which this was -achieved, in 1367, Ayala, who bore his prince’s standard, was taken -prisoner[266] and carried to England, where he wrote a part at least of -his poems on a courtly life. Somewhat later, Peter, no longer supported -by the Black Prince, was dethroned; and Ayala, who was then released -from his tedious imprisonment, returned home, and afterwards became -Grand-Chancellor to Henry the Second, in whose service he gained so -much consideration and influence, that he seems to have descended as -a sort of traditionary minister of state through the reign of John -the First, and far into that of Henry the Third. Sometimes, indeed, -like other grave personages, ecclesiastical as well as civil, he -appeared as a military leader, and once again, in the disastrous battle -of Aljubarrota, in 1385, he was taken prisoner. But his Portuguese -captivity does not seem to have been so long or so cruel as his English -one; and, at any rate, the last years of his life were passed quietly -in Spain. He died at Calahorra in 1407, seventy-five years old. - - [265] The whole account in Froissart is worth reading, especially - in Lord Berners’s translation, (London, 1812, 4to, Vol. I. c. - 231, etc.,) as an illustration of Ayala. - - [266] See the passage in which Mariana gives an account of the - battle. Historia, Lib. XVII. c. 10. - -“He was,” says his nephew, the noble Fernan Perez de Guzman, in the -striking gallery of portraits he has left us,[267] “He was a man of -very gentle qualities and of good conversation; had a great conscience -and feared God much. He loved knowledge, also, and gave himself much -to reading books and histories; and though he was as goodly a knight -as any, and of great discretion in the practices of the world, yet he -was by nature bent on learning, and spent a great part of his time in -reading and studying, not books of law, but of philosophy and history. -Through his means some books are now known in Castile that were not -known aforetime; such as Titus Livius, who is the most notable of the -Roman historians; the ‘Fall of Princes’; the ‘Ethics’ of Saint Gregory; -Isidorus ‘De Summo Bono’; Boethius; and the ‘History of Troy.’ He -prepared the History of Castile from the King Don Pedro to the King Don -Henry; and made a good book on Hunting, which he greatly affected, and -another called ‘Rimado de Palacio.’” - - [267] Generaciones y Semblanzas, Cap. 7, Madrid, 1775, 4to, p. - 222. - -We should not, perhaps, at the present day, claim so much reputation -as his kinsman does for the Chancellor Ayala, in consequence of the -interest he took in books of such doubtful value as Guido de Colonna’s -“Trojan War,” and Boccaccio “De Casibus Principum,” but, in translating -Livy,[268] he unquestionably rendered his country an important service. -He rendered, too, a no less important service to himself; since a -familiarity with Livy tended to fit him for the task of preparing the -Chronicle, which now constitutes his chief distinction and merit.[269] -It begins in 1350, where that of Alfonso the Eleventh ends, and comes -down to the sixth year of Henry the Third, or to 1396, embracing that -portion of the author’s own life which was between his eighteenth year -and his sixty-fourth, and constituting the first safe materials for the -history of his native country. - - [268] It is probable Ayala translated, or caused to be - translated, all these books. At least, such has been the - impression; and the mention of Isidore of Seville among the - authors “made known” seems to justify it, for, as a Spaniard of - great fame, St. Isidore must always have been _known_ in Spain in - every other way, except by a translation into Spanish. See, also, - the Preface to the edition of Boccaccio, Caída de Príncipes, - 1495, in Fr. Mendez, Typografía Española, Madrid, 1796, 4to, p. - 202. - - [269] The first edition of Ayala’s Chronicles is of Seville, - 1495, folio, but it seems to have been printed from a MS. that - did not contain the entire series. The best edition is that - published under the auspices of the Academy of History, by D. - Eugenio de Llaguno Amirola, its secretary (Madrid, 1779, 2 - tom. 4to). That Ayala was the authorized chronicler of Castile - is apparent from the whole tone of his work, and is directly - asserted in an old MS. of a part of it, cited by Bayer in his - notes to N. Antonio, Bib. Vet., Lib. X. cap. 1, num. 10, n. 1. - -For such an undertaking Ayala was singularly well fitted. Spanish -prose was already well advanced in his time; for Don John Manuel, -the last of the elder school of good writers, did not die till Ayala -was fifteen years old. He was, moreover, as we have seen, a scholar, -and, for the age in which he lived, a remarkable one; and, what is of -more importance than either of these circumstances, he was personally -familiar with the course of public affairs during the forty-six years -embraced by his Chronicle. Of all this traces are to be found in his -work. His style is not, like that of the oldest chroniclers, full -of a rich vivacity and freedom; but, without being over-carefully -elaborated, it is simple and business-like; while, to give a more -earnest air, if not an air of more truth to the whole, he has, in -imitation of Livy, introduced into the course of his narrative set -speeches and epistles intended to express the feelings and opinions of -his principal actors more distinctly than they could be expressed by -the mere facts and current of the story. Compared with the Chronicle -of Alfonso the Wise, which preceded it by above a century, it lacks -the charm of that poetical credulity which loves to deal in doubtful -traditions of glory, rather than in those ascertained facts which are -often little honorable either to the national fame or to the spirit -of humanity. Compared with the Chronicle of Froissart, with which it -was contemporary, we miss the honest-hearted, but somewhat childlike, -enthusiasm that looks with unmingled delight and admiration upon all -the gorgeous phantasmagoria of chivalry, and find, instead of it, the -penetrating sagacity of an experienced statesman, who looks quite -through the deeds of men, and, like Comines, thinks it not at all worth -while to conceal the great crimes with which he has been familiar, if -they can be but wisely and successfully set forth. When, therefore, we -read Ayala’s Chronicle, we do not doubt that we have made an important -step in the progress of the species of writing to which it belongs, -and that we are beginning to approach the period when history is to -teach with sterner exactness the lesson it has learned from the hard -experience of the past. - -Among the many curious and striking passages in Ayala’s Chronicle, the -most interesting are, perhaps, those that relate to the unfortunate -Blanche of Bourbon, the young and beautiful wife of Peter the Cruel, -who, for the sake of María de Padilla, forsook her two days after his -marriage, and, when he had kept her long in prison, at last sacrificed -her to his base passion for his mistress; an event which excited, as -we learn from Froissart’s Chronicle, a sensation of horror, not only -in Spain, but throughout Europe, and became an attractive subject for -the popular poetry of the old national ballads, several of which we -find were devoted to it.[270] But it may well be doubted whether even -the best of the ballads give us so near and moving a picture of her -cruel sufferings as Ayala does, when, going on step by step in his -passionless manner, he shows us the queen first solemnly wedded in the -church at Toledo, and then pining in her prison at Medina Sidonia; the -excitement of the nobles, and the indignation of the king’s own mother -and family; carrying us all the time with painful exactness through the -long series of murders and atrocities by which Pedro at last reaches -the final crime which, during eight years, he had hesitated to commit. -For there is, in the succession of scenes he thus exhibits to us, a -circumstantial minuteness which is above all power of generalization, -and brings the guilty monarch’s character more vividly before us -than it could be brought by the most fervent spirit of poetry or of -eloquence.[271] And it is precisely this cool and patient minuteness -of the chronicler, founded on his personal knowledge, that gives its -peculiar character to Ayala’s record of the four wild reigns in which -he lived; presenting them to us in a style less spirited and vigorous, -indeed, than that of some of the older chronicles of the monarchy, but -certainly in one more simple, more judicious, and more effective for -the true purposes of history.[272] - - [270] There are about a dozen ballads on the subject of Don - Pedro, of which the best, I think, are those beginning, “Doña - Blanca esta en Sidonia,” “En un retrete en que apenas,” “No - contento el Rey D. Pedro,” and “Doña Maria de Padilla,” the last - of which is in the Saragossa Cancionero of 1550, Parte II. f. 46. - - [271] See the Crónica de Don Pedro, Ann. 1353, Capp. 4, 5, 11, - 12, 14, 21; Ann. 1354, Capp. 19, 21; Ann. 1358, Capp. 2 and 3; - and Ann. 1361, Cap. 3. - - [272] The fairness of Ayala in regard to Don Pedro has been - questioned, and, from his relations to that monarch, may - naturally be suspected;--a point on which Mariana touches, - (Historia, Lib. XVII. c. 10,) without settling it, but one of - some little consequence in Spanish literary history, where the - character of Don Pedro often appears connected with poetry and - the drama. The first person who attacked Ayala was, I believe, - Pedro de Gracia Dei, a courtier in the time of Ferdinand and - Isabella and in that of Charles V. He was King-at-Arms and - Chronicler to the Catholic sovereigns, and I have, in manuscript, - a collection of his professional _coplas_ on the lineages and - arms of the principal families of Spain, and on the general - history of the country;--short poems, worthless as verse, and - sneered at by Argote de Molina, in the Preface to his “Nobleza - del Andaluzia,” (1588,) for the imperfect knowledge their author - had of the subjects on which he treated. His defence of Don Pedro - is not better. It is found in the Seminario Erudito, (Madrid, - 1790, Tom. XXVIII. and XXIX.,) with additions by a later hand, - probably Diego de Castilla, Dean of Toledo, who, I believe, - was one of Don Pedro’s descendants. It cites no sufficient - authorities for the averments which it makes about events that - happened a century and a half earlier, and on which, therefore, - it was unsuitable to trust the voice of tradition. Francisco de - Castilla, who certainly had blood of Don Pedro in his veins, - followed in the same track, and speaks, in his “Pratica de las - Virtudes,” (Çaragoça, 1552, 4to, fol. 28,) of the monarch and of - Ayala as - - El gran rey Don Pedro, quel vulgo reprueva - Por selle enemigo, quien hizo su historia, etc. - - All this, however, produced little effect. But, in process of - time, books were written upon the question;--the “Apologia - del Rey Don Pedro,” by Ledo del Pozo, (Madrid, folio, s. a.,) - and “El Rey Don Pedro defendido,” (Madrid, 1648, 4to,) by - Vera y Figueroa, the diplomatist of the reign of Philip IV.; - works intended, apparently, only to flatter the pretensions of - royalty, but whose consequences we shall find when we come to the - “Valiente Justiciero” of Moreto, Calderon’s “Médico de su Honra,” - and similar poetical delineations of Pedro’s character in the - seventeenth century. The ballads, however, it should be noticed, - are almost always true to the view of Pedro given by Ayala;--the - most striking exception that I remember being the admirable - ballad beginning “A los pies de Don Enrique,” Quinta Parte de - Flor de Romances, recopilado por Sebastian Velez de Guevara, - Burgos, 1594, 18mo. - -The last of the royal chronicles that it is necessary to notice with -much particularity is that of John the Second, which begins with -the death of Henry the Third, and comes down to the death of John -himself, in 1454.[273] It was the work of several hands, and contains -internal evidence of having been written at different periods. Alvar -Garcia de Santa María, no doubt, prepared the account of the first -fourteen years, or to 1420, constituting about one third of the whole -work;[274] after which, in consequence perhaps of his attachment to the -Infante Ferdinand, who was regent during the minority of the king, and -subsequently much disliked by him, his labors ceased.[275] Who wrote -the next portion is not known;[276] but from about 1429 to 1445, John -de Mena, the leading poet of his time, was the royal annalist, and, if -we are to trust the letters of one of his friends, seems to have been -diligent in collecting materials for his task, if not earnest in all -its duties.[277] Other parts have been attributed to Juan Rodriguez del -Padron, a poet, and Diego de Valera,[278] a knight and gentleman often -mentioned in the Chronicle itself, and afterwards himself employed as -a chronicler by Queen Isabella. - - [273] The first edition of the “Crónica del Señor Rey D. Juan, - segundo de este Nombre,” was printed at Logroño, (1517, fol.,) - and is the most correct of the old editions that I have used. The - best of all, however, is the beautiful one printed at Valencia, - by Monfort, in 1779, folio, to which may be added an Appendix by - P. Fr. Liciniano Saez, Madrid, 1786, folio. - - [274] See his Prólogo, in the edition of 1779, p. xix., and - Galindez de Carvajal, Prefacion, p. 19. - - [275] He lived as late as 1444; for he is mentioned more than - once in that year, in the Chronicle. See Ann. 1444, Capp. 14, 15. - - [276] Prefacion de Carvajal. - - [277] Fernan Gomez de Cibdareal, physician to John II., Centon - Epistolario, Madrid, 1775, 4to, Epist. 23 and 74; a work, - however, whose genuineness I shall be obliged to question - hereafter. - - [278] Prefacion de Carvajal. Poetry of Rodriguez del Padron is - found in the Cancioneros Generales; and of Diego de Valera there - is “La Crónica de España abreviada por Mandado de la muy Poderosa - Señora Doña Isabel, Reyna de Castilla,” made in 1481, when its - author was sixty-nine years old, and printed, 1482, 1493, 1495, - etc.,--a chronicle of considerable merit for its style, and of - some value, notwithstanding it is a compendium, for the original - materials it contains towards the end, such as two eloquent and - bold letters by Valera himself to John II., on the troubles - of the time, and an account of what he personally saw of the - last days of the Great Constable, (Parte IV. c. 125,)--the last - and the most important chapter in the book. (Mendez, p. 138. - Capmany, Eloquencia Española, Madrid, 1786, 8vo, Tom. I. p. 180.) - It should be added, that the editor of the Chronicle of John - II. (1779) thinks Valera was the person who finally arranged - and settled that Chronicle; but the opinion of Carvajal seems - the more probable. Certainly, I hope Valera had no hand in the - praise bestowed on himself in the excellent story told of him - in the Chronicle, (Ann. 1437, Cap. 3,) showing how, in presence - of the king of Bohemia, at Prague, he defended the honor of his - liege lord, the king of Castile. A treatise of a few pages on - Providence, by Diego de Valera, printed in the edition of the - “Vision Deleytable,” of 1489, and reprinted, almost entire, in - the first volume of Capmany’s “Eloquencia Española,” is worth - reading, as a specimen of the grave didactic prose of the - fifteenth century. A Chronicle of Ferdinand and Isabella, by - Valera, which may well have been the best and most important of - his works, has never been printed. Gerónimo Gudiel, Compendio de - Algunas Historias de España, Alcalá, 1577, fol., f. 101. b. - -But whoever may have been at first concerned in it, the whole work was -ultimately committed to Fernan Perez de Guzman, a scholar, a courtier, -and an acute as well as a witty observer of manners, who survived John -the Second, and probably arranged and completed the Chronicle of his -master’s reign, as it was published by order of the Emperor Charles -the Fifth;[279] some passages having been added as late as the time -of Ferdinand and Isabella, who are more than once alluded to in it as -reigning sovereigns.[280] It is divided, like the Chronicle of Ayala, -which may naturally have been its model, into the different years of -the king’s reign, each year being subdivided into chapters; and it -contains a great number of important original letters and other curious -contemporary documents,[281] from which, as well as from the care used -in its compilation, it has been considered more absolutely trustworthy -than any Castilian chronicle that preceded it.[282] - - [279] From the phraseology of Carvajal, (p. 20,) we may infer - that Fernan Perez de Guzman is chiefly responsible for the style - and general character of the Chronicle. “Cogió de cada uno lo - que le pareció mas probable, y abrevió algunas cosas, tomando la - sustancia dellas; porque así creyó que convenia.” He adds, that - this Chronicle was much valued by Isabella, who was the daughter - of John II. - - [280] Anno 1451, Cap. 2, and Anno 1453, Cap. 2. See, also, some - remarks on the author of this Chronicle by the editor of the - “Crónica de Alvaro de Luna,” (Madrid, 1784, 4to,) Prólogo, pp. - xxv.-xxviii. - - [281] For example, 1406, Cap. 6, etc.; 1430, Cap. 2; 1441, Cap. - 30; 1453, Cap. 3. - - [282] “Es sin duda la mas puntual i la mas segura de quantas - se conservan antiguas.” Mondejar, Noticia y Juicio de los mas - Principales Historiadores de España, Madrid, 1746, fol., p. 112. - -In its general air, there is a good deal to mark the manners of -the age, such as accounts of the court ceremonies, festivals, and -tournaments that were so much loved by John; and its style, though, on -the whole, unornamented and unpretending, is not wanting in variety, -spirit, and solemnity. Once, on occasion of the fall and ignominious -death of the Great Constable Alvaro de Luna, whose commanding spirit -had, for many years, impressed itself on the affairs of the kingdom, -the honest chronicler, though little favorable to that haughty -minister, seems unable to repress his feelings, and, recollecting -the treatise on the “Fall of Princes,” which Ayala had made known in -Spain, breaks out, saying: “O John Boccaccio, if thou wert now alive, -thy pen surely would not fail to record the fall of this strenuous and -bold gentleman among those of the mighty princes whose fate thou hast -set forth. For what greater example could there be to every estate? -what greater warning? what greater teaching to show the revolutions -and movements of deceitful and changing fortune? O blindness of the -whole race of man! O unexpected fall in the affairs of this our world!” -And so on through a chapter of some length.[283] But this is the only -instance of such an outbreak in the Chronicle. On the contrary, its -general tone shows, that historical composition in Spain was about to -undergo a permanent change; for, at its very outset, we have regular -speeches attributed to the principal personages it records,[284] such -as had been introduced by Ayala; and, through the whole, a well-ordered -and documentary record of affairs, tinged, no doubt, with some of the -prejudices and passions of the troublesome times to which it relates, -but still claiming to have the exactness of regular annals, and -striving to reach the grave and dignified style suited to the higher -purposes of history.[285] - - [283] Anno 1453, Cap. 4. - - [284] Anno 1406, Capp. 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, and 15; Anno 1407, Capp. 6, - 7, 8, etc. - - [285] This Chronicle affords us, in one place that I have - noticed,--probably not the only one,--a curious instance of the - way in which the whole class of Spanish chronicles to which it - belongs were sometimes used in the poetry of the old ballads we - so much admire. The instance to which I refer is to be found in - the account of the leading event of the time, the violent death - of the Great Constable Alvaro de Luna, which the fine ballad - beginning “Un Miercoles de mañana” takes plainly from this - Chronicle of John II. The two are worth comparing throughout, and - their coincidences can be properly felt only when this is done; - but a little specimen may serve to show how curious is the whole. - - The Chronicle (Anno 1453, Cap. 2) has it as follows:--“E vidó a - Barrasa, Caballerizo del Principe, e llamóle é dixóle: ‘Ven acá, - Barrasa, tu estas aqui mirando la muerte que me dan. Yo te ruego, - que digas al Principe mi Señor, que dé mejor gualardon a sus - criados, quel Rey mi Señor mandó dar á mi.’” - - The ballad, which is cited as anonymous by Duran, but is found - in Sepúlveda’s Romances, etc., 1584, (f. 204,) though not in the - edition of 1551, gives the same striking circumstance, a little - amplified, in these words:-- - - Y vido estar a Barrasa, - Que al Principe le servia, - De ser su cavallerizo, - Y vino a ver aquel dia - A executar la justicia, - Que el maestre recebia: - “Ven aca, hermano Barrasa, - Di al Principe por tu vida, - Que de mejor galardon - A quien sirve a su señoria, - Que no el, que el Rey mi Señor - Me ha mandado dar este dia.” - - So near do the old Spanish chronicles often come to being poetry, - and so near do the old Spanish ballads often come to being - history. But the Chronicle of John II. is, I think, the last to - which this remark can be applied. - - If I felt sure of the genuineness of the “Centon Epistolario” of - Gomez de Cibdareal, I should here cite the one hundred and third - Letter as the material from which the Chronicle’s account was - constructed. - -Of the disturbed and corrupt reign of Henry the Fourth, who, at one -period, was nearly driven from his throne by his younger brother, -Alfonso, we have two chronicles: the first by Diego Enriquez de -Castillo, who was attached, both as chaplain and historiographer, to -the person of the legitimate sovereign; and the other by Alonso de -Palencia, chronicler to the unfortunate pretender, whose claims were -sustained only three years, though the Chronicle of Palencia, like that -of Castillo, extends over the whole period of the regular sovereign’s -reign, from 1454 to 1474. They are as unlike each other as the fates -of the princes they record. The Chronicle of Castillo is written with -great plainness of manner, and, except in a few moral reflections, -chiefly at the beginning and the end, seems to aim at nothing but the -simplest and even the driest narrative;[286] while the Chronicle of -Palencia, who had been educated in Italy under the Greeks recently -arrived there from the ruins of the Eastern Empire, is in a false -and cumbrous style; a single sentence frequently stretching through -a chapter, and the whole work showing that he had gained little but -affectation and bad taste under the teachings of John Lascaris and -George of Trebizond.[287] Both works, however, are too strictly annals -to be read for any thing but the facts they contain. - - [286] When the first edition of Castillo’s Chronicle was - published I do not know. It is treated as if still only in - manuscript by Mondejar in 1746 (Advertencias, p. 112); by - Bayer, in his notes to Nic. Antonio, (Bib. Vetus, Vol. II. p. - 349,) which, though written a little earlier, were published - in 1788; and by Ochoa, in the notes to the inedited poems of - the Marquis of Santillana, (Paris, 1844, 8vo, p. 397,) and in - his “Manuscritos Españoles” (1844, p. 92, etc.). The very good - edition, however, prepared by Josef Miguel de Flores, published - in Madrid, by Sancha, (1787, 4to,) as a part of the Academy’s - collection, is announced, on its title-page, as the _second_. If - these learned men have all been mistaken on such a point, it is - very strange. - - [287] For the use of a manuscript copy of Palencia’s Chronicle I - am indebted to my friend, W. H. Prescott, Esq., who notices it - among the materials for his “Ferdinand and Isabella,” (Vol. I. p. - 136, Amer. ed.,) with his accustomed acuteness. A full life of - Palencia is to be found in Juan Pellicer, Bib. de Traductores, - (Madrid, 1778, 4to,) Second Part, pp. 7-12. - -Similar remarks must be made about the chronicles of the reign of -Ferdinand and Isabella, extending from 1474 to 1504-16. There are -several of them, but only two need be noticed. One is by Andres -Bernaldez, often called “El Cura de los Palacios,” because he was -curate in the small town of that name, though the materials for his -Chronicle were, no doubt, gathered chiefly in Seville, the neighbouring -splendid capital of Andalusia, to whose princely Archbishop he was -chaplain. His Chronicle, written, it should seem, chiefly to please -his own taste, extends from 1488 to 1513. It is honest and sincere, -reflecting faithfully the physiognomy of his age; its credulity, its -bigotry, and its love of show. It is, in truth, such an account of -passing events as would be given by one who was rather curious about -them than a part of them; but who, from accident, was familiar with -whatever was going on among the leading spirits of his time and -country.[288] No portion of it is more valuable and interesting than -that which relates to Columbus, to whom he devotes thirteen chapters, -and for whose history he must have had excellent materials, since not -only was Deza, the Archbishop, to whose service he was attached, one -of the friends and patrons of Columbus, but Columbus himself, in 1496, -was a guest at the house of Bernaldez, and intrusted to him manuscripts -which, he says, he has employed in this very account; thus placing his -Chronicle among the documents important alike in the history of America -and of Spain.[289] - - [288] I owe my knowledge of this manuscript, also, to my friend - Mr. Prescott, whose copy I have used. It consists of one hundred - and forty-four chapters, and the credulity and bigotry of its - author, as well as his better qualities, may be seen in his - accounts of the Sicilian Vespers, (Cap. 193,) of the Canary - Islands, (Cap. 64,) of the earthquake of 1504, (Cap. 200,) and - of the election of Leo X. (Cap. 239). Of his prejudice and - partiality, his version of the bold visit of the great Marquis of - Cadiz to Isabella, (Cap. 29,) when compared with Mr. Prescott’s - notice of it, (Part I. Chap. 6,) will give an idea; and of his - intolerance, the chapters (110-114) about the Jews afford proof - even beyond what might be expected from his age. There is an - imperfect article about Bernaldez in N. Antonio, Bib. Nov., but - the best materials for his life are in the egotism of his own - Chronicle. - - [289] The chapters about Columbus are 118-131. The account - of Columbus’s visit to him is in Cap. 131, and that of the - manuscripts intrusted to him is in Cap. 123. He says, that, when - Columbus came to court in 1496, he was dressed as a Franciscan - monk, and wore the cord _por devocion_. He cites Sir John - Mandeville’s Travels, and seems to have read them (Cap. 123); a - fact of some significance, when we bear in mind his connection - with Columbus. - -The other chronicle of the time of Ferdinand and Isabella is that of -Fernando del Pulgar, their Councillor of State, their Secretary, and -their authorized Annalist. He was a person of much note in his time, -but it is not known when he was born or where he died.[290] That he -was a man of wit and letters, and an acute observer of life, we know -from his notices of the Famous Men of Castile; from his Commentary on -the Coplas of Mingo Revulgo; and from a few spirited and pleasant -letters to his friends that have been spared to us. But as a chronicler -his merit is inconsiderable.[291] The early part of his work is not -trustworthy, and the latter part, beginning in 1482 and ending in 1490, -is brief in its narrative, and tedious in the somewhat showy speeches -with which it is burdened. The best of it is its style, which is -often dignified; but it is the style of history, rather than that of -a chronicle; and, indeed, the formal division of the work, according -to its subjects, into three parts, as well as the philosophical -reflections with which it is adorned, show that the ancients had been -studied by its author, and that he was desirous to imitate them.[292] -Why he did not continue his account beyond 1490, we cannot tell. It has -been conjectured that he died then.[293] But this is a mistake, for we -have a well-written and curious report, made by him to the queen, on -the whole Moorish history of Granada, after the capture of the city in -1492.[294] - - [290] A notice of him is prefixed to his “Claros Varones” - (Madrid, 1775, 4to); but it is not much. We know from himself - that he was an old man in 1490. - - [291] The first edition of his Chronicle, published by an - accident, as if it were the work of the famous Antonio de - Lebrija, appeared in 1565, at Valladolid. But the error was soon - discovered, and in 1567 it was printed anew, at Saragossa, with - its true author’s name. The only other edition of it, and by far - the best of the three, is the beautiful one, Valencia, 1780, - folio. See the Prólogo to this edition for the mistake by which - Pulgar’s Chronicle was attributed to Lebrija. - - [292] Read, for instance, the long speech of Gomez Manrique to - the inhabitants of Toledo. (Parte II. c. 79.) It is one of the - best, and has a good deal of merit as an oratorical composition, - though its Roman tone is misplaced in such a chronicle. It is - a mistake, however, in the publisher of the edition of 1780 to - suppose that Pulgar first introduced these formal speeches into - the Spanish. They occur, as has been already observed, in the - Chronicles of Ayala, eighty or ninety years earlier. - - [293] “Indicio harto probable de que falleció ántes de la toma de - Granada,” says Martinez de la Rosa, “Hernan Perez del Pulgar, el - de las Hazañas.” Madrid, 1834, 8vo, p. 229. - - [294] This important document, which does Pulgar some honor as - a statesman, is to be found at length in the Seminario Erudito, - Madrid, 1788, Tom. XII. pp. 57-144. - -The Chronicle of Ferdinand and Isabella by Pulgar is the last instance -of the old style of chronicling that should now be noticed; for though, -as we have already observed, it was long thought for the dignity of -the monarchy that the stately forms of authorized annals should be -kept up, the free and picturesque spirit that gave them life was no -longer there. Chroniclers were appointed, like Fernan de Ocampo and -Mexia; but the true chronicling style was gone by, not to return. - - - - -CHAPTER X. - -CHRONICLES OF PARTICULAR EVENTS.--THE PASSO HONROSO.--THE SEGURO DE -TORDESILLAS.--CHRONICLES OF PARTICULAR PERSONS.--PERO NIÑO.--ALVARO DE -LUNA.--GONZALVO DE CÓRDOVA.--CHRONICLES OF TRAVELS.--CLAVIJO, COLUMBUS, -BALBOA, AND OTHERS.--ROMANTIC CHRONICLES.--RODERIC AND THE DESTRUCTION -OF SPAIN.--GENERAL REMARKS ON THE SPANISH CHRONICLES. - - -_Chronicles of Particular Events._--It should be borne in mind, that -we have thus far traced only the succession of what may be called the -general Spanish chronicles, which, prepared by royal hands or under -royal authority, have set forth the history of the whole country, from -its earliest beginnings and most fabulous traditions, down through -its fierce wars and divisions, to the time when it had, by the final -overthrow of the Moorish power, been settled into a quiet and compact -monarchy. From their subject and character, they are, of course, -the most important, and, generally, the most interesting, works of -the class to which they belong. But, as might be expected from the -influence they exercised and the popularity they enjoyed, they were -often imitated. Many chronicles were written on a great variety of -subjects, and many works in a chronicling style which yet never bore -the name. Most of them are of no value. But to the few that, from -their manner or style, deserve notice we must now turn for a moment, -beginning with those that refer to particular events. - -Two of these special chronicles relate to occurrences in the reign -of John the Second, and are not only curious in themselves and -for their style, but valuable, as illustrating the manners of the -time. The first, according to the date of its events, is the “Passo -Honroso,” or the Passage of Honor, and is a formal account of a -passage at arms which was held against all comers in 1434, at the -bridge of Orbigo, near the city of Leon, during thirty days, at a -moment when the road was thronged with knights passing for a solemn -festival to the neighbouring shrine of Santiago. The challenger -was Suero de Quiñones, a gentleman of rank, who claimed to be thus -emancipated from the service of wearing for a noble lady’s sake a chain -of iron around his neck every Thursday. The arrangements for this -extraordinary tournament were all made under the king’s authority. -Nine champions, _mantenedores_, we are told, stood with Quiñones, and -at the end of the thirty days it was found that sixty-eight knights -had adventured themselves against his claim; that six hundred and -twenty-seven encounters had taken place; and that sixty-six lances -had been broken;--one knight, an Aragonese, having been killed, and -many wounded, among whom were Quiñones and eight out of his nine -fellow-champions.[295] - - [295] Some account of the Passo Honroso is to be found among the - Memorabilia of the time in the “Crónica de Juan el IIº,” (ad Ann. - 1433, Cap. 5,) and in Zurita, “Anales de Aragon” (Lib. XIV. c. - 22). The book itself, “El Passo Honroso,” was prepared on the - spot, at Orbigo, by Delena, one of the authorized scribes of - John II.; and was abridged by Fr. Juan de Pineda, and published - at Salamanca, in 1588, and again at Madrid, under the auspices - of the Academy of History, in 1783 (4to). Large portions of the - original are preserved in it verbatim, as in sections 1, 4, 7, - 14, 74, 75, etc. In other parts, it seems to have been disfigured - by Pineda. (Pellicer, note to Don Quixote, Parte I. c. 49.) The - poem of “Esvero y Almedora,” in twelve cantos, by D. Juan María - Maury, (Paris, 1840, 12mo,) is founded on the adventures recorded - in this Chronicle, and so is the “Passo Honroso,” by Don Ángel de - Saavedra, Duque de Rivas, in four cantos, in the second volume of - his Works (Madrid, 1820-21, 2 tom. 12mo). - -Strange as all this may sound, and seeming to carry us back to the -fabulous days when the knights of romance - - “Jousted in Aspramont or Montalban,” - -and Rodamont maintained the bridge of Montpellier, for the sake of -the lady of his love, it is yet all plain matter of fact, spread -out in becoming style, by an eyewitness, with a full account of the -ceremonies, both of chivalry and of religion, that accompanied it. -The theory of the whole is, that Quiñones, in acknowledgment of being -prisoner to a noble lady, had, for some time, weekly worn her chains; -and that he was now to ransom himself from this _fanciful_ imprisonment -by the payment of a certain number of _real_ spears broken by him -and his friends in fair fight. All this, to be sure, is fantastic -enough. But the ideas of love, honor, and religion displayed in the -proceedings of the champions,[296] who hear mass devoutly every day, -and yet cannot obtain Christian burial for the Aragonese knight who -is killed, and in the conduct of Quiñones himself, who fasts each -Thursday, partly, it should seem, in honor of the Madonna, and partly -in honor of his lady,--these and other whimsical incongruities are -still more fantastic. They seem, indeed, as we read their record, to -be quite worthy of the admiration expressed for them by Don Quixote -in his argument with the wise canon,[297] but hardly worthy of any -other; so that we are surprised, at first, when we find them specially -recorded in the contemporary Chronicle of King John, and filling, long -afterwards, a separate chapter in the graver Annals of Zurita. And -yet such a grand tournament was an important event in the age when it -happened, and is highly illustrative of the contemporary manners.[298] -History and chronicle, therefore, alike did well to give it a place; -and, indeed, down to the present time, the curious and elaborate record -of the details and ceremonies of the Passo Honroso is of no little -value as one of the best exhibitions that remain to us of the genius of -chivalry, and as quite the best exhibition of what has been considered -the most characteristic of all the knightly institutions. - - [296] See Sections 23 and 64; and for a curious vow made by one - of the wounded knights, that he would never again make love to - nuns as he had done, see Sect. 25. - - [297] Don Quixote makes precisely such a use of the Passo Honroso - as might be expected from the perverse acuteness so often shown - by madmen,--one of the many instances in which we see Cervantes’s - nice observation of the workings of human nature. Parte I. c. 49. - - [298] Take the years immediately about 1434, in which the Passo - Honroso occurred, and we find four or five instances. (Crónica - de Juan el IIº, 1433, Cap. 2; 1434, Cap. 4; 1435, Capp. 3 and - 8; 1436, Cap. 4.) Indeed, the Chronicle is full of them; and in - several, the Great Constable Alvaro de Luna figures. - -The other work of the same period to which we have referred gives -us, also, a striking view of the spirit of the times; one less -picturesque, indeed, but not less instructive. It is called “El Seguro -de Tordesillas,” the Pledge or the Truce of Tordesillas, and relates -to a series of conferences held in 1439, between John the Second and -a body of his nobles, headed by his own son, who, in a seditious and -violent manner, interfered in the affairs of the kingdom, in order to -break down the influence of the Constable de Luna.[299] It receives -its peculiar name from the revolting circumstance, that, even in the -days of the Passo Honroso, and with some of the knights who figured -in that gorgeous show for the parties, true honor was yet sunk so -low in Spain, that none could be found on either side of this great -quarrel,--not even the King or the Prince,--whose word would be taken -as a pledge for the mere personal safety of those who should be engaged -in the discussions at Tordesillas. It was necessary, therefore, to find -some one not strictly belonging to either party, who, invested with -higher powers and even with supreme military control, should become the -depositary of the general faith, and, exercising an authority limited -only by his own sense of honor, be obeyed alike by the exasperated -sovereign and his rebellious subjects.[300] - - [299] The “Seguro de Tordesillas” was first printed at Milan, - 1611; but the only other edition, that of Madrid, 1784, (4to,) is - much better. - - [300] “Nos desnaturamos,” “We falsify our natures,” is the - striking old Castilian phrase used by the principal personages on - this occasion, and, among the rest, by the Constable Alvaro de - Luna, to signify that they are not, for the time being, bound to - obey even the king. Seguro, Cap. 3. - -This proud distinction was given to Pedro Fernandez de Velasco, -commonly called the Good or Faithful Count Haro; and the “Seguro de -Tordesillas,” prepared by him some time afterwards, shows how honorably -he executed the extraordinary trust. Few historical works can challenge -such absolute authenticity. The documents of the case, constituting the -chief part of it, are spread out before the reader; and what does not -rest on their foundation rests on that word of the Good Count to which -the lives of whatever was most distinguished in the kingdom had just -been fearlessly trusted. As might be expected, its characteristics are -simplicity and plainness, not elegance or eloquence. It is, in fact, -a collection of documents, but it is an interesting and a melancholy -record. The compact that was made led to no permanent good. The Count -soon withdrew, ill at ease, to his own estates; and in less than two -years his unhappy and weak master was assailed anew, and besieged in -Medina del Campo, by his rebellious family and their adherents.[301] -After this, we hear little of Count Haro, except that he continued to -assist the king from time to time, in his increasing troubles, until, -worn out with fatigue of body and mind, he retired from the world, -and passed the last ten years of his life in a monastery, which he -had himself founded, and where he died at the age of threescore and -ten.[302] - - [301] See Crónica de Juan el IIº, 1440-41 and 1444, Cap. 3. Well - might Manrique, in his beautiful Coplas on the instability of - fortune break forth,-- - - Que se hizo el Rey Don Juan? - Los Infantes de Aragon, - Que se hizieron? - Que fue de tanto galan, - Que fue de tanta invencion, - Como truxeron? - - Luis de Aranda’s commentary on this passage is good, and well - illustrates the old Chronicle;--a rare circumstance in such - commentaries on Spanish poetry. - - [302] Pulgar (Claros Varones de Castilla, Madrid, 1775, 4to, - Título 3) gives a beautiful character of him. - - * * * * * - -_Chronicles of Particular Persons._--But while remarkable _events_, -like the Passage of Arms at Orbigo and the Pledge of Tordesillas, were -thus appropriately recorded, the remarkable _men_ of the time could -hardly fail occasionally to find fit chroniclers. - -Pero Niño, Count de Buelna, who flourished between 1379 and 1453, is -the first of them. He was a distinguished naval and military commander -in the reigns of Henry the Third and John the Second; and his Chronicle -is the work of Gutierre Diez de Gamez, who was attached to his person -from the time Pero Niño was twenty-three years old, and boasted the -distinction of being his standard-bearer in many a rash and bloody -fight. A more faithful chronicler, or one more imbued with knightly -qualities, can hardly be found. He may be well compared to the “Loyal -Serviteur,” the biographer of the Chevalier Bayard; and, like him, not -only enjoyed the confidence of his master, but shared his spirit.[303] -His accounts of the education of Pero Niño, and of the counsels given -him by his tutor;[304] of Pero’s marriage to his first wife, the lady -Constance de Guebara;[305] of his cruises against the corsairs and Bey -of Tunis;[306] of the part he took in the war against England, after -the death of Richard the Second, when he commanded an expedition that -made a descent on Cornwall, and, according to his chronicler, burnt -the town of Poole and took Jersey and Guernsey;[307] and finally, of -his share in the common war against Granada, which happened in the -latter part of his life and under the leading of the Constable Alvaro -de Luna,[308] are all interesting and curious, and told with simplicity -and spirit. But the most characteristic and amusing passages of the -Chronicle are, perhaps, those that relate, one to Pero Niño’s gallant -visit at Girfontaine, near Rouen, the residence of the old Admiral -of France, and his gay young wife,[309] and another to the course of -his true love for Beatrice, daughter of the Infante Don John, the -lady who, after much opposition and many romantic dangers, became his -second wife.[310] Unfortunately, we know nothing about the author of -all this entertaining history except what he modestly tells us in the -work itself; but we cannot doubt that he was as loyal in his life as he -claims to be in his true-hearted account of his master’s adventures and -achievements. - - [303] The “Crónica de Don Pero Niño” was cited early and often, - as containing important materials for the history of the reign - of Henry III., but was not printed until it was edited by Don - Eugenio de Llaguno Amirola (Madrid, 1782, 4to); who, however, has - omitted a good deal of what he calls “fábulas caballerescas.” - Instances of such omissions occur in Parte I. c. 15, Parte II. c. - 18, 40, etc., and I cannot but think Don Eugenio would have done - better to print the whole; especially the whole of what he says - he found in the part which he calls “La Crónica de los Reyes de - Inglaterra.” - - [304] See Parte I. c. 4. - - [305] Parte I. c. 14, 15. - - [306] Parte II. c. 1-14. - - [307] Parte II. c. 16-40. - - [308] Parte III. c. 11, etc. - - [309] Parte II. c. 31, 36. - - [310] Parte III. c. 3-5. The love of Pero Niño for the lady - Beatrice comes, also, into the poetry of the time; for he - employed Villasandino, a poet of the age of Henry III. and John - II., to write verses for him, addressed to her. See Castro, Bibl. - Esp., Tom. I. pp. 271 and 274. - -Next after Pero Niño’s Chronicle comes that of the Constable Don Alvaro -de Luna, the leading spirit of the reign of John the Second, almost -from the moment when, yet a child, he appeared as a page at court, -in 1408, down to 1453, when he perished on the scaffold, a victim to -his own haughty ambition, to the jealousy of the nobles nearest the -throne, and to the guilty weakness of the king. Who was the author of -the Chronicle is unknown.[311] But, from internal evidence, he was -probably an ecclesiastic of some learning, and certainly a retainer of -the Constable, much about his person, and sincerely attached to him. It -reminds us, at once, of the fine old Life of Wolsey by his Gentleman -Usher, Cavendish; for both works were written after the fall of the -great men whose lives they record, by persons who had served and loved -them in their prosperity, and who now vindicated their memories with a -grateful and trusting affection, which often renders even their style -of writing beautiful by its earnestness, and sometimes eloquent. The -Chronicle of the Constable is, of course, the oldest. It was composed -between 1453 and 1460, or about a century before Cavendish’s Wolsey. -It is grave and stately, sometimes too stately; but there is a great -air of reality about it. The account of the siege of Palenzuela,[312] -the striking description of the Constable’s person and bearing,[313] -the scene of the royal visit to the favorite in his castle at Escalona, -with the festivities that followed,[314] and, above all, the minute -and painful details of the Constable’s fall from power, his arrest, -and death,[315] show the freedom and spirit of an eyewitness, or, at -least, of a person entirely familiar with the whole matter about which -he writes. It is, therefore, among the richest and most interesting of -the old Spanish chronicles, and quite indispensable to one who would -comprehend the troubled spirit of the period to which it relates; the -period known as that of the _bandos_, or armed feuds, when the whole -country was broken into parties, each in warlike array, fighting for -its own head, but none fully submitting to the royal authority. - - [311] The “Crónica de Don Alvaro de Luna” was first printed at - Milan, 1546, (folio,) by one of the Constable’s descendants, but, - notwithstanding its value and interest, only one edition has been - published since,--that by Flores, the diligent Secretary of the - Academy of History (Madrid, 1784, 4to). “Privado del Rey” was the - common style of Alvaro de Luna;--“Tan privado,” as Manrique calls - him;--a word which almost became English, for Lord Bacon, in his - twenty-seventh Essay, says, “The modern languages give unto such - persons the names of _favorites_ or _privadoes_.” - - [312] Tít. 91-95, with the curious piece of poetry by the court - poet, Juan de Mena, on the wound of the Constable during the - siege. - - [313] Tít. 68. - - [314] Tít. 74, etc. - - [315] Tít. 127, 128. Some of the details--the Constable’s - composed countenance and manner, as he rode on his mule to the - place of death, and the awful silence of the multitude that - preceded his execution, with the universal sob that followed - it--are admirably set forth, and show, I think, that the author - witnessed what he so well describes. - -The last of the chronicles of individuals written in the spirit of -the elder times, that it is necessary to notice, is that of Gonzalvo -de Córdova, “the Great Captain,” who flourished from the period -immediately preceding the war of Granada to that which begins the reign -of Charles the Fifth; and who produced an impression on the Spanish -nation hardly equalled since the earlier days of that great Moorish -contest, the cyclus of whose heroes Gonzalvo seems appropriately to -close up. It was about 1526 that the Emperor Charles the Fifth desired -one of the favorite followers of Gonzalvo, Hernan Perez del Pulgar, to -prepare an account of his great captain’s life. A better person could -not easily have been selected. For he is not, as was long supposed, -Fernando del Pulgar, the wit and courtier of the time of Ferdinand and -Isabella.[316] Nor is the work he produced the poor and dull Chronicle -of the life of Gonzalvo first printed in 1580, or earlier, and often -attributed to him.[317] But he is that bold knight who, with a few -followers, penetrated to the very centre of Granada, then all in arms, -and, affixing an Ave Maria, with the sign of the cross, to the doors -of the principal mosque, consecrated its massive pile to the service -of Christianity, while Ferdinand and Isabella were still beleaguering -the city without; an heroic adventure, with which his country rang from -side to side at the time, and which has not since been forgotten either -in its ballads or in its popular drama.[318] - - [316] The mistake between the two Pulgars--one called Hernan - Perez del Pulgar, and the other Fernando del Pulgar--seems to - have been made while they were both alive. At least, I so infer - from the following good-humored passage in a letter from the - latter to his correspondent, Pedro de Toledo: “E pues quereis - saber como me aveis de llamar, sabed, Señor, que me llaman - Fernando, e me llamaban e llamaran Fernando, e si me dan el - Maestrazgo de Santiago, tambien Fernando,” etc. (Letra XII., - Madrid, 1775, 4to, p. 153.) For the mistakes made concerning them - in more modern times, see Nic. Antonio, (Bib. Nova, Tom. I. p. - 387,) who seems to be sadly confused about the whole matter. - - [317] This dull old anonymous Chronicle is the “Crónica del - Gran Capitan Gonzalo Fernandez de Córdoba y Aguilar, en la qual - se contienen las dos Conquistas del Reino de Napoles,” etc., - (Sevilla, 1580, fol.,)--which does not yet seem to be the first - edition, because, in the _licencia_, it is said to be printed, - “porque hay falta de ellas.” It contains some of the family - documents that are found in Pulgar’s account of him, and was - reprinted at least twice afterwards, viz., Sevilla, 1582, and - Alcalá, 1584. - - [318] Pulgar was permitted by his admiring sovereigns to have - his burial-place where he knelt when he affixed the Ave Maria to - the door of the mosque, and his descendants still preserve his - tomb there with becoming reverence, and still occupy the most - distinguished place in the choir of the cathedral, which was - originally granted to him and to his heirs male in right line. - (Alcántara, Historia de Granada, Granada, 1846, 8vo, Tom. IV., p. - 102; and the curious documents collected by Martinez de la Rosa - in his “Hernan Perez del Pulgar,” pp. 279-283, for which see next - note.) The oldest play known to me on the subject of Hernan Perez - del Pulgar’s achievement is “El Cerco de Santa Fe,” in the first - volume of Lope de Vega’s “Comedias” (Valladolid, 1604, 4to). But - the one commonly represented is by an unknown author, and founded - on Lope’s. It is called “El Triunfo del Ave Maria,” and is said - to be “de un Ingenio de este Corte,” dating probably from the - reign of Philip IV. My copy of it is printed in 1793. Martinez - de la Rosa speaks of seeing it, and of the strong impression it - produced on his youthful imagination. - -As might be expected from the character of its author,--who, to -distinguish him from the courtly and peaceful Pulgar, was well called -“He of the Achievements,” _El de las Hazañas_,--the book he offered to -his monarch is not a regular life of Gonzalvo, but rather a rude and -vigorous sketch of him, entitled “A Small Part of the Achievements of -that Excellent Person called the Great Captain,” or, as is elsewhere -yet more characteristically said, “of the achievements and solemn -virtues of the Great Captain, both in peace and war.”[319] The modesty -of the author is as remarkable as his adventurous spirit. He is hardly -seen at all in his narrative, while his love and devotion to his great -leader give a fervor to his style, which, notwithstanding a frequent -display of very unprofitable learning, renders his work both curious -and striking, and brings out his hero in the sort of bold relief in -which he appeared to the admiration of his contemporaries. Some parts -of it, notwithstanding its brevity, are remarkable even for the details -they afford; and some of the speeches, like that of the Alfaquí to -the distracted parties in Granada,[320] and that of Gonzalvo to the -population of the Abbaycin,[321] savor of eloquence as well as wisdom. -Regarded as the outline of a great man’s character, few sketches have -more an air of truth; though, perhaps, considering the adventurous and -warlike lives both of the author and his subject, nothing in the book -is more remarkable than the spirit of humanity that pervades it.[322] - - [319] This Life of the Great Captain, by Pulgar, was printed - at Seville, by Cromberger, in 1527; but only one copy of - this edition--the one in the possession of the Royal Spanish - Academy--is now known to exist. A reprint was made from it at - Madrid, entitled “Hernan Perez del Pulgar,” 1834, 8vo, edited - by D. Fr. Martinez de la Rosa, with a pleasant Life of Pulgar - and valuable notes, so that we now have this very curious little - book in an agreeable form for reading,--thanks to the zeal and - persevering literary curiosity of the distinguished Spanish - statesman who discovered it. - - [320] Ed. Fr. Martinez de la Rosa, pp. 155, 156. - - [321] Ibid., pp. 159-162. - - [322] Hernan Perez del Pulgar, el de las Hazañas, was born in - 1451, and died in 1531. - - * * * * * - -_Chronicles of Travels._--In the same style with the histories of their -kings and great men, a few works should be noticed in the nature of -travels, or histories of travellers, though not always bearing the -name of Chronicles. - -The oldest of them, which has any value, is an account of a Spanish -embassy to Tamerlane, the great Tartar potentate and conqueror. Its -origin is curious. Henry the Third of Castile, whose affairs, partly in -consequence of his marriage with Catherine, daughter of Shakspeare’s -“time-honored Lancaster,” were in a more fortunate and quiet condition -than those of his immediate predecessors, seems to have been smitten -in his prosperity with a desire to extend his fame to the remotest -countries of the earth; and for this purpose, we are told, sought to -establish friendly relations with the Greek Emperor at Constantinople, -with the Sultan of Babylon, with Tamerlane or Timour Bec the Tartar, -and even with the fabulous Prester John of that shadowy India which was -then the subject of so much speculation. - -What was the result of all this widely spread diplomacy, so -extraordinary at the end of the fourteenth century, we do not know, -except that the first ambassadors sent to Tamerlane and Bajazet chanced -actually to be present at the great and decisive battle between those -two preponderating powers of the East, and that Tamerlane sent a -splendid embassy in return, with some of the spoils of his victory, -among which were two fair captives, who figure in the Spanish poetry -of the time.[323] King Henry was not ungrateful for such a tribute of -respect, and, to acknowledge it, despatched to Tamerlane three persons -of his court, one of whom, Ruy Gonzalez de Clavijo, has left us a -minute account of the whole embassy, its adventures and its results. -This account was first published by Argote de Molina, the careful -antiquary of the time of Philip the Second,[324] and was then called, -probably in order to give it a more winning title, “The Life of the -Great Tamerlane,”--_Vida del Gran Tamurlan_,--though it is, in fact, -a diary of the voyagings and residences of the ambassadors of Henry -the Third, beginning in May, 1403, when they embarked at Puerto Santa -María, near Cadiz, and ending in March, 1406, when they landed there on -their return. - - [323] Discurso hecho por Argote de Molina, sobre el Itinerario de - Ruy Gonzalez de Clavijo, Madrid, 1782, 4to, p. 3. - - [324] The edition of Argote de Molina was published in 1582; and - there is only one other, the very good one printed at Madrid, - 1782, 4to. - -In the course of it, we have a description of Constantinople, which is -the more curious because it is given at the moment when it tottered to -its fall;[325] of Trebizond, with its Greek churches and clergy;[326] -of Teheran, now the capital of Persia;[327] and of Samarcand, where -they found the great Conqueror himself, and were entertained by him -with a series of magnificent festivals continuing almost to the moment -of his death,[328] which happened while they were at his court, and -was followed by troubles embarrassing to their homeward journey.[329] -The honest Clavijo seems to have been well pleased to lay down his -commission at the feet of his sovereign, whom he found at Alcalá; and -though he lingered about the court for a year, and was one of the -witnesses of the king’s will at Christmas, yet on the death of Henry -he retired to Madrid, his native place, where he spent the last four -or five years of his life, and where, in 1412, he was buried in the -convent of Saint Francis, with his fathers, whose chapel he had piously -rebuilt.[330] - - [325] They were much struck with the works in mosaic in - Constantinople, and mention them repeatedly, pp. 51, 59, and - elsewhere. The reason why they did not, on the first day, see all - the relics they wished to see in the church of San Juan de la - Piedra is very quaint, and shows great simplicity of manners at - the imperial court: “The Emperor went to hunt, and left the keys - with the Empress his wife, and when she gave them, she forgot to - give those where the said relics were,” etc. p. 52. - - [326] Page 84, etc. - - [327] Page 118, etc. - - [328] Pages 149-198. - - [329] Page 207, etc. - - [330] Hijos de Madrid, Ilustres en Santidad, Dignidades, Armas, - Ciencias, y Artes, Diccionario Histórico, su Autor D. Joseph Ant. - Alvarez y Baena, Natural de la misma Villa; Madrid, 1789-91, 4 - tom. 4to;--a book whose materials, somewhat crudely put together, - are abundant and important, especially in what relates to the - literary history of the Spanish capital. A Life of Clavijo is to - be found in it, Tom. IV. p. 302. - -His travels will not, on the whole, suffer by a comparison with those -of Marco Polo or Sir John Mandeville; for, though his discoveries are -much less in extent than those of the Venetian merchant, they are, -perhaps, as remarkable as those of the English adventurer, while the -manner in which he has presented them is superior to that of either. -His Spanish loyalty and his Catholic faith are everywhere apparent. He -plainly believes that his modest embassy is making an impression of his -king’s power and importance, on the countless and careless multitudes -of Asia, which will not be effaced; while, in the luxurious capital of -the Greek empire, he seems to look for little but the apocryphal relics -of saints and apostles which then burdened the shrines of its churches. -With all this, however, we may be content, because it is national; but -when we find him filling the island of Ponza with buildings erected by -Virgil,[331] and afterwards, as he passes Amalfi, taking note of it -only because it contained the head of Saint Andrew,[332] we are obliged -to recall his frankness, his zeal, and all his other good qualities, -before we can be quite reconciled to his ignorance. Mariana, indeed, -intimates, that, after all, his stories are not to be wholly believed. -But, as in the case of other early travellers, whose accounts were -often discredited merely because they were so strange, more recent and -careful inquiries have confirmed Clavijo’s narrative; and we may now -trust to his faithfulness as much as to the vigilant and penetrating -spirit he shows constantly, except when his religious faith, or his -hardly less religious loyalty, interferes with its exercise.[333] - - [331] “Hay en ella grandes edificios de muy grande obra, que fizo - Virgilio.” p. 30. - - [332] All he says of Amalfi is, “Y en esta ciudad de Malfa dicen - que está la cabeza de Sant Andres.” p. 33. - - [333] Mariana says that the Itinerary contains “muchas otras - cosas asaz maravillosas, si verdaderas.” (Hist., Lib. XIX. - c. 11.) But Blanco White, in his “Variedades,” (Tom. I. pp. - 316-318,) shows, from an examination of Clavijo’s Itinerary, by - Major Rennell, and from other sources, that its general fidelity - may be depended upon. - -But the great voyagings of the Spaniards were not destined to be in -the East. The Portuguese, led on originally by Prince Henry, one -of the most extraordinary men of his age, had, as it were, already -appropriated to themselves that quarter of the world by discovering -the easy route of the Cape of Good Hope; and, both by the right of -discovery and by the provisions of the well-known Papal bull and -the equally well-known treaty of 1479, had cautiously cut off their -great rivals, the Spaniards, from all adventure in that direction; -leaving open to them only the wearisome waters that were stretched -out unmeasured towards the West. Happily, however, there was one -man to whose courage even the terrors of this unknown and dreaded -ocean were but spurs and incentives, and whose gifted vision, though -sometimes dazzled from the height to which he rose, could yet see, -beyond the waste of waves, that broad continent which his fervent -imagination deemed needful to balance the world. It is true, Columbus -was not born a Spaniard. But his spirit was eminently Spanish. His -loyalty, his religious faith and enthusiasm, his love of great and -extraordinary adventure, were all Spanish rather than Italian, and were -all in harmony with the Spanish national character, when he became a -part of its glory. His own eyes, he tells us, had watched the silver -cross, as it slowly rose, for the first time, above the towers of the -Alhambra, announcing to the world the final and absolute overthrow of -the infidel power in Spain;[334] and from that period,--or one even -earlier, when some poor monks from Jerusalem had been at the camp of -the two sovereigns before Granada, praying for help and protection -against the unbelievers in Palestine,--he had conceived the grand -project of consecrating the untold wealth he trusted to find in his -westward discoveries, by devoting it to the rescue of the Holy City -and sepulchre of Christ; thus achieving, by his single power and -resources, what all Christendom and its ages of crusades had failed to -accomplish.[335] - - [334] In the account of his first voyage, rendered to his - sovereigns, he says he was in 1492 at Granada, “adonde, este - presente año, á dos dias del mes de Enero, por fuerza de armas, - _vide_ poner las banderas reales de Vuestras Altezas en las - torres de Alfambra,” etc. Navarrete, Coleccion de los Viajes y - Descubrimientos que hicieron por Mar los Españoles desde Fines - del Siglo XV., Madrid, 1825, 4to, Tom. I. p. 1;--a work admirably - edited, and of great value, as containing the authentic materials - for the history of the discovery of America. Old Bernaldez, the - friend of Columbus, describes more exactly what Columbus saw: “E - mostraron en la mas alta torre primeramente el estandarte de Jesu - Cristo, que fue la Santa Cruz de plata, que el rey traia siempre - en la santa conquista consigo.” Hist. de los Reyes Católicos, - Cap. 102, MS. - - [335] This appears from his letter to the Pope, February, 1502, - in which he says, he had counted upon furnishing, in twelve - years, 10,000 horse and 100,000 foot soldiers for the conquest of - the Holy City, and that his undertaking to discover new countries - was with the view of spending the means he might there acquire in - this sacred service. Navarrete, Coleccion, Tom. II. p. 282. - -Gradually these and other kindred ideas took firm possession of his -mind, and are found occasionally in his later journals, letters, -and speculations, giving to his otherwise quiet and dignified style -a tone elevated and impassioned like that of prophecy. It is true, -that his adventurous spirit, when the mighty mission of his life was -upon him, rose above all this, and, with a purged vision and through -a clearer atmosphere, saw, from the outset, what he at last so -gloriously accomplished; but still, as he presses onward, there not -unfrequently break from him words which leave no doubt, that, in his -secret heart, the foundations of his great hopes and purposes were -laid in some of the most magnificent illusions that are ever permitted -to fill the human mind. He believed himself to be, in some degree at -least, inspired; and to be chosen of Heaven to fulfil certain of the -solemn and grand prophecies of the Old Testament.[336] He wrote to his -sovereigns in 1501, that he had been induced to undertake his voyages -to the Indies, not by virtue of human knowledge, but by a Divine -impulse, and by the force of Scriptural prediction.[337] He declared, -that the world could not continue to exist more than a hundred and -fifty-five years longer, and that, many a year before that period, he -counted the recovery of the Holy City to be sure.[338] He expressed -his belief, that the terrestrial paradise, about which he cites the -fanciful speculations of Saint Ambrose and Saint Augustin, would be -found in the southern regions of those newly discovered lands, which -he describes with so charming an amenity, and that the Orinoco was one -of the mystical rivers issuing from it; intimating, at the same time, -that, perchance, he alone of mortal men would, by the Divine will, be -enabled to reach and enjoy it.[339] In a remarkable letter of sixteen -pages, addressed to his sovereigns from Jamaica in 1503, and written -with a force of style hardly to be found in any thing similar at the -same period, he gives a moving account of a miraculous vision, which -he believed had been vouchsafed to him for his consolation, when at -Veragua, a few months before, a body of his men, sent to obtain salt -and water, had been cut off by the natives, thus leaving him outside -the mouth of the river in great peril. - - [336] One of the prophecies he supposed himself called on to - fulfil was that in the eighteenth Psalm. (Navarrete, Col., Tom. - I. pp. xlviii., xlix., note; Tom. II. pp. 262-266.) In King - James’s version, the passage stands thus:--“Thou hast made me the - head of the heathen; a people whom I have not known shall serve - me. As soon as they hear of me, they shall obey me; the strangers - shall submit themselves unto me.” vv. 43, 44. - - [337] “Ya dije que para la esecucion de la impresa de las Indias - no me aprovechó razon ni matematica ni mapamundos;--llenamente se - cumplió lo que dijo Isaías, y esto es lo que deseo de escrebir - aquí por le reducir á V. A. á memoria, y porque se alegren del - otro que yo le dije de Jerusalen por las mesmas autoridades, de - la qual impresa, si fe hay, tengo por muy cierto la vitoria.” - Letter of Columbus to Ferdinand and Isabella (Navarrete, Col., - Tom. II. p. 265). And elsewhere in the same letter he says: “Yo - dije que diria la razon que tengo de la restitucion de la Casa - Santa á la Santa Iglesia; digo que yo dejo todo mi navegar desde - edad nueva y las pláticas que yo haya tenido con tanta gente - en tantas tierras y de tantas setas, y dejo las tantas artes y - escrituras de que yo dije arriba; solamente me tengo á la Santa - y Sacra Escritura y á algunas autoridades proféticas de algunas - personas santas, que por revelacion divina han dicho algo desto.” - Ibid., p. 263. - - [338] “Segund esta cuenta, no falta, salvo ciento e cincuenta y - cinco años, para complimiento de siete mil, en los quales digo - arriba por las autoridades dichas que habrá de fenecer el mundo.” - Ibid., p. 264. - - [339] See the very beautiful passage about the Orinoco River, - mixed with prophetical interpretations, in his account of his - third voyage, to the King and Queen, (Navarrete, Col., Tom. I. - pp. 256, etc.,)--a singular mixture of practical judgment and - wild, dreamy speculation. “I believe,” he says, “that _there_ is - the terrestrial paradise, at which no man can arrive except by - the Divine will,”--“Creo, que allá es el Paraiso terrenal, adonde - no puede llegar nadie, salvo por voluntad divina.” The honest - Clavijo thought he had found another river of paradise on just - the opposite side of the earth, as he journeyed to Samarcand, - nearly a century before. Vida del Gran Tamorlan, p. 137. - -“My brother and the rest of the people,” he says, “were in a vessel -that remained within, and I was left solitary on a coast so dangerous, -with a strong fever and grievously worn down. Hope of escape was dead -within me. I climbed aloft with difficulty, calling anxiously and not -without many tears for help upon your Majesties’ captains from all -the four winds of heaven. But none made me answer. Wearied and still -moaning, I fell asleep, and heard a pitiful voice which said: ‘O fool, -and slow to trust and serve thy God, the God of all! What did He more -for Moses, or for David his servant? Ever since thou wast born, thou -hast been His especial charge. When He saw thee at the age wherewith -He was content, He made thy name to sound marvellously on the earth. -The Indies, which are a part of the world, and so rich, He gave them to -thee for thine own, and thou hast divided them unto others as seemed -good to thyself, for He granted thee power to do so. Of the barriers of -the great ocean, which were bound up with such mighty chains, He hath -given unto thee the keys. Thou hast been obeyed in many lands, and thou -hast gained an honored name among Christian men. What did He more for -the people of Israel when He led them forth from Egypt? or for David, -whom from a shepherd He made king in Judea? Turn thou, then, again unto -Him, and confess thy sin. His mercy is infinite. Thine old age shall -not hinder thee of any great thing. Many inheritances hath He, and very -great. Abraham was above a hundred years old when he begat Isaac; and -Sarah, was she young? Thou callest for uncertain help; answer, Who hath -afflicted thee so much and so often? God or the world? The privileges -and promises that God giveth, He breaketh not, nor, after he hath -received service, doth He say that thus was not his mind, and that His -meaning was other. Neither punisheth He, in order to hide a refusal of -justice. What He promiseth, that He fulfilleth, and yet more. And doth -the world thus? I have told thee what thy Maker hath done for thee, and -what He doth for all. Even now He in part showeth thee the reward of -the sorrows and dangers thou hast gone through in serving others.’ All -this heard I, as one half dead; but answer had I none to words so true, -save tears for my sins. And whosoever it might be that thus spake, he -ended, saying, ‘Fear not; be of good cheer; all these thy griefs are -written in marble, and not without cause.’ And I arose as soon as I -might, and at the end of nine days the weather became calm.”[340] - - [340] See the letter to Ferdinand and Isabella, concerning his - fourth and last voyage, dated, Jamaica, 7 July, 1503, in which - this extraordinary passage occurs. Navarrete, Col., Tom. I. p. - 303. - -Three years afterwards, in 1506, Columbus died at Valladolid, a -disappointed, broken-hearted old man; little comprehending what he had -done for mankind, and still less the glory and homage that through all -future generations awaited his name.[341] - - [341] To those who wish to know more of Columbus as a writer - than can be properly sought in a classical life of him like that - of Irving, I commend as precious: 1. The account of his first - voyage, addressed to his sovereigns, with the letter to Rafael - Sanchez on the same subject (Navarrete, Col., Tom. I. pp. 1-197); - the first document being extant only in an abstract, which - contains, however, large extracts from the original made by Las - Casas, and of which a very good translation appeared at Boston, - 1827 (8vo). Nothing is more remarkable, in the tone of these - narratives, than the devout spirit that constantly breaks forth. - 2. The account, by Columbus himself, of his third voyage, in a - letter to his sovereigns and in a letter to the nurse of Prince - John; the first containing several interesting passages showing - that he had a love for the beautiful in nature. (Navarrete, Col., - Tom. I. pp. 242-276.) 3. The letter to the sovereigns about - his fourth and last voyage, which contains the account of his - vision at Veragua. (Navarrete, Col., Tom. I. pp. 296-312.) 4. - Fifteen miscellaneous letters. (Ibid., Tom. I. pp. 330-352.) 5. - His speculations about the prophecies, (Tom. II. pp. 260-273,) - and his letter to the Pope (Tom. II. pp. 280-282). But whoever - would speak worthily of Columbus, or know what was most noble and - elevated in his character, will be guilty of an unhappy neglect, - if he fails to read the discussions about him by Alexander von - Humboldt; especially those in the “Examen Critique de l’Histoire - de la Géographie du Nouveau Continent,” (Paris, 1836-38, 8vo, - Vol. II. pp. 350, etc., Vol. III. pp. 227-262,)--a book no less - remarkable for the vastness of its views than for the minute - accuracy of its learning on some of the most obscure subjects - of historical inquiry. Nobody has comprehended the character - of Columbus as he has,--its generosity, its enthusiasm, its - far-reaching visions, which seemed watching beforehand for the - great scientific discoveries of the sixteenth century. - -But the mantle of his devout and heroic spirit fell on none of his -successors. The discoveries of the new continent, which was soon -ascertained to be no part of Asia, were indeed prosecuted with spirit -and success by Balboa, by Vespucci, by Hojeda, by Pedrárias Dávila, by -the Portuguese Magellanes, by Loaisa, by Saavedra, and by many more; -so that in twenty-seven years the general outline and form of the -New World were, through their reports, fairly presented to the Old. -But though some of these early adventurers, like Hojeda, were men -apparently of honest principles, who suffered much, and died in poverty -and sorrow, yet none had the lofty spirit of the original discoverer, -and none spoke or wrote with the tone of dignity and authority that -came naturally from a man whose character was so elevated, and whose -convictions and purposes were founded in some of the deepest and most -mysterious feelings of our religious nature.[342] - - [342] All relating to these adventures and voyages worth looking - at on the score of language or style is to be found in Vols. - III., IV., V., of Navarrete, Coleccion, etc., published by the - government, Madrid, 1829-37, but unhappily not continued since, - so as to contain the accounts of the discovery and conquest of - Mexico, Peru, etc. - - * * * * * - -_Romantic Chronicles._--It only remains now to speak of one other -class of the old chronicles; a class hardly represented in this period -by more than a single specimen, but that a very curious one, and one -which, by its date and character, brings us to the end of our present -inquiries, and marks the transition to those that are to follow. The -Chronicle referred to is that called “The Chronicle of Don Roderic, -with the Destruction of Spain,” and is an account, chiefly fabulous, -of the reign of King Roderic, the conquest of the country by the -Moors, and the first attempts to recover it in the beginning of the -eighth century. An edition is cited as early as 1511, and six in all -may be enumerated, including the last, which is of 1587; thus showing -a good degree of popularity, if we consider the number of readers in -Spain in the sixteenth century.[343] Its author is quite unknown. -According to the fashion of the times, it professes to have been -written by Eliastras, one of the personages who figures in it; but he -is killed in battle just before we reach the end of the book; and the -remainder, which looks as if it might really be an addition by another -hand, is in the same way ascribed to Carestes, a knight of Alfonso the -Catholic.[344] - - [343] My copy is of the edition of Alcalá de Henares, 1587, and - has the characteristic title, “Crónica del Rey Don Rodrigo, con - la Destruycion de España, y como los Moros la ganaron. Nuevamente - corregida. Contiene, demas de la Historia, muchas vivas Razones - y Avisos muy provechosos.” It is in folio, in double columns, - closely printed, and fills 225 leaves or 450 pages. - - [344] From Parte II. c. 237 to the end, containing the account - of the fabulous and loathsome penance of Don Roderic, with his - death. Nearly the whole of it is translated as a note to the - twenty-fifth canto of Southey’s “Roderic, the Last of the Goths.” - -Most of the names throughout the work are as imaginary as those of its -pretended authors; and the circumstances related are, generally, as -much invented as the dialogue between its personages, which is given -with a heavy minuteness of detail, alike uninteresting in itself, and -false to the times it represents. In truth, it is hardly more than -a romance of chivalry, founded on the materials for the history of -Roderic and Pelayo, as they still exist in the “General Chronicle of -Spain” and in the old ballads; so that, though we often meet what -is familiar to us about Count Julian, La Cava, and Orpas, the false -Archbishop of Seville, we find ourselves still oftener in the midst of -impossible tournaments[345] and incredible adventures of chivalry.[346] -Kings travel about like knights-errant,[347] and ladies in distress -wander from country to country,[348] as they do in “Palmerin of -England,” while, on all sides, we encounter fantastic personages, who -were never heard of anywhere but in this apocryphal Chronicle.[349] - - [345] See the grand _Torneo_ when Roderic is crowned, Parte I. - c. 27; the tournament of twenty thousand knights in Cap. 40; - that in Cap. 49, etc.;--all just as such things are given in - the books of chivalry, and eminently absurd here, because the - events of the Chronicle are laid in the beginning of the eighth - century, and tournaments were unknown till above two centuries - later. (A. P. Budik, Ursprung, Ausbildung, Abnahme, und Verfall - des Turniers, Wien, 1837, 8vo.) He places the first tournament - in 936. Clemencin thinks they were not known in Spain till after - 1131. Note to Don Quixote, Tom. IV. p. 315. - - [346] See the duels described, Parte II. c. 80 etc., 84 etc., 93. - - [347] The King of Poland is one of the kings that comes to the - court of Roderic “like a wandering knight so fair” (Parte I. c. - 39). One might be curious to know who was King of Poland about A. - D. 700. - - [348] Thus, the Duchess of Loraine comes to Roderic (Parte I. - c. 37) with much the same sort of a case that the Princess - Micomicona brings to Don Quixote. - - [349] Parte I. c. 234, 235, etc. - -The principle of such a work is, of course, nearly the same with that -of the modern historical romance. What, at the time it was written, -was deemed history was taken as its basis from the old chronicles, and -mingled with what was then the most advanced form of romantic fiction, -just as it has been since in the series of works of genius beginning -with Defoe’s “Memoirs of a Cavalier.” The difference is in the general -representation of manners, and in the execution, both of which are -now immeasurably advanced. Indeed, though Southey has founded much -of his beautiful poem of “Roderic, the Last of the Goths,” on this -old Chronicle, it is, after all, hardly a book that can be read. It -is written in a heavy, verbose style, and has a suspiciously monkish -prologue and conclusion, which look as if the whole were originally -intended to encourage the Romish doctrine of penance, or, at least, -were finally arranged to subserve that devout purpose.[350] - - [350] To learn through what curious transformations the same - ideas can be made to pass, it may be worth while to compare, in - the “Crónica General,” 1604, (Parte III. f. 6,) the original - account of the famous battle of Covadonga, where the Archbishop - Orpas is represented picturesquely coming upon his mule to the - cave in which Pelayo and his people lay, with the tame and - elaborate account evidently taken from it in this Chronicle of - Roderic (Parte II. c. 196); then with the account in Mariana, - (Historia, Lib. VII. c. 2,) where it is polished down into a sort - of dramatized history; and, finally, with Southey’s “Roderic, the - Last of the Goths,” (Canto XXIII.,) where it is again wrought - up to poetry and romance. It is an admirable scene both for - chronicling narrative and for poetical fiction to deal with; but - Alfonso the Wise and Southey have much the best of it, while a - comparison of the four will at once give the poor “Chronicle of - Roderic or the Destruction of Spain” its true place. - - Another work, something like this Chronicle, but still more - worthless, was published, in two parts, in 1592-1600, and seven - or eight times afterwards; thus giving proof that it long enjoyed - a degree of favor to which it was little entitled. It was written - by Miguel de Luna, in 1589, as appears by a note to the first - part, and is called “Verdadera Historia del Rey Rodrigo, con - la Perdida de España, y Vida del Rey Jacob Almanzor, traduzida - de Lengua Arábiga,” etc., my copy being printed at Valencia, - 1606, 4to. Southey, in his notes to his “Roderic,” (Canto IV.,) - is disposed to regard this work as an authentic history of the - invasion and conquest of Spain, coming down to the year of Christ - 761, and written in the original Arabic only two years later. - But this is a mistake. It is a bold and scandalous forgery, with - even less merit in its style than the elder Chronicle on the same - subject, and without any of the really romantic adventures that - sometimes give an interest to that singular work, half monkish, - half chivalrous. How Miguel de Luna, who, though a Christian, was - of an old Moorish family in Granada, and an interpreter of Philip - II., should have shown a great ignorance of the Arabic language - and history of Spain, or, showing it, should yet have succeeded - in passing off his miserable stories as authentic, is certainly - a singular circumstance. That such, however, is the fact, Conde, - in his “Historia de la Dominacion de los Arabes,” (Preface, p. - x.,) and Gayangos, in his “Mohammedan Dynasties of Spain,” (Vol. - I. p. viii.,) leave no doubt,--the latter citing it as a proof - of the utter contempt and neglect into which the study of Arabic - literature had fallen in Spain in the sixteenth and seventeenth - centuries. - -This is the last, and, in many respects, the worst, of the chronicles -of the fifteenth century, and marks but an ungraceful transition to -the romantic fictions of chivalry that were already beginning to -inundate Spain. But as we close it up, we should not forget, that -the whole series, extending over full two hundred and fifty years, -from the time of Alfonso the Wise to the accession of Charles the -Fifth, and covering the New World as well as the Old, is unrivalled -in richness, in variety, and in picturesque and poetical elements. -In truth, the chronicles of no other nation can, on such points, be -compared to them; not even the Portuguese, which approach the nearest -in original and early materials; nor the French, which, in Joinville -and Froissart, make the highest claims in another direction. For these -old Spanish chronicles, whether they have their foundations in truth -or in fable, always strike farther down than those of any other nation -into the deep soil of the popular feeling and character. The old -Spanish loyalty, the old Spanish religious faith, as both were formed -and nourished in the long periods of national trial and suffering, -are constantly coming out; hardly less in Columbus and his followers, -or even amidst the atrocities of the conquests in the New World, than -in the half-miraculous accounts of the battles of Hazinas and Tolosa, -or in the grand and glorious drama of the fall of Granada. Indeed, -wherever we go under their leading, whether to the court of Tamerlane, -or to that of Saint Ferdinand, we find the heroic elements of the -national genius gathered around us; and thus, in this vast, rich mass -of chronicles, containing such a body of antiquities, traditions, -and fables as has been offered to no other people, we are constantly -discovering, not only the materials from which were drawn a multitude -of the old Spanish ballads, plays, and romances, but a mine which has -been unceasingly wrought by the rest of Europe for similar purposes, -and still remains unexhausted.[351] - - [351] Two Spanish translations of chronicles should be here - remembered; one for its style and author, and the other for its - subject. - - The first is the “Universal Chronicle” of Felipe Foresto, a - modest monk of Bergamo, who refused the higher honors of his - Church, in order to be able to devote his life to letters, - and who died in 1520, at the age of eighty-six. He published, - in 1486, his large Latin Chronicle, entitled “Supplementum - Chronicarum”;--meaning rather a chronicle intended to supply all - needful historical knowledge, than one that should be regarded - as a supplement to other similar works. It was so much esteemed - at the time, that its author saw it pass through ten editions; - and it is said to be still of some value for facts stated nowhere - so well as on his personal authority. At the request of Luis - Carroz and Pedro Boyl, it was translated into Spanish by Narcis - Viñoles, the Valencian poet, known in the old Cancioneros for - his compositions both in his native dialect and in Castilian. An - earlier version of it into Italian, published in 1491, may also - have been the work of Viñoles, since he intimates that he had - made one; but his Castilian version was printed at Valencia, in - 1510, with a license from Ferdinand the Catholic, acting for his - daughter Joan. It is a large book, of nearly nine hundred pages, - in folio, entitled, “Suma de todas las Crónicas del Mundo,” and - though Viñoles hints it was a rash thing in him to write in - Castilian, his style is good and sometimes gives an interest - to his otherwise dry annals. Ximeno, Bib. Val., Tom. I. p. 61. - Fuster, Tom. I. p. 54. Diana Enam. de Polo, ed. 1802, p. 304. - Biographie Universelle, art. _Foresto_. - - The other Chronicle referred to is that of St. Louis, by - his faithful follower Joinville; the most picturesque of - the monuments for the French language and literature of the - thirteenth century. It was translated into Spanish by Jacques - Ledel, one of the suite of the French Princess Isabel de Bourbon, - when she went to Spain to become the wife of Philip II. Regarded - as the work of a foreigner, the version is respectable; and - though it was not printed till 1567, yet its whole tone prevents - it from finding an appropriate place anywhere except in the - period of the old Castilian chronicles. Crónica de San Luis, - etc., traducida por Jacques Ledel, Madrid, 1794, folio. - - - - -CHAPTER XI. - -THIRD CLASS.--ROMANCES OF CHIVALRY.--ARTHUR.--CHARLEMAGNE.--AMADIS DE -GAULA.--ITS DATE, AUTHOR, TRANSLATION INTO CASTILIAN, SUCCESS, AND -CHARACTER.--ESPLANDIAN.--FLORISANDO.--LISUARTE DE GRECIA.--AMADIS -DE GRECIA.--FLORISEL DE NIQUEA.--ANAXARTES.--SILVES DE LA -SELVA.--FRENCH CONTINUATION.--INFLUENCE OF THE FICTION.--PALMERIN DE -OLIVA.--PRIMALEON.--PLATIR.--PALMERIN DE INGLATERRA. - - -ROMANCES OF CHIVALRY.--The ballads of Spain belonged originally to -the whole nation, but especially to its less cultivated portions. -The chronicles, on the contrary, belonged to the proud and knightly -classes, who sought in such picturesque records, not only the glorious -history of their forefathers, but an appropriate stimulus to their -own virtues and those of their children. As, however, security was -gradually extended through the land, and the tendency to refinement -grew stronger, other wants began to be felt. Books were demanded, that -would furnish amusement less popular than that afforded by the ballads, -and excitement less grave than that of the chronicles. What was asked -for was obtained, and probably without difficulty; for the spirit of -poetical invention, which had been already thoroughly awakened in the -country, needed only to be turned to the old traditions and fables of -the early national chronicles, in order to produce fictions allied to -both of them, yet more attractive than either. There is, in fact, as we -can easily see, but a single step between large portions of several of -the old chronicles, especially that of Don Roderic, and proper romances -of chivalry.[352] - - [352] An edition of the “Chronicle of Don Roderic” is cited as - early as 1511; none of “Amadis de Gaula” earlier than 1510, - and this one uncertain. But “Tirant lo Blanch” was printed in - 1490, in the Valencian dialect, and the Amadis appeared perhaps - soon afterwards, in the Castilian; so that it is not improbable - the “Chronicle of Don Roderic” may mark, by the time of its - appearance, as well as by its contents and spirit, the change, of - which it is certainly a very curious monument. - -Such fictions, under ruder or more settled forms, had already existed -in Normandy, and perhaps in the centre of France, above two centuries -before they were known in the Spanish peninsula. The story of Arthur -and the Knights of his Round Table had come thither from Brittany -through Geoffrey of Monmouth, as early as the beginning of the twelfth -century.[353] The story of Charlemagne and his Peers, as it is found in -the Chronicle of the fabulous Turpin, had followed from the South of -France soon afterwards.[354] Both were, at first, in Latin, but both -were almost immediately transferred to the French, then spoken at the -courts of Normandy and England, and at once gained a wide popularity. -Robert Wace, born in the island of Jersey, gave in 1158 a metrical -history founded on the work of Geoffrey, which, besides the story of -Arthur, contains a series of traditions concerning the Breton kings, -tracing them up to a fabulous Brutus, the grandson of Æneas.[355] A -century later, or about 1270-1280, after less successful attempts by -others, the same service was rendered to the story of Charlemagne -by Adenés in his metrical romance of “Ogier le Danois,” the chief -scenes of which are laid either in Spain or in Fairy Land.[356] -These, and similar poetical inventions, constructed out of them by the -Trouveurs of the North, became, in the next age, materials for the -famous romances of chivalry in prose, which, during three centuries, -constituted no mean part of the vernacular literature of France, and, -down to our own times, have been the great mine of wild fables for -Ariosto, Spenser, Wieland, and the other poets of chivalry, whose -fictions are connected either with the stories of Arthur and his Round -Table, or with those of Charlemagne and his Peers.[357] - - [353] Warton’s Hist. of English Poetry, first Dissertation, with - the notes of Price, London, 1824, 4 vols. 8vo. Ellis’s Specimens - of Early English Metrical Romance, London, 1811, 8vo, Vol. I. - Turner’s Vindication of Ancient British Poems, London, 1803, 8vo. - - [354] Turpin, J., De Vitâ Caroli Magni et Rolandi, ed. S. Ciampi, - Florentiæ, 1822, 8vo. - - [355] Preface to the “Roman de Rou,” by Robert Wace, ed. F. - Pluquet, Paris, 1827, 8vo, Vol. I. - - [356] Letter to M. de Monmerqué, by Paulin Paris, prefixed to “Li - Romans de Berte aux Grans Piés,” Paris, 1836, 8vo. - - [357] See, on the whole subject, the Essays of F. W. Valentine - Schmidt; Jahrbücher der Literatur, Vienna, 1824-26, Bände XXVI. - p. 20, XXIX. p. 71, XXXI. p. 99, and XXXIII. p. 16. I shall have - occasion to use the last of these discussions, when speaking of - the Spanish romances belonging to the family of Amadis. - -At the period, however, to which we have alluded, and which ends about -the middle of the fourteenth century, there is no reasonable pretence -that any such form of fiction existed in Spain. There, the national -heroes continued to fill the imaginations of men and satisfy their -patriotism. Arthur was not heard of at all, and Charlemagne, when he -appears in the old Spanish chronicles and ballads, comes only as that -imaginary invader of Spain who sustained an inglorious defeat in the -gorges of the Pyrenees. But in the next century things are entirely -changed. The romances of France, it is plain, have penetrated into -the Peninsula, and their effects are visible. They were not, indeed, -at first, translated or versified; but they were imitated, and a new -series of fictions was invented, which was soon spread through the -world, and became more famous than either of its predecessors. - -This extraordinary family of romances, whose descendants, as Cervantes -says, were innumerable,[358] is the family of which Amadis is the -poetical head and type. Our first notice of it in Spain is from a grave -statesman, Ayala, the Chronicler and Chancellor of Castile, who, as we -have already seen, died in 1407.[359] But the Amadis is of an earlier -date than this fact necessarily implies, though not perhaps earlier -known in Spain. Gomez Eannes de Zurara, Keeper of the Archives of -Portugal in 1454, who wrote three striking chronicles relating to the -affairs of his own country, leaves no substantial doubt that the author -of the Amadis of Gaul was Vasco de Lobeira, a Portuguese gentleman who -was attached to the court of John the First of Portugal, was armed as a -knight by that monarch just before the battle of Aljubarrota, in 1385, -and died in 1403.[360] The words of the honest and careful annalist -are quite distinct on this point. He says he is unwilling to have his -true and faithful book, the “Chronicle of Count Pedro de Meneses,” -confounded with such stories as “the book of Amadis, which was made -entirely at the pleasure of one man, called Vasco de Lobeira, in the -time of the King Don Ferdinand; all the things in the said book being -invented by its author.”[361] - - [358] Don Quixote, in his conversation with the curate, (Parte - II. c. 1,) says, that, to defeat any army of two hundred thousand - men, it would only be necessary to have living “alguno de los - del inumerable linage de Amadis de Gaula,”--“any one of the - numberless descendants of Amadis de Gaul.” - - [359] Ayala, in his “Rimado de Palacio,” already cited, says:-- - - Plegomi otrosi oir muchas vegadas - Libros de devaneos e mentiras probadas, - Amadis e Lanzarote, e burlas a sacadas, - En que perdi mi tiempo á mui malas jornadas. - - [360] Barbosa, Bib. Lusitana, Lisboa, 1752, fol., Tom. III. - p. 775, and the many authorities there cited, none of which, - perhaps, is of much consequence except that of João de Barros, - who, being a careful historian, born in 1496, and citing an older - author than himself, adds something to the testimony in favor of - Lobeira. - - [361] Gomez de Zurara, in the outset of his “Chronicle of the - Conde Don Pedro de Meneses,” says that he wishes to write an - account only of “the things that happened in his own times, or of - those which happened so near to his own times that he could have - true knowledge of them.” This strengthens what he says concerning - Lobeira, in the passage cited in the text from the opening of - Chap. 63 of the Chronicle. The Ferdinand to whom Zurara there - refers was the father of John I. and died in 1383. The Chronicle - of Zurara is published by the Academy of Lisbon, in their - “Colecção de Libros Ineditos de Historia Portuguesa,” Lisboa, - 1792, fol., Tom. II. I have a curious manuscript “Dissertation - on the Authorship of the Amadis de Gaula,” by Father Sarmiento, - who wrote the valuable fragment of a History of Spanish Poetry - to which I have often referred. This learned Galician is much - confused and vexed by the question;--first denying that there is - any authority at all for saying Lobeira wrote the Amadis; then - asserting, that, _if_ Lobeira wrote it, he was a Galician; then - successively suggesting that it may have been written by Vasco - Perez de Camões, by the Chancellor Ayala, by Montalvo, or by the - Bishop of Cartagena;--all absurd conjectures, much connected with - his prevailing passion to refer the origin of all Spanish poetry - to Galicia. He does not seem to have been aware of the passage in - Gomez de Zurara. - -Whether Lobeira had any older popular tradition or fancies about -Amadis, to quicken his imagination and marshal him the way he should -go, we cannot now tell. He certainly had a knowledge of some of -the old French romances, such as that of the Saint Graal, or Holy -Cup,--the crowning fiction of the Knights of the Round Table,[362]--and -distinctly acknowledges himself to have been indebted to the Infante -Alfonso, who was born in 1370, for an alteration made in the character -of Amadis.[363] But that he was aided, as has been suggested, in any -considerable degree, by fictions known to have been in Picardy in -the eighteenth century, and claimed, without the slightest proof, to -have been there in the twelfth, is an assumption made on too slight -grounds to be seriously considered.[364] We must therefore conclude, -from the few, but plain, facts known in the case, that the Amadis was -originally a Portuguese fiction produced before the year 1400, and that -Vasco de Lobeira was its author. - - [362] The Saint Graal, or the Holy Cup which the Saviour used - for the wine of the Last Supper, and which, in the story of - Arthur, is supposed to have been brought to England by Joseph of - Arimathea, is alluded to in Amadis de Gaula (Lib. IV. c. 48). - Arthur himself--“El muy virtuoso rey Artur”--is spoken of in Lib. - I. c. 1, and in Lib. IV. c. 49, where “the Book of Don Tristan - and Launcelot” is also mentioned. Other passages might be cited, - but there can be no doubt the author of Amadis knew some of the - French fictions. - - [363] See the end of Chap. 40, Book I., in which he says, “The - Infante Don Alfonso of Portugal, having pity on the fair damsel, - [the Lady Briolana,] ordered it to be otherwise set down, and in - this was done what was his good pleasure.” - - [364] Ginguené, Hist. Litt. d’Italie, Paris, 1812, 8vo, Tom. V. - p. 62, note (4), answering the Preface of the Conte de Tressan to - his too free abridgment of the Amadis de Gaula, Œuvres, Paris, - 1787, 8vo, Tom. I. p. xxii. - -But the Portuguese original can no longer be found. At the end of the -sixteenth century, we are assured, it was extant in manuscript in the -archives of the Dukes of Arveiro at Lisbon; and the same assertion -is renewed, on good authority, about the year 1750. From this time, -however, we lose all trace of it; and the most careful inquiries render -it probable that this curious manuscript, about which there has been so -much discussion, perished in the terrible earthquake and conflagration -of 1755, when the palace occupied by the ducal family of Arveiro was -destroyed with all its precious contents.[365] - - [365] The fact that it was in the Arveiro collection is stated in - Ferreira, “Poemas Lusitanas,” (Lisboa, 1598, 4to,) where is the - sonnet, No. 33, by Ferreira in honor of Vasco de Lobeira, which - Southey, in his Preface to his “Amadis of Gaul,” (London, 1803, - 12mo, Vol. I. p. vii.,) erroneously attributes to the Infante - Antonio of Portugal, and thus would make it of consequence in the - present discussion. Nic. Antonio, who leaves no doubt as to the - authorship of the sonnet in question, refers to the same note in - Ferreira to prove the deposit of the manuscript of the Amadis; - so that the two constitute only _one_ authority, and not _two_ - authorities, as Southey supposes. (Bib. Vetus, Lib. VIII. cap. - vii. sect. 291.) Barbosa is more distinct. (Bib. Lusitana, Tom. - III. p. 775.) But there is a careful summing up of the matter - in Clemencin’s notes to Don Quixote, (Tom. I. pp. 105, 106,) - beyond which it is not likely we shall advance in our knowledge - concerning the fate of the Portuguese original. - -The Spanish version, therefore, stands for us in place of the -Portuguese original. It was made between 1492 and 1504, by Garcia -Ordoñez de Montalvo, governor of the city of Medina del Campo, and it -is possible that it was printed for the first time during the same -interval.[366] But no copy of such an edition is known to exist, -nor any one of an edition sometimes cited as having been printed at -Salamanca in 1510;[367] the earliest now accessible to us dating from -1519. Twelve more followed in the course of half a century, so that -the Amadis succeeded, at once, in placing the fortunes of its family -on the sure foundations of popular favor in Spain. It was translated -into Italian in 1546, and was again successful; six editions of it -appearing in that language in less than thirty years.[368] In France, -beginning with the first attempt in 1540, it became such a favorite, -that its reputation there has not yet wholly faded away;[369] while, -elsewhere in Europe, a multitude of translations and imitations have -followed, that seem to stretch out the line of the family, as Don -Quixote declares, from the age immediately after the introduction of -Christianity down almost to that in which he himself lived.[370] - - [366] In his Prólogo, Montalvo alludes to the conquest of Granada - in 1492, and to _both_ the Catholic sovereigns as still alive, - one of whom, Isabella, died in 1504. - - [367] I doubt whether the _Salamanca_ edition of 1510, mentioned - by Barbosa, (article _Vasco de Lobeira_,) is not, after all, the - edition of 1519 mentioned in Brunet as printed by _Antonio de - Salamanca_. The error in printing, or copying, would be small, - and nobody but Barbosa seems to have heard of the one he notices. - When the first edition appeared is quite uncertain. - - [368] Ferrario, Storia ed Analisi degli antichi Romanzi di - Cavalleria, (Milano, 1829, 8vo, Tom. IV. p. 242,) and Brunet’s - Manuel; to all which should be added the “Amadigi” of Bernardo - Tasso, 1560, constructed almost entirely from the Spanish - romance; a poem which, though no longer popular, had much - reputation in its time, and is still much praised by Ginguené. - - [369] For the old French version, see Brunet’s “Manuel du - Libraire”; but Count Tressan’s _rifacimento_, first printed in - 1779, has kept it familiar to French readers down to our own - times. In German it was known from 1583, and in English from - 1619; but the abridgment of it by Southey (London, 1803, 4 vols. - 12mo) is the only form of it in English that can now be read. - It was also translated into Dutch; and Castro, somewhere in his - “Biblioteca,” speaks of a Hebrew translation of it. - - [370] “Casi que _en nuestros dias_ vimos y comunicamos y oimos - al invencible y valeroso caballero D. Belianis de Grecia,” says - the mad knight, when he gets to be maddest, and follows out the - consequence of making Amadis live above two hundred years and - have descendants innumerable. Parte I. c. 13. - -The translation of Montalvo does not seem to have been very literal. -It was, as he intimates, much better than the Portuguese in its style -and phraseology; and the last part especially appears to have been more -altered than either of the others.[371] But the structure and tone of -the whole fiction are original, and much more free than those of the -French romances that had preceded it. The story of Arthur and the Holy -Cup is essentially religious; the story of Charlemagne is essentially -military; and both are involved in a series of adventures previously -ascribed to their respective heroes by chronicles and traditions, -which, whether true or false, were so far recognized as to prescribe -limits to the invention of all who subsequently adopted them. But the -Amadis is of imagination all compact. No period of time is assigned -to its events, except that they begin to occur soon after the very -commencement of the Christian era; and its geography is generally as -unsettled and uncertain as the age when its hero lived. It has no -purpose, indeed, but to set forth the character of a perfect knight, -and to illustrate the virtues of courage and chastity as the only -proper foundations of such a character. - - [371] Don Quixote, ed. Clemencin, Tom. I. p. 107, note. - -Amadis, in fulfilment of this idea, is the son of a merely imaginary -king of the imaginary kingdom of Gaula. His birth is illegitimate, -and his mother, Elisena, a British princess, ashamed of her child, -exposes him on the sea, where he is found by a Scottish knight, and -carried, first to England, and afterwards to Scotland. In Scotland -he falls in love with Oriana, the true and peerless lady, daughter -of an imaginary Lisuarte, King of England. Meantime, Perion, King -of Gaula, which has sometimes been conjectured to be a part of -Wales, has married the mother of Amadis, who has by him a second -son, named Galaor. The adventures of these two knights, partly in -England, France, Germany, and Turkey, and partly in unknown regions -and amidst enchantments,--sometimes under the favor of their ladies, -and sometimes, as in the hermitage of the Firm Island, under their -frowns,--fill up the book, which, after the broad journeyings of the -principal knights, and an incredible number of combats between them and -other knights, magicians, and giants, ends, at last, in the marriage of -Amadis and Oriana, and the overthrow of all the enchantments that had -so long opposed their love. - -The Amadis is admitted, by general consent, to be the best of all the -old romances of chivalry. One reason of this is, that it is more true -to the manners and spirit of the age of knighthood; but the principal -reason is, no doubt, that it is written with a more free invention, and -takes a greater variety in its tones than is found in other similar -works. It even contains, sometimes,--what we should hardly expect -in this class of wild fictions,--passages of natural tenderness and -beauty, such as the following description of the young loves of Amadis -and Oriana. - -“Now Lisuarte brought with him to Scotland Brisena, his wife, and a -daughter that he had by her when he dwelt in Denmark, named Oriana, -about ten years old, and the fairest creature that ever was seen; so -fair, that she was called ‘Without Peer,’ since in her time there -was none equal to her. And because she suffered much from the sea, -he consented to leave her there, asking the King, Languines, and his -Queen, that they would have care of her. And they were made very glad -therewith, and the Queen said, ‘Trust me that I will have such a care -of her as her mother would.’ And Lisuarte, entering into his ships, -made haste back into Great Britain, and found there some who had made -disturbances, such as are wont to be in such cases. And for this cause, -he remembered him not of his daughter, for some space of time. But at -last, with much toil that he took, he obtained his kingdom, and he was -the best king that ever was before his time, nor did any afterwards -better maintain knighthood in its rights, till King Arthur reigned, who -surpassed all the kings before him in goodness, though the number that -reigned between these two was great. - -“And now the author leaves Lisuarte reigning in peace and quietness in -Great Britain, and turns to the Child of the Sea, [Amadis,] who was -twelve years old, but in size and limbs seemed to be fifteen. He served -before the Queen, and was much loved of her, as he was of all ladies -and damsels. But as soon as Oriana, the daughter of King Lisuarte, came -there, she gave to her the Child of the Sea, that he should serve her, -saying, ‘This is a child who shall serve you.’ And she answered, that -it pleased her. And the child kept this word in his heart, in such wise -that it never afterwards left it; and, as this history truly says, he -was never, in all the days of his life, wearied with serving her. And -this their love lasted as long as they lasted; but the Child of the -Sea, who knew not at all how she loved him, held himself to be very -bold, in that he had placed his thoughts on her, considering both her -greatness and her beauty, and never so much as dared to speak any word -to her concerning it. And she, though she loved him in her heart, took -heed that she should not speak with him more than with another; but her -eyes took great solace in showing to her heart what thing in the world -she most loved. - -“Thus lived they silently together, neither saying aught to the other -of their estate. Then came, at last, the time when the Child of the -Sea, as I now tell you, understood within himself that he might take -arms, if any there were that would make him a knight. And this he -desired, because he considered that he should thus become such a man -and should do such things, as that either he should perish in them, -or, if he lived, then his lady should deal gently with him. And with -this desire he went to the King, who was in his garden, and, kneeling -before him, said, ‘Sire, if it please you, it is now time that I -should be made a knight.’ And the king said, ‘How, Child of the Sea, -do you already adventure to maintain knighthood? Know that it is a -light matter to come by it, but a weighty thing to maintain it. And -whoso seeks to get this name of knighthood and maintain it in its -honor, he hath to do so many and such grievous things, that often his -heart is wearied out; and if he should be such a knight, that, from -faint-heartedness or cowardice, he should fail to do what is beseeming, -then it would be better for him to die than to live in his shame. -Therefore I hold it good that you wait yet a little.’ But the Child of -the Sea said to him, ‘Neither for all this will I fail to be a knight; -for, if I had not already thought to fulfil this that you have said, my -heart would not so have striven to be a knight.’”[372] - - [372] Amadis de Gaula, Lib. I. c. 4. - -Other passages of quite a different character are no less striking, -as, for instance, that in which the fairy Urganda comes in her -fire-galleys,[373] and that in which the venerable Nasciano visits -Oriana;[374] but the most characteristic are those that illustrate the -spirit of chivalry, and inculcate the duties of princes and knights. -In these portions of the work, there is sometimes a lofty tone that -rises to eloquence,[375] and sometimes a sad one full of earnestness -and truth.[376] The general story, too, is more simple and effective -than the stories of the old French romances of chivalry. Instead -of distracting our attention by the adventures of a great number -of knights, whose claims are nearly equal, it is kept fastened on -two, whose characters are well preserved;--Amadis, the model of all -chivalrous virtues, and his brother, Don Galaor, hardly less perfect as -a knight in the field, but by no means so faithful in his loves;--and, -in this way, it has a more epic proportion in its several parts, and -keeps up our interest to the end more successfully than any of its -followers or rivals. - - [373] Lib. II. c. 17. - - [374] Lib. IV. c. 32. - - [375] See Lib. II. c. 13, Lib. IV. c. 14, and in many other - places, exhortations to knightly and princely virtues. - - [376] See the mourning about his own time, as a period of great - suffering (Lib. IV. c. 53). This could not have been a just - description of any part of the reign of the Catholic kings in - Spain; and must therefore, I suppose, have been in the original - work of Lobeira, and have referred to troubles in Portugal. - -The great objection to the Amadis is one that must be made to all of -its class. We are wearied by its length, and by the constant recurrence -of similar adventures and dangers, in which, as we foresee, the hero is -certain to come off victorious. But this length and these repetitions -seemed no fault when it first appeared, or for a long time afterwards. -For romantic fiction, the only form of elegant literature which modern -times have added to the marvellous inventions of Greek genius, was then -recent and fresh; and the few who read for amusement rejoiced even in -the least graceful of its creations, as vastly nearer to the hearts and -thoughts of men educated in the institutions of knighthood than any -glimpses they had thus far caught of the severe glories of antiquity. -The Amadis, therefore,--as we may easily learn by the notices of it -from the time when the great Chancellor of Castile mourned that he had -wasted his leisure over its idle fancies, down to the time when the -whole sect disappeared before the avenging satire of Cervantes,--was a -work of extraordinary popularity in Spain; and one which, during the -two centuries of its greatest favor, was more read than any other book -in the language. - -Nor should it be forgotten that Cervantes himself was not insensible -to its merits. The first book that, as he tells us, was taken from -the shelves of Don Quixote, when the curate, the barber, and the -housekeeper began the expurgation of his library, was the Amadis -de Gaula. “‘There is something mysterious about this matter,’ said -the curate; ‘for, as I have heard, this was the first book of -knight-errantry that was printed in Spain, and all the others have -had their origin and source here, so that, as the arch-heretic of so -mischievous a sect, I think he should, without a hearing, be condemned -to the fire.’ ‘No, Sir,’ said the barber, ‘for I, too, have heard that -it is the best of all the books of its kind that have been written, -and therefore, for its singularity, it ought to be forgiven.’ ‘That -is the truth,’ answered the curate, ‘and so let us spare it for the -present’”;--a decision which, on the whole, has been confirmed by -posterity, and precisely for the reason Cervantes has assigned.[377] - - [377] Don Quixote, Parte I. c. 6. Cervantes, however, is mistaken - in his bibliography, when he says that the Amadis was the _first_ - book of chivalry printed in Spain. It has often been noted that - this distinction belongs to “Tirant lo Blanch,” 1490; though - Southey (Omniana, London, 1812, 12mo, Tom. II. p. 219) thinks - “there is a total want of the spirit of chivalry” in it; and it - should further be noted now, as curious facts, that “Tirant lo - Blanch,” though it appeared in Valencian in 1490, in Castilian - in 1511, and in Italian in 1538, was yet, like the Amadis, - originally written in Portuguese, to please a Portuguese prince, - and that this Portuguese original is now lost;--all remarkable - coincidences. See note on Chap. XVII. of this Period. On the - point of the general merits of the Amadis, two opinions are worth - citing. The first, on its style, is by the severe anonymous - author of the “Diálogo de las Lenguas,” temp. Charles V., who, - after discussing the general character of the book, adds, “It - should be read by those who wish to learn our language.” (Mayans - y Siscar, Orígenes, Madrid, 1737, 12mo, Tom. II. p. 163.) The - other, on its invention and story, is by Torquato Tasso, who - says of the Amadis, “In the opinion of many, and particularly - in my own opinion, it is the most beautiful, and perhaps the - most profitable, story of its kind that can be read, because, in - its sentiment and tone, it leaves all others behind it, and, in - the variety of its incidents, yields to none written before or - since.” Apologia della Gerusalemme, Opere, Pisa, 1824, 8vo, Tom. - X. p. 7. - -But before Montalvo published his translation of the Amadis, and -perhaps before he had made it, he had written a continuation, which -he announced in the Preface to the Amadis as its fifth book. It is an -original work, about one third part as long as the Amadis, and contains -the story of the son of that hero and Oriana, named Esplandian, whose -birth and education had already been given in the story of his father’s -adventures, and constitute one of its pleasantest episodes. But, as the -curate says, when he comes to this romance in Don Quixote’s library, -“the merits of the father must not be imputed to the son.” The story of -Esplandian has neither freshness, spirit, nor dignity in it. It opens -at the point where he is left in the original fiction, just armed as -a knight, and is filled with his adventures as he wanders about the -world, and with the supernumerary achievements of his father Amadis, -who survives to the end of the whole, and sees his son made Emperor -of Constantinople; he himself having long before become King of Great -Britain by the death of Lisuarte.[378] - - [378] I possess of “Esplandian” the curious edition printed at - Burgos, in folio, double columns, 1587, by Simon de Aguaya. It - fills 136 leaves, and is divided into 184 chapters. As in the - other editions I have seen mentioned or have noticed in public - libraries, it is called “_Las Sergas_ del muy Esforçado Cavallero - Esplandian,” in order to give it the learned appearance of having - really been translated, as it pretends to be, from the Greek of - Master Elisabad;--“Sergas” being evidently an awkward corruption - of the Greek Ἔργα, _works_ or _achievements_. Allusions are made - to it, as to a continuation, in the Amadis, Lib. IV.; besides - which, in Lib. III. cap. 4, we have the birth and baptism - of Esplandian; in Lib. III. c. 8, his marvellous growth and - progress; and so on, till, in the last chapter of the romance, he - is armed as a knight. So that the Esplandian is, in the strictest - manner, a continuation of the Amadis. Southey (Omniana, Vol. I. - p. 145) thinks there is some error about the authorship of the - Esplandian. If there is, I think it is merely typographical. - -But, from the beginning, we find two mistakes committed, which run -through the whole work. Amadis, represented as still alive, fills a -large part of the canvas; while, at the same time, Esplandian is -made to perform achievements intended to be more brilliant than his -father’s, but which, in fact, are only more extravagant. From this -sort of emulation, the work becomes a succession of absurd and frigid -impossibilities. Many of the characters of the Amadis are preserved in -it, like Lisuarte, who is rescued out of a mysterious imprisonment by -Esplandian as his first adventure; Urganda, who, from a graceful fairy, -becomes a savage enchantress; and “the great master Elisabad,” a man of -learning and a priest, whom we first knew as the leech of Amadis, and -who is now the pretended biographer of his son, writing, as he says, in -Greek. But none of them, and none of the characters invented for the -occasion, are managed with skill. - -The scene of the whole work is laid chiefly in the East, amidst battles -with Turks and Mohammedans; thus showing to what quarter the minds -of men were turned when it was written, and what were the dangers -apprehended to the peace of Europe, even in its westernmost borders, -during the century after the fall of Constantinople. But all reference -to real history or real geography was apparently thought inappropriate, -as may be inferred from the circumstances, that a certain Calafria, -queen of the island of California, is made a formidable enemy of -Christendom through a large part of the story; and that Constantinople -is said at one time to have been besieged by three millions of heathen. -Nor is the style better than the story. The eloquence which is found in -many passages of the Amadis is not found at all in Esplandian. On the -contrary, large portions of it are written in a low and meagre style, -and the rhymed arguments prefixed to many of the chapters are any thing -but poetry, and quite inferior to the few passages of verse scattered -through the Amadis.[379] - - [379] There are two _Canciones_ in Amadis, (Lib. II. c. 8 and c. - 11,) which, notwithstanding something of the conceits of their - time, in the Provençal manner, are quite charming, and ought to - be placed among the similar _Canciones_ in the “Floresta” of Bohl - de Faber. The last begins,-- - - Leonoreta, fin roseta, - Blanca sobre toda flor; - Fin roseta, no me meta - En tal cuyta vuestro amor. - -The oldest edition of the Esplandian now known to exist was printed in -1526, and five others appeared before the end of the century; so that -it seems to have enjoyed its full share of popular favor. At any rate, -the example it set was quickly followed. Its principal personages were -made to figure again in a series of connected romances, each having -a hero descended from Amadis, who passes through adventures more -incredible than any of his predecessors, and then gives place, we know -not why, to a son still more extravagant, and, if the phrase may be -used, still more impossible, than his father. Thus, in the same year -1526, we have the sixth book of Amadis de Gaula, called “The History of -Florisando,” his nephew, which is followed by the still more wonderful -“Lisuarte of Greece, Son of Esplandian,” and the most wonderful “Amadis -of Greece,” making respectively the seventh and eighth books. To these -succeeded “Don Florisel de Niquea,” and “Anaxartes, Son of Lisuarte,” -whose history, with that of the children of the last, fills three -books; and finally we have the twelfth book, or “The Great Deeds in -Arms of that Bold Knight, Don Silves de la Selva,” which was printed in -1549; thus giving proof how extraordinary was the success of the whole -series, since its date allows hardly half a century for the production -in Spanish of all these vast romances, most of which, during the same -period, appeared in several, and some of them in many editions. - -Nor did the effects of the passion thus awakened stop here. Other -romances appeared, belonging to the same family, though not coming -into the regular line of succession, such as a duplicate of the -seventh book on Lisuarte, by the Canon Diaz, in 1526, and “Leandro the -Fair,” in 1563, by Pedro de Luxan, which has sometimes been called -the thirteenth; while in France, where they were all translated -successively, as they appeared in Spain, and became instantly famous, -the proper series of the Amadis romances was stretched out into -twenty-four books; after all which, a certain Sieur Duverdier, grieved -that many of them came to no regular catastrophe, collected the -scattered and broken threads of their multitudinous stories and brought -them all to an orderly sequence of conclusions, in seven large volumes, -under the comprehensive and appropriate name of the “Roman des Romans.” -And so ends the history of the Portuguese type of Amadis of Gaul, as -it was originally presented to the world in the Spanish romances of -chivalry; a fiction which, considering the passionate admiration it so -long excited, and the influence it has, with little merit of its own, -exercised on the poetry and romance of modern Europe ever since, is a -phenomenon that has no parallel in literary history.[380] - - [380] The whole subject of these twelve books of Amadis in - Spanish and the twenty-four in French belongs rather to - bibliography than to literary history, and is among the most - obscure points in both. The twelve Spanish books are said by - Brunet never to have been all seen by any one bibliographer. I - have seen, I believe, seven or eight of them, and own the only - two for which any real value has ever been claimed,--the Amadis - de Gaula, in the rare and well-printed edition of Venice, 1533, - folio, and the Esplandian in the more rare, but very coarse, - edition already referred to. When the earliest edition of either - of them, or of most of the others, was printed cannot, I presume, - be determined. One of Esplandian, of 1510, is mentioned by N. - Antonio, but by nobody else in the century and a half that have - since elapsed; and he is so inaccurate in such matters, that his - authority is not sufficient. In the same way, he is the only - authority for an edition in 1525 of the seventh book,--“Lisuarte - of Greece.” But, as the twelfth book was certainly printed in - 1549, the only fact of much importance is settled; viz., that the - whole twelve were published in Spain in the course of about half - a century. For all the curious learning on the subject, however, - see an article by Salvá, in the Repertorio Americano, Lóndres, - Agosto de 1827, pp. 29-39; F. A. Ebert, Lexicon, Leipzig, 1821, - 4to, Nos. 479-489; Brunet, article _Amadis_; and, especially, the - remarkable discussion, already referred to, by F. W. V. Schmidt, - in the Wiener Jahrbücher, Band XXXIII. 1826. - -The state of manners and opinion in Spain, however, which produced -this extraordinary series of romances, could hardly fail to be fertile -in other fictitious heroes, less brilliant, perhaps, in their fame -than was Amadis, but with the same general qualities and attributes. -And such, indeed, was the case. Many romances of chivalry appeared in -Spain, soon after the success of this their great leader; and others -followed a little later. The first of all of them in consequence, if -not in date, is “Palmerin de Oliva”; a personage the more important, -because he had a train of descendants that place him, beyond all doubt, -next in dignity to Amadis. - -The Palmerin has often, perhaps generally, been regarded as Portuguese -in its origin, and as the work of a lady; though the proof of each of -these allegations is somewhat imperfect. If, however, the facts be -really as they have been stated, not the least curious circumstance in -relation to them is, that, as in the case of the Amadis, the Portuguese -original of the Palmerin is lost, and the first and only knowledge we -have of its story is from the Spanish version. Even in this version, -we can trace it up no higher than to the edition printed at Seville in -1525, which was certainly not the first. - -But whenever it may have been first published, it was successful. -Several editions were soon printed in Spanish, and translations -followed in Italian and French. A continuation, too, appeared, -called, in form, “The Second Book of Palmerin,” which treats of the -achievements of his sons, Primaleon and Polendos, and of which we -have an edition in Spanish, dated in 1524. The external appearances of -the Palmerin, therefore, announce at once an imitation of the Amadis. -The internal are no less decisive. Its hero, we are told, was grandson -to a Greek emperor in Constantinople, but, being illegitimate, was -exposed by his mother, immediately after his birth, on a mountain, -where he was found, in an osier cradle among olive and palm trees, by -a rich cultivator of bees, who carried him home and named him Palmerin -de Oliva, from the place where he was discovered. He soon gives token -of his high birth; and, making himself famous by numberless exploits, -in Germany, England, and the East, against heathen and enchanters, he -at last reaches Constantinople, where he is recognized by his mother, -marries the daughter of the Emperor of Germany, who is the heroine -of the story, and inherits the crown of Byzantium. The adventures of -Primaleon and Polendos, which seem to be by the same unknown author, -are in the same vein, and were succeeded by those of Platir, grandson -of Palmerin, which were printed as early as 1533. All, taken together, -therefore, leave no doubt that the Amadis was their model, however much -they may have fallen short of its merits.[381] - - [381] Like whatever relates to the series of the Amadis, the - account of the Palmerins is very obscure. Materials for it are - to be found in N. Antonio, Bibliotheca Nova, Tom. II. p. 393; - in Salvá, Repertorio Americano, Tom. IV. pp. 39, etc.; Brunet, - article _Palmerin_; Ferrario, Romanzi di Cavalleria, Tom. IV. pp. - 256, etc.: and Clemencin, notes to Don Quixote, Tom. I. pp. 124, - 125. - -The next in the series, “Palmerin of England,” son of Don Duarde, -or Edward, King of England, and Flerida, a daughter of Palmerin de -Oliva, is a more formidable rival to the Amadis than either of its -predecessors. For a long time it was supposed to have been first -written in Portuguese, and was generally attributed to Francisco -Moraes, who certainly published it in that language at Evora, in 1567, -and whose allegation that he had translated it from the French, though -now known to be true, was supposed to be only a modest concealment of -his own merits. But a copy of the Spanish original, printed at Toledo, -in two parts, in 1547 and 1548, has been discovered, and at the end of -its dedication are a few verses addressed by the author to the reader, -announcing it, in an acrostic, to be the work of Luis Hurtado, known to -have been, at that time, a poet in Toledo.[382] - - [382] The fate of Palmerin of England has been a very strange - one. Until a few years since, the only question was, whether it - were originally French or Portuguese; for the oldest forms in - which it was then known to exist were, 1. the French by Jacques - Vicent, 1553, and the Italian by Mambrino Roseo, 1555, both of - which claimed to be translations from the Spanish; and, 2. the - Portuguese by Moraes, 1567, which claimed to be translated from - the French. In general, it was supposed to be the work of Moraes, - who, having long lived in France, was thought to have furnished - his manuscript to the French translator, (Barbosa, Bib. Lus., - Tom. II. p. 209,) and, under this persuasion, it was published as - his, in Portuguese, at Lisbon, in three handsome volumes, small - 4to, 1786, and in English, by Southey, London, 1807, 4 vols. - 12mo. Even Clemencin, (ed. Don Quixote, Tom. I. pp. 125, 126,) - if he did not think it to be the work of Moraes, had no doubt - that it was originally Portuguese. At last, however, Salvá found - a copy of the lost Spanish original, which settles the question, - and places the date of the work in 1547-48, Toledo, 3 tom. folio. - (Repertorio Americano, Tom. IV. pp. 42-46.) The little we know of - its author, Luis Hurtado, is to be found in Antonio, Bib. Nov., - Tom. II. p. 44, where one of his works, “Cortes del Casto Amor - y de la Muerte,” is said to have been printed in 1557. He also - translated the “Metamorphoses” of Ovid. - -Regarded as a work of art, Palmerin of England is second only to -the Amadis of Gaul, among the romances of chivalry. Like that -great prototype of the whole class, it has among its actors two -brothers,--Palmerin, the faithful knight, and Florian, the free -gallant,--and, like that, it has its great magician, Deliante, and its -perilous isle, where occur not a few of the most agreeable adventures -of its heroes. In some respects, it may be favorably distinguished -from its model. There is more sensibility to the beauties of natural -scenery in it, and often an easier dialogue, with quite as good a -drawing of individual characters. But it has greater faults; for its -movement is less natural and spirited, and it is crowded with an -unreasonable number of knights, and an interminable series of duels, -battles, and exploits, all of which claim to be founded on authentic -English chronicles and to be true history, thus affording new proof -of the connection between the old chronicles and the oldest romances. -Cervantes admired it excessively. “Let this Palm of England,” says his -curate, “be cared for and preserved, as a thing singular in its kind, -and let a casket be made for it, like that which Alexander found among -the spoils of Darius, and destined to keep in it the works of the poet -Homer”; praise, no doubt, much stronger than can now seem reasonable, -but marking, at least, the sort of estimation in which the romance -itself must have been generally held, when the Don Quixote appeared. - -But the family of Palmerin had no further success in Spain. A third -and fourth part, indeed, containing “The Adventures of Duardos the -Second,” appeared in Portuguese, written by Diogo Fernandez, in 1587; -and a fifth and sixth are said to have been written by Alvarez do -Oriente, a contemporary poet of no mean reputation. But the last two do -not seem to have been printed, and none of them were much known beyond -the limits of their native country.[383] The Palmerins, therefore, -notwithstanding the merits of one of them, failed to obtain a fame or a -succession that could enter into competition with those of Amadis and -his descendants. - - [383] Barbosa, Bib. Lusit., Tom. I. p. 652, Tom. II. p. 17. - - * * * * * - -The “Bibliotheca Hispana” has already been referred to more than -once in this chapter, and must so often be relied on as an authority -hereafter that some notice of its claims should be given before we -proceed farther. Its author, Nicolas Antonio, was born at Seville, in -1617. He was educated, first by the care of Francisco Jimenez, a blind -teacher, of singular merit, attached to the College of St. Thomas in -that city; and afterwards at Salamanca, where he devoted himself with -success to the study of history and canon law. When he had completed an -honorable career at the University, he returned home, and lived chiefly -in the Convent of the Benedictines, where he had been bred, and where -an abundant and curious library furnished him with means for study, -which he used with eagerness and assiduity. - -He was not, however, in haste to be known. He published nothing till -1659, when, at the age of forty-two, he printed a Latin treatise on -the Punishment of Exile, and, the same year, was appointed to the -honorable and important post of General Agent of Philip IV. at Rome. -But from this time to the end of his life he was in the public service, -and filled places of no little responsibility. In Rome he lived twenty -years, collecting about him a library said to have been second in -importance only to that of the Vatican, and devoting all his leisure to -the studies he loved. At the end of that period, he returned to Madrid, -and continued there in honorable employments till his death, which -occurred in 1684. He left behind him several works in manuscript, of -which his “Censura de Historias Fabulosas”--an examination and exposure -of several forged chronicles which had appeared in the preceding -century--was first published by Mayans y Siscar, and must be noticed -hereafter. - -But his great labor--the labor of his life and of his fondest -preference--was his literary history of his own country. He began it -in his youth, while he was still living with the Benedictines,--an -order in the Romish Church honorably distinguished by its zeal in the -history of letters,--and he continued it, employing on his task all the -resources which his own large library and the libraries of the capitals -of Spain and of the Christian world could furnish him, down to the -moment of his death. He divided it into two parts. The first, beginning -with the age of Augustus, and coming down to the year 1500, was found, -after his death, digested into the form of a regular history; but as -his pecuniary means, during his lifetime, had been entirely devoted to -the purchase of books, it was published by his friend Cardinal Aguirre, -at Rome, in 1696. The second part, which had been already printed -there, in 1672, is thrown into the form of a dictionary, whose separate -articles are arranged, like those in most other Spanish works of the -same sort, under the baptismal names of their subjects,--an honor shown -to the saints, which renders the use of such dictionaries somewhat -inconvenient, even when, as in the case of Antonio’s, full indexes are -added, which facilitate a reference to the respective articles by the -more common arrangement, according to the surnames. - -Of both parts an excellent edition was published in the original Latin, -at Madrid, in 1787 and 1788, in four volumes, folio, commonly known as -the “Bibliotheca Vetus et Nova of Nicolas Antonio”; the first being -enriched with notes by Perez Bayer, a learned Valencian, long the -head of the Royal Library at Madrid; and the last receiving additions -from Antonio’s own manuscripts that bring down his notices of Spanish -writers to the time of his death in 1684. In the earlier portion, -embracing the names of about thirteen hundred authors, little remains -to be desired, so far as the Roman or the ecclesiastical literary -history of Spain is concerned; but for the Arabic we must go to Casiri -and Gayangos, and for the Jewish to Castro and Amador de los Rios; -while, for the proper Spanish literature that existed before the reign -of Charles V., manuscripts discovered since the careful labors of Bayer -furnish important additions. In the latter portion, which contains -notices of nearly eight thousand writers of the best period of Spanish -literature, we have--notwithstanding the occasional inaccuracies and -oversights inevitable in a work so vast and so various--a monument of -industry, fairness, and fidelity, for which those who most use it will -always be most grateful. The two, taken together, constitute their -author, beyond all reasonable question, the father and founder of the -literary history of his country. - -See the lives of Antonio prefixed by Mayans to the “Historias -Fabulosas,” (Valencia, 1742, fol.,) and by Bayer to the “Bibliotheca -Vetus,” in 1787. - - - - -CHAPTER XII. - -OTHER ROMANCES OF CHIVALRY.--LEPOLEMO.--TRANSLATIONS FROM THE -FRENCH.--RELIGIOUS ROMANCES.--CAVALLERÍA CELESTIAL.--PERIOD DURING -WHICH ROMANCES OF CHIVALRY PREVAILED.--THEIR NUMBER.--THEIR FOUNDATION -IN THE STATE OF SOCIETY.--THE PASSION FOR THEM.--THEIR FATE. - - -Although the Palmerins failed as rivals of the great family of Amadis, -they were not without their influence and consideration. Like the -other works of their class, and more than most of them, they helped -to increase the passion for fictions of chivalry in general, which, -overbearing every other in the Peninsula, was now busily at work -producing romances, both original and translated, that astonish us -alike by their number, their length, and their absurdities. Of those -originally Spanish, it would not be difficult, after setting aside the -two series belonging to the families of Amadis and Palmerin, to collect -the names of about forty; all produced in the course of the sixteenth -century. Some of them are still more or less familiar to us, by their -names at least, such as “Belianis of Greece” and “Olivante de Laura,” -which are found in Don Quixote’s library, and “Felixmarte of Hircania,” -which was once, we are told, the summer reading of Dr. Johnson.[384] -But, in general, like “The Renowned Knight Cifar” and “The Bold -Knight Claribalte,” their very titles sound strangely to our ears, and -excite no interest when we hear them repeated. Most of them, it may be -added,--perhaps all,--deserve the oblivion into which they have fallen; -though some have merits which, in the days of their popularity, placed -them near the best of those already noticed. - - [384] Bishop Percy says that Dr. Johnson read “Felixmarte of - Hircania” quite through, when at his parsonage-house, one summer. - It may be doubted whether the book has been read through since by - any Englishman. Boswell’s Life, ed. Croker, London, 1831, 8vo, - Vol. I. p. 24. - -Among the latter is “The Invincible Knight Lepolemo, called the Knight -of the Cross and Son of the Emperor of Germany”; a romance, which was -published as early as 1525, and, besides drawing a continuation after -it, was reprinted thrice in the course of the century, and translated -into French and Italian.[385] It is a striking book among those of -its class, not only from the variety of fortunes through which the -hero passes, but, in some degree, from its general tone and purpose. -In his infancy Lepolemo is stolen from the shelter of the throne to -which he is heir, and completely lost for a long period. During this -time he lives among the heathen; at first in slavery, and afterwards -as an honorable knight-adventurer at the court of the Soldan. By his -courage and merit he rises to great distinction, and, while on a -journey through France, is recognized by his own family, who happen to -be there. Of course he is restored, amidst a general jubilee, to his -imperial estate. - - [385] Ebert cites the first edition known as of 1525; Bowle, in - the list of his authorities, gives one of 1534; Clemencin says - there is one of 1543 in the Royal Library at Madrid; and Pellicer - used one of 1562. Which of these I have I do not know, as the - colophon is gone and there is no date on the title-page; but its - type and paper seem to indicate an edition from Antwerp, while - all the preceding were printed in Spain. - -In all this, and especially in the wearisome series of its knightly -adventures, the Lepolemo has a sufficient resemblance to the other -romances of chivalry. But in two points it differs from them. In the -first place, it pretends to be translated by Pedro de Luxan, its real -author, from the Arabic of a wise magician attached to the person -of the Sultan; and yet it represents its hero throughout as a most -Christian knight, and his father and mother, the Emperor and Empress, -as giving the force of their example to encourage pilgrimages to the -Holy Sepulchre; making the whole story subserve the projects of the -Church, in the same way, if not to the same degree, that Turpin’s -Chronicle had done. And in the next place, it attracts our attention, -from time to time, by a picturesque air and touches of the national -manners, as, for instance, in the love passages between the Knight of -the Cross and the Infanta of France, in one of which he talks to her -at her grated balcony in the night, as if he were a cavalier of one of -Calderon’s comedies.[386] Except in these points, however, the Lepolemo -is much like its predecessors and followers, and quite as tedious. - - [386] See Parte I. c. 112, 144. - -Spain, however, not only gave romances of chivalry to the rest of -Europe in large numbers, but received also from abroad in some good -proportion to what she gave. From the first, the early French fictions -were known in Spain, as we have seen by the allusions to them in the -“Amadis de Gaula”; a circumstance that may have been owing either to -the old connection with France through the Burgundian family, a branch -of which filled the throne of Portugal, or to some strange accident, -like the one that carried “Palmerin de Inglaterra” to Portugal from -France rather than from Spain, its native country. At any rate, -somewhat later, when the passion for such fictions was more developed, -the French stories were translated or imitated in Spanish, and became -a part, and a favored part, of the literature of the country. “The -Romance of Merlin” was printed very early,--as early as 1498,--and “The -Romance of Tristan de Leonnais,” and that of the Holy Cup, “La Demanda -del Sancto Grial,” followed it as a sort of natural sequence.[387] - - [387] “Merlin,” 1498, “Artus,” 1501, “Tristan,” 1528, “Sancto - Grial,” 1555, and “Segunda Tabla Redonda,” 1567, would seem to - be the series of them given by the bibliographers. But the last - cannot, perhaps, now be found, though mentioned by Quadrio, - who, in his fourth volume, has a good deal of curious matter - on these old romances generally. I do not think it needful to - notice others, such as “Pierres y Magalona,” 1526, “Tallante de - Ricamonte,” and the “Conde Tomillas,”--the last referred to in - Don Quixote, but otherwise unknown. - -The rival story of Charlemagne, however,--perhaps from the greatness -of his name,--seems to have been, at last, more successful. It is a -translation directly from the French, and therefore gives none of -those accounts of his defeat at Roncesvalles by Bernardo del Carpio, -which, in the old Spanish chronicles and ballads, so gratified the -national vanity; and contains only the accustomed stories of Oliver -and Fierabras the Giant; of Orlando and the False Ganelon; relying, of -course, on the fabulous Chronicle of Turpin as its chief authority. -But, such as it was, it found great favor at the time it appeared; -and such, in fact, as Nicolas de Piamonte gave it to the world, in -1528, under the title of “The History of the Emperor Charlemagne,” -it has been constantly reprinted down to our own times, and has done -more than any other tale of chivalry to keep alive in Spain a taste -for such reading.[388] During a considerable period, however, a few -other romances shared its popularity. “Reynaldos de Montalban,” for -instance, always a favorite hero in Spain, was one of them;[389] and a -little later we find another, the story of “Cleomadez,” an invention of -a French queen in the thirteenth century, which first gave to Froissart -the love for adventure that made him a chronicler.[390] - - [388] Discussions on the origin of these stories may be found in - the Preface to the excellent edition of Einhard or Eginhard by - Ideler (Hamburg, 1839, 8vo, Band I. pp. 40-46). The very name, - _Roncesvalles_, does not seem to have occurred out of Spain till - much later. (Ibid., p. 169.) There is an edition of the “Carlo - Magno” printed at Madrid, in 1806, 12mo, evidently for popular - use, and I notice others since. - - [389] There are several editions of the First Part of it - mentioned in Clemencin’s notes to Don Quixote (Parte I. c. 6); - besides which, it had succession, in Parts II. and III., before - 1558. - - [390] The “Cleomadez,” one of the most popular stories in Europe - for three centuries, was composed by Adenez, at the dictation - of Marie, queen of Philip III. of France, who married her in - 1272. (Fauchet, Recueil, Paris, 1581, folio, Liv. II. c. 116.) - Froissart gives a simple account of his reading and admiring it - in his youth. Poésies, Paris, 1829, 8vo, pp. 206, etc. - -In most of the imitations and translations just noticed, the influence -of the Church is more visible than it is in the class of the original -Spanish romances. This is the case, from its very subject, with the -story of the Saint Graal, and with that of Charlemagne, which, so -far as it is taken from the pretended Archbishop Turpin’s Chronicle, -goes mainly to encourage founding religious houses and making pious -pilgrimages. But the Church was not satisfied with this indirect -and accidental influence. Romantic fiction, though overlooked in -its earliest beginnings, or perhaps even punished by ecclesiastical -authority in the person of the Greek Bishop to whom we owe the -first proper romance,[391] was now become important, and might be -made directly useful. Religious romances, therefore, were written. -In general, they were cast into the form of allegories, like “The -Celestial Chivalry,” “The Christian Chivalry,” “The Knight of the -Bright Star,” and “The Christian History and Warfare of the Stranger -Knight, the Conqueror of Heaven”;--all printed after the middle of the -sixteenth century, and during the period when the passion for romances -of chivalry was at its height.[392] - - [391] The “Ethiopica,” or the “Loves of Theagenes and Chariclea,” - written in Greek by Heliodorus, who lived in the time of the - Emperors Theodosius, Arcadius, and Honorius. It was well known - in Spain at the period now spoken of, for, though it was not - printed in the original before 1534, a Spanish translation of it - appeared as early as 1554, anonymously, and another, by Ferdinand - de Mena, in 1587, which was republished at least twice in the - course of thirty years. (Nic. Antonio, Bib. Nov., Tom. I. p. 380, - and Conde’s Catalogue, London, 1824, 8vo, Nos. 263, 264.) It has - been said that the Bishop preferred to give up his rank and place - rather than consent to have this romance, the work of his youth, - burned by public authority. Erotici Græci, ed. Mitscherlich, - Biponti, 1792, 8vo, Tom. II. p. viii. - - [392] The “Caballería Christiana” was printed in 1570, the - “Caballero de la Clara Estrella” in 1580, and the “Caballero - Peregrino” in 1601. Besides these, “Roberto el Diablo”--a story - which was famous throughout Europe in the fifteenth, sixteenth, - and seventeenth centuries, and has been revived in our own - times--was known in Spain from 1628, and probably earlier. (Nic. - Antonio, Bib. Nov., Tom. II. p. 251.) In France, it was printed - in 1496, (Ebert, No. 19175,) and in England by Wynkyn de Worde. - See Thomas, Romances, London, 1828, 12mo, Vol. I. p. v. - -One of the oldest of them is probably the most curious and remarkable -of the whole number. It is appropriately called “The Celestial -Chivalry,” and was written by Hierónimo de San Pedro, at Valencia, -and printed in 1554, in two thin folio volumes.[393] In his Preface, -the author declares it to be his object to drive out of the world the -profane books of chivalry; the mischief of which he illustrates by a -reference to Dante’s account of Francesca da Rimini. In pursuance of -this purpose, the First Part is entitled “The Root of the Fragrant -Rose”; which, instead of chapters, is divided into “Wonders,” -_Maravillas_, and contains an allegorical version of the most striking -stories in the Old Testament, down to the time of the good King -Hezekiah, told as the adventures of a succession of knights-errant. -The Second Part is divided, according to a similar conceit, into “The -Leaves of the Rose”; and, beginning where the preceding one ends, comes -down, with the same kind of knightly adventures, to the Saviour’s -death and ascension. The Third, which is promised under the name -of “The Flower of the Rose,” never appeared, nor is it now easy to -understand where consistent materials could have been found for its -composition; the Bible having been nearly exhausted in the two former -parts. But we have enough without it. - - [393] Who this Hierónimo de San Pedro was is a curious question. - The Privilegio declares he was a Valencian, alive in 1554; and in - the Bibliothecas of Ximeno and Fuster, under the year 1560, we - have Gerónimo Sempere given as the name of the well-known author - of the “Carolea,” a long poem printed in that year. But to him - is not attributed the “Caballería Celestial”; nor does any other - Hierónimo de San Pedro occur in these collections of lives, or - in Nicolas Antonio, or elsewhere that I have noted. Are they, - nevertheless, one and the same person, the name of the poet being - sometimes written Sentpere, Senct Pere, etc.? - -Its chief allegory, from the nature of its subject, relates to the -Saviour, and fills seventy-four out of the one hundred and one -“Leaves,” or chapters, that constitute the Second Part. Christ is -represented in it as the Knight of the Lion; his twelve Apostles as -the twelve Knights of his Round Table; John the Baptist as the Knight -of the Desert; and Lucifer as the Knight of the Serpent;--the main -history being a warfare between the Knight of the Lion and the Knight -of the Serpent. It begins at the manger of Bethlehem, and ends on -Mount Calvary, involving in its progress almost every detail of the -Gospel history, and often using the very words of Scripture. Every -thing, however, is forced into the forms of a strange and revolting -allegory. Thus, for the temptation, the Saviour wears the shield of -the Lion of the Tribe of Judah, and rides on the steed of Penitence, -given to him by Adam. He then takes leave of his mother, the daughter -of the Celestial Emperor, like a youthful knight going out to his first -passage at arms, and proceeds to the waste and desert country, where he -is sure to find adventures. On his approach, the Knight of the Desert -prepares himself to do battle; but, perceiving who it is, humbles -himself before his coming prince and master. The baptism of course -follows; that is, the Knight of the Lion is received into the order of -the Knighthood of Baptism, in the presence of an old man, who turns -out to be the Anagogic Master, or the Interpreter of all Mysteries, -and two women, one young and the other old. All three of them enter -directly into a spirited discussion concerning the nature of the rite -they have just witnessed. The old man speaks at large, and explains it -as a heavenly allegory. The old woman, who proves to be Sinagoga, or -the representation of Judaism, prefers the ancient ordinance provided -by Abraham, and authorized, as she says, by “that celebrated Doctor, -Moses,” rather than this new rite of baptism. The younger woman -replies, and defends the new institution. She is the Church Militant; -and the Knight of the Desert, deciding the point in her favor, Sinagoga -goes off full of anger, ending thus the first part of the action. - -The great Anagogic Master, according to an understanding previously -had with the Church Militant, now follows the Knight of the Lion to -the desert, and there explains to him the true mystery and efficacy of -Christian baptism. After this preparation, the Knight enters on his -first adventure and battle with the Knight of the Serpent, which, in -all its details, is represented as a duel,--one of the parties coming -into the lists accompanied by Abel, Moses, and David, and the other -by Cain, Goliath, and Haman. Each of the speeches recorded in the -Evangelists is here made an arrow-shot or a sword-thrust; the scene on -the pinnacle of the temple, and the promises made there, are brought in -as far as their incongruous nature will permit; and then the whole of -this part of the long romance is abruptly ended by the precipitate and -disgraceful flight of the Knight of the Serpent. - -This scene of the temptation, strange as it now seems to us, is, -nevertheless, not an unfavorable specimen of the entire fiction. The -allegory is almost everywhere quite as awkward and unmanageable as it -is here, and often leads to equally painful and disgusting absurdities. -On the other hand, we have occasionally proofs of an imagination that -is not ungraceful; just as the formal and extravagant style in which it -is written now and then gives token that its author was not insensible -to the resources of a language he, in general, so much abuses.[394] - - [394] It is prohibited in the Index Expurgatorius, Madrid, 1667, - folio, p. 863. - -There is, no doubt, a wide space between such a fiction as this of the -Celestial Chivalry and the comparatively simple and direct story of -the Amadis de Gaula; and when we recollect that only half a century -elapsed between the dates of these romances in Spain,[395] we shall be -struck with the fact that this space was very quickly passed over, and -that all the varieties of the romances of chivalry are crowded into a -comparatively short period of time. But we must not forget that the -success of these fictions, thus suddenly obtained, is spread afterwards -over a much longer period. The earliest of them were familiarly known -in Spain during the fifteenth century, the sixteenth is thronged with -them, and, far into the seventeenth, they were still much read; so that -their influence over the Spanish character extends through quite two -hundred years. Their number, too, during the latter part of the time -when they prevailed, was large. It exceeded seventy, nearly all of -them in folio; each often in more than one volume, and still oftener -repeated in successive editions;--circumstances which, at a period -when books were comparatively rare and not frequently reprinted, show -that their popularity must have been widely spread, as well as long -continued. - - [395] I take, as in fairness I ought, the date of the appearance - of Montalvo’s Spanish version, as the period of the first success - of the Amadis in Spain, and not the date of the Portuguese - original; the difference being about a century. - -This might, perhaps, have been, in some degree, expected in a country -where the institutions and feelings of chivalry had struck such firm -root as they had in Spain. For Spain, when the romances of chivalry -first appeared, had long been peculiarly the land of knighthood. The -Moorish wars, which had made every gentleman a soldier, necessarily -tended to this result; and so did the free spirit of the communities, -led on as they were, during the next period, by barons, who long -continued almost as independent in their castles as the king was on -his throne. Such a state of things, in fact, is to be recognized as -far back as the thirteenth century, when the Partidas, by the most -minute and painstaking legislation, provided for a condition of society -not easily to be distinguished from that set forth in the Amadis or -the Palmerin.[396] The poem and history of the Cid bear witness yet -earlier, indirectly indeed, but very strongly, to a similar state of -the country; and so do many of the old ballads and other records of -the national feelings and traditions that had come from the fourteenth -century. - - [396] See the very curious laws that constitute the twenty-first - Title of the second of the Partidas, containing the most minute - regulations; such as how a knight should be washed and dressed, - etc. - -But in the fifteenth, the chronicles are full of it, and exhibit it in -forms the most grave and imposing. Dangerous tournaments, in some of -which the chief men of the time, and even the kings themselves, took -part, occur constantly, and are recorded among the important events of -the age.[397] At the passage of arms near Orbigo, in the reign of John -the Second, eighty knights, as we have seen, were found ready to risk -their lives for as fantastic a fiction of gallantry as is recorded in -any of the romances of chivalry; a folly, of which this was by no means -the only instance.[398] Nor did they confine their extravagances to -their own country. In the same reign, two Spanish knights went as far -as Burgundy, professedly in search of adventures, which they strangely -mingled with a pilgrimage to Jerusalem; seeming to regard both as -religious exercises.[399] And as late as the time of Ferdinand and -Isabella, Fernando del Pulgar, their wise secretary, gives us the names -of several distinguished noblemen personally known to himself, who -had gone into foreign countries, “in order,” as he says, “to try the -fortune of arms with any cavalier that might be pleased to adventure it -with them, and so gain honor for themselves, and the fame of valiant -and bold knights for the gentlemen of Castile.”[400] - - [397] I should think there are accounts of twenty or thirty such - tournaments in the Chronicle of John II. There are many, also, in - that of Alvaro de Luna; and so there are in all the contemporary - histories of Spain during the fifteenth century. In the year - 1428, alone, four are recorded; two of which involved loss of - life, and all of which were held under the royal auspices. - - [398] See the account of the Passo Honroso already given, to - which add the accounts in the Chronicle of John II. of one which - was attempted in Valladolid, by Rui Diaz de Mendoza, on occasion - of the marriage of Prince Henry, in 1440, but which was stopped - by the royal order, in consequence of the serious nature of its - results. Chrónica de Juan el IIº, Ann. 1440, c. 16. - - [399] Ibid., Ann. 1435, c. 3. - - [400] Claros Varones de Castilla, Título XVII. He boasts, at - the same time, that more Spanish knights went abroad to seek - adventures than there were foreign knights who came to Castile - and Leon; a fact pertinent to this point. - -A state of society like this was the natural result of the -extraordinary development which the institutions of chivalry had then -received in Spain. Some of it was suited to the age, and salutary; -the rest was knight-errantry, and knight-errantry in its wildest -extravagance. When, however, the imaginations of men were so excited -as to tolerate and maintain, in their daily life, such manners and -institutions as these, they would not fail to enjoy the boldest and -most free representations of a corresponding state of society in -works of romantic fiction. But they went farther. Extravagant and -even impossible as are many of the adventures recorded in the books -of chivalry, they still seemed so little to exceed the absurdities -frequently witnessed or told of known and living men, that many persons -took the romances themselves to be true histories, and believed -them. Thus, Mexia, the trustworthy historiographer of Charles the -Fifth, says, in 1545, when speaking of “the Amadises, Lisuartes, and -Clarions,” that “their authors do waste their time and weary their -faculties in writing such books, which are read by all and believed by -many. For,” he goes on, “there be men who think all these things really -happened, just as they read or hear them, though the greater part of -the things themselves are sinful, profane, and unbecoming.”[401] And -Castillo, another chronicler, tells us gravely, in 1587, that Philip -the Second, when he married Mary of England, only forty years earlier, -promised, that, if King Arthur should return to claim the throne, he -would peaceably yield to that prince all his rights; thus implying, at -least in Castillo himself, and probably in many of his readers, a full -faith in the stories of Arthur and his Round Table.[402] - - [401] Historia Imperial, Anvers, 1561, folio, ff. 123, 124. The - first edition was of 1545. - - [402] Pellicer, note to Don Quixote, Parte I. c. 13. - -Such credulity, it is true, now seems impossible, even if we suppose it -was confined to a moderate number of intelligent persons; and hardly -less so, when, as in the admirable sketch of an easy faith in the -stories of chivalry by the innkeeper and Maritornes in Don Quixote, we -are shown that it extended to the mass of the people.[403] But before -we refuse our assent to the statements of such faithful chroniclers as -Mexia, on the ground that what they relate is impossible, we should -recollect, that, in the age when they lived, men were in the habit of -believing and asserting every day things no less incredible than those -recited in the old romances. The Spanish Church then countenanced a -trust in miracles, as of constant recurrence, which required of those -who believed them more credulity than the fictions of chivalry; and yet -how few were found wanting in faith! And how few doubted the tales that -had come down to them of the impossible achievements of their fathers -during the seven centuries of their warfare against the Moors, or the -glorious traditions of all sorts, that still constitute the charm of -their brave old chronicles, though we now see at a glance that many of -them are as fabulous as any thing told of Palmerin or Launcelot! - - [403] Parte I. c. 32. - -But whatever we may think of this belief in the romances of chivalry, -there is no question that in Spain, during the sixteenth century, there -prevailed a passion for them such as was never known elsewhere. The -proof of it comes to us from all sides. The poetry of the country is -full of it, from the romantic ballads that still live in the memory of -the people, up to the old plays that have ceased to be acted and the -old epics that have ceased to be read. The national manners and the -national dress, more peculiar and picturesque than in other countries, -long bore its sure impress. The old laws, too, speak no less plainly. -Indeed, the passion for such fictions was so strong, and seemed so -dangerous, that in 1553 they were prohibited from being printed, sold, -or read in the American colonies; and in 1555 the Cortes earnestly -asked that the same prohibition might be extended to Spain itself, and -that all the extant copies of romances of chivalry might be publicly -burned.[404] And finally, half a century later, the happiest work of -the greatest genius Spain has produced bears witness on every page to -the prevalence of an absolute fanaticism for books of chivalry, and -becomes at once the seal of their vast popularity and the monument of -their fate. - - [404] The abdication of the emperor happened the same year, and - prevented this and other petitions of the Cortes from being acted - upon. For the laws here referred to, and other proofs of the - prevalence and influence of the romances of chivalry down to the - time of the appearance of Don Quixote, see Clemencin’s Preface to - his edition of that work. - - - - -CHAPTER XIII. - -FOURTH CLASS.--DRAMA.--EXTINCTION OF THE GREEK AND ROMAN -THEATRES.--RELIGIOUS ORIGIN OF THE MODERN DRAMA.--EARLIEST NOTICE -OF IT IN SPAIN.--HINTS OF IT IN THE FIFTEENTH CENTURY.--MARQUIS OF -VILLENA.--CONSTABLE DE LUNA.--MINGO REVULGO.--RODRIGO COTA.--THE -CELESTINA.--FIRST ACT.--THE REMAINDER.--ITS STORY, CHARACTER, AND -EFFECTS ON SPANISH LITERATURE. - - -THE DRAMA.--The ancient theatre of the Greeks and Romans was continued -under some of its grosser and more popular forms at Constantinople, in -Italy, and in many other parts of the falling and fallen empire, far -into the Middle Ages. But, under whatever disguise it appeared, it was -essentially heathenish; for, from first to last, it was mythological, -both in tone and in substance. As such, of course, it was rebuked -and opposed by the Christian Church, which, favored by the confusion -and ignorance of the times, succeeded in overthrowing it, though not -without a long contest, and not until its degradation and impurity had -rendered it worthy of its fate and of the anathemas pronounced against -it by Tertullian and Saint Augustin.[405] - - [405] A Spanish Bishop of Barcelona, in the seventh century, was - deposed for merely permitting plays with allusions to heathen - mythology to be acted in his diocese. Mariana, Hist., Lib. VI. c. 3. - -A love for theatrical exhibitions, however, survived the extinction -of these poor remains of the classical drama; and the priesthood, -careful neither to make itself needlessly odious, nor to neglect any -suitable method of increasing its own influence, seems early to have -been willing to provide a substitute for the popular amusement it had -destroyed. At any rate, a substitute soon appeared; and, coming as -it did out of the ceremonies and commemorations of the religion of -the times, its appearance was natural and easy. The greater festivals -of the Church had for centuries been celebrated with whatever of -pomp the rude luxury of ages so troubled could afford, and they now -everywhere, from London to Rome, added a dramatic element to their -former attractions. Thus, the manger at Bethlehem, with the worship of -the shepherds and Magi, was, at a very early period, solemnly exhibited -every year by a visible show before the altars of the churches at -Christmas, as were the tragical events of the last days of the -Saviour’s life during Lent and at the approach of Easter. - -Gross abuses, dishonoring alike the priesthood and religion, were, no -doubt, afterwards mingled with these representations, both while they -were given in dumb show, and when, by the addition of dialogue, they -became what were called Mysteries; but, in many parts of Europe, the -representations themselves, down to a comparatively late period, were -found so well suited to the spirit of the times, that different Popes -granted especial indulgences to the persons who frequented them, and -they were in fact used openly and successfully, not only as means of -amusement, but for the religious edification of an ignorant multitude. -In England such shows prevailed for above four hundred years,--a longer -period than can be assigned to the English national drama, as we now -recognize it; while in Italy and other countries still under the -influence of the See of Rome, they have, in some of their forms, been -continued, for the edification and amusement of the populace, quite -down to our own times.[406] - - [406] Onésime le Roy, Études sur les Mystères, Paris, 1837, 8vo, - Chap. I. De la Rue, Essai sur les Bardes, les Jongleurs, etc., - Caen, 1834, 8vo, Vol. I. p. 159. Spence’s Anecdotes, ed. Singer, - London, 1820, 8vo, p. 397. The exhibition still annually made, - in the church of Ara Cœli, on the Capitol at Rome, of the manger - and the scene of the Nativity is, like many similar exhibitions - elsewhere, of the same class. - -That all traces of the ancient Roman theatre, except the architectural -remains which still bear witness to its splendor,[407] disappeared -from Spain in consequence of the occupation of the country by the -Arabs, whose national spirit rejected the drama altogether, cannot be -reasonably doubted. But the time when the more modern representations -were begun on religious subjects, and under ecclesiastical patronage, -can no longer be determined. It must, however, have been very early; -for, in the middle of the thirteenth century, such performances were -not only known, but had been so long practised, that they had already -taken various forms, and become disgraced by various abuses. This -is apparent from the code of Alfonso the Tenth, which was prepared -about 1260; and in which, after forbidding the clergy certain gross -indulgences, the law goes on to say: “Neither ought they to be makers -of buffoon plays,[408] that people may come to see them; and if other -men make them, clergymen should not come to see them, for such men -do many things low and unsuitable. Nor, moreover, should such things -be done in the churches; but rather we say that they should be cast -out in dishonor, without punishment to those engaged in them. For the -church of God was made for prayer, and not for buffoonery; as our -Lord Jesus Christ declared in the Gospel, that his house was called -the House of Prayer, and ought not to be made a den of thieves. But -exhibitions there be, that clergymen may make, such as that of the -birth of our Lord Jesus Christ, which shows how the angel came to the -shepherds and how he told them Jesus Christ was born, and, moreover, -of his appearance when the Three Kings came to worship him, and of his -resurrection, which shows how he was crucified and rose the third day. -Such things as these, which move men to do well, may the clergy make, -as well as to the end that men may have in remembrance that such things -did truly happen. But this must they do decently, and in devotion, -and in the great cities where there is an archbishop or bishop, and -under their authority, or that of others by them deputed, and not in -villages, nor in small places, nor to gain money thereby.”[409] - - [407] Remains of Roman theatres are found at Seville (Triana), - Tarragona, Murviedro (Saguntum), Merida, etc. - - [408] _Juegos por Escarnio_ is the phrase in the original. It is - obscure; but I have followed the intimation of Martinez de la - Rosa, who is a good authority, and who considers it to mean short - satirical compositions, from which arose, perhaps, afterwards, - _Entremeses_ and _Saynetes_. (Isabel de Solís, Madrid, 1837, - 12mo, Tom. I. p. 225, note 13.) _Escarnido_, in Don Quixote, - (Parte II. c. xxi.,) is used in the sense of “trifled with.” - - [409] Partida I. Tít. VI. Ley 34, ed. de la Academia. - -But though these earliest religious representations in Spain, whether -pantomimic or in dialogue, were thus given, not only by churchmen, -but by others, certainly before the middle of the thirteenth century, -and probably much sooner, and though they were continued for several -centuries afterwards, still no fragment of them and no distinct account -of them now remain to us. Nor is any thing properly dramatic found -even amongst the secular poetry of Spain, till the latter part of the -fifteenth century, though it may have existed somewhat earlier, as we -may infer from a passage in the Marquis of Santillana’s letter to the -Constable of Portugal;[410] from the notice of a moral play by the -Marquis of Villena, now lost, which is said to have been represented -in 1414, before Ferdinand of Aragon;[411] and from the hint left by -the picturesque chronicler of the Constable de Luna concerning the -_Entremeses_[412] or Interludes, which were sometimes arranged by that -proud favorite a little later in the same century. These indications, -however, are very slight and uncertain.[413] - - [410] He says that his grandfather, Pedro Gonzalez de Mendoza, - who lived in the time of Peter the Cruel, wrote scenic poems in - the manner of Plautus and Terence, in couplets like _Serranas_. - Sanchez, Poesías Anteriores, Tom. I. p. lix. - - [411] Velazquez, Orígenes de la Poesía Castellana, Málaga, 1754, - 4to, p. 95. I think it not unlikely that Zurita refers to this - play of Villena, when he says, (Anales, Libro XII., Año 1414,) - that, at the coronation of Ferdinand, there were “grandes juegos - y _entremeses_.” Otherwise we must suppose there were several - different dramatic entertainments, which is possible, but not - probable. - - [412] “He had a great deal of inventive faculty, and was much - given to making inventions and _entremeses_ for festivals,” etc. - (Crónica del Condestable Don Alvaro de Luna, ed. Flores, Madrid, - 1784, 4to, Título 68.) It is not to be supposed that these were - like the gay farces that have since passed under the same name, - but there can be little doubt that they were poetical and were - exhibited. The Constable was beheaded in 1453. - - [413] I am not unaware that attempts have been made to give the - Spanish theatre a different origin from the one I have assigned - to it. 1. The marriage of Doña Endrina and Don Melon has been - cited for this purpose in the French translation of “Celestina” - by De Lavigne (Paris, 12mo, 1841, pp. v., vi.). But their - adventures, taken from Pamphylus Maurianus, already noticed, (p. - 81,) constitute, in fact, a mere story arranged about 1335, by - the Archpriest of Hita, out of an old Latin dialogue, (Sanchez, - Tom. IV. stanz. 550-865,) but differing in nothing important - from the other tales of the Archpriest, and quite insusceptible - of dramatic representation. (See Preface of Sanchez to the same - volume, pp. xxiii., etc.) 2. The “Dança General de la Muerte,” - already noticed as written about 1350, (Castro, Biblioteca - Española, Tom. I. pp. 200, etc.,) has been cited by L. F. Moratin - (Obras, ed. de la Academia, Madrid, 1830, 8vo, Tom. I. p. 112) as - the earliest specimen of Spanish dramatic literature. But it is - unquestionably not a drama, but a didactic poem, which it would - have been quite absurd to attempt to exhibit. 3. The “Comedieta - de Ponza,” on the great naval battle fought near the island of - Ponza, in 1435, and written by the Marquis of Santillana, who - died in 1454, has been referred to as a drama by Martinez de la - Rosa, (Obras Literarias, Paris, 1827, 12mo, Tom. II. pp. 518, - etc.,) who assigns it to about 1436. But it is, in truth, merely - an allegorical poem thrown into the form of a dialogue and - written in _coplas de arte mayor_. I shall notice it hereafter. - And finally, 4. Blas de Nasarre, in his Prólogo to the plays - of Cervantes, (Madrid, 1749, 4to, Vol. I.,) says there was a - _comedia_ acted before Ferdinand and Isabella in 1469, at the - house of the Count de Ureña, in honor of their wedding. But we - have only Blas de Nasarre’s _dictum_ for this, and he is not a - good authority: besides which, he adds that the author of the - _comedia_ in question was John de la Enzina, who, we know, was - not born earlier than the year before the event referred to. - The moment of the somewhat secret marriage of these illustrious - persons was, moreover, so full of anxiety, that it is not at - all likely _any_ show or mumming accompanied it. See Prescott’s - Ferdinand and Isabella, Part I. c. 3. - -A nearer approach to the spirit of the drama, and particularly to the -form which the secular drama first took in Spain, is to be found in -the curious dialogue called “The Couplets of Mingo Revulgo”; a satire -thrown into the shape of an eclogue, and given in the free and spirited -language of the lower classes of the people, on the deplorable state of -public affairs, as they existed in the latter part of the weak reign -of Henry the Fourth. It seems to have been written about the year -1472.[414] The interlocutors are two shepherds; one of whom, called -Mingo Revulgo,--a name corrupted from Domingo Vulgus,--represents -the common people; and the other, called Gil Arribato, or Gil the -Elevated, represents the higher classes, and speaks with the authority -of a prophet, who, while complaining of the ruinous condition of the -state, yet lays no small portion of the blame on the common people, -for having, as he says, by their weakness and guilt, brought upon -themselves so dissolute and careless a shepherd. It opens with the -shouts of Arribato, who sees Revulgo at a distance, on a Sunday -morning, ill dressed and with a dispirited air:-- - - [414] “Coplas de Mingo Revulgo,” often printed, in the fifteenth - and sixteenth centuries, with the beautiful Coplas of Manrique. - The editions I use are those of 1588, 1632, and the one at the - end of the “Crónica de Enrique IV.,” (Madrid, 1787, 4to, ed. de - la Academia,) with the commentary of Pulgar. - - - Hollo, Revulgo! Mingo, ho! - Mingo Revulgo! Ho, hollo! - Why, where’s your cloak of blue so bright? - Is it not Sunday’s proper wear? - And where ’s your jacket red and tight? - And such a brow why do you bear, - And come abroad, this dawning mild, - With all your hair in elf-locks wild? - Pray, are you broken down with care?[415] - - [415] - A Mingo Revulgo, Mingo! - A Mingo Revulgo, hao! - Que es de tu sayo de blao? - No le vistes en Domingo? - Que es de tu jubon bermejo? - Por que traes tal sobrecejo? - Andas esta madrugada - La cabeza desgreñada: - No te llotras de buen rejo? - - Copla I. - -Revulgo replies, that the state of the flock, governed by so unfit -a shepherd, is the cause of his squalid condition; and then, under -this allegory, they urge a coarse, but efficient, satire against the -measures of the government, against the base, cowardly character of -the king and his scandalous, passion for his Portuguese mistress, and -against the ruinous carelessness and indifference of the people, ending -with praises of the contentment found in a middle condition of life. -The whole dialogue consists of only thirty-two stanzas of nine lines -each; but it produced a great effect at the time, was often printed in -the next century, and was twice elucidated by a grave commentary.[416] - - [416] Velazquez (Orígenes, p. 52) treats Mingo Revulgo as a - satire against King John and his court. But it applies much more - naturally and truly to the time of Henry IV., and has, indeed, - generally been considered as directed against that unhappy - monarch. Copla the sixth seems plainly to allude to his passion - for Doña Guiomar de Castro. - -Its author wisely concealed his name, and has never been absolutely -ascertained.[417] The earlier editions generally suppose him to have -been Rodrigo Cota, the elder, of Toledo, to whom also is attributed -“A Dialogue between Love and an Old Man,” which dates from the same -period, and is no less spirited and even more dramatic. It opens with -a representation of an old man retired into a poor hut, which stands -in the midst of a neglected and decayed garden. Suddenly Love appears -before him, and he exclaims, “My door is shut; what do you want? Where -did you enter? Tell me how, robber-like, you leaped the walls of my -garden. Age and reason had freed me from you; leave, therefore, my -heart, retired into its poor corner, to think only of the past.” He -goes on giving a sad account of his own condition, and a still more -sad description of Love; to which Love replies, with great coolness, -“Your discourse shows that you have not been well acquainted with me.” -A discussion follows, in which Love, of course, gains the advantage. -The old man is promised that his garden shall be restored and his youth -renewed; but when he has surrendered at discretion, he is only treated -with the gayest ridicule by his conqueror, for thinking that at his age -he can again make himself attractive in the ways of love. The whole is -in a light tone and managed with a good deal of ingenuity; but though -susceptible, like other poetical eclogues, of being represented, it is -not certain that it ever was. It is, however, as well as the Couplets -of Revulgo, so much like the pastorals which we know were publicly -exhibited as dramas a few years later, that we may reasonably suppose -it had some influence in preparing the way for them.[418] - - [417] The Coplas of Mingo Revulgo were very early attributed - to John de Mena, the most famous poet of the time (N. Antonio, - Bib. Nov., Tom. I. p. 387); but, unhappily for this conjecture, - Mena was of the opposite party in politics. Mariana, who found - Revulgo of consequence enough to be mentioned when discussing the - troubles of Henry IV., declares (Historia, Lib. XXIII. c. 17, - Tom. II. p. 475) the Coplas to have been written by Hernando del - Pulgar, the chronicler; but no reason is given for this opinion - except the fact that Pulgar wrote a commentary on them, making - their allegory more intelligible than it would have been likely - to be made by any body not quite familiar with the thoughts and - purposes of the author. See the dedication of this commentary to - Count Haro, with the Prólogo, and Sarmiento, Poesía Española, - Madrid, 1775, 4to, § 872. But whoever wrote Mingo Revulgo, there - is no doubt it was an important and a popular poem in its day. - - [418] The “Diálogo entre el Amor y un Viejo” was first printed, - I believe, in the “Cancionero General” of 1511, but it is found - with the Coplas de Manrique, 1588 and 1632. See, also, N. - Antonio, Bib. Nov., Tom. II. pp. 263, 264, for notices of Cota. - The fact of this old Dialogue having an effect on the coming - drama may be inferred, not only from the obvious resemblance - between the two, but from a passage in Juan de la Enzina’s - Eclogue beginning “Vamonos, Gil, al aldea,” which plainly alludes - to the opening of Cota’s Dialogue, and, indeed, to the whole of - it. The passage in Enzina is the concluding _Villancico_, which - begins,-- - - Ninguno cierre las puertas; - Si Amor viniese a llamar, - Que no le ha aprovechar. - - Let no man shut his doors; - If Love should come to call, - ’T will do no good at all. - -The next contribution to the foundations of the Spanish theatre is -the “Celestina,” a dramatic story, contemporary with the poems just -noticed, and probably, in part, the work of the same hands. It is a -prose composition, in twenty-one acts, or parts, originally called, -“The Tragicomedy of Calisto and Melibœa”; and though, from its -length, and, indeed, from its very structure, it can never have been -represented, its dramatic spirit and movement have left traces, that -are not to to be mistaken,[419] of their influence on the national -drama ever since. - - [419] They are called _actos_ in the original; but neither - _act_ nor _scene_ is a proper name for the parts of which the - Celestina is composed; since it occasionally mingles up, in the - most confused manner, and in the _same_ act, conversations that - necessarily happened at the _same_ moment in _different_ places. - Thus, in the fourteenth act, we have conversations held partly - between Calisto and Melibœa inside her father’s garden, and - partly between Calisto’s servants, who are outside of it; all - given as a consecutive dialogue, without any notice of the change - of place. - -The first act, which is much the longest, was probably written by -Rodrigo Cota, of Toledo, and in that case we may safely assume that it -was produced about 1480.[420] It opens in the environs of a city, which -is not named,[421] with a scene between Calisto, a young man of rank, -and Melibœa, a maiden of birth and qualities still more noble than his -own. He finds her in her father’s garden, where he had accidentally -followed his bird in hawking, and she receives him as a Spanish lady -of condition in that age would be likely to receive a stranger who -begins his acquaintance by making love to her. The result is, that the -presumptuous young man goes home full of mortification and despair, and -shuts himself up in his darkened chamber. Sempronio, a confidential -servant, understanding the cause of his master’s trouble, advises him -to apply to an old woman, with whom the unprincipled valet is secretly -in league, and who is half a pretender to witchcraft and half a dealer -in love philters. This personage is Celestina. Her character, the first -hint of which may have been taken from the Archpriest of Hita’s sketch -of one with not dissimilar pretensions, is at once revealed in all its -power. She boldly promises Calisto that he shall obtain possession of -Melibœa, and from that moment secures to herself a complete control -over him, and over all who are about him.[422] - - [420] Rojas, the author of all but the first act of the - Celestina, says, in a prefatory letter to a friend, that the - first act was supposed by some to have been the work of Juan - de Mena, and by others to have been the work of Rodrigo Cota. - The absurdity of the first conjecture was noticed long ago by - Nicolas Antonio, and has been admitted ever since, while, on - the other hand, what we have of Cota falls in quite well with - the conjecture that _he_ wrote it; besides which, Alonso de - Villegas, in the verses prefixed to his “Selvagia,” 1554, to be - noticed hereafter, says expressly, “Though he was poor and of - low estate, (_pobre y de baxo lugar_,) we know that Cota’s skill - (_ciencia_) enabled him to begin the great Celestina, and that - Rojas finished it with an ambrosial air that can never be enough - valued”;--a testimony heretofore overlooked, but one which, under - the circumstances of the case, seems sufficient to decide the - question. - - As to the time when the Celestina was written, we must bring - it into the reign of Ferdinand and Isabella, before which we - cannot find sufficient ground for believing such Spanish prose - to have been possible. It is curious, however, that, from one - and the same passage in the third act of the Celestina, Blanco - White (Variedades, London, 1824, 8vo, Tom. I. p. 226) supposes - Rojas to have written his part of it before the fall of Granada, - and Germond de Lavigne (Celestine, p. 63) supposes him to have - written it either afterwards, or at the very time when the last - siege was going on. But Blanco White’s inference seems to be the - true one, and would place both parts of it before 1490. If to - this we add the allusions (Acts 4 and 7) to the _autos da fé_ - and their arrangements, we must place it after 1480, when the - Inquisition was first established. But this is doubtful. - - [421] Blanco White gives ingenious reasons for supposing that - Seville is the city referred to. He himself was born there, and - could judge well. - - [422] The Trota-conventos of Juan Ruiz, the Archpriest of - Hita, has already been noticed; and certainly is not without - a resemblance to the Celestina. Besides, in the Second Act of - “Calisto y Melibœa,” Celestina herself is once expressly called - Trota-conventos. - -Thus far Cota had proceeded in his outline, when, from some unknown -reason, he stopped short. The fragment he had written was, however, -circulated and admired, and Fernando de Rojas of Montalvan, a bachelor -of laws living at Salamanca, took it up, at the request of some of -his friends, and, as he himself tells us, wrote the remainder in a -fortnight of his vacations; the twenty acts or scenes which he added -for this purpose constituting about seven eighths of the whole -composition.[423] That the conclusion he thus arranged was such as -the original inventor of the story intended is not to be imagined. -Rojas was even uncertain who this first author was, and evidently -knew nothing about his plans or purposes; besides which, he says, the -portion that came into his hands was a comedy, while the remainder is -so violent and bloody in its course, that he calls his completed work -a tragicomedy; a name which it has generally borne since, and which -he perhaps invented to suit this particular case. One circumstance, -however, connected with it should not be overlooked. It is, that the -different portions attributed to the two authors are so similar in -style and finish, as to have led to the conjecture, that, after all, -the whole might have been the work of Rojas, who, for reasons, perhaps, -arising out of his ecclesiastical position in society, was unwilling to -take the responsibility of being the sole author of it.[424] - - [423] Rojas states these facts in his prefatory anonymous letter, - already mentioned, and entitled “El Autor á un su Amigo”; and he - declares his own name and authorship in an acrostic, called “El - Autor excusando su Obra,” which immediately follows the epistle, - and the initial letters of which bring out the following words: - “El Bachiller Fernando de Rojas acabó la comedia de Calysto y - Meliboea, y fue nascido en la puebla de Montalvan.” Of course, if - we believe Rojas himself, there can be no doubt on this point. - - [424] Blanco White, in a criticism on the Celestina, (Variedades, - Tom. I. pp. 224, 296,) expresses this opinion, which is - also found in the Preface to M. Germond de Lavigne’s French - translation of the Celestina. L. F. Moratin, too, (Obras, Tom. I. - Parte I. p. 88,) thinks there is no difference in style between - the two parts, though he treats them as the work of different - writers. But the acute author of the “Diálogo de las Lenguas” - (Mayans y Siscar, Orígenes, Madrid, 1737, 12mo, Tom. II. p. 165) - is of a different opinion, and so is Lampillas, Ensayo, Madrid, - 1789, 4to, Tom. VI. p. 54. - -But this is not the account given by Rojas himself. He says that he -found the first act already written; and he begins the second with the -impatience of Calisto, in urging Celestina to obtain access to the -high-born and high-bred Melibœa. The low and vulgar woman succeeds, by -presenting herself at the house of Melibœa’s father with lady-like -trifles to sell, and, having once obtained an entrance, easily finds -the means of establishing her right to return. Intrigues of the -grossest kind amongst the servants and subordinates follow; and the -machinations and contrivances of the mover of the whole mischief -advance through the midst of them with great rapidity,--all managed -by herself, and all contributing to her power and purposes. Nothing, -indeed, seems to be beyond the reach of her unprincipled activity -and talent. She talks like a saint or a philosopher, as it suits her -purpose. She flatters; she threatens; she overawes; her unscrupulous -ingenuity is never at fault; her main object is never forgotten or -overlooked. - -Meantime, the unhappy Melibœa, urged by whatever insinuation and -seduction can suggest, is made to confess her love for Calisto. From -this moment, her fate is sealed. Calisto visits her secretly in the -night, after the fashion of the old Spanish gallants; and then the -conspiracy hurries onward to its consummation. At the same time, -however, the retribution begins. The persons who had assisted Calisto -to bring about his first interview with her quarrel for the reward -he had given them; and Celestina, at the moment of her triumph, is -murdered by her own base agents and associates, two of whom, attempting -to escape, are in their turn summarily put to death by the officers of -justice. Great confusion ensues. Calisto is regarded as the indirect -cause of Celestina’s death, since she perished in his service; and -some of those who had been dependent upon her are roused to such -indignation, that they track him to the place of his assignation, -seeking for revenge. There they fall into a quarrel with the servants -he had posted in the streets for his protection. He hastens to the -rescue, is precipitated from a ladder, and is killed on the spot. -Melibœa confesses her guilt and shame, and throws herself headlong from -a high tower; immediately upon which the whole melancholy and atrocious -story ends with the lament of the broken-hearted father over her dead -body. - -As has been intimated, the Celestina is rather a dramatized romance -than a proper drama, or even a well-considered attempt to produce a -strictly dramatic effect. Such as it is, however, Europe can show -nothing on its theatres, at the same period, of equal literary merit. -It is full of life and movement throughout. Its characters, from -Celestina down to her insolent and lying valets, and her brutal female -associates, are developed with a skill and truth rarely found in -the best periods of the Spanish drama. Its style is easy and pure, -sometimes brilliant, and always full of the idiomatic resources of the -old and true Castilian; such a style, unquestionably, as had not yet -been approached in Spanish prose, and was not often reached afterwards. -Occasionally, indeed, we are offended by an idle and cold display of -learning; but, like the gross manners of the piece, this poor vanity is -a fault that belonged to the age. - -The great offence of the Celestina, however, is, that large portions -of it are foul with a shameless libertinism of thought and language. -Why the authority of church and state did not at once interfere to -prevent its circulation seems now hardly intelligible. Probably it was, -in part, because the Celestina claimed to be written for the purpose -of warning the young against the seductions and crimes it so loosely -unveils; or, in other words, because it claimed to be a book whose -tendency was good. Certainly, strange as the fact may now seem to us, -many so received it. It was dedicated to reverend ecclesiastics, and -to ladies of rank and modesty in Spain and out of it, and seems to have -been read generally, and perhaps by the wise, the gentle, and the good, -without a blush. When, therefore, those who had the power were called -to exercise it, they shrank from the task; only slight changes were -required; and the Celestina was then left to run its course of popular -favor unchecked.[425] In the century that followed its first appearance -from the press in 1499, a century in which the number of readers was -comparatively very small, it is easy to enumerate above thirty editions -of the original. Probably there were more. At that time, too, or soon -afterwards, it was made known in English, in German, and in Dutch; -and, that none of the learned at least might be beyond its reach, it -appeared in the universal Latin. Thrice it was translated into Italian, -and thrice into French. The cautious and severe author of the “Dialogue -on Languages,” the Protestant Valdés, gave it the highest praise.[426] -So did Cervantes.[427] The very name of Celestina became a proverb, -like the thousand bywords and adages she herself pours out, with such -wit and fluency;[428] and it is not too much to add, that, down to the -days of the Don Quixote, no Spanish book was so much known and read at -home and abroad. - - [425] For a notice of the first known edition,--that of - 1499,--which is entitled “Comedia,” and is divided into sixteen - acts, see an article on the Celestina by F. Wolf, in Blätter für - Literarische Unterhaltung, 1845, Nos. 213 to 217, which leaves - little to desire on the subject it so thoroughly discusses. - The expurgations in the editions of Alcalá, 1586, and Madrid, - 1595, are slight, and in the Plantiniana edition, 1595, I think - there are none. It is curious to observe how few are ordered - in the Index of 1667, (p. 948,) and that the _whole_ book was - not forbidden till 1793, having been expressly permitted, with - expurgations, in the Index of 1790, and appearing first, as - prohibited, in the Index of 1805. No other book, that I know of, - shows so distinctly how supple and compliant the Inquisition was, - where, as in this case, it was deemed impossible to control the - public taste. An Italian translation printed at Venice, in 1525, - which is well made, and is dedicated to a lady, is not expurgated - at all. There are lists of the editions of the original in L. - F. Moratin, (Obras, Tom. I. Parte I. p. 89,) and B. C. Aribau’s - “Biblioteca de Autores Españoles,” (Madrid, 1846, 8vo, Tom. III. - p. xii.,) to which, however, additions can be made by turning to - Brunet, Ebert, and the other bibliographers. The best editions - are those of Amarita (1822) and Aribau (1846). - - [426] Mayans y Siscar, Orígenes, Tom. II. p. 167. “No book - in Castilian has been written in a language more natural, - appropriate, and elegant.” - - [427] Verses by “El Donoso,” prefixed to the first part of Don - Quixote. - - [428] Sebastian de Covarrubias, Tesoro de la Lengua Castellana, - Madrid, 1674, fol., ad verb. - -Such success insured for it a long series of imitations; most of them -yet more offensive to morals and public decency than the Celestina -itself, and all of them, as might be anticipated, of inferior literary -merit to their model. One, called “The Second Comedia of Celestina,” in -which she is raised from the dead, was published in 1530, by Feliciano -de Silva, the author of the old romance of “Florisel de Niquea,” -and went through four editions. Another, by Domingo de Castega, was -sometimes added to the successive reprints of the original work -after 1534. A third, by Gaspar Gomez de Toledo, appeared in 1537; a -fourth, ten years later, by an unknown author, called “The Tragedy of -Policiana,” in twenty-nine acts; a fifth, in 1554, by Joan Rodrigues -Florian, in forty-three scenes, called “The Comedia of Florinea”; -and a sixth, “The Selvagia,” in five acts, also in 1554, by Alonso -de Villegas. In 1513, Pedro de Urrea, of the same family with the -translator of Ariosto, rendered the first act of the original Celestina -into good Castilian verse, dedicating it to his mother; and in 1540, -Juan Sedeño, the translator of Tasso, performed a similar service for -the whole of it. Tales and romances followed, somewhat later, in large -numbers; some, like “The Ingenious Helen,” and “The Cunning Flora,” not -without merit; while others, like “The Eufrosina,” praised more than it -deserves by Quevedo, were little regarded from the first.[429] - - [429] Puibusque, Hist. Comparée des Littératures Espagnole - et Française, Paris, 1843, 8vo, Tom. I. p. 478;--the Essay - prefixed to the French translation of Lavigne, Paris, 1841, - 12mo;--Montiano y Luyando, Discurso sobre las Tragedias - Españolas, Madrid, 1750, 12mo, p. 9, and _post_, c. 21. The - “Ingeniosa Helena” (1613) and the “Flora Malsabidilla” (1623) - are by Salas Barbadillo, and will be noticed hereafter, among - the prose fictions of the seventeenth century. The “Eufrosina” - is by Ferreira de Vasconcellos, a Portuguese, and why, in 1631, - it was translated into Spanish by Ballesteros Saavedra as if it - had been anonymous, I know not. It is often mentioned as the work - of Lobo, another Portuguese, (Barbosa, Bib. Lusit., Tom. II. p. - 242, and Tom. IV. p. 143,) and Quevedo, in his Preface to the - Spanish version, seems to have been of that opinion; but this, - too, is not true. Lobo only prepared, in 1613, an edition of the - Portuguese original. - - Of the imitations of the Celestina mentioned in the text, two, - perhaps, deserve further notice. - - The first is the one entitled “Florinea,” which was printed at - Medina del Campo, in 1554, and which, though certainly without - the power and life of the work it imitates, is yet written in a - pure and good style. The principal personage is Marcelia,--parcel - witch, wholly shameless,--going regularly to matins and vespers, - and talking religion and philosophy, while her house and life - are full of whatever is most infamous. Some of the scenes are - as indecent as any in the Celestina; but the story is less - disagreeable, as it ends with an honorable love-match between - Floriano and Belisea, the hero and heroine of the drama, and - promises to give their wedding in a continuation, which, however, - never appeared. It is longer than its prototype, filling 312 - pages of black letter, closely printed, in small quarto; abounds - in proverbs; and contains occasional snatches of poetry, which - are not in so good taste as the prose. Florian, the author, says, - that, though his work is called _comedia_, he is to be regarded - as “historiador cómico,” a dramatic narrator. - - The other is the “Selvagia,” by Alonso de Villegas, published - at Toledo, in 1554, 4to, the same year with the Florinea, to - which it alludes with great admiration. Its story is ingenious. - Flesinardo, a rich gentleman from Mexico, falls in love with - Rosiana, whom he has only seen at a window of her father’s house. - His friend Selvago, who is advised of this circumstance, watches - the same window, and falls in love with a lady whom he supposes - to be the same that had been seen by Flesinardo. Much trouble - naturally follows. But it is happily discovered that the lady - is _not_ the same; after which--except in the episodes of the - servants, the bully, and the inferior lovers--every thing goes on - successfully, under the management of an unprincipled counterpart - of the profligate Celestina, and ends with the marriage of the - four lovers. It is not so long as the Celestina or the Florinea, - filling only seventy-three leaves in quarto, but it is an avowed - imitation of both. Of the genius that gives such life and - movement to its principal prototype there is little trace, nor - has it an equal purity of style. But some of its declamations, - perhaps,--though as misplaced as its pedantry,--are not without - power, and some of its dialogue is free and natural. It claims - everywhere to be very religious and moral, but it is any thing - rather than either. Of its author there can be no doubt. As - in every thing else he imitates the Celestina, so he imitates - it in prefatory acrostic verses, from which I have spelt out - the following sentence: “Alonso de Villegas Selvago compuso la - Comedia Selvagia en servicio de su Sennora Isabel de Barrionuevo, - siendo de edad de veynte annos, en Toledo, su patria”;--a - singular offering, certainly, to a lady-love. It is divided into - scenes, as well as acts. - -At last, it came upon the stage, for which its original character -had so nearly fitted it. Cepeda, in 1582, formed out of it one half -of his “Comedia Selvage,” which is only the four first acts of the -Celestina, thrown into easy verse;[430] and Alfonso Vaz de Velasco, as -early as 1602, published a drama in prose, called “The Jealous Man,” -founded entirely on the Celestina, whose character, under the name of -Lena, is given with nearly all its original spirit and effect.[431] -How far either the play of Velasco or that of Cepeda succeeded, we are -not told; but the coarseness and indecency of both are so great, that -they can hardly have been long tolerated by the public, if they were -by the Church. The essential type of Celestina, however, the character -as originally conceived by Cota and Rojas, was continued on the stage -in such plays as the “Celestina” of Mendoza, “The Second Celestina” of -Agustin de Salazar, and “The School of Celestina” by Salas Barbadillo, -all produced soon after the year 1600, as well as in others that have -been produced since. Even in our own days, a drama containing so much -of her story as a modern audience will listen to has been received with -favor; while, at the same time, the original tragicomedy itself has -been thought worthy of being reprinted at Madrid, with various readings -to settle its text, and of being rendered anew by fresh and vigorous -translations into the French and the German.[432] - - [430] L. F. Moratin, Obras, Tom. I. Parte I. p. 280, and _post_, - Period II. c. 28. - - [431] The name of this author seems to be somewhat uncertain, - and has been given in two or three different ways,--Alfonso - Vaz, Vazquez, Velasquez, and Uz de Velasco. I take it as it - stands in Antonio, Bib. Nov. (Tom. I. p. 52). The shameless play - itself is to be found in Ochoa’s edition of the “Orígenes del - Teatro Español” (Paris, 1838, 8vo). Some of the characters are - well drawn; for instance, that of Inocencio, which reminds me - occasionally of the inimitable Dominie Sampson. An edition of it - appeared at Milan in 1602, probably preceded--as in almost all - cases seems of Spanish books printed abroad--by an edition at - home, and certainly followed by one at Barcelona in 1613. - - [432] Custine, L’Espagne sous Ferdinand VII., troisième édit., - Paris, 1838, 8vo, Tom. I. p. 279. The edition of Celestina with - the various readings is that of Madrid, 1822, 18mo, by Leon - Amarita. The French translation is the one already mentioned, - by Germond de Lavigne (Paris, 1841, 12mo); and the German - translation, which is very accurate and spirited, is by Edw. - Bülow (Leipzig, 1843, 12mo). Traces of it on the English stage - are found as early as about 1530 (Collier’s History of Dram. - Poetry, etc., London, 1831, 8vo, Tom. II. p. 408), and I have a - translation of it by James Mabbe (London, 1631, folio), which, - for its idiomatic English style, deserves to be called beautiful. - Three translations of it, in the sixteenth century, into French, - and three into Italian, which were frequently reprinted, besides - one into Latin, already alluded to, and one into German, may be - found noted in Brunet, Ebert, etc. - -The influence, therefore, of the Celestina seems not yet at an end, -little as it deserves regard, except for its lifelike exhibition of the -most unworthy forms of human character, and its singularly pure, rich, -and idiomatic Castilian style. - - - - -CHAPTER XIV. - -DRAMA CONTINUED.--JUAN DE LA ENZINA.--HIS LIFE AND WORKS.--HIS -REPRESENTACIONES, AND THEIR CHARACTER.--FIRST SECULAR DRAMAS ACTED IN -SPAIN.--SOME RELIGIOUS IN THEIR TONE, AND SOME NOT.--GIL VICENTE, A -PORTUGUESE.--HIS SPANISH DRAMAS.--AUTO OF CASSANDRA.--COMEDIA OF THE -WIDOWER.--HIS INFLUENCE ON THE SPANISH DRAMA. - - -The “Celestina,” as has been intimated, produced little or no immediate -effect on the rude beginnings of the Spanish drama; perhaps not so much -as the dialogues of “Mingo Revulgo,” and “Love and the Old Man.” But -the three taken together unquestionably lead us to the true founder of -the secular theatre in Spain, Juan de la Enzina,[433] who was probably -born in the village whose name he bears, in 1468 or 1469, and was -educated at the neighbouring University of Salamanca, where he had the -good fortune to enjoy the patronage of its chancellor, then one of the -rising family of Alva. Soon afterwards he was at court; and at the age -of twenty-five, we find him in the household of Fadrique de Toledo, -first Duke of Alva, to whom and to his duchess Enzina addressed much of -his poetry. In 1496, he published the earliest edition of his works, -divided into four parts, which are successively dedicated to Ferdinand -and Isabella, to the Duke and Duchess of Alva, to Prince John, and to -Don Garcia de Toledo, son of his patron. - - [433] He spells his name differently in different editions of his - works; Encina in 1496, Enzina in 1509 and elsewhere. - -Somewhat later, Enzina went to Rome, where he became a priest, and, -from his skill in music, rose to be head of Leo the Tenth’s chapel; the -highest honor the world then offered to his art. In the course of the -year 1519, he made a pilgrimage from Rome to Jerusalem with Fadrique -Afan de Ribera, Marquis of Tarifa; and on his return, published, in -1521, a poor poetical account of his devout adventures, accompanied -with great praises of the Marquis, and ending with an expression of -his happiness at living in Rome.[434] At a more advanced age, however, -having received a priory in Leon as a reward for his services, he -returned to his native country, and died, in 1534, at Salamanca, in -whose cathedral his monument is probably still to be seen.[435] - - [434] There is an edition of it (Madrid, 1786, 12mo) filling - a hundred pages, to which is added a summary of the whole in - a ballad of eighteen pages, which may have been intended for - popular recitation. The last is not, perhaps, the work of Enzina. - A similar pilgrimage, partly devout, partly poetical, was made - a century later by Pedro de Escobar Cabeza de la Vaca, who - published an account of it in 1587, (12mo,) at Valladolid, in - twenty-five cantos of blank verse, entitled “Lucero de la Tierra - Santa,”--A Lighthouse for the Holy Land. He went and returned - by the way of Egypt, and at Jerusalem became a knight-templar; - but his account of what he saw and did, though I doubt not it is - curious for the history of geography, is as free from the spirit - of poetry as can well be imagined. Nearly the whole of it, if not - broken into verses, might be read as pure and dignified Castilian - prose, and parts of it would have considerable merit as such. - - [435] The best life of Enzina is one in the “Allgemeine - Encyclopedie der Wissenschaften und Künste” (Erste Section, - Leipzig, 4to, Tom. XXXIV. pp. 187-189). It is by Ferdinand Wolf, - of Vienna. An early and satisfactory notice of Enzina is to be - found in Gonzalez de Avila, “Historia de Salamanca,” (Salamanca, - 1606, 4to, Lib. III. c. xxii.,) where Enzina is called “hijo - desta patria,” i. e. Salamanca. - -Of his collected works six editions at least were published between -1496 and 1516; showing, that, for the period in which he lived, he -enjoyed a remarkable degree of popularity. They contain a good deal of -pleasant lyrical poetry, songs, and _villancicos_, in the old popular -Spanish style; and two or three descriptive poems, particularly “A -Vision of the Temple of Fame and the Glories of Castile,” in which -Ferdinand and Isabella receive great eulogy and are treated as if -they were his patrons. But most of his shorter poems were slight -contributions of his talent offered on particular occasions; and by far -the most important works he has left us are the dramatic compositions -which fill the fourth division of his Cancionero. - -These compositions are called by Enzina himself “Representaciones”; -and in the edition of 1496 there are nine of them, while in the last -two editions there are eleven, one of which contains the date of 1498. -They are in the nature of eclogues, though one of them, it is difficult -to tell why, is called an “Auto”;[436] and they were represented -before the Duke and Duchess of Alva, the Prince Don John, the Duke of -Infantado, and other distinguished personages enumerated in the notices -prefixed to them. All are in some form of the old Spanish verse; in all -there is singing; and in one there is a dance. They have, therefore, -several of the elements of the proper secular Spanish drama, whose -origin we can trace no farther back by any authentic monument now -existing. - - [436] “Auto del Repelon,” or Auto of the Brawl, being a quarrel - in the market-place of Salamanca, between some students of the - University and sundry shepherds. The word _auto_ comes from the - Latin _actus_, and was applied to any particularly solemn acts, - however different in their nature and character, like the _autos - sacramentales_ of the _Corpus Christi_ days, and the _autos da - fé_ of the Inquisition. (See Covarrubias, Tesoro, ad verb.; - and the account of Lope de Vega’s drama, in the next period.) - In 1514, Enzina published, at Rome, a drama entitled “Placida - y Victoriano,” which he called _una egloga_, and which is much - praised by the author of the “Diálogo de las Lenguas”; but it was - put into the Index Expurgatorius, 1559, and occurs again in that - of 1667, p. 733. I believe no copy of it is known to be extant. - -Two things, however, should be noted, when considering these dramatic -efforts of Juan de la Enzina as the foundation of the Spanish drama. -The first is their internal structure and essential character. They -are eclogues only in form and name, not in substance and spirit. -Enzina, whose poetical account of his travels in Palestine proves him -to have had scholarlike knowledge, began by translating, or rather -paraphrasing, the ten Eclogues of Virgil, accommodating some of them to -events in the reign of Ferdinand and Isabella, or to passages in the -fortunes of the house of Alva.[437] From these, he easily passed to -the preparation of eclogues to be represented before his patrons and -their courtly friends. But, in doing this, he was naturally reminded -of the religious exhibitions, which had been popular in Spain from -the time of Alfonso the Tenth, and had always been given at the great -festivals of the Church. Six, therefore, of his eclogues, to meet the -demands of ancient custom, are, in fact, dialogues of the simplest -kind, represented at Christmas and Easter, or during Carnival and Lent; -in one of which the manger at Bethlehem is introduced, and in another a -sepulchral monument, setting forth the burial of the Saviour, while all -of them seem to have been enacted in the chapel of the Duke of Alva, -though two certainly are not very religious in their tone and character. - - [437] They may have been represented, but I know of no proof - that they were, except this accommodation of them to personages - some of whom are known to have been of his audience on similar - occasions. - -The remaining five are altogether secular; three of them having a sort -of romantic story, the fourth introducing a shepherd so desperate with -love that he kills himself, and the fifth exhibiting a market-day farce -and riot between sundry country people and students, the materials -for which Enzina may well enough have gathered during his own life at -Salamanca. These five eclogues, therefore, connect themselves with the -coming secular drama of Spain in a manner not to be mistaken, just as -the first six look back towards the old religious exhibitions of the -country. - -The other circumstance that should be noted in relation to them, as -proof that they constitute the commencement of the Spanish secular -drama, is, that they were really acted. Nearly all of them speak -in their titles of this fact, mentioning sometimes the personages -who were present, and in more than one instance alluding to Enzina -himself, as if he had performed some of the parts in person. Rojas, a -great authority in whatever relates to the theatre, declares the same -thing expressly, coupling the fall of Granada and the achievements of -Columbus with the establishment of the theatre in Spain by Enzina; -events which, in the true spirit of his profession as an actor, he -seems to consider of nearly equal importance.[438] The precise year -when this happened is given by a learned antiquary of the time of -Philip the Fourth, who says, “In 1492, companies began to represent -publicly in Castile plays by Juan de la Enzina.”[439] From this year, -then, the great year of the discovery of America, we may safely date -the foundation of the Spanish secular theatre. - - [438] Agustin de Rojas, Viage Entretenido, Madrid, 1614, 12mo, - ff. 46, 47. Speaking of the bucolic dramas of Enzina, represented - before the Dukes of Alva, Infantado, etc., he says expressly, - “These were the first.” Rojas was not born till 1577, but he was - devoted to the theatre his whole life, and seems to have been - more familiar with its history than anybody else of his time. - - [439] Rodrigo Mendez de Silva, Catálogo Real Genealógico de - España, at the end of his “Poblacion de España” (Madrid, 1675, - folio, f. 250. b). Mendez de Silva was a learned and voluminous - author. See his Life, Barbosa, Bib. Lusitana, Tom. III. p. 649, - where is a sonnet of Lope de Vega in praise of the learning of - this very Catálogo Real. The word “publicly,” however, seems - only to refer to the representations in the houses of Enzina’s - patrons, etc., as we shall see hereafter. - -It must not, however, be supposed that the “Representations,” as he -calls them, of Juan de la Enzina have much dramatic merit. On the -contrary, they are rude and slight. Some have only two or three -interlocutors, and no pretension to a plot; and none has more than six -personages, nor any thing that can be considered a proper dramatic -structure. In one of those prepared for the Nativity, the four -shepherds are, in fact, the four Evangelists;--Saint John, at the -same time, shadowing forth the person of the poet. He enters first, -and discourses, in rather a vainglorious way, of himself as a poet; -not forgetting, however, to compliment the Duke of Alva, his patron, -as a person feared in France and in Portugal, with which countries -the political relations of Spain were then unsettled. Matthew, who -follows, rebukes John for this vanity, telling him that “all his works -are not worth two straws”; to which John replies, that, in pastorals -and graver poetry, he defies competition, and intimates, that, in the -course of the next May, he shall publish what will prove him to be -something even more than bucolic. They both agree that the Duke and -Duchess are excellent masters, and Matthew wishes that he, too, were in -their service. At this point of the dialogue, Luke and Mark come in, -and, with slight preface, announce the birth of the Saviour as the last -news. All four then talk upon that event at large, alluding to John’s -Gospel as if already known, and end with a determination to go to -Bethlehem, after singing a _villancico_ or rustic song, which is much -too light in its tone to be religious.[440] The whole eclogue is short -and comprised in less than forty rhymed stanzas of nine lines each, -including a wild lyric at the end, which has a chorus to every stanza, -and is not without the spirit of poetry.[441] - - [440] The _villancicos_ long retained a pastoral tone and - something of a dramatic character. At the marriage of Philip - II., in Segovia, 1570, “The youth of the choir, gayly dressed - as shepherds, danced and sang a _villancico_,” says Colmenares, - (Hist. de Segovia, Segovia, 1627, fol., p. 558,) and in 1600, - _villancicos_ were again performed by the choir, when Philip III. - visited the city. Ibid., p. 594. - - [441] This is the eclogue beginning “Dios salva acá buena gente,” - etc., and is on fol. 103 of the “Cancionero de Todas las Obras - de Juan de la Encina; impreso en Salamanca, a veinte dias del - Mes de Junio de M.CCCC. E XCVI. años” (116 leaves, folio). It - was represented before the Duke and Duchess of Alva, while they - were in the chapel for matins on Christmas morning; and the - next eclogue, beginning “Dios mantenga, Dios mantenga,” was - represented in the same place, at vespers, the same day. - -This belongs to the class of Enzina’s religious dramas. One, on the -other hand, which was represented at the conclusion of the Carnival, -during the period then called popularly at Salamanca _Antruejo_, seems -rather to savor of heathenism, as the festival itself did.[442] It -is merely a rude dialogue between four shepherds. It begins with a -description of one of those mummings, common at the period when Enzina -lived, which, in this case, consisted of a mock battle in the village -between Carnival and Lent, ending with the discomfiture of Carnival; -but the general matter of the scene presented is a somewhat free frolic -of eating and drinking among the four shepherds, ending, like the rest -of the eclogues, with a _villancico_, in which Antruejo, it is not easy -to tell why, is treated as a saint.[443] - - [442] “This word,” says Covarruvias, in his Tesoro, “is used - in Salamanca, and means Carnival. In the villages, they call - it _Antruydo_; it is certain days before Lent.... They savor - a little of heathenism.” Later, _Antruejo_ became, from a - provincialism, an admitted word. Villalobos, about 1520, in his - amusing “Dialogue between the Duke and the Doctor,” says, “Y el - dia de Antruejo,” etc. (Obras, Çaragoça, 1544, folio, f. 35); and - the Academy’s dictionary has it, and defines it to be “the three - last days of Carnival.” - - [443] The “Antruejo” eclogue begins “Carnal fuera! Carnal - fuera!”--“Away, Carnival! away, Carnival!”--and recalls the old - ballad, “Afuera, afuera, Rodrigo!” It is found at f. 85 of the - edition of 1509, and is preceded by another “Antruejo” eclogue, - represented the same day before the Duke and Duchess, beginning - “O triste de mi cuytado,” (f. 83,) and ending with a _villancico_ - full of hopes of a peace with France. - -Quite opposite to both of the pieces already noticed is the -Representation for Good Friday, between two hermits, Saint Veronica, -and an angel. It opens with the meeting and salutation of the two -hermits, the elder of whom, as they walk along, tells the younger, -with great grief, that the Saviour has been crucified that very day, -and agrees with him to visit the sepulchre. In the midst of their talk, -Saint Veronica joins them, and gives an account of the crucifixion, -not without touches of a simple pathos; showing, at the same time, -the napkin on which the portrait of the Saviour had been miraculously -impressed, as she wiped from his face the sweat of his agony. Arrived -at the sepulchre,--which was some kind of a monument for the Corpus -Christi in the Duke of Alva’s chapel, where the representation took -place,--they kneel; an angel whom they find there explains to them the -mystery of the Saviour’s death; and then, in a _villancico_ in which -all join, they praise God, and take comfort with the promise of the -resurrection.[444] - - [444] It begins “Deo gracias, padre onrado!” and is at f. 80 of - the edition of 1509. - -But the nearest approach to a dramatic composition made by Juan de -la Enzina is to be found in two eclogues between “The Esquire that -turns Shepherd,” and “The Shepherds that turn Courtiers”; both of -which should be taken together and examined as one whole, though, -in his simplicity, the poet makes them separate and independent of -each other.[445] In the first, a shepherdess, who is a coquette, -shows herself well disposed to receive Mingo, one of the shepherds, -for her lover, till a certain gay esquire presents himself, whom, -after a fair discussion, she prefers to accept, on condition he will -turn shepherd;--an unceremonious transformation, with which, and the -customary _villancico_, the piece concludes. The second eclogue, -however, at its opening, shows the esquire already tired of his -pastoral life, and busy in persuading all the shepherds, somewhat -in the tone of Touchstone in “As you like it,” to go to court, and -become courtly. In the dialogue that follows, an opportunity occurs, -which is not neglected, for a satire on court manners, and for natural -and graceful praise of life in the country. But the esquire carries -his point. They change their dresses, and set forth gayly upon their -adventures, singing, by way of finale, a spirited _villancico_ in honor -of the power of Love, that can thus transform shepherds to courtiers, -and courtiers to shepherds. - - [445] These are the two eclogues, “Pascuala, Dios te mantenga!” - (f. 86,) and “Ha, Mingo, quedaste atras” (f. 88). They were, - I have little doubt, represented in succession, with a pause - between, like that between the acts of a modern play, in which - Enzina presented a copy of his Works to the Duke and Duchess, and - promised to write no more poetry unless they ordered him to do it. - -The most poetical passage in the two eclogues is one in which Mingo, -the best of the shepherds, still unpersuaded to give up his accustomed -happy life in the country, describes its cheerful pleasures and -resources, with more of natural feeling, and more of a pastoral air, -than are found anywhere else in these singular dialogues. - - But look ye, Gil, at morning dawn, - How fresh and fragrant are the fields; - And then what savory coolness yields - The cabin’s shade upon the lawn. - - And he that knows what ’t is to rest - Amidst his flocks the livelong night, - Sure he can never find delight - In courts, by courtly ways oppressed. - O, what a pleasure ’t is to hear - The cricket’s cheerful, piercing cry! - And who can tell the melody - His pipe affords the shepherd’s ear? - - Thou know’st what luxury ’t is to drink, - As shepherds do, when worn with heat, - From the still fount, its waters sweet, - With lips that gently touch their brink; - Or else, where, hurrying on, they rush - And frolic down their pebbly bed, - O, what delight to stoop the head, - And drink from out their merry gush![446] - - [446] There is such a Doric simplicity in this passage, with - its antiquated, and yet rich, words, that I transcribe it as a - specimen of description very remarkable for its age:-- - - Cata, Gil, que las mañanas, - En el campo hay gran frescor, - Y tiene muy gran sabor - La sombra de las cabañas. - - Quien es ducho de dormir - Con el ganado de noche, - No creas que no reproche - El palaciego vivir. - Oh! que gasajo es oir - El sonido de los grillos, - Y el tañer de los caramillos; - No hay quien lo pueda decir! - - Ya sabes que gozo siente - El pastor muy caluroso - En beber con gran reposo, - De bruzas, agua en la fuente, - O de la que va corriente - Por el cascajal corriendo, - Que se va todo riendo; - Oh! que prazer tan valiente! - - Ed. 1509, f. 90. - -Both pieces, like the preceding translation, are in double -_redondillas_ forming octave stanzas of eight-syllable verses; and as -the two together contain about four hundred and fifty lines, their -amount is sufficient to show the direction Enzina’s talent naturally -took, as well as the height to which it rose. - -Enzina, however, is to be regarded not only as the founder of the -Spanish theatre, but as the founder of the Portuguese, whose first -attempts were so completely imitated from his, and had in their turn -so considerable an effect on the Spanish stage, that they necessarily -become a part of its history. These attempts were made by Gil Vicente, -a gentleman of good family, who was bred to the law, but left that -profession early and devoted himself to dramatic compositions, chiefly -for the entertainment of the families of Manuel the Great and John the -Third. When he was born is not known, but he died in 1557. As a writer -for the stage he flourished from 1502 to 1536,[447] and produced, -in all, forty-two pieces, arranged as works of devotion, comedies, -tragicomedies, and farces; but most of them, whatever be their names, -are in fact short, lively dramas, or religious pastorals. Taken -together, they are better than any thing else in Portuguese dramatic -literature. - - [447] Barbosa, Biblioteca Lusitana, Tom. II. pp. 383, etc. The - dates of 1502 and 1536 are from the prefatory notices, by the son - of Vicente, to the first of his works, in the “Obras de Devoção,” - and to the “Floresta de Engaños,” which was the latest of them. - -The first thing, however, that strikes us in relation to them is, that -their air is so Spanish, and that so many of them are written in the -Spanish language. Of the whole number, ten are in Castilian, fifteen -partly or chiefly so, and seventeen entirely in Portuguese. Why this -is the case, it is not easy to determine. The languages are, no doubt, -very nearly akin to each other; and the writers of each nation, but -especially those of Portugal, have not unfrequently distinguished -themselves in the use of both. But the Portuguese have never, at any -period, admitted their language to be less rich or less fitted for -all kinds of composition than that of their prouder rivals. Perhaps, -therefore, in the case of Vicente, it was, that the courts of the two -countries had been lately much connected by intermarriages; that King -Manuel had been accustomed to have Castilians about his person to amuse -him;[448] that the queen was a Spaniard;[449] or that, in language as -in other things, he found it convenient thus to follow the leading of -his master, Juan de la Enzina;--but, whatever may have been the cause, -it is certain that Vicente, though he was born and lived in Portugal, -is to be numbered among Spanish authors as well as among Portuguese. - - [448] Damião de Goes, Crónica de D. Manoel, Lisboa, 1749, fol., - Parte IV. c. 84, p. 595. “Trazia continuadamente na sua Corte - choquarreiros Castellanos.” - - [449] Married in 1500. (Ibid., Parte I. c. 46.) As so many of - Vicente’s Spanish verses were made to please the Spanish queens, - I cannot agree with Rapp, (Pruth’s Literärhistorisch Taschenbuch, - 1846, p. 341,) that Vicente used Spanish in his Pastorals as - a low, vulgar language. Besides, if it was so regarded, why - did Camoens and Saa de Miranda,--two of the four great poets - of Portugal,--to say nothing of a multitude of other proud - Portuguese, write occasionally in Spanish? - -His earliest effort was made in 1502, on occasion of the birth of -Prince John, afterwards John the Third.[450] It is a monologue in -Spanish, a little more than a hundred lines long, spoken before the -king, the king’s mother, and the Duchess of Braganza, probably by -Vicente himself, in the person of a herdsman, who enters the royal -chambers, and, after addressing the queen mother, is followed by a -number of shepherds, bringing presents to the new-born prince. The -poetry is simple, fresh, and spirited, and expresses the feelings of -wonder and admiration that would naturally rise in the mind of such -a rustic, on first entering a royal residence. Regarded as a courtly -compliment, the attempt succeeded. In a modest notice, attached to -it by the son of Vicente, we are told, that, being the first of his -father’s compositions, and the first dramatic representation ever made -in Portugal, it pleased the queen mother so much, as to lead her to ask -its author to repeat it at Christmas, adapting it to the birth of the -Saviour. - - [450] The youngest son of Vicente published his father’s Works at - Lisbon, in folio, in 1562, of which a reprint in quarto appeared - there in 1586, much disfigured by the Inquisition. But these are - among the rarest and most curious books in modern literature, - and I remember to have seen hardly five copies, one of which - was in the library at Göttingen, and another in the public - library at Lisbon, the first in folio, and the last in quarto. - Indeed, so rare had the Works of Vicente become, that Moratin, - to whom it was very important to see a copy of them, and who - knew whatever was to be found at Madrid and Paris, in both which - places he lived long, never saw one, as is plain from No. 49 of - his “Catálogo de Piezas Dramáticas.” We therefore owe much to two - Portuguese gentlemen, J. V. Barreto Feio and J. G. Monteiro, who - published an excellent edition of Vicente’s Works at Hamburg, - 1834, in three volumes, 8vo, using chiefly the Göttingen copy. - In this edition (Vol. I. p. 1) occurs the monologue spoken of in - the text, placed first, as the son says, “por ser á _primeira_ - coisa, que o autor fez, _e que em Portugal se representou_.” He - says, the representation took place on the second night after the - birth of the prince, and, this being so exactly stated, we know - that the first secular dramatic exhibition in Portugal took place - June 8, 1502, John III. having been born on the 6th. Crónica de - D. Manoel, Parte I. c. 62. - -Vicente, however, understood that the queen desired to have such an -entertainment as she had been accustomed to enjoy at the court of -Castile, when John de la Enzina brought his contributions to the -Christmas festivities. He therefore prepared for Christmas morning -what he called an “Auto Pastoril,” or Pastoral Act;--a dialogue in -which four shepherds with Luke and Matthew are the interlocutors, and -in which not only the eclogue forms of Enzina are used, and the manger -of Bethlehem is introduced, just as that poet had introduced it, but -in which his verses are freely imitated. This effort, too, pleased the -queen, and again, on the authority of his son, we are told she asked -Vicente for another composition, to be represented on Twelfth Night, -1503. Her request was not one to be slighted; and in the same way four -other pastorals followed for similar devout occasions, making, when -taken together, six; all of which being in Spanish, and all religious -pastorals, represented with singing and dancing before King Manuel, -his queen, and other distinguished personages, they are to be regarded -throughout as imitations of Juan de la Enzina’s eclogues.[451] - - [451] The imitation of Enzina’s poetry by Vicente is noticed - by the Hamburg editors. (Vol. I. Ensaio, p. xxxviii.) Indeed, - it is quite too obvious to be overlooked, and is distinctly - acknowledged by one of his contemporaries, Garcia de Resende, the - collector of the Portuguese Cancioneiro of 1517, who says, in - some rambling verses on things that had happened in his time,-- - - E vimos singularmente - Fazer representações - Destilo muy eloquente, - De muy novas invenções, - E feitas por Gil Vicente. - Elle foi o que inventou - Isto ca e o usou - Cõ mais graça e mais dotrina; - Posto que Joam del Enzina - O pastoril començou. - - Miscellania e Variedade de Historias, at the end of Resende’s - Crónica de João II., 1622, folio, f. 164. - -Of these six pieces, three of which, we know, were written in 1502 and -1503, and the rest, probably, soon afterwards, the most curious and -characteristic is the one called “The Auto of the Sibyl Cassandra,” -which was represented in the rich old monastery of Enxobregas, on -a Christmas morning, before the queen mother. It is an eclogue in -Spanish, above eight hundred lines long, and is written in the -stanzas most used by Enzina. Cassandra, the heroine, devoted to a -pastoral life, yet supposed to be a sort of lay prophetess who has had -intimations of the approaching birth of the Saviour, enters at once on -the scene, where she remains to the end, the central point, round which -the other seven personages are not inartificially grouped. She has -hardly avowed her resolution not to be married, when Solomon appears -making love to her, and telling her, with great simplicity, that he -has arranged every thing with her aunts, to marry her in three days. -Cassandra, nothing daunted at the annunciation, persists in the purpose -of celibacy; and he, in consequence, goes out to summon these aunts to -his assistance. During his absence, she sings the following song: - - They say, “’T is time, go, marry! go!” - But I’ll no husband! not I! no! - For I would live all carelessly, - Amidst these hills, a maiden free, - And never ask, nor anxious be, - Of wedded weal or woe. - Yet still they say, “Go, marry! go!” - But I’ll no husband! not I! no! - - So, mother, think not I shall wed, - And through a tiresome life be led, - Or use, in folly’s ways instead, - What grace the heavens bestow. - Yet still they say, “Go, marry! go!” - But I’ll no husband! not I! no! - - The man has not been born, I ween, - Who as my husband shall be seen; - And since what frequent tricks have been - Undoubtingly I know, - In vain they say, “Go, marry! go!” - For I’ll no husband! not I! no![452] - - [452] - Dicen que me case yo; - No quiero marido, no! - - Mas quiero vivir segura - Nesta sierra á mi soltura, - Que no estar en ventura - Si casaré bien ó no. - Dicen que me case yo; - No quiero marido, no! - - Madre, no seré casada, - Por no ver vida cansada, - O quizá mal empleada - La gracia que Dios me dió. - Dicen que me case yo; - No quiero marido, no! - - No será ni es nacido - Tal para ser mi marido; - Y pues que tengo sabido. - Que la flor yo me la só, - Dicen que me case yo; - No quiero marido, no! - - Gil Vicente, Obras, Hamburgo, 1834, 8vo, Tom. I. p. 42. - -The aunts, named Cimeria, Peresica, and Erutea, who are, in fact, the -Cumæan, Persian, and Erythræan Sibyls, now come in with King Solomon -and endeavour to persuade Cassandra to consent to his love; setting -forth his merits and pretensions, his good looks, his good temper, and -his good estate. But, as they do not succeed, Solomon, in despair, -goes for her three uncles, Moses, Abraham, and Isaiah, with whom he -instantly returns, all four dancing a sort of mad dance as they enter, -and singing,-- - - She is wild! She is wild! - Who shall speak to the child? - On the hills pass her hours, - As a shepherdess free; - She is fair as the flowers, - She is wild as the sea! - She is wild! She is wild! - Who shall speak to the child?[453] - - [453] Traz Salomão, Esaias, e Moyses, e Abrahao cantando todos - quatro de folia á cantiga seguinte:-- - - Que sañosa está la niña! - Ay Dios, quien le hablaria? - - En la sierra anda la niña - Su ganado á repastar; - Hermosa como las flores, - Sañosa como la mar. - Sañosa como la mar - Está la niña: - Ay Dios, quien le hablaria? - - Vicente, Obras, Tom. I. p. 46. - -The three uncles first endeavour to bribe their niece into a more -teachable temper; but, failing in that, Moses undertakes to show her, -from his own history of the creation, that marriage is an honorable -sacrament and that she ought to enter into it. Cassandra replies, -and, in the course of a rather jesting discussion with Abraham about -good-tempered husbands, intimates that she is aware the Saviour is -soon to be born of a virgin; an augury which the three Sibyls, her -aunts, prophetically confirm, and to which Cassandra then adds that -she herself has hopes to be this Saviour’s mother. The uncles, shocked -at the intimation, treat her as a crazed woman, and a theological and -mystical discussion follows, which is carried on by all present, till -a curtain is suddenly withdrawn, and the manger of Bethlehem and the -child are discovered, with four angels, who sing a hymn in honor of -his birth. The rest of the drama is taken up with devotions suited -to the occasion, and it ends with the following graceful _cancion_ -to the Madonna, sung and danced by the author, as well as the other -performers:-- - - The maid is gracious all and fair; - How beautiful beyond compare! - - Say, sailor bold and free, - That dwell’st upon the sea, - If ships or sail or star - So winning are. - - And say, thou gallant knight, - That donn’st thine armour bright, - If steed or arms or war - So winning are. - - And say, thou shepherd hind, - That bravest storm and wind, - If flocks or vales or hill afar - So winning are.[454] - - [454] - Muy graciosa es la doncella: - Como es bella y hermosa! - - Digas tú, el marinero, - Que en las naves vivias, - Si la nave ó la vela ó la estrella - Es tan bella. - - Digas tú, el caballero, - Que las armas vestías, - Si el caballo ó las armas ó la guerra - Es tan bella. - - Digas tú, el pastorcico, - Que el ganadico guardas, - Si el ganado ó las valles ó la sierra - Es tan bella. - - Vicente, Obras, Tom. I. p. 61. - -And so ends this incongruous drama;[455] a strange union of the spirit -of an ancient mystery and of a modern _vaudeville_, but not without -poetry, and not more incongruous or more indecorous than the similar -dramas which, at the same period, and in other countries, found a place -in the princely halls of the most cultivated, and were listened to with -edification in monasteries and cathedrals by the most religious. - - [455] It is in the Hamburg edition (Tom. I. pp. 36-62); but - though it properly ends, as has been said, with the song to the - Madonna, there is afterwards, by way of _envoi_, the following - _vilancete_, (“_por despedida ó vilancete seguinte_,”) which is - curious as showing how the theatre was, from the first, made to - serve for immediate excitement and political purposes; since the - _vilancete_ is evidently intended to stir up the noble company - present to some warlike enterprise in which their services were - wanted, probably against the Moors of Africa, as King Manoel had - no other wars. - - To the field! To the field! - Cavaliers of emprise! - Angels pure from the skies - Come to help us and shield. - To the field! To the field! - - With armour all bright, - They speed down their road, - On man call, on God, - To succour the right. - - To the field! To the field! - Cavaliers of emprise, - Angels pure from the skies - Come to help us and shield. - To the field! To the field! - - A la guerra, - Caballeros esforzados; - Pues los angeles sagrados - A socorro son en tierra. - A la guerra! - Con armas resplandecientes - Vienen del cielo volando, - Dios y hombre apelidando - En socorro de las gentes. - A la guerra, - Caballeros esmerados; - Pues los angeles sagrados - A socorro son en tierra. - A la guerra! - - Vicente, Obras, Tom. I. p 62. - - A similar tone is more fully heard in the spirited little drama - entitled “The Exhortation to War,” performed 1513. - -Vicente, however, did not stop here. He took counsel of his success, -and wrote dramas which, without skill in the construction of their -plots, and without any idea of conforming to rules of propriety or -taste, are yet quite in advance of what was known on the Spanish or -Portuguese theatre at the time. Such is the “Comedia,” as it is called, -of “The Widower,”--_O Viudo_,--which was acted before the court in -1514.[456] It opens with the grief of the widower, a merchant of -Burgos, on the loss of an affectionate and faithful wife, for which he -is consoled, first by a friar, who uses religious considerations, and -afterwards by a gossiping neighbour, who, being married to a shrew, -assures his friend, that, after all, it is not probable his loss is -very great. The two daughters of the disconsolate widower, however, -join earnestly with their father in his mourning; but their sorrows are -mitigated by the appearance of a noble lover who conceals himself in -the disguise of a herdsman, in order to be able to approach them. His -love is very sincere and loyal; but, unhappily, he loves them both, -and hardly addresses either separately. His trouble is much increased -and brought to a crisis by the father, who comes in and announces -that one of his daughters is to be married immediately, and the other -probably in the course of a week. In his despair, the noble lover calls -on death; but insists, that, as long as he lives, he will continue to -serve them both faithfully and truly. At this juncture, and without any -warning, as it is impossible that he should marry both, he proposes to -the two ladies to draw lots for him; a proposition which they modify by -begging the Prince John, then a child twelve years old and among the -audience, to make a decision on their behalf. The prince decides in -favor of the elder, which seems to threaten new anxieties and troubles, -till a brother of the disguised lover appears and consents to marry -the remaining lady. Their father, at first disconcerted, soon gladly -accedes to the double arrangement, and the drama ends with the two -weddings and the exhortations of the priest who performs the ceremony. - - [456] Obras, Hamburgo, 1834, 8vo, Tom. II. pp. 68, etc. - -This, indeed, is not a plot, but it is an approach to one. The -“Rubena,” acted in 1521, comes still nearer,[457] and so do “Don -Duardos,” founded on the romance of “Palmerin,” and “Amadis of -Gaul,”[458] founded on the romance of the same name, both of which -bring a large number of personages on the stage, and, if they have -not a proper dramatic action, yet give, in much of their structure, -intimations of the Spanish heroic drama, as it was arranged half -a century later. On the other hand, the “Templo d’ Apollo,”[459] -acted in 1526, in honor of the marriage of the Portuguese princess -to the Emperor Charles the Fifth, belongs to the same class with the -allegorical plays subsequently produced in Spain; the three _Autos_ -on the three ships that carried souls to Hell, Purgatory, and Heaven, -evidently gave Lope de Vega the idea and some of the materials for one -of his early moral plays;[460] and the _Auto_ in which Faith explains -to the shepherds the origin and mysteries of Christianity[461] might, -with slight alterations, have served for one of the processions of the -Corpus Christi at Madrid, in the time of Calderon. All of them, it is -true, are extremely rude; but nearly all contain elements of the coming -drama, and some of them, like “Don Duardos,” which is longer than a -full-length play ordinarily is, are quite long enough to show what was -their dramatic tendency. But the real power of Gil Vicente does not lie -in the structure or the interest of his stories. It lies in his poetry, -of which, especially in the lyrical portions of his dramas, there is -much.[462] - - [457] The “Rubena” is the first of the plays called,--it is - difficult to tell why,--by Vicente or his editor, _Comedias_; and - is partly in Spanish, partly in Portuguese. It is among those - prohibited in the Index Expurgatorius of 1667, (p. 464,)--a - prohibition renewed down to 1790. - - [458] These two long plays, wholly in Spanish, are the first - two of those announced as “Tragicomedias” in Book III. of the - Works of Vicente. No reason that I know of can be given for this - precise arrangement and name. - - [459] This, too, is one of the “Tragicomedias,” and is chiefly, - but not wholly, in Spanish. - - [460] The first of these three _Autos_, the “Barca do Inferno,” - was represented, in 1517, before the queen, Maria of Castile, - in her sick-chamber, when she was suffering under the dreadful - disease of which she soon afterwards died. Like the “Barca do - Purgatorio,” (1518,) it is in Portuguese, but the remaining - _Auto_, the “Barca da Gloria,” (1519,) is in Spanish. The last - two were represented in the royal chapel. The moral play of Lope - de Vega which was suggested by them is the one called “The Voyage - of the Soul,” and is found in the First Book of his “Peregrino en - su Patria.” The opening of Vicente’s play resembles remarkably - the setting forth of the Demonio on his voyage in Lope, besides - that the general idea of the two fictions is almost the same. On - the other side of the account, Vicente shows himself frequently - familiar with the old Spanish literature. For instance, in one - of his Portuguese _Farças_, called “Dos Físicos,” (Tom. III. p. - 323,) we have-- - - En el mes era de Mayo, - Vespora de Navidad, - Cuando canta la cigarra, etc.; - - plainly a parody of the well-known and beautiful old Spanish - ballad beginning-- - - Por el mes era de Mayo, - Quando hace la calor, - Quando canta la calandria, etc., - - a ballad which, so far as I know, can be traced no farther back - than the ballad-book of 1555, or, at any rate, that of 1550, - while here we have a distinct allusion to it before 1536, giving - a curious proof how widely this old popular poetry was carried - about by the memories of the people before it was written down - and printed, and how much it was used for dramatic purposes from - the earliest period of theatrical compositions. - - [461] This “Auto da Fé,” as it is strangely called, is in Spanish - (Obras, Tom. I. pp. 64, etc.); but there is one in Portuguese, - represented before John III., (1527,) which is still more - strangely called “Breve Summario da Historia de Deos,” the action - beginning with Adam and Eve, and ending with the Saviour. Ibid., - I. pp. 306, etc. - - [462] Joam de Barros, the historian, in his dialogue on the - Portuguese Language, (Varias Obras, Lisboa, 1785, 12mo, p. 222,) - praises Vicente for the purity of his thoughts and style, and - contrasts him proudly with the Celestina; “a book,” he adds, “to - which the Portuguese language has no parallel.” - - - - -CHAPTER XV. - -DRAMA CONTINUED.--ESCRIVA.--VILLALOBOS.--QUESTION DE AMOR.--TORRES -NAHARRO, IN ITALY.--HIS EIGHT PLAYS.--HIS DRAMATIC THEORY.--DIVISION -OF HIS PLAYS, AND THEIR PLOTS.--THE TROFEA.--THE HYMENEA.--INTRIGUING -DRAMA.--BUFFOON.--CHARACTER AND PROBABLE EFFECTS OF NAHARRO’S -PLAYS.--STATE OF THE THEATRE AT THE END OF THE REIGN OF FERDINAND AND -ISABELLA. - - -While Vicente, in Portugal, was thus giving an impulse to Spanish -dramatic literature, which, considering the intimate connection of the -two countries and their courts, can hardly have been unfelt in Spain at -the time, and was certainly recognized there afterwards, scarcely any -thing was done in Spain itself. During the five-and-twenty years that -followed the first appearance of Juan de la Enzina, no other dramatic -poet seems to have been encouraged or demanded. He was sufficient to -satisfy the rare wants of his royal and princely patrons; and, as we -have seen, in both countries, the drama continued to be a courtly -amusement, confined to a few persons of the highest rank. The commander -Escriva, who lived at this time and is the author of a few beautiful -verses found in the oldest Cancioneros,[463] wrote, indeed, a dialogue, -partly in prose and partly in verse, in which he introduces several -interlocutors and brings a complaint to the god of Love against his -lady. But the whole is an allegory, occasionally graceful and winning -from its style, but obviously not susceptible of representation; so -that there is no reason to suppose it had any influence on a class of -compositions already somewhat advanced. A similar remark may be added -about a translation of the “Amphitryon” of Plautus, made into terse -Spanish prose by Francisco de Villalobos, physician to Ferdinand the -Catholic and Charles the Fifth, which was first printed in 1515, but -which it is not at all probable was ever acted.[464] These, however, -are the only attempts made in Spain or Portugal before 1517, except -those of Enzina and Vicente, which need to be referred to at all. - - [463] His touching verses, “Ven, muerte, tan escondida,” so often - cited, and at least once in Don Quixote, (Parte II. c. 38,) are - found as far back as the Cancionero of 1511; but I am not aware - that Escriva’s “Quexa de su Amiga” can be found earlier than in - the Cancionero, Sevilla, 1535, where it occurs, f. 175. b, etc. - He himself, no doubt, flourished about the year 1500-1510. But - I should not, probably, have alluded to him here, if he had not - been noticed in connection with the early Spanish theatre, by - Martinez de la Rosa (Obras, Paris, 1827, 12mo, Tom. II. p. 336). - Other poems, written in dialogue, by Alfonso de Cartagena, and by - Puerto Carrero, occur in the Cancioneros Generales, but they can - hardly be regarded as dramatic; and Clemencin twice notices Pedro - de Lerma as one of the early contributors to the Spanish drama; - but he is not mentioned by Moratin, Antonio, Pellicer, or any of - the other authors who would naturally be consulted in relation to - such a point. Don Quixote, ed. Clemencin, Tom. IV. p. viii., and - Memorias de la Academia de Historia, Tom. VI. p. 406. - - [464] Three editions of it are cited by L. F. Moratin, (Catálogo, - No. 20,) the earliest of which is in 1515. My copy, however, - is of neither of them. It is dated Çaragoça, 1544, (folio,) - and is at the end of the “Problemas” and of the other works of - Villalobos, which also precede it in the editions of 1543 and - 1574. - -But in 1517, or a little earlier, a new movement was felt in the -difficult beginnings of the Spanish drama; and it is somewhat singular, -that, as the last came from Portugal, the present one came from -Italy. It came, however, from two Spaniards. The first of them is the -anonymous author of the “Question of Love,” a fiction to be noticed -hereafter, which was finished at Ferrara in 1512, and which contains an -eclogue of respectable poetical merit, that seems undoubtedly to have -been represented before the court of Naples.[465] - - [465] It fills about twenty-six pages and six hundred lines, - chiefly in octave stanzas, in the edition of Antwerp, 1576, and - contains a detailed account of the circumstances attending its - representation. - -The other, a person of more consequence in the history of the Spanish -drama, is Bartolomé de Torres Naharro, born at Torres, near Badajoz, on -the borders of Portugal, who, after he had been for some time a captive -in Algiers, was redeemed, and visited Rome, hoping to find favor at the -court of Leo the Tenth. This must have been after 1513, and was, of -course, at the time when Juan de la Enzina resided there. But Naharro, -by a satire against the vices of the court, made himself obnoxious -at Rome, and fled to Naples, where he lived for some time under the -protection of the noble-minded Fabricio Colonna, and where, at last, we -lose sight of him. He died in poverty.[466] - - [466] This notice of Naharro is taken from the slight accounts of - him contained in the letter of Juan Baverio Mesinerio prefixed to - the “Propaladia” (Sevilla, 1573, 18mo) as a life of its author, - and from the article in Antonio, Bib. Nov., Tom. I. p. 202. - -His works, first published by himself at Naples in 1517, and dedicated -to a noble Spaniard, Don Fernando Davalos, a lover of letters,[467] who -had married Victoria Colonna, the poetess, are entitled “Propaladia,” -or “The Firstlings of his Genius.”[468] They consist of satires, -epistles, ballads, a Lamentation for King Ferdinand, who died in 1516, -and some other miscellaneous poetry; but chiefly of eight plays, which -he calls “Comedias,” and which fill almost the whole volume.[469] -He was well situated for making an attempt to advance the drama, -and partly succeeded in it. There was, at the time he wrote, a great -literary movement in Italy, especially at the court of Rome. The -representations of plays, he tells us, were much resorted to,[470] -and, though he may not have known it, Trissino had, in 1515, written -the first regular tragedy in the Italian language, and thus given an -impulse to dramatic literature, which it never afterwards entirely -lost.[471] - - [467] Antonio (Preface to Biblioteca Nova, Sec. 29) says he bred - young men to become soldiers by teaching them to read romances of - chivalry. - - [468] “Intitulélas” (he says, “Al Letor”) “Propaladia a Prothon, - quod est primum, et Pallade, id est, primæ res Palladis, a - differencia de las que segundariamente y con mas maduro estudio - podrian succeder.” They were, therefore, probably written when he - was a young man. - - [469] I have never seen the first edition, which is sometimes - said to have been printed at Naples (Ebert, etc.) and sometimes - (Moratin, etc.) at Rome; but as it was dedicated to one of its - author’s Neapolitan patrons, and as Mesinerio, who seems to have - been a personal acquaintance of its author, implies that it was, - _at some time_, printed at Naples, I have assigned its _first_ - edition to that city. Editions appeared at Seville in 1520, 1533, - and 1545; one at Toledo, 1535; one at Madrid, 1573; and one - without date at Antwerp. I have used the editions of Seville, - 1533, small quarto, and Madrid, 1573, small 18mo; the latter - being expurgated, and having “Lazarillo de Tórmes” at the end. - There were but six plays in the early editions; the “Calamita” - and “Aquilana” being added afterwards. - - [470] “Viendo assi mismo todo el mundo en fiestas de Comedias y - destas cosas,” is part of his apology to Don Fernando Davalos for - asking leave to dedicate them to him. - - [471] Trissino’s “Sofonisba” was written as early as 1515, though - not printed till later. - -The eight plays of Naharro, however, do not afford much proof of a -familiarity with antiquity, or of a desire to follow ancient rules or -examples; but their author gives us a little theory of his own upon the -subject of the drama, which is not without good sense. Horace, he says, -requires five acts to a play, and he thinks this reasonable; though he -looks upon the pauses they make rather as convenient resting-places -than any thing else, and calls them, not acts, but “Jornadas,” or -days.[472] As to the number of persons, he would have not less than -six, nor more than twelve; and as to that sense of propriety which -refuses to introduce materials into the subject that do not belong -to it, or to permit the characters to talk and act inconsistently, he -holds it to be as indispensable as the rudder to a ship. This is all -very well. - - [472] “Jornadas,” days’-work, days’-journey, etc. The old French - mysteries were divided into _journées_ or portions each of which - could conveniently be represented in the time given by the Church - to such entertainments on a single day. One of the mysteries in - this way required forty days for its exhibition. - -Besides this, his plays are all in verse, and all open with a sort of -prologue, which he calls “Introyto,” generally written in a rustic and -amusing style, asking the favor and attention of the audience, and -giving hints concerning the subject of the piece that is to follow. - -But when we come to the dramas themselves, though we find a decided -advance, in some respects, beyond any thing that had preceded them, -in others we find great rudeness and extravagance. Their subjects are -very various. One of them, the “Soldadesca,” is on the Papal recruiting -service at Rome. Another, the “Tinelaria,” or Servants’ Dining-Hall, -is on such riots as were likely to happen in the disorderly service -of a cardinal’s household; full of revelry and low life. Another, “La -Jacinta,” gives us the story of a lady who lives at her castle on the -road to Rome, where she violently detains sundry passengers and chooses -a husband among them. And of two others, one is on the adventures -of a disguised prince, who comes to the court of a fabulous king of -Leon, and wins his daughter after the fashion of the old romances of -chivalry;[473] and the other on the adventures of a child stolen in -infancy, which involve disguises in more humble life.[474] - - [473] La Aquilana. - - [474] La Calamita. - -How various were the modes in which these subjects were thrown into -action and verse, and, indeed, how different was the character of his -different dramas, may be best understood by a somewhat ampler notice of -the two not yet mentioned. - -The first of these, the “Trofea,” is in honor of King Manuel of -Portugal, and the discoveries and conquests that were made in India -and Africa, under his auspices; but it is very meagre and poor. After -the prologue, which fills above three hundred verses, Fame enters in -the first act and announces, that the great king has, in his most -holy wars, gained more lands than are described by Ptolemy; whereupon -Ptolemy appears instantly, by especial permission of Pluto, from the -regions of torment, and denies the fact; but, after a discussion, is -compelled to admit it, though with a saving clause for his own honor. -In the second act, two shepherds come upon the stage to sweep it for -the king’s appearance. They make themselves quite merry, at first, -with the splendor about them, and one of them sits on the throne, and -imitates grotesquely the curate of his village; but they soon quarrel, -and continue in bad humor, till a royal page interferes and compels -them to go on and arrange the apartment. The whole of the third act is -taken up with the single speech of an interpreter, bringing in twenty -Eastern and African kings who are unable to speak for themselves, but -avow, through his very tedious harangue, their allegiance to the crown -of Portugal; to all which the king makes no word of reply. The next act -is absurdly filled with a royal reception of four shepherds, who bring -him presents of a fox, a lamb, an eagle, and a cock, which they explain -with some humor and abundance of allegory; but to all which he makes as -little reply as he did to the proffered fealty of the twenty heathen -kings. In the fifth and last act, Apollo gives verses, in praise of -the king, queen, and prince, to Fame, who distributes copies to the -audience; but, refusing them to one of the shepherds, has a riotous -dispute with him. The shepherd tauntingly offers Fame to spread the -praises of King Manuel through the world as well as she does, if she -will but lend him her wings. The goddess consents. He puts them on -and attempts to fly, but falls headlong on the stage, with which poor -practical jest and a _villancico_ the piece ends. - -The other drama, called “Hymenea,” is better, and gives intimations -of what became later the foundations of the national theatre. Its -“Introyto,” or prologue, is coarse, but not without wit, especially in -those parts which, according to the peculiar toleration of the times, -were allowed to make free with religion, if they but showed sufficient -reverence for the Church. The story is entirely invented, and may be -supposed to have passed in any city of Spain. The scene opens in front -of the house of Febea, the heroine, before daylight, where Hymeneo, the -hero, after making known his love for the lady, arranges with his two -servants to give her a serenade the next night. When he is gone, the -servants discuss their own position, and Boreas, one of them, avows -his desperate love for Doresta, the heroine’s maid; a passion which, -through the rest of the piece, becomes the running caricature of his -master’s. But at this moment the Marquis, a brother of Febea, comes -with his servants into the street, and, by the escape of the others, -who fly immediately, has little doubt that there has been love-making -about the house, and goes away determined to watch more carefully. Thus -ends the first act, which might furnish materials for many a Spanish -comedy of the seventeenth century. - -In the second act, Hymeneo enters with his servants and musicians, -and they sing a _cancion_ which reminds us of the sonnet in Molière’s -“Misantrope,” and a _villancico_ which is but little better. Febea -then appears in the balcony, and after a conversation, which, for -its substance and often for its graceful manner, might have been in -Calderon’s “Dar la Vida por su Dama,” she promises to receive her -lover the next night. When she is gone, the servants and the master -confer a little together, the master showing himself very generous in -his happiness; but they all escape at the approach of the Marquis, -whose suspicions are thus fully confirmed, and who is with difficulty -restrained by his page from attacking the offenders at once. - -The next act is devoted entirely to the loves of the servants. It -is amusing, from its caricature of the troubles and trials of their -masters, but does not advance the action at all, The fourth, however, -brings the hero and lover into the lady’s house, leaving his attendants -in the street, who confess their cowardice to one another, and agree -to run away, if the Marquis appears. This happens immediately. They -escape, but leave a cloak, which betrays who they are, and the Marquis -remains undisputed master of the ground at the end of the act. - -The last act opens without delay. The Marquis, offended in the nicest -point of Castilian honor,--the very point on which the plots of so -many later Spanish dramas turn,--resolves at once to put both of the -guilty parties to death, though their offence is no greater than that -of having been secretly in the same house together. The lady does not -deny her brother’s right, but enters into a long discussion with him -about it, part of which is touching and effective, but most of it very -tedious; in the midst of all which Hymeneo presents himself, and after -explaining who he is and what are his intentions, and especially after -admitting, that, under the circumstances of the case, the Marquis -might justly have killed his sister, the whole is arranged for a -double wedding of masters and servants, and closes with a spirited -_villancico_ in honor of Love and his victories. - -The two pieces are very different, and mark the extremes of the various -experiments Naharro tried in order to produce a dramatic effect. “As to -the kinds of dramas,” he says, “it seems to me that two are sufficient -for our Castilian language: dramas founded on knowledge, and dramas -founded on fancy.”[475] The “Trofea,” no doubt, was intended by him to -belong to the first class. Its tone is that of compliment to Manuel, -the really great king then reigning in Portugal; and from a passage in -the third act it is not unlikely that it was represented in Rome before -the Portuguese ambassador, the venerable Tristan d’ Acuña. But the rude -and buffoon shepherds, whose dialogue fills so much of the slight and -poor action, show plainly that he was neither unacquainted with Enzina -and Vicente, nor unwilling to imitate them; while the rest of the -drama--the part that is supposed to contain historical facts--is, as we -have seen, still worse. The “Hymenea,” on the other hand, has a story -of considerable interest, announcing the intriguing plot which became -a principal characteristic of the Spanish theatre afterwards. It has -even the “Gracioso,” or Droll Servant, who makes love to the heroine’s -maid; a character which is also found in Naharro’s “Serafina,” but -which Lope de Vega above a century afterwards claimed, as if invented -by himself.[476] - - [475] “Comedia á noticia” he calls them, in the Address to the - Reader, and “comedia á fantasía”; and explains the first to be - “de cosa nota y vista en realidad,” illustrating the remark by - his plays on recruiting and on the riotous life of a cardinal’s - servants. His _comedias_ are extremely different in length; one - of them extending to about twenty-six hundred lines, which would - be very long, if represented, and another hardly reaching twelve - hundred. All, however, are divided into five _jornadas_. - - [476] In the Dedication of “La Francesilla” in his Comedias, Tom. - XIII. Madrid, 1620, 4to. - -What is more singular, this drama approaches to a fulfilment of the -requisitions of the unities, for it has but one proper action, which -is the marriage of Febea; it does not extend beyond the period of -twenty-four hours; and the whole passes in the street before the house -of the lady, unless, indeed, the fifth act passes within the house, -which is doubtful.[477] The whole, too, is founded on the national -manners, and preserves the national costume and character. The best -parts, in general, are the humorous; but there are graceful passages -between the lovers, and touching passages between the brother and -sister. The parody of the servants, Boreas and Doresta, on the passion -of the hero and heroine is spirited; and in the first scene between -them we have the following dialogue, which might be transferred with -effect to many a play of Calderon:-- - - [477] The “Aquilana,” absurd as its story is, approaches, - perhaps, even nearer to absolute regularity in its form. - - - _Boreas._ O, would to heaven, my lady dear, - That, at the instant I first looked on thee, - Thy love had equalled mine! - - _Doresta._ Well! that’s not bad! - But still you’re not a bone for me to pick.[478] - - _Boreas._ Make trial of me. Bid me do my best, - In humble service of my love to thee; - So shalt thou put me to the proof, and know - If what I say accord with what I feel. - - _Doresta._ Were my desire to bid thee serve quite clear, - Perchance thy offers would not be so prompt. - - _Boreas._ O lady, look’ee, that’s downright abuse! - - _Doresta._ Abuse? How’s that? Can words and ways so kind, - And full of courtesy, be called abuse? - - _Boreas._ I’ve done. - I dare not speak. Your answers are so sharp, - They pierce my very bowels through and through. - - _Doresta._ Well, by my faith, it grieves my heart to see - That thou so mortal art. Dost think to die - Of this disease? - - _Boreas._ ’T would not be wonderful. - - _Doresta._ But still, my gallant Sir, perhaps you’ll find - That they who give the suffering take it too. - - _Boreas._ In sooth, I ask no better than to do - As do my fellows,--give and take; but now - I take, fair dame, a thousand hurts, - And still give none. - - _Doresta._ How know’st thou that? - - [478] This is an old proverb, “A otro can con esse huesso.” It - occurs more than once in Don Quixote. A little lower we have - another, “Ya las toman do las dan,”--“Where they give, they - take.” Naharro is accustomed to render his humorous dialogue - savory by introducing such old proverbs frequently. - -And so she continues till she comes to a plenary confession of being no -less hurt, or in love, herself, than he is.[479] - - [479] - _Boreas._ Plugiera, Señora, a Dios, - En aquel punto que os vi, - Que quisieras tanto a mi, - Como luego quise a vos. - - _Doresta._ Bueno es esso; - A otro can con esse huesso! - - _Boreas._ Ensayad vos de mandarme - Quanto yo podré hazer, - Pues os desseo seruir: - Si quiera porqu’ en prouarme, - Conozcays si mi querer - Concierta con mi dezir. - - _Doresta._ Si mis ganas fuessen ciertas - De quereros yo mandar, - Quiça de vuestro hablar - Saldrian menos offertas. - - _Boreas._ Si mirays, - Señora, mal me tratais. - - _Doresta._ Como puedo maltrataros - Con palabras tan honestas - Y por tan cortesas mañas? - - _Boreas._ Como? ya no osso hablaros, - Que teneys ciertas respuestas - Que lastiman las entrañas. - - _Doresta._ Por mi fe tengo manzilla - De veros assi mortal: - Morireys de aquesse mal? - - _Boreas._ No seria maravilla. - - _Doresta._ Pues, galan, - Ya las toman do las dan. - - _Boreas._ Por mi fe, que holgaria, - Si, como otros mis yguales, - Pudiesse dar y tomar: - Mas veo, Señora mia, - Que recibo dos mil males - Y ninguno puedo dar. - - Propaladia, Madrid, 1573, 18mo, f. 222. - -All the plays of Naharro have a versification remarkably fluent and -harmonious for the period in which he wrote,[480] and nearly all of -them have passages of easy and natural dialogue, and of spirited -lyrical poetry. But several are very gross; two are absurdly composed -in different languages,--one of them in four, and the other in -six;[481] and all contain abundant proof, in their structure and -tone, of the rudeness of the age that produced them. In consequence of -their little respect for the Church, they were soon forbidden by the -Inquisition in Spain.[482] - - [480] There is a good deal of art in Naharro’s verse. The - “Hymenea,” for instance, is written in twelve-line stanzas; the - eleventh being a _pie quebrado_, or broken line. The “Jacinta” - is in twelve-line stanzas, without the _pie quebrado_. The - “Calamita” is in _quintillas_, connected by the _pie quebrado_. - The “Aquilana” is in _quartetas_, connected in the same way; and - so on. But the number of feet in each of his lines is not always - exact, nor are the rhymes always good, though, on the whole, a - harmonious result is generally produced. - - [481] He partly apologizes for this in his Preface to the Reader, - by saying that Italian words are introduced into the _comedias_ - because of the audiences in Italy. This will do, as far as the - Italian is concerned; but what is to be said for the other - languages that are used? In the _Introyto_ to the “Serafina,” he - makes a jest of the whole, telling the audience,-- - - But you must all keep wide awake, - Or else in vain you’ll undertake - To comprehend the differing speech, - Which here is quite distinct for each;-- - Four languages, as you will hear, - Castilian with Valencian clear, - And Latin and Italian too;-- - So take care lest they trouble you. - - No doubt his _comedias_ were exhibited before only a few persons, - who were able to understand the various languages they contained, - and found them only the more amusing for this variety. - - [482] It is singular, however, that a very severe passage on - the Pope and the clergy at Rome, in the “Jacinta,” was not - struck out, ed. 1573, f. 256. b;--a proof, among many others, - how capriciously and carelessly the Inquisition acted in such - matters. In the Index of 1667, (p. 114,) only the “Aquilana” is - prohibited. - -That they were represented in Italy before they were printed,[483] and -that they were so far circulated before their author gave them to the -press,[484] as to be already in some degree beyond his own control, we -know on his own authority. He intimates, too, that a good many of the -clergy were present at the representation of at least one of them.[485] -But it is not likely that any of his plays were acted, except in the -same way with Vicente’s and Enzina’s; that is, before a moderate number -of persons in some great man’s house,[486] at Naples, and perhaps at -Rome. They, therefore, did not probably produce much effect at first -on the condition of the drama, so far as it was then developed in -Spain. Their influence came in later, and through the press, when three -editions, beginning with that of 1520, appeared in Seville alone in -twenty-five years, curtailed indeed, and expurgated in the last, but -still giving specimens of dramatic composition much in advance of any -thing then produced in the country. - - [483] As the question, whether Naharro’s plays were acted in - Italy or not, has been angrily discussed between Lampillas - (Ensayo, Madrid, 1789, 4to, Tom. VI. pp. 160-167) and Signorelli - (Storia dei Teatri, Napoli, 1813, 8vo, Tom. VI. pp. 171, etc.), - in consequence of a rash passage in Nasarre’s Prólogo to the - Plays of Cervantes, (Madrid, 1749, 4to,) I will copy the original - phrase of Naharro himself, which had escaped all the combatants, - and in which he says he used Italian words in his plays, “aviendo - respeto _al lugar_, y á las personas, á quien _se recitaron_.” - Neither of these learned persons knew even that the first edition - of the “Propaladia” was probably printed in Italy, and that one - early edition was certainly printed there. - - [484] “Las mas destas obrillas andavan ya fuera de mi obediencia - y voluntad.” - - [485] In the opening of the _Introyto_ to the “Trofea.” - - [486] I am quite aware, that, in the important passage already - cited from Mendez Silva, on the first acting of plays in 1492, - we have the words, “Año de 1492 comenzaron en Castilla las - compañías á representar _publicamente_ comedias de Juan de la - Enzina”; but what the word _publicamente_ was intended to mean - is shown by the words that follow: “_festejando con ellas á D. - Fadrique de Toledo, Enriquez Almirante de Castilla, y á Don Iñigo - Lopez de Mendoza segundo Duque del Infantado._” So that the - representations in the halls and chapels of these great houses - were accounted _public_ representations. - -But though men like Juan de la Enzina, Gil Vicente, and Naharro had -turned their thoughts towards dramatic composition, they seem to have -had no idea of founding a popular national drama. For this we must look -to the next period; since, as late as the end of the reign of Ferdinand -and Isabella, there is no trace of such a theatre in Spain. - - - - -CHAPTER XVI. - -PROVENÇAL LITERATURE IN SPAIN.--PROVENCE.--BURGUNDIANS.--ORIGIN -OF THE PROVENÇAL LANGUAGE AND LITERATURE.--BARCELONA.--DIALECT OF -CATALONIA.--ARAGON.--TROUBADOUR POETS IN CATALONIA AND ARAGON.--WAR -OF THE ALBIGENSES.--PETER THE SECOND.--JAMES THE CONQUEROR AND HIS -CHRONICLE.--RAMON MUNTANER AND HIS CHRONICLE.--DECAY OF POETRY IN -PROVENCE, AND DECAY OF PROVENÇAL POETRY IN SPAIN.--CATALONIAN DIALECT. - - -Provençal literature appeared in Spain as early as any portion of the -Castilian, with which we have thus far been exclusively occupied. -Its introduction was natural, and, being intimately connected with -the history of political power in both Provence and Spain, can be -at once explained, at least so far as to account for its prevalence -in the quarter of the Peninsula where, during three centuries, it -predominated, and for its large influence throughout the rest of the -country, both at that time and afterwards. - -Provence--or, in other words, that part of the South of France which -extends from Italy to Spain, and which originally obtained its name -in consequence of the consideration it enjoyed as an early and most -important province of Rome--was singularly fortunate, during the latter -period of the Middle Ages, in its exemption from many of the troubles -of those troubled times.[487] While the great movement of the Northern -nations lasted, Provence was disturbed chiefly by the Visigoths, who -soon passed onward to Spain, leaving few traces of their character -behind them, and by the Burgundians, the mildest of all the Teutonic -invaders, who did not reach the South of France till they had been long -resident in Italy, and, when they came, established themselves at once -as the permanent masters of that tempting country. - - [487] F. Diez, Troubadours, Zwickau, 1826, 8vo, p. 5. - -Greatly favored in this comparative quiet, which, though sometimes -broken by internal dissension, or by the ineffectual incursions of -their new Arab neighbours, was nevertheless such as was hardly known -elsewhere, and favored no less by a soil and climate almost without -rivals in the world, the civilization and refinement of Provence -advanced faster than those of any other portion of Europe. From the -year 879, a large part of it was fortunately constituted into an -independent government; and, what was very remarkable, it continued -under the same family till 1092, two hundred and thirteen years.[488] -During this second period, its territories were again much spared -from the confusion that almost constantly pressed their borders and -threatened their tranquillity; for the troubles that then shook the -North of Italy did not cross the Alps and the Var; the Moorish power, -so far from making new aggressions, maintained itself with difficulty -in Catalonia; and the wars and convulsions in the North of France, -from the time of the first successors of Charlemagne to that of Philip -Augustus, flowed rather in the opposite direction, and furnished, at a -safe distance, occupation for tempers too fierce to endure idleness. - - [488] Sismondi, Histoire des Français, Paris, 1821, 8vo, Tom. - III. pp. 239, etc. - -In the course of these two centuries, a language sprang up in the -South and along the Mediterranean, compounded, according to the -proportions of their power and refinement, from that spoken by the -Burgundians and from the degraded Latin of the country, and slowly and -quietly took the place of both. With this new language appeared, as -noiselessly, about the middle of the tenth century, a new literature, -suited to the climate, the age, and the manners that produced it, and -one which, for nearly three hundred years, seemed to be advancing -towards a grace and refinement such as had not been known since the -fall of the Romans. - -Thus things continued under twelve princes of the Burgundian race, -who make little show in the wars of their times, but who seem to have -governed their states with a moderation and gentleness not to have -been expected amidst the general disturbance of the world. This family -became extinct, in the male branch, in 1092; and in 1113, the crown -of Provence was transferred, by the marriage of its heir, to Raymond -Berenger, the third Count of Barcelona.[489] The Provençal poets, many -of whom were noble by birth, and all of whom, as a class, were attached -to the court and its aristocracy, naturally followed their liege -lady, in considerable numbers, from Arles to Barcelona, and willingly -established themselves in her new capital, under a prince full of -knightly accomplishments and yet not disinclined to the arts of peace. - - [489] E. A. Schmidt, Geschichte Aragoniens im Mittelalter, - Leipzig, 1828, 8vo, p. 92. - -Nor was the change for them a great one. The Pyrenees made then, as -they make now, no very serious difference between the languages spoken -on their opposite declivities; similarity of pursuits had long before -induced a similarity of manners in the population of Barcelona and -Marseilles; and if the Provençals had somewhat more of gentleness and -culture, the Catalonians, from the share they had taken in the Moorish -wars, possessed a more strongly marked character, and one developed in -more manly proportions.[490] At the very commencement of the twelfth -century, therefore, we may fairly consider a Provençal refinement -to have been introduced into the northeastern corner of Spain; and -it is worth notice, that this is just about the period when, as we -have already seen, the ultimately national school of poetry began to -show itself in quite the opposite corner of the Peninsula, amidst the -mountains of Biscay and Asturias.[491] - - [490] Barcelona was a prize often fought for successfully by - Moors and Christians, but it was finally rescued from the - misbelievers in 985 or 986. (Zurita, Anales de Aragon, Lib. I. c. - 9.) Whatever relates to its early power and glory may be found - in Capmany, (Memorias de la Antigua Ciudad de Barcelona, Madrid, - 1779-1792, 4 tom. 4to,) and especially in the curious documents - and notes in Tom. II. and IV. - - [491] The members of the French Academy, in their continuation of - the Benedictine Hist. Litt. de la France, (Paris, 4to, Tom. XVI., - 1824, p. 195,) trace it back a little earlier. - -Political causes, however, similar to those which first brought the -spirit of Provence from Arles and Marseilles to Barcelona, soon carried -it farther onward towards the centre of Spain. In 1137, the Counts of -Barcelona obtained by marriage the kingdom of Aragon; and though they -did not, at once, remove the seat of their government to Saragossa, -they early spread through their new territories some of the refinement -for which they were indebted to Provence. This remarkable family, -whose power was now so fast stretching up to the North, possessed, at -different times, during nearly three centuries, different portions -of territory on both sides of the Pyrenees, generally maintaining -a control over a large part of the Northeast of Spain and of the -South of France. Between 1229 and 1253, the most distinguished of -its members gave the widest extent to its empire by broad conquests -from the Moors; but later the power of the kings of Aragon became -gradually circumscribed, and their territory diminished, by marriages, -successions, and military disasters. Under eleven princes, however, in -the direct line, and three more in the indirect, they maintained their -right to the kingdom, down to the year 1479, when, in the person of -Ferdinand, it was united to Castile, and the solid foundations were -laid on which the Spanish monarchy has ever since rested. - -With this slight outline of the course of political power in the -northeastern part of Spain, it will be easy to trace the origin and -history of the literature that prevailed there from the beginning of -the twelfth to the middle of the fifteenth century; a literature which -was introduced from Provence, and retained the Provençal character, -till it came in contact with that more vigorous spirit which, during -the same period, had been advancing from the northwest, and afterwards -succeeded in giving its tone to the literature of the consolidated -monarchy.[492] - - [492] Catalan patriotism has denied all this, and claimed that - the Provençal literature was derived from Catalonia. See Torres - Amat, Prólogo to “Memorias de los Escritores Catalanes,” and - elsewhere. But it is only necessary to read what its friends - have said in defence of this position, to be satisfied that - it is untenable. The simple fact, that the literature in - question existed a full century in Provence before there is - any pretence to claim its existence in Catalonia, is decisive - of the controversy, if there really be a controversy about - the matter. The “Memorias para ayudar á formar un Diccionario - Crítico de los Autores Catalanes,” etc., by D. Felix Torres Amat, - Bishop of Astorga, etc., (Barcelona, 1836, 8vo,) is, however, - an indispensable book for the history of the literature of - Catalonia; for its author, descended from one of the old and - distinguished families of the country, and nephew of the learned - Archbishop Amat, who died in 1824, has devoted much of his life - and of his ample means to collect materials for it. It contains - more mistakes than it should; but a great deal of its information - can be obtained nowhere else in a printed form. - -The character of the old Provençal poetry is the same on both sides -of the Pyrenees. In general, it is graceful and devoted to love; -but sometimes it becomes involved in the politics of the time, and -sometimes it runs into a severe and unbecoming satire. In Catalonia, -as well as in its native home, it belonged much to the court; and the -highest in rank and power are the earliest and foremost on its lists. -Thus, both the princes who first wore the united crowns of Barcelona -and Provence, and who reigned from 1113 to 1162, are often set down as -Limousin or Provençal poets, though with slight claims to the honor, -since not a verse has been published that can be attributed to either -of them.[493] - - [493] See the articles in Torres Amat, Memorias, pp. 104, 105. - -Alfonso the Second, however, who received the crown of Aragon in 1162, -and wore it till 1196, is admitted by all to have been a Troubadour. -Of him we still possess a few not inelegant _coblas_, or stanzas, -addressed to his lady, which are curious from the circumstance that -they constitute the oldest poem in the modern dialects of Spain, whose -author is known to us; and one that is probably as old, or nearly as -old, as any of the anonymous poetry of Castile and the North.[494] Like -the other sovereigns of his age, who loved and practised the art of the -_gai saber_, Alfonso collected poets about his person. Pierre Rogiers -was at his court, and so were Pierre Raimond de Toulouse, and Aiméric -de Péguilain, who mourned his patron’s death in verse,--all three -famous Troubadours in their time, and all three honored and favored -at Barcelona.[495] There can be no doubt, therefore, that a Provençal -spirit was already established and spreading in that part of Spain -before the end of the twelfth century. - - [494] The poem is in Raynouard, Troubadours, Tom. III. p. 118. It - begins-- - - Per mantas guizas m’ es datz - Joys e deport e solatz. - - The life of its author is in Zurita, “Anales de Aragon” (Lib. - II.); but the few literary notices needed of him are best found - in Latassa, “Biblioteca Antigua de los Escritores Aragoneses,” - (Zaragoza, 1796, 8vo, Tom. I. p. 175,) and in “Histoire - Littéraire de la France” (Paris, 4to, Tom. XV. 1820, p. 158). As - to the word _coblas_, I cannot but think--notwithstanding all - the refined discussions about it in Raynouard, (Tom. II. pp. - 174-178,) and Diez, “Troubadours,” (p. 111 and note,)--that it - was quite synonymous with the Spanish _coplas_, and may, for all - common purposes, be translated by our English _stanzas_, or even - sometimes by _couplets_. - - [495] For Pierre Rogiers, see Raynouard, Troubadours, Tom. V. - p. 330, Tom. III. pp. 27, etc., with Millot, Hist. Litt. des - Troubadours, Paris, 1774, 12mo, Tom. I. pp. 103, etc., and the - Hist. Litt. de la France, Tom. XV. p. 459. For Pierre Raimond de - Toulouse, see Raynouard, Tom. V. p. 322, and Tom. III. p. 120, - with Hist. Litt. de la France, Tom. XV. p. 457, and Crescimbeni, - Istoria della Volgar Poesia, (Roma, 1710, 4to, Tom. II. p. 55,) - where, on the authority of a manuscript in the Vatican, he says - of Pierre Raimond, “Andò in corte del Re Alfonso d’Aragona, che - l’accolse e molto onorò.” For Aiméric de Péguilain, see Hist. - Litt. de la France, Paris, 4to, Tom. XVIII., 1835, p. 684. - -In the beginning of the next century, external circumstances imparted -a great impulse to this spirit in Aragon. From 1209 to 1229, the -shameful war which gave birth to the Inquisition was carried on with -extraordinary cruelty and fury against the Albigenses; a religious sect -in Provence accused of heresy, but persecuted rather by an implacable -political ambition. To this sect--which, in some points, opposed -the pretensions of the See of Rome, and was at last exterminated -by a crusade under the Papal authority--belonged nearly all the -contemporary Troubadours, whose poetry is full of their sufferings and -remonstrances.[496] In their great distress, the principal ally of the -Albigenses and Troubadours was Peter the Second of Aragon, who, in -1213, perished nobly fighting in their cause at the disastrous battle -of Muret. When, therefore, the Troubadours of Provence were compelled -to escape from the burnt and bloody ruins of their homes, not a few -of them hastened to the friendly court of Aragon, sure of finding -themselves protected, and their art held in honor, by princes who were, -at the same time, poets. - - [496] Sismondi (Hist. des Français, Paris, 8vo, Tom. VI. and - VII., 1823, 1826) gives an ample account of the cruelties and - horrors of the war of the Albigenses, and Llorente (Histoire - de l’Inquisition, Paris, 1817, 8vo, Tom. I. p. 43) shows the - connection of that war with the origin of the Inquisition. - The fact, that nearly all the Troubadours took part with the - persecuted Albigenses, is equally notorious. Histoire Litt. de - la France, Tom. XVIII. p. 588, and Fauriel, Introduction to the - Histoire de la Croisade contre les Hérétiques Albigeois, Paris, - 1837, 4to, p. xv. - -Among those who thus appeared in Spain in the time of Peter the -Second were Hugues de Saint Cyr;[497] Azémar le Noir;[498] Pons -Barba;[499] Raimond de Miraval, who joined in the cry urging the king -to the defence of the Albigenses, in which he perished;[500] and -Perdigon,[501] who, after being munificently entertained at his court, -became, like Folquet de Marseille,[502] a traitor to the cause he had -espoused, and openly exulted in the king’s untimely fate. But none of -the poetical followers of Peter the Second did him such honor as the -author of the curious and long poem of “The War of the Albigenses,” -in which much of the king of Aragon’s life is recorded, and a minute -account given of his disastrous death.[503] All, however, except -Perdigon and Folquet, regarded him with gratitude, as their patron, and -as a poet,[504] who, to use the language of one of them, made himself -“their head and the head of their honors.”[505] - - [497] Raynouard, Troub., Tom. V. p. 222, Tom. III. p. 330. - Millot, Hist., Tom. II. p. 174. - - [498] Hist. Litt. de la France, Tom. XVIII. p. 586. - - [499] Ibid., p. 644. - - [500] Raynouard, Troub., Tom. V. pp. 382, 386. Hist. Litt. de la - France, Tom. XVII. pp. 456-467. - - [501] Hist. Litt. de la France, Tom. XVIII. pp. 603-605. Millot, - Hist., Tom. I. p. 428. - - [502] For this cruel and false chief among the crusaders, praised - by Petrarca (Trionfo d’ Amore, C. IV.) and by Dante (Parad., IX. - 94, etc.), see Hist. Litt. de la France, Tom. XVIII. p. 594. His - poetry is in Raynouard, Troub., Tom. III. pp. 149-162. - - [503] This important poem, admirably edited by M. Charles - Fauriel, one of the soundest and most genial French scholars of - the nineteenth century, is in a series of works on the history - of France, published by order of the king of France, and begun - under the auspices of M. Guizot, and by his recommendation, when - he was Minister of Public Instruction. It is entitled “Histoire - de la Croisade contre les Hérétiques Albigeois, écrite en Vers - Provençaux, par un Poète contemporain,” Paris, 1837, 4to, pp. - 738. It consists of 9578 verses,--the notices of Peter II. - occurring chiefly in the first part of it, and the account of his - death at vv. 3061, etc. - - [504] What remains of his poetry is in Raynouard, Troub., Tom. V. - pp. 290, etc., and in Hist. Litt. de la France, Tom. XVII., 1832, - pp. 443-447, where a sufficient notice is given of his life. - - [505] - Reis d’ Aragon, tornem a vos, - Car etz capz de bes et de nos. - - Pons Barba. - -The glorious reign of Jayme or James the Conqueror, which followed, -and extended from 1213 to 1276, exhibits the same poetical character -with that of the less fortunate reign of his immediate predecessor. -He protected the Troubadours, and the Troubadours, in return, praised -and honored him. Guillaume Anélier addressed a _sirvente_ to him as -“the young king of Aragon, who defends mercy and discountenances -wrong.”[506] Nat de Mons sent him two poetical letters, one of -which gives him advice concerning the composition of his court and -government.[507] Arnaud Plagnés offered a _chanso_ to his fair queen, -Eleanor of Castile;[508] and Mathieu de Querci, who survived the great -conqueror, poured forth at his grave the sorrows of his Christian -compatriots at the loss of the great champion on whom they had -depended in their struggle with the Moors.[509] At the same period, -too, Hugues de Mataplana, a noble Catalan, held at his castle courts -of love and poetical contests, in which he himself bore a large -part;[510] while one of his neighbours, Guillaume de Bergédan, no less -distinguished by poetical talent and ancient descent, but of a less -honorable nature, indulged himself in a style of verse more gross than -can easily be found elsewhere in the Troubadour poetry.[511] All, -however, the bad and the good,--those who, like Sordel[512] and Bernard -de Rovenac,[513] satirized the king, and those who, like Pierre -Cardenal, enjoyed his favor and praised him,[514]--all show that the -Troubadours, in his reign, continued to seek protection in Catalonia -and Aragon, where they had so long been accustomed to find it, and that -their poetry was constantly taking deeper root in a soil where its -nourishment was now become so sure. - - [506] Hist. Litt. de la France, Tom. XVIII. p. 553. The poem - begins-- - - Al jove rei d’ Arago, que conferma - Merce e dreg, e malvestat desferma, etc. - - [507] Millot, Hist. des Troubadours, Tom. II. pp. 186, etc. - - [508] Hist. Litt. de la France, Tom. XVIII. p. 635, and - Raynouard, Troub., Tom. V. p. 50. - - [509] Raynouard, Troub., Tom. V. pp. 261, 262. Hist. Litt. de la - France, Tom. XIX., Paris, 1838, p. 607. - - [510] Hist. Litt. de la France, Tom. XVIII. pp. 571-575. - - [511] Ibid., pp. 576-579. - - [512] Millot, Hist., Tom. II. p. 92. - - [513] Raynouard, Troub., Tom. IV. pp. 203-205. - - [514] Ibid., Tom. V. p. 302. Hist. Litt. de la France, Tom. XX., - 1842, p. 574. - -James himself has sometimes been reckoned among the poets of his -age.[515] It is possible, though none of his poetry has been preserved, -that he really was such; for metrical composition was easy in the -flowing language he spoke, and it had evidently grown common at -his court, where the examples of his father and grandfather, as -Troubadours, would hardly be without their effect. But however this -may be, he loved letters, and left behind him a large prose work, more -in keeping than any poetry with his character as a wise monarch and -successful conqueror, whose legislation and government were far in -advance of the condition of his subjects.[516] - - [515] Quadrio (Storia d’ Ogni Poesia, Bologna, 1741, 4to, Tom. - II. p. 132) and Zurita (Anales, Lib. X. c. 42) state it, but not - with proof. - - [516] In the Guía del Comercio de Madrid, 1848, is an account - of the disinterment, at Poblet, in 1846, of the remains of - several royal personages who had been long buried there; among - which the body of Don Jayme, after a period of six hundred and - seventy years, was found remarkably preserved. It was easily - distinguished by its size,--for when alive Don Jayme was seven - feet high,--and by the mark of an arrow-wound in his forehead - which he received at Valencia, and which was still perfectly - distinct. An eyewitness declared that a painter might have found - in his remains the general outline of his physiognomy. Faro - Industrial de la Habana, 6 Abril, 1848. - -The work here referred to is a chronicle or commentary on the principal -events of his reign, divided into four parts;--the first of which -is on the troubles that followed his accession to the throne, after -a long minority, with the rescue of Majorca and Minorca from the -Moors, between 1229 and 1233; the second is on the greater conquest -of the kingdom of Valencia, which was substantially ended in 1239, so -that the hated misbelievers never again obtained any firm foothold -in all the northeastern part of the Peninsula; the third is on the -war James prosecuted in Murcia, till 1266, for the benefit of his -kinsman, Alfonso the Wise, of Castile; and the last is on the embassies -he received from the Khan of Tartary, and Michael Palæologus of -Constantinople, and on his own attempt, in 1268, to lead an expedition -to Palestine, which was defeated by storms. The story, however, is -continued to the end of his reign by slight notices, which, except the -last, preserve throughout the character of an autobiography; the very -last, which, in a few words, records his death at Valencia, being the -only portion written in the third person. - -From this Chronicle of James the Conqueror there was early taken -an account of the conquest of Valencia, beginning in the most -simple-hearted manner with the conversation the king held at -Alcañiç (Alcañizas) with Don Blasco de Alagon and the Master of the -Hospitallers, Nuch de Follalquer, who urge him, by his successes in -Minorca, to undertake the greater achievement of the conquest of -Valencia; and ending with the troubles that followed the partition of -the spoils after the fall of that rich kingdom and its capital. This -last work was printed in 1515, in a magnificent volume, where it serves -for an appropriate introduction to the _Foros_, or privileges, granted -to the city of Valencia from the time of its conquest down to the end -of the reign of Ferdinand the Catholic;[517] but the complete work, -the Chronicle, did not appear till 1557, when it was published to -satisfy a requisition of Philip the Second.[518] - - [517] Its first title is “Aureum Opus Regalium Privilegiorum - Civitatis et Regni Valentiæ,” etc., but the work itself begins, - “Comença la conquesta per lo serenisimo e Catholich Princep - de inmortal memoria, Don Jaume,” etc. It is not divided into - chapters nor paged, but it has ornamental capitals at the - beginning of its paragraphs, and fills 42 large pages in folio, - double columns, litt. goth., and was printed, as its colophon - shows, at Valencia, in 1515, by Diez de Gumiel. - - [518] Rodriguez, Biblioteca Valentina, Valencia, 1747, fol., - p. 574. Its title is “Chrónica o Commentari del Gloriosissim - e Invictissim Rey En Jacme, Rey d’ Aragò, de Mallorques, e de - Valencia, Compte de Barcelona e de Urgell e de Muntpeiller, feita - e scrita per aquell en sa llengua natural, e treita del Archiu - del molt magnifich Rational de la insigne Ciutat de Valencia, hon - stava custodita.” It was printed under the order of the Jurats - of Valencia, by the widow of Juan Mey, in folio, in 1557. The - Rational being the proper archive-keeper, the Jurats being the - council of the city, and the work being dedicated to Philip II., - who asked to see it in print, all needful assurance is given of - its genuineness. Each part is divided into very short chapters; - the first containing one hundred and five, the second one hundred - and fifteen, and so on. A series of letters, by Jos. Villaroya, - printed at Valencia, in 1800, (8vo,) to prove that James was not - the author of this Chronicle, are ingenious, learned, and well - written, but do not, I think, establish their author’s position. - -It is written in a simple and manly style, which, without making -pretensions to elegance, often sets before us the events it records -with a living air of reality, and sometimes shows a happiness in manner -and phraseology which effort seldom reaches. Whether it was undertaken -in consequence of the impulse given to such vernacular histories by -Alfonso the Tenth of Castile, in his “General Chronicle of Spain,” or -whether the intimations which gave birth to that remarkable Chronicle -came rather from Aragon, we cannot now determine. Probably both works -were produced in obedience to the demands of their age; but still, as -both must have been written at nearly the same time, and as the two -kings were united by a family alliance and constant intercourse, a full -knowledge of whatever relates to these two curious records of different -parts of the Peninsula would hardly fail to show us some connection -between them. In that case, it is by no means impossible that the -precedence in point of time would be found to belong to the Chronicle -of the king of Aragon, who was not only older than Alfonso, but was -frequently his wise and efficient counsellor.[519] - - [519] Alfonso was born in 1221 and died in 1284, and Jayme I., - whose name, it should be noted, is also spelt Jaume, Jaime, and - Jacme, was born in 1208 and died in 1276. It is probable, as I - have already said, that Alfonso’s Chronicle was written a little - before 1260; but that period was twenty-one years after the date - of _all_ the facts recorded in Jayme’s account of the conquest - of Valencia. In connection with the question of the precedence - of these two Chronicles may be taken the circumstance, that - it has been believed by some persons that Jayme attempted to - make Catalan the language of the law and of all public records, - thirty years before the similar attempt already noticed was made - by Alfonso X. in relation to the Castilian. Villanueva, Viage - Literario á las Iglesias de España, Valencia, 1821, Tom. VII. p. - 195. - - Another work of the king remains in manuscript. It is a moral - and philosophical treatise, called “Lo Libre de la Saviesa,” or - The Book of Wisdom, of which an account may be found in Castro, - Biblioteca Española, Tom. II. p. 605. - -But James of Aragon was fortunate in having yet another chronicler, -Ramon Muntaner, born at Peralada, nine years before the death of that -monarch; a Catalan gentleman, who in his old age, after a life of great -adventure, felt himself to be specially summoned to write an account of -his own times.[520] “For one day,” he says, “being in my country-house, -called Xilvella, in the garden plain of Valencia, and sleeping in my -bed, there came unto me in vision a venerable old man, clad in white -raiment, who said unto me, ‘Arise, and stand on thy feet, Muntaner, -and think how to declare the great wonders thou hast seen, which God -hath brought to pass in the wars where thou wast; for it hath seemed -well pleasing to Him that through thee should all these things be made -manifest.’” At first, he tells us, he was disobedient to the heavenly -vision, and unmoved by the somewhat flattering reasons vouchsafed him, -why he was elected to chronicle matters so notable. “But another day, -in that same place,” he goes on, “I beheld again that venerable man, -who said unto me, ‘O my son, what doest thou? Why dost thou despise my -commandment? Arise, and do even as I have bidden thee! And know of a -truth, if thou so doest, that thou and thy children and thy kinsfolk -and thy friends shall find favor in the sight of God.’” Being thus -warned a second time, he undertook the work. It was, he tells us, -the fifteenth day of May, 1325, when he began it; and when it was -completed, as it notices events which happened in April, 1328, it is -plain that its composition must have occupied at least three years. - - [520] Probably the best notice of Muntaner is to be found in - Antonio, Bib. Vetus (ed. Bayer, Vol. II. p. 145). There is, - however, a more ample one in Torres Amat, Memorias, (p. 437,) and - there are other notices elsewhere. The title of his Chronicle is - “Crónica o Descripcio dels Fets e Hazanyes del Inclyt Rey Don - Jaume Primer, Rey Daragò, de Mallorques, e de Valencia, Compte - de Barcelona, e de Munpesller, e de molts de sos Descendents, - feta per lo magnifich En Ramon Muntaner, lo qual servi axi al - dit inclyt Rey Don Jaume com á sos Fills e Descendents, es troba - present á las Coses contengudes en la present Historia.” There - are two old editions of it; the first, Valencia, 1558, and the - second, Barcelona, 1562; both in folio, and the last consisting - of 248 leaves. It was evidently much used and trusted by Zurita. - (See his Anales, Lib. VII. c. 1, etc.) A neat edition of it in - large 8vo, edited by Karl Lanz, was published in 1844, by the - Stuttgard Verein, and a translation of it into German, by the - same accomplished scholar, appeared at Leipzig in 1842, in 2 - vols. 8vo. - -It opens, with much simplicity, with a record of the earliest important -event he remembered, a visit of the great conqueror of Valencia at -the house of his father, when he was himself a mere child.[521] The -impression of such a visit on a boyish imagination would naturally be -deep;--in the case of Muntaner it seems to have been peculiarly so. -From that moment the king became to him, not only the hero he really -was, but something more; one whose very birth was miraculous, and whose -entire life was filled with more grace and favor than God had ever -before shown to living man; for, as the fond old chronicler will have -it, “He was the goodliest prince in the world, and the wisest and the -most gracious and the most upright, and one that was more loved than -any king ever was of all men; both of his own subjects and strangers, -and of noble gentlemen everywhere.”[522] - - [521] “E per ço començ al feyt del dit senyor, Rey En Jacme, - com yol viu, e asenyaladament essent yo fadrí, e lo dit senyor - Rey essent á la dita vila de Peralada hon yo naxqui, e posa - en lalberch de mon pare En Joan Muntaner, qui era dels majors - alberchs daquell lloch, e era al cap de la plaça,” (Cap. - II.,)--“And therefore I begin with the fact of the said Lord Don - James, as I saw him, and namely, when I was a little boy and the - said Lord King was in the said city of Peralada, where I was - born, and tarried in the house of my father, Don John Muntaner, - which was one of the largest houses in that place, and was at the - head of the square.” _En_, which I have translated _Don_, is the - corresponding title in Catalan. See Andrev Bosch, Titols de Honor - de Cathalunya, etc., Perpinya, folio, 1628, p. 574. - - [522] This passage reminds us of the beautiful character of Sir - Launcelot, near the end of the “Morte Darthur,” and therefore - I transcribe the simple and strong words of the original: “E - apres ques vae le pus bell princep del mon, e lo pus savi, e lo - pus gracios, e lo pus dreturer, e cell qui fo mes amat de totes - gents, axi dels seus sotsmesos com daltres estranys e privades - gents, que Rey qui hanch fos.” Cap. VII. - -The life of the Conqueror, however, serves merely as an introduction -to the work; for Muntaner announces his purpose to speak of little -that was not within his own knowledge; and of the Conqueror’s reign he -could remember only the concluding glories. His Chronicle, therefore, -consists chiefly of what happened in the time of four princes of the -same house, and especially of Peter the Third, his chief hero. He -ornaments his story, however, once with a poem two hundred and forty -lines long, which he gave to James the Second, and his son Alfonso, by -way of advice and caution, when the latter was about to embark for the -conquest of Sardinia and Corsica.[523] - - [523] This poem is in Cap. CCLXXII. of the Chronicle, and - consists of twelve stanzas, each of twenty lines, and each - having all its twenty lines in one rhyme, the first rhyme being - in _o_, the second in _ent_, the third in _ayle_, and so on. It - sets forth the counsel of Muntaner to the king and prince on the - subject of the conquest they had projected; counsel which the - chronicler says was partly followed, and so the expedition turned - out well, but that it would have turned out better, if the advice - had been followed entirely. How good Muntaner’s counsel was we - cannot now judge, but his poetry is certainly naught. It is in - the most artificial style used by the Troubadours, and is well - called by its author a _sermo_. He says, however, that it was - actually given to the king. - -The whole work is curious, and strongly marked with the character of -its author;--a man brave, loving adventure and show; courteous and -loyal; not without intellectual training, yet no scholar; and, though -faithful and disinterested, either quite unable to conceal, or quite -willing, at every turn, to exhibit, his good-natured personal vanity. -His fidelity to the family of Aragon was admirable. He was always in -their service; often in captivity for them; and engaged at different -times in no less than thirty-two battles in defence of their rights, -or in furtherance of their conquests from the Moors. His life, indeed, -was a life of knightly loyalty, and nearly all the two hundred and -ninety-eight chapters of his Chronicle are as full of its spirit as his -heart was. - -In relating what he himself saw and did, his statements seem to -be accurate, and are certainly lively and fresh; but elsewhere -he sometimes falls into errors of date, and sometimes exhibits -a good-natured credulity that makes him believe many of the -impossibilities that were related to him. In his gay spirit and love -of show, as well as in his simple, but not careless, style, he reminds -us of Froissart, especially at the conclusion of the whole Chronicle, -which he ends, evidently to his own satisfaction, with an elaborate -account of the ceremonies observed at the coronation of Alfonso the -Fourth at Saragossa, which he attended in state as syndic of the city -of Valencia; the last event recorded in the work, and the last we hear -of its knightly old author, who was then near his grand climacteric. - -During the latter part of the period recorded by this Chronicle, a -change was taking place in the literature of which it is an important -part. The troubles and confusion that prevailed in Provence, from the -time of the cruel persecution of the Albigenses and the encroaching -spirit of the North, which, from the reign of Philip Augustus, was -constantly pressing down towards the Mediterranean, were more than -the genial, but not hardy, spirit of the Troubadours could resist. -Many of them, therefore, fled; others yielded in despair; and all -were discouraged. From the end of the thirteenth century, their songs -are rarely heard on the soil that gave them birth three hundred years -before. With the beginning of the fourteenth, the purity of their -dialect disappears. A little later, the dialect itself ceases to be -cultivated.[524] - - [524] Raynouard, in Tom. III., shows this; and more fully in Tom. - V., in the list of poets. So does the Hist. Litt. de la France, - Tom. XVIII. See, also, Fauriel’s Introduction to the poem on the - Crusade against the Albigenses, pp. xv., xvi. - -As might be expected, the delicate plant, whose flower was not -permitted to expand on its native soil, did not long continue to -flourish in that to which it was transplanted. For a time, indeed, the -exiled Troubadours, who resorted to the court of James the Conqueror -and his father, gave to Saragossa and Barcelona something of the -poetical grace that had been so attractive at Arles and Marseilles. -But both these princes were obliged to protect themselves from the -suspicion of sharing the heresy with which so many of the Troubadours -they sheltered were infected; and James, in 1233, among other severe -ordinances, forbade to the laity the Limousin Bible, which had been -recently prepared for them, and the use of which would have tended so -much to confirm their language and form their literature.[525] His -successors, however, continued to favor the spirit of the minstrels -of Provence. Peter the Third was numbered amongst them;[526] and if -Alfonso the Third and James the Second were not themselves poets, a -poetical spirit was found about their persons and in their court;[527] -and when Alfonso the Fourth, the next in succession, was crowned at -Saragossa in 1328, we are told that several poems of Peter, the king’s -brother, were recited in honor of the occasion, one of which consisted -of seven hundred verses.[528] - - [525] Castro, Biblioteca Española, Tom. I. p. 411, and Schmidt, - Gesch. Aragoniens im Mittelalter, p. 465. - - [526] Latassa, Bib. Antigua de los Escritores Aragoneses, Tom. I. - p. 242. Hist. Litt. de la France, Tom. XX. p. 529. - - [527] Antonio, Bib. Vetus, ed. Bayer, Tom. II. Lib. VIII. c. vi., - vii., and Amat, p. 207. But Serveri of Girona, about 1277, mourns - the good old days of James I., (Hist. Litt. de la France, Tom. - XX. p. 552,) as if poets were, when he wrote, beginning to fail - at the court of Aragon. - - [528] Muntaner, Crónica, ed. 1562, fol., ff. 247, 248. - -But these are among the later notices of Provençal literature in the -northeastern part of Spain, where it began now to be displaced by -one taking its hue rather from the more popular and peculiar dialect -of the country. What this dialect was has already been intimated. It -was commonly called the Catalan or Catalonian, from the name of the -country, but probably, at the time of the conquest of Barcelona from -the Moors in 985, differed very little from the Provençal spoken at -Perpignan, on the other side of the Pyrenees.[529] As, however, the -Provençal became more cultivated and gentle, the neglected Catalan -grew stronger and ruder; and when the Christian power was extended, in -1118, to Saragossa, and in 1239 to Valencia, the modifications which -the indigenous vocabularies underwent, in order to suit the character -and condition of the people, tended rather to confirm the local -dialects than to accommodate them to the more advanced language of the -Troubadours. - - [529] Du Cange, Glossarium Mediæ et Infimæ Latinitatis, Parisiis, - 1733, fol., Tom. I., Præfatio, sect. 34-36. Raynouard (Troub., - Tom. I. pp. xii. and xiii.) would carry back both the Catalonian - and Valencian dialects to A. D. 728; but the authority of - Luitprand, on which he relies, is not sufficient, especially as - Luitprand shows that he believed these dialects to have existed - also in the time of Strabo. The most that should be inferred from - the passage Raynouard cites is, that they existed about 950, when - Luitprand wrote, which it is not improbable they did, though - only in their rudest elements, among the Christians in that part - of Spain. Some good remarks on the connection of the South of - France with the South of Spain, and their common idiom, may be - found in Capmany, Memorias Históricas de Barcelona, (Madrid, - 1779-92, 4to,) Parte I., Introd., and the notes on it. The second - and fourth volumes of this valuable historical work furnish many - documents both curious and important for the illustration of the - Catalan language. - -Perhaps, if the Troubadours had maintained their ascendency in -Provence, their influence would not easily have been overcome in Spain. -At least, there are indications that it would not have disappeared -so soon. Alfonso the Tenth of Castile, who had some of the more -distinguished of them about him, imitated the Provençal poetry, if he -did not write it; and even earlier, in the time of Alfonso the Ninth, -who died in 1214, there are traces of its progress in the heart of -the country, that are not to be mistaken.[530] But failing in its -strength at home, it failed abroad. The engrafted fruit perished with -the stock from which it was originally taken. After the opening of the -fourteenth century we find no genuinely Provençal poetry in Castile, -and after the middle of that century it begins to recede from Catalonia -and Aragon, or rather to be corrupted by the harsher, but hardier, -dialect spoken there by the mass of the people. Peter the Fourth, who -reigned in Aragon from 1336 to 1387, shows the conflict and admixture -of the two influences in such portions of his poetry as have been -published, as well as in a letter he addressed to his son;[531]--a -confusion, or transition, which we should probably be able to trace -with some distinctness, if we had before us the curious dictionary of -rhymes, still extant in its original manuscript, which was made at -this king’s command, in 1371, by Jacme March, a member of the poetical -family that was afterwards so much distinguished.[532] In any event, -there can be no reasonable doubt, that, soon after the middle of the -fourteenth century, if not earlier, the proper Catalan dialect began to -be perceptible in the poetry and prose of its native country.[533] - - [530] Millot, Hist. des Troubadours, Tom. II. pp. 186-201. - Hist. Litt. de la France, Tom. XVIII. pp. 588, 634, 635. Diez, - Troubadours, pp. 75, 227, and 331-350; but it may be doubted - whether Riquier did not write the answer of Alfonso, as well as - the petition to him given by Diez. - - [531] Bouterwek, Hist. de la Lit. Española, traducida por - Cortina, Tom. I. p. 162. Latassa, Bib. Antigua, Tom. II. pp. - 25-38. - - [532] Bouterwek, trad. Cortina, p. 177. This manuscript, it may - be curious to notice, was once owned by Ferdinand Columbus, son - of the great discoverer, and is still to be found amidst the - ruins of his library in Seville, with a memorandum by himself, - declaring that he bought it at Barcelona, in June, 1536, for 12 - dineros, the ducat then being worth 588 dineros. See, also, the - notes of Cerdá y Rico to the “Diana Enamorada” of Montemayor, - 1802, pp. 487-490 and 293-295. - - [533] Bruce-Whyte (Histoire des Langues Romanes et de leur - Littérature, Paris, 1841, 8vo, Tom. II. pp. 406-414) gives a - striking extract from a manuscript in the Royal Library, Paris, - which shows this mixture of the Provençal and Catalan very - plainly. He implies, that it is from the middle of the fourteenth - century; but he does not prove it. - - - - -CHAPTER XVII. - -ENDEAVOURS TO REVIVE THE PROVENÇAL SPIRIT.--FLORAL GAMES AT -TOULOUSE.--CONSISTORY OF THE GAYA SCIENCIA AT BARCELONA.--CATALAN -AND VALENCIAN POETRY.--AUSIAS MARCH.--JAUME ROIG.--DECLINE -OF THIS POETRY.--INFLUENCE OF CASTILE.--POETICAL CONTEST AT -VALENCIA.--VALENCIAN POETS WHO WROTE IN CASTILIAN.--PREVALENCE OF THE -CASTILIAN. - - -The failure of the Provençal language, and especially the failure -of the Provençal culture, were not looked upon with indifference in -the countries on either side of the Pyrenees, where they had so long -prevailed. On the contrary, efforts were made to restore both, first in -France, and afterwards in Spain. At Toulouse, on the Garonne, not far -from the foot of the mountains, the magistrates of the city determined, -in 1323, to form a company or guild for this purpose; and, after some -deliberation, constituted it under the name of the “Sobregaya Companhia -dels Sept Trobadors de Tolosa,” or the Very Gay Company of the Seven -Troubadours of Toulouse. This company immediately sent forth a letter, -partly in prose and partly in verse, summoning all poets to come to -Toulouse on the first day of May in 1324, and there “with joy of heart -contend for the prize of a golden violet,” which should be adjudged -to him who should offer the best poem, suited to the occasion. The -concourse was great, and the first prize was given to a poem in honor -of the Madonna by Ramon Vidal de Besalú, a Catalan gentleman, who seems -to have been the author of the regulations for the festival, and to -have been declared a doctor of the _Gay Saber_ on the occasion. In -1355, this company formed for itself a more ample body of laws, partly -in prose and partly in verse, under the title of “Ordenanzas dels Sept -Senhors Mantenedors del Gay Saber,” or Ordinances of the Seven Lords -Conservators of the Gay Saber, which, with the needful modifications, -have been observed down to our own times, and still regulate the -festival annually celebrated at Toulouse, on the first day of May, -under the name of the Floral Games.[534] - - [534] Sarmiento, Memorias, Sect. 759-768. Torres Amat, Memorias, - p. 651, article _Vidal de Besalú_. Santillana, Proverbios, - Madrid, 1799, 18mo, Introduccion, p. xxiii. Sanchez, Poesías - Anteriores, Tom. I. pp. 5-9. Sismondi, Litt. du Midi, Paris, - 1813, 8vo, Tom. I. pp. 227-230. Andres, Storia d’ Ogni - Letteratura, Roma, 1808, 4to, Tom. II. Lib. I. c. 1, sect. 23, - where the remarks are important at pp. 49, 50. - -Toulouse was separated from Aragon only by the picturesque range of -the Pyrenees; and similarity of language and old political connections -prevented even the mountains from being a serious obstacle to -intercourse. What was done at Toulouse, therefore, was soon known at -Barcelona, where the court of Aragon generally resided, and where -circumstances soon favored a formal introduction of the poetical -institutions of the Troubadours. John the First, who, in 1387, -succeeded Peter the Fourth, was a prince of more gentle manners than -were common in his time, and more given to festivity and shows than -was, perhaps, consistent with the good of his kingdom, and certainly -more than was suited to the fierce and turbulent spirit of his -nobility.[535] Among his other attributes was a love of poetry; and in -1388, he despatched a solemn embassy, as if for an affair of state, -to Charles the Sixth of France, praying him to cause certain poets -of the company at Toulouse to visit Barcelona, in order that they -might found there an institution like their own, for the Gay Saber. -In consequence of this mission, two of the seven conservators of the -Floral Games came to Barcelona in 1390, and established what was called -a “Consistory of the Gaya Sciencia,” with laws and usages not unlike -those of the institution they represented. Martin, who followed John on -the throne, increased the privileges of the new Consistory, and added -to its resources; but at his death, in 1409, it was removed to Tortosa, -and its meetings were suspended by troubles that prevailed through the -country, in consequence of a disputed succession. - - [535] Mariana, Hist. de España, Lib. XVIII. c. 14. - -At length, when Ferdinand the Just was declared king, their meetings -were resumed. Enrique de Villena--whom we must speedily notice as a -nobleman of the first rank in the state, nearly allied to the blood -royal, both of Castile and Aragon--came with the new king to Barcelona -in 1412, and, being a lover of poetry, busied himself while there in -reëstablishing and reforming the Consistory, of which he became, for -some time, the principal head and manager. This was, no doubt, the -period of its greatest glory. The king himself frequently attended -its meetings. Many poems were read by their authors before the judges -appointed to examine them, and prizes and other distinctions were -awarded to the successful competitors.[536] From this time, therefore, -poetry in the native dialects of the country was held in honor in -the capitals of Catalonia and Aragon. Public poetical contests were, -from time to time, celebrated, and many poets called forth under their -influence during the reign of Alfonso the Fifth and that of John the -Second, which, ending in 1479, was followed by the consolidation of the -whole Spanish monarchy, and the predominance of the Castilian power and -language.[537] - - [536] “El Arte de Trobar,” or the “Gaya Sciencia,”--a treatise - on the Art of Poetry, which, in 1433, Henry, Marquis of Villena, - sent to his kinsman, the famous Iñigo Lopez de Mendoza, Marquis - of Santillana, in order to facilitate the introduction of - such poetical institutions into Castile as then existed in - Barcelona,--contains the best account of the establishment - of the Consistory of Barcelona, which was a matter of such - consequence as to be mentioned by Mariana, Zurita, and other - grave historians. The treatise of Villena has never been printed - entire; but a poor abstract of its contents, with valuable - extracts, is to be found in Mayans y Siscar, Orígenes de la - Lengua Española, Madrid, 1737, 12mo, Tom. II. - - [537] See Zurita, passim, and Eichhorn, Allg. Geschichte der - Cultur, Göttingen, 1796, 8vo, Tom. I. pp. 127-131, with the - authorities he cites in his notes. - -During the period, however, of which we have been speaking, and which -embraces the century before the reign of Ferdinand and Isabella, the -Catalan modification of Provençal poetry had its chief success, and -produced all the authors that deserve notice. At its opening, Zurita, -the faithful annalist of Aragon, speaking of the reign of John the -First, says, that, “in place of arms and warlike exercises, which had -formerly been the pastime of princes, now succeeded _trobas_ and poetry -in the mother tongue, with its art, called the ‘Gaya Sciencia,’ whereof -schools began to be instituted”;--schools which, as he intimates, were -so thronged, that the dignity of the art they taught was impaired by -the very numbers devoted to it.[538] Who these poets were the grave -historian does not stop to inform us, but we learn something of them -from another and better source; for, according to the fashion of the -time, a collection of poetry was made a little after the middle of -the fifteenth century, which includes the whole period, and contains -the names, and more or less of the works, of those who were then best -known and most considered. It begins with a grant of assistance to the -Consistory of Barcelona, by Ferdinand the Just, in 1413; and then, -going back as far as to the time of Jacme March, who, as we have -seen, flourished in 1371, presents a series of more than three hundred -poems, by about thirty authors, down to the time of Ausias March, who -certainly lived in 1460, and whose works are, as they well deserve to -be, prominent in the collection. - - [538] Anales de la Corona de Aragon, Lib. X. c. 43, ed. 1610, - folio, Tom. II. f. 393. - -Among the poets here brought together are Luis de Vilarasa, who lived -in 1416;[539] Berenguer de Masdovelles, who seems to have flourished -soon after 1453;[540] Jordi, about whom there has been much discussion, -but whom reasonable critics must place as late as 1450-1460;[541] and -Antonio Vallmanya, some of whose poems are dated in 1457 and 1458.[542] -Besides these, Juan Rocaberti, Fogaçot, and Guerau, with others -apparently of the same period, are contributors to the collection, so -that its whole air is that of the Catalan and Valencian imitations -of the Provençal Troubadours in the fifteenth century.[543] If, -therefore, to this curious Cancionero we add the translation of the -“Divina Commedia” made into Catalan by Andres Febrer in 1428,[544] -and the romance of “Tirante the White,” translated into Valencian by -its author, Joannot Martorell,--which Cervantes calls “a treasure of -contentment and a mine of pleasure,”[545]--we shall have all that is -needful of the peculiar literature of the northeastern part of Spain -during the greater part of the century in which it flourished. Two -authors, however, who most illustrated it, deserve more particular -notice. - - [539] Torres Amat, Memorias, p. 666. - - [540] Ibid., p. 408. - - [541] The discussion makes out two points quite clearly, viz.: - 1st. There was a person named Jordi, who lived in the thirteenth - century and in the time of Jayme the Conqueror, was much with - that monarch, and wrote, as an eyewitness, an account of the - storm from which the royal fleet suffered at sea, near Majorca, - in September, 1269 (Ximeno, Escritores de Valencia, Tom. I. p. - 1; and Fuster, Biblioteca Valentiana, Tom. I. p. 1); and, 2d. - There was a person named Jordi, a poet in the fifteenth century; - because the Marquis of Santillana, in his well-known letter, - written between 1454 and 1458, speaks of such a person as having - lived in _his_ time. (See the letter in Sanchez, Tom. I. pp. lvi. - and lvii., and the notes on it, pp. 81-85.) Now the question - is, to which of these two persons belong the poems bearing the - name of Jordi in the various Cancioneros; for example, in the - “Cancionero General,” 1573, f. 301, and in the MS. Cancionero in - the King’s Library at Paris, which is of the fifteenth century. - (Torres Amat, pp. 328-333.) This question is of some consequence, - because a passage attributed to Jordi is so very like one in - the 103d sonnet of Petrarch, (Parte I.,) that one of them must - be taken quite unceremoniously from the other. The Spaniards, - and especially the Catalans, have generally claimed the lines - referred to as the work of the _elder_ Jordi, and so would make - Petrarch the copyist;--a claim in which foreigners have sometimes - concurred. (Retrospective Review, Vol. IV. pp. 46, 47, and - Foscolo’s Essay on Petrarch, London, 1823, 8vo, p. 65.) But it - seems to me difficult for an impartial person to read the verses - printed by Torres Amat with the name of Jordi from the _Paris_ - MS. Cancionero, and not believe that they belong to the same - century with the other poems in the same manuscript, and that - thus the Jordi in question lived after 1400, and is the copyist - of Petrarch. Indeed, the very position of these verses in such a - manuscript seems to prove it, as well as their tone and character. - - [542] Torres Amat, pp. 636-643. - - [543] Of this remarkable manuscript, which is in the Royal - Library at Paris, M. Tastu, in 1834, gave an account to Torres - Amat, who was then preparing his “Memorias para un Diccionario - de Autores Catalanes” (Barcelona, 1836, 8vo). It is numbered - 7699, and consists of 260 leaves. See the Memorias, pp. xviii. - and xli., and the many poetical passages from it scattered - through other parts of that work. It is much to be desired that - the whole should be published; but, in the mean time, the ample - extracts from it given by Torres Amat leave no doubt of its - general character. Another, and in some respects even more ample, - account of it, with extracts, is to be found in Ochoa’s “Catálogo - de Manuscritos” (4to, Paris, 1844, pp. 286-374). From this last - description of the manuscript we learn that it contains works of - thirty-one poets. - - [544] Torres Amat, p. 237. Febrer says expressly, that it is - translated “en rims vulgars Cathalans.” The first verses are as - follows, word for word from the Italian:-- - - En lo mig del cami de nostra vida - Me retrobe per una selva oscura, etc., - - and the last is-- - - L’amor qui mou lo sol e les stelles. - - It was done at Barcelona, and finished August 1, 1428, according - to the MS. copy in the Escurial. - - [545] Don Quixote, Parte I. c. 6, where Tirante is saved in - the conflagration of the mad knight’s library. But Southey is - of quite a different opinion. See _ante_, note to Chap. XI. - The best accounts of it are those by Clemencin in his edition - of Don Quixote, (Tom. I. pp. 132-134,) by Diosdado, “De Prima - Typographiæ Hispanicæ Ætate,” (Romæ, 1794, 4to, p. 32,) and by - Mendez, “Typographía Española” (Madrid, 1796, 4to, pp. 72-75). - What is in Ximeno (Tom. I. p. 12) and Fuster (Tom. I. p. 10) goes - on the false supposition that the Tirante was written in Spanish - before 1383, and printed in 1480. It was, in fact, originally - written in Portuguese, but was printed first in the Valencian - dialect, in 1490. Of this edition only two copies are known - to exist, for one of which £300 was paid in 1825. Repertorio - Americano, Lóndres, 1827, 8vo, Tom. IV. pp. 57-60. - -The first of them is Ausias or Augustin March. His family, originally -Catalan, went to Valencia at the time of the conquest, in 1238, and was -distinguished, in successive generations, for the love of letters. -He himself was of noble rank, possessed the seigniory of the town -of Beniarjó and its neighbouring villages, and served in the Cortes -of Valencia in 1446. But, beyond these few facts, we know little -of his life, except that he was an intimate personal friend of the -accomplished and unhappy Prince Carlos of Viana, and that he died, -probably, in 1460,--certainly before 1462,--well deserving the record -made by his contemporary, the Grand Constable of Castile, that “he was -a great Troubadour and a man of a very lofty spirit.”[546] - - [546] The Life of Ausias March is found in Ximeno, “Escritores - de Valencia,” (Tom. I. p. 41,) and Fuster’s continuation of it, - (Tom. I. pp. 12, 15, 24,) and in the ample notes of Cerdá y - Rico to the “Diana” of Gil Polo (1802, pp. 290, 293, 486). For - his connection with the Prince of Viana,--“Mozo,” as Mariana - beautifully says of him, “dignisimo de mejor fortuna, y de padre - mas manso,”--see Zurita, Anales, (Lib. XVII. c. 24,) and the - graceful Life of the unfortunate prince by Quintana, in the first - volume of his “Españoles Célebres,” Madrid, Tom. I. 1807, 12mo. - -So much of his poetry as has been preserved is dedicated to the honor -of a lady, whom he loved and served in life and in death, and whom, -if we are literally to believe his account, he first saw on a Good -Friday in church, exactly as Petrarch first saw Laura. But this is -probably only an imitation of the great Italian master, whose fame -then overshadowed whatever there was of literature in the world. At -any rate, the poems of March leave no doubt that he was a follower -of Petrarch. They are in form what he calls _cants_; each of which -generally consists of from five to ten stanzas. The whole collection, -amounting to one hundred and sixteen of these short poems, is divided -into four parts, and comprises ninety-three _cants_ or _canzones_ of -Love, in which he complains much of the falsehood of his mistress, -fourteen moral and didactic _canzones_, a single spiritual one, and -eight on Death. But though March, in the framework of his poetry, is -an imitator of Petrarch, his manner is his own. It is grave, simple, -and direct, with few conceits, and much real feeling; besides which, -he has a truth and freshness in his expressions, resulting partly -from the dialect he uses, and partly from the tenderness of his own -nature, which are very attractive. No doubt, he is the most successful -of all the Valencian and Catalan poets whose works have come down to -us; but what distinguishes him from all of them, and indeed from the -Provençal school generally, is the sensibility and moral feeling that -pervade so much of what he wrote. By these qualities his reputation -and honors have been preserved in his own country down to the present -time. His works passed through four editions in the sixteenth century, -and enjoyed the honor of being read to Philip the Second, when a youth, -by his tutor; they were translated into Latin and Italian, and in the -proud Castilian were versified by a poet of no less consequence than -Montemayor.[547] - - [547] There are editions of his Works of 1543, 1545, 1555, and - 1560, in the original Catalan, and translations of parts of them - into Castilian by Romani, 1539, and Montemayor, 1562, which are - united in the edition of 1579, besides one quite complete, but - unpublished, by Arano y Oñate. Vicente Mariner translated March - into Latin, and wrote his life. (Opera, Turnoni, 1633, 8vo, pp. - 497-856.) Who was his Italian translator I do not find. See - (besides Ximeno and others, cited in the last note) Rodriguez, - Bib. Val., p. 68, etc. The edition of March’s Works, 1560, - Barcelona, 12mo, is a neat volume, and has at the end a very - short and imperfect list of obscure terms, with the corresponding - Spanish, supposed to have been made by the tutor of Philip II., - the Bishop of Osma, when, as we are told, he used to delight that - young prince and his courtiers by reading the works of March - aloud to them. I have seen none of the translations, except those - of Montemayor and Mariner, both good, but the last not entire. - -The other poet who should be mentioned in the same relations was a -contemporary of March, and, like him, a native of Valencia. His name is -Jaume or James Roig, and he was physician to Mary, queen of Alfonso -the Fifth of Aragon. If his own authority is not to be accounted rather -poetical than historical, he was a man of much distinction in his time, -and respected in other countries as well as at home. But if that be set -aside, we know little of him, except that he was one of the persons -who contended for a poetical prize at Valencia in 1474, and that he -died there of apoplexy on the 4th of April, 1478.[548] His works are -not much better known than his life, though, in some respects, they -are well worthy of notice. Hardly any thing, indeed, remains to us -of them, except the principal one, a poem of three hundred pages, -sometimes called the “Book of Advice,” and sometimes the “Book of the -Ladies.”[549] It is chiefly a satire on women, but the conclusion -is devoted to the praise and glory of the Madonna, and the whole is -interspersed with sketches of himself and his times, and advice to his -nephew, Balthazar Bou, for whose especial benefit the poem seems to -have been written. - - [548] Ximeno, Escritores de Valencia, Tom. I. p. 50, with - Fuster’s continuation, Tom. I. p. 30. Rodriguez, p. 196; and - Cerdá’s notes to Polo’s Diana, pp. 300, 302, etc. - - [549] “Libre de Consells fet per lo Magnifich Mestre Jaume Roig” - is the title in the edition of 1531, as given by Ximeno, and in - that of 1561, (Valencia, 12mo, 149 leaves,) which I use. In that - of Valencia, 1735, (4to,) which is also before me, it is called - according to its subject, “Lo Libre de les Dones e de Concells,” - etc. - -It is divided into four books, which are subdivided into parts, little -connected with each other, and often little in harmony with the general -subject of the whole. Some of it is full of learning and learned names, -and some of it would seem to be devout, but its prevailing air is -certainly not at all religious. It is written in short rhymed verses, -consisting of from two to five syllables,--an irregular measure, -which has been called _cudolada_, and one which, as here used, has -been much praised for its sweetness by those who are familiar enough -with the principles of its structure to make the necessary elisions -and abbreviations; though to others it can hardly appear better than -whimsical and spirited.[550] The following sketch of himself may be -taken as a specimen of it; and shows that he had as little of the -spirit of a poet as Skelton, with whom, in many respects, he may be -compared. Roig represents himself to have been ill of a fever, when -a boy, and to have hastened from his sick bed into the service of a -Catalan freebooting gentleman, like Roque Guinart or Rocha Guinarda, -an historical personage of the same Catalonia, and of nearly the same -period, who figures in the Second Part of Don Quixote. - - [550] Orígenes de la Lengua Española de Mayans y Siscar, Tom. I. - p. 57. - - - Bed I abjured, - Though hardly cured, - And then went straight - To seek my fate. - A Catalan, - A nobleman, - A highway knight, - Of ancient right, - Gave me, in grace, - A page’s place. - With him I lived, - And with him thrived, - Till I came out - Man grown and stout; - For he was wise, - Taught me to prize - My time, and learn - My bread to earn, - By service hard - At watch and ward, - To hunt the game, - Wild hawks to tame, - On horse to prance, - In hall to dance, - To carve, to play, - And make my way.[551] - - [551] - Sorti del llit, - E mig guarit, - Yo men partì, - A peu anì - Seguint fortuna. - En Catalunya, - Un Cavaller, - Gran vandoler, - Dantitch llinatge, - Me près per patge. - Ab ell vixquì, - Fins quem ixquì, - Ja home fet. - Ab lhom discret - Temps no hi perdì, - Dell aprenguì, - De ben servir, - Armes seguir, - Fuy caçador, - Cavalcador, - De Cetrerìa, - Menescalia, - Sonar, ballar, - Fins à tallar - Ell men mostrà. - - Libre de les Dones, Primera Part del Primer Libre, ed. 1561, - 4to, f. xv. b. - - The “Cavaller, gran vandoler, dantitch llinatge,” whom I have - called, in the translation, “a highway knight, of ancient right,” - was one of the successors of the marauding knights of the Middle - Ages, who were not always without generosity or a sense of - justice, and whose character is well set forth in the accounts - of Roque Guinart or Rocha Guinarda, the personage referred to - in the text, and found in the Second Part of Don Quixote (Capp. - 60 and 61). He and his followers are all called by Cervantes - _Bandoleros_, and are the “banished men” of “Robin Hood” and “The - Nut-Brown Maid.” They took their name of _Bandoleros_ from the - shoulder-belts they wore. Calderon’s “Luis Perez, el Gallego” is - founded on the history of a Bandolero supposed to have lived in - the time of the Armada, 1588. - -The poem, its author tells us, was written in 1460, and we know that -it continued popular long enough to pass through five editions before -1562. But portions of it are so indecent, that, when, in 1735, it was -thought worth while to print it anew, its editor, in order to account -for the large omissions he was obliged to make, resorted to the amusing -expedient of pretending he could find no copy of the old editions -which was not deficient in the passages he left out of his own.[552] -Of course, Roig is not much read now. His indecency and the obscurity -of his idiom alike cut him off from the polished portions of Spanish -society; though out of his free and spirited satire much may be gleaned -to illustrate the tone of manners and the modes of living and thinking -in his time. - - [552] The editor of the last edition that has appeared is - Carlos Ros, a curious collection of Valencian proverbs by whom - (in 12mo, Valencia, 1733) I have seen, and who, I believe, the - year previous, printed a work on the Valencian and Castilian - orthography. - -The death of Roig brings us to the period when the literature of the -eastern part of Spain, along the shores of the Mediterranean, began -to decline. Its decay was the natural, but melancholy, result of -the character of the literature itself, and of the circumstances in -which it was accidentally placed. It was originally Provençal in its -spirit and elements, and had therefore been of quick, rather than of -firm growth;--a gay vegetation, which sprang forth spontaneously with -the first warmth of the spring, and which could hardly thrive in any -other season than the gentle one that gave it birth. As it gradually -advanced, carried by the removal of the seat of political power, from -Aix to Barcelona, and from Barcelona to Saragossa, it was constantly -approaching the literature that had first appeared in the mountains -of the Northwest, whose more vigorous and grave character it was ill -fitted to resist. When, therefore, the two came in contact, there -was but a short struggle for the supremacy. The victory was almost -immediately decided in favor of that which, springing from the elements -of a strong and proud character, destined to vindicate for itself the -political sway of the whole country, was armed with a power to which -its more gay and gracious rival could offer no effective opposition. - -The period, when these two literatures, advancing from opposite corners -of the Peninsula, finally met, cannot, from its nature, be determined -with much precision. But, like the progress of each, it was the result -of political causes and tendencies which are obvious and easily -traced. The family that ruled in Aragon had, from the time of James -the Conqueror, been connected with that established in Castile and the -North; and Ferdinand the Just, who was crowned in Saragossa in 1412, -was a Castilian prince; so that, from this period, both thrones were -absolutely filled by members of the same royal house; and Valencia and -Burgos, as far as their courts touched and controlled the literature -of either, were to a great degree under the same influences. And this -control was neither slight nor inefficient. Poetry, in that age, -everywhere sought shelter under courtly favor, and in Spain easily -found it. John the Second was a professed and successful patron of -letters; and when Ferdinand came to assume the crown of Aragon, he was -accompanied by the Marquis of Villena, a nobleman whose great fiefs lay -on the borders of Valencia, but who, notwithstanding his interest in -the Southern literature and in the Consistory of Barcelona, yet spoke -the Castilian as his native language, and wrote in no other. We may, -therefore, well believe, that, in the reigns of Ferdinand the Just and -Alfonso the Fifth, between 1412 and 1458, the influence of the North -began to make inroads on the poetry of the South, though it does not -appear that either March or Roig, or any one of their immediate school, -proved habitually unfaithful to his native dialect. - -At length, forty years after the death of Villena, we find a decided -proof that the Castilian was beginning to be known and cultivated -on the shores of the Mediterranean. In 1474, a poetical contest was -publicly held at Valencia, in honor of the Madonna;--a sort of literary -jousting, like those so common afterwards in the time of Cervantes -and Lope de Vega. Forty poets contended for the prize. The Viceroy -was present. It was a solemn and showy occasion; and all the poems -offered were printed the same year by Bernardo Fenollar, Secretary of -the meeting, in a volume which is valued as the first book known to -have been printed in Spain.[553] Four of these poems are in Castilian. -This leaves no doubt that Castilian verse was now deemed a suitable -entertainment for a popular audience at Valencia. Fenollar, too, who -wrote, besides what appears in this contest, a small volume of poetry -on the Passion of our Saviour, has left us at least one _cancion_ in -Castilian, though his works were otherwise in his native dialect, and -were composed apparently for the amusement of his friends in Valencia, -where he was a person of consideration, and in whose University, -founded in 1499, he was a professor.[554] - - [553] Fuster. Tom. I. p. 52, and Mendez, Typographía Española, p. - 56. Roig is one of the competitors. - - [554] Ximeno, Tom. I. p. 59; Fuster, Tom. I. p. 51; and the - Diana of Polo, ed. Cerdá y Rico, p. 317. His poems are in the - “Cancionero General,” 1573, (leaves 240, 251, 307,) in the “Obras - de Ausias March,” (1560, f. 134,) and in the “Process de les - Olives,” mentioned in the next note. The “Historia de la Passio - de Nostre Senyor” was printed at Valencia, in 1493 and 1564. - -Probably Castilian poetry was rarely written in Valencia during the -fifteenth century, while, on the other hand, Valencian was written -constantly. “The Suit of the Olives,” for instance, wholly in that -dialect, was composed by Jaume Gazull, Fenollar, and Juan Moreno, who -seem to have been personal friends, and who united their poetical -resources to produce this satire, in which, under the allegory of -olive-trees, and in language not always so modest as good taste -requires, they discuss together the dangers to which the young and -the old are respectively exposed from the solicitations of worldly -pleasure.[555] Another dialogue, by the same three poets, in the same -dialect, soon followed, dated in 1497, which is supposed to have -occurred in the bed-chamber of a lady just recovering from the birth -of a child, in which is examined the question whether young men or old -make the best husbands; an inquiry decided by Venus in favor of the -young, and ended, most inappropriately, by a religious hymn.[556] Other -poets were equally faithful to their vernacular; among whom were Juan -Escriva, ambassador of the Catholic sovereigns to the Pope, in 1497, -who was probably the last person of high rank that wrote in it;[557] -and Vincent Ferrandis, concerned in a poetical contest in honor of -Saint Catherine of Siena, at Valencia, in 1511, whose poems seem, on -other occasions, to have carried off public honors, and to have been, -from their sweetness and power, worthy of the distinction they won.[558] - - [555] “Lo Process de les Olives è Disputa del Jovens hi del Vels” - was first printed in Barcelona, 1532. But the copy I use is of - Valencia, printed by Joan de Arcos, 1561 (18mo, 40 leaves). One - or two other poets took part in the discussion, and the whole - seems to have grown under their hands, by successive additions, - to its present state and size. - - [556] There is an edition of 1497, (Mendez, p. 88,) but I use one - with this title: “Comença lo Somni de Joan Ioan ordenat per lo - Magnifich Mossen Jaume Gaçull, Cavaller, Natural de Valencia, en - Valencia, 1561” (18mo). At the end is a humorous poem by Gaçull - in reply to Fenollar, who had spoken slightingly of many words - used in Valencian, which Gaçull defends. It is called “La Brama - dels Llauradors del Orto de Valencia.” Gaçull also occurs in the - “Process de les Olives,” and in the poetical contest of 1474. See - his Life in Ximeno, Tom. I. p. 59, and Fuster, Tom I. p. 37. - - [557] Ximeno, Tom. I. p. 64. - - [558] The poems of Ferrandis are in the Cancionero General of - Seville, 1535, ff. 17, 18, and in the Cancionero of Antwerp, - 1573, ff. 31-34. The notice of the _certamen_ of 1511 is in - Fuster, Tom. I. pp. 56-58. - - Some other poets in the ancient Valencian have been mentioned, as - Juan Roiz de Corella, (Ximeno, Tom. I. p. 62,) a friend of the - unhappy Prince Carlos de Viana; two or three, by no means without - merit, who remain anonymous (Fuster, Tom. I. pp. 284-293); and - several who joined in a _certamen_ at Valencia, in 1498, in honor - of St. Christopher (Ibid., pp. 296, 297). But the attempt to - press into the service and to place in the thirteenth century the - manuscript in the Escurial containing the poems of Sta. María - Egypciaca and King Apollonius, already referred to (_ante_, p. - 24) among the earliest Castilian poems, is necessarily a failure. - Ibid., p. 284. - -Meantime, Valencian poets are not wanting who wrote more or less -in Castilian. Francisco Castelví, a friend of Fenollar, is one of -them.[559] Another is Narcis Viñoles, who flourished in 1500, who -wrote in Tuscan as well as in Castilian and Valencian, and who -evidently thought his native dialect somewhat barbarous.[560] A third -is Juan Tallante, whose religious poems are found at the opening of -the old General Cancionero.[561] A fourth is Luis Crespi, member of -the ancient family of Valdaura, and in 1506 head of the University -of Valencia.[562] And among the latest, if not the very last, was -Fernandez de Heredia, who died in 1549, of whom we have hardly any -thing in Valencian, but much in Castilian.[563] Indeed, that the -Castilian, in the early part of the century, had obtained a real -supremacy in whatever there was of poetry and elegant literature along -the shores of the Mediterranean cannot be doubted; for, before the -death of Heredia, Boscan had already deserted his native Catalonian, -and begun to form a school in Spanish literature that has never since -disappeared; and shortly afterwards, Timoneda and his followers showed, -by their successful representation of Castilian farces in the public -squares of Valencia, that the ancient dialect had ceased to be insisted -upon in its own capital. The language of the court of Castile had, for -such purposes, become the prevailing language of all the South. - - [559] Cancionero General, 1573, f. 251, and elsewhere. - - [560] Ximeno, Tom. I. p. 61. Fuster, Tom. I. p. 54. Cancionero - General, 1573, ff. 241, 251, 316, 318. Cerdá’s notes to Polo’s - Diana, 1802, p. 304. Viñoles, in the Prólogo to the translation - of the Latin Chronicle noticed on p. 216, says, “He has ventured - to stretch out his rash hand and put it into the pure, elegant, - and gracious Castilian, which, without falsehood or flattery, - may, among the many barbarous and savage dialects of our own - Spain, be called Latin-sounding and most elegant.” Suma de Todas - las Crónicas, Valencia, 1510, folio, f. 2. - - [561] The religious poems of Tallante begin, I believe, all the - Cancioneros Generales, from 1511 to 1573. - - [562] Cancionero General, 1573, ff. 238, 248, 300, 301. Fuster, - Tom. I. p. 65; and Cerdá’s notes to Gil Polo’s Diana, p. 306. - - [563] Ximeno, Tom. I. p. 102. Fuster, Tom. I. p. 87. Diana de - Polo, ed. Cerdá, 326. Cancionero General, 1573, ff. 185, 222, - 225, 228, 230, 305-307. - -This, in fact, was the circumstance that determined the fate of all -that remained in Spain on the foundations of the Provençal refinement. -The crowns of Aragon and Castile had been united by the marriage of -Ferdinand and Isabella; the court had been removed from Saragossa, -though that city still claimed the dignity of being regarded as an -independent capital; and with the tide of empire, that of cultivation -gradually flowed down from the West and the North. Some of the poets of -the South have, it is true, in later times, ventured to write in their -native dialects. The most remarkable of them is Vicent Garcia, who was -a friend of Lope de Vega, and died in 1623.[564] But his poetry, in -all its various phases, is a mixture of several dialects, and shows, -notwithstanding its provincial air, the influence of the court of -Philip the Fourth, where its author for a time lived; while the poetry -printed later, or heard in our own days on the popular theatres of -Barcelona and Valencia, is in a dialect so grossly corrupted, that -it is no longer easy to acknowledge it as that of the descendants of -Muntaner and March.[565] - - [564] His Works were first printed with the following title: - “La Armonía del Parnas mes numerosa en las Poesías varias del - Atlant del Cel Poétic, lo Dr. Vicent Garcia” (Barcelona, 1700, - 4to, 201 pp.). There has been some question about the proper date - of this edition, and therefore I give it as it is in my copy. - (See Torres Amat, Memorias, pp. 271-274.) It consists chiefly of - lyrical poetry, sonnets, _décimas_, _redondillas_, ballads, etc.; - but at the end is a drama called “Santa Barbara,” in three short - _jornadas_, with forty or fifty personages, some allegorical and - some supernatural, and the whole as fantastic as any thing of - the age that produced it. Another edition of Garcia’s Works was - printed at Barcelona in 1840, and a notice of him occurs in the - Semanario Pintoresco, 1843, p. 84. - - [565] The Valencian has always remained a sweet dialect. - Cervantes praises it for its “honeyed grace” more than once. See - the second act of the “Gran Sultana,” and the opening of the - twelfth chapter in the third book of “Persiles and Sigismunda.” - Mayans y Siscar loses no occasion of honoring it; but he was a - native of Valencia, and full of Valencian prejudices. - - The literary history of the kingdom of Valencia--both that of - the period when its native dialect prevailed, and that of the - more recent period during which the Castilian has enjoyed the - supremacy--has been illustrated with remarkable diligence and - success. The first person who devoted himself to it was Josef - Rodriguez, a learned ecclesiastic, who was born in its capital - in 1630, and died there in 1703, just at the moment when his - “Biblioteca Valentina” was about to be issued from the press, and - when, in fact, all but a few pages of it had been printed. But - though it was so near to publication, a long time elapsed before - it finally appeared; for his friend, Ignacio Savalls, to whom - the duty of completing it was intrusted, and who at once busied - himself with his task, died, at last, in 1746, without having - quite accomplished it. - - Meanwhile, however, copies of the imperfect work had got - abroad, and one of them came into the hands of Vicente Ximeno, - a Valencian, as well as Rodriguez, and, like him, interested in - the literary history of his native kingdom. At first, Ximeno - conceived the project of completing the work of his predecessor; - but soon determined rather to use its materials in preparing - on the same subject another and a larger one of his own, whose - notices should come down to his own time. This he soon completed, - and published it at Valencia, in 1747-49, in two volumes, folio, - with the title of “Escritores de Valencia,”--not, however, so - quickly that the Biblioteca of Rodriguez had not been fairly - launched into the world, in the same city, in 1747, a few months - before the first volume of Ximeno’s appeared. - - The dictionary of Ximeno, who died in 1764, brings down the - literary history of Valencia to 1748, from which date to 1829 - it is continued by the “Biblioteca Valenciana” of Justo Pastor - Fuster, (Valencia, 1827-30, 2 tom., folio,) a valuable work, - containing a great number of new articles for the earlier period - embraced by the labors of Rodriguez and Ximeno, and making - additions to many which they had left imperfect. - - In the five volumes, folio, of which the whole series consists, - there are 2841 articles. How many of those in Ximeno relate to - authors noticed by Rodriguez, and how many of those in Fuster - relate to authors noticed by either or both of his predecessors, - I have not examined; but the number is, I think, smaller than - might be anticipated; while, on the other hand, the new articles - and the additions to the old ones are more considerable and - important. Perhaps, taking the whole together, no portion - of Europe equally large has had its intellectual history - more carefully investigated than the kingdom of Valencia;--a - circumstance the more remarkable, if we bear in mind that - Rodriguez, the first person who undertook the work, was, as - he says, the first who attempted such a labor in any modern - language, and that Fuster, the last of them, though evidently - a man of curious learning, was by occupation a bookbinder, and - was led to his investigations, in a considerable degree, by - his interest in the rare books that were, from time to time, - intrusted to his mechanical skill. - -The degradation of the two more refined dialects in the southern and -eastern parts of Spain, which was begun in the time of the Catholic -sovereigns, may be considered as completed when the seat of the -national government was settled, first in Old and afterwards in New -Castile; since, by this circumstance, the prevalent authority of -the Castilian was finally recognized and insured. The change was -certainly neither unreasonable nor ill-timed. The language of the North -was already more ample, more vigorous, and more rich in idiomatic -constructions; indeed, in almost every respect, better fitted to become -national than that of the South. And yet we can hardly follow and -witness the results of such a revolution but with feelings of a natural -regret; for the slow decay and final disappearance of any language -bring with them melancholy thoughts, which are, in some sort, peculiar -to the occasion. We feel as if a portion of the world’s intelligence -were extinguished; as if we were ourselves cut off from a part of the -intellectual inheritance, to which we had in many respects an equal -right with those who destroyed it, and which they were bound to pass -down to us unimpaired as they themselves had received it. The same -feeling pursues us even when, as in the case of the Greek or Latin, the -people that spoke it had risen to the full height of their refinement, -and left behind them monuments by which all future times can measure -and share their glory. But our regret is deeper when the language -of a people is cut off in its youth, before its character is fully -developed; when its poetical attributes are just beginning to appear, -and when all is bright with promise and hope.[566] - - [566] The Catalans have always felt this regret, and have never - reconciled themselves heartily to the use of the Castilian; - holding their own dialect to have been, in the time of Ferdinand - and Isabella, more abundant and harmonious than the prouder one - that has so far displaced it. Villanueva, Viage á las Iglesias, - Valencia, 1821, 8vo, Tom. VII. p. 202. - -This was singularly the misfortune and the fate of the Provençal and -of the two principal dialects into which it was modified and moulded. -For the Provençal started forth in the darkest period Europe had seen -since Grecian civilization had first dawned on the world. It kindled, -at once, all the South of France with its brightness, and spread its -influence, not only into the neighbouring countries, but even to the -courts of the cold and unfriendly North. It flourished long, with a -tropical rapidity and luxuriance, and gave token, from the first, of a -light-hearted spirit, that promised, in the fulness of its strength, -to produce a poetry, different, no doubt, from that of antiquity, with -which it had no real connection, but yet a poetry as fresh as the -soil from which it sprang, and as genial as the climate by which it -was quickened. But the cruel and shameful war of the Albigenses drove -the Troubadours over the Pyrenees, and the revolutions of political -power and the prevalence of the spirit of the North crushed them on -the Spanish shores of the Mediterranean. We follow, therefore, with a -natural and inevitable regret, their long and wearisome retreat, marked -as it is everywhere with the wrecks and fragments of their peculiar -poetry and cultivation, from Aix to Barcelona, and from Barcelona -to Saragossa and Valencia, where, oppressed by the prouder and more -powerful Castilian, what remained of the language that gave the first -impulse to poetical feeling in modern times sinks into a neglected -dialect, and, without having attained the refinement that would -preserve its name and its glory to future times, becomes as much a dead -language as the Greek or the Latin.[567] - - [567] One of the most valuable monuments of the old dialects - of Spain is a translation of the Bible into Catalan, made by - Bonifacio Ferrer, who died in 1477, and was the brother of St. - Vincent Ferrer. It was printed at Valencia, in 1478, (folio,) - but the Inquisition came so soon to suppress it, that it never - exercised much influence on the literature or language of the - country; nearly every copy of it having been destroyed. Extracts - from it and sufficient accounts of it may be found in Castro, - Bib. Española, (Tom. I. pp. 444-448,) and McCrie’s “Reformation - in Spain” (Edinburgh, 1829, 8vo, pp. 191 and 414). Sismondi, - at the end of his discussion of the Provençal literature, in - his “Littérature du Midi de l’Europe,” has some remarks on its - decay, which in their tone are not entirely unlike those in the - last pages of this chapter, and to which I would refer both to - illustrate and to justify my own. - - - - -CHAPTER XVIII. - -THE PROVENÇAL AND COURTLY SCHOOL IN CASTILIAN LITERATURE.--PARTLY -INFLUENCED BY THE LITERATURE OF ITALY.--CONNECTION OF SPAIN WITH ITALY, -RELIGIOUS, INTELLECTUAL, AND POLITICAL.--SIMILARITY OF LANGUAGE IN -THE TWO COUNTRIES.--TRANSLATIONS FROM THE ITALIAN.--REIGN OF JOHN THE -SECOND.--TROUBADOURS AND MINNESINGERS THROUGHOUT EUROPE.--COURT OF -CASTILE.--THE KING.--THE MARQUIS OF VILLENA.--HIS ART OF CARVING.--HIS -ART OF POETRY.--HIS LABORS OF HERCULES. - - -The Provençal literature, which appeared so early in Spain, and which, -during the greater part of the period when it prevailed there, was -in advance of the poetical culture of nearly all the rest of Europe, -could not fail to exercise an influence on the Castilian, springing -up and flourishing at its side. But, as we proceed, we must notice -the influence of another literature over the Spanish, less visible -and important at first than that of the Provençal, but destined -subsequently to become much wider and more lasting;--I mean, of course, -the Italian. - -The origin of this influence is to be traced far back in the history -of the Spanish character and civilization. Long, indeed, before a -poetical spirit had been reawakened anywhere in the South of Europe, -the Spanish Christians, through the wearisome centuries of their -contest with the Moors, had been accustomed to look towards Italy as -to the seat of a power whose foundations were laid in faith and hopes -extending far beyond the mortal struggle in which they were engaged; -not because the Papal See, in its political capacity, had then obtained -any wide authority in Spain, but because, from the peculiar exigencies -and trials of their condition, the religion of the Romish Church had -nowhere found such implicit and faithful followers as the body of the -Spanish Christians. - -In truth, from the time of the great Arab invasion down to the fall of -Granada, this devoted people had rarely come into political relations -with the rest of Europe. Engrossed and exhausted by their wars at -home, they had, on the one hand, hardly been at all the subjects of -foreign cupidity or ambition; and, on the other, they had been little -able, even when they most desired it, to connect themselves with the -stirring interests of the world beyond their mountains, or attract the -sympathy of those more favored countries which, with Italy at their -head, were coming up to constitute the civilized power of Christendom. -But the Spaniards always felt their warfare to be peculiarly that of -soldiers of the Cross; they always felt themselves, beyond every thing -else and above every thing else, to be Christian men contending against -misbelief. Their religious sympathies were, therefore, constantly -apparent, and often predominated over all others; so that, while they -were little connected with the Church of Rome by those political ties -that were bringing half Europe into bondage, they were more connected -with its religious spirit than any other people of modern times; -more even than the armies of the Crusaders whom that same Church had -summoned out of all Christendom, and to whom it had given whatever of -its own resources and character it was able to impart. - -To these religious influences of Italy upon Spain were early added -those of a higher intellectual culture. Before the year 1300, Italy -possessed at least five universities; some of them famous throughout -Europe, and attracting students from its most distant countries. Spain, -at the same period, possessed not one, except that of Salamanca, which -was in a very unsettled state.[568] Even during the next century, those -established at Huesca and Valladolid produced comparatively little -effect. The whole Peninsula was still in too disturbed a state for -any proper encouragement of letters; and those persons, therefore, -who wished to be taught, resorted, some of them, to Paris, but more -to Italy. At Bologna, which was probably the oldest, and for a long -time the most distinguished, of the Italian universities, we know -Spaniards were received and honored, during the thirteenth century, -both as students and as professors.[569] At Padua, the next in rank, -a Spaniard, in 1260, was made the Rector, or presiding officer.[570] -And, no doubt, in all the great Italian places of education, which were -easily accessible, especially in those of Rome and Naples, Spaniards -early sought the culture that was either not then to be obtained in -their own country, or to be had only with difficulty or by accident. - - [568] The University of Salamanca owes its first endowment to - Alfonso X., 1254; but in 1310 it had already fallen into great - decay, and did not become an efficient and frequented university - till some time afterwards. Hist. de la Universidad de Salamanca, - por Pedro Chacon. Seminario Erudito, Madrid, 1789, 4to, Tom. - XVIII. pp. 13, 21, etc. - - [569] Tiraboschi, Storia della Letteratura Italiana, Roma, 1782, - 4to, Tom. IV. Lib. I. c. 3; and Fuster, Biblioteca Valenciana, - Tom. I. pp. 2, 9. - - [570] Tiraboschi, ut sup. - -In the next century, the instruction of Spaniards in Italy was put -upon a more permanent foundation, by Cardinal Carillo de Albornoz; a -prelate, a statesman, and a soldier, who, as Archbishop of Toledo, -was head of the Spanish Church in the reign of Alfonso the Eleventh, -and who afterwards, as regent for the Pope, conquered and governed -a large part of the Roman States, which, in the time of Rienzi, had -fallen off from their allegiance. This distinguished personage, during -his residence in Italy, felt the necessity of better means for the -education of his countrymen, and founded, for their especial benefit, -at Bologna, in 1364, the College of Saint Clement,--a munificent -institution, which has subsisted down to our own age.[571] From the -middle of the fourteenth century, therefore, it cannot be doubted that -the most direct means existed for the transmission of culture from -Italy to Spain; one of the most striking proofs of which is to be -found in the case of Antonio de Lebrixa, commonly called Nebrissensis, -who was educated at this college in the century following its first -foundation, and who, on his return home, did more to advance the cause -of letters in Spain than any other scholar of his time.[572] - - [571] Tiraboschi, Tom. IV. Lib. I. c. 3, sect. 8. Antonio, Bib. - Vetus, ed. Bayer, Tom. II. pp. 169, 170. - - [572] Antonio, Bib. Nova, Tom. I. pp. 132-138. - -Commercial and political relations still further promoted a free -communication of the manners and literature of Italy to Spain. -Barcelona, long the seat of a cultivated court,--a city whose liberal -institutions had given birth to the first bank of exchange, and -demanded the first commercial code of modern times,--had, from the -days of James the Conqueror, exercised a sensible influence round the -shores of the Mediterranean, and come into successful competition -with the enterprise of Pisa and Genoa, even in the ports of Italy. -The knowledge and refinement its ships brought back, joined to the -spirit of commercial adventure that sent them out, rendered Barcelona, -therefore, in the thirteenth, fourteenth, and fifteenth centuries, one -of the most magnificent cities in Europe, and carried its influence -not only quite through the kingdoms of Aragon and Valencia, of which -it was in many respects the capital, but into the neighbouring kingdom -of Castile, with which that of Aragon was, during much of this period, -intimately connected.[573] - - [573] Prescott’s Hist. of Ferdinand and Isabella, Introd., - Section 2; to which add the account of the residence in - Barcelona of Carlos de Viana, in Quintana’s Life of that - unhappy prince, (Vidas de Españoles Célebres, Tom. I.,) and - the very curious notice of Barcelona in Leo Von Rözmital’s - Ritter-Hof-und-Pilger-Reise, 1465-67, Stuttgard, 1844, 8vo, p. - 111. - -The political relations between Spain and Sicily were, however, earlier -and more close than those between Spain and Italy, and tended to the -same results. Giovanni da Procida, after long preparing his beautiful -island to shake off the hated yoke of the French, hastened, in 1282, -as soon as the horrors of the Sicilian Vespers were fulfilled, to lay -the allegiance of Sicily at the feet of Peter the Third of Aragon, who, -in right of his wife, claimed Sicily to be a part of his inheritance, -as heir of Conradin, the last male descendant of the imperial family -of the Hohenstauffen.[574] The revolution thus begun by a fiery -patriotism was successful; but from that time Sicily was either a fief -of the Aragonese crown, or was possessed, as a separate kingdom, by -a branch of the Aragonese family, down to the period when, with the -other possessions of Ferdinand the Catholic, it became a part of the -consolidated monarchy of Spain. - - [574] Zurita, Anales de Aragon, Zaragoza, 1604, folio, Lib. IV. - c. 13, etc.; Mariana, Historia, Lib. XIV. c. 6;--both important, - but especially the first, as giving the Spanish view of a case - which we are more in the habit of considering either in its - Italian or its French relations. - -The connection with Naples, which was of the same sort, followed later, -but was no less intimate. Alfonso the Fifth of Aragon, a prince of rare -wisdom and much literary cultivation, acquired Naples by conquest -in 1441, after a long struggle;[575] but the crown he had thus won -was passed down separately in an indirect line through four of his -descendants, till 1503, when, by a shameful treaty with France, and by -the genius and arms of Gonzalvo of Córdova, it was again conquered and -made a direct dependence of the Spanish throne.[576] In this condition, -as fiefs of the crown of Spain, both Sicily and Naples continued -subject kingdoms until after the Bourbon accession; both affording, -from the very nature of their relations to the thrones of Castile -and Aragon, constant means and opportunities for the transmission of -Italian cultivation and Italian literature to Spain itself. - - [575] Schmidt, Geschichte Aragoniens im Mittelalter, pp. 337-354. - Heeren, Geschichte des Studiums der Classischen Litteratur, - Göttingen, 1797, 8vo, Tom. II. pp. 109-111. - - [576] Prescott’s Hist. of Ferdinand and Isabella, Vol. III. - -But the language of Italy, from its affinity to the Spanish, -constituted a medium of communication perhaps more important and -effectual than any or all of the others. The Latin was the mother of -both; and the resemblance between them was such, that neither could -claim to have features entirely its own: _Facies non una, nec diversa -tamen; qualem decet esse sororum_. It cost little labor to the Spaniard -to make himself master of the Italian. Translations, therefore, were -less common from the few Italian authors that then existed, worth -translating, than they would otherwise have been; but enough are -found, and early enough, to show that Italian authors and Italian -literature were not neglected in Spain. Ayala, the chronicler, who died -in 1407, was, as we have already observed, acquainted with the works -of Boccaccio.[577] A little later, we are struck by the fact that -the “Divina Commedia” of Dante was twice translated in the same year, -1428; once by Febrer into the Catalan dialect, and once by Don Enrique -de Villena into the Castilian. Twenty years afterwards, the Marquis -of Santillana is complimented as a person capable of correcting or -surpassing that great poet, and speaks himself of Dante, of Petrarch, -and of Boccaccio as if he were familiar with them all.[578] But the -name of this great nobleman brings us at once to the times of John the -Second, when the influences of Italian literature and the attempt to -form an Italian school in Spain are not to be mistaken. To this period, -therefore, we now turn. - - [577] See _ante_, p. 180. - - [578] “Con vos que emendays las Obras de Dante,” says Gomez - Manrique, in a poem addressed to his uncle, the great Marquis, - and found in the “Cancionero General,” 1573, f. 76. b;--words - which, however we may interpret them, imply a familiar knowledge - of Dante, which the Marquis himself yet more directly announces - in his well-known letter to the Constable of Portugal. Sanchez, - Poesías Anteriores, Tom. I. p. liv. - -The long reign of John the Second, extending from 1407 to 1454, unhappy -as it was for himself and for his country, was not unfavorable to the -progress of some of the forms of elegant literature. During nearly the -whole of it, the weak king himself was subjected to the commanding -genius of the Constable Alvaro de Luna, whose control, though he -sometimes felt it to be oppressive, he always regretted, when any -accident in the troubles of the times threw it off, and left him to -bear alone the burden which belonged to his position in the state. It -seems, indeed, to have been a part of the Constable’s policy to give -up the king to his natural indolence, and encourage his effeminacy -by filling his time with amusements that would make business more -unwelcome to him than the hard tyranny of the minister who relieved him -from it.[579] - - [579] Mariana, Historia, Madrid, 1780, fol., Tom. II. pp. - 236-407. See also the very remarkable details given by Fernan - Perez de Guzman, in his “Generaciones y Semblanzas,” c. 33. - -Among these amusements, none better suited the humor of the idle king -than letters. He was by no means without talent. He sometimes wrote -verses. He kept the poets of the time much about his person, and more -in his confidence and favor than was wise. He had, perhaps, even a -partial perception of the advantage of intellectual refinement to his -country, or at least to his court. One of his private secretaries, -to please his master and those nearest to the royal influence, made, -about the year 1449, an ample collection of the Spanish poetry then -most in favor, comprising the works of about fifty authors.[580] Juan -de Mena, the most distinguished poet of the time, was his official -chronicler, and the king sent him documents and directions, with great -minuteness and an amusing personal vanity, respecting the manner in -which the history of his reign should be written; while Juan de Mena, -on his part, like a true courtier, sent his verses to the king to be -corrected.[581] His physician, too, who seems to have been always in -attendance on his person, was the gay and good-humored Ferdinand Gomez, -who has left us, if we are to believe them genuine, a pleasing and -characteristic collection of letters; and who, after having served and -followed his royal master above forty years, sleeping, as he tells us, -at his feet and eating at his table, mourned his death, as that of one -whose kindness to him had been constant and generous.[582] - - [580] Castro, Bib. Española, Tom. I. pp. 265-346. - - [581] See the amusing letters in the “Centon Epistolario” of - Fern. Gomez de Cibdareal, Nos. 47, 49, 56, and 76;--a work, - however, whose authority will hereafter be called in question. - - [582] Ibid., Epístola 105. - -Surrounded by persons such as these, in continual intercourse with -others like them, and often given up to letters to avoid the -solicitation of state affairs and to gratify his constitutional -indolence, John the Second made his reign, though discreditable to -himself as a prince, and disastrous to Castile as an independent state, -still interesting by a sort of poetical court which he gathered about -him, and important as it gave an impulse to refinement perceptible -afterwards through several generations. - -There has been a period like this in the history of nearly all the -modern European nations,--one in which a taste for poetical composition -was common at court, and among those higher classes of society within -whose limits intellectual cultivation was then much confined. In -Germany, such a period is found as early as the twelfth and thirteenth -centuries; the unhappy young Conradin, who perished in 1268 and is -commemorated by Dante, being one of the last of the princely company -that illustrates it. For Italy, it begins at about the same time, in -the Sicilian court; and though discountenanced both by the spirit of -the Church, and by the spirit of such commercial republics as Pisa, -Genoa, and Florence,--no one of which had then the chivalrous tone that -animated, and indeed gave birth, to this early refinement throughout -Europe,--it can still be traced down as far as the age of Petrarch. - -Of the appearance of such a taste in the South of France, in Catalonia, -and in Aragon, with its spread to Castile under the patronage of -Alfonso the Wise, notice has already been taken. But now we find it -in the heart and in the North of the country, extending, too, into -Andalusia and Portugal, full of love and knighthood; and though not -without the conceits that distinguished it wherever it appeared, yet -sometimes showing touches of nature, and still oftener a graceful -ingenuity of art, that have not lost their interest down to our -own times. Under its influence was formed that school of poetry -which, marked by its most prominent attribute, has been sometimes -called the school of the _Minnesingers_, or the poets of love and -gallantry;[583] a school which either owed its existence everywhere to -the Troubadours of Provence, or took, as it advanced, much of their -character. In the latter part of the thirteenth century, its spirit -is already perceptible in the Castilian; and, from that time, we have -occasionally caught glimpses of it, down to the point at which we are -now arrived,--the first years of the reign of John the Second,--when -we find it beginning to be colored by an infusion of the Italian, and -spreading out into such importance as to require a separate examination. - - [583] _Minne_ is the word for _love_ in the “Nibelungenlied” - and in the oldest German poetry generally, and is applied - occasionally to spiritual and religious affections, but almost - always to the love connected with gallantry. There has been - a great deal of discussion about its etymology and primitive - meanings in the Lexicons of Wachter, Ménage, Adelung, etc.; but - it is enough for our purpose to know that the word itself is - peculiarly appropriate to the fanciful and more or less conceited - school of poetry that everywhere appeared under the influences of - chivalry. It is the word that gave birth to the French _mignon_, - the English _minion_, etc. - -And the first person in the group to whom our notice is attracted, as -its proper, central figure, is King John himself. Of him his chronicler -said, with much truth, though not quite without flattery, that “he -drew all men to him, was very free and gracious, very devout and very -bold, and gave himself much to the reading of philosophy and poetry. -He was skilled in matters of the Church, tolerably learned in Latin, -and a great respecter of such men as had knowledge. He had many natural -gifts. He was a lover of music; he played, sung, and made verses; -and he danced well.”[584] One who knew him better describes him more -skilfully. “He was,” says Fernan Perez de Guzman, “a man who talked -with judgment and discretion. He knew other men, and understood who -conversed well, wisely, and graciously; and he loved to listen to men -of sense, and noted what they said. He spoke and understood Latin. -He read well, and liked books and histories, and loved to hear witty -rhymes, and knew when they were not well made. He took great solace in -gay and shrewd conversation, and could bear his part in it. He loved -the chase, and hunting of fierce animals, and was well skilled in all -the arts of it. Music, too, he understood, and sung and played; was -good in jousting, and bore himself well in tilting with reeds.”[585] - - [584] Crónica de D. Juan el Segundo, Año 1454, c. 2. - - [585] Generaciones y Semblanzas, Cap. 33. Diego de Valera, who, - like Guzman, just cited, had much personal intercourse with the - king, gives a similar account of him, in a style no less natural - and striking. “He was,” says that chronicler, “devout and humane; - liberal and gentle; tolerably well taught in the Latin tongue; - bold, gracious, and of winning ways. He was tall of stature, - and his bearing was regal, with much natural ease. Moreover, he - was a good musician; sang, played, and danced; and wrote good - verses [_trobaua muy bien_]. Hunting pleased him much; he read - gladly books of philosophy and poetry, and was learned in matters - belonging to the Church.” Crónica de Hyspaña, Salamanca, 1495, - folio, f. 89. - -How much poetry he wrote we do not know. His physician says, “The king -recreates himself with writing verses”;[586] and others repeat the -fact. But the chief proof of his skill that has come down to our times -is to be found in the following lines, in the Provençal manner, on the -falsehood of his lady.[587] - - [586] Fernan Gomez de Cibdareal, Centon Epistolario, Ep. 20. - - [587] They are commonly printed with the Works of Juan de Mena, - as in the edition of Seville, 1534, folio, f. 104, but are often - found elsewhere. - - Amor, yo nunca pensé, - Que tan poderoso eras, - Que podrias tener maneras - Para trastornar la fé, - Fasta agora que lo sé. - - Pensaba que conocido - Te debiera yo tener, - Mas no pudiera creer - Que fueras tan mal sabido. - - Ni jamas no lo pensé, - Aunque poderoso eras, - Que podrias tener maneras - Para trastornar la fé, - Fasta agora que lo sé. - - - O Love, I never, never thought - Thy power had been so great, - That thou couldst change my fate, - By changes in another wrought, - Till now, alas! I know it. - - I thought I knew thee well, - For I had known thee long; - But though I felt thee strong, - I felt not all thy spell. - - Nor ever, ever had I thought - Thy power had been so great, - That thou couldst change my fate, - By changes in another wrought, - Till now, alas! I know it. - -Among those who most interested themselves in the progress of poetry -in Spain, and labored most directly to introduce it at the court of -Castile, the person first in rank after the king was his near kinsman, -Henry, Marquis of Villena, born in 1384, and descended in the paternal -line from the royal house of Aragon, and in the maternal from that -of Castile.[588] “In early youth,” says one who knew him well, “he -was inclined to the sciences and the arts, rather than to knightly -exercises, or even to affairs, whether of the state or the Church; for, -without any master, and none constraining him to learn, but rather -hindered by his grandfather, who would have had him for a knight, he -did, in childhood, when others are wont to be carried to their schools -by force, turn himself to learning against the good-will of all; and so -high and so subtile a wit had he, that he learned any science or art to -which he addicted himself, in such wise, that it seemed as if it were -done by force of nature.”[589] - - [588] His family, at the time of his birth, possessed the only - marquisate in the kingdom. Salazar de Mendoza, Orígen de las - Dignidades Seglares de Castilla y Leon, Toledo, 1618, folio, Lib. - III. c. xii. - - [589] Fernan Perez de Guzman, Gen. y Semblanzas, Cap. 28. - -But his rank and position brought him into the affairs of the world -and the troubles of the times, however little he might be fitted to -play a part in them. He was made Master of the great military and -monastic Order of Calatrava, but, owing to irregularities in his -election, was ultimately ejected from his place, and left in a worse -condition than if he had never received it.[590] In the mean time, -he resided chiefly at the court of Castile; but from 1412 to 1414 he -was at that of his kinsman, Ferdinand the Just, of Aragon, in honor -of whose coronation at Saragossa he composed an allegorical drama, -which is unhappily lost. Afterwards, he accompanied that monarch to -Barcelona, where, as we have seen, he did much to restore and sustain -the poetical school called the Consistory of the Gaya Sciencia. When, -however, he lost his place as Master of the Order of Calatrava, he sunk -into obscurity. The Regency of Castile, willing to make him some amends -for his losses, gave him the poor lordship of Iniesta in the bishopric -of Cuenca; and there he spent the last twenty years of his life in -comparative poverty, earnestly devoted to such studies as were known -and fashionable in his time. He died while on a visit at Madrid, in -1434; the last of his great family.[591] - - [590] Crónica de D. Juan el Segundo, Año 1407, Cap. 4, and 1434, - Cap. 8, where his character is pithily given in the following - words: “Este caballero fue muy grande letrado é supo muy poco - en lo que le cumplia.” In the “Comedias Escogidas” (Madrid, - 4to, Tom. IX., 1657) is a poor play entitled “El Rey Enrique el - Enfermo, de seis Ingenios,” in which that unhappy king, contrary - to the truth of history, is represented as making the Marquis of - Villena Master of Calatrava, in order to dissolve his marriage - and obtain his wife. Who were the six wits that invented this - calumny does not appear. - - [591] Zurita, Anales de Aragon, Lib. XIV. c. 22. The best - notice of the Marquis of Villena is in Juan Antonio Pellicer, - “Biblioteca de Traductores Españoles,” (Madrid, 1778, 8vo, Tom. - II. pp. 58-76,) to which, however, the accounts in Antonio (Bib. - Vetus, ed. Bayer, Lib. X. c. 3) and Mariana (Hist., Lib. XX. - c. 6) should be added. The character of a bold, unscrupulous, - ambitious man, given to Villena by Larra, in his novel entitled - “El Doncel de Don Enrique el Doliente,” published at Madrid, - about 1835, has no proper foundation in history. - -Among his favorite studies, besides poetry, history, and elegant -literature, were philosophy and the mathematics, astrology, and -alchemy. But in an age of great ignorance and superstition, such -pursuits were not indulged in without rebuke. Don Enrique, therefore, -like others, was accounted a necromancer; and so deeply did this belief -strike its roots, that a popular tradition of his guilt has survived -in Spain nearly or quite down to our own age.[592] The effects, at the -time, were yet more unhappy and absurd. A large and rare collection -of books that he left behind him excited alarm, immediately after his -death. “Two cart-loads of them,” says one claimed to have been his -contemporary and friend, “were carried to the king, and because it was -said they related to magic and unlawful arts, the king sent them to -Friar Lope de Barrientos;[593] and Friar Lope, who cares more to be -about the Prince than to examine matters of necromancy, burnt above -a hundred volumes, of which he saw no more than the king of Morocco -did, and knew no more than the Dean of Ciudad Rodrigo; for many men -now-a-days make themselves the name of learned by calling others -ignorant; but it is worse yet when men make themselves holy by calling -others necromancers.”[594] Juan de Mena, to whom the letter containing -this statement was addressed, offered a not ungraceful tribute to the -memory of Villena in three of his three hundred _coplas_;[595] and the -Marquis of Santillana, distinguished for his love of letters, wrote a -separate poem on the occasion of his noble friend’s death, placing him, -after the fashion of his age and country, above all Greek, above all -Roman fame.[596] - - [592] Pellicer speaks of the traditions of Villena’s necromancy - as if still current in his time (loc. cit. p. 65). How absurd - some of them were may be seen in a note of Pellicer to his - edition of Don Quixote, (Parte I. c. 49,) and in the Dissertation - of Feyjoó, “Teatro Crítico” (Madrid, 1751, 8vo, Tom. VI. Disc. - ii. sect. 9). Mariana evidently regarded the Marquis as a dealer - in the black arts, (Hist., Lib. XIX. c. 8,) or, at least, chose - to have it thought he did. - - [593] Lope de Barrientos was confessor to John II., and perhaps - his knowledge of these very books led him to compose a treatise - against Divination, which has never been printed. (Antonio, - Bib. Vetus, Lib. X. c. 11,) but of which I have ample extracts, - through the kindness of D. Pascual de Gayangos, and in which - the author says that among the books burned was the one called - “Raziel,” from the name of one of the angels who guarded the - entrance to Paradise, and taught the art of divination to a - son of Adam, from whose traditions the book in question was - compiled. It may be worth while to add, that this Barrientos was - a Dominican, one of the order of monks to whom, thirty years - afterwards, Spain was chiefly indebted for the Inquisition, which - soon bettered his example by burning, not only books, but men. - He died in 1469, having filled, at different times, some of the - principal offices in the kingdom. - - [594] Cibdareal, Centon Epistolario, Epist. lxvi. - - [595] Coplas 126-128. - - [596] It is found in the “Cancionero General,” 1573, (ff. 34-37,) - and is a Vision in imitation of Dante’s. - -But though the unhappy Marquis of Villena may have been in advance of -his age, as far as his studies and knowledge were concerned, still the -few of his works now known to us are far from justifying the whole of -the reputation his contemporaries gave him. His “Arte Cisoria,” or Art -of Carving, is proof of this. It was written in 1423, at the request -of his friend, the chief carver of John the Second, and begins, in the -most formal and pedantic manner, with the creation of the world and the -invention of all the arts, among which the art of carving is made early -to assume a high place. Then follows an account of what is necessary -to make a good carver; after which we have, in detail, the whole -mystery of the art, as it ought to be practised at the royal table. It -is obvious from sundry passages of the work, that the Marquis himself -was by no means without a love for the good cheer he so carefully -explains,--a circumstance, perhaps, to which he owed the gout that we -are told severely tormented his latter years. But in its style and -composition this specimen of the didactic prose of the age has little -value, and can be really curious only to those who are interested in -the history of manners.[597] - - [597] The “Arte Cisoria ó Tratado del Arte de cortar del - Cuchillo” was first printed under the auspices of the Library - of the Escurial, (Madrid, 1766, 4to,) from a manuscript in that - precious collection marked with the fire of 1671. It is not - likely soon to come to a second edition. If I were to compare - it with any contemporary work, it would be with the old English - “Treatyse on Fyshynge with an Angle,” sometimes attributed to - Dame Juliana Berners, but it lacks the few literary merits found - in that little work. - -Similar remarks might probably be made about his treatise on the “Arte -de Trobar,” or the “Gaya Sciencia”; a sort of Art of Poetry, addressed -to the Marquis of Santillana, in order to carry into his native Castile -some of the poetical skill possessed by the Troubadours of the South. -But we have only an imperfect abstract of it, accompanied, indeed, -with portions of the original work, which are interesting as being the -oldest on its subject in the language.[598] More interesting, however, -than either would be his translations of the Rhetorica of Cicero, the -Divina Commedia of Dante, and the Æneid of Virgil. But of the first we -have lost all trace. Of the second we know only that it was in prose, -and addressed to his friend and kinsman the Marquis of Santillana. And -of the Æneid there remain but seven books, with a commentary to three -of them, from which a few extracts have been published.[599] - - [598] All we have of this “Arte de Trobar” is in Mayans y Siscar, - “Orígenes de la Lengua Española” (Madrid, 1737, 12mo, Tom. II. - pp. 321-342). It seems to have been written in 1433. - - [599] The best account of them is in Pellicer, Bib. de - Traductores, loc. cit. I am sorry to add, that the specimen - given of the translation from Virgil, though short, affords some - reason to doubt whether the Marquis was a good Latin scholar. It - is in prose, and the Preface sets forth that it was written at - the earnest request of John, King of Navarre, whose curiosity - about Virgil had been excited by the reverential notices of him - in Dante’s “Divina Commedia.” See, also, Memorias de la Academia - de Historia, Tom. VI. p. 455, note. In the King’s Library at - Paris is a prose translation of the _last_ nine books of Virgil’s - Æneid, made, in 1430, by a Juan de Villena, who qualifies himself - as a “_servant_ of Iñigo Lopez de Mendoza.” (Ochoa, Catálogo de - Manuscritos, Paris, 1844, 4to, p. 375.) It would be curious to - ascertain whether the two have any connection, as both seem to be - connected with the Marquis of Santillana. - -Villena’s reputation, therefore, must rest chiefly on his “Trabajos -de Hercules,” or The Labors of Hercules, written to please one of -his Catalonian friends, Pero Pardo, who asked to have an explanation -of the virtues and achievements of Hercules; always a great national -hero in Spain. The work seems to have been much admired and read in -manuscript, and, after printing was introduced into Spain, it went -through two editions before the year 1500; but all knowledge of it was -so completely lost soon afterwards, that the most intelligent authors -of Spanish literary history down to our own times have generally spoken -of it as a poem. It is, however, in fact, a short prose treatise, -filling, in the first edition--that of 1483--thirty large leaves. It -is divided into twelve chapters, each devoted to one of the twelve -great labors of Hercules, and each subdivided into four parts: the -first part containing the common mythological story of the labor -under consideration; the second, an explanation of this story as if -it were an allegory; the third, the historical facts upon which it is -conjectured to have been founded; and the fourth, a moral application -of the whole to some one of twelve conditions, into which the author -very arbitrarily divides the human race, beginning with princes and -ending with women. - -Thus, in the fourth chapter, after telling the commonly received tale, -or, as he calls it, “the naked story,” of the Garden of the Hesperides, -he gives us an allegory of it, showing that Libya, where the fair -garden is placed, is human nature, dry and sandy; that Atlas, its lord, -is the wise man, who knows how to cultivate his poor desert; that the -garden is the garden of knowledge, divided according to the sciences; -that the tree in the midst is philosophy; that the dragon watching the -tree is the difficulty of study; and that the three Hesperides are -Intelligence, Memory, and Eloquence. All this and more he explains -under the third head, by giving the facts which he would have us -suppose constituted the foundation of the first two; telling us that -King Atlas was a wise king of the olden time, who first arranged and -divided all the sciences; and that Hercules went to him and acquired -them, after which he returned and imparted his acquisitions to King -Eurystheus. And, finally, in the fourth part of the chapter, he applies -it all to the Christian priesthood and the duty of this priesthood to -become learned and explain the Scriptures to the ignorant laity; as -if there were any possible analogy between them and Hercules and his -fables.[600] - - [600] The “Trabajos de Hercules” is one of the rarest books in - the world, though there are editions of it of 1483 and 1499, - and perhaps one of 1502. The copy which I use is of the first - edition, and belongs to Don Pascual de Gayangos. It was printed - at Çamora, by Centenera, having been completed, as the colophon - tells us, on the 15th of January, 1483. It fills thirty leaves - in folio, double columns, and is illustrated by eleven curious - woodcuts, well done for the period and country. The mistakes made - about it are remarkable, and render the details I have given of - some consequence. Antonio, (Bib. Vetus, ed. Bayer, Tom. II. p. - 222,) Velasquez, (Orígenes de la Poesía Castellana, 4to, Málaga, - 1754, p. 49,) L. F. Moratin, (Obras, ed. de la Academia, Madrid, - 1830, 8vo, Tom. I. Parte I. p. 114,) and even Torres Amat, in his - “Memorias,” (Barcelona, 1836, 8vo, p. 669,) all speak of it _as a - poem_. Of the edition printed at Burgos, in 1499, and mentioned - in Mendez, Typog. Esp., (p. 289,) I have never seen a copy, and, - except the above-mentioned copy of the first edition and an - imperfect one in the Royal Library at Paris, I know of none of - any edition;--so rare is it become. - -The book, however, is worth the trouble of reading. It is, no doubt, -full of the faults peculiar to its age, and abounds in awkward -citations from Virgil, Ovid, Lucan, and other Latin authors, then so -rarely found and so little known in Spain, that they added materially -to the interest and value of the treatise.[601] But the allegory -is sometimes amusing; the language is almost always good, and -occasionally striking by fine archaisms; and the whole has a dignity -about it which is not without its appropriate power and grace.[602] - - [601] See Heeren, Geschichte der Class. Litteratur im - Mittelalter, Göttingen, 8vo, Tom. II., 1801, pp. 126-131. From - the Advertencia to the Marquis of Villena’s translation of - Virgil, it would seem that even Virgil was hardly known in Spain - in the beginning of the fifteenth century. - - [602] Another work of the Marquis of Villena is mentioned in - Sempere y Guarinos, “Historia del Luxo de España,” (Madrid, 1788, - 8vo, Tom. I. pp. 176-179,) called “El Triunfo de las Donas,” - and is said to have been found by him in a manuscript of the - fifteenth century, “with other works of the same wise author.” - The extract given by Sempere is on the fops of the time, and is - written with spirit. - -From the Marquis of Villena himself, it is natural for us to turn to -one of his followers, known only as “Macias el Enamorado,” or Macias -the Lover; a name which constantly recurs in Spanish literature with a -peculiar meaning, given by the tragical history of the poet who bore -it. He was a Galician gentleman, who served the Marquis of Villena -as one of his esquires, and became enamoured of a maiden attached to -the same princely household with himself. But the lady, though he won -her love, was married, under the authority that controlled both of -them, to a knight of Porcuna. Still Macias in no degree restrained his -passion, but continued to express it to her in his verses, as he had -done before. The husband was naturally offended, and complained to the -Marquis, who, after in vain rebuking his follower, used his full power -as Grand Master of the Order of Calatrava, and cast Macias into prison. -But there he only devoted himself more passionately to the thoughts -of his lady, and, by his persevering love, still more provoked her -husband, who, secretly following him to his prison at Arjonilla, and -watching him one day as he chanced to be singing of his love and his -sufferings, was so stung by jealousy, that he cast a dart through the -gratings of the window, and killed the unfortunate poet with the name -of his lady still trembling on his lips. - -The sensation produced by the death of Macias was such as belongs only -to an imaginative age, and to the sympathy felt for one who perished -because he was both a Troubadour and a lover. All men who desired to -be thought cultivated mourned his fate. His few poems in his native -Galician--only one of which, and that of moderate merit, is preserved -entire--became generally known, and were generally admired. His master, -the Marquis of Villena, Rodriguez del Padron, who was his countryman, -Juan de Mena, the great court poet, and the still greater Marquis of -Santillana, all bore testimony, at the time or immediately afterwards, -to the general sorrow. Others followed their example; and the custom of -referring constantly to him and to his melancholy fate was continued -in ballads and popular songs, until, in the poetry of Lope de Vega, -Calderon, and Quevedo, the name of Macias passed into a proverb, and -became synonymous with the highest and tenderest love.[603] - - [603] The best account of Macias and of his verses is in - Bellermann’s “Alte Liederbücher der Portuguiesen” (Berlin, 1840, - 4to, pp. 24-26); to which may well be added, Argote de Molina, - “Nobleza del Andaluzia,” (Sevilla, 1588, folio, Lib. II. c. 148, - f. 272,) Castro, “Biblioteca Española,” (Tom. I. p. 312,) and - Cortina’s notes to Bouterwek (p. 195). But the proofs of his - early and wide-spread fame are to be sought in Sanchez, “Poesías - Anteriores” (Tom. I. p. 138); in the “Cancionero General,” 1535 - (ff. 67, 91); in Juan de Mena, Copla 105, with the notes on it - in the edition of Mena’s Works, 1566; in “Celestina,” Act II.; - in several plays of Calderon, such as “Para vencer Amor querer - vencerlo,” and “Qual es mayor Perfeccion”; in Góngora’s ballads; - and in many passages of Lope de Vega and Cervantes. There are - notices of Macias also in Ochoa, “Manuscritos Españoles,” Paris, - 1844, 4to, p. 505. In Vol. XLVIII. of “Comedias Escogidas,” - (1704, 4to,) is an anonymous play on his adventures and death, - entitled “El Español mas Amante,” in which the unhappy Macias is - killed at the moment the Marquis of Villena arrives to release - him from prison;--and in our own times, Larra has made him the - hero of his “Doncel de Don Enrique el Doliente,” already referred - to, and of a tragedy that bears his name, “Macias,” neither of - them true to the facts of history. - - - - -CHAPTER XIX. - -MARQUIS OF SANTILLANA.--HIS LIFE.--HIS TENDENCY TO IMITATE THE -ITALIAN AND THE PROVENÇAL.--HIS COURTLY STYLE.--HIS WORKS.--HIS -CHARACTER.--JUAN DE MENA.--HIS LIFE.--HIS SHORTER POEMS.--HIS -LABYRINTH, AND ITS MERITS. - - -Next after the king and Villena in rank, and much before them in merit, -stands, at the head of the courtiers and poets of the reign of John -the Second, Iñigo Lopez de Mendoza, Marquis of Santillana; one of the -most distinguished members of that great family which has sometimes -claimed the Cid for its founder,[604] and which certainly, with a long -succession of honors, reaches down to our own times.[605] He was born -in 1398, but was left an orphan in early youth; so that, though his -father, the Grand Admiral of Castile, had, at the time of his death, -larger possessions than any other nobleman in the kingdom, the son, -when he was old enough to know their value, found them chiefly wrested -from him by the bold barons who in the most lawless manner then divided -among themselves the power and resources of the crown. - - [604] Perez de Guzman, Generaciones y Semblanzas, Cap. 9. - - [605] This great family is early connected with the poetry - of Spain. The grandfather of Iñigo sacrificed his own life - voluntarily to save the life of John I. at the battle of - Aljubarrota in 1385, and became in consequence the subject of - that stirring and glorious ballad,-- - - Si el cavallo vos han muerto, - Subid, Rey, en mi cavallo. - - It is found at the end of the Eighth Part of the Romancero, 1597, - and is translated with much spirit by Lockhart, who, however, - evidently did not seek exactness in his version. - -But the young Mendoza was not of a temper to submit patiently to such -wrongs. At the age of sixteen he already figures in the chronicles of -the time, as one of the dignitaries of state who honored the coronation -of Ferdinand of Aragon;[606] and at the age of eighteen, we are told, -he boldly reclaimed his possessions, which, partly through the forms of -law and partly by force of arms, he recovered.[607] From this period -we find him, during the reign of John the Second, busy in the affairs -of the kingdom, both civil and military; always a personage of great -consideration, and apparently one who, in difficult circumstances and -wild times, acted from manly motives. When only thirty years old, he -was distinguished at court as one of the persons concerned in arranging -the marriage of the Infanta of Aragon;[608] and, soon afterwards, had -a separate command against the Navarrese, in which, though he suffered -a defeat from greatly superior numbers, he acquired lasting honor by -his personal bravery and firmness.[609] Against the Moors he commanded -long, and was often successful; and after the battle of Olmedo, in -1445, he was raised to the very high rank of Marquis; none in Castile -having preceded him in that title except the family of Villena, already -extinct.[610] - - [606] Crónica de D. Juan el Segundo, Año 1414, Cap. 2. - - [607] It is Perez de Guzman, uncle of the Marquis, who declares - (Generaciones y Semblanzas, Cap. 9) that the father of the - Marquis had larger estates than any other Castilian knight; - to which may be added what Oviedo says so characteristically - of the young nobleman, that, “as he grew up, he recovered his - estates partly by law and partly by force of arms, and _so began - forthwith to be accounted much of a man_.” Batalla I. Quinquagena - i. Diálogo 8, MS. - - [608] Crónica de D. Juan el Segundo, Año 1428, Cap. 7. - - [609] Sanchez, Poesías Anteriores, Tom. I. pp. v., etc. - - [610] Crónica de D. Juan el Segundo, Año 1438, Cap. 2; 1445, Cap. - 17; and Salazar de Mendoza, Dignidades de Castilla, Lib. III. c. - 14. - -He was early, but not violently, opposed to the great favorite, the -Constable Alvaro de Luna. In 1432, some of his friends and kinsmen, -the good Count Haro and the Bishop of Palencia, with their adherents, -having been seized by order of the Constable, Mendoza shut himself up -in his strongholds till he was fully assured of his own safety.[611] -From this time, therefore, the relations between two such personages -could not be considered friendly; but still appearances were kept up, -and the next year, at a grand jousting before the king in Madrid, -where Mendoza offered himself against all comers, the Constable was -one of his opponents; and after the encounter, they feasted together -merrily and in all honor.[612] Indeed, the troubles between them were -inconsiderable till 1448 and 1449, when the hard proceedings of the -Constable against others of the friends and relations of Mendoza led -him into a more formal opposition,[613] which in 1452 brought on a -regular conspiracy between himself and two more of the leading nobles -of the kingdom. The next year the favorite was sacrificed.[614] In the -last scenes, however, of this extraordinary tragedy, the Marquis of -Santillana seems to have had little share. - - [611] Crónica de D. Juan el Segundo, Año 1432, Capp. 4 and 5. - - [612] Ibid., Año 1433, Cap. 2. - - [613] Ibid., Año 1449, Cap. 11. - - [614] Ibid., Año 1452, Capp. 1, etc. - -The king, disheartened by the loss of the minister on whose commanding -genius he had so long relied, died in 1454. But Henry the Fourth, who -followed on the throne of Castile, seemed even more willing to favor -the great family of the Mendozas than his father had been. The Marquis, -however, was little disposed to take advantage of his position. His -wife died in 1455, and the pilgrimage he made on that occasion to the -shrine of Our Lady of Guadalupe, and the religious poetry he wrote -the same year, show the direction his thoughts had now taken. In -this state of mind he seems to have continued; and though he once -afterwards joined effectively with others to urge upon the king’s -notice the disordered and ruinous state of the kingdom, yet, from the -fall of the Constable to the time of his own death, which happened in -1458, the Marquis was chiefly busied with letters, and with such other -occupations and thoughts as were consistent with a retired life.[615] - - [615] The principal facts in the life of the Marquis of - Santillana are to be gathered--as, from his rank and - consideration in the state, might be expected--out of the - Chronicle of John II., in which he constantly appears after the - year 1414; but a very lively and successful sketch of him is to - be found in the fourth chapter of Pulgar’s “Claros Varones,” and - an elaborate, but ill-digested, biography in the first volume of - Sanchez, “Poesías Anteriores.” - -It is remarkable, that one, who, from his birth and position, was so -much involved in the affairs of state at a period of great confusion -and violence, should yet have cultivated elegant literature with -earnestness. But the Marquis of Santillana, as he wrote to a friend -and repeated to Prince Henry, believed that knowledge neither blunts -the point of the lance, nor weakens the arm that wields a knightly -sword.[616] He therefore gave himself freely to poetry and other -graceful accomplishments; encouraged, perhaps, by the thought, that -he was thus on the road to please the wayward monarch he served, if -not the stern favorite who governed them all. One who was bred at the -court, of which the Marquis was so distinguished an ornament, says, -“He had great store of books, and gave himself to study, especially -the study of moral philosophy and of things foreign and old. And he -had always in his house doctors and masters, with whom he discoursed -concerning the knowledge and the books he studied. Likewise, he himself -made other books in verse and in prose, profitable to provoke to -virtue and to restrain from vice. And in such wise did he pass the -greater part of his leisure. Much fame and renown, also, he had in -many kingdoms out of Spain; but he thought it a greater matter to have -esteem among the wise than name and fame with the many.”[617] - - [616] In the “Introduction del Marques á los Proverbios,” Anvers, - 1552, 18mo, f. 150. - - [617] Pulgar, Claros Varones, ut supra. - -The works of the Marquis of Santillana show, with sufficient -distinctness, the relations in which he stood to his times and the -direction he was disposed to take. From his social position, he could -easily gratify any reasonable literary curiosity or taste he might -possess; for the resources of the kingdom were open to him, and he -could, therefore, not only obtain for his private study the poetry -then abroad in the world, but often command to his presence the poets -themselves. He was born in the Asturias, where his great family -fiefs lay, and was educated in Castile; so that, on this side, he -belonged to the genuinely indigenous school of Spanish poetry. But -then he was also intimate with the Marquis of Villena, the head of -the poetical Consistory of Barcelona, who, to encourage his poetical -studies, addressed to him, in 1433, his curious letter on the art -of the Troubadours, which Villena thus proposed to introduce into -Castile.[618] And, after all, he lived chiefly at the court of John the -Second, and was the friend and patron of the poets there, through whom -and through his love of foreign letters it was natural he should come -in contact with the great Italian masters, now exercising a wide sway -within their own peninsula. We must not be surprised, therefore, to -find that his own works belong more or less to each of these schools, -and define his position as that of one who stands connected with the -Provençal literature in Spain, which we have just examined; with the -Italian, whose influences were now beginning to appear; and with the -genuinely Spanish, which, though it often bears traces of each of the -others, prevails at last over both of them. - - [618] See the preceding notice of Villena. - -Of his familiarity with the Provençal poetry abundant proof may be -found in the Preface to his Proverbs, which he wrote when young, and -in his letter to the Constable of Portugal, which belongs to the -latter period of his life. In both, he treats the rules of that poetry -as well founded, explaining them much as his friend and kinsman, the -Marquis of Villena, did; and of some of the principal of its votaries -in Spain, such as Bergédan, and Pedro and Ausias March, he speaks with -great respect.[619] To Jordi, his contemporary, he elsewhere devotes -an allegorical poem of some length and merit, intended to do him the -highest honor as a Troubadour.[620] - - [619] In the Introduction to his Proverbs, he boasts of his - familiarity with the Provençal rules of versifying. - - [620] It is in the oldest Cancionero General, and copied from - that into Faber’s “Floresta,” No. 87. - -But besides this, he directly imitated the Provençal poets. By far the -most beautiful of his works, and one which may well be compared with -the most graceful of the smaller poems in the Spanish language, is -entirely in the Provençal manner. It is called “Una Serranilla,” or A -Little Mountain Song, and was composed on a little girl, whom, when -following his military duty, he found tending her father’s herds on the -hills. Many such short songs occur in the later Provençal poets, under -the name of “Pastoretas,” and “Vaqueiras,” one of which, by Giraud -Riquier,--the same person who wrote verses on the death of Alfonso the -Wise,--might have served as the very prototype of the present one; so -strong is the resemblance between them. But none of them, either in the -Provençal or in the Spanish, has ever equalled this “Serranilla” of the -soldier; which, besides its inherent simplicity and liquid sweetness, -has such grace and lightness in its movement, that it bears no marks of -an unbecoming imitation, but, on the contrary, is rather to be regarded -as a model of the natural old Castilian song, never to be transferred -to another language, and hardly to be imitated with success in its -own.[621] - - [621] The _Serranas_ of the Arcipreste de Hita were noticed - when speaking of his works; but the six by the Marquis of - Santillana approach nearer to the Provençal model, and have a - higher poetical merit. For their form and Structure, see Diez, - Troubadours, p. 114. The one specially referred to in the text - is so beautiful, that I add a part of it, with the corresponding - portion of the one by Riquier. - - Moza tan fermosa - Non vi en la frontera, - Como una vaquera - De la Finojosa. - · · · · · - En un verde prado - De rosas e flores, - Guardando ganado - Con otros pastores, - La vi tan fermosa, - Que apenas creyera, - Que fuese vaquera - De la Finojosa. - - Sanchez, Poesías Anteriores, Tom. I. p. xliv. - - The following is the opening of that by Riquier:-- - - Gaya pastorelha - Trobey l’ autre dia - En una ribeira, - Que per caut la belha - Sos anhels tenia - Desotz un ombreira; - Un capelh fazia - De flors e sezia, - Sus en la fresqueria, etc. - - Raynouard, Troubadours, Tom. III. p. 470. - - None of the Provençal poets, I think, wrote so beautiful - _Pastoretas_ as Riquier; so that the Marquis chose a good model. - -The traces of Italian culture in the poetry of the Marquis of -Santillana are no less obvious and important. Besides praising -Dante, Petrarch, and Boccaccio,[622] he imitates the opening of the -“Inferno” in a long poem, in octave stanzas, on the death of the -Marquis of Villena;[623] while, in the “Coronation of Jordi,” he -shows that he was sensible to the power of more than one passage in -the “Purgatorio.”[624] Moreover, he has the merit--if it be one--of -introducing the peculiarly Italian form of the Sonnet into Spain; and -with the different specimens of it that still remain among his works -begins the ample series which, since the time of Boscan, has won for -itself so large a space in Spanish literature. Seventeen sonnets of the -Marquis of Santillana have been published, which he himself declares -to be written in “the Italian fashion,” and appeals to Cavalcante, -Guido d’Ascoli, Dante, and especially Petrarch, as his predecessors and -models; an appeal hardly necessary to one who has read them, so plain -is his desire to imitate the greatest of his masters. The sonnets of -the Marquis of Santillana, however, have little merit, except in their -careful versification, and were soon forgotten.[625] - - [622] See the Letter to the Constable of Portugal. - - [623] Cancionero General, 1573, f. 34. It was, of course, written - after 1434, that being the year Villena died. - - [624] Faber, Floresta, ut sup. - - [625] Sanchez, Poesías Anteriores, Tom. I. pp. xx., xxi., xl. - Quintana, Poesías Castellanas, Madrid, 1807, 12mo, Tom. I. p. 13. - There are imperfect discussions about the introduction of sonnets - into Spanish poetry in Argote de Molina’s “Discurso,” at the end - of the “Conde Lucanor,” (1575, f. 97,) and in Herrera’s edition - of Garcilasso (Sevilla, 1580, 8vo, p. 75). But all doubts are put - at rest, and all questions answered, in the edition of the “Rimas - Ineditas de Don Iñigo Lopez de Mendoza,” published at Paris, - by Ochoa (1844, 8vo); where, in a letter by the Marquis, dated - May 4, 1444, and addressed, with his Poems, to Doña Violante - de Pradas, he tells her expressly that he imitated the Italian - masters in the composition of his poems. - -But his principal works were more in the manner then prevalent at the -Spanish court. Most of them are in verse, and, like a short poem to the -queen, several riddles, and a few religious compositions, are generally -full of conceits and affectation, and have little value of any -sort.[626] Two or three, however, are of consequence. One called “The -Complaint of Love,” and referring apparently to the story of Macias, is -written with fluency and sweetness, and is curious as containing lines -in Galician, which, with other similar verses and his letter to the -Constable of Portugal, show he extended his thoughts to this ancient -dialect, where are found some of the earliest intimations of Spanish -literature.[627] Another of his poems, which has been called “The -Ages of the World,” is a compendium of universal history, beginning -at the creation and coming down to the time of John the Second, with -a gross compliment to whom it ends. It was written in 1426, and fills -three hundred and thirty-two stanzas of double _redondillas_, dull and -prosaic throughout.[628] The third is a moral poem, thrown into the -shape of a dialogue between Bias and Fortune, setting forth the Stoical -doctrine of the worthlessness of all outward good. It consists of a -hundred and eighty octave stanzas in the short Spanish measure, and was -written for the consolation of a cousin and much loved friend of the -Toledo family, whose imprisonment in 1448, by order of the Constable, -caused great troubles in the kingdom, and contributed to the final -alienation of the Marquis from the favorite.[629] The fourth is on the -kindred subject of the fall and death of the Constable himself, in -1453; a poem in fifty-three octave stanzas, each of two _redondillas_, -containing a confession supposed to have been made by the victim on the -scaffold, partly to the multitude and partly to his priest.[630] In -both of the last two poems, and especially in the dialogue between Bias -and Fortune, passages of merit are found, which are not only fluent, -but strong; not only terse and pointed, but graceful.[631] - - [626] They are found in the Cancionero General of 1573, ff. 24, - 27, 37, 40, and 234. - - [627] Sanchez, Poesías Anteriores, Tom. I. pp. 143-147. - - [628] It received its name from Ochoa, who first printed it in - his edition of the Marquis’s Poems (pp. 97-240); but Amador de - los Rios, in his “Estudios sobre los Judios de España,” (Madrid, - 1848, 8vo, p. 342,) gives reasons which induce him to believe - it to be the work of Pablo de Sta. María, who will be noticed - hereafter. - - [629] Faber, Floresta, No. 743. Sanchez, Tom. I. p. xli. Claros - Varones de Pulgar, ed. 1775, p. 224. Crónica de D. Juan IIº, Año - 1448, Cap. 4. - - [630] Cancionero General, 1573, f. 37. - - [631] Two or three other poems are given by Ochoa: the “Pregunta - de Nobles,” a sort of moral lament of the poet, that he cannot - see and know the great men of all times; the “Doze Trabajos de - Ercoles,” which has sometimes been confounded with the prose - work of Villena bearing the same title; and the “Infierno de - Enamoradas,” which was afterwards imitated by Garci Sanchez de - Badajoz. All three are short and of little value. - -But the most important of the poetical works of the Marquis of -Santillana is one approaching the form of a drama, and called the -“Comedieta de Ponza,” or The Little Comedy of Ponza. It is founded on -the story of a great sea-fight near the island of Ponza in 1435, where -the kings of Aragon and Navarre, and the Infante Don Henry of Castile, -with many noblemen and knights, were taken prisoners by the Genoese,--a -disaster to Spain, which fills a large space in the old national -chronicles.[632] The poem of Santillana, written immediately after the -occurrence of the calamity it commemorates, is called a Comedy, because -its conclusion is happy, and Dante is cited as authority for this use -of the word.[633] But in fact it is a dream or vision; and one of the -early passages in the “Inferno,” imitated at the very opening, leaves -no doubt as to what was in the author’s mind when he wrote it.[634] -The queens of Navarre and Aragon, and the Infante Doña Catalina, as -the persons most interested in the unhappy battle, are the chief -speakers. But Boccaccio is also a principal personage, though seemingly -for no better reason than that he wrote the treatise on the Disasters -of Princes; and after being addressed very solemnly in this capacity -by the three royal ladies and by the Marquis of Santillana himself, -he answers no less solemnly in his native Italian. Queen Leonora -then gives him an account of the glories and grandeur of her house, -accompanied with auguries of misfortune, which are hardly uttered -before a letter comes announcing their fulfilment in the calamities -of the battle of Ponza. The queen mother, after hearing the contents -of this letter quite through, falls as one dead. Fortune, in a female -form, richly attired, enters, and consoles them all; first showing a -magnificent perspective of past times, with promises of still greater -glory to their descendants, and then fairly presenting to them in -person the very princes whose captivity had just filled them with such -fear and grief. And this ends the Comedieta. - - [632] For example, Crónica de D. Juan el Segundo, Año 1435, Cap. 9. - - [633] In the letter to Doña Violante de Pradas, he says he began - it immediately after the battle. - - [634] Speaking of the dialogue he heard about the battle, the - Marquis says, using almost the very words of Dante,-- - - Tan pauroso, - Que solo en pensarlo me vence piedad. - -It fills a hundred and twenty of the old Italian octave stanzas,--such -stanzas as are used in the “Filostrato” of Boccaccio,--and much of it -is written in easy verse. There is a great deal of ancient learning -introduced into it awkwardly and in bad taste; but there is one passage -in which a description of Fortune is skilfully borrowed from the -seventh canto of the “Inferno,” and another in which is a pleasing -paraphrase of the _Beatus ille_ of Horace.[635] The machinery and -management of the story, it is obvious, could hardly be worse; and yet -when it was written, and perhaps still more when it was declaimed, -as it probably was before some of the sufferers in the disaster it -records, it may well have been felt as an effective exhibition of a -very grave passage in the history of the time. On this account, too, it -is still interesting. - - [635] As a specimen of the best parts of the Comedieta, I copy - the paraphrase from a manuscript, better, I think, than that used - by Ochoa:-- - - ST. XVI. - - Benditos aquellos, que, con el açada, - Sustentan sus vidas y biven contentos, - Y de quando en quando conoscen morada, - Y sufren placientes las lluvias y vientos. - Ca estos no temen los sus movimientos, - Nin saben las cosas del tiempo pasado, - Nin de las presentes se hacen cuidado, - Nin las venideras do an nascimientos. - - ST. XVII. - - Benditos aquellos que siguen las fieras - Con las gruesas redes y canes ardidos, - Y saben las troxas y las delanteras, - Y fieren de arcos en tiempos devidos. - Ca estos por saña no son comovidos, - Nin vana cobdicia los tiene subjetos, - Nin quieren tesoros, ni sienten defetos, - Nin turba fortuna sus libres sentidos. - -The Comedieta, however, was not the most popular, if it was the most -important, of the works of Santillana. That distinction belongs to -a collection of Proverbs, which he made at the request of John the -Second, for the education of his son Henry, afterwards Henry the -Fourth. It consists of a hundred rhymed sentences, each generally -containing one proverb, and so sometimes passes under the name of the -“Centiloquio.” The proverbs themselves are, no doubt, mostly taken from -that unwritten wisdom of the common people, for which, in this form, -Spain has always been more famous than any other country; but, in the -general tone he has adopted, and in many of his separate instructions, -the Marquis is rather indebted to King Solomon and the New Testament. -Such as they are, however, they had--perhaps from their connection with -the service of the heir-apparent--a remarkable success, to which many -old manuscripts, still extant, bear witness. They were printed, too, -as early as 1496; and in the course of the next century nine or ten -editions of them may be reckoned, generally encumbered with a learned -commentary by Doctor Pedro Diaz of Toledo. They have, however, no -poetical value, and interest us only from the circumstances attending -their composition, and from the fact that they form the oldest -collection of proverbs made in modern times.[636] - - [636] There is another collection of proverbs made by the - Marquis of Santillana, that is to be found in Mayans y Siscar, - “Orígenes de la Lengua Castellana” (Tom. II. pp. 179, etc.). They - are, however, neither rhymed nor glossed; but simply arranged - in alphabetical order, as they were gathered from the lips of - the common people, or, as the collector says, “from the old - women in their chimney-corners.” For an account of the printed - editions of the _rhymed_ proverbs prepared for Prince Henry, see - Mendez, Typog. Esp., p. 196, and Sanchez, Tom. I. p. xxxiv. The - seventeenth proverb, or that on Prudence, may be taken as a fair - specimen of the whole, all being in the same measure and manner. - It is as follows:-- - - Si fueres gran eloquente - Bien será, - Pero mas te converrá - Ser prudente. - Que _el prudente es obediente_ - Todavia - A moral filosofía - Y sirviente. - - A few of the hundred proverbs have a prose commentary by the - Marquis himself; but neither have these the good fortune to - escape the learned discussions of the Toledan Doctor. The whole - collection is spoken of slightingly by the wise author of the - “Diálogo de las Lenguas.” Mayans y Siscar, Orígenes, Tom. II. p. - 13. - - The same Pero Diaz, who burdened the Proverbs of the Marquis of - Santillana with a commentary, prepared, at the request of John - II., a collection of proverbs from Seneca, which were first - printed in 1482, and afterwards went through several editions. - (Mendez, Typog., pp. 266 and 197.) I have one of Seville, 1500 - (fol., 66 leaves). They are about one hundred and fifty in - number, and the prose gloss with which each is accompanied seems - in better taste and more becoming its position than it does in - the case of the rhymed proverbs of the Marquis. - -In the latter part of his life, the fame of the Marquis of Santillana -was spread very widely. Juan de Mena says, that men came from -foreign countries merely to see him;[637] and the young Constable of -Portugal--the same prince who afterwards entered into the Catalonian -troubles, and claimed to be king of Aragon--formally asked him for his -poems, which the Marquis sent with a letter on the poetic art, by way -of introduction, written about 1455, and containing notices of such -Spanish poets as were his predecessors or contemporaries; a letter -which is, in fact, the most important single document we now possess -touching the early literature of Spain. It is one, too, which contrasts -favorably with the curious epistle he himself received on a similar -subject, twenty years before, from the Marquis of Villena, and shows -how much he was in advance of his age in the spirit of criticism and in -a well-considered love of letters.[638] - - [637] In the Preface to the “Coronacion,” Obras, Alcalá, 1566, - 12mo, f. 260. - - [638] This important letter--which, from the notice of it - by Argote de Molina, (Nobleza, 1588, f. 335,) was a sort of - acknowledged introduction to the Cancionero of the Marquis--is - found, with learned notes to it, in the first volume of Sanchez. - The Constable of Portugal, to whom it was addressed, died in 1466. - -Indeed, in all respects we can see that he was a remarkable man; one -thoroughly connected with his age and strong in its spirit. His conduct -in affairs, from his youth upwards, shows this. So does the tone of his -Proverbs, that of his letter to his imprisoned cousin, and that of his -poem on the death of Alvaro de Luna. He was a poet also, though not of -a high order; a man of much reading, when reading was rare;[639] and -a critic, who showed judgment, when judgment and the art of criticism -hardly went together. And, finally, he was the founder of an Italian -and courtly school in Spanish poetry; one, on the whole, adverse to -the national spirit, and finally overcome by it, and yet one that long -exercised a considerable sway, and at last contributed something to -the materials which, in the sixteenth century, went to build up and -constitute the proper literature of the country. - - [639] I do not account him learned, because he had not the - accomplishment common to all learned men of his time,--that - of speaking Latin. This appears from the very quaint and rare - treatise of the “Vita Beata,” by Juan de Lucena, his contemporary - and friend, where (ed. 1483, fol., f. ii. b) the Marquis is made - to say, “Me veo defetuoso de letras Latinas,” and adds, that the - Bishop of Burgos and Juan de Mena would have carried on in Latin - the discussion recorded in that treatise, instead of carrying it - on in Spanish, if he had been able to join them in that learned - language. That the Marquis could _read_ Latin, however, is - probable from his works, which are full of allusions to Latin - authors, and sometimes contain imitations of them. - -There lived, however, during the reign of John the Second, and in the -midst of his court, another poet, whose general influence at the time -was less felt than that of his patron, the Marquis of Santillana, but -who has since been oftener mentioned and remembered,--Juan de Mena, -sometimes, but inappropriately, called the Ennius of Spanish poetry. -He was born in Córdova, about the year 1411, the child of parents -respected, but not noble.[640] He was early left an orphan, and from -the age of three-and-twenty, of his own free choice, devoted himself -wholly to letters; going through a regular course of studies, first -at Salamanca, and afterwards at Rome. On his return home, he became -a _Veinte-quatro_ of Córdova, or one of the twenty-four persons who -constituted the government of the city; but we early find him at -court on a footing of familiarity as a poet, and we know he was soon -afterwards Latin secretary to John the Second, and historiographer of -Castile.[641] This brought him into relations with the king and the -Constable; relations important in themselves, and of which we have -by accident a few singular intimations. The king, if we can trust -the witness, was desirous to be well regarded in history; and, to -make sure of it, directed his confidential physician to instruct his -historiographer, from time to time, how he ought to treat different -parts of his subject. In one letter, for instance, he is told with -much gravity, “The king is very desirous of praise”; and then follows -a statement of facts, as they ought to be represented, in a somewhat -delicate case of the neglect of the Count de Castro to obey the royal -commands.[642] In another letter he is told, “The king expects much -glory from you”; a remark which is followed by another narrative of -facts as they should be set forth.[643] But though Juan de Mena was -employed on this important work as late as 1445, and apparently was -favored in it, both by the king and the Constable, still there is no -reason to suppose that any part of what he did is preserved in the -Chronicle of John the Second exactly as it came from his hands. - - [640] The chief materials for the life of Juan de Mena are to be - found in some poor verses by Francisco Romero, in his “Epicedio - en la Muerte del Maestro Hernan Nuñez,” (Salamanca, 1578, 12mo, - pp. 485, etc.,) at the end of the “Refranes de Hernan Nuñez.” - Concerning the place of his birth there is no doubt. He alludes - to it himself (Trescientas, Copla 124) in a way that does him - honor. - - [641] Cibdareal, Epist. XX., XXIII. - - [642] Ibid., Epist. XLVII. - - [643] Ibid., Epist. XLIX. - -The chronicler, however, who seems to have been happy in possessing a -temperament proper for courtly success, has left proofs enough of the -means by which he reached it. He was a sort of poet-laureate without -the title, writing verses on the battle of Olmedo in 1445, on the -pacification between the king and his son in 1446, on the affair of -Peñafiel in 1449, and on the slight wound the Constable received at -Palencia in 1452; in all which, as well as in other and larger poems, -he shows a great devotion to the reigning powers of the state.[644] - - [644] For the first verses, see Castro, Bibl. Española, Tom. - I. p. 331; and for those on the Constable, see his Chronicle, - Milano, 1546, fol., f. 60. b, Tít. 95. - -He stood well, too, in Portugal. The Infante Don Pedro--a verse-writer -of some name, who travelled much in different parts of the -world--became personally acquainted with Juan de Mena in Spain, and, -on his return to Lisbon, addressed a few verses to him, better than -the answer they called forth; besides which, he imitated, with no -mean skill, Mena’s “Labyrinth,” in a Spanish poem of a hundred and -twenty-five stanzas.[645] With such connections and habits, with a wit -that made him agreeable in personal intercourse,[646] and with an even -good-humor which rendered him welcome to the opposite parties in the -kingdom,[647] he seems to have led a contented life; and at his death, -which happened suddenly in 1456, in consequence of a fall from his -mule, the Marquis of Santillana, always his friend and patron, wrote -his epitaph, and erected a monument to his memory in Torrelaguna, both -of which are still to be seen.[648] - - [645] The verses inscribed “Do Ifante Dom Pedro, Fylho del - Rey Dom Joam, em Loor de Joam de Mena,” with Juan de Mena’s - answer, a short rejoinder by the Infante, and a conclusion, - are in the Cancioneiro de Rresende, (Lisboa, 1516, folio,) f. - 72. b. See, also, Die Alten Liederbücher der Portugiesen, von - C. F. Bellermann, (Berlin, 1840, 4to, pp. 27, 64,) and Mendez, - Typographía (p. 137, note). This Infante Don Pedro is, I suppose, - the one alluded to as a great traveller in Don Quixote (Part II., - end of Chap. 23); but Pellicer and Clemencin give us no light on - the matter. - - [646] See the Dialogue of Juan de Lucena, “La Vita Beata,” - _passim_, in which Juan de Mena is one of the principal speakers. - - [647] He stood well with the king and the Infantes, with the - Constable, with the Marquis of Santillana, etc. - - [648] Ant. Ponz, Viage de España, Madrid, 1787, 12mo, Tom. X. p. - 38. Clemencin, note to Don Quixote, Parte II. c. 44, Tom. V. p. - 379. - -The works of Juan de Mena evidently enjoyed the sunshine of courtly -favor from their first appearance. While still young, if we can trust -the simple-hearted letters that pass under the name of the royal -physician, they were already the subject of gossip at the palace;[649] -and the collections of poetry made by Baena and Estuñiga, for the -amusement of the king and the court, about 1450, contain abundant -proofs that his favor was not worn out by time; for as many of his -verses as could be found seem to have been put into each of them. But -though this circumstance, and that of their appearance before the end -of the century in two or three of the very earliest printed collections -of poetry, leave no doubt that they enjoyed, from the first, a sort -of fashionable success, still it can hardly be said they were at any -time really popular. Two or three of his shorter effusions, indeed, -like the verses addressed to his lady to show her how formidable she is -in every way, and those on a vicious mule he had bought from a friar, -have a spirit that would make them amusing anywhere.[650] But most -of his minor poems, of which about twenty may be found scattered in -rare books,[651] belong only to the fashionable style of the society -in which he lived, and, from their affectation, conceits, and obscure -allusions, can have had little value, even when they were first -circulated, except to the persons to whom they were addressed, or the -narrow circle in which those persons moved. - - [649] Cibdareal, Epist. XX. No less than twelve of the hundred - and five letters of the courtly leech are addressed to the poet, - showing, if they are genuine, how much favor Juan de Mena enjoyed. - - [650] The last, which is not without humor, is twice alluded to - in Cibdareal, viz., Epist. XXXIII. and XXXVI., and seems to have - been liked at court and by the king. - - [651] The minor poems of Juan de Mena are to be found chiefly in - the old Cancioneros Generales; but some must be sought in the old - editions of his own works. For example, in the valuable folio - one of 1534, in which the “Trescientas” and the “Coronacion” - form separate publications, with separate titles, pagings, and - colophons, each is followed by a few of the author’s short poems. - -His poem on the Seven Deadly Sins, in nearly eight hundred short -verses, divided into double _redondillas_, is a work of graver -pretensions. But it is a dull allegory, full of pedantry and -metaphysical fancies on the subject of a war between Reason and -the Will of Man. Notwithstanding its length, however, it was left -unfinished; and a certain friar, named Gerónimo de Olivares, added four -hundred more verses to it, in order to bring the discussion to what he -conceived a suitable conclusion. Both parts, however, are as tedious as -the theology of the age could make them. - -His “Coronation” is better, and fills about five hundred lines, -arranged in double _quintillas_. Its name comes from its subject, which -is an imaginary journey of Juan de Mena to Mount Parnassus, in order -to witness the coronation of the Marquis of Santillana, both as a poet -and a hero, by the Muses and the Virtues. It is, therefore, strictly -a poem in honor of his great patron; and being such, it is somewhat -singular that it should be written in a light and almost satirical -vein. At the opening, as well as in other parts, it has the appearance -of a parody on the “Divina Commedia”; for it begins with the wanderings -of the author in an obscure wood, after which he passes through regions -of misery, where he beholds the punishments of the dead; visits the -abodes of the blessed, where he sees the great of former ages; and, -at last, comes to Mount Parnassus, where he is present at a sort of -apotheosis of the yet living object of his reverence and admiration. -The versification of the poem is easy, and some passages in it are -amusing; but, in general, it is rendered dull by unprofitable learning. -The best portions are those merely descriptive. - -But whether Juan de Mena, in his “Coronation,” intended deliberately -to be the parodist of Dante or not, it is quite plain that in his -principal work, called “The Labyrinth,” he became Dante’s serious -imitator. This long poem--which he seems to have begun very early, -and which, though he occupied himself much with its composition, he -left unfinished at the time of his sudden death--consists of about -twenty-five hundred lines, divided into stanzas; each stanza being -composed of two _redondillas_ in those long lines which were then -called “versos de arte mayor,” or verses of higher art, because they -were supposed to demand a greater degree of skill than the shorter -verses used in the old national measures. The poem itself is sometimes -called “The Labyrinth,” probably from the intricacy of its plan, -and sometimes “The Three Hundred,” because that was originally the -number of its _coplas_ or stanzas. Its purpose is nothing less than -to teach, by vision and allegory, whatever relates to the duties or -the destiny of man; and the rules by which its author was governed in -its composition are evidently gathered from the example of Dante in -his “Divina Commedia,” and from Dante’s precepts in his treatise “De -Vulgari Eloquentia.” - -After the dedication of the Labyrinth to John the Second, and some -other preparatory and formal parts, the poem opens with the author’s -wanderings in a wood, like Dante, exposed to beasts of prey. While -there, he is met by Providence, who comes to him in the form of a -beautiful woman, and offers to lead him, by a sure path, through the -dangers that beset him, and to explain, “as far as they are palpable -to human understanding,” the dark mysteries of life that oppress his -spirit. This promise she fulfils by carrying him to what she calls the -spherical centre of the five zones; or, in other words, to a point -where the poet is supposed to see at once all the countries and nations -of the earth. There she shows him three vast mystical wheels,--the -wheels of Destiny,--two representing the past and the future, in -constant rest, and the third representing the present, in constant -motion. Each contains its appropriate portion of the human race, and -through each are extended the seven circles of the seven planetary -influences that govern the fates of mortal men; the characters of the -most distinguished of whom are explained to the poet by his divine -guide, as their shadows rise before him in these mysterious circles. - -From this point, therefore, the poem becomes a confused gallery of -mythological and historical portraits, arranged, as in the “Paradiso” -of Dante, according to the order of the seven planets.[652] They have -generally little merit, and are often shadowed forth very indistinctly. -The best sketches are those of personages who lived in the poet’s own -time or country; some drawn with courtly flattery, like the king’s and -the Constable’s; others with more truth, as well as more skill, like -those of the Marquis of Villena, Juan de Merlo, and the young Dávalos, -whose premature fate is recorded in a few lines of unwonted power and -tenderness.[653] - - [652] The author of the “Diálogo de las Lenguas” (Mayans y - Siscar, Orígenes, Tom. II. p. 148) complained of the frequent - obscurities in Juan de Mena’s poetry, three centuries ago,--a - fault made abundantly apparent in the elaborate explanations - of his dark passages by the two oldest and most learned of his - commentators. - - [653] Juan de Mena has always stood well with his countrymen, - if he has not been absolutely popular. Verses by him appeared, - during his lifetime, in the Cancionero of Baena, and immediately - afterwards in the Chronicle of the Constable. Others are in the - collection of poems already noticed, printed at Saragossa in - 1492, and in another collection of the same period, but without - date. They are in all the old Cancioneros Generales, and in a - succession of separate editions, from 1496 to our own times. And - besides all this, the learned Hernan Nuñez de Guzman printed a - commentary on them in 1499, and the still more learned Francisco - Sanchez de las Brozas, commonly called El Brocense, printed - another in 1582; one or the other of which accompanies the poems - for their elucidation in nearly every edition since. - -The story told most in detail is that of the Count de Niebla, who, in -1436, at the siege of Gibraltar, sacrificed his own life in a noble -attempt to save that of one of his dependants; the boat in which the -Count might have been rescued being too small to save the whole of the -party, who thus all perished together in a flood-tide. This disastrous -event, and especially the self-devotion of Niebla, who was one of the -principal nobles of the kingdom, and at that moment employed on a -daring expedition against the Moors, are recorded in the chronicles of -the age, and introduced by Juan de Mena in the following characteristic -stanzas:[654]-- - - [654] Crónica de D. Juan el Segundo, Año 1436, c. 3. Mena, - Trescientas, Cop. 160-162. - - Aquel que en la barca parece sentado, - Vestido, en engaño de las bravas ondas, - En aguas crueles, ya mas que no hondas, - Con mucha gran gente en la mar anegado, - Es el valiente, no bien fortunado, - Muy virtuoso, perínclito Conde - De Niebla, que todos sabeis bien adonde - Dió fin al dia del curso hadado. - - Y los que lo cercan por el derredor, - Puesto que fuessen magníficos hombres, - Los títulos todos de todos sus nombres, - El nombre les cubre de aquel su señor; - Que todos los hechos que son de valor - Para se mostrar por sí cada uno, - Quando se juntan y van de consuno, - Pierden el nombre delante el mayor. - - Arlanza, Pisuerga, y aun Carrion, - Gozan de nombre de rios; empero - Despues de juntados llamamos los Duero; - Hacemos de muchos una relacion. - - - And he who seems to sit upon that bark, - Invested by the cruel waves, that wait - And welter round him to prepare his fate,-- - His and his bold companions’, in their dark - And watery abyss;--that stately form - Is Count Niebla’s, he whose honored name, - More brave than fortunate, has given to fame - The very tide that drank his life-blood warm. - - And they that eagerly around him press, - Though men of noble mark and bold emprise, - Grow pale and dim as his full glories rise, - Showing their own peculiar honors less. - Thus Carrion or Arlanza, sole and free, - Bears, like Pisuerga, each its several name, - And triumphs in its undivided fame, - As a fair, graceful stream. But when the three - - Are joined in one, each yields its separate right, - And their accumulated headlong course - We call Duero. Thus might these enforce - Each his own claim to stand the noblest knight, - If brave Niebla came not with his blaze - Of glory to eclipse their humbler praise. - -Too much honor is not to be claimed for such poetry; but there is -little in Juan de Mena’s works equal to this specimen, which has at -least the merit of being free from the pedantry and conceits that -disfigure most of his writings. - -Such as it was, however, the Labyrinth received great admiration from -the court of John the Second, and, above all, from the king himself, -whose physician, we are told, wrote to the poet: “Your polished and -erudite work, called ‘The Second Order of Mercury,’ hath much pleased -his Majesty, who carries it with him when he journeys about or goes -a-hunting.”[655] And again: “The end of the ‘third circle’ pleased -the king much. I read it to his Majesty, who keeps it on his table -with his prayer-book, and takes it up often.”[656] Indeed, the whole -poem was, it seems, submitted to the king, piece by piece, as it was -composed; and we are told, that, in one instance, at least, it received -a royal correction, which still stands unaltered.[657] His Majesty even -advised that it should be extended from three hundred stanzas to three -hundred and sixty-five, though for no better reason than to make their -number correspond exactly with that of the days in the year; and the -twenty-four stanzas commonly printed at the end of it are supposed to -have been an attempt to fulfil the monarch’s command. But whether this -be so or not, nobody now wishes the poem to be longer than it is.[658] - - [655] Cibdareal, Epist. XX. - - [656] Ibid., Epist. XLIX. - - [657] Ibid., Epist. XX. - - [658] They are printed separately in the Cancionero General of - 1573; but do not appear at all in the edition of the Works of the - poet in 1566, and were not commented upon by Hernan Nuñez. It - is, indeed, doubtful whether they were really written by Juan de - Mena. If they were, they must probably have been produced after - the king’s death, for they are far from being flattering to him. - On this account, I am disposed to think they are not genuine; for - the poet seems to have permitted his great eulogies of the king - and of the Constable to stand after the death of both of them. - - - - -CHAPTER XX. - -PROGRESS OF THE CASTILIAN LANGUAGE.--POETS OF THE TIME OF JOHN THE -SECOND.--VILLASANDINO.--FRANCISCO IMPERIAL.--BAENA.--RODRIGUEZ DEL -PADRON.--PROSE-WRITERS.--CIBDAREAL AND FERNAN PEREZ DE GUZMAN. - - -In one point of view, all the works of Juan de Mena are of consequence. -They mark the progress of the Castilian language, which, in his hands, -advanced more than it had for a long period before. From the time of -Alfonso the Wise, nearly two centuries had elapsed, in which, though -this fortunate dialect had almost completely asserted its supremacy -over its rivals, and by the force of political circumstances had been -spread through a large part of Spain, still, little had been done to -enrich and nothing to raise or purify it. The grave and stately tone of -the “Partidas” and the “General Chronicle” had not again been reached; -the lighter air of the “Conde Lucanor” had not been attempted. Indeed, -such wild and troubled times, as those of Peter the Cruel and the three -monarchs who had followed him on the throne, permitted men to think of -little except their personal safety and their immediate well-being. - -But now, in the time of John the Second, though the affairs of the -country were hardly more composed, they had taken the character -rather of feuds between the great nobles than of wars with the -throne; while, at the same time, knowledge and literary culture, -from accidental circumstances, were not only held in honor, but had -become a courtly fashion. Style, therefore, began to be regarded as -a matter of consequence, and the choice of words, as the first step -towards elevating and improving it, was attempted by those who wished -to enjoy the favor of the highest class, that then gave its tone alike -to letters and to manners. But a serious obstacle was at once found -to such a choice of phraseology as was demanded. The language of -Castile had, from the first, been dignified and picturesque, but it -had never been rich. Juan de Mena, therefore, looked round to see how -he could enlarge his poetical vocabulary; and if he had adopted means -more discreet, or shown more judgment in the use of those to which he -resorted, he might almost have modelled the Spanish into such forms as -he chose. - -As it was, he rendered it good service. He took boldly such words as -he thought suitable to his purpose, wherever he found them, chiefly -from the Latin, but sometimes from other languages.[659] Unhappily, he -exercised no proper skill in the selection. Some of the many he adopted -were low and trivial, and his example failed to give them dignity; -others were not better than those for which they were substituted, and -so were not afterwards used; and yet others were quite too foreign in -their structure and sound to strike root where they should never have -been transplanted. Much, therefore, of what Juan de Mena did in this -respect was unsuccessful. But there is no doubt that the language of -Spanish poetry was strengthened and its versification ennobled by his -efforts, and that the example he set, followed, as it was, by Lucena, -Diego de San Pedro, Garci Sanchez de Badajoz, the Manriques, and -others, laid the true foundations for the greater and more judicious -enlargement of the whole Castilian vocabulary in the age that followed. - - [659] Thus _fi_, Valencian or Provençal for _hijo_, in the - “Trescientas,” Copla 37, and _trinquete_ for _foresail_, in Copla - 165, may serve as specimens. Lope de Vega (Obras Sueltas, Tom. - IV. p. 474) complains of Juan de Mena’s Latinisms, which are - indeed very awkward and abundant, and cites the following line:-- - - El amor es ficto, vaniloco, pigro. - - I do not remember it; but it is as bad as some of the worst - verses of the same sort for which Ronsard has been ridiculed. - It should be observed, however, that, in the earliest periods - of the Castilian language, there was a greater connection with - the French than there was in the time of Juan de Mena. Thus, - in the “Poem of the Cid,” we have _cuer_ for _heart_, _tiesta_ - for _head_, etc.; in Berceo, we have _asemblar_, _to meet_; - _sopear_, _to sup_, etc. (See Don Quixote, ed. Clemencin, 1835, - Tom. IV. p. 56.) If, therefore, we find a few French words in - Juan de Mena that are no longer used, like _sage_, which he - makes a dissyllable guttural to rhyme with _viage_ in Copla - 167, we may presume he found them already in the language, from - which they have since been dropped. But Juan de Mena was, in all - respects, too bold; and, as the learned Sarmiento says of him in - a manuscript which I possess, “Many of his words are not at all - Castilian, and were never used either before his time or after - it.” - -Another poet, who, in the reign of John the Second, enjoyed a -reputation which has faded away much more than that of Juan de Mena, -is Alfonso Alvarez de Villasandino, sometimes called De Illescas. His -earliest verses seem to have been written in the time of John the -First; but the greater part fall within the reigns of Henry the Third -and John the Second, and especially within that of the last. A few of -them are addressed to this monarch, and many more to his queen, to the -Constable, to the Infante Don Ferdinand, afterwards king of Aragon, and -to other distinguished personages of the time. From different parts of -them, we learn that their author was a soldier and a courtier; that he -was married twice, and repented heartily of his second match; and that -he was generally poor, and often sent bold solicitations to every body, -from the king downwards, asking for places, for money, and even for -clothes. - -As a poet, his merits are small. He speaks of Dante, but gives no proof -of familiarity with Italian literature. In fact, his verses are rather -in the Provençal forms, though their courtly tone and personal claims -predominate to such a degree as to prevent any thing else from being -distinctly heard. Puns, conceits, and quibbles, to please the taste -of his great friends, are intruded everywhere; yet perhaps he gained -his chief favor by his versification, which is sometimes uncommonly -easy and flowing, and by his rhymes, which are singularly abundant and -almost uniformly exact.[660] - - [660] The accounts of Villasandino are found in Antonio, - Bib. Vetus, ed. Bayer, Tom. II. p. 341; and Sanchez, Poesías - Anteriores, Tom. I. pp. 200, etc. His earlier poems are in the - Academy’s edition of the Chronicles of Ayala, Tom. II. pp. 604, - 615, 621, 626, 646; but the mass of his works as yet printed - is in the Cancionero of Baena, extracted by Castro, Biblioteca - Española, Tom. I. pp. 268-296, etc. - -At any rate, he was much regarded by his contemporaries. The Marquis -of Santillana speaks of him as one of the leading poets of his age, -and says that he wrote a great number of songs and other short poems, -or _decires_, which were well liked and widely spread.[661] It is not -remarkable, therefore, when Baena, for the amusement of John the Second -and his court, made the collection of poetry which now passes under -his name, that he filled much of it with verses by Villasandino, who -is declared by the courtly secretary to be “the light, and mirror, and -crown, and monarch of all the poets that, till that time, had lived in -Spain.” But the poems Baena admired are almost all of them so short and -so personal, that they were soon forgotten, with the circumstances that -gave them birth. Several are curious, because they were written to be -used, by persons of distinction in the state, such as the Adelantado -Manrique, the Count de Buelna, and the Great Constable, all of whom -were among Villasandino’s admirers, and employed him to write verses -which passed afterwards under their own names. Of one short poem, a -Hymn to the Madonna, the author himself thought so well, that he often -said it would surely clear him, in the other world, from the power of -the Arch-enemy.[662] - - [661] Sanchez, Tom. I. p. lx. - - [662] The Hymn in question is in Castro, Tom. I. p. 269; but, - as a specimen of Villasandino’s easiest manner, I prefer the - following verses, which he wrote for Count Pero Niño, to be given - to the Lady Beatrice, of whom, as was noticed when speaking of - his Chronicle, the Count was enamoured:-- - - La que siempre obedecí, - E obedezco todavia, - Mal pecado, solo un dia - Non se le membra de mi. - Perdí - Meu tempo en servir - A la que me fas vevir - Coidoso desque la ví, etc. - - But as the editor of the Chronicle says, (Madrid, 1782, 4to, p. - 223,) “They are verses that might be attributed to any other - gallant or any other lady, so that it seems as if Villasandino - prepared such couplets to be given to the first person that - should ask for them”;--words cited here, because they apply to - a great deal of the poetry of the time of John II., which deals - often in the coldest commonplaces, and some of which was used, no - doubt, as this was. - -Francisco Imperial, born in Genoa, but in fact a Spaniard, whose -home was at Seville, is also among the poets who were favored at -this period, and who belonged to the same artificial school with -Villasandino. The principal of his longer poems is on the birth of -King John, in 1405, and most of the others are on subjects connected, -like this, with transient interests. One, however, from its tone and -singular subject, is still curious. It is on the fate of a lady, who, -having been taken among the spoils of a great victory in the far East, -by Tamerlane, was sent by him as a present to Henry the Third of -Castile; and it must be admitted that the Genoese touches the peculiar -misfortune of her condition with poetical tenderness.[663] - - [663] The notices of Francisco Imperial are in Sanchez (Tom. - I. pp. lx., 205, etc.); in Argote de Molina’s “Nobleza del - Andaluzia” (1588, ff. 244, 260); and his Discourse prefixed to - the “Vida del Gran Tamorlan” (Madrid, 1782, 4to, p. 3). His poems - are in Castro, Tom. I. pp. 296, 301, etc. - -Of the remaining poets who were more or less valued in Spain, in -the middle of the fifteenth century, it is not necessary to speak -at all. Most of them are now known only to antiquarian curiosity. -Of by far the greater part very little remains; and in most cases -it is uncertain whether the persons whose names the poems bear were -their real authors or not. Juan Alfonso de Baena, the editor of the -collection in which most of them are found, wrote a good deal,[664] and -so did Ferrant Manuel de Lando,[665] Juan Rodriguez del Padron,[666] -Pedro Velez de Guevara, and Gerena and Calavera.[667] Probably, -however, nothing remains of the inferior authors more interesting -than a Vision composed by Diego de Castillo, the chronicler, on the -death of Alfonso the Fifth of Aragon,[668] and a sketch of the life -and character of Henry the Third of Castile, given in the person of -the monarch himself, by Pero Ferrus;[669]--poems which remind us -strongly of the similar sketches found in the old English “Mirror for -Magistrates.” - - [664] Castro, Tom. I. pp. 319-330, etc. - - [665] Ferrant Manuel de Lando is noted as a page of John II. - in Argote de Molina’s “Sucesion de los Manueles,” prefixed to - the “Conde Lucanor,” 1575; and his poems are said to have been - “agradables para aquel siglo.” - - [666] That is, if the Juan Rodriguez del Padron, whose poems - occur in Castro, (Tom. I. p. 331, etc.,) and in the manuscript - Cancionero called Estuñiga’s, (f. 18,) be the same, as he is - commonly supposed to be, with the Juan Rodriguez del Padron of - the “Cancionero General,” 1573 (ff. 121-124 and elsewhere). But - of this I entertain doubts. - - [667] Sanchez, Tom. I. pp. 199, 207, 208. - - [668] It is published by Ochoa, in the same volume with the - inedited poems of the Marquis of Santillana, where it is followed - by poems of Suero de Ribera, (who occurs also in Baena’s - Cancionero, and that of Estuñiga,) Juan de Dueñas, (who occurs in - Estuñiga’s,) and one or two others of no value,--all of the age - of John II. - - [669] Castro, Tom. I. pp. 310-312. - - * * * * * - -But while verse was so much cultivated, prose, though less regarded and -not coming properly into the fashionable literature of the age, made -some progress. We turn, therefore, now to two writers who flourished -in the reign of John the Second, and who seem to furnish, with the -contemporary chronicles and other similar works already noticed, the -true character of the better prose literature of their time. - -The first of them is Fernan Gomez de Cibdareal, who, if there ever -were such a person, was the king’s physician, and, in some respects, -his confidential and familiar friend. He was born, according to the -Letters that pass under his name, about 1386,[670] and, though not of -a distinguished family, had for his godfather Pedro Lopez de Ayala, -the great chronicler and chancellor of Castile. When he was not yet -four-and-twenty years old, John the Second being still a child, -Cibdareal entered the royal service and remained attached to the -king’s person till the death of his master, when we lose sight of him -altogether. During this long period of above forty years, he maintained -a correspondence, to which we have already alluded more than once, with -many of the principal persons in the state; with the king himself, with -several of the archbishops and bishops, and with a considerable number -of noblemen and men of letters, among the last of whom were Alfonso de -Cartagena and Juan de Mena. A part of this correspondence, amounting to -one hundred and five letters, written between 1425 and 1454, has been -published, in two editions; the first claiming to be of 1499, and the -last prepared in 1775, with some care, by Amirola, the Secretary of -the Spanish Academy of History. Most of the subjects discussed by the -honest physician and courtier in these letters are still interesting; -and some of them, like the death of the Constable, which he describes -minutely to the Archbishop of Toledo, are important, if they can be -trusted as genuine. In almost all he wrote, he shows the good-nature -and good sense which preserved for him the favor of leading persons -in the opposite factions of the time, and which, though he belonged -to the party of the Constable, yet prevented him from being blind to -that great man’s faults, or becoming involved in his fate. The tone -of the correspondence is simple and natural, always quite Castilian, -and sometimes very amusing; as, for instance, when he is repeating -court gossip to the Grand Justiciary of Castile, or telling stories to -Juan de Mena. But a very interesting letter to the Bishop of Orense, -containing an account of John the Second’s death, will perhaps give a -better idea of its author’s general spirit and manner, and, at the same -time, exhibit somewhat of his personal character. - - [670] The best life of Cibdareal is prefixed to his Letters - (Madrid, ed. 1775, 4to). But his birth is there placed about - 1388, though he himself (Ep. 105) says he was sixty-eight years - old in 1454, which gives 1386 as the true date. But we know - absolutely nothing of him beyond what we find in the letters that - pass under his name. The Noticia prefixed to the edition referred - to was--as we are told in the Preface to the Chronicle of Alvaro - de Luna (Madrid, 1784, 4to)--prepared by Llaguno Amirola. - -“I foresee very plainly,” he says to the Bishop, “that you will read -with tears this letter, which I write to you in anguish. We are both -become orphans; and so has all Spain. For the good and noble and just -King John, our sovereign lord, is dead. And I, miserable man that I -am,--who was not yet twenty-four years old when I entered his service -with the Bachelor Arrevalo, and have, till I am now sixty-eight, lived -in his palace, or, I might almost say, in his bed-chamber and next his -bed, always in his confidence, and yet never thinking of myself,--I -should now have but a poor pension of thirty thousand maravedís for my -long service, if, just at his death, he had not ordered the government -of Cibdareal to be given to my son, who I pray may be happier than his -father has been. But, in truth, I had always thought to die before his -Highness; whereas he died in my presence, on the eve of Saint Mary -Magdalen, a blessed saint, whom he greatly resembled in sorrowing over -his sins. It was a sharp fever that destroyed him. He was much wearied -with travelling about hither and thither; and he had always the death -of Don Alvaro de Luna before him, grieving about it secretly, and -seeing that the nobles were never the more quiet for it, but, on the -contrary, that the king of Navarre had persuaded the king of Portugal -to think he had grounds of complaint concerning the wars in Barbary, -and that the king had answered him with a crafty letter. All this -wore his heart out. And so, travelling along from Avila to Medina, a -paroxysm came upon him with a sharp fever, that seemed at first as if -it would kill him straightway. And the Prior of Guadalupe sent directly -for Prince Henry; for he was afraid some of the nobles would gather for -the Infante Don Alfonso; but it pleased God that the king recovered -his faculties by means of a medicine I gave him. And so he went on to -Valladolid; but as soon as he entered the city, he was struck with -death, as I said before the Bachelor Frias, who held it to be a small -matter, and before the Bachelor Beteta, who held what I said to be an -idle tale.... The consolation that remains to me is, that he died like -a Christian king, faithful and loyal to his Maker. Three hours before -he gave up the ghost, he said to me: ‘Bachelor Cibdareal, I ought to -have been born the son of a tradesman, and then I should have been a -friar of Abrojo, and not a king of Castile.’ And then he asked pardon -of all about him, if he had done them any wrong; and bade me ask it -for him of those of whom he could not ask it himself. I followed him -to his grave in Saint Paul’s, and then came to this lonely room in the -suburbs; for I am now so weary of life, that I do not think it will -be a difficult matter to loosen me from it, much as men commonly fear -death. Two days ago, I went to see the queen; but I found the palace -from the top to the bottom so empty, that the house of the Admiral and -that of Count Benevente are better served. King Henry keeps all King -John’s servants; but I am too old to begin to follow another master -about, and, if God so pleases, I shall go to Cibdareal with my son, -where I hope the king will give me enough to die upon.” This is the -last we hear of the sorrowing old man, who probably died soon after -the date of this letter, which seems to have been written in July, -1454.[671] - - [671] It is the last letter in the collection. See Appendix (C), - on the genuineness of the whole. - -The other person who was most successful as a prose-writer in the age -of John the Second was Fernan Perez de Guzman,--like many distinguished -Spaniards, a soldier and a man of letters, belonging to the high -aristocracy of the country, and occupied in its affairs. His mother -was sister to the great Chancellor Ayala, and his father was a brother -of the Marquis of Santillana, so that his connections were as proud -and noble as the monarchy could afford; while, on the other hand, -Garcilasso de la Vega being one of his lineal descendants, we may add -that his honors were reflected back from succeeding generations as -brightly as he received them. - -He was born about the year 1400, and was bred a knight. At the battle -of the Higueruela, near Granada, in 1431, led on by the Bishop of -Palencia,--who, as the honest Cibdareal says, “fought that day like an -armed Joshua,”--he was so unwise in his courage, that, after the fight -was over, the king, who had been an eyewitness of his indiscretion, -caused him to be put under arrest, and released him only at the -intercession of one of his powerful friends.[672] In general, Perez -de Guzman was among the opponents of the Constable, as were most of -his family; but he does not seem to have shown a factious or violent -spirit, and, after being once unreasonably thrown into prison, found -his position so false and disagreeable, that he retired from affairs -altogether. - - [672] Cibdareal, Epist. 51. - -Among his more cultivated and intellectual friends was the family of -Santa María, two of whom, having been Bishops of Cartagena, are better -known by the name of the see they filled than they are by their own. -The oldest of them all was a Jew by birth,--Selomo Halevi,--who, in -1390, when he was forty years old, was baptized as Pablo de Santa -María, and rose, subsequently, by his great learning and force of -character, to some of the highest places in the Spanish Church, of -which he continued a distinguished ornament till his death in 1432. -His brother, Alvar Garcia de Santa María, and his three sons, Gonzalo, -Alonso, and Pedro, the last of whom lived as late as the reign of -Ferdinand and Isabella, were, like the head of the family, marked by -literary accomplishments, of which the old Cancioneros afford abundant -proof, and of which, it is evident, the court of John the Second was -not a little proud. The connection of Perez de Guzman, however, was -chiefly with Alonso, long Bishop of Cartagena, who wrote for the use of -his friend a religious treatise, and who, when he died, in 1435, was -mourned by Perez de Guzman in a poem comparing the venerable Bishop to -Seneca and Plato.[673] - - [673] The longest extracts from the works of this remarkable - family of Jews, and the best accounts of them, are to be found in - Castro, “Biblioteca Española,” (Tom. I. p. 235, etc.,) and Amador - de los Rios, “Estudios sobre los Judios de España” (Madrid, - 1848, 8vo, pp. 339-398, 458, etc.). Much of their poetry, which - is found in the Cancioneros Generales, is amatory, and is as - good as the poetry of those old collections generally is. Two - of the treatises of Alonso were printed;--the “Oracional,” or - Book of Devotion, mentioned in the text as written for Perez de - Guzman, which appeared at Murcia in 1487, and the “Doctrinal de - Cavalleros,” which appeared the same year at Burgos. (Diosdado, - De Prima Typographiæ Hispan. Ætate, Romæ, 1793, 4to, pp. 22, 26, - 64.) Both are curious; but much of the last is taken from the - “Partidas” of Alfonso the Wise. - -The occupations of Perez de Guzman, in his retirement on his estates at -Batres, where he passed the latter part of his life, and where he died, -about 1470, were suited to his own character and to the spirit of his -age. He wrote a good deal of poetry, such as was then fashionable among -persons of the class to which he belonged, and his uncle, the Marquis -of Santillana, admired what he wrote. Some of it may be found in the -collection of Baena, showing that it was in favor at the court of John -the Second. Yet more was printed in 1492, and in the Cancioneros that -began to appear a few years later; so that it seems to have been still -valued by the limited public interested in letters in the reign of -Ferdinand and Isabella. - -But the longest poem he wrote, and perhaps the most important, is his -“Praise of the Great Men of Spain,” a kind of chronicle, filling four -hundred and nine octave stanzas; to which should be added a hundred -and two rhymed Proverbs, mentioned by the Marquis of Santillana, but -probably prepared later than the collection made by the Marquis himself -for the education of Prince Henry. After these, the two poems of Perez -de Guzman that make most pretensions from their length are an allegory -on the Four Cardinal Virtues, in sixty-three stanzas, and another on -the Seven Deadly Sins and the Seven Works of Mercy, in a hundred. The -best verses he wrote are in his short hymns. But all are forgotten, and -deserve to be so.[674] - - [674] The manuscript I have used is a copy from one, apparently - of the fifteenth century, in the magnificent collection of Sir - Thomas Phillips, Middle Hill, Worcestershire, England. The - printed poems are found in the “Cancionero General,” 1535, ff. - 28, etc.; in the “Obras de Juan de Mena,” ed. 1566, at the end; - in Castro, Tom. I. pp. 298, 340-342; and at the end of Ochoa’s - “Rimas Ineditas de Don Iñigo Lopez de Mendoza,” Paris, 1844, 8vo, - pp. 269-356. See also Mendez, Typog. Esp., p. 383; and Cancionero - General, 1573, ff. 14, 15, 20-22. - -His prose is much better. Of the part he bore in the Chronicle of John -the Second notice has already been taken. But at different times, both -before he was engaged in that work and afterwards, he was employed -on another, more original in its character and of higher literary -merit. It is called “Genealogies and Portraits,” and contains, under -thirty-four heads, sketches, rather than connected narratives, of the -lives, characters, and families of thirty-four of the principal persons -of his time, such as Henry the Third, John the Second, the Constable -Alvaro de Luna, and the Marquis of Villena.[675] A part of this genial -work seems, from internal evidence, to have been written in 1430, while -other portions must be dated after 1454; but none of it can have been -much known till all the principal persons to whom it relates had died, -and not, therefore, till the reign of Henry the Fourth, in the course -of which the death of Perez de Guzman himself must have happened. It -is manly in its tone, and is occasionally marked with vigorous and -original thought. Some of its sketches are, indeed, brief and dry, like -that of Queen Catherine, daughter of John of Gaunt. But others are -long and elaborate, like that of the Infante Don Ferdinand. Sometimes -he discovers a spirit in advance of his age, such as he shows when he -defends the newly converted Jews from the cruel suspicions with which -they were then persecuted. But he oftener discovers a willingness to -rebuke its vices, as when, discussing the character of Gonzalo Nuñez de -Guzman, he turns aside from his subject and says solemnly,-- - - [675] The “Generaciones y Semblanzas” first appeared in 1512, as - part of a _rifacimento_ in Spanish of Giovanni Colonna’s “Mare - Historiarum,” which may have been the work of Perez de Guzman. - They begin, in this edition, at Cap. 137, after long accounts of - Trojans, Greeks, Romans, Fathers of the Church, and others, taken - from Colonna. (Mem. de la Acad. de Historia, Tom. VI. pp. 452, - 453, note.) The first edition of the Generaciones y Semblanzas - separated from this connection occurs at the end of the Chronicle - of John II., 1517. They are also found in the edition of that - Chronicle of 1779, and with the “Centon Epistolario,” in the - edition of Llaguno Amirola, Madrid, 1775, 4to, where they are - preceded by a life of Fernan Perez de Guzman, containing the - little we know of him. The suggestion made in the Preface to - the Chronicle of John II., (1779, p. xi.,) that the two very - important chapters at the end of the Generaciones y Semblanzas - are not the work of Fernan Perez de Guzman is, I think, - sufficiently answered by the editor of the Chronicle of Alvaro de - Luna, Madrid, 1784, 4to, Prólogo, p. xxiii. - -“And no doubt it is a noble thing and worthy of praise to preserve -the memory of noble families and of the services they have rendered -to their kings and to the commonwealth; but here, in Castile, this -is now held of small account. And, to say truth, it is really little -necessary; for now-a-days he is noblest who is richest. Why, then, -should we look into books to learn what relates to families, since we -can find their nobility in their possessions? Nor is it needful to keep -a record of the services they render; for kings now give rewards, not -to him who serves them most faithfully, nor to him who strives for what -is most worthy, but to him who most follows their will and pleases them -most.”[676] - - [676] Generaciones y Semblanzas, c. 10. A similar harshness is - shown in Chapters 5 and 30. - -In this and other passages, there is something of the tone of a -disappointed statesman, perhaps of a disappointed courtier. But more -frequently, as, for instance, when he speaks of the Great Constable, -there is an air of good faith and justice that do him much honor. Some -of his portraits, among which we may notice those of Villena and John -the Second, are drawn with skill and spirit; and everywhere he writes -in that rich, grave, Castilian style, with now and then a happy and -pointed phrase to relieve its dignity, of which we can find no earlier -example without going quite back to Alfonso the Wise and Don Juan -Manuel. - - - - -CHAPTER XXI. - -FAMILY OF THE MANRIQUES.--PEDRO, RODRIGO, GOMEZ, AND JORGE.--THE COPLAS -OF THE LAST.--THE URREAS.--JUAN DE PADILLA. - - -Contemporary with all the authors we have just examined, and connected -by ties of blood with several of them, was the family of the -Manriques,--poets, statesmen, and soldiers,--men suited to the age in -which they lived, and marked with its strong characteristics. They -belonged to one of the oldest and noblest races of Castile; a race -beginning with the Laras of the ballads and chronicles.[677] Pedro, -the father of the first two to be noticed, was among the sturdiest -opponents of the Constable Alvaro de Luna, and filled so large a space -in the troubles of the time, that his violent imprisonment, just before -he died, shook the country to its very foundations. At his death, -however, in 1440, the injustice he had suffered was so strongly felt -by all parties, that the whole court went into mourning for him, and -the good Count Haro--the same in whose hands the honor and faith of -the country had been put in pledge a year before at Tordesillas--came -into the king’s presence, and, in a solemn scene well described by -the chronicler of John the Second, obtained for the children of the -deceased Manrique a confirmation of all the honors and rights of which -their father had been wrongfully deprived.[678] - - [677] Generaciones, etc., c. 11, 15, and 24. - - [678] Chrónica de Don Juan el II., Año 1437, c. 4; 1438, c. 6; - 1440, c. 18. - -One of these children was Rodrigo Manrique, Count of Paredes, a bold -captain, well known by the signal advantages he gained for his country -over the Moors. He was born in 1416, and his name occurs constantly in -the history of his time; for he was much involved, not only in the wars -against the common enemy in Andalusia and Granada, but in the no less -absorbing contests of the factions which then rent Castile and all the -North. But, notwithstanding the active life he led, we are told that -he found time for poetry, and one of his songs, by no means without -merit, which has been preserved to us, bears witness to it. He died in -1476.[679] - - [679] Pulgar, Claros Varones, Tít. 13. Cancionero General, 1573, - f. 183. Mariana, Hist., Lib. XXIV. c. 14. - -His brother, Gomez Manrique, of whose life we have less distinct -accounts, but whom we know to have been both a soldier and a lover of -letters, has left us more proofs of his poetical studies and talent. -One of his shorter pieces belongs to the reign of John the Second, -and one of more pretensions comes into the period of the Catholic -sovereigns; so that he lived in three different reigns.[680] At the -request of Count Benevente, he at one time collected what he had -written into a volume, which may still be extant, but has never been -published.[681] The longest of his works, now known to exist, is an -allegorical poem of twelve hundred lines on the death of his uncle, the -Marquis of Santillana, in which the Seven Cardinal Virtues, together -with Poetry and Gomez Manrique himself, appear and mourn over the -great loss their age and country had sustained. It was written soon -after 1458, and sent, with an amusingly pedantic letter, to his cousin, -the Bishop of Calahorra, son of the Marquis of Santillana.[682] Another -poem, addressed to Ferdinand and Isabella, which is necessarily to be -dated as late as the year 1474, is a little more than half as long as -the last, but, like that, is allegorical, and resorts to the same poor -machinery of the Seven Virtues, who come this time to give counsel to -the Catholic sovereigns on the art of government. It was originally -preceded by a prose epistle, and was printed in 1482, so that it is -among the earliest books that came from the Spanish press.[683] - - [680] The poetry of Gomez Manrique is in the Cancionero General, - 1573, ff. 57-77, and 243. - - [681] Adiciones á Pulgar, ed. 1775, p. 239. - - [682] Adiciones á Pulgar, p. 223. - - [683] Mendez, Typog. Esp., p. 265. To these poems, when speaking - of Gomez Manrique, should be added,--1. his poetical letter to - his uncle, the Marquis of Santillana, asking for a copy of his - works, with the reply of his uncle, both of which are in the - Cancioneros Generales; and 2. some of his smaller trifles, which - occur in a manuscript of the poems of Alvarez Gato, belonging - to the Library of the Academy of History at Madrid and numbered - 114,--trifles, however, which ought to be published. - -These two somewhat long poems, with a few that are much shorter,--the -best of which is on the bad government of a town where he lived,--fill -up the list of what remain to us of their author’s works. They are -found in the Cancioneros printed from time to time during the sixteenth -century, and thus bear witness to the continuance of the regard in -which he was long held. But, except a few passages, where he speaks -in a natural tone, moved by feelings of personal affection, none of -his poetry can now be read with pleasure; and, in some instances, the -Latinisms in which he indulges, misled probably by Juan de Mena, render -the lines where they occur quite ridiculous.[684] - - [684] Such as the word _definicion_ for _death_, and other - similar euphuisms. For a notice of Gomez Manrique, see Antonio, - Bib. Vetus, ed. Bayer, Tom. II. p. 342. - -Jorge Manrique is the last of this chivalrous family that comes into -the literary history of his country. He was the son of Rodrigo, Count -of Paredes, and seems to have been a young man of an uncommonly -gentle cast of character, yet not without the spirit of adventure -that belonged to his ancestors,--a poet full of natural feeling, when -the best of those about him were almost wholly given to metaphysical -conceits, and to what was then thought a curious elegance of style. -We have, indeed, a considerable number of his lighter verses, chiefly -addressed to the lady of his love, which are not without the coloring -of his time, and remind us of the poetry on similar subjects produced a -century later in England, after the Italian taste had been introduced -at the court of Henry the Eighth.[685] But the principal poem of -Manrique the younger is almost entirely free from affectation. It was -written on the death of his father, which occurred in 1476, and is -in the genuinely old Spanish measure and manner. It fills about five -hundred lines, divided into forty-two _coplas_ or stanzas, and is -called, with a simplicity and directness worthy of its own character, -“The Coplas of Manrique,” as if it needed no more distinctive name. - - [685] These poems, some of them too free for the notions of his - Church, are in the Cancioneros Generales; for example, in that of - 1535, ff. 72-76, etc., and in that of 1573, at ff. 131-139, 176, - 180, 187, 189, 221, 243, 245. A few are also in the “Cancionero - de Burlas,” 1519. - -Nor does it. Instead of being a loud exhibition of his sorrows, or, -what would have been more in the spirit of the age, a conceited -exhibition of his learning, it is a simple and natural complaint of -the mutability of all earthly happiness; the mere overflowing of a -heart filled with despondency at being brought suddenly to feel the -worthlessness of what it has most valued and pursued. His father -occupies hardly half the canvas of the poem, and some of the stanzas -devoted more directly to him are the only portion of it we could wish -away. But we everywhere feel--before its proper subject is announced -quite as much as afterwards--that its author has just sustained some -loss, which has crushed his hopes, and brought him to look only on the -dark and discouraging side of life. In the earlier stanzas he seems -to be in the first moments of his great affliction, when he does not -trust himself to speak out concerning its cause; when his mind, still -brooding in solitude over his sorrows, does not even look round for -consolation. He says, in his grief,-- - - Our lives are rivers, gliding free - To that unfathomed, boundless sea, - The silent grave; - Thither all earthly pomp and boast - Roll, to be swallowed up and lost - In one dark wave. - Thither the mighty torrents stray, - Thither the brook pursues its way, - And tinkling rill. - There all are equal. Side by side - The poor man and the son of pride - Lie calm and still. - -The same tone is heard, though somewhat softened, when he touches on -the days of his youth and of the court of John the Second, already -passed away; and it is felt the more deeply, because the festive scenes -he describes come into such strong contrast with the dark and solemn -thoughts to which they lead him. In this respect his verses fall upon -our hearts like the sound of a heavy bell, struck by a light and gentle -hand, which continues long afterwards to give forth tones that grow -sadder and more solemn, till at last they come to us like a wailing -for those we have ourselves loved and lost. But gradually the movement -changes. After his father’s death is distinctly announced, his tone -becomes religious and submissive. The light of a blessed future breaks -upon his reconciled spirit; and then the whole ends like a mild and -radiant sunset, as the noble old warrior sinks peacefully to his rest, -surrounded by his children and rejoicing in his release.[686] - - [686] The lines on the court of John II. are among the most - beautiful in the poem:-- - - Where is the King, Don Juan? where - Each royal prince and noble heir - Of Aragon? - Where are the courtly gallantries? - The deeds of love and high emprise, - In battle done? - Tourney and joust, that charmed the eye, - And scarf, and gorgeous panoply, - And nodding plume,-- - What were they but a pageant scene? - What but the garlands, gay and green, - That deck the tomb? - - Where are the high-born dames, and where - Their gay attire, and jewelled hair, - And odors sweet? - Where are the gentle knights, that came - To kneel, and breathe love’s ardent flame, - Low at their feet? - Where is the song of the Troubadour? - Where are the lute and gay tambour - They loved of yore? - Where is the mazy dance of old, - The flowing robes, inwrought with gold, - The dancers wore? - - These two stanzas, as well as the one in the text, are from - Mr. H. W. Longfellow’s beautiful translation of the Coplas, - first printed, Boston, 1833, 12mo, and often since. They may be - compared with a passage in the verses on Edward IV. attributed - to Skelton, and found in the “Mirror for Magistrates,” (London, - 1815, 4to, Tom. II. p. 246,) in which that prince is made to say, - as if speaking from his grave,-- - - “Where is now my conquest and victory? - Where is my riches and royall array? - Where be my coursers and my horses hye? - Where is my myrth, my solace, and my play?” - - Indeed, the tone of the two poems is not unlike, though, of - course, the old English laureate never heard of Manrique and - never imagined any thing half so good as the Coplas. The Coplas - were often imitated;--among the rest, as Lope de Vega tells - us, (Obras Sueltas, Madrid, 1777, 4to, Tom. XI. p. xxix.,) by - Camoens; but I do not know the Redondillas of Camoens to which he - refers. Lope admired the Coplas very much. He says they should be - written in letters of gold. - -No earlier poem in the Spanish language, if we except, perhaps, some -of the early ballads, is to be compared with the Coplas of Manrique -for depth and truth of feeling; and few of any subsequent period have -reached the beauty or power of its best portions. Its versification, -too, is excellent; free and flowing, with occasionally an antique air -and turn, that are true to the character of the age that produced it, -and increase its picturesqueness and effect. But its great charm is to -be sought in a beautiful simplicity, which, belonging to no age, is the -seal of genius in all. - -The Coplas, as might be anticipated, produced a strong impression -from the first. They were printed in 1492, within sixteen years after -they were written, and are found in several of the old collections a -little later. Separate editions followed. One, with a very dull and -moralizing prose commentary by Luis de Aranda, was published in 1552. -Another, with a poetical gloss in the measure of the original, by Luis -Perez, appeared in 1561; yet another, by Rodrigo de Valdepeñas, in -1588; and another, by Gregorio Silvestre, in 1589;--all of which have -been reprinted more than once, and the first two many times. But in -this way the modest Coplas themselves became so burdened and obscured, -that they almost disappeared from general circulation, till the middle -of the last century, since which time, however, they have been often -reprinted, both in Spain and in other countries, until they seem at -last to have taken that permanent place among the most admired portions -of the elder Spanish literature, to which their merit unquestionably -entitles them.[687] - - [687] For the earliest editions of the Coplas, 1492, 1494, and - 1501, see Mendez, Typog. Española, p. 136. I possess ten or - twelve copies of other editions, one of which was printed at - Boston, 1833, with Mr. Longfellow’s translation. My copies, dated - 1574, 1588, 1614, 1632, and 1799, all have Glosas in verse. That - of Aranda is in folio, 1552, black letter, and in prose. - - At the end of a translation of the “Inferno” of Dante, made by - Pero Fernandez de Villegas, Archdeacon of Burgos, published at - Burgos in 1515, folio, with an elaborate commentary, chiefly - from that of Landino,--a very rare book, and one of considerable - merit,--is found, in a few copies, a poem on the “Vanity of - Life,” by the translator, which, though not equal to the Coplas - of Manrique, reminds me of them. It is called “Aversion del Mundo - y Conversion á Dios,” and is divided, with too much formality, - into twenty stanzas on the contempt of the world, and twenty in - honor of a religious life; but the verses, which are in the old - national manner, are very flowing, and their style is that of the - purest and richest Castilian. It opens thus:-- - - Away, malignant, cruel world, - With sin and sorrow rife! - I seek the meeker, wiser way - That leads to heavenly life. - Your fatal poisons here we drink, - Lured by their savors sweet, - Though, lurking in our flowery path, - The serpent wounds our feet. - - Away with thy deceitful snares, - Which all too late I fly!-- - I, who, a coward, followed thee - Till my last years are nigh; - Till thy most strange, revolting sins - Force me to turn from thee, - And drive me forth to seek repose, - Thy service hard to flee. - - Away with all thy wickedness, - And all thy heartless toil, - Where brother, to his brother false, - In treachery seeks for spoil!-- - Dead is all charity in thee, - All good in thee is dead; - I seek a port where from thy storm - To hide my weary head. - - I add the original, for the sake of its flowing sweetness and - power:-- - - Quedate, mundo malino, - Lleno de mal y dolor, - Que me vo tras el dulçor - Del bien eterno divino. - Tu tosigo, tu venino, - Vevemos açucarado, - Y la sierpe esta en el prado - De tu tan falso camino. - - Quedate con tus engaños, - Maguera te dexo tarde, - Que te segui de cobarde - Fasta mis postreros años. - Mas ya tus males estraños - De ti me alançan forçoso, - Vome a buscar el reposo - De tus trabajosos daños. - - Quedate con tu maldad, - Con tu trabajo inhumano, - Donde el hermano al hermano - No guarda fe ni verdad. - Muerta es toda caridad; - Todo bien en ti es ya muerto;-- - Acojome para el puerto, - Fuyendo tu tempestad. - - After the forty stanzas to which the preceding lines belong, - follow two more poems, the first entitled “The Complaint of - Faith,” partly by Diego de Burgos and partly by Pero Fernandez - de Villegas, and the second, a free translation of the Tenth - Satire of Juvenal, by Gerónimo de Villegas, brother of Pero - Fernandez,--each poem in about seventy or eighty octave stanzas, - of _arte mayor_, but neither of them as good as the “Vanity of - Life.” Gerónimo also translated the Sixth Satire of Juvenal into - _coplas de arte mayor_, and published it at Valladolid in 1519, - in 4to. - -The death of the younger Manrique was not unbecoming his ancestry and -his life. In an insurrection which occurred in 1479, he served on the -loyal side, and pushing a skirmish too adventurously, was wounded and -fell. In his bosom were found some verses, still unfinished, on the -uncertainty of all human hopes; and an old ballad records his fate and -appropriately seals up, with its simple poetry, the chronicle of this -portion, at least, of his time-honored race.[688] - - [688] Mariana, Hist., Lib. XXIV. c. 19, noticing his death, says, - “He died in his best years,”--“en lo mejor de su edad”; but we do - not know how old he was. On three other occasions, at least, Don - Jorge is mentioned in the great Spanish historian as a personage - important in the affairs of his time; but on yet a fourth,--that - of the death of his father, Rodrigo,--the words of Mariana are - so beautiful and apt, that I transcribe them in the original. - “Su hijo D. Jorge Manrique, en unas trovas muy elegantes, en que - hay virtudes poeticas y ricas esmaltes de ingenio, y sentencias - graves, a manera de endecha, lloró la muerte de su padre.” Lib. - XXIV. c. 14. It is seldom History goes out of its bloody course - to render such a tribute to Poetry, and still more seldom that - it does it so gracefully. The old ballad on Jorge Manrique is in - Fuentes, Libro de los Quarenta Cantos, Alcalá, 1587, 12mo, p. 374. - -Another family that flourished in the time of Ferdinand and Isabella, -and one that continued to be distinguished in that of Charles the -Fifth, was marked with similar characteristics, serving in high places -in the state and in the army, and honored for its success in letters. -It was the family of the Urreas. The first of the name who rose to -eminence was Lope, created Count of Aranda in 1488; the last was -Gerónimo de Urrea, who must be noticed hereafter as the translator of -Ariosto, and as the author of a treatise on Military Honor, which was -published in 1566. - -Both the sons of the first Count of Aranda, Miguel and Pedro, were -lovers of letters; but Pedro only was imbued with a poetical spirit -beyond that of his age, and emancipated from its affectations and -follies. His poems, which he published in 1513, are dedicated to his -widowed mother, and are partly religious and partly secular. Some of -them show that he was acquainted with the Italian masters. Others are -quite untouched by any but national influences; and among the latter -is the following ballad, recording the first love of his youth, when a -deep distrust of himself seemed to be too strong for a passion which -was yet evidently one of great tenderness:-- - - In the soft and joyous summer-time, - When the days stretch out their span, - It was then my peace was ended all, - It was then my griefs began. - - When the earth is clad with springing grass, - When the trees with flowers are clad; - When the birds are building up their nests, - When the nightingale sings sad; - - When the stormy sea is hushed and still, - And the sailors spread their sail; - When the rose and lily lift their heads, - And with fragrance fill the gale; - - When, burdened with the coming heat, - Men cast their cloaks aside, - And turn themselves to the cooling shade, - From the sultry sun to hide; - - When no hour like that of night is sweet, - Save the gentle twilight hour;-- - In a tempting, gracious time like this, - I felt love’s earliest power. - - But the lady that then I first beheld - Is a lady so fair to see, - That, of all who witness her blooming charms, - None fails to bend the knee. - - And her beauty, and all its glory and grace, - By so many hearts are sought, - That as many pains and sorrows, I know, - Must fall to my hapless lot;-- - - A lot that grants me the hope of death - As my only sure relief, - And while it denies the love I seek, - Announces the end of my grief. - - Still, still, these bitterest sweets of life - I never will ask to forget; - For the lover’s truest glory is found - When unshaken his fate is met.[689] - - [689] Cancionero de las Obras de Don Pedro Manuel de Urrea, - Logroño, fol., 1513, apud Ig. de Asso, De Libris quibusdam - Hispanorum Rarioribus, Cæsaraugustæ, 1794, 4to, pp. 89-92. - - En el placiente verano, - Dó son los dias mayores, - Acabaron mis placeres, - Comenzaron mis dolores. - - Quando la tierra da yerva - Y los arboles dan flores, - Quando aves hacen nidos - Y cantan los ruiseñores; - - Quando en la mar sosegada - Entran los navegadores, - Quando los lirios y rosas - Nos dan buenos olores; - - Y quando toda la gente, - Ocupados de calores, - Van aliviando las ropas, - Y buscando los frescores; - - Dó son las mejores oras - La noches y los albores;-- - En este tiempo que digo, - Comenzaron mis amores. - - De una dama que yo ví, - Dama de tantos primores, - De quantos es conocida - De tantos tiene loores: - - Su gracia por hermosura - Tiene tantos servidores, - Quanto yo por desdichado - Tengo penas y dolores: - Donde se me otorga muerte - Y se me niegan favores. - - Mas nunca olvidaré - Estos amargos dulzores, - Porque en la mucha firmeza - Se muestran los amadores. - -The last person who wrote a poem of any considerable length, and yet -is properly to be included within the old school, is one who, by his -imitations of Dante, reminds us of the beginnings of that school -in the days of the Marquis of Santillana. It is Juan de Padilla, -commonly called “El Cartuxano,” or The Carthusian, because he chose -thus modestly to conceal his own name, and announce himself only as a -monk of Santa María de las Cuevas in Seville.[690] Before he entered -into that severe monastery, he wrote a poem, in a hundred and fifty -_coplas_, called “The Labyrinth of the Duke of Cadiz,” which was -printed in 1493; but his two chief works were composed afterwards. The -first of them is called “Retablo de la Vida de Christo,” or A Picture -of the Life of Christ; a long poem, generally in octave stanzas of -_versos de arte mayor_, containing a history of the Saviour’s life, as -given by the Prophets and Evangelists, but interspersed with prayers, -sermons, and exhortations; all very devout and very dull, and all -finished, as he tells us, on Christmas eve in the year 1500. - - [690] The monk, however, finds it impossible to keep his secret, - and fairly lets it out in a sort of acrostic at the end of the - “Retablo.” He was born in 1468, and died after 1518. - -The other is entitled “The Twelve Triumphs of the Twelve Apostles,” -which, as we are informed, with the same accuracy and in the same way, -was completed on the 14th of February, 1518; again a poem formidable -for its length, since it fills above a thousand stanzas of nine lines -each. It is partly an allegory, but wholly religious in its character, -and is composed with more care than any thing else its author wrote. -The action passes in the twelve signs of the zodiac, through which -the poet is successively carried by Saint Paul, who shows him, in -each of them, first, the marvels of one of the twelve Apostles; next, -an opening of one of the twelve mouths of the infernal regions; and -lastly, a glimpse of the corresponding division of Purgatory. Dante is -evidently the model of the good monk, however unsuccessful he may be -as a follower. Indeed, he begins with a direct imitation of the opening -of the “Divina Commedia,” from which, in other parts of the poem, -phrases and lines are not unfrequently borrowed. But he has thrown -together what relates to earth and heaven, to the infernal regions and -to Purgatory, in such an unhappy confusion, and he so mingles allegory, -mythology, astrology, and known history, that his work turns out, at -last, a mere succession of wild inconsistencies and vague, unmeaning -descriptions. Of poetry there is rarely a trace; but the language, -which has a decided air of yet elder times about it, is free and -strong, and the versification, considering the period, is uncommonly -rich and easy.[691] - - [691] The “Doze Triumfos de los Doze Apóstolos was printed - entire in London, 1843, 4to, by Don Miguel del Riego, Canon of - Oviedo, and brother of the Spanish patriot and martyr of the - same name. In the volume containing the Triumfos, the Canon has - given large extracts from the “Retablo de la Vida de Christo,” - omitting Cantos VII., VIII., IX., and X. For notices of Juan de - Padilla, see Antonio, Bib. Nov., Tom. I. p. 751, and Tom. II. p. - 332; Mendez, Typog. Esp., p. 193; and Sarmiento, Memorias, Sect. - 844-847. From the last, it appears that he rose to important - ecclesiastical authority under the crown, as well as in his own - order. The Doze Triumfos was first printed in 1512, the Retablo - in 1505. There is a contemporary Spanish book, with a title - something resembling that of the Retablo de la Vida de Christo - del Cartuxano;--I mean the “Vita Christi Cartuxano,” which is - a translation of the “Vita Christi” of Ludolphus of Saxony, a - Carthusian monk who died about 1370, made into Castilian by - Ambrosio Montesino, and first published at Seville, in 1502. It - is, in fact, a Life of Christ, compiled out of the Evangelists, - with ample commentaries and reflections from the Fathers of - the Church,--the whole filling four folio volumes,--and in the - version of Montesino it appears in a grave, pure Castilian prose. - It was translated by him at the command, he says, of Ferdinand - and Isabella. - - - - -CHAPTER XXII. - -PROSE-WRITERS.--JUAN DE LUCENA.--ALFONSO DE LA TORRE.--DIEGO DE -ALMELA.--ALONSO ORTIZ.--FERNANDO DEL PULGAR.--DIEGO DE SAN PEDRO. - - -The reign of Henry the Fourth, was more favorable to the advancement of -prose composition than that of John the Second. This we have already -seen when speaking of the contemporary chronicles, and of Perez de -Guzman and the author of the “Celestina.” In other cases, we observe -its advancement in an inferior degree, but, encumbered as they are with -more or less of the bad taste and pedantry of the time, they still -deserve notice, because they were so much valued in their own age. - -Regarded from this point of view, one of the most prominent -prose-writers of the century was Juan de Lucena; a personage -distinguished both as a private counsellor of John the Second and as -that monarch’s foreign ambassador. We know, however, little of his -history; and of his works only one remains to us,--if, indeed, he wrote -any more. It is a didactic prose dialogue “On a Happy Life,” carried on -between some of the most eminent persons of the age: the great Marquis -of Santillana, Juan de Mena, the poet, Alonso de Cartagena, the bishop -and statesman, and Lucena himself, who acts in part as an umpire in the -discussion, though the Bishop at last ends it by deciding that true -happiness consists in loving and serving God. - -The dialogue itself is represented as having passed chiefly in a hall -of the palace, and in presence of several of the nobles of the court; -but it was not written till after the death of the Constable, in -1453; that event being alluded to in it. It is plainly an imitation -of the treatise of Boëthius “On the Consolation of Philosophy,” then -a favorite classic; but it is more spirited and effective than its -model. It is frequently written in a pointed, and even a dignified -style; and parts of it are interesting and striking. Thus, the lament -of Santillana over the death of his son is beautiful and touching, -and so is the final summing up of the trials and sorrows of this life -by the Bishop. In the midst of their discussions, there is a pleasant -description of a collation with which they were refreshed by the -Marquis, and which recalls, at once,--as it was probably intended to -do,--the Greek Symposia and the dialogues that record them. Indeed, -the allusions to antiquity with which it abounds, and the citations -of ancient authors, which are still more frequent, are almost always -apt, and often free from the awkwardness and pedantry which mark most -of the didactic prose of the period; so that, taken together, it -may be regarded, notwithstanding the use of many strange words, and -an occasional indulgence in conceits, as one of the most remarkable -literary monuments of the age from which it has come down to us.[692] - - [692] My copy is of the first edition, of Çamora, Centenera, - 1483, folio, 23 leaves, double columns, black letter. It begins - with these singular words, instead of a title-page: “Aqui comença - un tratado en estillo breve, en sentencias no solo largo mas - hondo y prolixo, el qual ha nombre Vita Beata, hecho y compuesto - por el honrado y muy discreto Juan de Lucena,” etc. There are - also editions of 1499 and 1541, and, I believe, yet another of - 1501. (Antonio, Bib. Vetus, ed. Bayer, Tom. II. p. 250; and - Mendez, Typog., p. 267.) The following short passage--with an - allusion to the opening of Juvenal’s Tenth Satire, in better - taste than is common in similar works of the same period--will - well illustrate its style. It is from the remarks of the Bishop, - in reply both to the poet and to the man of the world. “Resta, - pues, Señor Marques y tu Juan de Mena, mi sentencia primera - verdadera, que ninguno en esta vida vive beato. Desde Cadiz - hasta Ganges si toda la tierra expiamos [espiamos?] a ningund - mortal contenta su suerte. El caballero entre las puntas se - codicia mercader; y el mercader cavallero entre las brumas del - mar, si los vientos australes enpreñian las velas. Al parir de - las lombardas desea hallarse el pastor en el poblado; en campo - el cibdadano; fuera religion los de dentro como peçes y dentro - querrian estar los de fuera,” etc. (fol. xviii. a.) The treatise - contains many Latinisms and Latin words, after the absurd example - of Juan de Mena; but it also contains many good old words that we - are sorry have become obsolete. - -To this period, also, we must refer the “Vision Deleytable,” or -Delectable Vision, which we are sure was written before 1463. Its -author was Alfonso de la Torre, commonly called “The Bachelor,” who -seems to have been a native of the bishopric of Burgos, and who was, -from 1437 till the time of his death, a member of the College of Saint -Bartholomew at Salamanca; a noble institution, founded in imitation of -that established at Bologna by Cardinal Albornoz. It is an allegorical -vision, in which the author supposes himself to see the Understanding -of Man in the form of an infant brought into a world full of ignorance -and sin, and educated by a succession of such figures as Grammar, -Logic, Music, Astrology, Truth, Reason, and Nature. He intended it, he -says, to be a compendium of all human knowledge, especially of all that -touches moral science and man’s duty, the soul and its immortality; -intimating, at the end, that it is a bold thing in him to have -discussed such subjects in the vernacular, and begging the noble Juan -de Beamonte, at whose request he had undertaken it, not to permit a -work so slight to be seen by others. - -It shows a good deal of the learning of its time, and still more of -the acuteness of the scholastic metaphysics then in favor. But it is -awkward and uninteresting in the general structure of its fiction, and -meagre in its style and illustrations. This, however, did not prevent -it from being much read and admired. There is one edition of it without -date, which probably appeared about 1480, showing that the wish of its -author to keep it from the public was not long respected; and there -were other editions in 1489, 1526, and 1538, besides a translation into -Catalan, printed as early as 1484. But the taste for such works passed -away in Spain as it did elsewhere; and the Bachiller de la Torre was -soon so completely forgotten, that his Vision was not only published by -Dominico Delphino in Italian, as a work of his own, but was translated -back into its native Spanish by Francisco de Caceres, a converted Jew, -and printed in 1663, as if it had been an original Italian work till -then quite unknown in Spain.[693] - - [693] The oldest edition, which is without date, seems, from - its type and paper, to have come from the press of Centenera at - Çamora, in which case it was printed about 1480-1483. It begins - thus: “Comença el tratado llamado Vision Deleytable, compuesto - por Alfonso de la Torre, bachiller, endereçado al muy noble Don - Juan de Beamonte, Prior de San Juan en Navarra.” It is not paged, - but fills 71 leaves in folio, double columns, black letter. The - little known of the different manuscripts and printed editions - of the Vision is to be found in Antonio, Bib. Vetus, ed. Bayer, - Tom. II. pp. 328, 329, with the note; Mendez, Typog., pp. 100 and - 380, with the Appendix, p. 402; and Castro, Biblioteca Española, - Tom. I. pp. 630-635. The Vision was written for the instruction - of the Prince of Viana, who is spoken of near the end as if still - alive; and since this well-known prince, the son of John, king of - Navarre and Aragon, was born in 1421 and died in 1461, we know - the limits between which the Vision must have been produced. - Indeed, being addressed to Beamonte, the Prince’s tutor, it was - probably written about 1430-1440, during the Prince’s nonage. One - of the old manuscripts of it says, “It was held in great esteem, - and, as such, was carefully kept in the chamber of the said king - of Aragon.” There is a life of the author in Rezabal y Ugarte, - “Biblioteca de los Autores, que han sido individuos de los seis - colegios mayores” (Madrid, 1805, 4to, p. 359). The best passage - in the Vision Deleytable is at the end; the address of Truth to - Reason. There is a poem of Alfonso de la Torre in MS. 7826, in - the National Library, Paris (Ochoa, Manuscritos, Paris, 1844, - 4to, p. 479); and the poems of the Bachiller Francisco de la - Torre in the Cancionero, 1573, (ff. 124-127,) and elsewhere, so - much talked about in connection with Quevedo, have sometimes been - thought to be his, though the names differ. - -An injustice not unlike the one that occurred to Alfonso de la Torre -happened to his contemporary, Diego de Almela, and for some time -deprived him of the honor, to which he was entitled, of being regarded -as the author of “The Valerius of Stories,”--a book long popular and -still interesting. He wrote it after the death of his patron, the wise -Bishop of Cartagena, who had projected such a work himself, and as -early as 1472 it was sent to one of the Manrique family. But though -the letter which then accompanied it is still extant, and though, in -four editions, beginning with that of 1487, the book is ascribed to its -true author, yet in the fifth, which appeared in 1541, it is announced -to be by the well-known Fernan Perez de Guzman;--a mistake which was -discovered and announced by Tamayo de Vargas, in the time of Philip the -Third, but does not seem to have been generally corrected till the work -itself was edited anew by Moreno, in 1793. - -It is thrown into the form of a discussion on Morals, in which, after -a short explanation of the different virtues and vices of men, as they -were then understood, we have all the illustrations the author could -collect under each head from the Scriptures and the history of Spain. -It is, therefore, rather a series of stories than a regular didactic -treatise, and its merit consists in the grave, yet simple and pleasing, -style in which they are told,--a style particularly fitted to most of -them, which are taken from the old national chronicles. Originally, -it was accompanied by “An Account of Pitched Battles”; but this, and -his Chronicles of Spain, his collection of the Miracles of Santiago, -and several discussions of less consequence, are long since forgotten. -Almela, who enjoyed the favor of Ferdinand and Isabella, accompanied -those sovereigns to the siege of Granada, in 1491, as a chaplain, -carrying with him, as was not uncommon at that time among the higher -ecclesiastics, a military retinue to serve in the wars.[694] - - [694] Antonio, Bib. Vetus, ed. Bayer, Tom. II. p. 325. Mendez, - Typog., p. 315. It is singular that the edition of the “Valerio - de las Historias” printed at Toledo, 1541, folio, which bears on - its title-page the name of Fern. Perez de Guzman, yet contains, - at f. 2, the very letter of Almela, dated 1472, which leaves no - doubt that its writer is the author of the book. - -In 1493, another distinguished ecclesiastic, Alonso Ortiz, a canon -of Toledo, published, in a volume of moderate size, two small works -which should not be entirely overlooked. The first is a treatise, -in twenty-seven chapters, addressed, through the queen, Isabella, -to her daughter, the Princess of Portugal, on the death of that -princess’s husband, filled with such consolation as the courtly Canon -deemed suitable to her bereavement and his own dignity. The other is -an oration, addressed to Ferdinand and Isabella, after the fall of -Granada, in 1492, rejoicing in that great event, and glorying almost -equally in the cruel expulsion of all Jews and heretics from Spain. -Both are written in too rhetorical a style, but neither is without -merit; and in the oration there are one or two beautiful and even -touching passages on the tranquillity to be enjoyed in Spain, now that -a foreign and hated enemy, after a contest of eight centuries, had -been expelled from its borders,--passages which evidently came from -the writer’s heart, and no doubt found an echo wherever his words were -heard by Spaniards.[695] - - [695] The volume of the learned Alonso Ortiz is a curious one, - printed at Seville, 1493, folio, 100 leaves. It is noticed by - Mendez, (p. 194,) and by Antonio, (Bib. Nov., Tom. I. p. 39,) - who seems to have known nothing about its author, except that he - bequeathed his library to the University of Salamanca. Besides - the two treatises mentioned in the text, this volume contains an - account of the wound received by Ferdinand the Catholic, from the - hand of an assassin, at Barcelona, December 7, 1492; two letters - from the city and cathedral of Toledo, praying that the name of - the newly conquered Granada may not be placed before that of - Toledo in the royal title; and an attack on the Prothonotary Juan - de Lucena,--probably not the author lately mentioned,--who had - ventured to assail the Inquisition, then in the freshness of its - holy pretensions. The whole volume is full of bigotry, and the - spirit of a triumphant priesthood. - -Another of the prose-writers of the fifteenth century, and one that -deserves to be mentioned with more respect than either of the last, is -Fernando del Pulgar. He was born in Madrid, and was educated, as he -himself tells us, at the court of John the Second. During the reign -of Henry the Fourth, he had employments which show him to have been a -person of consequence; and during a large part of that of Ferdinand and -Isabella, he was one of their counsellors of state, their secretary, -and their chronicler.[696] Of his historical writings notice has -already been taken; but in the course of his inquiries after what -related to the annals of Castile, he collected materials for another -work, more interesting, if not more important. For he found, as he -says, many famous men whose names and characters had not been so -preserved and celebrated as their merits demanded; and, moved by his -patriotism, and taking for his example the portraits of Perez de Guzman -and the biographies of the ancients, he carefully prepared sketches of -the lives of the principal persons of his own age, beginning with Henry -the Fourth, and confining himself chiefly within the limits of that -monarch’s reign and court. - - [696] The notices of the life of Pulgar are from the edition of - his “Claros Varones,” Madrid, 1775, 4to; but there, as elsewhere, - he is said to be a native of the kingdom of Toledo. This, - however, is probably a mistake. Oviedo, who knew him personally, - says, in his Dialogue on Mendoza, Duke of Infantado, that Pulgar - was “de Madrid _natural_.” Quinquagenas, MS. - -Some of these sketches, to which he has given the general title of -“Claros Varones de Castilla,” like those of the good Count Haro[697] -and of Rodrigo Manrique,[698] are important for their subjects, while -others, like those of the great ecclesiastics of the kingdom, are now -interesting only for the skill with which they are drawn. The style in -which they are written is forcible and generally concise, showing a -greater tendency to formal elegance than any thing by either Cibdareal -or Guzman, with whom we should most readily compare him; but we miss -the confiding naturalness of the warm-hearted physician and the severe -judgments of the retired statesman. The whole series is addressed to -his great patroness, Queen Isabella, to whom, no doubt, he thought a -tone of composed dignity more appropriate than any other. - - [697] Claros Varones, Tít. 3. - - [698] Ibid., Tít. 13. - -As a specimen of his best manner, we may take the following passage, in -which, after having alluded to some of the most remarkable personages -in Roman history, he turns, as it were, suddenly round to the queen, -and thus boldly confronts the great men of antiquity with the great men -of Castile, whom he had already discussed more at large:-- - -“True, indeed, it is, that these great men,--Castilian knights and -gentlemen,--of whom memory is here made for fair cause, and also those -of the elder time, who, fighting for Spain, gained it from the power -of its enemies, did neither slay their own sons, as did those consuls, -Brutus and Torquatus; nor burn their own flesh, as did Scævola; nor -commit against their own blood cruelties which nature abhors and -reason forbids; but rather, with fortitude and perseverance, with wise -forbearance and prudent energy, with justice and clemency, gaining -the love of their own countrymen, and becoming a terror to strangers, -they disciplined their armies, ordered their battles, overcame their -enemies, conquered hostile lands, and protected their own.... So that, -most excellent Queen, these knights and prelates, and many others born -within your realm, whereof here leisure fails me to speak, did, by the -praiseworthy labors they fulfilled, and by the virtues they strove to -attain, achieve unto themselves the name of Famous Men, whereof their -descendants should be above others emulous; while, at the same time, -all the gentlemen of your kingdoms should feel themselves called to -the same pureness of life, that they may at last end their days in -unspotted success, even as these great men also lived and died.”[699] - - [699] Claros Varones, Tít. 17. - -This is certainly remarkable, both for its style and for the tone of -its thought, when regarded as part of a work written at the conclusion -of the fifteenth century. Pulgar’s Chronicle, and his commentary on -“Mingo Revulgo,” as we have already seen, are not so good as such -sketches. - -The same spirit, however, reappears in his letters. They are thirty-two -in number; all written during the reign of Ferdinand and Isabella, the -earliest being dated in 1473, and the latest only ten years afterwards. -Nearly all of them were addressed to persons of honorable distinction -in his time, such as the queen herself, Henry the king’s uncle, the -Archbishop of Toledo, and the Count of Tendilla. Sometimes, as in the -case of one to the king of Portugal, exhorting him not to make war on -Castile, they are evidently letters of state. But in other cases, like -that of a letter to his physician, complaining pleasantly of the evils -of old age, and one to his daughter, who was a nun, they seem to be -familiar, if not confidential.[700] On the whole, therefore, taking all -his different works together, we have a very gratifying exhibition of -the character of this ancient servant and counsellor of Queen Isabella, -who, if he gave no considerable impulse to his age as a writer, was yet -in advance of it by the dignity and elevation of his thoughts and the -careless richness of his style. He died after 1492, and probably before -1500. - - [700] The letters are at the end of the Claros Varones (Madrid, - 1775, 4to); which was first printed in 1500. - -We must not, however, go beyond the limits of the reign of Ferdinand -and Isabella, without noticing two remarkable attempts to enlarge, or -at least to change, the forms of romantic fiction, as they had been -thus far settled in the books of chivalry. - -The first of these attempts was made by Diego de San Pedro, a -senator of Valladolid, whose poetry is found in all the Cancioneros -Generales.[701] He was evidently known at the court of the Catholic -sovereigns, and seems to have been favored there; but, if we may judge -from his principal poem, entitled “Contempt of Fortune,” his old age -was unhappy, and filled with regrets at the follies of his youth.[702] -Among these follies, however, he reckons the work of prose fiction -which now constitutes his only real claim to be remembered. It is -called the Prison of Love, “Carcel de Amor,” and was written at the -request of Diego Hernandez, a governor of the pages in the time of -Ferdinand and Isabella. - - [701] The Coplas of San Pedro on the Passion of Christ and the - Sorrows of the Madonna are in the Cancionero of 1492, (Mendez, - p. 135,) and many of his other poems are in the Cancioneros - Generales, 1511-1573; for example, in the last, at ff. 155-161, - 176, 177, 180, etc. - - [702] “El Desprecio de la Fortuna”--with a curious dedication to - the Count Urueña, whom he says he served twenty-nine years--is at - the end of Juan de Mena’s Works, ed. 1566. - -It opens with an allegory. The author supposes himself to walk out on -a winter’s morning, and to find in a wood a fierce, savage-looking -person, who drags along an unhappy prisoner bound by a chain. This -savage is Desire, and his victim is Leriano, the hero of the fiction. -San Pedro, from natural sympathy, follows them to the castle or prison -of Love, where, after groping through sundry mystical passages and -troubles, he sees the victim fastened to a fiery seat and enduring the -most cruel torments. Leriano tells him that they are in the kingdom -of Macedonia, that he is enamoured of Laureola, daughter of its king, -and that for his love he is thus cruelly imprisoned; all which he -illustrates and explains allegorically, and begs the author to carry -a message to the lady Laureola. The request is kindly granted, and a -correspondence takes place, immediately upon which Leriano is released -from his prison, and the allegorical part of the work is brought to an -end. - -From this time the story is much like an episode in one of the tales -of chivalry. A rival discovers the attachment between Leriano and -Laureola, and making it appear to the king, her father, as a criminal -one, the lady is cast into prison. Leriano challenges her accuser -and defeats him in the lists; but the accusation is renewed, and, -being fully sustained by false witnesses, Laureola is condemned to -death. Leriano rescues her with an armed force and delivers her to the -protection of her uncle, that there may exist no further pretext for -malicious interference. The king, exasperated anew, besieges Leriano in -his city of Susa. In the course of the siege, Leriano captures one of -the false witnesses, and compels him to confess his guilt. The king, -on learning this, joyfully receives his daughter again, and shows all -favor to her faithful lover. But Laureola, for her own honor’s sake, -now refuses to hold further intercourse with him; in consequence of -which he takes to his bed and with sorrow and fasting dies. Here the -original work ends; but there is a poor continuation of it by Nicolas -Nuñez, which gives an account of the grief of Laureola and the return -of the author to Spain.[703] - - [703] Of Nicolas Nuñez I know only a few poems in the Cancionero - General of 1573, (ff. 17, 23, 176, etc.,) one or two of which are - not without merit. - -The style, so far as Diego de San Pedro is concerned, is good for the -age; very pithy, and full of rich aphorisms and antitheses. But there -is no skill in the construction of the fable; and the whole work only -shows how little romantic fiction was advanced in the time of Ferdinand -and Isabella. The Carcel de Amor was, however, very successful. The -first edition appeared in 1492; two others followed in less than eight -years; and before a century was completed, it is easy to reckon ten, -beside many translations.[704] - - [704] Mendez, pp. 185, 283; Brunet, etc. There is a translation - of the Carcel into English by good old Lord Berners. (Walpole’s - Royal and Noble Authors, London, 1806, 8vo, Vol. I. p. 241. - Dibdin’s Ames, London, 1810, 4to, Vol. III. p. 195; Vol. IV. - p. 339.) To Diego de San Pedro is also attributed the “Tratado - de Arnalte y Lucenda,” of which an edition, apparently not the - first, was printed at Burgos in 1522, and another in 1527. (Asso, - De Libris Hisp. Rarioribus, Cæsaraugustæ, 1794, 4to, p. 44.) From - a phrase in his “Contempt of Fortune,” (Cancionero General, 1573, - f. 158,) where he speaks of “aquellas cartas de Amores, escriptas - de dos en dos,” I suspect he wrote the “Proceso de Cartas de - Amores, que entre dos amantes pasaron,”--a series of extravagant - love-letters, full of the conceits of the times; in which last - case, he may also be the author of the “Quexa y Aviso contra - Amor,” or the story of Luzindaro and Medusina, alluded to in the - last of these letters. But as I know no edition of this story - earlier than that of 1553, I prefer to consider it in the next - period. - -Among the consequences of the popularity enjoyed by the Carcel de Amor -was probably the appearance of the “Question de Amor,” an anonymous -tale, which is dated at the end, 17 April, 1512. It is a discussion -of the question, so often agitated from the age of the Courts of Love -to the days of Garcilasso de la Vega, who suffers most, the lover -whose mistress has been taken from him by death, or the lover who -serves a living mistress without hope. The controversy is here carried -on between Vasquiran, whose lady-love is dead, and Flamiano, who is -rejected and in despair. The scene is laid at Naples and in other parts -of Italy, beginning in 1508, and ending with the battle of Ravenna and -its disastrous consequences, four years later. It is full of the spirit -of the times. Chivalrous games and shows at the court of Naples, -a hunting scene, jousts and tournaments, and a tilting-match with -reeds, are all minutely described, with the dresses and armour, the -devices and mottoes, of the principal personages who took part in them. -Poetry, too, is freely scattered through it,--_villancicos_, _motes_, -and _invenciones_, such as are found in the Cancioneros; and, on one -occasion, an entire eclogue is set forth, as it was recited or played -before the court, and, on another, a poetical vision, in which the -lover who had lost his lady sees her again as if in life. The greater -part of the work claims to be true, and some portions of it are known -to be so; but the metaphysical discussion between the two sufferers, -sometimes angrily borne in letters, and sometimes tenderly carried on -in dialogue, constitutes the chain on which the whole is hung, and was -originally, no doubt, regarded as its chief merit. The story ends with -the death of Flamiano from wounds received in the battle of Ravenna; -but the question discussed is as little decided as it is at the -beginning. - -The style is that of its age; sometimes picturesque, but generally -dull; and the interest of the whole is small, in consequence both of -the inherent insipidity of such a fine-spun discussion, and of the -too minute details given of the festivals and fights with which it is -crowded. It is, therefore, chiefly interesting as a very early attempt -to write historical romance; just as the “Carcel de Amor,” which called -it forth, is an attempt to write sentimental romance.[705] - - [705] The “Question de Amor” was printed as early as 1527, and, - besides several editions of it that appeared separately, it - often occurs in the same volume with the Carcel. Both are among - the few books criticized by the author of the “Diálogo de las - Lenguas,” who praises both moderately; the Carcel for its style - more than the Question de Amor. (Mayans y Siscar, Orígenes, Tom. - II. p. 167.) Both are in the Index Expurgatorius, 1667, pp. 323, - 864; the last with a seeming ignorance, that regards it as a - Portuguese book. - - - - -CHAPTER XXIII. - -THE CANCIONEROS OF BAENA, ESTUÑIGA, AND MARTINEZ DE BURGOS.--THE -CANCIONERO GENERAL OF CASTILLO.--ITS EDITIONS.--ITS DIVISIONS, -CONTENTS, AND CHARACTER. - - -The reigns of John the Second and of his children, Henry the Fourth -and Isabella the Catholic, over which we have now passed, extend from -1407 to 1504, and therefore fill almost a complete century, though they -comprise only two generations of sovereigns. Of the principal writers -who flourished while they sat on the throne of Castile we have already -spoken, whether they were chroniclers or dramatists, whether they -were poets or prose-writers, whether they belonged to the Provençal -school or to the Castilian. But, after all, a more distinct idea of -the poetical culture of Spain during this century, than can be readily -obtained in any other way, is to be gathered from the old Cancioneros; -those ample magazines, filled almost entirely with the poetry of the -age that preceded their formation. - -Nothing, indeed, that belonged to the literature of the fifteenth -century in Spain marks its character more plainly than these large and -ill-digested collections. The oldest of them, to which we have more -than once referred, was the work of Juan Alfonso de Baena, a converted -Jew, and one of the secretaries of John the Second. It dates, from -internal evidence, between the years 1449 and 1454, and was made, as -the compiler tells us in his preface, chiefly to please the king, but -also, as he adds, in the persuasion that it would not be disregarded by -the queen, the heir-apparent, and the court and nobility in general. -For this purpose, he says, he had brought together the works of all the -Spanish poets who, in his own or any preceding age, had done honor to -what he calls “the very gracious art of the _Gaya Ciencia_.” - -On examining the Cancionero of Baena, however, we find that quite -one third of the three hundred and eighty-four manuscript pages it -fills are given to Villasandino,--who died about 1424, and whom Baena -pronounces “the prince of all Spanish poets,”--and that nearly the -whole of the remaining two thirds is divided among Diego de Valencia, -Francisco Imperial, Baena himself, Fernan Perez de Guzman, and Ferrant -Manuel de Lando; while the names of about fifty other persons, some -of them reaching back to the reign of Henry the Third, are affixed to -a multitude of short poems, of which, probably, they were not in all -cases the authors. A little of it, like what is attributed to Macias, -is in the Galician dialect; but by far the greater part was written by -Castilians, who valued themselves upon their fashionable tone more than -upon any thing else, and who, in obedience to the taste of their time, -generally took the light and easy forms of Provençal verse, and as much -of the Italian spirit as they comprehended and knew how to appropriate. -Of poetry, except in some of the shorter pieces of Ferrant Lando, -Alvarez Gato, and Perez de Guzman, the Cancionero of Baena contains -hardly a trace.[706] - - [706] Accounts of the Cancionero of Baena are found in Castro, - “Biblioteca Española” (Madrid, 1785, folio, Tom. I. pp. 265-346); - in Puybusque, “Histoire Comparée des Littératures Espagnole et - Française” (Paris, 1843, 8vo, Tom. I. pp. 393-397); in Ochoa, - “Manuscritos” (Paris, 1844, 4to, pp. 281-286); and in Amador de - los Rios, “Estudios sobre los Judios” (Madrid, 1848, 8vo, pp. - 408-419). The copy used by Castro was probably from the library - of Queen Isabella, (Mem. de la Acad. de Hist., Tom. VI. p. 458, - note,) and is now in the National Library, Paris. Its collector, - Baena, is sneered at in the Cancionero of Fernan Martinez de - Burgos, (Memorias de Alfonso VIII. por Mondexar, Madrid, 1783, - 4to, App. cxxxix.,) as a Jew who wrote vulgar verses. - - The poems in this Cancionero that are probably not by the persons - whose names they bear are short and trifling,--such as might be - furnished to men of distinction by humble versifiers, who sought - their protection or formed a part of their courts. Thus, a poem - already noticed, that bears the name of Count Pero Niño, was, as - we are expressly told in a note to it, written by Villasandino, - in order that the Count might present himself before the lady - Blanche more gracefully than such a rough old soldier would - be likely to do, unless he were helped to a little poetical - gallantry. - -Many similar collections were made about the same time, enough of -which remain to show that they were among the fashionable wants of the -age, and that there was little variety in their character. Among them -was the Cancionero in the Limousin dialect already mentioned;[707] -that called Lope de Estuñiga’s, which comprises works of about forty -authors;[708] that collected in 1464 by Fernan Martinez de Burgos; and -no less than seven others, preserved in the National Library at Paris, -all containing poetry of the middle and latter part of the fifteenth -century, often the same authors, and sometimes the same poems, that -are found in Baena and in Estuñiga.[709] They all belong to a state of -society in which the great nobility, imitating the king, maintained -poetical courts about them, such as that of the Marquis of Villena at -Barcelona, or the more brilliant one, perhaps, of the Duke Fadrique de -Castro, who had constantly in his household Puerto Carrero, Gayoso, -Manuel de Lando, and others then accounted great poets. That the -prevailing tone of all this was Provençal we cannot doubt; but that it -was somewhat influenced by a knowledge of the Italian we know from many -of the poems that have been published, and from the intimations of the -Marquis of Santillana in his letter to the Constable of Portugal.[710] - - [707] See _ante_, Chapter XVII. note 543. - - [708] The Cancionero of Lope de Estuñiga is, or was lately, in - the National Library at Madrid, among the folio MSS., marked M. - 48, well written and filling 163 leaves. - - [709] The fashion of making such collections of poetry, generally - called “Cancioneros,” was very common in Spain in the fifteenth - century, just before and just after the introduction of the art - of printing. - - One of them, compiled in 1464, with additions of a later date, - by Fernan Martinez de Burgos, begins with poems by his father, - and goes on with others by Villasandino, who is greatly praised - both as a soldier and a writer; by Fernan Sanchez de Talavera, - some of which are dated 1408; by Pero Velez de Guevara, 1422; by - Gomez Manrique; by Santillana; by Fernan Perez de Guzman; and, in - short, by the authors then best known at court. Mem. de Alfonso - VIII., Madrid, 1783, 4to, App. cxxxiv.-cxl. - - Several other Cancioneros of the same period are in the National - Library, Paris, and contain almost exclusively the known - fashionable authors of that century; such as Santillana, Juan de - Mena, Lopez de Çuñiga [Estuñiga?], Juan Rodriguez del Padron, - Juan de Villalpando, Suero de Ribera, Fernan Perez de Guzman, - Gomez Manrique, Diego del Castillo, Alvaro Garcia de Santa María, - Alonso Alvarez de Toledo, etc. There are no less than seven - such Cancioneros in all, notices of which are found in Ochoa, - “Catálogo de MSS. Españoles en la Biblioteca Real de Paris,” - Paris, 1844, 4to, pp. 378-525. - - [710] Sanchez, Poesías Anteriores, Tom. I. p. lxi., with the - notes on the passage relating to the Duke Fadrique. - -Thus far, more had been done in collecting the poetry of the time -than might have been anticipated from the troubled state of public -affairs; but it had been done only in one direction, and even in that -with little judgment. The king and the more powerful of the nobility -might indulge in the luxury of such Cancioneros and such poetical -courts, but a general poetical culture could not be expected to follow -influences so partial and inadequate. A new order of things, however, -soon arose. In 1474, the art of printing was fairly established in -Spain; and it is a striking fact, that the first book ascertained to -have come from the Spanish press is a collection of poems recited that -year by forty different poets contending for a public prize.[711] No -doubt, such a volume was not compiled on the principle of the elder -manuscript Cancioneros. Still, in some respects, it resembles them, and -in others seems to have been the result of their example. But however -this may be, a collection of poetry was printed at Saragossa, in 1492, -containing the works of nine authors, among whom were Juan de Mena, -the younger Manrique, and Fernan Perez de Guzman; the whole evidently -made on the same principle and for the same purpose as the Cancioneros -of Baena and Estuñiga, and dedicated to Queen Isabella, as the great -patroness of whatever tended to the advancement of letters.[712] - - [711] Fuster, Bib. Valenciana, Tom. I. p. 52. All the Cancioneros - mentioned before 1474 are still in MS. - - [712] Mendez, Typog., pp. 134-137 and 383. - -It was a remarkable book to appear within eighteen years after the -introduction of printing into Spain, when little but the most worthless -Latin treatises had come from the national press; but it was far from -containing all the Spanish poetry that was soon demanded. In 1511, -therefore, Fernando del Castillo printed at Valencia what he called a -“Cancionero General,” or General Collection of Poetry; the first book -to which this well-known title was ever given. It professes to contain -“many and divers works of all or of the most notable Troubadours of -Spain, the ancient as well as the modern, in devotion, in morality, -in love, in jests, ballads, _villancicos_, songs, devices, mottoes, -glosses, questions, and answers.” It, in fact, contains poems -attributed to about a hundred different persons, from the time of the -Marquis of Santillana down to the period in which it was made; most -of the separate pieces being placed under the names of those who were -their authors, or were assumed to be so, while the rest are collected -under the respective titles or divisions just enumerated, which -then constituted the favorite subjects and forms of verse at court. -Of proper order or arrangement, of critical judgment, or tasteful -selection, there seems to have been little thought. - -The work, however, was successful. In 1514, a new edition of it -appeared; and before 1540, six others had followed, at Toledo and -Seville, making, when taken together, eight in less than thirty years; -a number which, if the peculiar nature and large size of the work are -considered, can hardly find its parallel, at the same period, in any -other European literature. Later,--in 1557 and 1573,--yet two other -editions, somewhat enlarged, appeared at Antwerp, whither the inherited -rights and military power of Charles the Fifth had carried a familiar -knowledge of the Spanish language and a love for its cultivation. In -each of the ten editions of this remarkable book, it should be borne -in mind, that we may look for the body of poetry most in favor at -court and in the more refined society of Spain during the whole of the -fifteenth century and the early part of the sixteenth; the last and -amplest of them comprising the names of one hundred and thirty-six -authors, some of whom go back to the beginning of the reign of John the -Second, while others come down to the time of the Emperor Charles the -Fifth.[713] - - [713] For the bibliography of these excessively rare and curious - books, see Ebert, Bibliographisches Lexicon; and Brunet, Manuel, - in verb. _Cancionero_, and _Castillo_. I have, I believe, seen - copies of eight of the editions. Those which I possess are of - 1535 and 1573. - -Taking this Cancionero, then, as a true poetical representative of -the period it embraces, the first thing we observe, on opening it, -is a mass of devotional verse, evidently intended as a vestibule to -conciliate favor for the more secular and free portions that follow. -But it is itself very poor and gross; so poor and so gross, that we -can hardly understand how, at any period, it can have been deemed -religious. Indeed, within a century from the time when the Cancionero -was published, this part of it was already become so offensive to the -Church it had originally served to propitiate, that the whole of it -was cut out of such printed copies as came within the reach of the -ecclesiastical powers.[714] - - [714] A copy of the edition of 1535, ruthlessly cut to pieces, - bears this memorandum:-- - - “Este libro esta expurgado por el Expurgatorio del Santo Oficio, - con licencia. - - F. Baptista Martinez.” - - The whole of the religious poetry at the beginning is torn out of - it. - -There can be no doubt, however, about the devotional purposes for which -it was first destined; some of the separate compositions being by the -Marquis of Santillana, Fernan Perez de Guzman, and other well-known -authors of the fifteenth century, who thus intended to give an odor of -sanctity to their works and lives. A few poems in this division of the -Cancionero, as well as a few scattered in other parts of it, are in the -Limousin dialect; a circumstance which is probably to be attributed to -the fact, that the whole was first collected and published in Valencia. -But nothing in this portion can be accounted truly poetical, and very -little of it religious. The best of its shorter poems is, perhaps, the -following address of Mossen Juan Tallante to a figure of the Saviour -expiring on the cross:-- - - O God! the infinitely great, - That didst this ample world outspread,-- - The true! the high! - And, in thy grace compassionate, - Upon the tree didst bow thy head, - For us to die! - - O! since it pleased thy love to bear - Such bitter suffering for our sake, - O Agnus Dei! - Save us with him whom thou didst spare, - Because that single word he spake,-- - Memento mei![715] - - [715] - Imenso Dios, perdurable, - Que el mundo todo criaste, - Verdadero, - Y con amor entrañable - Por nosotros espiraste - En el madero: - - Pues te plugo tal passion - Por nuestras culpas sufrir, - O Agnus Dei, - Llevanos do está el ladron, - Que salvaste por decir, - Memento mei. - - Cancionero General, Anvers, 1573, f. 5. - - Fuster, Bib. Valenciana, (Tom. I. p. 81,) tries to make out - something concerning the author of this little poem; but does - not, I think, succeed. - -Next after the division of devotional poetry comes the series of -authors upon whom the whole collection relied for its character and -success when it was first published; a series, to form which, the -editor says, in the original dedication to the Count of Oliva, he had -employed himself during twenty years. Of such of them as are worthy a -separate notice--the Marquis of Santillana, Juan de Mena, Fernan Perez -de Guzman, and the three Manriques--we have already spoken. The rest -are the Viscount of Altamira, Diego Lopez de Haro,[716] Antonio de -Velasco, Luis de Vivero, Hernan Mexia, Suarez, Cartagena, Rodriguez -del Padron, Pedro Torellas, Dávalos,[717] Guivara, Alvarez Gato,[718] -the Marquis of Astorga, Diego de San Pedro, and Garci Sanchez de -Badajoz,--the last a poet whose versification is his chief merit, but -who was long remembered by succeeding poets from the circumstance that -he went mad for love.[719] They all belong to the courtly school; and -we know little of any of them except from hints in their own poems, -nearly all of which are so wearisome from their heavy sameness, that it -is a task to read them. - - [716] In the Library of the Academy of History at Madrid (Misc. - Hist., MS., Tom. III., No. 2) is a poem by Diego Lopez de Haro, - of about a thousand lines, in a manuscript apparently of the - end of the fifteenth or beginning of the sixteenth century, of - which I have a copy. It is entitled “Aviso para Cuerdos,”--A Word - for the Wise,--and is arranged as a dialogue, with a few verses - spoken in the character of some distinguished personage, human - or superhuman, allegorical, historical, or from Scripture, and - then an answer to each, by the author himself. In this way above - sixty persons are introduced, among whom are Adam and Eve, with - the Angel that drove them from Paradise, Troy, Priam, Jerusalem, - Christ, Julius Cæsar, and so on down to King Bamba and Mahomet. - The whole is in the old Spanish verse, and has little poetical - thought in it, as may be seen by the following words of Saul and - the answer by Don Diego, which I give as a favorable specimen of - the entire poem:-- - - SAUL. - - En mi pena es de mirar, - Que peligro es para vos - El glosar u el mudar - Lo que manda el alto Dios; - Porque el manda obedecelle; - No juzgalle, mas creelle. - A quien a Dios a de entender, - Lo que el sabe a de saber. - - AUTOR. - - Pienso yo que en tal defecto - Cae presto el coraçon - Del no sabio en rreligion, - Creyendo que a lo perfecto - Puede dar mas perficion. - Este mal tiene el glosar; - Luego a Dios quiere enmendar. - - Oviedo, in his “Quinquagenas,” says that Diego Lopez de Haro was - “the mirror of gallantry among the youth of his time”; and he is - known to history for his services in the war of Granada, and as - Spanish ambassador at Rome. (See Clemencin, in Mem. de la Acad. - de Hist., Tom. VI. p. 404.) He figures in the “Inferno de Amor” - of Sanchez de Badajoz; and his poems are found in the Cancionero - General, 1573, ff. 82-90, and a few other places. - - [717] He founded the fortunes of the family of which the Marquis - of Pescara was so distinguished a member in the time of Charles - V.; his first achievement having been to kill a Portuguese in - fair fight, after public challenge, and in presence of both the - armies. The poet rose to be Constable of Castile. Historia de D. - Hernando Dávalos, Marques de Pescara, Anvers, 1558, 12mo, Lib. - I., c. 1. - - [718] Besides what are to be found in the Cancioneros - Generales,--for example, in that of 1573, at ff. 148-152, 189, - etc.,--there is a MS. in possession of the Royal Academy at - Madrid, (Codex No. 114,) which contains a large number of poems - by Alvarez Gato. Their author was a person of consequence in his - time, and served John II., Henry IV., and Ferdinand and Isabella, - in affairs of state. With John he was on terms of friendship. One - day, when the king missed him from his hunting-party and was told - he was indisposed, he replied, “Let us, then, go and see him; he - is my friend,”--and returned to make the kindly visit. Gato died - after 1495. Gerónimo Quintana, Historia de Madrid, Madrid, 1629, - folio, f. 221. - - The poetry of Gato is sometimes connected with public affairs; - but, in general, like the rest of that which marks the period - when it was written, it is in a courtly and affected tone, and - devoted to love and gallantry. Some of it is more lively and - natural than most of its doubtful class. Thus, when his lady-love - told him “he must talk sense,” he replied, that he had lost the - little he ever had from the time when he first saw her, ending - his poetical answer with these words:-- - - But if, in good faith, you require - That sense should come back to me, - Show the kindness to which I aspire, - Give the freedom you know I desire, - And pay me my service fee. - - Si queres que de verdad - Torné a mi seso y sentido, - Usad agora bondad, - Torname mi libertad, - E pagame lo servido. - - [719] Memorias de la Acad. de Historia, Tom. VI. p. 404. The - “Lecciones de Job,” by Badajoz, were early put into the Index - Expurgatorius, and kept there to the last. - -Thus, the Viscount Altamira has a long, dull dialogue between Feeling -and Knowledge; Diego Lopez de Haro has another between Reason and -Thought; Hernan Mexia, one between Sense and Thought; and Costana, -one between Affection and Hope;--all belonging to the fashionable -class of poems called moralities or moral discussions, all in one -measure and manner, and all counterparts to each other in grave, -metaphysical refinements and poor conceits. On the other hand, we have -light, amatory poetry, some of which, like that of Garci Sanchez de -Badajoz on the Book of Job, that of Rodriguez del Padron on the Ten -Commandments, and that of the younger Manrique on the forms of a -monastic profession, irreverently applied to the profession of love, -are, one would think, essentially irreligious, whatever they may have -been deemed at the time they were written. But in all of them, and, -indeed, in the whole series of works of the twenty different authors -filling this important division of the Cancionero, hardly a poetical -thought is to be found, except in the poems of a few who have already -been noticed, and of whom the Marquis of Santillana, Juan de Mena, and -the younger Manrique are the chief.[720] - - [720] The Cancionero of 1535 consists of 191 leaves, in large - folio, Gothic letters, and triple columns. Of these, the - devotional poetry fills eighteen leaves, and the series of - authors mentioned above extends from f. 18 to f. 97. It is worth - notice, that the beautiful Coplas of Manrique do not occur in any - one of these courtly Cancioneros. - -Next after the series of authors just mentioned, we have a collection -of a hundred and twenty-six “Canciones,” or Songs, bearing the names of -a large number of the most distinguished Spanish poets and gentlemen of -the fifteenth century. Nearly all of them are regularly constructed, -each consisting of two stanzas, the first with four and the second with -eight lines,--the first expressing the principal idea, and the second -repeating and amplifying it. They remind us, in some respects, of -Italian sonnets, but are more constrained in their movement, and fall -into a more natural alliance with conceits. Hardly one in the large -collection of the Cancionero is easy or flowing, and the following, -by Cartagena, whose name occurs often, and who was one of the Jewish -family that rose so high in the Church after its conversion, is above -the average merit of its class.[721] - - [721] The Canciones are found, ff. 98-106. - - - I know not why first I drew breath, - Since living is only a strife, - Where I am rejected of Death, - And would gladly reject my own life. - - For all the days I may live - Can only be filled with grief; - With Death I must ever strive, - And never from Death find relief. - So that Hope must desert me at last, - Since Death has not failed to see - That life will revive in me - The moment his arrow is cast.[722] - - [722] - No se para que nasci, - Pues en tal estremo esto - Que el morir no quiere a mi, - Y el viuir no quiero yo. - - Todo el tiempo que viviere - Terne muy justa querella - De la muerte, pues no quiere - A mi, queriendo yo a ella. - - Que fin espero daqui, - Pues la muerte me negó, - Pues que claramente vió - Quera vida para mi. - - f. 98. b. - -This was thought to be a tender compliment to the lady whose coldness -had made her lover desire a death that would not obey his summons. - -Thirty-seven Ballads succeed; a charming collection of wild-flowers, -which have already been sufficiently examined when speaking of the -ballad poetry of the earliest age of Spanish literature.[723] - - [723] These ballads, already noticed, _ante_, Chap. VI., are in - the Cancionero of 1535, ff. 106-115. - -After the Ballads we come to the “Invenciones,” a form of verse -peculiarly characteristic of the period, and of which we have here -two hundred and twenty specimens. They belong to the institutions -of chivalry, and especially to the arrangements for tourneys and -joustings, which were the most gorgeous of the public amusements known -in the reigns of John the Second and Henry the Fourth. Each knight, -on such occasions, had a device, or drew one for himself by lot; and -to this device or crest a poetical explanation was to be affixed by -himself, which was called an _invencion_. Some of these posies are -very ingenious; for conceits are here in their place. King John, for -instance, drew a prisoner’s cage for his crest, and furnished for its -motto,-- - - Even imprisonment still is confessed, - Though heavy its sorrows may fall, - To be but a righteous behest, - When it comes from the fairest and best - Whom the earth its mistress can call. - -The well-known Count Haro drew a _noria_, or a wheel over which passes -a rope, with a series of buckets attached to it, that descend empty -into a well and come up full of water. He gave, for his _invencion_,-- - - The full show my griefs running o’er; - The empty, the hopes I deplore. - -On another occasion, he drew, like the king, an emblem of a prisoner’s -cage, and answered to it by an imperfect rhyme,-- - - In the gaol which you here behold-- - Whence escape there is none, as you see-- - I must live. What a life must it be![724] - - [724] “Saco el Rey nuestro señor una red de carcel, y decia la - letra:-- - - Qualquier prision y dolor - Que se sufra, es justa cosa, - Pues se sufre por amor - De la mayor y mejor - Del mundo, y la mas hermosa. - - “El conde de Haro saco una noria, y dixo:-- - - Los llenos, de males mios; - D’ esperança, los vazios. - - “El mismo por cimera una carcel y el en ella, y dixo:-- - - En esta carcel que veys, - Que no se halla salida, - Viuire, mas ved que vida!” - - The _Invenciones_, though so numerous, fill only three leaves, - 115 to 117. They occur, also, constantly in the old chronicles - and books of chivalry. The “Question de Amor” contains many of - them. - -Akin to the _Invenciones_ were the “Motes con sus Glosas”; mottoes or -short apophthegms, which we find here to the number of above forty, -each accompanied by a heavy, rhymed gloss. The mottoes themselves are -generally proverbs, and have a national and sometimes a spirited air. -Thus, the lady Catalina Manrique took “Never mickle cost but little,” -referring to the difficulty of obtaining her regard, to which Cartagena -answered, with another proverb, “Merit pays all,” and then explained -or mystified both with a tedious gloss. The rest are not better, and -all were valued, at the time they were composed, for precisely what now -seems most worthless in them.[725] - - [725] Though Lope de Vega, in his “Justa Poética de San Isidro,” - (Madrid, 1620, 4to, f. 76,) declares the _Glosas_ to be “a most - ancient and peculiarly Spanish composition, never used in any - other nation,” they were, in fact, an invention of the Provençal - poets, and, no doubt, came to Spain with their original authors. - (Raynouard, Troub., Tom. II. pp. 248-254.) The rules for their - composition in Spain were, as we see also from Cervantes, (Don - Quixote, Parte II. c. 18,) very strict and rarely observed; and - I cannot help agreeing with the friend of the mad knight, that - the poetical results obtained were little worth the trouble they - cost. The _Glosas_ of the Cancionero of 1535 are at ff. 118-120. - -The “Villancicos” that follow--songs in the old Spanish measure, with -a refrain and occasionally short verses broken in--are more agreeable, -and sometimes are not without merit. They received their name from -their rustic character, and were believed to have been first composed -by the _villanos_, or peasants, for the Nativity and other festivals of -the Church. Imitations of these rude roundelays are found, as we have -seen, in Juan de la Enzina, and occur in a multitude of poets since; -but the fifty-four in the Cancionero, many of which bear the names of -leading poets in the preceding century, are too courtly in their tone, -and approach the character of the _Canciones_.[726] In other respects, -they remind us of the earliest French madrigals, or, still more, of the -Provençal poems, that are nearly in the same measures.[727] - - [726] The author of the “Diálogo de las Lenguas” (Mayans y - Siscar, Orígenes, Tom. II. p. 151) gives the _refrain_ or - _ritornello_ of a _Villancico_, which, he says, was sung by every - body in Spain in his time, and is the happiest specimen I know of - the genus, conceit and all. - - Since I have seen thy blessed face, - Lady, my love is not amiss; - But, had I never known that grace, - How could I have deserved such bliss? - - [727] The _Villancicos_ are in the Cancionero of 1535 at ff. - 120-125. See also Covarrubias, Tesoro, in verb. _Villancico_. - -The last division of this conceited kind of poetry collected into the -first Cancioneros Generales is that called “Preguntas,” or Questions; -more properly, Questions and Answers; since it is merely a series of -riddles, with their solutions in verse. Childish as such trifles may -seem now, they were admired in the fifteenth century. Baena, in the -Preface to his collection, mentions them among its most considerable -attractions; and the series here given, consisting of fifty-five, -begins with such authors as the Marquis of Santillana and Juan de Mena, -and ends with Garci Sanchez de Badajoz, and other poets of note who -lived in the reign of Ferdinand and Isabella. Probably it was an easy -exercise of the wits in extemporaneous verse practised at the court of -John the Second, as we find it practised, above a century later, by -the shepherds in the “Galatea” of Cervantes.[728] But the specimens -of it in the Cancioneros are painfully constrained; the answers being -required to correspond in every particular of measure, number, and the -succession of rhymes with those of the precedent question. On the other -hand, the riddles themselves are sometimes very simple, and sometimes -very familiar; Juan de Mena, for instance, gravely proposing that -of the Sphinx of Œdipus to the Marquis of Santillana, as if it were -possible the Marquis had never before heard of it.[729] - - [728] Galatea, Lib. VI. - - [729] The _Preguntas_ extend from f. 126 to f. 134. - -Thus far the contents of the Cancionero General date from the -fifteenth century, and chiefly from the middle and latter part of it. -Subsequently, we have a series of poets who belong rather to the reign -of Ferdinand and Isabella, such as Puerto Carrero, the Duke of Medina -Sidonia, Don Juan Manuel of Portugal, Heredia, and a few others; after -which follows, in the early editions, a collection of what are called -“Jests provoking Laughter,”--really, a number of very gross poems -which constitute part of an indecent Cancionero printed separately at -Valencia, several years afterwards, but which were soon excluded from -the editions of the Cancionero General, where a few trifles, sometimes -in the Valencian dialect, are inserted, to fill up the space they had -occupied.[730] The air of this second grand division of the collection -is, however, like the air of that which precedes it, and the poetical -merit is less. At last, near the conclusion of the editions of 1557 and -1573, we meet with compositions belonging to the time of Charles the -Fifth, among which are two by Boscan, a few in the Italian language, -and still more in the Italian manner; all indicating a new state of -things, and a new development of the forms of Spanish poetry.[731] - - [730] The complete list of the authors in this part of the - Cancionero is as follows:--Costana, Puerto Carrero, Avila, the - Duke of Medina Sidonia, the Count Castro, Luis de Tovar, Don Juan - Manuel, Tapia, Nicolas Nuñez, Soria, Pinar, Ayllon, Badajoz el - Músico, the Count of Oliva, Cardona, Frances Carroz, Heredia, - Artes, Quiros, Coronel, Escriva, Vazquez, and Ludueña. Of most - of them only a few trifles are given. The “Burlas provocantes - a Risa” follow, in the edition of 1514, after the poems of - Ludueña, but do not appear in that of 1526, or in any subsequent - edition. Most of them, however, are found in the collection - referred to, entitled “Cancionero de Obras de Burlas provocantes - a Risa” (Valencia, 1519, 4to). It begins with one rather long - poem, and ends with another,--the last being a brutal parody of - the “Trescientas” of Juan de Mena. The shorter poems are often - by well-known names, such as Jorge Manrique, and Diego de San - Pedro, and are not always liable to objection on the score of - decency. But the general tone of the work, which is attributed to - ecclesiastical hands, is as coarse as possible. A small edition - of it was printed at London, in 1841, marked on its title-page - “Cum Privilegio, en Madrid, por Luis Sanchez.” It has a curious - and well-written Preface, and a short, but learned, Glossary. - From p. 203 to the end, p. 246, are a few poems not found in the - original Cancionero de Burlas; one by Garci Sanchez de Badajoz, - one by Rodrigo de Reynosa, etc. - - [731] This part of the Cancionero of 1535, which is of very - little value, fills ff. 134-191. The whole volume contains - about 49,000 verses. The Antwerp editions of 1557 and 1573 are - larger, and contain about 58,000; but the last part of each is - the worst part. One of the pieces near the end is a ballad on - the renunciation of empire made by Charles V. at Brussels, in - October, 1555; the most recent date, so far as I have observed, - that can be assigned to any poem in any of the collections. - -But this change belongs to another period of the literature of Castile, -before entering on which we must notice a few circumstances in the -Cancioneros characteristic of the one we have just gone over. And -here the first thing that strikes us is the large number of persons -whose verses are thus collected. In that of 1535, which may be taken -as the average of the whole series, there are not less than a hundred -and twenty. But out of this multitude, the number really claiming any -careful notice is small. Many persons appear only as the contributors -of single trifles, such as a device or a _cancion_, and sometimes, -probably, never wrote even these. Others contributed only two or three -short poems, which their social position, rather than their taste or -talents, led them to adventure. So that the number of those appearing -in the proper character of authors in the Cancionero General is only -about forty, and of these not more than four or five deserve to be -remembered. - -But the rank and personal consideration of those that throng it are, -perhaps, more remarkable than their number, and certainly more so than -their merit. John the Second is there, and Prince Henry, afterwards -Henry the Fourth; the Constable Alvaro de Luna,[732] the Count Haro, -and the Count of Plasencia; the Dukes of Alva, Albuquerque, and Medina -Sidonia; the Count of Tendilla and Don Juan Manuel; the Marquises of -Santillana, Astorga, and Villa Franca; the Viscount Altamira, and other -leading personages of their time; so that, as Lope de Vega once said, -“most of the poets of that age were great lords, admirals, constables, -dukes, counts, and kings”;[733] or, in other words, verse-writing was a -fashion at the court of Castile in the fifteenth century. - - [732] There is a short poem by the Constable in the Commentary - of Fernan Nuñez to the 265th Copla of Juan de Mena; and in the - fine old Chronicle of the Constable’s life, we are told of him, - (Título LXVIII.,) “Fue muy inventivo e mucho dado a fallar - _invenciones_ y sacar entremeses, o en justas o en guerra; en las - quales invenciones muy agudamente significaba lo que queria.” - He is also the author of an unpublished prose work, dated 1446, - “On Virtuous and Famous Women,” to which Juan de Mena wrote a - Preface; the Constable, at that time, being at the height of his - power. It is not, as its title might seem to indicate, translated - from a work by Boccaccio, with nearly the same name; but an - original production of the great Castilian minister of state. - Mem. de la Acad. de Hist., Tom. VI. p. 464, note. - - [733] Obras Sueltas, Madrid, 1777, 4to, Tom. XI. p. 358. - -This, in fact, is the character that is indelibly impressed on the -collections found in the old Cancioneros Generales. Of the earliest -poetry of the country, such as it is found in the legend of the Cid, in -Berceo, and in the Archpriest of Hita, they afford not a trace; and if -a few ballads are inserted, it is for the sake of the poor glosses with -which they are encumbered. But the Provençal spirit of the Troubadours -is everywhere present, if not everywhere strongly marked; and -occasionally we find imitations of the earlier Italian school of Dante -and his immediate followers, which are more apparent than successful. -The mass is wearisome and monotonous. Nearly every one of the longer -poems contained in it is composed in lines of eight syllables, divided -into _redondillas_, almost always easy in their movement, but rarely -graceful; sometimes broken by a regularly recurring verse of only four -or five syllables, and hence called _quebrado_, but more frequently -arranged in stanzas of eight or ten uniform lines. It is nearly all -amatory, and the amatory portions are nearly all metaphysical and -affected. It is of the court, courtly; overstrained, formal, and cold. -What is not written by persons of rank is written for their pleasure; -and though the spirit of a chivalrous age is thus sometimes brought -out, yet what is best in that spirit is concealed by a prevalent desire -to fall in with the superficial fashions and fantastic fancies that at -last destroyed it. - -But it was impossible such a wearisome state of poetical culture should -become permanent in a country so full of stirring interests as Spain -was in the age that followed the fall of Granada and the discovery of -America. Poetry, or at least the love of poetry, made progress with -the great advancement of the nation under Ferdinand and Isabella; -though the taste of the court in whatever regarded Spanish literature -continued low and false. Other circumstances, too, favored the great -and beneficial change that was everywhere becoming apparent. The -language of Castile had already asserted its supremacy, and, with the -old Castilian spirit and cultivation, it was spreading into Andalusia -and Aragon, and planting itself amidst the ruins of the Moorish power -on the shores of the Mediterranean. Chronicle-writing was become -frequent, and had begun to take the forms of regular history. The drama -was advanced as far as the “Celestina” in prose, and the more strictly -scenic efforts of Torres Naharro in verse. Romance-writing was at the -height of its success. And the old ballad spirit--the true foundation -of Spanish poetry--had received a new impulse and richer materials -from the contests in which all Christian Spain had borne a part amidst -the mountains of Granada, and from the wild tales of the feuds and -adventures of rival factions within the walls of that devoted city. -Every thing, indeed, announced a decided movement in the literature of -the nation, and almost every thing seemed to favor and facilitate it. - - - - -CHAPTER XXIV. - -SPANISH INTOLERANCE.--THE INQUISITION.--PERSECUTION OF JEWS AND -MOORS.--PERSECUTION OF CHRISTIANS FOR OPINION.--STATE OF THE PRESS IN -SPAIN.--CONCLUDING REMARKS ON THE WHOLE PERIOD. - - -The condition of things in Spain at the end of the reign of Ferdinand -and Isabella seemed, as we have intimated, to announce a long period of -national prosperity. But one institution, destined soon to discourage -and check that intellectual freedom without which there can be no wise -and generous advancement in any people, was already beginning to give -token of its great and blighting power. - -The Christian Spaniards had, from an early period, been essentially -intolerant. To their perpetual wars with the Moors had been added, -from the end of the fourteenth century, an exasperated feeling against -the Jews, which the government had vainly endeavoured to control, and -which had shown itself, at different times, in the plunder and murder -of multitudes of that devoted race throughout the country. Both races -were hated by the mass of the Spanish people with a bitter hatred: the -first as their conquerors; the last for the oppressive claims their -wealth had given them on great numbers of the Christian inhabitants. -In relation to both, it was never forgotten that they were the enemies -of that cross under which all true Spaniards had for centuries gone to -battle; and of both it was taught by the priesthood, and willingly -believed by the laity, that their opposition to the faith of Christ -was an offence against God, which it was a merit in his people to -punish.[734] Columbus wearing the cord of Saint Francis in the streets -of Seville, and consecrating to wars against misbelief in Asia the -wealth he was seeking in the New World, whose soil he earnestly desired -should never be trodden by any foot save that of a Roman Catholic -Christian, was but a type of the Spanish character in the age when he -adopted it.[735] - - [734] The bitterness of this unchristian and barbarous hatred - of the Moors, that constituted not a little of the foundation - on which rested the intolerance that afterwards did so much to - break down the intellectual independence of the Spanish people, - can hardly be credited at the present day, when stated in general - terms. An instance of its operation, must, therefore, be given to - illustrate its intensity. When the Spaniards made one of those - forays into the territories of the Moors that were so common for - centuries, the Christian knights, on their return, often brought, - dangling at their saddle-bows, the heads of the Moors they had - slain, and threw them to the boys in the streets of the villages, - to exasperate their young hatred against the enemies of their - faith;--a practice which, we are told on good authority, was - continued as late as the war of the Alpuxarras, under Don John of - Austria, in the reign of Philip II. (Clemencin, in Memorias de - la Acad. de Hist., Tom. VI. p. 390.) But any body who will read - the “Historia de la Rebelion y Castigo de los Moriscos del Reyno - de Granada,” by Luis del Marmol Carvajal, (Málaga, 1600, fol.,) - will see how complacently an eyewitness, not so much disposed - as most of his countrymen to look with hatred on the Moors, - regarded cruelties which it is not possible now to read without - shuddering. See his account of the murder, by order of the - chivalrous Don John of Austria, (f. 192,) of four hundred women - and children, his captives at Galera;--“muchos en su presencia,” - says the historian, who was there. Similar remarks might be made - about the second volume of Hita’s “Guerras de Granada,” which - will be noticed hereafter. Indeed, it is only by reading such - books that it is possible to learn how much the Spanish character - was impaired and degraded by this hatred, inculcated, during the - nine centuries that elapsed between the age of Roderic the Goth - and that of Philip III., not only as a part of the loyalty of - which all Spaniards were so proud, but as a religious duty of - every Christian in the kingdom. - - [735] Bernaldez, Chrónica, c. 131, MS. Navarrete, Coleccion de - Viages, Tom. I. p. 72; Tom. II. p. 282. - -When, therefore, it was proposed to establish in Spain the Inquisition, -which had been so efficiently used to exterminate the heresy of the -Albigenses, and which had even followed its victims in their flight -from Provence to Aragon, little serious opposition was made to the -undertaking. Ferdinand, perhaps, was not unwilling to see a power -grow up near his throne with which the political government of the -country could hardly fail to be in alliance, while the piety of the -wiser Isabella, which, as we can see from her correspondence with her -confessor, was little enlightened, led her conscience so completely -astray, that she finally asked for the introduction of the Holy Office -into her own dominions as a Christian benefit to her people.[736] After -a negotiation with the court of Rome, and some changes in the original -project, it was therefore established in the city of Seville in 1481; -the first Grand Inquisitors being Dominicans and their first meeting -being held in a convent of their order, on the 2d of January. Its -earliest victims were Jews. Six were burned within four days from the -time when the tribunal first sat, and Mariana states the whole number -of those who suffered in Andalusia alone during the first year of its -existence at two thousand, besides seventeen thousand who underwent -some form of punishment less severe than that of the stake;[737] all, -it should be remembered, being done with the rejoicing assent of the -mass of the people, whose shouts followed the exile of the whole body -of the Jewish race from Spain in 1492, and whose persecution of the -Hebrew blood, wherever found, and however hidden under the disguises of -conversion and baptism, has hardly ceased down to our own days.[738] - - [736] Prescott’s Ferdinand and Isabella, Part I. c. 7. - - [737] Mariana, Hist., Lib. XXIV. c. 17, ed. 1780, Tom. II. p. - 527. We are shocked and astonished, as we read this chapter;--so - devout a gratitude does it express for the Inquisition as a - national blessing. See also Llorente, Hist. de l’Inquisition, - Tom. I. p. 160. - - [738] The eloquent Father Lacordaire, in the sixth chapter - of his “Mémoire pour le Rétablissement de l’Ordre des Frères - Prêcheurs,” (Paris, 1839, 8vo,) endeavours to prove that the - Dominicans were not in anyway responsible for the establishment - of the Inquisition in Spain. In this attempt I think he fails; - but I think he is successful when he elsewhere maintains that the - Inquisition, from an early period, was intimately connected with - the political government in Spain, and always dependent on the - state for a large part of its power. - -The fall of Granada, which preceded by a few months this cruel -expulsion of the Jews, placed the remains of the Moorish nation no -less at the mercy of their conquerors. It is true, that, by the treaty -which surrendered the city to the Catholic sovereigns, the property of -the vanquished, their religious privileges, their mosques, and their -worship were solemnly secured to them; but in Spain, whatever portion -of the soil the Christians had wrested from their ancient enemies had -always been regarded only as so much territory restored to its rightful -owners, and any stipulations that might accompany its recovery were -rarely respected. The spirit and even the terms of the capitulation of -Granada were, therefore, soon violated. The Christian laws of Spain -were introduced there; the Inquisition followed; and a persecution -of the descendants of the old Arab invaders was begun by their new -masters, which, after being carried on above a century with constantly -increasing crimes, was ended in 1609, like the persecution of the Jews, -by the forcible expulsion of the whole race.[739] - - [739] See the learned and acute “Histoire des Maures Mudejares - et des Morisques, ou des Arabes d’Espagne sous la Domination des - Chrétiens,” par le Comte Albert de Circourt, (3 tom. 8vo, Paris, - 1846,) Tom. II., _passim_. - -Such severity brought with it, of course, a great amount of fraud and -falsehood. Multitudes of the followers of Mohammed--beginning with four -thousand whom Cardinal Ximenes baptized on the day when, contrary to -the provisions of the capitulation of Granada, he consecrated the great -mosque of the Albaycin as a Christian temple--were forced to enter -the fold of the Church, without either understanding its doctrines or -desiring to receive its instructions. With these, as with the converted -Jews, the Inquisition was permitted to deal unchecked by the power of -the state. They were, therefore, from the first, watched; soon they -were imprisoned; and then they were tortured, to obtain proof that -their conversion was not genuine. But it was all done in secrecy and in -darkness. From the moment when the Inquisition laid its grasp on the -object of its suspicions to that of his execution, no voice was heard -to issue from its cells. The very witnesses it summoned were punished -with death or perpetual imprisonment, if they revealed what they had -seen or heard before its dread tribunals; and often of the victim -nothing was known, but that he had disappeared from his accustomed -haunts in society, never again to be seen. - -The effect was appalling. The imaginations of men were filled with -horror at the idea of a power so vast and so noiseless; one which was -constantly, but invisibly, around them; whose blow was death, but -whose steps could neither be heard nor followed amidst the gloom into -which it retreated farther and farther as efforts were made to pursue -it. From its first establishment, therefore, while the great body of -the Spanish Christians rejoiced in the purity and orthodoxy of their -faith, and not unwillingly saw its enemies called to expiate their -unbelief by the most terrible of mortal punishments, the intellectual -and cultivated portions of society felt the sense of their personal -security gradually shaken, until, at last, it became an anxious object -of their lives to avoid the suspicions of a tribunal which infused into -their minds a terror deeper and more effectual in proportion as it was -accompanied by a misgiving how far they might conscientiously oppose -its authority. Many of the nobler and more enlightened, especially on -the comparatively free soil of Aragon, struggled against an invasion of -their rights whose consequences they partly foresaw. But the powers of -the government and the Church, united in measures which were sustained -by the passions and religion of the lower classes of society, became -irresistible. The fires of the Inquisition were gradually lighted over -the whole country, and the people everywhere thronged to witness its -sacrifices, as acts of faith and devotion. - -From this moment, Spanish intolerance, which through the Moorish wars -had accompanied the contest and shared its chivalrous spirit, took that -air of sombre fanaticism which it never afterwards lost. Soon, its -warfare was turned against the opinions and thoughts of men, even more -than against their external conduct or their crimes. The Inquisition, -which was its true exponent and appropriate instrument, gradually -enlarged its own jurisdiction by means of crafty abuses, as well as by -the regular forms of law, until none found himself too humble to escape -its notice, or too high to be reached by its power. The whole land bent -under its influence, and the few who comprehended the mischief that -must follow bowed, like the rest, to its authority, or were subjected -to its punishments. - -From an inquiry into the private opinions of individuals to an -interference with the press and with printed books there was but a -step. It was a step, however, that was not taken at once; partly -because books were still few and of little comparative importance -anywhere, and partly because, in Spain, they had already been subjected -to the censorship of the civil authority, which, in this particular, -seemed unwilling to surrender its jurisdiction. But such scruples were -quickly removed by the appearance and progress of the Reformation of -Luther; a revolution which comes within the next period of the history -of Spanish literature, when we shall find displayed in their broad -practical results the influence of the spirit of intolerance and the -power of the Church and the Inquisition on the character of the Spanish -people. - - * * * * * - -If, however, before we enter upon this new and more varied period, we -cast our eyes back towards the one over which we have just passed, -we shall find much that is original and striking, and much that -gives promise of further progress and success. It extends through -nearly four complete centuries, from the first breathings of the -poetical enthusiasm of the mass of the people down to the decay of -the courtly literature in the latter part of the reign of Ferdinand -and Isabella; and it is filled with materials destined, at last, to -produce such a school of poetry and elegant prose as, in the sober -judgment of the nation itself, still constitutes the proper body of -the national literature. The old ballads, the old historical poems, -the old chronicles, the old theatre,--all these, if only elements, -are yet elements of a vigor and promise not to be mistaken. They -constitute a mine of more various wealth than had been offered, under -similar circumstances and at so early a period, to any other people. -They breathe a more lofty and a more heroic temper. We feel, as we -listen to their tones, that we are amidst the stir of extraordinary -passions, which give the character an elevation not elsewhere to be -found in the same unsettled state of society. We feel, though the -grosser elements of life are strong around us, that imagination is -yet stronger; imparting to them its manifold hues, and giving them a -power and a grace that form a striking contrast with what is wild or -rude in their original nature. In short, we feel that we are called to -witness the first efforts of a generous people to emancipate themselves -from the cold restraints of a merely material existence, and watch -with confidence and sympathy the movement of their secret feelings and -prevalent energies, as they are struggling upwards into the poetry of a -native and earnest enthusiasm; persuaded that they must, at last, work -out for themselves a literature, bold, fervent, and original, marked -with the features and impulses of the national character, and able to -vindicate for itself a place among the permanent monuments of modern -civilization.[740] - - [740] It is impossible to speak of the Inquisition as I have - spoken in this chapter, without feeling desirous to know - something concerning Antonio Llorente, who has done more than - all other persons to expose its true history and character. The - important facts in his life are few. He was born at Calahorra - in Aragon in 1756, and entered the Church early, but devoted - himself to the study of canon law and of elegant literature. In - 1789, he was made principal secretary to the Inquisition, and - became much interested in its affairs; but was dismissed from his - place and exiled to his parish in 1791, because he was suspected - of an inclination towards the French philosophy of the period. - In 1793, a more enlightened General Inquisitor than the one who - had persecuted him drew Llorente again into the councils of the - Holy Office, and, with the assistance of Jovellanos and other - leading statesmen, he endeavoured to introduce such changes - into the tribunal itself as should obtain publicity for its - proceedings. But this, too, failed, and Llorente was disgraced - anew. In 1805, however, he was recalled to Madrid; and in 1809, - when the fortunes of Joseph Bonaparte made him the nominal king - of Spain, he gave Llorente charge of every thing relating to the - archives and the affairs of the Inquisition. Llorente used well - the means thus put into his hands; and having been compelled to - follow the government of Joseph to Paris, after its overthrow in - Spain, he published there, from the vast and rich materials he - had collected during the period when he had entire control of - the secret records of the Inquisition, an ample history of its - conduct and crimes;--a work which, though neither well arranged - nor philosophically written, is yet the great store-house from - which are to be drawn more well-authenticated facts relating to - the subject it discusses than can be found in all other sources - put together. But neither in Paris, where he lived in poverty, - was Llorente suffered to live in peace. In 1823, he was required - by the French government to leave France, and being obliged to - make his journey during a rigorous season, when he was already - much broken by age and its infirmities, he died from fatigue - and exhaustion, on the 3d of February, a few days after his - arrival at Madrid. His “Histoire de l’Inquisition” (4 tom., 8vo, - Paris, 1817-1818) is his great work; but we should add to it - his “Noticia Biográfica,” (Paris, 1818, 12mo,) which is curious - and interesting, not only as an autobiography, but for further - notices respecting the spirit of the Inquisition. - - - - - HISTORY - OF - SPANISH LITERATURE. - - - SECOND PERIOD. - - - THE LITERATURE THAT EXISTED IN SPAIN FROM THE ACCESSION OF THE - AUSTRIAN FAMILY TO ITS EXTINCTION, OR FROM THE BEGINNING OF THE - SIXTEENTH CENTURY TO THE END OF THE SEVENTEENTH. - - - - - HISTORY - OF - SPANISH LITERATURE. - - - SECOND PERIOD. - - - - -CHAPTER I. - -PERIODS OF LITERARY SUCCESS AND NATIONAL GLORY.--CHARLES THE -FIFTH.--HOPES OF UNIVERSAL EMPIRE.--LUTHER.--CONTEST OF THE -ROMISH CHURCH WITH PROTESTANTISM.--PROTESTANT BOOKS.--THE -INQUISITION.--INDEX EXPURGATORIUS.--SUPPRESSION OF PROTESTANTISM IN -SPAIN.--PERSECUTION.--RELIGIOUS CONDITION OF THE COUNTRY AND ITS -EFFECTS. - - -In every country that has yet obtained a rank among those nations -whose intellectual cultivation is the highest, the period in which it -has produced the permanent body of its literature has been that of -its glory as a state. The reason is obvious. There is then a spirit -and activity abroad among the elements that constitute the national -character, which naturally express themselves in such poetry and -eloquence as, being the result of the excited condition of the people -and bearing its impress, become for all future exertions a model -and standard that can be approached only when the popular character -is again stirred by a similar enthusiasm. Thus, the age of Pericles -naturally followed the great Persian war; the age of Augustus was that -of a universal tranquillity produced by universal conquest; the age -of Molière and La Fontaine was that in which Louis the Fourteenth was -carrying the outposts of his consolidated monarchy far into Germany; -and the ages of Elizabeth and Anne were the ages of the Armada and of -Marlborough. - -Just so it was in Spain. The central point in Spanish history is the -capture of Granada. During nearly eight centuries before that decisive -event, the Christians of the Peninsula were occupied with conflicts -at home, that gradually developed their energies, amidst the sternest -trials and struggles, till the whole land was filled to overflowing -with a power which had hardly yet been felt in the rest of Europe. -But no sooner was the last Moorish fortress yielded up, than this -accumulated flood broke loose from the mountains behind which it had -so long been hidden, and threatened, at once, to overspread the best -portions of the civilized world. In less than thirty years, Charles the -Fifth, who had inherited, not only Spain, but Naples, Sicily, and the -Low Countries, and into whose treasury the untold wealth of the Indies -was already beginning to pour, was elected Emperor of Germany, and -undertook a career of foreign conquest such as had not been imagined -since the days of Charlemagne. Success and glory seemed to wait for him -as he advanced. In Europe, he extended his empire, till it checked the -hated power of Islamism in Turkey; in Africa, he garrisoned Tunis and -overawed the whole coast of Barbary; in America, Cortés and Pizarro -were his bloody lieutenants, and achieved for him conquests more vast -than were conceived in the dreams of Alexander; while, beyond the -wastes of the Pacific, he stretched his discoveries to the Philippines, -and so completed the circuit of the globe. - -This was the brilliant aspect which the fortunes of his country -offered to an intelligent and imaginative Spaniard in the first half -of the sixteenth century.[741] For, as we well know, such men then -looked forward with confidence to the time when Spain would be the -head of an empire more extensive than the Roman, and seem sometimes -to have trusted that they themselves should live to witness and share -its glory. But their forecast was imperfect. A moral power was at -work, destined to divide Europe anew, and place the domestic policy -and the external relations of its principal countries upon unwonted -foundations. The monk Luther was already become a counterpoise to the -military master of so many kingdoms; and from 1552, when Moritz of -Saxony deserted the Imperial standard, and the convention of Passau -asserted for the Protestants the free exercise of their religion, the -clear-sighted conqueror may himself have understood, that his ambitious -hopes of a universal empire, whose seat should be in the South of -Europe and whose foundations should be laid in the religion of the -Church of Rome, were at an end. - - [741] Traces of this feeling are found abundantly in Spanish - literature, for above a century; but nowhere, perhaps, with - more simplicity and good faith than in a sonnet of Hernando de - Acuña,--a soldier and a poet greatly favored by Charles V.--in - which he announces to the world, for its “great consolation,” as - he says, “promised by Heaven,”-- - - Un Monarca, un Imperio, y una Espada. - - Poesías, Madrid, 1804, 12mo, p. 214. - - Christóval de Mesa, however, may be considered more - simple-hearted yet; for, fifty years afterwards, he announces - this catholic and universal empire as absolutely completed by - Philip III. Restauracion de España, Madrid, 1607, 12mo, Canto I. - st. 7. - -But the question, where the line should be drawn between the great -contending parties, was long the subject of fierce wars. The struggle -began with the enunciation of Luther’s ninety-five propositions, and -his burning the Pope’s bulls at Wittenberg. It was ended, as far as -it is yet ended, by the peace of Westphalia. During the hundred and -thirty years that elapsed between these two points, Spain was indeed -far removed from the fields where the most cruel battles of the -religious wars were fought; but how deep was the interest the Spanish -people took in the contest is plain from the bitterness of their -struggle against the Protestant princes of Germany; from the vast -efforts they made to crush the Protestant rebellion in the Netherlands; -from the expedition of the Armada against Protestant England; and from -the interference of Philip the Second in the affairs of Henry the Third -and Henry the Fourth, when, during the League, Protestantism seemed -to be gaining ground in France;--in short, it may be seen from the -presence of Spain and her armies in every part of Europe, where it was -possible to reach and assail the great movement of the Reformation. - -Those, however, who were so eager to check the power of Protestantism -when it was afar off would not be idle when the danger drew near to -their own homes.[742] The first alarm seems to have come from Rome. -In March, 1521, Papal briefs were sent to Spain, warning the Spanish -government to prevent the further introduction of books written by -Luther and his followers, which, it was believed, had been secretly -penetrating into the country for about a year. These briefs, it should -be observed, were addressed to the civil administration, which still, -in form at least, kept an entire control over such subjects. But it was -more natural, and more according to the ideas then prevalent in other -countries as well as in Spain, to look to the ecclesiastical power for -remedies in a matter connected with religion; and the great body of the -Spanish people seems willingly to have done so. In less than a month, -therefore, from the date of the briefs in question, and perhaps even -before they were received in Spain, the Grand Inquisitor addressed an -order to the tribunals under his jurisdiction, requiring them to search -for and seize all books supposed to contain the doctrines of the new -heresy. It was a bold measure, but it was a successful one.[743] The -government gladly countenanced it; for, in whatever form Protestantism -appeared, it came with more or less of the spirit of resistance to -all the favorite projects of the Emperor; and the people countenanced -it, because, except a few scattered individuals, all true Spaniards -regarded Luther and his followers with hardly more favor than they did -Mohammed or the Jews. - - [742] The facts in the subsequent account of the progress and - suppression of the Protestant Reformation in Spain are taken, - in general, from the “Histoire Critique de l’Inquisition - d’Espagne,” par J. A. Llorente, (Paris, 1817-1818, 4 tom., 8vo,) - and the “History of the Reformation in Spain,” by Thos. McCrie, - Edinburgh, 1829, 8vo. - - [743] The Grand Inquisitors had always shown an instinctive - desire to obtain jurisdiction over books, whether printed or - manuscript. Torquemada, the fiercest, if not quite the first of - them, burned at Seville, in 1490, a quantity of Hebrew Bibles - and other manuscripts, on the ground that they were the work - of Jews; and at Salamanca, subsequently, he destroyed, in the - same way, six thousand volumes more, on the ground that they - were books of magic and sorcery. But in all this he proceeded, - not by virtue of his Inquisitorial office, but, as Barrientos - had done forty years before, (see _ante_, p. 359,) by direct - royal authority. Until 1521, therefore, the press remained in - the hands of the _Oidores_, or judges of the higher courts, and - other persons civil and ecclesiastical, who, from the first - appearance of printing in the country, and certainly for above - twenty years after that period, had granted, by special power - from the sovereigns, whatever licenses were deemed necessary - for the printing and circulation of books. Llorente, Hist. de - l’Inquisition, Tom. I. pp. 281, 456. Mendez, Typographía, pp. 51, - 331, 375. - -Meantime, the Supreme Council, as the highest body in the Inquisition -was called, proceeded in their work with a firm and equal step. By -successive decrees, between 1521 and 1535, it was ordained, that all -persons who kept in their possession books infected with the doctrines -of Luther, and even all who failed to denounce such persons, should -be excommunicated and subjected to degrading punishments. This gave -the Inquisition a right to inquire into the contents and character of -whatever books were already printed. Next, they arrogated to themselves -the power to determine what books might be sent to the press; claiming -it gradually and with little noise, but effectually,[744] and if, at -first, without any direct grant of authority from the Pope or from the -king of Spain, still necessarily with the implied assent of both, and -generally with means furnished by one or the other. At last, a sure -expedient was found, which left no doubt of the process to be used, and -very little as to the results that would follow. - - [744] I notice in a few works printed before 1550, that the - Inquisition, without formal authority, began quietly to take - cognizance and control of books that were about to be published. - Thus, in a curious treatise on Exchange, “Tratado de Cambios,” - by Cristóval de Villalon, printed at Valladolid in 1541, 4to, - the title-page declares that it had been “visto por los Señores - Inquisidores”; and in Pero Mexia’s “Silva de Varia Leccion,” - (Sevilla, 1543, folio,) though the title gives the imperial - license for printing, the colophon adds that of the Apostolical - Inquisitor. There was no reason for either, except the anxiety - of the author to be safe from an authority which rested on no - law, but which was already recognized as formidable. Similar - remarks may be made about the “Theórica de Virtudes” of Castilla, - which was formally licensed, in 1536, by Alonso Manrique, the - Inquisitor-General, though it was dedicated to the Emperor, and - bears the Imperial authority to print. - -In 1539, Charles the Fifth obtained a Papal bull authorizing him to -procure from the University of Louvain, in Flanders, where the Lutheran -controversy would naturally be better understood than in Spain, a -list of books dangerous to be introduced into his dominions. It was -printed in 1546, and was the first “Index Expurgatorius” published in -Spain, and the second in the world. Subsequently it was submitted by -the Emperor to the Supreme Council of the Inquisition, under whose -authority additions were made to it; after which it was promulgated -anew in 1550, thus consummating the Inquisitorial jurisdiction over -this great lever of modern progress and civilization,--a jurisdiction, -it should be noted, which was confirmed and enforced by the most -tremendous of all human penalties, when, in 1558, Philip the Second -ordained the punishments of confiscation and death against any person -who should sell, buy, or keep in his possession any book prohibited by -the Index Expurgatorius of the Inquisition.[745] - - [745] Peignot, Essai sur la Liberté d’Écrire, Paris, 1832, 8vo, - pp. 55, 61. Baillet, Jugemens des Savans, Amsterdam, 1725, 12mo, - Tom. II. Partie I. p. 43. Father Paul Sarpi’s remarkable account - of the origin of the Inquisition, and of the Index Expurgatorius - of Venice, which was the first ever printed, Opere, Helmstadt, - 1763, 4to, Tom. IV. pp. 1-67. Llorente, Hist. de l’Inquisition, - Tom. I. pp. 459-464, 470. Vogt, Catalogus Librorum Rariorum, - Hamburgi, 1753, 8vo, pp. 367-369. So much for Europe. Abroad it - was worse. From 1550, a certificate was obliged to accompany - _every_ book, setting forth, that it was _not_ a prohibited book, - without which certificate, _no_ book was permitted to be _sold_ - or _read_ in the colonies. (Llorente, Tom. I. p. 467.) But thus - far the Inquisition, in relation to the Index Expurgatorius, - consulted the civil authorities, or was specially authorized - by them to act. In 1640 this ceremony was no longer observed, - and the Index was printed by the Inquisition alone, without any - commission from the civil government. From the time when the - danger of the heresy of Luther became considerable, no books - arriving from Germany and France were permitted to be circulated - in Spain, except by special license. Bisbe y Vidal, Tratado de - Comedias, Barcelona, 1618, 12mo, f. 55. - -The contest with Protestantism in Spain, under such auspices, -was short. It began in earnest and in blood about 1559, and was -substantially ended in 1570. At one period, the new doctrine had made -some progress in the monasteries and among the clergy; and though it -never became formidable from the numbers it enlisted, yet many of -those who joined its standard were distinguished by their learning, -their rank, or their general intelligence. But the higher and more -shining the mark, the more it attracted notice and the more surely it -was reached. The Inquisition had already existed seventy years and -was at the height of its power and favor. Cardinal Ximenes, one of -the boldest and most far-sighted statesmen, and one of the sternest -bigots the world ever saw, had for a long period united in his own -person the office of Civil Administrator of Spain with that of Grand -Inquisitor, and had used the extraordinary powers such a position -gave him to confirm the Inquisition at home and to spread it over the -newly discovered continent of America.[746] His successor was Cardinal -Adrien, the favored preceptor of Charles the Fifth, who filled nearly -two years the places of Grand Inquisitor and of Pope; so that, for -a season, the highest ecclesiastical authority was made to minister -to the power of the Inquisition in Spain, as the highest political -authority had done before.[747] And now, after an interval of twenty -years, had come Philip the Second, wary, inflexible, unscrupulous, at -the head of an empire on which, it was boasted, the sun never set, -consecrating all his own great energies and all the resources of his -vast dominions to the paramount object of extirpating every form of -heresy from the countries under his control, and consolidating the -whole into one grand religious empire. - - [746] Cardinal Ximenes was really equal to the position these - extraordinary offices gave him, and exercised his great - authority with sagacity and zeal, and with a confidence in the - resources of his own genius that seemed to double his power. It - should, however, never be forgotten, that, _but for him_, the - Inquisition, instead of being enlarged, as it was, twenty years - after its establishment, would have been constrained within - comparatively narrow limits, and probably soon overthrown. - For, in 1512, when the embarrassments of the public treasury - inclined Ferdinand to accept from the persecuted new converts a - large sum of money, which he needed to carry on his war against - Navarre,--a gift which they offered on the single and most - righteous condition, that witnesses cited before the Inquisition - should be examined _publicly_,--Cardinal Ximenes not only used - his influence with the king to prevent him from accepting the - offer, but furnished him with resources that made its acceptance - unnecessary. And again, in 1517, when Charles V., young and not - without generous impulses, received, on the same just condition, - from the same oppressed Christians, a still larger offer of money - to defray his expenses in taking possession of his kingdom, - and when he had obtained assurances of the reasonableness of - granting their request from the principal universities and men of - learning in Spain and in Flanders, Cardinal Ximenes interposed - anew his great influence, and--not without some suppression of - the truth--prevented a second time the acceptance of the offer. - He, too, it was, who arranged the jurisdiction of the tribunals - of the Inquisition in the different provinces, settling them on - deeper and more solid foundations; and, finally, it was this - master spirit of his time who first carried the Inquisition - beyond the limits of Spain, establishing it in Oran, which was - his personal conquest, and in the Canaries, and Cuba, where - he made provident arrangements, by virtue of which it was - subsequently extended through all Spanish America. And yet, - before he wielded the power of the Inquisition, he opposed its - establishment. Llorente, Hist., Chap. X., Art. 5 and 7. - - [747] Llorente, Tom. I. p. 419. - -Still, the Inquisition, regarded as the chief outward means of driving -the Lutheran doctrines from Spain, might have failed to achieve its -work, if the people, as well as the government, had not been its -earnest allies. But, on all such subjects, the current in Spain had, -from the first, taken only one direction. Spaniards had contended -against misbelief with so implacable a hatred, for centuries, that the -spirit of that old contest had become one of the elements of their -national existence; and now, having expelled the Jews and reduced the -Moors to submission, they turned themselves, with the same fervent -zeal, to purify their soil from what they trusted would prove the last -trace of heretical pollution. To achieve this great object, Pope Paul -the Fourth, in 1558,--the same year in which Philip the Second had -decreed the most odious and awful penalties of the civil government in -aid of the Inquisition,--granted a brief, by which all the preceding -dispositions of the Church against heretics were confirmed, and the -tribunals of the Inquisition were authorized and required to proceed -against all persons supposed to be infected with the new belief, even -though such persons might be bishops, archbishops, or cardinals, -dukes, princes, kings, or emperors;--a power which, taken in all -its relations, was more formidable to the progress of intellectual -improvement than had ever before been granted to any body of men, civil -or ecclesiastical.[748] - - [748] Llorente, Tom. II. pp. 183, 184. - -The portentous authority thus given was at once freely exercised. The -first public _auto da fé_ of Protestants was held at Valladolid in -1559, and others followed, both there and elsewhere.[749] The royal -family was occasionally present; several persons of rank suffered; -and a general popular favor evidently followed the horrors that were -perpetrated. The number of victims was not large when compared with -earlier periods, seldom exceeding twenty burned at one time, and fifty -or sixty subjected to cruel and degrading punishments; but many of -those who suffered were, as the nature of the crimes alleged against -them implied, among the leading and active minds of their age. Men of -learning were particularly obnoxious to suspicion, since the cause of -Protestantism appealed directly to learning for its support. Sanchez, -the best classical scholar of his time in Spain, Luis de Leon, the -best Hebrew critic and the most eloquent preacher, and Mariana, the -chief Spanish historian, with other men of letters of inferior name and -consideration, were summoned before the tribunals of the Inquisition, -in order that they might at least avow their submission to its -authority, even if they were not subjected to its censures. - - [749] Ibid., Tom. II., Chap. XX., XXI., and XXIV. - -Nor were persons of the holiest lives and the most ascetic tempers -beyond the reach of its mistrust, if they but showed a tendency to -inquiry. Thus, Juan de Avila, known under the title of the Apostle -of Andalusia, and Luis de Granada, the devout mystic, with Teresa de -Jesus and Juan de la Cruz, both of whom were afterwards canonized by -the Church of Rome, all passed through its cells, or in some shape -underwent its discipline. So did some of the ecclesiastics most -distinguished by their rank and authority. Carranza, Archbishop of -Toledo and Primate of Spain, after being tormented eighteen years by -its persecutions, died, at last, in craven submission to its power; -and Cazella, who had been a favorite chaplain of the Emperor Charles -the Fifth, perished in its fires. Even the faith of the principal -personages of the kingdom was inquired into, and, at different times, -proceedings, sufficient, at least, to assert its authority, were -instituted in relation to Don John of Austria, and the formidable Duke -of Alva;[750] proceedings, however, which must be regarded rather as -matters of show than of substance, since the whole institution was -connected with the government from the first, and became more and more -subservient to the policy of the successive masters of the state, as -its tendencies were developed in successive reigns. - - [750] Llorente, Tom. II., Chap. XIX., XXV., and other places. - -The great purpose, therefore, of the government and the Inquisition -may be considered as having been fulfilled in the latter part of the -reign of Philip the Second,--farther, at least, than such a purpose -was ever fulfilled in any other Christian country, and farther than it -is ever likely to be again fulfilled elsewhere. The Spanish nation was -then become, in the sense they themselves gave to the term, the most -thoroughly religious nation in Europe; a fact signally illustrated in -their own eyes a few years afterward, when it was deemed desirable -to expel the remains of the Moorish race from the Peninsula, and -six hundred thousand peaceable and industrious subjects were, from -religious bigotry, cruelly driven out of their native country, amidst -the devout exultation of the whole kingdom,--Cervantes, Lope de Vega, -and others of the principal men of genius then alive, joining in the -general jubilee.[751] From this time, the voice of religious dissent -can hardly be said to have been heard in the land; and the Inquisition, -therefore, down to its overthrow in 1808, was chiefly a political -engine, much occupied about cases connected with the policy of the -state, though under the pretence that they were cases of heresy or -unbelief. The great body of the Spanish people rejoiced alike in their -loyalty and their orthodoxy; and the few who differed in faith from -the mass of their fellow-subjects were either held in silence by their -fears, or else sunk away from the surface of society the moment their -disaffection was suspected. - - [751] See note to Chap. XL. of this Part. - -The results of such extraordinary traits in the national character -could not fail to be impressed upon the literature of any country, and -particularly upon a literature which, like that of Spain, had always -been strongly marked by the popular temperament and peculiarities. But -the period was not one in which such traits could be produced with -poetical effect. The ancient loyalty, which had once been so generous -an element in the Spanish character and cultivation, was now infected -with the ambition of universal empire, and was lavished upon princes -and nobles who, like the later Philips and their ministers, were -unworthy of its homage; so that, in the Spanish historians and epic -poets of this period, and even in more popular writers, like Quevedo -and Calderon, we find a vainglorious admiration of their country, and a -poor flattery of royalty and rank, that remind us of the old Castilian -pride and deference only by showing how both had lost their dignity. -And so it is with the ancient religious feeling that was so nearly -akin to this loyalty. The Christian spirit, which gave an air of duty -to the wildest forms of adventure throughout the country, during its -long contest with the power of misbelief, was now fallen away into a -low and anxious bigotry, fierce and intolerant towards every thing that -differed from its own sharply defined faith, and yet so pervading and -so popular, that the romances and tales of the time are full of it, and -the national theatre, in more than one form, becomes its strange and -grotesque monument. - -Of course, the body of Spanish poetry and eloquent prose produced -during this interval--the earlier part of which was the period of -the greatest glory Spain ever enjoyed--was injuriously affected by -so diseased a condition of the national character. That generous and -manly spirit which is the breath of intellectual life to any people -was restrained and stifled. Some departments of literature, such as -forensic eloquence and eloquence of the pulpit, satirical poetry, and -elegant didactic prose, hardly appeared at all; others, like epic -poetry, were strangely perverted and misdirected; while yet others, -like the drama, the ballads, and the lighter forms of lyrical verse, -seemed to grow exuberant and lawless, from the very restraints imposed -on the rest; restraints which, in fact, forced poetical genius into -channels where it would otherwise have flowed much more scantily and -with much less luxuriant results. - -The books that were published during the whole period on which we are -now entering, and indeed for a century later, bore everywhere marks -of the subjection to which the press and those who wrote for it were -alike reduced. From the abject title-pages and dedications of the -authors themselves, through the crowd of certificates collected from -their friends to establish the orthodoxy of works that were often as -little connected with religion as fairy tales, down to the colophon, -supplicating pardon for any unconscious neglect of the authority of the -Church or any too free use of classical mythology, we are continually -oppressed with painful proofs, not only how completely the human mind -was enslaved in Spain, but how grievously it had become cramped and -crippled by the chains it had so long worn. - -But we shall be greatly in error, if, as we notice these deep marks -and strange peculiarities in Spanish literature, we suppose they were -produced by the direct action either of the Inquisition or of the -civil government of the country, compressing, as if with a physical -power, the whole circle of society. This would have been impossible. -No nation would have submitted to it; much less so high-spirited and -chivalrous a nation as the Spanish in the reign of Charles the Fifth -and in the greater part of that of Philip the Second. This dark work -was done earlier. Its foundations were laid deep and sure in the old -Castilian character. It was the result of the excess and misdirection -of that very Christian zeal which fought so fervently and gloriously -against the intrusion of Mohammedanism into Europe, and of that -military loyalty which sustained the Spanish princes so faithfully -through the whole of that terrible contest;--both of them high and -ennobling principles, which in Spain were more wrought into the popular -character than they ever were in any other country. - -Spanish submission to an unworthy despotism, and Spanish bigotry, were, -therefore, not the results of the Inquisition and the modern appliances -of a corrupting monarchy; but the Inquisition and the despotism were -rather the results of a misdirection of the old religious faith and -loyalty. The civilization that recognized such elements presented, no -doubt, much that was brilliant, picturesque, and ennobling; but it was -not without its darker side; for it failed to excite and cherish many -of the most elevating qualities of our common nature,--those qualities -which are produced in domestic life, and result in the cultivation of -the arts of peace. - -As we proceed, therefore, we shall find, in the full development of the -Spanish character and literature, seeming contradictions, which can -be reconciled only by looking back to the foundations on which they -both rest. We shall find the Inquisition at the height of its power, -and a free and immoral drama at the height of its popularity,--Philip -the Second and his two immediate successors governing the country with -the severest and most jealous despotism, while Quevedo was writing his -witty and dangerous satires, and Cervantes his genial and wise Don -Quixote. But the more carefully we consider such a state of things, the -more we shall see that these are moral contradictions which draw after -them grave moral mischiefs. The Spanish nation, and the men of genius -who illustrated its best days, might be light-hearted because they did -not perceive the limits within which they were confined, or did not, -for a time, feel the restraints that were imposed upon them. What they -gave up might be given up with cheerful hearts, and not with a sense -of discouragement and degradation; it might be done in the spirit of -loyalty and with the fervor of religious zeal; but it is not at all the -less true that the hard limits were there, and that great sacrifices of -the best elements of the national character must follow. - -Of this time gave abundant proof. Only a little more than a century -elapsed before the government that had threatened the world with -a universal empire was hardly able to repel invasion from abroad, -or maintain the allegiance of its own subjects at home. Life--the -vigorous, poetical life which had been kindled through the country in -its ages of trial and adversity--was evidently passing out of the whole -Spanish character. As a people, they sunk away from being a first-rate -power in Europe, till they became one of altogether inferior importance -and consideration; and then, drawing back haughtily behind their -mountains, rejected all equal intercourse with the rest of the world, -in a spirit almost as exclusive and intolerant as that in which they -had formerly refused intercourse with their Arab conquerors. The crude -and gross wealth poured in from their American possessions sustained, -indeed, for yet another century the forms of a miserable political -existence in their government; but the earnest faith, the loyalty, -the dignity of the Spanish people were gone; and little remained in -their place, but a weak subserviency to the unworthy masters of the -state, and a low, timid bigotry in whatever related to religion. The -old enthusiasm, rarely directed by wisdom from the first, and often -misdirected afterwards, faded away; and the poetry of the country, -which had always depended more on the state of the popular feeling than -any other poetry of modern times, faded and failed with it. - - - - -CHAPTER II. - -LOW STATE OF LETTERS ABOUT THE YEAR 1500.--INFLUENCE OF ITALY.-- -CONQUESTS OF CHARLES THE FIFTH.--BOSCAN.--NAVAGIERO.--ITALIAN FORMS -INTRODUCED INTO SPANISH POETRY.--GARCILASSO DE LA VEGA.--HIS LIFE, -WORKS, AND PERMANENT INFLUENCE. - - -There was, no doubt, a great decay of letters and good taste in Spain -during the latter part of the troubled reign of John the Second and -the whole of the still more disturbed period when his successor, Henry -the Fourth, sat upon the throne of Castile. The Provençal school had -passed away, and its imitations in Castilian had not been successful. -The earlier Italian influences, less fertile in good results than -might have been anticipated, were almost forgotten. The fashion of the -court, therefore, in the absence of better or more powerful impulses, -ruled over every thing, and a monotonous poetry, full of conceits and -artifices, was all that its own artificial character could produce. - -Nor was there much improvement in the time of Ferdinand and Isabella. -The introduction of the art of printing and the revival of a regard -for classical antiquity were, indeed, foundations for a national -culture such as had not before been laid; while, at the same time, the -establishment of the University of Alcalá, by Cardinal Ximenes, and -the revival of that of Salamanca, with the labors of such scholars -as Peter Martyr, Lucio Marineo, Antonio de Lebrija, and Arias -Barbosa, could hardly fail to exercise a favorable influence on the -intellectual cultivation, if not on the poetical taste, of the country. -Occasionally, as we have seen, proofs of the old energy appeared in -such works as the “Celestina” and the “Coplas” of Manrique. The old -ballads, too, and the other forms of the early popular poetry, no -doubt, maintained their place in the hearts of the common people. But -it is not to be concealed, that, among the cultivated classes,--as the -Cancioneros and nearly every thing else that came from the press in the -time of Ferdinand and Isabella sufficiently prove,--taste was at a very -low ebb. - -The first impulse to a better state of things came from Italy. In some -respects this was unhappy; but there can be little doubt that it was -inevitable. The intercourse between Italy and Spain, shortly before the -accession of Charles the Fifth, had been much increased, chiefly by the -conquest of Naples, but partly by other causes. Regular interchanges -of ambassadors took place between the See of Rome and the court of -Ferdinand and Isabella, and one of them was a son of the poetical -Marquis of Santillana, and another the father of Garcilasso de la Vega. -The universities of Italy continued to receive large numbers of Spanish -students, who still regarded the means of a generous education at home -as inadequate to their wants; and Spanish poets, among whom were Juan -de la Enzina and Torres Naharro, resorted there freely, and lived with -consideration at Rome and Naples. In the latter city, the old Spanish -family of Dávalos--one of whom was the husband of that Vittoria Colonna -whose poetry ranks with the Italian classics--were among the chief -patrons of letters during their time, and kept alive an intellectual -union between the two countries, by which they were equally claimed -and on which they reflected equal honor.[752] - - [752] Ginguené, Hist. Lit. d’ltalie, Paris, 1812, 8vo, Tom. IV. - pp. 87-90; and more fully in Historia de Don Hernando Dávalos, - Marques de Pescara, en Anvers, Juan Steelsio, 1558, 12mo;--a - curious book, which seems, I think, to have been written before - 1546, and was the work of Pedro Valles, an Aragonese. Latassa, - Bib. Nueva de Escritores Aragoneses, Zaragossa, Tom. I. 4to, - 1798, p. 289. - -But besides these individual instances of connection between Spain -and Italy, the gravest events were now drawing together the greater -interests of the mass of the people in both countries, and fastening -their thoughts intently upon each other. Naples, after the treaty of -1503 and the brilliant successes of Gonzalvo de Córdova, was delivered -over to Spain, bound hand and foot, and was governed, above a century, -by a succession of Spanish viceroys, each accompanied by a train of -Spanish officers and dependants, among whom, not unfrequently, we -find men of letters and poets, like the Argensolas and Quevedo. When -Charles the Fifth ascended the throne, in 1516, it was apparent that -he would at once make an effort to extend his political and military -power throughout Italy. The tempting plains of Lombardy became, -therefore, the theatre of the first great European contest entered -into by Spain,--a grand arena, in which, as it proved, much of the -fate of Europe, as well as of Italy, was to be decided by two young -and passionate monarchs, burning with personal rivalship and the love -of glory. In this way, from 1522, when the first war broke out between -Francis the First and Charles the Fifth, to the disastrous battle of -Pavia, in 1525, we may consider the whole disposable force of Spain to -have been transferred to Italy, and subjected, in a remarkable degree, -to the influences of Italian culture and civilization. - -Nor did the connection between the two countries stop here. In 1527, -Rome itself was, for a moment, added to the conquests of the Spanish -crown, and the Pope became the prisoner of the Emperor, as the king -of France had been before. In 1530, Charles appeared again in Italy, -surrounded by a splendid Spanish court, and at the head of a military -power that left no doubt of his mastery. He at once crushed the -liberties of Florence and restored the aristocracy of the Medici. He -made peace with the outraged Pope. By his wisdom and moderation, he -confirmed his friendly relations with the other states of Italy; and, -as the seal of all his successes, he caused himself, in the presence of -whatever was most august in both countries, to be solemnly crowned King -of Lombardy and Emperor of the Romans, by the same Pope whom, three -years before, he had counted among his captives.[753] Such a state of -things necessarily implied a most intimate connection between Spain and -Italy; and this connection was maintained down to the abdication of the -Emperor, in 1555, and, indeed, long afterwards.[754] - - [753] The coronation of Charles V. at Bologna, like most of the - other striking events in Spanish history, was brought upon the - Spanish theatre. It is circumstantially represented in “Los dos - Monarcas de Europa,” by Bartolomé de Salazar y Luna. (Comedias - Escogidas, Madrid, 1665, 4to, Tomo XXII.) But the play is quite - too extravagant in its claims, both as respects the Emperor’s - humiliation and the Pope’s glory, considering that Clement VII. - had so lately been the Emperor’s prisoner. As the ceremony is - about to begin, a procession of priests enters, chanting,-- - - In happy hour, let this child of the Church, - Her obedient, dutiful son, - Come forth to receive, with her holiest rites, - The crown which his valor has won. - - To which the Emperor is made to reply,-- - - And in happy hour, let _him_ show his power, - His dominion, and glorious might, - Who now sees, in the dust, a king faithful and just - Surrender, rejoicing, his right. - - But such things were common in Spain, and tended to conciliate - the favor of the clergy for the theatre. - - [754] P. de Sandoval, Hist. del Emperador Carlos V., Amberes, - 1681, folio, Lib. XII. to XVIII., but especially the last book. - -On the other hand, it should be remembered that Italy was now in a -condition to act with all the power of a superior civilization and -refinement on this large body of Spaniards, many of them the leading -spirits of the Empire, who, by successive wars and negotiations, were -thus kept for half a century travelling in Italy and living at Genoa, -Milan, and Venice, Florence, Rome, and Naples. The age of Lorenzo de’ -Medici was already past, leaving behind it the memorials of Poliziano, -Boiardo, Pulci, and Leonardo da Vinci. The age of Leo the Tenth and -Clement the Seventh was contemporary, and had brought with it the yet -more prevalent influences of Michel Angelo, Raffaelle, and Titian, of -Machiavelli, of Berni, of Ariosto, of Bembo, and of Sannazaro; the last -of whom, it is not unworthy of notice, was himself a descendant of one -of those very Spanish families whom the political interests of the two -countries had originally carried to Naples. It was, therefore, when -Rome and Naples, Florence and the North of Italy, were in the maturity -of their glory, as seats of the arts and letters, that no small part -of what was most noble and cultivated in Spain was led across the Alps -and awakened to a perception of such forms and creations of genius and -taste as had not been attempted beyond the Pyrenees, and such as could -not fail to produce their full effect on minds excited, like those -of the whole Spanish people, by the glorious results of their long -struggle against the Moors, and their present magnificent successes -both in America and Europe. - -Visible traces of the influence of Italian literature might, therefore, -from general causes, soon be looked for in the Spanish; but an accident -brings them to our notice somewhat earlier, perhaps, than might -have been anticipated. Juan Boscan, a patrician of Barcelona, was, -as he himself tells us, devoted to poetry from his youth. The city -to which he belonged had early been distinguished for the number of -Provençal and Catalonian Troubadours who had flourished in it. But -Boscan preferred to write in the Castilian; and his defection from his -native dialect became, in some sort, the seal of its fate. His earlier -efforts, a few of which remain to us, are in the style of the preceding -century; but at last, when, from the most distinct accounts we can -obtain, he was about twenty-five years old, and when, we are assured, -he had been received at court, had served in the army, and had visited -foreign countries, he was induced, by an accident, to attempt the -proper Italian measures, as they were then practised.[755] - - [755] The Dictionary of Torres y Amat contains a short, but - sufficient, life of Boscan; and in Sedano, “Parnaso Español,” - (Madrid, 1768-78, 12mo, Tom. VIII. p. xxxi.,) there is one - somewhat more ample. - -He became, at that period, acquainted with Andrea Navagiero, who -was sent, in 1524, as ambassador from Venice to Charles the Fifth, -and returned home in 1528, carrying with him a dry, but valuable, -itinerary, which was afterwards published as an account of his travels. -He was a man of learning and a poet, an orator and a statesman of no -mean name.[756] While in Spain, he spent, during the year 1526, six -months at Granada.[757] “Being with Navagiero there one day,” says -Boscan, “and discoursing with him about matters of wit and letters, and -especially about the different forms they take in different languages, -he asked me why I did not make an experiment in Castilian of sonnets -and the other forms of verse used by good Italian authors; and not -only spoke to me of it thus slightly, but urged me much to do it. A -few days afterwards, I set off for my own home; and whether it were -the length and solitariness of the way I know not, but, turning over -different things in my mind, I came often back upon what Navagiero had -said to me. And thus I began to try this kind of verse. At first, I -found it somewhat difficult; for it is of a very artful construction, -and in many particulars different from ours. But afterwards it seemed -to me,--perhaps from the love we naturally bear to what is our -own,--that I began to succeed very well, and so I went on, little by -little, with increasing zeal.”[758] - - [756] Tiraboschi, Storia della Lett. Italiana, Roma, 1784, 4to, - Tom. VII., Parte I. p. 242; Parte II. p. 294; and Parte III. pp. - 228-230. - - [757] Andrea Navagiero, Il Viaggio fatto in Spagna, etc., - Vinegia, 1563, 12mo, ff. 18-30. Bayle gives an article on - Navagiero’s life, with discriminating praise of his scholarship - and genius. - - [758] Letter to the Duquesa de Soma, prefixed to the Second Book - of Boscan’s Poems. - -This account is interesting and important. It is rare that any -one individual has been able to exercise such an influence on the -literature of a foreign nation as was exercised by Navagiero. It is -still more rare,--indeed, perhaps, wholly unknown, in any case where -it may have occurred,--that the precise mode in which it was exercised -can be so exactly explained. Boscan tells us not only what he did, but -what led him to do it, and how he began his work, which we find him, -from this moment, following up, till he devoted himself to it entirely, -and wrote in all the favorite Italian measures and forms with boldness -and success. He was resisted, but he tells us Garcilasso sustained him; -and from this small beginning in a slight conversation with Navagiero -at Granada, a new school was introduced into Spanish poetry, which has -prevailed in it ever since, and materially influenced its character and -destinies. - -Boscan felt his success. This we can see from his own account of it. -But he made little effort to press his example on others; for he was a -man of fortune and consideration, who led a happy life with his family -at Barcelona, and hardly cared for popular reputation or influence. -Occasionally, we are told, he was seen at court; and at one period he -had some charge of the education of that Duke of Alva whose name, in -the next reign, became so formidable. But in general he preferred a -life of retirement to any of the prizes offered to ambition. - -Letters were his amusement. “In what I have written,” he says, “the -mere writing was never my object; but rather to solace such faculties -as I have, and to go less heavily through certain heavy passages of -my life.”[759] The range of his studies, however, was wider than this -remark might seem to imply, and wider than was common in Spain at the -beginning of the sixteenth century, even among scholars. He translated -a tragedy of Euripides, which was licensed to be published, but which -never appeared in print, and is, no doubt, lost.[760] On the basis of -the “Hero and Leander” of Musæus, and following the example of Bernardo -Tasso, he wrote, in the _versi sciolti_, or blank verse, of the -Italians, a tale nearly three thousand lines long, which may still be -read with pleasure, for the gentle and sweet passages it contains.[761] -And in general, throughout his poetry, he shows that he was familiar -with the Greek and Latin classics, and imbued, to a considerable -degree, with the spirit of antiquity. - - [759] Letter to the Duquesa de Soma. - - [760] It is mentioned in the permission to publish his works - granted to Boscan’s widow, by Charles V., Feb. 18, 1543, and - prefixed to the very rare and important edition of his works - and those of his friend Garcilasso, published for the first - time in the same year, at Barcelona, by Amoros; a small 4to, - containing 237 leaves. This edition is said to have been at once - counterfeited, and was certainly reprinted not less than six - times as early as 1546, three years after its first appearance. - In 1553, Alonso de Ulloa, a Spaniard, at Venice, who published - many Spanish books there with prefaces of some value by himself, - printed it in 18mo, very neatly, and added a few poems to those - found in the first edition; particularly one, at the beginning - of the volume, entitled “Conversion de Boscan,” religious in its - subject, and national in its form. At the end Ulloa puts a few - pages of verse, attacking the Italian forms adopted by Boscan; - describing what he thus adds as by “an uncertain author.” They - are, however, the work of Castillejo, and are found in Obras de - Castillejo, Anvers, 1598, 18mo, f. 110, etc. - - [761] Góngora, in the first two of his Burlesque Ballads, has - made himself merry (Obras, Madrid, 1654, 4to, f. 104, etc.) at - the expense of Boscan’s “Leandro.” But he has taken the same - freedom with better things. - - The Leandro was, I think, the first attempt to introduce blank - verse, which was thus brought by Boscan into the poetry of Spain - in 1543, as it was a little later into English, from the _versi - sciolti_ of the Italians, by Surrey, who called it “a strange - meter.” Acuña soon followed in Castilian with other examples of - it; but the first really good Spanish blank verse known to me is - to be found in the eclogue of “Tirsi” by Francisco de Figueroa, - written about half a century after the time of Boscan, and not - printed till 1626. The translation of a part of the Odyssey - by Perez, in 1553, and the “Sagrada Eratos” of Alonso Carillo - Laso de la Vega, which is a paraphrase of the Psalms, printed - at Naples in 1657, folio, afford much longer specimens that are - generally respectable. But the full rhyme is so easy in Spanish, - and the _asonante_ is so much easier, that blank verse, though it - has been used from the middle of the sixteenth century, has been - little cultivated or favored. - -His longest work was a translation of the Italian “Courtier” of -Balthazar Castiglione,--the best book on good-breeding, as Dr. -Johnson thought two centuries afterwards, that was ever written.[762] -Boscan, however, frankly says, that he did not like the business of -translating, which he regarded as “a low vanity, beseeming men of -little knowledge”; but Garcilasso de la Vega had sent him a copy of -the original soon after it was published, and he made this Spanish -version of it, he tells us, “at his friend’s earnest request.”[763] -Either or both of them may have known its author in the same way Boscan -knew Navagiero; for Castiglione was sent as ambassador of Clement the -Seventh to Spain in 1525, and remained there till his death, which -happened at Toledo, in 1529. - - [762] Boswell’s Life of Johnson, ed. Croker, London, 1831, 8vo, - Tom. II. p. 501. - - [763] The first edition of it is in black letter, without the - name of place or printer, 4to, 140 leaves, and is dated 1549. - Another edition appeared as early as 1553; supposed by Antonio - to have been the oldest. It is on the Index of 1667, p. 245, for - expurgation. - -But however this may have been, the Italian original of the Courtier -was prepared for the press in Spain and first printed in 1528;[764] -soon after which Boscan must have made his translation, though it did -not appear till 1540. As a version, it does not profess to be very -strict, for Boscan says he thought an exact fidelity to be unworthy of -him;[765] but, as a Spanish composition, it is uncommonly flowing and -easy. Garcilasso declares that it reads like an original work;[766] -and Morales, the historian, says, “The Courtier discourseth not better -in Italy, where he was born, than here in Spain, where Boscan hath -exhibited him so admirably well.”[767] Perhaps nothing in Castilian -prose, of an earlier date, is written in so classical and finished a -style as this translation by Boscan. - - [764] Ginguené, Hist. Lit. d’Italie, Tom. VII. pp. 544, 550. - - [765] “I have no mind,” he says in the Prólogo, “to be so strict - in the translation of this book, as to confine myself to give it - word for word. On the contrary, if any thing occurs, which sounds - well in the original language, and ill in our own, I shall not - fail to change it or to suppress it.” Ed. 1549, f. 2. - - [766] “Every time I read it,” says Garcilasso in a letter to Doña - Gerónima Palova de Almogovar, prefixed to the first edition, - “it seems to me as if it had never been written in any other - language.” This letter of Garcilasso is very beautiful in point - of style. - - [767] Morales, Discourse on the Castilian Language, Obras de - Oliva, Madrid, 1787, 12mo, Tom. I. p. xli. - -With such occupations Boscan filled up his unostentatious life. He -published nothing, or very little, and we have no single date to record -concerning him. But, from the few facts that can be collected, it seems -probable he was born before 1500, and we know that he died as early -as 1543; for in that year his works were published at Barcelona, by -his widow, under a license from the Emperor Charles the Fifth, with a -Preface, in which she says her husband had partly prepared them for the -press, because he feared they would be printed from some of the many -imperfect copies that had gone into circulation without his consent. - -They are divided into four books. The first consists of a small number -of poems in what are called _coplas Españolas_, or what he himself -elsewhere terms “the Castilian manner.” These are his early efforts, -made before his acquaintance with Navagiero. They are _villancicos_, -_canciones_, and _coplas_, in the short national verses, and seem as -if they might have come out of the old Cancioneros, in which, indeed, -two of them are to be found.[768] Their merit is not great; but, amidst -their ingenious conceits, there is sometimes a happiness and grace of -expression rarely granted to the poets of the same school in that or -the preceding century. - - [768] Cancionero General, 1535, f. 153. - -The second and third books, constituting by far the larger part of -the volume, are composed entirely of poems in the Italian measure. -They consist of ninety-three sonnets and nine _canzones_; the long -poem on Hero and Leander, in blank verse, already mentioned; an elegy -and two didactic epistles, in _terza rima_; and a half-narrative, -half-allegorical poem, in one hundred and thirty-five octave stanzas. -It is not necessary to go beyond such a mere enumeration of the -contents of these two books to learn, that, at least so far as their -forms are concerned, they have nothing to do with the elder national -Castilian poetry. The sonnets and the _canzones_ especially are obvious -imitations of Petrarch, as we can see in the case of the two beginning, -“Gentil Señora mia,” and “Claros y frescos rios,” which are largely -indebted to two of the most beautiful and best-known _canzones_ of the -lover of Laura.[769] In most of these poems, however, and amidst a good -deal of hardness of manner, a Spanish tone and spirit are perceptible, -which rescue them, in a great degree, from the imputation of being -copies. Boscan’s colors are here laid on with a bolder hand than -those of his Italian master, and there is an absence of that delicate -and exact finish, both in language and style, which, however charming -in his models, would hardly be possible in the most skilful Spanish -imitations. - - [769] Petrarca, Vita di Madonna Laura, Canz. 9 and 14. But - Boscan’s imitations of them are marred by a good many conceits. - Some of his sonnets, however, are free from this fault, and are - natural and tender. - -The elegy, which is merely entitled “Capitolo,” has more conceits -and learning in it than become its subject, and approaches nearer to -Boscan’s first manner than any of his later poems. It is addressed -to his lady-love; but, notwithstanding its defects, it contains long -passages of tenderness and simple beauty that will always be read with -pleasure. Of the two epistles, the first is poor and affected; but that -addressed to the old statesman, poet, and soldier, Diego de Mendoza, -is much in the tone and manner of Horace,--acute, genial, and full of -philosophy. - -But the most agreeable and original of Boscan’s works is the last of -them all,--“The Allegory.” It opens with a gorgeous description of -the Court of Love, and with the truly Spanish idea of a corresponding -and opposing Court of Jealousy; but almost the whole of the rest -consists of an account of the embassy of two messengers from the first -of these courts to two ladies of Barcelona who had refused to come -beneath its empire, and to persuade whom to submission a speech of -the ambassador is given that fills nearly half the poem, and ends it -somewhat abruptly. No doubt, the whole was intended as a compliment -to the two ladies, in which the story is of little consequence. But -it is a pleasing and airy trifle, in which its author has sometimes -happily hit the tone of Ariosto, and at other times reminds us of the -Island of Love in the “Lusiad,” though Boscan preceded Camoens by many -years. Occasionally, too, he has a moral delicacy, more refined than -Petrarch’s, though perhaps suggested by that of the great Italian; -such a delicacy as he shows in the following stanza, and two or three -preceding and following it, in which the ambassador of Love exhorts the -two ladies of Barcelona to submit to his authority, by urging on them -the happiness of a union founded in a genuine sympathy of tastes and -feeling:-- - - For is it not a happiness most pure, - That two fond hearts can thus together melt, - And each the other’s sorrows all endure, - While still their joys as those of one are felt; - Even causeless anger of support secure, - And pardons causeless in one spirit dealt; - That so their loves, though fickle all and strange, - May, in their thousand changes, still together change?[770] - - [770] - Y no es gusto tambien assi entenderos, - Que podays siēpre entrambos conformaros: - Entrambos en un punto entrísteceros, - Y en otro punto entrambos alegraros: - Y juntos sin razon embraueceros, - Y sin razon tambien luego amanssaros: - Y que os hagan, en fin, vuestros amores - Igualmente mudar de mil colores? - - Obras de Boscan, Barcelona, 1543, 4to, f. clx. - -Boscan might, probably, have done more for the literature of his -country than he did. His poetical talents were not, indeed, of the -highest order; but he perceived the degradation into which Spanish -poetry had fallen, and was persuaded that the way to raise it again was -to give it an ideal character and classical forms such as it had not -yet known. But to accomplish this, he adopted a standard not formed -on the intimations of the national genius. He took for his models -foreign masters, who, though more advanced than any he could find at -home, were yet entitled to supremacy in no literature but their own, -and could never constitute a safe foundation whereon to build a great -and permanent school of Spanish poetry. Entire success, therefore, -was impossible to him. He was able to establish in Spain the Italian -eleven-syllable and iambic versification; the sonnet and _canzone_, -as settled by Petrarch; Dante’s _terza rima_;[771] and Boccaccio’s and -Ariosto’s flowing octaves;--all in better taste than any thing among -the poets of his time and country, and all of them important additions -to the forms of verse before known in Spain. But he could go no -farther. The original and essential spirit of Italian poetry could no -more be transplanted to Castile or Catalonia than to Germany or England. - - [771] Pedro Fernandez de Villegas, Archdeacon of Burgos, who, in - 1515, published a translation of the “Inferno” of Dante, (see - _ante_, p. 409, n.,) says, in his Introduction, that he at first - endeavoured to make his version in _terza rima_, “which manner of - writing,” he goes on, “is not in use among us, and appeared to me - so ungraceful, that I gave it up.” This was about fifteen years - before Boscan wrote in it with success; perhaps a little earlier, - for it is dedicated to Doña Juana de Aragon, the natural daughter - of Ferdinand the Catholic, a lady of much literary cultivation, - who died before it was completed. - -But whatever were his purposes and plans for the advancement of the -literature of his country, Boscan lived long enough to see them -fulfilled, so far as they were ever destined to be; for he had a friend -who cooperated with him in all of them from the first, and who, with -a happier genius, easily surpassed him, and carried the best forms of -Italian verse to a height they never afterwards reached in Spanish -poetry. This friend was Garcilasso de la Vega, who yet died so young, -that Boscan survived him several years. - -Garcilasso was descended from an ancient family in the North of Spain, -who traced back their ancestry to the age of the Cid, and who, from -century to century, had been distinguished by holding some of the -highest places in the government of Castile.[772] A poetical tradition -says, that one of his forefathers obtained the name of “Vega” or -Plain, and the motto of “Ave Maria” for his family arms, from the -circumstance, that, during one of the sieges of Granada, he slew -outright, before the face of both armies, a Moorish champion who had -publicly insulted the Christian faith by dragging a banner inscribed -with “Ave Maria” at his horse’s heels,--a tradition faithfully -preserved in a fine old ballad, and forming the catastrophe of one -of Lope de Vega’s plays.[773] But whether all this be true or not, -Garcilasso bore a name honored on both sides of his house; for his -mother was daughter and sole heir of Fernan Perez de Guzman, and -his father was the ambassador of the Catholic sovereigns at Rome in -relation to the troublesome affairs of Naples. - - [772] The best life of Garcilasso de la Vega is to be found - in the edition of his works, Sevilla, 1580, 8vo, by Fernando - de Herrera, the poet. A play, comprising no small part of his - adventures, was produced in the Madrid theatre, by Don Gregorio - Romero y Larrañaga, in 1840. - - [773] The story and the ballad are found in Hita, “Guerras - Civiles de Granada,” (Barcelona, 1737, 12mo, Tom. I. cap. 17,) - and in Lope de Vega’s “Cerco de Santa Fe” (Comedias, Tom. I., - Valladolid, 1604, 4to). But the tradition, I think, is not true. - Oviedo directly contradicts it, when giving an account of the - family of the poet’s father; and as he knew them, his authority - is perhaps decisive. (Quinquagenas, Batalla I. Quin. iii. - Diálogo 43, MS.) But, besides this, Lord Holland (Life of Lope, - London, 1817, 8vo, Vol. I. p. 2) gives good reasons against the - authenticity of the story, which Wiffen (Works of Garcilasso, - London, 1823, 8vo, pp. 100 and 384) answers as well as he can, - but not effectually. It is really a pity it cannot be made out to - be true, it is so poetically appropriate. - -He was born at Toledo in 1503, and was educated there till he reached -an age suitable for bearing arms. Then, as became his rank and -pretensions, he was sent to court, and received his place in the armies -that were already gaining so much glory for their country. When he was -about twenty-seven years old, he married an Aragonese lady attached -to the court of Eleanor, widow of the king of Portugal, who, in 1530, -was in Spain on her way to become queen of France. From this time -he seems to have been constantly in the wars which the Emperor was -carrying on in all directions, and to have been much trusted by him, -though his elder brother, Pedro, had been implicated in the troubles -of the _Comunidades_, and compelled to escape from Spain as an outlawed -rebel.[774] - - [774] Sandoval, Hist. del Emperador Carlos V., Lib. V., and Oviedo - in the Dialogue referred to in the last note. - -In 1532 Garcilasso was at Vienna, and among those who distinguished -themselves in the defeat of the Turkish expedition of Soliman, which -that great sultan pushed to the very gates of the city. But while -he was there, he was himself involved in trouble. He undertook to -promote the marriage of one of his nephews with a lady of the Imperial -household; and, urging his project against the pleasure of the Empress, -not only failed, but was cast into prison on an island in the Danube, -where he wrote the melancholy lines on his own desolation and on the -beauty of the adjacent country, which pass as the third _Cancion_ in -his works.[775] The progress of events, however, not only soon brought -his release, but raised him into higher favor than ever. In 1535 he was -at the siege of Tunis,--when Charles the Fifth attempted to crush the -Barbary powers by a single blow,--and there received two severe wounds, -one on his head and the other in his arm.[776] His return to Spain is -recorded in an elegy, written at the foot of Mount Ætna, and indicating -that he came back by the way of Naples; a city which, from another poem -addressed to Boscan, he seems to have visited once before.[777] At any -rate, we know, though his present visit to Italy was a short one, that -he was there, at some period, long enough to win the personal esteem -and regard of Bembo and Tansillo.[778] - - [775] Obras de Garcilasso, ed. Herrera, 1580, p. 234, and also p. - 239, note. - - [776] Soneto 33 and note, ed. Herrera. - - [777] Elegía II. and the Epístola, ed. Herrera, p. 378. - - [778] Obras, ed. Herrera, p. 18. - -The very next year, however,--the last of his short life,--we find -him again at the court of the Emperor, and engaged in the disastrous -expedition into Provence. The army had already passed through the -difficulties and dangers of the siege of Marseilles, and was fortunate -enough not to be pursued by the cautious Constable de Montmorenci. -But as they approached the town of Frejus, a small castle, on a -commanding hill, defended by only fifty of the neighbouring peasantry, -offered a serious annoyance to their farther passage. The Emperor -ordered the slight obstacle to be swept from his path. Garcilasso, -who had now a considerable command, advanced gladly to execute the -Imperial requisition. He knew that the eyes of the Emperor, and indeed -those of the whole army, were upon him; and, in the true spirit of -knighthood, he was the first to mount the wall. But a well-directed -stone precipitated him into the ditch beneath. The wound, which was on -his head, proved mortal, and he died a few days afterwards, at Nice, -in 1536, only thirty-three years old. His fate is recorded by Mariana, -Sandoval, and the other national historians, among the important events -of the time; and the Emperor, we are told, basely avenged it by putting -to death all the survivors of the fifty peasantry, who had done no more -than bravely defend their homes against a foreign invader.[779] - - [779] Obras, ed. Herrera, p. 15. Sandoval, Hist. de Carlos V., - Lib. XXIII. § 12, and Mariana, Historia, ad annum. Çapata, in - his “Carlos Famoso,” (Valencia, 1565, 4to, Canto 41,) states - the number of the peasants in the tower at thirteen; and says - that Don Luis de la Cueva, who executed the Imperial order for - their death, wished to save all but one or two. He adds, that - Garcilasso was without armour when he scaled the wall of the - tower, and that his friends endeavoured to prevent his rashness. - -In a life so short and so crowded with cares and adventures we should -hardly expect to find leisure for poetry. But, as he describes himself -in his third Eclogue, Garcilasso seems to have hurried through the -world, - - Now seizing on the sword, and now the pen;[780] - - [780] - Tomando ora la espada, ora la pluma; - - a verse afterwards borrowed by Ercilla, and used in his - “Araucana.” It is equally applicable to both poets. - -so that he still left a small collection of poems, which the faithful -widow of Boscan, finding among her husband’s papers, published at -the end of his works as a Fourth Book, and has thus rescued what -would otherwise probably have been lost. Their character is singular, -considering the circumstances under which they were written; for, -instead of betraying any of the spirit that governed the main course -of their author’s adventurous life and brought him to an early grave, -they are remarkable for their gentleness and melancholy, and their -best portions are in a pastoral tone breathing the very sweetness of -the fabulous ages of Arcadia. When he wrote most of them we have no -means of determining with exactness. But with the exception of three -or four trifles that appear mingled with other similar trifles in the -first book of Boscan’s works, all Garcilasso’s poems are in the Italian -forms, which we know were first adopted, with his coöperation, in 1526; -so that we must, at any rate, place them in the ten years between this -date and that of his death. - -They consist of thirty-seven sonnets, five _canzones_, two elegies, -an epistle in _versi sciolti_ less grave than the rest of his poetry, -and three pastorals; the pastorals constituting more than half of all -the verse he wrote. The air of the whole is Italian. He has imitated -Petrarch, Bembo, Ariosto, and especially Sannazaro, to whom he has -once or twice been indebted for pages together; turning, however, from -time to time, reverently to the greater ancient masters, Virgil and -Theocritus, and acknowledging their supremacy. Where the Italian tone -most prevails, something of the poetical spirit which should sustain -him is lost. But, after all, Garcilasso was a poet of no common genius. -We see it sometimes even in the strictest of his imitations; but it -reveals itself much more distinctly when, as in the first Eclogue, he -uses as servants the masters to whom he elsewhere devotes himself, and -writes only like a Spaniard, warm with the peculiar national spirit of -his country. - -This first Eclogue is, in truth, the best of his works. It is -beautiful in the simplicity of its structure, and beautiful in its -poetical execution. It was probably written at Naples. It opens with -an address to the father of the famous Duke of Alva, then viceroy of -that principality, calling upon him, in the most artless manner, to -listen to the complaints of two shepherds, the first mourning the -faithlessness of a mistress, and the other the death of one. Salicio, -who represents Garcilasso, then begins; and when he has entirely -finished, but not before, he is answered by Nemoroso, whose name -indicates that he represents Boscan.[781] The whole closes naturally -and gracefully with a description of the approach of evening. It is, -therefore, not properly a dialogue, any more than the eighth Eclogue -of Virgil. On the contrary, except the lines at the opening and the -conclusion, it might be regarded as two separate elegies, in which the -pastoral tone is uncommonly well preserved, and each of which, by its -divisions and arrangements, is made to resemble an Italian _canzone_. -An air of freshness and even originality is thus given to the structure -of the entire pastoral, while, at the same time, the melancholy, but -glowing, passion that breathes through it renders it in a high degree -poetical. - - [781] I am aware that Herrera, in his notes to the poetry of - Garcilasso, says that Garcilasso intended to represent Don - Antonio de Fonseca under the name of Nemoroso. But nearly every - body else supposes he meant that name for Boscan, taking it from - _Bosque_ and _Nemus_; a very obvious conceit. Among the rest, - Cervantes is of this opinion. Don Quixote, Parte II. c. 67. - -In the first part, where Salicio laments the unfaithfulness of his -mistress, there is a happy preservation of the air of pastoral life by -a constant, and yet not forced, allusion to natural scenery and rural -objects, as in the following passage:-- - - For thee, the silence of the shady wood - I loved; for thee, the secret mountain-top, - Which dwells apart, glad in its solitude; - For thee, I loved the verdant grass, the wind - That breathed so fresh and cool, the lily pale, - The blushing rose, and all the fragrant treasures - Of the opening spring! But, O! how far - From all I thought, from all I trusted, amidst - Loving scenes like these, was that dark falsehood - That lay hid within thy treacherous heart![782] - - [782] - Por ti el silencio de la selva umbrosa, - Por ti la esquividad y apartimiento - Del solitario monte me agradaba: - Por ti la verde hierba, el fresco viento, - El blanco lirio y colorada rosa, - Y dulce primavera deseaba. - Ay! quanto me engañaba, - Ay! quan diferente era, - Y quan de otra manera - Lo que en tu falso pecho se escondia. - - Obras de Garcilasso de la Vega, ed. Azara, Madrid, - 1765, 12mo, p. 5. - - Something of the same idea and turn of phrase occurs in Mendoza’s - Epistle to Boscan, which will be noticed hereafter. - -The other division of the Eclogue contains passages that remind us -both of Milton’s “Lycidas” and of the ancients whom Milton imitated. -Thus, in the following lines, where the opening idea is taken from a -well-known passage in the Odyssey, the conclusion is not unworthy of -the thought that precedes it, and adds a new charm to what so many -poets since Homer had rendered familiar:[783]-- - - [783] Odyss. T. 518-524. Moschus, too, has it, and Virgil; but - it is more to the present purpose to say, that it is found in - Boscan’s “Leandro.” - - And as the nightingale that hides herself - Amidst the sheltering leaves, and sorrows there, - Because the unfeeling hind, with cruel craft, - Hath stole away her unfledged offspring dear,-- - Stole them from out the nest that was their home, - While she was absent from the bough she loved,-- - And pours her grief in sweetest melody, - Filling the air with passionate complaint, - Amidst the silence of the gloomy night, - Calling on heaven and heaven’s pure stars - To witness her great wrong;--so I am yielded up - To misery, and mourn, in vain, that Death - Should thrust his hand into my inmost heart, - And bear away, as from its nest and home, - The love I cherished with unceasing care![784] - - [784] - Qual suele el ruyseñor, con triste canto, - Quexarse, entre las hojas encondido, - Del duro laborador, que cautamente - Le despojo su caro y dulce nido - De los tiernos hijuelos, entre tanto - Que del amado ramo estaua ausente; - Y aquel dolor que siente, - Con diferencia tanta, - Por la dulce garganta - Despide, y a su canto el ayre suena; - Y la callada noche no refrena - Su lamentable oficio y sus querellas, - Trayendo de su pena - El cielo por testigo y las estrellas: - - Desta manera suelto yo la rienda - A mi dolor, y anssi me quejo en vano - De la dureza de la muerte ayrada: - Ella en mi coraçon metyó la mano, - Y d’ alli me lleuó mi dulçe prenda, - Que aquel era su nido y su morada. - - Obras de Garcilasso de la Vega, ed. Azara, 1765, - p. 14. - - -Garcilasso’s versification is uncommonly sweet, and well suited to the -tender and sad character of his poetry. In his second Eclogue, he has -tried the singular experiment of making the rhyme often, not between -the ends of two lines, but between the end of one and the middle of the -next. It was not, however, successful. Cervantes has imitated it, and -so have one or two others; but wherever the rhyme is quite obvious, -the effect is not good, and where it is little noticed, the lines -take rather the character of blank verse.[785] In general, however, -Garcilasso’s harmony can hardly be improved; at least, not without -injuring his versification in particulars yet more important. - - [785] For example,-- - Albanio, si tu mal comuni_cáras_ - Con otro, que pen_sáras_, que tu _péna_ - Juzgara como _agéna_, o que este fuego, etc. - - I know of no earlier instance of this precise rhyme, which is - quite different from the lawless rhymes that sometimes broke the - verses of the Minnesingers and Troubadours. Cervantes used it, - nearly a century afterwards, in his “Cancion de Grisóstomo,” - (Don Quixote, Parte I. c. 14,) and Pellicer, in his commentary - on the passage, regards Cervantes as the inventor of it. Perhaps - Garcilasso’s rhymes had escaped all notice; for they are not - the subject of remark by his learned commentators. In English, - instances of this peculiarity may be found occasionally amidst - the riotous waste of rhymes in Southey’s “Curse of Kehama,” and - in Italian they occur in Alfieri’s “Saul,” Act III. sc. 4. I do - not remember to have seen them again in Spanish except in some - _décimas_ of Pedro de Salas, printed in 1638, and in the second - _jornada_ of the “Pretendiente al Reves” of Tirso de Molina, - 1634. No doubt they occur elsewhere, but they are rare, I think. - -His poems had a great success from the moment they appeared. There -was a grace and an elegance about them of which Boscan may in part -have set the example, but which Boscan was never able to reach. The -Spaniards who came back from Rome and Naples were delighted to find at -home what had so much charmed them in their campaigns and wanderings -in Italy; and Garcilasso’s poems were proudly reprinted wherever the -Spanish arms and influence extended. They received, too, other honors. -In less than half a century from their first appearance, Francisco -Sanchez, commonly called “El Brocense,” the most learned Spaniard of -his age, added a commentary to them, which has still some value. A -little later, Herrera, the lyric poet, published them, with a series -of notes yet more ample, in which, amidst much that is useless, -interesting details may be found, for which he was indebted to Puerto -Carrero, the poet’s son-in-law. And early in the next century, Tamayo -de Vargas again encumbered the whole with a new mass of unprofitable -learning.[786] Such distinctions, however, constituted, even when they -were fresh, little of Garcilasso’s real glory, which rested on the -safer foundations of a genuine and general regard. His poetry, from the -first, sunk deep into the hearts of his countrymen. His sonnets were -heard everywhere; his eclogues were acted like popular dramas.[787] -The greatest geniuses of his nation express for him a reverence they -show to none of their predecessors. Lope de Vega imitates him in every -possible way; Cervantes praises him more than he does any other poet, -and cites him oftener.[788] And thus Garcilasso has come down to us -enjoying a general national admiration, such as is given to hardly any -other Spanish poet, and to none that lived before his time. - - [786] Francisco Sanchez--who was named at home El Brocense, - because he was born at Las Brozas in Estremadura, but is - known elsewhere as Sanctius, the author of the “Minerva,” and - other works of learning--published his edition of Garcilasso - at Salamanca, 1574, 18mo; a modest work, which has been - printed often since. This was followed at Seville, in 1580, - by the elaborate edition of Herrera, in 8vo, filling nearly - seven hundred pages, chiefly with its commentary, which is so - cumbersome, that it has never been reprinted, though it contains - a good deal important, both to the history of Garcilasso, and - to the elucidation of the earlier Spanish literature. Tamayo - de Vargas was not satisfied with either of them, and published - a commentary of his own at Madrid in 1622, 18mo, but it is of - little worth. Perhaps the most agreeable edition of Garcilasso - is one published, without its editor’s name, in 1765, by the - Chevalier Joseph Nicolas de Azara; long the ambassador of Spain - at Rome, and at the head of what was most distinguished in the - intellectual society of that capital. In English, Garcilasso was - made known by J. H. Wiffen, who, in 1823, published at London, - in 8vo, a translation of all his works, prefixing a Life and an - Essay on Spanish Poetry; but the translation is constrained, and - fails in the harmony that so much distinguishes the original, - and the dissertation is heavy and not always accurate in its - statement of facts. - - [787] Don Quixote, (Parte II. c. 58,) after leaving the Duke and - Duchess, finds a party about to represent one of Garcilasso’s - Eclogues, at a sort of _fête champêtre_. - - [788] I notice that the allusions to Garcilasso by Cervantes are - chiefly in the latter part of his life; namely, in the second - part of his Don Quixote, in his Comedias, his Novelas, and his - “Persiles y Sigismunda,” as if his admiration were the result of - his matured judgment. More than once he calls him “the prince - of Spanish poets”; but this title, which can be traced back to - Herrera, and has been continued down to our own times, has, - perhaps, rarely been taken literally. - -That it would have been better for himself and for the literature of -his country, if he had drawn more from the elements of the earlier -national character, and imitated less the great Italian masters he -justly admired, can hardly be doubted. It would have given a freer and -more generous movement to his poetical genius, and opened to him a -range of subjects and forms of composition, from which, by rejecting -the example of the national poets that had gone before him, he excluded -himself.[789] But he deliberately decided otherwise; and his great -success, added to that of Boscan, introduced into Spain an Italian -school of poetry which has been an important part of Spanish literature -ever since.[790] - - [789] How decidedly Garcilasso rejected the Spanish poetry - written before his time can be seen, not only by his own - example, but by his letter prefixed to Boscan’s translation of - Castiglione, where he says that he holds it to be a great benefit - to the Spanish language to translate into it things really - worthy to be read; “for,” he adds, “I know not what ill luck has - always followed us, but hardly any body has written any thing - in our tongue worthy of that trouble.” It may be noted, on the - other hand, that scarcely a word or phrase used by Garcilasso - has ceased to be accounted pure Castilian;--a remark that can - be extended, I think, to no writer so early. His language lives - as he does, and, in no small degree, _because_ his success has - consecrated it. The word _desbañar_, in his second Eclogue, is, - perhaps, the only exception to this remark. - - [790] Eleven years after the publication of the works of Boscan - and Garcilasso, Hernando de Hozes, in the Preface to his - “Triumfos de Petrarca,” (Medina del Campo, 1554, 4to,) says, - with much truth: “Since Garcilasso de la Vega and Juan Boscan - introduced Tuscan measures into our Spanish language, every thing - earlier, written or translated, in the forms of verse then used - in Spain, has so much lost reputation, that few now care to read - it, though, as we all know, some of it is of great value.” If - this opinion had continued to prevail, Spanish literature would - not have become what it now is. - - - - -CHAPTER III. - -IMITATIONS OF THE ITALIAN MANNER.--ACUÑA.--CETINA.--OPPOSITION TO -IT.--CASTILLEJO.--ANTONIO DE VILLEGAS.--SILVESTRE.--DISCUSSIONS -CONCERNING IT.--ARGOTE DE MOLINA.--MONTALVO.--LOPE DE VEGA.--ITS FINAL -SUCCESS. - - -The example set by Boscan and Garcilasso was so well suited to the -spirit and demands of the age, that it became as much a fashion, at the -court of Charles the Fifth, to write in the Italian manner as it did -to travel in Italy or make a military campaign there. Among those who -earliest adopted the forms of Italian verse was Fernando de Acuña, a -gentleman belonging to a noble Portuguese family, but born in Madrid -and writing only in Spanish. He served in Flanders, in Italy, and in -Africa; and after the conquest of Tunis, in 1535, a mutiny having -occurred in its garrison, he was sent there by the Emperor, with -unlimited authority to punish or to pardon those implicated in it; a -difficult mission, whose duties he fulfilled with great discretion and -with an honorable generosity. - -In other respects, too, Acuña was treated with peculiar confidence. -Charles the Fifth--as we learn from the familiar correspondence of Van -Male, a poor scholar and gentleman who slept often in his bed-chamber -and nursed him in his infirmities--amused the fretfulness of a -premature old age, under which his proud spirit constantly chafed, by -making a translation into Spanish prose of a French poem then much -in vogue and favor,--the “Chevalier Délibéré.” Its author, Olivier de -la Marche, was long attached to the service of Mary of Burgundy, the -Emperor’s grandmother, and had made, in the Chevalier Délibéré, an -allegorical show of the events in the life of her father, so flattering -as to render his picture an object of general admiration at the time -when Charles was educated at her brilliant court.[791] But the great -Emperor, though his prose version of the pleasant reading of his youth -is said to have been prepared with more skill and success than might -have been anticipated from his imperfect training for such a task, felt -that he was unable to give it the easy dress he desired it should wear -in Castilian verse. This labor, therefore, in the plenitude of his -authority, he assigned to Acuña; confiding to him the manuscript he had -prepared in great secrecy, and requiring him to cast it into a more -appropriate and agreeable form. - - [791] Goujet, Bibliothèque Française, Paris, 1745, 12mo, Tom. IX. - pp. 372-380. - -Acuña was well fitted for the delicate duty assigned to him. As a -courtier, skilled in the humors of the palace, he omitted several -passages that would be little interesting to his master, and inserted -others that would be more so,--particularly several relating to -Ferdinand and Isabella, and to Philip, Charles’s father. As a poet, -he turned the Emperor’s prose into the old double _quintillas_ -with a purity and richness of idiom rare in any period of Spanish -literature, and some portion of the merit of which has, perhaps justly, -been attributed by Van Male to the Imperial version out of which it -was constructed. The poem thus prepared--making three hundred and -seventy-nine stanzas of ten short lines each--was then secretly given -by Charles, as if it were a present worthy of a munificent sovereign, -to Van Male, the poor servant, who records the facts relating to it, -and then, forbidding all notice of himself in the Preface, the Emperor -ordered an edition of it, so large, that the unhappy scholar trembled -at the pecuniary risks he was to run on account of the bounty he had -received. The “Cavallero Determinado,” as it was called in the version -of Acuña, was, however, more successful than Van Male supposed it -would be; and, partly from the interest the master of so many kingdoms -must have felt in a work in which his secret share was considerable; -partly from the ingenuity of the allegory, which is due in general to -La Marche; and partly from the fluency and grace of the versification, -which must be wholly Acuña’s, it became very popular; seven editions of -it being called for in the course of half a century.[792] - - [792] It is something like the well-known German poem - “Theuerdank,” which was devoted to the adventures of Maximilian - I. up to the time when he married Mary of Burgundy, and, like - that, owes some of its reputation to the bold engravings with - which its successive editions were ornamented. One of the best - of the Cavallero Determinado is the Plantiniana, Anvers, 1591, - 8vo. The account of the part--earlier unsuspected--borne by - the Emperor in the composition of the Cavallero Determinado is - found on pp. 15 and 16 of the “Lettres sur la Vie Intérieure de - l’Empereur Charles Quint, par Guillaume Van Male, Gentilhomme - de sa Chambre, publiées pour la première fois par le Baron de - Reiffenberg, Bruxelles, Société des Bibliophiles Belgiques, à - Bruxelles, 1843,” 4to; a very curious collection of thirty-one - Latin letters, that often contain strange details of the - infirmities of the Emperor from 1550 to 1555. Their author, Van - Male, or Malinæus as he was called in Latin, and Malinez in - Spanish, was one of the needy Flemings who sought favor at the - court of Charles V. Being ill treated by the Duke of Alva, who - was his first patron; by Avila y Zuñiga, whose Commentaries he - translated into Latin, in order to purchase his regard; and by - the Emperor, to whom he rendered many kind and faithful services, - he was, like many others who had come to Spain with similar - hopes, glad to return to Flanders as poor as he came. He died - in 1560. He was an accomplished and simple-hearted scholar, and - deserved a better fate than to be rewarded for his devotion to - the Imperial humors by a present of Acuña’s manuscript, which - Avila had the malice to assure the Emperor would be well worth - five hundred gold crowns to the suffering man of letters;--a - remark to which the Emperor replied by saying, “William will come - rightfully by the money; he has sweat hard at the work,”--“Bono - jure fructus ille ad Gulielmum redeat; ut qui plurimum in illo - opere sudârit.” Of the Emperor’s personal share in the version - of the Chevalier Délibéré Van Male gives the following account - (Jan. 13, 1551):--“Cæsar maturat editionem libri, cui titulus - erat Gallicus,--Le Chevalier Délibéré. Hunc per otium _a seipso - traductum_ tradidit Ferdinando Acunæ, Saxonis custodi, ut ab - eo aptaretur ad numeros rithmi Hispanici; quæ res cecidit - felicissimè. _Cæsari, sine dubio, debetur primaria traductionis - industria, cùm non solùm linguam, sed et carmen et vocum - significantiam mirè expressit_,” etc. Epist. vi. - - A version of the Chevalier Délibéré was also made by Gerónimo de - Urrea, and was printed in 1555. I have never seen it. - -But notwithstanding the success of the Cavallero Determinado, Acuña -wrote hardly any thing else in the old national style and manner. -His shorter poems, filling a small volume, are, with one or two -inconsiderable exceptions, in the Italian measures, and sometimes are -direct imitations of Boscan and Garcilasso. They are almost all written -in good taste, and with a classical finish, especially “The Contest of -Ajax with Ulysses,” where, in tolerable blank verse, Acuña has imitated -the severe simplicity of Homer. He was known, too, in Italy, and his -translation of a part of Boiardo’s “Orlando Innamorato” was praised -there; but his miscellanies and his sonnets found more favor at home. -He died at Granada, it is said, in 1580, while prosecuting a claim he -had inherited to a Spanish title; but his poems were not printed till -1591, when, like those of Boscan, with which they may be fairly ranked, -they were published by the pious care of his widow.[793] - - [793] The second edition of Acuña’s Poesías is that of Madrid, - 1804, 12mo. His life is in Baena, “Hijos de Madrid,” Tom. II. p. - 387; Tom. IV. p. 403. - -Less fortunate in this respect than Acuña was Gutierre de Cetina, -another Spaniard of the same period and school, since no attempt -has ever been made to collect his poems. The few that remain to us, -however,--his madrigals, sonnets, and other short pieces,--have -much merit. Sometimes they take an Anacreontic tone; but the better -specimens are rather marked by sweetness, like the following -madrigal:-- - - Eyes, that have still serenely shone, - And still for gentleness been praised, - Why thus in anger are ye raised, - When turned on me, and me alone? - The more ye tenderly and gently beam, - The more to all ye winning seem;-- - But yet,--O, yet,--dear eyes, serene and sweet, - Turn on me still, whate’er the glance I meet![794] - - [794] - Ojos claros serenos, - Si de dulce mirar sois alabados, - Porqué, si me mirais, mirais ayrados? - Si quanto mas piadosos, - Mas bellos pareceis á quien os mira, - Porqué a mí solo me mirais con ira? - Ojos claros serenos, - Ya que asi me mirais, miradme al menos. - - Sedano, Parnaso Español, Tom. VII. p. 75. - -Like many others of his countrymen, Cetina was a soldier, and fought -bravely in Italy. Afterwards he visited Mexico, where he had a brother -in an important public office; but he died, at last, in Seville, his -native city, about the year 1560. He was an imitator of Garcilasso, -even more than of the Italians who were Garcilasso’s models.[795] - - [795] A few of Cetina’s poems are inserted by Herrera in his - notes to Garcilasso, 1580, pp. 77, 92, 190, 204, 216, etc.; and - a few more by Sedano in the “Parnaso Español,” Tom. VII. pp. 75, - 370; Tom. VIII. pp. 96, 216; Tom. IX. p. 134. The little we know - of him is in Sismondi, Lit. Esp., Sevilla, 1841, Tom. I. p. 381. - Probably he died young. (Conde Lucanor, 1575, ff. 93, 94.) The - poems of Cetina were, in 1776, extant in a MS. in the library of - the Duke of Arcos, at Madrid. (Obras Sueltas de Lope de Vega, - Madrid, 1776, 4to, Tom. I., Prólogo, p. ii., note.) It is much to - be desired that they should be sought out and published. - - In a sonnet by Castillejo, found in his attack on the Italian - school, (Obras, 1598, f. 114. a) he speaks of Luis de Haro as one - of the four persons who had most contributed to the success of - that school in Spain. I know of no poetry by any author of this - name. - -But an Italian school was not introduced into Spanish literature -without a contest. We cannot, perhaps, tell who first broke ground -against it, as an unprofitable and unjustifiable innovation; but -Christóval de Castillejo, a gentleman of Ciudad Rodrigo, was the most -efficient of its early opponents. He was attached, from the age of -fifteen, to the person of Ferdinand, the younger brother of Charles the -Fifth, and subsequently Emperor of Germany; passing a part of his life -in Austria, as secretary to that prince, and ending it, in extreme old -age, as a Carthusian monk, at the convent of Val de Iglesias, near -Toledo. But wherever he lived, Castillejo wrote verses, and showed -no favor to the new school. He attacked it in many ways, but chiefly -by imitating the old masters in their _villancicos_, _canciones_, -_glosas_, and the other forms and measures they adopted, though with a -purer and better taste than they had generally shown. - -Some of his poetry was written as early as 1540 and 1541; and, except -the religious portion, which fills the latter part of the third and -last of the three books into which his works are divided, it has -generally a fresh and youthful air. Facility and gayety are, perhaps, -its most prominent, though certainly not its highest, characteristics. -Some of his love-verses are remarkable for their tenderness and grace, -especially those addressed to Anna; but he shows the force and bent of -his talent rather when he deals with practical life, as he does in his -bitter discussion concerning the court; in a dialogue between his pen -and himself; in a poem on Woman; and in a letter to a friend, asking -counsel about a love affair;--all of which are full of living sketches -of the national manners and feelings. Next to these, perhaps, some of -his more fanciful pieces, such as his “Transformation of a Drunkard -into a Mosquito,” are the most characteristic of his light-hearted -nature. - -But on every occasion where he finds an opening, or can make one, he -attacks the imitators of the Italians, whom he contemptuously calls -“Petrarquistas.” Once, he devotes to them a regular satire, which he -addresses “to those who give up the Castilian measures and follow the -Italian,” calling out Boscan and Garcilasso by name, and summoning -Juan de Mena, Sanchez de Badajoz, Naharro, and others of the elder -poets, to make merry with him, at the expense of the innovators. -Almost everywhere he shows a genial temperament, and sometimes indulges -himself in a freer tone than was thought beseeming at the time when -he lived; in consequence of which, his poetry, though much circulated -in manuscript, was forbidden by the Inquisition; so that all we now -possess of it is a selection, which, by a sort of special favor, was -exempted from censure, and permitted to be printed in 1573.[796] - - [796] The little that is known of Castillejo is to be found in - his Poems, the publication of which was first permitted to Juan - Lopez de Velasco. Antonio says, that Castillejo died about 1596, - in which case he must have been very old; especially if, as - Moratin thinks, he was born in 1494! But the facts stated about - him are quite uncertain, with the exception of those told by - himself. (L. F. Moratin, Obras, Tom. I. Parte I. pp. 154-156.) - His works were well published at Antwerp, by Bellero, in 1598, - 18mo, and in Madrid, by Sanchez, in 1600, 18mo, and they form the - twelfth and thirteenth volumes of the Collection of Fernandez, - Madrid, 1792, 12mo, besides which I have seen editions cited of - 1582, 1615, etc. His dramas are lost;--even the “Costanza,” which - Moratin saw in the Escurial, could not be found there in 1844, - when I caused a search to be made for it. - -Another of those who maintained the doctrines and wrote in the measures -of the old school was Antonio de Villegas, whose poems, though written -before 1551, were not printed till 1565. The Prólogo, addressed to -the book, with instructions how it should bear itself in the world, -reminds us sometimes of “The Soul’s Errand,” but is more easy and less -poetical. The best poems of the volume are, indeed, of this sort, light -and gay; rather running into pretty quaintnesses than giving token of -deep feeling. The longer among them, like those on Pyramus and Thisbe, -and on the quarrel between Ulysses and Ajax, are the least interesting. -But the shorter pieces are many of them very agreeable. One to the Duke -of Sesa, the descendant of Gonzalvo of Córdova, and addressed to him -as he was going to Italy, where Cervantes served under his leading, is -fortunate, from its allusion to his great ancestor. It begins thus:-- - - Go forth to Italy, great chief; - It is thy fated land, - Sown thick with deeds of brave emprise - By that ancestral hand - Which cast its seeds so widely there, - That, as thou marchest on, - The very soil will start afresh, - Teeming with glories won; - While round thy form, like myriad suns, - Shall shine a halo’s flame, - Enkindled from the dazzling light - Of thy great father’s fame. - -More characteristic than this, however, because less heroic and grave, -are eighteen _décimas_, or ten-line poems, called “Comparaciones,” -because each ends with a comparison; the whole being preceded by a -longer composition in the same style, addressing them all to his -lady-love. The following may serve as a specimen of their peculiar tone -and measure:-- - - Lady! so used my soul is grown - To serve thee always in pure truth, - That, drawn to thee, and thee alone, - My joys come thronging; and my youth - No grief can jar, save when thou grievest its tone. - But though my faithful soul be thus in part - Untuned, when dissonance it feels in thee, - Still, still to thine turns back my trembling heart, - As jars the well-tuned string in sympathy - With that which trembles at the tuner’s art.[797] - - [797] _Comparacion._ - - Señora, estan ya tan diestras - En serviros mis porfias, - Que acuden como a sus muestras - Sola a vos mis alegrias, - Y mis sañas a las vuestras. - Y aunque en parte se destempla - Mi estado de vuestro estado, - Mi ser al vuestro contempla, - Como instrumento templado - Al otro con quien se templa. - - f. 37. - - These poems are in a small volume of miscellanies, published at - Medina del Campo, called “Inventario de Obras, por Antonio de - Villegas, Vezino de la Villa de Medina del Campo,” 1565, 4to. - The copy I use is of another, and, I believe, the only other, - edition, Medina del Campo, 1577, 12mo. Like other poets who - deal in prettinesses, Villegas repeats himself occasionally, - because he so much admires his own conceits. Thus, the idea - in the little _décima_ translated in the text is also in a - pastoral--half poetry, half prose--in the same volume. “Assi como - dos instrumentos bien templados tocando las cuerdas del uno se - tocan y suenan las del otro ellas mismas; assi yo en viendo este - triste, me assoné con el,” etc. (f. 14, b.) It should be noticed, - that the license to print the Inventario, dated 1551, shows it to - have been written as early as that period. - -Gregorio Silvestre, a Portuguese, who came in his childhood to Spain, -and died there in 1570, was another of those who wrote according to the -earlier modes of composition. He was a friend of Torres de Naharro, of -Garci Sanchez de Badajoz, and of Heredia; and, for some time, imitated -Castillejo in speaking lightly of Boscan and Garcilasso. But, as the -Italian manner prevailed more and more, he yielded somewhat to the -fashion; and, in his latter years, wrote sonnets, and _ottava_ and -_terza rima_, adding to their forms a careful finish not then enough -valued in Spain.[798] All his poetry, notwithstanding the accident -of his foreign birth, is written in pure and idiomatic Castilian; -but the best of it is in the older style,--“the old rhymes,” as he -called them,--in which, apparently, he felt more freedom than he did -in the manner he subsequently adopted. His Glosses seem to have been -most regarded by himself and his friends; and if the nature of the -composition itself had been more elevated, they might still deserve -the praise they at first received, for he shows great facility and -ingenuity in their construction.[799] - - [798] He is much praised for this in a poetical epistle of Luis - Barahona de Soto, printed with Silvestre’s works, Granada, 1599, - 12mo, f. 330. - - [799] The best are his glosses on the Paternoster, f. 284, and - the Ave Maria, f. 289. - -His longer narrative poems--those on Daphne and Apollo, and on Pyramus -and Thisbe, as well as one he called “The Residence of Love”--are -not without merit, though they are among the less fortunate of his -efforts. But his _canciones_ are to be ranked with the very best in the -language; full of the old true-hearted simplicity of feeling, and yet -not without an artifice in their turns of expression, which, far from -interfering with their point and effect, adds to both. Thus, one of -them begins:-- - - Your locks are all of gold, my lady, - And of gold each priceless hair; - And the heart is all of steel, my lady, - That sees them without despair. - -While a little farther on he gives to the same idea a quaint turn, or -answer, such as he delighted to make:-- - - Not of gold would be your hair, dear lady, - No, not of gold so fair; - But the fine, rich gold itself, dear lady, - That gold would be your hair.[800] - - [800] - Señora, vuestros cabellos - De oro son, - Y de azero el coraçon, - Que no se muere por ellos. - - Obras, Granada, 1599, 12mo, f. 69. - - No quieren ser de oro, no, - Señora, vuestros cabellos, - Quel oro quiere ser dellos. - - Ibid., f. 71. - -Each is followed by a sort of gloss, or variation of the original air, -which again is not without its appropriate merit. - -Silvestre was much connected with the poets of his time; not only -those of the old school, but those of the Italian, like Diego de -Mendoza, Hernando de Acuña, George of Montemayor, and Luis Barahona de -Soto. Their poems, in fact, are sometimes found mingled with his own, -and their spirit, we see, had a controlling influence over his. But -whether, in return, he produced much effect on them, or on his times, -may be doubted. He seems to have passed his life quietly in Granada, -of whose noble cathedral he was the principal musician, and where he -was much valued as a member of society, for his wit and kindly nature. -But when he died, at the age of fifty, his poetry was known only in -manuscript; and after it was collected and published by his friend -Pedro de Caceres, twelve years later, it produced little sensation. -He belonged, in truth, to both schools, and was therefore thoroughly -admired by neither.[801] - - [801] There were three editions of the poetry of Silvestre;--two - at Granada, 1582 and 1599; and one at Lisbon, 1592, with a very - good life of him by his editor, to which occasional additions are - made, though, on the whole, it is abridged, by Barbosa, Tom. II. - p. 419. Luis Barahona de Soto, the friend of Silvestre, speaks of - him pleasantly in several of his poetical epistles, and Lope de - Vega praises him in the second Silva of his “Laurel de Apolo.” - His Poems are divided into four books, and fill 387 leaves in - the edition of 1599, 18mo. He wrote also, religious dramas for - his cathedral, which are lost. One single word is ordered by the - Index of 1667 (p. 465) to be expurgated from his works! - -The discussion between the two, however, soon became a formal one. -Argote de Molina naturally brought it into his Discourse on Spanish -Poetry in 1575,[802] and Montalvo introduced it into his Pastoral, -where it little belongs, but where, under assumed names, Cervantes, -Ercilla, Castillejo, Silvestre, and Montalvo[803] himself, give their -opinions in favor of the old school. This was in 1582. In 1599, Lope de -Vega defended the same side in the Preface to his “San Isidro.”[804] -But the question was then substantially decided. Five or six long -epics, including the “Araucana,” had already been written in the -Italian _ottava rima_; as many pastorals, in imitation of Sannazaro’s; -and thousands of verses in the shape of sonnets, _canzoni_, and the -other forms of Italian poetry, a large portion of which had found -much favor. Even Lope de Vega, therefore, who is quite decided in -his opinion, and wrote his poem of “San Isidro” in the old popular -_redondillas_, fell in with the prevailing fashion, so that, perhaps, -in the end, nobody did more than himself to confirm the Italian -measures and manner. From this time, therefore, the success of the new -school may be considered certain and settled; nor has it ever since -been displaced or superseded, as an important division of Spanish -literature. - - [802] The Discourse follows the first edition of the “Conde - Lucanor,” 1575, and is strongly in favor of the old Spanish - verse. Argote de Molina wrote poetry himself, but such as he has - given us in his “Nobleza” is of little value. - - [803] Pastor de Filida, Parts IV. and VI. - - [804] Obras Sueltas, Madrid, 1777, Tom. XI. pp. xxviii.-xxx. - - - - -CHAPTER IV. - -DIEGO HURTADO DE MENDOZA.--HIS FAMILY.--HIS LAZARILLO DE TÓRMES, AND -ITS IMITATIONS.--HIS PUBLIC EMPLOYMENTS AND PRIVATE STUDIES.--HIS -RETIREMENT FROM AFFAIRS.--HIS POEMS AND MISCELLANIES.--HIS HISTORY OF -THE REBELLION OF THE MOORS.--HIS DEATH AND CHARACTER. - - -Among those who did most to decide the question in favor of the -introduction and establishment of the Italian measures in Spanish -literature was one whose rank and social position gave him great -authority, and whose genius, cultivation, and adventures point alike -to his connection with the period we have just gone over and with -that on which we are now entering. This person was Diego Hurtado de -Mendoza, a scholar and a soldier, a poet and a diplomatist, a statesman -and an historian,--a man who rose to great consideration in whatever -he undertook, and one who was not of a temper to be satisfied with -moderate success, wherever he might choose to make an effort.[805] - - [805] Lives of Mendoza are to be found in Antonio, “Bibliotheca - Nova,” and in the edition of the “Guerra de Granada,” Valencia, - 1776, 4to;--the last of which was written by Iñigo Lopez de - Ayala, the learned Professor of Poetry at Madrid. Cerdá, in - Vossii Rhetorices, Matriti, 1781, 8vo, App., p. 189, note. - -He was born in Granada in 1503, and his ancestry was perhaps the most -illustrious in Spain, if we except the descendants of those who had -sat on the thrones of its different kingdoms. Lope de Vega, who turns -aside in one of his plays to boast that it was so, adds, that, in -his time, the Mendozas counted three-and-twenty generations of the -highest nobility and public service.[806] But it is more important -for our present purpose to notice that the three immediate ancestors -of the distinguished statesman now before us might well have served -as examples to form his young character; for he was the third in -direct descent from the Marquis of Santillana, the poet and wit of the -court of John the Second; his grandfather was the able ambassador of -Ferdinand and Isabella, in their troublesome affairs with the See of -Rome; and his father, after commanding with distinguished honor in the -last great overthrow of the Moors, was made governor of the unquiet -city of Granada not long after its surrender. - - [806] - Toma - Veinte y tres generaciones - La prosapia de Mendoça. - No hay linage en toda España, - De quien conozca - Tan notable antiguedad. - De padre á hijos se nombran, - Sin interrumpir la linea, - Tan excelentes personas, - Y de tanta calidad, - Que fuera nombrarlas todas - Contar estrellas al cielo, - Y á la mar arenas y ondas: - Desde el señor de Vizcaya, - Llamado Zuria, consta - Que tiene origen su sangre. - - For three-and-twenty generations past - Hath the Mendozas’ name been nobly great. - In all the realm of Spain, no other race - Can claim such notable antiquity; - For, reckoning down from sire to son, they boast, - Without a break in that long, glorious line, - So many men of might, men known to fame, - And of such noble and grave attributes, - That the attempt to count them all were vain - As would be his who sought to count the stars, - Or the wide sea’s unnumbered waves and sands. - Their noble blood goes back to Zuria, - The lord of all Biscay. - - Arauco Domado, Acto III., Comedias, Tom. XX. 4to, 1629, - f. 95. - - Gaspar de Avila, in the first act of his “Governador Prudente,” - (Comedias Escogidas, Madrid, 4to, Tomo XXI., 1664,) gives even a - more minute genealogy of the Mendozas than that of Lope de Vega; - so famous were they in verse as well as in history. - -Diego, however, had five brothers older than himself; and therefore, -notwithstanding the power of his family, he was originally destined for -the Church, in order to give him more easily the position and income -that should sustain his great name with becoming dignity. But his -character could not be bent in that direction. He acquired, indeed, -much knowledge suited to further his ecclesiastical advancement, both -at home, where he learned to speak the Arabic with fluency, and at -Salamanca, where he studied Latin, Greek, philosophy, and canon and -civil law, with success. But it is evident that he indulged a decided -preference for what was more intimately connected with political -affairs and elegant literature; and if, as is commonly supposed, he -wrote while at the University, or soon afterwards, his “Lazarillo de -Tórmes,” it is equally plain that he preferred such a literature as had -no relation to theology or the Church. - -The Lazarillo is a work of genius, unlike any thing that had preceded -it. It is the autobiography of a boy--“little Lazarus”--born in a mill -on the banks of the Tórmes, near Salamanca, and sent out by his base -and brutal mother as the leader of a blind beggar; the lowest place -in the social condition, perhaps, that could then be found in Spain. -But such as it is, Lazarillo makes the best or the worst of it. With -an inexhaustible fund of good-humor and great quickness of parts, he -learns, at once, the cunning and profligacy that qualify him to rise to -still greater frauds and a yet wider range of adventures and crimes in -the service successively of a priest, a gentleman starving on his own -pride, a friar, a seller of indulgences, a chaplain, and an alguazil, -until, at last, from the most disgraceful motives, he settles down as a -married man; and then the story terminates without reaching any proper -conclusion, and without intimating that any is to follow. - -Its object is--under the character of a servant with an acuteness that -is never at fault, and so small a stock of honesty and truth, that -neither of them stands in the way of his success--to give a pungent -satire on all classes of society, whose condition Lazarillo well -comprehends, because he sees them in undress and behind the scenes. -It is written in a very bold, rich, and idiomatic Castilian style, -that reminds us of the “Celestina”; and some of its sketches are among -the most fresh and spirited that can be found in the whole class of -prose works of fiction; so spirited, indeed, and so free, that two of -them--those of the friar and the seller of dispensations--were soon -put under the ban of the Church, and cut out of the editions that were -permitted to be printed under its authority. The whole work is short; -but its easy, genial temper, its happy adaptation to Spanish life and -manners, and the contrast of the light, good-humored, flexible audacity -of Lazarillo himself--a perfectly original conception--with the solemn -and unyielding dignity of the old Castilian character, gave it from the -first a great popularity. From 1553, when the earliest edition appeared -of which we have any knowledge, it was often reprinted, both at home -and abroad, and has been more or less a favorite in all languages, -down to our own time; becoming the foundation for a class of fictions -essentially national, which, under the name of the _gusto picaresco_, -or the style of the rogues, is as well known as any other department of -Spanish literature, and one which the “Gil Blas” of Le Sage has made -famous throughout the world.[807] - - [807] The number of editions of the Lazarillo, during the - sixteenth century, in the Low Countries, in Italy, and in Spain - is great; but those printed in Spain, beginning with the one of - Madrid, 1573, 18mo, are expurgated of the passages most offensive - to the clergy by an order of the Inquisition; an order renewed - in the Index Expurgatorius, 1667. Indeed, I do not know how the - chapter on the seller of indulgences could have been written by - any but a Protestant, after the Reformation was so far advanced - as it then was. Mendoza does not seem ever to have acknowledged - himself to be the author of Lazarillo de Tórmes, which, in - fact, was sometimes attributed to Juan de Ortega, a monk. Of a - translation of Lazarillo into English, reported by Lowndes (art. - _Lazarillo_) as the work of David Rowland, 1586, and probably the - same praised in the Retrospective Review, Vol. II. p. 133, above - twenty editions are known. Of a translation by James Blakeston, - which seems to me better, I have a copy, dated London, 1670, 18mo. - -Like other books enjoying a wide reputation, the Lazarillo provoked -many imitations. A continuation of it, under the title of “The Second -Part of Lazarillo de Tórmes,” soon appeared, longer than the original, -and beginning where the fiction of Mendoza leaves off. But it is -without merit, except for an occasional quaintness or witticism. It -represents Lazarillo as going upon the expedition undertaken by Charles -the Fifth against Algiers, in 1541, and as being in one of the vessels -that foundered in a storm, which did much towards disconcerting the -whole enterprise. From this point, however, Lazarillo’s story becomes a -tissue of absurdities. He sinks to the bottom of the ocean, and there -creeps into a cave, where he is metamorphosed into a tunny-fish; and -the greater part of the work consists of an account of his glory and -happiness in the kingdom of the tunnies. At last, he is caught in a -seine, and, in the agony of his fear of death, returns, by an effort of -his own will, to the human form; after which he finds his way back to -Salamanca, and is living there when he prepares this strange account of -his adventures.[808] - - [808] This continuation was printed at Antwerp in 1555, as “La - Segunda Parte de Lazarillo de Tórmes,” but probably appeared - earlier in Spain. - -A further imitation, but not a proper continuation, under the name -of “The Lazarillo of the Manzanares,” in which the state of society -at Madrid is satirized, was attempted by Juan Cortés de Tolosa, and -was first printed in 1620. But it produced no effect at the time, and -has been long forgotten. Nor was a much better fate reserved for yet -another Second Part of the genuine Lazarillo, which was written by Juan -de Luna, a teacher of Spanish at Paris, and appeared there the same -year the Lazarillo de Manzanares appeared at Madrid. It is, however, -more in the spirit of the original work. It exhibits Lazarillo again as -a servant to different kinds of masters, and as gentleman-usher of a -poor, proud lady of rank; after which he retires from the world, and, -becoming a religious recluse, writes this account of himself, which, -though not equal to the free and vigorous sketches of the work it -professes to complete, is by no means without value, especially for its -style.[809] - - [809] Antonio, Bib. Nov., Tom. I. pp. 680 and 728. Juan de Luna - is called “H. de Luna” on the title-page of his Lazarillo,--why, - I do not know. - -The author of the Lazarillo de Tórmes, who, we are told, took the -“Amadis” and the “Celestina” for his travelling companions and -by-reading,[810] was, as we have intimated, not a person to devote -himself to the Church; and we soon hear of him serving as a soldier -in the great Spanish armies in Italy; a circumstance to which, in his -old age, he alludes with evident pride and pleasure. At those seasons, -however, when the troops were unoccupied, we know that he gladly -listened to the lectures of the famous professors of Bologna, Padua, -and Rome, and added largely to his already large stores of elegant -knowledge. - - [810] Francisco de Portugal, in his “Arte de Galantería,” - (Lisboa, 1670, 4to, p. 49,) says, that, when Mendoza went - ambassador to Rome, he took no books with him for travelling - companions but “Amadis de Gaula” and the “Celestina.” - -A character so strongly marked would naturally attract the notice of -a monarch, vigilant and clear-sighted, like Charles the Fifth; and -as early as 1538, Mendoza was made his ambassador to the republic of -Venice, then one of the leading powers of Europe. But there, too, -though much busied with grave negotiations, he loved to be familiar -with men of letters. The Aldi were then at the height of their -reputation, and he assisted and patronized them. Paulus Manutius -dedicated to him an edition of the philosophical works of Cicero, -acknowledging his skill as a critic and praising his Latinity, though, -at the same time, he says that Mendoza rather exhorted the young to -study philosophy and science in their native languages;--a proof of -liberality rare in an age when the admiration for the ancients led a -great number of classical scholars to treat whatever was modern and -vernacular with contempt. At one period, he gave himself up to the -pursuit of Greek and Latin literature with a zeal such as Petrarch had -shown long before him. He sent to Thessaly and the famous convent of -Mount Athos, to collect Greek manuscripts. Josephus was first printed -complete from his library, and so were some of the Fathers of the -Church. And when, on one occasion, he had done so great a favor to -the Sultan Soliman that he was invited to demand any return from that -monarch’s gratitude, the only reward he would consent to receive for -himself was a present of some Greek manuscripts, which, as he said, -amply repaid all his services. - -But, in the midst of studies so well suited to his taste and character, -the Emperor called him away to more important duties. He was made -military governor of Siena, and required to hold both the Pope and the -Florentines in check; a duty which he fulfilled, though not without -peril to his life. Somewhat later he was sent to the great Council of -Trent, known as a political no less than an ecclesiastical congress, in -order to sustain the Imperial interests there, and succeeded, by the -exercise of a degree of firmness, address, and eloquence which would -alone have made him one of the most considerable persons in the Spanish -monarchy. While at the Council, however, in consequence of the urgency -of affairs, he was despatched, as a special Imperial plenipotentiary -to Rome, in 1547, for the bold purpose of confronting and overawing -the Pope in his own capital. And in this, too, he succeeded; rebuking -Julius the Third in open council, and so establishing his own -consideration, as well as that of his country, that for six years -afterwards he is to be looked upon as the head of the Imperial party -throughout Italy, and almost as a viceroy governing that country, or -a large part of it, for the Emperor, by his talents and firmness. But -at last he grew weary of this great labor and burden; and the Emperor -himself having changed his system and determined to conciliate Europe -before he should abdicate, Mendoza returned to Spain in 1554.[811] - - [811] Mendoza’s success as an ambassador passed into a proverb. - Nearly a century afterwards, Salas Barbadillo, in one of his - tales, says of a _chevalier d’industrie_, “According to his own - account, he was an ambassador to Rome, and as much of one as - that wise and great knight, Diego de Mendoza, was in his time.” - Cavallero Puntual, Segunda Parte, Madrid, 1619, 12mo, f. 5. - -The next year, Philip the Second ascended the throne. His policy, -however, little resembled that of his father, and Mendoza was not -one of those who were well suited to the changed state of things. -In consequence of this, he seldom came to court, and was not at all -favored by the severe master who now ruled him, as he ruled all the -other great men of his kingdom, with a hard and anxious tyranny.[812] -One instance of his displeasure against Mendoza, and of the harsh -treatment that followed it, is sufficiently remarkable. The ambassador, -who, though sixty-four years of age when the event occurred, had -lost little of the fire of his youth, fell into a passionate dispute -with a courtier in the palace itself. The latter drew a dagger, and -Mendoza wrested it from him and threw it out of the balcony where they -were standing;--some accounts adding, that he afterwards threw out -the courtier himself. Such a quarrel would certainly be accounted an -affront to the royal dignity anywhere; but in the eyes of the formal -and strict Philip the Second it was all but a mortal offence. He chose -to have Mendoza regarded as a madman, and as such exiled him from his -court;--an injustice against which the old man struggled in vain for -some time, and then yielded himself up to it with loyal dignity. - -His amusement during some portion of his exile was--singular as it -may seem in one so old--to write poetry.[813] But the occupation had -long been familiar to him. In the first edition of the works of Boscan -we have an epistle from Mendoza to that poet, evidently written when -he was young; besides which, several of his shorter pieces contain -internal proof that they were composed in Italy. But, notwithstanding -he had been so long in Venice and Rome, and notwithstanding Boscan must -have been among his earliest friends, he does not belong entirely to -the Italian school of poetry; for, though he has often imitated and -fully sanctioned the Italian measures, he often gave himself up to -the old _redondillas_ and _quintillas_, and to the national tone of -feeling and reflection appropriate to these ancient forms of Castilian -verse.[814] - - [812] Mendoza seems to have been treated harshly by Philip II. - about some money matters relating to his accounts for work done - on the castle of Siena, when he was governor there. Navarrete, - Vida de Cervantes, Madrid, 1819, 8vo, p. 441. - - [813] One of his poems is “A Letter in _Redondillas_, being under - Arrest.” Obras, 1610, f. 72. - - [814] There is but one edition of the poetry of Mendoza. It - was published by Juan Diaz Hidalgo at Madrid, with a sonnet - of Cervantes prefixed to it, in 1610, 4to; and is a rare and - important book. In the address “Al Lector,” we are told that - his lighter works are not published, as unbecoming his dignity; - and if a sonnet, printed for the first time by Sedano, (Parnaso - Español, Tom. VIII. p. 120,) is to be regarded as a specimen of - those that were suppressed, we have no reason to complain. - - There is in the Royal Library at Paris, MS. No. 8293, a - collection of the poetry of Mendoza, which has been supposed to - contain notes in his own handwriting, and which is more ample - than the published volume, Ochoa, Catálogo, Paris, 1844, 4to, p. - 532. - -The truth is, Mendoza had studied the ancients with a zeal and success -that had so far imbued his mind with their character and temper, as in -some measure to keep out all undue modern influences. The first part of -the Epistle to Boscan, already alluded to, though written in flowing -_terza rima_, sounds almost like a translation of the Epistle of Horace -to Numicius, and yet it is not even a servile imitation; while the -latter part is absolutely Spanish, and gives such a description of -domestic life as never entered the imagination of antiquity.[815] The -Hymn in honor of Cardinal Espinosa, one of the most finished of his -poems, is said to have been written after five days’ constant reading -of Pindar, but is nevertheless full of the old Castilian spirit;[816] -and his second _cancion_, though quite in the Italian measure, shows -the turns of Horace more than of Petrarch.[817] Still, it is not to be -concealed that Mendoza gave the decisive influence of his example to -the new forms introduced by Boscan and Garcilasso;--a fact plain from -the manner in which that example is appealed to by many of the poets -of his time, and especially by Gregorio Silvestre and Christóval de -Mesa.[818] In both styles, however, he succeeded. There is, perhaps, -more richness of thought in the specimens he has given us in the -Italian measures than in the others; yet it can hardly be doubted that -his heart was in what he wrote upon the old popular foundations. Some -of his _letrillas_, as they would now be called, though they bore -different names in his time, are quite charming;[819] and in many parts -of the second division of his poems, which is larger than that devoted -to the Italian measures, there is a light and idle humor, well fitted -to his subjects, and such as might have been anticipated from the -author of the “Lazarillo” rather than from the Imperial representative -at the Council of Trent and the Papal court. Indeed, some of his verses -were so free, that it was thought inexpedient to print them. - - [815] This epistle was printed, during Mendoza’s lifetime, in - the first edition of Boscan’s Works (ed. 1543, f. 129); and is - to be found in the Poetical Works of Mendoza himself, (f. 9,) in - Sedano, Faber, etc. The earliest _printed_ work of Mendoza that I - have seen is a _cancion_ in the Cancionero Gen. of 1535, f. 99. b. - - [816] The Hymn to Cardinal Espinosa is in the Poetical Works of - Mendoza, f. 143. See also, Sedano, Tom. IV., (Indice, p. ii.,) - for its history. - - [817] Obras, f. 99. - - [818] See the sonnet of Mendoza in Silvestre’s Poesías, (1599, f. - 333,) in which he says,-- - - De vuestro ingenio y invencion - Piensa hacer industria por do pueda - Subir la tosca rima a perfeccion; - - and the epistle of Mesa to the Count de Castro, in Mesa, Rimas, - Madrid, 1611, 12mo, f. 158,-- - - Acompaño a Boscan y Garcilasso - El inclito Don Diego de Mendoza, etc. - - [819] The one called a _Villancico_ (Obras, f. 117) is a specimen - of the best of the gay _letrillas_. - -The same spirit is apparent in two prose letters, or rather essays -thrown into the shape of letters. The first professes to come from a -person seeking employment at court, and gives an account of the whole -class of _Catariberas_, or low courtiers, who, in soiled clothes and -with base, fawning manners, daily besieged the doors and walks of the -President of the Council of Castile, in order to solicit some one of -the multitudinous humble offices in his gift. The other is addressed -to Pedro de Salazar, ridiculing a book he had published on the wars of -the Emperor in Germany, in which, as Mendoza declares, the author took -more credit to himself personally than he deserved. Both are written -with idiomatic humor, and a native buoyancy and gayety of spirit which -seem to have lain at the bottom of his character, and to have broken -forth, from time to time, during his whole life, notwithstanding the -severe employments which for so many years filled and burdened his -thoughts.[820] - - [820] These two letters are printed in that rude and ill-digested - collection called the “Seminario Erudito,” Madrid, 1789, 4to; - the first in Tom. XVIII., and the second in Tom. XXIV. Pellicer, - however, says that the latter is taken from a very imperfect copy - (ed. Don Quixote, Parte I. c. 1, note); and, from some extracts - of Clemencin, (ed. Don Quixote, Tom. I. p. 5,) I infer that the - other must be so likewise. They pass, in the MS., under the title - of “Cartas del Bachiller de Arcadia.” The _Catariberas_, whom - Mendoza so vehemently attacks in the first of them, seem to have - sunk still lower after his time, and become a sort of jackals to - the lawyers. See the “Soldado Pindaro” of Gonçalo de Cespedes y - Meneses, (Lisboa, 1626, 4to, f. 37. b,) where they are treated - with the cruellest satire. I have seen it suggested that Diego de - Mendoza is not the author of the last of the two letters, but I - do not know on what ground. - -The tendency of his mind, however, as he grew old, was naturally to -graver subjects; and finding there was no hope of his being recalled -to court, he established himself in unambitious retirement at Granada, -his native city. But his spirit was not one that would easily sink -into inactivity; and if it had been, he had not chosen a home that -would encourage such a disposition. For it was a spot, not only full -of romantic recollections, but intimately associated with the glory -of his own family,--one where he had spent much of his youth, and -become familiar with those remains and ruins of the Moorish power which -bore witness to days when the plain of Granada was the seat of one of -the most luxurious and splendid of the Mohammedan dynasties. Here, -therefore, he naturally turned to the early studies of his half-Arabian -education, and, arranging his library of curious Moorish manuscripts, -devoted himself to the literature and history of his native city, -until, at last, apparently from want of other occupation, he determined -to write a part of its annals. - -The portion he chose was one very recent; that of the rebellion raised -by the Moors in 1568-1570, when they were no longer able to endure the -oppression of Philip the Second; and it is much to Mendoza’s honor, -that, with sympathies entirely Spanish, he has yet done the hated -enemies of his faith and people such generous justice, that his book -could not be published till many years after his own death,--not, -indeed, till the unhappy Moors themselves had been finally expelled -from Spain. His means for writing such a work were remarkable. His -father, as we have noticed, had been a general in the conquering -army of 1492, to which the story of this rebellion necessarily often -recurs, and had afterward been governor of Granada. One of his nephews -had commanded the troops in this very war. And now, after peace was -restored by the submission of the rebels, the old statesman, as he -stood amidst the trophies and ruins of the conflict, soon learned -from eyewitnesses and partisans whatever of interest had happened on -either side that he had not himself seen. Familiar, therefore, with -every thing of which he speaks, there is a freshness and power in his -sketches that carry us at once into the midst of the scenes and events -he describes, and make us sympathize in details too minute to be always -interesting, if they were not always marked with the impress of a -living reality.[821] - - [821] The first edition of the “Guerra de Granada” is of Madrid, - 1610, 4to; but it is incomplete. The first complete edition is - the beautiful one by Monfort (Valencia, 1776, 4to); since which - there have been several others. - -But though his history springs, as it were, vigorously from the -very soil to which it relates, it is a sedulous and well-considered -imitation of the ancient masters, and entirely unlike the chronicling -spirit of the preceding period. The genius of antiquity, indeed, is -announced in its first sentence. - -“My purpose,” says the old soldier, “is to record that war of Granada -which the Catholic King of Spain, Don Philip the Second, son of the -unconquered Emperor Don Charles, maintained in the kingdom of Granada, -against the newly converted rebels; a part whereof I saw, and a part -heard from persons who carried it on by their arms and by their -counsels.” - -Sallust was undoubtedly Mendoza’s model. Like the War against Catiline, -the War of the Moorish Insurrection is a small work, and like that, -too, its style is generally rich and bold. But sometimes long passages -are evidently imitated from Tacitus, whose vigor and severity the -wise diplomatist seems to approach as nearly as he does the more -exuberant style of his prevalent master. Some of these imitations -are as happy, perhaps, as any that can be produced from the class to -which they belong; for they are often no less unconstrained than if -they were quite original. Take, for instance, the following passage, -which has often been noticed for its spirit and feeling, but which is -partly a translation from the account given by Tacitus, in his most -picturesque and condensed manner, of the visit made by Germanicus and -his army to the spot where lay, unburied, the remains of the three -legions of Varus, in the forests of Germany, and of the funeral honors -that army paid to the memory of their fallen and almost forgotten -countrymen;--the circumstance described by the Spanish historian being -so remarkably similar to that given in the Annals of Tacitus, that the -imitation is perfectly natural.[822] - - [822] The passage in Tacitus is Annales, Lib. I. c. 61, 62; and - the imitation in Mendoza is Book IV. ed. 1776, pp. 300-302. - -During a rebellion of the Moors in 1500-1501, it was thought of -consequence to destroy a fort in the mountains that lay towards Málaga. -The service was dangerous, and none came forward to undertake it, -until Alonso de Aguilar, one of the principal nobles in the service -of Ferdinand and Isabella, offered himself for the enterprise. His -attempt, as had been foreseen, failed, and hardly a man survived -to relate the details of the disaster; but Aguilar’s enthusiasm -and self-devotion created a great sensation at the time, and were -afterwards recorded in more than one of the old ballads of the -country.[823] - - [823] The accounts may be found in Mariana, (Lib. XXVII. c. 5,) - and at the end of Hita, “Guerras de Granada,” where two of the - ballads are inserted. - -At the period, however, when Mendoza touches on this unhappy defeat, -nearly seventy years had elapsed, and the bones of both Spaniards and -Moors still lay whitening on the spot where they had fallen. The war -between the two races was again renewed by the insurrection of the -conquered; a military expedition was again undertaken into the same -mountains; and the Duke of Arcos, its leader, was a lineal descendant -of some who had fallen there, and intimately connected with the family -of Alonso de Aguilar himself. While, therefore, the troops for this -expedition were collecting, the Duke, from a natural curiosity and -interest in what so nearly concerned him, took a small body of soldiers -and visited the melancholy spot. - -“The Duke left Casares,” says Mendoza, “examining and securing the -passes of the mountains as he went; a needful providence, on account of -the little certainty there is of success in all military adventures. -They then began to ascend the range of heights where it was said the -bodies had remained unburied, melancholy and loathsome alike to the -sight and the memory.[824] For there were among those who now visited -it both kinsmen and descendants of the slain, or men who knew by -report whatever related to the sad scene. And first they came to the -spot where the vanguard had stopped with its leader, in consequence -of the darkness of the night; a broad opening between the foot of the -mountain and the Moorish fortress, without defence of any sort but such -as was afforded by the nature of the place. Here lay human skulls and -the bones of horses, heaped confusedly together or scattered about, -just as they had chanced to fall, mingled with fragments of arms and -bridles and the rich trappings of the cavalry.[825] Farther on, they -found the fort of the enemy, of which there were now only a few low -remains, nearly levelled with the surface of the soil. And then they -went forward, talking about the places where officers, leaders, and -common soldiers had perished together; relating how and where those -who survived had been saved, among whom were the Count of Ureña and -Pedro de Aguilar, elder son of Don Alonso; speaking of the spot where -Don Alonso had retired and defended himself between two rocks; the -wound the Moorish captain first gave him on the head, and then another -in the breast as he fell; the words he uttered as they closed in the -fight, ‘I am Don Alonso,’ and the answer of the chieftain as he struck -him down, ‘You are Don Alonso, but I am the chieftain of Benastepár’; -and of the wounds Don Alonso gave, which were not fatal, as were those -he received. They remembered, too, how friends and enemies had alike -mourned his fate; and now, on that same spot, the same sorrow was -renewed by the soldiers,--a race sparing of its gratitude, except in -tears. The general commanded a service to be performed for the dead; -and the soldiers present offered up prayers that they might rest in -peace, uncertain whether they interceded for their kinsmen or for their -enemies,--a feeling which increased their rage and the eagerness they -felt for finding those upon whom they could now take vengeance.”[826] - - [824] “Incedunt,” says Tacitus, “mœstos locos, visuque ac memoriâ - deformes.” - - [825] “Medio campi albentia ossa, ut fugerant, ut restiterant, - disjecta vel aggerata; adjacebant fragmina telorum, equorumque - artus, simul truncis arborum antefixa ora.” - - [826] “Igitur Romanus, qui aderat, exercitus, sextum post cladis - annum, trium legionum ossa, nullo noscente alienas reliquias an - suorum humo tegeret, omnes, ut conjunctos ut consanguineos, auctâ - in hostem irâ, mœsti simul et infensi condebant.” - -There are several instances like this, in the course of the work, -that show how well pleased Mendoza was to step aside into an episode -and indulge himself in appropriate ornaments of his subject. The main -direction of his story, however, is never unnaturally deviated from; -and wherever he goes, he is almost always powerful and effective. -Take, for example, the following speech of El Zaguer, one of the -principal conspirators, exciting his countrymen to break out into -open rebellion, by exposing to them the long series of affronts and -cruelties they had suffered from their Spanish oppressors. It reminds -us of the speeches of the indignant Carthaginian leaders in Livy. - -“Seeing,” says the historian, “that the greatness of the undertaking -brought with it hesitation, delays, and exposure to accident and change -of opinion, this conspirator collected the principal men together -in the house of Zinzan in the Albaycin, and addressed them, setting -forth the oppression they had constantly endured, at the hands both of -public officers and private persons, till they were become, he said, -no less slaves than if they had been formally made such,--their wives, -children, estates, and even their own persons, being in the power and -at the mercy of their enemies, without the hope of seeing themselves -freed from such servitude for centuries,--exposed to as many tyrants -as they had neighbours, and suffering constantly new impositions and -new taxes,--deprived of the right of sanctuary in places where those -take refuge who, through accident or (what is deemed among them the -more justifiable cause) through revenge, commit crime,--thrust out -from the protection of the very churches at whose religious rites we -are yet required, under severe penalties, to be present,--subjected to -the priests to enrich them, and yet held to be unworthy of favor from -God or men,--treated and regarded as Moors among Christians, that we -may be despised, and as Christians among Moors, that we may neither -be believed nor consoled. ‘They have excluded us, too,’ he went on, -‘from life and human intercourse; for they forbid us to speak our own -language, and we do not understand theirs. In what way, then, are we to -communicate with others, or ask or give what life requires,--cut off -from the conversation of men, and denied what is not denied even to the -brutes? And yet may not he who speaks Castilian still hold to the law -of the Prophet, and may not he who speaks Moorish hold to the law of -Jesus? They force our children into their religious houses and schools, -and teach them arts which our fathers forbade us to learn, lest the -purity of our own law should be corrupted, and its very truth be made -a subject of doubt and quarrels. They threaten, too, to tear these our -children from the arms of their mothers and the protection of their -fathers, and send them into foreign lands, where they shall forget -our manners, and become the enemies of those to whom they owe their -existence. They command us to change our dress and wear clothes like -the Castilians. Yet among themselves the Germans dress in one fashion, -the French in another, and the Greeks in another; their friars, too, -and their young men, and their old men, have all separate costumes; -each nation, each profession, each class, has its own peculiar dress, -and still all are Christians;--while we--we Moors--are not to be -allowed to dress like Moors, as if we wore our faith in our raiment and -not in our hearts.’”[827] - - [827] The speech of El Zaguer is in the first book of the History. - -This is certainly picturesque; and so is the greater part of the whole -history, both from its subject and from the manner in which it is -treated. Nor is it lacking in dignity and elevation. Its style is bold -and abrupt, but true to the idiom of the language; and the current of -thought is deep and strong, easily carrying the reader onward with its -flood. Nothing in the old chronicling style of the earlier period is -to be compared to it, and little in any subsequent period is equal to -it for manliness, vigor, and truth.[828] - - [828] There are some acute remarks on the style of Mendoza in the - Preface to Garces, “Vigor y Elegancia de la Lengua Castellana,” - Madrid, 1791, 4to, Tom. II. - -The War of Granada is the last literary labor its author undertook. He -was, indeed, above seventy years old when he finished it; and, perhaps -to signify that he now renounced the career of letters, he collected -his library, both the classics and manuscripts he had procured with -so much trouble in Italy and Greece, and the curious Arabic works he -had found in Granada, and presented the whole to his severe sovereign -for his favorite establishment of the Escurial, among whose untold -treasures they still hold a prominent place. At any rate, after this, -we hear nothing of the old statesman, except that, for some reason or -other, Philip the Second permitted him to come to court again; and -that, a few days after he arrived at Madrid, he was seized with a -violent illness, of which he died in April, 1575, seventy-two years -old.[829] - - [829] Pleasant glimpses of the occupations and character of - Mendoza, during the last two years of his life, may be found - in several letters he wrote to Zurita, the historian, which - are preserved in Dormer, “Progresos de la Historia de Aragon” - (Zaragoza, 1680, folio, pp. 501, etc.). The way in which he - announces his intention of giving his books to the Escurial - Library, in a letter, dated at Granada, 1 Dec., 1573, is very - characteristic: “I keep collecting my books and sending them - to Alcalá, because the late Doctor Velasco wrote me word, that - his Majesty would be pleased to see them, and perhaps put them - in the Escurial. And I think he is right; for as it is the most - sumptuous building of ancient or modern times, that I have seen, - so I think that nothing should be wanting in it, and that it - ought to contain the most sumptuous library in the world.” In - another, a few months only before his death, he says, “I go on - dusting my books and examining them to see whether they are - injured by the rats, and am well pleased to find them in good - condition. Strange authors there are among them, of whom I have - no recollection; and I wonder I have learnt so little, when I - find how much I have read.” Letter of Nov. 18, 1574. - -On whatever side we regard the character of Mendoza, we feel sure that -he was an extraordinary man; but the combination of his powers is, -after all, what is most to be wondered at. In all of them, however, -and especially in the union of a life of military adventure and active -interest in affairs with a sincere love of learning and elegant -letters, he showed himself to be a genuine Spaniard;--the elements of -greatness which his various fortunes had thus unfolded within him being -all among the elements of Spanish national poetry and eloquence, in -their best age and most generous development. The loyal old knight, -therefore, may well stand forward with those who, first in the order -of time, as well as of merit, are to constitute that final school of -Spanish literature which was built on the safe foundations of the -national genius and character, and can, therefore, never be shaken by -the floods or convulsions of the ages that may come after it. - - - - -CHAPTER V. - -DIDACTIC POETRY.--LUIS DE ESCOBAR.--CORELAS.--TORRE.--DIDACTIC -PROSE.--VILLALOBOS.--OLIVA.--SEDEÑO.--SALAZAR.--LUIS MEXIA.--PEDRO -MEXIA.--NAVARRA.--URREA.--PALACIOS RUBIOS.--VANEGAS.--JUAN DE -AVILA.--ANTONIO DE GUEVARA.--DIÁLOGO DE LAS LENGUAS.--PROGRESS OF THE -CASTILIAN FROM THE TIME OF JOHN THE SECOND TO THAT OF THE EMPEROR -CHARLES THE FIFTH. - - -While an Italian spirit, or, at least, an observance of Italian forms, -was beginning so decidedly to prevail in Spanish lyric and pastoral -poetry, what was didactic, whether in prose or verse, took directions -somewhat different. - -In didactic poetry, among other forms, the old one of question -and answer, known from the age of Juan de Mena, and found in the -Cancioneros as late as Badajoz, continued to enjoy much favor. -Originally, such questions seem to have been riddles and witticisms; -but in the sixteenth century they gradually assumed a graver -character, and at last claimed to be directly and absolutely didactic, -constituting a form in which two remarkable books of light and easy -verse were produced. The first of these books is called “The Four -Hundred Answers to as many Questions of the Illustrious Don Fadrique -Enriquez, the Admiral of Castile, and other Persons.” It was printed -three times in 1545, the year in which it first appeared, and had -undoubtedly a great success in the class of society to which it was -addressed, and whose manners and opinions it strikingly illustrates. -It contains at least twenty thousand verses, and was followed, in 1552, -by another similar volume, partly in prose, and promising a third, -which, however, was never published. Except five hundred proverbs, -as they are inappropriately called, at the end of the first volume, -and fifty glosses at the end of the second, the whole consists of -such ingenious questions as a distinguished old nobleman in the reign -of Charles the Fifth and his friends might imagine it would amuse -or instruct them to have solved. They are on subjects as various as -possible,--religion, morals, history, medicine, magic,--in short, -whatever could occur to idle and curious minds; but they were all sent -to an acute, good-humored Minorite friar, Luis de Escobar, who, being -bed-ridden with the gout and other grievous maladies, had nothing -better to do than to answer them. - -His answers form the body of the work. Some of them are wise and some -foolish, some are learned and some absurd; but they all bear the -impression of their age. Once we have a long letter of advice about a -godly life, sent to the Admiral, which, no doubt, was well suited to -his case; and repeatedly we get complaints from the old monk himself -of his sufferings, and accounts of what he was doing; so that from -different parts of the two volumes it would be possible to collect a -tolerably distinct picture of the amusements of society, if not its -occupations, about the court, at the period when they were written. -The poetry is in many respects not unlike that of Tusser, who was -contemporary with Escobar, but it is better and more spirited.[830] - - [830] Escobar complains that many of the questions sent to him - were in such bad verse, that it cost him a great deal of labor - to put them into a proper shape; and it must be admitted, that - both questions and answers generally read as if they came from - one hand. Sometimes a long moral dissertation occurs, especially - in the prose of the second volume, but the answers are rarely - tedious from their length. Those in the first volume are the - best, and Nos. 280, 281, 282, are curious, from the accounts - they contain of the poet himself, who must have died after 1552. - In the Preface to the first volume, he says the Admiral died - in 1538. If the whole work had been completed, according to - its author’s purpose, it would have contained just a thousand - questions and answers. For a specimen, we may take No. 10 - (Quatrocientas Preguntas, Çaragoça, 1545, folio) as one of the - more ridiculous, where the Admiral asks how many keys Christ gave - to St. Peter, and No. 190 as one of the better sort, where the - Admiral asks, whether it be necessary to kneel before the priest - at confession, if the penitent finds it very painful; to which - the old monk answers gently and well,-- - - He that, through suffering sent from God above - Confessing, kneels not, still commits no sin; - But let him cherish modest, humble love, - And that shall purify his heart within. - - The fifth part of the first volume consists of riddles in the old - style; and, as Escobar adds, they are sometimes truly very old - riddles; so old, that they must have been generally known. The - second volume was printed at Valladolid, 1552, and both are in - folio. - -The second book of questions and answers to which we have referred is -graver than the first. It was printed the next year after the great -success of Escobar’s work, and is called “Three Hundred Questions -concerning Natural Subjects, with their Answers,” by Alonso Lopez de -Corelas, a physician, who had more learning, perhaps, than the monk he -imitated, but is less amusing, and writes in verses neither so well -constructed nor so agreeable.[831] - - [831] The volume of Corelas’s “Trezientas Preguntas” (Valladolid, - 1546, 4to) is accompanied by a learned prose commentary in a - respectable didactic style. - -Others followed, like Gonzalez de la Torre, who in 1590 dedicated to -the heir-apparent of the Spanish throne a volume of such dull religious -riddles as were admired a century before.[832] But nobody, who wrote in -this peculiar didactic style of verse, equalled Escobar, and it soon -passed out of general notice and regard.[833] - - [832] Docientas Preguntas, etc., por Juan Gonzalez de la Torre, - Madrid, 1590, 4to. - - [833] I should rather have said, perhaps, that the Preguntas were - soon restricted to the fashionable societies and academies of the - time, as we see them wittily exhibited in the first _jornada_ of - Calderon’s “Secreto á voces.” - -In prose, about the same time, a fashion appeared of imitating the -Roman didactic prose-writers, just as those writers had been imitated -by Castiglione, Bembo, Giovanni della Casa, and others in Italy. -The impulse seems plainly to have been communicated to Spain by the -moderns, and not by the ancients. It was because the Italians led the -way that the Romans were imitated, and not because the example of -Cicero and Seneca had, of itself, been able to form a prose school, -of any kind, beyond the Pyrenees.[834] The fashion was not one of so -much importance and influence as that introduced into the poetry of -the nation; but it is worthy of notice, both on account of its results -during the reign of Charles the Fifth, and on account of an effect -more or less distinct which it had on the prose style of the nation -afterwards. - - [834] The general tendency and tone of the didactic prose-writers - in the reign of Charles V. prove this fact; but the Discourse - of Morales, the historian, prefixed to the works of his uncle, - Fernan Perez de Oliva, shows the way in which the change was - brought about. Some Spaniards, it is plain from this curious - document, were become ashamed to write any longer in Latin, as - if their own language were unfit for practical use in matters - of grave importance, when they had, in the Italian, examples of - entire success before them. Obras de Oliva, Madrid, 1787, 12mo, - Tom. I. pp. xvi.-xlvii. - -The eldest among the prominent writers produced by this state of things -was Francisco de Villalobos, of whom we know little, except that he -belonged to a family which, for several successive generations, had -been devoted to the medical art; that he was himself the physician, -first of Ferdinand the Catholic,[835] and then of Charles the Fifth; -that he published, as early as 1498, a poem on his own science, in five -hundred stanzas, founded on the rules of Avicenna;[836] and that he -continued to be known as an author, chiefly on subjects connected with -his profession, till 1543, before which time he had become weary of the -court, and sought a voluntary retirement, where he died, above seventy -years old.[837] His translation of the “Amphitryon” of Plautus belongs -rather to the theatre, but, like that of Oliva, soon to be mentioned, -produced no effect there, and, like his scientific treatises, demands -no especial notice. The rest of his works, including all that belong to -the department of elegant literature, are to be found in a volume of -moderate size, which he dedicated to the Infante Don Luis of Portugal. - - [835] There is a letter of Villalobos, dated at Calatayud, Oct. - 6, 1515, in which he says he was detained in that city by the - king’s severe illness, (Obras, Çaragoça, 1544, folio, f. 71. b.) - This was the illness of which Ferdinand died in less than four - months afterward. - - [836] Mendez, Typographía, p. 249. Antonio, Bib. Vetus, ed. - Bayer, Tom. II. p. 344, note. - - [837] He seems, from the letter just noticed, to have been - displeased with his position as early as 1515; but he must have - continued at court above twenty years longer, when he left it - poor and disheartened. (Obras, f. 45.) From a passage two leaves - farther on, I think he left it after the death of the Empress, in - 1539. - -The chief of them is called “Problems,” and is divided into two -tractates;--the first, which is very short, being on the Sun, the -Planets, the Four Elements, and the Terrestrial Paradise; and the last, -which is longer, on Man and Morals, beginning with an essay on Satan, -and ending with one on Flattery and Flatterers, which is especially -addressed to the heir-apparent of the crown of Spain, afterwards Philip -the Second. Each of these subdivisions, in each tractate, has eight -lines of the old Spanish verse prefixed to it, as its Problem, or text, -and the prose discussion which follows, like a gloss, constitutes the -substance of the work. The whole is of a very miscellaneous character; -most of it grave, like the essays on Knights and Prelates, but some of -it amusing, like an essay on the Marriage of Old Men.[838] The best -portions are those that have a satirical vein in them; such as the -ridicule of litigious old men, and of old men that wear paint.[839] - - [838] If Poggio’s trifle, “An Seni sit Uxor ducenda,” had been - _published_ when Villalobos wrote, I should not doubt he had seen - it. As it is, the coincidence may not be accidental, for Poggio - died in 1449, though his Dialogue was not, I believe, printed - till the present century. - - [839] The Problemas constitute the first part of the Obras de - Villalobos, 1544, and fill 34 leaves. - -A Dialogue on Intermittent Fevers, a Dialogue on the Natural Heat of -the Body, and a Dialogue between the Doctor and the Duke, his patient, -are all quite in the manner of the contemporary didactic discussions -of the Italians, except that the last contains passages of a broad and -free humor, approaching more nearly to the tone of comedy, or rather -of farce.[840] A treatise that follows, on the Three Great Annoyances -of much talking, much disputing, and much laughing,[841] and a grave -discourse on Love, with which the volume ends, are all that remain -worth notice. They have the same general characteristics with the -rest of his miscellanies; the style of some portions of them being -distinguished by more purity and more pretensions to dignity than have -been found in the earlier didactic prose-writers, and especially by -greater clearness and exactness of expression. Occasionally, too, we -meet with an idiomatic familiarity, frankness, and spirit that are -very attractive, and that partly compensate us for the absurdities of -the old and forgotten doctrines in natural history and medicine, which -Villalobos inculcated because they were the received doctrines of his -time. - - [840] Obras, f. 35. - - [841] I have translated the title of this Treatise “The Three - Great _Annoyances_.” In the original it is “The Three Great ----,” - leaving the title, says Villalobos in his Prólogo, unfinished, so - that every body may fill it up as he likes. - -The next writer of the same class, and, on the whole, one much more -worthy of consideration, is Fernan Perez de Oliva, a Cordovese, who was -born about 1492, and died, still young, in 1530. His father was a lover -of letters; and the son, as he himself informs us, was educated with -care from his earliest youth. At twelve years of age, he was already -a student in the University of Salamanca; after which he went, first, -to Alcalá, when it was in the beginning of its glory; then to Paris, -whose University had long attracted students from every part of Europe; -and finally to Rome, where, under the protection of an uncle at the -court of Leo the Tenth, all the advantages to be found in the most -cultivated capital of Christendom were accessible to him. - -On his uncle’s death, it was proposed to him to take the offices left -vacant by that event; but, loving letters more than courtly honors, he -went back to Paris, where he taught and lectured in its University for -three years. Another Pope, Adrian the Sixth, was now on the throne, -and, hearing of Oliva’s success, endeavoured anew to draw him to Rome; -but the love of his country and of literature continued to be stronger -than the love of ecclesiastical preferment. He returned, therefore, to -Salamanca; became one of the original members of the rich “College of -the Archbishop,” founded in 1528; and was successively chosen Professor -of Ethics in the University, and its Rector. But he had hardly risen to -his highest distinctions, when he died suddenly, and at a moment when -so many hopes rested on him, that his death was felt as a misfortune to -the cause of letters throughout Spain.[842] - - [842] The most ample life of Oliva is in Rezabal y Ugarte, - “Biblioteca de los Escritores, que han sido individuos de los - seis Colegios Mayores” (Madrid, 1805, 4to, pp. 239, etc.). But - all that we know about him, of any real interest, is to be - found in the exposition he made of his claims and merits when - he contended publicly for the chair of Moral Philosophy at - Salamanca. (Obras, 1787, Tom. II. pp. 26-51.) In the course of - it, he says his travels all over Spain and out of it, in pursuit - of knowledge, had amounted to more than three thousand leagues. - -Oliva’s studies at Rome had taught him how successfully the Latin -writers had been imitated by the Italians, and he became anxious that -they should be no less successfully imitated by the Spaniards. He felt -it as a wrong done to his native language, that almost all serious -prose discussions in Spain were still carried on in Latin rather than -in Spanish.[843] Taking a hint, then, from Castiglione’s “Cortigiano,” -and opposing the current of opinion among the learned men with whom -he lived and acted, he began a didactic dialogue on the Dignity of -Man, formally defending it as a work in the Spanish language written -by a Spaniard. Besides this, he wrote several strictly didactic -discourses;--one on the Faculties of the Mind and their Proper Use; -another urging Córdova, his native city, to improve the navigation of -the Guadalquivir, and so obtain a portion of the rich commerce of the -Indies, which was then monopolized by Seville; and another, that was -delivered at Salamanca, when he was a candidate for the chair of moral -philosophy;--in all which his nephew, Morales, the historian, assures -us it was his uncle’s strong desire to furnish practical examples of -the power and resources of the Spanish language.[844] - - [843] Obras, Tom. I. p. xxiii. - - [844] The works of Oliva have been published at least twice, the - first time by his nephew, Ambrosio de Morales, 4to, Córdova, - in 1585, and again at Madrid, 1787, 2 vols. 12mo. In the Index - Expurgatorius, (1667, p. 424,) they are forbidden to be read, - “till they are corrected,”--a phrase which seems to have left - each copy of them to the discretion of the spiritual director - of its owner. In the edition of 1787, a sheet was cancelled, in - order to get rid of a note of Morales. See Index of 1790. - - In the same volume with the minor works of Oliva, Morales - published fifteen moral discourses of his own, and one by Pedro - Valles of Córdova, none of which have much literary value, though - several, like one on the Advantage of Teaching with Gentleness, - and one on the Difference between Genius and Wisdom, are marked - with excellent sense. That of Valles is on the Fear of Death. - -The purpose of giving greater dignity to his native tongue, by -employing it, instead of the Latin, on all the chief subjects of -human inquiry, was certainly a fortunate one in Oliva, and soon found -imitators. Juan de Sedeño published, in 1536, two prose dialogues -on Love and one on Happiness; the former in a more graceful tone of -gallantry, and the latter in a more philosophical spirit and with more -terseness of manner, than belonged to the age.[845] Francisco Cervantes -de Salazar, a man of learning, completed the dialogue of Oliva on the -Dignity of Man, which had been left unfinished, and, dedicating it -to Fernando Cortés, published it in 1546,[846] together with a long -prose fable by Luis Mexia, on Idleness and Labor, written in a pure -and somewhat elevated style, but too much indebted to the “Vision” of -the Bachiller de la Torre.[847] Pedro de Navarra published, in 1567, -forty Moral Dialogues, partly the result of conversations held in an -_Academia_ of distinguished persons, who met, from time to time, at -the house of Fernando Cortés.[848] Pedro Mexia, the chronicler, wrote -a Silva, or Miscellany, divided, in the later editions, into six -books, and subdivided into a multitude of separate essays, historical -and moral; declaring it to be the first work of the kind in Spanish, -which, he says, he considers quite as suitable for such discussions -as the Italian.[849] To this, which may be regarded as an imitation -of Macrobius or of Athenæus, and which was printed in 1543, he added, -in 1547, six didactic dialogues,--curious, but of little value,--in -the first of which the advantages and disadvantages of having regular -physicians are agreeably set forth, with a lightness and exactness of -style hardly to have been expected.[850] And finally, to complete the -short list, Urrea, a favored soldier of the Emperor, and at one time -viceroy of Apulia,--the same person who made the poor translation of -Ariosto mentioned in Don Quixote,--published, in 1566, a Dialogue on -True Military Honor, which is written in a pleasant and easy style, and -contains, mingled with the notions of one who says he trained himself -for glory by reading romances of chivalry, not a few amusing anecdotes -of duels and military adventures.[851] - - [845] Siguense dos Coloquios de Amores y otro de Bienaventurança, - etc., por Juan de Sedeño, vezino de Arevalo, 1536, sm. 4to, no - printer or place, pp. 16. This is the same Juan de Sedeño who - translated the “Celestina” into verse in 1540, and who wrote - the “Suma de Varones Ilustres” (Arevalo, 1551, and Toledo, - 1590, folio);--a poor biographical dictionary, containing lives - of about two hundred distinguished personages, alphabetically - arranged, and beginning with Adam. Sedeño was a soldier, and - served in Italy. - - [846] The whole Dialogue--both the part written by Oliva and that - written by Francisco Cervantes--was published at Madrid (1772, - 4to) in a new edition by Cerdá y Rico, with his usual abundant, - but awkward, prefaces and annotations. - - [847] It is republished in the volume mentioned in the last note; - but we know nothing of its author. - - [848] Diálogos muy Subtiles y Notables, etc., por D. Pedro de - Navarra, Obispo de Comenge, Çaragoça, 1567, 12mo, 118 leaves. - The first five Dialogues are on the Character becoming a Royal - Chronicler; the next four on the Differences between a Rustic and - a Noble Life; and the remaining thirty-one on Preparation for - Death;--all written in a pure, simple Castilian style, but with - little either new or striking in the thoughts. Their author says, - it was a rule of the _Academia_, that the person who arrived - last at each meeting should furnish a subject for discussion, - and direct another member to reduce to writing the remarks - that might be made on it,--Cardinal Poggio, Juan d’Estuñiga, - knight-commander of Castile, and other persons of note, being - of the society. Navarra adds, that he had written two hundred - dialogues, in which there were “few matters that had not been - touched upon in that excellent Academy,” and notes especially, - that the subject of Preparation for Death had been discussed - after the decease of Cobos, a confidential minister of Charles - V., and that he himself had acted as secretary on the occasion. - Traces of any thing contemporary are, however, rare in the forty - dialogues he printed;--the most important that I have noticed - relating to Charles V. and his retirement at San Yuste, which the - good Bishop seems to have believed was a sincere abandonment of - all worldly thoughts and passions. I find nothing to illustrate - the character of Cortés, except the fact that such meetings were - held at his house. - - [849] Silva de Varia Leccion, por Pedro Mexia. The first edition - (Sevilla, 1543, fol., lit. got., 144 leaves) is in only three - parts. Another, which I also possess, is of Madrid, 1669, and - in six books, filling about 700 closely printed quarto pages. - It was long very popular, and there are many editions of it, - besides translations into Italian, German, French, Flemish, and - English. One English version is by Thomas Fortescue, and appeared - in 1571. (Warton’s Eng. Poetry, London, 1824, 8vo, Tom. IV. p. - 312.) Another, which is anonymous, is called “The Treasure of - Ancient and Modern Times, etc., translated out of that worthy - Spanish Gentleman, Pedro Mexia, and Mr. Francisco Sansovino, the - Italian,” etc. (London, 1613, fol.). It is a curious mixture of - similar discussions by different authors, Spanish, Italian, and - French. Mexia’s part begins at Book I. c. 8. - - [850] The earliest edition of the Dialogues, I think, is that of - Seville, 1547, 8vo. The one I use is in 12mo, and was printed at - Seville, 1562, black letter, 167 leaves. The second dialogue, - which is on Inviting to Feasts, is amusing; but the last, which - is on subjects of physical science, such as the causes of - thunder, earthquakes, and comets, is now-a-days only curious or - ridiculous. At the end of the Dialogues, and sometimes at the - end of old editions of the Silva, is found a free translation of - the Exhortation to Virtue by Isocrates, made from the Latin of - Agricola, because Mexia did not understand Greek. It is of no - value. - - [851] Diálogo de la Verdadera Honra Militar, por Gerónimo Ximenez - de Urrea. There are editions of 1566, 1575, 1661, etc. (Latassa, - Bib. Arag. Nueva, Tom. I. p. 264.) Mine is a small quarto - volume, Zaragoza, 1642. One of the most amusing passages in the - Dialogue of Urrea is the one in Part First, containing a detailed - statement of every thing relating to the duel proposed by Francis - I. to Charles V. - -Both of the works of Pedro Mexia, but especially his Silva, enjoyed no -little popularity during the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries; and, -in point of style, they are certainly not without merit. None, however, -of the productions of any one of the authors last mentioned had so much -force and character as the first part of the Dialogue on the Dignity -of Man. And yet Oliva was certainly not a person of a commanding -genius. His imagination never warms into poetry; his invention is never -sufficient to give new and strong views to his subject; and his system -of imitating both the Latin and the Italian masters rather tends to -debilitate than to impart vigor to his thoughts. But there is a general -reasonableness and wisdom in what he says that win and often satisfy -us, and these, with his style, which, though sometimes declamatory, -is yet, on the whole, pure and well settled, and his happy idea of -defending and employing the Castilian, then coming into all its rights -as a living language, have had the effect of giving him a more lasting -reputation than that of any other Spanish prose-writer of his time.[852] - - [852] As late as 1592, when the “Conversion de la Magdalena,” by - Pedro Malon de Chaide was published, the opposition to the use of - the Castilian in grave subjects was continued. He says, people - talked to him as if it were “a sacrilege” to discuss such matters - except in Latin. (f. 15.) But he replies, like a true Spaniard, - that the Castilian is better for such purposes than Latin or - Greek, and that he trusts before long to see it as widely spread - as the arms and glories of his country. (f. 17.) - -The same general tendency to a more formal and elegant style of -discussion is found in a few other ethical and religious authors of the -reign of Charles the Fifth that are still remembered; such as Palacios -Rubios, who wrote an essay on Military Courage, for the benefit of -his son;[853] Vanegas, who, under the title of “The Agony of Passing -through Death,” gives us what may rather be considered an ascetic -treatise on holy living;[854] and Juan de Avila, sometimes called the -Apostle of Andalusia, whose letters are fervent exhortations to virtue -and religion, composed with care and often with eloquence, if not with -entire purity of style.[855] - - [853] A full account of Juan Lopez de Vivero Palacios Rubios, - who was a man of consequence in his time, and engaged in the - famous compilation of the Spanish laws called “Leyes de Toro,” - is contained in Rezabal y Ugarte (Biblioteca, pp. 266-271). His - works in Latin are numerous; but in Spanish he published only - “Del Esfuerzo Belico Heroyco,” which appeared first at Salamanca - in 1524, folio, but of which there is a beautiful Madrid edition, - 1793, folio, with notes by Francisco Morales. - - [854] Antonio, Bib. Nov., Tom. I. p. 8. He flourished about - 1531-45. His “Agonía del Tránsito de la Muerte,” a glossary to - which, by its author, is dated 1543, was first printed from his - corrected manuscript, many years later. My copy, which seems - to be of the first edition, is dated Alcalá, 1574, and is in - 12mo. The treatise called “Diferencias de Libros que ay en el - Universo,” by the same author, who, however, here writes his name - V_e_negas, was finished in 1539, and printed at Toledo in 1540, - 4to. It is written in a good style, though not without conceits - of thought, and conceited phrases. But it is not, as its title - might seem to imply, a criticism on books and authors, but the - opinion of Vanegas himself, how we should study the great books - of God, nature, man, and Christianity. It is, in fact, intended - to discourage the reading of books then much in fashion, and - deemed by him bad. - - [855] He died in 1569. In 1534 he was in the prisons of the - Inquisition, and in 1559 one of his books was put into the Index - Expurgatorius. Nevertheless, he was regarded as a sort of Saint. - (Llorente, Histoire de l’Inquisition, Tom. II. pp. 7 and 423.) - His “Cartas Espirituales” were not printed, I believe, till the - year of his death. (Antonio, Bib. Nova, Tom. I. pp. 639-642.) His - treatises on Self-knowledge, on Prayer, and on other religious - subjects, are equally well written, and in the same style of - eloquence. A long life, or rather eulogy, of him is prefixed to - the first volume of his works, (Madrid, 1595, 4to,) by Juan Diaz. - -The author in this class, however, who during his lifetime had the -most influence was Antonio de Guevara, one of the official chroniclers -of Charles the Fifth. He was a Biscayan by birth, and passed some of -his earlier years at the court of Queen Isabella. In 1528 he became a -Franciscan monk, but, enjoying the favor of the Emperor, he seems to -have been transformed into a thorough courtier, accompanying his master -during his journeys and residences in Italy and other parts of Europe, -and rising successively, by the royal patronage, to be court preacher, -Imperial historiographer, Bishop of Guadix, and Bishop of Mondoñedo. -He died in 1545.[856] - - [856] A life of Guevara is prefixed to the edition of his - Epístolas, Madrid, 1673, 4to; but there is a good account of him - by himself in the Prólogo to his “Menosprecio de Corte.” - -His works were not numerous, but they were fitted to the atmosphere in -which they were produced and enjoyed at once a great popularity. His -“Dial for Princes, or Marcus Aurelius,” first published in 1529, and -the fruit, as he tells us, of eleven years’ labor,[857] was not only -often reprinted in Spanish, but was translated into Latin, Italian, -French, and English; in each of which last two languages it appeared -many times before the end of the century.[858] It is a kind of romance, -founded on the life and character of Marcus Aurelius, and resembles, in -some points, the “Cyropædia” of Xenophon; its purpose being to place -before the Emperor Charles the Fifth the model of a prince more perfect -for wisdom and virtue than any other of antiquity. But the Bishop of -Mondoñedo adventured beyond his prerogative. He pretended that his -Marcus Aurelius was genuine history, and appealed to a manuscript in -Florence, which did not exist, as if he had done little more than make -a translation of it. In consequence of this, Pedro de Rua, a professor -of elegant literature in the college at Soria, addressed a letter to -him, in 1540, exposing the fraud. Two other letters followed, written -with more freedom and purity of style than any thing in the works -of the Bishop himself, and leaving him no real ground on which to -stand.[859] He, however, defended himself as well as he was able; at -first cautiously, but afterwards, when he was more closely assailed, -by assuming the wholly untenable position, that all ancient profane -history was no more true than his romance of Marcus Aurelius, and that -he had as good a right to invent for his own high purposes as Herodotus -or Livy. From this time he was severely attacked; more so, perhaps, -than he would have been, if the gross frauds of Annius of Viterbo had -not then been recent. But however this may be, it was done with a -bitterness that forms a strong contrast to the applause bestowed in -France, near the end of the eighteenth century, upon a somewhat similar -work on the same subject by Thomas.[860] - - [857] See the argument to the “Década de los Césares.” - - [858] Watt, in his “Bibliotheca Britannica,” and Brunet, in his - “Manuel du Libraire,” give quite curious lists of the different - editions and translations of the works of Guevara, showing their - great popularity all over Europe. In French, the number of - translations in the sixteenth century was extraordinary. See La - Croix du Maine et du Verdier, Bibliothèques, (Paris, 1772, 4to, - Tom. III. p. 123,) and the articles there referred to. - - [859] There are editions of the Cartas del Bachiller Rua, Burgos, - 1549, 4to, and Madrid, 1736, 4to, and a life of him in Bayle, - Dict. Historique, Amsterdam, 1740, folio, Tom. IV. p. 95. The - letters of Rua, or Rhua, as his name is often written, are - respectable in style, though their critical spirit is that of the - age and country in which they were written. The short reply of - Guevara following the second of Rua’s letters is not creditable - to him. - - [860] Antonio, in his article on Guevara, (Bib. Nova, Tom. I. p. - 125,) is very severe; but his tone is gentle, compared with that - of Bayle, (Dict. Hist., Tom. II. p. 631,) who always delights to - show up any defects he can find in the characters of priests and - monks. There are editions of the Relox de Principes, of 1529, - 1532, 1537, etc. - -After all, however, the “Dial for Princes” is little worthy of the -excitement it occasioned. It is filled with letters and speeches ill -conceived and inappropriate; and is written in a formal and inflated -style. Perhaps we are now indebted to it for nothing so much as for the -beautiful fable of “The Peasant of the Danube,” evidently suggested to -La Fontaine by one of the discourses through which Guevara endeavoured -to give life and reality to his fictions.[861] - - [861] La Fontaine, Fables, Lib. XI. fab. 7, and Guevara, Relox, - Lib. III. c. 3. The speech which the Spanish Bishop, the true - inventor of this happy fiction, gives to his Rústico de Germania - is, indeed, too long; but it was popular. Tirso de Molina, after - describing a peasant who approached Xerxes, says in the Prologue - to one of his plays,-- - - In short, - He represented to the very life - The Rustic that so boldly spoke - Before the Roman Senate. - - Cigarrales de Toledo, Madrid, 1624, 4to, p. 102 - - La Fontaine, however, did not trouble himself about the original - Spanish or its popularity. He took his beautiful version of the - fable from an old French translation, made by a gentleman who - went to Madrid in 1526 with the Cardinal de Grammont, on the - subject of Francis the First’s imprisonment. It is in the rich - old French of that period, and La Fontaine often adopts, with his - accustomed skill, its picturesque phraseology. I suppose this - translation is the one cited by Brunet as made by René Bertaut, - of which there were many editions. Mine is of Paris, 1540, - folio, by Galliot du Pré, and is entitled “Lorloge des Princes, - traduict Despaignol en Langaige François”; but does not give the - translator’s name. - -In the same spirit, though with less boldness, he wrote his “Lives of -the Ten Roman Emperors”; a work which, like his Dial for Princes, he -dedicated to Charles the Fifth. In general, he has here followed the -authorities on which he claims to found his narrative, such as Dion -Cassius and the minor Latin historians, showing, at the same time, a -marked desire to imitate Plutarch and Suetonius, whom he announces as -his models. But he has not been able entirely to resist the temptation -of inserting fictitious letters, and even unfounded stories; thus -giving a false view, if not of the facts of history, at least of some -of the characters he records. His style, however, though it still wants -purity and appropriateness, is better and more simple than it is in his -romance on Marcus Aurelius.[862] - - [862] The “Década de los Césares,” with the other treatises of - Guevara here spoken of, except his Epistles, are to be found in - a collection of his works first printed at Valladolid in 1539. - My copy is of the second edition, Valladolid, 1545, folio, black - letter, 214 leaves. - -Similar characteristics mark a large collection of Letters printed by -him as early as 1539. Many of them are addressed to persons of great -consideration in his time, such as the Marquis of Pescara, the Duke -of Alva, Iñigo de Velasco, Grand Constable of Castile, and Fadrique -Enriquez, Grand Admiral. But some were evidently never sent to the -persons addressed, like the loyal one to Juan de Padilla, the head -of the _Comuneros_, and two impertinent letters to the Governor Luis -Bravo, who had foolishly fallen in love in his old age. Others are -mere fictions; among which are a correspondence of the Emperor Trajan -with Plutarch and the Roman Senate, which Guevara vainly protests -he translated from the Greek, without saying where he found the -originals,[863] and a long epistle about Laïs and other courtesans of -antiquity, in which he gives the details of their conversations as if -he had listened to them himself. Most of the letters, though they are -called “Familiar Epistles,” are merely essays or disputations, and -a few are sermons in form, with an announcement of the occasions on -which they were preached. None has the easy or natural air of a real -correspondence. In fact, they were all, no doubt, prepared expressly -for publication and for effect; and, notwithstanding their stiffness -and formality, were greatly admired. They were often printed in Spain; -they were translated into all the principal languages of Europe; and, -to express the value set on them, they were generally called “The -Golden Epistles.” But notwithstanding their early success, they have -long been disregarded, and only a few passages that touch the affairs -of the time or the life of the Emperor can now be read with interest or -pleasure.[864] - - [863] These very letters, however, were thought worth translating - into English by Sir Geoffrey Fenton, and are found ff. 68-77 of - a curious collection taken from different authors and published - in London, (1575, 4to, black letter,) under the title of “Golden - Epistles.” Edward Hellowes had already translated the whole of - Guevara’s Epistles in 1574; which were again translated, but not - very well, by Savage, in 1657. - - [864] Epístolas Familiares de D. Antonio de Guevara, Madrid, - 1673, 4to p. 12, and elsewhere. Cervantes, _en passant_, gives a - blow at the letter of Guevara about Laïs, in the Prólogo to the - first part of his Don Quixote. - -Besides these works, Guevara wrote several formal treatises. Two are -strictly theological.[865] Another is on the Inventors of the Art of -Navigation and its Practice;--a subject which might be thought foreign -from the Bishop’s experience, but with which, he tells us, he had -become familiar by having been much at sea, and visited many ports on -the Mediterranean.[866] Of his two other treatises, which are all that -remain to be noticed, one is called “Contempt of Court Life and Praise -of the Country”; and the other, “Counsels for Favorites, and Teachings -for Courtiers.” They are moral discussions, suggested by Castiglione’s -“Courtier,” then at the height of its popularity, and are written with -great elaborateness, in a solemn and stiff style, bearing the same -relations to truth and wisdom that Arcadian pastorals do to nature.[867] - - [865] One of these religious treatises is entitled “Monte - Calvario,” 1542, translated into English in 1595; and the other, - “Oratorio de Religiosos,” 1543, which is a series of short - exhortations or homilies with a text prefixed to each. The first - is ordered to be expurgated in the Index of 1667, (p. 67,) and - both are censured in that of 1790. - - [866] Hellowes translated this, also, and printed it in 1578. - (Sir E. Brydges, Censura Literaria, Tom. III. 1807, p. 210.) It - is an unpromising subject in any language, but in the original - Guevara has shown some pleasantry, and an easier style than is - common with him. - - [867] Both these treatises were translated into English; the - first by Sir Francis Briant, in 1548. Ames’s Typog. Antiquities, - ed. Dibdin, London, 1810, 4to, Tom. III. p. 460. - -All the works of Guevara show the impress of their age, and mark their -author’s position at court. They are burdened with learning, yet not -without proofs of experience in the ways of the world;--they often show -good sense, but they are monotonous from the stately dignity he thinks -it necessary to assume on his own account, and from the rhetorical -ornament by which he hopes to commend them to the regard of his -readers. Such as they are, however, they illustrate and exemplify, more -truly, perhaps, than any thing else of their age, the style of writing -most in favor at the court of Charles the Fifth, especially during the -latter part of that monarch’s reign. - -But by far the best didactic prose work of this period, though unknown -and unpublished till two centuries afterwards, is that commonly cited -under the simple title of “The Dialogue on Languages”;--a work which, -at any time, would be deemed remarkable for the naturalness and purity -of its style, and is peculiarly so at this period of formal and -elaborate eloquence. “I write,” says its author, “as I speak; only -I take more pains to think what I have to say, and then I say it as -simply as I can; for, to my mind, affectation is out of place in all -languages.” Who it was that entertained an opinion so true, but in -his time so uncommon, is not certain. Probably it was Juan Valdés, a -person who enjoys the distinction of being one of the first Spaniards -that embraced the opinions of the Reformation, and the very first who -made an effort to spread them. He was educated at the University of -Alcalá, and during a part of his life possessed not a little political -consequence, being much about the person of the Emperor, and sent by -him to act as secretary and adviser to Toledo, the great viceroy of -Naples. It is not known what became of him afterwards; but he died -in 1540, six years before Charles the Fifth attempted to establish -the Inquisition in Naples; and therefore it is not likely that he was -seriously molested while he was in office there.[868] - - [868] Llorente (Hist. de l’Inquisition, Tom. II. pp. 281 and - 478) makes some mistakes about Valdés, of whom the best accounts - are to be found in McCrie’s “Hist. of the Progress, etc., of the - Reformation in Italy,” (Edinburgh, 1827, 8vo, pp. 106 and 121,) - and in his “Hist. of the Progress, etc., of the Reformation in - Spain” (Edinburgh, 1829, 8vo, pp. 140-146). Valdés is supposed to - have been an anti-Trinitarian, but McCrie does not admit it. - -The Dialogue on Languages is supposed to be carried on between two -Spaniards and two Italians, at a country-house on the sea-shore, near -Naples, and is an acute discussion on the origin and character of the -Castilian. Parts of it are learned, but in these the author sometimes -falls into errors;[869] other parts are lively and entertaining; and -yet others are full of good sense and sound criticism. The principal -personage--the one who gives all the instructions and explanations--is -named Valdés; and from this circumstance, as well as from some -intimations in the Dialogue itself, it may be inferred that the -reformer was its author, and that it was written before 1536;[870]--a -point which, if established, would account for the suppression of the -manuscript, as the work of an adherent of Luther. In any event, the -Dialogue was not printed till 1737, and therefore, as a specimen of -pure and easy style, was lost on the age that produced it.[871] - - [869] His chief error is in supposing that the Greek language - once prevailed generally in Spain, and constituted the basis of - an ancient Spanish language, which, he thinks, was spread through - the country before the Romans appeared in Spain. - - [870] The intimations alluded to are, that the Valdés of - the Dialogue had been at Rome; that he was a person of some - authority; and that he had lived long at Naples and in other - parts of Italy. He speaks of Garcilasso de la Vega as if he were - alive, and Garcilasso died in 1536. Llorente, in a passage just - cited, calls Valdés the author of the Diálogo de las Lenguas; and - Clemencin--a safer authority--does the same, once, in the notes - to his edition of Don Quixote, (Tom. IV. p. 285,) though in many - other notes he treats it as if its author were unknown. - - [871] The Diálogo de las Lenguas was not printed till it appeared - in Mayans y Siscar, “Orígenes de la Lengua Española,” (Madrid, - 1737, 2 tom. 12mo); where it fills the first half of the second - volume, and is the best thing in the collection. Probably the - manuscript had been kept out of sight as the work of a well-known - heretic. Mayans says, that it could be traced to Zurita, the - historian, and that, in 1736, it was purchased for the Royal - Library, of which Mayans himself was then librarian. One leaf - was wanting, which he could not supply; and though he seems to - have believed Valdés to have been the author of the Dialogue, he - avoids saying so,--perhaps from an unwillingness to attract the - notice of the Inquisition to it. (Orígenes, Tom. I. pp. 173-180.) - Iriarte, in the “Aprobacion” of the collection, treats the - Diálogo as if its author were quite unknown. - -For us it is important, because it shows, with more distinctness than -any other literary monument of its time, what was the state of the -Spanish language in the reign of the Emperor Charles the Fifth; a -circumstance of consequence to the condition of the literature, and one -to which we therefore turn with interest. - -As might be expected, we find, when we look back, that the language of -letters in Spain has made material progress since we last noticed it -in the reign of John the Second. The example of Juan de Mena had been -followed, and the national vocabulary enriched during the interval -of a century, by successive poets, from the languages of classical -antiquity. From other sources, too, and through other channels, -important contributions had flowed in. From America and its commerce -had come the names of those productions which half a century of -intercourse had brought to Spain, and rendered familiar there,--terms -few, indeed, in number, but of daily use.[872] From Germany and the Low -Countries still more had been introduced by the accession of Charles -the Fifth,[873] who, to the great annoyance of his Spanish subjects, -arrived in Spain surrounded by foreign courtiers, and speaking with -a stranger accent the language of the country he was called to -govern.[874] A few words, too, had come accidentally from France; and -now, in the reign of Philip the Second, a great number, amounting to -the most considerable infusion the language had received since the time -of the Arabs, were brought in through the intimate connection of Spain -with Italy and the increasing influence of Italian letters and Italian -culture.[875] - - [872] Mayans y Siscar, Orígenes, Tom. I. p. 97. - - [873] Ibid., p. 98. - - [874] Sandoval says that Charles V. suffered greatly in the - opinion of the Spaniards, on his first arrival in Spain, because, - owing to his inability to speak Spanish, they had hardly any - proper intercourse with him. It was, he adds, as if they could - not talk with him at all. Historia, Anvers, 1681, folio, Tom. I. - p. 141. - - [875] Mayans y Siscar, Orígenes, Tom. II. pp. 127-133. The author - of the Diálogo urges the introduction of a considerable number - of words from the Italian, such as _discurso_, _facilitar_, - _fantasia_, _novela_, etc., which have long since been adopted - and fully recognized by the Academy. Diego de Mendoza, though - partly of the Italian school, objected to the word _centinela_ - as a needless Italianism; but it was soon fully received into - the language. (Guerra de Granada, ed. 1776, Lib. III. c. 7, p. - 176.) A little later, Luis Velez de Guevara, in Tranco X. of his - “Diablo Cojuelo,” denied citizenship to _fulgor_, _purpurear_, - _pompa_, and other words now in good use. - -We may therefore consider that the Spanish language at this period -was not only formed, but that it had reached substantially its full -proportions, and had received all its essential characteristics. -Indeed, it had already for half a century been regularly cared for -and cultivated. Alonso de Palencia, who had long been in the service -of his country as an ambassador, and was afterwards its chronicler, -published a Latin and Spanish Dictionary in 1490; the oldest in which a -Castilian vocabulary is to be found.[876] This was succeeded, two years -later, by the first Castilian Grammar, the work of Antonio de Lebrixa, -who had before published a Latin Grammar in the Latin language, and -translated it for the benefit, as he tells us, of the ladies of the -court.[877] Other similar and equally successful attempts followed. A -purely Spanish Dictionary by Lebrixa, the first of its kind, appeared -in 1492, and a Dictionary for ecclesiastical purposes, in both Latin -and Spanish, by Santa Ella, succeeded it in 1499; both often reprinted -afterwards, and long regarded as standard authorities.[878] All these -works, so important for the consolidation of the language, and so well -constructed that successors to them were not found till above a century -later,[879] were, it should be observed, produced under the direct -and personal patronage of Queen Isabella, who in this, as in so many -other ways, gave proof at once of her far-sightedness in affairs of -state, and of her wise tastes and preferences in whatever regarded the -intellectual cultivation of her subjects.[880] - - [876] Mendez, Typographía, p. 175. Antonio, Bib. Vetus, ed. - Bayer, Tom. II. p. 333. - - [877] Mendez, Typog., pp. 239-242. For the great merits of - Antonio de Lebrixa, in relation to the Spanish language, see - “Specimen Bibliothecæ Hispano-Mayansianæ ex Museo D. Clementis,” - Hannoveræ, 1753, 4to, pp. 4-39. - - [878] Mendez, pp. 243 and 212, and Antonio, Bib. Nova, Tom. II. - p. 266. - - [879] The Grammar of Juan de Navidad, 1567, is not an exception - to this remark, because it was intended to teach Spanish to - Italians, and not to natives. - - [880] Clemencin, in Mem. de la Academia de Historia, Tom. VI. p. - 472, notes. - -The language thus formed was now fast spreading throughout the kingdom, -and displacing dialects some of which, as old as itself, had seemed, -at one period, destined to surpass it in cultivation and general -prevalence. The ancient Galician, in which Alfonso the Wise was -educated, and in which he sometimes wrote, was now known as a polite -language only in Portugal, where it had risen to be so independent of -the stock from which it sprang as almost to disavow its origin. The -Valencian and Catalonian, those kindred dialects of the Provençal race, -whose influences in the thirteenth century were felt through the whole -Peninsula, claimed, at this period, something of their earlier dignity -only below the last range of hills on the coast of the Mediterranean. -The Biscayan alone, unchanged as the mountains which sheltered it, -still preserved for itself the same separate character it had at the -earliest dawnings of tradition,--a character which has continued -essentially the same down to our own times. - -But though the Castilian, advancing with the whole authority of the -government, which at this time spoke to the people of all Spain in no -other language, was heard and acknowledged throughout the country as -the language of the state and of all political power, still the popular -and local habits of four centuries could not be at once or entirely -broken up. The Galician, the Valencian, and the Catalonian continued -to be spoken in the age of Charles the Fifth, and are spoken now by -the masses of the people in their respective provinces, and to some -extent in the refined society of each. Even Andalusia and Aragon have -not yet emancipated themselves completely from their original idioms; -and in the same way, each of the other grand divisions of the country, -several of which were at one time independent kingdoms, are still, -like Estremadura and La Mancha, distinguished by peculiarities of -phraseology and accent.[881] - - [881] It is curious to observe, that the author of the “Diálogo - de las Lenguas,” (Orígenes, Tom. II. p. 31,) who wrote about - 1535, Mayans, (Orígenes, Tom. I. p. 8,) who wrote in 1737, and - Sarmiento, (Memorias, p. 94,) who wrote about 1760, all speak of - the character of the Castilian and the prevalence of the dialects - in nearly the same terms. - -Castile alone, and especially Old Castile, claims, as of inherited -right, from the beginning of the fifteenth century, the prerogative -of speaking absolutely pure Spanish. Villalobos, it is true, who was -always a flatterer of royal authority, insisted that this prerogative -followed the residences of the sovereign and the court;[882] but the -better opinion has been, that the purest form of the Castilian must be -sought at Toledo,--the Imperial Toledo, as it was called,--peculiarly -favored when it was the political capital of the ancient monarchy in -the time of the Goths, and consecrated anew as the ecclesiastical -head of all Christian Spain, the moment it was rescued from the hands -of the Moors.[883] It has even been said, that the supremacy of this -venerable city in the purity of its dialect was so fully settled, from -the first appearance of the language as the language of the state in -the thirteenth century, that Alfonso the Wise, in a Cortes held there, -directed the meaning of any disputed word to be settled by its use at -Toledo.[884] But however this may be, there is no question, that, from -the time of Charles the Fifth to the present day, the Toledan has been -considered, on the whole, the normal form of the national language, and -that, from the same period, the Castilian dialect, having vindicated -for itself an absolute supremacy over all the other dialects of the -monarchy, has been the only one recognized as the language of the -classical poetry and prose of the whole country. - - [882] De las Fiebres Interpoladas, Metro I., Obras, 1543, f. 27. - - [883] See Mariana’s account of the glories of Toledo, Historia, - Lib. XVI. c. 15, and elsewhere. He was himself from the kingdom - of Toledo, and often boasts of its renown. Cervantes, in Don - Quixote, (Parte II. c. 19,) implies that the Toledan was - accounted the purest Spanish of his time. It still claims to be - so in ours. - - [884] “Also, at the same Cortes, the same King, Don Alfonso X., - ordered, if thereafter there should be a doubt in any part of his - kingdom about the meaning of any Castilian word, that reference - thereof should be had to this city as to the standard of the - Castilian tongue [como á metro de la lengua Castellana], and that - they should adopt the meaning and definition here given to such - word, because our tongue is more perfect here than elsewhere.” - (Francisco de Pisa, Descripcion de la Imperial Ciudad de Toledo, - ed. Thomas Tamaio de Vargas, Toledo, 1617, fol., Lib. I. c. 36, - f. 56.) The Cortes here referred to is said by Pisa to have - been held in 1253; in which year the Chronicle of Alfonso X. - (Valladolid, 1554, fol., c. 2) represents the king to have been - there. - - - - -CHAPTER VI. - -CHRONICLING PERIOD GONE BY.--CHARLES THE FIFTH.--GUEVARA.-- -OCAMPO.--SEPÚLVEDA.--MEXIA.--ACCOUNTS OF THE NEW WORLD.-- -CORTÉS.--GOMARA.--BERNAL DIAZ.--OVIEDO.--LAS CASAS.--VACA.-- -XEREZ.--ÇARATE. - - -At the beginning of the sixteenth century, it is obvious that the -age for chronicles had gone by in Spain. Still it was thought for -the dignity of the monarchy that the stately forms of the elder -time should, in this as in other particulars, be kept up by public -authority. Charles the Fifth, therefore, as if his ambitious projects -as a conqueror were to find their counterpart in his arrangements -for recording their success, had several authorized chroniclers, all -men of consideration and learning. But the shadow on the dial would -not go back at the royal command. The greatest monarch of his time -could appoint chroniclers, but he could not give them the spirit of -an age that was past. The chronicles he demanded at their hands were -either never undertaken or never finished. Antonio de Guevara, one of -the persons to whom these duties were assigned, seems to have been -singularly conscientious in the devotion of his time to them; for -we are told, that, by his will, he ordered the salary of one year, -during which he had written nothing of his task, to be returned to -the Imperial treasury. This, however, did not imply that he was a -successful chronicler.[885] What he wrote was not thought worthy of -being published by his contemporaries, and would probably be judged -no more favorably by the present generation, unless it discovered a -greater regard for historical truth, and a better style, than are found -in his discussions on the life and character of the Emperor Marcus -Aurelius.[886] - - [885] Antonio, Bib. Nov., Tom. I. p. 127, and Preface to - Epístolas Familiares of Guevara, ed. 1673. - - [886] See the vituperative article _Guevara_, in Bayle. - -Florian de Ocampo, another of the more distinguished of the -chroniclers, showed a wide ambition in the plan he proposed to himself; -beginning his chronicles of Charles the Fifth as far back as the -days of Noah’s flood. As might have been foreseen, he lived only so -long as to finish a small fragment of his vast undertaking;--hardly -a quarter part of the first of its four grand divisions.[887] But he -went far enough to show how completely the age for such writing was -passed away.[888] Not that he failed in credulity; for of that he had -more than enough. It was not, however, the poetical credulity of his -predecessors, trusting to the old national traditions, but an easy -faith, that believed in the wearisome forgeries called the works of -Berosus and Manetho,[889] which had been discredited from their first -appearance half a century before, and yet were now used by Ocampo -as if they were the probable, if not the sufficient, records of an -uninterrupted succession of Spanish kings from Tubal, a grandson of -Noah. Such a credulity has no charm about it. But besides this, the -work of Ocampo, in its very structure, is dry and absurd; and, being -written in a formal and heavy style, it is all but impossible to read -it. He died in 1555, the year the Emperor abdicated, leaving us little -occasion to regret that he had brought his annals of Spain no lower -down than the age of the Scipios. - - [887] The best life of Ocampo is to be found in the “Biblioteca - de los Escritores que han sido Individuos de los Seis Colegios - Mayores,” etc., por Don Josef de Rezabal y Ugarte (pp. 233-238); - but there is one prefixed to the edition of his Crónica, 1791. - - [888] The first edition of the first four books of the Chronicle - of Ocampo was published at Zamora, 1544, in a beautiful - black-letter folio, and was followed by an edition of the whole - at Medina del Campo, 1553, folio. The best, I suppose, is the one - published at Madrid, 1791, in 2 vols. 4to. - - [889] For this miserable forgery see Niceron (Hommes Illustres, - Paris, 1730, Tom. XI. pp. 1-11; Tom. XX., 1732, pp. 1-6);--and - for the simplicity of Ocampo in trusting to it, see the last - chapter of his first book, and all the passages where he cites - Juan de Viterbo _y su Beroso_, etc. - -Juan Ginez de Sepúlveda was also charged by the Emperor fitly to -record the events of his reign;[890] and so was Pero Mexia;[891] but -the history of the former, which was first published by the Academy -in 1780, is in Latin, while that of Mexia, written, apparently, -after 1545, and coming down to the coronation at Bologna, was never -published at all.[892] A larger history, however, by the last author, -consisting of the lives of all the Roman emperors from Julius Cæsar -to Maximilian of Austria, the predecessor of Charles the Fifth, which -was printed several times, and is spoken of as an introduction to his -Chronicle, shows, notwithstanding its many imperfections of style, -that his purpose was to write a true and well-digested history, since -he generally refers, under each reign, to the authorities on which he -relies.[893] - - [890] Pero Mexia, in the concluding words of his “Historia - Imperial y Cesarea.” - - [891] Capmany, Eloquencia Española, Tom. II. p. 295. - - [892] I say “apparently,” because in his “Historia Imperial y - Cesarea,” he declares, speaking of the achievements of Charles - V., “I never was so presumptuous as to deem myself sufficient - to record them.” This was in 1545. He was not appointed - Historiographer till 1548. See notices of him by Pacheco, in the - Semanario Pintoresco, 1844, p. 406. He died in 1552. - - From the time of Charles V. there seem generally to have been - chroniclers of the kingdom and chroniclers of the personal - history of its kings. At any rate, that monarch had Ocampo and - Garibay for the first purpose; and Guevara, Sepúlveda, and Mexia - for the second. Lorenço de Padilla, Archdeacon of Málaga, is also - mentioned by Dormer (Progresos, Lib. II. c. 2) as one of his - chroniclers. Indeed, it does not seem easy to determine how many - enjoyed the honor of that title. - - [893] The first edition appeared in 1545. The one I use is of - Anvers, 1561, fol. The best notice of his life, perhaps, is the - article about him in the Biographie Universelle. - -Such works as these prove to us that we have reached the final limit of -the old chronicling style; and that we must now look for the appearance -of the different forms of regular historical composition in Spanish -literature. But before we approach them, we must pause a moment on a -few histories and accounts of the New World, which, during the reign -of Charles the Fifth, were of more importance than the imperfect -chronicles we have just noticed of the Spanish empire in Europe. For -as soon as the adventurers that followed Columbus were landed on the -western shores of the Atlantic, we begin to find narratives, more -or less ample, of their discoveries and settlements; some written -with spirit, and even in good taste; others quite unattractive in -their style; but nearly all interesting from their subject and their -materials, if from nothing else. - -In the foreground of this picturesque group stands, as the most -brilliant of its figures, Fernando Cortés, called, by way of eminence, -_El Conquistador_, the Conqueror. He was born of noble parentage, and -carefully bred; and though his fiery spirit drove him from Salamanca -before his education could be completed, and brought him to the New -World, in 1504, when he was hardly nineteen years old,[894] still the -nurture of his youth, so much better than that of most of the other -American adventurers, is apparent in his voluminous documents and -letters, both published and unpublished. Of these, the most remarkable -were, no doubt, five long and detailed Reports to the Emperor on the -affairs of Mexico; the first of which, and probably the most curious, -dated in 1519, seems to be lost, and the last, belonging, probably, -to 1527, exists only in manuscript.[895] The four that remain are -well written and have a business-like air about them, as well as a -clearness and good taste which remind us sometimes, though rarely, of -the “Relazioni” of Machiavelli, and sometimes of Cæsar’s Commentaries. -His letters, on the other hand, are occasionally more ornamented. In an -unpublished one, written about 1533, and in which, when his fortunes -were waning, he sets forth his services and his wrongs, he pleases -himself with telling the Emperor that he “keeps two of his Majesty’s -letters like holy relics,” adding, that “the favors of his Majesty -towards him had been quite too ample for so small a vase”;--courtly -and graceful phrases, such as are not found in the documents of his -later years, when, disappointed and disgusted with affairs and with the -court, he retired to a morose solitude, where he died in 1554, little -consoled by his rank, his wealth, or his glory. - - [894] He left Salamanca two or three years before he came to the - New World; but old Bernal Diaz, who knew him well, says: “He was - a scholar, and I have heard it said he was a Bachelor of Laws; - and when he talked with lawyers and scholars, he answered in - Latin. He was somewhat of a poet, and made couplets in metre and - in prose, [en metro y en prosa,]” etc. It would be amusing to - see poems by Cortés, and especially what the rude old chronicler - calls _coplas en prosa_; but he knew about as much concerning - such matters as Mons. Jourdain. Cortés, however, was always fond - of the society of cultivated men. In his house at Madrid, (see - _ante_, p. 537,) after his return from America, was held one of - those _Academies_ which were then beginning to be imitated from - Italy. - - [895] The printed “Relaciones” may be found in Barcia, - “Historiadores Primitivos de las Indias Occidentales,” (Madrid, - 1749, 3 tom., folio,)--a collection printed after its editor’s - death and very ill arranged. Barcia was a man of literary - distinction, much employed in affairs of state, and one of - the founders of the Spanish Academy. He died in 1743. (Baena, - Hijos de Madrid, Tom. I. p. 106.) For the last and unpublished - “Relacion” of Cortés, as well as for his unpublished letters, I - am indebted to my friend Mr. Prescott, who has so well used them - in his “Conquest of Mexico.” - -The marvellous achievements of Cortés in Mexico, however, were -more fully, if not more accurately, recorded by Francisco Lopez -de Gomara,--the oldest of the regular historians of the New -World,[896]--who was born at Seville in 1510, and was, for some time, -Professor of Rhetoric at Alcalá. His early life, spent in the great -mart of the American adventurers, seems to have given him an interest -in them and a knowledge of their affairs which led him to write their -history. The works he produced, besides one or two of less consequence, -were, first, his “History of the Indies,” which, after the Spanish -fashion, begins with the creation of the world, and ends with the -glories of Spain, though it is chiefly devoted to Columbus and the -discovery and conquest of Peru; and, second, his “Chronicle of New -Spain,” which is, in truth, merely the History and Life of Cortés, and -which, with this more appropriate title, was reprinted by Bustamente, -in Mexico, in 1826.[897] As the earliest records that were published -concerning affairs which already stirred the whole of Christendom, -these works had, at once, a great success, passing through two editions -almost immediately, and being soon translated into French and Italian. - - [896] “The first worthy of being so called,” says Muñoz, Hist. - del Nuevo Mundo, Madrid, 1793, folio, p. xviii. - - [897] The two works of Gomara may be well consulted in Barcia, - “Historiadores Primitivos,” Tom. II., which they fill. They were - first printed in 1553, and though, as Antonio says, (Bib. Nov., - Tom. I. p. 437,) they were forbidden to be either reprinted - or read, four editions of them appeared before the end of the - century. - -But though Gomara’s style is easy and flowing, both in his mere -narration and in those parts of his works which so amply describe -the resources of the newly discovered countries, he did not succeed -in producing any thing of permanent authority. He was the secretary -of Cortés, and was misled by information received from him, and from -other persons, who were too much a part of the story they undertook to -relate to tell it fairly.[898] His mistakes, in consequence, are great -and frequent, and were exposed with much zeal by Bernal Diaz, an old -soldier, who, having already been twice to the New World, went with -Cortés to Mexico in 1519,[899] and fought there so often and so long, -that, many years afterwards, he declared he could sleep with comfort -only when his armour was on.[900] As soon as he read the accounts of -Gomara, he set himself sturdily at work to answer them, and in 1558 -completed his task.[901] The book he thus produced is written with much -personal vanity, and runs, in a rude style, into wearisome details; but -it is full of the zealous and honest nationality of the old chronicles, -so that, while we are reading it, we seem to be carried back into the -preceding ages, and to be again in the midst of a sort of fervor and -faith which, in writers like Gomara and Cortés, we feel sure we are -fast leaving behind us. - - [898] “About this first going of Cortés as captain on this - expedition, the ecclesiastic Gomara tells many things grossly - untrue in his history, as might be expected from a man who - neither saw nor heard any thing about them, except what Fernando - Cortés told him and gave him in writing; Gomara being his - chaplain and servant, after he was made Marquis and returned to - Spain the last time.” Las Casas, (Historia de las Indias, Parte - III. c. 113, MS.,) a prejudiced witness, but, on a point of fact - within his own knowledge, one to be believed. - - [899] See “Historia Verdadera de la Conquista de la Nueva - España, por el Capitan Bernal Diaz del Castillo, uno de los - Conquistadores,” Madrid, 1632, folio, cap. 211. - - [900] He says he was in one hundred and nineteen battles (f. 254. - d); that is, I suppose, fights of all kinds. - - [901] It was not printed till long afterwards, and was then - dedicated to Philip IV. Some of its details are quite ridiculous. - He gives even a list of the individual horses that were used on - the great expedition of Cortés, and often describes the separate - qualities of a favorite charger as carefully as he does those of - his rider. - -Among the persons who early came to America, and have left important -records of their adventures and times, one of the most considerable was -Gonzalo Fernandez de Oviedo. He was born at Madrid, in 1478,[902] and, -having been well educated at the court of Ferdinand and Isabella, as -one of the pages of Prince John, was sent out, in 1513, as a supervisor -of gold-smeltings, to San Domingo,[903] where, except occasional visits -to Spain and to different Spanish possessions in America, he lived -nearly forty years, devoted to the affairs of the New World. Oviedo -seems, from his youth, to have had a passion for writing; and, besides -several less considerable works, among which were imperfect chronicles -of Ferdinand and Isabella and of Charles the Fifth, and a life of -Cardinal Ximenes,[904] he prepared two of no small value. - - [902] “Yo naci año de 1478,” he says, in his “Quinquagenas,” - when noticing Pedro Fernandez de Córdoba; and he more than once - speaks of himself as a native of Madrid. He says, too, expressly, - that he was present at the surrender of Granada, and that he saw - Columbus at Barcelona, on his first return from America in 1493. - Quinquagenas, MS. - - [903] “Veedor de las Fundiciones de Oro,” he describes himself in - the Proemio of his work presented to Charles V. in 1525 (Barcia, - Tom. I.); and long afterwards, in the opening of Book XLVII. of - his Historias, MS., he still speaks of himself as holding the - same office. - - [904] I do not feel sure that Antonio is not mistaken in - ascribing to Oviedo a _separate_ life of Cardinal Ximenes, - because the life contained in the “Quinquagenas” is so ample; but - the Chronicles of Ferdinand and Isabella, and Charles V., are - alluded to by Oviedo himself in the Proemio to Charles V. Neither - has ever been printed. - -The most important of these two is “The Natural and General History -of the Indies,” filling fifty books, of which the first portions, -embracing twenty-one, were published in 1535, while the rest are still -found only in manuscript. As early as 1525, when he was at Toledo, -and offered Charles the Fifth a summary of the History of Hispaniola, -he speaks of his desire to have his larger work printed. But it -appears, from the beginning of the thirty-third book and the end of -the thirty-fourth, that he was still employed upon it in 1547 and -1548; and it is not unlikely, from the words with which he concludes -the thirty-seventh, that he kept each of its larger divisions open, -and continued to make additions to them nearly to the time of his -death.[905] - - [905] He calls it, in his letter to the Emperor, at the end of - the “Sumario” in 1525, “La General y Natural Historia de las - Indias, que de mi mano tengo escrita”;--in the Introduction to - Lib. XXXIII. he says, “En treinta y quatro años que ha que estoy - en estas partes”;--and in the ninth chapter, which ends Lib. - XXXIV., we have an event recorded with the date of 1548;--so - that, for these three-and-twenty years, he was certainly - employed, more or less, on this great work. But at the end of - Book XXXVII. he says, “Y esto baste quanto a este breve libro - del numero treinta y siete, hasta que el tiempo nos avise de - otras cosas que en el se acrescientan”; from which I infer that - he kept each book, or each large division of his work, open for - additions, as long as he lived, and therefore that parts of it - _may_ have been written as late as 1557. - -He tells us that he had the Emperor’s authority to demand, from the -different governors of Spanish America, the documents he might need -for his work;[906] and as his divisions of the subject are those -which naturally arise from its geography, he appears to have gone -judiciously about his task. But the materials he was to use were in too -crude a state to be easily manageable, and the whole subject was too -wide and various for his powers. He falls, therefore, into a loose, -rambling style, instead of aiming at philosophical condensation; and, -far from an abridgment, which his work ought to have been, he gives -us chronicling, documentary accounts of an immense extent of newly -discovered country, and of the extraordinary events that had been -passing there,--sometimes too short and slight to be interesting, and -sometimes too detailed for the reader’s patience. He was evidently a -learned man, and maintained a correspondence with Ramusio, the Italian -geographer, which could not fail to be useful to both parties.[907] -And he was desirous to write in a good and eloquent style, in which he -sometimes succeeded. He has, therefore, on the whole, produced a series -of accounts of the natural condition, the aboriginal inhabitants, -and the political affairs of the wide-spread Spanish possessions in -America, as they stood in the middle of the sixteenth century, which -is of great value as a vast repository of facts, and not wholly without -merit as a composition.[908] - - [906] “I have royal orders that the governors should send me - a relation of whatever I shall touch in the affairs of their - governments, for this History.” (Lib. XXXIII., Introd., MS.) - I apprehend, Oviedo was the first authorized Chronicler of - the New World, an office which was at one period better paid - than any other similar office in the kingdom, and was held, at - different times, by Herrera, Tamayo, Solís, and other writers - of distinction. It ceased, I believe, with the creation of the - Academy of History. - - [907] “We owe much to those who give us notice of what we have - not seen or known ourselves; as I am now indebted to a remarkable - and learned man, of the illustrious Senate of Venice, called - Secretary Juan Bautista Ramusio, who, hearing that I was inclined - to the things of which I here treat, has, without knowing me - personally, sought me for his friend and communicated with me by - letters, sending me a new geography,” etc. Lib. XXXVIII., MS. - - [908] As a specimen of his manner, I add the following account of - Almagro, one of the early adventurers in Peru, whom the Pizarros - put to death in Cuzco, after they had obtained uncontrolled - power there. “Therefore hear and read all the authors you may, - and compare, one by one, whatever they relate, that all men, - not kings, have freely given away, and you shall surely see how - there is none that can equal Almagro in this matter, and how none - can be compared to him; for kings, indeed, may give and know - how to give whatever pleaseth them, both cities and lands, and - lordships, and other great gifts; but that a man whom yesterday - we saw so poor, that all he possessed was a very small matter, - should have a spirit sufficient for what I have related,--I hold - it to be so great a thing, that I know not the like of it in our - own or any other time. For I myself saw, when his companion, - Pizarro, came from Spain, and brought with him that body of - three hundred men to Panamá, that, if Almagro had not received - them and shown them so much free hospitality with so generous a - spirit, few or none of them could have escaped alive; for the - land was filled with disease, and the means of living were so - dear, that a bushel of maize was worth two or three _pesos_, and - an _arroba_ of wine six or seven gold pieces. To all of them he - was a father, and a brother, and a true friend; for inasmuch as - it is pleasant and grateful to some men to make gain, and to - heap up and to gather together moneys and estates, even so much - and more pleasant was it to him to share with others and to give - away; so that the day when he gave nothing, he accounted it for - a day lost. And in his very face you might see the pleasure and - true delight he felt when he found occasion to help him who had - need. And since, after so long a fellowship and friendship as - there was between these two great leaders, from the days when - their companions were few and their means small, till they saw - themselves full of wealth and strength, there hath at last come - forth so much discord, scandal, and death, well must it appear - matter of wonder even to those who shall but hear of it, and - much more to us, who knew them in their low estate, and have no - less borne witness to their greatness and prosperity.” (General - y Natural Historia de las Indias, Lib. XLVII., MS.) Much of it - is, like the preceding passage, in the true, old, rambling, - moralizing, chronicling vein. - -The other considerable work of Oviedo, the fruit of his old age, -is devoted to fond recollections of his native country and of the -distinguished men he had known there. He calls it “Las Quinquagenas,” -and it consists of a series of dialogues, in which, with little method -or order, he gives gossiping accounts of the principal families that -figured in Spain during the times of Ferdinand and Isabella and Charles -the Fifth, mingled with anecdotes and recollections, such as--not -without a simple-hearted exhibition of his own vanity--the memory of -his long and busy life could furnish. It appears from the Dialogue on -Cardinal Ximenes, and elsewhere, that he was employed on it as early as -1545;[909] but the year 1550 occurs yet more frequently among the dates -of its imaginary conversations,[910] and at the conclusion he very -distinctly declares that it was finished on the 23d of May, 1556, when -he was seventy-nine years old. He died in Valladolid, the next year. - - [909] “En este que estamos de 1545.” Quinquagenas, MS., El - Cardinal Cisneros. - - [910] As in the Dialogue on Juan de Silva, Conde de Cifuentes, - he says, “En este año en que estamos 1550”; and in the Dialogue - on Mendoza, Duke of Infantado, he uses the same words, as he - does again in that on Pedro Fernandez de Córdova. There is an - excellent note on Oviedo, in Vol. I. p. 112 of the American ed. - of “Ferdinand and Isabella,” by my friend Mr. Prescott, to whom I - am indebted for the manuscript of the Quinquagenas, as well as of - the Historia. - -But both during his life and after his death, Oviedo had a formidable -adversary, who, pursuing nearly the same course of inquiries respecting -the New World, came almost constantly to conclusions quite opposite. -This was no less a person than Bartolomé de las Casas, or Casaus, the -apostle and defender of the American Indians,--a man who would have -been remarkable in any age of the world, and who does not seem yet -to have gathered in the full harvest of his honors. He was born in -Seville, probably in 1474; and in 1502, having gone through a course -of studies at Salamanca, embarked for the Indies, where his father, -who had been there with Columbus nine years earlier, had already -accumulated a decent fortune. - -The attention of the young man was early drawn to the condition of the -natives, from the circumstance, that one of them, given to his father -by Columbus, had been attached to his own person as a slave, while -he was still at the University; and he was not slow to learn, on his -arrival in Hispaniola, that their gentle natures and slight frames -had already been subjected, in the mines and in other forms of toil, -to a servitude so harsh, that the original inhabitants of the island -were beginning to waste away under the severity of their labors. From -this moment he devoted his life to their emancipation. In 1510 he -took holy orders, and continued as a priest, and for a short time as -Bishop of Chiapa, nearly forty years, to teach, strengthen, and console -the suffering flock committed to his charge. Six times, at least, he -crossed the Atlantic, in order to persuade the government of Charles -the Fifth to ameliorate their condition, and always with more or less -success. At last, but not until 1547, when he was above seventy years -old, he established himself at Valladolid, in Spain, where he passed -the remainder of his serene old age, giving it freely to the great -cause to which he had devoted the freshness of his youth. He died, -while on a visit of business, at Madrid, in 1566, at the advanced age, -as is commonly supposed, of ninety-two.[911] - - [911] There is a valuable life of Las Casas in Quintana, “Vidas - de Españoles Célebres” (Madrid, 1833, 12mo, Tom. III. pp. - 255-510). The seventh article in the Appendix, concerning the - connection of Las Casas with the slave-trade, will be read with - particular interest; because, by materials drawn from unpublished - documents of unquestionable authenticity, it makes it certain, - that, although at one time Las Casas favored what had been begun - earlier,--the transportation of negroes to the West Indies, in - order to relieve the Indians,--as other good men in his time - favored it, he did so under the impression, that, according to - the law of nations, the negroes thus brought to America were both - rightful captives taken by the Portuguese in war and rightful - slaves. But afterwards he changed his mind on the subject. He - declared “the captivity of the negroes to be as unjust as that of - the Indians,”--“ser tan injusto el cautiverio de los negros como - el de los Indios,”--and even expressed a fear, that, though he - had fallen into the error of favoring the importation of black - slaves into America from ignorance and good-will, he might, after - all, fail to stand excused for it before the Divine Justice. - Quintana, Tom. III. p. 471. - -Among the principal opponents of his benevolence were Sepúlveda,--one -of the leading men of letters and casuists of the time in Spain,--and -Oviedo, who, from his connection with the mines and his share in the -government of different parts of the newly discovered countries, -had an interest directly opposite to the one Las Casas defended. -These two persons, with large means and a wide influence to sustain -them, intrigued, wrote, and toiled against him, in every way in their -power. But his was not a spirit to be daunted by opposition or deluded -by sophistry and intrigue; and when, in 1519, in a discussion with -Sepúlveda concerning the Indians, held in the presence of the young and -proud Emperor Charles the Fifth, Las Casas said, “It is quite certain, -that, speaking with all the respect and reverence due to so great a -sovereign, I would not, save in the way of duty and obedience as a -subject, go from the place where I now stand to the opposite corner of -this room, to serve your Majesty, unless I believed I should at the -same time serve God,”[912]--when he said this, he uttered a sentiment -that really governed his life and constituted the basis of the great -power he exercised. His works are pervaded by it. The earliest of -them, called “A very Short Account of the Ruin of the Indies,” was -written in 1542,[913] and dedicated to the prince, afterwards Philip -the Second;--a tract in which, no doubt, the sufferings and wrongs of -the Indians are much overstated by the indignant zeal of its author, -but still one whose expositions are founded in truth, and by their -fervor awakened all Europe to a sense of the injustice they set -forth. Other short treatises followed, written with similar spirit -and power, especially those in reply to Sepúlveda; but none was so -often reprinted, either at home or abroad, as the first,[914] and none -ever produced so deep and solemn an effect on the world. They were -all collected and published in 1552; and, besides being translated -into other languages at the time, an edition in Spanish, and a French -version of the whole, with two more treatises than were contained in -the first collection, appeared at Paris in 1822, prepared by Llorente. - - [912] Quintana, Españoles Célebres, Tom. III. p. 321. - - [913] Quintana (p. 413, note) doubts _when_ this famous treatise - was written; but Las Casas himself says, in the opening of his - “Brevísima Relacion,” that it was written in 1542. - - [914] This important tract continued long to be printed - separately, both at home and abroad. I use a copy of it in double - columns, Spanish and Italian, Venice, 1643, 12mo; but, like the - rest, the Brevísima Relacion may be consulted in an edition of - the Works of Las Casas by Llorente, which appeared at Paris in - 1822, in 2 vols. 8vo, in the original Spanish, almost at the - same time with his translation of them into French. It should be - noticed, perhaps, that Llorente’s version is not always strict, - and that the two new treatises he imputes to Las Casas, as well - as the one on the Authority of Kings, are not absolutely proved - to be his. - - The translation referred to above appeared, in fact, the same - year, and at the end of it an “Apologie de Las Casas,” by - Grégoire, with letters of Funes and Mier, and notes of Llorente - to sustain it,--all to defend Las Casas on the subject of the - slave-trade; but Quintana, as we have seen, has gone to the - original documents, and leaves no doubt, both that Las Casas once - favored it, and that he altered his mind afterwards. - -The great work of Las Casas, however, still remains inedited,--a -General History of the Indies from 1492 to 1520, begun by him in 1527 -and finished in 1561, but of which he ordered that no portion should -be published within forty years of his death. Like his other works, it -shows marks of haste and carelessness, and is written in a rambling -style; but its value, notwithstanding his too fervent zeal for the -Indians, is great. He had been personally acquainted with many of the -early discoverers and conquerors, and, at one time, possessed the -papers of Columbus, and a large mass of other important documents, -which are now lost. He says he had known Cortés “when he was so low -and humble, that he besought favor from the meanest servant of Diego -Velasquez”; and he knew him afterwards, he tells us, when, in his pride -of place at the court of the Emperor, he ventured to jest about the -pretty corsair’s part he had played in the affairs of Montezuma.[915] -He knew, too, Gomara and Oviedo, and gives at large his reasons for -differing from them. In short, his book, divided into three parts, is a -great repository, to which Herrera, and through him all the historians -of the Indies since, have resorted for materials; and without which the -history of the earliest period of the Spanish settlements in America -cannot, even now, be properly written.[916] - - [915] “Todo esto me dixo el mismo Cortés con otras cosas cerca - dello, despues de Marques, en la villa de Monçon, estando alli - celebrando cortes el Emperador, año de mil y quinientos y - quarenta y dos, riendo y mofando con estas formales palabras, - a la mi fé andubé por alli como un gentil cosario.” (Historia - General de las Indias, Lib. III. c. 115, MS.) It may be worth - noting, that 1542, the year when Cortés made this scandalous - speech, was the year in which Las Casas wrote his Brevísima - Relacion. - - [916] For a notice of all the works of Las Casas, see Quintana, - Vidas, Tom. III. pp. 507-510. - -But it is not necessary to go farther into an examination of the old -accounts of the discovery and conquest of Spanish America, though there -are many more which, like those we have already considered, are partly -books of travel through countries full of wonders, partly chronicles -of adventures as strange as those of romance; frequently running into -idle and loose details, but as frequently fresh, picturesque, and manly -in their tone and coloring, and almost always curious from the facts -they record and the glimpses they give of manners and character. Among -those that might be added are the stories by Vaca of his shipwreck and -ten years’ captivity in Florida, from 1527 to 1537, and his subsequent -government for three years of the Rio de la Plata;[917] the short -account of the conquest of Peru written by Francisco de Xerez,[918] -and the ampler one, of the same wild achievements, which Augustin de -Çarate began on the spot, and was prevented by an officer of Gonzalo de -Pizarro from finishing till after his return home.[919] But they may -all be passed over, as of less consequence than those we have noticed, -which are quite sufficient to give an idea, both of the nature of -their class and the course it followed,--a class much resembling the -old chronicles, but yet one that announces the approach of those more -regular forms of history for which it furnishes abundant materials. - - [917] The two works of Alvar Nuñez Cabeza de Vaca, namely, his - “Naufragios” and his “Comentarios y Sucesos de su Gobierno en el - Rio de la Plata,” were first printed in 1555, and are to be found - in Barcia, Historiadores Primitivos, Tom. I. - - [918] The work of Francisco de Xerez, “Conquista de Peru,” - written by order of Francisco Pizarro, was first published in - 1547, and is to be found in Ramusio, (Venezia, ed. Giunti, folio, - Tom. III.,) and in Barcia’s collection (Tom. III.). It ends with - some poor verses in defence of himself. - - [919] “Historia del Descubrimiento y Conquista del Peru,” first - printed in 1555, and several times since. It is in Barcia, Tom. - III., and was translated into Italian by Ulloa. Çarate was sent - out by Charles V. to examine into the state of the revenues of - Peru, and brings down his accounts as late as the overthrow of - Gonzalo Pizarro. See an excellent notice of Çarate at the end of - Mr. Prescott’s last chapter on the Conquest of Peru. - - -END OF VOL. 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You may copy it, give it away or re-use it under the terms of -the Project Gutenberg License included with this eBook or online at -www.gutenberg.org. If you are not located in the United States, you'll have -to check the laws of the country where you are located before using this ebook. - - - -Title: History of Spanish Literature, vol. 1 (of 3) - -Author: George Ticknor - -Release Date: June 17, 2017 [EBook #54928] - -Language: English - -Character set encoding: UTF-8 - -*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK SPANISH LITERATURE *** - - - - -Produced by Josep Cols Canals, Ramon Pajares Box, and the -Online Distributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net -(This file was produced from images generously made -available by The Internet Archive/Canadian Libraries) - - - - - - -</pre> - - -<div class="front"> - <hr class="full" /> - <p class="mt3"><a href="#tnote">Transcriber's note</a></p> - <p><a href="#ToC">Table of Contents</a></p> - <h1 class="faux">History of Spanish Literature (vol. 1 of 3)</h1> -</div> - -<div class="screenonly"> - <hr class="chap" /> - <div class="figcenter"> - <img src="images/cover.jpg" - alt="Book front cover" /> - </div> -</div> - - -<div class="aftit pt6"> - <hr class="chap" /> - <p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_i">[p. i]</span></p> - <p class="xl lh150"><span class="large g1">HISTORY</span><br /> - <span class="xs">OF</span><br /> - <span class="g1">SPANISH LITERATURE.</span></p> - <p class="fs90 mt2">VOL. I.</p> - <hr class="chap" /> -</div> - - -<div class="tit pt3"> - <p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_iii">[p. iii]</span></p> - <p class="xxl lh150 mt2"><span class="xl g1">HISTORY</span><br /> - <span class="small">OF</span><br /> - <span class="g1">SPANISH LITERATURE.</span></p> - - <p class="xs mt3">BY</p> - <p class="large mt1 g1">GEORGE TICKNOR.</p> - - <hr class="sep" /> - <p class="small lh200">IN THREE VOLUMES.<br /> - <span class="fs90 g1">VOLUME I.</span></p> - <hr class="sep2" /> - - <p class="large lh150 mt2"><span class="g2">NEW YORK:</span></p> - <p class="medium lh200">HARPER AND BROTHERS, 82 CLIFF STREET</p> - <p class="xs">M DCCC XLIX.</p> -</div> - - -<div class="aftit pt6"> - <hr class="chap" /> - <p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_iv">[p. iv]</span></p> - <p class="small lh150">Entered according to Act of Congress, in the year 1849, by<br /> - <span class="smcap g1">George Ticknor</span>,<br /> - in the Clerk’s Office of the District Court of the District of Massachusetts.</p> - <hr class="chap" /> -</div> - - -<div class="chapter pt3" id="Ch_0"> - <p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_v">[p. v]</span></p> - <h2 class="nobreak g2">PREFACE.</h2> -</div> - -<p class="lh150"><span class="smcap">In</span> the year eighteen -hundred and eighteen I travelled through a large part of Spain, and -spent several months in Madrid. My object was to increase a very -imperfect knowledge of the language and literature of the country, -and to purchase Spanish books, always so rare in the great book-marts -of the rest of Europe. In some respects, the time of my visit was -favorable to the purposes for which I made it; in others, it was not. -Such books as I wanted were then, it is true, less valued in Spain than -they are now, but it was chiefly because the country was in a depressed -and unnatural state; and, if its men of letters were more than commonly -at leisure to gratify the curiosity of a stranger, their number had -been materially diminished by political persecution, and intercourse -with them was difficult because they had so little connection with each -other, and were so much shut out from the world around them.</p> - -<p class="lh150">It was, in fact, one of the darkest periods of -the reign of Ferdinand the Seventh, when the desponding seemed to -think that the eclipse was not only total,<span class="pagenum" -id="Page_vi">[p. vi]</span> but “beyond all hope of day.” The absolute -power of the monarch had been as yet nowhere publicly questioned; and -his government, which had revived the Inquisition and was not wanting -in its spirit, had, from the first, silenced the press, and, wherever -its influence extended, now threatened the extinction of all generous -culture. Hardly four years had elapsed since the old order of things -had been restored at Madrid, and already most of the leading men of -letters, whose home was naturally in the capital, were in prison or -in exile. Melendez Valdes, the first Spanish poet of the age, had -just died in misery on the unfriendly soil of France. Quintana, in -many respects the heir to his honors, was confined in the fortress of -Pamplona. Martinez de la Rosa, who has since been one of the leaders of -the nation as well as of its literature, was shut up in Peñon on the -coast of Barbary. Moratin was languishing in Paris, while his comedies -were applauded to the very echo by his enemies at home. The Duke de -Rivas, who, like the old nobles of the proudest days of the monarchy, -has distinguished himself alike in arms, in letters, and in the civil -government and foreign diplomacy of his country, was living retired -on the estates of his great house in Andalusia. Others of less mark -and note shared a fate as rigorous; and, if Clemencin, Navarrete, and -Marina were permitted still to linger in the capital from which their -friends had been driven, their footsteps were watched and their lives -were unquiet.</p> - -<p class="lh150"><span class="pagenum" id="Page_vii">[p. -vii]</span>Among the men of letters whom I earliest knew in Madrid -was Don José Antonio Conde, a retired, gentle, modest scholar, rarely -occupied with events of a later date than the times of the Spanish -Arabs, whose history he afterwards illustrated. But, far as his -character and studies removed him from political turbulence, he had -already tasted the bitterness of a political exile; and now, in the -honorable poverty to which he had been reduced, he not unwillingly -consented to pass several hours of each day with me, and direct my -studies in the literature of his country. In this I was very fortunate. -We read together the early Castilian poetry, of which he knew more -than he did of the most recent, and to which his thoughts and tastes -were much nearer akin. He assisted me, too, in collecting the books I -needed;—never an easy task where bookselling, in the sense elsewhere -given to the word, was unknown, and where the Inquisition and the -confessional had often made what was most desirable most rare. But Don -José knew the lurking-places where such books and their owners were to -be sought; and to him I am indebted for the foundation of a collection -in Spanish literature, which, without help like his, I should have -failed to make. I owe him, therefore, much; and, though the grave has -long since closed over my friend and his persecutors, it is still a -pleasure to me to acknowledge obligations which I have never ceased to -feel.</p> - -<p class="lh150">Many circumstances, since the period of my visit -to<span class="pagenum" id="Page_viii">[p. viii]</span> Spain, have -favored my successive attempts to increase the Spanish library I then -began. The residence in Madrid of my friend, the late Mr. Alexander -Hill Everett, who ably represented his country for several years at -the court of Spain; and the subsequent residence there, in the same -high position, of my friend, Mr. Washington Irving, equally honored -on both sides of the Atlantic, but especially cherished by Spaniards -for the enduring monument he has erected to the history of their early -adventures, and for the charming fictions, whose scene he has laid in -their romantic country;—these fortunate circumstances naturally opened -to me whatever facilities for collecting books could be afforded by the -kindness of persons in places so distinguished, or by their desire to -spread among their countrymen at home a literature they knew so well -and loved so much.</p> - -<p class="lh150">But to two other persons, not unconnected with these -statesmen and men of letters, it is no less my duty and my pleasure to -make known my obligations. The first of them is Mr. O. Rich, formerly -a Consul of the United States in Spain; the same bibliographer to whom -Mr. Irving and Mr. Prescott have avowed similar obligations, and to -whose personal regard I owe hardly less than I do to his extraordinary -knowledge of rare and curious books, and his extraordinary success -in collecting them. The other is Don Pascual de Gayangos, Professor -of Arabic in the University of Madrid,—certainly in his peculiar -department among<span class="pagenum" id="Page_ix">[p. ix]</span> -the most eminent scholars now living, and one to whose familiarity -with whatever regards the literature of his own country, the frequent -references in my notes bear a testimony not to be mistaken. With the -former of these gentlemen I have been in constant communication for -many years, and have received from him valuable contributions of books -and manuscripts collected in Spain, England, and France for my library. -With the latter, to whom I am not less largely indebted, I first became -personally acquainted when I passed in Europe the period between 1835 -and 1838, seeking to know scholars such as he is, and consulting, -not only the principal public libraries of the Continent, but such -rich private collections as those of Lord Holland in England, of M. -Ternaux-Compans in France, and of the venerated and much-loved Tieck in -Germany; all of which were made accessible to me by the frank kindness -of their owners.</p> - -<p class="lh150">The natural result of such a long-continued interest -in Spanish literature, and of so many pleasant inducements to study -it, has been—I speak in a spirit of extenuation and self-defence—<i>a -book</i>. In the interval between my two residences in Europe I delivered -lectures upon its principal topics to successive classes in Harvard -College; and, on my return home from the second, I endeavoured to -arrange these lectures for publication. But when I had already -employed much labor and time on them, I found—or thought I found—that -the tone of discussion which I had adopted for<span class="pagenum" -id="Page_x">[p. x]</span> my academical audiences was not suited to -the purposes of a regular history. Destroying, therefore, what I had -written, I began afresh my never unwelcome task, and so have prepared -the present work, as little connected with all I had previously done as -it, perhaps, can be, and yet cover so much of the same ground.</p> - -<p class="lh150">In correcting my manuscript for the press I have -enjoyed the counsels of two of my more intimate friends; of Mr. Francis -C. Gray, a scholar who should permit the world to profit more than it -does by the large resources of his accurate and tasteful learning, and -of Mr. William H. Prescott, the historian of both hemispheres, whose -name will not be forgotten in either, but whose honors will always be -dearest to those who have best known the discouragements under which -they have been won, and the modesty and gentleness with which they are -worn. To these faithful friends, whose unchanging regard has entered -into the happiness of all the active years of my life, I make my -affectionate acknowledgments, as I now part from a work in which they -have always taken an interest, and which, wherever it goes, will carry -on its pages the silent proofs of their kindness and taste.</p> - -<p class="small lh150 mt1">Park Street, Boston, 1849.</p> - - -<p class="lh150 mt2">I cannot dismiss the last sheet of this History, -without offering my sincere thanks to the conductors of the University -Press at Cambridge, and to Mr. George<span class="pagenum" -id="Page_xi">[p. xi]</span> Nichols, its scholarlike corrector, for the -practised skill and conscientious fidelity with which, after it was in -type, my work has been revised and prepared for publication.</p> - -<hr class="chap0" /> - - -<div class="chapter pt3" id="ToC"> - <p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_xiii">[p. xiii]</span></p> - <h2 class="nobreak" title="CONTENTS OF VOLUME FIRST."><small>CONTENTS</small><br /> - <small><small>OF</small></small><br /> - <span class="g1">VOLUME FIRST.</span></h2> - <hr class="tir" /> -</div> - -<p class="large centra">FIRST PERIOD.</p> - -<p class="fs90 lh135 hang mt1"><span class="smcap">The Literature that -existed in Spain between the First Appearance of the Present Written -Language and the Early Part of the Reign of the Emperor Charles the -Fifth, or from the End of the Twelfth Century to the Beginning of the -Sixteenth.</span></p> - -<table class="toc" summary="Table of contents, 1st period."> - <tr> - <td colspan="2" class="tdc pt1 g1">CHAPTER I.</td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td colspan="2" class="tdc smcap">Introduction.</td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td class="tdl pt1"><a href="#Ch_1_1">Origin of Modern Literature</a></td> - <td class="tdr pt1">3</td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td class="tdl"><a href="#Page_4">Its Origin in Spain</a></td> - <td class="tdr">4</td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td class="tdl"><a href="#Page_5">Its earliest Appearance there</a></td> - <td class="tdr">5</td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td class="tdl"><a href="#Page_5">Two Schools</a></td> - <td class="tdr">5</td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td class="tdl"><a href="#Page_6">The National School</a></td> - <td class="tdr">6</td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td class="tdl"><a href="#Page_6">It appears in troubled Times</a></td> - <td class="tdr">6</td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td class="tdl"><a href="#Page_7">The Arab Invasion</a></td> - <td class="tdr">7</td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td class="tdl"><a href="#Page_8">Christian Resistance</a></td> - <td class="tdr">8</td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td class="tdl"><a href="#Page_8">Christian Successes</a></td> - <td class="tdr">8</td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td class="tdl"><a href="#Page_9">Battle of Navas de Tolosa</a></td> - <td class="tdr">9</td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td class="tdl"><a href="#Page_10">Earliest National Poetry</a></td> - <td class="tdr">10</td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td colspan="2" class="tdc pt2 g1">CHAPTER II.</td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td colspan="2" class="tdc smcap">Early National Literature.</td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td class="tdl pt1"><a href="#Ch_1_2">Appearance of the Castilian</a></td> - <td class="tdr pt1">11</td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td class="tdl"><a href="#Page_12">Poem of the Cid</a></td> - <td class="tdr">12</td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td class="tdl"><a href="#Page_13">Its Hero</a></td> - <td class="tdr">13</td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td class="tdl"><a href="#Page_15">Its Subject</a></td> - <td class="tdr">15</td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td class="tdl"><a href="#Page_16">Its Character</a></td> - <td class="tdr">16</td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td class="tdl"><a href="#Page_24">Book of Apollonius</a></td> - <td class="tdr">24</td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td class="tdl"><a href="#Page_25">Saint Mary of Egypt</a></td> - <td class="tdr">25</td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td class="tdl"><a href="#Page_26">Three Holy Kings</a></td> - <td class="tdr">26</td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td class="tdl"><a href="#Page_27">All anonymous</a></td> - <td class="tdr">27</td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td class="tdl"><a href="#Page_28">Gonzalo de Berceo</a></td> - <td class="tdr">28</td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td class="tdl"><a href="#Page_28">His Works</a></td> - <td class="tdr">28</td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td class="tdl"><a href="#Page_29">His Versification</a></td> - <td class="tdr">29</td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td class="tdl"><a href="#Page_30">His San Domingo</a></td> - <td class="tdr">30</td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td class="tdl"><a href="#Page_30">His Milagros de la Vírgen</a></td> - <td class="tdr">30</td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td colspan="2" class="tdc pt2 g1">CHAPTER III.</td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td colspan="2" class="tdc smcap">Alfonso the Wise, or the Learned.</td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td class="tdl pt1"><a href="#Ch_1_3">His Birth</a></td> - <td class="tdr pt1">35</td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td class="tdl"><a href="#Page_36">Letter to Perez de Guzman</a></td> - <td class="tdr">36</td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td class="tdl"><a href="#Page_38">His Death</a></td> - <td class="tdr">38</td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td class="tdl"><a href="#Page_39">His Cántigas</a></td> - <td class="tdr">39</td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td class="tdl"><span class="pagenum" id="Page_xiv">[p. xiv]</span><a href="#Page_40">Galician Dialect</a></td> - <td class="tdr">40</td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td class="tdl"><a href="#Page_44">Querellas and Tesoro</a></td> - <td class="tdr">44</td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td class="tdl"><a href="#Page_45">His Ultramar</a></td> - <td class="tdr">45</td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td class="tdl"><a href="#Page_46">Castilian Prose</a></td> - <td class="tdr">46</td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td class="tdl"><a href="#Page_47">Fuero Juzgo</a></td> - <td class="tdr">47</td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td class="tdl"><a href="#Page_49">Setenario</a></td> - <td class="tdr">49</td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td class="tdl"><a href="#Page_49">Espejo</a></td> - <td class="tdr">49</td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td class="tdl"><a href="#Page_49">Fuero Real</a></td> - <td class="tdr">49</td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td class="tdl"><a href="#Page_49">Siete Partidas</a></td> - <td class="tdr">49</td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td class="tdl"><a href="#Page_54">Character of Alfonso</a></td> - <td class="tdr">54</td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td colspan="2" class="tdc pt2 g1">CHAPTER IV.</td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td colspan="2" class="tdc smcap">Lorenzo Segura and Don Juan Manuel.</td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td class="tdl pt1"><a href="#Ch_1_4">Juan Lorenzo Segura</a></td> - <td class="tdr pt1">56</td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td class="tdl"><a href="#Page_57">His Anachronisms</a></td> - <td class="tdr">57</td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td class="tdl"><a href="#Page_58">His Alexandro</a></td> - <td class="tdr">58</td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td class="tdl"><a href="#Page_60">Los Votos del Pavon</a></td> - <td class="tdr">60</td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td class="tdl"><a href="#Page_61">Sancho el Bravo</a></td> - <td class="tdr">61</td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td class="tdl"><a href="#Page_61">Don Juan Manuel</a></td> - <td class="tdr">61</td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td class="tdl"><a href="#Page_62">His Life</a></td> - <td class="tdr">62</td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td class="tdl"><a href="#Page_64">His Works</a></td> - <td class="tdr">64</td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td class="tdl"><a href="#Page_68">Letter to his Brother</a></td> - <td class="tdr">68</td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td class="tdl"><a href="#Page_69">His Counsels to his Son</a></td> - <td class="tdr">69</td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td class="tdl"><a href="#Page_69">His Book of the Knight</a></td> - <td class="tdr">69</td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td class="tdl"><a href="#Page_70">His Conde Lucanor</a></td> - <td class="tdr">70</td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td class="tdl"><a href="#Page_74">His Character</a></td> - <td class="tdr">74</td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td colspan="2" class="tdc pt2 g1">CHAPTER V.</td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td colspan="2" class="tdc smcap">Alfonso the Eleventh. — Archpriest of - Hita. — Anonymous Poems. — The Chancellor Ayala.</td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td class="tdl pt1"><a href="#Ch_1_5">Alfonso the Eleventh</a></td> - <td class="tdr pt1">76</td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td class="tdl"><a href="#Page_77">Poetical Chronicle</a></td> - <td class="tdr">77</td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td class="tdl"><a href="#Page_78">Beneficiado de Ubeda</a></td> - <td class="tdr">78</td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td class="tdl"><a href="#Page_78">Archpriest of Hita</a></td> - <td class="tdr">78</td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td class="tdl"><a href="#Page_79">His Works</a></td> - <td class="tdr">79</td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td class="tdl"><a href="#Page_84">His Character</a></td> - <td class="tdr">84</td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td class="tdl"><a href="#Page_86">Rabbi Don Santob</a></td> - <td class="tdr">86</td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td class="tdl"><a href="#Page_88">La Doctrina Christiana</a></td> - <td class="tdr">88</td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td class="tdl"><a href="#Page_88">Una Revelacion</a></td> - <td class="tdr">88</td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td class="tdl"><a href="#Page_89">La Dança General</a></td> - <td class="tdr">89</td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td class="tdl"><a href="#Page_91">Fernan Gonzalez</a></td> - <td class="tdr">91</td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td class="tdl"><a href="#Page_95">Poema de José</a></td> - <td class="tdr">95</td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td class="tdl"><a href="#Page_99">Rimado de Palacio</a></td> - <td class="tdr">99</td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td class="tdl"><a href="#Page_103">Castilian Literature thus far</a></td> - <td class="tdr">103</td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td class="tdl"><a href="#Page_103">Its Religious Tone</a></td> - <td class="tdr">103</td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td class="tdl"><a href="#Page_103">Its Loyal Tone</a></td> - <td class="tdr">103</td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td class="tdl"><a href="#Page_104">Its Popular Character</a></td> - <td class="tdr">104</td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td colspan="2" class="tdc pt2 g1">CHAPTER VI.</td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td colspan="2" class="tdc smcap">Old Ballads.</td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td class="tdl pt1"><a href="#Ch_1_6">Popular Literature</a></td> - <td class="tdr pt1">106</td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td class="tdl"><a href="#Page_108">Four Classes of it</a></td> - <td class="tdr">108</td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td class="tdl"><a href="#Page_108">First Class, Ballads</a></td> - <td class="tdr">108</td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td class="tdl"><a href="#Page_109">Theories of their Origin</a></td> - <td class="tdr">109</td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td class="tdl"><a href="#Page_110">Not Arabic</a></td> - <td class="tdr">110</td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td class="tdl"><a href="#Page_111">National and Indigenous</a></td> - <td class="tdr">111</td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td class="tdl"><a href="#Page_111">Redondillas</a></td> - <td class="tdr">111</td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td class="tdl"><a href="#Page_112">Asonantes</a></td> - <td class="tdr">112</td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td class="tdl"><a href="#Page_113">Easy Measure and Structure</a></td> - <td class="tdr">113</td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td class="tdl"><a href="#Page_114">General Diffusion</a></td> - <td class="tdr">114</td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td class="tdl"><a href="#Page_115">Their Name</a></td> - <td class="tdr">115</td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td class="tdl"><a href="#Page_116">Their History</a></td> - <td class="tdr">116</td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td class="tdl"><a href="#Page_118">Their great Number</a></td> - <td class="tdr">118</td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td class="tdl"><a href="#Page_119">Preserved by Tradition</a></td> - <td class="tdr">119</td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td class="tdl"><a href="#Page_120">When first printed</a></td> - <td class="tdr">120</td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td class="tdl"><a href="#Page_126">First Ballad-book</a></td> - <td class="tdr">126</td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td class="tdl"><a href="#Page_128">Other Ballad-books</a></td> - <td class="tdr">128</td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td class="tdl"><a href="#Page_128">Romancero General</a></td> - <td class="tdr">128</td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td class="tdl"><a href="#Page_129">Not to be arranged by Date</a></td> - <td class="tdr">129</td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td colspan="2" class="tdc pt2 g1"><span class="pagenum" id="Page_xv">[p. xv]</span>CHAPTER VII.</td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td colspan="2" class="tdc smcap">Old Ballads concluded.</td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td class="tdl pt1"><a href="#Ch_1_7">Ballads of Chivalry</a></td> - <td class="tdr pt1">131</td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td class="tdl"><a href="#Page_132">On Charlemagne</a></td> - <td class="tdr">132</td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td class="tdl"><a href="#Page_134">Historical Ballads</a></td> - <td class="tdr">134</td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td class="tdl"><a href="#Page_135">On Bernardo del Carpio</a></td> - <td class="tdr">135</td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td class="tdl"><a href="#Page_138">On Fernan Gonzalez</a></td> - <td class="tdr">138</td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td class="tdl"><a href="#Page_139">On the Infantes de Lara</a></td> - <td class="tdr">139</td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td class="tdl"><a href="#Page_140">On the Cid</a></td> - <td class="tdr">140</td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td class="tdl"><a href="#Page_145">On various Historical Subjects</a></td> - <td class="tdr">145</td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td class="tdl"><a href="#Page_145">Loyalty of the Ballads</a></td> - <td class="tdr">145</td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td class="tdl"><a href="#Page_146">Ballads on Moorish Subjects</a></td> - <td class="tdr">146</td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td class="tdl"><a href="#Page_148">On National Manners</a></td> - <td class="tdr">148</td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td class="tdl"><a href="#Page_153">Character of the Old Ballads</a></td> - <td class="tdr">153</td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td class="tdl"><a href="#Page_154">Their Nationality</a></td> - <td class="tdr">154</td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td colspan="2" class="tdc pt2 g1">CHAPTER VIII.</td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td colspan="2" class="tdc smcap">Chronicles.</td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td class="tdl pt1"><a href="#Ch_1_8">Second Class of Popular Literature</a></td> - <td class="tdr pt1">156</td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td class="tdl"><a href="#Page_157">Chronicles and their Origin</a></td> - <td class="tdr">157</td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td class="tdl"><a href="#Page_157">Royal Chronicles</a></td> - <td class="tdr">157</td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td class="tdl"><a href="#Page_158">Crónica General</a></td> - <td class="tdr">158</td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td class="tdl"><a href="#Page_159">Its Divisions and Subjects</a></td> - <td class="tdr">159</td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td class="tdl"><a href="#Page_161">Its Poetical Portions</a></td> - <td class="tdr">161</td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td class="tdl"><a href="#Page_166">Its Character</a></td> - <td class="tdr">166</td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td class="tdl"><a href="#Page_166">Chronicle of the Cid</a></td> - <td class="tdr">166</td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td class="tdl"><a href="#Page_167">Its Origin</a></td> - <td class="tdr">167</td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td class="tdl"><a href="#Page_169">Its Subject</a></td> - <td class="tdr">169</td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td class="tdl"><a href="#Page_172">Its Character</a></td> - <td class="tdr">172</td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td colspan="2" class="tdc pt2 g1">CHAPTER IX.</td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td colspan="2" class="tdc smcap">Chronicles continued.</td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td class="tdl pt1"><a href="#Ch_1_9">Chronicles of Alfonso the Wise, - Sancho the Brave, and Ferdinand the Fourth</a></td> - <td class="tdr pt1">173</td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td class="tdl"><a href="#Page_175">Chronicle of Alfonso the Eleventh</a></td> - <td class="tdr">175</td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td class="tdl"><a href="#Page_177">Chronicles of Peter the Cruel, - Henry the Second, John the First, and Henry the Third</a></td> - <td class="tdr">177</td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td class="tdl"><a href="#Page_183">Chronicle of John the Second</a></td> - <td class="tdr">183</td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td class="tdl"><a href="#Page_187">Chronicles of Henry the Fourth</a></td> - <td class="tdr">187</td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td class="tdl"><a href="#Page_189">Chronicles of Ferdinand and Isabella</a></td> - <td class="tdr">189</td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td class="tdl"><a href="#Page_190">Royal Chronicles cease</a></td> - <td class="tdr">190</td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td colspan="2" class="tdc pt2 g1">CHAPTER X.</td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td colspan="2" class="tdc smcap">Chronicles concluded.</td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td class="tdl pt1"><a href="#Ch_1_10">Chronicles of Particular Events</a></td> - <td class="tdr pt1">192</td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td class="tdl"><a href="#Page_193">El Passo Honroso</a></td> - <td class="tdr">193</td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td class="tdl"><a href="#Page_195">El Seguro de Tordesillas</a></td> - <td class="tdr">195</td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td class="tdl"><a href="#Page_197">Chronicles of Particular Persons</a></td> - <td class="tdr">197</td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td class="tdl"><a href="#Page_197">Pero Niño</a></td> - <td class="tdr">197</td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td class="tdl"><a href="#Page_198">Alvaro de Luna</a></td> - <td class="tdr">198</td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td class="tdl"><a href="#Page_200">Gonzalvo de Córdova</a></td> - <td class="tdr">200</td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td class="tdl"><a href="#Page_202">Chronicling Accounts of Travels</a></td> - <td class="tdr">202</td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td class="tdl"><a href="#Page_203">Ruy Gonzalez de Clavijo</a></td> - <td class="tdr">203</td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td class="tdl"><a href="#Page_206">Columbus</a></td> - <td class="tdr">206</td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td class="tdl"><a href="#Page_211">Balboa, Hojeda, and Others</a></td> - <td class="tdr">211</td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td class="tdl"><a href="#Page_212">Romantic Chronicles</a></td> - <td class="tdr">212</td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td class="tdl"><a href="#Page_212">Don Roderic</a></td> - <td class="tdr">212</td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td class="tdl"><a href="#Page_215">Character of the Chronicles</a></td> - <td class="tdr">215</td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td colspan="2" class="tdc pt2 g1"><span class="pagenum" id="Page_xvi">[p. xvi]</span>CHAPTER XI.</td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td colspan="2" class="tdc smcap">Romances of Chivalry.</td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td class="tdl pt1"><a href="#Ch_1_11">Origin of Romantic Fiction</a></td> - <td class="tdr pt1">218</td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td class="tdl"><a href="#Page_220">Appearance in Spain</a></td> - <td class="tdr">220</td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td class="tdl"><a href="#Page_221">Amadis de Gaula</a></td> - <td class="tdr">221</td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td class="tdl"><a href="#Page_221">Its Date</a></td> - <td class="tdr">221</td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td class="tdl"><a href="#Page_221">Its Author, Lobeira</a></td> - <td class="tdr">221</td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td class="tdl"><a href="#Page_223">Portuguese Original lost</a></td> - <td class="tdr">223</td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td class="tdl"><a href="#Page_223">Translated by Montalvo</a></td> - <td class="tdr">223</td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td class="tdl"><a href="#Page_224">Its Success</a></td> - <td class="tdr">224</td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td class="tdl"><a href="#Page_225">Its Story</a></td> - <td class="tdr">225</td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td class="tdl"><a href="#Page_229">Its Character</a></td> - <td class="tdr">229</td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td class="tdl"><a href="#Page_231">Esplandian</a></td> - <td class="tdr">231</td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td class="tdl"><a href="#Page_233">Family of Amadis</a></td> - <td class="tdr">233</td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td class="tdl"><a href="#Page_234">Influence of the Amadis</a></td> - <td class="tdr">234</td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td class="tdl"><a href="#Page_235">Palmerin de Oliva</a></td> - <td class="tdr">235</td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td class="tdl"><a href="#Page_236">Primaleon and Platir</a></td> - <td class="tdr">236</td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td class="tdl"><a href="#Page_236">Palmerin of England</a></td> - <td class="tdr">236</td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td class="tdl"><a href="#Page_238">Family of Palmerin</a></td> - <td class="tdr">238</td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td colspan="2" class="tdc pt2 g1">CHAPTER XII.</td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td colspan="2" class="tdc smcap">Romances of Chivalry concluded.</td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td class="tdl pt1"><a href="#Ch_1_12">Various Romances</a></td> - <td class="tdr pt1">241</td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td class="tdl"><a href="#Page_242">Lepolemo</a></td> - <td class="tdr">242</td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td class="tdl"><a href="#Page_243">Translations from the French</a></td> - <td class="tdr">243</td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td class="tdl"><a href="#Page_244">Carlo Magno</a></td> - <td class="tdr">244</td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td class="tdl"><a href="#Page_245">Religious Romances</a></td> - <td class="tdr">245</td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td class="tdl"><a href="#Page_246">The Celestial Chivalry</a></td> - <td class="tdr">246</td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td class="tdl"><a href="#Page_249">Period of Romances</a></td> - <td class="tdr">249</td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td class="tdl"><a href="#Page_249">Their Number</a></td> - <td class="tdr">249</td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td class="tdl"><a href="#Page_250">Founded in the State of Society</a></td> - <td class="tdr">250</td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td class="tdl"><a href="#Page_251">Knight-errantry no Fiction</a></td> - <td class="tdr">251</td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td class="tdl"><a href="#Page_252">Romances believed to be true</a></td> - <td class="tdr">252</td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td class="tdl"><a href="#Page_253">Passion for them</a></td> - <td class="tdr">253</td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td class="tdl"><a href="#Page_254">Their Fate</a></td> - <td class="tdr">254</td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td colspan="2" class="tdc pt2 g1">CHAPTER XIII.</td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td colspan="2" class="tdc smcap">The Early Drama.</td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td class="tdl pt1"><a href="#Ch_1_13">Religious Origin of the Modern - Drama</a></td> - <td class="tdr pt1">255</td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td class="tdl"><a href="#Page_257">Its Origin in Spain</a></td> - <td class="tdr">257</td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td class="tdl"><a href="#Page_258">Earliest Representations</a></td> - <td class="tdr">258</td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td class="tdl"><a href="#Page_260">Mingo Revulgo</a></td> - <td class="tdr">260</td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td class="tdl"><a href="#Page_261">Rodrigo Cota</a></td> - <td class="tdr">261</td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td class="tdl"><a href="#Page_262">The Celestina</a></td> - <td class="tdr">262</td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td class="tdl"><a href="#Page_263">First Act</a></td> - <td class="tdr">263</td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td class="tdl"><a href="#Page_264">The Remainder</a></td> - <td class="tdr">264</td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td class="tdl"><a href="#Page_267">Its Character</a></td> - <td class="tdr">267</td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td class="tdl"><a href="#Page_268">Its Popularity</a></td> - <td class="tdr">268</td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td class="tdl"><a href="#Page_269">Imitations of it</a></td> - <td class="tdr">269</td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td colspan="2" class="tdc pt2 g1">CHAPTER XIV.</td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td colspan="2" class="tdc smcap">The Early Drama continued.</td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td class="tdl pt1"><a href="#Ch_1_14">Juan de la Enzina</a></td> - <td class="tdr pt1">273</td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td class="tdl"><a href="#Page_274">His Works</a></td> - <td class="tdr">274</td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td class="tdl"><a href="#Page_275">His Representaciones</a></td> - <td class="tdr">275</td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td class="tdl"><a href="#Page_276">Eclogues in Form</a></td> - <td class="tdr">276</td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td class="tdl"><a href="#Page_276">Religious and Secular</a></td> - <td class="tdr">276</td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td class="tdl"><a href="#Page_277">First acted Secular Dramas</a></td> - <td class="tdr">277</td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td class="tdl"><a href="#Page_278">Their Character</a></td> - <td class="tdr">278</td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td class="tdl"><a href="#Page_282">Portuguese Theatre</a></td> - <td class="tdr">282</td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td class="tdl"><a href="#Page_282">Gil Vicente</a></td> - <td class="tdr">282</td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td class="tdl"><a href="#Page_283">Writes partly in Spanish</a></td> - <td class="tdr">283</td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td class="tdl"><a href="#Page_285">Auto of Cassandra</a></td> - <td class="tdr">285</td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td class="tdl"><a href="#Page_289">O Viudo</a></td> - <td class="tdr">289</td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td class="tdl"><a href="#Page_290">Other Dramas</a></td> - <td class="tdr">290</td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td class="tdl"><a href="#Page_292">His Poetical Character</a></td> - <td class="tdr">292</td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td colspan="2" class="tdc pt2 g1"><span class="pagenum" id="Page_xvii">[p. xvii]</span>CHAPTER XV.</td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td colspan="2" class="tdc smcap">The Early Drama concluded.</td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td class="tdl pt1"><a href="#Ch_1_15">Slow Progress of the Drama</a></td> - <td class="tdr pt1">293</td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td class="tdl"><a href="#Page_293">Escriva</a></td> - <td class="tdr">293</td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td class="tdl"><a href="#Page_294">Villalobos</a></td> - <td class="tdr">294</td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td class="tdl"><a href="#Page_294">Question de Amor</a></td> - <td class="tdr">294</td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td class="tdl"><a href="#Page_295">Torres Naharro</a></td> - <td class="tdr">295</td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td class="tdl"><a href="#Page_295">His Propaladia</a></td> - <td class="tdr">295</td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td class="tdl"><a href="#Page_296">His Eight Dramas</a></td> - <td class="tdr">296</td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td class="tdl"><a href="#Page_296">His Dramatic Theory</a></td> - <td class="tdr">296</td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td class="tdl"><a href="#Page_298">La Trofea</a></td> - <td class="tdr">298</td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td class="tdl"><a href="#Page_299">La Hymenea</a></td> - <td class="tdr">299</td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td class="tdl"><a href="#Page_301">Intriguing Story and Buffoon</a></td> - <td class="tdr">301</td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td class="tdl"><a href="#Page_303">His Versification</a></td> - <td class="tdr">303</td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td class="tdl"><a href="#Page_304">His Plays acted</a></td> - <td class="tdr">304</td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td class="tdl"><a href="#Page_305">No Popular Drama founded</a></td> - <td class="tdr">305</td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td colspan="2" class="tdc pt2 g1">CHAPTER XVI.</td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td colspan="2" class="tdc smcap">Provençal Literature in Spain.</td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td class="tdl pt1"><a href="#Ch_1_16">Provence</a></td> - <td class="tdr pt1">306</td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td class="tdl"><a href="#Page_307">Its Language</a></td> - <td class="tdr">307</td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td class="tdl"><a href="#Page_308">Connection with Catalonia</a></td> - <td class="tdr">308</td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td class="tdl"><a href="#Page_309">With Aragon</a></td> - <td class="tdr">309</td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td class="tdl"><a href="#Page_310">Provençal Poetry</a></td> - <td class="tdr">310</td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td class="tdl"><a href="#Page_311">Its Character</a></td> - <td class="tdr">311</td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td class="tdl"><a href="#Page_312">In Catalonia and Aragon</a></td> - <td class="tdr">312</td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td class="tdl"><a href="#Page_312">War of the Albigenses</a></td> - <td class="tdr">312</td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td class="tdl"><a href="#Page_313">Provençal Poetry under Peter - the Second</a></td> - <td class="tdr">313</td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td class="tdl"><a href="#Page_314">Under Jayme the Conqueror</a></td> - <td class="tdr">314</td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td class="tdl"><a href="#Page_315">His Chronicle</a></td> - <td class="tdr">315</td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td class="tdl"><a href="#Page_318">Ramon Muntaner</a></td> - <td class="tdr">318</td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td class="tdl"><a href="#Page_318">His Chronicle</a></td> - <td class="tdr">318</td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td class="tdl"><a href="#Page_322">Provençal Poetry decays</a></td> - <td class="tdr">322</td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td colspan="2" class="tdc pt2 g1">CHAPTER XVII.</td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td colspan="2" class="tdc smcap">Catalonian and Valencian Poetry.</td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td class="tdl pt1"><a href="#Ch_1_17">Floral Games at Toulouse</a></td> - <td class="tdr pt1">326</td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td class="tdl"><a href="#Page_328">Consistory of Barcelona</a></td> - <td class="tdr">328</td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td class="tdl"><a href="#Page_329">Poetry in Catalonia and Valencia</a></td> - <td class="tdr">329</td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td class="tdl"><a href="#Page_331">Ausias March</a></td> - <td class="tdr">331</td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td class="tdl"><a href="#Page_332">His Poetry</a></td> - <td class="tdr">332</td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td class="tdl"><a href="#Page_333">Jaume Roig</a></td> - <td class="tdr">333</td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td class="tdl"><a href="#Page_334">His Poetry</a></td> - <td class="tdr">334</td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td class="tdl"><a href="#Page_337">Decay of Catalonian Poetry</a></td> - <td class="tdr">337</td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td class="tdl"><a href="#Page_338">Decay of Valencian</a></td> - <td class="tdr">338</td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td class="tdl"><a href="#Page_338">Influence of Castile</a></td> - <td class="tdr">338</td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td class="tdl"><a href="#Page_338">Poetical Contest at Valencia</a></td> - <td class="tdr">338</td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td class="tdl"><a href="#Page_340">Valencians write in Castilian</a></td> - <td class="tdr">340</td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td class="tdl"><a href="#Page_340">Preponderance of Castile</a></td> - <td class="tdr">340</td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td class="tdl"><a href="#Page_343">Prevalence of the Castilian</a></td> - <td class="tdr">343</td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td colspan="2" class="tdc pt2 g1">CHAPTER XVIII.</td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td colspan="2" class="tdc smcap">Courtly School in Castile.</td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td class="tdl pt1"><a href="#Ch_1_18">Early Influence of Italy</a></td> - <td class="tdr pt1">346</td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td class="tdl"><a href="#Page_347">Religious</a></td> - <td class="tdr">347</td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td class="tdl"><a href="#Page_348">Intellectual</a></td> - <td class="tdr">348</td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td class="tdl"><a href="#Page_349">Political and Commercial</a></td> - <td class="tdr">349</td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td class="tdl"><a href="#Page_350">Connection with Sicily</a></td> - <td class="tdr">350</td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td class="tdl"><a href="#Page_351">With Naples</a></td> - <td class="tdr">351</td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td class="tdl"><a href="#Page_351">Similarity in Languages</a></td> - <td class="tdr">351</td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td class="tdl"><a href="#Page_351">Italian Poets known in Spain</a></td> - <td class="tdr">351</td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td class="tdl"><a href="#Page_352">Reign of John the Second of Castile</a></td> - <td class="tdr">352</td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td class="tdl"><a href="#Page_354">His Poetical Court</a></td> - <td class="tdr">354</td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td class="tdl"><a href="#Page_355">Troubadours and Minnesingers</a></td> - <td class="tdr">355</td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td class="tdl"><a href="#Page_356"><span class="pagenum" id="Page_xviii">[p. xviii]</span>Poetry of John</a></td> - <td class="tdr">356</td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td class="tdl"><a href="#Page_357">Marquis of Villena</a></td> - <td class="tdr">357</td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td class="tdl"><a href="#Page_360">His Arte Cisoria</a></td> - <td class="tdr">360</td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td class="tdl"><a href="#Page_361">His Arte de Trobar</a></td> - <td class="tdr">361</td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td class="tdl"><a href="#Page_362">His Trabajos de Hércules</a></td> - <td class="tdr">362</td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td class="tdl"><a href="#Page_364">Macias el Enamorado</a></td> - <td class="tdr">364</td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td colspan="2" class="tdc pt2 g1">CHAPTER XIX.</td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td colspan="2" class="tdc smcap">The Courtly School continued.</td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td class="tdl pt1"><a href="#Ch_1_19">The Marquis of Santillana</a></td> - <td class="tdr pt1">366</td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td class="tdl"><a href="#Page_370">Connected with Villena</a></td> - <td class="tdr">370</td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td class="tdl"><a href="#Page_371">Imitates the Provençals</a></td> - <td class="tdr">371</td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td class="tdl"><a href="#Page_372">Imitates the Italians</a></td> - <td class="tdr">372</td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td class="tdl"><a href="#Page_373">Writes in the Fashionable Style</a></td> - <td class="tdr">373</td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td class="tdl"><a href="#Page_375">His Comedieta de Ponza</a></td> - <td class="tdr">375</td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td class="tdl"><a href="#Page_377">His Proverbs</a></td> - <td class="tdr">377</td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td class="tdl"><a href="#Page_378">His Letter to the Constable of - Portugal</a></td> - <td class="tdr">378</td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td class="tdl"><a href="#Page_378">His Character</a></td> - <td class="tdr">378</td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td class="tdl"><a href="#Page_379">Juan de Mena</a></td> - <td class="tdr">379</td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td class="tdl"><a href="#Page_380">Relations at Court</a></td> - <td class="tdr">380</td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td class="tdl"><a href="#Page_382">His Works</a></td> - <td class="tdr">382</td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td class="tdl"><a href="#Page_383">Poem on the Seven Deadly Sins</a></td> - <td class="tdr">383</td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td class="tdl"><a href="#Page_383">His Coronation</a></td> - <td class="tdr">383</td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td class="tdl"><a href="#Page_384">His Labyrinth</a></td> - <td class="tdr">384</td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td class="tdl"><a href="#Page_387">His Character</a></td> - <td class="tdr">387</td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td colspan="2" class="tdc pt2 g1">CHAPTER XX.</td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td colspan="2" class="tdc smcap">Courtly School continued.</td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td class="tdl pt1"><a href="#Ch_1_20">Progress of the Language</a></td> - <td class="tdr pt1">389</td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td class="tdl"><a href="#Page_391">Villasandino</a></td> - <td class="tdr">391</td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td class="tdl"><a href="#Page_393">Francisco Imperial</a></td> - <td class="tdr">393</td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td class="tdl"><a href="#Page_393">Other Poets</a></td> - <td class="tdr">393</td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td class="tdl"><a href="#Page_394">Prose-writers</a></td> - <td class="tdr">394</td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td class="tdl"><a href="#Page_395">Gomez de Cibdareal</a></td> - <td class="tdr">395</td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td class="tdl"><a href="#Page_395">His Letters</a></td> - <td class="tdr">395</td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td class="tdl"><a href="#Page_398">Perez de Guzman</a></td> - <td class="tdr">398</td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td class="tdl"><a href="#Page_399">His Friends the Cartagenas</a></td> - <td class="tdr">399</td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td class="tdl"><a href="#Page_400">His Poetry</a></td> - <td class="tdr">400</td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td class="tdl"><a href="#Page_401">His Generaciones y Semblanzas</a></td> - <td class="tdr">401</td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td colspan="2" class="tdc pt2 g1">CHAPTER XXI.</td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td colspan="2" class="tdc smcap">The Manriques, the Urreas, and Juan de Padilla.</td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td class="tdl pt1"><a href="#Ch_1_21">Family of the Manriques</a></td> - <td class="tdr pt1">403</td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td class="tdl"><a href="#Page_403">Pedro Manrique</a></td> - <td class="tdr">403</td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td class="tdl"><a href="#Page_404">Rodrigo Manrique</a></td> - <td class="tdr">404</td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td class="tdl"><a href="#Page_406">Jorge Manrique</a></td> - <td class="tdr">406</td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td class="tdl"><a href="#Page_406">His Coplas</a></td> - <td class="tdr">406</td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td class="tdl"><a href="#Page_410">Family of the Urreas</a></td> - <td class="tdr">410</td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td class="tdl"><a href="#Page_411">Lope de Urrea</a></td> - <td class="tdr">411</td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td class="tdl"><a href="#Page_411">Gerónimo de Urrea</a></td> - <td class="tdr">411</td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td class="tdl"><a href="#Page_411">Pedro de Urrea</a></td> - <td class="tdr">411</td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td class="tdl"><a href="#Page_412">Padilla el Cartuxano</a></td> - <td class="tdr">412</td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td colspan="2" class="tdc pt2 g1">CHAPTER XXII.</td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td colspan="2" class="tdc smcap">Prose-writers of the Latter Part of - the Fifteenth Century.</td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td class="tdl pt1"><a href="#Ch_1_22">Juan de Lucena</a></td> - <td class="tdr pt1">415</td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td class="tdl"><a href="#Page_416">His Vita Beata</a></td> - <td class="tdr">416</td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td class="tdl"><a href="#Page_417">Alfonso de la Torre</a></td> - <td class="tdr">417</td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td class="tdl"><a href="#Page_417">His Vision Deleytable</a></td> - <td class="tdr">417</td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td class="tdl"><a href="#Page_418">Diego de Almela</a></td> - <td class="tdr">418</td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td class="tdl"><a href="#Page_419">His Valerio de las Historias</a></td> - <td class="tdr">419</td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td class="tdl"><a href="#Page_420">Alonso Ortiz</a></td> - <td class="tdr">420</td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td class="tdl"><a href="#Page_420">His Tratados</a></td> - <td class="tdr">420</td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td class="tdl"><a href="#Page_420"><span class="pagenum" id="Page_xix">[p. xix]</span>Fernando del Pulgar</a></td> - <td class="tdr">420</td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td class="tdl"><a href="#Page_421">His Claros Varones</a></td> - <td class="tdr">421</td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td class="tdl"><a href="#Page_422">His Letters</a></td> - <td class="tdr">422</td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td class="tdl"><a href="#Page_424">Romantic Fiction</a></td> - <td class="tdr">424</td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td class="tdl"><a href="#Page_424">Diego de San Pedro</a></td> - <td class="tdr">424</td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td class="tdl"><a href="#Page_424">His Carcel de Amor</a></td> - <td class="tdr">424</td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td class="tdl"><a href="#Page_426">Question de Amor</a></td> - <td class="tdr">426</td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td colspan="2" class="tdc pt2 g1">CHAPTER XXIII.</td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td colspan="2" class="tdc smcap">The Cancioneros and the Courtly - School concluded.</td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td class="tdl pt1"><a href="#Ch_1_23">Fashion of Cancioneros</a></td> - <td class="tdr pt1">428</td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td class="tdl"><a href="#Page_428">Cancionero of Baena</a></td> - <td class="tdr">428</td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td class="tdl"><a href="#Page_430">Cancioneros of Estuñiga, etc.</a></td> - <td class="tdr">430</td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td class="tdl"><a href="#Page_431">First Book printed in Spain</a></td> - <td class="tdr">431</td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td class="tdl"><a href="#Page_432">Cancionero General</a></td> - <td class="tdr">432</td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td class="tdl"><a href="#Page_433">Its different Editions</a></td> - <td class="tdr">433</td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td class="tdl"><a href="#Page_433">Its Devotional Poetry</a></td> - <td class="tdr">433</td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td class="tdl"><a href="#Page_435">Its First Series of Authors</a></td> - <td class="tdr">435</td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td class="tdl"><a href="#Page_437">Its Canciones</a></td> - <td class="tdr">437</td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td class="tdl"><a href="#Page_438">Its Ballads</a></td> - <td class="tdr">438</td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td class="tdl"><a href="#Page_438">Its Invenciones</a></td> - <td class="tdr">438</td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td class="tdl"><a href="#Page_439">Its Motes</a></td> - <td class="tdr">439</td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td class="tdl"><a href="#Page_440">Its Villancicos</a></td> - <td class="tdr">440</td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td class="tdl"><a href="#Page_440">Its Preguntas</a></td> - <td class="tdr">440</td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td class="tdl"><a href="#Page_441">Its Second Series of Authors</a></td> - <td class="tdr">441</td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td class="tdl"><a href="#Page_442">Its Poems at the End</a></td> - <td class="tdr">442</td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td class="tdl"><a href="#Page_443">Number of its Authors</a></td> - <td class="tdr">443</td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td class="tdl"><a href="#Page_443">Rank of many of them</a></td> - <td class="tdr">443</td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td class="tdl"><a href="#Page_444">Character of their Poetry</a></td> - <td class="tdr">444</td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td class="tdl"><a href="#Page_444">Reign of Ferdinand and Isabella</a></td> - <td class="tdr">444</td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td class="tdl"><a href="#Page_445">State of Letters</a></td> - <td class="tdr">445</td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td colspan="2" class="tdc pt2 g1">CHAPTER XXIV.</td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td colspan="2" class="tdc smcap">Discouragements of Spanish Culture - at the End of this Period, and its General Condition.</td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td class="tdl pt1"><a href="#Ch_1_24">Spanish Intolerance</a></td> - <td class="tdr pt1">446</td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td class="tdl"><a href="#Page_446">Persecution of Jews</a></td> - <td class="tdr">446</td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td class="tdl"><a href="#Page_446">Persecution of Moors</a></td> - <td class="tdr">446</td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td class="tdl"><a href="#Page_447">Inquisition, its Origin</a></td> - <td class="tdr">447</td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td class="tdl"><a href="#Page_448">Its Establishment in Spain</a></td> - <td class="tdr">448</td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td class="tdl"><a href="#Page_448">Its first Victims Jews</a></td> - <td class="tdr">448</td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td class="tdl"><a href="#Page_449">Its next Victims Moors</a></td> - <td class="tdr">449</td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td class="tdl"><a href="#Page_450">Its great Authority</a></td> - <td class="tdr">450</td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td class="tdl"><a href="#Page_451">Punishes Opinion</a></td> - <td class="tdr">451</td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td class="tdl"><a href="#Page_451">State of the Press</a></td> - <td class="tdr">451</td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td class="tdl"><a href="#Page_452">Past Literature of Spain</a></td> - <td class="tdr">452</td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td class="tdl"><a href="#Page_453">Promise for the Future</a></td> - <td class="tdr">453</td> - </tr> -</table> - -<p class="large centra mt3">SECOND PERIOD.</p> - -<p class="fs90 lh135 hang mt1"><span class="smcap">The Literature that -existed in Spain From the Accession of the Austrian Family to its -Extinction; or from the Beginning of the Sixteenth Century to the End -of the Seventeenth.</span></p> - -<table class="toc" summary="Table of contents, 2nd period."> - <tr> - <td colspan="2" class="tdc pt1 g1">CHAPTER I.</td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td colspan="2" class="tdc smcap">Condition of Spain during these Two Centuries.</td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td class="tdl pt1"><a href="#Ch_2_1">Periods of Literary Glory</a></td> - <td class="tdr pt1">457</td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td class="tdl"><a href="#Page_458">Period of Glory in Spain</a></td> - <td class="tdr">458</td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td class="tdl"><a href="#Page_458">Hopes of Universal Empire</a></td> - <td class="tdr">458</td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td class="tdl"><a href="#Page_459">These Hopes checked</a></td> - <td class="tdr">459</td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td class="tdl"><a href="#Page_460"><span class="pagenum" id="Page_xx">[p. xx]</span>Luther and Protestantism</a></td> - <td class="tdr">460</td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td class="tdl"><a href="#Page_460">Protestantism in Spain</a></td> - <td class="tdr">460</td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td class="tdl"><a href="#Page_461">Assailed by the Inquisition</a></td> - <td class="tdr">461</td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td class="tdl"><a href="#Page_461">Protestant Books forbidden</a></td> - <td class="tdr">461</td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td class="tdl"><a href="#Page_462">The Press subjected</a></td> - <td class="tdr">462</td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td class="tdl"><a href="#Page_462">Index Expurgatorius</a></td> - <td class="tdr">462</td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td class="tdl"><a href="#Page_463">Power of the Inquisition</a></td> - <td class="tdr">463</td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td class="tdl"><a href="#Page_465">Its Popularity</a></td> - <td class="tdr">465</td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td class="tdl"><a href="#Page_466">Protestantism driven from Spain</a></td> - <td class="tdr">466</td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td class="tdl"><a href="#Page_466">Learned Men persecuted</a></td> - <td class="tdr">466</td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td class="tdl"><a href="#Page_467">Religious Men persecuted</a></td> - <td class="tdr">467</td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td class="tdl"><a href="#Page_468">Degradation of Loyalty</a></td> - <td class="tdr">468</td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td class="tdl"><a href="#Page_468">Increase of Bigotry</a></td> - <td class="tdr">468</td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td class="tdl"><a href="#Page_469">Effect of both on Letters</a></td> - <td class="tdr">469</td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td class="tdl"><a href="#Page_470">Popular Feeling</a></td> - <td class="tdr">470</td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td class="tdl"><a href="#Page_470">Moral Contradictions</a></td> - <td class="tdr">470</td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td class="tdl"><a href="#Page_471">The Sacrifices that follow</a></td> - <td class="tdr">471</td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td class="tdl"><a href="#Page_471">Effect on the Country</a></td> - <td class="tdr">471</td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td colspan="2" class="tdc pt2 g1">CHAPTER II.</td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td colspan="2" class="tdc smcap">Italian School of Boscan and Garcilasso.</td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td class="tdl pt1"><a href="#Ch_2_2">State of Letters at the End of - the Reign of Ferdinand and Isabella</a></td> - <td class="tdr pt1">473</td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td class="tdl"><a href="#Page_474">Impulse from Italy</a></td> - <td class="tdr">474</td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td class="tdl"><a href="#Page_475">Spanish Conquests there</a></td> - <td class="tdr">475</td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td class="tdl"><a href="#Page_476">Consequent Intercourse</a></td> - <td class="tdr">476</td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td class="tdl"><a href="#Page_477">Brilliant Culture of Italy</a></td> - <td class="tdr">477</td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td class="tdl"><a href="#Page_478">Juan Boscan</a></td> - <td class="tdr">478</td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td class="tdl"><a href="#Page_479">He knows Navagiero</a></td> - <td class="tdr">479</td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td class="tdl"><a href="#Page_480">Writes Poetry</a></td> - <td class="tdr">480</td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td class="tdl"><a href="#Page_481">Translates Castiglione</a></td> - <td class="tdr">481</td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td class="tdl"><a href="#Page_482">His Coplas Españolas</a></td> - <td class="tdr">482</td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td class="tdl"><a href="#Page_483">His Imitation of the Italian - Masters</a></td> - <td class="tdr">483</td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td class="tdl"><a href="#Page_485">Its Results</a></td> - <td class="tdr">485</td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td class="tdl"><a href="#Page_486">Garcilasso de la Vega</a></td> - <td class="tdr">486</td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td class="tdl"><a href="#Page_489">His Works</a></td> - <td class="tdr">489</td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td class="tdl"><a href="#Page_490">His First Eclogue</a></td> - <td class="tdr">490</td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td class="tdl"><a href="#Page_493">His Versification</a></td> - <td class="tdr">493</td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td class="tdl"><a href="#Page_495">His Popularity</a></td> - <td class="tdr">495</td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td class="tdl"><a href="#Page_496">Italian School introduced</a></td> - <td class="tdr">496</td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td colspan="2" class="tdc pt2 g1">CHAPTER III.</td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td colspan="2" class="tdc smcap">Contest concerning the Italian School.</td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td class="tdl pt1"><a href="#Ch_2_3">Followers of Boscan and Garcilasso</a></td> - <td class="tdr pt1">497</td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td class="tdl"><a href="#Page_497">Fernando de Acuña</a></td> - <td class="tdr">497</td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td class="tdl"><a href="#Page_500">Gutierre de Cetina</a></td> - <td class="tdr">500</td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td class="tdl"><a href="#Page_501">Opponents of Boscan and Garcilasso</a></td> - <td class="tdr">501</td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td class="tdl"><a href="#Page_501">Christóval de Castillejo</a></td> - <td class="tdr">501</td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td class="tdl"><a href="#Page_503">Antonio de Villegas</a></td> - <td class="tdr">503</td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td class="tdl"><a href="#Page_505">Gregorio de Silvestre</a></td> - <td class="tdr">505</td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td class="tdl"><a href="#Page_507">Controversy on the Italian School</a></td> - <td class="tdr">507</td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td class="tdl"><a href="#Page_508">Its final Success</a></td> - <td class="tdr">508</td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td colspan="2" class="tdc pt2 g1">CHAPTER IV.</td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td colspan="2" class="tdc smcap">Diego Hurtado de Mendoza.</td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td class="tdl pt1"><a href="#Ch_2_4">His Birth and Education</a></td> - <td class="tdr pt1">510</td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td class="tdl"><a href="#Page_511">His Lazarillo de Tórmes</a></td> - <td class="tdr">511</td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td class="tdl"><a href="#Page_512">Its Imitations</a></td> - <td class="tdr">512</td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td class="tdl"><a href="#Page_514">He is a Soldier</a></td> - <td class="tdr">514</td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td class="tdl"><a href="#Page_514">Ambassador of Charles the Fifth</a></td> - <td class="tdr">514</td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td class="tdl"><a href="#Page_515">A Military Governor</a></td> - <td class="tdr">515</td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td class="tdl"><a href="#Page_516">Not favored by Philip the Second</a></td> - <td class="tdr">516</td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td class="tdl"><a href="#Page_516">He is exiled from Court</a></td> - <td class="tdr">516</td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td class="tdl"><a href="#Page_517">His Poetry</a></td> - <td class="tdr">517</td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td class="tdl"><a href="#Page_519">His Satirical Prose</a></td> - <td class="tdr">519</td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td class="tdl"><a href="#Page_520"><span class="pagenum" id="Page_xxi">[p. xxi]</span>His Guerra de Granada</a></td> - <td class="tdr">520</td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td class="tdl"><a href="#Page_522">His Imitation of Tacitus</a></td> - <td class="tdr">522</td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td class="tdl"><a href="#Page_526">His Eloquence</a></td> - <td class="tdr">526</td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td class="tdl"><a href="#Page_527">His Death</a></td> - <td class="tdr">527</td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td class="tdl"><a href="#Page_528">His Character</a></td> - <td class="tdr">528</td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td colspan="2" class="tdc pt2 g1">CHAPTER V.</td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td colspan="2" class="tdc smcap">Didactic Poetry and Prose. — Castilian Language.</td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td class="tdl pt1"><a href="#Ch_2_5">Early Didactic Poetry</a></td> - <td class="tdr pt1">529</td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td class="tdl"><a href="#Page_529">Luis de Escobar</a></td> - <td class="tdr">529</td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td class="tdl"><a href="#Page_531">Alonso de Corelas</a></td> - <td class="tdr">531</td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td class="tdl"><a href="#Page_531">Gonzalez de la Torre</a></td> - <td class="tdr">531</td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td class="tdl"><a href="#Page_531">Didactic Prose</a></td> - <td class="tdr">531</td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td class="tdl"><a href="#Page_532">Francisco de Villalobos</a></td> - <td class="tdr">532</td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td class="tdl"><a href="#Page_534">Fernan Perez de Oliva</a></td> - <td class="tdr">534</td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td class="tdl"><a href="#Page_536">Juan de Sedeño</a></td> - <td class="tdr">536</td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td class="tdl"><a href="#Page_536">Cervantes de Salazar</a></td> - <td class="tdr">536</td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td class="tdl"><a href="#Page_537">Luis Mexia</a></td> - <td class="tdr">537</td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td class="tdl"><a href="#Page_537">Pedro Navarra</a></td> - <td class="tdr">537</td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td class="tdl"><a href="#Page_537">Pedro Mexia</a></td> - <td class="tdr">537</td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td class="tdl"><a href="#Page_538">Gerónimo de Urrea</a></td> - <td class="tdr">538</td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td class="tdl"><a href="#Page_539">Palacios Rubios</a></td> - <td class="tdr">539</td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td class="tdl"><a href="#Page_539">Alexio de Vanegas</a></td> - <td class="tdr">539</td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td class="tdl"><a href="#Page_540">Juan de Avila</a></td> - <td class="tdr">540</td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td class="tdl"><a href="#Page_540">Antonio de Guevara</a></td> - <td class="tdr">540</td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td class="tdl"><a href="#Page_541">His Relox de Príncipes</a></td> - <td class="tdr">541</td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td class="tdl"><a href="#Page_543">His Década de los Césares</a></td> - <td class="tdr">543</td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td class="tdl"><a href="#Page_543">His Epístolas</a></td> - <td class="tdr">543</td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td class="tdl"><a href="#Page_545">His other Works</a></td> - <td class="tdr">545</td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td class="tdl"><a href="#Page_546">The Diálogo de las Lenguas</a></td> - <td class="tdr">546</td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td class="tdl"><a href="#Page_546">Its Probable Author</a></td> - <td class="tdr">546</td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td class="tdl"><a href="#Page_547">State of the Castilian Language - from the Time of Juan de Mena</a></td> - <td class="tdr">547</td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td class="tdl"><a href="#Page_548">Contributions to it</a></td> - <td class="tdr">548</td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td class="tdl"><a href="#Page_549">Dictionaries and Grammars</a></td> - <td class="tdr">549</td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td class="tdl"><a href="#Page_550">The Language formed</a></td> - <td class="tdr">550</td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td class="tdl"><a href="#Page_550">The Dialects</a></td> - <td class="tdr">550</td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td class="tdl"><a href="#Page_551">The Pure Castilian</a></td> - <td class="tdr">551</td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td colspan="2" class="tdc pt2 g1">CHAPTER VI.</td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td colspan="2" class="tdc smcap">Historical Literature.</td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td class="tdl pt1"><a href="#Ch_2_6">Chronicling Period gone by</a></td> - <td class="tdr pt1">553</td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td class="tdl"><a href="#Page_553">Antonio de Guevara</a></td> - <td class="tdr">553</td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td class="tdl"><a href="#Page_554">Florian de Ocampo</a></td> - <td class="tdr">554</td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td class="tdl"><a href="#Page_555">Pedro Mexia</a></td> - <td class="tdr">555</td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td class="tdl"><a href="#Page_556">Accounts of the New World</a></td> - <td class="tdr">556</td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td class="tdl"><a href="#Page_556">Fernando Cortés</a></td> - <td class="tdr">556</td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td class="tdl"><a href="#Page_557">Francisco Lopez de Gomara</a></td> - <td class="tdr">557</td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td class="tdl"><a href="#Page_558">Bernal Diaz</a></td> - <td class="tdr">558</td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td class="tdl"><a href="#Page_559">Gonzalo Fernandez de Oviedo</a></td> - <td class="tdr">559</td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td class="tdl"><a href="#Page_560">His Historia de las Indias</a></td> - <td class="tdr">560</td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td class="tdl"><a href="#Page_562">His Quinquagenas</a></td> - <td class="tdr">562</td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td class="tdl"><a href="#Page_563">Bartolomé de las Casas</a></td> - <td class="tdr">563</td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td class="tdl"><a href="#Page_565">His Brevísima Relacion</a></td> - <td class="tdr">565</td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td class="tdl"><a href="#Page_566">His Historia de las Indias</a></td> - <td class="tdr">566</td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td class="tdl"><a href="#Page_567">Vaca, Xerez, and Çarate</a></td> - <td class="tdr">567</td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td class="tdl"><a href="#Page_568">Approach to Regular History</a></td> - <td class="tdr">568</td> - </tr> -</table> - -<hr class="chap0" /> - - -<div class="chapter pt3" id="Ch_1"> - <p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_1">[p. 1]</span></p> - <p class="centra xl lh150"><span class="large g1">HISTORY</span><br /> - <span class="xs">OF</span><br /> - <span class="g1">SPANISH LITERATURE.</span></p> - - <hr class="tir" /> - - <h2 class="nobreak g2">FIRST PERIOD.</h2> - - <hr class="tir" /> - - <p class="lh135 hang mt1"><span class="smcap">The Literature that - existed in Spain between the First Appearance of the present - Written Language and the Early Part of the Reign of the Emperor - Charles the Fifth; or from the End of the Twelfth Century to the - Beginning of the Sixteenth.</span></p> - - <hr class="chap" /> -</div> - - -<div class="chapter pt3" id="Ch_1_1"> - <p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_3">[p. 3]</span></p> - <p class="centra xl lh135"><span class="large g1">HISTORY</span><br /> - <span class="xs">OF</span><br /> - <span class="g1">SPANISH LITERATURE.</span></p> - - <hr class="tir" /> - <p class="centra xl g1">FIRST PERIOD.</p> - <hr class="tir" /> - - <h3 class="menos">CHAPTER I.</h3> - <p class="subh3 centra"><span class="smcap">Division of the - Subject. — Origin of Spanish Literature in Times of great - Trouble.</span></p> -</div> - -<p><span class="smcap">In</span> the earliest ages of every -literature that has vindicated for itself a permanent character in -modern Europe, much of what constituted its foundations was the -result of local situation and of circumstances seemingly accidental. -Sometimes, as in Provence, where the climate was mild and the soil -luxuriant, a premature refinement started forth, which was suddenly -blighted by the influences of the surrounding barbarism. Sometimes, -as in Lombardy and in a few portions of France, the institutions of -antiquity were so long preserved by the old municipalities, that, -in occasional intervals of peace, it seemed as if the ancient forms -of civilization might be revived and prevail;—hopes kindled only -to be extinguished by the violence amidst which the first modern -communities, with the policy they needed, were brought forth and<span -class="pagenum" id="Page_4">[p. 4]</span> established. And sometimes -both these causes were combined with others, and gave promise of -a poetry full of freshness and originality, which, however, as it -advanced, was met by a spirit more vigorous than its own, beneath whose -predominance its language was forbidden to rise above the condition -of a local dialect, or became merged in that of its more fortunate -rival;—a result which we early recognize alike in Sicily, Naples, and -Venice, where the authority of the great Tuscan masters was, from the -first, as loyally acknowledged as it was in Florence or Pisa.</p> - -<p>Like much of the rest of Europe, the southwestern portion, now -comprising the kingdoms of Spain and Portugal, was affected by nearly -all these different influences. Favored by a happy climate and soil, by -the remains of Roman culture, which had lingered long in its mountains, -and by the earnest and passionate spirit which has marked its people -through their many revolutions down to the present day, the first -signs of a revived poetical feeling are perceptible in the Spanish -peninsula even before they are to be found, with their distinctive -characteristics, in that of Italy. But this earliest literature of -modern Spain, a part of which is Provençal and the rest absolutely -Castilian or Spanish, appeared in troubled times, when it was all but -impossible that it should be advanced freely or rapidly in the forms -it was destined at last to wear. For the masses of the Christian -Spaniards filling the separate states, into which their country was -most unhappily divided, were then involved in that tremendous warfare -with their Arab invaders, which, for twenty generations, so consumed -their strength, that, long before the cross was planted on the towers -of the Alhambra, and peace had given opportunity<span class="pagenum" -id="Page_5">[p. 5]</span> for the ornaments of life, Dante, Petrarca, -and Boccaccio had appeared in the comparative quiet of Lombardy and -Tuscany, and Italy had again taken her accustomed place at the head of -the elegant literature of the world.</p> - -<p>Under such circumstances, a large portion of the Spaniards, who had -been so long engaged in this solemn contest, as the forlorn hope of -Christendom, against the intrusion of Mohammedanism<a id="FNanchor_1" -href="#Footnote_1" class="fnanchor">[1]</a> and its imperfect -civilization into Europe, and who, amidst all their sufferings, had -constantly looked to Rome, as to the capital seat of their faith, for -consolation and encouragement, did not hesitate again to acknowledge -the Italian supremacy in letters,—a supremacy to which, in the days -of the Empire, their allegiance had been complete. A school formed on -Italian models naturally followed; and though the rich and original -genius of Spanish poetry received less from its influence ultimately -than might have been anticipated, still, from the time of its -first appearance, its effects are too important and distinct to be -overlooked.</p> - -<p>Of the period, therefore, in which the history of Spanish literature -opens upon us, we must make two divisions. The first will contain -the genuinely national poetry and prose produced from the earliest -times down to the reign of Charles the Fifth; while the second will -contain that portion which, by imitating the refinement of Provence -or of Italy, was, during the same interval, more or less separated -from the popular spirit and genius. Both, when taken together, will -fill up the period in which the main elements and characteristics of -Spanish literature were<span class="pagenum" id="Page_6">[p. 6]</span> -developed, such as they have existed down to our own age.</p> - - -<p class="mt2">In the first division of the first period, we are to -consider the origin and character of that literature which sprang, as -it were, from the very soil of Spain, and was almost entirely untouched -by foreign influences.</p> - -<p>And here, at the outset, we are struck with a remarkable -circumstance, which announces something at least of the genius of the -coming literature,—the circumstance of its appearance in times of -great confusion and violence. For, in other portions of Europe, during -those disastrous troubles that accompanied the overthrow of the Roman -power and civilization, and the establishment of new forms of social -order, if the inspirations of poetry came at all, they came in some -fortunate period of comparative quietness and security, when the minds -of men were less engrossed than they were wont to be by the necessity -of providing for their personal safety and for their most pressing -physical wants. But in Spain it was not so. There, the first utterance -of that popular feeling which became the foundation of the national -literature was heard in the midst of the extraordinary contest which -the Christian Spaniards, for above seven centuries, urged against -their Moorish invaders; so that the earliest Spanish poetry seems but -a breathing of the energy and heroism which, at the time it appeared, -animated the great mass of the Spanish Christians throughout the -Peninsula.</p> - -<p>Indeed, if we look at the condition of Spain, in the centuries -that preceded and followed the formation of its present language and -poetry, we shall find the mere<span class="pagenum" id="Page_7">[p. -7]</span> historical dates full of instruction. In 711, Roderic -rashly hazarded the fate of his Gothic and Christian empire on the -result of a single battle against the Arabs, then just forcing their -way into the western part of Europe from Africa. He failed; and the -wild enthusiasm which marked the earliest age of the Mohammedan power -achieved almost immediately the conquest of the whole of the country -that was worth the price of a victory. The Christians, however, though -overwhelmed, did not entirely yield. On the contrary, many of them -retreated before the fiery pursuit of their enemies, and established -themselves in the extreme northwestern portion of their native land, -amidst the mountains and fastnesses of Biscay and Asturias. There, -indeed, the purity of the Latin tongue, which they had spoken for so -many ages, was finally lost, through that neglect of its cultivation -which was a necessary consequence of the miseries that oppressed them. -But still, with the spirit which so long sustained their forefathers -against the power of Rome, and which has carried their descendants -through a hardly less fierce contest against the power of France, they -maintained, to a remarkable degree, their ancient manners and feelings, -their religion, their laws, and their institutions; and, separating -themselves by an implacable hatred from their Moorish invaders, they -there, in those rude mountains, laid deep the foundations of a national -character,—of that character which has subsisted to our own times.<a -id="FNanchor_2" href="#Footnote_2" class="fnanchor">[2]</a></p> -<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_8">[p. 8]</span></p> - -<p>As, however, they gradually grew inured to adversity, and understood -the few hard advantages which their situation afforded them, they -began to make incursions into the territories of their conquerors, -and to seize for themselves some part of the fair possessions, once -entirely their own. But every inch of ground was defended by the same -fervid valor by which it had originally been won. The Christians, -indeed, though occasionally defeated, generally gained something by -each of their more considerable struggles; but what they gained could -be preserved only by an exertion of bravery and military power hardly -less painful than that by which it had been acquired. In 801, we find -them already possessing a considerable part of Old Castile; but the -very name now given to that country, from the multitude of castles -with which it was studded, shows plainly the tenure by which the -Christians from the mountains were compelled to hold these early fruits -of their courage and constancy.<a id="FNanchor_3" href="#Footnote_3" -class="fnanchor">[3]</a> A century later, or in 914, they had pushed -the outposts of their conquests to the chain of the Guadarrama, -separating New from Old Castile, and they may, therefore, at this date, -be regarded as having again obtained a firm foothold in their own -country, whose capital they established at Leon.</p> - -<p>From this period, the Christians seem to have felt assured of final -success. In 1085, Toledo, the venerated head of the old monarchy, was -wrested from the Moors, who had then possessed it three hundred and -sixty-three years; and in 1118, Saragossa was recovered: so that, from -the beginning of the twelfth<span class="pagenum" id="Page_9">[p. -9]</span> century, the whole Peninsula, down to the Sierra of Toledo, -was again occupied by its former masters; and the Moors were pushed -back into the southern and western provinces, by which they had -originally entered. Their power, however, though thus reduced within -limits comprising scarcely more than one third of its extent when -it was greatest, seems still to have been rather consolidated than -broken; and after three centuries of success, more than three other -centuries of conflict were necessary before the fall of Granada finally -emancipated the entire country from the loathed dominion of its -misbelieving conquerors.</p> - -<p>But it was in the midst of this desolating contest, and at a period, -too, when the Christians were hardly less distracted by divisions -among themselves than worn out and exasperated by the common warfare -against the common enemy, that the elements of the Spanish language -and poetry, as they have substantially existed ever since, were first -developed. For it is precisely between the capture of Saragossa, -which insured to the Christians the possession of all the eastern -part of Spain, and their great victory on the plains of Tolosa, -which so broke the power of the Moors, that they never afterwards -recovered the full measure of their former strength,<a id="FNanchor_4" -href="#Footnote_4" class="fnanchor">[4]</a>—it is precisely in this -century of confusion and violence, when the Chris<span class="pagenum" -id="Page_10">[p. 10]</span>tian population of the country may be -said, with the old chronicle, to have been kept constantly in battle -array, that we hear the first notes of their wild, national poetry, -which come to us mingled with their war-shouts, and breathing the -very spirit of their victories.<a id="FNanchor_5" href="#Footnote_5" -class="fnanchor">[5]</a></p> - -<hr class="chap0" /> - - -<div class="chapter pt3" id="Ch_1_2"> - <p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_11">[p. 11]</span></p> - <h3>CHAPTER II.</h3> - <p class="subh3 hang"><span class="smcap">First Appearance of - the Spanish as a Written Language. — Poem of the Cid. — Its - Hero, Subject, Language, and Verse. — Story of the Poem. — Its - Character. — St. Mary of Egypt. — The Adoration of the Three - Kings. — Berceo, the first known Castilian Poet. — His Works and - Versification. — His San Domingo de Silos. — His Miracles of the - Virgin.</span></p> -</div> - -<p><span class="smcap">The</span> oldest document in the Spanish -language with an ascertained date is a confirmation by Alfonso the -Seventh, in the year 1155, of a charter of regulations and privileges -granted to the city of Avilés in Asturias.<a id="FNanchor_6" -href="#Footnote_6" class="fnanchor">[6]</a> It is important, not only -because it exhibits the new dialect just emerging from the corrupted -Latin, little or not at all affected by the Arabic infused into it in -the southern provinces, but because it is believed to be among the very -oldest documents ever written in Spanish, since there is no good reason -to suppose that language to have existed in a written form even half a -century earlier.</p> - -<p>How far we can go back towards the first appearance of poetry in -this Spanish, or, as it was oftener called, Castilian, dialect is not -so precisely ascertained; but we know that we can trace Castilian verse -to a period surprisingly near the date of the document of Avilés. -It is, too, a remarkable circumstance, that we can thus trace it by -works both long and interesting; for, though ballads, and the other -forms of<span class="pagenum" id="Page_12">[p. 12]</span> popular -poetry, by which we mark indistinctly the beginning of almost every -other literature, are abundant in the Spanish, we are not obliged to -resort to them, at the outset of our inquiries, since other obvious and -decisive monuments present themselves at once.</p> - - -<p class="mt2">The first of these monuments in age, and the first in -importance, is the poem commonly called, with primitive simplicity -and directness, “The Poem of the Cid.” It consists of above three -thousand lines, and can hardly have been composed later than the -year 1200. Its subject, as its name implies, is taken from among -the adventures of the Cid, the great popular hero of the chivalrous -age of Spain; and the whole tone of its manners and feelings is in -sympathy with the contest between the Moors and the Christians, in -which the Cid bore so great a part, and which was still going on with -undiminished violence at the period when the poem was written. It has, -therefore, a national bearing and a national character throughout.<a -id="FNanchor_7" href="#Footnote_7" class="fnanchor">[7]</a></p> -<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_13">[p. 13]</span></p> - -<p>The Cid himself, who is to be found constantly commemorated in -Spanish poetry, was born in the northwestern part of Spain, about the -year 1040, and died in 1099, at Valencia, which he had rescued from the -Moors.<a id="FNanchor_8" href="#Footnote_8" class="fnanchor">[8]</a> -His original name was Ruy Diaz,<span class="pagenum" id="Page_14">[p. -14]</span> or Rodrigo Diaz; and he was by birth one of the considerable -barons of his country. The title of <i>Cid</i>, by which he is almost -always known, is believed to have come to him from the remarkable -circumstance, that five Moorish kings or chiefs acknowledged him -in one battle as their <i>Seid</i>, or their lord and conqueror;<a -id="FNanchor_9" href="#Footnote_9" class="fnanchor">[9]</a> and -the title of <i>Campeador</i>, or Champion, by which he is hardly less -known, though it is commonly supposed to have been given to him as a -leader of the armies of Sancho the Second, has long since been used -almost exclusively as a popular expression of the admiration of his -countrymen for his exploits against the Moors.<a id="FNanchor_10" -href="#Footnote_10" class="fnanchor">[10]</a> At any rate, from a -very early period, he has been called <i>El Cid Campeador</i>, or The Lord -Champion. And he well deserved the honorable title; for he passed -almost the whole of his life in the field against the oppressors of his -country, suffering, so far as we know, scarcely a single defeat from -the common enemy, though, on more than one occasion, he was exiled and -sacrificed by the Christian princes to whose interests he had attached -himself.</p> - -<p>But, whatever may have been the real adventures of his life, over -which the peculiar darkness of the period when they were achieved -has cast a deep shadow,<a id="FNanchor_11" href="#Footnote_11" -class="fnanchor">[11]</a> he comes to us in modern times as the great -defender of his nation against its Moorish invaders, and seems to -have so filled the imagination and satisfied the affections of his -countrymen, that, centuries after his death, and even down to our own -days, poetry and tradition<span class="pagenum" id="Page_15">[p. -15]</span> have delighted to attach to his name a long series of -fabulous achievements, which connect him with the mythological fictions -of the Middle Ages, and remind us almost as often of Amadis and Arthur -as they do of the sober heroes of genuine history.<a id="FNanchor_12" -href="#Footnote_12" class="fnanchor">[12]</a></p> - -<p>The Poem of the Cid partakes of both these characters. It has -sometimes been regarded as wholly, or almost wholly, historical.<a -id="FNanchor_13" href="#Footnote_13" class="fnanchor">[13]</a> But -there is too free and romantic a spirit in it for history. It contains, -indeed, few of the bolder fictions found in the subsequent chronicles -and in the popular ballads. Still, it is essentially a poem; and in -the spirited scenes at the siege of Alcocer and at the Cortes, as well -as in those relating to the Counts of Carrion, it is plain that the -author felt his license as a poet. In fact, the very marriage of the -daughters of the Cid has been shown to be all but impossible; and thus -any real historical foundation seems to be taken away from the chief -event which the poem records.<a id="FNanchor_14" href="#Footnote_14" -class="fnanchor">[14]</a> This, however, does not at<span -class="pagenum" id="Page_16">[p. 16]</span> all touch the proper value -of the work, which is simple, heroic, and national. Unfortunately, -the only ancient manuscript of it known to exist is imperfect, and -nowhere informs us who was its author. But what has been lost is not -much. It is only a few leaves in the beginning, one leaf in the middle, -and some scattered lines in other parts. The conclusion is perfect. -Of course, there can be no doubt about the subject or purpose of the -whole. It is the development of the character and glory of the Cid, as -shown in his achievements in the kingdoms of Saragossa and Valencia, -in his triumph over his unworthy sons-in-law, the Counts of Carrion, -and their disgrace before the king and Cortes, and, finally, in the -second marriage of his two daughters with the Infantes of Navarre -and Aragon; the whole ending with a slight allusion to the hero’s -death, and a notice of the date of the manuscript.<a id="FNanchor_15" -href="#Footnote_15" class="fnanchor">[15]</a></p> - -<p>But the story of the poem constitutes the least of its claims to -our notice. In truth, we do not read it at all for its mere facts, -which are often detailed with the minuteness and formality of a monkish -chronicle; but for its living pictures of the age it represents, and -for the vivacity with which it brings up manners and interests so -remote from our own experience, that, where<span class="pagenum" -id="Page_17">[p. 17]</span> they are attempted in formal history, they -come to us as cold as the fables of mythology. We read it because it -is a contemporary and spirited exhibition of the chivalrous times -of Spain, given occasionally with an Homeric simplicity altogether -admirable. For the story it tells is not only that of the most -romantic achievements, attributed to the most romantic hero of Spanish -tradition, but it is mingled continually with domestic and personal -details, that bring the character of the Cid and his age near to our -own sympathies and interests.<a id="FNanchor_16" href="#Footnote_16" -class="fnanchor">[16]</a> The very language in which it is told is the -language he himself spoke, still only half developed; disencumbering -itself with difficulty from the characteristics of the Latin; its new -constructions by no means established; imperfect in its forms, and ill -furnished with the connecting particles in which resides so much of -the power and grace of all languages; but still breathing the bold, -sincere, and original spirit of its times, and showing plainly that it -is struggling with success for a place among the other wild elements -of the national genius. And, finally, the metre and rhyme into which -the whole poem is cast are rude and unsettled: the verse claiming to -be of fourteen syllables, divided by an abrupt cæsural pause after the -eighth, yet often running out to sixteen or twenty, and sometimes<span -class="pagenum" id="Page_18">[p. 18]</span> falling back to twelve;<a -id="FNanchor_17" href="#Footnote_17" class="fnanchor">[17]</a> but -always bearing the impress of a free and fearless spirit, which -harmonizes alike with the poet’s language, subject, and age, and so -gives to the story a stir and interest, which, though we are separated -from it by so many centuries, bring some of its scenes before us like -those of a drama.</p> - -<p>The first pages of the manuscript being lost, what remains to -us begins abruptly, at the moment when the Cid, just exiled by his -ungrateful king, looks back upon the towers of his castle at Bivar, as -he leaves them. “Thus heavily weeping,” the poem goes on, “he turned -his head and stood looking at them. He saw his doors open and his -household chests unfastened, the hooks empty and without pelisses and -without cloaks, and the mews without falcons and without hawks. My Cid -sighed, for he had grievous sorrow; but my Cid spake well and calmly: -‘I thank thee, Lord and Father, who art in heaven, that it is my evil -enemies who have done this thing unto me.’”</p> - -<p>He goes, where all desperate men then went, to the frontiers of -the Christian war; and, after establishing his wife and children in a -religious house, plunges with three hundred faithful followers into -the infidel territories, determined, according to the practice of his -time, to win lands and fortunes from the common enemy, and providing -for himself meanwhile, according to another practice of his time, by -plundering the Jews as if he were a mere Robin Hood. Among his earliest -conquests is Alcocer; but the Moors collect in force, and besiege -him in their turn, so that he can save himself<span class="pagenum" -id="Page_19">[p. 19]</span> only by a bold sally, in which he -overthrows their whole array. The rescue of his standard, endangered in -the onslaught by the rashness of Bermuez, who bore it, is described in -the very spirit of knighthood.<a id="FNanchor_18" href="#Footnote_18" -class="fnanchor">[18]</a></p> - -<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> -<p class="i0">Their shields before their breasts, · forth at once they go,</p> -<p class="i0">Their lances in the rest, · levelled fair and low,</p> -<p class="i0">Their banners and their crests · waving in a row,</p> -<p class="i0">Their heads all stooping down · toward the saddle-bow;</p> -<p class="i0">The Cid was in the midst, · his shout was heard afar,</p> -<p class="i0">“I am Ruy Diaz, · the champion of Bivar;</p> -<p class="i0">Strike amongst them, Gentlemen, · for sweet mercies’ sake!”</p> -<p class="i0">There where Bermuez fought · amidst the foe they brake,</p> -<p class="i0">Three hundred bannered knights, · it was a gallant show.</p> -<p class="i0">Three hundred Moors they killed, · a man with every blow;</p> -<p class="i0">When they wheeled and turned, · as many more lay slain;</p> -<p class="i0">You might see them raise their lances · and level them again.</p> -<p class="i0">There you might see the breast-plates · how they were cleft in twain,</p> -<p class="i0">And many a Moorish shield · lie shattered on the plain,</p> -<p class="i0">The pennons that were white · marked with a crimson stain,</p> -<p class="i0">The horses running wild · whose riders had been slain.<a id="FNanchor_19" href="#Footnote_19" class="fnanchor">[19]</a></p> -</div></div> - -<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_20">[p. 20]</span>The poem -afterwards relates the Cid’s contest with the Count of Barcelona; the -taking of Valencia; the reconcilement of the Cid to the king, who had -treated him so ill; and the marriage of the Cid’s two daughters, at the -king’s request, to the two Counts of Carrion, who were among the first -nobles of the kingdom. At this point, however, there is a somewhat -formal division of the poem,<a id="FNanchor_20" href="#Footnote_20" -class="fnanchor">[20]</a> and the remainder is devoted to what is its -principal subject, the dissolution of this marriage in consequence of -the baseness and brutality of the Counts; the Cid’s public triumph -over them; their no less public disgrace; and the announcement of the -second marriage of the Cid’s daughters with the Infantes of Navarre and -Aragon, which, of course, raised the Cid himself to the highest pitch -of his honors, by connecting him with the royal houses of Spain. With -this, therefore, the poem virtually ends.</p> - -<p>The most spirited part of it consists of the scenes at the Cortes, -summoned, on demand of the Cid, in consequence of the misconduct of the -Counts of Carrion. In one of them, three followers of the Cid challenge -three followers of the Counts, and the challenge of Munio Gustioz to -Assur Gonzalez is thus characteristically given:—</p> - -<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> -<p class="i0">Assur Gonzalez · was entering at the door,</p> -<p class="i0">With his ermine mantle · trailing along the floor;</p> -<p class="i0">With his sauntering pace · and his hardy look,</p> -<p class="i0">Of manners or of courtesy · little heed he took;</p> -<p class="i0">He was flushed and hot · with breakfast and with drink.</p> -<p class="i0">“What ho! my masters, · your spirits seem to sink!</p> -<p class="i0"><span class="pagenum" id="Page_21">[p. 21]</span>Have we no news stirring from the Cid, · Ruy Diaz of Bivar?</p> -<p class="i0">Has he been to Riodivirna, · to besiege the windmills there?</p> -<p class="i0">Does he tax the millers for their toll? · or is that practice past?</p> -<p class="i0">Will he make a match for his daughters, · another like the last?”</p> -<p class="i2">Munio Gustioz · rose and made reply:—</p> -<p class="i0">“Traitor, wilt thou never cease · to slander and to lie?</p> -<p class="i0">You breakfast before mass, · you drink before you pray;</p> -<p class="i0">There is no honor in your heart, · nor truth in what you say;</p> -<p class="i0">You cheat your comrade and your lord, · you flatter to betray;</p> -<p class="i0">Your hatred I despise, · your friendship I defy!</p> -<p class="i0">False to all mankind, · and most to God on high,</p> -<p class="i0">I shall force you to confess · that what I say is true.”</p> -<p class="i0">Thus was ended the parley · and challenge betwixt these two.<a id="FNanchor_21" href="#Footnote_21" class="fnanchor">[21]</a></p> -</div></div> - -<p>The opening of the lists for the six combatants, in the presence of -the king, is another passage of much spirit and effect.</p> - -<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> -<p class="i0">The heralds and the king · are foremost in the place.</p> -<p class="i0">They clear away the people · from the middle space;</p> -<p class="i0">They measure out the lists, · the barriers they fix,</p> -<p class="i0">They point them out in order · and explain to all the six:</p> -<p class="i0">“If you are forced beyond the line · where they are fixed and traced,</p> -<p class="i0">You shall be held as conquered · and beaten and disgraced.”</p> -<p class="i0">Six lances’ length on either side · an open space is laid;</p> -<p class="i0">They share the field between them, · the sunshine and the shade.</p> -<p class="i0">Their office is performed, · and from the middle space</p> -<p class="i0">The heralds are withdrawn · and leave them face to face.</p> -<p class="i0">Here stood the warriors of the Cid, · that noble champion;</p> -<p class="i0">Opposite, on the other side, · the lords of Carrion.</p> -<p class="i0">Earnestly their minds are fixed · each upon his foe.</p> -<p class="i0">Face to face they take their place, · anon the trumpets blow;</p> -<p class="i0">They stir their horses with the spur, · they lay their lances low,</p> -<p class="i0">They bend their shields before their breasts, · their face to the saddle-bow.</p> -<p class="i0">Earnestly their minds are fixed · each upon his foe.</p> -<p class="i0">The heavens are overcast above, · the earth trembles below;</p> -<p class="i0">The people stand in silence, · gazing on the show.<a id="FNanchor_22" href="#Footnote_22" class="fnanchor">[22]</a></p> -</div></div> - -<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_22">[p. 22]</span>These are among -the most picturesque passages in the poem. But it is throughout -striking and original. It is, too, no less national, Christian, and -loyal. It breathes everywhere the true Castilian spirit, such as the -old chronicles represent it amidst the achievements and disasters of -the Moorish wars; and has very few traces of an Arabic influence in -its language, and none at all in its imagery or fancies. The whole of -it, therefore, deserves to be read, and to be read in the original; -for it is there only that we can obtain the fresh impressions it is -fitted to give us of the rude but heroic period it represents: of the -simplicity of the governments, and the loyalty and true-heartedness of -the people; of the wide force of a primitive religious enthusiasm; of -the picturesque state of manners and daily life in an age of trouble -and confusion; and of the bold outlines of the national genius, which -are often struck out where we should least think to find them. It -is, indeed, a work which, as we read it, stirs us with the spirit -of the times it describes; and as we lay it down and recollect the -intellectual condition of Europe when it was written, and for a long -period before, it seems certain, that, during the thousand years -which elapsed from the time of the decay of Greek and Roman culture, -down to the appearance of the “Divina Commedia,<span class="pagenum" -id="Page_23">[p. 23]</span>” no poetry was produced so original in its -tone, or so full of natural feeling, picturesqueness, and energy.<a -id="FNanchor_23" href="#Footnote_23" class="fnanchor">[23]</a></p> -<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_24">[p. 24]</span></p> - -<p>Three other poems, anonymous like that of the Cid, have been placed -immediately after it, because they are found together in a single -manuscript assigned to the thirteenth century, and because the language -and style of at least the first of them seem to justify the conjecture -that carries it so far back.<a id="FNanchor_24" href="#Footnote_24" -class="fnanchor">[24]</a></p> - -<p>The poem with which this manuscript opens is called “The Book -of Apollonius,” and is the reproduction of a story whose origin is -obscure, but which is itself familiar to us in the eighth book of -Gower’s “Confessio Amantis,” and in the play of “Pericles,” that has -sometimes been attributed to Shakspeare. It is found in Greek rhyme -very early, but is here taken, almost without alteration of incident, -from that great repository of popular fiction in the Middle Ages, the -“Gesta Romanorum.” It consists of about twenty-six hundred lines,<span -class="pagenum" id="Page_25">[p. 25]</span> divided into stanzas of -four verses, all terminating with the same rhyme. At the beginning, the -author says, in his own person,—</p> - -<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> -<p class="i0">In God’s name the most holy · and Saint Mary’s name most dear,</p> -<p class="i0">If they but guide and keep me · in their blessed love and fear,</p> -<p class="i0">I will strive to write a tale, · in mastery new and clear,</p> -<p class="i0">Where of royal Apollonius · the courtly you shall hear.</p> -</div></div> - -<p>The new mastery or method—<i>nueva maestría</i>—here claimed may be -the structure of the stanza and its rhyme; for, in other respects, -the versification is like that of the Poem of the Cid; showing, -however, more skill and exactness in the mere measure, and a slight -improvement in the language. But the merit of the poem is small. It -contains occasional notices of the manners of the age when it was -produced,—among the rest, some sketches of a female <i>jongleur</i>, of the -class soon afterwards severely denounced in the laws of Alfonso the -Wise,—that are curious and interesting. Its chief attraction, however, -is its story, and this, unhappily, is not original.<a id="FNanchor_25" -href="#Footnote_25" class="fnanchor">[25]</a></p> - -<p>The next poem in the collection is called “The Life of our Lady, -Saint Mary of Egypt,”—a saint formerly much more famous than she is -now, and one whose history is so coarse and indecent, that it has often -been rejected by the wiser members of the church that canonized her. -Such as it appears in the old traditions, however, with all its sins -upon its head, it is here set<span class="pagenum" id="Page_26">[p. -26]</span> forth. But we notice at once a considerable difference -between the composition of its verse and that of any Castilian poetry -assigned to the same or an earlier period. It is written in short -lines, generally of eight syllables, and in couplets; but sometimes -a single line carelessly runs out to the number of ten or eleven -syllables; and, in a few instances, three or even four lines are -included in one rhyme. It has a light air, quite unlike the stateliness -of the Poem of the Cid, and seems, from its verse and tone, as well as -from a few French words scattered through it, to have been borrowed -from some of the earlier French Fabliaux, or, at any rate, to have been -written in imitation of their easy and garrulous style. It opens thus, -showing that it was intended for recitation:—</p> - -<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> -<p class="i0">Listen, ye lordlings, listen to me,</p> -<p class="i0">For true is my tale, as true can be;</p> -<p class="i0">And listen in heart, that so ye may</p> -<p class="i0">Have pardon, when humbly to God ye pray.</p> -</div></div> - -<p>It consists of fourteen hundred such meagre, monkish verses, and -is hardly of importance, except as a monument of the language at the -period when it was written.<a id="FNanchor_26" href="#Footnote_26" -class="fnanchor">[26]</a></p> - -<p>The last of the three poems is in the same irregular measure and -manner. It is called “The Adoration of the Three Holy Kings,” and -begins with the old tradition about the wise men that came from -the East; but its chief subject is an arrest of the Holy Family, -during<span class="pagenum" id="Page_27">[p. 27]</span> their flight -to Egypt, by robbers, the child of one of whom is cured of a hideous -leprosy by being bathed in water previously used for bathing the -Saviour; this same child afterwards turning out to be the penitent -thief of the crucifixion. It is a rhymed legend of only two hundred -and fifty lines, and belongs to the large class of such compositions -that were long popular in Western Europe.<a id="FNanchor_27" -href="#Footnote_27" class="fnanchor">[27]</a></p> - - -<p class="mt2">Thus far, the poetry of the first century of Spanish -literature, like the earliest poetry of other modern countries, is -anonymous; for authorship was a distinction rarely coveted or thought -of by those who wrote in any of the dialects then forming throughout -Europe, among the common people. It is even impossible to tell from -what part of the Christian conquests in Spain the poems of which we -have spoken have come to us. We may infer, indeed, from their language -and tone, that the Poem of the Cid belongs to the border country of the -Moorish war in the direction of Catalonia and Valencia, and that the -earliest ballads, of which we shall speak hereafter, came originally -from the midst of the contest, with whose very spirit they are often -imbued. In the same way, too, we may be persuaded that the poems of -a more religious temper were produced in the quieter kingdoms of the -North, where monasteries had been founded and Christianity had already -struck its roots deeply into the soil of the national character. Still, -we have no evidence to show where any one of the poems we have thus far -noticed was written.</p> - -<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_28">[p. 28]</span>But as we advance, -this state of things is changed. The next poetry we meet is by a known -author, and, comes from a known locality. It was written by Gonzalo, -a secular priest who belonged to the monastery of San Millan or Saint -Emilianus, in the territory of Calahorra, far within the borders of -the Moorish war, and who is commonly called Berceo, from the place -of his birth. Of the poet himself we know little, except that he -flourished from 1220 to 1246, and that, as he once speaks of suffering -from the weariness of old age,<a id="FNanchor_28" href="#Footnote_28" -class="fnanchor">[28]</a> he probably died after 1260, in the -reign of Alfonso the Wise.<a id="FNanchor_29" href="#Footnote_29" -class="fnanchor">[29]</a></p> - -<p>His works amount to above thirteen thousand lines, and -fill an octavo volume.<a id="FNanchor_30" href="#Footnote_30" -class="fnanchor">[30]</a> They are all on religious subjects, and -consist of rhymed Lives of San Domingo de Silos, Santa Oria, and San -Millan; poems on the Mass, the Martyrdom of San Lorenzo, the Merits of -the Madonna, the Signs that are to precede the Last Judgment, and the -Mourning of the Madonna at the Cross, with a few Hymns, and especially -a poem of more than three thousand six hundred lines on the Miracles -of the Virgin Mary. With one inconsiderable exception, the whole of -this formidable mass of verse is divided into stanzas of four lines -each, like those in the poem of Apollonius of Tyre; and though in the -language there is a perceptible advance since the days when the Poem of -the Cid was written, still the power and movement<span class="pagenum" -id="Page_29">[p. 29]</span> of that remarkable legend are entirely -wanting in the verses of the careful ecclesiastic.<a id="FNanchor_31" -href="#Footnote_31" class="fnanchor">[31]</a></p> - -<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_30">[p. 30]</span>“The Life of -San Domingo de Silos,” with which his volume opens, begins, like a -homily, with these words: “In the name of the Father, who made all -things, and of our Lord Jesus Christ, son of the glorious Virgin, and -of the Holy Spirit, who is equal with them, I intend to tell a story -of a holy confessor. I intend to tell a story in the plain Romance, -in which the common man is wont to talk to his neighbour; for I am -not so learned as to use the other Latin. It will be well worth, as -I think, a cup of good wine.”<a id="FNanchor_32" href="#Footnote_32" -class="fnanchor">[32]</a> Of course, there is no poetry in thoughts -like these; and much of what Berceo has left us does not rise -higher.</p> - -<p>Occasionally, however, we find better things. In some portions of -his work, there is a simple-hearted piety that is very attractive, and -in some, a story-telling spirit that is occasionally picturesque. The -best passages are to be found in his long poem on the “Miracles of -the Virgin,” which consists of a series of twenty-five tales of her -intervention in human affairs, composed evidently for the purpose of -increasing the spirit of devotion in the worship particularly paid to -her. The opening or induction to these tales contains, perhaps, the -most poetical passage in Berceo’s works; and in the following version -the measure and system of rhyme in the original have been preserved, so -as to give something of its air and manner:—</p> - -<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_31">[p. 31]</span></p> - -<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> -<p class="i0">My friends, and faithful vassals · of Almighty God above,</p> -<p class="i0">If ye listen to my words · in a spirit to improve,</p> -<p class="i0">A tale ye shall hear · of piety and love,</p> -<p class="i0">Which afterwards yourselves · shall heartily approve.</p> -<p class="i0"> </p> -<p class="i0">I, a master in Divinity, · Gonzalve Berceo hight,</p> -<p class="i0">Once wandering as a Pilgrim, · found a meadow richly dight,</p> -<p class="i0">Green and peopled full of flowers, · of flowers fair and bright,</p> -<p class="i0">A place where a weary man · would rest him with delight.</p> -<p class="i0"> </p> -<p class="i0">And the flowers I beheld · all looked and smelt so sweet,</p> -<p class="i0">That the senses and the soul · they seemed alike to greet;</p> -<p class="i0">While on every side ran fountains · through all this glad retreat,</p> -<p class="i0">Which in winter kindly warmth supplied, · yet tempered summer’s heat.</p> -<p class="i0"> </p> -<p class="i0">And of rich and goodly trees · there grew a boundless maze,</p> -<p class="i0">Granada’s apples bright, · and figs of golden rays,</p> -<p class="i0">And many other fruits, · beyond my skill to praise;</p> -<p class="i0">But none that turneth sour, · and none that e’er decays.</p> -<p class="i0"> </p> -<p class="i0">The freshness of that meadow, · the sweetness of its flowers,</p> -<p class="i0">The dewy shadows of the trees, · that fell like cooling showers,</p> -<p class="i0">Renewed within my frame · its worn and wasted powers;</p> -<p class="i0">I deem the very odors would · have nourished me for hours.<a id="FNanchor_33" href="#Footnote_33" class="fnanchor">[33]</a></p> -</div></div> - -<p>This induction, which is continued through forty stanzas more, of -unequal merit, is little connected with the stories that follow; the -stories, again, are not at all connected among themselves; and the -whole ends abruptly with a few lines of homage to the Madonna. It -is, therefore, inartificial in its structure throughout. But in the -narrative parts there is often naturalness and spirit, and sometimes, -though rarely, poetry. The tales themselves belong to the religious -fictions of the Middle Ages, and were no doubt intended to excite -de<span class="pagenum" id="Page_32">[p. 32]</span>vout feelings -in those to whom they were addressed; but, like the old Mysteries, -and much else that passed under the name of religion at the same -period, they often betray a very doubtful morality.<a id="FNanchor_34" -href="#Footnote_34" class="fnanchor">[34]</a></p> - -<p>“The Miracles of the Virgin” is not only the longest, but the most -curious, of the poems of Berceo. The rest, however, should not be -entirely neglected. The poem on the “Signs which shall precede the -Judgment” is often solemn, and once or twice rises to poetry; the -story of María de Cisneros, in the “Life of San Domingo,” is well -told, and so is that of the wild appearance in the heavens of Saint -James and Saint Millan fighting for the Christians at the battle of -Simancas, much as it is found in the “General Chronicle of Spain.” But -perhaps nothing is more characteristic of the author or of his age -than the spirit of childlike simplicity and religious tenderness that -breathes through several parts of the “Mourning of the Madonna at the -Cross,”—a spirit of gentle, faithful, credulous devotion, with which -the Spanish people in their wars against the Moors were as naturally -marked as they were with the ignorance that belonged to the Christian -world generally in those dark and troubled times.<a id="FNanchor_35" -href="#Footnote_35" class="fnanchor">[35]</a></p> - -<hr class="tb" /> - -<p class="nb">I cannot pass farther without offering the tribute of -my homage to two persons who have done more than any others in the -nineteenth century to make Spanish literature known, and to obtain for -it the honors to which it is entitled beyond the limits of the country -that gave it birth.</p> - -<p class="nb">The first of them, and one whose name I have already -cited, is Friedrich Bouterwek, who was born at Oker in the kingdom of -Hanover, in 1766, and passed nearly all the more active portion of his -life at Göttingen, where he died in 1828, widely respected as one of -the most distinguished professors of that long favored University. A -project for preparing by the most competent hands a full history of the -arts and sciences from the period of their revival in modern Europe was -first suggested at Göttingen by another of its well-known professors, -John Gottfried Eichhorn, in the latter part of the eighteenth century. -But though that remarkable scholar published, in 1796-9, two volumes -of a learned Introduction to the whole work which he had projected, -he went no farther, and most of his coadjutors stopped when he did, -or soon afterwards. The portion of it assigned to Bouterwek, however, -which was the entire history of elegant literature in modern times, -was happily achieved by him between 1801 and 1819, in twelve volumes -octavo. Of this division, “The History of Spanish Literature” fills -the third volume, and was published in 1804;—a work remarkable for its -general philosophical views, and by far the best extant on the subject -it discusses; but imperfect in many particulars, because its author -was unable to procure a large number of Spanish books needful for his -task, and knew many considerable Spanish authors only by insufficient -extracts. In 1812, a translation of it into French was printed, in two -volumes, by Madame Streck, with a judicious preface by the venerable -M. Stapfer;—in 1823, it came out, together with its author’s brief -“History of Portuguese Literature,” in an English translation, made -with taste and skill, by Miss Thomasina Ross;—and in 1829, a Spanish -version of the first and smallest part of it, with important notes, -sufficient with the text to fill a volume in octavo, was prepared by -two excellent Spanish scholars, José Gomez de la Cortina, and Nicolás -Hugalde y Mollinedo,—a work which all lovers of Spanish literature -would gladly see completed.</p> - -<p class="nb">Since the time of Bouterwek, no foreigner has done so -much to promote a knowledge of Spanish literature as M. Simonde de -Sismondi, who was born at Geneva in 1773, and died there in 1842, -honored and loved by all who knew his wise and generous spirit, as it -exhibited itself either in his personal intercourse, or in his great -works on the history of France and Italy,—two countries, to which, by a -line of time-honored ancestors, he seemed almost equally to belong. In -1811, he delivered in his native city a course of brilliant lectures on -the literature of the South of Europe, and in 1813, published them at -Paris. They involved an account of the Provençal and the Portuguese, as -well as of the Italian and the Spanish;—but in whatever relates to the -Spanish Sismondi was even less well provided with the original authors -than Bouterwek had been, and was, in consequence, under obligations -to his predecessor, which, while he takes no pains to conceal them, -diminish the authority of a work that will yet always be read for the -beauty of its style and the richness and wisdom of its reflections. -The entire series of these lectures was translated into German by -L. Hain in 1815, and into English with notes by T. Roscoe in 1823. -The part relating to Spanish literature was published in Spanish, -with occasional alterations and copious and important additions by -José Lorenzo Figueroa and José Amador de los Rios, at Seville, in 2 -vols. 8vo, 1841-2,—the notes relating to Andalusian authors being -particularly valuable.</p> - -<p class="nb">None but those who have gone over the whole ground -occupied by Spanish literature can know how great are the merits -of scholars like Bouterwek and Sismondi,—acute, philosophical, and -thoughtful,—who, with an apparatus of authors so incomplete, have yet -done so much for the illustration of their subject.</p> - -<hr class="chap0" /> - - -<div class="chapter pt3" id="Ch_1_3"> - <p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_35">[p. 35]</span></p> - <h3>CHAPTER III.</h3> - <p class="subh3 hang"><span class="smcap">Alfonso the Wise. — - His Life. — His Letter to Perez de Guzman. — His Cántigas in - the Galician. — Origin of that Dialect and of the Portuguese. — - His Tesoro. — His Prose. — Law concerning the Castilian. — His - Conquista de Ultramar. — Old Fueros. — The Fuero Juzgo. — The - Setenario. — The Espejo. — The Fuero Real. — The Siete Partidas - and their Merits. — Character of Alfonso.</span></p> -</div> - -<p><span class="smcap">The</span> second known author in Castilian -literature bears a name much more distinguished than the first. It is -Alfonso the Tenth, who, from his great advancement in various branches -of human knowledge, has been called Alfonso the Wise, or the Learned. -He was the son of Ferdinand the Third, a saint in the Roman calendar, -who, uniting anew the crowns of Castile and Leon, and enlarging the -limits of his power by important conquests from the Moors, settled more -firmly than they had before been settled the foundations of a Christian -empire in the Peninsula.<a id="FNanchor_36" href="#Footnote_36" -class="fnanchor">[36]</a></p> - -<p>Alfonso was born in 1221, and ascended the throne in 1252. He was -a poet, much connected with the Provençal Troubadours of his time,<a -id="FNanchor_37" href="#Footnote_37" class="fnanchor">[37]</a> and -was besides so greatly skilled in geometry, astronomy, and the -occult sciences then so much valued, that his reputation was<span -class="pagenum" id="Page_36">[p. 36]</span> early spread throughout -Europe, on account of his general science. But, as Mariana quaintly -says of him, “He was more fit for letters than for the government -of his subjects; he studied the heavens, and watched the stars, -but forgot the earth, and lost his kingdom.”<a id="FNanchor_38" -href="#Footnote_38" class="fnanchor">[38]</a></p> - -<p>His character is still an interesting one. He appears to have -had more political, philosophical, and elegant learning than any -other man of his time; to have reasoned more wisely in matters of -legislation; and to have made further advances in some of the exact -sciences;—accomplishments that he seems to have resorted to in the -latter part of his life for consolation amidst unsuccessful wars with -foreign enemies and a rebellious son. The following letter from him -to one of the Guzmans, who was then in great favor at the court of -the king of Fez, shows at once how low the fortunes of the Christian -monarch were sunk before he died, and with how much simplicity he -could speak of their bitterness. It is dated in 1282, and is a -favorable specimen of Castilian prose at a period so early in the -history of the language.<a id="FNanchor_39" href="#Footnote_39" -class="fnanchor">[39]</a></p> - -<p class="mt1">“Cousin Don Alonzo Perez de Guzman: My affliction -is great, because it has fallen from such a height that it will be -seen afar; and as it has fallen on me, who was the friend of all the -world, so in all the world will men know this my misfortune, and -its<span class="pagenum" id="Page_37">[p. 37]</span> sharpness, -which I suffer unjustly from my son, assisted by my friends and by -my prelates, who, instead of setting peace between us, have put -mischief, not under secret pretences or covertly, but with bold -openness. And thus I find no protection in mine own land, neither -defender nor champion; and yet have I not deserved it at their -hands, unless it were for the good I have done them. And now, since -in mine own land they deceive, who should have served and assisted -me, needful is it that I should seek abroad those who will kindly -care for me; and since they of Castile have been false to me, -none can think it ill that I ask help among those of Benamarin.<a -id="FNanchor_40" href="#Footnote_40" class="fnanchor">[40]</a> For -if my sons are mine enemies, it will not then be wrong that I take -mine enemies to be my sons; enemies according to the law, but not of -free choice. And such is the good king Aben Jusaf; for I love and -value him much, and he will not despise me or fail me; for we are -at truce. I know also how much you are his, and how much he loves -you, and with good cause, and how much he will do through your good -counsel. Therefore look not at the things past, but at the things -present. Consider of what lineage you are come, and that at some time -hereafter I may do you good, and if I do it not, that your own good -deed shall be its own good reward. Therefore, my cousin, Alonzo Perez -de Guzman, do so much for me with my lord and your friend, that, -on pledge of the most precious crown that I have, and the jewels -thereof, he should lend me so much as he may hold to be just. And if -you can obtain his aid, let it not be hindered of coming quickly; but -rather think how the good friendship that may<span class="pagenum" -id="Page_38">[p. 38]</span> come to me from your lord will be through -your hands. And so may God’s friendship be with you. Done in Seville, -my only loyal city, in the thirtieth year of my reign, and in the -first of these my troubles.</p> - -<p class="firma">Signed, <span class="smcap">The King</span>.”<a -id="FNanchor_41" href="#Footnote_41" class="fnanchor">[41]</a></p> - -<p class="mt1">The unhappy monarch survived the date of this very -striking letter but two years, and died in 1284. At one period of his -life, his consideration throughout Christendom was so great, that he -was elected Emperor of Germany; but this was only another source of -sorrow to him, for his claims were contested, and after some time were -silently set aside by the election of Rodolph of Hapsburg, upon whose -dynasty the glories of the House of Austria rested so long. The life of -Alfonso, therefore, was on the whole unfortunate, and full of painful -vicissitudes, that might well have broken the spirit of most men, and -that were certainly not without an effect on his.<a id="FNanchor_42" -href="#Footnote_42" class="fnanchor">[42]</a></p> - -<p>So much the more remarkable is it, that he should be distinguished -among the chief founders of his country’s intellectual fame,—a -distinction which again becomes more extraordinary when we recollect -that he enjoys it not in letters alone, or in a single department, but -in many; since he is to be remembered alike for the great advancement -which Castilian prose composition made in his hands, for his poetry, -for his astronomical<span class="pagenum" id="Page_39">[p. 39]</span> -tables, which all the progress of science since has not deprived -of their value; and for his great work on legislation, which is at -this moment an authority in both hemispheres.<a id="FNanchor_43" -href="#Footnote_43" class="fnanchor">[43]</a></p> - -<p>Of his poetry, we possess, besides works of very doubtful -genuineness, two, about one of which there has been little question, -and about the other none; his “Cántigas,” or Chants, in honor of the -Madonna, and his “Tesoro,” a treatise on the transmutation of the baser -metals into gold.</p> - -<p>Of the Cántigas, there are extant no less than four hundred -and one, composed in lines of from six to twelve syllables, and -rhymed with a considerable degree of exactness.<a id="FNanchor_44" -href="#Footnote_44" class="fnanchor">[44]</a> Their measure and -manner are Provençal. They are devoted to the praises and the -miracles of the Madonna, in whose honor the king founded in 1279 a -religious and military order;<a id="FNanchor_45" href="#Footnote_45" -class="fnanchor">[45]</a> and in devotion<span class="pagenum" -id="Page_40">[p. 40]</span> to whom, by his last will, he directed -these poems to be perpetually chanted in the church of Saint Mary of -Murcia, where he desired his body might be buried.<a id="FNanchor_46" -href="#Footnote_46" class="fnanchor">[46]</a> Only a few of them have -been printed; but we have enough to show what they are, and especially -that they are written, not in the Castilian, like the rest of his -works, but in the Galician; an extraordinary circumstance, for which it -does not seem easy to give a satisfactory reason.</p> - -<p>The Galician, however, was originally an important language in -Spain, and for some time seemed as likely to prevail throughout the -country as any other of the dialects spoken in it. It was probably the -first that was developed in the northwestern part of the Peninsula, -and the second that was reduced to writing. For in the eleventh and -twelfth centuries, just at the period when the struggling elements of -the modern Spanish were disencumbering themselves from the forms of the -corrupted Latin, Galicia, by the wars and troubles of the times, was -repeatedly separated from Castile, so that distinct dialects appeared -in the two different territories almost at the same moment. Of these, -the Northern is likely to have been the older, though the Southern -proved ultimately the more fortunate. At any rate, even without a -court, which was the surest centre of culture in such rude ages, and -without any of the reasons for the development of a dialect which -always accompany political power, we know that the Galician was already -sufficiently formed to pass with the conquering arms of Alfonso the -Sixth, and<span class="pagenum" id="Page_41">[p. 41]</span> establish -itself firmly between the Douro and the Minho; that country which -became the nucleus of the independent kingdom of Portugal.</p> - -<p>This was between the years 1095 and 1109; and though the -establishment of a Burgundian dynasty on the throne erected there -naturally brought into the dialect of Portugal an infusion of -the French, which never appeared in the dialect of Galicia,<a -id="FNanchor_47" href="#Footnote_47" class="fnanchor">[47]</a> -still the language spoken in the two territories under different -sovereigns and different influences continued substantially the same -for a long period; perhaps down to the time of Charles the Fifth.<a -id="FNanchor_48" href="#Footnote_48" class="fnanchor">[48]</a> But -it was only in Portugal that there was a court, or that means and -motives were found sufficient for forming and cultivating a regular -language. It is therefore only in Portugal that this common dialect of -both the territories appears with a separate and proper literature;<a -id="FNanchor_49" href="#Footnote_49" class="fnanchor">[49]</a> -the first intimation of which, with an exact date, is found as -early as 1192. This is a document in prose.<a id="FNanchor_50" -href="#Footnote_50" class="fnanchor">[50]</a> The oldest poetry is to -be sought in three curious fragments, originally published by Faria -y Sousa, which can hardly be placed much later than the year 1200.<a -id="FNanchor_51" href="#Footnote_51" class="fnanchor">[51]</a> Both -show that the Galician in Portugal, under less favorable circumstances -than those which accompanied the Castilian in Spain, rose at the<span -class="pagenum" id="Page_42">[p. 42]</span> same period to be a written -language, and possessed, perhaps, quite as early, the materials for -forming an independent literature.</p> - -<p>We may fairly infer, therefore, from these facts, indicating -the vigor of the Galician in Portugal before the year 1200, that, -in its native province in Spain, it is somewhat older. But we -have no monuments by which to establish such antiquity. Castro, -it is true, notices a manuscript translation of the history of -Servandus, as if made in 1150 by Seguino, in the Galician dialect; -but he gives no specimen of it, and his own authority in such a -matter is not sufficient.<a id="FNanchor_52" href="#Footnote_52" -class="fnanchor">[52]</a> And in the well-known letter sent to the -Constable of Portugal by the Marquis of Santillana, about the middle -of the fifteenth century, we are told that all Spanish poetry was -written for a long time in Galician or Portuguese;<a id="FNanchor_53" -href="#Footnote_53" class="fnanchor">[53]</a> but this is so obviously -either a mistake in fact, or a mere compliment to the Portuguese prince -to whom it was addressed, that Sarmiento, full of prejudices in favor -of his native province, and desirous to arrive at the same conclusion, -is obliged to give it up as wholly unwarranted.<a id="FNanchor_54" -href="#Footnote_54" class="fnanchor">[54]</a></p> - -<p>We must come back, therefore, to the “Cántigas” or Chants of -Alfonso, as to the oldest specimen extant in the Galician dialect -distinct from the Portuguese; and since, from internal evidence, -one of them was written after he had conquered Xerez, we may place -them between 1263, when that event occurred, and 1284, when<span -class="pagenum" id="Page_43">[p. 43]</span> he died.<a id="FNanchor_55" -href="#Footnote_55" class="fnanchor">[55]</a> Why he should have chosen -this particular dialect for this particular form of poetry, when he -had, as we know, an admirable mastery of the Castilian, and when -these Cántigas, according to his last will, were to be chanted over -his tomb, in a part of the kingdom where the Galician dialect never -prevailed, we cannot now decide.<a id="FNanchor_56" href="#Footnote_56" -class="fnanchor">[56]</a> His father, Saint Ferdinand, was from the -North, and his own early nurture there may have given Alfonso himself a -strong affection for its language; or, what perhaps is more probable, -there may have been something in the dialect itself, its origin or -its gravity, which, at a period when no dialect in Spain had obtained -an acknowledged supremacy, made it seem to him better suited than the -Castilian or Valencian to religious purposes.</p> - -<p>But however this may be, all the rest of his works are in the -language spoken in the centre of the Peninsula, while his Cántigas -are in the Galician. Some of them have considerable poetical merit; -but in general they are to be remarked only for the variety of their -metres, for an occasional tendency to the form of ballads, for a -lyrical tone, which does not seem to have been earlier established -in the Castilian, and for a kind of Doric simplicity, which belongs -partly to the dialect he adopted and partly to the character of the -author himself;—the whole bearing the impress of the Provençal poets, -with whom he was much connected, and whom through life he patronized -and maintained at his court.<a id="FNanchor_57" href="#Footnote_57" -class="fnanchor">[57]</a></p> - -<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_44">[p. 44]</span>The other -poetry attributed to Alfonso—except two stanzas that remain of his -“Complaints” against the hard fortune of the last years of his life<a -id="FNanchor_58" href="#Footnote_58" class="fnanchor">[58]</a>—is to -be sought in the treatise called “Del Tesoro,” which is divided into -two short books, and dated in 1272. It is on the Philosopher’s Stone, -and the greater portion of it is concealed in an unexplained cipher; -the remainder being partly in prose and partly in octave stanzas, which -are the oldest extant in Castilian verse. But the whole is worthless, -and its genuineness doubtful.<a id="FNanchor_59" href="#Footnote_59" -class="fnanchor">[59]</a></p> - -<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_45">[p. 45]</span>Alfonso claims -his chief distinction in letters as a writer of prose. In this his -merit is great. He first made the Castilian a national language by -causing the Bible to be translated into it, and by requiring it to be -used in all legal proceedings;<a id="FNanchor_60" href="#Footnote_60" -class="fnanchor">[60]</a> and he first, by his great Code and other -works, gave specimens of prose composition which left a free and -disencumbered course for all that has been done since,—a service -perhaps greater than it has been permitted any other Spaniard to -render the prose literature of his country. To this, therefore, we now -turn.</p> - -<p>And here the first work we meet with is one that was rather compiled -under his direction, than written by himself. It is called “The Great -Conquest beyond Sea,” and is an account of the wars in the Holy Land, -which then so much agitated the minds of men throughout Europe, -and which were intimately connected with the fate of the Christian -Spaniards still struggling for their own existence in a perpetual -crusade against misbelief at home. It begins with the history of -Mohammed, and comes down to the year 1270; much of it being taken from -an old French version of the work of William of Tyre, on the same -general subject, and the rest from other less trustworthy sources. But -parts of it are not historical. The grandfather of Godfrey of Bouillon, -its hero, is the wild and fanciful Knight of the Swan, who is almost -as much a representative of the spirit of chivalry as Amadis de Gaul, -and goes through adventures no less marvellous; fighting on the Rhine -like a knight<span class="pagenum" id="Page_46">[p. 46]</span>-errant, -and miraculously warned by a swallow how to rescue his lady, who has -been made prisoner. Unhappily, in the only edition of this curious -work,—printed in 1503,—the text has received additions that make us -doubtful how much of it may be certainly ascribed to the time of -Alfonso the Tenth, in whose reign and by whose order the greater -part of it seems to have been prepared. It is chiefly valuable as a -specimen of early Spanish prose.<a id="FNanchor_61" href="#Footnote_61" -class="fnanchor">[61]</a></p> - -<p>Castilian prose, in fact, can hardly be said to have existed -earlier, unless we are willing to reckon as specimens of it the few -meagre documents, generally grants in hard legal forms, that begin -with the one concerning<span class="pagenum" id="Page_47">[p. -47]</span> Avilés in 1155, already noticed, and come down, half -bad Latin and half unformed Spanish, to the time of Alfonso.<a -id="FNanchor_62" href="#Footnote_62" class="fnanchor">[62]</a> The -first monument, therefore, that can be properly cited for this purpose, -though it dates from the reign of Saint Ferdinand, the father of -Alfonso, is one in preparing which, it has always been supposed, -Alfonso himself was personally concerned. It is the “Fuero Juzgo,” -or “Forum Judicum,” a collection of Visigoth laws, which, in 1241, -after his conquest of Córdova, Saint Ferdinand sent to that city in -Latin, with directions that it should be translated into the vulgar -dialect, and observed there as the law of the territory he had then -newly rescued from the Moors.<a id="FNanchor_63" href="#Footnote_63" -class="fnanchor">[63]</a></p> - -<p>The precise time when this translation was made has<span -class="pagenum" id="Page_48">[p. 48]</span> not been decided. Marina, -whose opinion should have weight, thinks it was not till the reign of -Alfonso; but, from the early authority we know it possessed, it is -perhaps more probable that it is to be dated from the latter years of -Saint Ferdinand. In either case, however, considering the peculiar -character and position of Alfonso, there can be little doubt that he -was consulted and concerned in its preparation. It is a regular code, -divided into twelve books, which are subdivided into titles and laws, -and is of an extent so considerable and of a character so free and -discursive, that we can fairly judge from it the condition of the prose -language of the time, and ascertain that it was already as far advanced -as the contemporaneous poetry.<a id="FNanchor_64" href="#Footnote_64" -class="fnanchor">[64]</a></p> - -<p>But the wise forecast of Saint Ferdinand soon extended beyond -the purpose with which he originally commanded the translation of -the old Visigoth laws, and he undertook to prepare a code for the -whole of Christian Spain that was under his sceptre, which, in its -different cities and provinces, was distracted by different and often -contradictory <i>fueros</i> or privileges and laws given to each as it -was won from the common enemy. But he did not live to execute his -beneficent<span class="pagenum" id="Page_49">[p. 49]</span> project, -and the fragment that still remains to us of what he undertook, -commonly known by the name of the “Setenario,” plainly implies that it -is, in part at least, the work of his son Alfonso.<a id="FNanchor_65" -href="#Footnote_65" class="fnanchor">[65]</a></p> - -<p>Still, though Alfonso had been employed in preparing this code, -he did not see fit to finish it. He, however, felt charged with the -general undertaking, and seemed determined that his kingdom should -not continue to suffer from the uncertainty or the conflict of its -different systems of legislation. But he proceeded with great caution. -His first body of laws, called the “Espejo,” or “Mirror of all Rights,” -filling five books, was prepared before 1255; but though it contains -within itself directions for its own distribution and enforcement, -it does not seem ever to have gone into practical use. His “Fuero -Real,” a shorter code, divided into four books, was completed in 1255 -for Valladolid, and perhaps was subsequently given to other cities -of his kingdom. Both were followed by different laws, as occasion -called for them, down nearly to the end of his reign. But all of them, -taken together, were far from constituting a code such as had been -projected by Saint Ferdinand.<a id="FNanchor_66" href="#Footnote_66" -class="fnanchor">[66]</a></p> - -<p>This last great work was undertaken by Alfonso in 1256, and finished -either in 1263 or 1265. It was originally called by Alfonso himself “El -Setenario,” from the title of the code undertaken by his father; but -it is now always called “Las Siete Partidas,” or<span class="pagenum" -id="Page_50">[p. 50]</span> The Seven Parts, from the seven divisions -of the work itself. That Alfonso was assisted by others in the great -task of compiling it out of the Decretals, and the Digest and Code -of Justinian, as well as out of the Fuero Juzgo and other sources of -legislation, both Spanish and foreign, is not to be doubted; but the -general air and finish of the whole, its style and literary execution, -must be more or less his own, so much are they in harmony with -whatever else we know of his works and character.<a id="FNanchor_67" -href="#Footnote_67" class="fnanchor">[67]</a></p> - -<p>The Partidas, however, though by far the most important legislative -monument of its age, did not become at once the law of the land.<a -id="FNanchor_68" href="#Footnote_68" class="fnanchor">[68]</a> On -the contrary, the great cities, with their separate privileges, long -resisted any thing like a uniform system of legislation for the whole -country; and it was not till 1348, two years before the death of -Alfonso the Eleventh, and above sixty after that of their author, -that the Partidas were finally proclaimed as of binding authority in -all the territories held by the kings of Castile and Leon. But from -that period the great code of Alfonso has been uniformly respected.<a -id="FNanchor_69" href="#Footnote_69" class="fnanchor">[69]</a> It -is, in fact, a sort of Spanish common law, which, with the decisions -under it, has been the basis of Spanish jurisprudence ever since; and -becoming in this way a part of the constitution of the state in all -Spanish colonies, it has, from the time when Louisiana and Florida -were added to the United<span class="pagenum" id="Page_51">[p. -51]</span> States, become in some cases the law in our own country;—so -wide may be the influence of a wise legislation.<a id="FNanchor_70" -href="#Footnote_70" class="fnanchor">[70]</a></p> - -<p>The Partidas, however, read very little like a collection of -statutes, or even like a code such as that of Justinian or Napoleon. -They seem rather to be a series of treatises on legislation, morals, -and religion, divided with great formality, according to their -subjects, into Parts, Titles, and Laws; the last of which, instead -of being merely imperative ordinances, enter into arguments and -investigations of various sorts, often discussing the moral principles -they lay down, and often containing intimations of the manners -and opinions of the age, that make them a curious mine of Spanish -antiquities. They are, in short, a kind of digested result of the -opinions and reading of a learned monarch, and his coadjutors, in the -thirteenth century, on the relative duties of a king and his subjects, -and on the entire legislation and police, ecclesiastical, civil, and -moral, to which, in their judgment, Spain should be subjected; the -whole interspersed with discussions, sometimes more quaint than grave, -concerning the customs and principles on which the work itself, or some -particular part of it, is founded.</p> - -<p>As a specimen of the style of the Partidas, an ex<span -class="pagenum" id="Page_52">[p. 52]</span>tract may be made from a -law entitled “What meaneth a Tyrant, and how he useth his power in a -kingdom when he hath obtained it.”</p> - -<p>“A tyrant,” says this law, “doth signify a cruel lord, who by force, -or by craft, or by treachery, hath obtained power over any realm or -country; and such men be of such nature, that, when once they have -grown strong in the land, they love rather to work their own profit, -though it be in harm of the land, than the common profit of all, for -they always live in an ill fear of losing it. And that they may be -able to fulfil this their purpose unencumbered, the wise of old have -said that they use their power against the people in three manners. -The first is, that they strive that those under their mastery be ever -ignorant and timorous, because, when they be such, they may not be bold -to rise against them nor to resist their wills; and the second is, that -they be not kindly and united among themselves, in such wise that they -trust not one another, for, while they live in disagreement, they shall -not dare to make any discourse against their lord, for fear faith and -secrecy should not be kept among themselves; and the third way is, that -they strive to make them poor, and to put them upon great undertakings, -which they can never finish, whereby they may have so much harm, that -it may never come into their hearts to devise any thing against their -ruler. And above all this, have tyrants ever striven to make spoil of -the strong and to destroy the wise; and have forbidden fellowship and -assemblies of men in their land, and striven always to know what men -said or did; and do trust their counsel and the guard of their person -rather to foreigners, who will serve at their will, than to them of the -land, who serve from oppression. And, moreover, we say, that, though -any man may have<span class="pagenum" id="Page_53">[p. 53]</span> -gained mastery of a kingdom by any of the lawful means whereof we -have spoken in the laws going before this, yet, if he use his power -ill, in the ways whereof we speak in this law, him may the people -still call tyrant; for he turneth his mastery which was rightful into -wrongful, as Aristotle hath said in the book which treateth of the rule -and government of kingdoms.”<a id="FNanchor_71" href="#Footnote_71" -class="fnanchor">[71]</a></p> - -<p>In other laws, reasons are given why kings and their sons -should be taught to read;<a id="FNanchor_72" href="#Footnote_72" -class="fnanchor">[72]</a> and in a law about the governesses of king’s -daughters, it is declared:—</p> - -<p>“They are to endeavour, as much as may be, that the king’s daughters -be moderate and seemly in eating and in drinking, and also in their -carriage and dress, and of good manners in all things, and especially -that they be not given to anger; for, besides the wickedness that lieth -in it, it is the thing in the world that most easily leadeth women -to do ill. And they ought to teach them to be handy in performing -those works that belong to noble ladies; for this is a matter that -becometh them much, since they obtain by it cheerfulness and a quiet -spirit; and besides, it taketh away bad thoughts, which it is not -convenient they should have.”<a id="FNanchor_73" href="#Footnote_73" -class="fnanchor">[73]</a></p> - -<p>Many of the laws concerning knights, like one on their loyalty, -and one on the meaning of the ceremonies used when they are armed,<a -id="FNanchor_74" href="#Footnote_74" class="fnanchor">[74]</a> -and all the laws on the establishment and conduct of great public -schools, which he was endeavouring, at the same time, to encourage, -by the privileges he granted to Salamanca,<a id="FNanchor_75" -href="#Footnote_75" class="fnanchor">[75]</a> are<span class="pagenum" -id="Page_54">[p. 54]</span> written with even more skill and selectness -of idiom. Indeed, the Partidas, in whatever relates to manner and -style, are not only superior to any thing that had preceded them, but -to any thing that for a long time followed. The poems of Berceo, hardly -twenty years older, seem to belong to another age, and to a much ruder -state of society; and, on the other hand, Marina, whose opinion on such -a subject few are entitled to call in question, says, that, during the -two or even three centuries subsequent, nothing was produced in Spanish -prose equal to the Partidas for purity and elevation of style.<a -id="FNanchor_76" href="#Footnote_76" class="fnanchor">[76]</a></p> - -<p>But however this may be, there is no doubt, that, mingled with -something of the rudeness and more of the ungraceful repetitions -common in the period to which they belong, there is a richness, an -appropriateness, and sometimes even an elegance, in their turns of -expression, truly remarkable. They show that the great effort of their -author to make the Castilian the living and real language of his -country, by making it that of the laws and the tribunals of justice, -had been successful, or was destined speedily to become so. Their -grave and measured movement, and the solemnity of their tone, which -have remained among the characteristics of Spanish prose ever since, -show this success beyond all reasonable question. They show, too, the -character of Alfonso himself, giving token of a far-reaching wisdom -and philosophy, and proving how much a single great mind happily -placed can do towards imparting their final direction to the language -and literature of a country, even so early as the first century of -their separate existence.<a id="FNanchor_77" href="#Footnote_77" -class="fnanchor">[77]</a></p> - -<hr class="chap0" /> - - -<div class="chapter pt3" id="Ch_1_4"> - <p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_56">[p. 56]</span></p> - <h3>CHAPTER IV.</h3> - <p class="subh3 hang"><span class="smcap">Juan Lorenzo Segura. - — Confusion of Ancient and Modern Manners. — El Alexandro, its - Story and Merits. — Los Votos del Pavon. — Sancho el Bravo. — Don - Juan Manuel, his Life and Works, published and unpublished. — His - Conde Lucanor.</span></p> -</div> - -<p><span class="smcap">The</span> proof that the “Partidas” were in -advance of their age, both as to style and language, is plain, not -only from the examination we have made of what preceded them, but from -a comparison of them, which we must now make, with the poetry of Juan -Lorenzo Segura, who lived at the time they were compiled, and probably -somewhat later. Like Berceo, he was a secular priest, and he belonged -to Astorga; but this is all we know of him, except that he lived in -the latter part of the thirteenth century, and has left a poem of -above ten thousand lines on the life of Alexander the Great, drawn -from such sources as were then accessible to a Spanish ecclesiastic, -and written in the four-line stanza used by Berceo.<a id="FNanchor_78" -href="#Footnote_78" class="fnanchor">[78]</a></p> - -<p>What is most obvious in this long poem is its confounding the -manners of a well-known age of Grecian antiquity with those of the -Catholic religion, and of knighthood, as they existed in the days -of its author. Similar confusion is found in some portion of the -early<span class="pagenum" id="Page_57">[p. 57]</span> literature of -every country in modern Europe. In all, there was a period when the -striking facts of ancient history, and the picturesque fictions of -ancient fable, floating about among the traditions of the Middle Ages, -were seized upon as materials for poetry and romance; and when, to fill -up and finish the picture presented by their imaginations to those who -thus misapplied an imperfect knowledge of antiquity, the manners and -feelings of their own times were incongruously thrown in, either from -an ignorant persuasion that none other had ever existed, or from a -wilful carelessness concerning every thing but poetical effect. This -was the case in Italy, from the first dawning of letters till after the -time of Dante; the sublime and tender poetry of whose “Divina Commedia” -is full of such absurdities and anachronisms. It was the case, too, in -France; examples singularly in point being found in the Latin poem of -Walter de Chatillon, and the French one by Alexandre de Paris, on this -same subject of Alexander the Great; both of which were written nearly -a century before Juan Lorenzo lived, and both of which were used by -him.<a id="FNanchor_79" href="#Footnote_79" class="fnanchor">[79]</a> -And it was the case in England, till after the time of Shakspeare, -whose “Midsummer Night’s Dream” does all that genius can do to justify -it. We must not, therefore, be surprised to find it in Spain, where, -derived from such monstrous repositories of fiction as the works of -Dares Phrygius and Dictys Cretensis, Guido de Colonna and Walter de -Chatillon, some of the histories and fancies of ancient times already -filled the thoughts of those men who were unconsciously begin<span -class="pagenum" id="Page_58">[p. 58]</span>ning the fabric of their -country’s literature on foundations essentially different.</p> - -<p>Among the most attractive subjects that offered themselves to -such persons was that of Alexander the Great. The East—Persia, -Arabia, and India—had long been full of stories of his adventures;<a -id="FNanchor_80" href="#Footnote_80" class="fnanchor">[80]</a> and now, -in the West, as a hero more nearly approaching the spirit of knighthood -than any other of antiquity, he was adopted into the poetical fictions -of almost every nation that could boast the beginning of a literature, -so that the Monk in the “Canterbury Tales” said truly,—</p> - -<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> -<p class="i0">“The storie of Alexandre is so commune,</p> -<p class="i0">That every wight, that hath discretion,</p> -<p class="i0">Hath herd somewhat or all of his fortune.”</p> -</div></div> - -<p>Juan Lorenzo took this story substantially as he had read it in -the “Alexandreïs” of Walter de Chatillon, whom he repeatedly cites;<a -id="FNanchor_81" href="#Footnote_81" class="fnanchor">[81]</a> but he -has added whatever he found elsewhere, or in his own imagination, that -seemed suited to his purpose, which was by no means that of becoming a -mere translator. After a short introduction, he comes at once to his -subject thus, in the fifth stanza:—</p> - -<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> -<p class="i0">I desire to teach the story · of a noble pagan king,</p> -<p class="i0">With whose valor and bold heart · the world once did ring:</p> -<p class="i0">For the world he overcame, · like a very little thing;</p> -<p class="i0">And a clerkly name I shall gain, · if his story I can sing.</p> -<p class="i0"> </p> -<p class="i0">This prince was Alexander, · and Greece it was his right;</p> -<p class="i0">Frank and bold he was in arms, · and in knowledge took delight;</p> -<p class="i0">Darius’ power he overthrew, · and Porus, kings of might,</p> -<p class="i0">And for suffering and for patience · the world held no such wight.</p> -<p class="i0"> </p> -<p class="i0">Now the infant Alexander · showed plainly from the first,</p> -<p class="i0">That he through every hindrance · with prowess great would burst;</p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_59">[p. 59]</span> -<p class="i0">For by a servile breast · he never would be nursed,</p> -<p class="i0">And less than gentle lineage · to serve him never durst.</p> -<p class="i0"> </p> -<p class="i0">And mighty signs when he was born · foretold his coming worth:</p> -<p class="i0">The air was troubled, and the sun · his brightness put not forth,</p> -<p class="i0">The sea was angry all, · and shook the solid earth,</p> -<p class="i0">The world was wellnigh perishing · for terror at his birth.<a id="FNanchor_82" href="#Footnote_82" class="fnanchor">[82]</a></p> -</div></div> - -<p>Then comes the history of Alexander, mingled with the fables and -extravagances of the times; given generally with the dulness of a -chronicle, but sometimes showing a poetical spirit. Before setting out -on his grand expedition to the East, he is knighted, and receives an -enchanted sword made by Don Vulcan, a girdle made by Doña Philosophy, -and a shirt made by two sea fairies,—<i>duas fadas enna mar</i>.<a -id="FNanchor_83" href="#Footnote_83" class="fnanchor">[83]</a> The -conquest of Asia follows soon afterwards, in the course of which the -Bishop of Jerusalem orders mass to be said to stay the conqueror, as he -approaches the Jewish capital.<a id="FNanchor_84" href="#Footnote_84" -class="fnanchor">[84]</a></p> - -<p>In general, the known outline of Alexander’s adventures is -followed, but there are a good many whimsical digressions; and when -the Macedonian forces pass the site of Troy, the poet cannot resist -the temptation of making an abstract of the fortunes and fate of -that city, which he represents as told by Don Alexander himself to -his followers, and especially to the Twelve Peers, who accompanied -him in his expedition.<a id="FNanchor_85" href="#Footnote_85" -class="fnanchor">[85]</a> Homer is vouched as authority for -the extraordinary narrative that is given;<a id="FNanchor_86" -href="#Footnote_86" class="fnanchor">[86]</a> but how little the -poet of Astorga<span class="pagenum" id="Page_60">[p. 60]</span> -cared for the Iliad and Odyssey may be inferred from the fact, that, -instead of sending Achilles, or Don Achilles, as he is called, to the -court of Lycomedes of Scyros, to be concealed in woman’s clothes, -he is sent, by the enchantments of his mother, in female attire, -to a convent of nuns, and the crafty Don Ulysses goes there as a -peddler, with a pack of female ornaments and martial weapons on his -back, to detect the fraud.<a id="FNanchor_87" href="#Footnote_87" -class="fnanchor">[87]</a> But, with all its defects and incongruities, -the “Alexandro” is a curious and important landmark in early Spanish -literature; and if it is written with less purity and dignity than the -“Partidas” of Alfonso, it has still a truly Castilian air, in both its -language and its versification.<a id="FNanchor_88" href="#Footnote_88" -class="fnanchor">[88]</a></p> - -<p>A poem called “Los Votos del Pavon,” The Vows of the Peacock, -which was a continuation of the “Alexandro,” is lost. If we may -judge from an old French poem on the vows made over a peacock that -had been a favorite bird of Alexander, and was served accidentally -at table after that hero’s death, we have no reason to complain of -our loss as a misfortune.<a id="FNanchor_89" href="#Footnote_89" -class="fnanchor">[89]</a><span class="pagenum" id="Page_61">[p. -61]</span> Nor have we probably great occasion to regret that we -possess only extracts from a prose book of advice, prepared for his -heir and successor by Sancho, the son of Alfonso the Tenth; for -though, from the chapter warning the young prince against fools, we -see that it wanted neither sense nor spirit, still it is not to be -compared to the “Partidas” for precision, grace, or dignity of style.<a -id="FNanchor_90" href="#Footnote_90" class="fnanchor">[90]</a> We come, -therefore, at once to a remarkable writer, who flourished a little -later,—the Prince Don Juan Manuel.</p> - -<p>Lorenzo was an ecclesiastic,—<i>bon clérigo é ondrado</i>,—and his home -was at Astorga, in the northwestern portion of Spain, on the borders of -Leon and Galicia. Berceo belonged to the same territory, and, though -there may be half a century between them, they are of a similar spirit. -We are glad, therefore, that the next author we meet, Don John Manuel, -takes us from the mountains of the North to the chivalry of the South, -and to the state of society, the conflicts, manners, and interests, -that gave us the “Poem of the Cid,” and the code of the “Partidas.”</p> - -<p>Don John was of the blood royal of Castile and Leon; grandson of -Saint Ferdinand, nephew of Alfonso the Wise, and one of the most -turbulent and dangerous of the Spanish barons of his time. He was born -in Escalona, on the 5th of May, 1282, and was the son of Don Pedro -Manuel, an Infante of Spain,<a id="FNanchor_91" href="#Footnote_91" -class="fnanchor">[91]</a> brother of<span class="pagenum" -id="Page_62">[p. 62]</span> Alfonso the Wise, with whom he always had -his officers and household in common. Before Don John was two years -old, his father died, and he was educated by his cousin, Sancho the -Fourth, living with him on a footing like that on which his father -had lived with Alfonso.<a id="FNanchor_92" href="#Footnote_92" -class="fnanchor">[92]</a> When twelve years old he was already in the -field against the Moors, and in 1310, at the age of twenty-eight, he -had reached the most considerable offices in the state; but Ferdinand -the Fourth dying two years afterwards, and leaving Alfonso the -Eleventh, his successor, only thirteen months old, great disturbances -followed till 1320, when Don John Manuel became joint regent of the -realm; a place which he suffered none to share with him, but such -of his near relations as were most involved in his interests.<a -id="FNanchor_93" href="#Footnote_93" class="fnanchor">[93]</a></p> - -<p>The affairs of the kingdom during the administration of Prince -John seem to have been managed with talent and spirit; but at the end -of the regency the young monarch was not sufficiently contented with -the state of things to continue his grand-uncle in any considerable -employment. Don John, however, was not of a temper to submit quietly -to affront or neglect.<a id="FNanchor_94" href="#Footnote_94" -class="fnanchor">[94]</a> He left the court at Valladolid, and prepared -himself, with all his great resources, for the armed opposition which -the politics of the time regarded as a justifiable mode of obtaining -redress. The king was alarmed,<span class="pagenum" id="Page_63">[p. -63]</span> “for he saw,” says the old chronicler, “that they were the -most powerful men in his kingdom, and that they could do grievous -battle with him, and great mischief to the land.” He entered, -therefore, into an arrangement with Prince John, who did not hesitate -to abandon his friends, and go back to his allegiance, on the condition -that the king should marry his daughter Constantia, then a mere child, -and create him governor of the provinces bordering on the Moors, and -commander-in-chief of the Moorish war; thus placing him, in fact, again -at the head of the kingdom.<a id="FNanchor_95" href="#Footnote_95" -class="fnanchor">[95]</a></p> - -<p>From this time we find him actively engaged on the frontiers -in a succession of military operations, till 1327, when he gained -over the Moors the important victory of Guadalhorra. But the same -year was marked by the bloody treachery of the king against Prince -John’s uncle, who was murdered in the palace under circumstances -of peculiar atrocity.<a id="FNanchor_96" href="#Footnote_96" -class="fnanchor">[96]</a> The Prince immediately retired in disgust -to his estates, and began again to muster his friends and forces for -a contest, into which he rushed the more eagerly, as the king had now -refused to consummate his union with Constantia, and had married a -Portuguese princess. The war which followed was carried on with various -success till 1335, when Prince John was finally subdued, and, entering -anew into the king’s service, with fresh reputation, as it seemed, from -a spirited rebellion, and marrying his daughter Constantia, now grown -up, to the heir-apparent of Portugal, went on, as commander-in-chief, -with an uninterrupted succession of victories over the Moors, -until almost the moment of his death, which happened in 1347.<a -id="FNanchor_97" href="#Footnote_97" class="fnanchor">[97]</a></p> - -<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_64">[p. 64]</span>In a life like -this, full of intrigues and violence,—from a prince like this, who -married the sisters of two kings, who had two other kings for his -sons-in-law, and who disturbed his country by his rebellions and -military enterprises for above thirty years,—we should hardly look for -a successful attempt in letters.<a id="FNanchor_98" href="#Footnote_98" -class="fnanchor">[98]</a> Yet so it is. Spanish poetry, we know, first -appeared in the midst of turbulence and danger; and now we find Spanish -prose fiction springing forth from the same soil, and under similar -circumstances. Down to this time we have seen no prose of much value in -the prevailing Castilian dialect, except in the works of Alfonso the -Tenth, and in one or two chronicles that will hereafter be noticed. -But in most of these the fervor which seems to be an essential element -of the early Spanish genius was kept in check, either by the nature -of their subjects, or by circumstances of which we can now have no -knowledge; and it is not until a fresh attempt is made, in the midst -of the wars and tumults that for centuries seem to have been as the -principle of life to the whole Peninsula, that we discover in Spanish -prose a decided development of such forms as afterwards became national -and characteristic.</p> - -<p>Don John, to whom belongs the distinction of producing one of -these forms, showed himself worthy of a family in which, for above -a century, letters had been honored and cultivated. He is known to -have written twelve works; and so anxious was he about their fate, -that he caused them to be carefully transcribed in a large volume, -and bequeathed them to a monastery he had founded on his estates at -Peñafiel, as a burial-place<span class="pagenum" id="Page_65">[p. -65]</span> for himself and his descendants.<a id="FNanchor_99" -href="#Footnote_99" class="fnanchor">[99]</a> How many of these -works are now in existence is not known. Some are certainly among -the treasures of the National Library at Madrid, in a manuscript -which seems to be an imperfect and injured copy of the one originally -deposited at Peñafiel. Two others may, perhaps, yet be recovered; for -one of them, the “Chronicle of Spain,” abridged by Don John from that -of his uncle, Alfonso the Wise, was in the possession of the Marquis of -Mondejar in the middle of the eighteenth century;<a id="FNanchor_100" -href="#Footnote_100" class="fnanchor">[100]</a> and the other, -a treatise on Hunting, was seen by Pellicer somewhat later.<a -id="FNanchor_101" href="#Footnote_101" class="fnanchor">[101]</a> A -collection of Don John’s poems, which Argote de Molina intended to -publish in the time of Philip the Second, is probably lost, since -the diligent Sanchez sought for it in vain;<a id="FNanchor_102" -href="#Footnote_102" class="fnanchor">[102]</a> and his “Conde Lucanor” -alone has been placed beyond the reach of accident by being printed.<a -id="FNanchor_103" href="#Footnote_103" class="fnanchor">[103]</a></p> - -<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_66">[p. 66]</span>All that we -possess of Don John Manuel is important. The imperfect manuscript at -Madrid opens with an account of the reasons why he had caused his works -to be transcribed; reasons which he illustrates by the following story, -very characteristic of his age.</p> - -<p>“In the time of King Jayme the First of Majorca,” says he, “there -was a knight of Perpignan, who was a great Troubadour, and made brave -songs wonderfully well. But one that he made was better than the rest, -and, moreover, was set to good music. And people were so delighted with -that song, that, for a long time, they would sing no other. And so the -knight that made it was well pleased. But one day, going through the -streets, he heard a shoemaker singing this song, and he sang it so -ill, both in words and tune, that any man who had not heard it before -would have held it to be a very poor song, and very ill made. Now when -the knight heard that shoemaker spoil his good work, he was full of -grief and anger, and got down from his beast, and sat down by him. -But the shoemaker gave no heed to the knight, and did not cease from -singing; and the further he sang, the worse he spoiled the song that -knight had made. And when the knight heard his good work so spoiled -by the foolishness of the shoe<span class="pagenum" id="Page_67">[p. -67]</span>maker, he took up very gently some shears that lay there, and -cut all the shoemaker’s shoes in pieces, and mounted his beast and rode -away.</p> - -<p>“Now, when the shoemaker saw his shoes, and beheld how they were cut -in pieces, and that he had lost all his labor, he was much troubled, -and went shouting after the knight that had done it. And the knight -answered: ‘My friend, our lord the king, as you well know, is a good -king and a just. Let us, then, go to him, and let him determine, as -may seem right, the difference between us.’ And they were agreed to -do so. And when they came before the king, the shoemaker told him how -all his shoes had been cut in pieces and much harm done to him. And -the king was wroth at it, and asked the knight if this were truth. -And the knight said that it was; but that he would like to say why -he did it. And the king told him to say on. And the knight answered, -that the king well knew that he had made a song,—the one that was very -good and had good music,—and he said, that the shoemaker had spoiled -it in singing; in proof whereof, he prayed the king to command him -now to sing it. And the king did so, and saw how he spoiled it. Then -the knight said, that, since the shoemaker had spoiled the good work -he had made with great pains and labor, so he might spoil the works -of the shoemaker. And the king and all they that were there with -him were very merry at this and laughed; and the king commanded the -shoemaker never to sing that song again, nor trouble the good work of -the knight; but the king paid the shoemaker for the harm that was done -him, and commanded the knight not to vex the shoemaker any more.<a -id="FNanchor_104" href="#Footnote_104" class="fnanchor">[104]</a></p> -<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_68">[p. 68]</span></p> - -<p>“And now, knowing that I cannot hinder the books I have made from -being copied many times, and seeing that in copies one thing is put for -another, either because he who copies is ignorant, or because one word -looks so much like another, and so the meaning and sense are changed -without any fault in him who first wrote it; therefore, I, Don John -Manuel, to avoid this wrong as much as I may, have caused this volume -to be made, in which are written out all the works I have composed, and -they are twelve.”</p> - -<p>Of the twelve works here referred to, the Madrid manuscript contains -only three. One is a long letter to his brother, the Archbishop of -Toledo, and Chancellor of the kingdom, in which he gives, first, an -account of his family arms; then the reason why he and his right -heirs male could make knights without having received any order of -knighthood, as he himself had done when he was not yet two years old; -and lastly, the report of a solemn conversation he had held with Sancho -the Fourth<span class="pagenum" id="Page_69">[p. 69]</span> on his -death-bed, in which the king bemoaned himself bitterly, that, having -for his rebellion justly received the curse of his father, Alfonso -the Wise, he had now no power to give a dying man’s blessing to Don -John.</p> - -<p>Another of the works in the Madrid manuscript is a treatise in -twenty-six chapters, called “Counsels to his Son Ferdinand”; which is, -in fact, an essay on the Christian and moral duties of one destined by -his rank to the highest places in the state, referring sometimes to the -more ample discussions on similar subjects in Don John’s treatise on -the Different Estates or Conditions of Men, apparently a longer work, -not now known to exist.</p> - -<p>But the third and longest is the most interesting. It is “The Book -of the Knight and the Esquire,” “written,” says the author, “in the -manner called in Castile <i>fabliella</i>,” (a little fable,) and sent to -his brother, the Archbishop, that he might translate it into Latin; a -proof, and not the only one, that Don John placed small value upon the -language to which he now owes all his honors. The book itself contains -an account of a young man who, encouraged by the good condition of -his country under a king that called his Cortes together often, and -gave his people good teachings and good laws, determines to seek -advancement in the state. On his way to a meeting of the Cortes, -where he intends to be knighted, he meets a retired cavalier, who in -his hermitage explains to him all the duties and honors of chivalry, -and thus prepares him for the distinction to which he aspires. On -his return, he again visits his aged friend, and is so delighted -with his instructions, that he remains with him, ministering to his -infirmities and profiting by his wisdom, till his death, after which -the young knight goes to his own<span class="pagenum" id="Page_70">[p. -70]</span> land, and lives there in great honor the rest of his -life. The story, or little fable, is, however, a very slight thread, -serving only to hold together a long series of instructions on the -moral duties of men, and on the different branches of human knowledge, -given with earnestness and spirit, in the fashion of the times.<a -id="FNanchor_105" href="#Footnote_105" class="fnanchor">[105]</a></p> - -<p>The “Conde Lucanor,” the best known of its author’s works, -bears some resemblance to the fable of the Knight and the Esquire. -It is a collection of forty-nine tales,<a id="FNanchor_106" -href="#Footnote_106" class="fnanchor">[106]</a> anecdotes, and -apologues, clearly in the Oriental manner; the first hint for which was -probably taken from the “Disciplina Clericalis” of Petrus Alphonsus, a -collection of Latin stories made in Spain about two centuries earlier. -The occasion on which the tales of Don John are supposed to be related -is, like the fictions themselves, invented with Eastern simplicity, -and reminds us constantly of the “Thousand and One Nights,” and their -multitudinous imitations.<a id="FNanchor_107" href="#Footnote_107" -class="fnanchor">[107]</a></p> - -<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_71">[p. 71]</span>The Count -Lucanor—a personage of power and consideration, intended probably to -represent those early Christian counts in Spain, who, like Fernan -Gonzalez of Castile, were, in fact, independent princes—finds himself -occasionally perplexed with questions of morals and public policy. -These questions, as they occur, he proposes to Patronio, his minister -or counsellor, and Patronio replies to each by a tale or a fable, -which is ended with a rhyme in the nature of a moral. The stories are -various in their character.<a id="FNanchor_108" href="#Footnote_108" -class="fnanchor">[108]</a> Sometimes it is an anecdote in Spanish -history to which Don John resorts, like that of the three knights -of his grandfather, Saint Ferdinand, at the siege of Seville.<a -id="FNanchor_109" href="#Footnote_109" class="fnanchor">[109]</a> -More frequently, it is a sketch of some striking trait in the -national manners, like the story of “Rodrigo el Franco and his -three Faithful Followers.”<a id="FNanchor_110" href="#Footnote_110" -class="fnanchor">[110]</a> Sometimes, again, it is a fiction of -chivalry, like that of the “Hermit and Richard the Lion-Hearted.”<a -id="FNanchor_111" href="#Footnote_111" class="fnanchor">[111]</a> -And sometimes it is an apologue, like that of the “Old Man, his Son, -and the Ass,” or that of the “Crow persuaded by the Fox to sing,” -which, with his many successors, he must in some<span class="pagenum" -id="Page_72">[p. 72]</span> way or other have obtained from Æsop.<a -id="FNanchor_112" href="#Footnote_112" class="fnanchor">[112]</a> They -are all curious, but probably the most interesting is the “Moorish -Marriage,” partly because it points distinctly to an Arabic origin, and -partly because it remarkably resembles the story Shakspeare has used -in his “Taming of the Shrew.”<a id="FNanchor_113" href="#Footnote_113" -class="fnanchor">[113]</a> It is, however, too long to be given here; -and therefore a shorter specimen will be taken from the twenty-second -chapter, entitled “Of what happened to Count Fernan Gonzalez, and of -the answer he gave to his vassals.”</p> - -<p>“On one occasion, Count Lucanor came from a foray, much wearied and -worn, and poorly off; and before he could refresh or rest himself, -there came a sudden message about another matter then newly moved. And -the greater part of his people counselled him, that he should refresh -himself a little, and then do whatever should be thought most wise. And -the Count asked Patronio what he should do in that matter; and Patronio -replied, ‘Sire, that you may choose what is best, it would please me -that you should know the answer which Count Fernan Gonzalez once gave -to his vassals.</p> - -<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_73">[p. 73]</span>“‘The story.—Count -Fernan Gonzalez conquered Almanzor in Hazinas,<a id="FNanchor_114" -href="#Footnote_114" class="fnanchor">[114]</a> but many of his people -fell there, and he and the rest that remained alive were sorely -wounded. And before they were sound and well, he heard that the king -of Navarre had broken into his lands, and so he commanded his people -to make ready to fight against them of Navarre. And all his people -told him, that their horses were aweary, and that they were aweary -themselves; and although for this cause they might not forsake this -thing, yet that, since both he and his people were sore wounded, they -ought to leave it, and that he ought to wait till he and they should be -sound again. And when the Count saw that they all wanted to leave that -road, then his honor grieved him more than his body, and he said, “My -friends, let us not shun this battle on account of the wounds that we -now have; for the fresh wounds they will presently give us will make -us forget those we received in the other fight.” And when they of his -party saw that he was not troubled concerning his own person, but only -how to defend his lands and his honor, they went with him, and they won -that battle, and things went right well afterwards.</p> - -<p>“‘And you, my Lord Count Lucanor, if you desire to do what you -ought, when you see that it should be achieved for the defence of your -own rights and of your own people and of your own honor, then you must -not be grieved by weariness, nor by toil, nor by danger, but rather so -act that the new danger shall make you forget that which is past.’</p> - -<p>“And the Count held this for a good history<a id="FNanchor_115" -href="#Footnote_115" class="fnanchor">[115]</a> and<span -class="pagenum" id="Page_74">[p. 74]</span> a good counsel; and he -acted accordingly, and found himself well by it. And Don John also -understood this to be a good history, and he had it written in this -book, and moreover made these verses, which say thus:—</p> - -<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> <p class="i0">“Hold this -for certain and for fact,</p> <p class="i0">For truth it is and -truth exact,</p> <p class="i0">That never Honor and Disgrace</p> <p -class="i0">Together sought a resting-place.”</p> </div></div> - -<p>It is not easy to imagine any thing more simple and direct than -this story, either in the matter or the style. Others of the tales -have an air of more knightly dignity, and some have a little of the -gallantry that might be expected from a court like that of Alfonso -the Eleventh. In a very few of them, Don John gives intimations that -he had risen above the feelings and opinions of his age: as, in one, -he laughs at the monks and their pretensions;<a id="FNanchor_116" -href="#Footnote_116" class="fnanchor">[116]</a> in another, -he introduces a pilgrim under no respectable circumstances;<a -id="FNanchor_117" href="#Footnote_117" class="fnanchor">[117]</a> -and in a third, he ridicules his uncle Alfonso for believing in -the follies of alchemy,<a id="FNanchor_118" href="#Footnote_118" -class="fnanchor">[118]</a> and trusting a man who pretended to turn -the baser metals into gold. But in almost all we see the large -experience of a man of the world, as the world then existed, and the -cool observation of one who knew too much of mankind, and had suffered -too much from<span class="pagenum" id="Page_75">[p. 75]</span> them, -to have a great deal of the romance of youth still lingering in his -character. For we know, from himself, that Prince John wrote the Conde -Lucanor when he had already reached his highest honors and authority; -probably after he had passed through his severest defeats. It should -be remembered, therefore, to his credit, that we find in it no traces -of the arrogance of power, or of the bitterness of mortified ambition; -nothing of the wrongs he had suffered from others, and nothing of -those he had inflicted. It seems, indeed, to have been written in -some happy interval, stolen from the bustle of camps, the intrigues -of government, and the crimes of rebellion, when the experience of -his past life, its adventures, and its passions, were so remote as to -awaken little personal feeling, and yet so familiar that he could give -us their results, with great simplicity, in this series of tales and -anecdotes, which are marked with an originality that belongs to their -age, and with a kind of chivalrous philosophy and wise honesty that -would not be discreditable to one more advanced.<a id="FNanchor_119" -href="#Footnote_119" class="fnanchor">[119]</a></p> - -<hr class="chap0" /> - - -<div class="chapter pt3" id="Ch_1_5"> - <p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_76">[p. 76]</span></p> - <h3>CHAPTER V.</h3> - <p class="subh3 hang"><span class="smcap">Alfonso the Eleventh. - — Treatise on Hunting. — Poetical Chronicle. — Beneficiary of - Ubeda. — Archpriest of Hita; his Life, Works, and Character. — - Rabbi Don Santob. — La Doctrina Christiana. — A Revelation. — La - Dança General. — Poem on Joseph. — Ayala; his Rimado de Palacio. - — Characteristics of Spanish Literature thus far.</span></p> -</div> - -<p><span class="smcap">The</span> reign of Alfonso the Eleventh was -full of troubles, and the unhappy monarch himself died at last of the -plague, while he was besieging Gibraltar, in 1350. Still, that letters -were not forgotten in it we know, not only from the example of Don John -Manuel, already cited, but from several others which should not be -passed over.</p> - -<p>The first is a prose treatise on Hunting, in three books, written -under the king’s direction, by his Chief-huntsmen, who were then among -the principal persons of the court. It consists of little more than an -account of the sort of hounds to be used, their diseases and training, -with a description of the different places where game was abundant, -and where sport for the royal amusement was to be had. It is of small -consequence in itself, but was published by Argote de Molina, in the -time of Philip the Second, with a pleasant addition by the editor, -containing curious stories of lion-hunts and bull-fights, fitting it -to the taste of his own age. In style, the original work is as good -as the somewhat similar treatise of the Marquis of Villena,<span -class="pagenum" id="Page_77">[p. 77]</span> on the Art of Carving, -written a hundred years later; and, from the nature of the subject, -it is more interesting.<a id="FNanchor_120" href="#Footnote_120" -class="fnanchor">[120]</a></p> - -<p>The next literary monument attributed to this reign would be -important, if we had the whole of it. It is a chronicle, in the ballad -style, of events which happened in the time of Alfonso the Eleventh, -and commonly passes under his name. It was found, hidden in a mass -of Arabic manuscripts, by Diego de Mendoza, who attributed it, with -little ceremony, to “a secretary of the king”; and it was first -publicly made known by Argote de Molina, who thought it written by some -poet contemporary with the history he relates. But only thirty-four -stanzas of it are now known to exist; and these, though admitted by -Sanchez to be probably anterior to the fifteenth century, are shown -by him not to be the work of the king, and seem, in fact, to be less -ancient in style and language than that critic supposes them to be.<a -id="FNanchor_121" href="#Footnote_121" class="fnanchor">[121]</a> They -are in very flowing Castilian, and their tone is as spirited as that of -most of the old ballads.</p> - -<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_78">[p. 78]</span>Two other poems, -written during the reign of one of the Alfonsos, as their author -declares,—and therefore almost certainly during that of Alfonso the -Eleventh, who was the last of his name,—are also now known in print -only by a few stanzas, and by the office of their writer, who styles -himself “a Beneficiary of Ubeda.” The first, which consists, in the -manuscript, of five hundred and five strophes in the manner of Berceo, -is a life of Saint Ildefonso; the last is on the subject of Saint -Mary Magdalen. Both would probably detain us little, even if they -had been published entire.<a id="FNanchor_122" href="#Footnote_122" -class="fnanchor">[122]</a></p> - -<p>We turn, therefore, without further delay, to Juan Ruiz, commonly -called the Archpriest of Hita; a poet who is known to have lived -at the same period, and whose works, both from their character and -amount, deserve especial notice. Their date can be ascertained<span -class="pagenum" id="Page_79">[p. 79]</span> with a good degree of -exactness. In one of the three early manuscripts in which they are -extant, some of the poems are fixed at the year 1330, and some, by -the two others, at 1343. Their author, who seems to have been born at -Alcalá de Henares, lived much at Guadalaxara and Hita, places only -five leagues apart, and was imprisoned by order of the Archbishop of -Toledo between 1337 and 1350; from all which it may be inferred, that -his principal residence was Castile, and that he flourished in the -reign of Alfonso the Eleventh; that is, in the time of Don John Manuel, -and a very little later.<a id="FNanchor_123" href="#Footnote_123" -class="fnanchor">[123]</a></p> - -<p>His works consist of nearly seven thousand verses; and although, in -general, they are written in the four-line stanza of Berceo, we find -occasionally a variety of measure, tone, and spirit, before unknown in -Castilian poetry; the number of their metrical forms, some of which -are taken from the Provençal, being reckoned not less than sixteen.<a -id="FNanchor_124" href="#Footnote_124" class="fnanchor">[124]</a> The -poems, as they have come to us, open with a prayer to God, composed -apparently at the time of the Archpriest’s imprisonment; when, as -one of the manuscripts sets forth, most of his works were written.<a -id="FNanchor_125" href="#Footnote_125" class="fnanchor">[125]</a> -Next comes a curious prose prologue, explaining the moral purpose of -the whole collection, or rather endeavouring to conceal the immoral -tendency of the greater part of it. And then, after somewhat more of -prefatory matter, follow, in quick succession, the poems themselves, -very miscellaneous in their subjects, but ingeniously connected. The -entire mass, when taken together, fills a volume of respectable size.<a -id="FNanchor_126" href="#Footnote_126" class="fnanchor">[126]</a></p> - -<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_80">[p. 80]</span>It is a series of -stories, that seem to be sketches of real events in the Archpriest’s -own life; sometimes mingled with fictions and allegories, that may, -after all, be only veils for other facts; and sometimes speaking out -plainly, and announcing themselves as parts of his personal history.<a -id="FNanchor_127" href="#Footnote_127" class="fnanchor">[127]</a> In -the foreground of this busy scene figures the very equivocal character -of his female messenger, the chief agent in his love affairs, whom he -boldly calls <i>Trota-conventos</i>, because the messages she carries are -so often to or from monasteries and nunneries.<a id="FNanchor_128" -href="#Footnote_128" class="fnanchor">[128]</a> The first lady-love to -whom the poet sends her is, he says, well taught,—<i>mucho letrada</i>,—and -her story is illustrated by the fables of the Sick Lion visited by -the other Animals, and of the Mountain bringing forth a Mouse. All, -however, is unavailing. The lady refuses to favor his suit; and he -consoles himself, as well as he can, with the saying of Solomon, -that all is vanity and vexation of spirit.<a id="FNanchor_129" -href="#Footnote_129" class="fnanchor">[129]</a></p> - -<p>In the next of his adventures, a false friend deceives him -and carries off his lady. But still he is not discouraged.<a -id="FNanchor_130" href="#Footnote_130" class="fnanchor">[130]</a> He -feels himself to be drawn on by his fate, like the son of a Moorish -king, whose history he then relates; and, after some astrological -ruminations,<span class="pagenum" id="Page_81">[p. 81]</span> declares -himself to be born under the star of Venus, and inevitably subject to -her control. Another failure follows; and then Love comes in person to -visit him and counsels him in a series of fables, which are told with -great ease and spirit. The poet answers gravely. He is offended with -Don Amor for his falsehood, charges him with being guilty, either by -implication or directly, of all the seven deadly sins, and fortifies -each of his positions with an appropriate apologue.<a id="FNanchor_131" -href="#Footnote_131" class="fnanchor">[131]</a></p> - -<p>The Archpriest now goes to Doña Venus, who, though he knew Ovid, -is represented as the wife of Don Amor; and, taking counsel of her, -is successful. But the story he relates is evidently a fiction, -though it may be accommodated to the facts of the poet’s own case. It -is borrowed from a dialogue or play, written before the year 1300, -by Pamphylus Maurianus or Maurilianus, and long attributed to Ovid; -but the Castilian poet has successfully given to what he adopted -the coloring of his own national manners. All this portion, which -fills above a thousand lines, is somewhat free in its tone; and the -Archpriest, alarmed at himself, turns suddenly round and adds a series -of severe moral warnings and teachings to the sex, which he as suddenly -breaks off, and, without any assigned reason, goes to the mountains -near Segovia. But the month in which he makes his journey is March; -the season is rough; and several of his adventures are any thing but -agreeable. Still he preserves the same light and thoughtless air; -and this part of his history is mingled with spirited pastoral songs -in the Provençal manner, called “Cántigas de<span class="pagenum" -id="Page_82">[p. 82]</span> Serrana,” as the preceding portions had -been mingled with fables, which he calls “Enxiemplos,” or stories.<a -id="FNanchor_132" href="#Footnote_132" class="fnanchor">[132]</a></p> - -<p>A shrine, much frequented by the devout, is near that part of -the Sierra where his journeyings lay; and he makes a pilgrimage to -it, which he illustrates with sacred hymns, just as he had before -illustrated his love-adventures with apologues and songs. But Lent -approaches, and he hurries home. He is hardly arrived, however, -when he receives a summons in form from Doña Quaresma (Madam Lent) -to attend her in arms, with all her other archpriests and clergy, -in order to make a foray, like a foray into the territory of -the Moors, against Don Carnaval and his adherents. One of these -allegorical battles, which were in great favor with the Trouveurs -and other metre-mongers of the Middle Ages, then follows, in which -figure Don Tocino (Mr. Bacon) and Doña Cecina (Mrs. Hung-Beef), -with other similar personages. The result, of course, since it -is now the season of Lent, is the defeat and imprisonment of Don -Carnaval; but when that season closes, the allegorical prisoner -necessarily escapes, and, raising anew such followers as Mr. Lunch -and Mr. Breakfast, again takes the field, and is again triumphant.<a -id="FNanchor_133" href="#Footnote_133" class="fnanchor">[133]</a></p> -<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_83">[p. 83]</span></p> - -<p>Don Carnaval now unites himself to Don Amor, and both appear in -state as emperors. Don Amor is received with especial jubilee; clergy -and laity, friars, nuns, and <i>jongleurs</i>, going out in wild procession -to meet and welcome him.<a id="FNanchor_134" href="#Footnote_134" -class="fnanchor">[134]</a> But the honor of formally receiving his -Majesty, though claimed by all, and foremost by the nuns, is granted -only to the poet. To the poet, too, Don Amor relates his adventures of -the preceding winter at Seville and Toledo, and then leaves him to go -in search of others. Meanwhile, the Archpriest, with the assistance -of his cunning agent, <i>Trota-conventos</i>, begins a new series of love -intrigues, even more freely mingled with fables than the first, and -ends them only by the death of Trota-conventos herself, with whose -epitaph the more carefully connected portion of the Archpriest’s works -is brought to a conclusion. The volume contains, however, besides this -portion, several smaller poems on subjects as widely different as the -“Christian’s Armour” and the “Praise of Little Women,” some of which -seem related to the main series, though none of them have any apparent -connection with each other.<a id="FNanchor_135" href="#Footnote_135" -class="fnanchor">[135]</a></p> - -<p>The tone of the Archpriest’s poetry is very various. In general, -a satirical spirit prevails in it, not unmingled with a quiet humor. -This spirit often extends into the gravest portions; and how fearless -he was, when he indulged himself in it, a passage on the influence -of money and corruption at the court of Rome leaves no doubt.<a -id="FNanchor_136" href="#Footnote_136" class="fnanchor">[136]</a> -Other parts, like the verses on Death, are<span class="pagenum" -id="Page_84">[p. 84]</span> solemn, and even sometimes tender; while -yet others, like the hymns to the Madonna, breathe the purest spirit of -Catholic devotion; so that, perhaps, it would not be easy, in the whole -body of Spanish literature, to find a volume showing a greater variety -in its subjects, or in the modes of managing and exhibiting them.<a -id="FNanchor_137" href="#Footnote_137" class="fnanchor">[137]</a></p> - -<p>The happiest success of the Archpriest of Hita is to be found in -the many tales and apologues which he has scattered on all sides to -illustrate the adventures that constitute a framework for his poetry, -like that of the “Conde Lucanor” or the “Canterbury Tales.” Most of -them are familiar to us, being taken from the old store-houses of -Æsop and Phædrus, or rather from the versions of these fabulists -common in the earliest Northern French poetry.<a id="FNanchor_138" -href="#Footnote_138" class="fnanchor">[138]</a> Among the more -fortunate of his very free imitations is the fable of the Frogs -who asked for a King from Jupiter, that of the Dog who lost by his -Greediness the Meat he carried in his Mouth, and that of the Hares who -took Courage when they saw the Frogs were more timid than themselves.<a -id="FNanchor_139" href="#Footnote_139" class="fnanchor">[139]</a> A -few of them have a truth, a simplicity, and even<span class="pagenum" -id="Page_85">[p. 85]</span> a grace, which have rarely been surpassed -in the same form of composition; as, for instance, that of the -City Mouse and the Country Mouse, which, if we follow it from Æsop -through Horace to La Fontaine, we shall nowhere find better told than -it is by the Archpriest.<a id="FNanchor_140" href="#Footnote_140" -class="fnanchor">[140]</a></p> - -<p>What strikes us most, however, and remains with us longest after -reading his poetry, is the natural and spirited tone that prevails -over every other. In this he is like Chaucer, who wrote a little later -in the same century. Indeed, the resemblance between the two poets is -remarkable in some other particulars. Both often sought their materials -in the Northern French poetry; both have that mixture of devotion and -a licentious immorality, much of which belonged to their age, but some -of it to their personal character; and both show a wide knowledge -of human nature, and a great happiness in sketching the details of -individual manners. The original temper of each made him satirical -and humorous; and each, in his own country, became the founder of -some of the forms of its popular poetry, introducing new metres and -combinations, and carrying them out in a versification which, though -generally rude and irregular, is often flowing and nervous, and always -natural. The Archpriest has not, indeed, the tenderness, the elevation, -or the general power of Chaucer; but his genius has a compass, and his -verse a skill and success, that show him to be more nearly akin to -the great English master than will be believed,<span class="pagenum" -id="Page_86">[p. 86]</span> except by those who have carefully read the -works of both.</p> - -<p>The Archpriest of Hita lived in the last years of Alfonso the -Eleventh, and perhaps somewhat later. At the very beginning of the next -reign, or in 1350, we find a curious poem addressed by a Jew of Carrion -to Peter the Cruel, on his accession to the throne. In the manuscript -found in the National Library at Madrid, it is called the “Book of the -Rabi de Santob,” or “Rabbi Don Santob,” and consists of four hundred -and seventy-six stanzas.<a id="FNanchor_141" href="#Footnote_141" -class="fnanchor">[141]</a> The measure is the old <i>redondilla</i>, -uncommonly easy and flowing for the age; and the purpose of the poem is -to give wise moral counsels to the new king, which the poet more than -once begs him not to undervalue because they come from a Jew.</p> - -<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> -<p class="i0">Because upon a thorn it grows,</p> -<p class="i2">The rose is not less fair;</p> -<p class="i0">And wine that from the vine-stock flows</p> -<p class="i2">Still flows untainted there.</p> -<p class="i0"> </p> -<p class="i0"><span class="pagenum" id="Page_87">[p. 87]</span>The goshawk, too, will proudly soar,</p> -<p class="i2">Although his nest sits low;</p> -<p class="i0">And gentle teachings have their power,</p> -<p class="i2">Though ’t is the Jew says so.<a id="FNanchor_142" href="#Footnote_142" class="fnanchor">[142]</a></p> -</div></div> - -<p>After a longer introduction than is needful, the moral counsels -begin, at the fifty-third stanza, and continue through the rest of the -work, which, in its general tone, is not unlike other didactic poetry -of the period, although it is written with more ease and more poetical -spirit. Indeed, it is little to say, that few Rabbins of any country -have given us such quaint and pleasant verses as are contained in -several parts of these curious counsels of the Jew of Carrion.</p> - -<p>In the Escurial manuscript, containing the verses of<span -class="pagenum" id="Page_88">[p. 88]</span> the Jew, are other -poems, which were at one time attributed to him, but which it seems -probable belong to other, though unknown, authors.<a id="FNanchor_143" -href="#Footnote_143" class="fnanchor">[143]</a> One of them is a -didactic essay, called “La Doctrina Christiana,” or Christian Doctrine. -It consists of a prose prologue, setting forth the writer’s penitence, -and of one hundred and fifty-seven stanzas of four lines each; the -first three containing eight syllables, rhymed together, and the -last containing four syllables unrhymed,—a metrical form not without -something of the air of the Sapphic and Adonic. The body of the work -contains an explanation of the creed, the ten commandments, the seven -moral virtues, the fourteen works of mercy, the seven deadly sins, -the five senses, and the holy sacraments, with discussions concerning -Christian conduct and character.</p> - -<p>Another of these poems is called a Revelation, and is a vision, in -twenty-five octave stanzas, of a holy hermit, who is supposed to have -witnessed a contest between a soul and its body; the soul complaining -that the excesses of the body had brought upon it all the punishments -of the unseen world, and the body retort<span class="pagenum" -id="Page_89">[p. 89]</span>ing, that it was condemned to these same -torments because the soul had neglected to keep it in due subjection.<a -id="FNanchor_144" href="#Footnote_144" class="fnanchor">[144]</a> The -whole is an imitation of some of the many similar poems current at that -period, one of which is extant in English in a manuscript placed by -Warton about the year 1304.<a id="FNanchor_145" href="#Footnote_145" -class="fnanchor">[145]</a> But both the Castilian poems are of little -worth.</p> - -<p>We come, then, to one of more value, “La Dança General,” or the -Dance of Death, consisting of seventy-nine regular octave stanzas, -preceded by a few words of introduction in prose, that do not seem -to be by the same author.<a id="FNanchor_146" href="#Footnote_146" -class="fnanchor">[146]</a> It is founded on the well-known fiction, so -often illustrated both in painting and in verse during the Middle Ages, -that all men, of all conditions, are summoned to the Dance of Death; a -kind of spiritual masquerade, in which the different ranks of society, -from the Pope to the young child, appear dancing with the skeleton form -of Death. In this Spanish version it is striking and picturesque,—more -so, perhaps, than in any other,—the ghastly nature of the subject -being<span class="pagenum" id="Page_90">[p. 90]</span> brought -into a very lively contrast with the festive tone of the verses, -which frequently recalls some of the better parts of those flowing -stories that now and then occur in the “Mirror for Magistrates.”<a -id="FNanchor_147" href="#Footnote_147" class="fnanchor">[147]</a></p> - -<p>The first seven stanzas of the Spanish poem constitute a prologue, -in which Death issues his summons partly in his own person, and partly -in that of a preaching friar, ending thus:—</p> - -<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> -<p class="i0">Come to the Dance of Death, all ye whose fate</p> -<p class="i2">By birth is mortal, be ye great or small;</p> -<p class="i0">And willing come, nor loitering, nor late,</p> -<p class="i2">Else force shall bring you struggling to my thrall:</p> -<p class="i2">For since yon friar hath uttered loud his call</p> -<p class="i0">To penitence and godliness sincere,</p> -<p class="i0">He that delays must hope no waiting here;</p> -<p class="i2">For still the cry is, Haste! and, Haste to all!</p> -</div></div> - -<p>Death now proceeds, as in the old pictures and poems, to summon, -first, the Pope, then cardinals, kings, bishops, and so on, down to -day-laborers; all of whom are forced to join his mortal dance, though -each first makes some remonstrance, that indicates surprise, horror, or -reluctance. The call to youth and beauty is spirited:—</p> - -<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> -<p class="i0">Bring to my dance, and bring without delay,</p> -<p class="i2">Those damsels twain, you see so bright and fair;</p> -<p class="i0">They came, but came not in a willing way,</p> -<p class="i2">To list my chants of mortal grief and care:</p> -<p class="i2"><span class="pagenum" id="Page_91">[p. 91]</span>Nor shall the flowers and roses fresh they wear,</p> -<p class="i0">Nor rich attire, avail their forms to save.</p> -<p class="i0">They strive in vain who strive against the grave;</p> -<p class="i2">It may not be; my wedded brides they are.<a id="FNanchor_148" href="#Footnote_148" class="fnanchor">[148]</a></p> -</div></div> - -<p>The fiction is, no doubt, a grim one; but for several centuries -it had great success throughout Europe, and it is presented quite as -much according to its true spirit in this old Castilian poem as it is -anywhere.</p> - -<p>A chronicling poem, found in the same manuscript volume with -the last, but very unskilfully copied in a different handwriting, -belongs probably to the same period. It is on the half-fabulous, -half-historical achievements of Count Fernan Gonzalez, a hero of the -earlier period of the Christian conflict with the Moors, who is to -the North of Spain what the Cid became somewhat later to Aragon and -Valencia. To him is attributed the rescue of much of Castile from -Mohammedan control; and his achievements, so far as they are matter -of historical rather than poetical record, fall between 934, when the -battle of Osma was fought, and his death, which occurred in 970.</p> - -<p>The poem in question is almost wholly devoted to his glory.<a -id="FNanchor_149" href="#Footnote_149" class="fnanchor">[149]</a> -It begins with a notice of the invasion<span class="pagenum" -id="Page_92">[p. 92]</span> of Spain by the Goths, and comes down to -the battle of Moret, in 967, when the manuscript suddenly breaks off, -leaving untouched the adventures of its hero during the three remaining -years of his life. It is essentially prosaic and monotonous in its -style, yet not without something of that freshness and simplicity -which are in themselves allied to all early poetry. Its language is -rude, and its measure, which strives to be like that in Berceo and -the poem of Apollonius, is often in stanzas of three lines instead -of four, sometimes of five, and once at least of nine. Like Berceo’s -poem on San Domingo de Silos, it opens with an invocation, and, what -is singular, this invocation is in the very words used by Berceo: -“In the name of the Father, who made all things,” etc. After this, -the history, beginning in the days of the Goths, follows the popular -traditions of the country, with few exceptions, the most remarkable of -which occurs in the notice of the Moorish invasion. There the account -is quite anomalous. No intimation is given of the story of the fair -Cava, whose fate has furnished materials for so much poetry; but -Count Julian is represented as having, without any private injury, -volunteered his treason to the king of Morocco, and then carried it -into effect by persuading Don Roderic, in full Cortes, to turn all the -military weapons of the land into implements of agriculture, so that, -when the Moorish invasion occurred, the country was overrun without -difficulty.</p> - -<p>The death of the Count of Toulouse, on the other<span -class="pagenum" id="Page_93">[p. 93]</span> hand, is described as it is -in the “General Chronicle” of Alfonso the Wise; and so are the vision -of Saint Millan, and the Count’s personal fights with a Moorish king -and the King of Navarre. In truth, many passages in the poem so much -resemble the corresponding passages in the Chronicle, that it seems -certain one was used in the composition of the other; and as the poem -has more the air of being an amplification of the Chronicle than the -Chronicle has of being an abridgment of the poem, it seems probable -that the prose account is, in this case, the older, and furnished the -materials of the poem, which, from internal evidence, was prepared -for public recitation.<a id="FNanchor_150" href="#Footnote_150" -class="fnanchor">[150]</a></p> - -<p>The meeting of Fernan Gonzalez with the King of Navarre at the -battle of Valparé, which occurs in both, is thus described in the -poem:—</p> - -<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> -<p class="i0">And now the King and Count were met · together in the fight,</p> -<p class="i0">And each against the other turned · the utmost of his might,</p> -<p class="i0">Beginning there a battle fierce · in furious despite.</p> -<p class="i0"> </p> -<p class="i0">And never fight was seen more brave, · nor champions more true;</p> -<p class="i0">For to rise or fall for once and all · they fought, as well they knew;</p> -<p class="i0">And neither, as each inly felt, · a greater deed could do;</p> -<p class="i0">So they struck and strove right manfully, · with blows nor light nor few.</p> -<p class="i0"> </p> -<p class="i0">Ay, mighty was that fight indeed, · and mightier still about</p> -<p class="i0">The din that rose like thunder · round those champions brave and stout:</p> -<p class="i0"><span class="pagenum" id="Page_94">[p. 94]</span>A man with all his voice might cry · and none would heed his shout;</p> -<p class="i0">For he that listened could not hear, · amidst such rush and rout.</p> -<p class="i0"> </p> -<p class="i0">The blows they struck were heavy; · heavier blows there could not be;</p> -<p class="i0">On both sides, to the uttermost, · they struggled manfully,</p> -<p class="i0">And many, that ne’er rose again, · bent to the earth the knee,</p> -<p class="i0">And streams of blood o’erspread the ground, · as on all sides you might see.</p> -<p class="i0"> </p> -<p class="i0">And knights were there, from good Navarre, · both numerous and bold,</p> -<p class="i0">Whom everywhere for brave and strong · true gentlemen would hold;</p> -<p class="i0">But still against the good Count’s might · their strength proved weak and cold,</p> -<p class="i0">Though men of great emprise before · and fortune manifold.</p> -<p class="i0"> </p> -<p class="i0">For God’s good grace still kept the Count · from sorrow and from harm,</p> -<p class="i0">That neither Moor nor Christian power · should stand against his arm, etc.<a id="FNanchor_151" href="#Footnote_151" class="fnanchor">[151]</a></p> -</div></div> - -<p>This is certainly not poetry of a high order. Invention and -dignified ornament are wanting in it; but still it is not without -spirit, and, at any rate, it would be difficult to find in the whole -poem a passage more worthy of regard.</p> - -<p>In the National Library at Madrid is a poem of twelve hundred and -twenty lines, composed in the same system of quaternion rhymes that -we have already noticed as settled in the old Castilian literature, -and with irregularities like those found in the whole class of poems -to which it belongs. Its subject is Joseph, the son of Jacob; but -there are two circumstances which distinguish it from all the other -narrative poetry of the period, and render it curious and important. -The first<span class="pagenum" id="Page_95">[p. 95]</span> is, that, -though composed in the Spanish language, it is written wholly in the -Arabic character, and has, therefore, all the appearance of an Arabic -manuscript; to which should be added the fact, that the metre and -spelling are accommodated to the force of the Arabic vowels, so that, -if the only manuscript of it now known to exist be not the original, -it must still have been originally written in the same manner. The -other singular circumstance is, that the story of the poem, which is -the familiar one of Joseph and his brethren, is not told according to -the original in our Hebrew Scriptures, but according to the shorter -and less interesting version in the eleventh chapter of the Koran, -with occasional variations and additions, some of which are due to -the fanciful expounders of the Koran, while others seem to be of the -author’s own invention. These two circumstances taken together leave -no reasonable doubt that the writer of the poem was one of the many -Moriscos who, remaining at the North after the body of the nation -had been driven southward, had forgotten their native language and -adopted that of their conquerors, though their religion and culture -still continued to be Arabic.<a id="FNanchor_152" href="#Footnote_152" -class="fnanchor">[152]</a></p> - -<p>The manuscript of the “Poem of Joseph” is imperfect, both at -the beginning and at the end. Not much of it, however, seems to be -lost. It opens with the jealousy of the brothers of Joseph at his -dream, and<span class="pagenum" id="Page_96">[p. 96]</span> their -solicitation of their father to let him go with them to the field.</p> - -<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> -<p class="i0">Then up and spake his sons: · “Sire, do not deem it so;</p> -<p class="i0">Ten brethren are we here, · this very well you know;—</p> -<p class="i0">That we should all be traitors, · and treat him as a foe,</p> -<p class="i0">You either will not fear, · or you will not let him go.</p> -<p class="i0"> </p> -<p class="i0">“But this is what we thought, · as our Maker knows above:</p> -<p class="i0">That the child might gain more knowledge, · and with it gain our love,</p> -<p class="i0">To show him all our shepherd’s craft, · as with flocks and herds we move;—</p> -<p class="i0">But still the power is thine to grant, · and thine to disapprove.”</p> -<p class="i0"> </p> -<p class="i0">And then they said so much · with words so smooth and fair,</p> -<p class="i0">And promised him so faithfully · with words of pious care,</p> -<p class="i0">That he gave them up his child; · but bade them first beware,</p> -<p class="i0">And bring him quickly back again, · unharmed by any snare.<a id="FNanchor_153" href="#Footnote_153" class="fnanchor">[153]</a></p> -</div></div> - -<p>When the brothers have consummated their treason, and sold Joseph to -a caravan of Egyptian merchants, the story goes on much as it does in -the Koran. The fair Zuleikha, or Zuleia, who answers to Potiphar’s wife -in the Hebrew Scriptures, and who figures largely in Mohammedan poetry, -fills a space more ample than usual in the fancies of the present poem. -Joseph, too, is a more considerable personage. He is adopted as the -king’s son, and made a king in the land; and the dreams of the real -king, the years of plenty and famine, the journeyings of the brothers -to Egypt, their recognition by Joseph, and his message to Jacob, with -the grief of the latter that Benjamin did not return, at which the -manuscript breaks off, are much amplified, in the Oriental manner, and -made to sound like passages<span class="pagenum" id="Page_97">[p. -97]</span> from “Antar,” or the “Arabian Nights,” rather than from the -touching and beautiful story to which we have been accustomed from our -childhood.</p> - -<p>Among the inventions of the author is a conversation which -the wolf—who is brought in by his false brethren, as the animal -that had killed Joseph—holds with Jacob.<a id="FNanchor_154" -href="#Footnote_154" class="fnanchor">[154]</a> Another is the -Eastern fancy, that the measure by which Joseph distributed the -corn, and which was made of gold and precious stones, would, when -put to his ear, inform him whether the persons present were guilty -of falsehood to him.<a id="FNanchor_155" href="#Footnote_155" -class="fnanchor">[155]</a> But the following incident, which, -like that of Joseph’s parting in a spirit of tender forgiveness -from his brethren<a id="FNanchor_156" href="#Footnote_156" -class="fnanchor">[156]</a> when they sold him, is added to the -narrative of the Koran, will better illustrate the general tone of the -poem, as well as the general powers of the poet.</p> - -<p>On the first night after the outrage, Jusuf, as he is called in the -poem, when travelling along in charge of a negro, passes a cemetery on -a hill-side where his mother lies buried.</p> - -<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> -<p class="i0">And when the negro heeded not, · that guarded him behind,</p> -<p class="i0">From off the camel Jusuf sprang, · on which he rode confined,</p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_98">[p. 98]</span> -<p class="i0">And hastened, with all speed, · his mother’s grave to find,</p> -<p class="i0">Where he knelt and pardon sought, · to relieve his troubled mind.</p> -<p class="i0"> </p> -<p class="i0">He cried, “God’s grace be with thee still, · O Lady mother dear!</p> -<p class="i0">O mother, you would sorrow, · if you looked upon me here;</p> -<p class="i0">For my neck is bound with chains, · and I live in grief and fear,</p> -<p class="i0">Like a traitor by my brethren sold, · like a captive to the spear.</p> -<p class="i0"> </p> -<p class="i0">“They have sold me! they have sold me! · though I never did them harm;</p> -<p class="i0">They have torn me from my father, · from his strong and living arm,</p> -<p class="i0">By art and cunning they enticed me, · and by falsehood’s guilty charm,</p> -<p class="i0">And I go a base-bought captive, · full of sorrow and alarm.”</p> -<p class="i0"> </p> -<p class="i0">But now the negro looked about, · and knew that he was gone,</p> -<p class="i0">For no man could be seen, · and the camel came alone;</p> -<p class="i0">So he turned his sharpened ear, · and caught the wailing tone,</p> -<p class="i0">Where Jusuf, by his mother’s grave, · lay making heavy moan.</p> -<p class="i0"> </p> -<p class="i0">And the negro hurried up, · and gave him there a blow;</p> -<p class="i0">So quick and cruel was it, · that it instant laid him low;</p> -<p class="i0">“A base-born wretch,” he cried aloud, · “a base-born thief art thou;</p> -<p class="i0">Thy masters, when we purchased thee, · they told us it was so.”</p> -<p class="i0"> </p> -<p class="i0">But Jusuf answered straight, · “Nor thief nor wretch am I;</p> -<p class="i0">My mother’s grave is this, · and for pardon here I cry;</p> -<p class="i0">I cry to Allah’s power, · and send my prayer on high,</p> -<p class="i0">That, since I never wronged thee, · his curse may on thee lie.”</p> -<p class="i0"> </p> -<p class="i0">And then all night they travelled on, · till dawned the coming day,</p> -<p class="i0">When the land was sore tormented · with a whirlwind’s furious sway;</p> -<p class="i0">The sun grew dark at noon, · their hearts sunk in dismay,</p> -<p class="i0">And they knew not, with their merchandise, · to seek or make their way.<a id="FNanchor_157" href="#Footnote_157" class="fnanchor">[157]</a></p> -</div></div> - -<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_99">[p. 99]</span>The age and -origin of this remarkable poem can be settled only by internal -evidence. From this it seems probable that it was written in Aragon, -because it contains many words and phrases peculiar to the border -country of the Provençals,<a id="FNanchor_158" href="#Footnote_158" -class="fnanchor">[158]</a> and that it dates from the latter half of -the fourteenth century, because the four-fold rhyme is hardly found -later in such verses, and because the rudeness of the language might -indicate even an earlier period, if the tale had come from Castile. But -in whatever period we may place it, it is a curious and interesting -production. It has the directness and simplicity of the age to which -it is attributed, mingled sometimes with a tenderness rarely found -in ages so violent. Its pastoral air, too, and its preservation of -Oriental manners, harmonize well with the Arabian feelings that -prevail throughout the work; while in its spirit, and occasionally -in its moral tone, it shows the confusion of the two religions -which then prevailed in Spain, and that mixture of the Eastern and -Western forms of civilization which afterwards gives somewhat of its -coloring to Spanish poetry.<a id="FNanchor_159" href="#Footnote_159" -class="fnanchor">[159]</a></p> - -<p>The last poem belonging to these earliest specimens of Castilian -literature is the “Rimado de Palacio,” on the duties of kings and -nobles in the government of the state, with sketches of the manners and -vices of the times, which, as the poem maintains, it is the duty of -the great to rebuke and reform. It is chiefly written in the four-line -stanzas of the period to which it belongs; and, beginning with a -penitential confession of its author, goes on with a discussion of the -ten command<span class="pagenum" id="Page_100">[p. 100]</span>ments, -the seven deadly sins, the seven works of mercy, and other religious -subjects; after which it treats of the government of a state, of royal -counsellors, of merchants, of men of learning, tax-gatherers, and -others; and then ends, as it began, with exercises of devotion. Its -author is Pedro Lopez de Ayala, the chronicler, of whom it is enough -to say here, that he was among the most distinguished Spaniards of -his time, that he held some of the highest offices of the kingdom -under Peter the Cruel, Henry the Second, John the First, and Henry -the Third, and that he died in 1407, at the age of seventy-five.<a -id="FNanchor_160" href="#Footnote_160" class="fnanchor">[160]</a></p> - -<p>The “Rimado de Palacio,” which may be translated “Court Rhymes,” was -the production of different periods of Ayala’s life. Twice he marks the -year in which he was writing, and from these dates we know that parts -of it were certainly composed in 1398 and 1404, while yet another part -seems to have been written during his imprisonment in England, which -followed the defeat of Henry of Trastamara by the Duke of Lancaster, in -1367. On the whole, therefore, the Rimado de Palacio is to be placed -near the conclusion of the fourteenth century, and, by its author’s -sufferings in an English prison, reminds us both of the Duke of Orleans -and of James the First of Scotland, who, at the same time and under -similar circumstances, showed a poetical spirit not unlike that of the -great Chancellor of Castile.</p> - -<p>In some of its subdivisions, particularly in those that have a -lyrical tendency, the Rimado resembles some of the lighter poems of -the Archpriest of Hita. Others are composed with care and gravity, and -express the<span class="pagenum" id="Page_101">[p. 101]</span> solemn -thoughts that filled him during his captivity. But, in general, it has -a quiet, didactic tone, such as beseems its subject and its age; one, -however, in which we occasionally find a satirical spirit that could -not be suppressed, when the old statesman discusses the manners that -offended him. Thus, speaking of the <i>Letrados</i>, or lawyers, he says:<a -id="FNanchor_161" href="#Footnote_161" class="fnanchor">[161]</a>—</p> - -<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> -<p class="i0">When entering on a lawsuit, · if you ask for their advice,</p> -<p class="i0">They sit down very solemnly, · their brows fall in a trice.</p> -<p class="i0">“A question grave is this,” they say, · “and asks for labor nice;</p> -<p class="i0">To the Council it must go, · and much management implies.</p> -<p class="i0"> </p> -<p class="i0">“I think, perhaps, in time, · I can help you in the thing,</p> -<p class="i0">By dint of labor long · and grievous studying;</p> -<p class="i0">But other duties I must leave, · away all business fling,</p> -<p class="i0">Your case alone must study, · and to you alone must cling.”<a id="FNanchor_162" href="#Footnote_162" class="fnanchor">[162]</a></p> -</div></div> - -<p>Somewhat farther on, when he speaks of justice, whose administration -had been so lamentably neglected in the civil wars during which -he lived, he takes his graver tone, and speaks with a wisdom and -gentleness we should hardly have expected:—</p> - -<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> -<p class="i0">True justice is a noble thing, · that merits all renown;</p> -<p class="i0">It fills the land with people, · checks the guilty with its frown;</p> -<p class="i0">But kings, that should uphold its power, · in thoughtlessness look down,</p> -<p class="i0">And forget the precious jewel · that gems their honored crown.</p> -<p class="i0"> </p> -<p class="i0">And many think by cruelty · its duties to fulfil,</p> -<p class="i0">But their wisdom all is cunning, · for justice doth no ill;</p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_102">[p. 102]</span> -<p class="i0">With pity and with truth it dwells, · and faithful men will still</p> -<p class="i0">From punishment and pain turn back, · as sore against their will.<a id="FNanchor_163" href="#Footnote_163" class="fnanchor">[163]</a></p> -</div></div> - -<p>There is naturally a good deal in the Rimado de Palacio that savors -of statesmanship; as, for instance, nearly all that relates to royal -favorites, to war, and to the manners of the palace; but the general -air of the poem, or rather of the different short poems that make it -up, is fairly represented in the preceding passages. It is grave, -gentle, and didactic, with now and then a few lines of a simple and -earnest poetical feeling, which seem to belong quite as much to their -age as to their author.</p> - - -<p class="mt2">We have now gone over a considerable portion of the -earliest Castilian literature, and quite completed an examination of -that part of it which, at first epic, and afterwards didactic, in its -tone, is found in long, irregular verses, with quadruple rhymes. It is -all curious. Much of it is picturesque and interesting; and when, to -what has been already examined, we shall have added the ballads and -chronicles, the romances of chivalry and the drama, the whole will -be found to constitute a broad basis, on which the genuine literary -culture of Spain has rested ever since.</p> - -<p>But, before we go farther, we must pause an instant, and notice -some of the peculiarities of the period we have just considered. It -extends from a little before the year 1200 to a little after the year -1400; and, both in<span class="pagenum" id="Page_103">[p. 103]</span> -its poetry and prose, is marked by features not to be mistaken. Some -of these features were peculiar and national; others were not. Thus, -in Provence, which was long united with Aragon, and exercised an -influence throughout the whole Peninsula, the popular poetry, from its -light-heartedness, was called the <i>Gaya Sciencia</i>, and was essentially -unlike the grave and measured tone, heard over every other, on the -Spanish side of the mountains; in the more northern parts of France, -a garrulous, story-telling spirit was paramount; and in Italy, Dante, -Petrarca, and Boccaccio had just appeared, unlike all that had preceded -them, and all that was anywhere contemporary with their glory. On the -other hand, however, several of the characteristics of the earliest -Castilian literature, such as the chronicling and didactic spirit of -most of its long poems, its protracted, irregular verses, and its -redoubled rhymes, belong to the old Spanish bards in common with those -of the countries we have just enumerated, where, at the same period, -a poetical spirit was struggling for a place in the elements of their -unsettled civilization.</p> - -<p>But there are two traits of the earliest Spanish literature which -are so separate and peculiar, that they must be noticed from the -outset,—religious faith and knightly loyalty,—traits which are hardly -less apparent in the “Partidas” of Alfonso the Wise, in the stories of -Don John Manuel, in the loose wit of the Archpriest of Hita, and in the -worldly wisdom of the Chancellor Ayala, than in the professedly devout -poems of Berceo and in the professedly chivalrous chronicles of the Cid -and Fernan Gonzalez. They are, therefore, from the earliest period, to -be marked among the prominent features in Spanish literature.</p> - -<p>Nor should we be surprised at this. The Spanish<span -class="pagenum" id="Page_104">[p. 104]</span> national character, as -it has existed from its first development down to our own days, was -mainly formed in the earlier part of that solemn contest which began -the moment the Moors landed beneath the Rock of Gibraltar, and which -cannot be said to have ended, until, in the time of Philip the Third, -the last remnants of their unhappy race were cruelly driven from the -shores which their fathers, nine centuries before, had so unjustifiably -invaded. During this contest, and especially during the two or three -dark centuries when the earliest Spanish poetry appeared, nothing -but an invincible religious faith, and a no less invincible loyalty -to their own princes, could have sustained the Christian Spaniards -in their disheartening struggle against their infidel oppressors. It -was, therefore, a stern necessity which made these two high qualities -elements of the Spanish national character,—a character all whose -energies were for ages devoted to the one grand object of their prayers -as Christians and their hopes as patriots, the expulsion of their hated -invaders.</p> - -<p>But Castilian poetry was, from the first, to an extraordinary -degree, an outpouring of the popular feeling and character. Tokens -of religious submission and knightly fidelity, akin to each other in -their birth and often relying on each other for strength in their -trials, are, therefore, among its earliest attributes. We must not, -then, be surprised, if we hereafter find, that submission to the Church -and loyalty to the king constantly break through the mass of Spanish -literature, and breathe their spirit from nearly every portion of -it,—not, indeed, without such changes in the mode of expression as -the changed condition of the country in successive ages demanded, but -still always so strong in their original attributes as to show that -they survive<span class="pagenum" id="Page_105">[p. 105]</span> every -convulsion of the state and never cease to move onward by their first -impulse. In truth, while their very early development leaves no doubt -that they are national, their nationality makes it all but inevitable -that they should become permanent.</p> - -<hr class="chap0" /> - - -<div class="chapter pt3" id="Ch_1_6"> - <p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_106">[p. 106]</span></p> - <h3>CHAPTER VI.</h3> - <p class="subh3 hang"><span class="smcap">Four Classes of the - more popular early Literature. — First Class, Ballads. — Oldest - Form of Castilian Poetry. — Theories about their Origin. — Not - Arabic. — Their Metrical Form. — Redondillas. — Asonantes. — - National. — Spread of the Ballad Form. — Name. — Early Notices - of Ballads. — Ballads of the Sixteenth Century, and later. - — Traditional and long unwritten. — Appeared first in the - Cancioneros, then in the Romanceros. — The old Collections the - best.</span></p> -</div> - -<p><span class="smcap">Everywhere</span> in Europe, during the period -we have just gone over, the courts of the different sovereigns were -the principal centres of refinement and civilization. From accidental -circumstances, this was peculiarly the case in Spain, during the -thirteenth and fourteenth centuries. On the throne of Castile, or -within its shadow, we have seen a succession of such poets and -prose-writers as Alfonso the Wise, Sancho, his son, Don John Manuel, -his nephew, and the Chancellor Ayala, to say nothing of Saint -Ferdinand, who preceded them all, and who, perhaps, gave the first -decisive impulse to letters in the centre of Spain and at the North.<a -id="FNanchor_164" href="#Footnote_164" class="fnanchor">[164]</a></p> - -<p>But the literature produced or encouraged by these<span -class="pagenum" id="Page_107">[p. 107]</span> and other distinguished -men, or by the higher clergy, who, with them, were the leaders of the -state, was by no means the only literature that then existed within the -barrier of the Pyrenees. On the contrary, the spirit of poetry was, -to an extraordinary degree, abroad throughout the whole Peninsula, so -far as it had been rescued from the Moors, animating and elevating all -classes of its Christian population. Their own romantic history, whose -great events had been singularly the results of popular impulse, and -bore everywhere the bold impress of the popular character, had breathed -into the Spanish people this spirit; a spirit which, beginning with -Pelayo, had been sustained by the appearance, from time to time, of -such heroic forms as Fernan Gonzalez, Bernardo del Carpio, and the Cid. -At the point of time, therefore, at which we are now arrived, a more -popular literature, growing directly out of the enthusiasm which had so -long pervaded the whole mass of the Spanish people, began naturally to -appear in the country, and to assert for itself a place, which, in some -of its forms, it has successfully maintained ever since.</p> - -<p>What, however, is thus essentially popular in its sources and -character,—what, instead of going out from the more elevated classes -of the nation, was neglected or discountenanced by them,—is, from its -very wildness, little likely to take well-defined forms, or to be -traced, from its origin, by the dates and other proofs which accompany -such portions of the national literature as fell earlier under the -protection of the higher orders of society. But though we may not be -able to make out an exact arrangement or a detailed history of what -was necessarily so free and always so little watched, it can still -be distributed into four different classes,<span class="pagenum" -id="Page_108">[p. 108]</span> and will afford tolerable materials for a -notice of its progress and condition under each.</p> - -<p>These four classes are, first, the <span -class="smcap">Ballads</span>, or the poetry, both narrative and -lyrical, of the common people, from the earliest times; second, -the <span class="smcap">Chronicles</span>, or the half-genuine, -half-fabulous histories of the great events and heroes of the national -annals, which, though originally begun by authority of the state, -were always deeply imbued with the popular feelings and character; -third, the <span class="smcap">Romances of Chivalry</span>, intimately -connected with both the others, and, after a time, as passionately -admired as either by the whole nation; and, fourth, the <span -class="smcap">Drama</span>, which, in its origin, has always been a -popular and religious amusement, and was hardly less so in Spain than -it was in Greece or in France.</p> - -<p>These four classes compose what was generally most valued in Spanish -literature during the latter part of the fourteenth century, the whole -of the fifteenth, and much of the sixteenth. They rested on the deep -foundations of the national character, and therefore, by their very -nature, were opposed to the Provençal, the Italian, and the courtly -schools, which flourished during the same period, and which will be -subsequently examined.</p> - - -<p class="mt2"><span class="smcap">The Ballads.</span>—We begin -with the ballads, because it cannot reasonably be doubted that -poetry, in the present Spanish language, appeared earliest in the -ballad form. And the first question that occurs in relation to them -is the obvious one, why this was the case. It has been suggested, -in reply, that there was probably a tendency to this most popular -form of composition in Spain at an age even much more remote than -that of<span class="pagenum" id="Page_109">[p. 109]</span> the -origin of the present Spanish language itself;<a id="FNanchor_165" -href="#Footnote_165" class="fnanchor">[165]</a> that such a tendency -may, perhaps, be traced back to those indigenous bards of whom only a -doubtful tradition remained in the time of Strabo;<a id="FNanchor_166" -href="#Footnote_166" class="fnanchor">[166]</a> and that it may be -seen to emerge again in the Leonine and other rhymed Latin verses -of the Gothic period,<a id="FNanchor_167" href="#Footnote_167" -class="fnanchor">[167]</a> or in that more ancient and obscure Basque -poetry, of which the little that has been preserved to us is thought to -breathe a spirit countenancing such conjectures.<a id="FNanchor_168" -href="#Footnote_168" class="fnanchor">[168]</a> But these and similar -suggestions have so slight a foundation in recorded facts, that they -can be little relied on. The one more frequently advanced is, that -the Spanish ballads, such as we now have them, are imitations from -the narrative and lyrical poetry of the Arabs, with which the whole -southern part of Spain for ages resounded; and that, in fact, the -very form in which Spanish ballads still appear is Arabic, and is to -be traced to the Arabs in the East, at a period not only anterior to -the invasion of Spain, but anterior to the age of the Prophet. This -is the theory of Conde.<a id="FNanchor_169" href="#Footnote_169" -class="fnanchor">[169]</a></p> - -<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_110">[p. 110]</span>But though, -from the air of historical pretension with which it presents itself, -there is something in this theory that bespeaks our favor, yet there -are strong reasons that forbid our assent to it. For the earliest of -the Spanish ballads, concerning which alone the question can arise, -have not at all the characteristics of an imitated literature. Not a -single Arabic original has been found for any one of them; nor, so -far as we know, has a single passage of Arabic poetry, or a single -phrase from any Arabic writer, entered directly into their composition. -On the contrary, their freedom, their energy, their Christian tone -and chivalrous loyalty, announce an originality and independence of -character that prevent us from believing they could have been in any -way materially indebted to the brilliant, but effeminate, literature -of the nation to whose spirit every thing Spanish had, when they first -appeared, been for ages implacably opposed. It seems, therefore, that -they must, of their own nature, be as original as any poetry of modern -times; containing, as they do, within themselves proofs that they are -Spanish by their birth, natives of the soil, and stained with all its -variations. For a long time, too, subsequent to that of their first -appearance, they continued to exhibit the same elements of nationality; -so that, until we approach the fall of Granada, we find in them neither -a Moorish tone, nor Moorish subjects, nor Moorish adventures; nothing, -in short, to justify us in supposing them to have been more indebted -to the culture of the Arabs than was any other portion of the early -Spanish literature.</p> - -<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_111">[p. 111]</span>Indeed, it does -not seem reasonable to seek, in the East or elsewhere, a foreign origin -for the mere <i>form</i> of the Spanish ballads. Their metrical structure is -so simple, that we can readily believe it to have presented itself as -soon as verse of any sort was felt to be a popular want. They consist -merely of those eight-syllable lines which are composed with great -facility in other languages as well as the Castilian, and which in the -old ballads are the more easy, as the number of feet prescribed for -each verse is little regarded.<a id="FNanchor_170" href="#Footnote_170" -class="fnanchor">[170]</a> Sometimes, though rarely, they are broken -into stanzas of four lines, thence called <i>redondillas</i> or roundelays; -and some of them have rhymes in the second and fourth lines of each -stanza, or in the first and fourth, as in the similar stanzas of -other modern languages. Their prominent peculiarity, however, and one -which they have succeeded in impressing upon a very large portion of -all the national poetry, is one which, being found to prevail<span -class="pagenum" id="Page_112">[p. 112]</span> in no other literature, -may be claimed to have its origin in Spain, and becomes, therefore, an -important circumstance in the history of Spanish poetical culture.<a -id="FNanchor_171" href="#Footnote_171" class="fnanchor">[171]</a></p> - -<p id="asonante">The peculiarity to which we refer is that of -the <i>asonante</i>,—an imperfect rhyme confined to the vowels, and -beginning with the last accented one in the line; so that it -embraces sometimes only the very last syllable, and sometimes -goes back to the penultimate or even the antepenultimate. It is -contradistinguished from the <i>consonante</i>, or full rhyme, which is -made both by the consonants and vowels in the concluding syllable -or syllables of the line, and which is, therefore, just what -<i>rhyme</i> is in English.<a id="FNanchor_172" href="#Footnote_172" -class="fnanchor">[172]</a> Thus, <i>feróz</i> and <i>furór</i>, <i>cása</i> and -<i>abárca</i>, <i>infámia</i> and <i>contrária</i>, are good <i>asonantes</i> in the -first and third ballads of the Cid, just as <i>mál</i> and <i>desleál</i>, -<i>voláre</i> and <i>caçáre</i>, are good <i>consonantes</i> in the old ballad -of the Marquis of Mantua, cited by Don Quixote. The <i>asonante</i>, -therefore, is something be<span class="pagenum" id="Page_113">[p. -113]</span>tween our blank verse and our rhyme, and the art of using -it is easily acquired in a language like the Castilian, abounding -in vowels, and always giving to the same vowel the same value.<a -id="FNanchor_173" href="#Footnote_173" class="fnanchor">[173]</a> -In the old ballads, it generally recurs with every other line; and, -from the facility with which it can be found, the same <i>asonante</i> -is frequently continued through the whole of the poem in which it -occurs, whether the poem be longer or shorter. But even with this -embarrassment, the structure of the ballad is so simple, that, -while Sarmiento has undertaken to show how Spanish prose from -the twelfth century downwards is often written unconsciously in -eight-syllable <i>asonantes</i>,<a id="FNanchor_174" href="#Footnote_174" -class="fnanchor">[174]</a> Sepúlveda in the sixteenth century -actually converted large portions of the old chronicles into the same -ballad measure, with little change of their original phraseology;<a -id="FNanchor_175" href="#Footnote_175" class="fnanchor">[175]</a> two -circumstances which, taken together, show indisputably that there can -be no wide interval between the common structure of Spanish prose -and this earliest form of Spanish verse. If to<span class="pagenum" -id="Page_114">[p. 114]</span> all this we add the national -recitatives in which the ballads have been sung down to our own -days, and the national dances by which they have been accompanied,<a -id="FNanchor_176" href="#Footnote_176" class="fnanchor">[176]</a> we -shall probably be persuaded, not only that the form of the Spanish -ballad is as purely national in its origin as the <i>asonante</i>, -which is its prominent characteristic, but that this form is more -happily fitted to its especial purposes, and more easy in its -practical application to them, than any other into which popular -poetry has fallen in ancient or modern times.<a id="FNanchor_177" -href="#Footnote_177" class="fnanchor">[177]</a></p> - -<p>A metrical form so natural and obvious became a favorite at -once, and continued so. From the ballads it soon passed into other -departments of the national poetry, especially the lyrical. At a later -period, the great<span class="pagenum" id="Page_115">[p. 115]</span> -mass of the true Spanish drama came to rest upon it; and before the -end of the seventeenth century more verses had probably been written -in it than in all the other measures used by Spanish poets. Lope de -Vega declared it to be fitted for all styles of composition, even the -gravest; and his judgment was sanctioned in his own time, and has -been justified in ours, by the application of this peculiar form of -verse to long epic stories.<a id="FNanchor_178" href="#Footnote_178" -class="fnanchor">[178]</a> The eight-syllable <i>asonante</i>, therefore, -may be considered as now known and used in every department of Spanish -poetry; and since it has, from the first, been a chief element in that -poetry, we may well believe it will continue such as long as what is -most original in the national genius continues to be cultivated.</p> - -<p>Some of the ballads embodied in this genuinely Castilian measure -are, no doubt, very ancient. That such ballads existed in the -earliest times, their very name, <i>Romances</i>, may intimate; since -it seems to imply that they were, at some period, the only poetry -known in the <i>Romance</i> language of Spain; and such a period can have -been no other than the one immediately following the formation of -the language itself. Popular poetry of some sort—and more probably -ballad poetry than any other—was sung concerning the achievements of -the Cid as early as 1147.<a id="FNanchor_179" href="#Footnote_179" -class="fnanchor">[179]</a> A century later than this,<span -class="pagenum" id="Page_116">[p. 116]</span> but earlier than the -prose of the “Fuero Juzgo,” Saint Ferdinand, after the capture of -Seville in 1248, gave allotments or <i>repartimientos</i> to two poets -who had been with him during the siege, Nicolas <i>de los Romances</i>, -and Domingo Abad <i>de los Romances</i>, the first of whom continued -for some time afterwards to inhabit the rescued city and exercise -his vocation as a poet.<a id="FNanchor_180" href="#Footnote_180" -class="fnanchor">[180]</a> In the next reign, or between 1252 and -1280, such poets are again mentioned. A <i>joglaressa</i>, or female -ballad-singer, is introduced into the poem of “Apollonius,” which -is supposed to have been written soon after the year 1250;<a -id="FNanchor_181" href="#Footnote_181" class="fnanchor">[181]</a> -and in the Code of Laws of Alfonso the Tenth, prepared about -1260, good knights are commanded to listen to no poetical tales -of the ballad-singers except such as relate to feats of arms.<a -id="FNanchor_182" href="#Footnote_182" class="fnanchor">[182]</a> -In the “General Chronicle,” also, compiled soon afterwards by the -same prince, mention is made more than once of poetical gestes or -tales; of “what the ballad-singers (<i>juglares</i>) sing in their chants, -and tell in their tales”; and “of what we hear the ballad-singers -tell in their<span class="pagenum" id="Page_117">[p. 117]</span> -chants”;—implying that the achievements of Bernardo del Carpio and -Charlemagne, to which these phrases refer, were as familiar in the -popular poetry used in the composition of this fine old chronicle as -we know they have been since to the whole Spanish people through the -very ballads we still possess.<a id="FNanchor_183" href="#Footnote_183" -class="fnanchor">[183]</a></p> - -<p>It seems, therefore, not easy to escape from the conclusion, to -which Argote de Molina, the most sagacious of the early Spanish -critics, arrived nearly three centuries ago, that “in these old -ballads is, in truth, perpetuated the memory of times past, and -that they constitute a good part of those ancient Castilian -stories used by King Alfonso in his history”;<a id="FNanchor_184" -href="#Footnote_184" class="fnanchor">[184]</a> a conclusion at which -we should arrive, even now, merely by reading with care large portions -of the Chronicle itself.<a id="FNanchor_185" href="#Footnote_185" -class="fnanchor">[185]</a></p> - -<p>One more fact will conclude what we know of their early history. -It is, that ballads were found among the poetry of Don John Manuel, -the nephew of Alfonso the Tenth, which Argote de Molina possessed, -and intended to publish, but which is now lost.<a id="FNanchor_186" -href="#Footnote_186" class="fnanchor">[186]</a> This brings our slight -knowledge of the whole subject down to the death of Don John in 1347. -But from this period—the same with that of the Archpriest of Hita—we -almost lose sight, not only of the ballads, but of all genuine Spanish -poetry, whose strains seem hardly to have been heard during the horrors -of the reign of Peter the Cruel, the contested succession of Henry of -Trastamara,<span class="pagenum" id="Page_118">[p. 118]</span> and -the Portuguese wars of John the First. And even when its echoes come -to us again in the weak reign of John the Second, which stretches down -to the middle of the fifteenth century, it presents itself with few -of the attributes of the old national character.<a id="FNanchor_187" -href="#Footnote_187" class="fnanchor">[187]</a> It is become of the -court, courtly; and therefore, though the old and true-hearted ballads -may have lost none of the popular favor, and were certainly preserved -by the fidelity of popular tradition, we find no further distinct -record of them until the end of this century and the beginning of the -one that followed, when the mass of the people, whose feelings they -embodied, rose to such a degree of consideration, that their peculiar -poetry came into the place to which it was entitled, and which it -has maintained ever since. This was in the reigns of Ferdinand and -Isabella, and of Charles the Fifth.</p> - -<p>But these few historical notices of ballad poetry are, except -those which point to its early origin, too slight to be of much -value. Indeed, until after the middle of the sixteenth century, it is -difficult to find ballads written by known authors; so that, when we -speak of the Old Spanish Ballads, we do not refer to the few whose -period can be settled with some accuracy, but to the great mass found -in the “Romanceros Generales” and elsewhere, whose authors and dates -are alike unknown. This mass consists of above a thousand old poems, -unequal in length and still more unequal in merit, composed between the -period when verse first appeared in Spain and the time when such verse -as that of the ballads was thought worthy to be written down; the whole -bearing to the mass of the Spanish people, their<span class="pagenum" -id="Page_119">[p. 119]</span> feelings, passions, and character, the -same relations that a single ballad bears to the character of the -individual author who produced it.</p> - -<p>For a long time, of course, these primitive national ballads existed -only in the memories of the common people, from whom they sprang, and -were preserved through successive ages and long traditions only by the -interests and feelings that originally gave them birth. We cannot, -therefore, reasonably hope that we now read any of them exactly as they -were first composed and sung, or that there are many to which we can -assign a definite age with any good degree of probability. No doubt, -we may still possess some which, with little change in their simple -thoughts and melody, were among the earliest breathings of that popular -enthusiasm which, between the twelfth and the fifteenth centuries, -was carrying the Christian Spaniards onward to the emancipation of -their country; ballads which were heard amidst the valleys of the -Sierra Morena, or on the banks of the Turia and the Guadalquivir, with -the first tones of the language that has since spread itself through -the whole Peninsula. But the idle minstrel, who, in such troubled -times, sought a precarious subsistence from cottage to cottage, or -the thoughtless soldier, who, when the battle was over, sung its -achievements to his guitar at the door of his tent, could not be -expected to look beyond the passing moment; so that, if their unskilled -verses were preserved at all, they must have been preserved by those -who repeated them from memory, changing their tone and language with -the changed feelings of the times and events that chanced to recall -them. Whatever, then, belongs to this earliest period belongs, at the -same time, to the unchronicled popular life and character of which it -was a part; and<span class="pagenum" id="Page_120">[p. 120]</span> -although many of the ballads thus produced may have survived to our own -day, many more, undoubtedly, lie buried with the poetical hearts that -gave them birth.</p> - -<p>This, indeed, is the great difficulty in relation to all researches -concerning the oldest Spanish ballads. The very excitement of the -national spirit that warmed them into life was the result of an age -of such violence and suffering, that the ballads it produced failed -to command such an interest as would cause them to be written down. -Individual poems, like that of the Cid, or the works of individual -authors, like those of the Archpriest of Hita or Don John Manuel, were, -of course, cared for, and, perhaps, from time to time transcribed. -But the popular poetry was neglected. Even when the special -“Cancioneros”—which were collections of whatever verses the person who -formed them happened to fancy, or was able to find<a id="FNanchor_188" -href="#Footnote_188" class="fnanchor">[188]</a>—began to come in -fashion, during the reign of John the Second, the bad taste of the time -caused the old national literature to be so entirely overlooked, that -not a single ballad occurs in either of them.</p> - -<p>The first printed ballads, therefore, are to be sought in the -earliest edition of the “Cancioneros Generales,” compiled by Fernando -del Castillo, and printed at Valencia in 1511. Their number, including -fragments and imitations, is thirty-seven, of which nineteen are -by authors whose names are given, and who, like Don John Manuel of -Portugal, Alonso de Cartagena, Juan de la Enzina, and Diego de San -Pedro, are known to have flourished in the period between 1450 and -1500, or<span class="pagenum" id="Page_121">[p. 121]</span> who, like -Lope de Sosa, appear so often in the collections of that age, that -they may be fairly assumed to have belonged to it. Of the remainder, -several seem much more ancient, and are, therefore, more curious and -important.</p> - -<p>The first, for instance, called “Count Claros,” is the fragment -of an old ballad afterwards printed in full. It is inserted in this -Cancionero on account of an elaborate gloss made on it in the Provençal -manner by Francisco de Leon, as well as on account of an imitation of -it by Lope de Sosa, and a gloss upon the imitation by Soria; all of -which follow, and leave little doubt that the ballad itself had long -been known and admired. The fragment, which alone is curious, consists -of a dialogue between the Count Claros and his uncle, the Archbishop, -on a subject and in a tone which made the name of the Count, as a true -lover, pass almost into a proverb.</p> - -<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> -<p class="i0">“It grieves me, Count, it grieves my heart,</p> -<p class="i2">That thus they urge thy fate;</p> -<p class="i0">Since this fond guilt upon thy part</p> -<p class="i2">Was still no crime of state.</p> -<p class="i0">For all the errors love can bring</p> -<p class="i2">Deserve not mortal pain;</p> -<p class="i0">And I have knelt before the king,</p> -<p class="i2">To free thee from thy chain.</p> -<p class="i0">But he, the king, with angry pride</p> -<p class="i2">Would hear no word I spoke;</p> -<p class="i0">‘The sentence is pronounced,’ he cried;</p> -<p class="i2">‘Who may its power revoke?’</p> -<p class="i0">The Infanta’s love you won, he says,</p> -<p class="i2">When you her guardian were.</p> -<p class="i0">O cousin, less, if you were wise,</p> -<p class="i2">For ladies you would care.</p> -<p class="i0">For he that labors most for them</p> -<p class="i2">Your fate will always prove;</p> -<p class="i0">Since death or ruin none escape,</p> -<p class="i2">Who trust their dangerous love.”</p> -<p class="i0"><span class="pagenum" id="Page_122">[p. 122]</span>“O uncle, uncle, words like these</p> -<p class="i2">A true heart never hears;</p> -<p class="i0">For I would rather die to please</p> -<p class="i2">Than live and not be theirs.”<a id="FNanchor_189" href="#Footnote_189" class="fnanchor">[189]</a></p> -</div></div> - -<p>The next is also a fragment, and relates, with great simplicity, an -incident which belongs to the state of society that existed in Spain -between the thirteenth and sixteenth centuries, when the two races were -much mingled together and always in conflict.</p> - -<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> -<p class="i0">I was the Moorish maid, Morayma,</p> -<p class="i2">I was that maiden dark and fair,—</p> -<p class="i0">A Christian came, he seemed in sorrow,</p> -<p class="i2">Full of falsehood came he there.</p> -<p class="i0">Moorish he spoke,—he spoke it well,—</p> -<p class="i2">“Open the door, thou Moorish maid,</p> -<p class="i0">So shalt thou be by Allah blessed,</p> -<p class="i2">So shall I save my forfeit head.”</p> -<p class="i0">“But how can I, alone and weak,</p> -<p class="i2">Unbar, and know not who is there?”</p> -<p class="i0">“But I’m the Moor, the Moor Mazote,</p> -<p class="i2">The brother of thy mother dear.</p> -<p class="i0">A Christian fell beneath my hand,</p> -<p class="i2">The Alcalde comes, he comes apace,</p> -<p class="i0">And if thou open not thy door,</p> -<p class="i2">I perish here before thy face.”</p> -<p class="i0">I rose in haste, I rose in fear,</p> -<p class="i2">I seized my cloak, I missed my vest,</p> -<p class="i0">And, rushing to the fatal door,</p> -<p class="i2">I threw it wide at his behest.<a id="FNanchor_190" href="#Footnote_190" class="fnanchor">[190]</a></p> -</div></div> - -<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_123">[p. 123]</span>The next is -complete, and, from its early imitations and glosses, it must probably -be quite ancient. It begins “Fonte frida, Fonte frida,” and is, -perhaps, itself an imitation of “Rosa fresca, Rosa fresca,” another -of the early and very graceful lyrical ballads which were always so -popular.</p> - -<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> -<p class="i0">Cooling fountain, cooling fountain,</p> -<p class="i2">Cooling fountain, full of love!</p> -<p class="i0">Where the little birds all gather,</p> -<p class="i2">Thy refreshing power to prove;</p> -<p class="i0">All except the widowed turtle</p> -<p class="i2">Full of grief, the turtle-dove.</p> -<p class="i0">There the traitor nightingale</p> -<p class="i2">All by chance once passed along,</p> -<p class="i0">Uttering words of basest falsehood</p> -<p class="i2">In his guilty, treacherous song:</p> -<p class="i0">“If it please thee, gentle lady,</p> -<p class="i2">I thy servant-love would be.”</p> -<p class="i0">“Hence, begone, ungracious traitor,</p> -<p class="i2">Base deceiver, hence from me!</p> -<p class="i0">I nor rest upon green branches,</p> -<p class="i2">Nor amidst the meadow’s flowers;</p> -<p class="i0">The very wave my thirst that quenches</p> -<p class="i2">Seek I where it turbid pours.</p> -<p class="i0">No wedded love my soul shall know,</p> -<p class="i2">Lest children’s hearts my heart should win;</p> -<p class="i0">No pleasure would I seek for, no!</p> -<p class="i2">No consolation feel within;—</p> -<p class="i0">So leave me sad, thou enemy!</p> -<p class="i2">Thou foul and base deceiver, go!</p> -<p class="i0">For I thy love will never be,</p> -<p class="i2">Nor ever, false one, wed thee, no!”</p> -</div></div> - -<p>The parallel ballad of “Rosa fresca, Rosa fresca,” is<span -class="pagenum" id="Page_124">[p. 124]</span> no less simple and -characteristic; Rosa being the name of the lady-love.</p> - -<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> -<p class="i0">“Rose, fresh and fair, Rose, fresh and fair,</p> -<p class="i2">That with love so bright dost glow,</p> -<p class="i0">When within my arms I held thee,</p> -<p class="i2">I could never serve thee, no!</p> -<p class="i0">And now that I would gladly serve thee,</p> -<p class="i2">I no more can see thee, no!”</p> -<p class="i0"> </p> -<p class="i0">“The fault, my friend, the fault was thine,—</p> -<p class="i2">Thy fault alone, and not mine, no!</p> -<p class="i0">A message came,—the words you sent,—</p> -<p class="i2">Your servant brought it, well you know.</p> -<p class="i0">And naught of love, or loving bands,</p> -<p class="i2">But other words, indeed, he said:</p> -<p class="i0">That you, my friend, in Leon’s lands</p> -<p class="i2">A noble dame had long since wed;—</p> -<p class="i0">A lady fair, as fair could be;</p> -<p class="i0">Her children bright as flowers to see.”</p> -<p class="i0"> </p> -<p class="i0">“Who told that tale, who spoke those words,</p> -<p class="i2">No truth he spoke, my lady, no!</p> -<p class="i0">For Castile’s lands I never saw,</p> -<p class="i2">Of Leon’s mountains nothing know,</p> -<p class="i0">Save as a little child, I ween,</p> -<p class="i0">Too young to know what love should mean.”<a id="FNanchor_191" href="#Footnote_191" class="fnanchor">[191]</a></p> -</div></div> - -<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_125">[p. 125]</span>Several of -the other anonymous ballads in this little collection are not less -curious and ancient, among which may be noted those beginning, “Decidme -vos pensamiento,”—“Que por Mayo era por Mayo,”—and “Durandarte, -Durandarte,”—together with parts of those beginning, “Triste estaba -el caballero,” and “Amara yo una Señora.”<a id="FNanchor_192" -href="#Footnote_192" class="fnanchor">[192]</a> Most of the rest, and -all whose authors are known, are of less value and belong to a later -period.</p> - -<p>The Cancionero of Castillo, where they appeared, was enlarged and -altered in eight subsequent editions, the last of which was published -in 1573; but in all of them this little collection of ballads, -as originally printed in the first edition, remained by itself, -unchanged, though in the additions of newer poetry a modern ballad -is occasionally inserted.<a id="FNanchor_193" href="#Footnote_193" -class="fnanchor">[193]</a> It may, therefore, be doubted whether the -General Cancioneros did much to attract attention to the ballad poetry -of the country, especially when we bear in mind that they are almost -entirely filled with the works of the conceited school of the period -that produced them, and were probably little known except among the -courtly classes, who placed small value on what was old and national -in their poetical literature.<a id="FNanchor_194" href="#Footnote_194" -class="fnanchor">[194]</a></p> - -<p>But while the Cancioneros were still in course of publication, a -separate effort was made in the right direction to preserve the old -ballads, and proved successful.<span class="pagenum" id="Page_126">[p. -126]</span> In 1550, Stevan G. de Nagera printed, at Saragossa, in two -successive parts, what he called a “Silva de Romances,” the errors of -which he partly excuses in his Preface, on the ground that the memories -of those from whom he gathered the ballads he publishes were often -imperfect. Here, then, is the oldest of the proper ballad-books; one -obviously taken from the traditions of the country. It is, therefore, -the most curious and important of them all. A considerable number -of the short poems it contains must, however, be regarded only as -fragments of popular ballads already lost; while, on the contrary, -that on the Count Claros is the complete one, of which the Cancionero, -published forty years earlier, had given only such small portions as -its editor had been able to pick up; both striking facts, which show, -in opposite ways, that the ballads here collected were obtained, as the -Preface says they were, from the memories of the people.</p> - -<p>As might be anticipated from such an origin, their character -and tone are very various. Some are connected with the fictions -of chivalry, and the story of Charlemagne; the most remarkable -of which are those on Gayferos and Melisendra, on the Marquis of -Mantua and on Count Irlos.<a id="FNanchor_195" href="#Footnote_195" -class="fnanchor">[195]</a> Others, like that of the cross miraculously -made for Alfonso the Chaste, and that on the all of Valencia, belong to -the early history of Spain,<a id="FNanchor_196" href="#Footnote_196" -class="fnanchor">[196]</a> and may well have been among those<span -class="pagenum" id="Page_127">[p. 127]</span> old Castilian ballads -which Argote de Molina says were used in compiling the “General -Chronicle.” And finally, we have that deep, domestic tragedy of Count -Alarcos, which goes back to some period in the national history or -traditions of which we have no other early record.<a id="FNanchor_197" -href="#Footnote_197" class="fnanchor">[197]</a> Few among them, even -the shortest and least perfect, are without interest; as, for instance, -the obviously old one in which Virgil figures as a person punished -for seducing the affections of a king’s daughter.<a id="FNanchor_198" -href="#Footnote_198" class="fnanchor">[198]</a> As specimens, however, -of the national tone which prevails in most of the collection, it -is better to read such ballads as that upon the rout of Roderic on -the eighth day of the battle that surrendered Spain to the Moors,<a -id="FNanchor_199" href="#Footnote_199" class="fnanchor">[199]</a> or -that on Garci Perez de Vargas, taken, probably, from the “General -Chronicle,” and founded on a fact of so much consequence as to be -recorded by Mariana, and so popular as to be referred to for its -notoriety by Cervantes.<a id="FNanchor_200" href="#Footnote_200" -class="fnanchor">[200]</a></p> - -<p>The genuine ballad-book thus published was so suc<span -class="pagenum" id="Page_128">[p. 128]</span>cessful, that, in less -than five years, three editions or recensions of it appeared; that -of 1555, commonly called the Cancionero of Antwerp, being the last, -the amplest, and the best known. Other similar collections followed; -particularly, one in nine parts, which, between 1593 and 1597, were -separately published at Valencia, Burgos, Toledo, Alcalá, and Madrid; a -variety of sources, to which we no doubt owe, not only the preservation -of so great a number of old ballads, but much of the richness -and diversity we find in their subjects and tone;—all the great -divisions of the kingdom, except the southwest, having sent in their -long-accumulated wealth to fill this first great treasure-house of the -national popular poetry. Like its humbler predecessor, it had great -success. Large as it was originally, it was still further increased -in four subsequent recensions, that appeared in the course of about -fifteen years; the last being that of 1605-1614, in thirteen parts, -constituting the great repository called the “Romancero General,” from -which, and from the smaller and earlier ballad-books, we still draw -nearly all that is curious and interesting in the old popular poetry of -Spain. The whole number of ballads found in these several volumes is -considerably over a thousand.<a id="FNanchor_201" href="#Footnote_201" -class="fnanchor">[201]</a></p> - -<p>But since the appearance of these collections, above two centuries -ago, little has been done to increase our stock of old Spanish ballads. -Small ballad-books on particular subjects, like those of the Twelve -Peers and of the Cid, were, indeed, early selected from the larger -ones, and have since been frequently called for by the general favor; -but still it should be understood, that, from the middle and latter -part of the seventeenth cen<span class="pagenum" id="Page_129">[p. -129]</span>tury, the true popular ballads, drawn from the hearts and -traditions of the common people, were thought little worthy of regard, -and remained until lately floating about among the humbler classes that -gave them birth. There, however, as if in their native homes, they -have always been no less cherished and cultivated than they were at -their first appearance, and there the old ballad-books themselves were -oftenest found, until they were brought forth anew, to enjoy the favor -of all, by Quintana, Depping, and Duran, who, in this, have but obeyed -the feeling of the age in which we live.</p> - -<p>The old collections of the sixteenth century, however, are still -the only safe and sufficient sources in which to seek the true old -ballads. That of 1593-1597 is particularly valuable, as we have already -intimated, from the circumstance, that its materials were gathered -so widely out of different parts of Spain; and if to the multitude -of ballads it contains we add those found in the Cancionero of 1511, -and in the ballad-book of 1550, we shall have the great body of the -anonymous ancient Spanish ballads, more near to that popular tradition -which was the common source of what is best in them than we can find it -anywhere else.</p> - -<p>But, from whatever source we may now draw them, we must give up, -at once, all hope of arranging them in chronological order. They -were originally printed in small volumes, or on separate sheets, -as they chanced, from time to time, to be composed or found,—those -that were taken from the memories of the blind ballad-singers in the -streets by the side of those that were taken from the works of Lope -de Vega and Góngora; and just as they were first collected, so they -were afterwards heaped together in the General Romanceros, without -affixing to them the names of their authors, or<span class="pagenum" -id="Page_130">[p. 130]</span> attempting to distinguish the ancient -ballads from the recent, or even to group together such as belonged -to the same subject. Indeed, they seem to have been published at all -merely to furnish amusement to the less cultivated classes at home, -or to solace the armies that were fighting the battles of Charles the -Fifth and Philip the Second, in Italy, Germany, and Flanders; so that -an orderly arrangement of any kind was a matter of small consequence. -Nothing remains for us, therefore, but to consider them by their -<i>subjects</i>; and for this purpose the most convenient distribution will -be, first, into such as relate to fictions of chivalry, and especially -to Charlemagne and his peers; next, such as regard Spanish history -and traditions, with a few relating to classical antiquity; then such -as are founded on Moorish adventures; and lastly, such as belong to -the private life and manners of the Spaniards themselves. What do not -fall naturally under one of these divisions are not, probably, ancient -ballads; or, if they are such, are not of consequence enough to be -separately noticed.</p> - -<hr class="chap0" /> - - -<div class="chapter pt3" id="Ch_1_7"> - <p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_131">[p. 131]</span></p> - <h3>CHAPTER VII.</h3> - <p class="subh3 hang"><span class="smcap">Ballads on Subjects - connected with Chivalry. — Ballads from Spanish History. — - Bernardo del Carpio. — Fernan Gonzalez. — The Lords of Lara. — - The Cid. — Ballads from Ancient History and Fable, Sacred and - Profane. — Ballads on Moorish Subjects. — Miscellaneous Ballads, - Amatory, Burlesque, Satirical, etc. — Character of the old - Spanish Ballads.</span></p> -</div> - -<p><i>Ballads of Chivalry.</i>—The first thing that strikes us, on opening -any one of the old Spanish ballad-books, is the national air and -spirit that prevail throughout them. But we look in vain for many of -the fictions found in the popular poetry of other countries at the -same period, some of which we might well expect to find here. Even -that chivalry, which was so akin to the character and condition of -Spain when the ballads appeared, fails to sweep by us with the train -of its accustomed personages. Of Arthur and his Round Table the old -ballads tell us nothing at all, nor of the “Mervaile of the Graal,” -nor of Perceval, nor of the Palmerins, nor of many other well-known -and famous heroes of the shadow land of chivalry. Later, indeed, some -of these personages figure largely in the Spanish prose romances. But, -for a long time, the history of Spain itself furnished materials enough -for its more popular poetry; and therefore, though Amadis, Lancelot -du Lac, Tristan de Leonnais, and their compeers, present themselves -now and then in the ballads, it is not till after the prose romances, -filled with their adventures,<span class="pagenum" id="Page_132">[p. -132]</span> had made them familiar. Even then, they are somewhat -awkwardly introduced, and never occupy any well-defined place; for -the stories of the Cid and Bernardo del Carpio were much nearer to -the hearts of the Spanish people, and had left little space for such -comparatively cold and unsubstantial fancies.</p> - -<p>The only considerable exception to this remark is to be found -in the stories connected with Charlemagne and his peers. That -great sovereign—who, in the darkest period of Europe since the -days of the Roman republic, roused up the nations, not only by -the glory of his military conquests, but by the magnificence of -his civil institutions—crossed the Pyrenees in the latter part -of the eighth century, at the solicitation of one of his Moorish -allies, and ravaged the Spanish marches as far as the Ebro, taking -Pamplona and Saragossa.<a id="FNanchor_202" href="#Footnote_202" -class="fnanchor">[202]</a> The impression he made there seems to have -been the same he made everywhere; and from this time the splendor of -his great name and deeds was connected in the minds of the Spanish -people with wild imaginations of their own achievements, and gave birth -to that series of fictions which is embraced in the story of Bernardo -del Carpio, and ends with the great rout, when, according to the -persuasions of the national vanity,</p> - -<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> -<p class="i2">“Charlemain with all his peerage fell</p> -<p class="i0">By Fontarabbia.”</p> -</div></div> - -<p>These picturesque adventures, chiefly without countenance from -history, in which the French paladins appear associated with fabulous -Spanish heroes, such as Montesinos and Durandarte,<a id="FNanchor_203" -href="#Footnote_203" class="fnanchor">[203]</a> and once with the -noble Moor<span class="pagenum" id="Page_133">[p. 133]</span> -Calaynos, are represented with some minuteness in the old Spanish -ballads. The largest number, including the longest and the best, are -to be found in the ballad-book of 1550-1555, to which may be added -a few from that of 1593-1597, making together somewhat more than -fifty, of which only twenty occur in the collection expressly devoted -to the Twelve Peers, and first published in 1608. Some of them are -evidently very old; as, for instance, that on the Conde d’ Irlos, -that on the Marquis of Mantua, two on Claros of Montalban, and both -the fragments on Durandarte, the last of which can be traced back -to the Cancionero of 1511.<a id="FNanchor_204" href="#Footnote_204" -class="fnanchor">[204]</a></p> - -<p>The ballads of this class are occasionally quite long, and approach -the character of the old French and English metrical romances; that -of the Conde d’ Irlos extending to about thirteen hundred lines. The -longer ballads, too, are generally the best; and those, through large -portions of which the same <i>asonante</i>, and sometimes, even, the same -<i>consonante</i> or full rhyme, is continued to the end, have a solemn -harmony in their protracted cadences, that produces an effect on the -feelings like the chanting of a rich and well-sustained recitative.</p> - -<p>Taken as a body, they have a grave tone, combined with the spirit of -a picturesque narrative, and entirely different from the extravagant -and romantic air afterwards given to the same class of fictions in -Italy, and even from that of the few Spanish ballads which, at a<span -class="pagenum" id="Page_134">[p. 134]</span> later period, were -constructed out of the imaginative and fantastic materials found in -the poems of Bojardo and Ariosto. But in all ages and in all forms, -they have been favorites with the Spanish people. They were alluded to -as such above five hundred years ago, in the oldest of the national -chronicles; and when, at the end of the last century, Sarmiento -notices the ballad-book of the Twelve Peers, he speaks of it as one -which the peasantry and the children of Spain still knew by heart.<a -id="FNanchor_205" href="#Footnote_205" class="fnanchor">[205]</a></p> - - -<p class="mt2"><i>Historical Ballads.</i>—The most important and the -largest division of the Spanish ballads is, however, the historical. -Nor is this surprising. The early heroes in Spanish history grew so -directly out of the popular character, and the early achievements of -the national arms so nearly touched the personal condition of every -Christian in the Peninsula, that they naturally became the first and -chief subjects of a poetry which has always, to a remarkable degree, -been the breathing of the popular feelings and passions. It would be -easy, therefore, to collect a series of ballads,—few in number as far -as respects the Gothic and Roman periods, but ample from the time of -Roderic and the Moorish conquest of Spain down to the moment when its -restoration was gloriously fulfilled in the fall of Granada,—a series -which would constitute such a poetical illustration of Spanish history -as can be brought in aid of the history of no other country. But, -for our present purpose, it is enough to select a few sketches from -these remarkable ballads devoted to the greater heroes,—personages -half-shadowy, half-historical,—who, between the end of the eighth and -the beginning of the twelfth century, occupy a wide space in all the -old traditions, and<span class="pagenum" id="Page_135">[p. 135]</span> -serve alike to illustrate the early popular character in Spain, and the -poetry to which that character gave birth.</p> - -<p>The first of these, in the order of time, is Bernardo del Carpio, -concerning whom we have about forty ballads, which, with the accounts -in the Chronicle of Alfonso the Wise, have constituted the foundations -for many a drama and tale, and at least three long heroic poems. -According to these early narratives, Bernardo flourished about the -year 800, and was the offspring of a secret marriage between the -Count de Saldaña and the sister of Alfonso the Chaste, at which -the king was so much offended, that he kept the Count in perpetual -imprisonment, and sent the Infanta to a convent; educating Bernardo as -his own son, and keeping him ignorant of his birth. The achievements -of Bernardo, ending with the victory of Roncesvalles,—his efforts -to procure the release of his father, when he learns who his father -is,—the falsehood of the king, who promises repeatedly to give up -the Count de Saldaña and as often breaks his word,—with the despair -of Bernardo, and his final rebellion, after the Count’s death in -prison,—are all as fully represented in the ballads as they are -in the chronicles, and constitute some of the most romantic and -interesting portions of each.<a id="FNanchor_206" href="#Footnote_206" -class="fnanchor">[206]</a></p> - -<p>Of the ballads which contain this story, and which generally -suppose the whole of it to have passed in one reign, though the -Chronicle spreads it over three, none, perhaps, is finer than the one -in which the Count de Saldaña, in his solitary prison, complains of -his son, who, he supposes, must know his descent, and of his wife, the -Infanta, who, he presumes, must be in league<span class="pagenum" -id="Page_136">[p. 136]</span> with her royal brother. After a -description of the castle in which he is confined, the Count says:—</p> - -<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> -<p class="i0">The tale of my imprisoned life</p> -<p class="i2">Within these loathsome walls,</p> -<p class="i0">Each moment, as it lingers by,</p> -<p class="i2">My hoary hair recalls;</p> -<p class="i0">For when this castle first I saw,</p> -<p class="i2">My beard was scarcely grown,</p> -<p class="i0">And now, to purge my youthful sins,</p> -<p class="i2">Its folds hang whitening down.</p> -<p class="i0">Then where art thou, my careless son?</p> -<p class="i2">And why so dull and cold?</p> -<p class="i0">Doth not my blood within thee run?</p> -<p class="i2">Speaks it not loud and bold?</p> -<p class="i0">Alas! it may be so, but still</p> -<p class="i2">Thy mother’s blood is thine;</p> -<p class="i0">And what is kindred to the king</p> -<p class="i2">Will plead no cause of mine:</p> -<p class="i0">And thus all three against me stand;—</p> -<p class="i2">For the whole man to quell,</p> -<p class="i0">’T is not enough to have our foes,</p> -<p class="i2">Our heart’s blood must rebel.</p> -<p class="i0">Meanwhile, the guards that watch me here</p> -<p class="i2">Of thy proud conquests boast;</p> -<p class="i0">But if for me thou lead’st it not,</p> -<p class="i2">For whom, then, fights thy host?</p> -<p class="i0">And since thou leav’st me prisoned here,</p> -<p class="i2">In cruel chains to groan,</p> -<p class="i0">Or I must be a guilty sire,</p> -<p class="i2">Or thou a guilty son!</p> -<p class="i0">Yet pardon me, if I offend</p> -<p class="i2">By uttering words so free;</p> -<p class="i0">For while oppressed with age I moan,</p> -<p class="i2">No words come back from thee.<a id="FNanchor_207" href="#Footnote_207" class="fnanchor">[207]</a></p> -</div></div> - -<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_137">[p. 137]</span>The old Spanish -ballads have often a resemblance to each other in their tone and -phraseology; and occasionally several seem imitated from some common -original. Thus, in another, on this same subject of the Count de -Saldaña’s imprisonment, we find the length of time he had suffered, -and the idea of his relationship and blood, enforced in the following -words, not of the Count himself, but of Bernardo, when addressing the -king:—</p> - -<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> -<p class="i0">The very walls are wearied there,</p> -<p class="i2">So long in grief to hold</p> -<p class="i0">A man whom first in youth they saw,</p> -<p class="i2">And now see gray and old.</p> -<p class="i0">And if, for errors such as these,</p> -<p class="i2">The forfeit must be blood,</p> -<p class="i0">Enough of his has flowed from me,</p> -<p class="i2">When for your rights I stood.<a id="FNanchor_208" href="#Footnote_208" class="fnanchor">[208]</a></p> -</div></div> - -<p>In reading the ballads relating to Bernardo del Carpio, it is -impossible not to be often struck with their resemblance to the -corresponding passages of the “General Chronicle.” Some of them -are undoubtedly copied from it; others possibly may have been, -in more ancient forms, among the poetical materials out of which -we know that Chronicle was in part composed.<a id="FNanchor_209" -href="#Footnote_209" class="fnanchor">[209]</a> The best<span -class="pagenum" id="Page_138">[p. 138]</span> are those which are least -strictly conformed to the history itself; but all, taken together, form -a curious and interesting series, that serves strikingly to exhibit -the manners and feelings of the people in the wild times of which they -speak, as well as in the later periods when many of them must have been -written.</p> - -<p>The next series is that on Fernan Gonzalez, a popular chieftain, -whom we have already mentioned, when noticing his metrical chronicle; -and one who, in the middle of the tenth century, recovered Castile -anew from the Moors, and became its first sovereign Count. The number -of ballads relating to him is not large; probably not twenty. The most -poetical are those which describe his being twice rescued from prison -by his courageous wife, and those which relate his contest with King -Sancho, where he displayed all the turbulence and cunning of a robber -baron, in the Middle Ages. Nearly all their facts may be found in the -Third Part of the “General Chronicle”; and though only a few of the -ballads themselves appear to be derived from it as distinctly as some -of those on Bernardo del Carpio, still two or three are evidently -indebted to<span class="pagenum" id="Page_139">[p. 139]</span> that -Chronicle for their materials and phraseology, while yet others may -possibly, in some ruder shape, have preceded it, and contributed -to its composition.<a id="FNanchor_210" href="#Footnote_210" -class="fnanchor">[210]</a></p> - -<p>The ballads which naturally form the next group are those on the -Seven Lords of Lara, who lived in the time of Garcia Ferrandez, the -son of Fernan Gonzalez. Some of them are beautiful, and the story they -contain is one of the most romantic in Spanish history. The seven -Lords of Lara, in consequence of a family quarrel, are betrayed by -their uncle into the hands of the Moors, and put to death; while their -father, by the basest treason, is confined in a Moorish prison, where, -by a noble Moorish lady, he has an eighth son, the famous Mudarra, who -at last avenges all the wrongs of his race. On this story there are -about thirty ballads; some very old, and exhibiting either inventions -or traditions not elsewhere recorded, while others seem to have come -directly from the “General Chronicle.” The following is a part of one -of the last, and a good specimen of the whole:—<a id="FNanchor_211" -href="#Footnote_211" class="fnanchor">[211]</a></p> - -<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> -<p class="i0">What knight goes there, so false and fair,</p> -<p class="i2">That thus for treason stood?</p> -<p class="i0"><span class="pagenum" id="Page_140">[p. 140]</span>Velasquez hight is that false knight,</p> -<p class="i2">Who sold his brother’s blood.</p> -<p class="i0">Where Almenar extends afar,</p> -<p class="i2">He called his nephews forth,</p> -<p class="i0">And on that plain he bade them gain</p> -<p class="i2">A name of fame and worth.</p> -<p class="i0">The Moors he shows, the common foes,</p> -<p class="i2">And promises their rout;</p> -<p class="i0">But while they stood, prepared for blood,</p> -<p class="i2">A mighty host came out.</p> -<p class="i0">Of Moorish men were thousands ten,</p> -<p class="i2">With pennons flowing fair;</p> -<p class="i0">Whereat each knight, as well he might,</p> -<p class="i2">Inquired what host came there.</p> -<p class="i0">“O, do not fear, my kinsmen dear,”</p> -<p class="i2">The base Velasquez cried,</p> -<p class="i0">“The Moors you see can never be</p> -<p class="i2">Of power your shock to bide;</p> -<p class="i0">I oft have met their craven set,</p> -<p class="i2">And none dared face my might;</p> -<p class="i0">So think no fear, my kinsmen dear,</p> -<p class="i2">But boldly seek the fight.”</p> -<p class="i0">Thus words deceive, and men believe,</p> -<p class="i2">And falsehood thrives amain;</p> -<p class="i0">And those brave knights, for Christian rights,</p> -<p class="i2">Have sped across the plain;</p> -<p class="i0">And men ten score, but not one more,</p> -<p class="i2">To follow freely chose:</p> -<p class="i0">So Velasquez base his kin and race</p> -<p class="i2">Has bartered to their foes.</p> -</div></div> - -<p>But, as might be anticipated, the Cid was seized upon with the first -formation of the language as the subject of popular poetry, and has -been the occasion of more ballads than any other of the great heroes -of Spanish history or fable.<a id="FNanchor_212" href="#Footnote_212" -class="fnanchor">[212]</a> They were first collected in a separate -ballad-book as early as 1612, and have continued<span class="pagenum" -id="Page_141">[p. 141]</span> to be published and republished -at home and abroad down to our own times.<a id="FNanchor_213" -href="#Footnote_213" class="fnanchor">[213]</a> It would be easy to -find a hundred and sixty; some of them very ancient; some poetical; -many prosaic and poor. The chronicles seem to have been little resorted -to in their composition.<a id="FNanchor_214" href="#Footnote_214" -class="fnanchor">[214]</a> The circumstances of the Cid’s history, -whether true or fictitious, were too well settled in the popular faith, -and too familiar to all Christian Spaniards, to render the use of such -materials necessary. No portion of the old ballads, therefore, is more -strongly marked with the spirit of their age and country; and none -constitutes a series so complete. They give us apparently the whole of -the Cid’s history, which we find nowhere else entire; neither in the -ancient poem, which does not pretend to be a life of him; nor in the -prose chronicle, which does not begin so early in his story; nor in the -Latin document, which is too brief and condensed. At the very outset, -we have the following minute and living picture of the mortification -and sufferings of Diego Laynez, the Cid’s father, in consequence of -the blow he had received from Count Lozano, which his age rendered it -impossible for him to avenge:—</p> - -<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> -<p class="i0">Sorrowing old Laynez sat,</p> -<p class="i2">Sorrowing on the deep disgrace</p> -<p class="i0">Of his house, so rich and knightly,</p> -<p class="i2">Older than Abarca’s race.</p> -<p class="i0"><span class="pagenum" id="Page_142">[p. 142]</span>For he saw that youthful strength</p> -<p class="i2">To avenge his wrong was needed;</p> -<p class="i0">That, by years enfeebled, broken,</p> -<p class="i2">None his arm now feared or heeded.</p> -<p class="i0">But he of Orgaz, Count Lozano,</p> -<p class="i2">Walks secure where men resort;</p> -<p class="i0">Hindered and rebuked by none,</p> -<p class="i2">Proud his name, and proud his port.</p> -<p class="i0">While he, the injured, neither sleeps,</p> -<p class="i2">Nor tastes the needful food,</p> -<p class="i0">Nor from the ground dares lift his eyes,</p> -<p class="i2">Nor moves a step abroad,</p> -<p class="i0">Nor friends in friendly converse meets,</p> -<p class="i2">But hides in shame his face;</p> -<p class="i0">His very breath, he thinks, offends,</p> -<p class="i2">Charged with insult and disgrace.<a id="FNanchor_215" href="#Footnote_215" class="fnanchor">[215]</a></p> -</div></div> - -<p>In this state of his father’s feelings, Roderic, a mere stripling, -determines to avenge the insult by challenging Count Lozano, then the -most dangerous knight and the first nobleman in the kingdom. The result -is the death of his proud and injurious enemy; but the daughter of the -fallen Count, the fair Ximena, demands vengeance of the king, and the -whole is adjusted, after the rude fashion of those times, by a marriage -between the parties, which necessarily ends the feud.</p> - -<p>The ballads, thus far, relate only to the early youth of the Cid in -the reign of Ferdinand the Great, and constitute a separate series, -that gave to Guillen de Castro, and after him to Corneille, the best -materials<span class="pagenum" id="Page_143">[p. 143]</span> for their -respective tragedies on this part of the Cid’s story. But at the death -of Ferdinand, his kingdom was divided, according to his will, among -his four children; and then we have another series of ballads on the -part taken by the Cid in the wars almost necessarily produced by such -a division, and in the siege of Zamora, which fell to the share of -Queen Urraca, and was assailed by her brother, Sancho the Brave. In one -of these ballads, the Cid, sent by Sancho to summon the city, is thus -reproached and taunted by Urraca, who is represented as standing on one -of its towers, and answering him as he addressed her from below:—</p> - -<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> -<p class="i0">Away! away! proud Roderic!</p> -<p class="i2">Castilian proud, away!</p> -<p class="i0">Bethink thee of that olden time,</p> -<p class="i2">That happy, honored day,</p> -<p class="i0">When, at Saint James’s holy shrine,</p> -<p class="i2">Thy knighthood first was won;</p> -<p class="i0">When Ferdinand, my royal sire,</p> -<p class="i2">Confessed thee for a son.</p> -<p class="i0">He gave thee then thy knightly arms,</p> -<p class="i2">My mother gave thy steed;</p> -<p class="i0">Thy spurs were buckled by these hands,</p> -<p class="i2">That thou no grace might’st need.</p> -<p class="i0">And had not chance forbid the vow,</p> -<p class="i2">I thought with thee to wed;</p> -<p class="i0">But Count Lozano’s daughter fair</p> -<p class="i2">Thy happy bride was led.</p> -<p class="i0">With her came wealth, an ample store,</p> -<p class="i2">But power was mine, and state:</p> -<p class="i0">Broad lands are good, and have their grace,</p> -<p class="i2">But he that reigns is great.</p> -<p class="i0">Thy wife is well; thy match was wise;</p> -<p class="i2">Yet, Roderic! at thy side</p> -<p class="i0">A vassal’s daughter sits by thee,</p> -<p class="i2">And not a royal bride!<a id="FNanchor_216" href="#Footnote_216" class="fnanchor">[216]</a></p> -</div></div> - -<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_144">[p. 144]</span>Alfonso the -Sixth succeeded on the death of Sancho, who perished miserably by -treason before the walls of Zamora; but the Cid quarrelled with -his new master, and was exiled. At this moment begins the old poem -already mentioned; but even here and afterwards the ballads form a -more continuous account of his life, carrying us, often with great -minuteness of detail, through his conquest of Valencia, his restoration -to the king’s favor, his triumph over the Counts of Carrion, his old -age, death, and burial, and giving us, when taken together, what -Müller the historian and Herder the philosopher consider, in its main -circumstances, a trustworthy history, but what can hardly be more than -a poetical version of traditions current at the different times when -its different portions were composed.</p> - -<p>Indeed, in the earlier part of the period when historical ballads -were written, their subjects seem rather to have been chosen among -the traditional heroes of the country, than among the known and -ascertained events in its annals. Much fiction, of course, was mingled -with whatever related to such personages by the willing credulity of -patriotism, and portions of the ballads about them are incredible to -any modern faith; so that we can hardly fail to agree with the good -sense<span class="pagenum" id="Page_145">[p. 145]</span> of the canon -in Don Quixote, when he says, “There is no doubt there was such a -man as the Cid and such a man as Bernardo del Carpio, but much doubt -whether they achieved what is imputed to them”;<a id="FNanchor_217" -href="#Footnote_217" class="fnanchor">[217]</a> while, at the same -time, we must admit there is no less truth in the shrewd intimation of -Sancho, that, after all, the old ballads are too old to tell lies. At -least, some of them are so.</p> - -<p>At a later period, all sorts of subjects were introduced into -the ballads; ancient subjects as well as modern, sacred as well -as profane. Even the Greek and Roman fables were laid under -contribution, as if they were historically true; but more ballads -are connected with Spanish history than with any other, and, in -general, they are better. The most striking peculiarity of the whole -mass is, perhaps, to be found in the degree in which it expresses -the national character. Loyalty is constantly prominent. The Lord -of Buitrago sacrifices his own life to save that of his sovereign.<a -id="FNanchor_218" href="#Footnote_218" class="fnanchor">[218]</a> The -Cid sends rich spoils from his conquests in Valencia to the ungrateful -king who had driven him thither as an exile.<a id="FNanchor_219" -href="#Footnote_219" class="fnanchor">[219]</a> Bernardo del Carpio -bows in submission to the uncle who basely and brutally outrages<span -class="pagenum" id="Page_146">[p. 146]</span> his filial affections;<a -id="FNanchor_220" href="#Footnote_220" class="fnanchor">[220]</a> and -when, driven to despair, he rebels, the ballads and the chronicles -absolutely forsake him. In short, this and the other strong traits of -the national character are constantly appearing in the old historical -ballads, and constitute a chief part of the peculiar charm that invests -them.</p> - - -<p class="mt2"><i>Ballads on Moorish Subjects.</i>—The Moorish ballads form -a brilliant and large class by themselves, but none of them are as -old as the earliest historical ballads. Indeed, their very subjects -intimate their later origin. Few can be found alluding to known events -or personages that occur before the period immediately preceding the -fall of Granada; and even in these few the proofs of a more recent -and Christian character are abundant. The truth appears to be, that, -after the final overthrow of the Moorish power, when the conquerors -for the first time came into full possession of whatever was most -luxurious in the civilization of their enemies, the tempting subjects -their situation suggested were at once seized upon by the spirit of -their popular poetry. The sweet South, with its picturesque, though -effeminate, refinement; the foreign, yet not absolutely stranger, -manners of its people; its magnificent and fantastic architecture; the -stories of the warlike achievements and disasters at Baza, at Ronda, -and at Alhama, with the romantic adventures and fierce feuds of the -Zegris and Abencerrages, the Gomeles and the Aliatares;—all took strong -hold of the Spanish imagination, and made of Granada, its rich plain -and snow<span class="pagenum" id="Page_147">[p. 147]</span>capped -mountains, that fairy land which the elder and sterner ballad poetry -of the North had failed to create. From this time, therefore, we find -a new class of subjects, such as the loves of Gazul and Abindarraez, -with games and tournaments in the Bivarrambla, and tales of Arabian -nights in the Generalife; in short, whatever was matter of Moorish -tradition or manners, or might by the popular imagination be deemed -such, was wrought into Spanish ballad poetry, until the very excess -became ridiculous, and the ballads themselves laughed at one another -for deserting their own proper subjects, and becoming, as it were, -renegades to nationality and patriotism.<a id="FNanchor_221" -href="#Footnote_221" class="fnanchor">[221]</a></p> - -<p>The period when this style of poetry came into favor was the -century that elapsed after the fall of Granada; the same in which all -classes of the ballads were first written down and printed. The early -collections give full proof of this. Those of 1511 and 1550 contain -several Moorish ballads, and that of 1593 contains above two hundred. -But though their subjects involve known occurrences, they are hardly -ever really historical; as, for instance, the well-known ballad on the -tournament in Toledo, which is supposed to have happened before the -year 1085, while its names belong to the period immediately preceding -the fall of Granada; and the ballad of King Belchite, which, like -many others, has<span class="pagenum" id="Page_148">[p. 148]</span> -a subject purely imaginary. Indeed, this romantic character is the -prevalent one in the ballads of this class, and gives them much of -their interest; a fact well illustrated by that beginning “The star -of Venus rises now,” which is one of the best and most consistent in -the “Romancero General,” and yet, by its allusions to Venus and to -Rodamonte, and its mistake in supposing a Moor to have been Alcayde -of Seville, a century after Seville had become a Christian city, -shows that there was, in its composition, no serious thought of any -thing but poetical effect.<a id="FNanchor_222" href="#Footnote_222" -class="fnanchor">[222]</a></p> - -<p>These, with some of the ballads on the famous Gazul, occur in the -popular story of the “Wars of Granada,” where they are treated as if -contemporary with the facts they record, and are beautiful specimens -of the poetry which the Spanish imagination delighted to connect with -that most glorious event in the national history.<a id="FNanchor_223" -href="#Footnote_223" class="fnanchor">[223]</a> Others can be found -in a similar tone on the stories, partly or wholly fabulous, of Muça, -Xarifé, Lisaro, and Tarfé; while yet others, in greater number, belong -to the treasons and rivalries, the plots and adventures, of the more -famous Zegris and Abencerrages, which, as far as they are founded in -fact, show how internal dissensions, no less than external disasters, -prepared the way for the final overthrow of the Moorish empire. Some of -them were probably written in the time of Ferdinand and Isabella; many -more in the time of Charles the Fifth; the most brilliant, but not the -best, somewhat later.</p> - - -<p class="mt2"><i>Ballads on Manners and Private Life.</i>—But the bal<span -class="pagenum" id="Page_149">[p. 149]</span>lad poetry of Spain was -not confined to heroic subjects drawn from romance or history, or to -subjects depending on Moorish traditions and manners; and therefore, -though these are the three largest classes into which it is divided, -there is yet a fourth, which may be called miscellaneous, and which is -of no little moment. For, in truth, the poetical feelings even of the -lower portions of the Spanish people were spread out over more subjects -than we should anticipate; and their genius, which, from the first, -had a charter as free as the wind, has thus left us a vast number of -records, that prove at least the variety of the popular perceptions, -and the quickness and tenderness of the popular sensibility. Many -of the miscellaneous ballads thus produced—perhaps most of them—are -effusions of love; but many are pastoral, many are burlesque, -satirical, and <i>picaresque</i>; many are called <i>Letrillas</i>, but have -nothing epistolary about them except the name; many are lyrical in -their tone, if not in their form; and many are descriptive of the -manners and amusements of the people at large. But one characteristic -runs through the whole of them. They are true representations of -Spanish life. Some of those first printed have already been referred -to; but there is a considerable class marked by an attractive -simplicity of thought and expression, united to a sort of mischievous -shrewdness, that should be particularly noticed. No such popular -poetry exists in any other language. A number of these ballads occur -in the peculiarly valuable Sixth Part of the Romancero, that appeared -in 1594, and was gathered by Pedro Flores, as he himself tells us, in -part least, from the memories of the common people.<a id="FNanchor_224" -href="#Footnote_224" class="fnanchor">[224]</a><span class="pagenum" -id="Page_150">[p. 150]</span> They remind us not unfrequently of -the lighter poetry of the Archpriest of Hita in the middle of the -fourteenth century, and may, probably, be traced back in their tone -and spirit to a yet earlier period. Indeed, they are quite a prominent -and charming part of all the earliest Romanceros, not a few of them -being as simple, and yet as shrewd and humorous, as the following, in -which an elder sister is represented lecturing a younger one, on first -noticing in her the symptoms of love:—</p> - -<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> -<p class="i0">Her sister Miguela</p> -<p class="i2">Once child little Jane,</p> -<p class="i0">And the words that she spoke</p> -<p class="i2">Gave a great deal of pain.</p> -<p class="i0"> </p> -<p class="i0">“You went yesterday playing,</p> -<p class="i2">A child like the rest;</p> -<p class="i0">And now you come out,</p> -<p class="i2">More than other girls dressed.</p> -<p class="i0"> </p> -<p class="i0">“You take pleasure in sighs,</p> -<p class="i2">In sad music delight;</p> -<p class="i0">With the dawning you rise,</p> -<p class="i2">Yet sit up half the night.</p> -<p class="i0"> </p> -<p class="i0">“When you take up your work,</p> -<p class="i2">You look vacant and stare,</p> -<p class="i0">And gaze on your sampler,</p> -<p class="i2">But miss the stitch there.</p> -<p class="i0"> </p> -<p class="i0">“You’re in love, people say,</p> -<p class="i2">Your actions all show it;—</p> -<p class="i0">New ways we shall have,</p> -<p class="i2">When mother shall know it.</p> -<p class="i0"> </p> -<p class="i0">“She’ll nail up the windows,</p> -<p class="i2">And lock up the door;</p> -<p class="i0">Leave to frolic and dance</p> -<p class="i2">She will give us no more.</p> -<p class="i0"> </p> -<p class="i0">“Old aunt will be sent</p> -<p class="i2">To take us to mass,</p> -<p class="i0"><span class="pagenum" id="Page_151">[p. 151]</span>And stop all our talk</p> -<p class="i2">With the girls as we pass.</p> -<p class="i0"> </p> -<p class="i0">“And when we walk out,</p> -<p class="i2">She will bid our old shrew</p> -<p class="i0">Keep a faithful account</p> -<p class="i2">Of what our eyes do;</p> -<p class="i0"> </p> -<p class="i0">“And mark who goes by,</p> -<p class="i2">If I peep through the blind,</p> -<p class="i0">And be sure and detect us</p> -<p class="i2">In looking behind.</p> -<p class="i0"> </p> -<p class="i0">“Thus for your idle follies</p> -<p class="i2">Must I suffer too,</p> -<p class="i0">And, though nothing I’ve done,</p> -<p class="i2">Be punished like you.”</p> -<p class="i0"> </p> -<p class="i0">“O sister Miguela,</p> -<p class="i2">Your chiding pray spare;—</p> -<p class="i0">That I’ve troubles you guess,</p> -<p class="i2">But not what they are.</p> -<p class="i0"> </p> -<p class="i0">“Young Pedro it is,</p> -<p class="i2">Old Juan’s fair youth;</p> -<p class="i0">But he’s gone to the wars,</p> -<p class="i2">And where is his truth?</p> -<p class="i0"> </p> -<p class="i0">“I loved him sincerely,</p> -<p class="i2">I loved all he said;</p> -<p class="i0">But I fear he is fickle,</p> -<p class="i2">I fear he is fled!</p> -<p class="i0"> </p> -<p class="i0">“He is gone of free choice,</p> -<p class="i2">Without summons or call,</p> -<p class="i0">And ’t is foolish to love him,</p> -<p class="i2">Or like him at all.”</p> -<p class="i0"> </p> -<p class="i0">“Nay, rather do thou</p> -<p class="i2">To God pray above,</p> -<p class="i0">Lest Pedro return,</p> -<p class="i2">And again you should love,”</p> -<p class="i0"> </p> -<p class="i0">Said Miguela in jest,</p> -<p class="i2">As she answered poor Jane;</p> -<p class="i0">“For when love has been bought</p> -<p class="i2">At cost of such pain,</p> -<p class="i0"> </p> -<p class="i0"><span class="pagenum" id="Page_152">[p. 152]</span>“What hope is there, sister,</p> -<p class="i2">Unless the soul part,</p> -<p class="i0">That the passion you cherish</p> -<p class="i2">Should yield up your heart?</p> -<p class="i0"> </p> -<p class="i0">“Your years will increase,</p> -<p class="i2">But so will your pains,</p> -<p class="i0">And this you may learn</p> -<p class="i2">From the proverb’s old strains:—</p> -<p class="i0"> </p> -<p class="i0">“‘If, when but a child,</p> -<p class="i2">Love’s power you own,</p> -<p class="i0">Pray, what will you do</p> -<p class="i2">When you older are grown?’”<a id="FNanchor_225" href="#Footnote_225" class="fnanchor">[225]</a></p> -</div></div> - -<p>A single specimen like this, however, can give no idea of the great -variety in the class of ballads to which it belongs, nor of their -poetical beauty. To feel their true value and power, we must read large -numbers of<span class="pagenum" id="Page_153">[p. 153]</span> them, -and read them, too, in their native language; for there is a winning -freshness in the originals, as they lie imbedded in the old Romanceros, -that escapes in translations, however free or however strict;—a remark -that should be extended to the historical as well as the miscellaneous -portions of that great mass of popular poetry which is found in the -early ballad-books, and which, though it is all nearly three centuries -old, and some of it older, has been much less carefully considered than -it deserves to be.</p> - -<p>Yet there are certainly few portions of the literature of any -country that will better reward a spirit of adventurous inquiry than -these ancient Spanish ballads, in all their forms. In many respects, -they are unlike the earliest narrative poetry of any other part of -the world; in some, they are better. The English and Scotch ballads, -with which they may most naturally be compared, belong to a ruder -state of society, where a personal coarseness and violence prevailed, -which did not, indeed, prevent the poetry it produced from being -full of energy, and sometimes of tenderness, but which necessarily -had less dignity and elevation than belong to the character, if not -the condition, of a people who, like the Spanish, were for centuries -engaged in a contest ennobled by a sense of religion and loyalty; a -contest which could not fail sometimes to raise the minds and thoughts -of those engaged in it far above such an atmosphere as settled round -the bloody feuds of rival barons or the gross maraudings of a border -warfare. The truth of this will at once be felt, if we compare the -striking series of ballads on Robin Hood with those on the Cid and -Bernardo del Carpio; or if we compare the deep tragedy of Edom o’ -Gordon with that of the Conde Alarcos; or what would be better than -either,<span class="pagenum" id="Page_154">[p. 154]</span> if we would -sit down to the “Romancero General,” with its poetical confusion of -Moorish splendors and Christian loyalty, just when we have come fresh -from Percy’s “Reliques,” or Scott’s “Minstrelsy.”<a id="FNanchor_226" -href="#Footnote_226" class="fnanchor">[226]</a></p> - -<p>But, besides what the Spanish ballads possess different from the -popular poetry of the rest of Europe, they exhibit, as no others -exhibit it, that nationality which is the truest element of such poetry -everywhere. They seem, indeed, as we read them, to be often little -more than the great traits of the old Spanish character brought out -by the force of poetical enthusiasm; so that, if their nationality -were taken away from them, they would cease to exist. This, in its -turn, has preserved them down to the present day, and will continue -to preserve them hereafter. The great Castilian heroes, such as the -Cid, Bernardo del Carpio, and Pelayo, are even now an essential -portion of the faith and poetry of the common people of Spain; and -are still, in some degree, honored as they were honored in the age of -the Great Captain, or, farther back, in that of Saint Ferdinand. The -stories of Guarinos, too, and of the defeat of Roncesvalles are still -sung by the wayfaring muleteers, as they were when Don Quixote heard -them in his journeying to Toboso; and the showmen still rehearse the -adventures of Gayferos and Melisendra, in the streets of Seville, as -they did at the solitary inn of Montesinos, when he encountered them -there. In short, the ancient Spanish ballads are so truly national in -their spirit, that they became at once identified with the popular -char<span class="pagenum" id="Page_155">[p. 155]</span>acter that -had produced them, and with that same character will go onward, we -doubt not, till the Spanish people shall cease to have a separate -and independent existence.<a id="FNanchor_227" href="#Footnote_227" -class="fnanchor">[227]</a></p> - -<hr class="chap0" /> - - -<div class="chapter pt3" id="Ch_1_8"> - <p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_156">[p. 156]</span></p> - <h3>CHAPTER VIII.</h3> - <p class="subh3 hang"><span class="smcap">Second Class. — - Chronicles. — Origin. — Royal Chronicles. — General Chronicle - by Alfonso the Tenth. — Its Divisions and Subjects. — Its more - Poetical Portions. — Its Character. — Chronicle of the Cid. — Its - Origin, Subject, and Character.</span></p> -</div> - -<p><span class="smcap">Chronicles.</span>—Ballad poetry constituted, no -doubt, originally, the amusement and solace of the whole mass of the -Spanish people; for, during a long period of their early history, there -was little division of the nation into strongly marked classes, little -distinction in manners, little variety or progress in refinement. The -wars going on with unappeased violence from century to century, though -by their character not without an elevating and poetical influence upon -all, yet oppressed and crushed all by the sufferings that followed in -their train, and kept the tone and condition of the body of the Spanish -nation more nearly at the same level than the national character was -probably ever kept, for so long a period, in any other Christian -country. But as the great Moorish contest was transferred to the South, -Leon, Castile, and indeed the whole North, became comparatively quiet -and settled. Wealth began to be accumulated in the monasteries, and -leisure followed. The castles, instead of being constantly in a state -of anxious preparation against the common enemy, were converted into -abodes of a crude, but free, hospitality; and those distinctions of -society that come from differ<span class="pagenum" id="Page_157">[p. -157]</span>ent degrees of power, wealth, and cultivation grew more -and more apparent. From this time, then, the ballads, though not -really neglected, began to subside into the lower portions of society, -where for so long a period they remained; while the more advanced and -educated sought, or created for themselves, forms of literature better -suited, in some respects, to their altered condition, and marking at -once more leisure and knowledge, and a more settled system of social -life.</p> - -<p>The oldest of these forms was that of the Spanish prose chronicles, -which, besides being called for by the changed condition of things, -were the proper successors of the monkish Latin chronicles and legends, -long before known in the country, and were of a nature to win favor -with men who themselves were every day engaged in achievements such -as these very stories celebrated, and who consequently looked on the -whole class of works to which they belonged as the pledge and promise -of their own future fame. The chronicles were, therefore, not only the -natural offspring of the times, but were fostered and favored by the -men who controlled the times.<a id="FNanchor_228" href="#Footnote_228" -class="fnanchor">[228]</a></p> - - -<p class="mt2">I. <i>General Chronicles and Royal Chronicles.</i>—Under -such circumstances, we might well anticipate that the proper style -of the Spanish chronicle would first appear at the court, or in -the neighbourhood of the throne; because at court were to be found -the spirit and the materials most likely to give it birth. But it -is still to be considered remarkable, that the first of the<span -class="pagenum" id="Page_158">[p. 158]</span> chronicles in the -order of time, and the first in merit, comes directly from a royal -hand. It is called in the printed copies “The Chronicle of Spain,” -or “The General Chronicle of Spain,” and is, no doubt, the same -work earlier cited in manuscript as “The History of Spain.”<a -id="FNanchor_229" href="#Footnote_229" class="fnanchor">[229]</a> In -its characteristic Prologue, after solemnly giving the reasons why -such a work ought to be compiled, we are told: “And therefore we, -Don Alfonso, ... son of the very noble King Don Fernando, and of the -Queen Doña Beatrice, have ordered to be collected as many books as -we could have of histories that relate any thing of the deeds done -aforetime in Spain, and have taken the chronicle of the Archbishop -Don Rodrigo, ... and of Master Lucas, Bishop of Tuy, ... and composed -this book”; words which give us the declaration of Alfonso the -Wise, that he himself composed this Chronicle,<a id="FNanchor_230" -href="#Footnote_230" class="fnanchor">[230]</a> and which thus carry -it back<span class="pagenum" id="Page_159">[p. 159]</span> certainly -to a period before the year 1284, in which he died. From internal -evidence, however, it is probable that it was written in the early -part of his reign, which began in 1252; and that he was assisted in -its composition by persons familiar with Arabic literature and with -whatever there was of other refinement in the age.<a id="FNanchor_231" -href="#Footnote_231" class="fnanchor">[231]</a></p> - -<p>It is divided, perhaps not by its author, into four parts: the first -opening with the creation of the world, and giving a large space to -Roman history, but hastening over every thing else till it comes to -the occupation of Spain by the Visigoths; the second comprehending the -Gothic empire of the country and its conquest by the Moors; the third -coming down to the reign of Ferdinand the Great, early in the eleventh -century; and the fourth closing in 1252, with the death of Saint -Ferdinand, the conqueror of Andalusia and father of Alfonso himself.</p> - -<p>Its earliest portions are the least interesting. They contain -such notions and accounts of antiquity, and especially of the Roman -empire, as were current among the common writers of the Middle -Ages, though occasionally, as in the case of Dido,—whose memory -has<span class="pagenum" id="Page_160">[p. 160]</span> always been -defended by the more popular chroniclers and poets of Spain against -the imputations of Virgil,<a id="FNanchor_232" href="#Footnote_232" -class="fnanchor">[232]</a>—we have a glimpse of feelings and opinions -which may be considered more national. Such passages naturally become -more frequent in the Second Part, which relates to the empire of the -Visigoths in Spain; though here, as the ecclesiastical writers are -almost the only authority that could be resorted to, their peculiar -tone prevails too much. But the Third Part is quite free and genial in -its spirit, and truly Spanish; setting forth the rich old traditions of -the country about the first outbreak of Pelayo from the mountains;<a -id="FNanchor_233" href="#Footnote_233" class="fnanchor">[233]</a> -the stories of Bernardo del Carpio,<a id="FNanchor_234" -href="#Footnote_234" class="fnanchor">[234]</a> Fernan Gonzalez,<a -id="FNanchor_235" href="#Footnote_235" class="fnanchor">[235]</a> and -the Seven Children of Lara;<a id="FNanchor_236" href="#Footnote_236" -class="fnanchor">[236]</a> with spirited sketches of Charlemagne,<a -id="FNanchor_237" href="#Footnote_237" class="fnanchor">[237]</a> -and accounts of miracles like those of the cross made by angels -for Alfonso the Chaste,<a id="FNanchor_238" href="#Footnote_238" -class="fnanchor">[238]</a> and of Santiago fighting against -the infidels in the glorious battles of Clavijo and Hazinas.<a -id="FNanchor_239" href="#Footnote_239" class="fnanchor">[239]</a></p> - -<p>The last part, though less carefully compiled and elaborated, -is in the same general tone. It opens with the well-known -history of the Cid,<a id="FNanchor_240" href="#Footnote_240" -class="fnanchor">[240]</a> to whom, as to the great hero of the popular -admiration, a disproportion<span class="pagenum" id="Page_161">[p. -161]</span>ate space is assigned. After this, being already within -a hundred and fifty years of the writer’s own time, we, of course, -approach the confines of more sober history, and finally, in the reign -of his father, Saint Ferdinand, fairly settle upon its sure and solid -foundations.</p> - -<p>The striking characteristic of this remarkable Chronicle is, that, -especially in its Third Part, and in a portion of the Fourth, it is -a translation, if we may so speak, of the old poetical fables and -traditions of the country into a simple, but picturesque, prose, -intended to be sober history. What were the sources of those purely -national passages, which we should be most curious to trace back and -authenticate, we can never know. Sometimes, as in the case of Bernardo -del Carpio and Charlemagne, the ballads and gestes of the olden time<a -id="FNanchor_241" href="#Footnote_241" class="fnanchor">[241]</a> -are distinctly appealed to. Sometimes, as in the case of the -Children of Lara, an early Latin chronicle, or perhaps some poetical -legend, of which all trace is now lost, may have constituted the -foundations of the narrative.<a id="FNanchor_242" href="#Footnote_242" -class="fnanchor">[242]</a> And once at least, if not oftener, an entire -and separate history, that of the Cid, is inserted without being well -fitted into its place. Throughout all these portions, the poetical -character predominates much oftener than it does in the rest; for -while, in the earlier parts, what had been rescued of ancient history -is given with a grave sort of exactness, that renders it dry and -uninteresting, we have in the concluding portion a simple narrative, -where, as in the account of the death of<span class="pagenum" -id="Page_162">[p. 162]</span> Saint Ferdinand, we feel persuaded that -we read touching details sketched by a faithful and affectionate -eyewitness.</p> - -<p>Among the more poetical passages are two at the end of the Second -Part, which are introduced, as contrasts to each other, with a degree -of art and skill rare in these simple-hearted old chronicles. They -relate to what was long called “the Ruin of Spain,”<a id="FNanchor_243" -href="#Footnote_243" class="fnanchor">[243]</a> or its conquest -by the Moors, and consist of two picturesque presentments of its -condition before and after that event, which the Spaniards long seemed -to regard as dividing the history of the world into its two great -constituent portions. In the first of these passages, entitled “Of -the Good Things of Spain,”<a id="FNanchor_244" href="#Footnote_244" -class="fnanchor">[244]</a> after a few general remarks, the fervent old -chronicler goes on: “For this Spain, whereof we have spoken, is like -the very Paradise of God; for it is watered by five noble rivers, which -are the Duero, and the Ebro, and the Tagus, and the Guadalquivir, and -the Guadiana; and each of these hath, between itself and the others, -lofty mountains and sierras;<a id="FNanchor_245" href="#Footnote_245" -class="fnanchor">[245]</a> and their valleys and plains are great and -broad, and, through the richness of the soil and the watering of the -rivers, they bear many fruits and are full of abundance. And Spain, -above all other things, is skilled in war, feared and very bold in -battle; light of heart, loyal to her lord, diligent in learning, -courtly in speech, accomplished in all good things. Nor is there land -in the world that may be accounted like her in abundance, nor may -any equal her in strength, and few there be in<span class="pagenum" -id="Page_163">[p. 163]</span> the world so great. And above all doth -Spain abound in magnificence, and more than all is she famous for her -loyalty. O Spain! there is no man can tell of all thy worthiness!”</p> - -<p>But now reverse the medal, and look on the other picture, entitled -“The Mourning of Spain,” when, as the Chronicle tells us, after the -victory of the Moors, “all the land remained empty of people, bathed -in tears, a byword, nourishing strangers, deceived of her own people, -widowed and deserted of her sons, confounded among barbarians, worn out -with weeping and wounds, decayed in strength, weakened, uncomforted, -abandoned of all her own.... Forgotten are her songs, and her very -language is become foreign and her words strange.”</p> - -<p>The more attractive passages of the Chronicle, however, are its -long narratives. They are also the most poetical;—so poetical, indeed, -that large portions of them, with little change in their phraseology, -have since been converted into popular ballads;<a id="FNanchor_246" -href="#Footnote_246" class="fnanchor">[246]</a> while other portions, -hardly less considerable, are probably derived from similar, but -older, popular poetry, now either wholly lost, or so much changed by -successive oral traditions, that it has ceased to show its relationship -with the chronicling stories to which it originally gave birth.<span -class="pagenum" id="Page_164">[p. 164]</span> Among these narrative -passages, one of the most happy is the history of Bernardo del Carpio, -for parts of which the Chronicle appeals to ballads more ancient than -itself, while to the whole, as it stands in the Chronicle, ballads -more modern have, in their turn, been much indebted. It is founded on -the idea of a poetical contest between Bernardo’s loyalty to his king, -on the one side, and his attachment to his imprisoned father, on the -other. For he was, as we have already learned from the old ballads and -traditions, the son of a secret marriage between the king’s sister -and the Count de Sandias de Saldaña, which had so offended the king, -that he kept the Count in prison from the time he discovered it, and -concealed whatever related to Bernardo’s birth; educating him meantime -as his own son. When, however, Bernardo grew up, he became the great -hero of his age, rendering important military services to his king -and country. “But yet,” according to the admirably strong expression -of the old Chronicle,<a id="FNanchor_247" href="#Footnote_247" -class="fnanchor">[247]</a> “when he knew all this, and that it was -his own father that was in prison, it grieved him to the heart, and -his blood turned in his body, and he went to his house, making the -greatest moan that could be, and put on raiment of mourning, and went -to the King, Don Alfonso. And the king, when he saw it, said to him, -‘Bernardo, do you desire my death?’ for Bernardo until that time had -held himself to be the son of the King, Don Alfonso. And Bernardo said, -‘Sire, I do not wish for your death, but I have great grief, because -my father, the Count of Sandias, lieth in prison, and I beseech you of -your grace that you would command him to be given up to me.’ And the -King, Don Alfonso, when he heard this, said to him, ‘Bernardo, begone -from before me, and never<span class="pagenum" id="Page_165">[p. -165]</span> be so bold as to speak to me again of this matter; for I -swear to you, that, in all the days that I shall live, you shall never -see your father out of his prison.’ And Bernardo said to him, ‘Sire, -you are my king, and may do whatsoever you shall hold for good, but -I pray God that he will put it into your heart to take him thence; -nevertheless, I, Sire, shall in no wise cease to serve you in all that -I may.’”</p> - -<p>Notwithstanding this refusal, however, when great services are -wanted from Bernardo in troubled times, his father’s liberty is -promised him as a reward; but these promises are constantly broken, -until he renounces his allegiance, and makes war upon his false uncle, -and on one of his successors, Alfonso the Great.<a id="FNanchor_248" -href="#Footnote_248" class="fnanchor">[248]</a> At last, Bernardo -succeeds in reducing the royal authority so low, that the king again, -and more solemnly, promises to give up his prisoner, if Bernardo, on -his part, will give up the great castle of Carpio, which had rendered -him really formidable. The faithful son does not hesitate, and the -king sends for the Count, but finds him dead, probably by the royal -procurement. The Count’s death, however, does not prevent the base -monarch from determining to keep the castle, which was the stipulated -price of his prisoner’s release. He therefore directs the dead body to -be brought, as if alive, on horseback, and, in company with Bernardo, -who has no suspicion of the cruel mockery, goes out to meet it.</p> - -<p>“And when they were all about to meet,” the old Chronicle goes on, -“Bernardo began to shout aloud with great joy, and to say, ‘Cometh -indeed the Count Don Sandias de Saldaña!’ And the King, Don Alfonso, -said to him, ‘Behold where he cometh! Go, therefore, and<span -class="pagenum" id="Page_166">[p. 166]</span> salute him whom you have -sought so much to behold.’ And Bernardo went towards him, and kissed -his hand; but when he found it cold, and saw that all his color was -black, he knew that he was dead; and with the grief he had from it, -he began to cry aloud and to make great moan, saying, ‘Alas! Count -Sandias, in an evil hour was I born, for never was man so lost as I am -now for you; for, since you are dead, and my castle is gone, I know -no counsel by which I may do aught.’ And some say in their ballads -(<i>cantares de gesta</i>) that the king then said, ‘Bernardo, now is not -the time for much talking, and therefore I bid you go straightway forth -from my land,’” etc.</p> - -<p>This constitutes one of the most interesting parts of the old -General Chronicle: but the whole is curious, and much of it is rich -and picturesque. It is written with more freedom and less exactness -of style than some of the other works of its noble author; and in the -last division shows a want of finish, which in the first two parts is -not perceptible, and in the third only slightly so. But everywhere -it breathes the spirit of its age, and, when taken together, is not -only the most interesting of the Spanish chronicles, but the most -interesting of all that, in any country, mark the transition from its -poetical and romantic traditions to the grave exactness of historical -truth.</p> - -<p>The next of the early chronicles that claims our notice is the one -called, with primitive simplicity, “The Chronicle of the Cid”; in some -respects as important as the one we have just examined; in others, -less so. The first thing that strikes us, when we open it, is, that, -although it has much of the appearance and arrangement of a separate -and independent work, it is substantially the same with the two -hundred and eighty pages which<span class="pagenum" id="Page_167">[p. -167]</span> constitute the first portion of the Fourth Book of the -General Chronicle of Spain; so that one must certainly have been -taken from the other, or both from some common source. The latter is, -perhaps, the more obvious conclusion, and has sometimes been adopted;<a -id="FNanchor_249" href="#Footnote_249" class="fnanchor">[249]</a> but, -on a careful examination, it will probably be found that the Chronicle -of the Cid is rather taken from that of Alfonso the Wise, than from any -materials common to both and older than both. For, in the first place, -each, in the same words, often claims to be a translation from the same -authors; yet, as the language of both is frequently identical for pages -together, this cannot be true, unless one copied from the other. And, -secondly, the Chronicle of the Cid, in some instances, corrects the -errors of the General Chronicle, and in one instance at least makes an -addition to it of a date later than that of the Chronicle itself.<a -id="FNanchor_250" href="#Footnote_250" class="fnanchor">[250]</a> But, -passing over the details of<span class="pagenum" id="Page_168">[p. -168]</span> this obscure, but not unimportant, point, it is sufficient -for our present purpose to say, that the Chronicle of the Cid is the -same in substance with the history of the Cid in the General Chronicle, -and was probably taken from it.</p> - -<p>When it was arranged in its present form, or by whom this was -done, we have no notice.<a id="FNanchor_251" href="#Footnote_251" -class="fnanchor">[251]</a> But it was<span class="pagenum" -id="Page_169">[p. 169]</span> found, as we now read it, at Cardenas, in -the very monastery where the Cid lies buried, and was seen there by the -youthful Ferdinand, great-grandson of Ferdinand and Isabella, who was -afterwards emperor of Germany, and who was induced to give the abbot -an order to have it printed.<a id="FNanchor_252" href="#Footnote_252" -class="fnanchor">[252]</a> This was done accordingly in 1512, since -which time there have been but two editions of it, those of 1552 and of -1593, until it was reprinted in 1844, at Marburg, in Germany, with an -excellent critical preface in Spanish, by Huber.</p> - -<p>As a part of the General Chronicle of Spain,<a id="FNanchor_253" -href="#Footnote_253" class="fnanchor">[253]</a> we must, with a little -hesitation, pronounce the Chronicle of the Cid less interesting than -several of the portions that immediately precede it. But still, it is -the great<span class="pagenum" id="Page_170">[p. 170]</span> national -version of the achievements of the great national hero who freed the -fourth part of his native land from the loathed intrusion of the Moors, -and who stands to this day connected with the proudest recollections -of Spanish glory. It begins with the Cid’s first victories under -Ferdinand the Great, and therefore only alludes to his early youth, and -to the extraordinary circumstances on which Corneille, following the -old Spanish play and ballads, has founded his tragedy; but it gives -afterwards, with great minuteness, nearly every one of the adventures -that in the older traditions are ascribed to him, down to his death, -which happened in 1099, or rather down to the death of Alfonso the -Sixth, ten years later.</p> - -<p>Much of it is as fabulous<a id="FNanchor_254" href="#Footnote_254" -class="fnanchor">[254]</a> as the accounts of Bernardo del Carpio and -the Children of Lara, though perhaps not more so than might be expected -in a work of such a period and such pretensions. Its style, too, is -suited to its romantic character, and is more diffuse and grave than -that of the best narrative portions of the General Chronicle. But -then, on the other hand, it is overflowing with the very spirit of the -times when it was written, and offers us so true a picture of their -generous virtues, as well as their stern violence, that it may well be -regarded as one of the best books in the world, if not the very best, -for studying the real character and manners of the ages of chivalry. -Occasionally there are passages in it like the following description -of the Cid’s feelings and conduct, when he left his good castle of -Bivar, unjustly and cruelly exiled by the king,<span class="pagenum" -id="Page_171">[p. 171]</span> which, whether invented or not, are as -true to the spirit of the period they represent, as if the minutest of -their details were ascertained facts.</p> - -<p>“And when he saw his courts deserted and without people, and the -perches without falcons, and the gateway without its judgment-seats, -he turned himself toward the East and knelt down and said, ‘Saint -Mary, Mother, and all other Saints, graciously beseech God that he -would grant me might to overcome all these pagans, and that I may -gain from them wherewith to do good to my friends, and to all those -that may follow and help me.’ And then he went on and asked for Alvar -Fañez, and said to him, ‘Cousin, what fault have the poor in the wrong -that the king has done us? Warn all my people, then, that they harm -none, wheresoever we may go.’ And he called for his horse to mount. -Then spake up an old woman standing at her door and said, ‘Go on -with good luck, for you shall make spoil of whatsoever you may find -or desire.’ And the Cid, when he heard that saying, rode on, for he -would tarry no longer; and as he went out of Bivar, he said, ‘Now -do I desire you should know, my friends, that it is the will of God -that we should return to Castile with great honor and great gain.’”<a -id="FNanchor_255" href="#Footnote_255" class="fnanchor">[255]</a></p> - -<p>Some of the touches of manners in this little passage,<span -class="pagenum" id="Page_172">[p. 172]</span> such as the allusion to -the judgment-seats at his gate, where the Cid in patriarchal simplicity -had administered justice to his vassals, and the hint of the poor -augury gathered from the old woman’s wish, which seems to be of more -power with him than the prayer he had just uttered, or the bold hopes -that were driving him to the Moorish frontiers,—such touches give life -and truth to this old chronicle, and bring its times and feelings, as -it were, sensibly before us. Adding its peculiar treasures to those -contained in the rest of the General Chronicle, we shall find, in the -whole, nearly all the romantic and poetical fables and adventures that -belong to the earliest portions of Spanish history. At the same time, -we shall obtain a living picture of the state of manners in that dark -period, when the elements of modern society were just beginning to be -separated from the chaos in which they had long struggled, and out -of which, by the action of successive ages, they have been gradually -wrought into those forms of policy which now give stability to -governments and peace to the intercourse of men.</p> - -<hr class="chap0" /> - - -<div class="chapter pt3" id="Ch_1_9"> - <p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_173">[p. 173]</span></p> - <h3>CHAPTER IX.</h3> - <p class="subh3 hang"><span class="smcap">Effects of the Example - of Alfonso the Tenth. — Chronicles of his own Reign, and of the - Reigns of Sancho the Brave and Ferdinand the Fourth. — Chronicle - of Alfonso the Eleventh, by Villaizan. — Chronicles of Peter the - Cruel, Henry the Second, John the First, and Henry the Third, by - Ayala. — Chronicle of John the Second. — Two Chronicles of Henry - the Fourth, and two of Ferdinand and Isabella.</span></p> -</div> - -<p><span class="smcap">The</span> idea of Alfonso the Wise, simply -and nobly expressed in the opening of his Chronicle, that he was -desirous to leave for posterity a record of what Spain had been and -had done in all past time,<a id="FNanchor_256" href="#Footnote_256" -class="fnanchor">[256]</a> was not without influence upon the nation, -even in the state in which it then was, and in which, for above a -century afterwards, it continued. But, as in the case of that great -king’s project for a uniform administration of justice by a settled -code, his example was too much in advance of his age to be immediately -followed; though, as in that memorable case, when it was once adopted, -its fruits became abundant. The two next kings, Sancho the Brave and -Ferdinand the Fourth, took no measures, so far as we know, to keep up -and publish the history of their reigns. But Alfonso the Eleventh, -the same monarch, it should be remembered, under whom the<span -class="pagenum" id="Page_174">[p. 174]</span> “Partidas” became the -law of the land, recurred to the example of his wise ancestor, and -ordered the annals of the kingdom to be continued, from the time when -those of the General Chronicle ceased down to his own; embracing, of -course, the reigns of Alfonso the Wise, Sancho the Brave, and Ferdinand -the Fourth, or the period from 1252 to 1312.<a id="FNanchor_257" -href="#Footnote_257" class="fnanchor">[257]</a> This is the first -instance of the appointment of a royal chronicler, and may, therefore, -be regarded as the creation of an office of consequence in all that -regards the history of the country, and which, however much it may have -been neglected in later times, furnished important documents down to -the reign of Charles the Fifth, and was continued, in form at least, -till the establishment of the Academy of History in the beginning of -the eighteenth century.</p> - -<p>By whom this office was first filled does not appear; but the -Chronicle itself seems to have been prepared about the year 1320. -Formerly it was attributed to Fernan Sanchez de Tovar; but Fernan -Sanchez was a personage of great consideration and power in the state, -practised in public affairs, and familiar with their history, so that -we can hardly attribute to him the mistakes with which this Chronicle -abounds, especially in the part relating to Alfonso the Wise.<a -id="FNanchor_258" href="#Footnote_258" class="fnanchor">[258]</a> But, -whoever may have been its author, the Chronicle, which, it may be -noticed, is so distinctly divided into the three reigns, that it is -rather three chronicles than one, has little value as a composition. -Its narrative is given with a<span class="pagenum" id="Page_175">[p. -175]</span> rude and dry formality, and whatever interest it awakens -depends, not upon its style and manner, but upon the character of the -events recorded, which sometimes have an air of adventure about them -belonging to the elder times, and, like them, are picturesque.</p> - -<p>The example of regular chronicling, having now been fairly set at -the court of Castile, was followed by Henry the Second, who commanded -his Chancellor and Chief-Justiciary, Juan Nuñez de Villaizan, to -prepare, as we are told in the Preface, in imitation of the ancients, -an account of his father’s reign. In this way, the series goes on -unbroken, and now gives us the “Chronicle of Alfonso the Eleventh,”<a -id="FNanchor_259" href="#Footnote_259" class="fnanchor">[259]</a> -beginning with his birth and education, of which the notices are -slight, but relating amply the events from the time he came to the -throne, in 1312, till his death in 1350. How much of it was actually -written by the chancellor of the kingdom cannot be ascertained.<a -id="FNanchor_260" href="#Footnote_260" class="fnanchor">[260]</a> -From different passages, it seems that an older chronicle was used -freely in its composition;<a id="FNanchor_261" href="#Footnote_261" -class="fnanchor">[261]</a> and the whole should, therefore, probably be -regarded as a compilation made under the responsibility of the highest -personages of the realm. Its opening will show at once the grave and -measured tone it takes, and the accuracy it claims for its dates and -statements.</p> - -<p>“God is the beginning and the means and the end of all things; -and without him they cannot subsist. For by his power they are made, -and by his wisdom ordered, and by his goodness maintained. And he -is the Lord; and, in all things, almighty, and conqueror in<span -class="pagenum" id="Page_176">[p. 176]</span> all battles. Wherefore, -whosoever would begin any good work should first name the name of God, -and place him before all things, asking and beseeching of his mercy -to give him knowledge and will and power, whereby he may bring it to -a good end. Therefore will this pious chronicle henceforward relate -whatsoever happened to the noble King, Don Alfonso, of Castile and -Leon, and the battles and conquests and victories that he had and -did in his life against Moors and against Christians. And it will -begin in the fifteenth year of the reign of the most noble King, -Don Fernando, his father.”<a id="FNanchor_262" href="#Footnote_262" -class="fnanchor">[262]</a></p> - -<p>The reign of the father, however, occupies only three short -chapters; after which, the rest of the Chronicle, containing in all -three hundred and forty-two chapters, comes down to the death of -Alfonso, who perished of the plague before Gibraltar, and then abruptly -closes. Its general tone is grave and decisive, like that of a person -speaking with authority upon matters of importance, and it is rare that -we find in it a sketch of manners like the following account of the -young king at the age of fourteen or fifteen.</p> - -<p>“And as long as he remained in the city of Valladolid, there were -with him knights and esquires, and his tutor, Martin Fernandez de -Toledo, that brought him up, and that had been with him a long time, -even before the queen died, and other men, who had long been used to -palaces, and to the courts of kings; and all these gave him an ensample -of good manners. And, moreover, he had been brought up with the -children of men of note, and with noble knights. But the king, of his -own condition, was well-mannered in eating, and<span class="pagenum" -id="Page_177">[p. 177]</span> drank little, and was clad as became his -estate; and in all other his customs he was well conditioned, for his -speech was true Castilian, and he hesitated not in what he had to say. -And so long as he was in Valladolid, he sat three days in the week to -hear the complaints and suits that came before him; and he was shrewd -in understanding the facts thereof, and he was faithful in secret -matters, and loved them that served him, each after his place, and -trusted truly and entirely those whom he ought to trust. And he began -to be much given to horsemanship, and pleased himself with arms, and -loved to have in his household strong men, that were bold and of good -conditions. And he loved much all his own people, and was sore grieved -at the great mischief and great harm there were in the land through -failure of justice, and he had indignation against evil-doers.”<a -id="FNanchor_263" href="#Footnote_263" class="fnanchor">[263]</a></p> - -<p>But though there are few sketches in the Chronicle of Alfonso -the Eleventh like the preceding, we find in general a well-ordered -account of the affairs of that monarch’s long and active reign, given -with a simplicity and apparent sincerity which, in spite of the -formal plainness of its style, make it almost always interesting, and -sometimes amusing.</p> - -<p>The next considerable attempt approaches somewhat nearer to proper -history. It is the series of chronicles relating to the troublesome -reigns of Peter the Cruel and Henry the Second, to the hardly less -unsettled times of John the First, and to the more quiet and prosperous -reign of Henry the Third. They were written by Pedro Lopez de Ayala, -in some respects the first Spaniard of his age; distinguished, as -we have seen,<span class="pagenum" id="Page_178">[p. 178]</span> -among the poets of the latter part of the fourteenth century, and -now to be noticed as the best prose-writer of the same period. -He was born in 1332,<a id="FNanchor_264" href="#Footnote_264" -class="fnanchor">[264]</a> and, though only eighteen years old when -Peter ascended the throne, was soon observed and employed by that -acute monarch. But when troubles arose in the kingdom, Ayala left his -tyrannical master, who had already shown himself capable of almost -any degree of guilt, and joined his fortunes to those of Henry of -Trastamara, the king’s illegitimate brother, who had, of course, -no claim to the throne but such as was laid in the crimes of its -possessor, and the good-will of the suffering nobles and people.</p> - -<p>At first, the cause of Henry was successful. But Peter addressed -himself for help to Edward the Black Prince, then in his duchy -of Aquitaine, who, as Froissart relates, thinking it would be -a great prejudice against the estate royal<a id="FNanchor_265" -href="#Footnote_265" class="fnanchor">[265]</a> to have a usurper -succeed, entered Spain, and, with a strong hand, replaced the -fallen monarch on his throne. At the decisive battle of Naxera, -by which this was achieved, in 1367, Ayala, who bore his prince’s -standard, was taken prisoner<a id="FNanchor_266" href="#Footnote_266" -class="fnanchor">[266]</a> and carried to England, where he wrote a -part at least of his poems on a courtly life. Somewhat later, Peter, -no longer supported by the Black Prince, was dethroned; and Ayala, -who was then released from his tedious imprisonment, returned home, -and afterwards became Grand-Chancellor to Henry the Second, in whose -service he gained so much consideration and influence, that he seems -to have descended as a sort of traditionary<span class="pagenum" -id="Page_179">[p. 179]</span> minister of state through the reign -of John the First, and far into that of Henry the Third. Sometimes, -indeed, like other grave personages, ecclesiastical as well as civil, -he appeared as a military leader, and once again, in the disastrous -battle of Aljubarrota, in 1385, he was taken prisoner. But his -Portuguese captivity does not seem to have been so long or so cruel -as his English one; and, at any rate, the last years of his life were -passed quietly in Spain. He died at Calahorra in 1407, seventy-five -years old.</p> - -<p>“He was,” says his nephew, the noble Fernan Perez de Guzman, in -the striking gallery of portraits he has left us,<a id="FNanchor_267" -href="#Footnote_267" class="fnanchor">[267]</a> “He was a man of very -gentle qualities and of good conversation; had a great conscience and -feared God much. He loved knowledge, also, and gave himself much to -reading books and histories; and though he was as goodly a knight as -any, and of great discretion in the practices of the world, yet he -was by nature bent on learning, and spent a great part of his time in -reading and studying, not books of law, but of philosophy and history. -Through his means some books are now known in Castile that were not -known aforetime; such as Titus Livius, who is the most notable of the -Roman historians; the ‘Fall of Princes’; the ‘Ethics’ of Saint Gregory; -Isidorus ‘De Summo Bono’; Boethius; and the ‘History of Troy.’ He -prepared the History of Castile from the King Don Pedro to the King Don -Henry; and made a good book on Hunting, which he greatly affected, and -another called ‘Rimado de Palacio.’”</p> - -<p>We should not, perhaps, at the present day, claim so much reputation -as his kinsman does for the Chancellor<span class="pagenum" -id="Page_180">[p. 180]</span> Ayala, in consequence of the interest -he took in books of such doubtful value as Guido de Colonna’s “Trojan -War,” and Boccaccio “De Casibus Principum,” but, in translating Livy,<a -id="FNanchor_268" href="#Footnote_268" class="fnanchor">[268]</a> he -unquestionably rendered his country an important service. He rendered, -too, a no less important service to himself; since a familiarity with -Livy tended to fit him for the task of preparing the Chronicle, which -now constitutes his chief distinction and merit.<a id="FNanchor_269" -href="#Footnote_269" class="fnanchor">[269]</a> It begins in 1350, -where that of Alfonso the Eleventh ends, and comes down to the sixth -year of Henry the Third, or to 1396, embracing that portion of the -author’s own life which was between his eighteenth year and his -sixty-fourth, and constituting the first safe materials for the history -of his native country.</p> - -<p>For such an undertaking Ayala was singularly well fitted. Spanish -prose was already well advanced in his time; for Don John Manuel, -the last of the elder school of good writers, did not die till Ayala -was fifteen years old. He was, moreover, as we have seen, a scholar, -and, for the age in which he lived, a remarkable one; and, what is of -more importance than either of these circumstances, he was personally -familiar with the course of public affairs during the forty-six years -embraced by his Chronicle. Of all this traces are to be found in<span -class="pagenum" id="Page_181">[p. 181]</span> his work. His style is -not, like that of the oldest chroniclers, full of a rich vivacity and -freedom; but, without being over-carefully elaborated, it is simple -and business-like; while, to give a more earnest air, if not an air -of more truth to the whole, he has, in imitation of Livy, introduced -into the course of his narrative set speeches and epistles intended -to express the feelings and opinions of his principal actors more -distinctly than they could be expressed by the mere facts and current -of the story. Compared with the Chronicle of Alfonso the Wise, which -preceded it by above a century, it lacks the charm of that poetical -credulity which loves to deal in doubtful traditions of glory, rather -than in those ascertained facts which are often little honorable either -to the national fame or to the spirit of humanity. Compared with the -Chronicle of Froissart, with which it was contemporary, we miss the -honest-hearted, but somewhat childlike, enthusiasm that looks with -unmingled delight and admiration upon all the gorgeous phantasmagoria -of chivalry, and find, instead of it, the penetrating sagacity of an -experienced statesman, who looks quite through the deeds of men, and, -like Comines, thinks it not at all worth while to conceal the great -crimes with which he has been familiar, if they can be but wisely and -successfully set forth. When, therefore, we read Ayala’s Chronicle, we -do not doubt that we have made an important step in the progress of the -species of writing to which it belongs, and that we are beginning to -approach the period when history is to teach with sterner exactness the -lesson it has learned from the hard experience of the past.</p> - -<p>Among the many curious and striking passages in Ayala’s Chronicle, -the most interesting are, perhaps, those that relate to the unfortunate -Blanche of Bour<span class="pagenum" id="Page_182">[p. 182]</span>bon, -the young and beautiful wife of Peter the Cruel, who, for the sake of -María de Padilla, forsook her two days after his marriage, and, when he -had kept her long in prison, at last sacrificed her to his base passion -for his mistress; an event which excited, as we learn from Froissart’s -Chronicle, a sensation of horror, not only in Spain, but throughout -Europe, and became an attractive subject for the popular poetry of the -old national ballads, several of which we find were devoted to it.<a -id="FNanchor_270" href="#Footnote_270" class="fnanchor">[270]</a> But -it may well be doubted whether even the best of the ballads give us -so near and moving a picture of her cruel sufferings as Ayala does, -when, going on step by step in his passionless manner, he shows us -the queen first solemnly wedded in the church at Toledo, and then -pining in her prison at Medina Sidonia; the excitement of the nobles, -and the indignation of the king’s own mother and family; carrying -us all the time with painful exactness through the long series of -murders and atrocities by which Pedro at last reaches the final crime -which, during eight years, he had hesitated to commit. For there is, -in the succession of scenes he thus exhibits to us, a circumstantial -minuteness which is above all power of generalization, and brings -the guilty monarch’s character more vividly before us than it could -be brought by the most fervent spirit of poetry or of eloquence.<a -id="FNanchor_271" href="#Footnote_271" class="fnanchor">[271]</a> And -it is precisely this cool and patient minuteness of the chronicler, -founded on his personal knowledge, that gives its peculiar character -to Ayala’s record of the four wild reigns in which he lived; pre<span -class="pagenum" id="Page_183">[p. 183]</span>senting them to us in a -style less spirited and vigorous, indeed, than that of some of the -older chronicles of the monarchy, but certainly in one more simple, -more judicious, and more effective for the true purposes of history.<a -id="FNanchor_272" href="#Footnote_272" class="fnanchor">[272]</a></p> - -<p>The last of the royal chronicles that it is necessary to notice -with much particularity is that of John the Second, which begins -with the death of Henry the Third, and comes down to the death of -John himself, in 1454.<a id="FNanchor_273" href="#Footnote_273" -class="fnanchor">[273]</a> It was the work of several hands, and -contains<span class="pagenum" id="Page_184">[p. 184]</span> internal -evidence of having been written at different periods. Alvar Garcia -de Santa María, no doubt, prepared the account of the first fourteen -years, or to 1420, constituting about one third of the whole work;<a -id="FNanchor_274" href="#Footnote_274" class="fnanchor">[274]</a> -after which, in consequence perhaps of his attachment to the -Infante Ferdinand, who was regent during the minority of the -king, and subsequently much disliked by him, his labors ceased.<a -id="FNanchor_275" href="#Footnote_275" class="fnanchor">[275]</a> -Who wrote the next portion is not known;<a id="FNanchor_276" -href="#Footnote_276" class="fnanchor">[276]</a> but from about 1429 -to 1445, John de Mena, the leading poet of his time, was the royal -annalist, and, if we are to trust the letters of one of his friends, -seems to have been diligent in collecting materials for his task, if -not earnest in all its duties.<a id="FNanchor_277" href="#Footnote_277" -class="fnanchor">[277]</a> Other parts have been attributed to Juan -Rodriguez del Padron, a poet, and Diego de Valera,<a id="FNanchor_278" -href="#Footnote_278" class="fnanchor">[278]</a> a knight and gentleman -often men<span class="pagenum" id="Page_185">[p. 185]</span>tioned in -the Chronicle itself, and afterwards himself employed as a chronicler -by Queen Isabella.</p> - -<p>But whoever may have been at first concerned in it, the whole -work was ultimately committed to Fernan Perez de Guzman, a scholar, -a courtier, and an acute as well as a witty observer of manners, who -survived John the Second, and probably arranged and completed the -Chronicle of his master’s reign, as it was published by order of the -Emperor Charles the Fifth;<a id="FNanchor_279" href="#Footnote_279" -class="fnanchor">[279]</a> some passages having been added as late as -the time of Ferdinand and Isabella, who are more than once alluded to -in it as reigning sovereigns.<a id="FNanchor_280" href="#Footnote_280" -class="fnanchor">[280]</a> It is divided, like the Chronicle of Ayala, -which may naturally have been its model, into the different years of -the king’s reign, each year being subdivided into chapters; and it -contains a great number of important original letters and other curious -contemporary documents,<a id="FNanchor_281" href="#Footnote_281" -class="fnanchor">[281]</a> from which, as well as from the care used -in its compilation, it has been considered more absolutely trustworthy -than any Castilian chronicle that preceded it.<a id="FNanchor_282" -href="#Footnote_282" class="fnanchor">[282]</a></p> - -<p>In its general air, there is a good deal to mark the manners -of the age, such as accounts of the court ceremonies, festivals, -and tournaments that were so much loved by John; and its style, -though, on the whole, un<span class="pagenum" id="Page_186">[p. -186]</span>ornamented and unpretending, is not wanting in variety, -spirit, and solemnity. Once, on occasion of the fall and ignominious -death of the Great Constable Alvaro de Luna, whose commanding spirit -had, for many years, impressed itself on the affairs of the kingdom, -the honest chronicler, though little favorable to that haughty -minister, seems unable to repress his feelings, and, recollecting -the treatise on the “Fall of Princes,” which Ayala had made known in -Spain, breaks out, saying: “O John Boccaccio, if thou wert now alive, -thy pen surely would not fail to record the fall of this strenuous and -bold gentleman among those of the mighty princes whose fate thou hast -set forth. For what greater example could there be to every estate? -what greater warning? what greater teaching to show the revolutions -and movements of deceitful and changing fortune? O blindness of the -whole race of man! O unexpected fall in the affairs of this our world!” -And so on through a chapter of some length.<a id="FNanchor_283" -href="#Footnote_283" class="fnanchor">[283]</a> But this is the only -instance of such an outbreak in the Chronicle. On the contrary, its -general tone shows, that historical composition in Spain was about -to undergo a permanent change; for, at its very outset, we have -regular speeches attributed to the principal personages it records,<a -id="FNanchor_284" href="#Footnote_284" class="fnanchor">[284]</a> such -as had been introduced by Ayala; and, through the whole, a well-ordered -and documentary record of affairs, tinged, no doubt, with some of -the prejudices and passions of the troublesome times to which it -relates, but still claiming to have the exactness of regular annals, -and striving to reach the grave and dignified style suited to the -higher purposes of history.<a id="FNanchor_285" href="#Footnote_285" -class="fnanchor">[285]</a></p> - -<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_187">[p. 187]</span>Of the disturbed -and corrupt reign of Henry the Fourth, who, at one period, was nearly -driven from his throne by his younger brother, Alfonso, we have two -chronicles: the first by Diego Enriquez de Castillo, who was attached, -both as chaplain and historiographer, to the person of the legitimate -sovereign; and the other by Alonso de Palencia, chronicler to the -unfortunate pretender, whose claims were sustained only three years, -though the Chronicle of Palencia, like that of Castillo, extends -over the whole period of the regular sovereign’s reign, from 1454 to -1474. They are as unlike each other as the fates of the princes they -record. The Chronicle of Castillo is written with great plainness -of manner, and, except in a few moral reflections, chiefly at the -beginning and the end, seems to aim at nothing but the simplest and -even the driest narrative;<a id="FNanchor_286" href="#Footnote_286" -class="fnanchor">[286]</a> while<span class="pagenum" -id="Page_188">[p. 188]</span> the Chronicle of Palencia, who had -been educated in Italy under the Greeks recently arrived there from -the ruins of the Eastern Empire, is in a false and cumbrous style; -a single sentence frequently stretching through a chapter, and the -whole work showing that he had gained little but affectation and bad -taste under the teachings of John Lascaris and George of Trebizond.<a -id="FNanchor_287" href="#Footnote_287" class="fnanchor">[287]</a> Both -works, however, are too strictly annals to be read for any thing but -the facts they contain.</p> - -<p>Similar remarks must be made about the chronicles of the reign -of Ferdinand and Isabella, extending from 1474 to 1504-16. There -are several of them, but only two need be noticed. One is by Andres -Bernaldez, often called “El Cura de los Palacios,” because he was -curate in the small town of that name, though the materials for his -Chronicle were, no doubt, gathered chiefly in Seville, the neighbouring -splendid capital of Andalusia, to whose princely Archbishop he was -chaplain. His Chronicle, written, it should seem, chiefly to please -his own taste, extends from 1488 to 1513. It is honest and sincere, -reflecting faithfully the physiognomy of his age; its credulity, -its bigotry, and its love of show. It is, in truth, such an account -of passing events as would be given by one who was rather curious -about them than a part of them; but who, from accident, was familiar -with whatever was going on<span class="pagenum" id="Page_189">[p. -189]</span> among the leading spirits of his time and country.<a -id="FNanchor_288" href="#Footnote_288" class="fnanchor">[288]</a> -No portion of it is more valuable and interesting than that which -relates to Columbus, to whom he devotes thirteen chapters, and for -whose history he must have had excellent materials, since not only was -Deza, the Archbishop, to whose service he was attached, one of the -friends and patrons of Columbus, but Columbus himself, in 1496, was -a guest at the house of Bernaldez, and intrusted to him manuscripts -which, he says, he has employed in this very account; thus placing -his Chronicle among the documents important alike in the history -of America and of Spain.<a id="FNanchor_289" href="#Footnote_289" -class="fnanchor">[289]</a></p> - -<p>The other chronicle of the time of Ferdinand and Isabella is that -of Fernando del Pulgar, their Councillor of State, their Secretary, -and their authorized Annalist. He was a person of much note in his -time, but it is not known when he was born or where he died.<a -id="FNanchor_290" href="#Footnote_290" class="fnanchor">[290]</a> -That he was a man of wit and letters, and an acute observer of -life, we know from his notices of the Famous Men of Castile; from -his Commentary on the Coplas of Mingo Revulgo; and from a few -spirited and<span class="pagenum" id="Page_190">[p. 190]</span> -pleasant letters to his friends that have been spared to us. But -as a chronicler his merit is inconsiderable.<a id="FNanchor_291" -href="#Footnote_291" class="fnanchor">[291]</a> The early part of -his work is not trustworthy, and the latter part, beginning in 1482 -and ending in 1490, is brief in its narrative, and tedious in the -somewhat showy speeches with which it is burdened. The best of it is -its style, which is often dignified; but it is the style of history, -rather than that of a chronicle; and, indeed, the formal division -of the work, according to its subjects, into three parts, as well -as the philosophical reflections with which it is adorned, show -that the ancients had been studied by its author, and that he was -desirous to imitate them.<a id="FNanchor_292" href="#Footnote_292" -class="fnanchor">[292]</a> Why he did not continue his account beyond -1490, we cannot tell. It has been conjectured that he died then.<a -id="FNanchor_293" href="#Footnote_293" class="fnanchor">[293]</a> But -this is a mistake, for we have a well-written and curious report, made -by him to the queen, on the whole Moorish history of Granada, after the -capture of the city in 1492.<a id="FNanchor_294" href="#Footnote_294" -class="fnanchor">[294]</a></p> - -<p>The Chronicle of Ferdinand and Isabella by Pulgar is the last -instance of the old style of chronicling that should now be noticed; -for though, as we have already observed, it was long thought for the -dignity of the<span class="pagenum" id="Page_191">[p. 191]</span> -monarchy that the stately forms of authorized annals should be kept -up, the free and picturesque spirit that gave them life was no longer -there. Chroniclers were appointed, like Fernan de Ocampo and Mexia; but -the true chronicling style was gone by, not to return.</p> - -<hr class="chap0" /> - - -<div class="chapter pt3" id="Ch_1_10"> - <p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_192">[p. 192]</span></p> - <h3>CHAPTER X.</h3> - <p class="subh3 hang"><span class="smcap">Chronicles of - Particular Events. — The Passo Honroso. — The Seguro de - Tordesillas. — Chronicles of Particular Persons. — Pero Niño. — - Alvaro de Luna. — Gonzalvo de Córdova. — Chronicles of Travels. - — Clavijo, Columbus, Balboa, and others. — Romantic Chronicles. - — Roderic and the Destruction of Spain. — General Remarks on the - Spanish Chronicles.</span></p> -</div> - -<p><i>Chronicles of Particular Events.</i>—It should be borne in mind, that -we have thus far traced only the succession of what may be called the -general Spanish chronicles, which, prepared by royal hands or under -royal authority, have set forth the history of the whole country, from -its earliest beginnings and most fabulous traditions, down through -its fierce wars and divisions, to the time when it had, by the final -overthrow of the Moorish power, been settled into a quiet and compact -monarchy. From their subject and character, they are, of course, -the most important, and, generally, the most interesting, works of -the class to which they belong. But, as might be expected from the -influence they exercised and the popularity they enjoyed, they were -often imitated. Many chronicles were written on a great variety of -subjects, and many works in a chronicling style which yet never bore -the name. Most of them are of no value. But to the few that, from -their manner or style, deserve notice we must now turn for a moment, -beginning with those that refer to particular events.</p> - -<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_193">[p. 193]</span>Two of these -special chronicles relate to occurrences in the reign of John the -Second, and are not only curious in themselves and for their style, but -valuable, as illustrating the manners of the time. The first, according -to the date of its events, is the “Passo Honroso,” or the Passage of -Honor, and is a formal account of a passage at arms which was held -against all comers in 1434, at the bridge of Orbigo, near the city of -Leon, during thirty days, at a moment when the road was thronged with -knights passing for a solemn festival to the neighbouring shrine of -Santiago. The challenger was Suero de Quiñones, a gentleman of rank, -who claimed to be thus emancipated from the service of wearing for a -noble lady’s sake a chain of iron around his neck every Thursday. The -arrangements for this extraordinary tournament were all made under -the king’s authority. Nine champions, <i>mantenedores</i>, we are told, -stood with Quiñones, and at the end of the thirty days it was found -that sixty-eight knights had adventured themselves against his claim; -that six hundred and twenty-seven encounters had taken place; and that -sixty-six lances had been broken;—one knight, an Aragonese, having -been killed, and many wounded, among whom were Quiñones and eight out -of his nine fellow-champions.<a id="FNanchor_295" href="#Footnote_295" -class="fnanchor">[295]</a></p> - -<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_194">[p. 194]</span>Strange as all -this may sound, and seeming to carry us back to the fabulous days when -the knights of romance</p> - -<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> -<p class="i0">“Jousted in Aspramont or Montalban,”</p> -</div></div> - -<p class="ti0">and Rodamont maintained the bridge of Montpellier, for -the sake of the lady of his love, it is yet all plain matter of fact, -spread out in becoming style, by an eyewitness, with a full account of -the ceremonies, both of chivalry and of religion, that accompanied it. -The theory of the whole is, that Quiñones, in acknowledgment of being -prisoner to a noble lady, had, for some time, weekly worn her chains; -and that he was now to ransom himself from this <i>fanciful</i> imprisonment -by the payment of a certain number of <i>real</i> spears broken by him -and his friends in fair fight. All this, to be sure, is fantastic -enough. But the ideas of love, honor, and religion displayed in the -proceedings of the champions,<a id="FNanchor_296" href="#Footnote_296" -class="fnanchor">[296]</a> who hear mass devoutly every day, and yet -cannot obtain Christian burial for the Aragonese knight who is killed, -and in the conduct of Quiñones himself, who fasts each Thursday, -partly, it should seem, in honor of the Madonna, and partly in honor -of his lady,—these and other whimsical incongruities are still more -fantastic. They seem, indeed, as we read their record, to be quite -worthy of the admiration expressed for them by Don Quixote in his -argument with the wise canon,<a id="FNanchor_297" href="#Footnote_297" -class="fnanchor">[297]</a> but hardly worthy of any other; so that -we are surprised, at first, when we find them specially recorded -in<span class="pagenum" id="Page_195">[p. 195]</span> the contemporary -Chronicle of King John, and filling, long afterwards, a separate -chapter in the graver Annals of Zurita. And yet such a grand -tournament was an important event in the age when it happened, and is -highly illustrative of the contemporary manners.<a id="FNanchor_298" -href="#Footnote_298" class="fnanchor">[298]</a> History and chronicle, -therefore, alike did well to give it a place; and, indeed, down to -the present time, the curious and elaborate record of the details and -ceremonies of the Passo Honroso is of no little value as one of the -best exhibitions that remain to us of the genius of chivalry, and -as quite the best exhibition of what has been considered the most -characteristic of all the knightly institutions.</p> - -<p>The other work of the same period to which we have referred gives -us, also, a striking view of the spirit of the times; one less -picturesque, indeed, but not less instructive. It is called “El Seguro -de Tordesillas,” the Pledge or the Truce of Tordesillas, and relates -to a series of conferences held in 1439, between John the Second and -a body of his nobles, headed by his own son, who, in a seditious and -violent manner, interfered in the affairs of the kingdom, in order to -break down the influence of the Constable de Luna.<a id="FNanchor_299" -href="#Footnote_299" class="fnanchor">[299]</a> It receives its -peculiar name from the revolting circumstance, that, even in the -days of the Passo Honroso, and with some of the knights who figured -in that gorgeous show for the parties, true honor was yet sunk so -low in Spain, that none could be found on either side of this great -quarrel,—not even the King or the Prince,—whose<span class="pagenum" -id="Page_196">[p. 196]</span> word would be taken as a pledge for the -mere personal safety of those who should be engaged in the discussions -at Tordesillas. It was necessary, therefore, to find some one not -strictly belonging to either party, who, invested with higher powers -and even with supreme military control, should become the depositary -of the general faith, and, exercising an authority limited only by -his own sense of honor, be obeyed alike by the exasperated sovereign -and his rebellious subjects.<a id="FNanchor_300" href="#Footnote_300" -class="fnanchor">[300]</a></p> - -<p>This proud distinction was given to Pedro Fernandez de Velasco, -commonly called the Good or Faithful Count Haro; and the “Seguro de -Tordesillas,” prepared by him some time afterwards, shows how honorably -he executed the extraordinary trust. Few historical works can challenge -such absolute authenticity. The documents of the case, constituting the -chief part of it, are spread out before the reader; and what does not -rest on their foundation rests on that word of the Good Count to which -the lives of whatever was most distinguished in the kingdom had just -been fearlessly trusted. As might be expected, its characteristics are -simplicity and plainness, not elegance or eloquence. It is, in fact, -a collection of documents, but it is an interesting and a melancholy -record. The compact that was made led to no permanent good. The Count -soon withdrew, ill at ease, to his own estates; and in less than two -years his unhappy and weak master was assailed anew, and besieged in -Medina del Campo, by his rebellious family and their adherents.<a -id="FNanchor_301" href="#Footnote_301" class="fnanchor">[301]</a> -After this, we hear little of<span class="pagenum" id="Page_197">[p. -197]</span> Count Haro, except that he continued to assist the king -from time to time, in his increasing troubles, until, worn out with -fatigue of body and mind, he retired from the world, and passed the -last ten years of his life in a monastery, which he had himself -founded, and where he died at the age of threescore and ten.<a -id="FNanchor_302" href="#Footnote_302" class="fnanchor">[302]</a></p> - - -<p class="mt2"><i>Chronicles of Particular Persons.</i>—But while remarkable -<i>events</i>, like the Passage of Arms at Orbigo and the Pledge of -Tordesillas, were thus appropriately recorded, the remarkable <i>men</i> of -the time could hardly fail occasionally to find fit chroniclers.</p> - -<p>Pero Niño, Count de Buelna, who flourished between 1379 and 1453, -is the first of them. He was a distinguished naval and military -commander in the reigns of Henry the Third and John the Second; and -his Chronicle is the work of Gutierre Diez de Gamez, who was attached -to his person from the time Pero Niño was twenty-three years old, -and boasted the distinction of being his standard-bearer in many -a rash and bloody fight. A more faithful chronicler, or one more -imbued with knightly qualities, can hardly be found. He may be well -compared to the “Loyal Serviteur,” the biographer of the Chevalier -Bayard; and, like him, not only enjoyed the confidence of his master, -but shared his spirit.<a id="FNanchor_303" href="#Footnote_303" -class="fnanchor">[303]</a> His accounts of the education of -Pero Niño,<span class="pagenum" id="Page_198">[p. 198]</span> -and of the counsels given him by his tutor;<a id="FNanchor_304" -href="#Footnote_304" class="fnanchor">[304]</a> of Pero’s marriage to -his first wife, the lady Constance de Guebara;<a id="FNanchor_305" -href="#Footnote_305" class="fnanchor">[305]</a> of his cruises against -the corsairs and Bey of Tunis;<a id="FNanchor_306" href="#Footnote_306" -class="fnanchor">[306]</a> of the part he took in the war against -England, after the death of Richard the Second, when he commanded an -expedition that made a descent on Cornwall, and, according to his -chronicler, burnt the town of Poole and took Jersey and Guernsey;<a -id="FNanchor_307" href="#Footnote_307" class="fnanchor">[307]</a> -and finally, of his share in the common war against Granada, which -happened in the latter part of his life and under the leading of the -Constable Alvaro de Luna,<a id="FNanchor_308" href="#Footnote_308" -class="fnanchor">[308]</a> are all interesting and curious, and told -with simplicity and spirit. But the most characteristic and amusing -passages of the Chronicle are, perhaps, those that relate, one to Pero -Niño’s gallant visit at Girfontaine, near Rouen, the residence of the -old Admiral of France, and his gay young wife,<a id="FNanchor_309" -href="#Footnote_309" class="fnanchor">[309]</a> and another to the -course of his true love for Beatrice, daughter of the Infante Don -John, the lady who, after much opposition and many romantic dangers, -became his second wife.<a id="FNanchor_310" href="#Footnote_310" -class="fnanchor">[310]</a> Unfortunately, we know nothing about the -author of all this entertaining history except what he modestly tells -us in the work itself; but we cannot doubt that he was as loyal in his -life as he claims to be in his true-hearted account of his master’s -adventures and achievements.</p> - -<p>Next after Pero Niño’s Chronicle comes that of the Constable Don -Alvaro de Luna, the leading spirit of the reign of John the Second, -almost from the moment<span class="pagenum" id="Page_199">[p. -199]</span> when, yet a child, he appeared as a page at court, in -1408, down to 1453, when he perished on the scaffold, a victim to -his own haughty ambition, to the jealousy of the nobles nearest the -throne, and to the guilty weakness of the king. Who was the author of -the Chronicle is unknown.<a id="FNanchor_311" href="#Footnote_311" -class="fnanchor">[311]</a> But, from internal evidence, he was -probably an ecclesiastic of some learning, and certainly a retainer -of the Constable, much about his person, and sincerely attached to -him. It reminds us, at once, of the fine old Life of Wolsey by his -Gentleman Usher, Cavendish; for both works were written after the -fall of the great men whose lives they record, by persons who had -served and loved them in their prosperity, and who now vindicated -their memories with a grateful and trusting affection, which often -renders even their style of writing beautiful by its earnestness, and -sometimes eloquent. The Chronicle of the Constable is, of course, the -oldest. It was composed between 1453 and 1460, or about a century -before Cavendish’s Wolsey. It is grave and stately, sometimes too -stately; but there is a great air of reality about it. The account -of the siege of Palenzuela,<a id="FNanchor_312" href="#Footnote_312" -class="fnanchor">[312]</a> the striking description of the Constable’s -person and bearing,<a id="FNanchor_313" href="#Footnote_313" -class="fnanchor">[313]</a> the scene of the royal visit to the favorite -in his castle at Escalona, with the festivities that followed,<a -id="FNanchor_314" href="#Footnote_314" class="fnanchor">[314]</a> -and, above all, the minute and painful details of the Constable’s -fall from power, his arrest,<span class="pagenum" id="Page_200">[p. -200]</span> and death,<a id="FNanchor_315" href="#Footnote_315" -class="fnanchor">[315]</a> show the freedom and spirit of an -eyewitness, or, at least, of a person entirely familiar with the whole -matter about which he writes. It is, therefore, among the richest and -most interesting of the old Spanish chronicles, and quite indispensable -to one who would comprehend the troubled spirit of the period to which -it relates; the period known as that of the <i>bandos</i>, or armed feuds, -when the whole country was broken into parties, each in warlike array, -fighting for its own head, but none fully submitting to the royal -authority.</p> - -<p>The last of the chronicles of individuals written in the spirit of -the elder times, that it is necessary to notice, is that of Gonzalvo -de Córdova, “the Great Captain,” who flourished from the period -immediately preceding the war of Granada to that which begins the reign -of Charles the Fifth; and who produced an impression on the Spanish -nation hardly equalled since the earlier days of that great Moorish -contest, the cyclus of whose heroes Gonzalvo seems appropriately -to close up. It was about 1526 that the Emperor Charles the Fifth -desired one of the favorite followers of Gonzalvo, Hernan Perez del -Pulgar, to prepare an account of his great captain’s life. A better -person could not easily have been selected. For he is not, as was -long supposed, Fernando del Pulgar, the wit and courtier of the time -of Ferdinand and Isabella.<a id="FNanchor_316" href="#Footnote_316" -class="fnanchor">[316]</a> Nor is the work he<span class="pagenum" -id="Page_201">[p. 201]</span> produced the poor and dull Chronicle -of the life of Gonzalvo first printed in 1580, or earlier, and -often attributed to him.<a id="FNanchor_317" href="#Footnote_317" -class="fnanchor">[317]</a> But he is that bold knight who, with a few -followers, penetrated to the very centre of Granada, then all in arms, -and, affixing an Ave Maria, with the sign of the cross, to the doors -of the principal mosque, consecrated its massive pile to the service -of Christianity, while Ferdinand and Isabella were still beleaguering -the city without; an heroic adventure, with which his country rang -from side to side at the time, and which has not since been forgotten -either in its ballads or in its popular drama.<a id="FNanchor_318" -href="#Footnote_318" class="fnanchor">[318]</a></p> - -<p>As might be expected from the character of its author,—who, to -distinguish him from the courtly and peaceful Pulgar, was well called -“He of the Achievements,” <i>El de las Hazañas</i>,—the book he offered -to his monarch is not a regular life of Gonzalvo, but rath<span -class="pagenum" id="Page_202">[p. 202]</span>er a rude and vigorous -sketch of him, entitled “A Small Part of the Achievements of that -Excellent Person called the Great Captain,” or, as is elsewhere yet -more characteristically said, “of the achievements and solemn virtues -of the Great Captain, both in peace and war.”<a id="FNanchor_319" -href="#Footnote_319" class="fnanchor">[319]</a> The modesty of the -author is as remarkable as his adventurous spirit. He is hardly seen -at all in his narrative, while his love and devotion to his great -leader give a fervor to his style, which, notwithstanding a frequent -display of very unprofitable learning, renders his work both curious -and striking, and brings out his hero in the sort of bold relief in -which he appeared to the admiration of his contemporaries. Some parts -of it, notwithstanding its brevity, are remarkable even for the details -they afford; and some of the speeches, like that of the Alfaquí to the -distracted parties in Granada,<a id="FNanchor_320" href="#Footnote_320" -class="fnanchor">[320]</a> and that of Gonzalvo to the population -of the Abbaycin,<a id="FNanchor_321" href="#Footnote_321" -class="fnanchor">[321]</a> savor of eloquence as well as wisdom. -Regarded as the outline of a great man’s character, few sketches have -more an air of truth; though, perhaps, considering the adventurous and -warlike lives both of the author and his subject, nothing in the book -is more remarkable than the spirit of humanity that pervades it.<a -id="FNanchor_322" href="#Footnote_322" class="fnanchor">[322]</a></p> - - -<p class="mt2"><i>Chronicles of Travels.</i>—In the same style with -the histories of their kings and great men, a few works should be -noticed in the nature of travels, or histories<span class="pagenum" -id="Page_203">[p. 203]</span> of travellers, though not always bearing -the name of Chronicles.</p> - -<p>The oldest of them, which has any value, is an account of a Spanish -embassy to Tamerlane, the great Tartar potentate and conqueror. Its -origin is curious. Henry the Third of Castile, whose affairs, partly in -consequence of his marriage with Catherine, daughter of Shakspeare’s -“time-honored Lancaster,” were in a more fortunate and quiet condition -than those of his immediate predecessors, seems to have been smitten -in his prosperity with a desire to extend his fame to the remotest -countries of the earth; and for this purpose, we are told, sought to -establish friendly relations with the Greek Emperor at Constantinople, -with the Sultan of Babylon, with Tamerlane or Timour Bec the Tartar, -and even with the fabulous Prester John of that shadowy India which was -then the subject of so much speculation.</p> - -<p>What was the result of all this widely spread diplomacy, so -extraordinary at the end of the fourteenth century, we do not know, -except that the first ambassadors sent to Tamerlane and Bajazet -chanced actually to be present at the great and decisive battle -between those two preponderating powers of the East, and that -Tamerlane sent a splendid embassy in return, with some of the spoils -of his victory, among which were two fair captives, who figure in the -Spanish poetry of the time.<a id="FNanchor_323" href="#Footnote_323" -class="fnanchor">[323]</a> King Henry was not ungrateful for such a -tribute of respect, and, to acknowledge it, despatched to Tamerlane -three persons of his court, one of whom, Ruy Gonzalez de Clavijo, -has left us a minute account of the whole embassy, its adventures -and its results.<span class="pagenum" id="Page_204">[p. 204]</span> -This account was first published by Argote de Molina, the careful -antiquary of the time of Philip the Second,<a id="FNanchor_324" -href="#Footnote_324" class="fnanchor">[324]</a> and was then called, -probably in order to give it a more winning title, “The Life of the -Great Tamerlane,”—<i>Vida del Gran Tamurlan</i>,—though it is, in fact, -a diary of the voyagings and residences of the ambassadors of Henry -the Third, beginning in May, 1403, when they embarked at Puerto Santa -María, near Cadiz, and ending in March, 1406, when they landed there on -their return.</p> - -<p>In the course of it, we have a description of Constantinople, -which is the more curious because it is given at the moment when -it tottered to its fall;<a id="FNanchor_325" href="#Footnote_325" -class="fnanchor">[325]</a> of Trebizond, with its Greek -churches and clergy;<a id="FNanchor_326" href="#Footnote_326" -class="fnanchor">[326]</a> of Teheran, now the capital of Persia;<a -id="FNanchor_327" href="#Footnote_327" class="fnanchor">[327]</a> -and of Samarcand, where they found the great Conqueror himself, -and were entertained by him with a series of magnificent festivals -continuing almost to the moment of his death,<a id="FNanchor_328" -href="#Footnote_328" class="fnanchor">[328]</a> which happened while -they were at his court, and was followed by troubles embarrassing -to their homeward journey.<a id="FNanchor_329" href="#Footnote_329" -class="fnanchor">[329]</a> The honest Clavijo seems to have been well -pleased to lay down his commission at the feet of his sovereign, whom -he found at Alcalá; and though he lingered about the court for a year, -and was one of the witnesses of the king’s will at Christmas, yet on -the death of Henry he retired to Madrid, his native place, where he -spent the last four or five years of his life,<span class="pagenum" -id="Page_205">[p. 205]</span> and where, in 1412, he was buried -in the convent of Saint Francis, with his fathers, whose chapel -he had piously rebuilt.<a id="FNanchor_330" href="#Footnote_330" -class="fnanchor">[330]</a></p> - -<p>His travels will not, on the whole, suffer by a comparison with -those of Marco Polo or Sir John Mandeville; for, though his discoveries -are much less in extent than those of the Venetian merchant, they are, -perhaps, as remarkable as those of the English adventurer, while the -manner in which he has presented them is superior to that of either. -His Spanish loyalty and his Catholic faith are everywhere apparent. He -plainly believes that his modest embassy is making an impression of his -king’s power and importance, on the countless and careless multitudes -of Asia, which will not be effaced; while, in the luxurious capital -of the Greek empire, he seems to look for little but the apocryphal -relics of saints and apostles which then burdened the shrines of -its churches. With all this, however, we may be content, because it -is national; but when we find him filling the island of Ponza with -buildings erected by Virgil,<a id="FNanchor_331" href="#Footnote_331" -class="fnanchor">[331]</a> and afterwards, as he passes Amalfi, taking -note of it only because it contained the head of Saint Andrew,<a -id="FNanchor_332" href="#Footnote_332" class="fnanchor">[332]</a> -we are obliged to recall his frankness, his zeal, and all his other -good qualities, before we can be quite reconciled to his ignorance. -Mariana, indeed, intimates, that, after all, his stories are not to be -wholly believed. But, as in the case of other early travellers, whose -accounts were often discredited<span class="pagenum" id="Page_206">[p. -206]</span> merely because they were so strange, more recent and -careful inquiries have confirmed Clavijo’s narrative; and we may now -trust to his faithfulness as much as to the vigilant and penetrating -spirit he shows constantly, except when his religious faith, or -his hardly less religious loyalty, interferes with its exercise.<a -id="FNanchor_333" href="#Footnote_333" class="fnanchor">[333]</a></p> - -<p>But the great voyagings of the Spaniards were not destined to be -in the East. The Portuguese, led on originally by Prince Henry, one -of the most extraordinary men of his age, had, as it were, already -appropriated to themselves that quarter of the world by discovering -the easy route of the Cape of Good Hope; and, both by the right of -discovery and by the provisions of the well-known Papal bull and -the equally well-known treaty of 1479, had cautiously cut off their -great rivals, the Spaniards, from all adventure in that direction; -leaving open to them only the wearisome waters that were stretched -out unmeasured towards the West. Happily, however, there was one -man to whose courage even the terrors of this unknown and dreaded -ocean were but spurs and incentives, and whose gifted vision, though -sometimes dazzled from the height to which he rose, could yet see, -beyond the waste of waves, that broad continent which his fervent -imagination deemed needful to balance the world. It is true, Columbus -was not born a Spaniard. But his spirit was eminently Spanish. His -loyalty, his religious faith and enthusiasm, his love of great and -extraordinary adventure, were all Spanish rather than Italian, and -were all in harmony with the Spanish national<span class="pagenum" -id="Page_207">[p. 207]</span> character, when he became a part of its -glory. His own eyes, he tells us, had watched the silver cross, as it -slowly rose, for the first time, above the towers of the Alhambra, -announcing to the world the final and absolute overthrow of the -infidel power in Spain;<a id="FNanchor_334" href="#Footnote_334" -class="fnanchor">[334]</a> and from that period,—or one even earlier, -when some poor monks from Jerusalem had been at the camp of the -two sovereigns before Granada, praying for help and protection -against the unbelievers in Palestine,—he had conceived the grand -project of consecrating the untold wealth he trusted to find in -his westward discoveries, by devoting it to the rescue of the Holy -City and sepulchre of Christ; thus achieving, by his single power -and resources, what all Christendom and its ages of crusades had -failed to accomplish.<a id="FNanchor_335" href="#Footnote_335" -class="fnanchor">[335]</a></p> - -<p>Gradually these and other kindred ideas took firm possession of -his mind, and are found occasionally in his later journals, letters, -and speculations, giving to his otherwise quiet and dignified style -a tone elevated and impassioned like that of prophecy. It is true, -that his adventurous spirit, when the mighty mission of his life was -upon him, rose above all this, and, with a purged vision and through a -clearer atmosphere, saw, from<span class="pagenum" id="Page_208">[p. -208]</span> the outset, what he at last so gloriously accomplished; -but still, as he presses onward, there not unfrequently break from him -words which leave no doubt, that, in his secret heart, the foundations -of his great hopes and purposes were laid in some of the most -magnificent illusions that are ever permitted to fill the human mind. -He believed himself to be, in some degree at least, inspired; and to be -chosen of Heaven to fulfil certain of the solemn and grand prophecies -of the Old Testament.<a id="FNanchor_336" href="#Footnote_336" -class="fnanchor">[336]</a> He wrote to his sovereigns in 1501, that -he had been induced to undertake his voyages to the Indies, not by -virtue of human knowledge, but by a Divine impulse, and by the force -of Scriptural prediction.<a id="FNanchor_337" href="#Footnote_337" -class="fnanchor">[337]</a> He declared, that the world could not -continue to exist more than a hundred and fifty-five years longer, -and that, many a year before that period, he counted the recovery of -the Holy City to be sure.<a id="FNanchor_338" href="#Footnote_338" -class="fnanchor">[338]</a> He expressed his belief, that the -terrestrial paradise, about which he cites the fanciful speculations -of Saint Ambrose and Saint Augustin, would be found in the southern -regions of<span class="pagenum" id="Page_209">[p. 209]</span> those -newly discovered lands, which he describes with so charming an amenity, -and that the Orinoco was one of the mystical rivers issuing from it; -intimating, at the same time, that, perchance, he alone of mortal -men would, by the Divine will, be enabled to reach and enjoy it.<a -id="FNanchor_339" href="#Footnote_339" class="fnanchor">[339]</a> In a -remarkable letter of sixteen pages, addressed to his sovereigns from -Jamaica in 1503, and written with a force of style hardly to be found -in any thing similar at the same period, he gives a moving account of a -miraculous vision, which he believed had been vouchsafed to him for his -consolation, when at Veragua, a few months before, a body of his men, -sent to obtain salt and water, had been cut off by the natives, thus -leaving him outside the mouth of the river in great peril.</p> - -<p>“My brother and the rest of the people,” he says, “were in a vessel -that remained within, and I was left solitary on a coast so dangerous, -with a strong fever and grievously worn down. Hope of escape was dead -within me. I climbed aloft with difficulty, calling anxiously and not -without many tears for help upon your Majesties’ captains from all -the four winds of heaven. But none made me answer. Wearied and still -moaning, I fell asleep, and heard a pitiful voice which said: ‘O fool, -and slow to trust and serve thy God, the God of all! What did He -more for Moses, or for David his servant? Ever since thou wast born, -thou<span class="pagenum" id="Page_210">[p. 210]</span> hast been His -especial charge. When He saw thee at the age wherewith He was content, -He made thy name to sound marvellously on the earth. The Indies, which -are a part of the world, and so rich, He gave them to thee for thine -own, and thou hast divided them unto others as seemed good to thyself, -for He granted thee power to do so. Of the barriers of the great ocean, -which were bound up with such mighty chains, He hath given unto thee -the keys. Thou hast been obeyed in many lands, and thou hast gained -an honored name among Christian men. What did He more for the people -of Israel when He led them forth from Egypt? or for David, whom from -a shepherd He made king in Judea? Turn thou, then, again unto Him, -and confess thy sin. His mercy is infinite. Thine old age shall not -hinder thee of any great thing. Many inheritances hath He, and very -great. Abraham was above a hundred years old when he begat Isaac; and -Sarah, was she young? Thou callest for uncertain help; answer, Who hath -afflicted thee so much and so often? God or the world? The privileges -and promises that God giveth, He breaketh not, nor, after he hath -received service, doth He say that thus was not his mind, and that His -meaning was other. Neither punisheth He, in order to hide a refusal of -justice. What He promiseth, that He fulfilleth, and yet more. And doth -the world thus? I have told thee what thy Maker hath done for thee, -and what He doth for all. Even now He in part showeth thee the reward -of the sorrows and dangers thou hast gone through in serving others.’ -All this heard I, as one half dead; but answer had I none to words -so true, save tears for my sins. And whosoever it might be that thus -spake, he ended, saying, ‘Fear not; be of good cheer; all these<span -class="pagenum" id="Page_211">[p. 211]</span> thy griefs are written -in marble, and not without cause.’ And I arose as soon as I might, and -at the end of nine days the weather became calm.”<a id="FNanchor_340" -href="#Footnote_340" class="fnanchor">[340]</a></p> - -<p>Three years afterwards, in 1506, Columbus died at Valladolid, -a disappointed, broken-hearted old man; little comprehending what -he had done for mankind, and still less the glory and homage that -through all future generations awaited his name.<a id="FNanchor_341" -href="#Footnote_341" class="fnanchor">[341]</a></p> - -<p>But the mantle of his devout and heroic spirit fell on none of -his successors. The discoveries of the new continent, which was soon -ascertained to be no part of Asia, were indeed prosecuted with spirit -and success by Balboa, by Vespucci, by Hojeda, by Pedrárias Dávila, -by the Portuguese Magellanes, by Loaisa, by Saavedra, and by many -more; so that in twenty-seven<span class="pagenum" id="Page_212">[p. -212]</span> years the general outline and form of the New World were, -through their reports, fairly presented to the Old. But though some of -these early adventurers, like Hojeda, were men apparently of honest -principles, who suffered much, and died in poverty and sorrow, yet none -had the lofty spirit of the original discoverer, and none spoke or -wrote with the tone of dignity and authority that came naturally from a -man whose character was so elevated, and whose convictions and purposes -were founded in some of the deepest and most mysterious feelings -of our religious nature.<a id="FNanchor_342" href="#Footnote_342" -class="fnanchor">[342]</a></p> - - -<p class="mt2"><i>Romantic Chronicles.</i>—It only remains now to speak of -one other class of the old chronicles; a class hardly represented in -this period by more than a single specimen, but that a very curious -one, and one which, by its date and character, brings us to the end of -our present inquiries, and marks the transition to those that are to -follow. The Chronicle referred to is that called “The Chronicle of Don -Roderic, with the Destruction of Spain,” and is an account, chiefly -fabulous, of the reign of King Roderic, the conquest of the country -by the Moors, and the first attempts to recover it in the beginning -of the eighth century. An edition is cited as early as 1511, and -six in all may be enumerated, including the last, which is of 1587; -thus showing a good degree of popularity, if we consider the number -of readers in Spain in the sixteenth century.<a id="FNanchor_343" -href="#Footnote_343" class="fnanchor">[343]</a><span class="pagenum" -id="Page_213">[p. 213]</span> Its author is quite unknown. According -to the fashion of the times, it professes to have been written by -Eliastras, one of the personages who figures in it; but he is killed -in battle just before we reach the end of the book; and the remainder, -which looks as if it might really be an addition by another hand, is in -the same way ascribed to Carestes, a knight of Alfonso the Catholic.<a -id="FNanchor_344" href="#Footnote_344" class="fnanchor">[344]</a></p> - -<p>Most of the names throughout the work are as imaginary as those of -its pretended authors; and the circumstances related are, generally, as -much invented as the dialogue between its personages, which is given -with a heavy minuteness of detail, alike uninteresting in itself, and -false to the times it represents. In truth, it is hardly more than -a romance of chivalry, founded on the materials for the history of -Roderic and Pelayo, as they still exist in the “General Chronicle of -Spain” and in the old ballads; so that, though we often meet what -is familiar to us about Count Julian, La Cava, and Orpas, the false -Archbishop of Seville, we find ourselves still oftener in the midst -of impossible tournaments<a id="FNanchor_345" href="#Footnote_345" -class="fnanchor">[345]</a> and incredible adventures of chivalry.<a -id="FNanchor_346" href="#Footnote_346" class="fnanchor">[346]</a> -Kings travel about like knights-errant,<a id="FNanchor_347" -href="#Footnote_347" class="fnanchor">[347]</a> and ladies in -distress wander<span class="pagenum" id="Page_214">[p. 214]</span> -from country to country,<a id="FNanchor_348" href="#Footnote_348" -class="fnanchor">[348]</a> as they do in “Palmerin of England,” while, -on all sides, we encounter fantastic personages, who were never heard -of anywhere but in this apocryphal Chronicle.<a id="FNanchor_349" -href="#Footnote_349" class="fnanchor">[349]</a></p> - -<p>The principle of such a work is, of course, nearly the same with -that of the modern historical romance. What, at the time it was -written, was deemed history was taken as its basis from the old -chronicles, and mingled with what was then the most advanced form of -romantic fiction, just as it has been since in the series of works of -genius beginning with Defoe’s “Memoirs of a Cavalier.” The difference -is in the general representation of manners, and in the execution, both -of which are now immeasurably advanced. Indeed, though Southey has -founded much of his beautiful poem of “Roderic, the Last of the Goths,” -on this old Chronicle, it is, after all, hardly a book that can be -read. It is written in a heavy, verbose style, and has a suspiciously -monkish prologue and conclusion, which look as if the whole were -originally intended to encourage the Romish doctrine of penance, or, -at least, were finally arranged to subserve that devout purpose.<a -id="FNanchor_350" href="#Footnote_350" class="fnanchor">[350]</a></p> -<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_215">[p. 215]</span></p> - -<p>This is the last, and, in many respects, the worst, of the -chronicles of the fifteenth century, and marks but an ungraceful -transition to the romantic fictions of chivalry that were already -beginning to inundate Spain. But as we close it up, we should not -forget, that the whole series, extending over full two hundred and -fifty years, from the time of Alfonso the Wise to the accession of -Charles the Fifth, and covering the New World as well as the Old, is -unrivalled in richness, in variety, and in picturesque and poetical -elements. In truth, the chronicles of no other nation can, on such -points, be compared to them; not even the Portuguese, which approach -the nearest in original and early materials; nor the French, which, in -Joinville and Froissart, make the highest claims in another direction. -For these old Spanish chronicles, whether they have their foundations -in truth or in fable, always strike farther down than those of any -other nation into the deep soil of the popular feeling and character. -The old Spanish loyalty, the old Spanish religious faith, as both -were formed and<span class="pagenum" id="Page_216">[p. 216]</span> -nourished in the long periods of national trial and suffering, are -constantly coming out; hardly less in Columbus and his followers, or -even amidst the atrocities of the conquests in the New World, than in -the half-miraculous accounts of the battles of Hazinas and Tolosa, -or in the grand and glorious drama of the fall of Granada. Indeed, -wherever we go under their leading, whether to the court of Tamerlane, -or to that of Saint Ferdinand, we find the heroic elements of the -national genius gathered around us; and thus, in this vast, rich mass -of chronicles, containing such a body of antiquities, traditions, -and fables as has been offered to no other people, we are constantly -discovering, not only the materials from which were drawn a multitude -of the old Spanish ballads, plays, and romances, but a mine which has -been unceasingly wrought by the rest of Europe for similar purposes, -and still remains unexhausted.<a id="FNanchor_351" href="#Footnote_351" -class="fnanchor">[351]</a></p> - -<hr class="chap0" /> - - -<div class="chapter pt3" id="Ch_1_11"> - <p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_218">[p. 218]</span></p> - <h3>CHAPTER XI.</h3> - <p class="subh3 hang"><span class="smcap">Third Class. — Romances - of Chivalry. — Arthur. — Charlemagne. — Amadis de Gaula. — Its - Date, Author, Translation into Castilian, Success, and Character. - — Esplandian. — Florisando. — Lisuarte de Grecia. — Amadis de - Grecia. — Florisel de Niquea. — Anaxartes. — Silves de la Selva. - — French Continuation. — Influence of the Fiction. — Palmerin de - Oliva. — Primaleon. — Platir. — Palmerin de Inglaterra.</span></p> -</div> - -<p><span class="smcap">Romances of Chivalry.</span>—The ballads of -Spain belonged originally to the whole nation, but especially to its -less cultivated portions. The chronicles, on the contrary, belonged to -the proud and knightly classes, who sought in such picturesque records, -not only the glorious history of their forefathers, but an appropriate -stimulus to their own virtues and those of their children. As, however, -security was gradually extended through the land, and the tendency to -refinement grew stronger, other wants began to be felt. Books were -demanded, that would furnish amusement less popular than that afforded -by the ballads, and excitement less grave than that of the chronicles. -What was asked for was obtained, and probably without difficulty; for -the spirit of poetical invention, which had been already thoroughly -awakened in the country, needed only to be turned to the old traditions -and fables of the early national chronicles, in order to produce -fictions allied to both of them, yet more attractive than either. -There is, in fact, as we can easily see, but a single step be<span -class="pagenum" id="Page_219">[p. 219]</span>tween large portions of -several of the old chronicles, especially that of Don Roderic, and -proper romances of chivalry.<a id="FNanchor_352" href="#Footnote_352" -class="fnanchor">[352]</a></p> - -<p>Such fictions, under ruder or more settled forms, had already -existed in Normandy, and perhaps in the centre of France, above two -centuries before they were known in the Spanish peninsula. The story -of Arthur and the Knights of his Round Table had come thither from -Brittany through Geoffrey of Monmouth, as early as the beginning -of the twelfth century.<a id="FNanchor_353" href="#Footnote_353" -class="fnanchor">[353]</a> The story of Charlemagne and his Peers, -as it is found in the Chronicle of the fabulous Turpin, had followed -from the South of France soon afterwards.<a id="FNanchor_354" -href="#Footnote_354" class="fnanchor">[354]</a> Both were, at first, in -Latin, but both were almost immediately transferred to the French, then -spoken at the courts of Normandy and England, and at once gained a wide -popularity. Robert Wace, born in the island of Jersey, gave in 1158 a -metrical history founded on the work of Geoffrey, which, besides the -story of Arthur, contains a series of traditions concerning the Breton -kings, tracing them up to a fabulous Brutus, the grandson of Æneas.<a -id="FNanchor_355" href="#Footnote_355" class="fnanchor">[355]</a> A -century later, or about 1270-1280, after less successful attempts by -others, the same service was rendered to the story of Charlemagne -by Adenés in his metrical romance of “Ogier le Danois,” the chief -scenes of which<span class="pagenum" id="Page_220">[p. 220]</span> -are laid either in Spain or in Fairy Land.<a id="FNanchor_356" -href="#Footnote_356" class="fnanchor">[356]</a> These, and similar -poetical inventions, constructed out of them by the Trouveurs of the -North, became, in the next age, materials for the famous romances of -chivalry in prose, which, during three centuries, constituted no mean -part of the vernacular literature of France, and, down to our own -times, have been the great mine of wild fables for Ariosto, Spenser, -Wieland, and the other poets of chivalry, whose fictions are connected -either with the stories of Arthur and his Round Table, or with those -of Charlemagne and his Peers.<a id="FNanchor_357" href="#Footnote_357" -class="fnanchor">[357]</a></p> - -<p>At the period, however, to which we have alluded, and which ends -about the middle of the fourteenth century, there is no reasonable -pretence that any such form of fiction existed in Spain. There, the -national heroes continued to fill the imaginations of men and satisfy -their patriotism. Arthur was not heard of at all, and Charlemagne, when -he appears in the old Spanish chronicles and ballads, comes only as -that imaginary invader of Spain who sustained an inglorious defeat in -the gorges of the Pyrenees. But in the next century things are entirely -changed. The romances of France, it is plain, have penetrated into -the Peninsula, and their effects are visible. They were not, indeed, -at first, translated or versified; but they were imitated, and a new -series of fictions was invented, which was soon spread through the -world, and became more famous than either of its predecessors.</p> - -<p>This extraordinary family of romances, whose de<span -class="pagenum" id="Page_221">[p. 221]</span>scendants, as Cervantes -says, were innumerable,<a id="FNanchor_358" href="#Footnote_358" -class="fnanchor">[358]</a> is the family of which Amadis is the -poetical head and type. Our first notice of it in Spain is from a -grave statesman, Ayala, the Chronicler and Chancellor of Castile, -who, as we have already seen, died in 1407.<a id="FNanchor_359" -href="#Footnote_359" class="fnanchor">[359]</a> But the Amadis is -of an earlier date than this fact necessarily implies, though not -perhaps earlier known in Spain. Gomez Eannes de Zurara, Keeper of the -Archives of Portugal in 1454, who wrote three striking chronicles -relating to the affairs of his own country, leaves no substantial -doubt that the author of the Amadis of Gaul was Vasco de Lobeira, a -Portuguese gentleman who was attached to the court of John the First -of Portugal, was armed as a knight by that monarch just before the -battle of Aljubarrota, in 1385, and died in 1403.<a id="FNanchor_360" -href="#Footnote_360" class="fnanchor">[360]</a> The words of the -honest and careful annalist are quite distinct on this point. He says -he is unwilling to have his true and faithful book, the “Chronicle of -Count Pedro de Meneses,” confounded with such stories as “the book of -Amadis, which was made entirely at the pleasure of one man, called -Vasco de Lobeira, in the time of the King Don Ferdinand; all the things -in the said book being invented by its author.”<a id="FNanchor_361" -href="#Footnote_361" class="fnanchor">[361]</a></p> - -<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_222">[p. 222]</span>Whether Lobeira -had any older popular tradition or fancies about Amadis, to quicken his -imagination and marshal him the way he should go, we cannot now tell. -He certainly had a knowledge of some of the old French romances, such -as that of the Saint Graal, or Holy Cup,—the crowning fiction of the -Knights of the Round Table,<a id="FNanchor_362" href="#Footnote_362" -class="fnanchor">[362]</a>—and distinctly acknowledges himself to -have been indebted to the Infante Alfonso, who was born in 1370, for -an alteration made in the character of Amadis.<a id="FNanchor_363" -href="#Footnote_363" class="fnanchor">[363]</a> But that he was -aided, as has been suggested, in any considerable degree, by fictions -known to have been in Picardy in the eighteenth century, and claimed, -without the slightest proof, to have been there in the twelfth, is an -assumption made on too slight grounds to be seriously considered.<a -id="FNanchor_364" href="#Footnote_364" class="fnanchor">[364]</a> We -must therefore conclude, from the few, but plain, facts known in<span -class="pagenum" id="Page_223">[p. 223]</span> the case, that the Amadis -was originally a Portuguese fiction produced before the year 1400, and -that Vasco de Lobeira was its author.</p> - -<p>But the Portuguese original can no longer be found. At the end of -the sixteenth century, we are assured, it was extant in manuscript in -the archives of the Dukes of Arveiro at Lisbon; and the same assertion -is renewed, on good authority, about the year 1750. From this time, -however, we lose all trace of it; and the most careful inquiries render -it probable that this curious manuscript, about which there has been so -much discussion, perished in the terrible earthquake and conflagration -of 1755, when the palace occupied by the ducal family of Arveiro -was destroyed with all its precious contents.<a id="FNanchor_365" -href="#Footnote_365" class="fnanchor">[365]</a></p> - -<p>The Spanish version, therefore, stands for us in place of -the Portuguese original. It was made between 1492 and 1504, by -Garcia Ordoñez de Montalvo, governor of the city of Medina del -Campo, and it is possible that it was printed for the first time -during the same interval.<a id="FNanchor_366" href="#Footnote_366" -class="fnanchor">[366]</a> But no copy of such an edition is known -to exist, nor any one of an edition sometimes cited as having been -printed at Salamanca in 1510;<a id="FNanchor_367" href="#Footnote_367" -class="fnanchor">[367]</a> the earliest<span class="pagenum" -id="Page_224">[p. 224]</span> now accessible to us dating from 1519. -Twelve more followed in the course of half a century, so that the -Amadis succeeded, at once, in placing the fortunes of its family on -the sure foundations of popular favor in Spain. It was translated into -Italian in 1546, and was again successful; six editions of it appearing -in that language in less than thirty years.<a id="FNanchor_368" -href="#Footnote_368" class="fnanchor">[368]</a> In France, beginning -with the first attempt in 1540, it became such a favorite, that its -reputation there has not yet wholly faded away;<a id="FNanchor_369" -href="#Footnote_369" class="fnanchor">[369]</a> while, elsewhere in -Europe, a multitude of translations and imitations have followed, that -seem to stretch out the line of the family, as Don Quixote declares, -from the age immediately after the introduction of Christianity -down almost to that in which he himself lived.<a id="FNanchor_370" -href="#Footnote_370" class="fnanchor">[370]</a></p> - -<p>The translation of Montalvo does not seem to have been very -literal. It was, as he intimates, much better than the Portuguese in -its style and phraseology; and the last part especially appears to -have been more altered than either of the others.<a id="FNanchor_371" -href="#Footnote_371" class="fnanchor">[371]</a> But the structure -and<span class="pagenum" id="Page_225">[p. 225]</span> tone of the -whole fiction are original, and much more free than those of the French -romances that had preceded it. The story of Arthur and the Holy Cup -is essentially religious; the story of Charlemagne is essentially -military; and both are involved in a series of adventures previously -ascribed to their respective heroes by chronicles and traditions, -which, whether true or false, were so far recognized as to prescribe -limits to the invention of all who subsequently adopted them. But the -Amadis is of imagination all compact. No period of time is assigned -to its events, except that they begin to occur soon after the very -commencement of the Christian era; and its geography is generally as -unsettled and uncertain as the age when its hero lived. It has no -purpose, indeed, but to set forth the character of a perfect knight, -and to illustrate the virtues of courage and chastity as the only -proper foundations of such a character.</p> - -<p>Amadis, in fulfilment of this idea, is the son of a merely imaginary -king of the imaginary kingdom of Gaula. His birth is illegitimate, -and his mother, Elisena, a British princess, ashamed of her child, -exposes him on the sea, where he is found by a Scottish knight, and -carried, first to England, and afterwards to Scotland. In Scotland -he falls in love with Oriana, the true and peerless lady, daughter -of an imaginary Lisuarte, King of England. Meantime, Perion, King of -Gaula, which has sometimes been conjectured to be a part of Wales, -has married the mother of Amadis, who has by him a second son, named -Galaor. The adventures of these two knights, partly in England, -France, Germany, and Turkey, and partly in unknown regions and amidst -enchantments,—sometimes under the favor of their ladies, and sometimes, -as in the hermitage of the Firm Island,<span class="pagenum" -id="Page_226">[p. 226]</span> under their frowns,—fill up the book, -which, after the broad journeyings of the principal knights, and an -incredible number of combats between them and other knights, magicians, -and giants, ends, at last, in the marriage of Amadis and Oriana, and -the overthrow of all the enchantments that had so long opposed their -love.</p> - -<p>The Amadis is admitted, by general consent, to be the best of all -the old romances of chivalry. One reason of this is, that it is more -true to the manners and spirit of the age of knighthood; but the -principal reason is, no doubt, that it is written with a more free -invention, and takes a greater variety in its tones than is found in -other similar works. It even contains, sometimes,—what we should hardly -expect in this class of wild fictions,—passages of natural tenderness -and beauty, such as the following description of the young loves of -Amadis and Oriana.</p> - -<p>“Now Lisuarte brought with him to Scotland Brisena, his wife, and -a daughter that he had by her when he dwelt in Denmark, named Oriana, -about ten years old, and the fairest creature that ever was seen; so -fair, that she was called ‘Without Peer,’ since in her time there -was none equal to her. And because she suffered much from the sea, -he consented to leave her there, asking the King, Languines, and his -Queen, that they would have care of her. And they were made very glad -therewith, and the Queen said, ‘Trust me that I will have such a care -of her as her mother would.’ And Lisuarte, entering into his ships, -made haste back into Great Britain, and found there some who had made -disturbances, such as are wont to be in such cases. And for this cause, -he remembered him not of his daughter, for some space of time. But at -last, with much toil that he took, he obtained his kingdom, and he -was the<span class="pagenum" id="Page_227">[p. 227]</span> best king -that ever was before his time, nor did any afterwards better maintain -knighthood in its rights, till King Arthur reigned, who surpassed -all the kings before him in goodness, though the number that reigned -between these two was great.</p> - -<p>“And now the author leaves Lisuarte reigning in peace and quietness -in Great Britain, and turns to the Child of the Sea, [Amadis,] who was -twelve years old, but in size and limbs seemed to be fifteen. He served -before the Queen, and was much loved of her, as he was of all ladies -and damsels. But as soon as Oriana, the daughter of King Lisuarte, came -there, she gave to her the Child of the Sea, that he should serve her, -saying, ‘This is a child who shall serve you.’ And she answered, that -it pleased her. And the child kept this word in his heart, in such wise -that it never afterwards left it; and, as this history truly says, he -was never, in all the days of his life, wearied with serving her. And -this their love lasted as long as they lasted; but the Child of the -Sea, who knew not at all how she loved him, held himself to be very -bold, in that he had placed his thoughts on her, considering both her -greatness and her beauty, and never so much as dared to speak any word -to her concerning it. And she, though she loved him in her heart, took -heed that she should not speak with him more than with another; but her -eyes took great solace in showing to her heart what thing in the world -she most loved.</p> - -<p>“Thus lived they silently together, neither saying aught to the -other of their estate. Then came, at last, the time when the Child of -the Sea, as I now tell you, understood within himself that he might -take arms, if any there were that would make him a knight. And this he -desired, because he considered that he should<span class="pagenum" -id="Page_228">[p. 228]</span> thus become such a man and should do such -things, as that either he should perish in them, or, if he lived, then -his lady should deal gently with him. And with this desire he went to -the King, who was in his garden, and, kneeling before him, said, ‘Sire, -if it please you, it is now time that I should be made a knight.’ And -the king said, ‘How, Child of the Sea, do you already adventure to -maintain knighthood? Know that it is a light matter to come by it, -but a weighty thing to maintain it. And whoso seeks to get this name -of knighthood and maintain it in its honor, he hath to do so many and -such grievous things, that often his heart is wearied out; and if he -should be such a knight, that, from faint-heartedness or cowardice, -he should fail to do what is beseeming, then it would be better for -him to die than to live in his shame. Therefore I hold it good that -you wait yet a little.’ But the Child of the Sea said to him, ‘Neither -for all this will I fail to be a knight; for, if I had not already -thought to fulfil this that you have said, my heart would not so have -striven to be a knight.’”<a id="FNanchor_372" href="#Footnote_372" -class="fnanchor">[372]</a></p> - -<p>Other passages of quite a different character are no less -striking, as, for instance, that in which the fairy Urganda comes -in her fire-galleys,<a id="FNanchor_373" href="#Footnote_373" -class="fnanchor">[373]</a> and that in which the venerable -Nasciano visits Oriana;<a id="FNanchor_374" href="#Footnote_374" -class="fnanchor">[374]</a> but the most characteristic are those -that illustrate the spirit of chivalry, and inculcate the duties -of princes and knights. In these portions of the work, there is -sometimes a lofty tone that rises to eloquence,<a id="FNanchor_375" -href="#Footnote_375" class="fnanchor">[375]</a> and sometimes a sad one -full of earnestness and truth.<a id="FNanchor_376" href="#Footnote_376" -class="fnanchor">[376]</a> The general story,<span class="pagenum" -id="Page_229">[p. 229]</span> too, is more simple and effective -than the stories of the old French romances of chivalry. Instead -of distracting our attention by the adventures of a great number -of knights, whose claims are nearly equal, it is kept fastened on -two, whose characters are well preserved;—Amadis, the model of all -chivalrous virtues, and his brother, Don Galaor, hardly less perfect as -a knight in the field, but by no means so faithful in his loves;—and, -in this way, it has a more epic proportion in its several parts, and -keeps up our interest to the end more successfully than any of its -followers or rivals.</p> - -<p>The great objection to the Amadis is one that must be made to all of -its class. We are wearied by its length, and by the constant recurrence -of similar adventures and dangers, in which, as we foresee, the hero is -certain to come off victorious. But this length and these repetitions -seemed no fault when it first appeared, or for a long time afterwards. -For romantic fiction, the only form of elegant literature which modern -times have added to the marvellous inventions of Greek genius, was then -recent and fresh; and the few who read for amusement rejoiced even in -the least graceful of its creations, as vastly nearer to the hearts and -thoughts of men educated in the institutions of knighthood than any -glimpses they had thus far caught of the severe glories of antiquity. -The Amadis, therefore,—as we may easily learn by the notices of it -from the time when the great Chancellor of Castile mourned that he had -wasted his leisure over its idle fancies, down to the time when the -whole sect disappeared before the avenging satire of Cervantes,—was -a work of extraordinary popularity in Spain; and one which, during -the two<span class="pagenum" id="Page_230">[p. 230]</span> centuries -of its greatest favor, was more read than any other book in the -language.</p> - -<p>Nor should it be forgotten that Cervantes himself was not -insensible to its merits. The first book that, as he tells us, was -taken from the shelves of Don Quixote, when the curate, the barber, -and the housekeeper began the expurgation of his library, was the -Amadis de Gaula. “‘There is something mysterious about this matter,’ -said the curate; ‘for, as I have heard, this was the first book of -knight-errantry that was printed in Spain, and all the others have -had their origin and source here, so that, as the arch-heretic of so -mischievous a sect, I think he should, without a hearing, be condemned -to the fire.’ ‘No, Sir,’ said the barber, ‘for I, too, have heard that -it is the best of all the books of its kind that have been written, -and therefore, for its singularity, it ought to be forgiven.’ ‘That -is the truth,’ answered the curate, ‘and so let us spare it for the -present’”;—a decision which, on the whole, has been confirmed by -posterity, and precisely for the reason Cervantes has assigned.<a -id="FNanchor_377" href="#Footnote_377" class="fnanchor">[377]</a></p> -<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_231">[p. 231]</span></p> - -<p>But before Montalvo published his translation of the Amadis, and -perhaps before he had made it, he had written a continuation, which -he announced in the Preface to the Amadis as its fifth book. It is an -original work, about one third part as long as the Amadis, and contains -the story of the son of that hero and Oriana, named Esplandian, whose -birth and education had already been given in the story of his father’s -adventures, and constitute one of its pleasantest episodes. But, as the -curate says, when he comes to this romance in Don Quixote’s library, -“the merits of the father must not be imputed to the son.” The story -of Esplandian has neither freshness, spirit, nor dignity in it. It -opens at the point where he is left in the original fiction, just -armed as a knight, and is filled with his adventures as he wanders -about the world, and with the supernumerary achievements of his -father Amadis, who survives to the end of the whole, and sees his son -made Emperor of Constantinople; he himself having long before become -King of Great Britain by the death of Lisuarte.<a id="FNanchor_378" -href="#Footnote_378" class="fnanchor">[378]</a></p> - -<p>But, from the beginning, we find two mistakes committed, which run -through the whole work. Amadis, represented as still alive, fills -a large part of the can<span class="pagenum" id="Page_232">[p. -232]</span>vas; while, at the same time, Esplandian is made to perform -achievements intended to be more brilliant than his father’s, but -which, in fact, are only more extravagant. From this sort of emulation, -the work becomes a succession of absurd and frigid impossibilities. -Many of the characters of the Amadis are preserved in it, like -Lisuarte, who is rescued out of a mysterious imprisonment by Esplandian -as his first adventure; Urganda, who, from a graceful fairy, becomes a -savage enchantress; and “the great master Elisabad,” a man of learning -and a priest, whom we first knew as the leech of Amadis, and who is now -the pretended biographer of his son, writing, as he says, in Greek. But -none of them, and none of the characters invented for the occasion, are -managed with skill.</p> - -<p>The scene of the whole work is laid chiefly in the East, amidst -battles with Turks and Mohammedans; thus showing to what quarter the -minds of men were turned when it was written, and what were the dangers -apprehended to the peace of Europe, even in its westernmost borders, -during the century after the fall of Constantinople. But all reference -to real history or real geography was apparently thought inappropriate, -as may be inferred from the circumstances, that a certain Calafria, -queen of the island of California, is made a formidable enemy of -Christendom through a large part of the story; and that Constantinople -is said at one time to have been besieged by three millions of heathen. -Nor is the style better than the story. The eloquence which is found -in many passages of the Amadis is not found at all in Esplandian. On -the contrary, large portions of it are written in a low and meagre -style, and the rhymed arguments prefixed to many of the chapters are -any thing but poetry, and<span class="pagenum" id="Page_233">[p. -233]</span> quite inferior to the few passages of verse scattered -through the Amadis.<a id="FNanchor_379" href="#Footnote_379" -class="fnanchor">[379]</a></p> - -<p>The oldest edition of the Esplandian now known to exist was printed -in 1526, and five others appeared before the end of the century; so -that it seems to have enjoyed its full share of popular favor. At any -rate, the example it set was quickly followed. Its principal personages -were made to figure again in a series of connected romances, each -having a hero descended from Amadis, who passes through adventures more -incredible than any of his predecessors, and then gives place, we know -not why, to a son still more extravagant, and, if the phrase may be -used, still more impossible, than his father. Thus, in the same year -1526, we have the sixth book of Amadis de Gaula, called “The History of -Florisando,” his nephew, which is followed by the still more wonderful -“Lisuarte of Greece, Son of Esplandian,” and the most wonderful “Amadis -of Greece,” making respectively the seventh and eighth books. To these -succeeded “Don Florisel de Niquea,” and “Anaxartes, Son of Lisuarte,” -whose history, with that of the children of the last, fills three -books; and finally we have the twelfth book, or “The Great Deeds in -Arms of that Bold Knight, Don Silves de la Selva,” which was printed in -1549; thus giving proof how extraordinary was the success of the whole -series, since its date allows hardly half a century for the production -in Spanish of all these vast romances, most of which, during the same -period, appeared in several, and some of them in many editions.</p> - -<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_234">[p. 234]</span>Nor did the -effects of the passion thus awakened stop here. Other romances -appeared, belonging to the same family, though not coming into the -regular line of succession, such as a duplicate of the seventh book on -Lisuarte, by the Canon Diaz, in 1526, and “Leandro the Fair,” in 1563, -by Pedro de Luxan, which has sometimes been called the thirteenth; -while in France, where they were all translated successively, as they -appeared in Spain, and became instantly famous, the proper series of -the Amadis romances was stretched out into twenty-four books; after all -which, a certain Sieur Duverdier, grieved that many of them came to -no regular catastrophe, collected the scattered and broken threads of -their multitudinous stories and brought them all to an orderly sequence -of conclusions, in seven large volumes, under the comprehensive and -appropriate name of the “Roman des Romans.” And so ends the history of -the Portuguese type of Amadis of Gaul, as it was originally presented -to the world in the Spanish romances of chivalry; a fiction which, -considering the passionate admiration it so long excited, and the -influence it has, with little merit of its own, exercised on the poetry -and romance of modern Europe ever since, is a phenomenon that has no -parallel in literary history.<a id="FNanchor_380" href="#Footnote_380" -class="fnanchor">[380]</a></p> - -<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_235">[p. 235]</span>The state -of manners and opinion in Spain, however, which produced this -extraordinary series of romances, could hardly fail to be fertile in -other fictitious heroes, less brilliant, perhaps, in their fame than -was Amadis, but with the same general qualities and attributes. And -such, indeed, was the case. Many romances of chivalry appeared in -Spain, soon after the success of this their great leader; and others -followed a little later. The first of all of them in consequence, if -not in date, is “Palmerin de Oliva”; a personage the more important, -because he had a train of descendants that place him, beyond all doubt, -next in dignity to Amadis.</p> - -<p>The Palmerin has often, perhaps generally, been regarded as -Portuguese in its origin, and as the work of a lady; though the proof -of each of these allegations is somewhat imperfect. If, however, -the facts be really as they have been stated, not the least curious -circumstance in relation to them is, that, as in the case of the -Amadis, the Portuguese original of the Palmerin is lost, and the first -and only knowledge we have of its story is from the Spanish version. -Even in this version, we can trace it up no higher than to the edition -printed at Seville in 1525, which was certainly not the first.</p> - -<p>But whenever it may have been first published, it was successful. -Several editions were soon printed in Spanish, and translations -followed in Italian and French. A continuation, too, appeared, -called, in form, “The Second Book of Palmerin,” which treats of -the achievements of his sons, Primaleon and Polendos, and of<span -class="pagenum" id="Page_236">[p. 236]</span> which we have an edition -in Spanish, dated in 1524. The external appearances of the Palmerin, -therefore, announce at once an imitation of the Amadis. The internal -are no less decisive. Its hero, we are told, was grandson to a Greek -emperor in Constantinople, but, being illegitimate, was exposed by -his mother, immediately after his birth, on a mountain, where he -was found, in an osier cradle among olive and palm trees, by a rich -cultivator of bees, who carried him home and named him Palmerin de -Oliva, from the place where he was discovered. He soon gives token of -his high birth; and, making himself famous by numberless exploits, in -Germany, England, and the East, against heathen and enchanters, he at -last reaches Constantinople, where he is recognized by his mother, -marries the daughter of the Emperor of Germany, who is the heroine -of the story, and inherits the crown of Byzantium. The adventures of -Primaleon and Polendos, which seem to be by the same unknown author, -are in the same vein, and were succeeded by those of Platir, grandson -of Palmerin, which were printed as early as 1533. All, taken together, -therefore, leave no doubt that the Amadis was their model, however -much they may have fallen short of its merits.<a id="FNanchor_381" -href="#Footnote_381" class="fnanchor">[381]</a></p> - -<p>The next in the series, “Palmerin of England,” son of Don Duarde, -or Edward, King of England, and Flerida, a daughter of Palmerin de -Oliva, is a more formidable rival to the Amadis than either of its -predecessors. For a long time it was supposed to have been first -writ<span class="pagenum" id="Page_237">[p. 237]</span>ten in -Portuguese, and was generally attributed to Francisco Moraes, who -certainly published it in that language at Evora, in 1567, and whose -allegation that he had translated it from the French, though now known -to be true, was supposed to be only a modest concealment of his own -merits. But a copy of the Spanish original, printed at Toledo, in two -parts, in 1547 and 1548, has been discovered, and at the end of its -dedication are a few verses addressed by the author to the reader, -announcing it, in an acrostic, to be the work of Luis Hurtado, known -to have been, at that time, a poet in Toledo.<a id="FNanchor_382" -href="#Footnote_382" class="fnanchor">[382]</a></p> - -<p>Regarded as a work of art, Palmerin of England is second only -to the Amadis of Gaul, among the romances of chivalry. Like that -great prototype of the whole class, it has among its actors two -brothers,—Palmerin, the faithful knight, and Florian, the free -gallant,—and, like that, it has its great magician, Deliante, and its -perilous isle, where occur not a few of the most agreeable adventures -of its heroes. In some respects, it may be favorably distinguished from -its model. There is<span class="pagenum" id="Page_238">[p. 238]</span> -more sensibility to the beauties of natural scenery in it, and often an -easier dialogue, with quite as good a drawing of individual characters. -But it has greater faults; for its movement is less natural and -spirited, and it is crowded with an unreasonable number of knights, and -an interminable series of duels, battles, and exploits, all of which -claim to be founded on authentic English chronicles and to be true -history, thus affording new proof of the connection between the old -chronicles and the oldest romances. Cervantes admired it excessively. -“Let this Palm of England,” says his curate, “be cared for and -preserved, as a thing singular in its kind, and let a casket be made -for it, like that which Alexander found among the spoils of Darius, and -destined to keep in it the works of the poet Homer”; praise, no doubt, -much stronger than can now seem reasonable, but marking, at least, the -sort of estimation in which the romance itself must have been generally -held, when the Don Quixote appeared.</p> - -<p>But the family of Palmerin had no further success in Spain. A -third and fourth part, indeed, containing “The Adventures of Duardos -the Second,” appeared in Portuguese, written by Diogo Fernandez, in -1587; and a fifth and sixth are said to have been written by Alvarez -do Oriente, a contemporary poet of no mean reputation. But the last -two do not seem to have been printed, and none of them were much -known beyond the limits of their native country.<a id="FNanchor_383" -href="#Footnote_383" class="fnanchor">[383]</a> The Palmerins, -therefore, notwithstanding the merits of one of them, failed to obtain -a fame or a succession that could enter into competition with those of -Amadis and his descendants.</p> - -<hr class="tb" /> - -<p class="nb mt2">The “Bibliotheca Hispana” has already been referred -to more than once in this chapter, and must so often be relied on as -an authority hereafter that some noticeof its claims should be given -before we proceed farther. Its author, Nicolas Antonio, was born at -Seville, in 1617. He was educated, first by the care of Francisco -Jimenez, a blind teacher, of singular merit, attached to the College of -St. Thomas in that city; and afterwards at Salamanca, where he devoted -himself with success to the study of history and canon law. When he had -completed an honorable career at the University, he returned home, and -lived chiefly in the Convent of the Benedictines, where he had been -bred, and where an abundant and curious library furnished him with -means for study, which he used with eagerness and assiduity.</p> - -<p class="nb">He was not, however, in haste to be known. He published -nothing till 1659, when, at the age of forty-two, he printed a Latin -treatise on the Punishment of Exile, and, the same year, was appointed -to the honorable and important post of General Agent of Philip IV. at -Rome. But from this time to the end of his life he was in the public -service, and filled places of no little responsibility. In Rome he -lived twenty years, collecting about him a library said to have been -second in importance only to that of the Vatican, and devoting all his -leisure to the studies he loved. At the end of that period, he returned -to Madrid, and continued there in honorable employments till his death, -which occurred in 1684. He left behind him several works in manuscript, -of which his “Censura de Historias Fabulosas”—an examination and -exposure of several forged chronicles which had appeared in the -preceding century—was first published by Mayans y Siscar, and must be -noticed hereafter.</p> - -<p class="nb">But his great labor—the labor of his life and of his -fondest preference—was his literary history of his own country. -He began it in his youth, while he was still living with the -Benedictines,—an order in the Romish Church honorably distinguished -by its zeal in the history of letters,—and he continued it, employing -on his task all the resources which his own large library and the -libraries of the capitals of Spain and of the Christian world could -furnish him, down to the moment of his death. He divided it into two -parts. The first, beginning with the age of Augustus, and coming down -to the year 1500, was found, after his death, digested into the form -of a regular history; but as his pecuniary means, during his lifetime, -had been entirely devoted to the purchase of books, it was published by -his friend Cardinal Aguirre, at Rome, in 1696. The second part, which -had been already printed there, in 1672, is thrown into the form of a -dictionary, whose separate articles are arranged, like those in most -other Spanish works of the same sort, under the baptismal names of -their subjects,—an honor shown to the saints, which renders the use of -such dictionaries somewhat inconvenient, even when, as in the case of -Antonio’s, full indexes are added, which facilitate a reference to the -respective articles by the more common arrangement, according to the -surnames.</p> - -<p class="nb">Of both parts an excellent edition was published in -the original Latin, at Madrid, in 1787 and 1788, in four volumes, -folio, commonly known as the “Bibliotheca Vetus et Nova of Nicolas -Antonio”; the first being enriched with notes by Perez Bayer, a learned -Valencian, long the head of the Royal Library at Madrid; and the last -receiving additions from Antonio’s own manuscripts that bring down his -notices of Spanish writers to the time of his death in 1684. In the -earlier portion, embracing the names of about thirteen hundred authors, -little remains to be desired, so far as the Roman or the ecclesiastical -literary history of Spain is concerned; but for the Arabic we must go -to Casiri and Gayangos, and for the Jewish to Castro and Amador de los -Rios; while, for the proper Spanish literature that existed before the -reign of Charles V., manuscripts discovered since the careful labors -of Bayer furnish important additions. In the latter portion, which -contains notices of nearly eight thousand writers of the best period of -Spanish literature, we have—notwithstanding the occasional inaccuracies -and oversights inevitable in a work so vast and so various—a monument -of industry, fairness, and fidelity, for which those who most use it -will always be most grateful. The two, taken together, constitute their -author, beyond all reasonable question, the father and founder of the -literary history of his country.</p> - -<p class="nb">See the lives of Antonio prefixed by Mayans to the -“Historias Fabulosas,” (Valencia, 1742, fol.,) and by Bayer to the -“Bibliotheca Vetus,” in 1787.</p> - -<hr class="chap0" /> - - -<div class="chapter pt3" id="Ch_1_12"> - <p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_241">[p. 241]</span></p> - <h3>CHAPTER XII.</h3> - <p class="subh3 hang"><span class="smcap">Other Romances of - Chivalry. — Lepolemo. — Translations from the French. — Religious - Romances. — Cavallería Celestial. — Period during which Romances - of Chivalry prevailed. — Their Number. — Their Foundation in the - State of Society. — The Passion for them. — Their Fate.</span></p> -</div> - -<p><span class="smcap">Although</span> the Palmerins failed as -rivals of the great family of Amadis, they were not without their -influence and consideration. Like the other works of their class, -and more than most of them, they helped to increase the passion for -fictions of chivalry in general, which, overbearing every other in the -Peninsula, was now busily at work producing romances, both original -and translated, that astonish us alike by their number, their length, -and their absurdities. Of those originally Spanish, it would not be -difficult, after setting aside the two series belonging to the families -of Amadis and Palmerin, to collect the names of about forty; all -produced in the course of the sixteenth century. Some of them are still -more or less familiar to us, by their names at least, such as “Belianis -of Greece” and “Olivante de Laura,” which are found in Don Quixote’s -library, and “Felixmarte of Hircania,” which was once, we are told, the -summer reading of Dr. Johnson.<a id="FNanchor_384" href="#Footnote_384" -class="fnanchor">[384]</a> But, in general, like “The Renowned<span -class="pagenum" id="Page_242">[p. 242]</span> Knight Cifar” and “The -Bold Knight Claribalte,” their very titles sound strangely to our ears, -and excite no interest when we hear them repeated. Most of them, it -may be added,—perhaps all,—deserve the oblivion into which they have -fallen; though some have merits which, in the days of their popularity, -placed them near the best of those already noticed.</p> - -<p>Among the latter is “The Invincible Knight Lepolemo, called the -Knight of the Cross and Son of the Emperor of Germany”; a romance, -which was published as early as 1525, and, besides drawing a -continuation after it, was reprinted thrice in the course of the -century, and translated into French and Italian.<a id="FNanchor_385" -href="#Footnote_385" class="fnanchor">[385]</a> It is a striking book -among those of its class, not only from the variety of fortunes through -which the hero passes, but, in some degree, from its general tone and -purpose. In his infancy Lepolemo is stolen from the shelter of the -throne to which he is heir, and completely lost for a long period. -During this time he lives among the heathen; at first in slavery, -and afterwards as an honorable knight-adventurer at the court of the -Soldan. By his courage and merit he rises to great distinction, and, -while on a journey through France, is recognized by his own family, who -happen to be there. Of course he is restored, amidst a general jubilee, -to his imperial estate.</p> - -<p>In all this, and especially in the wearisome series of its knightly -adventures, the Lepolemo has a sufficient resemblance to the other -romances of chivalry. But in two points it differs from them. In the -first place, it<span class="pagenum" id="Page_243">[p. 243]</span> -pretends to be translated by Pedro de Luxan, its real author, from the -Arabic of a wise magician attached to the person of the Sultan; and -yet it represents its hero throughout as a most Christian knight, and -his father and mother, the Emperor and Empress, as giving the force of -their example to encourage pilgrimages to the Holy Sepulchre; making -the whole story subserve the projects of the Church, in the same way, -if not to the same degree, that Turpin’s Chronicle had done. And in -the next place, it attracts our attention, from time to time, by a -picturesque air and touches of the national manners, as, for instance, -in the love passages between the Knight of the Cross and the Infanta -of France, in one of which he talks to her at her grated balcony in -the night, as if he were a cavalier of one of Calderon’s comedies.<a -id="FNanchor_386" href="#Footnote_386" class="fnanchor">[386]</a> -Except in these points, however, the Lepolemo is much like its -predecessors and followers, and quite as tedious.</p> - -<p>Spain, however, not only gave romances of chivalry to the rest of -Europe in large numbers, but received also from abroad in some good -proportion to what she gave. From the first, the early French fictions -were known in Spain, as we have seen by the allusions to them in the -“Amadis de Gaula”; a circumstance that may have been owing either to -the old connection with France through the Burgundian family, a branch -of which filled the throne of Portugal, or to some strange accident, -like the one that carried “Palmerin de Inglaterra” to Portugal from -France rather than from Spain, its native country. At any rate, -somewhat later, when the passion for such fictions was more developed, -the French stories were translated or imitated in Spanish,<span -class="pagenum" id="Page_244">[p. 244]</span> and became a part, and -a favored part, of the literature of the country. “The Romance of -Merlin” was printed very early,—as early as 1498,—and “The Romance of -Tristan de Leonnais,” and that of the Holy Cup, “La Demanda del Sancto -Grial,” followed it as a sort of natural sequence.<a id="FNanchor_387" -href="#Footnote_387" class="fnanchor">[387]</a></p> - -<p>The rival story of Charlemagne, however,—perhaps from the greatness -of his name,—seems to have been, at last, more successful. It is a -translation directly from the French, and therefore gives none of -those accounts of his defeat at Roncesvalles by Bernardo del Carpio, -which, in the old Spanish chronicles and ballads, so gratified the -national vanity; and contains only the accustomed stories of Oliver -and Fierabras the Giant; of Orlando and the False Ganelon; relying, of -course, on the fabulous Chronicle of Turpin as its chief authority. -But, such as it was, it found great favor at the time it appeared; -and such, in fact, as Nicolas de Piamonte gave it to the world, in -1528, under the title of “The History of the Emperor Charlemagne,” -it has been constantly reprinted down to our own times, and has -done more than any other tale of chivalry to keep alive in Spain a -taste for such reading.<a id="FNanchor_388" href="#Footnote_388" -class="fnanchor">[388]</a> During a considerable period, however, a -few other romances shared its popularity. “Reynaldos de Montalban,” -for<span class="pagenum" id="Page_245">[p. 245]</span> instance, -always a favorite hero in Spain, was one of them;<a id="FNanchor_389" -href="#Footnote_389" class="fnanchor">[389]</a> and a little later -we find another, the story of “Cleomadez,” an invention of a French -queen in the thirteenth century, which first gave to Froissart the -love for adventure that made him a chronicler.<a id="FNanchor_390" -href="#Footnote_390" class="fnanchor">[390]</a></p> - -<p>In most of the imitations and translations just noticed, the -influence of the Church is more visible than it is in the class of the -original Spanish romances. This is the case, from its very subject, -with the story of the Saint Graal, and with that of Charlemagne, -which, so far as it is taken from the pretended Archbishop Turpin’s -Chronicle, goes mainly to encourage founding religious houses and -making pious pilgrimages. But the Church was not satisfied with -this indirect and accidental influence. Romantic fiction, though -overlooked in its earliest beginnings, or perhaps even punished by -ecclesiastical authority in the person of the Greek Bishop to whom we -owe the first proper romance,<a id="FNanchor_391" href="#Footnote_391" -class="fnanchor">[391]</a> was now become important, and might be -made directly useful. Religious romances, therefore, were written. -In general, they were cast into the form of allegories, like “The -Celestial Chivalry,” “The Christian Chivalry<span class="pagenum" -id="Page_246">[p. 246]</span>,” “The Knight of the Bright Star,” -and “The Christian History and Warfare of the Stranger Knight, the -Conqueror of Heaven”;—all printed after the middle of the sixteenth -century, and during the period when the passion for romances of -chivalry was at its height.<a id="FNanchor_392" href="#Footnote_392" -class="fnanchor">[392]</a></p> - -<p>One of the oldest of them is probably the most curious and -remarkable of the whole number. It is appropriately called “The -Celestial Chivalry,” and was written by Hierónimo de San Pedro, -at Valencia, and printed in 1554, in two thin folio volumes.<a -id="FNanchor_393" href="#Footnote_393" class="fnanchor">[393]</a> In -his Preface, the author declares it to be his object to drive out -of the world the profane books of chivalry; the mischief of which -he illustrates by a reference to Dante’s account of Francesca da -Rimini. In pursuance of this purpose, the First Part is entitled “The -Root of the Fragrant Rose”; which, instead of chapters, is divided -into “Wonders,” <i>Maravillas</i>, and contains an allegorical version of -the most striking stories in the Old Testament, down to the time of -the good King Hezekiah, told as the adventures of a succession of -knights-errant. The Second Part is divided, according to a similar -conceit, into “The Leaves of the Rose”; and, beginning where the -preceding one ends, comes down,<span class="pagenum" id="Page_247">[p. -247]</span> with the same kind of knightly adventures, to the Saviour’s -death and ascension. The Third, which is promised under the name -of “The Flower of the Rose,” never appeared, nor is it now easy to -understand where consistent materials could have been found for its -composition; the Bible having been nearly exhausted in the two former -parts. But we have enough without it.</p> - -<p>Its chief allegory, from the nature of its subject, relates to -the Saviour, and fills seventy-four out of the one hundred and one -“Leaves,” or chapters, that constitute the Second Part. Christ is -represented in it as the Knight of the Lion; his twelve Apostles as -the twelve Knights of his Round Table; John the Baptist as the Knight -of the Desert; and Lucifer as the Knight of the Serpent;—the main -history being a warfare between the Knight of the Lion and the Knight -of the Serpent. It begins at the manger of Bethlehem, and ends on -Mount Calvary, involving in its progress almost every detail of the -Gospel history, and often using the very words of Scripture. Every -thing, however, is forced into the forms of a strange and revolting -allegory. Thus, for the temptation, the Saviour wears the shield of -the Lion of the Tribe of Judah, and rides on the steed of Penitence, -given to him by Adam. He then takes leave of his mother, the daughter -of the Celestial Emperor, like a youthful knight going out to his first -passage at arms, and proceeds to the waste and desert country, where he -is sure to find adventures. On his approach, the Knight of the Desert -prepares himself to do battle; but, perceiving who it is, humbles -himself before his coming prince and master. The baptism of course -follows; that is, the Knight of the Lion is received into the order of -the Knighthood of Baptism, in the presence of an old man, who turns out -to be the<span class="pagenum" id="Page_248">[p. 248]</span> Anagogic -Master, or the Interpreter of all Mysteries, and two women, one young -and the other old. All three of them enter directly into a spirited -discussion concerning the nature of the rite they have just witnessed. -The old man speaks at large, and explains it as a heavenly allegory. -The old woman, who proves to be Sinagoga, or the representation of -Judaism, prefers the ancient ordinance provided by Abraham, and -authorized, as she says, by “that celebrated Doctor, Moses,” rather -than this new rite of baptism. The younger woman replies, and defends -the new institution. She is the Church Militant; and the Knight of the -Desert, deciding the point in her favor, Sinagoga goes off full of -anger, ending thus the first part of the action.</p> - -<p>The great Anagogic Master, according to an understanding previously -had with the Church Militant, now follows the Knight of the Lion to -the desert, and there explains to him the true mystery and efficacy of -Christian baptism. After this preparation, the Knight enters on his -first adventure and battle with the Knight of the Serpent, which, in -all its details, is represented as a duel,—one of the parties coming -into the lists accompanied by Abel, Moses, and David, and the other -by Cain, Goliath, and Haman. Each of the speeches recorded in the -Evangelists is here made an arrow-shot or a sword-thrust; the scene on -the pinnacle of the temple, and the promises made there, are brought in -as far as their incongruous nature will permit; and then the whole of -this part of the long romance is abruptly ended by the precipitate and -disgraceful flight of the Knight of the Serpent.</p> - -<p>This scene of the temptation, strange as it now seems to us, is, -nevertheless, not an unfavorable specimen of the entire fiction. The -allegory is almost everywhere<span class="pagenum" id="Page_249">[p. -249]</span> quite as awkward and unmanageable as it is here, and often -leads to equally painful and disgusting absurdities. On the other hand, -we have occasionally proofs of an imagination that is not ungraceful; -just as the formal and extravagant style in which it is written now and -then gives token that its author was not insensible to the resources -of a language he, in general, so much abuses.<a id="FNanchor_394" -href="#Footnote_394" class="fnanchor">[394]</a></p> - -<p>There is, no doubt, a wide space between such a fiction as this -of the Celestial Chivalry and the comparatively simple and direct -story of the Amadis de Gaula; and when we recollect that only half -a century elapsed between the dates of these romances in Spain,<a -id="FNanchor_395" href="#Footnote_395" class="fnanchor">[395]</a> we -shall be struck with the fact that this space was very quickly passed -over, and that all the varieties of the romances of chivalry are -crowded into a comparatively short period of time. But we must not -forget that the success of these fictions, thus suddenly obtained, is -spread afterwards over a much longer period. The earliest of them were -familiarly known in Spain during the fifteenth century, the sixteenth -is thronged with them, and, far into the seventeenth, they were still -much read; so that their influence over the Spanish character extends -through quite two hundred years. Their number, too, during the latter -part of the time when they prevailed, was large. It exceeded seventy, -nearly all of them in folio; each often in more than one volume, and -still oftener repeated in successive editions;—circumstances which, -at a period when books were comparatively rare and not frequently -reprinted, show that<span class="pagenum" id="Page_250">[p. -250]</span> their popularity must have been widely spread, as well as -long continued.</p> - -<p>This might, perhaps, have been, in some degree, expected in a -country where the institutions and feelings of chivalry had struck -such firm root as they had in Spain. For Spain, when the romances -of chivalry first appeared, had long been peculiarly the land of -knighthood. The Moorish wars, which had made every gentleman a soldier, -necessarily tended to this result; and so did the free spirit of the -communities, led on as they were, during the next period, by barons, -who long continued almost as independent in their castles as the king -was on his throne. Such a state of things, in fact, is to be recognized -as far back as the thirteenth century, when the Partidas, by the -most minute and painstaking legislation, provided for a condition of -society not easily to be distinguished from that set forth in the -Amadis or the Palmerin.<a id="FNanchor_396" href="#Footnote_396" -class="fnanchor">[396]</a> The poem and history of the Cid bear witness -yet earlier, indirectly indeed, but very strongly, to a similar state -of the country; and so do many of the old ballads and other records of -the national feelings and traditions that had come from the fourteenth -century.</p> - -<p>But in the fifteenth, the chronicles are full of it, and exhibit -it in forms the most grave and imposing. Dangerous tournaments, -in some of which the chief men of the time, and even the kings -themselves, took part, occur constantly, and are recorded among the -important events of the age.<a id="FNanchor_397" href="#Footnote_397" -class="fnanchor">[397]</a> At the passage of arms<span class="pagenum" -id="Page_251">[p. 251]</span> near Orbigo, in the reign of John the -Second, eighty knights, as we have seen, were found ready to risk -their lives for as fantastic a fiction of gallantry as is recorded -in any of the romances of chivalry; a folly, of which this was by no -means the only instance.<a id="FNanchor_398" href="#Footnote_398" -class="fnanchor">[398]</a> Nor did they confine their extravagances -to their own country. In the same reign, two Spanish knights went -as far as Burgundy, professedly in search of adventures, which they -strangely mingled with a pilgrimage to Jerusalem; seeming to regard -both as religious exercises.<a id="FNanchor_399" href="#Footnote_399" -class="fnanchor">[399]</a> And as late as the time of Ferdinand and -Isabella, Fernando del Pulgar, their wise secretary, gives us the names -of several distinguished noblemen personally known to himself, who -had gone into foreign countries, “in order,” as he says, “to try the -fortune of arms with any cavalier that might be pleased to adventure it -with them, and so gain honor for themselves, and the fame of valiant -and bold knights for the gentlemen of Castile.”<a id="FNanchor_400" -href="#Footnote_400" class="fnanchor">[400]</a></p> - -<p>A state of society like this was the natural result of the -extraordinary development which the institutions of chivalry had -then received in Spain. Some of it was suited to the age, and -salutary; the rest was knight-errantry, and knight-errantry in -its wildest extravagance. When, however, the imaginations of men -were so excited as to tolerate and maintain, in their daily life, -such manners and institutions as these, they<span class="pagenum" -id="Page_252">[p. 252]</span> would not fail to enjoy the boldest -and most free representations of a corresponding state of society in -works of romantic fiction. But they went farther. Extravagant and -even impossible as are many of the adventures recorded in the books -of chivalry, they still seemed so little to exceed the absurdities -frequently witnessed or told of known and living men, that many persons -took the romances themselves to be true histories, and believed -them. Thus, Mexia, the trustworthy historiographer of Charles the -Fifth, says, in 1545, when speaking of “the Amadises, Lisuartes, and -Clarions,” that “their authors do waste their time and weary their -faculties in writing such books, which are read by all and believed -by many. For,” he goes on, “there be men who think all these things -really happened, just as they read or hear them, though the greater -part of the things themselves are sinful, profane, and unbecoming.”<a -id="FNanchor_401" href="#Footnote_401" class="fnanchor">[401]</a> And -Castillo, another chronicler, tells us gravely, in 1587, that Philip -the Second, when he married Mary of England, only forty years earlier, -promised, that, if King Arthur should return to claim the throne, he -would peaceably yield to that prince all his rights; thus implying, at -least in Castillo himself, and probably in many of his readers, a full -faith in the stories of Arthur and his Round Table.<a id="FNanchor_402" -href="#Footnote_402" class="fnanchor">[402]</a></p> - -<p>Such credulity, it is true, now seems impossible, even if we -suppose it was confined to a moderate number of intelligent persons; -and hardly less so, when, as in the admirable sketch of an easy faith -in the stories of chivalry by the innkeeper and Maritornes in Don -Quixote, we are shown that it extended to the<span class="pagenum" -id="Page_253">[p. 253]</span> mass of the people.<a id="FNanchor_403" -href="#Footnote_403" class="fnanchor">[403]</a> But before we refuse -our assent to the statements of such faithful chroniclers as Mexia, on -the ground that what they relate is impossible, we should recollect, -that, in the age when they lived, men were in the habit of believing -and asserting every day things no less incredible than those recited -in the old romances. The Spanish Church then countenanced a trust -in miracles, as of constant recurrence, which required of those who -believed them more credulity than the fictions of chivalry; and yet how -few were found wanting in faith! And how few doubted the tales that -had come down to them of the impossible achievements of their fathers -during the seven centuries of their warfare against the Moors, or the -glorious traditions of all sorts, that still constitute the charm of -their brave old chronicles, though we now see at a glance that many of -them are as fabulous as any thing told of Palmerin or Launcelot!</p> - -<p>But whatever we may think of this belief in the romances of -chivalry, there is no question that in Spain, during the sixteenth -century, there prevailed a passion for them such as was never known -elsewhere. The proof of it comes to us from all sides. The poetry of -the country is full of it, from the romantic ballads that still live -in the memory of the people, up to the old plays that have ceased to -be acted and the old epics that have ceased to be read. The national -manners and the national dress, more peculiar and picturesque than -in other countries, long bore its sure impress. The old laws, too, -speak no less plainly. Indeed, the passion for such fictions was so -strong, and seemed so dangerous, that in 1553 they were prohibited -from being<span class="pagenum" id="Page_254">[p. 254]</span> -printed, sold, or read in the American colonies; and in 1555 the -Cortes earnestly asked that the same prohibition might be extended to -Spain itself, and that all the extant copies of romances of chivalry -might be publicly burned.<a id="FNanchor_404" href="#Footnote_404" -class="fnanchor">[404]</a> And finally, half a century later, the -happiest work of the greatest genius Spain has produced bears witness -on every page to the prevalence of an absolute fanaticism for books of -chivalry, and becomes at once the seal of their vast popularity and the -monument of their fate.</p> - -<hr class="chap0" /> - - -<div class="chapter pt3" id="Ch_1_13"> - <p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_255">[p. 255]</span></p> - <h3>CHAPTER XIII.</h3> - <p class="subh3 hang"><span class="smcap">Fourth Class. — Drama. - — Extinction of the Greek and Roman Theatres. — Religious Origin - of the Modern Drama. — Earliest Notice of it in Spain. — Hints of - it in the Fifteenth Century. — Marquis of Villena. — Constable de - Luna. — Mingo Revulgo. — Rodrigo Cota. — The Celestina. — First - Act. — The Remainder. — Its Story, Character, and Effects on - Spanish Literature.</span></p> -</div> - -<p><span class="smcap">The Drama.</span>—The ancient theatre of the -Greeks and Romans was continued under some of its grosser and more -popular forms at Constantinople, in Italy, and in many other parts of -the falling and fallen empire, far into the Middle Ages. But, under -whatever disguise it appeared, it was essentially heathenish; for, from -first to last, it was mythological, both in tone and in substance. As -such, of course, it was rebuked and opposed by the Christian Church, -which, favored by the confusion and ignorance of the times, succeeded -in overthrowing it, though not without a long contest, and not until -its degradation and impurity had rendered it worthy of its fate and of -the anathemas pronounced against it by Tertullian and Saint Augustin.<a -id="FNanchor_405" href="#Footnote_405" class="fnanchor">[405]</a></p> - -<p>A love for theatrical exhibitions, however, survived the extinction -of these poor remains of the classical drama; and the priesthood, -careful neither to make itself needlessly odious, nor to neglect any -suitable<span class="pagenum" id="Page_256">[p. 256]</span> method -of increasing its own influence, seems early to have been willing to -provide a substitute for the popular amusement it had destroyed. At -any rate, a substitute soon appeared; and, coming as it did out of -the ceremonies and commemorations of the religion of the times, its -appearance was natural and easy. The greater festivals of the Church -had for centuries been celebrated with whatever of pomp the rude luxury -of ages so troubled could afford, and they now everywhere, from London -to Rome, added a dramatic element to their former attractions. Thus, -the manger at Bethlehem, with the worship of the shepherds and Magi, -was, at a very early period, solemnly exhibited every year by a visible -show before the altars of the churches at Christmas, as were the -tragical events of the last days of the Saviour’s life during Lent and -at the approach of Easter.</p> - -<p>Gross abuses, dishonoring alike the priesthood and religion, were, -no doubt, afterwards mingled with these representations, both while -they were given in dumb show, and when, by the addition of dialogue, -they became what were called Mysteries; but, in many parts of Europe, -the representations themselves, down to a comparatively late period, -were found so well suited to the spirit of the times, that different -Popes granted especial indulgences to the persons who frequented -them, and they were in fact used openly and successfully, not only as -means of amusement, but for the religious edification of an ignorant -multitude. In England such shows prevailed for above four hundred -years,—a longer period than can be assigned to the English national -drama, as we now recognize it; while in Italy and other countries -still under the influence of the See of Rome, they have, in some of -their forms,<span class="pagenum" id="Page_257">[p. 257]</span> -been continued, for the edification and amusement of the populace, -quite down to our own times.<a id="FNanchor_406" href="#Footnote_406" -class="fnanchor">[406]</a></p> - -<p>That all traces of the ancient Roman theatre, except the -architectural remains which still bear witness to its splendor,<a -id="FNanchor_407" href="#Footnote_407" class="fnanchor">[407]</a> -disappeared from Spain in consequence of the occupation of the -country by the Arabs, whose national spirit rejected the drama -altogether, cannot be reasonably doubted. But the time when the more -modern representations were begun on religious subjects, and under -ecclesiastical patronage, can no longer be determined. It must, -however, have been very early; for, in the middle of the thirteenth -century, such performances were not only known, but had been so -long practised, that they had already taken various forms, and -become disgraced by various abuses. This is apparent from the code -of Alfonso the Tenth, which was prepared about 1260; and in which, -after forbidding the clergy certain gross indulgences, the law goes -on to say: “Neither ought they to be makers of buffoon plays,<a -id="FNanchor_408" href="#Footnote_408" class="fnanchor">[408]</a> that -people may come to see them; and if other men make them, clergymen -should not come to see them, for such men do many things low and -unsuitable. Nor, moreover, should such things be done in the churches; -but rather we say that they should be cast<span class="pagenum" -id="Page_258">[p. 258]</span> out in dishonor, without punishment to -those engaged in them. For the church of God was made for prayer, and -not for buffoonery; as our Lord Jesus Christ declared in the Gospel, -that his house was called the House of Prayer, and ought not to be made -a den of thieves. But exhibitions there be, that clergymen may make, -such as that of the birth of our Lord Jesus Christ, which shows how the -angel came to the shepherds and how he told them Jesus Christ was born, -and, moreover, of his appearance when the Three Kings came to worship -him, and of his resurrection, which shows how he was crucified and rose -the third day. Such things as these, which move men to do well, may the -clergy make, as well as to the end that men may have in remembrance -that such things did truly happen. But this must they do decently, and -in devotion, and in the great cities where there is an archbishop or -bishop, and under their authority, or that of others by them deputed, -and not in villages, nor in small places, nor to gain money thereby.”<a -id="FNanchor_409" href="#Footnote_409" class="fnanchor">[409]</a></p> - -<p>But though these earliest religious representations in Spain, -whether pantomimic or in dialogue, were thus given, not only by -churchmen, but by others, certainly before the middle of the thirteenth -century, and probably much sooner, and though they were continued for -several centuries afterwards, still no fragment of them and no distinct -account of them now remain to us. Nor is any thing properly dramatic -found even amongst the secular poetry of Spain, till the latter part -of the fifteenth century, though it may have existed somewhat earlier, -as we may infer from a passage in the Marquis of Santillana’s letter -to the Constable of Portugal;<a id="FNanchor_410" href="#Footnote_410" -class="fnanchor">[410]</a> from<span class="pagenum" id="Page_259">[p. -259]</span> the notice of a moral play by the Marquis of Villena, -now lost, which is said to have been represented in 1414, before -Ferdinand of Aragon;<a id="FNanchor_411" href="#Footnote_411" -class="fnanchor">[411]</a> and from the hint left by the picturesque -chronicler of the Constable de Luna concerning the <i>Entremeses</i><a -id="FNanchor_412" href="#Footnote_412" class="fnanchor">[412]</a> -or Interludes, which were sometimes arranged by that proud favorite -a little later in the same century. These indications, however, are -very slight and uncertain.<a id="FNanchor_413" href="#Footnote_413" -class="fnanchor">[413]</a></p> - -<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_260">[p. 260]</span>A nearer -approach to the spirit of the drama, and particularly to the form which -the secular drama first took in Spain, is to be found in the curious -dialogue called “The Couplets of Mingo Revulgo”; a satire thrown into -the shape of an eclogue, and given in the free and spirited language -of the lower classes of the people, on the deplorable state of public -affairs, as they existed in the latter part of the weak reign of Henry -the Fourth. It seems to have been written about the year 1472.<a -id="FNanchor_414" href="#Footnote_414" class="fnanchor">[414]</a> The -interlocutors are two shepherds; one of whom, called Mingo Revulgo,—a -name corrupted from Domingo Vulgus,—represents the common people; and -the other, called Gil Arribato, or Gil the Elevated, represents the -higher classes, and speaks with the authority of a prophet, who, while -complaining of the ruinous condition of the state, yet lays no small -portion of the blame on the common people, for having, as he says, by -their weakness and guilt, brought upon themselves so dissolute and -careless a shepherd. It opens with the shouts of Arribato, who sees -Revulgo at a distance, on a Sunday morning, ill dressed and with a -dispirited air:—</p> - -<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> -<p class="i0">Hollo, Revulgo! Mingo, ho!</p> -<p class="i0">Mingo Revulgo! Ho, hollo!</p> -<p class="i0">Why, where’s your cloak of blue so bright?</p> -<p class="i0">Is it not Sunday’s proper wear?</p> -<p class="i0">And where ’s your jacket red and tight?</p> -<p class="i0">And such a brow why do you bear,</p> -<p class="i0">And come abroad, this dawning mild,</p> -<p class="i0">With all your hair in elf-locks wild?</p> -<p class="i0">Pray, are you broken down with care?<a id="FNanchor_415" href="#Footnote_415" class="fnanchor">[415]</a></p> -</div></div> - -<p class="ti0"><span class="pagenum" id="Page_261">[p. -261]</span>Revulgo replies, that the state of the flock, governed by -so unfit a shepherd, is the cause of his squalid condition; and then, -under this allegory, they urge a coarse, but efficient, satire against -the measures of the government, against the base, cowardly character of -the king and his scandalous, passion for his Portuguese mistress, and -against the ruinous carelessness and indifference of the people, ending -with praises of the contentment found in a middle condition of life. -The whole dialogue consists of only thirty-two stanzas of nine lines -each; but it produced a great effect at the time, was often printed in -the next century, and was twice elucidated by a grave commentary.<a -id="FNanchor_416" href="#Footnote_416" class="fnanchor">[416]</a></p> - -<p>Its author wisely concealed his name, and has never been -absolutely ascertained.<a id="FNanchor_417" href="#Footnote_417" -class="fnanchor">[417]</a> The earlier editions generally suppose -him to have been Rodrigo Cota, the elder, of Toledo, to whom also is -attributed “A Dialogue between Love and an Old Man,” which dates from -the same period, and is no less spirited and even more dramatic. It -opens with a representation of an old man retired into a poor hut, -which stands in the midst of a neglected and decayed garden. Suddenly -Love appears<span class="pagenum" id="Page_262">[p. 262]</span> before -him, and he exclaims, “My door is shut; what do you want? Where did you -enter? Tell me how, robber-like, you leaped the walls of my garden. Age -and reason had freed me from you; leave, therefore, my heart, retired -into its poor corner, to think only of the past.” He goes on giving a -sad account of his own condition, and a still more sad description of -Love; to which Love replies, with great coolness, “Your discourse shows -that you have not been well acquainted with me.” A discussion follows, -in which Love, of course, gains the advantage. The old man is promised -that his garden shall be restored and his youth renewed; but when he -has surrendered at discretion, he is only treated with the gayest -ridicule by his conqueror, for thinking that at his age he can again -make himself attractive in the ways of love. The whole is in a light -tone and managed with a good deal of ingenuity; but though susceptible, -like other poetical eclogues, of being represented, it is not certain -that it ever was. It is, however, as well as the Couplets of Revulgo, -so much like the pastorals which we know were publicly exhibited -as dramas a few years later, that we may reasonably suppose it had -some influence in preparing the way for them.<a id="FNanchor_418" -href="#Footnote_418" class="fnanchor">[418]</a></p> - -<p>The next contribution to the foundations of the Spanish theatre -is the “Celestina,” a dramatic story, con<span class="pagenum" -id="Page_263">[p. 263]</span>temporary with the poems just noticed, -and probably, in part, the work of the same hands. It is a prose -composition, in twenty-one acts, or parts, originally called, “The -Tragicomedy of Calisto and Melibœa”; and though, from its length, -and, indeed, from its very structure, it can never have been -represented, its dramatic spirit and movement have left traces, that -are not to to be mistaken,<a id="FNanchor_419" href="#Footnote_419" -class="fnanchor">[419]</a> of their influence on the national drama -ever since.</p> - -<p>The first act, which is much the longest, was probably written by -Rodrigo Cota, of Toledo, and in that case we may safely assume that -it was produced about 1480.<a id="FNanchor_420" href="#Footnote_420" -class="fnanchor">[420]</a> It opens in the environs of a city, -which is not named,<a id="FNanchor_421" href="#Footnote_421" -class="fnanchor">[421]</a> with a scene between Calisto, a young<span -class="pagenum" id="Page_264">[p. 264]</span> man of rank, and Melibœa, -a maiden of birth and qualities still more noble than his own. He finds -her in her father’s garden, where he had accidentally followed his bird -in hawking, and she receives him as a Spanish lady of condition in that -age would be likely to receive a stranger who begins his acquaintance -by making love to her. The result is, that the presumptuous young man -goes home full of mortification and despair, and shuts himself up in -his darkened chamber. Sempronio, a confidential servant, understanding -the cause of his master’s trouble, advises him to apply to an old -woman, with whom the unprincipled valet is secretly in league, and who -is half a pretender to witchcraft and half a dealer in love philters. -This personage is Celestina. Her character, the first hint of which -may have been taken from the Archpriest of Hita’s sketch of one with -not dissimilar pretensions, is at once revealed in all its power. She -boldly promises Calisto that he shall obtain possession of Melibœa, and -from that moment secures to herself a complete control over him, and -over all who are about him.<a id="FNanchor_422" href="#Footnote_422" -class="fnanchor">[422]</a></p> - -<p>Thus far Cota had proceeded in his outline, when, from some -unknown reason, he stopped short. The fragment he had written was, -however, circulated and admired, and Fernando de Rojas of Montalvan, -a bachelor of laws living at Salamanca, took it up, at the request of -some of his friends, and, as he himself tells us, wrote the remainder -in a fortnight of his vacations; the twenty acts or scenes which he -added for this purpose constituting about seven eighths of<span -class="pagenum" id="Page_265">[p. 265]</span> the whole composition.<a -id="FNanchor_423" href="#Footnote_423" class="fnanchor">[423]</a> That -the conclusion he thus arranged was such as the original inventor of -the story intended is not to be imagined. Rojas was even uncertain -who this first author was, and evidently knew nothing about his plans -or purposes; besides which, he says, the portion that came into his -hands was a comedy, while the remainder is so violent and bloody in its -course, that he calls his completed work a tragicomedy; a name which it -has generally borne since, and which he perhaps invented to suit this -particular case. One circumstance, however, connected with it should -not be overlooked. It is, that the different portions attributed to -the two authors are so similar in style and finish, as to have led to -the conjecture, that, after all, the whole might have been the work of -Rojas, who, for reasons, perhaps, arising out of his ecclesiastical -position in society, was unwilling to take the responsibility of -being the sole author of it.<a id="FNanchor_424" href="#Footnote_424" -class="fnanchor">[424]</a></p> - -<p>But this is not the account given by Rojas himself. He says that -he found the first act already written; and he begins the second with -the impatience of Calisto, in urging Celestina to obtain access to the -high-born and high-bred Melibœa. The low and vulgar woman succeeds, -by presenting herself at the house of Mel<span class="pagenum" -id="Page_266">[p. 266]</span>ibœa’s father with lady-like trifles to -sell, and, having once obtained an entrance, easily finds the means -of establishing her right to return. Intrigues of the grossest kind -amongst the servants and subordinates follow; and the machinations and -contrivances of the mover of the whole mischief advance through the -midst of them with great rapidity,—all managed by herself, and all -contributing to her power and purposes. Nothing, indeed, seems to be -beyond the reach of her unprincipled activity and talent. She talks -like a saint or a philosopher, as it suits her purpose. She flatters; -she threatens; she overawes; her unscrupulous ingenuity is never at -fault; her main object is never forgotten or overlooked.</p> - -<p>Meantime, the unhappy Melibœa, urged by whatever insinuation and -seduction can suggest, is made to confess her love for Calisto. From -this moment, her fate is sealed. Calisto visits her secretly in the -night, after the fashion of the old Spanish gallants; and then the -conspiracy hurries onward to its consummation. At the same time, -however, the retribution begins. The persons who had assisted Calisto -to bring about his first interview with her quarrel for the reward -he had given them; and Celestina, at the moment of her triumph, -is murdered by her own base agents and associates, two of whom, -attempting to escape, are in their turn summarily put to death by -the officers of justice. Great confusion ensues. Calisto is regarded -as the indirect cause of Celestina’s death, since she perished in -his service; and some of those who had been dependent upon her are -roused to such indignation, that they track him to the place of his -assignation, seeking for revenge. There they fall into a quarrel with -the servants he had posted in the streets for his protection. He -hastens to the<span class="pagenum" id="Page_267">[p. 267]</span> -rescue, is precipitated from a ladder, and is killed on the spot. -Melibœa confesses her guilt and shame, and throws herself headlong from -a high tower; immediately upon which the whole melancholy and atrocious -story ends with the lament of the broken-hearted father over her dead -body.</p> - -<p>As has been intimated, the Celestina is rather a dramatized romance -than a proper drama, or even a well-considered attempt to produce a -strictly dramatic effect. Such as it is, however, Europe can show -nothing on its theatres, at the same period, of equal literary merit. -It is full of life and movement throughout. Its characters, from -Celestina down to her insolent and lying valets, and her brutal female -associates, are developed with a skill and truth rarely found in -the best periods of the Spanish drama. Its style is easy and pure, -sometimes brilliant, and always full of the idiomatic resources of the -old and true Castilian; such a style, unquestionably, as had not yet -been approached in Spanish prose, and was not often reached afterwards. -Occasionally, indeed, we are offended by an idle and cold display of -learning; but, like the gross manners of the piece, this poor vanity is -a fault that belonged to the age.</p> - -<p>The great offence of the Celestina, however, is, that large portions -of it are foul with a shameless libertinism of thought and language. -Why the authority of church and state did not at once interfere to -prevent its circulation seems now hardly intelligible. Probably it -was, in part, because the Celestina claimed to be written for the -purpose of warning the young against the seductions and crimes it -so loosely unveils; or, in other words, because it claimed to be a -book whose tendency was good. Certainly, strange as the fact may now -seem to us, many so received it. It was dedicated to rever<span -class="pagenum" id="Page_268">[p. 268]</span>end ecclesiastics, and -to ladies of rank and modesty in Spain and out of it, and seems -to have been read generally, and perhaps by the wise, the gentle, -and the good, without a blush. When, therefore, those who had the -power were called to exercise it, they shrank from the task; only -slight changes were required; and the Celestina was then left to -run its course of popular favor unchecked.<a id="FNanchor_425" -href="#Footnote_425" class="fnanchor">[425]</a> In the century that -followed its first appearance from the press in 1499, a century in -which the number of readers was comparatively very small, it is easy -to enumerate above thirty editions of the original. Probably there -were more. At that time, too, or soon afterwards, it was made known -in English, in German, and in Dutch; and, that none of the learned -at least might be beyond its reach, it appeared in the universal -Latin. Thrice it was translated into Italian, and thrice into French. -The cautious and severe author of the “Dialogue on Languages,” the -Protestant Valdés, gave it the highest praise.<a id="FNanchor_426" -href="#Footnote_426" class="fnanchor">[426]</a> So did Cervantes.<a -id="FNanchor_427" href="#Footnote_427" class="fnanchor">[427]</a> The -very name of Celestina became a proverb, like the thousand bywords -and adages she<span class="pagenum" id="Page_269">[p. 269]</span> -herself pours out, with such wit and fluency;<a id="FNanchor_428" -href="#Footnote_428" class="fnanchor">[428]</a> and it is not too much -to add, that, down to the days of the Don Quixote, no Spanish book was -so much known and read at home and abroad.</p> - -<p>Such success insured for it a long series of imitations; most of -them yet more offensive to morals and public decency than the Celestina -itself, and all of them, as might be anticipated, of inferior literary -merit to their model. One, called “The Second Comedia of Celestina,” in -which she is raised from the dead, was published in 1530, by Feliciano -de Silva, the author of the old romance of “Florisel de Niquea,” -and went through four editions. Another, by Domingo de Castega, was -sometimes added to the successive reprints of the original work -after 1534. A third, by Gaspar Gomez de Toledo, appeared in 1537; a -fourth, ten years later, by an unknown author, called “The Tragedy of -Policiana,” in twenty-nine acts; a fifth, in 1554, by Joan Rodrigues -Florian, in forty-three scenes, called “The Comedia of Florinea”; -and a sixth, “The Selvagia,” in five acts, also in 1554, by Alonso -de Villegas. In 1513, Pedro de Urrea, of the same family with the -translator of Ariosto, rendered the first act of the original Celestina -into good Castilian verse, dedicating it to his mother; and in 1540, -Juan Sedeño, the translator of Tasso, performed a similar service for -the whole of it. Tales and romances followed, somewhat later, in large -numbers; some, like “The Ingenious Helen,” and “The Cunning Flora,” -not without merit; while others, like “The Eufrosina,” praised more -than it deserves by Quevedo, were little regarded from the first.<a -id="FNanchor_429" href="#Footnote_429" class="fnanchor">[429]</a></p> -<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_270">[p. 270]</span></p> - -<p>At last, it came upon the stage, for which its original character -had so nearly fitted it. Cepeda, in 1582, formed out of it one half -of his “Comedia Selvage<span class="pagenum" id="Page_271">[p. -271]</span>,” which is only the four first acts of the Celestina, -thrown into easy verse;<a id="FNanchor_430" href="#Footnote_430" -class="fnanchor">[430]</a> and Alfonso Vaz de Velasco, as early -as 1602, published a drama in prose, called “The Jealous Man,” -founded entirely on the Celestina, whose character, under the name -of Lena, is given with nearly all its original spirit and effect.<a -id="FNanchor_431" href="#Footnote_431" class="fnanchor">[431]</a> How -far either the play of Velasco or that of Cepeda succeeded, we are -not told; but the coarseness and indecency of both are so great, that -they can hardly have been long tolerated by the public, if they were -by the Church. The essential type of Celestina, however, the character -as originally conceived by Cota and Rojas, was continued on the stage -in such plays as the “Celestina” of Mendoza, “The Second Celestina” of -Agustin de Salazar, and “The School of Celestina” by Salas Barbadillo, -all produced soon after the year 1600, as well as in others that have -been produced since. Even in our own days, a drama containing so much -of her story as a modern audience will listen to has been received with -favor; while, at the same time, the original tragicomedy itself has -been thought worthy of being reprinted at Madrid, with various readings -to settle its text, and of being rendered anew by fresh and vigorous -translations into the French and the German.<a id="FNanchor_432" -href="#Footnote_432" class="fnanchor">[432]</a></p> - -<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_272">[p. 272]</span>The influence, -therefore, of the Celestina seems not yet at an end, little as it -deserves regard, except for its lifelike exhibition of the most -unworthy forms of human character, and its singularly pure, rich, and -idiomatic Castilian style.</p> - -<hr class="chap0" /> - - -<div class="chapter pt3" id="Ch_1_14"> - <p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_273">[p. 273]</span></p> - <h3>CHAPTER XIV.</h3> - <p class="subh3 hang"><span class="smcap">Drama continued. — - Juan de la Enzina. — His Life and Works. — His Representaciones, - and their Character. — First Secular Dramas acted in Spain. — - Some Religious in their Tone, and some not. — Gil Vicente, a - Portuguese. — His Spanish Dramas. — Auto of Cassandra. — Comedia - of the Widower. — His Influence on the Spanish Drama.</span></p> -</div> - -<p><span class="smcap">The</span> “Celestina,” as has been intimated, -produced little or no immediate effect on the rude beginnings of -the Spanish drama; perhaps not so much as the dialogues of “Mingo -Revulgo,” and “Love and the Old Man.” But the three taken together -unquestionably lead us to the true founder of the secular theatre in -Spain, Juan de la Enzina,<a id="FNanchor_433" href="#Footnote_433" -class="fnanchor">[433]</a> who was probably born in the village whose -name he bears, in 1468 or 1469, and was educated at the neighbouring -University of Salamanca, where he had the good fortune to enjoy the -patronage of its chancellor, then one of the rising family of Alva. -Soon afterwards he was at court; and at the age of twenty-five, we find -him in the household of Fadrique de Toledo, first Duke of Alva, to whom -and to his duchess Enzina addressed much of his poetry. In 1496, he -published the earliest edition of his works, divided into four parts, -which are successively dedicated to Ferdinand and Isabella, to the -Duke and Duchess of Alva, to Prince John, and to Don Garcia de Toledo, -son of his patron.</p> - -<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_274">[p. 274]</span>Somewhat later, -Enzina went to Rome, where he became a priest, and, from his skill in -music, rose to be head of Leo the Tenth’s chapel; the highest honor -the world then offered to his art. In the course of the year 1519, -he made a pilgrimage from Rome to Jerusalem with Fadrique Afan de -Ribera, Marquis of Tarifa; and on his return, published, in 1521, -a poor poetical account of his devout adventures, accompanied with -great praises of the Marquis, and ending with an expression of his -happiness at living in Rome.<a id="FNanchor_434" href="#Footnote_434" -class="fnanchor">[434]</a> At a more advanced age, however, having -received a priory in Leon as a reward for his services, he returned to -his native country, and died, in 1534, at Salamanca, in whose cathedral -his monument is probably still to be seen.<a id="FNanchor_435" -href="#Footnote_435" class="fnanchor">[435]</a></p> - -<p>Of his collected works six editions at least were published between -1496 and 1516; showing, that, for the period in which he lived, he -enjoyed a remarkable degree of popularity. They contain a good deal of -pleasant lyrical poetry, songs, and <i>villancicos</i>, in the old popular -Spanish style; and two or three descriptive<span class="pagenum" -id="Page_275">[p. 275]</span> poems, particularly “A Vision of the -Temple of Fame and the Glories of Castile,” in which Ferdinand and -Isabella receive great eulogy and are treated as if they were his -patrons. But most of his shorter poems were slight contributions of his -talent offered on particular occasions; and by far the most important -works he has left us are the dramatic compositions which fill the -fourth division of his Cancionero.</p> - -<p>These compositions are called by Enzina himself “Representaciones”; -and in the edition of 1496 there are nine of them, while in the -last two editions there are eleven, one of which contains the date -of 1498. They are in the nature of eclogues, though one of them, it -is difficult to tell why, is called an “Auto”;<a id="FNanchor_436" -href="#Footnote_436" class="fnanchor">[436]</a> and they were -represented before the Duke and Duchess of Alva, the Prince Don John, -the Duke of Infantado, and other distinguished personages enumerated in -the notices prefixed to them. All are in some form of the old Spanish -verse; in all there is singing; and in one there is a dance. They have, -therefore, several of the elements of the proper secular Spanish drama, -whose origin we can trace no farther back by any authentic monument now -existing.</p> - -<p>Two things, however, should be noted, when considering these -dramatic efforts of Juan de la Enzina as the foundation of the Spanish -drama. The first is<span class="pagenum" id="Page_276">[p. 276]</span> -their internal structure and essential character. They are eclogues -only in form and name, not in substance and spirit. Enzina, whose -poetical account of his travels in Palestine proves him to have had -scholarlike knowledge, began by translating, or rather paraphrasing, -the ten Eclogues of Virgil, accommodating some of them to events in -the reign of Ferdinand and Isabella, or to passages in the fortunes -of the house of Alva.<a id="FNanchor_437" href="#Footnote_437" -class="fnanchor">[437]</a> From these, he easily passed to the -preparation of eclogues to be represented before his patrons and their -courtly friends. But, in doing this, he was naturally reminded of the -religious exhibitions, which had been popular in Spain from the time -of Alfonso the Tenth, and had always been given at the great festivals -of the Church. Six, therefore, of his eclogues, to meet the demands -of ancient custom, are, in fact, dialogues of the simplest kind, -represented at Christmas and Easter, or during Carnival and Lent; in -one of which the manger at Bethlehem is introduced, and in another a -sepulchral monument, setting forth the burial of the Saviour, while -all of them seem to have been enacted in the chapel of the Duke of -Alva, though two certainly are not very religious in their tone and -character.</p> - -<p>The remaining five are altogether secular; three of them having -a sort of romantic story, the fourth introducing a shepherd so -desperate with love that he kills himself, and the fifth exhibiting a -market-day farce and riot between sundry country people and students, -the materials for which Enzina may well enough have gathered during -his own life at Salamanca. These five eclogues, therefore, connect -themselves with the<span class="pagenum" id="Page_277">[p. 277]</span> -coming secular drama of Spain in a manner not to be mistaken, just as -the first six look back towards the old religious exhibitions of the -country.</p> - -<p>The other circumstance that should be noted in relation to them, -as proof that they constitute the commencement of the Spanish secular -drama, is, that they were really acted. Nearly all of them speak -in their titles of this fact, mentioning sometimes the personages -who were present, and in more than one instance alluding to Enzina -himself, as if he had performed some of the parts in person. Rojas, a -great authority in whatever relates to the theatre, declares the same -thing expressly, coupling the fall of Granada and the achievements of -Columbus with the establishment of the theatre in Spain by Enzina; -events which, in the true spirit of his profession as an actor, he -seems to consider of nearly equal importance.<a id="FNanchor_438" -href="#Footnote_438" class="fnanchor">[438]</a> The precise year -when this happened is given by a learned antiquary of the time of -Philip the Fourth, who says, “In 1492, companies began to represent -publicly in Castile plays by Juan de la Enzina.”<a id="FNanchor_439" -href="#Footnote_439" class="fnanchor">[439]</a> From this year, then, -the great year of the discovery of America, we may safely date the -foundation of the Spanish secular theatre.</p> - -<p>It must not, however, be supposed that the “Representations,” as -he calls them, of Juan de la Enzina have much dramatic merit. On -the contrary, they are rude<span class="pagenum" id="Page_278">[p. -278]</span> and slight. Some have only two or three interlocutors, -and no pretension to a plot; and none has more than six personages, -nor any thing that can be considered a proper dramatic structure. In -one of those prepared for the Nativity, the four shepherds are, in -fact, the four Evangelists;—Saint John, at the same time, shadowing -forth the person of the poet. He enters first, and discourses, in -rather a vainglorious way, of himself as a poet; not forgetting, -however, to compliment the Duke of Alva, his patron, as a person -feared in France and in Portugal, with which countries the political -relations of Spain were then unsettled. Matthew, who follows, rebukes -John for this vanity, telling him that “all his works are not worth -two straws”; to which John replies, that, in pastorals and graver -poetry, he defies competition, and intimates, that, in the course of -the next May, he shall publish what will prove him to be something -even more than bucolic. They both agree that the Duke and Duchess -are excellent masters, and Matthew wishes that he, too, were in -their service. At this point of the dialogue, Luke and Mark come in, -and, with slight preface, announce the birth of the Saviour as the -last news. All four then talk upon that event at large, alluding to -John’s Gospel as if already known, and end with a determination to -go to Bethlehem, after singing a <i>villancico</i> or rustic song, which -is much too light in its tone to be religious.<a id="FNanchor_440" -href="#Footnote_440" class="fnanchor">[440]</a> The whole eclogue is -short and comprised in less than forty rhymed stanzas of nine lines -each, including a wild lyric at the end, which<span class="pagenum" -id="Page_279">[p. 279]</span> has a chorus to every stanza, and is not -without the spirit of poetry.<a id="FNanchor_441" href="#Footnote_441" -class="fnanchor">[441]</a></p> - -<p>This belongs to the class of Enzina’s religious dramas. One, on the -other hand, which was represented at the conclusion of the Carnival, -during the period then called popularly at Salamanca <i>Antruejo</i>, -seems rather to savor of heathenism, as the festival itself did.<a -id="FNanchor_442" href="#Footnote_442" class="fnanchor">[442]</a> It -is merely a rude dialogue between four shepherds. It begins with a -description of one of those mummings, common at the period when Enzina -lived, which, in this case, consisted of a mock battle in the village -between Carnival and Lent, ending with the discomfiture of Carnival; -but the general matter of the scene presented is a somewhat free -frolic of eating and drinking among the four shepherds, ending, like -the rest of the eclogues, with a <i>villancico</i>, in which Antruejo, it -is not easy to tell why, is treated as a saint.<a id="FNanchor_443" -href="#Footnote_443" class="fnanchor">[443]</a></p> - -<p>Quite opposite to both of the pieces already noticed is the -Representation for Good Friday, between two hermits, Saint Veronica, -and an angel. It opens with the meeting and salutation of the two -hermits, the elder of<span class="pagenum" id="Page_280">[p. -280]</span> whom, as they walk along, tells the younger, with great -grief, that the Saviour has been crucified that very day, and agrees -with him to visit the sepulchre. In the midst of their talk, Saint -Veronica joins them, and gives an account of the crucifixion, not -without touches of a simple pathos; showing, at the same time, the -napkin on which the portrait of the Saviour had been miraculously -impressed, as she wiped from his face the sweat of his agony. Arrived -at the sepulchre,—which was some kind of a monument for the Corpus -Christi in the Duke of Alva’s chapel, where the representation took -place,—they kneel; an angel whom they find there explains to them -the mystery of the Saviour’s death; and then, in a <i>villancico</i> in -which all join, they praise God, and take comfort with the promise -of the resurrection.<a id="FNanchor_444" href="#Footnote_444" -class="fnanchor">[444]</a></p> - -<p>But the nearest approach to a dramatic composition made by Juan -de la Enzina is to be found in two eclogues between “The Esquire -that turns Shepherd,” and “The Shepherds that turn Courtiers”; -both of which should be taken together and examined as one whole, -though, in his simplicity, the poet makes them separate and -independent of each other.<a id="FNanchor_445" href="#Footnote_445" -class="fnanchor">[445]</a> In the first, a shepherdess, who is a -coquette, shows herself well disposed to receive Mingo, one of the -shepherds, for her lover, till a certain gay esquire presents himself, -whom, after a fair discussion, she prefers to accept, on condition -he will turn shepherd;—an unceremonious transformation, with which, -and the customary <i>villancico</i>, the piece<span class="pagenum" -id="Page_281">[p. 281]</span> concludes. The second eclogue, however, -at its opening, shows the esquire already tired of his pastoral life, -and busy in persuading all the shepherds, somewhat in the tone of -Touchstone in “As you like it,” to go to court, and become courtly. -In the dialogue that follows, an opportunity occurs, which is not -neglected, for a satire on court manners, and for natural and graceful -praise of life in the country. But the esquire carries his point. -They change their dresses, and set forth gayly upon their adventures, -singing, by way of finale, a spirited <i>villancico</i> in honor of the -power of Love, that can thus transform shepherds to courtiers, and -courtiers to shepherds.</p> - -<p>The most poetical passage in the two eclogues is one in which Mingo, -the best of the shepherds, still unpersuaded to give up his accustomed -happy life in the country, describes its cheerful pleasures and -resources, with more of natural feeling, and more of a pastoral air, -than are found anywhere else in these singular dialogues.</p> - -<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> -<p class="i0">But look ye, Gil, at morning dawn,</p> -<p class="i2">How fresh and fragrant are the fields;</p> -<p class="i2">And then what savory coolness yields</p> -<p class="i0">The cabin’s shade upon the lawn.</p> -<p class="i0"> </p> -<p class="i0">And he that knows what ’t is to rest</p> -<p class="i2">Amidst his flocks the livelong night,</p> -<p class="i2">Sure he can never find delight</p> -<p class="i0">In courts, by courtly ways oppressed.</p> -<p class="i0">O, what a pleasure ’t is to hear</p> -<p class="i2">The cricket’s cheerful, piercing cry!</p> -<p class="i2">And who can tell the melody</p> -<p class="i0">His pipe affords the shepherd’s ear?</p> -<p class="i0"> </p> -<p class="i0">Thou know’st what luxury ’t is to drink,</p> -<p class="i2">As shepherds do, when worn with heat,</p> -<p class="i2">From the still fount, its waters sweet,</p> -<p class="i0">With lips that gently touch their brink;</p> -<p class="i0"><span class="pagenum" id="Page_282">[p. 282]</span>Or else, where, hurrying on, they rush</p> -<p class="i2">And frolic down their pebbly bed,</p> -<p class="i2">O, what delight to stoop the head,</p> -<p class="i0">And drink from out their merry gush!<a id="FNanchor_446" href="#Footnote_446" class="fnanchor">[446]</a></p> -</div></div> - -<p>Both pieces, like the preceding translation, are in double -<i>redondillas</i> forming octave stanzas of eight-syllable verses; and as -the two together contain about four hundred and fifty lines, their -amount is sufficient to show the direction Enzina’s talent naturally -took, as well as the height to which it rose.</p> - -<p>Enzina, however, is to be regarded not only as the founder of the -Spanish theatre, but as the founder of the Portuguese, whose first -attempts were so completely imitated from his, and had in their turn -so considerable an effect on the Spanish stage, that they necessarily -become a part of its history. These attempts were made by Gil Vicente, -a gentleman of good family, who was bred to the law, but left that -profession early and devoted himself to dramatic compositions, chiefly -for the entertainment of the families of Manuel the Great and John the -Third. When he was born is not known, but he died in 1557. As a writer -for the stage he flourished from 1502 to 1536,<a id="FNanchor_447" -href="#Footnote_447" class="fnanchor">[447]</a> and produced, in all, -forty-two pieces, arranged as works of devotion, comedies, tragi<span -class="pagenum" id="Page_283">[p. 283]</span>comedies, and farces; -but most of them, whatever be their names, are in fact short, lively -dramas, or religious pastorals. Taken together, they are better than -any thing else in Portuguese dramatic literature.</p> - -<p>The first thing, however, that strikes us in relation to them is, -that their air is so Spanish, and that so many of them are written -in the Spanish language. Of the whole number, ten are in Castilian, -fifteen partly or chiefly so, and seventeen entirely in Portuguese. -Why this is the case, it is not easy to determine. The languages -are, no doubt, very nearly akin to each other; and the writers of -each nation, but especially those of Portugal, have not unfrequently -distinguished themselves in the use of both. But the Portuguese have -never, at any period, admitted their language to be less rich or -less fitted for all kinds of composition than that of their prouder -rivals. Perhaps, therefore, in the case of Vicente, it was, that -the courts of the two countries had been lately much connected by -intermarriages; that King Manuel had been accustomed to have Castilians -about his person to amuse him;<a id="FNanchor_448" href="#Footnote_448" -class="fnanchor">[448]</a> that the queen was a Spaniard;<a -id="FNanchor_449" href="#Footnote_449" class="fnanchor">[449]</a> or -that, in language as in other things, he found it convenient thus to -follow the leading of his master, Juan de la Enzina;—but, whatever may -have been the cause, it is certain that Vicente, though he was born and -lived in Portugal, is to be numbered among Spanish authors as well as -among Portuguese.</p> - -<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_284">[p. 284]</span>His earliest -effort was made in 1502, on occasion of the birth of Prince John, -afterwards John the Third.<a id="FNanchor_450" href="#Footnote_450" -class="fnanchor">[450]</a> It is a monologue in Spanish, a little more -than a hundred lines long, spoken before the king, the king’s mother, -and the Duchess of Braganza, probably by Vicente himself, in the person -of a herdsman, who enters the royal chambers, and, after addressing the -queen mother, is followed by a number of shepherds, bringing presents -to the new-born prince. The poetry is simple, fresh, and spirited, and -expresses the feelings of wonder and admiration that would naturally -rise in the mind of such a rustic, on first entering a royal residence. -Regarded as a courtly compliment, the attempt succeeded. In a modest -notice, attached to it by the son of Vicente, we are told, that, -being the first of his father’s compositions, and the first dramatic -representation ever made in Portugal, it pleased the queen mother so -much, as to lead her to ask its author to repeat it at Christmas, -adapting it to the birth of the Saviour.</p> - -<p>Vicente, however, understood that the queen desired to have -such an entertainment as she had been accus<span class="pagenum" -id="Page_285">[p. 285]</span>tomed to enjoy at the court of Castile, -when John de la Enzina brought his contributions to the Christmas -festivities. He therefore prepared for Christmas morning what he -called an “Auto Pastoril,” or Pastoral Act;—a dialogue in which four -shepherds with Luke and Matthew are the interlocutors, and in which -not only the eclogue forms of Enzina are used, and the manger of -Bethlehem is introduced, just as that poet had introduced it, but in -which his verses are freely imitated. This effort, too, pleased the -queen, and again, on the authority of his son, we are told she asked -Vicente for another composition, to be represented on Twelfth Night, -1503. Her request was not one to be slighted; and in the same way -four other pastorals followed for similar devout occasions, making, -when taken together, six; all of which being in Spanish, and all -religious pastorals, represented with singing and dancing before King -Manuel, his queen, and other distinguished personages, they are to be -regarded throughout as imitations of Juan de la Enzina’s eclogues.<a -id="FNanchor_451" href="#Footnote_451" class="fnanchor">[451]</a></p> - -<p>Of these six pieces, three of which, we know, were written in -1502 and 1503, and the rest, probably, soon afterwards, the most -curious and characteristic is the one called “The Auto of the Sibyl -Cassandra,” which was represented in the rich old monastery of -Enxobregas, on a Christmas morning, before the queen mother. It is an -eclogue in Spanish, above eight hundred lines<span class="pagenum" -id="Page_286">[p. 286]</span> long, and is written in the stanzas most -used by Enzina. Cassandra, the heroine, devoted to a pastoral life, -yet supposed to be a sort of lay prophetess who has had intimations -of the approaching birth of the Saviour, enters at once on the scene, -where she remains to the end, the central point, round which the other -seven personages are not inartificially grouped. She has hardly avowed -her resolution not to be married, when Solomon appears making love to -her, and telling her, with great simplicity, that he has arranged every -thing with her aunts, to marry her in three days. Cassandra, nothing -daunted at the annunciation, persists in the purpose of celibacy; and -he, in consequence, goes out to summon these aunts to his assistance. -During his absence, she sings the following song:</p> - -<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> -<p class="i0">They say, “’T is time, go, marry! go!”</p> -<p class="i0">But I’ll no husband! not I! no!</p> -<p class="i0">For I would live all carelessly,</p> -<p class="i0">Amidst these hills, a maiden free,</p> -<p class="i0">And never ask, nor anxious be,</p> -<p class="i2">Of wedded weal or woe.</p> -<p class="i0">Yet still they say, “Go, marry! go!”</p> -<p class="i0">But I’ll no husband! not I! no!</p> -<p class="i0"> </p> -<p class="i0">So, mother, think not I shall wed,</p> -<p class="i0">And through a tiresome life be led,</p> -<p class="i0">Or use, in folly’s ways instead,</p> -<p class="i2">What grace the heavens bestow.</p> -<p class="i0">Yet still they say, “Go, marry! go!”</p> -<p class="i0">But I’ll no husband! not I! no!</p> -<p class="i0"> </p> -<p class="i0">The man has not been born, I ween,</p> -<p class="i0">Who as my husband shall be seen;</p> -<p class="i0">And since what frequent tricks have been</p> -<p class="i2">Undoubtingly I know,</p> -<p class="i0">In vain they say, “Go, marry! go!”</p> -<p class="i0">For I’ll no husband! not I! no!<a id="FNanchor_452" href="#Footnote_452" class="fnanchor">[452]</a></p> -</div></div> - -<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_287">[p. 287]</span>The aunts, named -Cimeria, Peresica, and Erutea, who are, in fact, the Cumæan, Persian, -and Erythræan Sibyls, now come in with King Solomon and endeavour to -persuade Cassandra to consent to his love; setting forth his merits and -pretensions, his good looks, his good temper, and his good estate. But, -as they do not succeed, Solomon, in despair, goes for her three uncles, -Moses, Abraham, and Isaiah, with whom he instantly returns, all four -dancing a sort of mad dance as they enter, and singing,—</p> - -<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> -<p class="i0">She is wild! She is wild!</p> -<p class="i0">Who shall speak to the child?</p> -<p class="i2">On the hills pass her hours,</p> -<p class="i0">As a shepherdess free;</p> -<p class="i2">She is fair as the flowers,</p> -<p class="i0">She is wild as the sea!</p> -<p class="i0">She is wild! She is wild!</p> -<p class="i0">Who shall speak to the child?<a id="FNanchor_453" href="#Footnote_453" class="fnanchor">[453]</a></p> -</div></div> - -<p>The three uncles first endeavour to bribe their niece into a more -teachable temper; but, failing in that, Moses undertakes to show her, -from his own history of the creation, that marriage is an honorable -sacrament and that she ought to enter into it. Cassandra replies, -and, in the course of a rather jesting discussion with Abraham about -good-tempered husbands, intimates that she is aware the Saviour is soon -to be born of a virgin; an<span class="pagenum" id="Page_288">[p. -288]</span> augury which the three Sibyls, her aunts, prophetically -confirm, and to which Cassandra then adds that she herself has hopes -to be this Saviour’s mother. The uncles, shocked at the intimation, -treat her as a crazed woman, and a theological and mystical discussion -follows, which is carried on by all present, till a curtain is suddenly -withdrawn, and the manger of Bethlehem and the child are discovered, -with four angels, who sing a hymn in honor of his birth. The rest of -the drama is taken up with devotions suited to the occasion, and it -ends with the following graceful <i>cancion</i> to the Madonna, sung and -danced by the author, as well as the other performers:—</p> - -<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> -<p class="i0">The maid is gracious all and fair;</p> -<p class="i0">How beautiful beyond compare!</p> -<p class="i0"> </p> -<p class="i0">Say, sailor bold and free,</p> -<p class="i0">That dwell’st upon the sea,</p> -<p class="i0">If ships or sail or star</p> -<p class="i2">So winning are.</p> -<p class="i0"> </p> -<p class="i0">And say, thou gallant knight,</p> -<p class="i0">That donn’st thine armour bright,</p> -<p class="i0">If steed or arms or war</p> -<p class="i2">So winning are.</p> -<p class="i0"> </p> -<p class="i0">And say, thou shepherd hind,</p> -<p class="i0">That bravest storm and wind,</p> -<p class="i0">If flocks or vales or hill afar</p> -<p class="i2">So winning are.<a id="FNanchor_454" href="#Footnote_454" class="fnanchor">[454]</a></p> -</div></div> - -<p>And so ends this incongruous drama;<a id="FNanchor_455" -href="#Footnote_455" class="fnanchor">[455]</a> a strange<span -class="pagenum" id="Page_289">[p. 289]</span> union of the spirit of an -ancient mystery and of a modern <i>vaudeville</i>, but not without poetry, -and not more incongruous or more indecorous than the similar dramas -which, at the same period, and in other countries, found a place in -the princely halls of the most cultivated, and were listened to with -edification in monasteries and cathedrals by the most religious.</p> - -<p>Vicente, however, did not stop here. He took counsel of his -success, and wrote dramas which, without skill in the construction -of their plots, and without any idea of conforming to rules of -propriety or taste, are yet quite in advance of what was known on the -Spanish or Portuguese theatre at the time. Such is the “Comedia,” -as it is called, of “The Widower,”—<i>O Viudo</i>,—which was acted -before the court in 1514.<a id="FNanchor_456" href="#Footnote_456" -class="fnanchor">[456]</a> It opens with the grief of the widower, -a merchant of Burgos, on the loss of an affectionate and faithful -wife, for which he is consoled, first by a friar, who uses religious -considerations, and afterwards by a gossiping neighbour, who, -being married to a shrew, assures his friend, that, after all, -it is not probable his loss is very great.<span class="pagenum" -id="Page_290">[p. 290]</span> The two daughters of the disconsolate -widower, however, join earnestly with their father in his mourning; -but their sorrows are mitigated by the appearance of a noble lover who -conceals himself in the disguise of a herdsman, in order to be able to -approach them. His love is very sincere and loyal; but, unhappily, he -loves them both, and hardly addresses either separately. His trouble is -much increased and brought to a crisis by the father, who comes in and -announces that one of his daughters is to be married immediately, and -the other probably in the course of a week. In his despair, the noble -lover calls on death; but insists, that, as long as he lives, he will -continue to serve them both faithfully and truly. At this juncture, and -without any warning, as it is impossible that he should marry both, -he proposes to the two ladies to draw lots for him; a proposition -which they modify by begging the Prince John, then a child twelve -years old and among the audience, to make a decision on their behalf. -The prince decides in favor of the elder, which seems to threaten new -anxieties and troubles, till a brother of the disguised lover appears -and consents to marry the remaining lady. Their father, at first -disconcerted, soon gladly accedes to the double arrangement, and the -drama ends with the two weddings and the exhortations of the priest who -performs the ceremony.</p> - -<p>This, indeed, is not a plot, but it is an approach to one. The -“Rubena,” acted in 1521, comes still nearer,<a id="FNanchor_457" -href="#Footnote_457" class="fnanchor">[457]</a> and so do “Don -Duardos,” founded on the romance of “Palmerin,” and “Amadis of Gaul,”<a -id="FNanchor_458" href="#Footnote_458" class="fnanchor">[458]</a> -founded on the<span class="pagenum" id="Page_291">[p. 291]</span> -romance of the same name, both of which bring a large number of -personages on the stage, and, if they have not a proper dramatic -action, yet give, in much of their structure, intimations of the -Spanish heroic drama, as it was arranged half a century later. -On the other hand, the “Templo d’ Apollo,”<a id="FNanchor_459" -href="#Footnote_459" class="fnanchor">[459]</a> acted in 1526, in -honor of the marriage of the Portuguese princess to the Emperor -Charles the Fifth, belongs to the same class with the allegorical -plays subsequently produced in Spain; the three <i>Autos</i> on the three -ships that carried souls to Hell, Purgatory, and Heaven, evidently -gave Lope de Vega the idea and some of the materials for one of -his early moral plays;<a id="FNanchor_460" href="#Footnote_460" -class="fnanchor">[460]</a> and the <i>Auto</i> in which Faith explains -to the shepherds the origin and mysteries of Christianity<a -id="FNanchor_461" href="#Footnote_461" class="fnanchor">[461]</a> -might, with slight alterations, have served<span class="pagenum" -id="Page_292">[p. 292]</span> for one of the processions of the -Corpus Christi at Madrid, in the time of Calderon. All of them, it -is true, are extremely rude; but nearly all contain elements of the -coming drama, and some of them, like “Don Duardos,” which is longer -than a full-length play ordinarily is, are quite long enough to show -what was their dramatic tendency. But the real power of Gil Vicente -does not lie in the structure or the interest of his stories. It -lies in his poetry, of which, especially in the lyrical portions of -his dramas, there is much.<a id="FNanchor_462" href="#Footnote_462" -class="fnanchor">[462]</a></p> - -<hr class="chap0" /> - - -<div class="chapter pt3" id="Ch_1_15"> - <p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_293">[p. 293]</span></p> - <h3>CHAPTER XV.</h3> - <p class="subh3 hang"><span class="smcap">Drama continued. — - Escriva. — Villalobos. — Question de Amor. — Torres Naharro, - in Italy. — His Eight Plays. — His Dramatic Theory. — Division - of his Plays, and their Plots. — The Trofea. — The Hymenea. — - Intriguing Drama. — Buffoon. — Character and Probable Effects of - Naharro’s Plays. — State of the Theatre at the End of the Reign - of Ferdinand and Isabella.</span></p> -</div> - -<p><span class="smcap">While</span> Vicente, in Portugal, was thus -giving an impulse to Spanish dramatic literature, which, considering -the intimate connection of the two countries and their courts, can -hardly have been unfelt in Spain at the time, and was certainly -recognized there afterwards, scarcely any thing was done in Spain -itself. During the five-and-twenty years that followed the first -appearance of Juan de la Enzina, no other dramatic poet seems to have -been encouraged or demanded. He was sufficient to satisfy the rare -wants of his royal and princely patrons; and, as we have seen, in both -countries, the drama continued to be a courtly amusement, confined -to a few persons of the highest rank. The commander Escriva, who -lived at this time and is the author of a few beautiful verses found -in the oldest Cancioneros,<a id="FNanchor_463" href="#Footnote_463" -class="fnanchor">[463]</a> wrote, indeed, a dialogue, partly<span -class="pagenum" id="Page_294">[p. 294]</span> in prose and partly -in verse, in which he introduces several interlocutors and brings -a complaint to the god of Love against his lady. But the whole is -an allegory, occasionally graceful and winning from its style, but -obviously not susceptible of representation; so that there is no reason -to suppose it had any influence on a class of compositions already -somewhat advanced. A similar remark may be added about a translation of -the “Amphitryon” of Plautus, made into terse Spanish prose by Francisco -de Villalobos, physician to Ferdinand the Catholic and Charles the -Fifth, which was first printed in 1515, but which it is not at all -probable was ever acted.<a id="FNanchor_464" href="#Footnote_464" -class="fnanchor">[464]</a> These, however, are the only attempts made -in Spain or Portugal before 1517, except those of Enzina and Vicente, -which need to be referred to at all.</p> - -<p>But in 1517, or a little earlier, a new movement was felt in the -difficult beginnings of the Spanish drama; and it is somewhat singular, -that, as the last came from Portugal, the present one came from -Italy. It came, however, from two Spaniards. The first of them is the -anonymous author of the “Question of Love,” a fiction to be noticed -hereafter, which was finished at Ferrara in 1512, and which contains an -eclogue of respectable poetical merit, that seems<span class="pagenum" -id="Page_295">[p. 295]</span> undoubtedly to have been represented -before the court of Naples.<a id="FNanchor_465" href="#Footnote_465" -class="fnanchor">[465]</a></p> - -<p>The other, a person of more consequence in the history of the -Spanish drama, is Bartolomé de Torres Naharro, born at Torres, near -Badajoz, on the borders of Portugal, who, after he had been for some -time a captive in Algiers, was redeemed, and visited Rome, hoping to -find favor at the court of Leo the Tenth. This must have been after -1513, and was, of course, at the time when Juan de la Enzina resided -there. But Naharro, by a satire against the vices of the court, made -himself obnoxious at Rome, and fled to Naples, where he lived for -some time under the protection of the noble-minded Fabricio Colonna, -and where, at last, we lose sight of him. He died in poverty.<a -id="FNanchor_466" href="#Footnote_466" class="fnanchor">[466]</a></p> - -<p>His works, first published by himself at Naples in 1517, -and dedicated to a noble Spaniard, Don Fernando Davalos, a -lover of letters,<a id="FNanchor_467" href="#Footnote_467" -class="fnanchor">[467]</a> who had married Victoria Colonna, -the poetess, are entitled “Propaladia,” or “The Firstlings -of his Genius.”<a id="FNanchor_468" href="#Footnote_468" -class="fnanchor">[468]</a> They consist of satires, epistles, ballads, -a Lamentation for King Ferdinand, who died in 1516, and some other -miscellaneous poetry; but chiefly of eight plays, which he calls -“Comedias,” and which fill almost the whole volume.<a id="FNanchor_469" -href="#Footnote_469" class="fnanchor">[469]</a> He was well -situated for making an at<span class="pagenum" id="Page_296">[p. -296]</span>tempt to advance the drama, and partly succeeded in it. -There was, at the time he wrote, a great literary movement in Italy, -especially at the court of Rome. The representations of plays, he tells -us, were much resorted to,<a id="FNanchor_470" href="#Footnote_470" -class="fnanchor">[470]</a> and, though he may not have known it, -Trissino had, in 1515, written the first regular tragedy in the -Italian language, and thus given an impulse to dramatic literature, -which it never afterwards entirely lost.<a id="FNanchor_471" -href="#Footnote_471" class="fnanchor">[471]</a></p> - -<p>The eight plays of Naharro, however, do not afford much proof -of a familiarity with antiquity, or of a desire to follow ancient -rules or examples; but their author gives us a little theory of his -own upon the subject of the drama, which is not without good sense. -Horace, he says, requires five acts to a play, and he thinks this -reasonable; though he looks upon the pauses they make rather as -convenient resting-places than any thing else, and calls them, not -acts, but “Jornadas,” or days.<a id="FNanchor_472" href="#Footnote_472" -class="fnanchor">[472]</a> As to the number of persons, he would have -not less than six, nor more than twelve; and as to that sense of -propriety which refuses to introduce materials into the subject that do -not belong<span class="pagenum" id="Page_297">[p. 297]</span> to it, -or to permit the characters to talk and act inconsistently, he holds -it to be as indispensable as the rudder to a ship. This is all very -well.</p> - -<p>Besides this, his plays are all in verse, and all open with a sort -of prologue, which he calls “Introyto,” generally written in a rustic -and amusing style, asking the favor and attention of the audience, and -giving hints concerning the subject of the piece that is to follow.</p> - -<p>But when we come to the dramas themselves, though we find a decided -advance, in some respects, beyond any thing that had preceded them, -in others we find great rudeness and extravagance. Their subjects are -very various. One of them, the “Soldadesca,” is on the Papal recruiting -service at Rome. Another, the “Tinelaria,” or Servants’ Dining-Hall, -is on such riots as were likely to happen in the disorderly service -of a cardinal’s household; full of revelry and low life. Another, -“La Jacinta,” gives us the story of a lady who lives at her castle -on the road to Rome, where she violently detains sundry passengers -and chooses a husband among them. And of two others, one is on -the adventures of a disguised prince, who comes to the court of a -fabulous king of Leon, and wins his daughter after the fashion of the -old romances of chivalry;<a id="FNanchor_473" href="#Footnote_473" -class="fnanchor">[473]</a> and the other on the adventures of a child -stolen in infancy, which involve disguises in more humble life.<a -id="FNanchor_474" href="#Footnote_474" class="fnanchor">[474]</a></p> - -<p>How various were the modes in which these subjects were thrown into -action and verse, and, indeed, how different was the character of his -different dramas, may be best understood by a somewhat ampler notice of -the two not yet mentioned.</p> - -<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_298">[p. 298]</span>The first of -these, the “Trofea,” is in honor of King Manuel of Portugal, and the -discoveries and conquests that were made in India and Africa, under -his auspices; but it is very meagre and poor. After the prologue, -which fills above three hundred verses, Fame enters in the first act -and announces, that the great king has, in his most holy wars, gained -more lands than are described by Ptolemy; whereupon Ptolemy appears -instantly, by especial permission of Pluto, from the regions of -torment, and denies the fact; but, after a discussion, is compelled -to admit it, though with a saving clause for his own honor. In the -second act, two shepherds come upon the stage to sweep it for the -king’s appearance. They make themselves quite merry, at first, with -the splendor about them, and one of them sits on the throne, and -imitates grotesquely the curate of his village; but they soon quarrel, -and continue in bad humor, till a royal page interferes and compels -them to go on and arrange the apartment. The whole of the third act is -taken up with the single speech of an interpreter, bringing in twenty -Eastern and African kings who are unable to speak for themselves, but -avow, through his very tedious harangue, their allegiance to the crown -of Portugal; to all which the king makes no word of reply. The next -act is absurdly filled with a royal reception of four shepherds, who -bring him presents of a fox, a lamb, an eagle, and a cock, which they -explain with some humor and abundance of allegory; but to all which he -makes as little reply as he did to the proffered fealty of the twenty -heathen kings. In the fifth and last act, Apollo gives verses, in -praise of the king, queen, and prince, to Fame, who distributes copies -to the audience; but, refusing them to one of the shepherds, has a -riotous dispute with him. The shepherd tauntingly<span class="pagenum" -id="Page_299">[p. 299]</span> offers Fame to spread the praises of King -Manuel through the world as well as she does, if she will but lend him -her wings. The goddess consents. He puts them on and attempts to fly, -but falls headlong on the stage, with which poor practical jest and a -<i>villancico</i> the piece ends.</p> - -<p>The other drama, called “Hymenea,” is better, and gives intimations -of what became later the foundations of the national theatre. Its -“Introyto,” or prologue, is coarse, but not without wit, especially in -those parts which, according to the peculiar toleration of the times, -were allowed to make free with religion, if they but showed sufficient -reverence for the Church. The story is entirely invented, and may be -supposed to have passed in any city of Spain. The scene opens in front -of the house of Febea, the heroine, before daylight, where Hymeneo, the -hero, after making known his love for the lady, arranges with his two -servants to give her a serenade the next night. When he is gone, the -servants discuss their own position, and Boreas, one of them, avows -his desperate love for Doresta, the heroine’s maid; a passion which, -through the rest of the piece, becomes the running caricature of his -master’s. But at this moment the Marquis, a brother of Febea, comes -with his servants into the street, and, by the escape of the others, -who fly immediately, has little doubt that there has been love-making -about the house, and goes away determined to watch more carefully. Thus -ends the first act, which might furnish materials for many a Spanish -comedy of the seventeenth century.</p> - -<p>In the second act, Hymeneo enters with his servants and musicians, -and they sing a <i>cancion</i> which reminds us of the sonnet in Molière’s -“Misantrope,” and a <i>villancico</i> which is but little better. Febea then -appears<span class="pagenum" id="Page_300">[p. 300]</span> in the -balcony, and after a conversation, which, for its substance and often -for its graceful manner, might have been in Calderon’s “Dar la Vida por -su Dama,” she promises to receive her lover the next night. When she is -gone, the servants and the master confer a little together, the master -showing himself very generous in his happiness; but they all escape at -the approach of the Marquis, whose suspicions are thus fully confirmed, -and who is with difficulty restrained by his page from attacking the -offenders at once.</p> - -<p>The next act is devoted entirely to the loves of the servants. It -is amusing, from its caricature of the troubles and trials of their -masters, but does not advance the action at all, The fourth, however, -brings the hero and lover into the lady’s house, leaving his attendants -in the street, who confess their cowardice to one another, and agree -to run away, if the Marquis appears. This happens immediately. They -escape, but leave a cloak, which betrays who they are, and the Marquis -remains undisputed master of the ground at the end of the act.</p> - -<p>The last act opens without delay. The Marquis, offended in the -nicest point of Castilian honor,—the very point on which the plots of -so many later Spanish dramas turn,—resolves at once to put both of the -guilty parties to death, though their offence is no greater than that -of having been secretly in the same house together. The lady does not -deny her brother’s right, but enters into a long discussion with him -about it, part of which is touching and effective, but most of it very -tedious; in the midst of all which Hymeneo presents himself, and after -explaining who he is and what are his intentions, and especially after -admitting, that, under the circumstances of the case, the Marquis might -justly have<span class="pagenum" id="Page_301">[p. 301]</span> killed -his sister, the whole is arranged for a double wedding of masters and -servants, and closes with a spirited <i>villancico</i> in honor of Love and -his victories.</p> - -<p>The two pieces are very different, and mark the extremes of the -various experiments Naharro tried in order to produce a dramatic -effect. “As to the kinds of dramas,” he says, “it seems to me that two -are sufficient for our Castilian language: dramas founded on knowledge, -and dramas founded on fancy.”<a id="FNanchor_475" href="#Footnote_475" -class="fnanchor">[475]</a> The “Trofea,” no doubt, was intended by him -to belong to the first class. Its tone is that of compliment to Manuel, -the really great king then reigning in Portugal; and from a passage -in the third act it is not unlikely that it was represented in Rome -before the Portuguese ambassador, the venerable Tristan d’ Acuña. But -the rude and buffoon shepherds, whose dialogue fills so much of the -slight and poor action, show plainly that he was neither unacquainted -with Enzina and Vicente, nor unwilling to imitate them; while the rest -of the drama—the part that is supposed to contain historical facts—is, -as we have seen, still worse. The “Hymenea,” on the other hand, has a -story of considerable interest, announcing the intriguing plot which -became a principal characteristic of the Spanish theatre afterwards. -It has even the “Gracioso,” or Droll Servant, who makes love to -the heroine’s maid; a character which is also found in Naharro’s -“Serafina,” but which Lope de Vega above a century afterwards claimed, -as if invented by himself.<a id="FNanchor_476" href="#Footnote_476" -class="fnanchor">[476]</a></p> - -<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_302">[p. 302]</span>What is more -singular, this drama approaches to a fulfilment of the requisitions of -the unities, for it has but one proper action, which is the marriage of -Febea; it does not extend beyond the period of twenty-four hours; and -the whole passes in the street before the house of the lady, unless, -indeed, the fifth act passes within the house, which is doubtful.<a -id="FNanchor_477" href="#Footnote_477" class="fnanchor">[477]</a> The -whole, too, is founded on the national manners, and preserves the -national costume and character. The best parts, in general, are the -humorous; but there are graceful passages between the lovers, and -touching passages between the brother and sister. The parody of the -servants, Boreas and Doresta, on the passion of the hero and heroine -is spirited; and in the first scene between them we have the following -dialogue, which might be transferred with effect to many a play of -Calderon:—</p> - -<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> -<p class="i2"><i>Boreas.</i> O, would to heaven, my lady dear,</p> -<p class="i0">That, at the instant I first looked on thee,</p> -<p class="i0">Thy love had equalled mine!</p> -<p class="i2"><i>Doresta.</i> Well! that’s not bad!</p> -<p class="i0">But still you’re not a bone for me to pick.<a id="FNanchor_478" href="#Footnote_478" class="fnanchor">[478]</a></p> -<p class="i2"><i>Boreas.</i> Make trial of me. Bid me do my best,</p> -<p class="i0">In humble service of my love to thee;</p> -<p class="i0">So shalt thou put me to the proof, and know</p> -<p class="i0">If what I say accord with what I feel.</p> -<p class="i2"><i>Doresta.</i> Were my desire to bid thee serve quite clear,</p> -<p class="i0">Perchance thy offers would not be so prompt.</p> -<p class="i2"><i>Boreas.</i> O lady, look’ee, that’s downright abuse!</p> -<p class="i2"><i>Doresta.</i> Abuse? How’s that? Can words and ways so kind,</p> -<p class="i0">And full of courtesy, be called abuse?</p> -<p class="i2"><i>Boreas.</i> I’ve done.</p> -<p class="i0">I dare not speak. Your answers are so sharp,</p> -<p class="i0">They pierce my very bowels through and through.</p> -<p class="i2"><span class="pagenum" id="Page_303">[p. 303]</span><i>Doresta.</i> Well, by my faith, it grieves my heart to see</p> -<p class="i0">That thou so mortal art. Dost think to die</p> -<p class="i0">Of this disease?</p> -<p class="i2"><i>Boreas.</i> ’T would not be wonderful.</p> -<p class="i2"><i>Doresta.</i> But still, my gallant Sir, perhaps you’ll find</p> -<p class="i0">That they who give the suffering take it too.</p> -<p class="i2"><i>Boreas.</i> In sooth, I ask no better than to do</p> -<p class="i0">As do my fellows,—give and take; but now</p> -<p class="i0">I take, fair dame, a thousand hurts,</p> -<p class="i0">And still give none.</p> -<p class="i2"><i>Doresta.</i> How know’st thou that?</p> -</div></div> - -<p>And so she continues till she comes to a plenary confession of being -no less hurt, or in love, herself, than he is.<a id="FNanchor_479" -href="#Footnote_479" class="fnanchor">[479]</a></p> - -<p>All the plays of Naharro have a versification remarkably fluent -and harmonious for the period in which he wrote,<a id="FNanchor_480" -href="#Footnote_480" class="fnanchor">[480]</a> and nearly all of -them have passages of easy and natural dialogue, and of spirited -lyrical poetry. But several are very gross; two are absurdly composed -in different languages,—one of them in four, and the other in six;<a -id="FNanchor_481" href="#Footnote_481" class="fnanchor">[481]</a> and -all contain abundant proof, in<span class="pagenum" id="Page_304">[p. -304]</span> their structure and tone, of the rudeness of the age -that produced them. In consequence of their little respect for the -Church, they were soon forbidden by the Inquisition in Spain.<a -id="FNanchor_482" href="#Footnote_482" class="fnanchor">[482]</a></p> - -<p>That they were represented in Italy before they were printed,<a -id="FNanchor_483" href="#Footnote_483" class="fnanchor">[483]</a> -and that they were so far circulated before their author gave -them to the press,<a id="FNanchor_484" href="#Footnote_484" -class="fnanchor">[484]</a> as to be already in some degree beyond -his own control, we know on his own authority. He intimates, too, -that a good many of the clergy were present at the representation -of at least one of them.<a id="FNanchor_485" href="#Footnote_485" -class="fnanchor">[485]</a> But it is not likely that any of his plays -were acted, except in the same way with Vicente’s and Enzina’s; that -is, before a moderate number of persons in some great man’s house,<a -id="FNanchor_486" href="#Footnote_486" class="fnanchor">[486]</a> at -Naples,<span class="pagenum" id="Page_305">[p. 305]</span> and perhaps -at Rome. They, therefore, did not probably produce much effect at -first on the condition of the drama, so far as it was then developed -in Spain. Their influence came in later, and through the press, when -three editions, beginning with that of 1520, appeared in Seville alone -in twenty-five years, curtailed indeed, and expurgated in the last, but -still giving specimens of dramatic composition much in advance of any -thing then produced in the country.</p> - -<p>But though men like Juan de la Enzina, Gil Vicente, and Naharro had -turned their thoughts towards dramatic composition, they seem to have -had no idea of founding a popular national drama. For this we must look -to the next period; since, as late as the end of the reign of Ferdinand -and Isabella, there is no trace of such a theatre in Spain.</p> - -<hr class="chap0" /> - - -<div class="chapter pt3" id="Ch_1_16"> - <p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_306">[p. 306]</span></p> - <h3>CHAPTER XVI.</h3> - <p class="subh3 hang"><span class="smcap">Provençal Literature - in Spain. — Provence. — Burgundians. — Origin of the Provençal - Language and Literature. — Barcelona. — Dialect of Catalonia. — - Aragon. — Troubadour Poets in Catalonia and Aragon. — War of the - Albigenses. — Peter the Second. — James the Conqueror and His - Chronicle. — Ramon Muntaner and his Chronicle. — Decay of Poetry - in Provence, and Decay of Provençal Poetry in Spain. — Catalonian - Dialect.</span></p> -</div> - -<p><span class="smcap">Provençal</span> literature appeared in Spain -as early as any portion of the Castilian, with which we have thus -far been exclusively occupied. Its introduction was natural, and, -being intimately connected with the history of political power in -both Provence and Spain, can be at once explained, at least so far -as to account for its prevalence in the quarter of the Peninsula -where, during three centuries, it predominated, and for its large -influence throughout the rest of the country, both at that time and -afterwards.</p> - -<p>Provence—or, in other words, that part of the South of France which -extends from Italy to Spain, and which originally obtained its name -in consequence of the consideration it enjoyed as an early and most -important province of Rome—was singularly fortunate, during the latter -period of the Middle Ages, in its exemption from many of the troubles -of those troubled times.<a id="FNanchor_487" href="#Footnote_487" -class="fnanchor">[487]</a> While the great movement of the North<span -class="pagenum" id="Page_307">[p. 307]</span>ern nations lasted, -Provence was disturbed chiefly by the Visigoths, who soon passed onward -to Spain, leaving few traces of their character behind them, and by -the Burgundians, the mildest of all the Teutonic invaders, who did not -reach the South of France till they had been long resident in Italy, -and, when they came, established themselves at once as the permanent -masters of that tempting country.</p> - -<p>Greatly favored in this comparative quiet, which, though sometimes -broken by internal dissension, or by the ineffectual incursions of -their new Arab neighbours, was nevertheless such as was hardly known -elsewhere, and favored no less by a soil and climate almost without -rivals in the world, the civilization and refinement of Provence -advanced faster than those of any other portion of Europe. From the -year 879, a large part of it was fortunately constituted into an -independent government; and, what was very remarkable, it continued -under the same family till 1092, two hundred and thirteen years.<a -id="FNanchor_488" href="#Footnote_488" class="fnanchor">[488]</a> -During this second period, its territories were again much spared -from the confusion that almost constantly pressed their borders and -threatened their tranquillity; for the troubles that then shook the -North of Italy did not cross the Alps and the Var; the Moorish power, -so far from making new aggressions, maintained itself with difficulty -in Catalonia; and the wars and convulsions in the North of France, -from the time of the first successors of Charlemagne to that of Philip -Augustus, flowed rather in the opposite direction, and furnished, at a -safe distance, occupation for tempers too fierce to endure idleness.</p> - -<p>In the course of these two centuries, a language<span -class="pagenum" id="Page_308">[p. 308]</span> sprang up in the South -and along the Mediterranean, compounded, according to the proportions -of their power and refinement, from that spoken by the Burgundians and -from the degraded Latin of the country, and slowly and quietly took -the place of both. With this new language appeared, as noiselessly, -about the middle of the tenth century, a new literature, suited to the -climate, the age, and the manners that produced it, and one which, for -nearly three hundred years, seemed to be advancing towards a grace and -refinement such as had not been known since the fall of the Romans.</p> - -<p>Thus things continued under twelve princes of the Burgundian race, -who make little show in the wars of their times, but who seem to -have governed their states with a moderation and gentleness not to -have been expected amidst the general disturbance of the world. This -family became extinct, in the male branch, in 1092; and in 1113, the -crown of Provence was transferred, by the marriage of its heir, to -Raymond Berenger, the third Count of Barcelona.<a id="FNanchor_489" -href="#Footnote_489" class="fnanchor">[489]</a> The Provençal poets, -many of whom were noble by birth, and all of whom, as a class, were -attached to the court and its aristocracy, naturally followed their -liege lady, in considerable numbers, from Arles to Barcelona, and -willingly established themselves in her new capital, under a prince -full of knightly accomplishments and yet not disinclined to the arts of -peace.</p> - -<p>Nor was the change for them a great one. The Pyrenees made then, -as they make now, no very serious difference between the languages -spoken on their opposite declivities; similarity of pursuits had long -before induced a similarity of manners in the population of<span -class="pagenum" id="Page_309">[p. 309]</span> Barcelona and Marseilles; -and if the Provençals had somewhat more of gentleness and culture, -the Catalonians, from the share they had taken in the Moorish wars, -possessed a more strongly marked character, and one developed in -more manly proportions.<a id="FNanchor_490" href="#Footnote_490" -class="fnanchor">[490]</a> At the very commencement of the twelfth -century, therefore, we may fairly consider a Provençal refinement -to have been introduced into the northeastern corner of Spain; -and it is worth notice, that this is just about the period when, -as we have already seen, the ultimately national school of poetry -began to show itself in quite the opposite corner of the Peninsula, -amidst the mountains of Biscay and Asturias.<a id="FNanchor_491" -href="#Footnote_491" class="fnanchor">[491]</a></p> - -<p>Political causes, however, similar to those which first brought the -spirit of Provence from Arles and Marseilles to Barcelona, soon carried -it farther onward towards the centre of Spain. In 1137, the Counts of -Barcelona obtained by marriage the kingdom of Aragon; and though they -did not, at once, remove the seat of their government to Saragossa, -they early spread through their new territories some of the refinement -for which they were indebted to Provence. This remarkable family, -whose power was now so fast stretching up to the North, possessed, at -different times, during nearly three centuries, different portions -of territory on both sides of the Pyrenees, generally maintaining -a control over a large part of the Northeast of Spain and of the -South of France. Between 1229 and 1253, the<span class="pagenum" -id="Page_310">[p. 310]</span> most distinguished of its members gave -the widest extent to its empire by broad conquests from the Moors; but -later the power of the kings of Aragon became gradually circumscribed, -and their territory diminished, by marriages, successions, and military -disasters. Under eleven princes, however, in the direct line, and three -more in the indirect, they maintained their right to the kingdom, down -to the year 1479, when, in the person of Ferdinand, it was united to -Castile, and the solid foundations were laid on which the Spanish -monarchy has ever since rested.</p> - -<p>With this slight outline of the course of political power in the -northeastern part of Spain, it will be easy to trace the origin and -history of the literature that prevailed there from the beginning -of the twelfth to the middle of the fifteenth century; a literature -which was introduced from Provence, and retained the Provençal -character, till it came in contact with that more vigorous spirit -which, during the same period, had been advancing from the northwest, -and afterwards succeeded in giving its tone to the literature of -the consolidated monarchy.<a id="FNanchor_492" href="#Footnote_492" -class="fnanchor">[492]</a></p> - -<p>The character of the old Provençal poetry is the same on both -sides of the Pyrenees. In general, it is<span class="pagenum" -id="Page_311">[p. 311]</span> graceful and devoted to love; but -sometimes it becomes involved in the politics of the time, and -sometimes it runs into a severe and unbecoming satire. In Catalonia, -as well as in its native home, it belonged much to the court; and -the highest in rank and power are the earliest and foremost on its -lists. Thus, both the princes who first wore the united crowns of -Barcelona and Provence, and who reigned from 1113 to 1162, are often -set down as Limousin or Provençal poets, though with slight claims -to the honor, since not a verse has been published that can be -attributed to either of them.<a id="FNanchor_493" href="#Footnote_493" -class="fnanchor">[493]</a></p> - -<p>Alfonso the Second, however, who received the crown of Aragon -in 1162, and wore it till 1196, is admitted by all to have been a -Troubadour. Of him we still possess a few not inelegant <i>coblas</i>, or -stanzas, addressed to his lady, which are curious from the circumstance -that they constitute the oldest poem in the modern dialects of Spain, -whose author is known to us; and one that is probably as old, or nearly -as old, as any of the anonymous poetry of Castile and the North.<a -id="FNanchor_494" href="#Footnote_494" class="fnanchor">[494]</a> Like -the other sovereigns of his age, who loved and practised the art of the -<i>gai saber</i>, Alfonso collected poets about his person. Pierre Rogiers -was at his court, and so were Pierre Raimond de Toulouse, and Aiméric -de Péguilain,<span class="pagenum" id="Page_312">[p. 312]</span> who -mourned his patron’s death in verse,—all three famous Troubadours -in their time, and all three honored and favored at Barcelona.<a -id="FNanchor_495" href="#Footnote_495" class="fnanchor">[495]</a> -There can be no doubt, therefore, that a Provençal spirit was already -established and spreading in that part of Spain before the end of the -twelfth century.</p> - -<p>In the beginning of the next century, external circumstances -imparted a great impulse to this spirit in Aragon. From 1209 to 1229, -the shameful war which gave birth to the Inquisition was carried -on with extraordinary cruelty and fury against the Albigenses; a -religious sect in Provence accused of heresy, but persecuted rather -by an implacable political ambition. To this sect—which, in some -points, opposed the pretensions of the See of Rome, and was at last -exterminated by a crusade under the Papal authority—belonged nearly -all the contemporary Troubadours, whose poetry is full of their -sufferings and remonstrances.<a id="FNanchor_496" href="#Footnote_496" -class="fnanchor">[496]</a> In their great distress, the principal ally -of the Albigenses and Troubadours was Peter the Second of Aragon, who, -in 1213, perished nobly fighting in their cause at the disastrous -battle of Muret. When, therefore, the Troubadours of Provence were -compelled to escape from the<span class="pagenum" id="Page_313">[p. -313]</span> burnt and bloody ruins of their homes, not a few of them -hastened to the friendly court of Aragon, sure of finding themselves -protected, and their art held in honor, by princes who were, at the -same time, poets.</p> - -<p>Among those who thus appeared in Spain in the time of Peter -the Second were Hugues de Saint Cyr;<a id="FNanchor_497" -href="#Footnote_497" class="fnanchor">[497]</a> Azémar le Noir;<a -id="FNanchor_498" href="#Footnote_498" class="fnanchor">[498]</a> -Pons Barba;<a id="FNanchor_499" href="#Footnote_499" -class="fnanchor">[499]</a> Raimond de Miraval, who joined in -the cry urging the king to the defence of the Albigenses, in -which he perished;<a id="FNanchor_500" href="#Footnote_500" -class="fnanchor">[500]</a> and Perdigon,<a id="FNanchor_501" -href="#Footnote_501" class="fnanchor">[501]</a> who, after -being munificently entertained at his court, became, like -Folquet de Marseille,<a id="FNanchor_502" href="#Footnote_502" -class="fnanchor">[502]</a> a traitor to the cause he had espoused, and -openly exulted in the king’s untimely fate. But none of the poetical -followers of Peter the Second did him such honor as the author of the -curious and long poem of “The War of the Albigenses,” in which much -of the king of Aragon’s life is recorded, and a minute account given -of his disastrous death.<a id="FNanchor_503" href="#Footnote_503" -class="fnanchor">[503]</a> All, however, except Perdigon and Folquet, -regarded him with gratitude, as their patron, and as a poet,<a -id="FNanchor_504" href="#Footnote_504" class="fnanchor">[504]</a> -who, to use the language of one of them,<span class="pagenum" -id="Page_314">[p. 314]</span> made himself “their head and the -head of their honors.”<a id="FNanchor_505" href="#Footnote_505" -class="fnanchor">[505]</a></p> - -<p>The glorious reign of Jayme or James the Conqueror, which -followed, and extended from 1213 to 1276, exhibits the same poetical -character with that of the less fortunate reign of his immediate -predecessor. He protected the Troubadours, and the Troubadours, -in return, praised and honored him. Guillaume Anélier addressed a -<i>sirvente</i> to him as “the young king of Aragon, who defends mercy -and discountenances wrong.”<a id="FNanchor_506" href="#Footnote_506" -class="fnanchor">[506]</a> Nat de Mons sent him two poetical letters, -one of which gives him advice concerning the composition of his -court and government.<a id="FNanchor_507" href="#Footnote_507" -class="fnanchor">[507]</a> Arnaud Plagnés offered a <i>chanso</i> -to his fair queen, Eleanor of Castile;<a id="FNanchor_508" -href="#Footnote_508" class="fnanchor">[508]</a> and Mathieu de Querci, -who survived the great conqueror, poured forth at his grave the sorrows -of his Christian compatriots at the loss of the great champion on whom -they had depended in their struggle with the Moors.<a id="FNanchor_509" -href="#Footnote_509" class="fnanchor">[509]</a> At the same period, -too, Hugues de Mataplana, a noble Catalan, held at his castle courts of -love and poetical contests, in which he himself bore a large part;<a -id="FNanchor_510" href="#Footnote_510" class="fnanchor">[510]</a> while -one of his neighbours, Guillaume de Bergédan, no less distinguished by -poetical talent and ancient descent, but of a less honorable nature, -indulged himself in a style of verse more gross than can easily -be found elsewhere in the Troubadour poetry.<a id="FNanchor_511" -href="#Footnote_511" class="fnanchor">[511]</a> All, however, -the bad and the good,—those who, like Sordel<a id="FNanchor_512" -href="#Footnote_512" class="fnanchor">[512]</a> and Bernard -de<span class="pagenum" id="Page_315">[p. 315]</span> Rovenac,<a -id="FNanchor_513" href="#Footnote_513" class="fnanchor">[513]</a> -satirized the king, and those who, like Pierre Cardenal, enjoyed -his favor and praised him,<a id="FNanchor_514" href="#Footnote_514" -class="fnanchor">[514]</a>—all show that the Troubadours, in his reign, -continued to seek protection in Catalonia and Aragon, where they had so -long been accustomed to find it, and that their poetry was constantly -taking deeper root in a soil where its nourishment was now become so -sure.</p> - -<p>James himself has sometimes been reckoned among the -poets of his age.<a id="FNanchor_515" href="#Footnote_515" -class="fnanchor">[515]</a> It is possible, though none of his poetry -has been preserved, that he really was such; for metrical composition -was easy in the flowing language he spoke, and it had evidently grown -common at his court, where the examples of his father and grandfather, -as Troubadours, would hardly be without their effect. But however this -may be, he loved letters, and left behind him a large prose work, -more in keeping than any poetry with his character as a wise monarch -and successful conqueror, whose legislation and government were far -in advance of the condition of his subjects.<a id="FNanchor_516" -href="#Footnote_516" class="fnanchor">[516]</a></p> - -<p>The work here referred to is a chronicle or commentary on the -principal events of his reign, divided into four parts;—the first of -which is on the troubles that followed his accession to the throne, -after a long minority, with the rescue of Majorca and Minorca from -the<span class="pagenum" id="Page_316">[p. 316]</span> Moors, between -1229 and 1233; the second is on the greater conquest of the kingdom -of Valencia, which was substantially ended in 1239, so that the -hated misbelievers never again obtained any firm foothold in all the -northeastern part of the Peninsula; the third is on the war James -prosecuted in Murcia, till 1266, for the benefit of his kinsman, -Alfonso the Wise, of Castile; and the last is on the embassies -he received from the Khan of Tartary, and Michael Palæologus of -Constantinople, and on his own attempt, in 1268, to lead an expedition -to Palestine, which was defeated by storms. The story, however, is -continued to the end of his reign by slight notices, which, except the -last, preserve throughout the character of an autobiography; the very -last, which, in a few words, records his death at Valencia, being the -only portion written in the third person.</p> - -<p>From this Chronicle of James the Conqueror there was early -taken an account of the conquest of Valencia, beginning in the -most simple-hearted manner with the conversation the king held at -Alcañiç (Alcañizas) with Don Blasco de Alagon and the Master of the -Hospitallers, Nuch de Follalquer, who urge him, by his successes in -Minorca, to undertake the greater achievement of the conquest of -Valencia; and ending with the troubles that followed the partition -of the spoils after the fall of that rich kingdom and its capital. -This last work was printed in 1515, in a magnificent volume, where -it serves for an appropriate introduction to the <i>Foros</i>, or -privileges, granted to the city of Valencia from the time of its -conquest down to the end of the reign of Ferdinand the Catholic;<a -id="FNanchor_517" href="#Footnote_517" class="fnanchor">[517]</a> -but the com<span class="pagenum" id="Page_317">[p. 317]</span>plete -work, the Chronicle, did not appear till 1557, when it was published -to satisfy a requisition of Philip the Second.<a id="FNanchor_518" -href="#Footnote_518" class="fnanchor">[518]</a></p> - -<p>It is written in a simple and manly style, which, without making -pretensions to elegance, often sets before us the events it records -with a living air of reality, and sometimes shows a happiness in manner -and phraseology which effort seldom reaches. Whether it was undertaken -in consequence of the impulse given to such vernacular histories by -Alfonso the Tenth of Castile, in his “General Chronicle of Spain,” or -whether the intimations which gave birth to that remarkable Chronicle -came rather from Aragon, we cannot now determine. Probably both works -were produced in obedience to the demands of their age; but still, as -both must have been written at nearly the same time, and as the two -kings were united by a family alliance and constant intercourse, a full -knowledge of whatever relates to these two curious records of different -parts of the Peninsula would hardly fail to show us some connection -between them. In that case, it is by no means im<span class="pagenum" -id="Page_318">[p. 318]</span>possible that the precedence in point of -time would be found to belong to the Chronicle of the king of Aragon, -who was not only older than Alfonso, but was frequently his wise -and efficient counsellor.<a id="FNanchor_519" href="#Footnote_519" -class="fnanchor">[519]</a></p> - -<p>But James of Aragon was fortunate in having yet another chronicler, -Ramon Muntaner, born at Peralada, nine years before the death of that -monarch; a Catalan gentleman, who in his old age, after a life of -great adventure, felt himself to be specially summoned to write an -account of his own times.<a id="FNanchor_520" href="#Footnote_520" -class="fnanchor">[520]</a> “For one day,” he says, “being in my -country-house, called Xilvella, in the garden plain of Valencia, and -sleeping in my bed, there came unto me in vision a venerable old -man, clad in white raiment, who said unto me, ‘Arise, and stand on -thy feet, Muntaner, and think how to declare<span class="pagenum" -id="Page_319">[p. 319]</span> the great wonders thou hast seen, which -God hath brought to pass in the wars where thou wast; for it hath -seemed well pleasing to Him that through thee should all these things -be made manifest.’” At first, he tells us, he was disobedient to -the heavenly vision, and unmoved by the somewhat flattering reasons -vouchsafed him, why he was elected to chronicle matters so notable. -“But another day, in that same place,” he goes on, “I beheld again that -venerable man, who said unto me, ‘O my son, what doest thou? Why dost -thou despise my commandment? Arise, and do even as I have bidden thee! -And know of a truth, if thou so doest, that thou and thy children and -thy kinsfolk and thy friends shall find favor in the sight of God.’” -Being thus warned a second time, he undertook the work. It was, he -tells us, the fifteenth day of May, 1325, when he began it; and when -it was completed, as it notices events which happened in April, 1328, -it is plain that its composition must have occupied at least three -years.</p> - -<p>It opens, with much simplicity, with a record of the -earliest important event he remembered, a visit of the great -conqueror of Valencia at the house of his father, when he was -himself a mere child.<a id="FNanchor_521" href="#Footnote_521" -class="fnanchor">[521]</a> The impression of such a visit on a boyish -imagination would naturally be deep;—in the case of Muntaner it seems -to have<span class="pagenum" id="Page_320">[p. 320]</span> been -peculiarly so. From that moment the king became to him, not only the -hero he really was, but something more; one whose very birth was -miraculous, and whose entire life was filled with more grace and favor -than God had ever before shown to living man; for, as the fond old -chronicler will have it, “He was the goodliest prince in the world, and -the wisest and the most gracious and the most upright, and one that was -more loved than any king ever was of all men; both of his own subjects -and strangers, and of noble gentlemen everywhere.”<a id="FNanchor_522" -href="#Footnote_522" class="fnanchor">[522]</a></p> - -<p>The life of the Conqueror, however, serves merely as an introduction -to the work; for Muntaner announces his purpose to speak of little -that was not within his own knowledge; and of the Conqueror’s reign he -could remember only the concluding glories. His Chronicle, therefore, -consists chiefly of what happened in the time of four princes of -the same house, and especially of Peter the Third, his chief hero. -He ornaments his story, however, once with a poem two hundred and -forty lines long, which he gave to James the Second, and his son -Alfonso, by way of advice and caution, when the latter was about to -embark for the conquest of Sardinia and Corsica.<a id="FNanchor_523" -href="#Footnote_523" class="fnanchor">[523]</a></p> - -<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_321">[p. 321]</span>The whole work -is curious, and strongly marked with the character of its author;—a -man brave, loving adventure and show; courteous and loyal; not without -intellectual training, yet no scholar; and, though faithful and -disinterested, either quite unable to conceal, or quite willing, at -every turn, to exhibit, his good-natured personal vanity. His fidelity -to the family of Aragon was admirable. He was always in their service; -often in captivity for them; and engaged at different times in no less -than thirty-two battles in defence of their rights, or in furtherance -of their conquests from the Moors. His life, indeed, was a life of -knightly loyalty, and nearly all the two hundred and ninety-eight -chapters of his Chronicle are as full of its spirit as his heart -was.</p> - -<p>In relating what he himself saw and did, his statements seem -to be accurate, and are certainly lively and fresh; but elsewhere -he sometimes falls into errors of date, and sometimes exhibits -a good-natured credulity that makes him believe many of the -impossibilities that were related to him. In his gay spirit and love -of show, as well as in his simple, but not careless, style, he reminds -us of Froissart, especially at the conclusion of the whole Chronicle, -which he ends, evidently to his own satisfaction, with an elaborate -account of the ceremonies observed at the coronation of Alfonso the -Fourth at Saragossa, which he attended in state as syndic of the city -of Valencia; the last event recorded in the work, and the last we hear -of its knightly old author, who was then near his grand climacteric.</p> - -<p>During the latter part of the period recorded by this Chronicle, a -change was taking place in the literature of which it is an important -part. The troubles and confusion that prevailed in Provence, from -the time of the cruel persecution of the Albigenses and the en<span -class="pagenum" id="Page_322">[p. 322]</span>croaching spirit of -the North, which, from the reign of Philip Augustus, was constantly -pressing down towards the Mediterranean, were more than the genial, -but not hardy, spirit of the Troubadours could resist. Many of them, -therefore, fled; others yielded in despair; and all were discouraged. -From the end of the thirteenth century, their songs are rarely heard -on the soil that gave them birth three hundred years before. With the -beginning of the fourteenth, the purity of their dialect disappears. -A little later, the dialect itself ceases to be cultivated.<a -id="FNanchor_524" href="#Footnote_524" class="fnanchor">[524]</a></p> - -<p>As might be expected, the delicate plant, whose flower was not -permitted to expand on its native soil, did not long continue to -flourish in that to which it was transplanted. For a time, indeed, the -exiled Troubadours, who resorted to the court of James the Conqueror -and his father, gave to Saragossa and Barcelona something of the -poetical grace that had been so attractive at Arles and Marseilles. -But both these princes were obliged to protect themselves from the -suspicion of sharing the heresy with which so many of the Troubadours -they sheltered were infected; and James, in 1233, among other severe -ordinances, forbade to the laity the Limousin Bible, which had been -recently prepared for them, and the use of which would have tended -so much to confirm their language and form their literature.<a -id="FNanchor_525" href="#Footnote_525" class="fnanchor">[525]</a> -His successors, however, continued to favor the spirit of the -minstrels of Provence. Peter the Third was numbered amongst them;<a -id="FNanchor_526" href="#Footnote_526" class="fnanchor">[526]</a> -and if Alfonso the Third<span class="pagenum" id="Page_323">[p. -323]</span> and James the Second were not themselves poets, a -poetical spirit was found about their persons and in their court;<a -id="FNanchor_527" href="#Footnote_527" class="fnanchor">[527]</a> -and when Alfonso the Fourth, the next in succession, was crowned at -Saragossa in 1328, we are told that several poems of Peter, the king’s -brother, were recited in honor of the occasion, one of which consisted -of seven hundred verses.<a id="FNanchor_528" href="#Footnote_528" -class="fnanchor">[528]</a></p> - -<p>But these are among the later notices of Provençal literature in -the northeastern part of Spain, where it began now to be displaced by -one taking its hue rather from the more popular and peculiar dialect -of the country. What this dialect was has already been intimated. It -was commonly called the Catalan or Catalonian, from the name of the -country, but probably, at the time of the conquest of Barcelona from -the Moors in 985, differed very little from the Provençal spoken at -Perpignan, on the other side of the Pyrenees.<a id="FNanchor_529" -href="#Footnote_529" class="fnanchor">[529]</a> As, however, the -Provençal became more cultivated and gentle, the neglected Catalan grew -stronger and ruder; and when the Christian power was extended, in 1118, -to Saragossa, and in 1239 to Valencia, the modifications which<span -class="pagenum" id="Page_324">[p. 324]</span> the indigenous -vocabularies underwent, in order to suit the character and condition -of the people, tended rather to confirm the local dialects than to -accommodate them to the more advanced language of the Troubadours.</p> - -<p>Perhaps, if the Troubadours had maintained their ascendency in -Provence, their influence would not easily have been overcome in Spain. -At least, there are indications that it would not have disappeared -so soon. Alfonso the Tenth of Castile, who had some of the more -distinguished of them about him, imitated the Provençal poetry, if -he did not write it; and even earlier, in the time of Alfonso the -Ninth, who died in 1214, there are traces of its progress in the heart -of the country, that are not to be mistaken.<a id="FNanchor_530" -href="#Footnote_530" class="fnanchor">[530]</a> But failing in its -strength at home, it failed abroad. The engrafted fruit perished -with the stock from which it was originally taken. After the opening -of the fourteenth century we find no genuinely Provençal poetry in -Castile, and after the middle of that century it begins to recede from -Catalonia and Aragon, or rather to be corrupted by the harsher, but -hardier, dialect spoken there by the mass of the people. Peter the -Fourth, who reigned in Aragon from 1336 to 1387, shows the conflict -and admixture of the two influences in such portions of his poetry as -have been published, as well as in a letter he addressed to his son;<a -id="FNanchor_531" href="#Footnote_531" class="fnanchor">[531]</a>—a -confusion, or transition, which we should probably be able to trace -with some distinctness, if we had before us the curious dictionary -of rhymes, still extant in its original manuscript, which<span -class="pagenum" id="Page_325">[p. 325]</span> was made at this king’s -command, in 1371, by Jacme March, a member of the poetical family -that was afterwards so much distinguished.<a id="FNanchor_532" -href="#Footnote_532" class="fnanchor">[532]</a> In any event, there -can be no reasonable doubt, that, soon after the middle of the -fourteenth century, if not earlier, the proper Catalan dialect began -to be perceptible in the poetry and prose of its native country.<a -id="FNanchor_533" href="#Footnote_533" class="fnanchor">[533]</a></p> - -<hr class="chap0" /> - - -<div class="chapter pt3" id="Ch_1_17"> - <p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_326">[p. 326]</span></p> - <h3>CHAPTER XVII.</h3> - <p class="subh3 hang"><span class="smcap">Endeavours to revive - the Provençal Spirit. — Floral Games at Toulouse. — Consistory of - the Gaya Sciencia at Barcelona. — Catalan and Valencian Poetry. — - Ausias March. — Jaume Roig. — Decline of this Poetry. — Influence - of Castile. — Poetical Contest at Valencia. — Valencian Poets who - wrote in Castilian. — Prevalence of the Castilian.</span></p> -</div> - -<p><span class="smcap">The</span> failure of the Provençal language, -and especially the failure of the Provençal culture, were not looked -upon with indifference in the countries on either side of the Pyrenees, -where they had so long prevailed. On the contrary, efforts were -made to restore both, first in France, and afterwards in Spain. At -Toulouse, on the Garonne, not far from the foot of the mountains, the -magistrates of the city determined, in 1323, to form a company or guild -for this purpose; and, after some deliberation, constituted it under -the name of the “Sobregaya Companhia dels Sept Trobadors de Tolosa,” -or the Very Gay Company of the Seven Troubadours of Toulouse. This -company immediately sent forth a letter, partly in prose and partly -in verse, summoning all poets to come to Toulouse on the first day of -May in 1324, and there “with joy of heart contend for the prize of -a golden violet,” which should be adjudged to him who should offer -the best poem, suited to the occasion. The concourse was great, and -the first prize was given to a poem in honor of the Madonna by Ramon -Vidal de Besalú, a Catalan gentleman, who seems to have been<span -class="pagenum" id="Page_327">[p. 327]</span> the author of the -regulations for the festival, and to have been declared a doctor of the -<i>Gay Saber</i> on the occasion. In 1355, this company formed for itself -a more ample body of laws, partly in prose and partly in verse, under -the title of “Ordenanzas dels Sept Senhors Mantenedors del Gay Saber,” -or Ordinances of the Seven Lords Conservators of the Gay Saber, which, -with the needful modifications, have been observed down to our own -times, and still regulate the festival annually celebrated at Toulouse, -on the first day of May, under the name of the Floral Games.<a -id="FNanchor_534" href="#Footnote_534" class="fnanchor">[534]</a></p> - -<p>Toulouse was separated from Aragon only by the picturesque range -of the Pyrenees; and similarity of language and old political -connections prevented even the mountains from being a serious -obstacle to intercourse. What was done at Toulouse, therefore, was -soon known at Barcelona, where the court of Aragon generally resided, -and where circumstances soon favored a formal introduction of the -poetical institutions of the Troubadours. John the First, who, -in 1387, succeeded Peter the Fourth, was a prince of more gentle -manners than were common in his time, and more given to festivity and -shows than was, perhaps, consistent with the good of his kingdom, -and certainly more than was suited to the fierce and turbulent -spirit of his nobility.<a id="FNanchor_535" href="#Footnote_535" -class="fnanchor">[535]</a> Among his other attributes was a love -of poetry; and in 1388, he despatched a solemn embassy, as if for -an affair of state, to Charles the Sixth of France, praying him to -cause certain poets of the company at Toulouse<span class="pagenum" -id="Page_328">[p. 328]</span> to visit Barcelona, in order that they -might found there an institution like their own, for the Gay Saber. -In consequence of this mission, two of the seven conservators of the -Floral Games came to Barcelona in 1390, and established what was called -a “Consistory of the Gaya Sciencia,” with laws and usages not unlike -those of the institution they represented. Martin, who followed John on -the throne, increased the privileges of the new Consistory, and added -to its resources; but at his death, in 1409, it was removed to Tortosa, -and its meetings were suspended by troubles that prevailed through the -country, in consequence of a disputed succession.</p> - -<p>At length, when Ferdinand the Just was declared king, their meetings -were resumed. Enrique de Villena—whom we must speedily notice as a -nobleman of the first rank in the state, nearly allied to the blood -royal, both of Castile and Aragon—came with the new king to Barcelona -in 1412, and, being a lover of poetry, busied himself while there in -reëstablishing and reforming the Consistory, of which he became, for -some time, the principal head and manager. This was, no doubt, the -period of its greatest glory. The king himself frequently attended -its meetings. Many poems were read by their authors before the -judges appointed to examine them, and prizes and other distinctions -were awarded to the successful competitors.<a id="FNanchor_536" -href="#Footnote_536" class="fnanchor">[536]</a> From this time, -therefore, poetry in the native dialects of the country was held -in<span class="pagenum" id="Page_329">[p. 329]</span> honor in the -capitals of Catalonia and Aragon. Public poetical contests were, from -time to time, celebrated, and many poets called forth under their -influence during the reign of Alfonso the Fifth and that of John the -Second, which, ending in 1479, was followed by the consolidation of -the whole Spanish monarchy, and the predominance of the Castilian -power and language.<a id="FNanchor_537" href="#Footnote_537" -class="fnanchor">[537]</a></p> - -<p>During the period, however, of which we have been speaking, and -which embraces the century before the reign of Ferdinand and Isabella, -the Catalan modification of Provençal poetry had its chief success, -and produced all the authors that deserve notice. At its opening, -Zurita, the faithful annalist of Aragon, speaking of the reign of -John the First, says, that, “in place of arms and warlike exercises, -which had formerly been the pastime of princes, now succeeded <i>trobas</i> -and poetry in the mother tongue, with its art, called the ‘Gaya -Sciencia,’ whereof schools began to be instituted”;—schools which, as -he intimates, were so thronged, that the dignity of the art they taught -was impaired by the very numbers devoted to it.<a id="FNanchor_538" -href="#Footnote_538" class="fnanchor">[538]</a> Who these poets were -the grave historian does not stop to inform us, but we learn something -of them from another and better source; for, according to the fashion -of the time, a collection of poetry was made a little after the middle -of the fifteenth century, which includes the whole period, and contains -the names, and more or less of the works, of those who were then best -known and most considered. It begins with a grant of assistance to the -Consistory of Barcelona, by Ferdinand the Just, in 1413; and then, -going<span class="pagenum" id="Page_330">[p. 330]</span> back as far -as to the time of Jacme March, who, as we have seen, flourished in -1371, presents a series of more than three hundred poems, by about -thirty authors, down to the time of Ausias March, who certainly lived -in 1460, and whose works are, as they well deserve to be, prominent in -the collection.</p> - -<p>Among the poets here brought together are Luis de Vilarasa, -who lived in 1416;<a id="FNanchor_539" href="#Footnote_539" -class="fnanchor">[539]</a> Berenguer de Masdovelles, who -seems to have flourished soon after 1453;<a id="FNanchor_540" -href="#Footnote_540" class="fnanchor">[540]</a> Jordi, about whom -there has been much discussion, but whom reasonable critics must -place as late as 1450-1460;<a id="FNanchor_541" href="#Footnote_541" -class="fnanchor">[541]</a> and Antonio Vallmanya, some of whose poems -are dated in 1457 and 1458.<a id="FNanchor_542" href="#Footnote_542" -class="fnanchor">[542]</a> Besides these, Juan Rocaberti, Fogaçot, and -Guerau, with others apparently of the same period, are contributors -to the collection, so that its whole air is that of the Catalan<span -class="pagenum" id="Page_331">[p. 331]</span> and Valencian -imitations of the Provençal Troubadours in the fifteenth century.<a -id="FNanchor_543" href="#Footnote_543" class="fnanchor">[543]</a> -If, therefore, to this curious Cancionero we add the translation of -the “Divina Commedia” made into Catalan by Andres Febrer in 1428,<a -id="FNanchor_544" href="#Footnote_544" class="fnanchor">[544]</a> -and the romance of “Tirante the White,” translated into Valencian -by its author, Joannot Martorell,—which Cervantes calls “a treasure -of contentment and a mine of pleasure,”<a id="FNanchor_545" -href="#Footnote_545" class="fnanchor">[545]</a>—we shall have all that -is needful of the peculiar literature of the northeastern part of -Spain during the greater part of the century in which it flourished. -Two authors, however, who most illustrated it, deserve more particular -notice.</p> - -<p>The first of them is Ausias or Augustin March. His family, -originally Catalan, went to Valencia at the time of the conquest, -in 1238, and was distinguished, in suc<span class="pagenum" -id="Page_332">[p. 332]</span>cessive generations, for the love of -letters. He himself was of noble rank, possessed the seigniory of -the town of Beniarjó and its neighbouring villages, and served in -the Cortes of Valencia in 1446. But, beyond these few facts, we know -little of his life, except that he was an intimate personal friend -of the accomplished and unhappy Prince Carlos of Viana, and that he -died, probably, in 1460,—certainly before 1462,—well deserving the -record made by his contemporary, the Grand Constable of Castile, -that “he was a great Troubadour and a man of a very lofty spirit.”<a -id="FNanchor_546" href="#Footnote_546" class="fnanchor">[546]</a></p> - -<p>So much of his poetry as has been preserved is dedicated to the -honor of a lady, whom he loved and served in life and in death, and -whom, if we are literally to believe his account, he first saw on a -Good Friday in church, exactly as Petrarch first saw Laura. But this -is probably only an imitation of the great Italian master, whose fame -then overshadowed whatever there was of literature in the world. At -any rate, the poems of March leave no doubt that he was a follower -of Petrarch. They are in form what he calls <i>cants</i>; each of which -generally consists of from five to ten stanzas. The whole collection, -amounting to one hundred and sixteen of these short poems, is divided -into four parts, and comprises ninety-three <i>cants</i> or <i>canzones</i> of -Love, in which he complains much of the falsehood of his mistress, -fourteen moral and didactic <i>canzones</i>, a single spiritual one, and -eight on Death. But<span class="pagenum" id="Page_333">[p. 333]</span> -though March, in the framework of his poetry, is an imitator of -Petrarch, his manner is his own. It is grave, simple, and direct, -with few conceits, and much real feeling; besides which, he has a -truth and freshness in his expressions, resulting partly from the -dialect he uses, and partly from the tenderness of his own nature, -which are very attractive. No doubt, he is the most successful of -all the Valencian and Catalan poets whose works have come down to -us; but what distinguishes him from all of them, and indeed from the -Provençal school generally, is the sensibility and moral feeling that -pervade so much of what he wrote. By these qualities his reputation -and honors have been preserved in his own country down to the present -time. His works passed through four editions in the sixteenth century, -and enjoyed the honor of being read to Philip the Second, when a -youth, by his tutor; they were translated into Latin and Italian, -and in the proud Castilian were versified by a poet of no less -consequence than Montemayor.<a id="FNanchor_547" href="#Footnote_547" -class="fnanchor">[547]</a></p> - -<p>The other poet who should be mentioned in the same relations was a -contemporary of March, and, like him, a native of Valencia. His name -is Jaume or James Roig, and he was physician to Mary, queen<span -class="pagenum" id="Page_334">[p. 334]</span> of Alfonso the Fifth of -Aragon. If his own authority is not to be accounted rather poetical -than historical, he was a man of much distinction in his time, and -respected in other countries as well as at home. But if that be set -aside, we know little of him, except that he was one of the persons -who contended for a poetical prize at Valencia in 1474, and that he -died there of apoplexy on the 4th of April, 1478.<a id="FNanchor_548" -href="#Footnote_548" class="fnanchor">[548]</a> His works are not much -better known than his life, though, in some respects, they are well -worthy of notice. Hardly any thing, indeed, remains to us of them, -except the principal one, a poem of three hundred pages, sometimes -called the “Book of Advice,” and sometimes the “Book of the Ladies.”<a -id="FNanchor_549" href="#Footnote_549" class="fnanchor">[549]</a> It is -chiefly a satire on women, but the conclusion is devoted to the praise -and glory of the Madonna, and the whole is interspersed with sketches -of himself and his times, and advice to his nephew, Balthazar Bou, for -whose especial benefit the poem seems to have been written.</p> - -<p>It is divided into four books, which are subdivided into parts, -little connected with each other, and often little in harmony with -the general subject of the whole. Some of it is full of learning -and learned names, and some of it would seem to be devout, but its -prevailing air is certainly not at all religious. It is written in -short rhymed verses, consisting of from two to five syllables,—an -irregular measure, which has been called <i>cudolada</i>, and one which, as -here used, has been much praised for its sweetness by those who are -familiar<span class="pagenum" id="Page_335">[p. 335]</span> enough -with the principles of its structure to make the necessary elisions -and abbreviations; though to others it can hardly appear better than -whimsical and spirited.<a id="FNanchor_550" href="#Footnote_550" -class="fnanchor">[550]</a> The following sketch of himself may be taken -as a specimen of it; and shows that he had as little of the spirit of a -poet as Skelton, with whom, in many respects, he may be compared. Roig -represents himself to have been ill of a fever, when a boy, and to have -hastened from his sick bed into the service of a Catalan freebooting -gentleman, like Roque Guinart or Rocha Guinarda, an historical -personage of the same Catalonia, and of nearly the same period, who -figures in the Second Part of Don Quixote.</p> - -<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> -<p class="i0">Bed I abjured,</p> -<p class="i0">Though hardly cured,</p> -<p class="i0">And then went straight</p> -<p class="i0">To seek my fate.</p> -<p class="i0">A Catalan,</p> -<p class="i0">A nobleman,</p> -<p class="i0">A highway knight,</p> -<p class="i0">Of ancient right,</p> -<p class="i0">Gave me, in grace,</p> -<p class="i0">A page’s place.</p> -<p class="i0">With him I lived,</p> -<p class="i0">And with him thrived,</p> -<p class="i0">Till I came out</p> -<p class="i0">Man grown and stout;</p> -<p class="i0">For he was wise,</p> -<p class="i0">Taught me to prize</p> -<p class="i0">My time, and learn</p> -<p class="i0">My bread to earn,</p> -<p class="i0">By service hard</p> -<p class="i0">At watch and ward,</p> -<p class="i0">To hunt the game,</p> -<p class="i0">Wild hawks to tame,</p> -<p class="i0">On horse to prance,</p> -<p class="i0">In hall to dance,</p> -<p class="i0"><span class="pagenum" id="Page_336">[p. 336]</span>To carve, to play,</p> -<p class="i0">And make my way.<a id="FNanchor_551" href="#Footnote_551" class="fnanchor">[551]</a></p> -</div></div> - -<p>The poem, its author tells us, was written in 1460, and we know that -it continued popular long enough to pass through five editions before -1562. But portions of it are so indecent, that, when, in 1735, it was -thought worth while to print it anew, its editor, in order to account -for the large omissions he was obliged to make, resorted to the amusing -expedient of pretending he could find no copy of the old editions -which was not deficient in the passages he left out of his own.<a -id="FNanchor_552" href="#Footnote_552" class="fnanchor">[552]</a> Of -course, Roig is not much read now. His indecency and the obscurity -of his idiom alike cut him off from the polished portions of Spanish -society; though out of his free and spirited satire much may be gleaned -to illustrate the tone of manners and the modes of living and thinking -in his time.</p> - -<p>The death of Roig brings us to the period when the<span -class="pagenum" id="Page_337">[p. 337]</span> literature of the -eastern part of Spain, along the shores of the Mediterranean, began -to decline. Its decay was the natural, but melancholy, result of -the character of the literature itself, and of the circumstances in -which it was accidentally placed. It was originally Provençal in its -spirit and elements, and had therefore been of quick, rather than of -firm growth;—a gay vegetation, which sprang forth spontaneously with -the first warmth of the spring, and which could hardly thrive in any -other season than the gentle one that gave it birth. As it gradually -advanced, carried by the removal of the seat of political power, from -Aix to Barcelona, and from Barcelona to Saragossa, it was constantly -approaching the literature that had first appeared in the mountains -of the Northwest, whose more vigorous and grave character it was ill -fitted to resist. When, therefore, the two came in contact, there -was but a short struggle for the supremacy. The victory was almost -immediately decided in favor of that which, springing from the elements -of a strong and proud character, destined to vindicate for itself the -political sway of the whole country, was armed with a power to which -its more gay and gracious rival could offer no effective opposition.</p> - -<p>The period, when these two literatures, advancing from opposite -corners of the Peninsula, finally met, cannot, from its nature, be -determined with much precision. But, like the progress of each, it was -the result of political causes and tendencies which are obvious and -easily traced. The family that ruled in Aragon had, from the time of -James the Conqueror, been connected with that established in Castile -and the North; and Ferdinand the Just, who was crowned in Saragossa -in 1412, was a Castilian prince; so that, from this period, both -thrones were absolutely filled by members of the<span class="pagenum" -id="Page_338">[p. 338]</span> same royal house; and Valencia and -Burgos, as far as their courts touched and controlled the literature -of either, were to a great degree under the same influences. And this -control was neither slight nor inefficient. Poetry, in that age, -everywhere sought shelter under courtly favor, and in Spain easily -found it. John the Second was a professed and successful patron of -letters; and when Ferdinand came to assume the crown of Aragon, he was -accompanied by the Marquis of Villena, a nobleman whose great fiefs lay -on the borders of Valencia, but who, notwithstanding his interest in -the Southern literature and in the Consistory of Barcelona, yet spoke -the Castilian as his native language, and wrote in no other. We may, -therefore, well believe, that, in the reigns of Ferdinand the Just and -Alfonso the Fifth, between 1412 and 1458, the influence of the North -began to make inroads on the poetry of the South, though it does not -appear that either March or Roig, or any one of their immediate school, -proved habitually unfaithful to his native dialect.</p> - -<p>At length, forty years after the death of Villena, we find a decided -proof that the Castilian was beginning to be known and cultivated -on the shores of the Mediterranean. In 1474, a poetical contest was -publicly held at Valencia, in honor of the Madonna;—a sort of literary -jousting, like those so common afterwards in the time of Cervantes -and Lope de Vega. Forty poets contended for the prize. The Viceroy -was present. It was a solemn and showy occasion; and all the poems -offered were printed the same year by Bernardo Fenollar, Secretary of -the meeting, in a volume which is valued as the first book known to -have been printed in Spain.<a id="FNanchor_553" href="#Footnote_553" -class="fnanchor">[553]</a> Four of these poems are in Castilian. -This<span class="pagenum" id="Page_339">[p. 339]</span> leaves no -doubt that Castilian verse was now deemed a suitable entertainment for -a popular audience at Valencia. Fenollar, too, who wrote, besides what -appears in this contest, a small volume of poetry on the Passion of -our Saviour, has left us at least one <i>cancion</i> in Castilian, though -his works were otherwise in his native dialect, and were composed -apparently for the amusement of his friends in Valencia, where he -was a person of consideration, and in whose University, founded in -1499, he was a professor.<a id="FNanchor_554" href="#Footnote_554" -class="fnanchor">[554]</a></p> - -<p>Probably Castilian poetry was rarely written in Valencia during -the fifteenth century, while, on the other hand, Valencian was -written constantly. “The Suit of the Olives,” for instance, wholly -in that dialect, was composed by Jaume Gazull, Fenollar, and Juan -Moreno, who seem to have been personal friends, and who united their -poetical resources to produce this satire, in which, under the -allegory of olive-trees, and in language not always so modest as -good taste requires, they discuss together the dangers to which the -young and the old are respectively exposed from the solicitations -of worldly pleasure.<a id="FNanchor_555" href="#Footnote_555" -class="fnanchor">[555]</a> Another dialogue, by the same three poets, -in the same dialect, soon followed, dated in 1497, which is supposed -to have occurred in the bed-chamber of a lady just recovering from -the birth of a child, in which is examined the question whether -young men or old make the best husbands; an inquiry decid<span -class="pagenum" id="Page_340">[p. 340]</span>ed by Venus in favor of -the young, and ended, most inappropriately, by a religious hymn.<a -id="FNanchor_556" href="#Footnote_556" class="fnanchor">[556]</a> Other -poets were equally faithful to their vernacular; among whom were Juan -Escriva, ambassador of the Catholic sovereigns to the Pope, in 1497, -who was probably the last person of high rank that wrote in it;<a -id="FNanchor_557" href="#Footnote_557" class="fnanchor">[557]</a> -and Vincent Ferrandis, concerned in a poetical contest in honor of -Saint Catherine of Siena, at Valencia, in 1511, whose poems seem, on -other occasions, to have carried off public honors, and to have been, -from their sweetness and power, worthy of the distinction they won.<a -id="FNanchor_558" href="#Footnote_558" class="fnanchor">[558]</a></p> - -<p>Meantime, Valencian poets are not wanting who wrote more or less in -Castilian. Francisco Castelví, a friend of Fenollar, is one of them.<a -id="FNanchor_559" href="#Footnote_559" class="fnanchor">[559]</a> -Another is Narcis Viñoles, who flourished in 1500, who wrote in -Tuscan as well as in Castilian and Valencian, and who evidently -thought his native dialect somewhat barbarous.<a id="FNanchor_560" -href="#Footnote_560" class="fnanchor">[560]</a> A third is Juan -Tallante, whose religious poems<span class="pagenum" id="Page_341">[p. -341]</span> are found at the opening of the old General Cancionero.<a -id="FNanchor_561" href="#Footnote_561" class="fnanchor">[561]</a> -A fourth is Luis Crespi, member of the ancient family of Valdaura, -and in 1506 head of the University of Valencia.<a id="FNanchor_562" -href="#Footnote_562" class="fnanchor">[562]</a> And among the latest, -if not the very last, was Fernandez de Heredia, who died in 1549, of -whom we have hardly any thing in Valencian, but much in Castilian.<a -id="FNanchor_563" href="#Footnote_563" class="fnanchor">[563]</a> -Indeed, that the Castilian, in the early part of the century, had -obtained a real supremacy in whatever there was of poetry and elegant -literature along the shores of the Mediterranean cannot be doubted; -for, before the death of Heredia, Boscan had already deserted his -native Catalonian, and begun to form a school in Spanish literature -that has never since disappeared; and shortly afterwards, Timoneda and -his followers showed, by their successful representation of Castilian -farces in the public squares of Valencia, that the ancient dialect had -ceased to be insisted upon in its own capital. The language of the -court of Castile had, for such purposes, become the prevailing language -of all the South.</p> - -<p>This, in fact, was the circumstance that determined the fate of all -that remained in Spain on the foundations of the Provençal refinement. -The crowns of Aragon and Castile had been united by the marriage of -Ferdinand and Isabella; the court had been removed from Saragossa, -though that city still claimed the dignity of being regarded as an -independent capital; and<span class="pagenum" id="Page_342">[p. -342]</span> with the tide of empire, that of cultivation gradually -flowed down from the West and the North. Some of the poets of the -South have, it is true, in later times, ventured to write in their -native dialects. The most remarkable of them is Vicent Garcia, who -was a friend of Lope de Vega, and died in 1623.<a id="FNanchor_564" -href="#Footnote_564" class="fnanchor">[564]</a> But his poetry, in -all its various phases, is a mixture of several dialects, and shows, -notwithstanding its provincial air, the influence of the court of -Philip the Fourth, where its author for a time lived; while the poetry -printed later, or heard in our own days on the popular theatres of -Barcelona and Valencia, is in a dialect so grossly corrupted, that -it is no longer easy to acknowledge it as that of the descendants -of Muntaner and March.<a id="FNanchor_565" href="#Footnote_565" -class="fnanchor">[565]</a></p> - -<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_343">[p. 343]</span>The degradation -of the two more refined dialects in the southern and eastern parts of -Spain, which was begun in the time of the Catholic sovereigns, may be -considered as completed when the seat of the national government was -settled, first in Old and afterwards in New Castile; since, by this -circumstance, the prevalent authority of the Castilian was finally -recognized and insured. The change was certainly neither unreasonable -nor ill-timed. The language of the North was already more ample, -more vigorous, and more rich in idiomatic constructions; indeed, in -almost every respect, better fitted to become national than that of -the South. And yet we can hardly follow and witness the results of -such a revolution but with feelings of a natural regret; for the -slow decay and final disappearance of any language bring with them -melancholy thoughts, which are, in some sort, peculiar to the occasion. -We feel<span class="pagenum" id="Page_344">[p. 344]</span> as if a -portion of the world’s intelligence were extinguished; as if we were -ourselves cut off from a part of the intellectual inheritance, to which -we had in many respects an equal right with those who destroyed it, and -which they were bound to pass down to us unimpaired as they themselves -had received it. The same feeling pursues us even when, as in the case -of the Greek or Latin, the people that spoke it had risen to the full -height of their refinement, and left behind them monuments by which -all future times can measure and share their glory. But our regret is -deeper when the language of a people is cut off in its youth, before -its character is fully developed; when its poetical attributes are just -beginning to appear, and when all is bright with promise and hope.<a -id="FNanchor_566" href="#Footnote_566" class="fnanchor">[566]</a></p> - -<p>This was singularly the misfortune and the fate of the Provençal -and of the two principal dialects into which it was modified and -moulded. For the Provençal started forth in the darkest period Europe -had seen since Grecian civilization had first dawned on the world. It -kindled, at once, all the South of France with its brightness, and -spread its influence, not only into the neighbouring countries, but -even to the courts of the cold and unfriendly North. It flourished -long, with a tropical rapidity and luxuriance, and gave token, from -the first, of a light-hearted spirit, that promised, in the fulness -of its strength, to produce a poetry, different, no doubt, from that -of antiquity, with which it had no real connection, but yet a poetry -as fresh as the soil from which it sprang, and as genial as the -climate<span class="pagenum" id="Page_345">[p. 345]</span> by which it -was quickened. But the cruel and shameful war of the Albigenses drove -the Troubadours over the Pyrenees, and the revolutions of political -power and the prevalence of the spirit of the North crushed them on -the Spanish shores of the Mediterranean. We follow, therefore, with -a natural and inevitable regret, their long and wearisome retreat, -marked as it is everywhere with the wrecks and fragments of their -peculiar poetry and cultivation, from Aix to Barcelona, and from -Barcelona to Saragossa and Valencia, where, oppressed by the prouder -and more powerful Castilian, what remained of the language that gave -the first impulse to poetical feeling in modern times sinks into a -neglected dialect, and, without having attained the refinement that -would preserve its name and its glory to future times, becomes as -much a dead language as the Greek or the Latin.<a id="FNanchor_567" -href="#Footnote_567" class="fnanchor">[567]</a></p> - -<hr class="chap0" /> - - -<div class="chapter pt3" id="Ch_1_18"> - <p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_346">[p. 346]</span></p> - <h3>CHAPTER XVIII.</h3> - <p class="subh3 hang"><span class="smcap">The Provençal and - Courtly School in Castilian Literature. — Partly influenced - by the Literature of Italy. — Connection Of Spain With Italy, - Religious, Intellectual, and Political. — Similarity of Language - in the two Countries. — Translations from the Italian. — Reign - of John the Second. — Troubadours and Minnesingers throughout - Europe. — Court of Castile. — The King. — The Marquis of Villena. - — His Art of Carving. — His Art of Poetry. — His Labors of - Hercules.</span></p> -</div> - -<p><span class="smcap">The</span> Provençal literature, which appeared -so early in Spain, and which, during the greater part of the period -when it prevailed there, was in advance of the poetical culture of -nearly all the rest of Europe, could not fail to exercise an influence -on the Castilian, springing up and flourishing at its side. But, as -we proceed, we must notice the influence of another literature over -the Spanish, less visible and important at first than that of the -Provençal, but destined subsequently to become much wider and more -lasting;—I mean, of course, the Italian.</p> - -<p>The origin of this influence is to be traced far back in the history -of the Spanish character and civilization. Long, indeed, before a -poetical spirit had been reawakened anywhere in the South of Europe, -the Spanish Christians, through the wearisome centuries of their -contest with the Moors, had been accustomed to look towards Italy as -to the seat of a power whose foundations were laid in faith and hopes -extending<span class="pagenum" id="Page_347">[p. 347]</span> far -beyond the mortal struggle in which they were engaged; not because -the Papal See, in its political capacity, had then obtained any wide -authority in Spain, but because, from the peculiar exigencies and -trials of their condition, the religion of the Romish Church had -nowhere found such implicit and faithful followers as the body of the -Spanish Christians.</p> - -<p>In truth, from the time of the great Arab invasion down to the -fall of Granada, this devoted people had rarely come into political -relations with the rest of Europe. Engrossed and exhausted by their -wars at home, they had, on the one hand, hardly been at all the -subjects of foreign cupidity or ambition; and, on the other, they had -been little able, even when they most desired it, to connect themselves -with the stirring interests of the world beyond their mountains, or -attract the sympathy of those more favored countries which, with -Italy at their head, were coming up to constitute the civilized power -of Christendom. But the Spaniards always felt their warfare to be -peculiarly that of soldiers of the Cross; they always felt themselves, -beyond every thing else and above every thing else, to be Christian -men contending against misbelief. Their religious sympathies were, -therefore, constantly apparent, and often predominated over all others; -so that, while they were little connected with the Church of Rome by -those political ties that were bringing half Europe into bondage, they -were more connected with its religious spirit than any other people of -modern times; more even than the armies of the Crusaders whom that same -Church had summoned out of all Christendom, and to whom it had given -whatever of its own resources and character it was able to impart.</p> - -<p>To these religious influences of Italy upon Spain<span -class="pagenum" id="Page_348">[p. 348]</span> were early added those of -a higher intellectual culture. Before the year 1300, Italy possessed -at least five universities; some of them famous throughout Europe, and -attracting students from its most distant countries. Spain, at the -same period, possessed not one, except that of Salamanca, which was -in a very unsettled state.<a id="FNanchor_568" href="#Footnote_568" -class="fnanchor">[568]</a> Even during the next century, those -established at Huesca and Valladolid produced comparatively little -effect. The whole Peninsula was still in too disturbed a state for any -proper encouragement of letters; and those persons, therefore, who -wished to be taught, resorted, some of them, to Paris, but more to -Italy. At Bologna, which was probably the oldest, and for a long time -the most distinguished, of the Italian universities, we know Spaniards -were received and honored, during the thirteenth century, both as -students and as professors.<a id="FNanchor_569" href="#Footnote_569" -class="fnanchor">[569]</a> At Padua, the next in rank, a Spaniard, in -1260, was made the Rector, or presiding officer.<a id="FNanchor_570" -href="#Footnote_570" class="fnanchor">[570]</a> And, no doubt, in all -the great Italian places of education, which were easily accessible, -especially in those of Rome and Naples, Spaniards early sought the -culture that was either not then to be obtained in their own country, -or to be had only with difficulty or by accident.</p> - -<p>In the next century, the instruction of Spaniards in Italy was put -upon a more permanent foundation, by Cardinal Carillo de Albornoz; a -prelate, a statesman, and a soldier, who, as Archbishop of Toledo, -was head of the Spanish Church in the reign of Alfonso the Elev<span -class="pagenum" id="Page_349">[p. 349]</span>enth, and who afterwards, -as regent for the Pope, conquered and governed a large part of the -Roman States, which, in the time of Rienzi, had fallen off from their -allegiance. This distinguished personage, during his residence in -Italy, felt the necessity of better means for the education of his -countrymen, and founded, for their especial benefit, at Bologna, in -1364, the College of Saint Clement,—a munificent institution, which has -subsisted down to our own age.<a id="FNanchor_571" href="#Footnote_571" -class="fnanchor">[571]</a> From the middle of the fourteenth century, -therefore, it cannot be doubted that the most direct means existed -for the transmission of culture from Italy to Spain; one of the most -striking proofs of which is to be found in the case of Antonio de -Lebrixa, commonly called Nebrissensis, who was educated at this college -in the century following its first foundation, and who, on his return -home, did more to advance the cause of letters in Spain than any -other scholar of his time.<a id="FNanchor_572" href="#Footnote_572" -class="fnanchor">[572]</a></p> - -<p>Commercial and political relations still further promoted a free -communication of the manners and literature of Italy to Spain. -Barcelona, long the seat of a cultivated court,—a city whose liberal -institutions had given birth to the first bank of exchange, and -demanded the first commercial code of modern times,—had, from the days -of James the Conqueror, exercised a sensible influence round the shores -of the Mediterranean, and come into successful competition with the -enterprise of Pisa and Genoa, even in the ports of Italy. The knowledge -and refinement its ships brought back, joined to the spirit of -commercial adventure that sent them out, rendered Barcelona, therefore, -in the thirteenth,<span class="pagenum" id="Page_350">[p. 350]</span> -fourteenth, and fifteenth centuries, one of the most magnificent -cities in Europe, and carried its influence not only quite through the -kingdoms of Aragon and Valencia, of which it was in many respects the -capital, but into the neighbouring kingdom of Castile, with which that -of Aragon was, during much of this period, intimately connected.<a -id="FNanchor_573" href="#Footnote_573" class="fnanchor">[573]</a></p> - -<p>The political relations between Spain and Sicily were, however, -earlier and more close than those between Spain and Italy, and tended -to the same results. Giovanni da Procida, after long preparing his -beautiful island to shake off the hated yoke of the French, hastened, -in 1282, as soon as the horrors of the Sicilian Vespers were fulfilled, -to lay the allegiance of Sicily at the feet of Peter the Third of -Aragon, who, in right of his wife, claimed Sicily to be a part of -his inheritance, as heir of Conradin, the last male descendant -of the imperial family of the Hohenstauffen.<a id="FNanchor_574" -href="#Footnote_574" class="fnanchor">[574]</a> The revolution thus -begun by a fiery patriotism was successful; but from that time Sicily -was either a fief of the Aragonese crown, or was possessed, as a -separate kingdom, by a branch of the Aragonese family, down to the -period when, with the other possessions of Ferdinand the Catholic, it -became a part of the consolidated monarchy of Spain.</p> - -<p>The connection with Naples, which was of the same sort, followed -later, but was no less intimate. Alfonso the Fifth of Aragon, a prince -of rare wisdom and much<span class="pagenum" id="Page_351">[p. -351]</span> literary cultivation, acquired Naples by conquest in -1441, after a long struggle;<a id="FNanchor_575" href="#Footnote_575" -class="fnanchor">[575]</a> but the crown he had thus won was passed -down separately in an indirect line through four of his descendants, -till 1503, when, by a shameful treaty with France, and by the genius -and arms of Gonzalvo of Córdova, it was again conquered and made -a direct dependence of the Spanish throne.<a id="FNanchor_576" -href="#Footnote_576" class="fnanchor">[576]</a> In this condition, as -fiefs of the crown of Spain, both Sicily and Naples continued subject -kingdoms until after the Bourbon accession; both affording, from the -very nature of their relations to the thrones of Castile and Aragon, -constant means and opportunities for the transmission of Italian -cultivation and Italian literature to Spain itself.</p> - -<p>But the language of Italy, from its affinity to the Spanish, -constituted a medium of communication perhaps more important and -effectual than any or all of the others. The Latin was the mother -of both; and the resemblance between them was such, that neither -could claim to have features entirely its own: <i>Facies non una, nec -diversa tamen; qualem decet esse sororum</i>. It cost little labor to -the Spaniard to make himself master of the Italian. Translations, -therefore, were less common from the few Italian authors that then -existed, worth translating, than they would otherwise have been; but -enough are found, and early enough, to show that Italian authors and -Italian literature were not neglected in Spain. Ayala, the chronicler, -who died in 1407, was, as we have already observed, acquainted with -the works of Boccaccio.<a id="FNanchor_577" href="#Footnote_577" -class="fnanchor">[577]</a> A little later, we are struck by<span -class="pagenum" id="Page_352">[p. 352]</span> the fact that the “Divina -Commedia” of Dante was twice translated in the same year, 1428; once -by Febrer into the Catalan dialect, and once by Don Enrique de Villena -into the Castilian. Twenty years afterwards, the Marquis of Santillana -is complimented as a person capable of correcting or surpassing -that great poet, and speaks himself of Dante, of Petrarch, and of -Boccaccio as if he were familiar with them all.<a id="FNanchor_578" -href="#Footnote_578" class="fnanchor">[578]</a> But the name of this -great nobleman brings us at once to the times of John the Second, when -the influences of Italian literature and the attempt to form an Italian -school in Spain are not to be mistaken. To this period, therefore, we -now turn.</p> - -<p>The long reign of John the Second, extending from 1407 to 1454, -unhappy as it was for himself and for his country, was not unfavorable -to the progress of some of the forms of elegant literature. During -nearly the whole of it, the weak king himself was subjected to the -commanding genius of the Constable Alvaro de Luna, whose control, -though he sometimes felt it to be oppressive, he always regretted, -when any accident in the troubles of the times threw it off, and -left him to bear alone the burden which belonged to his position in -the state. It seems, indeed, to have been a part of the Constable’s -policy to give up the king to his natural indolence, and encourage -his effeminacy by filling his time with amusements that would make -business more unwelcome to him than the hard tyranny of the minister -who relieved him from it.<a id="FNanchor_579" href="#Footnote_579" -class="fnanchor">[579]</a></p> - -<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_353">[p. 353]</span>Among these -amusements, none better suited the humor of the idle king than letters. -He was by no means without talent. He sometimes wrote verses. He kept -the poets of the time much about his person, and more in his confidence -and favor than was wise. He had, perhaps, even a partial perception -of the advantage of intellectual refinement to his country, or at -least to his court. One of his private secretaries, to please his -master and those nearest to the royal influence, made, about the year -1449, an ample collection of the Spanish poetry then most in favor, -comprising the works of about fifty authors.<a id="FNanchor_580" -href="#Footnote_580" class="fnanchor">[580]</a> Juan de Mena, the most -distinguished poet of the time, was his official chronicler, and the -king sent him documents and directions, with great minuteness and an -amusing personal vanity, respecting the manner in which the history -of his reign should be written; while Juan de Mena, on his part, -like a true courtier, sent his verses to the king to be corrected.<a -id="FNanchor_581" href="#Footnote_581" class="fnanchor">[581]</a> His -physician, too, who seems to have been always in attendance on his -person, was the gay and good-humored Ferdinand Gomez, who has left -us, if we are to believe them genuine, a pleasing and characteristic -collection of letters; and who, after having served and followed his -royal master above forty years, sleeping, as he tells us, at his feet -and eating at his table, mourned his death, as that of one whose -kindness to him had been constant and generous.<a id="FNanchor_582" -href="#Footnote_582" class="fnanchor">[582]</a></p> - -<p>Surrounded by persons such as these, in continual intercourse -with others like them, and often given up<span class="pagenum" -id="Page_354">[p. 354]</span> to letters to avoid the solicitation of -state affairs and to gratify his constitutional indolence, John the -Second made his reign, though discreditable to himself as a prince, and -disastrous to Castile as an independent state, still interesting by a -sort of poetical court which he gathered about him, and important as it -gave an impulse to refinement perceptible afterwards through several -generations.</p> - -<p>There has been a period like this in the history of nearly all the -modern European nations,—one in which a taste for poetical composition -was common at court, and among those higher classes of society within -whose limits intellectual cultivation was then much confined. In -Germany, such a period is found as early as the twelfth and thirteenth -centuries; the unhappy young Conradin, who perished in 1268 and is -commemorated by Dante, being one of the last of the princely company -that illustrates it. For Italy, it begins at about the same time, in -the Sicilian court; and though discountenanced both by the spirit of -the Church, and by the spirit of such commercial republics as Pisa, -Genoa, and Florence,—no one of which had then the chivalrous tone that -animated, and indeed gave birth, to this early refinement throughout -Europe,—it can still be traced down as far as the age of Petrarch.</p> - -<p>Of the appearance of such a taste in the South of France, in -Catalonia, and in Aragon, with its spread to Castile under the -patronage of Alfonso the Wise, notice has already been taken. But now -we find it in the heart and in the North of the country, extending, -too, into Andalusia and Portugal, full of love and knighthood; and -though not without the conceits that distinguished it wherever it -appeared, yet sometimes showing touches of nature, and still oftener a -graceful ingenuity<span class="pagenum" id="Page_355">[p. 355]</span> -of art, that have not lost their interest down to our own times. Under -its influence was formed that school of poetry which, marked by its -most prominent attribute, has been sometimes called the school of the -<i>Minnesingers</i>, or the poets of love and gallantry;<a id="FNanchor_583" -href="#Footnote_583" class="fnanchor">[583]</a> a school which either -owed its existence everywhere to the Troubadours of Provence, or took, -as it advanced, much of their character. In the latter part of the -thirteenth century, its spirit is already perceptible in the Castilian; -and, from that time, we have occasionally caught glimpses of it, down -to the point at which we are now arrived,—the first years of the reign -of John the Second,—when we find it beginning to be colored by an -infusion of the Italian, and spreading out into such importance as to -require a separate examination.</p> - -<p>And the first person in the group to whom our notice is attracted, -as its proper, central figure, is King John himself. Of him his -chronicler said, with much truth, though not quite without flattery, -that “he drew all men to him, was very free and gracious, very devout -and very bold, and gave himself much to the reading of philosophy and -poetry. He was skilled in matters of the Church, tolerably learned -in Latin, and a great respecter of such men as had knowledge. He had -many natural gifts. He was a lover of music; he played, sung, and made -verses; and he danced well.”<a id="FNanchor_584" href="#Footnote_584" -class="fnanchor">[584]</a> One who knew him better describes him more -skilfully.<span class="pagenum" id="Page_356">[p. 356]</span> “He -was,” says Fernan Perez de Guzman, “a man who talked with judgment -and discretion. He knew other men, and understood who conversed well, -wisely, and graciously; and he loved to listen to men of sense, and -noted what they said. He spoke and understood Latin. He read well, and -liked books and histories, and loved to hear witty rhymes, and knew -when they were not well made. He took great solace in gay and shrewd -conversation, and could bear his part in it. He loved the chase, and -hunting of fierce animals, and was well skilled in all the arts of it. -Music, too, he understood, and sung and played; was good in jousting, -and bore himself well in tilting with reeds.”<a id="FNanchor_585" -href="#Footnote_585" class="fnanchor">[585]</a></p> - -<p>How much poetry he wrote we do not know. His physician says, “The -king recreates himself with writing verses”;<a id="FNanchor_586" -href="#Footnote_586" class="fnanchor">[586]</a> and others repeat the -fact. But the chief proof of his skill that has come down to our times -is to be found in the following lines, in the Provençal manner, on -the falsehood of his lady.<a id="FNanchor_587" href="#Footnote_587" -class="fnanchor">[587]</a></p> - -<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> -<p class="i0">O Love, I never, never thought</p> -<p class="i2">Thy power had been so great,</p> -<p class="i2">That thou couldst change my fate,</p> -<p class="i0"><span class="pagenum" id="Page_357">[p. 357]</span>By changes in another wrought,</p> -<p class="i0">Till now, alas! I know it.</p> -<p class="i0"> </p> -<p class="i0">I thought I knew thee well,</p> -<p class="i2">For I had known thee long;</p> -<p class="i2">But though I felt thee strong,</p> -<p class="i0">I felt not all thy spell.</p> -<p class="i0"> </p> -<p class="i0">Nor ever, ever had I thought</p> -<p class="i2">Thy power had been so great,</p> -<p class="i2">That thou couldst change my fate,</p> -<p class="i0">By changes in another wrought,</p> -<p class="i0">Till now, alas! I know it.</p> -</div></div> - -<p id="Villena">Among those who most interested themselves in the -progress of poetry in Spain, and labored most directly to introduce -it at the court of Castile, the person first in rank after the king -was his near kinsman, Henry, Marquis of Villena, born in 1384, and -descended in the paternal line from the royal house of Aragon, -and in the maternal from that of Castile.<a id="FNanchor_588" -href="#Footnote_588" class="fnanchor">[588]</a> “In early youth,” -says one who knew him well, “he was inclined to the sciences and -the arts, rather than to knightly exercises, or even to affairs, -whether of the state or the Church; for, without any master, and none -constraining him to learn, but rather hindered by his grandfather, -who would have had him for a knight, he did, in childhood, when -others are wont to be carried to their schools by force, turn -himself to learning against the good-will of all; and so high and so -subtile a wit had he, that he learned any science or art to which -he addicted himself, in such wise, that it seemed as if it were -done by force of nature.”<a id="FNanchor_589" href="#Footnote_589" -class="fnanchor">[589]</a></p> - -<p>But his rank and position brought him into the af<span -class="pagenum" id="Page_358">[p. 358]</span>fairs of the world and -the troubles of the times, however little he might be fitted to play -a part in them. He was made Master of the great military and monastic -Order of Calatrava, but, owing to irregularities in his election, was -ultimately ejected from his place, and left in a worse condition than -if he had never received it.<a id="FNanchor_590" href="#Footnote_590" -class="fnanchor">[590]</a> In the mean time, he resided chiefly at -the court of Castile; but from 1412 to 1414 he was at that of his -kinsman, Ferdinand the Just, of Aragon, in honor of whose coronation -at Saragossa he composed an allegorical drama, which is unhappily -lost. Afterwards, he accompanied that monarch to Barcelona, where, as -we have seen, he did much to restore and sustain the poetical school -called the Consistory of the Gaya Sciencia. When, however, he lost his -place as Master of the Order of Calatrava, he sunk into obscurity. The -Regency of Castile, willing to make him some amends for his losses, -gave him the poor lordship of Iniesta in the bishopric of Cuenca; -and there he spent the last twenty years of his life in comparative -poverty, earnestly devoted to such studies as were known and -fashionable in his time. He died while on a visit at Madrid, in 1434; -the last of his great family.<a id="FNanchor_591" href="#Footnote_591" -class="fnanchor">[591]</a></p> - -<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_359">[p. 359]</span>Among his -favorite studies, besides poetry, history, and elegant literature, -were philosophy and the mathematics, astrology, and alchemy. But in -an age of great ignorance and superstition, such pursuits were not -indulged in without rebuke. Don Enrique, therefore, like others, -was accounted a necromancer; and so deeply did this belief strike -its roots, that a popular tradition of his guilt has survived in -Spain nearly or quite down to our own age.<a id="FNanchor_592" -href="#Footnote_592" class="fnanchor">[592]</a> The effects, at the -time, were yet more unhappy and absurd. A large and rare collection -of books that he left behind him excited alarm, immediately after his -death. “Two cart-loads of them,” says one claimed to have been his -contemporary and friend, “were carried to the king, and because it -was said they related to magic and unlawful arts, the king sent them -to Friar Lope de Barrientos;<a id="FNanchor_593" href="#Footnote_593" -class="fnanchor">[593]</a> and Friar Lope, who cares more to be about -the Prince than to examine matters of necromancy, burnt above a hundred -volumes, of which he saw no more than the king of Morocco did, and -knew no more than the Dean of Ciudad Rodrigo; for many men now-a-days -make themselves the name of learned by calling others ignorant; -but<span class="pagenum" id="Page_360">[p. 360]</span> it is worse -yet when men make themselves holy by calling others necromancers.”<a -id="FNanchor_594" href="#Footnote_594" class="fnanchor">[594]</a> Juan -de Mena, to whom the letter containing this statement was addressed, -offered a not ungraceful tribute to the memory of Villena in three of -his three hundred <i>coplas</i>;<a id="FNanchor_595" href="#Footnote_595" -class="fnanchor">[595]</a> and the Marquis of Santillana, distinguished -for his love of letters, wrote a separate poem on the occasion of his -noble friend’s death, placing him, after the fashion of his age and -country, above all Greek, above all Roman fame.<a id="FNanchor_596" -href="#Footnote_596" class="fnanchor">[596]</a></p> - -<p>But though the unhappy Marquis of Villena may have been in advance -of his age, as far as his studies and knowledge were concerned, still -the few of his works now known to us are far from justifying the whole -of the reputation his contemporaries gave him. His “Arte Cisoria,” -or Art of Carving, is proof of this. It was written in 1423, at the -request of his friend, the chief carver of John the Second, and begins, -in the most formal and pedantic manner, with the creation of the world -and the invention of all the arts, among which the art of carving is -made early to assume a high place. Then follows an account of what -is necessary to make a good carver; after which we have, in detail, -the whole mystery of the art, as it ought to be practised at the -royal table. It is obvious from sundry passages of the work, that the -Marquis himself was by no means without a love for the good cheer he -so carefully explains,—a circumstance, perhaps, to which he owed the -gout that we are told severely tormented his latter years. But in its -style and composition this specimen of the didactic prose of the age -has little value, and can be<span class="pagenum" id="Page_361">[p. -361]</span> really curious only to those who are interested in -the history of manners.<a id="FNanchor_597" href="#Footnote_597" -class="fnanchor">[597]</a></p> - -<p>Similar remarks might probably be made about his treatise on -the “Arte de Trobar,” or the “Gaya Sciencia”; a sort of Art of -Poetry, addressed to the Marquis of Santillana, in order to carry -into his native Castile some of the poetical skill possessed by the -Troubadours of the South. But we have only an imperfect abstract of -it, accompanied, indeed, with portions of the original work, which -are interesting as being the oldest on its subject in the language.<a -id="FNanchor_598" href="#Footnote_598" class="fnanchor">[598]</a> -More interesting, however, than either would be his translations of -the Rhetorica of Cicero, the Divina Commedia of Dante, and the Æneid -of Virgil. But of the first we have lost all trace. Of the second -we know only that it was in prose, and addressed to his friend and -kinsman the Marquis of Santillana. And of the Æneid there remain but -seven books, with a commentary to three of them, from which a few -extracts have been published.<a id="FNanchor_599" href="#Footnote_599" -class="fnanchor">[599]</a></p> - -<p>Villena’s reputation, therefore, must rest chiefly on<span -class="pagenum" id="Page_362">[p. 362]</span> his “Trabajos de -Hercules,” or The Labors of Hercules, written to please one of his -Catalonian friends, Pero Pardo, who asked to have an explanation of -the virtues and achievements of Hercules; always a great national -hero in Spain. The work seems to have been much admired and read in -manuscript, and, after printing was introduced into Spain, it went -through two editions before the year 1500; but all knowledge of it was -so completely lost soon afterwards, that the most intelligent authors -of Spanish literary history down to our own times have generally spoken -of it as a poem. It is, however, in fact, a short prose treatise, -filling, in the first edition—that of 1483—thirty large leaves. It -is divided into twelve chapters, each devoted to one of the twelve -great labors of Hercules, and each subdivided into four parts: the -first part containing the common mythological story of the labor -under consideration; the second, an explanation of this story as if -it were an allegory; the third, the historical facts upon which it is -conjectured to have been founded; and the fourth, a moral application -of the whole to some one of twelve conditions, into which the author -very arbitrarily divides the human race, beginning with princes and -ending with women.</p> - -<p>Thus, in the fourth chapter, after telling the commonly received -tale, or, as he calls it, “the naked story,” of the Garden of the -Hesperides, he gives us an allegory of it, showing that Libya, where -the fair garden is placed, is human nature, dry and sandy; that -Atlas, its lord, is the wise man, who knows how to cultivate his -poor desert; that the garden is the garden of knowledge, divided -according to the sciences; that the tree in the midst is philosophy; -that the dragon watching the tree is the difficulty of study; and -that<span class="pagenum" id="Page_363">[p. 363]</span> the three -Hesperides are Intelligence, Memory, and Eloquence. All this and -more he explains under the third head, by giving the facts which he -would have us suppose constituted the foundation of the first two; -telling us that King Atlas was a wise king of the olden time, who -first arranged and divided all the sciences; and that Hercules went -to him and acquired them, after which he returned and imparted his -acquisitions to King Eurystheus. And, finally, in the fourth part of -the chapter, he applies it all to the Christian priesthood and the duty -of this priesthood to become learned and explain the Scriptures to the -ignorant laity; as if there were any possible analogy between them -and Hercules and his fables.<a id="FNanchor_600" href="#Footnote_600" -class="fnanchor">[600]</a></p> - -<p>The book, however, is worth the trouble of reading. It is, no -doubt, full of the faults peculiar to its age, and abounds in awkward -citations from Virgil, Ovid, Lucan, and other Latin authors, then so -rarely found and so little known in Spain, that they added materially -to the interest and value of the treatise.<a id="FNanchor_601" -href="#Footnote_601" class="fnanchor">[601]</a> But the allegory -is sometimes amusing; the language is<span class="pagenum" -id="Page_364">[p. 364]</span> almost always good, and occasionally -striking by fine archaisms; and the whole has a dignity about it which -is not without its appropriate power and grace.<a id="FNanchor_602" -href="#Footnote_602" class="fnanchor">[602]</a></p> - -<p>From the Marquis of Villena himself, it is natural for us to turn to -one of his followers, known only as “Macias el Enamorado,” or Macias -the Lover; a name which constantly recurs in Spanish literature with a -peculiar meaning, given by the tragical history of the poet who bore -it. He was a Galician gentleman, who served the Marquis of Villena -as one of his esquires, and became enamoured of a maiden attached to -the same princely household with himself. But the lady, though he won -her love, was married, under the authority that controlled both of -them, to a knight of Porcuna. Still Macias in no degree restrained his -passion, but continued to express it to her in his verses, as he had -done before. The husband was naturally offended, and complained to the -Marquis, who, after in vain rebuking his follower, used his full power -as Grand Master of the Order of Calatrava, and cast Macias into prison. -But there he only devoted himself more passionately to the thoughts -of his lady, and, by his persevering love, still more provoked her -husband, who, secretly following him to his prison at Arjonilla, and -watching him one day as he chanced to be singing of his love and his -sufferings, was so stung by jealousy, that he cast a dart through the -gratings of the window, and killed the unfortunate poet with the name -of his lady still trembling on his lips.</p> - -<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_365">[p. 365]</span>The sensation -produced by the death of Macias was such as belongs only to an -imaginative age, and to the sympathy felt for one who perished because -he was both a Troubadour and a lover. All men who desired to be thought -cultivated mourned his fate. His few poems in his native Galician—only -one of which, and that of moderate merit, is preserved entire—became -generally known, and were generally admired. His master, the Marquis of -Villena, Rodriguez del Padron, who was his countryman, Juan de Mena, -the great court poet, and the still greater Marquis of Santillana, all -bore testimony, at the time or immediately afterwards, to the general -sorrow. Others followed their example; and the custom of referring -constantly to him and to his melancholy fate was continued in ballads -and popular songs, until, in the poetry of Lope de Vega, Calderon, -and Quevedo, the name of Macias passed into a proverb, and became -synonymous with the highest and tenderest love.<a id="FNanchor_603" -href="#Footnote_603" class="fnanchor">[603]</a></p> - -<hr class="chap0" /> - - -<div class="chapter pt3" id="Ch_1_19"> - <p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_366">[p. 366]</span></p> - <h3>CHAPTER XIX.</h3> - <p class="subh3 hang"><span class="smcap">Marquis of Santillana. - — His Life. — His Tendency to imitate the Italian and the - Provençal. — His Courtly Style. — His Works. — His Character. — - Juan de Mena. — His Life. — His Shorter Poems. — His Labyrinth, - and its Merits.</span></p> -</div> - -<p><span class="smcap">Next</span> after the king and Villena in rank, -and much before them in merit, stands, at the head of the courtiers -and poets of the reign of John the Second, Iñigo Lopez de Mendoza, -Marquis of Santillana; one of the most distinguished members of that -great family which has sometimes claimed the Cid for its founder,<a -id="FNanchor_604" href="#Footnote_604" class="fnanchor">[604]</a> -and which certainly, with a long succession of honors, reaches -down to our own times.<a id="FNanchor_605" href="#Footnote_605" -class="fnanchor">[605]</a> He was born in 1398, but was left an orphan -in early youth; so that, though his father, the Grand Admiral of -Castile, had, at the time of his death, larger possessions than any -other nobleman in the kingdom, the son, when he was old enough to know -their value, found them chiefly wrested from him by the bold barons who -in the most lawless manner then divided among themselves the power and -resources of the crown.</p> - -<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_367">[p. 367]</span>But the young -Mendoza was not of a temper to submit patiently to such wrongs. -At the age of sixteen he already figures in the chronicles of the -time, as one of the dignitaries of state who honored the coronation -of Ferdinand of Aragon;<a id="FNanchor_606" href="#Footnote_606" -class="fnanchor">[606]</a> and at the age of eighteen, we are told, -he boldly reclaimed his possessions, which, partly through the forms -of law and partly by force of arms, he recovered.<a id="FNanchor_607" -href="#Footnote_607" class="fnanchor">[607]</a> From this period we -find him, during the reign of John the Second, busy in the affairs -of the kingdom, both civil and military; always a personage of great -consideration, and apparently one who, in difficult circumstances and -wild times, acted from manly motives. When only thirty years old, -he was distinguished at court as one of the persons concerned in -arranging the marriage of the Infanta of Aragon;<a id="FNanchor_608" -href="#Footnote_608" class="fnanchor">[608]</a> and, soon afterwards, -had a separate command against the Navarrese, in which, though he -suffered a defeat from greatly superior numbers, he acquired lasting -honor by his personal bravery and firmness.<a id="FNanchor_609" -href="#Footnote_609" class="fnanchor">[609]</a> Against the Moors -he commanded long, and was often successful; and after the battle -of Olmedo, in 1445, he was raised to the very high rank of Marquis; -none in Castile having preceded him in that title except the family -of Villena, already extinct.<a id="FNanchor_610" href="#Footnote_610" -class="fnanchor">[610]</a></p> - -<p>He was early, but not violently, opposed to the great favorite, -the Constable Alvaro de Luna. In 1432, some<span class="pagenum" -id="Page_368">[p. 368]</span> of his friends and kinsmen, the good -Count Haro and the Bishop of Palencia, with their adherents, having -been seized by order of the Constable, Mendoza shut himself up in -his strongholds till he was fully assured of his own safety.<a -id="FNanchor_611" href="#Footnote_611" class="fnanchor">[611]</a> -From this time, therefore, the relations between two such personages -could not be considered friendly; but still appearances were kept up, -and the next year, at a grand jousting before the king in Madrid, -where Mendoza offered himself against all comers, the Constable was -one of his opponents; and after the encounter, they feasted together -merrily and in all honor.<a id="FNanchor_612" href="#Footnote_612" -class="fnanchor">[612]</a> Indeed, the troubles between them were -inconsiderable till 1448 and 1449, when the hard proceedings of -the Constable against others of the friends and relations of -Mendoza led him into a more formal opposition,<a id="FNanchor_613" -href="#Footnote_613" class="fnanchor">[613]</a> which in 1452 brought -on a regular conspiracy between himself and two more of the leading -nobles of the kingdom. The next year the favorite was sacrificed.<a -id="FNanchor_614" href="#Footnote_614" class="fnanchor">[614]</a> In -the last scenes, however, of this extraordinary tragedy, the Marquis of -Santillana seems to have had little share.</p> - -<p>The king, disheartened by the loss of the minister on whose -commanding genius he had so long relied, died in 1454. But Henry -the Fourth, who followed on the throne of Castile, seemed even more -willing to favor the great family of the Mendozas than his father had -been. The Marquis, however, was little disposed to take advantage -of his position. His wife died in 1455, and the pilgrimage he made -on that occasion to the shrine of Our Lady of Guadalupe, and the -religious poetry he wrote the same year, show the direction his<span -class="pagenum" id="Page_369">[p. 369]</span> thoughts had now taken. -In this state of mind he seems to have continued; and though he once -afterwards joined effectively with others to urge upon the king’s -notice the disordered and ruinous state of the kingdom, yet, from the -fall of the Constable to the time of his own death, which happened in -1458, the Marquis was chiefly busied with letters, and with such other -occupations and thoughts as were consistent with a retired life.<a -id="FNanchor_615" href="#Footnote_615" class="fnanchor">[615]</a></p> - -<p>It is remarkable, that one, who, from his birth and position, was so -much involved in the affairs of state at a period of great confusion -and violence, should yet have cultivated elegant literature with -earnestness. But the Marquis of Santillana, as he wrote to a friend and -repeated to Prince Henry, believed that knowledge neither blunts the -point of the lance, nor weakens the arm that wields a knightly sword.<a -id="FNanchor_616" href="#Footnote_616" class="fnanchor">[616]</a> -He therefore gave himself freely to poetry and other graceful -accomplishments; encouraged, perhaps, by the thought, that he was -thus on the road to please the wayward monarch he served, if not the -stern favorite who governed them all. One who was bred at the court, -of which the Marquis was so distinguished an ornament, says, “He had -great store of books, and gave himself to study, especially the study -of moral philosophy and of things foreign and old. And he had always -in his house doctors and masters, with whom he discoursed concerning -the knowledge and the books he studied. Likewise, he himself made<span -class="pagenum" id="Page_370">[p. 370]</span> other books in verse and -in prose, profitable to provoke to virtue and to restrain from vice. -And in such wise did he pass the greater part of his leisure. Much -fame and renown, also, he had in many kingdoms out of Spain; but he -thought it a greater matter to have esteem among the wise than name -and fame with the many.”<a id="FNanchor_617" href="#Footnote_617" -class="fnanchor">[617]</a></p> - -<p>The works of the Marquis of Santillana show, with sufficient -distinctness, the relations in which he stood to his times and the -direction he was disposed to take. From his social position, he could -easily gratify any reasonable literary curiosity or taste he might -possess; for the resources of the kingdom were open to him, and he -could, therefore, not only obtain for his private study the poetry -then abroad in the world, but often command to his presence the poets -themselves. He was born in the Asturias, where his great family fiefs -lay, and was educated in Castile; so that, on this side, he belonged -to the genuinely indigenous school of Spanish poetry. But then he was -also intimate with the Marquis of Villena, the head of the poetical -Consistory of Barcelona, who, to encourage his poetical studies, -addressed to him, in 1433, his curious letter on the art of the -Troubadours, which Villena thus proposed to introduce into Castile.<a -id="FNanchor_618" href="#Footnote_618" class="fnanchor">[618]</a> And, -after all, he lived chiefly at the court of John the Second, and was -the friend and patron of the poets there, through whom and through his -love of foreign letters it was natural he should come in contact with -the great Italian masters, now exercising a wide sway within their own -peninsula. We must not be surprised, therefore, to find that his own -works belong more or less to each of these schools, and define his -position<span class="pagenum" id="Page_371">[p. 371]</span> as that of -one who stands connected with the Provençal literature in Spain, which -we have just examined; with the Italian, whose influences were now -beginning to appear; and with the genuinely Spanish, which, though it -often bears traces of each of the others, prevails at last over both of -them.</p> - -<p>Of his familiarity with the Provençal poetry abundant proof may -be found in the Preface to his Proverbs, which he wrote when young, -and in his letter to the Constable of Portugal, which belongs to the -latter period of his life. In both, he treats the rules of that poetry -as well founded, explaining them much as his friend and kinsman, -the Marquis of Villena, did; and of some of the principal of its -votaries in Spain, such as Bergédan, and Pedro and Ausias March, he -speaks with great respect.<a id="FNanchor_619" href="#Footnote_619" -class="fnanchor">[619]</a> To Jordi, his contemporary, he elsewhere -devotes an allegorical poem of some length and merit, intended -to do him the highest honor as a Troubadour.<a id="FNanchor_620" -href="#Footnote_620" class="fnanchor">[620]</a></p> - -<p>But besides this, he directly imitated the Provençal poets. By far -the most beautiful of his works, and one which may well be compared -with the most graceful of the smaller poems in the Spanish language, -is entirely in the Provençal manner. It is called “Una Serranilla,” or -A Little Mountain Song, and was composed on a little girl, whom, when -following his military duty, he found tending her father’s herds on the -hills. Many such short songs occur in the later Provençal poets, under -the name of “Pastoretas,” and “Vaqueiras,” one of which, by Giraud -Riquier,—the same person who wrote verses on the death of Alfonso the -Wise,—might<span class="pagenum" id="Page_372">[p. 372]</span> have -served as the very prototype of the present one; so strong is the -resemblance between them. But none of them, either in the Provençal or -in the Spanish, has ever equalled this “Serranilla” of the soldier; -which, besides its inherent simplicity and liquid sweetness, has such -grace and lightness in its movement, that it bears no marks of an -unbecoming imitation, but, on the contrary, is rather to be regarded as -a model of the natural old Castilian song, never to be transferred to -another language, and hardly to be imitated with success in its own.<a -id="FNanchor_621" href="#Footnote_621" class="fnanchor">[621]</a></p> - -<p>The traces of Italian culture in the poetry of the Marquis of -Santillana are no less obvious and important. Besides praising Dante, -Petrarch, and Boccaccio,<a id="FNanchor_622" href="#Footnote_622" -class="fnanchor">[622]</a> he imitates the opening of the -“Inferno” in a long poem, in octave stanzas, on the death of the -Marquis of Villena;<a id="FNanchor_623" href="#Footnote_623" -class="fnanchor">[623]</a> while, in the “Coronation of Jordi,” he -shows that he was sensible to the power of more than one passage -in the “Purgatorio.”<a id="FNanchor_624" href="#Footnote_624" -class="fnanchor">[624]</a> Moreover, he has the merit—if it be one—of -introducing the peculiarly Italian form of the Sonnet into Spain; and -with the differ<span class="pagenum" id="Page_373">[p. 373]</span>ent -specimens of it that still remain among his works begins the ample -series which, since the time of Boscan, has won for itself so large -a space in Spanish literature. Seventeen sonnets of the Marquis of -Santillana have been published, which he himself declares to be written -in “the Italian fashion,” and appeals to Cavalcante, Guido d’Ascoli, -Dante, and especially Petrarch, as his predecessors and models; an -appeal hardly necessary to one who has read them, so plain is his -desire to imitate the greatest of his masters. The sonnets of the -Marquis of Santillana, however, have little merit, except in their -careful versification, and were soon forgotten.<a id="FNanchor_625" -href="#Footnote_625" class="fnanchor">[625]</a></p> - -<p>But his principal works were more in the manner then prevalent -at the Spanish court. Most of them are in verse, and, like a short -poem to the queen, several riddles, and a few religious compositions, -are generally full of conceits and affectation, and have little -value of any sort.<a id="FNanchor_626" href="#Footnote_626" -class="fnanchor">[626]</a> Two or three, however, are of consequence. -One called “The Complaint of Love,” and referring apparently to -the story of Macias, is written with fluency and sweetness, and is -curious as containing lines in Galician, which, with other similar -verses and his letter to the Constable of Portugal, show he extended -his thoughts to this ancient dialect, where are found some of the -earliest intimations of Spanish literature.<a id="FNanchor_627" -href="#Footnote_627" class="fnanchor">[627]</a> Another of his<span -class="pagenum" id="Page_374">[p. 374]</span> poems, which has been -called “The Ages of the World,” is a compendium of universal history, -beginning at the creation and coming down to the time of John the -Second, with a gross compliment to whom it ends. It was written -in 1426, and fills three hundred and thirty-two stanzas of double -<i>redondillas</i>, dull and prosaic throughout.<a id="FNanchor_628" -href="#Footnote_628" class="fnanchor">[628]</a> The third is a moral -poem, thrown into the shape of a dialogue between Bias and Fortune, -setting forth the Stoical doctrine of the worthlessness of all outward -good. It consists of a hundred and eighty octave stanzas in the short -Spanish measure, and was written for the consolation of a cousin and -much loved friend of the Toledo family, whose imprisonment in 1448, -by order of the Constable, caused great troubles in the kingdom, and -contributed to the final alienation of the Marquis from the favorite.<a -id="FNanchor_629" href="#Footnote_629" class="fnanchor">[629]</a> -The fourth is on the kindred subject of the fall and death of the -Constable himself, in 1453; a poem in fifty-three octave stanzas, -each of two <i>redondillas</i>, containing a confession supposed to have -been made by the victim on the scaffold, partly to the multitude -and partly to his priest.<a id="FNanchor_630" href="#Footnote_630" -class="fnanchor">[630]</a> In both of the last two poems, and -especially in the dialogue between Bias and Fortune, passages of merit -are found, which are not only fluent, but strong; not only terse -and pointed, but graceful.<a id="FNanchor_631" href="#Footnote_631" -class="fnanchor">[631]</a></p> - -<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_375">[p. 375]</span>But the most -important of the poetical works of the Marquis of Santillana is one -approaching the form of a drama, and called the “Comedieta de Ponza,” -or The Little Comedy of Ponza. It is founded on the story of a great -sea-fight near the island of Ponza in 1435, where the kings of Aragon -and Navarre, and the Infante Don Henry of Castile, with many noblemen -and knights, were taken prisoners by the Genoese,—a disaster to -Spain, which fills a large space in the old national chronicles.<a -id="FNanchor_632" href="#Footnote_632" class="fnanchor">[632]</a> The -poem of Santillana, written immediately after the occurrence of the -calamity it commemorates, is called a Comedy, because its conclusion -is happy, and Dante is cited as authority for this use of the word.<a -id="FNanchor_633" href="#Footnote_633" class="fnanchor">[633]</a> But -in fact it is a dream or vision; and one of the early passages in -the “Inferno,” imitated at the very opening, leaves no doubt as to -what was in the author’s mind when he wrote it.<a id="FNanchor_634" -href="#Footnote_634" class="fnanchor">[634]</a> The queens of Navarre -and Aragon, and the Infante Doña Catalina, as the persons most -interested in the unhappy battle, are the chief speakers. But Boccaccio -is also a principal personage, though seemingly for no better reason -than that he wrote the treatise on the Disasters of Princes; and -after being addressed very solemnly in this capacity by the three -royal ladies and by the Marquis of Santillana himself, he answers no -less solemnly in his native Italian. Queen Leonora then gives him an -account of the glories and grandeur of her house, accompanied with -auguries of misfortune, which are hardly uttered before a letter comes -announcing their fulfilment in the calamities of the battle of Ponza. -The queen mother, after hearing<span class="pagenum" id="Page_376">[p. -376]</span> the contents of this letter quite through, falls as one -dead. Fortune, in a female form, richly attired, enters, and consoles -them all; first showing a magnificent perspective of past times, with -promises of still greater glory to their descendants, and then fairly -presenting to them in person the very princes whose captivity had just -filled them with such fear and grief. And this ends the Comedieta.</p> - -<p>It fills a hundred and twenty of the old Italian octave -stanzas,—such stanzas as are used in the “Filostrato” of Boccaccio,—and -much of it is written in easy verse. There is a great deal of ancient -learning introduced into it awkwardly and in bad taste; but there is -one passage in which a description of Fortune is skilfully borrowed -from the seventh canto of the “Inferno,” and another in which is a -pleasing paraphrase of the <i>Beatus ille</i> of Horace.<a id="FNanchor_635" -href="#Footnote_635" class="fnanchor">[635]</a> The machinery and -management of the story, it is obvious, could hardly be worse; and yet -when it was written, and perhaps still more when it was declaimed, -as it probably was before some of the sufferers in the disaster it -records, it may well have been felt as an effective exhibition of a -very grave passage in the history of the time. On this account, too, it -is still interesting.</p> - -<p>The Comedieta, however, was not the most popular, if it was the -most important, of the works of Santillana. That distinction belongs -to a collection of Proverbs,<span class="pagenum" id="Page_377">[p. -377]</span> which he made at the request of John the Second, for the -education of his son Henry, afterwards Henry the Fourth. It consists of -a hundred rhymed sentences, each generally containing one proverb, and -so sometimes passes under the name of the “Centiloquio.” The proverbs -themselves are, no doubt, mostly taken from that unwritten wisdom of -the common people, for which, in this form, Spain has always been more -famous than any other country; but, in the general tone he has adopted, -and in many of his separate instructions, the Marquis is rather -indebted to King Solomon and the New Testament. Such as they are, -however, they had—perhaps from their connection with the service of -the heir-apparent—a remarkable success, to which many old manuscripts, -still extant, bear witness. They were printed, too, as early as 1496; -and in the course of the next century nine or ten editions of them -may be reckoned, generally encumbered with a learned commentary by -Doctor Pedro Diaz of Toledo. They have, however, no poetical value, and -interest us only from the circumstances attending their composition, -and from the fact that they form the oldest collection of proverbs -made in modern times.<a id="FNanchor_636" href="#Footnote_636" -class="fnanchor">[636]</a></p> - -<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_378">[p. 378]</span>In the -latter part of his life, the fame of the Marquis of Santillana was -spread very widely. Juan de Mena says, that men came from foreign -countries merely to see him;<a id="FNanchor_637" href="#Footnote_637" -class="fnanchor">[637]</a> and the young Constable of Portugal—the same -prince who afterwards entered into the Catalonian troubles, and claimed -to be king of Aragon—formally asked him for his poems, which the -Marquis sent with a letter on the poetic art, by way of introduction, -written about 1455, and containing notices of such Spanish poets as -were his predecessors or contemporaries; a letter which is, in fact, -the most important single document we now possess touching the early -literature of Spain. It is one, too, which contrasts favorably with -the curious epistle he himself received on a similar subject, twenty -years before, from the Marquis of Villena, and shows how much he was in -advance of his age in the spirit of criticism and in a well-considered -love of letters.<a id="FNanchor_638" href="#Footnote_638" -class="fnanchor">[638]</a></p> - -<p>Indeed, in all respects we can see that he was a remarkable man; one -thoroughly connected with his age and strong in its spirit. His conduct -in affairs, from his youth upwards, shows this. So does the tone of his -Proverbs, that of his letter to his imprisoned cousin, and that of his -poem on the death of Alvaro<span class="pagenum" id="Page_379">[p. -379]</span> de Luna. He was a poet also, though not of a high order; -a man of much reading, when reading was rare;<a id="FNanchor_639" -href="#Footnote_639" class="fnanchor">[639]</a> and a critic, who -showed judgment, when judgment and the art of criticism hardly went -together. And, finally, he was the founder of an Italian and courtly -school in Spanish poetry; one, on the whole, adverse to the national -spirit, and finally overcome by it, and yet one that long exercised a -considerable sway, and at last contributed something to the materials -which, in the sixteenth century, went to build up and constitute the -proper literature of the country.</p> - -<p>There lived, however, during the reign of John the Second, and in -the midst of his court, another poet, whose general influence at the -time was less felt than that of his patron, the Marquis of Santillana, -but who has since been oftener mentioned and remembered,—Juan de Mena, -sometimes, but inappropriately, called the Ennius of Spanish poetry. -He was born in Córdova, about the year 1411, the child of parents -respected, but not noble.<a id="FNanchor_640" href="#Footnote_640" -class="fnanchor">[640]</a> He was early left an orphan, and from the -age of three-and-twenty, of his own free choice, devoted himself -wholly to letters; going through a regular course of studies, first -at Salamanca, and afterwards at Rome. On his return home, he became -a<span class="pagenum" id="Page_380">[p. 380]</span> <i>Veinte-quatro</i> -of Córdova, or one of the twenty-four persons who constituted the -government of the city; but we early find him at court on a footing -of familiarity as a poet, and we know he was soon afterwards Latin -secretary to John the Second, and historiographer of Castile.<a -id="FNanchor_641" href="#Footnote_641" class="fnanchor">[641]</a> -This brought him into relations with the king and the Constable; -relations important in themselves, and of which we have by accident -a few singular intimations. The king, if we can trust the witness, -was desirous to be well regarded in history; and, to make sure of it, -directed his confidential physician to instruct his historiographer, -from time to time, how he ought to treat different parts of his -subject. In one letter, for instance, he is told with much gravity, -“The king is very desirous of praise”; and then follows a statement of -facts, as they ought to be represented, in a somewhat delicate case -of the neglect of the Count de Castro to obey the royal commands.<a -id="FNanchor_642" href="#Footnote_642" class="fnanchor">[642]</a> -In another letter he is told, “The king expects much glory from -you”; a remark which is followed by another narrative of facts as -they should be set forth.<a id="FNanchor_643" href="#Footnote_643" -class="fnanchor">[643]</a> But though Juan de Mena was employed on this -important work as late as 1445, and apparently was favored in it, both -by the king and the Constable, still there is no reason to suppose -that any part of what he did is preserved in the Chronicle of John the -Second exactly as it came from his hands.</p> - -<p>The chronicler, however, who seems to have been happy in possessing -a temperament proper for courtly success, has left proofs enough of -the means by which he reached it. He was a sort of poet-laureate -without the title, writing verses on the battle of Olmedo in<span -class="pagenum" id="Page_381">[p. 381]</span> 1445, on the pacification -between the king and his son in 1446, on the affair of Peñafiel in -1449, and on the slight wound the Constable received at Palencia in -1452; in all which, as well as in other and larger poems, he shows a -great devotion to the reigning powers of the state.<a id="FNanchor_644" -href="#Footnote_644" class="fnanchor">[644]</a></p> - -<p>He stood well, too, in Portugal. The Infante Don Pedro—a -verse-writer of some name, who travelled much in different parts of -the world—became personally acquainted with Juan de Mena in Spain, -and, on his return to Lisbon, addressed a few verses to him, better -than the answer they called forth; besides which, he imitated, with -no mean skill, Mena’s “Labyrinth,” in a Spanish poem of a hundred -and twenty-five stanzas.<a id="FNanchor_645" href="#Footnote_645" -class="fnanchor">[645]</a> With such connections and habits, -with a wit that made him agreeable in personal intercourse,<a -id="FNanchor_646" href="#Footnote_646" class="fnanchor">[646]</a> and -with an even good-humor which rendered him welcome to the opposite -parties in the kingdom,<a id="FNanchor_647" href="#Footnote_647" -class="fnanchor">[647]</a> he seems to have led a contented life; and -at his death, which happened suddenly in 1456, in consequence of a -fall from his mule, the Marquis of Santillana, always his friend and -patron, wrote his epitaph, and erected a monument to his memory in -Torrelaguna, both of which are still to be seen.<a id="FNanchor_648" -href="#Footnote_648" class="fnanchor">[648]</a></p> - -<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_382">[p. 382]</span>The works of -Juan de Mena evidently enjoyed the sunshine of courtly favor from their -first appearance. While still young, if we can trust the simple-hearted -letters that pass under the name of the royal physician, they were -already the subject of gossip at the palace;<a id="FNanchor_649" -href="#Footnote_649" class="fnanchor">[649]</a> and the collections of -poetry made by Baena and Estuñiga, for the amusement of the king and -the court, about 1450, contain abundant proofs that his favor was not -worn out by time; for as many of his verses as could be found seem to -have been put into each of them. But though this circumstance, and that -of their appearance before the end of the century in two or three of -the very earliest printed collections of poetry, leave no doubt that -they enjoyed, from the first, a sort of fashionable success, still -it can hardly be said they were at any time really popular. Two or -three of his shorter effusions, indeed, like the verses addressed to -his lady to show her how formidable she is in every way, and those on -a vicious mule he had bought from a friar, have a spirit that would -make them amusing anywhere.<a id="FNanchor_650" href="#Footnote_650" -class="fnanchor">[650]</a> But most of his minor poems, of which about -twenty may be found scattered in rare books,<a id="FNanchor_651" -href="#Footnote_651" class="fnanchor">[651]</a> belong only to -the fashionable style of the society in which he lived, and, from -their affectation, conceits, and obscure allusions, can have had -little value, even when they were first circulated, except to<span -class="pagenum" id="Page_383">[p. 383]</span> the persons to whom they -were addressed, or the narrow circle in which those persons moved.</p> - -<p>His poem on the Seven Deadly Sins, in nearly eight hundred -short verses, divided into double <i>redondillas</i>, is a work of -graver pretensions. But it is a dull allegory, full of pedantry and -metaphysical fancies on the subject of a war between Reason and -the Will of Man. Notwithstanding its length, however, it was left -unfinished; and a certain friar, named Gerónimo de Olivares, added four -hundred more verses to it, in order to bring the discussion to what he -conceived a suitable conclusion. Both parts, however, are as tedious as -the theology of the age could make them.</p> - -<p>His “Coronation” is better, and fills about five hundred lines, -arranged in double <i>quintillas</i>. Its name comes from its subject, which -is an imaginary journey of Juan de Mena to Mount Parnassus, in order -to witness the coronation of the Marquis of Santillana, both as a poet -and a hero, by the Muses and the Virtues. It is, therefore, strictly -a poem in honor of his great patron; and being such, it is somewhat -singular that it should be written in a light and almost satirical -vein. At the opening, as well as in other parts, it has the appearance -of a parody on the “Divina Commedia”; for it begins with the wanderings -of the author in an obscure wood, after which he passes through regions -of misery, where he beholds the punishments of the dead; visits the -abodes of the blessed, where he sees the great of former ages; and, -at last, comes to Mount Parnassus, where he is present at a sort of -apotheosis of the yet living object of his reverence and admiration. -The versification of the poem is easy, and some passages in it are -amusing; but, in general, it is rendered dull by unprofitable learning. -The best portions are those merely descriptive.</p> - -<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_384">[p. 384]</span>But whether -Juan de Mena, in his “Coronation,” intended deliberately to be the -parodist of Dante or not, it is quite plain that in his principal work, -called “The Labyrinth,” he became Dante’s serious imitator. This long -poem—which he seems to have begun very early, and which, though he -occupied himself much with its composition, he left unfinished at the -time of his sudden death—consists of about twenty-five hundred lines, -divided into stanzas; each stanza being composed of two <i>redondillas</i> -in those long lines which were then called “versos de arte mayor,” or -verses of higher art, because they were supposed to demand a greater -degree of skill than the shorter verses used in the old national -measures. The poem itself is sometimes called “The Labyrinth,” probably -from the intricacy of its plan, and sometimes “The Three Hundred,” -because that was originally the number of its <i>coplas</i> or stanzas. Its -purpose is nothing less than to teach, by vision and allegory, whatever -relates to the duties or the destiny of man; and the rules by which its -author was governed in its composition are evidently gathered from the -example of Dante in his “Divina Commedia,” and from Dante’s precepts in -his treatise “De Vulgari Eloquentia.”</p> - -<p>After the dedication of the Labyrinth to John the Second, and some -other preparatory and formal parts, the poem opens with the author’s -wanderings in a wood, like Dante, exposed to beasts of prey. While -there, he is met by Providence, who comes to him in the form of a -beautiful woman, and offers to lead him, by a sure path, through the -dangers that beset him, and to explain, “as far as they are palpable -to human understanding,” the dark mysteries of life that oppress -his spirit. This promise she fulfils by carrying him to what she -calls the spherical centre of the five zones; or, in other<span -class="pagenum" id="Page_385">[p. 385]</span> words, to a point where -the poet is supposed to see at once all the countries and nations of -the earth. There she shows him three vast mystical wheels,—the wheels -of Destiny,—two representing the past and the future, in constant -rest, and the third representing the present, in constant motion. -Each contains its appropriate portion of the human race, and through -each are extended the seven circles of the seven planetary influences -that govern the fates of mortal men; the characters of the most -distinguished of whom are explained to the poet by his divine guide, as -their shadows rise before him in these mysterious circles.</p> - -<p>From this point, therefore, the poem becomes a confused gallery -of mythological and historical portraits, arranged, as in the -“Paradiso” of Dante, according to the order of the seven planets.<a -id="FNanchor_652" href="#Footnote_652" class="fnanchor">[652]</a> -They have generally little merit, and are often shadowed forth very -indistinctly. The best sketches are those of personages who lived in -the poet’s own time or country; some drawn with courtly flattery, like -the king’s and the Constable’s; others with more truth, as well as -more skill, like those of the Marquis of Villena, Juan de Merlo, and -the young Dávalos, whose premature fate is recorded in a few lines of -unwonted power and tenderness.<a id="FNanchor_653" href="#Footnote_653" -class="fnanchor">[653]</a></p> - -<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_386">[p. 386]</span>The story -told most in detail is that of the Count de Niebla, who, in 1436, -at the siege of Gibraltar, sacrificed his own life in a noble -attempt to save that of one of his dependants; the boat in which -the Count might have been rescued being too small to save the whole -of the party, who thus all perished together in a flood-tide. This -disastrous event, and especially the self-devotion of Niebla, who -was one of the principal nobles of the kingdom, and at that moment -employed on a daring expedition against the Moors, are recorded in the -chronicles of the age, and introduced by Juan de Mena in the following -characteristic stanzas:<a id="FNanchor_654" href="#Footnote_654" -class="fnanchor">[654]</a>—</p> - -<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> -<p class="i0">And he who seems to sit upon that bark,</p> -<p class="i2">Invested by the cruel waves, that wait</p> -<p class="i2">And welter round him to prepare his fate,—</p> -<p class="i0">His and his bold companions’, in their dark</p> -<p class="i0">And watery abyss;—that stately form</p> -<p class="i2">Is Count Niebla’s, he whose honored name,</p> -<p class="i2">More brave than fortunate, has given to fame</p> -<p class="i0">The very tide that drank his life-blood warm.</p> -<p class="i0"> </p> -<p class="i0">And they that eagerly around him press,</p> -<p class="i2">Though men of noble mark and bold emprise,</p> -<p class="i2">Grow pale and dim as his full glories rise,</p> -<p class="i0">Showing their own peculiar honors less.</p> -<p class="i0">Thus Carrion or Arlanza, sole and free,</p> -<p class="i2">Bears, like Pisuerga, each its several name,</p> -<p class="i2">And triumphs in its undivided fame,</p> -<p class="i0">As a fair, graceful stream. But when the three</p> -<p class="i0"> </p> -<p class="i0">Are joined in one, each yields its separate right,</p> -<p class="i2">And their accumulated headlong course</p> -<p class="i2"><span class="pagenum" id="Page_387">[p. 387]</span>We call Duero. Thus might these enforce</p> -<p class="i0">Each his own claim to stand the noblest knight,</p> -<p class="i2">If brave Niebla came not with his blaze</p> -<p class="i2">Of glory to eclipse their humbler praise.</p> -</div></div> - -<p>Too much honor is not to be claimed for such poetry; but there is -little in Juan de Mena’s works equal to this specimen, which has at -least the merit of being free from the pedantry and conceits that -disfigure most of his writings.</p> - -<p>Such as it was, however, the Labyrinth received great admiration -from the court of John the Second, and, above all, from the king -himself, whose physician, we are told, wrote to the poet: “Your -polished and erudite work, called ‘The Second Order of Mercury,’ hath -much pleased his Majesty, who carries it with him when he journeys -about or goes a-hunting.”<a id="FNanchor_655" href="#Footnote_655" -class="fnanchor">[655]</a> And again: “The end of the ‘third circle’ -pleased the king much. I read it to his Majesty, who keeps it on his -table with his prayer-book, and takes it up often.”<a id="FNanchor_656" -href="#Footnote_656" class="fnanchor">[656]</a> Indeed, the whole -poem was, it seems, submitted to the king, piece by piece, as it was -composed; and we are told, that, in one instance, at least, it received -a royal correction, which still stands unaltered.<a id="FNanchor_657" -href="#Footnote_657" class="fnanchor">[657]</a> His Majesty even -advised that it should be extended from three hundred stanzas to three -hundred and sixty-five, though for no better reason than to make their -number correspond exactly with that of the days in the year; and the -twenty-four stanzas commonly printed at the end of it are supposed to -have been an attempt to fulfil the monarch’s command. But whether this -be so or not, nobody now wishes the poem to be longer than it is.<a -id="FNanchor_658" href="#Footnote_658" class="fnanchor">[658]</a></p> - -<hr class="chap0" /> - - -<div class="chapter pt3" id="Ch_1_20"> - <p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_389">[p. 389]</span></p> - <h3>CHAPTER XX.</h3> - <p class="subh3 hang"><span class="smcap">Progress of the - Castilian Language. — Poets of the Time of John the Second. - — Villasandino. — Francisco Imperial. — Baena. — Rodriguez - del Padron. — Prose-writers. — Cibdareal and Fernan Perez de - Guzman.</span></p> -</div> - -<p><span class="smcap">In</span> one point of view, all the works -of Juan de Mena are of consequence. They mark the progress of the -Castilian language, which, in his hands, advanced more than it had -for a long period before. From the time of Alfonso the Wise, nearly -two centuries had elapsed, in which, though this fortunate dialect -had almost completely asserted its supremacy over its rivals, and by -the force of political circumstances had been spread through a large -part of Spain, still, little had been done to enrich and nothing to -raise or purify it. The grave and stately tone of the “Partidas” and -the “General Chronicle” had not again been reached; the lighter air -of the “Conde Lucanor” had not been attempted. Indeed, such wild and -troubled times, as those of Peter the Cruel and the three monarchs who -had followed him on the throne, permitted men to think of little except -their personal safety and their immediate well-being.</p> - -<p>But now, in the time of John the Second, though the affairs of the -country were hardly more composed, they had taken the character rather -of feuds between the great nobles than of wars with the throne; while, -at the same time, knowledge and literary culture, from acci<span -class="pagenum" id="Page_390">[p. 390]</span>dental circumstances, -were not only held in honor, but had become a courtly fashion. Style, -therefore, began to be regarded as a matter of consequence, and the -choice of words, as the first step towards elevating and improving it, -was attempted by those who wished to enjoy the favor of the highest -class, that then gave its tone alike to letters and to manners. But -a serious obstacle was at once found to such a choice of phraseology -as was demanded. The language of Castile had, from the first, been -dignified and picturesque, but it had never been rich. Juan de Mena, -therefore, looked round to see how he could enlarge his poetical -vocabulary; and if he had adopted means more discreet, or shown more -judgment in the use of those to which he resorted, he might almost have -modelled the Spanish into such forms as he chose.</p> - -<p>As it was, he rendered it good service. He took boldly such words -as he thought suitable to his purpose, wherever he found them, chiefly -from the Latin, but sometimes from other languages.<a id="FNanchor_659" -href="#Footnote_659" class="fnanchor">[659]</a> Unhappily, he exercised -no proper skill in the selection. Some of the many he adopted were low -and trivial, and his example<span class="pagenum" id="Page_391">[p. -391]</span> failed to give them dignity; others were not better than -those for which they were substituted, and so were not afterwards used; -and yet others were quite too foreign in their structure and sound -to strike root where they should never have been transplanted. Much, -therefore, of what Juan de Mena did in this respect was unsuccessful. -But there is no doubt that the language of Spanish poetry was -strengthened and its versification ennobled by his efforts, and that -the example he set, followed, as it was, by Lucena, Diego de San Pedro, -Garci Sanchez de Badajoz, the Manriques, and others, laid the true -foundations for the greater and more judicious enlargement of the whole -Castilian vocabulary in the age that followed.</p> - -<p>Another poet, who, in the reign of John the Second, enjoyed a -reputation which has faded away much more than that of Juan de Mena, -is Alfonso Alvarez de Villasandino, sometimes called De Illescas. His -earliest verses seem to have been written in the time of John the -First; but the greater part fall within the reigns of Henry the Third -and John the Second, and especially within that of the last. A few of -them are addressed to this monarch, and many more to his queen, to the -Constable, to the Infante Don Ferdinand, afterwards king of Aragon, and -to other distinguished personages of the time. From different parts of -them, we learn that their author was a soldier and a courtier; that he -was married twice, and repented heartily of his second match; and that -he was generally poor, and often sent bold solicitations to every body, -from the king downwards, asking for places, for money, and even for -clothes.</p> - -<p>As a poet, his merits are small. He speaks of Dante, but -gives no proof of familiarity with Italian<span class="pagenum" -id="Page_392">[p. 392]</span> literature. In fact, his verses -are rather in the Provençal forms, though their courtly tone and -personal claims predominate to such a degree as to prevent any thing -else from being distinctly heard. Puns, conceits, and quibbles, to -please the taste of his great friends, are intruded everywhere; yet -perhaps he gained his chief favor by his versification, which is -sometimes uncommonly easy and flowing, and by his rhymes, which are -singularly abundant and almost uniformly exact.<a id="FNanchor_660" -href="#Footnote_660" class="fnanchor">[660]</a></p> - -<p>At any rate, he was much regarded by his contemporaries. The -Marquis of Santillana speaks of him as one of the leading poets of -his age, and says that he wrote a great number of songs and other -short poems, or <i>decires</i>, which were well liked and widely spread.<a -id="FNanchor_661" href="#Footnote_661" class="fnanchor">[661]</a> It is -not remarkable, therefore, when Baena, for the amusement of John the -Second and his court, made the collection of poetry which now passes -under his name, that he filled much of it with verses by Villasandino, -who is declared by the courtly secretary to be “the light, and mirror, -and crown, and monarch of all the poets that, till that time, had -lived in Spain.” But the poems Baena admired are almost all of them -so short and so personal, that they were soon forgotten, with the -circumstances that gave them birth. Several are curious, because they -were written to be used, by persons of distinction in the state, -such as the Adelantado Manrique, the Count de Buelna, and the Great -Constable, all of whom were among Villasandino’s admirers, and employed -him to write verses which passed afterwards un<span class="pagenum" -id="Page_393">[p. 393]</span>der their own names. Of one short poem, -a Hymn to the Madonna, the author himself thought so well, that he -often said it would surely clear him, in the other world, from the -power of the Arch-enemy.<a id="FNanchor_662" href="#Footnote_662" -class="fnanchor">[662]</a></p> - -<p>Francisco Imperial, born in Genoa, but in fact a Spaniard, whose -home was at Seville, is also among the poets who were favored at -this period, and who belonged to the same artificial school with -Villasandino. The principal of his longer poems is on the birth of -King John, in 1405, and most of the others are on subjects connected, -like this, with transient interests. One, however, from its tone and -singular subject, is still curious. It is on the fate of a lady, -who, having been taken among the spoils of a great victory in the -far East, by Tamerlane, was sent by him as a present to Henry the -Third of Castile; and it must be admitted that the Genoese touches -the peculiar misfortune of her condition with poetical tenderness.<a -id="FNanchor_663" href="#Footnote_663" class="fnanchor">[663]</a></p> - -<p>Of the remaining poets who were more or less valued in Spain, in -the middle of the fifteenth century, it is not necessary to speak at -all. Most of them are now known only to antiquarian curiosity. Of by -far the<span class="pagenum" id="Page_394">[p. 394]</span> greater -part very little remains; and in most cases it is uncertain whether -the persons whose names the poems bear were their real authors or -not. Juan Alfonso de Baena, the editor of the collection in which -most of them are found, wrote a good deal,<a id="FNanchor_664" -href="#Footnote_664" class="fnanchor">[664]</a> and so did -Ferrant Manuel de Lando,<a id="FNanchor_665" href="#Footnote_665" -class="fnanchor">[665]</a> Juan Rodriguez del Padron,<a -id="FNanchor_666" href="#Footnote_666" class="fnanchor">[666]</a> -Pedro Velez de Guevara, and Gerena and Calavera.<a id="FNanchor_667" -href="#Footnote_667" class="fnanchor">[667]</a> Probably, however, -nothing remains of the inferior authors more interesting than a -Vision composed by Diego de Castillo, the chronicler, on the death of -Alfonso the Fifth of Aragon,<a id="FNanchor_668" href="#Footnote_668" -class="fnanchor">[668]</a> and a sketch of the life and character -of Henry the Third of Castile, given in the person of the monarch -himself, by Pero Ferrus;<a id="FNanchor_669" href="#Footnote_669" -class="fnanchor">[669]</a>—poems which remind us strongly of the -similar sketches found in the old English “Mirror for Magistrates.”</p> - - -<p class="mt2">But while verse was so much cultivated, prose, though -less regarded and not coming properly into the fashionable literature -of the age, made some progress. We turn, therefore, now to two -writers who flourished in the reign of John the Second, and who seem -to furnish, with the contemporary chronicles and other similar works -already noticed, the true character of the better prose literature of -their time.</p> - -<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_395">[p. 395]</span>The first of them -is Fernan Gomez de Cibdareal, who, if there ever were such a person, -was the king’s physician, and, in some respects, his confidential -and familiar friend. He was born, according to the Letters that pass -under his name, about 1386,<a id="FNanchor_670" href="#Footnote_670" -class="fnanchor">[670]</a> and, though not of a distinguished family, -had for his godfather Pedro Lopez de Ayala, the great chronicler and -chancellor of Castile. When he was not yet four-and-twenty years old, -John the Second being still a child, Cibdareal entered the royal -service and remained attached to the king’s person till the death of -his master, when we lose sight of him altogether. During this long -period of above forty years, he maintained a correspondence, to which -we have already alluded more than once, with many of the principal -persons in the state; with the king himself, with several of the -archbishops and bishops, and with a considerable number of noblemen and -men of letters, among the last of whom were Alfonso de Cartagena and -Juan de Mena. A part of this correspondence, amounting to one hundred -and five letters, written between 1425 and 1454, has been published, in -two editions; the first claiming to be of 1499, and the last prepared -in 1775, with some care, by Amirola, the Secretary of the Spanish -Academy of History. Most of the subjects discussed by the honest -physician and courtier in these letters are still interesting; and some -of them, like the death of the Constable, which he describes minutely -to the Archbishop of Toledo, are important, if they can be trusted as -genuine. In almost<span class="pagenum" id="Page_396">[p. 396]</span> -all he wrote, he shows the good-nature and good sense which preserved -for him the favor of leading persons in the opposite factions of the -time, and which, though he belonged to the party of the Constable, yet -prevented him from being blind to that great man’s faults, or becoming -involved in his fate. The tone of the correspondence is simple and -natural, always quite Castilian, and sometimes very amusing; as, for -instance, when he is repeating court gossip to the Grand Justiciary of -Castile, or telling stories to Juan de Mena. But a very interesting -letter to the Bishop of Orense, containing an account of John the -Second’s death, will perhaps give a better idea of its author’s general -spirit and manner, and, at the same time, exhibit somewhat of his -personal character.</p> - -<p>“I foresee very plainly,” he says to the Bishop, “that you will read -with tears this letter, which I write to you in anguish. We are both -become orphans; and so has all Spain. For the good and noble and just -King John, our sovereign lord, is dead. And I, miserable man that I -am,—who was not yet twenty-four years old when I entered his service -with the Bachelor Arrevalo, and have, till I am now sixty-eight, lived -in his palace, or, I might almost say, in his bed-chamber and next his -bed, always in his confidence, and yet never thinking of myself,—I -should now have but a poor pension of thirty thousand maravedís for my -long service, if, just at his death, he had not ordered the government -of Cibdareal to be given to my son, who I pray may be happier than his -father has been. But, in truth, I had always thought to die before his -Highness; whereas he died in my presence, on the eve of Saint Mary -Magdalen, a blessed saint, whom he greatly resembled in sorrowing -over his sins. It was a sharp fever that destroyed him. He was<span -class="pagenum" id="Page_397">[p. 397]</span> much wearied with -travelling about hither and thither; and he had always the death of Don -Alvaro de Luna before him, grieving about it secretly, and seeing that -the nobles were never the more quiet for it, but, on the contrary, that -the king of Navarre had persuaded the king of Portugal to think he had -grounds of complaint concerning the wars in Barbary, and that the king -had answered him with a crafty letter. All this wore his heart out. -And so, travelling along from Avila to Medina, a paroxysm came upon -him with a sharp fever, that seemed at first as if it would kill him -straightway. And the Prior of Guadalupe sent directly for Prince Henry; -for he was afraid some of the nobles would gather for the Infante Don -Alfonso; but it pleased God that the king recovered his faculties by -means of a medicine I gave him. And so he went on to Valladolid; but -as soon as he entered the city, he was struck with death, as I said -before the Bachelor Frias, who held it to be a small matter, and before -the Bachelor Beteta, who held what I said to be an idle tale.... The -consolation that remains to me is, that he died like a Christian king, -faithful and loyal to his Maker. Three hours before he gave up the -ghost, he said to me: ‘Bachelor Cibdareal, I ought to have been born -the son of a tradesman, and then I should have been a friar of Abrojo, -and not a king of Castile.’ And then he asked pardon of all about him, -if he had done them any wrong; and bade me ask it for him of those of -whom he could not ask it himself. I followed him to his grave in Saint -Paul’s, and then came to this lonely room in the suburbs; for I am now -so weary of life, that I do not think it will be a difficult matter -to loosen me from it, much as men commonly fear death. Two days ago, -I went to see the queen; but I found the palace from the top to the -bottom so empty,<span class="pagenum" id="Page_398">[p. 398]</span> -that the house of the Admiral and that of Count Benevente are better -served. King Henry keeps all King John’s servants; but I am too old to -begin to follow another master about, and, if God so pleases, I shall -go to Cibdareal with my son, where I hope the king will give me enough -to die upon.” This is the last we hear of the sorrowing old man, who -probably died soon after the date of this letter, which seems to have -been written in July, 1454.<a id="FNanchor_671" href="#Footnote_671" -class="fnanchor">[671]</a></p> - -<p>The other person who was most successful as a prose-writer in -the age of John the Second was Fernan Perez de Guzman,—like many -distinguished Spaniards, a soldier and a man of letters, belonging to -the high aristocracy of the country, and occupied in its affairs. His -mother was sister to the great Chancellor Ayala, and his father was -a brother of the Marquis of Santillana, so that his connections were -as proud and noble as the monarchy could afford; while, on the other -hand, Garcilasso de la Vega being one of his lineal descendants, we may -add that his honors were reflected back from succeeding generations as -brightly as he received them.</p> - -<p>He was born about the year 1400, and was bred a knight. At the -battle of the Higueruela, near Granada, in 1431, led on by the Bishop -of Palencia,—who, as the honest Cibdareal says, “fought that day -like an armed Joshua,”—he was so unwise in his courage, that, after -the fight was over, the king, who had been an eyewitness of his -indiscretion, caused him to be put under arrest, and released him only -at the intercession of one of his powerful friends.<a id="FNanchor_672" -href="#Footnote_672" class="fnanchor">[672]</a> In general, Perez -de Guzman was among the opponents of the Constable, as were<span -class="pagenum" id="Page_399">[p. 399]</span> most of his family; but -he does not seem to have shown a factious or violent spirit, and, after -being once unreasonably thrown into prison, found his position so false -and disagreeable, that he retired from affairs altogether.</p> - -<p>Among his more cultivated and intellectual friends was the family of -Santa María, two of whom, having been Bishops of Cartagena, are better -known by the name of the see they filled than they are by their own. -The oldest of them all was a Jew by birth,—Selomo Halevi,—who, in 1390, -when he was forty years old, was baptized as Pablo de Santa María, and -rose, subsequently, by his great learning and force of character, to -some of the highest places in the Spanish Church, of which he continued -a distinguished ornament till his death in 1432. His brother, Alvar -Garcia de Santa María, and his three sons, Gonzalo, Alonso, and Pedro, -the last of whom lived as late as the reign of Ferdinand and Isabella, -were, like the head of the family, marked by literary accomplishments, -of which the old Cancioneros afford abundant proof, and of which, it -is evident, the court of John the Second was not a little proud. The -connection of Perez de Guzman, however, was chiefly with Alonso, long -Bishop of Cartagena, who wrote for the use of his friend a religious -treatise, and who, when he died, in 1435, was mourned by Perez de -Guzman in a poem comparing the venerable Bishop to Seneca and Plato.<a -id="FNanchor_673" href="#Footnote_673" class="fnanchor">[673]</a></p> -<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_400">[p. 400]</span></p> - -<p>The occupations of Perez de Guzman, in his retirement on his -estates at Batres, where he passed the latter part of his life, and -where he died, about 1470, were suited to his own character and to the -spirit of his age. He wrote a good deal of poetry, such as was then -fashionable among persons of the class to which he belonged, and his -uncle, the Marquis of Santillana, admired what he wrote. Some of it may -be found in the collection of Baena, showing that it was in favor at -the court of John the Second. Yet more was printed in 1492, and in the -Cancioneros that began to appear a few years later; so that it seems to -have been still valued by the limited public interested in letters in -the reign of Ferdinand and Isabella.</p> - -<p>But the longest poem he wrote, and perhaps the most important, -is his “Praise of the Great Men of Spain,” a kind of chronicle, -filling four hundred and nine octave stanzas; to which should be -added a hundred and two rhymed Proverbs, mentioned by the Marquis -of Santillana, but probably prepared later than the collection made -by the Marquis himself for the education of Prince Henry. After -these, the two poems of Perez de Guzman that make most pretensions -from their length are an allegory on the Four Cardinal Virtues, in -sixty-three stanzas, and another on the Seven Deadly Sins and the -Seven Works of Mercy, in a hundred. The best verses he wrote are -in his short hymns. But all are forgotten, and deserve to be so.<a -id="FNanchor_674" href="#Footnote_674" class="fnanchor">[674]</a></p> - -<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_401">[p. 401]</span>His prose is -much better. Of the part he bore in the Chronicle of John the Second -notice has already been taken. But at different times, both before he -was engaged in that work and afterwards, he was employed on another, -more original in its character and of higher literary merit. It is -called “Genealogies and Portraits,” and contains, under thirty-four -heads, sketches, rather than connected narratives, of the lives, -characters, and families of thirty-four of the principal persons of -his time, such as Henry the Third, John the Second, the Constable -Alvaro de Luna, and the Marquis of Villena.<a id="FNanchor_675" -href="#Footnote_675" class="fnanchor">[675]</a> A part of this genial -work seems, from internal evidence, to have been written in 1430, -while other portions must be dated after 1454; but none of it can have -been much known till all the principal persons to whom it relates -had died, and not, therefore, till the reign of Henry the Fourth, in -the course of which the death of Perez de Guzman himself must have -happened. It is manly in its tone, and is occasionally marked with -vigorous and original thought. Some of its sketches are, indeed, brief -and dry, like that of Queen Catherine, daughter of John of Gaunt. But -others are long and elaborate, like that of the Infante Don Ferdinand. -Sometimes he discovers a spirit in advance of<span class="pagenum" -id="Page_402">[p. 402]</span> his age, such as he shows when he defends -the newly converted Jews from the cruel suspicions with which they were -then persecuted. But he oftener discovers a willingness to rebuke its -vices, as when, discussing the character of Gonzalo Nuñez de Guzman, he -turns aside from his subject and says solemnly,—</p> - -<p>“And no doubt it is a noble thing and worthy of praise to preserve -the memory of noble families and of the services they have rendered -to their kings and to the commonwealth; but here, in Castile, this -is now held of small account. And, to say truth, it is really little -necessary; for now-a-days he is noblest who is richest. Why, then, -should we look into books to learn what relates to families, since -we can find their nobility in their possessions? Nor is it needful -to keep a record of the services they render; for kings now give -rewards, not to him who serves them most faithfully, nor to him who -strives for what is most worthy, but to him who most follows their -will and pleases them most.”<a id="FNanchor_676" href="#Footnote_676" -class="fnanchor">[676]</a></p> - -<p>In this and other passages, there is something of the tone of a -disappointed statesman, perhaps of a disappointed courtier. But more -frequently, as, for instance, when he speaks of the Great Constable, -there is an air of good faith and justice that do him much honor. Some -of his portraits, among which we may notice those of Villena and John -the Second, are drawn with skill and spirit; and everywhere he writes -in that rich, grave, Castilian style, with now and then a happy and -pointed phrase to relieve its dignity, of which we can find no earlier -example without going quite back to Alfonso the Wise and Don Juan -Manuel.</p> - -<hr class="chap0" /> - - -<div class="chapter pt3" id="Ch_1_21"> - <p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_403">[p. 403]</span></p> - <h3>CHAPTER XXI.</h3> - <p class="subh3 hang"><span class="smcap">Family of the - Manriques. — Pedro, Rodrigo, Gomez, and Jorge. — The Coplas of - the Last. — The Urreas. — Juan de Padilla.</span></p> -</div> - -<p><span class="smcap">Contemporary</span> with all the authors we -have just examined, and connected by ties of blood with several -of them, was the family of the Manriques,—poets, statesmen, and -soldiers,—men suited to the age in which they lived, and marked with -its strong characteristics. They belonged to one of the oldest and -noblest races of Castile; a race beginning with the Laras of the -ballads and chronicles.<a id="FNanchor_677" href="#Footnote_677" -class="fnanchor">[677]</a> Pedro, the father of the first two to be -noticed, was among the sturdiest opponents of the Constable Alvaro de -Luna, and filled so large a space in the troubles of the time, that -his violent imprisonment, just before he died, shook the country to -its very foundations. At his death, however, in 1440, the injustice he -had suffered was so strongly felt by all parties, that the whole court -went into mourning for him, and the good Count Haro—the same in whose -hands the honor and faith of the country had been put in pledge a year -before at Tordesillas—came into the king’s presence, and, in a solemn -scene well described by the chronicler of John the Second, obtained for -the children of the deceased<span class="pagenum" id="Page_404">[p. -404]</span> Manrique a confirmation of all the honors and rights of -which their father had been wrongfully deprived.<a id="FNanchor_678" -href="#Footnote_678" class="fnanchor">[678]</a></p> - -<p>One of these children was Rodrigo Manrique, Count of Paredes, a bold -captain, well known by the signal advantages he gained for his country -over the Moors. He was born in 1416, and his name occurs constantly in -the history of his time; for he was much involved, not only in the wars -against the common enemy in Andalusia and Granada, but in the no less -absorbing contests of the factions which then rent Castile and all the -North. But, notwithstanding the active life he led, we are told that he -found time for poetry, and one of his songs, by no means without merit, -which has been preserved to us, bears witness to it. He died in 1476.<a -id="FNanchor_679" href="#Footnote_679" class="fnanchor">[679]</a></p> - -<p>His brother, Gomez Manrique, of whose life we have less distinct -accounts, but whom we know to have been both a soldier and a lover -of letters, has left us more proofs of his poetical studies and -talent. One of his shorter pieces belongs to the reign of John the -Second, and one of more pretensions comes into the period of the -Catholic sovereigns; so that he lived in three different reigns.<a -id="FNanchor_680" href="#Footnote_680" class="fnanchor">[680]</a> -At the request of Count Benevente, he at one time collected what -he had written into a volume, which may still be extant, but has -never been published.<a id="FNanchor_681" href="#Footnote_681" -class="fnanchor">[681]</a> The longest of his works, now known -to exist, is an allegorical poem of twelve hundred lines on the -death of his uncle, the Marquis of Santillana, in which the Seven -Cardinal Virtues, together with Poetry and<span class="pagenum" -id="Page_405">[p. 405]</span> Gomez Manrique himself, appear and mourn -over the great loss their age and country had sustained. It was written -soon after 1458, and sent, with an amusingly pedantic letter, to his -cousin, the Bishop of Calahorra, son of the Marquis of Santillana.<a -id="FNanchor_682" href="#Footnote_682" class="fnanchor">[682]</a> -Another poem, addressed to Ferdinand and Isabella, which is necessarily -to be dated as late as the year 1474, is a little more than half as -long as the last, but, like that, is allegorical, and resorts to the -same poor machinery of the Seven Virtues, who come this time to give -counsel to the Catholic sovereigns on the art of government. It was -originally preceded by a prose epistle, and was printed in 1482, so -that it is among the earliest books that came from the Spanish press.<a -id="FNanchor_683" href="#Footnote_683" class="fnanchor">[683]</a></p> - -<p>These two somewhat long poems, with a few that are much shorter,—the -best of which is on the bad government of a town where he lived,—fill -up the list of what remain to us of their author’s works. They are -found in the Cancioneros printed from time to time during the sixteenth -century, and thus bear witness to the continuance of the regard in -which he was long held. But, except a few passages, where he speaks -in a natural tone, moved by feelings of personal affection, none of -his poetry can now be read with pleasure; and, in some instances, -the Latinisms in which he indulges, misled probably by Juan de Mena, -render the lines where they occur quite ridiculous.<a id="FNanchor_684" -href="#Footnote_684" class="fnanchor">[684]</a></p> - -<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_406">[p. 406]</span>Jorge Manrique -is the last of this chivalrous family that comes into the literary -history of his country. He was the son of Rodrigo, Count of Paredes, -and seems to have been a young man of an uncommonly gentle cast of -character, yet not without the spirit of adventure that belonged to -his ancestors,—a poet full of natural feeling, when the best of those -about him were almost wholly given to metaphysical conceits, and to -what was then thought a curious elegance of style. We have, indeed, a -considerable number of his lighter verses, chiefly addressed to the -lady of his love, which are not without the coloring of his time, -and remind us of the poetry on similar subjects produced a century -later in England, after the Italian taste had been introduced at the -court of Henry the Eighth.<a id="FNanchor_685" href="#Footnote_685" -class="fnanchor">[685]</a> But the principal poem of Manrique the -younger is almost entirely free from affectation. It was written on the -death of his father, which occurred in 1476, and is in the genuinely -old Spanish measure and manner. It fills about five hundred lines, -divided into forty-two <i>coplas</i> or stanzas, and is called, with a -simplicity and directness worthy of its own character, “The Coplas of -Manrique,” as if it needed no more distinctive name.</p> - -<p>Nor does it. Instead of being a loud exhibition of his sorrows, -or, what would have been more in the spirit of the age, a conceited -exhibition of his learning, it is a simple and natural complaint -of the mutability of all earthly happiness; the mere overflowing -of a heart filled with despondency at being brought suddenly to -feel the worthlessness of what it has most valued and pursued. His -father occupies hardly half the canvas of<span class="pagenum" -id="Page_407">[p. 407]</span> the poem, and some of the stanzas devoted -more directly to him are the only portion of it we could wish away. -But we everywhere feel—before its proper subject is announced quite as -much as afterwards—that its author has just sustained some loss, which -has crushed his hopes, and brought him to look only on the dark and -discouraging side of life. In the earlier stanzas he seems to be in the -first moments of his great affliction, when he does not trust himself -to speak out concerning its cause; when his mind, still brooding in -solitude over his sorrows, does not even look round for consolation. He -says, in his grief,—</p> - -<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> -<p class="i0">Our lives are rivers, gliding free</p> -<p class="i0">To that unfathomed, boundless sea,</p> -<p class="i2">The silent grave;</p> -<p class="i0">Thither all earthly pomp and boast</p> -<p class="i0">Roll, to be swallowed up and lost</p> -<p class="i2">In one dark wave.</p> -<p class="i0">Thither the mighty torrents stray,</p> -<p class="i0">Thither the brook pursues its way,</p> -<p class="i2">And tinkling rill.</p> -<p class="i0">There all are equal. Side by side</p> -<p class="i0">The poor man and the son of pride</p> -<p class="i2">Lie calm and still.</p> -</div></div> - -<p>The same tone is heard, though somewhat softened, when he touches -on the days of his youth and of the court of John the Second, already -passed away; and it is felt the more deeply, because the festive scenes -he describes come into such strong contrast with the dark and solemn -thoughts to which they lead him. In this respect his verses fall upon -our hearts like the sound of a heavy bell, struck by a light and gentle -hand, which continues long afterwards to give forth tones that grow -sadder and more solemn, till at last they come to us like a wailing -for those we have ourselves loved and lost. But gradually the movement -changes.<span class="pagenum" id="Page_408">[p. 408]</span> After his -father’s death is distinctly announced, his tone becomes religious and -submissive. The light of a blessed future breaks upon his reconciled -spirit; and then the whole ends like a mild and radiant sunset, -as the noble old warrior sinks peacefully to his rest, surrounded -by his children and rejoicing in his release.<a id="FNanchor_686" -href="#Footnote_686" class="fnanchor">[686]</a></p> - -<p>No earlier poem in the Spanish language, if we except, perhaps, some -of the early ballads, is to be compared with the Coplas of Manrique -for depth and truth of feeling; and few of any subsequent period have -reached the beauty or power of its best portions. Its versification, -too, is excellent; free and flowing, with occasionally an antique air -and turn, that are true to the character of the age that produced it, -and increase its picturesqueness and effect. But its great charm is to -be sought in a beautiful simplicity, which, belonging to no age, is the -seal of genius in all.</p> - -<p>The Coplas, as might be anticipated, produced a<span -class="pagenum" id="Page_409">[p. 409]</span> strong impression from -the first. They were printed in 1492, within sixteen years after -they were written, and are found in several of the old collections a -little later. Separate editions followed. One, with a very dull and -moralizing prose commentary by Luis de Aranda, was published in 1552. -Another, with a poetical gloss in the measure of the original, by -Luis Perez, appeared in 1561; yet another, by Rodrigo de Valdepeñas, -in 1588; and another, by Gregorio Silvestre, in 1589;—all of which -have been reprinted more than once, and the first two many times. -But in this way the modest Coplas themselves became so burdened and -obscured, that they almost disappeared from general circulation, till -the middle of the last century, since which time, however, they have -been often reprinted, both in Spain and in other countries, until -they seem at last to have taken that permanent place among the most -admired portions of the elder Spanish literature, to which their merit -unquestionably entitles them.<a id="FNanchor_687" href="#Footnote_687" -class="fnanchor">[687]</a></p> - -<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_410">[p. 410]</span>The death of -the younger Manrique was not unbecoming his ancestry and his life. -In an insurrection which occurred in 1479, he served on the loyal -side, and pushing a skirmish too adventurously, was wounded and -fell. In his bosom were found some verses, still unfinished, on the -uncertainty of all human hopes; and an old ballad records his fate -and appropriately seals up, with its simple poetry, the chronicle of -this portion, at least, of his time-honored race.<a id="FNanchor_688" -href="#Footnote_688" class="fnanchor">[688]</a></p> - -<p>Another family that flourished in the time of Ferdinand and -Isabella, and one that continued to be distinguished in that of Charles -the Fifth, was marked with similar characteristics, serving in high -places in<span class="pagenum" id="Page_411">[p. 411]</span> the state -and in the army, and honored for its success in letters. It was the -family of the Urreas. The first of the name who rose to eminence was -Lope, created Count of Aranda in 1488; the last was Gerónimo de Urrea, -who must be noticed hereafter as the translator of Ariosto, and as the -author of a treatise on Military Honor, which was published in 1566.</p> - -<p>Both the sons of the first Count of Aranda, Miguel and Pedro, were -lovers of letters; but Pedro only was imbued with a poetical spirit -beyond that of his age, and emancipated from its affectations and -follies. His poems, which he published in 1513, are dedicated to his -widowed mother, and are partly religious and partly secular. Some of -them show that he was acquainted with the Italian masters. Others are -quite untouched by any but national influences; and among the latter -is the following ballad, recording the first love of his youth, when a -deep distrust of himself seemed to be too strong for a passion which -was yet evidently one of great tenderness:—</p> - -<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> -<p class="i0">In the soft and joyous summer-time,</p> -<p class="i2">When the days stretch out their span,</p> -<p class="i0">It was then my peace was ended all,</p> -<p class="i2">It was then my griefs began.</p> -<p class="i0"> </p> -<p class="i0">When the earth is clad with springing grass,</p> -<p class="i2">When the trees with flowers are clad;</p> -<p class="i0">When the birds are building up their nests,</p> -<p class="i2">When the nightingale sings sad;</p> -<p class="i0"> </p> -<p class="i0">When the stormy sea is hushed and still,</p> -<p class="i2">And the sailors spread their sail;</p> -<p class="i0">When the rose and lily lift their heads,</p> -<p class="i2">And with fragrance fill the gale;</p> -<p class="i0"> </p> -<p class="i0">When, burdened with the coming heat,</p> -<p class="i2">Men cast their cloaks aside,</p> -<p class="i0">And turn themselves to the cooling shade,</p> -<p class="i2">From the sultry sun to hide;</p> -<p class="i0"> </p> -<p class="i0"><span class="pagenum" id="Page_412">[p. 412]</span>When no hour like that of night is sweet,</p> -<p class="i2">Save the gentle twilight hour;—</p> -<p class="i0">In a tempting, gracious time like this,</p> -<p class="i2">I felt love’s earliest power.</p> -<p class="i0"> </p> -<p class="i0">But the lady that then I first beheld</p> -<p class="i2">Is a lady so fair to see,</p> -<p class="i0">That, of all who witness her blooming charms,</p> -<p class="i2">None fails to bend the knee.</p> -<p class="i0"> </p> -<p class="i0">And her beauty, and all its glory and grace,</p> -<p class="i2">By so many hearts are sought,</p> -<p class="i0">That as many pains and sorrows, I know,</p> -<p class="i2">Must fall to my hapless lot;—</p> -<p class="i0"> </p> -<p class="i0">A lot that grants me the hope of death</p> -<p class="i2">As my only sure relief,</p> -<p class="i0">And while it denies the love I seek,</p> -<p class="i2">Announces the end of my grief.</p> -<p class="i0"> </p> -<p class="i0">Still, still, these bitterest sweets of life</p> -<p class="i2">I never will ask to forget;</p> -<p class="i0">For the lover’s truest glory is found</p> -<p class="i2">When unshaken his fate is met.<a id="FNanchor_689" href="#Footnote_689" class="fnanchor">[689]</a></p> -</div></div> - -<p>The last person who wrote a poem of any considerable length, and yet -is properly to be included within the old school, is one who, by his -imitations of Dante, reminds us of the beginnings of that school in the -days<span class="pagenum" id="Page_413">[p. 413]</span> of the Marquis -of Santillana. It is Juan de Padilla, commonly called “El Cartuxano,” -or The Carthusian, because he chose thus modestly to conceal his -own name, and announce himself only as a monk of Santa María de -las Cuevas in Seville.<a id="FNanchor_690" href="#Footnote_690" -class="fnanchor">[690]</a> Before he entered into that severe -monastery, he wrote a poem, in a hundred and fifty <i>coplas</i>, called -“The Labyrinth of the Duke of Cadiz,” which was printed in 1493; but -his two chief works were composed afterwards. The first of them is -called “Retablo de la Vida de Christo,” or A Picture of the Life of -Christ; a long poem, generally in octave stanzas of <i>versos de arte -mayor</i>, containing a history of the Saviour’s life, as given by the -Prophets and Evangelists, but interspersed with prayers, sermons, and -exhortations; all very devout and very dull, and all finished, as he -tells us, on Christmas eve in the year 1500.</p> - -<p>The other is entitled “The Twelve Triumphs of the Twelve Apostles,” -which, as we are informed, with the same accuracy and in the same way, -was completed on the 14th of February, 1518; again a poem formidable -for its length, since it fills above a thousand stanzas of nine lines -each. It is partly an allegory, but wholly religious in its character, -and is composed with more care than any thing else its author wrote. -The action passes in the twelve signs of the zodiac, through which -the poet is successively carried by Saint Paul, who shows him, in -each of them, first, the marvels of one of the twelve Apostles; next, -an opening of one of the twelve mouths of the infernal regions; -and lastly, a glimpse of the corresponding division of Purgatory. -Dante is evidently the model of the good monk, however unsuc<span -class="pagenum" id="Page_414">[p. 414]</span>cessful he may be as a -follower. Indeed, he begins with a direct imitation of the opening -of the “Divina Commedia,” from which, in other parts of the poem, -phrases and lines are not unfrequently borrowed. But he has thrown -together what relates to earth and heaven, to the infernal regions -and to Purgatory, in such an unhappy confusion, and he so mingles -allegory, mythology, astrology, and known history, that his work turns -out, at last, a mere succession of wild inconsistencies and vague, -unmeaning descriptions. Of poetry there is rarely a trace; but the -language, which has a decided air of yet elder times about it, is -free and strong, and the versification, considering the period, is -uncommonly rich and easy.<a id="FNanchor_691" href="#Footnote_691" -class="fnanchor">[691]</a></p> - -<hr class="chap0" /> - - -<div class="chapter pt3" id="Ch_1_22"> - <p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_415">[p. 415]</span></p> - <h3>CHAPTER XXII.</h3> - <p class="subh3 hang"><span class="smcap">Prose-writers. — Juan - de Lucena. — Alfonso de la Torre. — Diego de Almela. — Alonso - Ortiz. — Fernando del Pulgar. — Diego de San Pedro.</span></p> -</div> - -<p><span class="smcap">The</span> reign of Henry the Fourth, was more -favorable to the advancement of prose composition than that of John the -Second. This we have already seen when speaking of the contemporary -chronicles, and of Perez de Guzman and the author of the “Celestina.” -In other cases, we observe its advancement in an inferior degree, but, -encumbered as they are with more or less of the bad taste and pedantry -of the time, they still deserve notice, because they were so much -valued in their own age.</p> - -<p>Regarded from this point of view, one of the most prominent -prose-writers of the century was Juan de Lucena; a personage -distinguished both as a private counsellor of John the Second and as -that monarch’s foreign ambassador. We know, however, little of his -history; and of his works only one remains to us,—if, indeed, he wrote -any more. It is a didactic prose dialogue “On a Happy Life,” carried on -between some of the most eminent persons of the age: the great Marquis -of Santillana, Juan de Mena, the poet, Alonso de Cartagena, the bishop -and statesman, and Lucena himself, who acts in part as an umpire in the -discussion, though the Bishop at last ends it by deciding that true -happiness consists in loving and serving God.</p> - -<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_416">[p. 416]</span>The dialogue -itself is represented as having passed chiefly in a hall of the palace, -and in presence of several of the nobles of the court; but it was not -written till after the death of the Constable, in 1453; that event -being alluded to in it. It is plainly an imitation of the treatise of -Boëthius “On the Consolation of Philosophy,” then a favorite classic; -but it is more spirited and effective than its model. It is frequently -written in a pointed, and even a dignified style; and parts of it are -interesting and striking. Thus, the lament of Santillana over the death -of his son is beautiful and touching, and so is the final summing up -of the trials and sorrows of this life by the Bishop. In the midst -of their discussions, there is a pleasant description of a collation -with which they were refreshed by the Marquis, and which recalls, at -once,—as it was probably intended to do,—the Greek Symposia and the -dialogues that record them. Indeed, the allusions to antiquity with -which it abounds, and the citations of ancient authors, which are -still more frequent, are almost always apt, and often free from the -awkwardness and pedantry which mark most of the didactic prose of the -period; so that, taken together, it may be regarded, notwithstanding -the use of many strange words, and an occasional indulgence in -conceits, as one of the most remarkable literary monuments of -the age from which it has come down to us.<a id="FNanchor_692" -href="#Footnote_692" class="fnanchor">[692]</a></p> - -<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_417">[p. 417]</span>To this period, -also, we must refer the “Vision Deleytable,” or Delectable Vision, -which we are sure was written before 1463. Its author was Alfonso de la -Torre, commonly called “The Bachelor,” who seems to have been a native -of the bishopric of Burgos, and who was, from 1437 till the time of his -death, a member of the College of Saint Bartholomew at Salamanca; a -noble institution, founded in imitation of that established at Bologna -by Cardinal Albornoz. It is an allegorical vision, in which the author -supposes himself to see the Understanding of Man in the form of an -infant brought into a world full of ignorance and sin, and educated -by a succession of such figures as Grammar, Logic, Music, Astrology, -Truth, Reason, and Nature. He intended it, he says, to be a compendium -of all human knowledge, especially of all that touches moral science -and man’s duty, the soul and its immortality; intimating, at the end, -that it is a bold thing in him to have discussed such subjects in the -vernacular, and begging the noble Juan de Beamonte, at whose request -he had undertaken it, not to permit a work so slight to be seen by -others.</p> - -<p>It shows a good deal of the learning of its time, and still more of -the acuteness of the scholastic metaphysics then in favor. But it is -awkward and uninteresting in the general structure of its fiction, and -meagre in its style and illustrations. This, however, did not prevent -it from being much read and admired. There is one edition of it without -date, which probably appeared<span class="pagenum" id="Page_418">[p. -418]</span> about 1480, showing that the wish of its author to keep -it from the public was not long respected; and there were other -editions in 1489, 1526, and 1538, besides a translation into Catalan, -printed as early as 1484. But the taste for such works passed away -in Spain as it did elsewhere; and the Bachiller de la Torre was soon -so completely forgotten, that his Vision was not only published by -Dominico Delphino in Italian, as a work of his own, but was translated -back into its native Spanish by Francisco de Caceres, a converted Jew, -and printed in 1663, as if it had been an original Italian work till -then quite unknown in Spain.<a id="FNanchor_693" href="#Footnote_693" -class="fnanchor">[693]</a></p> - -<p>An injustice not unlike the one that occurred to Alfonso de la -Torre happened to his contemporary, Diego de Almela, and for some -time deprived him of the honor, to which he was entitled, of being -regarded as the author of “The Valerius of Stories,”—a book long<span -class="pagenum" id="Page_419">[p. 419]</span> popular and still -interesting. He wrote it after the death of his patron, the wise -Bishop of Cartagena, who had projected such a work himself, and as -early as 1472 it was sent to one of the Manrique family. But though -the letter which then accompanied it is still extant, and though, in -four editions, beginning with that of 1487, the book is ascribed to its -true author, yet in the fifth, which appeared in 1541, it is announced -to be by the well-known Fernan Perez de Guzman;—a mistake which was -discovered and announced by Tamayo de Vargas, in the time of Philip the -Third, but does not seem to have been generally corrected till the work -itself was edited anew by Moreno, in 1793.</p> - -<p>It is thrown into the form of a discussion on Morals, in which, -after a short explanation of the different virtues and vices of men, -as they were then understood, we have all the illustrations the author -could collect under each head from the Scriptures and the history of -Spain. It is, therefore, rather a series of stories than a regular -didactic treatise, and its merit consists in the grave, yet simple and -pleasing, style in which they are told,—a style particularly fitted -to most of them, which are taken from the old national chronicles. -Originally, it was accompanied by “An Account of Pitched Battles”; but -this, and his Chronicles of Spain, his collection of the Miracles of -Santiago, and several discussions of less consequence, are long since -forgotten. Almela, who enjoyed the favor of Ferdinand and Isabella, -accompanied those sovereigns to the siege of Granada, in 1491, as a -chaplain, carrying with him, as was not uncommon at that time among -the higher ecclesiastics, a military retinue to serve in the wars.<a -id="FNanchor_694" href="#Footnote_694" class="fnanchor">[694]</a></p> - -<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_420">[p. 420]</span>In 1493, another -distinguished ecclesiastic, Alonso Ortiz, a canon of Toledo, published, -in a volume of moderate size, two small works which should not be -entirely overlooked. The first is a treatise, in twenty-seven chapters, -addressed, through the queen, Isabella, to her daughter, the Princess -of Portugal, on the death of that princess’s husband, filled with such -consolation as the courtly Canon deemed suitable to her bereavement and -his own dignity. The other is an oration, addressed to Ferdinand and -Isabella, after the fall of Granada, in 1492, rejoicing in that great -event, and glorying almost equally in the cruel expulsion of all Jews -and heretics from Spain. Both are written in too rhetorical a style, -but neither is without merit; and in the oration there are one or two -beautiful and even touching passages on the tranquillity to be enjoyed -in Spain, now that a foreign and hated enemy, after a contest of eight -centuries, had been expelled from its borders,—passages which evidently -came from the writer’s heart, and no doubt found an echo wherever his -words were heard by Spaniards.<a id="FNanchor_695" href="#Footnote_695" -class="fnanchor">[695]</a></p> - -<p>Another of the prose-writers of the fifteenth century, and one -that deserves to be mentioned with more respect than either of the -last, is Fernando del Pulgar.<span class="pagenum" id="Page_421">[p. -421]</span> He was born in Madrid, and was educated, as he himself -tells us, at the court of John the Second. During the reign of Henry -the Fourth, he had employments which show him to have been a person -of consequence; and during a large part of that of Ferdinand and -Isabella, he was one of their counsellors of state, their secretary, -and their chronicler.<a id="FNanchor_696" href="#Footnote_696" -class="fnanchor">[696]</a> Of his historical writings notice has -already been taken; but in the course of his inquiries after what -related to the annals of Castile, he collected materials for another -work, more interesting, if not more important. For he found, as he -says, many famous men whose names and characters had not been so -preserved and celebrated as their merits demanded; and, moved by his -patriotism, and taking for his example the portraits of Perez de Guzman -and the biographies of the ancients, he carefully prepared sketches of -the lives of the principal persons of his own age, beginning with Henry -the Fourth, and confining himself chiefly within the limits of that -monarch’s reign and court.</p> - -<p>Some of these sketches, to which he has given the general title -of “Claros Varones de Castilla,” like those of the good Count Haro<a -id="FNanchor_697" href="#Footnote_697" class="fnanchor">[697]</a> -and of Rodrigo Manrique,<a id="FNanchor_698" href="#Footnote_698" -class="fnanchor">[698]</a> are important for their subjects, while -others, like those of the great ecclesiastics of the kingdom, are now -interesting only for the skill with which they are drawn. The style in -which they are written is forcible and generally concise, showing a -greater tendency to formal elegance than any thing by either Cibdareal -or Guzman, with<span class="pagenum" id="Page_422">[p. 422]</span> -whom we should most readily compare him; but we miss the confiding -naturalness of the warm-hearted physician and the severe judgments -of the retired statesman. The whole series is addressed to his great -patroness, Queen Isabella, to whom, no doubt, he thought a tone of -composed dignity more appropriate than any other.</p> - -<p>As a specimen of his best manner, we may take the following -passage, in which, after having alluded to some of the most remarkable -personages in Roman history, he turns, as it were, suddenly round -to the queen, and thus boldly confronts the great men of antiquity -with the great men of Castile, whom he had already discussed more at -large:—</p> - -<p>“True, indeed, it is, that these great men,—Castilian knights and -gentlemen,—of whom memory is here made for fair cause, and also those -of the elder time, who, fighting for Spain, gained it from the power -of its enemies, did neither slay their own sons, as did those consuls, -Brutus and Torquatus; nor burn their own flesh, as did Scævola; nor -commit against their own blood cruelties which nature abhors and -reason forbids; but rather, with fortitude and perseverance, with wise -forbearance and prudent energy, with justice and clemency, gaining -the love of their own countrymen, and becoming a terror to strangers, -they disciplined their armies, ordered their battles, overcame their -enemies, conquered hostile lands, and protected their own.... So that, -most excellent Queen, these knights and prelates, and many others born -within your realm, whereof here leisure fails me to speak, did, by the -praiseworthy labors they fulfilled, and by the virtues they strove to -attain, achieve unto themselves the name of Famous Men, whereof their -descendants should be above others emulous; while, at the same<span -class="pagenum" id="Page_423">[p. 423]</span> time, all the gentlemen -of your kingdoms should feel themselves called to the same pureness -of life, that they may at last end their days in unspotted success, -even as these great men also lived and died.”<a id="FNanchor_699" -href="#Footnote_699" class="fnanchor">[699]</a></p> - -<p>This is certainly remarkable, both for its style and for the tone of -its thought, when regarded as part of a work written at the conclusion -of the fifteenth century. Pulgar’s Chronicle, and his commentary on -“Mingo Revulgo,” as we have already seen, are not so good as such -sketches.</p> - -<p>The same spirit, however, reappears in his letters. They are -thirty-two in number; all written during the reign of Ferdinand and -Isabella, the earliest being dated in 1473, and the latest only ten -years afterwards. Nearly all of them were addressed to persons of -honorable distinction in his time, such as the queen herself, Henry -the king’s uncle, the Archbishop of Toledo, and the Count of Tendilla. -Sometimes, as in the case of one to the king of Portugal, exhorting him -not to make war on Castile, they are evidently letters of state. But -in other cases, like that of a letter to his physician, complaining -pleasantly of the evils of old age, and one to his daughter, who was a -nun, they seem to be familiar, if not confidential.<a id="FNanchor_700" -href="#Footnote_700" class="fnanchor">[700]</a> On the whole, -therefore, taking all his different works together, we have a very -gratifying exhibition of the character of this ancient servant and -counsellor of Queen Isabella, who, if he gave no considerable impulse -to his age as a writer, was yet in advance of it by the dignity -and elevation of his thoughts and the careless richness of his -style. He died after 1492, and probably before 1500.</p> - -<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_424">[p. 424]</span>We must not, -however, go beyond the limits of the reign of Ferdinand and Isabella, -without noticing two remarkable attempts to enlarge, or at least to -change, the forms of romantic fiction, as they had been thus far -settled in the books of chivalry.</p> - -<p>The first of these attempts was made by Diego de San Pedro, -a senator of Valladolid, whose poetry is found in all the -Cancioneros Generales.<a id="FNanchor_701" href="#Footnote_701" -class="fnanchor">[701]</a> He was evidently known at the court of -the Catholic sovereigns, and seems to have been favored there; -but, if we may judge from his principal poem, entitled “Contempt -of Fortune,” his old age was unhappy, and filled with regrets at -the follies of his youth.<a id="FNanchor_702" href="#Footnote_702" -class="fnanchor">[702]</a> Among these follies, however, he reckons the -work of prose fiction which now constitutes his only real claim to be -remembered. It is called the Prison of Love, “Carcel de Amor,” and was -written at the request of Diego Hernandez, a governor of the pages in -the time of Ferdinand and Isabella.</p> - -<p>It opens with an allegory. The author supposes himself to walk out -on a winter’s morning, and to find in a wood a fierce, savage-looking -person, who drags along an unhappy prisoner bound by a chain. -This savage is Desire, and his victim is Leriano, the hero of the -fiction. San Pedro, from natural sympathy, follows them to the castle -or prison of Love, where, after groping through sundry mystical -passages and troubles, he sees the victim fastened to a fiery seat -and enduring<span class="pagenum" id="Page_425">[p. 425]</span> the -most cruel torments. Leriano tells him that they are in the kingdom -of Macedonia, that he is enamoured of Laureola, daughter of its king, -and that for his love he is thus cruelly imprisoned; all which he -illustrates and explains allegorically, and begs the author to carry -a message to the lady Laureola. The request is kindly granted, and a -correspondence takes place, immediately upon which Leriano is released -from his prison, and the allegorical part of the work is brought to an -end.</p> - -<p>From this time the story is much like an episode in one of the -tales of chivalry. A rival discovers the attachment between Leriano -and Laureola, and making it appear to the king, her father, as a -criminal one, the lady is cast into prison. Leriano challenges her -accuser and defeats him in the lists; but the accusation is renewed, -and, being fully sustained by false witnesses, Laureola is condemned to -death. Leriano rescues her with an armed force and delivers her to the -protection of her uncle, that there may exist no further pretext for -malicious interference. The king, exasperated anew, besieges Leriano in -his city of Susa. In the course of the siege, Leriano captures one of -the false witnesses, and compels him to confess his guilt. The king, -on learning this, joyfully receives his daughter again, and shows all -favor to her faithful lover. But Laureola, for her own honor’s sake, -now refuses to hold further intercourse with him; in consequence of -which he takes to his bed and with sorrow and fasting dies. Here the -original work ends; but there is a poor continuation of it by Nicolas -Nuñez, which gives an account of the grief of Laureola and the return -of the author to Spain.<a id="FNanchor_703" href="#Footnote_703" -class="fnanchor">[703]</a></p> - -<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_426">[p. 426]</span>The style, so -far as Diego de San Pedro is concerned, is good for the age; very -pithy, and full of rich aphorisms and antitheses. But there is no -skill in the construction of the fable; and the whole work only shows -how little romantic fiction was advanced in the time of Ferdinand -and Isabella. The Carcel de Amor was, however, very successful. The -first edition appeared in 1492; two others followed in less than eight -years; and before a century was completed, it is easy to reckon ten, -beside many translations.<a id="FNanchor_704" href="#Footnote_704" -class="fnanchor">[704]</a></p> - -<p>Among the consequences of the popularity enjoyed by the Carcel -de Amor was probably the appearance of the “Question de Amor,” an -anonymous tale, which is dated at the end, 17 April, 1512. It is a -discussion of the question, so often agitated from the age of the -Courts of Love to the days of Garcilasso de la Vega, who suffers most, -the lover whose mistress has been taken from him by death, or the lover -who serves a living mistress without hope. The controversy is here -carried on between Vasquiran, whose lady-love is dead, and Flamiano, -who is rejected and in despair. The scene is laid at Naples and in -other parts of Italy, beginning in 1508, and ending with the battle of -Ravenna and its disastrous consequences, four years later. It is full -of the spirit of the times. Chivalrous games<span class="pagenum" -id="Page_427">[p. 427]</span> and shows at the court of Naples, a -hunting scene, jousts and tournaments, and a tilting-match with reeds, -are all minutely described, with the dresses and armour, the devices -and mottoes, of the principal personages who took part in them. -Poetry, too, is freely scattered through it,—<i>villancicos</i>, <i>motes</i>, -and <i>invenciones</i>, such as are found in the Cancioneros; and, on one -occasion, an entire eclogue is set forth, as it was recited or played -before the court, and, on another, a poetical vision, in which the -lover who had lost his lady sees her again as if in life. The greater -part of the work claims to be true, and some portions of it are known -to be so; but the metaphysical discussion between the two sufferers, -sometimes angrily borne in letters, and sometimes tenderly carried on -in dialogue, constitutes the chain on which the whole is hung, and was -originally, no doubt, regarded as its chief merit. The story ends with -the death of Flamiano from wounds received in the battle of Ravenna; -but the question discussed is as little decided as it is at the -beginning.</p> - -<p>The style is that of its age; sometimes picturesque, but generally -dull; and the interest of the whole is small, in consequence both of -the inherent insipidity of such a fine-spun discussion, and of the -too minute details given of the festivals and fights with which it -is crowded. It is, therefore, chiefly interesting as a very early -attempt to write historical romance; just as the “Carcel de Amor,” -which called it forth, is an attempt to write sentimental romance.<a -id="FNanchor_705" href="#Footnote_705" class="fnanchor">[705]</a></p> - -<hr class="chap0" /> - - -<div class="chapter pt3" id="Ch_1_23"> - <p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_428">[p. 428]</span></p> - <h3>CHAPTER XXIII.</h3> - <p class="subh3 hang"><span class="smcap">The Cancioneros of - Baena, Estuñiga, and Martinez de Burgos. — The Cancionero General - of Castillo. — Its Editions. — Its Divisions, Contents, and - Character.</span></p> -</div> - -<p><span class="smcap">The</span> reigns of John the Second and of -his children, Henry the Fourth and Isabella the Catholic, over which -we have now passed, extend from 1407 to 1504, and therefore fill -almost a complete century, though they comprise only two generations -of sovereigns. Of the principal writers who flourished while they sat -on the throne of Castile we have already spoken, whether they were -chroniclers or dramatists, whether they were poets or prose-writers, -whether they belonged to the Provençal school or to the Castilian. But, -after all, a more distinct idea of the poetical culture of Spain during -this century, than can be readily obtained in any other way, is to be -gathered from the old Cancioneros; those ample magazines, filled almost -entirely with the poetry of the age that preceded their formation.</p> - -<p>Nothing, indeed, that belonged to the literature of the fifteenth -century in Spain marks its character more plainly than these large and -ill-digested collections. The oldest of them, to which we have more -than once referred, was the work of Juan Alfonso de Baena, a converted -Jew, and one of the secretaries of John the Second. It dates, from -internal evidence, between the years 1449 and 1454, and was made, as -the compiler<span class="pagenum" id="Page_429">[p. 429]</span> tells -us in his preface, chiefly to please the king, but also, as he adds, -in the persuasion that it would not be disregarded by the queen, the -heir-apparent, and the court and nobility in general. For this purpose, -he says, he had brought together the works of all the Spanish poets -who, in his own or any preceding age, had done honor to what he calls -“the very gracious art of the <i>Gaya Ciencia</i>.”</p> - -<p>On examining the Cancionero of Baena, however, we find that quite -one third of the three hundred and eighty-four manuscript pages it -fills are given to Villasandino,—who died about 1424, and whom Baena -pronounces “the prince of all Spanish poets,”—and that nearly the -whole of the remaining two thirds is divided among Diego de Valencia, -Francisco Imperial, Baena himself, Fernan Perez de Guzman, and Ferrant -Manuel de Lando; while the names of about fifty other persons, some -of them reaching back to the reign of Henry the Third, are affixed to -a multitude of short poems, of which, probably, they were not in all -cases the authors. A little of it, like what is attributed to Macias, -is in the Galician dialect; but by far the greater part was written -by Castilians, who valued themselves upon their fashionable tone more -than upon any thing else, and who, in obedience to the taste of their -time, generally took the light and easy forms of Provençal verse, -and as much of the Italian spirit as they comprehended and knew how -to appropriate. Of poetry, except in some of the shorter pieces of -Ferrant Lando, Alvarez Gato, and Perez de Guzman, the Cancionero of -Baena contains hardly a trace.<a id="FNanchor_706" href="#Footnote_706" -class="fnanchor">[706]</a></p> - -<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_430">[p. 430]</span>Many similar -collections were made about the same time, enough of which remain -to show that they were among the fashionable wants of the age, -and that there was little variety in their character. Among them -was the Cancionero in the Limousin dialect already mentioned;<a -id="FNanchor_707" href="#Footnote_707" class="fnanchor">[707]</a> -that called Lope de Estuñiga’s, which comprises works of -about forty authors;<a id="FNanchor_708" href="#Footnote_708" -class="fnanchor">[708]</a> that collected in 1464 by Fernan -Martinez de Burgos; and no less than seven others, preserved in the -National Library at Paris, all containing poetry of the middle and -latter part of the fifteenth century, often the same authors, and -sometimes the same poems, that are found in Baena and in Estuñiga.<a -id="FNanchor_709" href="#Footnote_709" class="fnanchor">[709]</a> -They all belong to a state of society in which<span class="pagenum" -id="Page_431">[p. 431]</span> the great nobility, imitating the king, -maintained poetical courts about them, such as that of the Marquis of -Villena at Barcelona, or the more brilliant one, perhaps, of the Duke -Fadrique de Castro, who had constantly in his household Puerto Carrero, -Gayoso, Manuel de Lando, and others then accounted great poets. That -the prevailing tone of all this was Provençal we cannot doubt; but that -it was somewhat influenced by a knowledge of the Italian we know from -many of the poems that have been published, and from the intimations of -the Marquis of Santillana in his letter to the Constable of Portugal.<a -id="FNanchor_710" href="#Footnote_710" class="fnanchor">[710]</a></p> - -<p>Thus far, more had been done in collecting the poetry of the time -than might have been anticipated from the troubled state of public -affairs; but it had been done only in one direction, and even in that -with little judgment. The king and the more powerful of the nobility -might indulge in the luxury of such Cancioneros and such poetical -courts, but a general poetical culture could not be expected to follow -influences so partial and inadequate. A new order of things, however, -soon arose. In 1474, the art of printing was fairly established in -Spain; and it is a striking fact, that the first book ascertained to -have come from the Spanish press is a collection of poems recited -that year by forty different poets contending for a public prize.<a -id="FNanchor_711" href="#Footnote_711" class="fnanchor">[711]</a> No -doubt, such a volume was not compiled on the principle of the elder -manuscript Cancioneros. Still, in some respects, it resembles them, -and in others seems to have been the result of their example. But -however this may be, a collection of poetry was printed at Saragossa, -in 1492, con<span class="pagenum" id="Page_432">[p. 432]</span>taining -the works of nine authors, among whom were Juan de Mena, the younger -Manrique, and Fernan Perez de Guzman; the whole evidently made on the -same principle and for the same purpose as the Cancioneros of Baena -and Estuñiga, and dedicated to Queen Isabella, as the great patroness -of whatever tended to the advancement of letters.<a id="FNanchor_712" -href="#Footnote_712" class="fnanchor">[712]</a></p> - -<p>It was a remarkable book to appear within eighteen years after -the introduction of printing into Spain, when little but the most -worthless Latin treatises had come from the national press; but it was -far from containing all the Spanish poetry that was soon demanded. In -1511, therefore, Fernando del Castillo printed at Valencia what he -called a “Cancionero General,” or General Collection of Poetry; the -first book to which this well-known title was ever given. It professes -to contain “many and divers works of all or of the most notable -Troubadours of Spain, the ancient as well as the modern, in devotion, -in morality, in love, in jests, ballads, <i>villancicos</i>, songs, devices, -mottoes, glosses, questions, and answers.” It, in fact, contains poems -attributed to about a hundred different persons, from the time of the -Marquis of Santillana down to the period in which it was made; most -of the separate pieces being placed under the names of those who were -their authors, or were assumed to be so, while the rest are collected -under the respective titles or divisions just enumerated, which -then constituted the favorite subjects and forms of verse at court. -Of proper order or arrangement, of critical judgment, or tasteful -selection, there seems to have been little thought.</p> - -<p>The work, however, was successful. In 1514, a new<span -class="pagenum" id="Page_433">[p. 433]</span> edition of it appeared; -and before 1540, six others had followed, at Toledo and Seville, -making, when taken together, eight in less than thirty years; a -number which, if the peculiar nature and large size of the work are -considered, can hardly find its parallel, at the same period, in any -other European literature. Later,—in 1557 and 1573,—yet two other -editions, somewhat enlarged, appeared at Antwerp, whither the inherited -rights and military power of Charles the Fifth had carried a familiar -knowledge of the Spanish language and a love for its cultivation. -In each of the ten editions of this remarkable book, it should be -borne in mind, that we may look for the body of poetry most in favor -at court and in the more refined society of Spain during the whole -of the fifteenth century and the early part of the sixteenth; the -last and amplest of them comprising the names of one hundred and -thirty-six authors, some of whom go back to the beginning of the -reign of John the Second, while others come down to the time of the -Emperor Charles the Fifth.<a id="FNanchor_713" href="#Footnote_713" -class="fnanchor">[713]</a></p> - -<p>Taking this Cancionero, then, as a true poetical representative of -the period it embraces, the first thing we observe, on opening it, -is a mass of devotional verse, evidently intended as a vestibule to -conciliate favor for the more secular and free portions that follow. -But it is itself very poor and gross; so poor and so gross, that we -can hardly understand how, at any period, it can have been deemed -religious. Indeed, within a century from the time when the Cancionero -was published, this part of it was already become so offensive to the -Church it had originally served to propitiate, that the whole of<span -class="pagenum" id="Page_434">[p. 434]</span> it was cut out of such -printed copies as came within the reach of the ecclesiastical powers.<a -id="FNanchor_714" href="#Footnote_714" class="fnanchor">[714]</a></p> - -<p>There can be no doubt, however, about the devotional purposes for -which it was first destined; some of the separate compositions being by -the Marquis of Santillana, Fernan Perez de Guzman, and other well-known -authors of the fifteenth century, who thus intended to give an odor of -sanctity to their works and lives. A few poems in this division of the -Cancionero, as well as a few scattered in other parts of it, are in the -Limousin dialect; a circumstance which is probably to be attributed to -the fact, that the whole was first collected and published in Valencia. -But nothing in this portion can be accounted truly poetical, and very -little of it religious. The best of its shorter poems is, perhaps, the -following address of Mossen Juan Tallante to a figure of the Saviour -expiring on the cross:—</p> - -<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> -<p class="i0">O God! the infinitely great,</p> -<p class="i2">That didst this ample world outspread,—</p> -<p class="i6">The true! the high!</p> -<p class="i0">And, in thy grace compassionate,</p> -<p class="i2">Upon the tree didst bow thy head,</p> -<p class="i6">For us to die!</p> -<p class="i0"> </p> -<p class="i0">O! since it pleased thy love to bear</p> -<p class="i2">Such bitter suffering for our sake,</p> -<p class="i6">O Agnus Dei!</p> -<p class="i0">Save us with him whom thou didst spare,</p> -<p class="i2">Because that single word he spake,—</p> -<p class="i6">Memento mei!<a id="FNanchor_715" href="#Footnote_715" class="fnanchor">[715]</a></p> -</div></div> - -<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_435">[p. 435]</span>Next after -the division of devotional poetry comes the series of authors upon -whom the whole collection relied for its character and success when -it was first published; a series, to form which, the editor says, -in the original dedication to the Count of Oliva, he had employed -himself during twenty years. Of such of them as are worthy a separate -notice—the Marquis of Santillana, Juan de Mena, Fernan Perez de -Guzman, and the three Manriques—we have already spoken. The rest are -the Viscount of Altamira, Diego Lopez de Haro,<a id="FNanchor_716" -href="#Footnote_716" class="fnanchor">[716]</a> Antonio de Velasco, -Luis de Vivero, Hernan Mexia, Suarez, Cartagena, Rodriguez del Padron, -Pedro Torellas, Dávalos,<a id="FNanchor_717" href="#Footnote_717" -class="fnanchor">[717]</a> Guivara, Alvarez Gato,<a id="FNanchor_718" -href="#Footnote_718" class="fnanchor">[718]</a> the Marquis of Astorga, -Diego<span class="pagenum" id="Page_436">[p. 436]</span> de San Pedro, -and Garci Sanchez de Badajoz,—the last a poet whose versification -is his chief merit, but who was long remembered by succeeding poets -from the circumstance that he went mad for love.<a id="FNanchor_719" -href="#Footnote_719" class="fnanchor">[719]</a> They all belong to the -courtly school; and we know little of any of them except from hints in -their own poems, nearly all of which are so wearisome from their heavy -sameness, that it is a task to read them.</p> - -<p>Thus, the Viscount Altamira has a long, dull dialogue between -Feeling and Knowledge; Diego Lopez de Haro has another between Reason -and Thought; Hernan Mexia, one between Sense and Thought; and Costana, -one between Affection and Hope;—all belonging to the fashionable class -of poems called moralities or moral discussions, all in one measure -and manner, and all counterparts to each other in grave, metaphysical -refinements and poor conceits. On the other hand, we have light, -amatory poetry, some of which, like that of Garci Sanchez de Badajoz on -the Book of Job, that of Rodriguez del Padron on the Ten Commandments, -and that<span class="pagenum" id="Page_437">[p. 437]</span> of the -younger Manrique on the forms of a monastic profession, irreverently -applied to the profession of love, are, one would think, essentially -irreligious, whatever they may have been deemed at the time they were -written. But in all of them, and, indeed, in the whole series of works -of the twenty different authors filling this important division of the -Cancionero, hardly a poetical thought is to be found, except in the -poems of a few who have already been noticed, and of whom the Marquis -of Santillana, Juan de Mena, and the younger Manrique are the chief.<a -id="FNanchor_720" href="#Footnote_720" class="fnanchor">[720]</a></p> - -<p>Next after the series of authors just mentioned, we have a -collection of a hundred and twenty-six “Canciones,” or Songs, bearing -the names of a large number of the most distinguished Spanish poets and -gentlemen of the fifteenth century. Nearly all of them are regularly -constructed, each consisting of two stanzas, the first with four -and the second with eight lines,—the first expressing the principal -idea, and the second repeating and amplifying it. They remind us, -in some respects, of Italian sonnets, but are more constrained in -their movement, and fall into a more natural alliance with conceits. -Hardly one in the large collection of the Cancionero is easy or -flowing, and the following, by Cartagena, whose name occurs often, -and who was one of the Jewish family that rose so high in the Church -after its conversion, is above the average merit of its class.<a -id="FNanchor_721" href="#Footnote_721" class="fnanchor">[721]</a></p> - -<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> -<p class="i0">I know not why first I drew breath,</p> -<p class="i2">Since living is only a strife,</p> -<p class="i0"><span class="pagenum" id="Page_438">[p. 438]</span>Where I am rejected of Death,</p> -<p class="i2">And would gladly reject my own life.</p> -<p class="i0"> </p> -<p class="i0">For all the days I may live</p> -<p class="i2">Can only be filled with grief;</p> -<p class="i0">With Death I must ever strive,</p> -<p class="i2">And never from Death find relief.</p> -<p class="i0">So that Hope must desert me at last,</p> -<p class="i2">Since Death has not failed to see</p> -<p class="i2">That life will revive in me</p> -<p class="i0">The moment his arrow is cast.<a id="FNanchor_722" href="#Footnote_722" class="fnanchor">[722]</a></p> -</div></div> - -<p>This was thought to be a tender compliment to the lady whose -coldness had made her lover desire a death that would not obey his -summons.</p> - -<p>Thirty-seven Ballads succeed; a charming collection of wild-flowers, -which have already been sufficiently examined when speaking of -the ballad poetry of the earliest age of Spanish literature.<a -id="FNanchor_723" href="#Footnote_723" class="fnanchor">[723]</a></p> - -<p>After the Ballads we come to the “Invenciones,” a form of verse -peculiarly characteristic of the period, and of which we have here -two hundred and twenty specimens. They belong to the institutions -of chivalry, and especially to the arrangements for tourneys and -joustings, which were the most gorgeous of the public amusements known -in the reigns of John the Second and Henry the Fourth. Each knight, -on such occasions, had a device, or drew one for himself by lot; and -to this device or crest a poetical explanation was to be affixed by -himself, which was called an <i>invencion</i>. Some of these posies are -very ingenious; for conceits are here in their place. King John, for -instance, drew a prisoner’s cage for his crest, and furnished for its -motto,—</p> - -<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_439">[p. 439]</span></p> - -<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> -<p class="i0">Even imprisonment still is confessed,</p> -<p class="i2">Though heavy its sorrows may fall,</p> -<p class="i0">To be but a righteous behest,</p> -<p class="i0">When it comes from the fairest and best</p> -<p class="i2">Whom the earth its mistress can call.</p> -</div></div> - -<p>The well-known Count Haro drew a <i>noria</i>, or a wheel over which -passes a rope, with a series of buckets attached to it, that descend -empty into a well and come up full of water. He gave, for his -<i>invencion</i>,—</p> - -<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> -<p class="i0">The full show my griefs running o’er;</p> -<p class="i0">The empty, the hopes I deplore.</p> -</div></div> - -<p>On another occasion, he drew, like the king, an emblem of a -prisoner’s cage, and answered to it by an imperfect rhyme,—</p> - -<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> -<p class="i0">In the gaol which you here behold—</p> -<p class="i0">Whence escape there is none, as you see—</p> -<p class="i0">I must live. What a life must it be!<a id="FNanchor_724" href="#Footnote_724" class="fnanchor">[724]</a></p> -</div></div> - -<p>Akin to the <i>Invenciones</i> were the “Motes con sus Glosas”; mottoes -or short apophthegms, which we find here to the number of above forty, -each accompanied by a heavy, rhymed gloss. The mottoes themselves -are generally proverbs, and have a national and sometimes a spirited -air. Thus, the lady Catalina Manrique took “Never mickle cost but -little,” referring to the difficulty of obtaining her regard, to -which Cartagena answered, with another proverb, “Merit pays all,” and -then explained or mystified both with a tedious gloss. The rest<span -class="pagenum" id="Page_440">[p. 440]</span> are not better, and all -were valued, at the time they were composed, for precisely what now -seems most worthless in them.<a id="FNanchor_725" href="#Footnote_725" -class="fnanchor">[725]</a></p> - -<p>The “Villancicos” that follow—songs in the old Spanish measure, with -a refrain and occasionally short verses broken in—are more agreeable, -and sometimes are not without merit. They received their name from -their rustic character, and were believed to have been first composed -by the <i>villanos</i>, or peasants, for the Nativity and other festivals of -the Church. Imitations of these rude roundelays are found, as we have -seen, in Juan de la Enzina, and occur in a multitude of poets since; -but the fifty-four in the Cancionero, many of which bear the names of -leading poets in the preceding century, are too courtly in their tone, -and approach the character of the <i>Canciones</i>.<a id="FNanchor_726" -href="#Footnote_726" class="fnanchor">[726]</a> In other respects, -they remind us of the earliest French madrigals, or, still more, -of the Provençal poems, that are nearly in the same measures.<a -id="FNanchor_727" href="#Footnote_727" class="fnanchor">[727]</a></p> - -<p>The last division of this conceited kind of poetry collected -into the first Cancioneros Generales is that called “Preguntas,” or -Questions; more properly, Questions and Answers; since it is merely -a series of riddles, with<span class="pagenum" id="Page_441">[p. -441]</span> their solutions in verse. Childish as such trifles may -seem now, they were admired in the fifteenth century. Baena, in the -Preface to his collection, mentions them among its most considerable -attractions; and the series here given, consisting of fifty-five, -begins with such authors as the Marquis of Santillana and Juan de Mena, -and ends with Garci Sanchez de Badajoz, and other poets of note who -lived in the reign of Ferdinand and Isabella. Probably it was an easy -exercise of the wits in extemporaneous verse practised at the court -of John the Second, as we find it practised, above a century later, -by the shepherds in the “Galatea” of Cervantes.<a id="FNanchor_728" -href="#Footnote_728" class="fnanchor">[728]</a> But the specimens of -it in the Cancioneros are painfully constrained; the answers being -required to correspond in every particular of measure, number, and the -succession of rhymes with those of the precedent question. On the other -hand, the riddles themselves are sometimes very simple, and sometimes -very familiar; Juan de Mena, for instance, gravely proposing that -of the Sphinx of Œdipus to the Marquis of Santillana, as if it were -possible the Marquis had never before heard of it.<a id="FNanchor_729" -href="#Footnote_729" class="fnanchor">[729]</a></p> - -<p>Thus far the contents of the Cancionero General date from the -fifteenth century, and chiefly from the middle and latter part of -it. Subsequently, we have a series of poets who belong rather to the -reign of Ferdinand and Isabella, such as Puerto Carrero, the Duke -of Medina Sidonia, Don Juan Manuel of Portugal, Heredia, and a few -others; after which follows, in the early editions, a collection -of what are called “Jests provoking Laughter,”—really, a number of -very gross poems which constitute part of an indecent Cancionero -printed separately at Valencia, several years afterwards, but which -were<span class="pagenum" id="Page_442">[p. 442]</span> soon excluded -from the editions of the Cancionero General, where a few trifles, -sometimes in the Valencian dialect, are inserted, to fill up the -space they had occupied.<a id="FNanchor_730" href="#Footnote_730" -class="fnanchor">[730]</a> The air of this second grand division -of the collection is, however, like the air of that which precedes -it, and the poetical merit is less. At last, near the conclusion of -the editions of 1557 and 1573, we meet with compositions belonging -to the time of Charles the Fifth, among which are two by Boscan, a -few in the Italian language, and still more in the Italian manner; -all indicating a new state of things, and a new development of the -forms of Spanish poetry.<a id="FNanchor_731" href="#Footnote_731" -class="fnanchor">[731]</a></p> - -<p>But this change belongs to another period of the literature of -Castile, before entering on which we must notice a few circumstances -in the Cancioneros characteristic of the one we have just gone over. -And here the first thing that strikes us is the large number of<span -class="pagenum" id="Page_443">[p. 443]</span> persons whose verses are -thus collected. In that of 1535, which may be taken as the average of -the whole series, there are not less than a hundred and twenty. But out -of this multitude, the number really claiming any careful notice is -small. Many persons appear only as the contributors of single trifles, -such as a device or a <i>cancion</i>, and sometimes, probably, never wrote -even these. Others contributed only two or three short poems, which -their social position, rather than their taste or talents, led them -to adventure. So that the number of those appearing in the proper -character of authors in the Cancionero General is only about forty, and -of these not more than four or five deserve to be remembered.</p> - -<p>But the rank and personal consideration of those that throng it are, -perhaps, more remarkable than their number, and certainly more so than -their merit. John the Second is there, and Prince Henry, afterwards -Henry the Fourth; the Constable Alvaro de Luna,<a id="FNanchor_732" -href="#Footnote_732" class="fnanchor">[732]</a> the Count Haro, and -the Count of Plasencia; the Dukes of Alva, Albuquerque, and Medina -Sidonia; the Count of Tendilla and Don Juan Manuel; the Marquises of -Santillana, Astorga, and Villa Franca; the Viscount Altamira, and other -leading personages of their time; so that, as Lope de Vega once said, -“most of the poets of that age were great lords, admirals, constables, -dukes, counts, and kings”;<a id="FNanchor_733" href="#Footnote_733" -class="fnanchor">[733]</a> or, in other words, verse-writing was a -fashion at the court of Castile in the fifteenth century.</p> - -<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_444">[p. 444]</span>This, in fact, -is the character that is indelibly impressed on the collections found -in the old Cancioneros Generales. Of the earliest poetry of the -country, such as it is found in the legend of the Cid, in Berceo, -and in the Archpriest of Hita, they afford not a trace; and if a few -ballads are inserted, it is for the sake of the poor glosses with which -they are encumbered. But the Provençal spirit of the Troubadours is -everywhere present, if not everywhere strongly marked; and occasionally -we find imitations of the earlier Italian school of Dante and his -immediate followers, which are more apparent than successful. The mass -is wearisome and monotonous. Nearly every one of the longer poems -contained in it is composed in lines of eight syllables, divided -into <i>redondillas</i>, almost always easy in their movement, but rarely -graceful; sometimes broken by a regularly recurring verse of only four -or five syllables, and hence called <i>quebrado</i>, but more frequently -arranged in stanzas of eight or ten uniform lines. It is nearly all -amatory, and the amatory portions are nearly all metaphysical and -affected. It is of the court, courtly; overstrained, formal, and cold. -What is not written by persons of rank is written for their pleasure; -and though the spirit of a chivalrous age is thus sometimes brought -out, yet what is best in that spirit is concealed by a prevalent desire -to fall in with the superficial fashions and fantastic fancies that at -last destroyed it.</p> - -<p>But it was impossible such a wearisome state of poetical culture -should become permanent in a country so full of stirring interests -as Spain was in the age that followed the fall of Granada and the -discovery of America. Poetry, or at least the love of poetry, made -progress with the great advancement of the nation under Ferdinand -and Isabella; though the taste of the court in whatever<span -class="pagenum" id="Page_445">[p. 445]</span> regarded Spanish -literature continued low and false. Other circumstances, too, favored -the great and beneficial change that was everywhere becoming apparent. -The language of Castile had already asserted its supremacy, and, -with the old Castilian spirit and cultivation, it was spreading into -Andalusia and Aragon, and planting itself amidst the ruins of the -Moorish power on the shores of the Mediterranean. Chronicle-writing was -become frequent, and had begun to take the forms of regular history. -The drama was advanced as far as the “Celestina” in prose, and the more -strictly scenic efforts of Torres Naharro in verse. Romance-writing -was at the height of its success. And the old ballad spirit—the true -foundation of Spanish poetry—had received a new impulse and richer -materials from the contests in which all Christian Spain had borne -a part amidst the mountains of Granada, and from the wild tales of -the feuds and adventures of rival factions within the walls of that -devoted city. Every thing, indeed, announced a decided movement in the -literature of the nation, and almost every thing seemed to favor and -facilitate it.</p> - -<hr class="chap0" /> - - -<div class="chapter pt3" id="Ch_1_24"> - <p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_446">[p. 446]</span></p> - <h3>CHAPTER XXIV.</h3> - <p class="subh3 hang"><span class="smcap">Spanish Intolerance. — - The Inquisition. — Persecution of Jews and Moors. — Persecution - of Christians for Opinion. — State of the Press in Spain. — - Concluding Remarks on the whole Period.</span></p> -</div> - -<p><span class="smcap">The</span> condition of things in Spain at -the end of the reign of Ferdinand and Isabella seemed, as we have -intimated, to announce a long period of national prosperity. But one -institution, destined soon to discourage and check that intellectual -freedom without which there can be no wise and generous advancement -in any people, was already beginning to give token of its great and -blighting power.</p> - -<p>The Christian Spaniards had, from an early period, been essentially -intolerant. To their perpetual wars with the Moors had been added, -from the end of the fourteenth century, an exasperated feeling against -the Jews, which the government had vainly endeavoured to control, and -which had shown itself, at different times, in the plunder and murder -of multitudes of that devoted race throughout the country. Both races -were hated by the mass of the Spanish people with a bitter hatred: the -first as their conquerors; the last for the oppressive claims their -wealth had given them on great numbers of the Christian inhabitants. -In relation to both, it was never forgotten that they were the enemies -of that cross under which all true Spaniards had for centuries -gone to battle; and of both it was taught by the priesthood,<span -class="pagenum" id="Page_447">[p. 447]</span> and willingly believed -by the laity, that their opposition to the faith of Christ was an -offence against God, which it was a merit in his people to punish.<a -id="FNanchor_734" href="#Footnote_734" class="fnanchor">[734]</a> -Columbus wearing the cord of Saint Francis in the streets of Seville, -and consecrating to wars against misbelief in Asia the wealth he was -seeking in the New World, whose soil he earnestly desired should never -be trodden by any foot save that of a Roman Catholic Christian, was -but a type of the Spanish character in the age when he adopted it.<a -id="FNanchor_735" href="#Footnote_735" class="fnanchor">[735]</a></p> - -<p>When, therefore, it was proposed to establish in Spain the -Inquisition, which had been so efficiently used to exterminate the -heresy of the Albigenses, and which had even followed its victims -in their flight from Provence to Aragon, little serious opposition -was made to the undertaking. Ferdinand, perhaps, was not unwil<span -class="pagenum" id="Page_448">[p. 448]</span>ling to see a power -grow up near his throne with which the political government of the -country could hardly fail to be in alliance, while the piety of the -wiser Isabella, which, as we can see from her correspondence with her -confessor, was little enlightened, led her conscience so completely -astray, that she finally asked for the introduction of the Holy -Office into her own dominions as a Christian benefit to her people.<a -id="FNanchor_736" href="#Footnote_736" class="fnanchor">[736]</a> -After a negotiation with the court of Rome, and some changes in the -original project, it was therefore established in the city of Seville -in 1481; the first Grand Inquisitors being Dominicans and their first -meeting being held in a convent of their order, on the 2d of January. -Its earliest victims were Jews. Six were burned within four days from -the time when the tribunal first sat, and Mariana states the whole -number of those who suffered in Andalusia alone during the first year -of its existence at two thousand, besides seventeen thousand who -underwent some form of punishment less severe than that of the stake;<a -id="FNanchor_737" href="#Footnote_737" class="fnanchor">[737]</a> all, -it should be remembered, being done with the rejoicing assent of the -mass of the people, whose shouts followed the exile of the whole body -of the Jewish race from Spain in 1492, and whose persecution of the -Hebrew blood, wherever found, and however hidden under the disguises -of conversion and baptism, has hardly ceased down to our own days.<a -id="FNanchor_738" href="#Footnote_738" class="fnanchor">[738]</a></p> - -<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_449">[p. 449]</span>The fall of -Granada, which preceded by a few months this cruel expulsion of the -Jews, placed the remains of the Moorish nation no less at the mercy of -their conquerors. It is true, that, by the treaty which surrendered -the city to the Catholic sovereigns, the property of the vanquished, -their religious privileges, their mosques, and their worship were -solemnly secured to them; but in Spain, whatever portion of the soil -the Christians had wrested from their ancient enemies had always been -regarded only as so much territory restored to its rightful owners, -and any stipulations that might accompany its recovery were rarely -respected. The spirit and even the terms of the capitulation of -Granada were, therefore, soon violated. The Christian laws of Spain -were introduced there; the Inquisition followed; and a persecution -of the descendants of the old Arab invaders was begun by their new -masters, which, after being carried on above a century with constantly -increasing crimes, was ended in 1609, like the persecution of the -Jews, by the forcible expulsion of the whole race.<a id="FNanchor_739" -href="#Footnote_739" class="fnanchor">[739]</a></p> - -<p>Such severity brought with it, of course, a great amount of fraud -and falsehood. Multitudes of the followers of Mohammed—beginning with -four thousand whom Cardinal Ximenes baptized on the day when, contrary -to the provisions of the capitulation of Granada, he consecrated the -great mosque of the Albaycin as a Christian temple—were forced to enter -the fold of the Church, without either understanding its doctrines or -desiring to receive its instructions. With these, as with the converted -Jews, the Inquisition was permitted to deal unchecked by the power of -the state. They<span class="pagenum" id="Page_450">[p. 450]</span> -were, therefore, from the first, watched; soon they were imprisoned; -and then they were tortured, to obtain proof that their conversion -was not genuine. But it was all done in secrecy and in darkness. From -the moment when the Inquisition laid its grasp on the object of its -suspicions to that of his execution, no voice was heard to issue from -its cells. The very witnesses it summoned were punished with death or -perpetual imprisonment, if they revealed what they had seen or heard -before its dread tribunals; and often of the victim nothing was known, -but that he had disappeared from his accustomed haunts in society, -never again to be seen.</p> - -<p>The effect was appalling. The imaginations of men were filled with -horror at the idea of a power so vast and so noiseless; one which was -constantly, but invisibly, around them; whose blow was death, but -whose steps could neither be heard nor followed amidst the gloom into -which it retreated farther and farther as efforts were made to pursue -it. From its first establishment, therefore, while the great body of -the Spanish Christians rejoiced in the purity and orthodoxy of their -faith, and not unwillingly saw its enemies called to expiate their -unbelief by the most terrible of mortal punishments, the intellectual -and cultivated portions of society felt the sense of their personal -security gradually shaken, until, at last, it became an anxious object -of their lives to avoid the suspicions of a tribunal which infused into -their minds a terror deeper and more effectual in proportion as it was -accompanied by a misgiving how far they might conscientiously oppose -its authority. Many of the nobler and more enlightened, especially on -the comparatively free soil of Aragon, struggled against an invasion -of their rights whose consequences they partly foresaw. But the powers -of the<span class="pagenum" id="Page_451">[p. 451]</span> government -and the Church, united in measures which were sustained by the passions -and religion of the lower classes of society, became irresistible. The -fires of the Inquisition were gradually lighted over the whole country, -and the people everywhere thronged to witness its sacrifices, as acts -of faith and devotion.</p> - -<p>From this moment, Spanish intolerance, which through the Moorish -wars had accompanied the contest and shared its chivalrous spirit, took -that air of sombre fanaticism which it never afterwards lost. Soon, its -warfare was turned against the opinions and thoughts of men, even more -than against their external conduct or their crimes. The Inquisition, -which was its true exponent and appropriate instrument, gradually -enlarged its own jurisdiction by means of crafty abuses, as well as by -the regular forms of law, until none found himself too humble to escape -its notice, or too high to be reached by its power. The whole land bent -under its influence, and the few who comprehended the mischief that -must follow bowed, like the rest, to its authority, or were subjected -to its punishments.</p> - -<p>From an inquiry into the private opinions of individuals to an -interference with the press and with printed books there was but a -step. It was a step, however, that was not taken at once; partly -because books were still few and of little comparative importance -anywhere, and partly because, in Spain, they had already been subjected -to the censorship of the civil authority, which, in this particular, -seemed unwilling to surrender its jurisdiction. But such scruples were -quickly removed by the appearance and progress of the Reformation of -Luther; a revolution which comes within the next period of the history -of Spanish literature, when we shall find displayed in their broad -practical results<span class="pagenum" id="Page_452">[p. 452]</span> -the influence of the spirit of intolerance and the power of the Church -and the Inquisition on the character of the Spanish people.</p> - - -<p class="mt2">If, however, before we enter upon this new and more -varied period, we cast our eyes back towards the one over which we have -just passed, we shall find much that is original and striking, and -much that gives promise of further progress and success. It extends -through nearly four complete centuries, from the first breathings of -the poetical enthusiasm of the mass of the people down to the decay of -the courtly literature in the latter part of the reign of Ferdinand -and Isabella; and it is filled with materials destined, at last, to -produce such a school of poetry and elegant prose as, in the sober -judgment of the nation itself, still constitutes the proper body of -the national literature. The old ballads, the old historical poems, -the old chronicles, the old theatre,—all these, if only elements, -are yet elements of a vigor and promise not to be mistaken. They -constitute a mine of more various wealth than had been offered, under -similar circumstances and at so early a period, to any other people. -They breathe a more lofty and a more heroic temper. We feel, as we -listen to their tones, that we are amidst the stir of extraordinary -passions, which give the character an elevation not elsewhere to be -found in the same unsettled state of society. We feel, though the -grosser elements of life are strong around us, that imagination is -yet stronger; imparting to them its manifold hues, and giving them a -power and a grace that form a striking contrast with what is wild or -rude in their original nature. In short, we feel that we are called to -witness the first efforts of a generous people to emancipate themselves -from the cold restraints of a<span class="pagenum" id="Page_453">[p. -453]</span> merely material existence, and watch with confidence and -sympathy the movement of their secret feelings and prevalent energies, -as they are struggling upwards into the poetry of a native and earnest -enthusiasm; persuaded that they must, at last, work out for themselves -a literature, bold, fervent, and original, marked with the features -and impulses of the national character, and able to vindicate for -itself a place among the permanent monuments of modern civilization.<a -id="FNanchor_740" href="#Footnote_740" class="fnanchor">[740]</a></p> - - -<div class="chapter pt3" id="Ch_2"> - <hr class="chap" /> - - <p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_455">[p. 455]</span></p> - <p class="centra xl lh150"><span class="large g1">HISTORY</span><br /> - <span class="xs">OF</span><br /> - <span class="g1">SPANISH LITERATURE.</span></p> - - <hr class="tir" /> - - <h2 class="nobreak g2">SECOND PERIOD.</h2> - - <hr class="tir" /> - - <p class="lh135 hang mt1"><span class="smcap">The Literature that - existed in Spain from the Accession of the Austrian Family to its - Extinction, or from the Beginning of the Sixteenth Century to the - End of the Seventeenth.</span></p> - - <hr class="chap" /> -</div> - - -<div class="chapter pt3" id="Ch_2_1"> - <p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_457">[p. 457]</span></p> - <p class="centra xl lh135"><span class="large g1">HISTORY</span><br /> - <span class="xs">OF</span><br /> - <span class="g1">SPANISH LITERATURE.</span></p> - - <hr class="tir" /> - <p class="centra xl g1">SECOND PERIOD.</p> - <hr class="tir" /> - - <h3 class="menos">CHAPTER I.</h3> - <p class="subh3 hang"><span class="smcap">Periods of Literary - Success and National Glory. — Charles the Fifth. — Hopes of - Universal Empire. — Luther. — Contest of the Romish Church - with Protestantism. — Protestant Books. — The Inquisition. — - Index Expurgatorius. — Suppression of Protestantism in Spain. - — Persecution. — Religious Condition of the Country and its - Effects.</span></p> -</div> - -<p><span class="smcap">In</span> every country that has yet obtained -a rank among those nations whose intellectual cultivation is the -highest, the period in which it has produced the permanent body of -its literature has been that of its glory as a state. The reason is -obvious. There is then a spirit and activity abroad among the elements -that constitute the national character, which naturally express -themselves in such poetry and eloquence as, being the result of the -excited condition of the people and bearing its impress, become for all -future exertions a model and standard that can be approached only when -the popular character is again stirred by a similar enthusiasm. Thus, -the age of Pericles naturally followed the great Persian war; the age -of Augustus was that of a uni<span class="pagenum" id="Page_458">[p. -458]</span>versal tranquillity produced by universal conquest; the age -of Molière and La Fontaine was that in which Louis the Fourteenth was -carrying the outposts of his consolidated monarchy far into Germany; -and the ages of Elizabeth and Anne were the ages of the Armada and of -Marlborough.</p> - -<p>Just so it was in Spain. The central point in Spanish history is the -capture of Granada. During nearly eight centuries before that decisive -event, the Christians of the Peninsula were occupied with conflicts -at home, that gradually developed their energies, amidst the sternest -trials and struggles, till the whole land was filled to overflowing -with a power which had hardly yet been felt in the rest of Europe. -But no sooner was the last Moorish fortress yielded up, than this -accumulated flood broke loose from the mountains behind which it had -so long been hidden, and threatened, at once, to overspread the best -portions of the civilized world. In less than thirty years, Charles the -Fifth, who had inherited, not only Spain, but Naples, Sicily, and the -Low Countries, and into whose treasury the untold wealth of the Indies -was already beginning to pour, was elected Emperor of Germany, and -undertook a career of foreign conquest such as had not been imagined -since the days of Charlemagne. Success and glory seemed to wait for him -as he advanced. In Europe, he extended his empire, till it checked the -hated power of Islamism in Turkey; in Africa, he garrisoned Tunis and -overawed the whole coast of Barbary; in America, Cortés and Pizarro -were his bloody lieutenants, and achieved for him conquests more vast -than were conceived in the dreams of Alexander; while, beyond the -wastes of the Pacific, he stretched his discoveries to the Philippines, -and so completed the circuit of the globe.</p> - -<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_459">[p. 459]</span>This was -the brilliant aspect which the fortunes of his country offered -to an intelligent and imaginative Spaniard in the first half of -the sixteenth century.<a id="FNanchor_741" href="#Footnote_741" -class="fnanchor">[741]</a> For, as we well know, such men then looked -forward with confidence to the time when Spain would be the head -of an empire more extensive than the Roman, and seem sometimes to -have trusted that they themselves should live to witness and share -its glory. But their forecast was imperfect. A moral power was at -work, destined to divide Europe anew, and place the domestic policy -and the external relations of its principal countries upon unwonted -foundations. The monk Luther was already become a counterpoise to the -military master of so many kingdoms; and from 1552, when Moritz of -Saxony deserted the Imperial standard, and the convention of Passau -asserted for the Protestants the free exercise of their religion, the -clear-sighted conqueror may himself have understood, that his ambitious -hopes of a universal empire, whose seat should be in the South of -Europe and whose foundations should be laid in the religion of the -Church of Rome, were at an end.</p> - -<p>But the question, where the line should be drawn between the great -contending parties, was long the subject of fierce wars. The struggle -began with the enunciation of Luther’s ninety-five propositions, and -his burning the Pope’s bulls at Wittenberg. It was ended, as far as -it is yet ended, by the peace of Westphalia.<span class="pagenum" -id="Page_460">[p. 460]</span> During the hundred and thirty years that -elapsed between these two points, Spain was indeed far removed from -the fields where the most cruel battles of the religious wars were -fought; but how deep was the interest the Spanish people took in the -contest is plain from the bitterness of their struggle against the -Protestant princes of Germany; from the vast efforts they made to crush -the Protestant rebellion in the Netherlands; from the expedition of the -Armada against Protestant England; and from the interference of Philip -the Second in the affairs of Henry the Third and Henry the Fourth, -when, during the League, Protestantism seemed to be gaining ground in -France;—in short, it may be seen from the presence of Spain and her -armies in every part of Europe, where it was possible to reach and -assail the great movement of the Reformation.</p> - -<p>Those, however, who were so eager to check the power of -Protestantism when it was afar off would not be idle when the danger -drew near to their own homes.<a id="FNanchor_742" href="#Footnote_742" -class="fnanchor">[742]</a> The first alarm seems to have come from -Rome. In March, 1521, Papal briefs were sent to Spain, warning the -Spanish government to prevent the further introduction of books written -by Luther and his followers, which, it was believed, had been secretly -penetrating into the country for about a year. These briefs, it should -be observed, were addressed to the civil administration, which still, -in form at least, kept an entire control over such subjects. But it -was more natural, and more according to the ideas then prevalent in -other countries as well as in Spain, to look to the ecclesias<span -class="pagenum" id="Page_461">[p. 461]</span>tical power for remedies -in a matter connected with religion; and the great body of the -Spanish people seems willingly to have done so. In less than a month, -therefore, from the date of the briefs in question, and perhaps even -before they were received in Spain, the Grand Inquisitor addressed -an order to the tribunals under his jurisdiction, requiring them to -search for and seize all books supposed to contain the doctrines of -the new heresy. It was a bold measure, but it was a successful one.<a -id="FNanchor_743" href="#Footnote_743" class="fnanchor">[743]</a> The -government gladly countenanced it; for, in whatever form Protestantism -appeared, it came with more or less of the spirit of resistance to -all the favorite projects of the Emperor; and the people countenanced -it, because, except a few scattered individuals, all true Spaniards -regarded Luther and his followers with hardly more favor than they did -Mohammed or the Jews.</p> - -<p>Meantime, the Supreme Council, as the highest body in the -Inquisition was called, proceeded in their work with a firm and equal -step. By successive decrees, between 1521 and 1535, it was ordained, -that all persons who kept in their possession books infected with -the doctrines of Luther, and even all who failed to denounce such -persons, should be excommunicated and subjected<span class="pagenum" -id="Page_462">[p. 462]</span> to degrading punishments. This gave -the Inquisition a right to inquire into the contents and character -of whatever books were already printed. Next, they arrogated to -themselves the power to determine what books might be sent to the -press; claiming it gradually and with little noise, but effectually,<a -id="FNanchor_744" href="#Footnote_744" class="fnanchor">[744]</a> and -if, at first, without any direct grant of authority from the Pope or -from the king of Spain, still necessarily with the implied assent of -both, and generally with means furnished by one or the other. At last, -a sure expedient was found, which left no doubt of the process to be -used, and very little as to the results that would follow.</p> - -<p>In 1539, Charles the Fifth obtained a Papal bull authorizing him to -procure from the University of Louvain, in Flanders, where the Lutheran -controversy would naturally be better understood than in Spain, a -list of books dangerous to be introduced into his dominions. It was -printed in 1546, and was the first “Index Expurgatorius” published in -Spain, and the second in the world. Subsequently it was submitted by -the Emperor to the Supreme Council of the Inquisition, under whose -authority additions were made to it; after which it was promulgated -anew in 1550, thus consummating the Inquisitorial jurisdiction over -this great lever of modern progress and civilization,—a jurisdiction, -it<span class="pagenum" id="Page_463">[p. 463]</span> should be noted, -which was confirmed and enforced by the most tremendous of all human -penalties, when, in 1558, Philip the Second ordained the punishments -of confiscation and death against any person who should sell, buy, or -keep in his possession any book prohibited by the Index Expurgatorius -of the Inquisition.<a id="FNanchor_745" href="#Footnote_745" -class="fnanchor">[745]</a></p> - -<p>The contest with Protestantism in Spain, under such auspices, -was short. It began in earnest and in blood about 1559, and was -substantially ended in 1570. At one period, the new doctrine had -made some progress in the monasteries and among the clergy; and -though it never became formidable from the numbers it enlisted, -yet many of those who joined its standard were distinguished by -their learning, their rank, or their general intelligence. But the -higher and more shining the mark, the more it attracted notice and -the more surely it was reached. The Inquisition had already existed -seventy years and was at the height of its power and favor. Cardinal -Ximenes, one of the boldest and most far-sighted statesmen, and one -of the sternest bigots the world ever saw, had for a long period -united in his own person the office of Civil Administrator of Spain -with that of Grand Inquisitor, and had used the extraordi<span -class="pagenum" id="Page_464">[p. 464]</span>nary powers such a -position gave him to confirm the Inquisition at home and to spread it -over the newly discovered continent of America.<a id="FNanchor_746" -href="#Footnote_746" class="fnanchor">[746]</a> His successor was -Cardinal Adrien, the favored preceptor of Charles the Fifth, who filled -nearly two years the places of Grand Inquisitor and of Pope; so that, -for a season, the highest ecclesiastical authority was made to minister -to the power of the Inquisition in Spain, as the highest political -authority had done before.<a id="FNanchor_747" href="#Footnote_747" -class="fnanchor">[747]</a> And now, after an interval of twenty years, -had come Philip the Second, wary, inflexible, unscrupulous, at the head -of an empire on which, it was boasted, the sun never set, consecrating -all his own great energies and all the resources of his vast dominions -to the paramount object of extirpating every form of heresy from the -countries under his control, and consolidating the whole into one grand -religious empire.</p> - -<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_465">[p. 465]</span>Still, the -Inquisition, regarded as the chief outward means of driving the -Lutheran doctrines from Spain, might have failed to achieve its work, -if the people, as well as the government, had not been its earnest -allies. But, on all such subjects, the current in Spain had, from -the first, taken only one direction. Spaniards had contended against -misbelief with so implacable a hatred, for centuries, that the spirit -of that old contest had become one of the elements of their national -existence; and now, having expelled the Jews and reduced the Moors to -submission, they turned themselves, with the same fervent zeal, to -purify their soil from what they trusted would prove the last trace -of heretical pollution. To achieve this great object, Pope Paul the -Fourth, in 1558,—the same year in which Philip the Second had decreed -the most odious and awful penalties of the civil government in aid -of the Inquisition,—granted a brief, by which all the preceding -dispositions of the Church against heretics were confirmed, and the -tribunals of the Inquisition were authorized and required to proceed -against all persons supposed to be infected with the new belief, even -though such persons might be bishops, archbishops, or cardinals, -dukes, princes, kings, or emperors;—a power which, taken in all -its relations, was more formidable to the progress of intellectual -improvement than had ever before been granted to any body of men, -civil or ecclesiastical.<a id="FNanchor_748" href="#Footnote_748" -class="fnanchor">[748]</a></p> - -<p>The portentous authority thus given was at once freely exercised. -The first public <i>auto da fé</i> of Protestants was held at Valladolid -in 1559, and others followed, both there and elsewhere.<a -id="FNanchor_749" href="#Footnote_749" class="fnanchor">[749]</a> -The royal family was occasionally present; several persons of rank -suffered; and<span class="pagenum" id="Page_466">[p. 466]</span> -a general popular favor evidently followed the horrors that were -perpetrated. The number of victims was not large when compared with -earlier periods, seldom exceeding twenty burned at one time, and fifty -or sixty subjected to cruel and degrading punishments; but many of -those who suffered were, as the nature of the crimes alleged against -them implied, among the leading and active minds of their age. Men of -learning were particularly obnoxious to suspicion, since the cause of -Protestantism appealed directly to learning for its support. Sanchez, -the best classical scholar of his time in Spain, Luis de Leon, the -best Hebrew critic and the most eloquent preacher, and Mariana, the -chief Spanish historian, with other men of letters of inferior name and -consideration, were summoned before the tribunals of the Inquisition, -in order that they might at least avow their submission to its -authority, even if they were not subjected to its censures.</p> - -<p>Nor were persons of the holiest lives and the most ascetic tempers -beyond the reach of its mistrust, if they but showed a tendency to -inquiry. Thus, Juan de Avila, known under the title of the Apostle -of Andalusia, and Luis de Granada, the devout mystic, with Teresa de -Jesus and Juan de la Cruz, both of whom were afterwards canonized by -the Church of Rome, all passed through its cells, or in some shape -underwent its discipline. So did some of the ecclesiastics most -distinguished by their rank and authority. Carranza, Archbishop of -Toledo and Primate of Spain, after being tormented eighteen years by -its persecutions, died, at last, in craven submission to its power; -and Cazella, who had been a favorite chaplain of the Emperor Charles -the Fifth, perished in its fires. Even the faith of the principal -personages of the kingdom was inquired into, and, at different -times,<span class="pagenum" id="Page_467">[p. 467]</span> proceedings, -sufficient, at least, to assert its authority, were instituted in -relation to Don John of Austria, and the formidable Duke of Alva;<a -id="FNanchor_750" href="#Footnote_750" class="fnanchor">[750]</a> -proceedings, however, which must be regarded rather as matters of show -than of substance, since the whole institution was connected with the -government from the first, and became more and more subservient to the -policy of the successive masters of the state, as its tendencies were -developed in successive reigns.</p> - -<p>The great purpose, therefore, of the government and the Inquisition -may be considered as having been fulfilled in the latter part of the -reign of Philip the Second,—farther, at least, than such a purpose was -ever fulfilled in any other Christian country, and farther than it is -ever likely to be again fulfilled elsewhere. The Spanish nation was -then become, in the sense they themselves gave to the term, the most -thoroughly religious nation in Europe; a fact signally illustrated in -their own eyes a few years afterward, when it was deemed desirable -to expel the remains of the Moorish race from the Peninsula, and -six hundred thousand peaceable and industrious subjects were, from -religious bigotry, cruelly driven out of their native country, amidst -the devout exultation of the whole kingdom,—Cervantes, Lope de -Vega, and others of the principal men of genius then alive, joining -in the general jubilee.<a id="FNanchor_751" href="#Footnote_751" -class="fnanchor">[751]</a> From this time, the voice of religious -dissent can hardly be said to have been heard in the land; and the -Inquisition, therefore, down to its overthrow in 1808, was chiefly a -political engine, much occupied about cases connected with the policy -of the state, though under the pretence that they were cases of heresy -or unbelief. The great body<span class="pagenum" id="Page_468">[p. -468]</span> of the Spanish people rejoiced alike in their loyalty -and their orthodoxy; and the few who differed in faith from the -mass of their fellow-subjects were either held in silence by their -fears, or else sunk away from the surface of society the moment their -disaffection was suspected.</p> - -<p>The results of such extraordinary traits in the national character -could not fail to be impressed upon the literature of any country, and -particularly upon a literature which, like that of Spain, had always -been strongly marked by the popular temperament and peculiarities. But -the period was not one in which such traits could be produced with -poetical effect. The ancient loyalty, which had once been so generous -an element in the Spanish character and cultivation, was now infected -with the ambition of universal empire, and was lavished upon princes -and nobles who, like the later Philips and their ministers, were -unworthy of its homage; so that, in the Spanish historians and epic -poets of this period, and even in more popular writers, like Quevedo -and Calderon, we find a vainglorious admiration of their country, and a -poor flattery of royalty and rank, that remind us of the old Castilian -pride and deference only by showing how both had lost their dignity. -And so it is with the ancient religious feeling that was so nearly -akin to this loyalty. The Christian spirit, which gave an air of duty -to the wildest forms of adventure throughout the country, during its -long contest with the power of misbelief, was now fallen away into a -low and anxious bigotry, fierce and intolerant towards every thing that -differed from its own sharply defined faith, and yet so pervading and -so popular, that the romances and tales of the time are full of it, and -the national theatre, in more than one form, becomes its strange and -grotesque monument.</p> - -<p>Of course, the body of Spanish poetry and eloquent<span -class="pagenum" id="Page_469">[p. 469]</span> prose produced during -this interval—the earlier part of which was the period of the greatest -glory Spain ever enjoyed—was injuriously affected by so diseased a -condition of the national character. That generous and manly spirit -which is the breath of intellectual life to any people was restrained -and stifled. Some departments of literature, such as forensic -eloquence and eloquence of the pulpit, satirical poetry, and elegant -didactic prose, hardly appeared at all; others, like epic poetry, were -strangely perverted and misdirected; while yet others, like the drama, -the ballads, and the lighter forms of lyrical verse, seemed to grow -exuberant and lawless, from the very restraints imposed on the rest; -restraints which, in fact, forced poetical genius into channels where -it would otherwise have flowed much more scantily and with much less -luxuriant results.</p> - -<p>The books that were published during the whole period on which we -are now entering, and indeed for a century later, bore everywhere -marks of the subjection to which the press and those who wrote for it -were alike reduced. From the abject title-pages and dedications of the -authors themselves, through the crowd of certificates collected from -their friends to establish the orthodoxy of works that were often as -little connected with religion as fairy tales, down to the colophon, -supplicating pardon for any unconscious neglect of the authority of the -Church or any too free use of classical mythology, we are continually -oppressed with painful proofs, not only how completely the human mind -was enslaved in Spain, but how grievously it had become cramped and -crippled by the chains it had so long worn.</p> - -<p>But we shall be greatly in error, if, as we notice these deep marks -and strange peculiarities in Spanish literature, we suppose they were -produced by the direct ac<span class="pagenum" id="Page_470">[p. -470]</span>tion either of the Inquisition or of the civil government of -the country, compressing, as if with a physical power, the whole circle -of society. This would have been impossible. No nation would have -submitted to it; much less so high-spirited and chivalrous a nation as -the Spanish in the reign of Charles the Fifth and in the greater part -of that of Philip the Second. This dark work was done earlier. Its -foundations were laid deep and sure in the old Castilian character. It -was the result of the excess and misdirection of that very Christian -zeal which fought so fervently and gloriously against the intrusion of -Mohammedanism into Europe, and of that military loyalty which sustained -the Spanish princes so faithfully through the whole of that terrible -contest;—both of them high and ennobling principles, which in Spain -were more wrought into the popular character than they ever were in any -other country.</p> - -<p>Spanish submission to an unworthy despotism, and Spanish bigotry, -were, therefore, not the results of the Inquisition and the modern -appliances of a corrupting monarchy; but the Inquisition and the -despotism were rather the results of a misdirection of the old -religious faith and loyalty. The civilization that recognized such -elements presented, no doubt, much that was brilliant, picturesque, and -ennobling; but it was not without its darker side; for it failed to -excite and cherish many of the most elevating qualities of our common -nature,—those qualities which are produced in domestic life, and result -in the cultivation of the arts of peace.</p> - -<p>As we proceed, therefore, we shall find, in the full development -of the Spanish character and literature, seeming contradictions, -which can be reconciled only by looking back to the foundations on -which they both rest. We shall find the Inquisition at the height of -its power,<span class="pagenum" id="Page_471">[p. 471]</span> and a -free and immoral drama at the height of its popularity,—Philip the -Second and his two immediate successors governing the country with the -severest and most jealous despotism, while Quevedo was writing his -witty and dangerous satires, and Cervantes his genial and wise Don -Quixote. But the more carefully we consider such a state of things, the -more we shall see that these are moral contradictions which draw after -them grave moral mischiefs. The Spanish nation, and the men of genius -who illustrated its best days, might be light-hearted because they did -not perceive the limits within which they were confined, or did not, -for a time, feel the restraints that were imposed upon them. What they -gave up might be given up with cheerful hearts, and not with a sense -of discouragement and degradation; it might be done in the spirit of -loyalty and with the fervor of religious zeal; but it is not at all the -less true that the hard limits were there, and that great sacrifices of -the best elements of the national character must follow.</p> - -<p>Of this time gave abundant proof. Only a little more than a century -elapsed before the government that had threatened the world with a -universal empire was hardly able to repel invasion from abroad, or -maintain the allegiance of its own subjects at home. Life—the vigorous, -poetical life which had been kindled through the country in its ages -of trial and adversity—was evidently passing out of the whole Spanish -character. As a people, they sunk away from being a first-rate power -in Europe, till they became one of altogether inferior importance -and consideration; and then, drawing back haughtily behind their -mountains, rejected all equal intercourse with the rest of the world, -in a spirit almost as exclusive and intolerant as that in which they -had<span class="pagenum" id="Page_472">[p. 472]</span> formerly -refused intercourse with their Arab conquerors. The crude and gross -wealth poured in from their American possessions sustained, indeed, -for yet another century the forms of a miserable political existence -in their government; but the earnest faith, the loyalty, the dignity -of the Spanish people were gone; and little remained in their place, -but a weak subserviency to the unworthy masters of the state, and a -low, timid bigotry in whatever related to religion. The old enthusiasm, -rarely directed by wisdom from the first, and often misdirected -afterwards, faded away; and the poetry of the country, which had always -depended more on the state of the popular feeling than any other poetry -of modern times, faded and failed with it.</p> - -<hr class="chap0" /> - - -<div class="chapter pt3" id="Ch_2_2"> - <p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_473">[p. 473]</span></p> - <h3>CHAPTER II.</h3> - <p class="subh3 hang"><span class="smcap">Low State of Letters - about the Year 1500. — Influence of Italy. — Conquests of Charles - the Fifth. — Boscan. — Navagiero. — Italian Forms introduced into - Spanish Poetry. — Garcilasso de la Vega. — His Life, Works, and - Permanent Influence.</span></p> -</div> - -<p><span class="smcap">There</span> was, no doubt, a great decay of -letters and good taste in Spain during the latter part of the troubled -reign of John the Second and the whole of the still more disturbed -period when his successor, Henry the Fourth, sat upon the throne of -Castile. The Provençal school had passed away, and its imitations in -Castilian had not been successful. The earlier Italian influences, -less fertile in good results than might have been anticipated, were -almost forgotten. The fashion of the court, therefore, in the absence -of better or more powerful impulses, ruled over every thing, and a -monotonous poetry, full of conceits and artifices, was all that its own -artificial character could produce.</p> - -<p>Nor was there much improvement in the time of Ferdinand and -Isabella. The introduction of the art of printing and the revival of a -regard for classical antiquity were, indeed, foundations for a national -culture such as had not before been laid; while, at the same time, the -establishment of the University of Alcalá, by Cardinal Ximenes, and -the revival of that of Salamanca, with the labors of such scholars as -Peter Martyr, Lucio Marineo, Antonio de Lebrija, and Arias Barbosa, -could<span class="pagenum" id="Page_474">[p. 474]</span> hardly fail -to exercise a favorable influence on the intellectual cultivation, -if not on the poetical taste, of the country. Occasionally, as we -have seen, proofs of the old energy appeared in such works as the -“Celestina” and the “Coplas” of Manrique. The old ballads, too, and -the other forms of the early popular poetry, no doubt, maintained -their place in the hearts of the common people. But it is not to be -concealed, that, among the cultivated classes,—as the Cancioneros -and nearly every thing else that came from the press in the time of -Ferdinand and Isabella sufficiently prove,—taste was at a very low -ebb.</p> - -<p>The first impulse to a better state of things came from Italy. In -some respects this was unhappy; but there can be little doubt that -it was inevitable. The intercourse between Italy and Spain, shortly -before the accession of Charles the Fifth, had been much increased, -chiefly by the conquest of Naples, but partly by other causes. Regular -interchanges of ambassadors took place between the See of Rome and -the court of Ferdinand and Isabella, and one of them was a son of the -poetical Marquis of Santillana, and another the father of Garcilasso -de la Vega. The universities of Italy continued to receive large -numbers of Spanish students, who still regarded the means of a generous -education at home as inadequate to their wants; and Spanish poets, -among whom were Juan de la Enzina and Torres Naharro, resorted there -freely, and lived with consideration at Rome and Naples. In the latter -city, the old Spanish family of Dávalos—one of whom was the husband of -that Vittoria Colonna whose poetry ranks with the Italian classics—were -among the chief patrons of letters during their time, and kept alive -an intellectual union be<span class="pagenum" id="Page_475">[p. -475]</span>tween the two countries, by which they were equally -claimed and on which they reflected equal honor.<a id="FNanchor_752" -href="#Footnote_752" class="fnanchor">[752]</a></p> - -<p>But besides these individual instances of connection between Spain -and Italy, the gravest events were now drawing together the greater -interests of the mass of the people in both countries, and fastening -their thoughts intently upon each other. Naples, after the treaty of -1503 and the brilliant successes of Gonzalvo de Córdova, was delivered -over to Spain, bound hand and foot, and was governed, above a century, -by a succession of Spanish viceroys, each accompanied by a train of -Spanish officers and dependants, among whom, not unfrequently, we -find men of letters and poets, like the Argensolas and Quevedo. When -Charles the Fifth ascended the throne, in 1516, it was apparent that -he would at once make an effort to extend his political and military -power throughout Italy. The tempting plains of Lombardy became, -therefore, the theatre of the first great European contest entered -into by Spain,—a grand arena, in which, as it proved, much of the fate -of Europe, as well as of Italy, was to be decided by two young and -passionate monarchs, burning with personal rivalship and the love of -glory. In this way, from 1522, when the first war broke out between -Francis the First and Charles the Fifth, to the disastrous battle of -Pavia, in 1525, we may consider the whole disposable force of Spain to -have been transferred to Italy, and subjected, in a remarkable degree, -to the influences of Italian culture and civilization.</p> - -<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_476">[p. 476]</span>Nor did the -connection between the two countries stop here. In 1527, Rome itself -was, for a moment, added to the conquests of the Spanish crown, and -the Pope became the prisoner of the Emperor, as the king of France -had been before. In 1530, Charles appeared again in Italy, surrounded -by a splendid Spanish court, and at the head of a military power that -left no doubt of his mastery. He at once crushed the liberties of -Florence and restored the aristocracy of the Medici. He made peace -with the outraged Pope. By his wisdom and moderation, he confirmed his -friendly relations with the other states of Italy; and, as the seal -of all his successes, he caused himself, in the presence of whatever -was most august in both countries, to be solemnly crowned King of -Lombardy and Emperor of the Romans, by the same Pope whom, three -years before, he had counted among his captives.<a id="FNanchor_753" -href="#Footnote_753" class="fnanchor">[753]</a> Such a state of things -necessarily implied a most intimate connection between Spain and Italy; -and this connection was maintained down to the abdication of the -Emperor, in 1555, and, indeed, long afterwards.<a id="FNanchor_754" -href="#Footnote_754" class="fnanchor">[754]</a></p> - -<p>On the other hand, it should be remembered that Italy was now -in a condition to act with all the power<span class="pagenum" -id="Page_477">[p. 477]</span> of a superior civilization and refinement -on this large body of Spaniards, many of them the leading spirits of -the Empire, who, by successive wars and negotiations, were thus kept -for half a century travelling in Italy and living at Genoa, Milan, and -Venice, Florence, Rome, and Naples. The age of Lorenzo de’ Medici was -already past, leaving behind it the memorials of Poliziano, Boiardo, -Pulci, and Leonardo da Vinci. The age of Leo the Tenth and Clement -the Seventh was contemporary, and had brought with it the yet more -prevalent influences of Michel Angelo, Raffaelle, and Titian, of -Machiavelli, of Berni, of Ariosto, of Bembo, and of Sannazaro; the last -of whom, it is not unworthy of notice, was himself a descendant of one -of those very Spanish families whom the political interests of the two -countries had originally carried to Naples. It was, therefore, when -Rome and Naples, Florence and the North of Italy, were in the maturity -of their glory, as seats of the arts and letters, that no small part -of what was most noble and cultivated in Spain was led across the Alps -and awakened to a perception of such forms and creations of genius and -taste as had not been attempted beyond the Pyrenees, and such as could -not fail to produce their full effect on minds excited, like those -of the whole Spanish people, by the glorious results of their long -struggle against the Moors, and their present magnificent successes -both in America and Europe.</p> - -<p>Visible traces of the influence of Italian literature might, -therefore, from general causes, soon be looked for in the Spanish; but -an accident brings them to our notice somewhat earlier, perhaps, than -might have been anticipated. Juan Boscan, a patrician of Barcelona, -was, as he himself tells us, devoted to poetry from his<span -class="pagenum" id="Page_478">[p. 478]</span> youth. The city to -which he belonged had early been distinguished for the number of -Provençal and Catalonian Troubadours who had flourished in it. But -Boscan preferred to write in the Castilian; and his defection from -his native dialect became, in some sort, the seal of its fate. His -earlier efforts, a few of which remain to us, are in the style of the -preceding century; but at last, when, from the most distinct accounts -we can obtain, he was about twenty-five years old, and when, we are -assured, he had been received at court, had served in the army, and -had visited foreign countries, he was induced, by an accident, to -attempt the proper Italian measures, as they were then practised.<a -id="FNanchor_755" href="#Footnote_755" class="fnanchor">[755]</a></p> - -<p>He became, at that period, acquainted with Andrea Navagiero, -who was sent, in 1524, as ambassador from Venice to Charles the -Fifth, and returned home in 1528, carrying with him a dry, but -valuable, itinerary, which was afterwards published as an account of -his travels. He was a man of learning and a poet, an orator and a -statesman of no mean name.<a id="FNanchor_756" href="#Footnote_756" -class="fnanchor">[756]</a> While in Spain, he spent, during the year -1526, six months at Granada.<a id="FNanchor_757" href="#Footnote_757" -class="fnanchor">[757]</a> “Being with Navagiero there one day,” says -Boscan, “and discoursing with him about matters of wit and letters, -and especially about the different forms they take in different -languages, he asked me why I did not make an experiment in Castilian -of sonnets and the other forms of verse used by good Italian authors; -and not only spoke to me of it thus slightly, but urged me much to do -it. A<span class="pagenum" id="Page_479">[p. 479]</span> few days -afterwards, I set off for my own home; and whether it were the length -and solitariness of the way I know not, but, turning over different -things in my mind, I came often back upon what Navagiero had said to -me. And thus I began to try this kind of verse. At first, I found it -somewhat difficult; for it is of a very artful construction, and in -many particulars different from ours. But afterwards it seemed to -me,—perhaps from the love we naturally bear to what is our own,—that -I began to succeed very well, and so I went on, little by little, -with increasing zeal.”<a id="FNanchor_758" href="#Footnote_758" -class="fnanchor">[758]</a></p> - -<p>This account is interesting and important. It is rare that any -one individual has been able to exercise such an influence on the -literature of a foreign nation as was exercised by Navagiero. It is -still more rare,—indeed, perhaps, wholly unknown, in any case where it -may have occurred,—that the precise mode in which it was exercised can -be so exactly explained. Boscan tells us not only what he did, but what -led him to do it, and how he began his work, which we find him, from -this moment, following up, till he devoted himself to it entirely, and -wrote in all the favorite Italian measures and forms with boldness and -success. He was resisted, but he tells us Garcilasso sustained him; -and from this small beginning in a slight conversation with Navagiero -at Granada, a new school was introduced into Spanish poetry, which has -prevailed in it ever since, and materially influenced its character and -destinies.</p> - -<p>Boscan felt his success. This we can see from his own account of it. -But he made little effort to press his example on others; for he was a -man of fortune and consideration, who led a happy life with his family -at Bar<span class="pagenum" id="Page_480">[p. 480]</span>celona, and -hardly cared for popular reputation or influence. Occasionally, we are -told, he was seen at court; and at one period he had some charge of the -education of that Duke of Alva whose name, in the next reign, became so -formidable. But in general he preferred a life of retirement to any of -the prizes offered to ambition.</p> - -<p>Letters were his amusement. “In what I have written,” he says, -“the mere writing was never my object; but rather to solace such -faculties as I have, and to go less heavily through certain heavy -passages of my life.”<a id="FNanchor_759" href="#Footnote_759" -class="fnanchor">[759]</a> The range of his studies, however, was wider -than this remark might seem to imply, and wider than was common in -Spain at the beginning of the sixteenth century, even among scholars. -He translated a tragedy of Euripides, which was licensed to be -published, but which never appeared in print, and is, no doubt, lost.<a -id="FNanchor_760" href="#Footnote_760" class="fnanchor">[760]</a> -On the basis of the “Hero and Leander” of Musæus, and following the -example of Bernardo Tasso, he wrote, in the <i>versi sciolti</i>, or -blank verse, of the Italians, a tale nearly three thousand lines -long, which may still be read with pleasure, for the gentle and -sweet passages it contains.<a id="FNanchor_761" href="#Footnote_761" -class="fnanchor">[761]</a> And in general, throughout his poetry, -he shows<span class="pagenum" id="Page_481">[p. 481]</span> that -he was familiar with the Greek and Latin classics, and imbued, to a -considerable degree, with the spirit of antiquity.</p> - -<p>His longest work was a translation of the Italian “Courtier” -of Balthazar Castiglione,—the best book on good-breeding, as Dr. -Johnson thought two centuries afterwards, that was ever written.<a -id="FNanchor_762" href="#Footnote_762" class="fnanchor">[762]</a> -Boscan, however, frankly says, that he did not like the business of -translating, which he regarded as “a low vanity, beseeming men of -little knowledge”; but Garcilasso de la Vega had sent him a copy of -the original soon after it was published, and he made this Spanish -version of it, he tells us, “at his friend’s earnest request.”<a -id="FNanchor_763" href="#Footnote_763" class="fnanchor">[763]</a> -Either or both of them may have known its author in the same way Boscan -knew Navagiero; for Castiglione was sent as ambassador of Clement the -Seventh to Spain in 1525, and remained there till his death, which -happened at Toledo, in 1529.</p> - -<p>But however this may have been, the Italian original of the Courtier -was prepared for the press in Spain and first printed in 1528;<a -id="FNanchor_764" href="#Footnote_764" class="fnanchor">[764]</a> -soon after which Boscan<span class="pagenum" id="Page_482">[p. -482]</span> must have made his translation, though it did not appear -till 1540. As a version, it does not profess to be very strict, for -Boscan says he thought an exact fidelity to be unworthy of him;<a -id="FNanchor_765" href="#Footnote_765" class="fnanchor">[765]</a> but, -as a Spanish composition, it is uncommonly flowing and easy. Garcilasso -declares that it reads like an original work;<a id="FNanchor_766" -href="#Footnote_766" class="fnanchor">[766]</a> and Morales, the -historian, says, “The Courtier discourseth not better in Italy, -where he was born, than here in Spain, where Boscan hath exhibited -him so admirably well.”<a id="FNanchor_767" href="#Footnote_767" -class="fnanchor">[767]</a> Perhaps nothing in Castilian prose, of an -earlier date, is written in so classical and finished a style as this -translation by Boscan.</p> - -<p>With such occupations Boscan filled up his unostentatious life. He -published nothing, or very little, and we have no single date to record -concerning him. But, from the few facts that can be collected, it seems -probable he was born before 1500, and we know that he died as early -as 1543; for in that year his works were published at Barcelona, by -his widow, under a license from the Emperor Charles the Fifth, with a -Preface, in which she says her husband had partly prepared them for the -press, because he feared they would be printed from some of the many -imperfect copies that had gone into circulation without his consent.</p> - -<p>They are divided into four books. The first consists of a small -number of poems in what are called <i>coplas Españolas</i>, or what he -himself elsewhere terms “the<span class="pagenum" id="Page_483">[p. -483]</span> Castilian manner.” These are his early efforts, made -before his acquaintance with Navagiero. They are <i>villancicos</i>, -<i>canciones</i>, and <i>coplas</i>, in the short national verses, and seem as -if they might have come out of the old Cancioneros, in which, indeed, -two of them are to be found.<a id="FNanchor_768" href="#Footnote_768" -class="fnanchor">[768]</a> Their merit is not great; but, amidst -their ingenious conceits, there is sometimes a happiness and grace of -expression rarely granted to the poets of the same school in that or -the preceding century.</p> - -<p>The second and third books, constituting by far the larger part of -the volume, are composed entirely of poems in the Italian measure. -They consist of ninety-three sonnets and nine <i>canzones</i>; the long -poem on Hero and Leander, in blank verse, already mentioned; an elegy -and two didactic epistles, in <i>terza rima</i>; and a half-narrative, -half-allegorical poem, in one hundred and thirty-five octave stanzas. -It is not necessary to go beyond such a mere enumeration of the -contents of these two books to learn, that, at least so far as their -forms are concerned, they have nothing to do with the elder national -Castilian poetry. The sonnets and the <i>canzones</i> especially are -obvious imitations of Petrarch, as we can see in the case of the two -beginning, “Gentil Señora mia,” and “Claros y frescos rios,” which are -largely indebted to two of the most beautiful and best-known <i>canzones</i> -of the lover of Laura.<a id="FNanchor_769" href="#Footnote_769" -class="fnanchor">[769]</a> In most of these poems, however, and amidst -a good deal of hardness of manner, a Spanish tone and spirit are -perceptible, which rescue them, in a great degree, from the imputation -of being copies. Boscan’s colors are here laid<span class="pagenum" -id="Page_484">[p. 484]</span> on with a bolder hand than those of -his Italian master, and there is an absence of that delicate and -exact finish, both in language and style, which, however charming -in his models, would hardly be possible in the most skilful Spanish -imitations.</p> - -<p>The elegy, which is merely entitled “Capitolo,” has more conceits -and learning in it than become its subject, and approaches nearer to -Boscan’s first manner than any of his later poems. It is addressed -to his lady-love; but, notwithstanding its defects, it contains long -passages of tenderness and simple beauty that will always be read with -pleasure. Of the two epistles, the first is poor and affected; but that -addressed to the old statesman, poet, and soldier, Diego de Mendoza, -is much in the tone and manner of Horace,—acute, genial, and full of -philosophy.</p> - -<p>But the most agreeable and original of Boscan’s works is the last -of them all,—“The Allegory.” It opens with a gorgeous description of -the Court of Love, and with the truly Spanish idea of a corresponding -and opposing Court of Jealousy; but almost the whole of the rest -consists of an account of the embassy of two messengers from the first -of these courts to two ladies of Barcelona who had refused to come -beneath its empire, and to persuade whom to submission a speech of -the ambassador is given that fills nearly half the poem, and ends it -somewhat abruptly. No doubt, the whole was intended as a compliment -to the two ladies, in which the story is of little consequence. But -it is a pleasing and airy trifle, in which its author has sometimes -happily hit the tone of Ariosto, and at other times reminds us of the -Island of Love in the “Lusiad,” though Boscan preceded Camoens by many -years. Occasionally, too, he has a moral delicacy, more refined than -Petrarch’s, though<span class="pagenum" id="Page_485">[p. 485]</span> -perhaps suggested by that of the great Italian; such a delicacy as he -shows in the following stanza, and two or three preceding and following -it, in which the ambassador of Love exhorts the two ladies of Barcelona -to submit to his authority, by urging on them the happiness of a union -founded in a genuine sympathy of tastes and feeling:—</p> - -<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> -<p class="i0">For is it not a happiness most pure,</p> -<p class="i2">That two fond hearts can thus together melt,</p> -<p class="i0">And each the other’s sorrows all endure,</p> -<p class="i2">While still their joys as those of one are felt;</p> -<p class="i0">Even causeless anger of support secure,</p> -<p class="i2">And pardons causeless in one spirit dealt;</p> -<p class="i0">That so their loves, though fickle all and strange,</p> -<p class="i0">May, in their thousand changes, still together change?<a id="FNanchor_770" href="#Footnote_770" class="fnanchor">[770]</a></p> -</div></div> - -<p>Boscan might, probably, have done more for the literature of his -country than he did. His poetical talents were not, indeed, of the -highest order; but he perceived the degradation into which Spanish -poetry had fallen, and was persuaded that the way to raise it again -was to give it an ideal character and classical forms such as it had -not yet known. But to accomplish this, he adopted a standard not -formed on the intimations of the national genius. He took for his -models foreign masters, who, though more advanced than any he could -find at home, were yet entitled to supremacy in no literature but -their own, and could never constitute a safe foundation whereon to -build a great and permanent school of Spanish poetry. Entire success, -therefore, was impossible to him. He was able to establish in Spain -the Italian eleven-syllable and iambic versification; the sonnet<span -class="pagenum" id="Page_486">[p. 486]</span> and <i>canzone</i>, as -settled by Petrarch; Dante’s <i>terza rima</i>;<a id="FNanchor_771" -href="#Footnote_771" class="fnanchor">[771]</a> and Boccaccio’s and -Ariosto’s flowing octaves;—all in better taste than any thing among the -poets of his time and country, and all of them important additions to -the forms of verse before known in Spain. But he could go no farther. -The original and essential spirit of Italian poetry could no more be -transplanted to Castile or Catalonia than to Germany or England.</p> - -<p>But whatever were his purposes and plans for the advancement of -the literature of his country, Boscan lived long enough to see them -fulfilled, so far as they were ever destined to be; for he had a friend -who cooperated with him in all of them from the first, and who, with -a happier genius, easily surpassed him, and carried the best forms of -Italian verse to a height they never afterwards reached in Spanish -poetry. This friend was Garcilasso de la Vega, who yet died so young, -that Boscan survived him several years.</p> - -<p>Garcilasso was descended from an ancient family in the North of -Spain, who traced back their ancestry to the age of the Cid, and who, -from century to century, had been distinguished by holding some of -the highest places in the government of Castile.<a id="FNanchor_772" -href="#Footnote_772" class="fnanchor">[772]</a> A poetical tradition -says, that one of his forefathers obtained the name of “Vega” or -Plain, and the motto of “Ave Maria” for<span class="pagenum" -id="Page_487">[p. 487]</span> his family arms, from the circumstance, -that, during one of the sieges of Granada, he slew outright, before -the face of both armies, a Moorish champion who had publicly insulted -the Christian faith by dragging a banner inscribed with “Ave Maria” -at his horse’s heels,—a tradition faithfully preserved in a fine old -ballad, and forming the catastrophe of one of Lope de Vega’s plays.<a -id="FNanchor_773" href="#Footnote_773" class="fnanchor">[773]</a> But -whether all this be true or not, Garcilasso bore a name honored on both -sides of his house; for his mother was daughter and sole heir of Fernan -Perez de Guzman, and his father was the ambassador of the Catholic -sovereigns at Rome in relation to the troublesome affairs of Naples.</p> - -<p>He was born at Toledo in 1503, and was educated there till he -reached an age suitable for bearing arms. Then, as became his rank -and pretensions, he was sent to court, and received his place in the -armies that were already gaining so much glory for their country. When -he was about twenty-seven years old, he married an Aragonese lady -attached to the court of Eleanor, widow of the king of Portugal, who, -in 1530, was in Spain on her way to become queen of France. From this -time he seems to have been constantly in the wars which the Emperor was -carrying on in all directions, and to have been much trusted by him, -though his elder brother, Pedro, had been implicated in the trou<span -class="pagenum" id="Page_488">[p. 488]</span>bles of the <i>Comunidades</i>, -and compelled to escape from Spain as an outlawed rebel.<a -id="FNanchor_774" href="#Footnote_774" class="fnanchor">[774]</a></p> - -<p>In 1532 Garcilasso was at Vienna, and among those who distinguished -themselves in the defeat of the Turkish expedition of Soliman, which -that great sultan pushed to the very gates of the city. But while -he was there, he was himself involved in trouble. He undertook to -promote the marriage of one of his nephews with a lady of the Imperial -household; and, urging his project against the pleasure of the -Empress, not only failed, but was cast into prison on an island in -the Danube, where he wrote the melancholy lines on his own desolation -and on the beauty of the adjacent country, which pass as the third -<i>Cancion</i> in his works.<a id="FNanchor_775" href="#Footnote_775" -class="fnanchor">[775]</a> The progress of events, however, not only -soon brought his release, but raised him into higher favor than -ever. In 1535 he was at the siege of Tunis,—when Charles the Fifth -attempted to crush the Barbary powers by a single blow,—and there -received two severe wounds, one on his head and the other in his arm.<a -id="FNanchor_776" href="#Footnote_776" class="fnanchor">[776]</a> -His return to Spain is recorded in an elegy, written at the foot of -Mount Ætna, and indicating that he came back by the way of Naples; -a city which, from another poem addressed to Boscan, he seems to -have visited once before.<a id="FNanchor_777" href="#Footnote_777" -class="fnanchor">[777]</a> At any rate, we know, though his present -visit to Italy was a short one, that he was there, at some period, long -enough to win the personal esteem and regard of Bembo and Tansillo.<a -id="FNanchor_778" href="#Footnote_778" class="fnanchor">[778]</a></p> - -<p>The very next year, however,—the last of his short life,—we -find him again at the court of the Emperor,<span class="pagenum" -id="Page_489">[p. 489]</span> and engaged in the disastrous expedition -into Provence. The army had already passed through the difficulties -and dangers of the siege of Marseilles, and was fortunate enough -not to be pursued by the cautious Constable de Montmorenci. But as -they approached the town of Frejus, a small castle, on a commanding -hill, defended by only fifty of the neighbouring peasantry, offered -a serious annoyance to their farther passage. The Emperor ordered -the slight obstacle to be swept from his path. Garcilasso, who had -now a considerable command, advanced gladly to execute the Imperial -requisition. He knew that the eyes of the Emperor, and indeed those of -the whole army, were upon him; and, in the true spirit of knighthood, -he was the first to mount the wall. But a well-directed stone -precipitated him into the ditch beneath. The wound, which was on his -head, proved mortal, and he died a few days afterwards, at Nice, in -1536, only thirty-three years old. His fate is recorded by Mariana, -Sandoval, and the other national historians, among the important -events of the time; and the Emperor, we are told, basely avenged it by -putting to death all the survivors of the fifty peasantry, who had done -no more than bravely defend their homes against a foreign invader.<a -id="FNanchor_779" href="#Footnote_779" class="fnanchor">[779]</a></p> - -<p>In a life so short and so crowded with cares and adventures we -should hardly expect to find leisure for poetry. But, as he describes -himself in his third Eclogue, Garcilasso seems to have hurried through -the world,</p> - -<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_490">[p. 490]</span></p> - -<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> -<p class="i0">Now seizing on the sword, and now the pen;<a id="FNanchor_780" href="#Footnote_780" class="fnanchor">[780]</a></p> -</div></div> - -<p class="ti0">so that he still left a small collection of poems, which -the faithful widow of Boscan, finding among her husband’s papers, -published at the end of his works as a Fourth Book, and has thus -rescued what would otherwise probably have been lost. Their character -is singular, considering the circumstances under which they were -written; for, instead of betraying any of the spirit that governed the -main course of their author’s adventurous life and brought him to an -early grave, they are remarkable for their gentleness and melancholy, -and their best portions are in a pastoral tone breathing the very -sweetness of the fabulous ages of Arcadia. When he wrote most of them -we have no means of determining with exactness. But with the exception -of three or four trifles that appear mingled with other similar trifles -in the first book of Boscan’s works, all Garcilasso’s poems are in the -Italian forms, which we know were first adopted, with his coöperation, -in 1526; so that we must, at any rate, place them in the ten years -between this date and that of his death.</p> - -<p>They consist of thirty-seven sonnets, five <i>canzones</i>, two elegies, -an epistle in <i>versi sciolti</i> less grave than the rest of his poetry, -and three pastorals; the pastorals constituting more than half of all -the verse he wrote. The air of the whole is Italian. He has imitated -Petrarch, Bembo, Ariosto, and especially Sannazaro, to whom he has -once or twice been indebted for pages together; turning, however, -from time to time, reverently to the greater ancient masters, Virgil -and Theocritus, and acknowledging their supremacy. Where the Italian -tone most prevails, something of the poetical spirit which<span -class="pagenum" id="Page_491">[p. 491]</span> should sustain him is -lost. But, after all, Garcilasso was a poet of no common genius. We see -it sometimes even in the strictest of his imitations; but it reveals -itself much more distinctly when, as in the first Eclogue, he uses as -servants the masters to whom he elsewhere devotes himself, and writes -only like a Spaniard, warm with the peculiar national spirit of his -country.</p> - -<p>This first Eclogue is, in truth, the best of his works. It is -beautiful in the simplicity of its structure, and beautiful in its -poetical execution. It was probably written at Naples. It opens with -an address to the father of the famous Duke of Alva, then viceroy -of that principality, calling upon him, in the most artless manner, -to listen to the complaints of two shepherds, the first mourning -the faithlessness of a mistress, and the other the death of one. -Salicio, who represents Garcilasso, then begins; and when he has -entirely finished, but not before, he is answered by Nemoroso, -whose name indicates that he represents Boscan.<a id="FNanchor_781" -href="#Footnote_781" class="fnanchor">[781]</a> The whole closes -naturally and gracefully with a description of the approach of evening. -It is, therefore, not properly a dialogue, any more than the eighth -Eclogue of Virgil. On the contrary, except the lines at the opening and -the conclusion, it might be regarded as two separate elegies, in which -the pastoral tone is uncommonly well preserved, and each of which, -by its divisions and arrangements, is made to resemble an Italian -<i>canzone</i>. An air of freshness and even originality is thus given to -the structure of the entire pastoral, while, at the same time, the -melancholy, but glowing, passion that breathes through it renders it in -a high degree poetical.</p> - -<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_492">[p. 492]</span>In the first -part, where Salicio laments the unfaithfulness of his mistress, there -is a happy preservation of the air of pastoral life by a constant, and -yet not forced, allusion to natural scenery and rural objects, as in -the following passage:—</p> - -<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> -<p class="i0">For thee, the silence of the shady wood</p> -<p class="i0">I loved; for thee, the secret mountain-top,</p> -<p class="i0">Which dwells apart, glad in its solitude;</p> -<p class="i0">For thee, I loved the verdant grass, the wind</p> -<p class="i0">That breathed so fresh and cool, the lily pale,</p> -<p class="i0">The blushing rose, and all the fragrant treasures</p> -<p class="i0">Of the opening spring! But, O! how far</p> -<p class="i0">From all I thought, from all I trusted, amidst</p> -<p class="i0">Loving scenes like these, was that dark falsehood</p> -<p class="i0">That lay hid within thy treacherous heart!<a id="FNanchor_782" href="#Footnote_782" class="fnanchor">[782]</a></p> -</div></div> - -<p>The other division of the Eclogue contains passages that remind us -both of Milton’s “Lycidas” and of the ancients whom Milton imitated. -Thus, in the following lines, where the opening idea is taken from -a well-known passage in the Odyssey, the conclusion is not unworthy -of the thought that precedes it, and adds a new charm to what so -many poets since Homer had rendered familiar:<a id="FNanchor_783" -href="#Footnote_783" class="fnanchor">[783]</a>—</p> - -<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> -<p class="i0">And as the nightingale that hides herself</p> -<p class="i0">Amidst the sheltering leaves, and sorrows there,</p> -<p class="i0">Because the unfeeling hind, with cruel craft,</p> -<p class="i0">Hath stole away her unfledged offspring dear,—</p> -<p class="i0">Stole them from out the nest that was their home,</p> -<p class="i0">While she was absent from the bough she loved,—</p> -<p class="i0">And pours her grief in sweetest melody,</p> -<p class="i0">Filling the air with passionate complaint,</p> -<p class="i0"><span class="pagenum" id="Page_493">[p. 493]</span>Amidst the silence of the gloomy night,</p> -<p class="i0">Calling on heaven and heaven’s pure stars</p> -<p class="i0">To witness her great wrong;—so I am yielded up</p> -<p class="i0">To misery, and mourn, in vain, that Death</p> -<p class="i0">Should thrust his hand into my inmost heart,</p> -<p class="i0">And bear away, as from its nest and home,</p> -<p class="i0">The love I cherished with unceasing care!<a id="FNanchor_784" href="#Footnote_784" class="fnanchor">[784]</a></p> -</div></div> - -<p>Garcilasso’s versification is uncommonly sweet, and well suited to -the tender and sad character of his poetry. In his second Eclogue, -he has tried the singular experiment of making the rhyme often, not -between the ends of two lines, but between the end of one and the -middle of the next. It was not, however, successful. Cervantes has -imitated it, and so have one or two others; but wherever the rhyme is -quite obvious, the effect is not good, and where it is little noticed, -the lines take rather the character of blank verse.<a id="FNanchor_785" -href="#Footnote_785" class="fnanchor">[785]</a> In general, however, -Garcilasso’s harmony can hardly be improved; at least, not without -injuring his versification in particulars yet more important.</p> - -<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_494">[p. 494]</span>His poems had -a great success from the moment they appeared. There was a grace -and an elegance about them of which Boscan may in part have set the -example, but which Boscan was never able to reach. The Spaniards who -came back from Rome and Naples were delighted to find at home what -had so much charmed them in their campaigns and wanderings in Italy; -and Garcilasso’s poems were proudly reprinted wherever the Spanish -arms and influence extended. They received, too, other honors. In less -than half a century from their first appearance, Francisco Sanchez, -commonly called “El Brocense,” the most learned Spaniard of his age, -added a commentary to them, which has still some value. A little -later, Herrera, the lyric poet, published them, with a series of notes -yet more ample, in which, amidst much that is useless, interesting -details may be found, for which he was indebted to Puerto Carrero, the -poet’s son-in-law. And early in the next century, Tamayo de Vargas -again encumbered the whole with a new mass of unprofitable learning.<a -id="FNanchor_786" href="#Footnote_786" class="fnanchor">[786]</a> Such -distinctions, however, constituted, even when they were fresh, little -of<span class="pagenum" id="Page_495">[p. 495]</span> Garcilasso’s -real glory, which rested on the safer foundations of a genuine and -general regard. His poetry, from the first, sunk deep into the hearts -of his countrymen. His sonnets were heard everywhere; his eclogues were -acted like popular dramas.<a id="FNanchor_787" href="#Footnote_787" -class="fnanchor">[787]</a> The greatest geniuses of his nation express -for him a reverence they show to none of their predecessors. Lope de -Vega imitates him in every possible way; Cervantes praises him more -than he does any other poet, and cites him oftener.<a id="FNanchor_788" -href="#Footnote_788" class="fnanchor">[788]</a> And thus Garcilasso -has come down to us enjoying a general national admiration, such as is -given to hardly any other Spanish poet, and to none that lived before -his time.</p> - -<p>That it would have been better for himself and for the literature -of his country, if he had drawn more from the elements of the earlier -national character, and imitated less the great Italian masters he -justly admired, can hardly be doubted. It would have given a freer -and more generous movement to his poetical genius, and opened to -him a range of subjects and forms of composition, from which, by -rejecting the example of the national poets that had gone before -him, he excluded himself.<a id="FNanchor_789" href="#Footnote_789" -class="fnanchor">[789]</a> But he deliberately decided otherwise; -and<span class="pagenum" id="Page_496">[p. 496]</span> his great -success, added to that of Boscan, introduced into Spain an Italian -school of poetry which has been an important part of Spanish -literature ever since.<a id="FNanchor_790" href="#Footnote_790" -class="fnanchor">[790]</a></p> - -<hr class="chap0" /> - - -<div class="chapter pt3" id="Ch_2_3"> - <p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_497">[p. 497]</span></p> - <h3>CHAPTER III.</h3> - <p class="subh3 hang"><span class="smcap">Imitations of the - Italian Manner. — Acuña. — Cetina. — Opposition to it. — - Castillejo. — Antonio de Villegas. — Silvestre. — Discussions - concerning it. — Argote de Molina. — Montalvo. — Lope de Vega. — - Its Final Success.</span></p> -</div> - -<p><span class="smcap">The</span> example set by Boscan and Garcilasso -was so well suited to the spirit and demands of the age, that it became -as much a fashion, at the court of Charles the Fifth, to write in the -Italian manner as it did to travel in Italy or make a military campaign -there. Among those who earliest adopted the forms of Italian verse -was Fernando de Acuña, a gentleman belonging to a noble Portuguese -family, but born in Madrid and writing only in Spanish. He served in -Flanders, in Italy, and in Africa; and after the conquest of Tunis, -in 1535, a mutiny having occurred in its garrison, he was sent there -by the Emperor, with unlimited authority to punish or to pardon those -implicated in it; a difficult mission, whose duties he fulfilled with -great discretion and with an honorable generosity.</p> - -<p>In other respects, too, Acuña was treated with peculiar confidence. -Charles the Fifth—as we learn from the familiar correspondence -of Van Male, a poor scholar and gentleman who slept often in his -bed-chamber and nursed him in his infirmities—amused the fretfulness -of a premature old age, under which his proud spirit constantly -chafed, by making a translation into Spanish<span class="pagenum" -id="Page_498">[p. 498]</span> prose of a French poem then much in -vogue and favor,—the “Chevalier Délibéré.” Its author, Olivier de la -Marche, was long attached to the service of Mary of Burgundy, the -Emperor’s grandmother, and had made, in the Chevalier Délibéré, an -allegorical show of the events in the life of her father, so flattering -as to render his picture an object of general admiration at the time -when Charles was educated at her brilliant court.<a id="FNanchor_791" -href="#Footnote_791" class="fnanchor">[791]</a> But the great Emperor, -though his prose version of the pleasant reading of his youth is said -to have been prepared with more skill and success than might have been -anticipated from his imperfect training for such a task, felt that -he was unable to give it the easy dress he desired it should wear -in Castilian verse. This labor, therefore, in the plenitude of his -authority, he assigned to Acuña; confiding to him the manuscript he had -prepared in great secrecy, and requiring him to cast it into a more -appropriate and agreeable form.</p> - -<p>Acuña was well fitted for the delicate duty assigned to him. -As a courtier, skilled in the humors of the palace, he omitted -several passages that would be little interesting to his master, and -inserted others that would be more so,—particularly several relating -to Ferdinand and Isabella, and to Philip, Charles’s father. As a -poet, he turned the Emperor’s prose into the old double <i>quintillas</i> -with a purity and richness of idiom rare in any period of Spanish -literature, and some portion of the merit of which has, perhaps justly, -been attributed by Van Male to the Imperial version out of which it -was constructed. The poem thus prepared—making three hundred and -seventy-nine stanzas of ten short lines each—was then secretly given -by Charles, as if it were a<span class="pagenum" id="Page_499">[p. -499]</span> present worthy of a munificent sovereign, to Van Male, -the poor servant, who records the facts relating to it, and then, -forbidding all notice of himself in the Preface, the Emperor ordered -an edition of it, so large, that the unhappy scholar trembled at the -pecuniary risks he was to run on account of the bounty he had received. -The “Cavallero Determinado,” as it was called in the version of Acuña, -was, however, more successful than Van Male supposed it would be; and, -partly from the interest the master of so many kingdoms must have -felt in a work in which his secret share was considerable; partly -from the ingenuity of the allegory, which is due in general to La -Marche; and partly from the fluency and grace of the versification, -which must be wholly Acuña’s, it became very popular; seven -editions of it being called for in the course of half a century.<a -id="FNanchor_792" href="#Footnote_792" class="fnanchor">[792]</a></p> - -<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_500">[p. 500]</span>But -notwithstanding the success of the Cavallero Determinado, Acuña wrote -hardly any thing else in the old national style and manner. His shorter -poems, filling a small volume, are, with one or two inconsiderable -exceptions, in the Italian measures, and sometimes are direct -imitations of Boscan and Garcilasso. They are almost all written in -good taste, and with a classical finish, especially “The Contest of -Ajax with Ulysses,” where, in tolerable blank verse, Acuña has imitated -the severe simplicity of Homer. He was known, too, in Italy, and his -translation of a part of Boiardo’s “Orlando Innamorato” was praised -there; but his miscellanies and his sonnets found more favor at home. -He died at Granada, it is said, in 1580, while prosecuting a claim he -had inherited to a Spanish title; but his poems were not printed till -1591, when, like those of Boscan, with which they may be fairly ranked, -they were published by the pious care of his widow.<a id="FNanchor_793" -href="#Footnote_793" class="fnanchor">[793]</a></p> - -<p>Less fortunate in this respect than Acuña was Gutierre de Cetina, -another Spaniard of the same period and school, since no attempt -has ever been made to collect his poems. The few that remain to -us, however,—his madrigals, sonnets, and other short pieces,—have -much merit. Sometimes they take an Anacreontic tone; but the better -specimens are rather marked by sweetness, like the following -madrigal:—</p> - -<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_501">[p. 501]</span></p> - -<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> -<p class="i0">Eyes, that have still serenely shone,</p> -<p class="i2">And still for gentleness been praised,</p> -<p class="i2">Why thus in anger are ye raised,</p> -<p class="i0">When turned on me, and me alone?</p> -<p class="i2">The more ye tenderly and gently beam,</p> -<p class="i2">The more to all ye winning seem;—</p> -<p class="i0">But yet,—O, yet,—dear eyes, serene and sweet,</p> -<p class="i0">Turn on me still, whate’er the glance I meet!<a id="FNanchor_794" href="#Footnote_794" class="fnanchor">[794]</a></p> -</div></div> - -<p>Like many others of his countrymen, Cetina was a soldier, and fought -bravely in Italy. Afterwards he visited Mexico, where he had a brother -in an important public office; but he died, at last, in Seville, his -native city, about the year 1560. He was an imitator of Garcilasso, -even more than of the Italians who were Garcilasso’s models.<a -id="FNanchor_795" href="#Footnote_795" class="fnanchor">[795]</a></p> - -<p>But an Italian school was not introduced into Spanish literature -without a contest. We cannot, perhaps, tell who first broke ground -against it, as an unprofitable and unjustifiable innovation; but -Christóval de Castillejo, a gentleman of Ciudad Rodrigo, was the most -efficient of its early opponents. He was attached, from the age of -fifteen, to the person of Ferdinand, the younger brother of Charles -the Fifth, and subsequently Emperor of Germany; passing a part of -his life in Austria, as secretary to that prince, and ending it, in -extreme old age,<span class="pagenum" id="Page_502">[p. 502]</span> -as a Carthusian monk, at the convent of Val de Iglesias, near Toledo. -But wherever he lived, Castillejo wrote verses, and showed no favor to -the new school. He attacked it in many ways, but chiefly by imitating -the old masters in their <i>villancicos</i>, <i>canciones</i>, <i>glosas</i>, and the -other forms and measures they adopted, though with a purer and better -taste than they had generally shown.</p> - -<p>Some of his poetry was written as early as 1540 and 1541; and, -except the religious portion, which fills the latter part of the third -and last of the three books into which his works are divided, it has -generally a fresh and youthful air. Facility and gayety are, perhaps, -its most prominent, though certainly not its highest, characteristics. -Some of his love-verses are remarkable for their tenderness and grace, -especially those addressed to Anna; but he shows the force and bent of -his talent rather when he deals with practical life, as he does in his -bitter discussion concerning the court; in a dialogue between his pen -and himself; in a poem on Woman; and in a letter to a friend, asking -counsel about a love affair;—all of which are full of living sketches -of the national manners and feelings. Next to these, perhaps, some of -his more fanciful pieces, such as his “Transformation of a Drunkard -into a Mosquito,” are the most characteristic of his light-hearted -nature.</p> - -<p>But on every occasion where he finds an opening, or can make one, -he attacks the imitators of the Italians, whom he contemptuously calls -“Petrarquistas.” Once, he devotes to them a regular satire, which he -addresses “to those who give up the Castilian measures and follow the -Italian,” calling out Boscan and Garcilasso by name, and summoning Juan -de Mena, Sanchez de Badajoz, Naharro, and others of the elder poets, -to make merry<span class="pagenum" id="Page_503">[p. 503]</span> with -him, at the expense of the innovators. Almost everywhere he shows a -genial temperament, and sometimes indulges himself in a freer tone -than was thought beseeming at the time when he lived; in consequence -of which, his poetry, though much circulated in manuscript, was -forbidden by the Inquisition; so that all we now possess of it is -a selection, which, by a sort of special favor, was exempted from -censure, and permitted to be printed in 1573.<a id="FNanchor_796" -href="#Footnote_796" class="fnanchor">[796]</a></p> - -<p>Another of those who maintained the doctrines and wrote in the -measures of the old school was Antonio de Villegas, whose poems, though -written before 1551, were not printed till 1565. The Prólogo, addressed -to the book, with instructions how it should bear itself in the world, -reminds us sometimes of “The Soul’s Errand,” but is more easy and less -poetical. The best poems of the volume are, indeed, of this sort, light -and gay; rather running into pretty quaintnesses than giving token of -deep feeling. The longer among them, like those on Pyramus and Thisbe, -and on the quarrel between Ulysses and Ajax, are the least interesting. -But the shorter pieces are many of them very agreeable. One to the Duke -of Sesa, the descendant of Gonzalvo of Córdova, and addressed to him -as he was going to Italy, where Cervantes served under his leading, -is fortunate, from its allusion to his great ancestor. It begins -thus:—</p> - -<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_504">[p. 504]</span></p> - -<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> -<p class="i0">Go forth to Italy, great chief;</p> -<p class="i2">It is thy fated land,</p> -<p class="i0">Sown thick with deeds of brave emprise</p> -<p class="i2">By that ancestral hand</p> -<p class="i0">Which cast its seeds so widely there,</p> -<p class="i2">That, as thou marchest on,</p> -<p class="i0">The very soil will start afresh,</p> -<p class="i2">Teeming with glories won;</p> -<p class="i0">While round thy form, like myriad suns,</p> -<p class="i2">Shall shine a halo’s flame,</p> -<p class="i0">Enkindled from the dazzling light</p> -<p class="i2">Of thy great father’s fame.</p> -</div></div> - -<p>More characteristic than this, however, because less heroic -and grave, are eighteen <i>décimas</i>, or ten-line poems, called -“Comparaciones,” because each ends with a comparison; the whole being -preceded by a longer composition in the same style, addressing them -all to his lady-love. The following may serve as a specimen of their -peculiar tone and measure:—</p> - -<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> -<p class="i0">Lady! so used my soul is grown</p> -<p class="i2">To serve thee always in pure truth,</p> -<p class="i0">That, drawn to thee, and thee alone,</p> -<p class="i2">My joys come thronging; and my youth</p> -<p class="i0">No grief can jar, save when thou grievest its tone.</p> -<p class="i2">But though my faithful soul be thus in part</p> -<p class="i0">Untuned, when dissonance it feels in thee,</p> -<p class="i2">Still, still to thine turns back my trembling heart,</p> -<p class="i0">As jars the well-tuned string in sympathy</p> -<p class="i2">With that which trembles at the tuner’s art.<a id="FNanchor_797" href="#Footnote_797" class="fnanchor">[797]</a></p> -</div></div> - -<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_505">[p. 505]</span>Gregorio -Silvestre, a Portuguese, who came in his childhood to Spain, and -died there in 1570, was another of those who wrote according to the -earlier modes of composition. He was a friend of Torres de Naharro, -of Garci Sanchez de Badajoz, and of Heredia; and, for some time, -imitated Castillejo in speaking lightly of Boscan and Garcilasso. But, -as the Italian manner prevailed more and more, he yielded somewhat to -the fashion; and, in his latter years, wrote sonnets, and <i>ottava</i> -and <i>terza rima</i>, adding to their forms a careful finish not then -enough valued in Spain.<a id="FNanchor_798" href="#Footnote_798" -class="fnanchor">[798]</a> All his poetry, notwithstanding the -accident of his foreign birth, is written in pure and idiomatic -Castilian; but the best of it is in the older style,—“the old rhymes,” -as he called them,—in which, apparently, he felt more freedom than -he did in the manner he subsequently adopted. His Glosses seem to -have been most regarded by himself and his friends; and if the -nature of the composition itself had been more elevated, they might -still deserve the praise they at first received, for he shows great -facility and ingenuity in their construction.<a id="FNanchor_799" -href="#Footnote_799" class="fnanchor">[799]</a></p> - -<p>His longer narrative poems—those on Daphne and Apollo, and on -Pyramus and Thisbe, as well as one he called “The Residence of -Love”—are not without merit, though they are among the less fortunate -of his efforts. But his <i>canciones</i> are to be ranked with the very -best in the language; full of the old true-hearted simplicity of -feeling, and yet not without an artifice in their turns of expression, -which, far from interfering<span class="pagenum" id="Page_506">[p. -506]</span> with their point and effect, adds to both. Thus, one of -them begins:—</p> - -<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> -<p class="i0">Your locks are all of gold, my lady,</p> -<p class="i2">And of gold each priceless hair;</p> -<p class="i0">And the heart is all of steel, my lady,</p> -<p class="i2">That sees them without despair.</p> -</div></div> - -<p>While a little farther on he gives to the same idea a quaint turn, -or answer, such as he delighted to make:—</p> - -<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> -<p class="i0">Not of gold would be your hair, dear lady,</p> -<p class="i2">No, not of gold so fair;</p> -<p class="i0">But the fine, rich gold itself, dear lady,</p> -<p class="i2">That gold would be your hair.<a id="FNanchor_800" href="#Footnote_800" class="fnanchor">[800]</a></p> -</div></div> - -<p class="ti0">Each is followed by a sort of gloss, or variation of the -original air, which again is not without its appropriate merit.</p> - -<p>Silvestre was much connected with the poets of his time; not only -those of the old school, but those of the Italian, like Diego de -Mendoza, Hernando de Acuña, George of Montemayor, and Luis Barahona de -Soto. Their poems, in fact, are sometimes found mingled with his own, -and their spirit, we see, had a controlling influence over his. But -whether, in return, he produced much effect on them, or on his times, -may be doubted. He seems to have passed his life quietly in Granada, -of whose noble cathedral he was the principal musician, and where he -was much valued as a member of society, for his wit and kindly nature. -But when he died, at the age of fifty, his poetry was known only in -manuscript; and after it was collected and published by his friend -Pedro de Caceres, twelve years later, it produced little sensation. He -belonged, in truth, to both<span class="pagenum" id="Page_507">[p. -507]</span> schools, and was therefore thoroughly admired by neither.<a -id="FNanchor_801" href="#Footnote_801" class="fnanchor">[801]</a></p> - -<p>The discussion between the two, however, soon became a formal -one. Argote de Molina naturally brought it into his Discourse on -Spanish Poetry in 1575,<a id="FNanchor_802" href="#Footnote_802" -class="fnanchor">[802]</a> and Montalvo introduced it into his -Pastoral, where it little belongs, but where, under assumed -names, Cervantes, Ercilla, Castillejo, Silvestre, and Montalvo<a -id="FNanchor_803" href="#Footnote_803" class="fnanchor">[803]</a> -himself, give their opinions in favor of the old school. This was in -1582. In 1599, Lope de Vega defended the same side in the Preface -to his “San Isidro.”<a id="FNanchor_804" href="#Footnote_804" -class="fnanchor">[804]</a> But the question was then substantially -decided. Five or six long epics, including the “Araucana,” had already -been written in the Italian <i>ottava rima</i>; as many pastorals, in -imitation of Sannazaro’s; and thousands of verses in the shape of -sonnets, <i>canzoni</i>, and the other forms of Italian poetry, a large -portion of which had found much favor. Even Lope de Vega, therefore, -who is quite decided in his opinion, and wrote his poem of “San -Isidro” in the old popular <i>redondillas</i>, fell in with the prevailing -fashion, so that, perhaps, in the end, nobody did more than himself to -confirm the Italian measures and manner. From this time, there<span -class="pagenum" id="Page_508">[p. 508]</span>fore, the success of the -new school may be considered certain and settled; nor has it ever since -been displaced or superseded, as an important division of Spanish -literature.</p> - -<hr class="chap0" /> - - -<div class="chapter pt3" id="Ch_2_4"> - <p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_509">[p. 509]</span></p> - <h3>CHAPTER IV.</h3> - <p class="subh3 hang"><span class="smcap">Diego Hurtado de - Mendoza. — His Family. — His Lazarillo de Tórmes, and its - Imitations. — His Public Employments and Private Studies. — - His Retirement from Affairs. — His Poems and Miscellanies. — - His History of the Rebellion of the Moors. — His Death and - Character.</span></p> -</div> - -<p><span class="smcap">Among</span> those who did most to decide the -question in favor of the introduction and establishment of the Italian -measures in Spanish literature was one whose rank and social position -gave him great authority, and whose genius, cultivation, and adventures -point alike to his connection with the period we have just gone over -and with that on which we are now entering. This person was Diego -Hurtado de Mendoza, a scholar and a soldier, a poet and a diplomatist, -a statesman and an historian,—a man who rose to great consideration in -whatever he undertook, and one who was not of a temper to be satisfied -with moderate success, wherever he might choose to make an effort.<a -id="FNanchor_805" href="#Footnote_805" class="fnanchor">[805]</a></p> - -<p>He was born in Granada in 1503, and his ancestry was perhaps the -most illustrious in Spain, if we except the descendants of those who -had sat on the thrones of its different kingdoms. Lope de Vega, who -turns aside in one of his plays to boast that it was so, adds, that, -in<span class="pagenum" id="Page_510">[p. 510]</span> his time, -the Mendozas counted three-and-twenty generations of the highest -nobility and public service.<a id="FNanchor_806" href="#Footnote_806" -class="fnanchor">[806]</a> But it is more important for our present -purpose to notice that the three immediate ancestors of the -distinguished statesman now before us might well have served as -examples to form his young character; for he was the third in direct -descent from the Marquis of Santillana, the poet and wit of the -court of John the Second; his grandfather was the able ambassador of -Ferdinand and Isabella, in their troublesome affairs with the See of -Rome; and his father, after commanding with distinguished honor in the -last great overthrow of the Moors, was made governor of the unquiet -city of Granada not long after its surrender.</p> - -<p>Diego, however, had five brothers older than himself; and therefore, -notwithstanding the power of his family, he was originally destined for -the Church, in order to give him more easily the position and income -that should sustain his great name with becoming dignity. But his -character could not be bent in that direction. He acquired, indeed, -much knowledge suited to further his ecclesiastical advancement, both -at home, where he learned to speak the Arabic with fluency, and at -Sala<span class="pagenum" id="Page_511">[p. 511]</span>manca, where -he studied Latin, Greek, philosophy, and canon and civil law, with -success. But it is evident that he indulged a decided preference for -what was more intimately connected with political affairs and elegant -literature; and if, as is commonly supposed, he wrote while at the -University, or soon afterwards, his “Lazarillo de Tórmes,” it is -equally plain that he preferred such a literature as had no relation to -theology or the Church.</p> - -<p>The Lazarillo is a work of genius, unlike any thing that had -preceded it. It is the autobiography of a boy—“little Lazarus”—born -in a mill on the banks of the Tórmes, near Salamanca, and sent out by -his base and brutal mother as the leader of a blind beggar; the lowest -place in the social condition, perhaps, that could then be found in -Spain. But such as it is, Lazarillo makes the best or the worst of it. -With an inexhaustible fund of good-humor and great quickness of parts, -he learns, at once, the cunning and profligacy that qualify him to -rise to still greater frauds and a yet wider range of adventures and -crimes in the service successively of a priest, a gentleman starving -on his own pride, a friar, a seller of indulgences, a chaplain, and an -alguazil, until, at last, from the most disgraceful motives, he settles -down as a married man; and then the story terminates without reaching -any proper conclusion, and without intimating that any is to follow.</p> - -<p>Its object is—under the character of a servant with an acuteness -that is never at fault, and so small a stock of honesty and truth, that -neither of them stands in the way of his success—to give a pungent -satire on all classes of society, whose condition Lazarillo well -comprehends, because he sees them in undress and behind the scenes. -It is written in a very bold, rich, and idio<span class="pagenum" -id="Page_512">[p. 512]</span>matic Castilian style, that reminds us -of the “Celestina”; and some of its sketches are among the most fresh -and spirited that can be found in the whole class of prose works of -fiction; so spirited, indeed, and so free, that two of them—those of -the friar and the seller of dispensations—were soon put under the ban -of the Church, and cut out of the editions that were permitted to be -printed under its authority. The whole work is short; but its easy, -genial temper, its happy adaptation to Spanish life and manners, -and the contrast of the light, good-humored, flexible audacity of -Lazarillo himself—a perfectly original conception—with the solemn and -unyielding dignity of the old Castilian character, gave it from the -first a great popularity. From 1553, when the earliest edition appeared -of which we have any knowledge, it was often reprinted, both at home -and abroad, and has been more or less a favorite in all languages, -down to our own time; becoming the foundation for a class of fictions -essentially national, which, under the name of the <i>gusto picaresco</i>, -or the style of the rogues, is as well known as any other department of -Spanish literature, and one which the “Gil Blas” of Le Sage has made -famous throughout the world.<a id="FNanchor_807" href="#Footnote_807" -class="fnanchor">[807]</a></p> - -<p>Like other books enjoying a wide reputation, the Lazarillo -provoked many imitations. A continuation of<span class="pagenum" -id="Page_513">[p. 513]</span> it, under the title of “The Second Part -of Lazarillo de Tórmes,” soon appeared, longer than the original, and -beginning where the fiction of Mendoza leaves off. But it is without -merit, except for an occasional quaintness or witticism. It represents -Lazarillo as going upon the expedition undertaken by Charles the Fifth -against Algiers, in 1541, and as being in one of the vessels that -foundered in a storm, which did much towards disconcerting the whole -enterprise. From this point, however, Lazarillo’s story becomes a -tissue of absurdities. He sinks to the bottom of the ocean, and there -creeps into a cave, where he is metamorphosed into a tunny-fish; and -the greater part of the work consists of an account of his glory and -happiness in the kingdom of the tunnies. At last, he is caught in a -seine, and, in the agony of his fear of death, returns, by an effort -of his own will, to the human form; after which he finds his way -back to Salamanca, and is living there when he prepares this strange -account of his adventures.<a id="FNanchor_808" href="#Footnote_808" -class="fnanchor">[808]</a></p> - -<p>A further imitation, but not a proper continuation, under the name -of “The Lazarillo of the Manzanares,” in which the state of society -at Madrid is satirized, was attempted by Juan Cortés de Tolosa, and -was first printed in 1620. But it produced no effect at the time, and -has been long forgotten. Nor was a much better fate reserved for yet -another Second Part of the genuine Lazarillo, which was written by Juan -de Luna, a teacher of Spanish at Paris, and appeared there the same -year the Lazarillo de Manzanares appeared at Madrid. It is, however, -more in the spirit of the original work. It exhibits Lazarillo again as -a servant to different kinds of masters, and as gentleman-usher of a -poor, proud lady<span class="pagenum" id="Page_514">[p. 514]</span> of -rank; after which he retires from the world, and, becoming a religious -recluse, writes this account of himself, which, though not equal to the -free and vigorous sketches of the work it professes to complete, is by -no means without value, especially for its style.<a id="FNanchor_809" -href="#Footnote_809" class="fnanchor">[809]</a></p> - -<p>The author of the Lazarillo de Tórmes, who, we are told, took -the “Amadis” and the “Celestina” for his travelling companions -and by-reading,<a id="FNanchor_810" href="#Footnote_810" -class="fnanchor">[810]</a> was, as we have intimated, not a person to -devote himself to the Church; and we soon hear of him serving as a -soldier in the great Spanish armies in Italy; a circumstance to which, -in his old age, he alludes with evident pride and pleasure. At those -seasons, however, when the troops were unoccupied, we know that he -gladly listened to the lectures of the famous professors of Bologna, -Padua, and Rome, and added largely to his already large stores of -elegant knowledge.</p> - -<p>A character so strongly marked would naturally attract the notice -of a monarch, vigilant and clear-sighted, like Charles the Fifth; and -as early as 1538, Mendoza was made his ambassador to the republic of -Venice, then one of the leading powers of Europe. But there, too, -though much busied with grave negotiations, he loved to be familiar -with men of letters. The Aldi were then at the height of their -reputation, and he assisted and patronized them. Paulus Manutius -dedicated to him an edition of the philosophical works of Cicero, -acknowledging his skill as a critic and praising his Latinity, though, -at the same time, he says that Mendoza rather exhorted the young to -study philosophy and science in<span class="pagenum" id="Page_515">[p. -515]</span> their native languages;—a proof of liberality rare in -an age when the admiration for the ancients led a great number of -classical scholars to treat whatever was modern and vernacular with -contempt. At one period, he gave himself up to the pursuit of Greek and -Latin literature with a zeal such as Petrarch had shown long before -him. He sent to Thessaly and the famous convent of Mount Athos, to -collect Greek manuscripts. Josephus was first printed complete from -his library, and so were some of the Fathers of the Church. And when, -on one occasion, he had done so great a favor to the Sultan Soliman -that he was invited to demand any return from that monarch’s gratitude, -the only reward he would consent to receive for himself was a present -of some Greek manuscripts, which, as he said, amply repaid all his -services.</p> - -<p>But, in the midst of studies so well suited to his taste and -character, the Emperor called him away to more important duties. He was -made military governor of Siena, and required to hold both the Pope and -the Florentines in check; a duty which he fulfilled, though not without -peril to his life. Somewhat later he was sent to the great Council of -Trent, known as a political no less than an ecclesiastical congress, in -order to sustain the Imperial interests there, and succeeded, by the -exercise of a degree of firmness, address, and eloquence which would -alone have made him one of the most considerable persons in the Spanish -monarchy. While at the Council, however, in consequence of the urgency -of affairs, he was despatched, as a special Imperial plenipotentiary -to Rome, in 1547, for the bold purpose of confronting and overawing -the Pope in his own capital. And in this, too, he succeeded; rebuking -Julius the Third in open council, and so establishing his<span -class="pagenum" id="Page_516">[p. 516]</span> own consideration, as -well as that of his country, that for six years afterwards he is to -be looked upon as the head of the Imperial party throughout Italy, -and almost as a viceroy governing that country, or a large part of -it, for the Emperor, by his talents and firmness. But at last he grew -weary of this great labor and burden; and the Emperor himself having -changed his system and determined to conciliate Europe before he should -abdicate, Mendoza returned to Spain in 1554.<a id="FNanchor_811" -href="#Footnote_811" class="fnanchor">[811]</a></p> - -<p>The next year, Philip the Second ascended the throne. His policy, -however, little resembled that of his father, and Mendoza was not -one of those who were well suited to the changed state of things. -In consequence of this, he seldom came to court, and was not at all -favored by the severe master who now ruled him, as he ruled all the -other great men of his kingdom, with a hard and anxious tyranny.<a -id="FNanchor_812" href="#Footnote_812" class="fnanchor">[812]</a> -One instance of his displeasure against Mendoza, and of the harsh -treatment that followed it, is sufficiently remarkable. The ambassador, -who, though sixty-four years of age when the event occurred, had -lost little of the fire of his youth, fell into a passionate dispute -with a courtier in the palace itself. The latter drew a dagger, and -Mendoza wrested it from him and threw it out of the balcony where they -were standing;—some accounts adding, that he afterwards threw out -the courtier himself. Such a quarrel would certainly be accounted an -affront to the royal dignity anywhere; but in the eyes of the formal -and strict Philip the Sec<span class="pagenum" id="Page_517">[p. -517]</span>ond it was all but a mortal offence. He chose to have -Mendoza regarded as a madman, and as such exiled him from his court;—an -injustice against which the old man struggled in vain for some time, -and then yielded himself up to it with loyal dignity.</p> - -<p>His amusement during some portion of his exile was—singular as -it may seem in one so old—to write poetry.<a id="FNanchor_813" -href="#Footnote_813" class="fnanchor">[813]</a> But the occupation had -long been familiar to him. In the first edition of the works of Boscan -we have an epistle from Mendoza to that poet, evidently written when -he was young; besides which, several of his shorter pieces contain -internal proof that they were composed in Italy. But, notwithstanding -he had been so long in Venice and Rome, and notwithstanding Boscan must -have been among his earliest friends, he does not belong entirely to -the Italian school of poetry; for, though he has often imitated and -fully sanctioned the Italian measures, he often gave himself up to the -old <i>redondillas</i> and <i>quintillas</i>, and to the national tone of feeling -and reflection appropriate to these ancient forms of Castilian verse.<a -id="FNanchor_814" href="#Footnote_814" class="fnanchor">[814]</a></p> - -<p>The truth is, Mendoza had studied the ancients with a zeal and -success that had so far imbued his mind with their character and -temper, as in some measure to keep out all undue modern influences. -The first part of the Epistle to Boscan, already alluded to, though -written<span class="pagenum" id="Page_518">[p. 518]</span> in flowing -<i>terza rima</i>, sounds almost like a translation of the Epistle of -Horace to Numicius, and yet it is not even a servile imitation; while -the latter part is absolutely Spanish, and gives such a description -of domestic life as never entered the imagination of antiquity.<a -id="FNanchor_815" href="#Footnote_815" class="fnanchor">[815]</a> The -Hymn in honor of Cardinal Espinosa, one of the most finished of his -poems, is said to have been written after five days’ constant reading -of Pindar, but is nevertheless full of the old Castilian spirit;<a -id="FNanchor_816" href="#Footnote_816" class="fnanchor">[816]</a> -and his second <i>cancion</i>, though quite in the Italian measure, shows -the turns of Horace more than of Petrarch.<a id="FNanchor_817" -href="#Footnote_817" class="fnanchor">[817]</a> Still, it is not -to be concealed that Mendoza gave the decisive influence of his -example to the new forms introduced by Boscan and Garcilasso;—a -fact plain from the manner in which that example is appealed to by -many of the poets of his time, and especially by Gregorio Silvestre -and Christóval de Mesa.<a id="FNanchor_818" href="#Footnote_818" -class="fnanchor">[818]</a> In both styles, however, he succeeded. -There is, perhaps, more richness of thought in the specimens he has -given us in the Italian measures than in the others; yet it can hardly -be doubted that his heart was in what he wrote upon the old popular -foundations. Some of his <i>letrillas</i>, as they would now be called, -though they bore different names in his time, are quite charming;<a -id="FNanchor_819" href="#Footnote_819" class="fnanchor">[819]</a> and -in many parts of the second<span class="pagenum" id="Page_519">[p. -519]</span> division of his poems, which is larger than that devoted to -the Italian measures, there is a light and idle humor, well fitted to -his subjects, and such as might have been anticipated from the author -of the “Lazarillo” rather than from the Imperial representative at the -Council of Trent and the Papal court. Indeed, some of his verses were -so free, that it was thought inexpedient to print them.</p> - -<p>The same spirit is apparent in two prose letters, or rather essays -thrown into the shape of letters. The first professes to come from a -person seeking employment at court, and gives an account of the whole -class of <i>Catariberas</i>, or low courtiers, who, in soiled clothes and -with base, fawning manners, daily besieged the doors and walks of the -President of the Council of Castile, in order to solicit some one of -the multitudinous humble offices in his gift. The other is addressed to -Pedro de Salazar, ridiculing a book he had published on the wars of the -Emperor in Germany, in which, as Mendoza declares, the author took more -credit to himself personally than he deserved. Both are written with -idiomatic humor, and a native buoyancy and gayety of spirit which seem -to have lain at the bottom of his character, and to have broken forth, -from time to time, during his whole life, notwithstanding the severe -employments which for so many years filled and burdened his thoughts.<a -id="FNanchor_820" href="#Footnote_820" class="fnanchor">[820]</a></p> - -<p>The tendency of his mind, however, as he grew old,<span -class="pagenum" id="Page_520">[p. 520]</span> was naturally to graver -subjects; and finding there was no hope of his being recalled to -court, he established himself in unambitious retirement at Granada, -his native city. But his spirit was not one that would easily sink -into inactivity; and if it had been, he had not chosen a home that -would encourage such a disposition. For it was a spot, not only full -of romantic recollections, but intimately associated with the glory of -his own family,—one where he had spent much of his youth, and become -familiar with those remains and ruins of the Moorish power which bore -witness to days when the plain of Granada was the seat of one of -the most luxurious and splendid of the Mohammedan dynasties. Here, -therefore, he naturally turned to the early studies of his half-Arabian -education, and, arranging his library of curious Moorish manuscripts, -devoted himself to the literature and history of his native city, -until, at last, apparently from want of other occupation, he determined -to write a part of its annals.</p> - -<p>The portion he chose was one very recent; that of the rebellion -raised by the Moors in 1568-1570, when they were no longer able to -endure the oppression of Philip the Second; and it is much to Mendoza’s -honor, that, with sympathies entirely Spanish, he has yet done the -hated enemies of his faith and people such generous justice, that his -book could not be published till many years after his own death,—not, -indeed, till the unhappy Moors themselves had been finally expelled -from Spain. His means for writing such a work were remarkable. His -father, as we have noticed, had been a general in the conquering -army of 1492, to which the story of this rebellion necessarily often -recurs, and had afterward been governor of Granada. One of his nephews -had commanded the troops in this very war. And<span class="pagenum" -id="Page_521">[p. 521]</span> now, after peace was restored by the -submission of the rebels, the old statesman, as he stood amidst the -trophies and ruins of the conflict, soon learned from eyewitnesses and -partisans whatever of interest had happened on either side that he -had not himself seen. Familiar, therefore, with every thing of which -he speaks, there is a freshness and power in his sketches that carry -us at once into the midst of the scenes and events he describes, and -make us sympathize in details too minute to be always interesting, if -they were not always marked with the impress of a living reality.<a -id="FNanchor_821" href="#Footnote_821" class="fnanchor">[821]</a></p> - -<p>But though his history springs, as it were, vigorously from the -very soil to which it relates, it is a sedulous and well-considered -imitation of the ancient masters, and entirely unlike the chronicling -spirit of the preceding period. The genius of antiquity, indeed, is -announced in its first sentence.</p> - -<p>“My purpose,” says the old soldier, “is to record that war of -Granada which the Catholic King of Spain, Don Philip the Second, son -of the unconquered Emperor Don Charles, maintained in the kingdom of -Granada, against the newly converted rebels; a part whereof I saw, and -a part heard from persons who carried it on by their arms and by their -counsels.”</p> - -<p>Sallust was undoubtedly Mendoza’s model. Like the War against -Catiline, the War of the Moorish Insurrection is a small work, and -like that, too, its style is generally rich and bold. But sometimes -long passages are evidently imitated from Tacitus, whose vigor and -severity the wise diplomatist seems to approach as nearly as he does -the more exuberant style of his prevalent master.<span class="pagenum" -id="Page_522">[p. 522]</span> Some of these imitations are as happy, -perhaps, as any that can be produced from the class to which they -belong; for they are often no less unconstrained than if they were -quite original. Take, for instance, the following passage, which has -often been noticed for its spirit and feeling, but which is partly a -translation from the account given by Tacitus, in his most picturesque -and condensed manner, of the visit made by Germanicus and his army -to the spot where lay, unburied, the remains of the three legions of -Varus, in the forests of Germany, and of the funeral honors that army -paid to the memory of their fallen and almost forgotten countrymen;—the -circumstance described by the Spanish historian being so remarkably -similar to that given in the Annals of Tacitus, that the imitation -is perfectly natural.<a id="FNanchor_822" href="#Footnote_822" -class="fnanchor">[822]</a></p> - -<p>During a rebellion of the Moors in 1500-1501, it was thought of -consequence to destroy a fort in the mountains that lay towards -Málaga. The service was dangerous, and none came forward to -undertake it, until Alonso de Aguilar, one of the principal nobles -in the service of Ferdinand and Isabella, offered himself for the -enterprise. His attempt, as had been foreseen, failed, and hardly a -man survived to relate the details of the disaster; but Aguilar’s -enthusiasm and self-devotion created a great sensation at the -time, and were afterwards recorded in more than one of the old -ballads of the country.<a id="FNanchor_823" href="#Footnote_823" -class="fnanchor">[823]</a></p> - -<p>At the period, however, when Mendoza touches on this unhappy defeat, -nearly seventy years had elapsed, and the bones of both Spaniards and -Moors still lay<span class="pagenum" id="Page_523">[p. 523]</span> -whitening on the spot where they had fallen. The war between the -two races was again renewed by the insurrection of the conquered; a -military expedition was again undertaken into the same mountains; and -the Duke of Arcos, its leader, was a lineal descendant of some who had -fallen there, and intimately connected with the family of Alonso de -Aguilar himself. While, therefore, the troops for this expedition were -collecting, the Duke, from a natural curiosity and interest in what so -nearly concerned him, took a small body of soldiers and visited the -melancholy spot.</p> - -<p>“The Duke left Casares,” says Mendoza, “examining and securing the -passes of the mountains as he went; a needful providence, on account of -the little certainty there is of success in all military adventures. -They then began to ascend the range of heights where it was said -the bodies had remained unburied, melancholy and loathsome alike to -the sight and the memory.<a id="FNanchor_824" href="#Footnote_824" -class="fnanchor">[824]</a> For there were among those who now visited -it both kinsmen and descendants of the slain, or men who knew by -report whatever related to the sad scene. And first they came to the -spot where the vanguard had stopped with its leader, in consequence -of the darkness of the night; a broad opening between the foot of the -mountain and the Moorish fortress, without defence of any sort but such -as was afforded by the nature of the place. Here lay human skulls and -the bones of horses, heaped confusedly together or scattered about, -just as they had chanced to fall, mingled with fragments of arms and -bridles and the rich trappings of the cavalry.<a id="FNanchor_825" -href="#Footnote_825" class="fnanchor">[825]</a> Farther on, they -found the fort of the enemy, of which there<span class="pagenum" -id="Page_524">[p. 524]</span> were now only a few low remains, nearly -levelled with the surface of the soil. And then they went forward, -talking about the places where officers, leaders, and common soldiers -had perished together; relating how and where those who survived had -been saved, among whom were the Count of Ureña and Pedro de Aguilar, -elder son of Don Alonso; speaking of the spot where Don Alonso had -retired and defended himself between two rocks; the wound the Moorish -captain first gave him on the head, and then another in the breast -as he fell; the words he uttered as they closed in the fight, ‘I am -Don Alonso,’ and the answer of the chieftain as he struck him down, -‘You are Don Alonso, but I am the chieftain of Benastepár’; and of -the wounds Don Alonso gave, which were not fatal, as were those he -received. They remembered, too, how friends and enemies had alike -mourned his fate; and now, on that same spot, the same sorrow was -renewed by the soldiers,—a race sparing of its gratitude, except in -tears. The general commanded a service to be performed for the dead; -and the soldiers present offered up prayers that they might rest in -peace, uncertain whether they interceded for their kinsmen or for their -enemies,—a feeling which increased their rage and the eagerness they -felt for finding those upon whom they could now take vengeance.”<a -id="FNanchor_826" href="#Footnote_826" class="fnanchor">[826]</a></p> - -<p>There are several instances like this, in the course of the work, -that show how well pleased Mendoza was to step aside into an episode -and indulge himself in appropriate ornaments of his subject. The -main direction of his story, however, is never unnaturally deviated -from; and wherever he goes, he is almost always powerful and<span -class="pagenum" id="Page_525">[p. 525]</span> effective. Take, for -example, the following speech of El Zaguer, one of the principal -conspirators, exciting his countrymen to break out into open rebellion, -by exposing to them the long series of affronts and cruelties they had -suffered from their Spanish oppressors. It reminds us of the speeches -of the indignant Carthaginian leaders in Livy.</p> - -<p>“Seeing,” says the historian, “that the greatness of the undertaking -brought with it hesitation, delays, and exposure to accident and change -of opinion, this conspirator collected the principal men together -in the house of Zinzan in the Albaycin, and addressed them, setting -forth the oppression they had constantly endured, at the hands both of -public officers and private persons, till they were become, he said, -no less slaves than if they had been formally made such,—their wives, -children, estates, and even their own persons, being in the power and -at the mercy of their enemies, without the hope of seeing themselves -freed from such servitude for centuries,—exposed to as many tyrants -as they had neighbours, and suffering constantly new impositions and -new taxes,—deprived of the right of sanctuary in places where those -take refuge who, through accident or (what is deemed among them the -more justifiable cause) through revenge, commit crime,—thrust out -from the protection of the very churches at whose religious rites we -are yet required, under severe penalties, to be present,—subjected to -the priests to enrich them, and yet held to be unworthy of favor from -God or men,—treated and regarded as Moors among Christians, that we -may be despised, and as Christians among Moors, that we may neither -be believed nor consoled. ‘They have excluded us, too,’ he went on, -‘from life and human intercourse; for they forbid us to speak our -own<span class="pagenum" id="Page_526">[p. 526]</span> language, and -we do not understand theirs. In what way, then, are we to communicate -with others, or ask or give what life requires,—cut off from the -conversation of men, and denied what is not denied even to the brutes? -And yet may not he who speaks Castilian still hold to the law of the -Prophet, and may not he who speaks Moorish hold to the law of Jesus? -They force our children into their religious houses and schools, and -teach them arts which our fathers forbade us to learn, lest the purity -of our own law should be corrupted, and its very truth be made a -subject of doubt and quarrels. They threaten, too, to tear these our -children from the arms of their mothers and the protection of their -fathers, and send them into foreign lands, where they shall forget -our manners, and become the enemies of those to whom they owe their -existence. They command us to change our dress and wear clothes like -the Castilians. Yet among themselves the Germans dress in one fashion, -the French in another, and the Greeks in another; their friars, too, -and their young men, and their old men, have all separate costumes; -each nation, each profession, each class, has its own peculiar -dress, and still all are Christians;—while we—we Moors—are not to be -allowed to dress like Moors, as if we wore our faith in our raiment -and not in our hearts.’”<a id="FNanchor_827" href="#Footnote_827" -class="fnanchor">[827]</a></p> - -<p>This is certainly picturesque; and so is the greater part of the -whole history, both from its subject and from the manner in which it -is treated. Nor is it lacking in dignity and elevation. Its style is -bold and abrupt, but true to the idiom of the language; and the current -of thought is deep and strong, easily carrying the reader onward -with its flood. Nothing in the old chronicling<span class="pagenum" -id="Page_527">[p. 527]</span> style of the earlier period is to be -compared to it, and little in any subsequent period is equal to it for -manliness, vigor, and truth.<a id="FNanchor_828" href="#Footnote_828" -class="fnanchor">[828]</a></p> - -<p>The War of Granada is the last literary labor its author undertook. -He was, indeed, above seventy years old when he finished it; and, -perhaps to signify that he now renounced the career of letters, he -collected his library, both the classics and manuscripts he had -procured with so much trouble in Italy and Greece, and the curious -Arabic works he had found in Granada, and presented the whole to his -severe sovereign for his favorite establishment of the Escurial, -among whose untold treasures they still hold a prominent place. At -any rate, after this, we hear nothing of the old statesman, except -that, for some reason or other, Philip the Second permitted him to -come to court again; and that, a few days after he arrived at Madrid, -he was seized with a violent illness, of which he died in April, -1575, seventy-two years old.<a id="FNanchor_829" href="#Footnote_829" -class="fnanchor">[829]</a></p> - -<p>On whatever side we regard the character of Mendoza, we feel -sure that he was an extraordinary man; but<span class="pagenum" -id="Page_528">[p. 528]</span> the combination of his powers is, after -all, what is most to be wondered at. In all of them, however, and -especially in the union of a life of military adventure and active -interest in affairs with a sincere love of learning and elegant -letters, he showed himself to be a genuine Spaniard;—the elements of -greatness which his various fortunes had thus unfolded within him being -all among the elements of Spanish national poetry and eloquence, in -their best age and most generous development. The loyal old knight, -therefore, may well stand forward with those who, first in the order -of time, as well as of merit, are to constitute that final school of -Spanish literature which was built on the safe foundations of the -national genius and character, and can, therefore, never be shaken by -the floods or convulsions of the ages that may come after it.</p> - -<hr class="chap0" /> - - -<div class="chapter pt3" id="Ch_2_5"> - <p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_529">[p. 529]</span></p> - <h3>CHAPTER V.</h3> - <p class="subh3 hang"><span class="smcap">Didactic Poetry. — Luis - de Escobar. — Corelas. — Torre. — Didactic Prose. — Villalobos. - — Oliva. — Sedeño. — Salazar. — Luis Mexia. — Pedro Mexia. — - Navarra. — Urrea. — Palacios Rubios. — Vanegas. — Juan de Avila. - — Antonio de Guevara. — Diálogo de las Lenguas. — Progress of the - Castilian from the Time of John the Second to that of the Emperor - Charles the Fifth.</span></p> -</div> - -<p><span class="smcap">While</span> an Italian spirit, or, at least, an -observance of Italian forms, was beginning so decidedly to prevail in -Spanish lyric and pastoral poetry, what was didactic, whether in prose -or verse, took directions somewhat different.</p> - -<p>In didactic poetry, among other forms, the old one of question -and answer, known from the age of Juan de Mena, and found in the -Cancioneros as late as Badajoz, continued to enjoy much favor. -Originally, such questions seem to have been riddles and witticisms; -but in the sixteenth century they gradually assumed a graver -character, and at last claimed to be directly and absolutely didactic, -constituting a form in which two remarkable books of light and easy -verse were produced. The first of these books is called “The Four -Hundred Answers to as many Questions of the Illustrious Don Fadrique -Enriquez, the Admiral of Castile, and other Persons.” It was printed -three times in 1545, the year in which it first appeared, and had -undoubtedly a great success in the class of society to which it -was addressed, and whose manners and opin<span class="pagenum" -id="Page_530">[p. 530]</span>ions it strikingly illustrates. It -contains at least twenty thousand verses, and was followed, in 1552, by -another similar volume, partly in prose, and promising a third, which, -however, was never published. Except five hundred proverbs, as they -are inappropriately called, at the end of the first volume, and fifty -glosses at the end of the second, the whole consists of such ingenious -questions as a distinguished old nobleman in the reign of Charles the -Fifth and his friends might imagine it would amuse or instruct them to -have solved. They are on subjects as various as possible,—religion, -morals, history, medicine, magic,—in short, whatever could occur -to idle and curious minds; but they were all sent to an acute, -good-humored Minorite friar, Luis de Escobar, who, being bed-ridden -with the gout and other grievous maladies, had nothing better to do -than to answer them.</p> - -<p>His answers form the body of the work. Some of them are wise and -some foolish, some are learned and some absurd; but they all bear the -impression of their age. Once we have a long letter of advice about a -godly life, sent to the Admiral, which, no doubt, was well suited to -his case; and repeatedly we get complaints from the old monk himself -of his sufferings, and accounts of what he was doing; so that from -different parts of the two volumes it would be possible to collect a -tolerably distinct picture of the amusements of society, if not its -occupations, about the court, at the period when they were written. -The poetry is in many respects not unlike that of Tusser, who was -contemporary with Escobar, but it is better and more spirited.<a -id="FNanchor_830" href="#Footnote_830" class="fnanchor">[830]</a></p> - -<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_531">[p. 531]</span>The second book -of questions and answers to which we have referred is graver than -the first. It was printed the next year after the great success of -Escobar’s work, and is called “Three Hundred Questions concerning -Natural Subjects, with their Answers,” by Alonso Lopez de Corelas, -a physician, who had more learning, perhaps, than the monk he -imitated, but is less amusing, and writes in verses neither so well -constructed nor so agreeable.<a id="FNanchor_831" href="#Footnote_831" -class="fnanchor">[831]</a></p> - -<p>Others followed, like Gonzalez de la Torre, who in 1590 dedicated -to the heir-apparent of the Spanish throne a volume of such dull -religious riddles as were admired a century before.<a id="FNanchor_832" -href="#Footnote_832" class="fnanchor">[832]</a> But nobody, who wrote -in this peculiar didactic style of verse, equalled Escobar, and it -soon passed out of general notice and regard.<a id="FNanchor_833" -href="#Footnote_833" class="fnanchor">[833]</a></p> - -<p>In prose, about the same time, a fashion appeared of imitating -the Roman didactic prose-writers, just as those writers had been -imitated by Castiglione, Bembo,<span class="pagenum" id="Page_532">[p. -532]</span> Giovanni della Casa, and others in Italy. The impulse -seems plainly to have been communicated to Spain by the moderns, -and not by the ancients. It was because the Italians led the way -that the Romans were imitated, and not because the example of Cicero -and Seneca had, of itself, been able to form a prose school, of any -kind, beyond the Pyrenees.<a id="FNanchor_834" href="#Footnote_834" -class="fnanchor">[834]</a> The fashion was not one of so much -importance and influence as that introduced into the poetry of the -nation; but it is worthy of notice, both on account of its results -during the reign of Charles the Fifth, and on account of an effect -more or less distinct which it had on the prose style of the nation -afterwards.</p> - -<p>The eldest among the prominent writers produced by this state -of things was Francisco de Villalobos, of whom we know little, -except that he belonged to a family which, for several successive -generations, had been devoted to the medical art; that he was himself -the physician, first of Ferdinand the Catholic,<a id="FNanchor_835" -href="#Footnote_835" class="fnanchor">[835]</a> and then of Charles -the Fifth; that he published, as early as 1498, a poem on his own -science, in five hundred stanzas, founded on the rules of Avicenna;<a -id="FNanchor_836" href="#Footnote_836" class="fnanchor">[836]</a> -and that he continued to be known as an author, chiefly on subjects -connected with his profession, till 1543, before which time he had -become weary of the court, and sought a volun<span class="pagenum" -id="Page_533">[p. 533]</span>tary retirement, where he died, -above seventy years old.<a id="FNanchor_837" href="#Footnote_837" -class="fnanchor">[837]</a> His translation of the “Amphitryon” of -Plautus belongs rather to the theatre, but, like that of Oliva, soon -to be mentioned, produced no effect there, and, like his scientific -treatises, demands no especial notice. The rest of his works, including -all that belong to the department of elegant literature, are to be -found in a volume of moderate size, which he dedicated to the Infante -Don Luis of Portugal.</p> - -<p>The chief of them is called “Problems,” and is divided into two -tractates;—the first, which is very short, being on the Sun, the -Planets, the Four Elements, and the Terrestrial Paradise; and the last, -which is longer, on Man and Morals, beginning with an essay on Satan, -and ending with one on Flattery and Flatterers, which is especially -addressed to the heir-apparent of the crown of Spain, afterwards Philip -the Second. Each of these subdivisions, in each tractate, has eight -lines of the old Spanish verse prefixed to it, as its Problem, or text, -and the prose discussion which follows, like a gloss, constitutes -the substance of the work. The whole is of a very miscellaneous -character; most of it grave, like the essays on Knights and Prelates, -but some of it amusing, like an essay on the Marriage of Old Men.<a -id="FNanchor_838" href="#Footnote_838" class="fnanchor">[838]</a> The -best portions are those that have a satirical vein in them; such as -the ridicule of litigious old men, and of old men that wear paint.<a -id="FNanchor_839" href="#Footnote_839" class="fnanchor">[839]</a></p> - -<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_534">[p. 534]</span>A Dialogue on -Intermittent Fevers, a Dialogue on the Natural Heat of the Body, and a -Dialogue between the Doctor and the Duke, his patient, are all quite in -the manner of the contemporary didactic discussions of the Italians, -except that the last contains passages of a broad and free humor, -approaching more nearly to the tone of comedy, or rather of farce.<a -id="FNanchor_840" href="#Footnote_840" class="fnanchor">[840]</a> -A treatise that follows, on the Three Great Annoyances of much -talking, much disputing, and much laughing,<a id="FNanchor_841" -href="#Footnote_841" class="fnanchor">[841]</a> and a grave discourse -on Love, with which the volume ends, are all that remain worth notice. -They have the same general characteristics with the rest of his -miscellanies; the style of some portions of them being distinguished by -more purity and more pretensions to dignity than have been found in the -earlier didactic prose-writers, and especially by greater clearness and -exactness of expression. Occasionally, too, we meet with an idiomatic -familiarity, frankness, and spirit that are very attractive, and that -partly compensate us for the absurdities of the old and forgotten -doctrines in natural history and medicine, which Villalobos inculcated -because they were the received doctrines of his time.</p> - -<p>The next writer of the same class, and, on the whole, one much more -worthy of consideration, is Fernan Perez de Oliva, a Cordovese, who was -born about 1492, and died, still young, in 1530. His father was a lover -of letters; and the son, as he himself informs us, was educated with -care from his earliest youth. At twelve years of age, he was already a -student in the University of Salamanca; after which he went, first, to -Alcalá, when it was in the beginning of its glory; then to Paris,<span -class="pagenum" id="Page_535">[p. 535]</span> whose University had -long attracted students from every part of Europe; and finally to -Rome, where, under the protection of an uncle at the court of Leo the -Tenth, all the advantages to be found in the most cultivated capital of -Christendom were accessible to him.</p> - -<p>On his uncle’s death, it was proposed to him to take the offices -left vacant by that event; but, loving letters more than courtly -honors, he went back to Paris, where he taught and lectured in its -University for three years. Another Pope, Adrian the Sixth, was now on -the throne, and, hearing of Oliva’s success, endeavoured anew to draw -him to Rome; but the love of his country and of literature continued to -be stronger than the love of ecclesiastical preferment. He returned, -therefore, to Salamanca; became one of the original members of the rich -“College of the Archbishop,” founded in 1528; and was successively -chosen Professor of Ethics in the University, and its Rector. But he -had hardly risen to his highest distinctions, when he died suddenly, -and at a moment when so many hopes rested on him, that his death was -felt as a misfortune to the cause of letters throughout Spain.<a -id="FNanchor_842" href="#Footnote_842" class="fnanchor">[842]</a></p> - -<p>Oliva’s studies at Rome had taught him how successfully the Latin -writers had been imitated by the Italians, and he became anxious -that they should be no less successfully imitated by the Spaniards. -He felt it as a wrong done to his native language, that almost all -serious prose discussions in Spain were still carried on in Latin -rather than in Spanish.<a id="FNanchor_843" href="#Footnote_843" -class="fnanchor">[843]</a> Taking a hint, then,<span class="pagenum" -id="Page_536">[p. 536]</span> from Castiglione’s “Cortigiano,” and -opposing the current of opinion among the learned men with whom he -lived and acted, he began a didactic dialogue on the Dignity of Man, -formally defending it as a work in the Spanish language written -by a Spaniard. Besides this, he wrote several strictly didactic -discourses;—one on the Faculties of the Mind and their Proper Use; -another urging Córdova, his native city, to improve the navigation of -the Guadalquivir, and so obtain a portion of the rich commerce of the -Indies, which was then monopolized by Seville; and another, that was -delivered at Salamanca, when he was a candidate for the chair of moral -philosophy;—in all which his nephew, Morales, the historian, assures -us it was his uncle’s strong desire to furnish practical examples of -the power and resources of the Spanish language.<a id="FNanchor_844" -href="#Footnote_844" class="fnanchor">[844]</a></p> - -<p>The purpose of giving greater dignity to his native tongue, by -employing it, instead of the Latin, on all the chief subjects of -human inquiry, was certainly a fortunate one in Oliva, and soon found -imitators. Juan de Sedeño published, in 1536, two prose dialogues -on Love and one on Happiness; the former in a more graceful tone of -gallantry, and the latter in a more philosophical spirit and with more -terseness of manner, than belonged to the age.<a id="FNanchor_845" -href="#Footnote_845" class="fnanchor">[845]</a> Francisco Cervantes -de Salazar, a man of<span class="pagenum" id="Page_537">[p. -537]</span> learning, completed the dialogue of Oliva on the -Dignity of Man, which had been left unfinished, and, dedicating -it to Fernando Cortés, published it in 1546,<a id="FNanchor_846" -href="#Footnote_846" class="fnanchor">[846]</a> together with a long -prose fable by Luis Mexia, on Idleness and Labor, written in a pure -and somewhat elevated style, but too much indebted to the “Vision” of -the Bachiller de la Torre.<a id="FNanchor_847" href="#Footnote_847" -class="fnanchor">[847]</a> Pedro de Navarra published, in 1567, -forty Moral Dialogues, partly the result of conversations held in an -<i>Academia</i> of distinguished persons, who met, from time to time, at -the house of Fernando Cortés.<a id="FNanchor_848" href="#Footnote_848" -class="fnanchor">[848]</a> Pedro Mexia, the chronicler, wrote a Silva, -or Miscellany, divided, in the later editions, into six books, and -subdivided into a multitude of separate essays, historical and moral; -declaring it to be the first work of the kind<span class="pagenum" -id="Page_538">[p. 538]</span> in Spanish, which, he says, he -considers quite as suitable for such discussions as the Italian.<a -id="FNanchor_849" href="#Footnote_849" class="fnanchor">[849]</a> -To this, which may be regarded as an imitation of Macrobius or of -Athenæus, and which was printed in 1543, he added, in 1547, six -didactic dialogues,—curious, but of little value,—in the first of -which the advantages and disadvantages of having regular physicians -are agreeably set forth, with a lightness and exactness of style -hardly to have been expected.<a id="FNanchor_850" href="#Footnote_850" -class="fnanchor">[850]</a> And finally, to complete the short list, -Urrea, a favored soldier of the Emperor, and at one time viceroy of -Apulia,—the same person who made the poor translation of Ariosto -mentioned in Don Quixote,—published, in 1566, a Dialogue on True -Military Honor, which is written in a pleasant and easy style, -and contains, mingled with the notions of one who says he trained -himself for glory by reading romances of chivalry, not a few amusing -anecdotes of duels and military adventures.<a id="FNanchor_851" -href="#Footnote_851" class="fnanchor">[851]</a></p> - -<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_539">[p. 539]</span>Both of the -works of Pedro Mexia, but especially his Silva, enjoyed no little -popularity during the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries; and, in -point of style, they are certainly not without merit. None, however, of -the productions of any one of the authors last mentioned had so much -force and character as the first part of the Dialogue on the Dignity -of Man. And yet Oliva was certainly not a person of a commanding -genius. His imagination never warms into poetry; his invention is never -sufficient to give new and strong views to his subject; and his system -of imitating both the Latin and the Italian masters rather tends to -debilitate than to impart vigor to his thoughts. But there is a general -reasonableness and wisdom in what he says that win and often satisfy -us, and these, with his style, which, though sometimes declamatory, -is yet, on the whole, pure and well settled, and his happy idea of -defending and employing the Castilian, then coming into all its rights -as a living language, have had the effect of giving him a more lasting -reputation than that of any other Spanish prose-writer of his time.<a -id="FNanchor_852" href="#Footnote_852" class="fnanchor">[852]</a></p> - -<p>The same general tendency to a more formal and elegant style of -discussion is found in a few other ethical and religious authors -of the reign of Charles the Fifth that are still remembered; such -as Palacios Rubios, who wrote an essay on Military Courage, for -the benefit of his son;<a id="FNanchor_853" href="#Footnote_853" -class="fnanchor">[853]</a> Vanegas, who, under the title of “The<span -class="pagenum" id="Page_540">[p. 540]</span> Agony of Passing -through Death,” gives us what may rather be considered an ascetic -treatise on holy living;<a id="FNanchor_854" href="#Footnote_854" -class="fnanchor">[854]</a> and Juan de Avila, sometimes called the -Apostle of Andalusia, whose letters are fervent exhortations to virtue -and religion, composed with care and often with eloquence, if not -with entire purity of style.<a id="FNanchor_855" href="#Footnote_855" -class="fnanchor">[855]</a></p> - -<p>The author in this class, however, who during his lifetime had -the most influence was Antonio de Guevara, one of the official -chroniclers of Charles the Fifth. He was a Biscayan by birth, and -passed some of his earlier years at the court of Queen Isabella. In -1528 he became a Franciscan monk, but, enjoying the favor of the -Emperor, he seems to have been transformed into a thorough courtier, -accompanying his master during his journeys and residences in Italy -and other parts of Europe, and rising successively, by the royal -patronage, to be court preacher, Imperial historiographer, Bishop<span -class="pagenum" id="Page_541">[p. 541]</span> of Guadix, and Bishop of -Mondoñedo. He died in 1545.<a id="FNanchor_856" href="#Footnote_856" -class="fnanchor">[856]</a></p> - -<p>His works were not numerous, but they were fitted to the atmosphere -in which they were produced and enjoyed at once a great popularity. His -“Dial for Princes, or Marcus Aurelius,” first published in 1529, and -the fruit, as he tells us, of eleven years’ labor,<a id="FNanchor_857" -href="#Footnote_857" class="fnanchor">[857]</a> was not only often -reprinted in Spanish, but was translated into Latin, Italian, French, -and English; in each of which last two languages it appeared many times -before the end of the century.<a id="FNanchor_858" href="#Footnote_858" -class="fnanchor">[858]</a> It is a kind of romance, founded on the -life and character of Marcus Aurelius, and resembles, in some points, -the “Cyropædia” of Xenophon; its purpose being to place before the -Emperor Charles the Fifth the model of a prince more perfect for -wisdom and virtue than any other of antiquity. But the Bishop of -Mondoñedo adventured beyond his prerogative. He pretended that his -Marcus Aurelius was genuine history, and appealed to a manuscript in -Florence, which did not exist, as if he had done little more than make -a translation of it. In consequence of this, Pedro de Rua, a professor -of elegant literature in the college at Soria, addressed a letter to -him, in 1540, exposing the fraud. Two other letters followed, written -with more freedom and purity of style than any thing in the works of -the Bishop himself, and leaving him no real ground on which to stand.<a -id="FNanchor_859" href="#Footnote_859" class="fnanchor">[859]</a> He, -however, defended himself as<span class="pagenum" id="Page_542">[p. -542]</span> well as he was able; at first cautiously, but afterwards, -when he was more closely assailed, by assuming the wholly untenable -position, that all ancient profane history was no more true than his -romance of Marcus Aurelius, and that he had as good a right to invent -for his own high purposes as Herodotus or Livy. From this time he was -severely attacked; more so, perhaps, than he would have been, if the -gross frauds of Annius of Viterbo had not then been recent. But however -this may be, it was done with a bitterness that forms a strong contrast -to the applause bestowed in France, near the end of the eighteenth -century, upon a somewhat similar work on the same subject by Thomas.<a -id="FNanchor_860" href="#Footnote_860" class="fnanchor">[860]</a></p> - -<p>After all, however, the “Dial for Princes” is little worthy of -the excitement it occasioned. It is filled with letters and speeches -ill conceived and inappropriate; and is written in a formal and -inflated style. Perhaps we are now indebted to it for nothing so -much as for the beautiful fable of “The Peasant of the Danube,” -evidently suggested to La Fontaine by one of the discourses through -which Guevara endeavoured to give life and reality to his fictions.<a -id="FNanchor_861" href="#Footnote_861" class="fnanchor">[861]</a></p> - -<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_543">[p. 543]</span>In the same -spirit, though with less boldness, he wrote his “Lives of the Ten Roman -Emperors”; a work which, like his Dial for Princes, he dedicated to -Charles the Fifth. In general, he has here followed the authorities -on which he claims to found his narrative, such as Dion Cassius and -the minor Latin historians, showing, at the same time, a marked -desire to imitate Plutarch and Suetonius, whom he announces as his -models. But he has not been able entirely to resist the temptation of -inserting fictitious letters, and even unfounded stories; thus giving -a false view, if not of the facts of history, at least of some of -the characters he records. His style, however, though it still wants -purity and appropriateness, is better and more simple than it is in his -romance on Marcus Aurelius.<a id="FNanchor_862" href="#Footnote_862" -class="fnanchor">[862]</a></p> - -<p>Similar characteristics mark a large collection of Letters printed -by him as early as 1539. Many of them are addressed to persons of great -consideration in his time, such as the Marquis of Pescara, the Duke -of Alva, Iñigo de Velasco, Grand Constable of Castile, and Fadrique -Enriquez, Grand Admiral. But some were evidently never sent to the -persons addressed, like the loyal one to Juan de Padilla, the head -of the <i>Comuneros</i>, and two impertinent letters to the Governor Luis -Bravo, who had foolishly fallen in love in his old age. Others are -mere fictions; among which are a correspondence<span class="pagenum" -id="Page_544">[p. 544]</span> of the Emperor Trajan with Plutarch and -the Roman Senate, which Guevara vainly protests he translated from the -Greek, without saying where he found the originals,<a id="FNanchor_863" -href="#Footnote_863" class="fnanchor">[863]</a> and a long epistle -about Laïs and other courtesans of antiquity, in which he gives the -details of their conversations as if he had listened to them himself. -Most of the letters, though they are called “Familiar Epistles,” are -merely essays or disputations, and a few are sermons in form, with an -announcement of the occasions on which they were preached. None has -the easy or natural air of a real correspondence. In fact, they were -all, no doubt, prepared expressly for publication and for effect; and, -notwithstanding their stiffness and formality, were greatly admired. -They were often printed in Spain; they were translated into all the -principal languages of Europe; and, to express the value set on them, -they were generally called “The Golden Epistles.” But notwithstanding -their early success, they have long been disregarded, and only a -few passages that touch the affairs of the time or the life of the -Emperor can now be read with interest or pleasure.<a id="FNanchor_864" -href="#Footnote_864" class="fnanchor">[864]</a></p> - -<p>Besides these works, Guevara wrote several formal treatises. Two -are strictly theological.<a id="FNanchor_865" href="#Footnote_865" -class="fnanchor">[865]</a> Another is on the Inventors of the Art of -Navigation and its Practice;—a subject which might be thought foreign -from the<span class="pagenum" id="Page_545">[p. 545]</span> Bishop’s -experience, but with which, he tells us, he had become familiar by -having been much at sea, and visited many ports on the Mediterranean.<a -id="FNanchor_866" href="#Footnote_866" class="fnanchor">[866]</a> Of -his two other treatises, which are all that remain to be noticed, one -is called “Contempt of Court Life and Praise of the Country”; and the -other, “Counsels for Favorites, and Teachings for Courtiers.” They are -moral discussions, suggested by Castiglione’s “Courtier,” then at the -height of its popularity, and are written with great elaborateness, -in a solemn and stiff style, bearing the same relations to truth and -wisdom that Arcadian pastorals do to nature.<a id="FNanchor_867" -href="#Footnote_867" class="fnanchor">[867]</a></p> - -<p>All the works of Guevara show the impress of their age, and mark -their author’s position at court. They are burdened with learning, yet -not without proofs of experience in the ways of the world;—they often -show good sense, but they are monotonous from the stately dignity -he thinks it necessary to assume on his own account, and from the -rhetorical ornament by which he hopes to commend them to the regard of -his readers. Such as they are, however, they illustrate and exemplify, -more truly, perhaps, than any thing else of their age, the style of -writing most in favor at the court of Charles the Fifth, especially -during the latter part of that monarch’s reign.</p> - -<p>But by far the best didactic prose work of this period, though -unknown and unpublished till two centuries afterwards, is that commonly -cited under the simple title<span class="pagenum" id="Page_546">[p. -546]</span> of “The Dialogue on Languages”;—a work which, at any time, -would be deemed remarkable for the naturalness and purity of its style, -and is peculiarly so at this period of formal and elaborate eloquence. -“I write,” says its author, “as I speak; only I take more pains to -think what I have to say, and then I say it as simply as I can; for, -to my mind, affectation is out of place in all languages.” Who it was -that entertained an opinion so true, but in his time so uncommon, is -not certain. Probably it was Juan Valdés, a person who enjoys the -distinction of being one of the first Spaniards that embraced the -opinions of the Reformation, and the very first who made an effort to -spread them. He was educated at the University of Alcalá, and during -a part of his life possessed not a little political consequence, -being much about the person of the Emperor, and sent by him to act as -secretary and adviser to Toledo, the great viceroy of Naples. It is not -known what became of him afterwards; but he died in 1540, six years -before Charles the Fifth attempted to establish the Inquisition in -Naples; and therefore it is not likely that he was seriously molested -while he was in office there.<a id="FNanchor_868" href="#Footnote_868" -class="fnanchor">[868]</a></p> - -<p>The Dialogue on Languages is supposed to be carried on between -two Spaniards and two Italians, at a country-house on the sea-shore, -near Naples, and is an acute discussion on the origin and character -of the Castilian. Parts of it are learned, but in these the author -sometimes falls into errors;<a id="FNanchor_869" href="#Footnote_869" -class="fnanchor">[869]</a> other parts are lively and enter<span -class="pagenum" id="Page_547">[p. 547]</span>taining; and yet others -are full of good sense and sound criticism. The principal personage—the -one who gives all the instructions and explanations—is named Valdés; -and from this circumstance, as well as from some intimations in -the Dialogue itself, it may be inferred that the reformer was its -author, and that it was written before 1536;<a id="FNanchor_870" -href="#Footnote_870" class="fnanchor">[870]</a>—a point which, if -established, would account for the suppression of the manuscript, as -the work of an adherent of Luther. In any event, the Dialogue was -not printed till 1737, and therefore, as a specimen of pure and easy -style, was lost on the age that produced it.<a id="FNanchor_871" -href="#Footnote_871" class="fnanchor">[871]</a></p> - -<p>For us it is important, because it shows, with more distinctness -than any other literary monument of its time, what was the state of -the Spanish language in the reign of the Emperor Charles the Fifth; a -circumstance of consequence to the condition of the literature, and one -to which we therefore turn with interest.</p> - -<p>As might be expected, we find, when we look back, that the language -of letters in Spain has made material progress since we last noticed -it in the reign of John the Second. The example of Juan de Mena had -been<span class="pagenum" id="Page_548">[p. 548]</span> followed, and -the national vocabulary enriched during the interval of a century, -by successive poets, from the languages of classical antiquity. -From other sources, too, and through other channels, important -contributions had flowed in. From America and its commerce had come -the names of those productions which half a century of intercourse -had brought to Spain, and rendered familiar there,—terms few, indeed, -in number, but of daily use.<a id="FNanchor_872" href="#Footnote_872" -class="fnanchor">[872]</a> From Germany and the Low Countries still -more had been introduced by the accession of Charles the Fifth,<a -id="FNanchor_873" href="#Footnote_873" class="fnanchor">[873]</a> -who, to the great annoyance of his Spanish subjects, arrived in -Spain surrounded by foreign courtiers, and speaking with a stranger -accent the language of the country he was called to govern.<a -id="FNanchor_874" href="#Footnote_874" class="fnanchor">[874]</a> A few -words, too, had come accidentally from France; and now, in the reign of -Philip the Second, a great number, amounting to the most considerable -infusion the language had received since the time of the Arabs, were -brought in through the intimate connection of Spain with Italy and -the increasing influence of Italian letters and Italian culture.<a -id="FNanchor_875" href="#Footnote_875" class="fnanchor">[875]</a></p> - -<p>We may therefore consider that the Spanish language at this period -was not only formed, but that it had reached substantially its full -proportions, and had re<span class="pagenum" id="Page_549">[p. -549]</span>ceived all its essential characteristics. Indeed, it had -already for half a century been regularly cared for and cultivated. -Alonso de Palencia, who had long been in the service of his country -as an ambassador, and was afterwards its chronicler, published a -Latin and Spanish Dictionary in 1490; the oldest in which a Castilian -vocabulary is to be found.<a id="FNanchor_876" href="#Footnote_876" -class="fnanchor">[876]</a> This was succeeded, two years later, by -the first Castilian Grammar, the work of Antonio de Lebrixa, who had -before published a Latin Grammar in the Latin language, and translated -it for the benefit, as he tells us, of the ladies of the court.<a -id="FNanchor_877" href="#Footnote_877" class="fnanchor">[877]</a> -Other similar and equally successful attempts followed. A purely -Spanish Dictionary by Lebrixa, the first of its kind, appeared -in 1492, and a Dictionary for ecclesiastical purposes, in both -Latin and Spanish, by Santa Ella, succeeded it in 1499; both often -reprinted afterwards, and long regarded as standard authorities.<a -id="FNanchor_878" href="#Footnote_878" class="fnanchor">[878]</a> -All these works, so important for the consolidation of the language, -and so well constructed that successors to them were not found till -above a century later,<a id="FNanchor_879" href="#Footnote_879" -class="fnanchor">[879]</a> were, it should be observed, produced under -the direct and personal patronage of Queen Isabella, who in this, -as in so many other ways, gave proof at once of her far-sightedness -in affairs of state, and of her wise tastes and preferences in -whatever regarded the intellectual cultivation of her subjects.<a -id="FNanchor_880" href="#Footnote_880" class="fnanchor">[880]</a></p> - -<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_550">[p. 550]</span>The language -thus formed was now fast spreading throughout the kingdom, and -displacing dialects some of which, as old as itself, had seemed, at one -period, destined to surpass it in cultivation and general prevalence. -The ancient Galician, in which Alfonso the Wise was educated, and in -which he sometimes wrote, was now known as a polite language only -in Portugal, where it had risen to be so independent of the stock -from which it sprang as almost to disavow its origin. The Valencian -and Catalonian, those kindred dialects of the Provençal race, whose -influences in the thirteenth century were felt through the whole -Peninsula, claimed, at this period, something of their earlier dignity -only below the last range of hills on the coast of the Mediterranean. -The Biscayan alone, unchanged as the mountains which sheltered it, -still preserved for itself the same separate character it had at -the earliest dawnings of tradition,—a character which has continued -essentially the same down to our own times.</p> - -<p>But though the Castilian, advancing with the whole authority of the -government, which at this time spoke to the people of all Spain in no -other language, was heard and acknowledged throughout the country as -the language of the state and of all political power, still the popular -and local habits of four centuries could not be at once or entirely -broken up. The Galician, the Valencian, and the Catalonian continued to -be spoken in the age of Charles the Fifth, and are spoken now by the -masses of the people in their respective provinces, and to some extent -in the refined society of each. Even Andalusia and Aragon have not yet -emancipated themselves completely from their original idioms; and in -the same way, each of the other grand divisions of the country, several -of which were at one time independent king<span class="pagenum" -id="Page_551">[p. 551]</span>doms, are still, like Estremadura and La -Mancha, distinguished by peculiarities of phraseology and accent.<a -id="FNanchor_881" href="#Footnote_881" class="fnanchor">[881]</a></p> - -<p>Castile alone, and especially Old Castile, claims, as of inherited -right, from the beginning of the fifteenth century, the prerogative -of speaking absolutely pure Spanish. Villalobos, it is true, who -was always a flatterer of royal authority, insisted that this -prerogative followed the residences of the sovereign and the court;<a -id="FNanchor_882" href="#Footnote_882" class="fnanchor">[882]</a> -but the better opinion has been, that the purest form of the -Castilian must be sought at Toledo,—the Imperial Toledo, as it -was called,—peculiarly favored when it was the political capital -of the ancient monarchy in the time of the Goths, and consecrated -anew as the ecclesiastical head of all Christian Spain, the moment -it was rescued from the hands of the Moors.<a id="FNanchor_883" -href="#Footnote_883" class="fnanchor">[883]</a> It has even been -said, that the supremacy of this venerable city in the purity of -its dialect was so fully settled, from the first appearance of the -language as the language of the state in the thirteenth century, that -Alfonso the Wise, in a Cortes held there, directed the meaning of any -disputed word to be settled by its use at Toledo.<a id="FNanchor_884" -href="#Footnote_884" class="fnanchor">[884]</a> But however this may -be,<span class="pagenum" id="Page_552">[p. 552]</span> there is no -question, that, from the time of Charles the Fifth to the present day, -the Toledan has been considered, on the whole, the normal form of -the national language, and that, from the same period, the Castilian -dialect, having vindicated for itself an absolute supremacy over all -the other dialects of the monarchy, has been the only one recognized as -the language of the classical poetry and prose of the whole country.</p> - -<hr class="chap0" /> - - -<div class="chapter pt3" id="Ch_2_6"> - <p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_553">[p. 553]</span></p> - <h3>CHAPTER VI.</h3> - <p class="subh3 hang"><span class="smcap">Chronicling Period gone - by. — Charles the Fifth. — Guevara. — Ocampo. — Sepúlveda. — - Mexia. — Accounts of the New World. — Cortés. — Gomara. — Bernal - Diaz. — Oviedo. — Las Casas. — Vaca. — Xerez. — Çarate.</span></p> -</div> - -<p><span class="smcap">At</span> the beginning of the sixteenth -century, it is obvious that the age for chronicles had gone by in -Spain. Still it was thought for the dignity of the monarchy that -the stately forms of the elder time should, in this as in other -particulars, be kept up by public authority. Charles the Fifth, -therefore, as if his ambitious projects as a conqueror were to find -their counterpart in his arrangements for recording their success, had -several authorized chroniclers, all men of consideration and learning. -But the shadow on the dial would not go back at the royal command. The -greatest monarch of his time could appoint chroniclers, but he could -not give them the spirit of an age that was past. The chronicles he -demanded at their hands were either never undertaken or never finished. -Antonio de Guevara, one of the persons to whom these duties were -assigned, seems to have been singularly conscientious in the devotion -of his time to them; for we are told, that, by his will, he ordered -the salary of one year, during which he had written nothing of his -task, to be returned to the Imperial treasury. This, however, did not -imply that he was a<span class="pagenum" id="Page_554">[p. 554]</span> -successful chronicler.<a id="FNanchor_885" href="#Footnote_885" -class="fnanchor">[885]</a> What he wrote was not thought worthy of -being published by his contemporaries, and would probably be judged -no more favorably by the present generation, unless it discovered -a greater regard for historical truth, and a better style, than -are found in his discussions on the life and character of the -Emperor Marcus Aurelius.<a id="FNanchor_886" href="#Footnote_886" -class="fnanchor">[886]</a></p> - -<p>Florian de Ocampo, another of the more distinguished of the -chroniclers, showed a wide ambition in the plan he proposed to himself; -beginning his chronicles of Charles the Fifth as far back as the days -of Noah’s flood. As might have been foreseen, he lived only so long as -to finish a small fragment of his vast undertaking;—hardly a quarter -part of the first of its four grand divisions.<a id="FNanchor_887" -href="#Footnote_887" class="fnanchor">[887]</a> But he went far enough -to show how completely the age for such writing was passed away.<a -id="FNanchor_888" href="#Footnote_888" class="fnanchor">[888]</a> Not -that he failed in credulity; for of that he had more than enough. It -was not, however, the poetical credulity of his predecessors, trusting -to the old national traditions, but an easy faith, that believed in -the wearisome forgeries called the works of Berosus and Manetho,<a -id="FNanchor_889" href="#Footnote_889" class="fnanchor">[889]</a> -which had been discredited from their first appearance half a century -before, and yet were now used by Ocampo as if they were the probable, -if not the sufficient, records of an uninterrupted succession of -Spanish kings<span class="pagenum" id="Page_555">[p. 555]</span> from -Tubal, a grandson of Noah. Such a credulity has no charm about it. But -besides this, the work of Ocampo, in its very structure, is dry and -absurd; and, being written in a formal and heavy style, it is all but -impossible to read it. He died in 1555, the year the Emperor abdicated, -leaving us little occasion to regret that he had brought his annals of -Spain no lower down than the age of the Scipios.</p> - -<p>Juan Ginez de Sepúlveda was also charged by the Emperor -fitly to record the events of his reign;<a id="FNanchor_890" -href="#Footnote_890" class="fnanchor">[890]</a> and so -was Pero Mexia;<a id="FNanchor_891" href="#Footnote_891" -class="fnanchor">[891]</a> but the history of the former, which was -first published by the Academy in 1780, is in Latin, while that -of Mexia, written, apparently, after 1545, and coming down to the -coronation at Bologna, was never published at all.<a id="FNanchor_892" -href="#Footnote_892" class="fnanchor">[892]</a> A larger history, -however, by the last author, consisting of the lives of all the Roman -emperors from Julius Cæsar to Maximilian of Austria, the predecessor -of Charles the Fifth, which was printed several times, and is spoken -of as an introduction to his Chronicle, shows, notwithstanding its -many imperfections of style, that his purpose was to write a true -and well-digested history, since he generally refers, under each -reign, to the authorities on which he relies.<a id="FNanchor_893" -href="#Footnote_893" class="fnanchor">[893]</a></p> - -<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_556">[p. 556]</span>Such works -as these prove to us that we have reached the final limit of the -old chronicling style; and that we must now look for the appearance -of the different forms of regular historical composition in Spanish -literature. But before we approach them, we must pause a moment on a -few histories and accounts of the New World, which, during the reign -of Charles the Fifth, were of more importance than the imperfect -chronicles we have just noticed of the Spanish empire in Europe. For -as soon as the adventurers that followed Columbus were landed on the -western shores of the Atlantic, we begin to find narratives, more -or less ample, of their discoveries and settlements; some written -with spirit, and even in good taste; others quite unattractive in -their style; but nearly all interesting from their subject and their -materials, if from nothing else.</p> - -<p>In the foreground of this picturesque group stands, as the most -brilliant of its figures, Fernando Cortés, called, by way of eminence, -<i>El Conquistador</i>, the Conqueror. He was born of noble parentage, -and carefully bred; and though his fiery spirit drove him from -Salamanca before his education could be completed, and brought him -to the New World, in 1504, when he was hardly nineteen years old,<a -id="FNanchor_894" href="#Footnote_894" class="fnanchor">[894]</a> -still the nurture of his youth, so much better than that of most -of the other American adventurers, is apparent in his voluminous -documents and letters, both published and unpublished. Of these,<span -class="pagenum" id="Page_557">[p. 557]</span> the most remarkable were, -no doubt, five long and detailed Reports to the Emperor on the affairs -of Mexico; the first of which, and probably the most curious, dated in -1519, seems to be lost, and the last, belonging, probably, to 1527, -exists only in manuscript.<a id="FNanchor_895" href="#Footnote_895" -class="fnanchor">[895]</a> The four that remain are well written and -have a business-like air about them, as well as a clearness and good -taste which remind us sometimes, though rarely, of the “Relazioni” of -Machiavelli, and sometimes of Cæsar’s Commentaries. His letters, on -the other hand, are occasionally more ornamented. In an unpublished -one, written about 1533, and in which, when his fortunes were waning, -he sets forth his services and his wrongs, he pleases himself with -telling the Emperor that he “keeps two of his Majesty’s letters like -holy relics,” adding, that “the favors of his Majesty towards him -had been quite too ample for so small a vase”;—courtly and graceful -phrases, such as are not found in the documents of his later years, -when, disappointed and disgusted with affairs and with the court, he -retired to a morose solitude, where he died in 1554, little consoled by -his rank, his wealth, or his glory.</p> - -<p>The marvellous achievements of Cortés in Mexico, however, were -more fully, if not more accurately, recorded by Francisco Lopez de -Gomara,—the oldest of the regular historians of the New World,<a -id="FNanchor_896" href="#Footnote_896" class="fnanchor">[896]</a>—who -was born at Seville in 1510, and was, for some time, Professor of<span -class="pagenum" id="Page_558">[p. 558]</span> Rhetoric at Alcalá. -His early life, spent in the great mart of the American adventurers, -seems to have given him an interest in them and a knowledge of their -affairs which led him to write their history. The works he produced, -besides one or two of less consequence, were, first, his “History -of the Indies,” which, after the Spanish fashion, begins with the -creation of the world, and ends with the glories of Spain, though -it is chiefly devoted to Columbus and the discovery and conquest of -Peru; and, second, his “Chronicle of New Spain,” which is, in truth, -merely the History and Life of Cortés, and which, with this more -appropriate title, was reprinted by Bustamente, in Mexico, in 1826.<a -id="FNanchor_897" href="#Footnote_897" class="fnanchor">[897]</a> As -the earliest records that were published concerning affairs which -already stirred the whole of Christendom, these works had, at once, a -great success, passing through two editions almost immediately, and -being soon translated into French and Italian.</p> - -<p>But though Gomara’s style is easy and flowing, both in his mere -narration and in those parts of his works which so amply describe -the resources of the newly discovered countries, he did not succeed -in producing any thing of permanent authority. He was the secretary -of Cortés, and was misled by information received from him, and from -other persons, who were too much a part of the story they undertook -to relate to tell it fairly.<a id="FNanchor_898" href="#Footnote_898" -class="fnanchor">[898]</a><span class="pagenum" id="Page_559">[p. -559]</span> His mistakes, in consequence, are great and frequent, -and were exposed with much zeal by Bernal Diaz, an old soldier, -who, having already been twice to the New World, went with Cortés -to Mexico in 1519,<a id="FNanchor_899" href="#Footnote_899" -class="fnanchor">[899]</a> and fought there so often and so long, -that, many years afterwards, he declared he could sleep with comfort -only when his armour was on.<a id="FNanchor_900" href="#Footnote_900" -class="fnanchor">[900]</a> As soon as he read the accounts of -Gomara, he set himself sturdily at work to answer them, and in -1558 completed his task.<a id="FNanchor_901" href="#Footnote_901" -class="fnanchor">[901]</a> The book he thus produced is written with -much personal vanity, and runs, in a rude style, into wearisome -details; but it is full of the zealous and honest nationality of the -old chronicles, so that, while we are reading it, we seem to be carried -back into the preceding ages, and to be again in the midst of a sort of -fervor and faith which, in writers like Gomara and Cortés, we feel sure -we are fast leaving behind us.</p> - -<p>Among the persons who early came to America, and have left important -records of their adventures and times, one of the most considerable -was Gonzalo Fernandez de Oviedo. He was born at Madrid, in 1478,<a -id="FNanchor_902" href="#Footnote_902" class="fnanchor">[902]</a> and, -having been well educated at the court of Ferdinand and Isabella, -as one of the pages of Prince John, was sent out, in 1513, as a -supervisor of gold-smeltings, to San Domingo,<a id="FNanchor_903" -href="#Footnote_903" class="fnanchor">[903]</a> where, except -occasional visits to Spain<span class="pagenum" id="Page_560">[p. -560]</span> and to different Spanish possessions in America, he -lived nearly forty years, devoted to the affairs of the New World. -Oviedo seems, from his youth, to have had a passion for writing; and, -besides several less considerable works, among which were imperfect -chronicles of Ferdinand and Isabella and of Charles the Fifth, and a -life of Cardinal Ximenes,<a id="FNanchor_904" href="#Footnote_904" -class="fnanchor">[904]</a> he prepared two of no small value.</p> - -<p>The most important of these two is “The Natural and General History -of the Indies,” filling fifty books, of which the first portions, -embracing twenty-one, were published in 1535, while the rest are still -found only in manuscript. As early as 1525, when he was at Toledo, -and offered Charles the Fifth a summary of the History of Hispaniola, -he speaks of his desire to have his larger work printed. But it -appears, from the beginning of the thirty-third book and the end of the -thirty-fourth, that he was still employed upon it in 1547 and 1548; -and it is not unlikely, from the words with which he concludes the -thirty-seventh, that he kept each of its larger divisions open, and -continued to make additions to them nearly to the time of his death.<a -id="FNanchor_905" href="#Footnote_905" class="fnanchor">[905]</a></p> - -<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_561">[p. 561]</span>He tells us that -he had the Emperor’s authority to demand, from the different governors -of Spanish America, the documents he might need for his work;<a -id="FNanchor_906" href="#Footnote_906" class="fnanchor">[906]</a> -and as his divisions of the subject are those which naturally arise -from its geography, he appears to have gone judiciously about his -task. But the materials he was to use were in too crude a state -to be easily manageable, and the whole subject was too wide and -various for his powers. He falls, therefore, into a loose, rambling -style, instead of aiming at philosophical condensation; and, far -from an abridgment, which his work ought to have been, he gives us -chronicling, documentary accounts of an immense extent of newly -discovered country, and of the extraordinary events that had been -passing there,—sometimes too short and slight to be interesting, and -sometimes too detailed for the reader’s patience. He was evidently a -learned man, and maintained a correspondence with Ramusio, the Italian -geographer, which could not fail to be useful to both parties.<a -id="FNanchor_907" href="#Footnote_907" class="fnanchor">[907]</a> -And he was desirous to write in a good and eloquent style, in which -he sometimes succeeded. He has, therefore, on the whole, produced -a series of accounts of the natural condition, the aboriginal -inhabitants, and the political affairs of the wide-spread Spanish -possessions in America, as they stood in the middle of the sixteenth -century, which<span class="pagenum" id="Page_562">[p. 562]</span> is -of great value as a vast repository of facts, and not wholly without -merit as a composition.<a id="FNanchor_908" href="#Footnote_908" -class="fnanchor">[908]</a></p> - -<p>The other considerable work of Oviedo, the fruit of his old age, -is devoted to fond recollections of his native country and of the -distinguished men he had known there. He calls it “Las Quinquagenas,” -and it consists of a series of dialogues, in which, with little method -or order, he gives gossiping accounts of the principal families that -figured in Spain during the times of Ferdinand and Isabella and -Charles the Fifth, mingled with anecdotes and recollections, such -as—not without a simple-hearted exhibition of his own vanity—the -memory of his long and busy life could furnish. It appears from<span -class="pagenum" id="Page_563">[p. 563]</span> the Dialogue on Cardinal -Ximenes, and elsewhere, that he was employed on it as early as 1545;<a -id="FNanchor_909" href="#Footnote_909" class="fnanchor">[909]</a> -but the year 1550 occurs yet more frequently among the dates of its -imaginary conversations,<a id="FNanchor_910" href="#Footnote_910" -class="fnanchor">[910]</a> and at the conclusion he very distinctly -declares that it was finished on the 23d of May, 1556, when he was -seventy-nine years old. He died in Valladolid, the next year.</p> - -<p>But both during his life and after his death, Oviedo had a -formidable adversary, who, pursuing nearly the same course of inquiries -respecting the New World, came almost constantly to conclusions quite -opposite. This was no less a person than Bartolomé de las Casas, or -Casaus, the apostle and defender of the American Indians,—a man who -would have been remarkable in any age of the world, and who does not -seem yet to have gathered in the full harvest of his honors. He was -born in Seville, probably in 1474; and in 1502, having gone through -a course of studies at Salamanca, embarked for the Indies, where his -father, who had been there with Columbus nine years earlier, had -already accumulated a decent fortune.</p> - -<p>The attention of the young man was early drawn to the condition -of the natives, from the circumstance, that one of them, given to -his father by Columbus, had been attached to his own person as a -slave, while he was still at the University; and he was not slow to -learn, on his arrival in Hispaniola, that their gentle natures and -slight frames had already been subjected, in the mines and in<span -class="pagenum" id="Page_564">[p. 564]</span> other forms of toil, -to a servitude so harsh, that the original inhabitants of the island -were beginning to waste away under the severity of their labors. From -this moment he devoted his life to their emancipation. In 1510 he -took holy orders, and continued as a priest, and for a short time as -Bishop of Chiapa, nearly forty years, to teach, strengthen, and console -the suffering flock committed to his charge. Six times, at least, he -crossed the Atlantic, in order to persuade the government of Charles -the Fifth to ameliorate their condition, and always with more or less -success. At last, but not until 1547, when he was above seventy years -old, he established himself at Valladolid, in Spain, where he passed -the remainder of his serene old age, giving it freely to the great -cause to which he had devoted the freshness of his youth. He died, -while on a visit of business, at Madrid, in 1566, at the advanced -age, as is commonly supposed, of ninety-two.<a id="FNanchor_911" -href="#Footnote_911" class="fnanchor">[911]</a></p> - -<p>Among the principal opponents of his benevolence were Sepúlveda,—one -of the leading men of letters and casuists of the time in Spain,—and -Oviedo, who, from his connection with the mines and his share in the -government of different parts of the newly discovered coun<span -class="pagenum" id="Page_565">[p. 565]</span>tries, had an interest -directly opposite to the one Las Casas defended. These two persons, -with large means and a wide influence to sustain them, intrigued, -wrote, and toiled against him, in every way in their power. But his was -not a spirit to be daunted by opposition or deluded by sophistry and -intrigue; and when, in 1519, in a discussion with Sepúlveda concerning -the Indians, held in the presence of the young and proud Emperor -Charles the Fifth, Las Casas said, “It is quite certain, that, speaking -with all the respect and reverence due to so great a sovereign, I would -not, save in the way of duty and obedience as a subject, go from the -place where I now stand to the opposite corner of this room, to serve -your Majesty, unless I believed I should at the same time serve God,”<a -id="FNanchor_912" href="#Footnote_912" class="fnanchor">[912]</a>—when -he said this, he uttered a sentiment that really governed his life and -constituted the basis of the great power he exercised. His works are -pervaded by it. The earliest of them, called “A very Short Account -of the Ruin of the Indies,” was written in 1542,<a id="FNanchor_913" -href="#Footnote_913" class="fnanchor">[913]</a> and dedicated to the -prince, afterwards Philip the Second;—a tract in which, no doubt, -the sufferings and wrongs of the Indians are much overstated by the -indignant zeal of its author, but still one whose expositions are -founded in truth, and by their fervor awakened all Europe to a sense -of the injustice they set forth. Other short treatises followed, -written with similar spirit and power, especially those in reply -to Sepúlveda; but none was so often reprinted, either at home or -abroad, as the first,<a id="FNanchor_914" href="#Footnote_914" -class="fnanchor">[914]</a> and none ever produced<span class="pagenum" -id="Page_566">[p. 566]</span> so deep and solemn an effect on the -world. They were all collected and published in 1552; and, besides -being translated into other languages at the time, an edition in -Spanish, and a French version of the whole, with two more treatises -than were contained in the first collection, appeared at Paris in 1822, -prepared by Llorente.</p> - -<p>The great work of Las Casas, however, still remains inedited,—a -General History of the Indies from 1492 to 1520, begun by him in 1527 -and finished in 1561, but of which he ordered that no portion should -be published within forty years of his death. Like his other works, it -shows marks of haste and carelessness, and is written in a rambling -style; but its value, notwithstanding his too fervent zeal for the -Indians, is great. He had been personally acquainted with many of the -early discoverers and conquerors, and, at one time, possessed the -papers of Columbus, and a large mass of other important documents, -which are now lost. He says he had known Cortés “when he was so low -and humble, that he besought favor from the meanest servant of Diego -Velasquez”; and he knew him afterwards, he tells us, when, in his pride -of place at the court of the Emperor, he ventured to jest about the -pretty corsair’s part he had played in the affairs of Montezuma.<a -id="FNanchor_915" href="#Footnote_915" class="fnanchor">[915]</a> -He knew, too, Gomara and Oviedo, and gives<span class="pagenum" -id="Page_567">[p. 567]</span> at large his reasons for differing -from them. In short, his book, divided into three parts, is a great -repository, to which Herrera, and through him all the historians of -the Indies since, have resorted for materials; and without which -the history of the earliest period of the Spanish settlements in -America cannot, even now, be properly written.<a id="FNanchor_916" -href="#Footnote_916" class="fnanchor">[916]</a></p> - -<p>But it is not necessary to go farther into an examination of the old -accounts of the discovery and conquest of Spanish America, though there -are many more which, like those we have already considered, are partly -books of travel through countries full of wonders, partly chronicles -of adventures as strange as those of romance; frequently running into -idle and loose details, but as frequently fresh, picturesque, and manly -in their tone and coloring, and almost always curious from the facts -they record and the glimpses they give of manners and character. Among -those that might be added are the stories by Vaca of his shipwreck and -ten years’ captivity in Florida, from 1527 to 1537, and his subsequent -government for three years of the Rio de la Plata;<a id="FNanchor_917" -href="#Footnote_917" class="fnanchor">[917]</a> the short account of -the conquest of Peru written by Francisco de Xerez,<a id="FNanchor_918" -href="#Footnote_918" class="fnanchor">[918]</a> and the ampler one, -of the same wild achievements, which Augustin de Çarate began on -the spot, and was prevented by an officer of Gonzalo de Pizarro -from<span class="pagenum" id="Page_568">[p. 568]</span> finishing -till after his return home.<a id="FNanchor_919" href="#Footnote_919" -class="fnanchor">[919]</a> But they may all be passed over, as of less -consequence than those we have noticed, which are quite sufficient -to give an idea, both of the nature of their class and the course it -followed,—a class much resembling the old chronicles, but yet one that -announces the approach of those more regular forms of history for which -it furnishes abundant materials.</p> - - -<p class="small centra mt3">END OF VOL. I.</p> - -<hr class="chap0" /> - - -<div class="chapter pt3"> -<div class="footnotes"> - -<p class="large centra mt1">FOOTNOTES</p> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p id="Footnote_1"><span class="label"><a -href="#FNanchor_1">[1]</a></span> August Wilhelm von Schlegel, Ueber -Dramatische Kunst, Heidelberg, 1811, 8vo, Vorlesung XIV.</p> - -</div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p id="Footnote_2"><span class="label"><a -href="#FNanchor_2">[2]</a></span> Augustin Thierry has in a few words -finely described the fusion of society that originally took place in -the northwestern part of Spain, and on which the civilization of the -country still rests: “Reserrés dans ce coin de terre, devenu pour eux -toute la patrie, Goths et Romains, vainqueurs et vaincus, étrangers -et indigènes, maîtres et esclaves, tous unis dans le même malheur, -oublièrent leurs vieilles haines, leur vieil éloignement, leurs -vieilles distinctions; il n’y eut plus qu’un nom, qu’une loi, qu’un -état, qu’un langage; tous furent égaux dans cet exil.” Dix Ans d’Études -Historiques, Paris, 1836, 8vo, p. 346.</p> - -</div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p id="Footnote_3"><span class="label"><a -href="#FNanchor_3">[3]</a></span> Manuel Risco, La Castilla y el mas -Famoso Castellano, Madrid, 1792, 4to, pp. 14-18.</p> - -</div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p id="Footnote_4"><span class="label"><a -href="#FNanchor_4">[4]</a></span> Speaking of this decisive battle, -and following, as he always does, only Arabic authorities, Conde says, -“This fearful rout happened on Monday, the fifteenth day of the month -Safer, in the year 609 [A. D. 1212]; and with it fell the power of the -Moslems in Spain, for nothing turned out well with them after it.” -(Historia de la Dominacion de los Árabes en España, Madrid, 1820, 4to, -Tom. II. p. 425.) Gayangos, in his more learned and yet more entirely -Arabic “Mohammedan Dynasties in Spain,” (London, 1843, 4to, Vol. II. -p. 323,) gives a similar account. The purely Spanish historians, of -course, state the matter still more strongly;—Mariana, for instance, -looking upon the result of the battle as quite superhuman. Historia -General de España, 14a impresion, Madrid, 1780, fol., Lib. XI. c. -24.</p> - -</div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p id="Footnote_5"><span class="label"><a -href="#FNanchor_5">[5]</a></span> “And in that time,” we are told in -the old “Crónica General de España,” (Zamora, 1541, fol., f. 275,) “was -the war of the Moors very grievous; so that the kings, and counts, and -nobles, and all the knights that took pride in arms, stabled their -horses in the rooms where they slept with their wives; to the end that, -when they heard the war-cry, they might find their horses and arms at -hand, and mount instantly at its summons.” “A hard and rude training,” -says Martinez de la Rosa, in his graceful romance of “Isabel de Solís,” -recollecting, I suspect, this very passage,—“a hard and rude training, -the prelude to so many glories and to the conquest of the world, when -our forefathers, weighed down with harness, and their swords always in -hand, slept at ease no single night for eight centuries.” Doña Isabel -de Solís, Reyna de Granada, Novela Histórica, Madrid, 1839, 8vo, Parte -II. c. 15.</p> - -</div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p id="Footnote_6"><span class="label"><a -href="#FNanchor_6">[6]</a></span> See Appendix (A.), on the History of -the Spanish Language.</p> - -</div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p id="Footnote_7"><span class="label"><a -href="#FNanchor_7">[7]</a></span> The date of the only early manuscript -of the Poem of the Cid is in these words: “Per Abbat le escribio en el -mes de Mayo, en Era de Mill è CC..XLV años.” There is a blank made by -an erasure between the second C and the X, which has given rise to the -question, whether this erasure was made by the copyist because he had -accidentally put in a letter too much, or whether it is a subsequent -erasure that ought to be filled,—and, if filled, whether with the -conjunction <i>è</i> or with another C; in short, the question is, whether -this manuscript should be dated in 1245 or in 1345. (Sanchez, Poesías -Anteriores, Madrid, 1779, 8vo, Tom. I. p. 221.) This year, 1245, -<i>of the Spanish era</i>, according to which the calculation of time is -commonly kept in the elder Spanish records, corresponds to our A. D. -1207;—a difference of 38 years, the reason for which may be found in a -note to Southey’s “Chronicle of the Cid,” (London, 1808, 4to, p. 385,) -without seeking it in more learned sources.</p> - -<p class="ti1">The date of <i>the poem itself</i>, however, is a very -different question from the date of <i>this particular manuscript</i> of -it; for the <i>Per Abbat</i> referred to is merely the copyist, whether his -name was Peter Abbat or Peter the Abbot, (Risco, Castilla, etc., p. -68.) This question—the one, I mean, of the age of <i>the poem itself</i>—can -be settled only from internal evidence of style and language. Two -passages, vv. 3014 and 3735, have, indeed, been alleged (Risco, p. 69, -Southey’s Chronicle, p. 282, note) to prove its date historically; but, -after all, they only show that it was written subsequently to A. D. -1135. (V. A. Huber, Geschichte des Cid, Bremen, 1829, 12mo, p. xxix.) -The point is one difficult to settle; and none can be consulted about -it but natives or <i>experts</i>. Of these, Sanchez places it at about 1150, -or half a century after the death of the Cid, (Poesías Anteriores, -Tom. I. p. 223,) and Capmany (Eloquencia Española, Madrid, 1786, 8vo, -Tom. I. p. 1) follows him. Marina, whose opinion is of great weight, -(Memorias de la Academia de Historia, Tom. IV. 1805, Ensayo, p. 34,) -places it thirty or forty years before Berceo, who wrote 1220-1240. -The editors of the Spanish translation of Bouterwek, (Madrid, 1829, -8vo, Tom. I. p. 112,) who give a fac-simile of the manuscript, agree -with Sanchez, and so does Huber (Gesch. des Cid, Vorwort, p. xxvii.). -To these opinions may be added that of Ferdinand Wolf, of Vienna, -(Jahrbücher der Literatur, Wien, 1831, Band LVI. p. 251,) who, like -Huber, is one of the acutest scholars alive in whatever touches Spanish -and Mediæval literature, and who places it about 1140-1160. Many other -opinions might be cited, for the subject has been much discussed; but -the judgments of the learned men already given, formed at different -times in the course of half a century from the period of the first -publication of the poem, and concurring so nearly, leave no reasonable -doubt that it was composed as early as the year 1200.</p> - -<p class="ti1">Mr. Southey’s name, introduced by me in this note, is -one that must always be mentioned with peculiar respect by scholars -interested in Spanish literature. From the circumstance, that his -uncle, the Rev. Herbert Hill, a scholar, and a careful and industrious -one, was connected with the English Factory at Lisbon, Mr. Southey -visited Spain and Portugal in 1795-6, when he was about twenty-two -years old, and, on his return home, published his Travels, in 1797;—a -pleasant book, written in the clear, idiomatic, picturesque English -that always distinguishes his style, and containing a considerable -number of translations from the Spanish and the Portuguese, made with -freedom and spirit rather than with great exactness. From this time he -never lost sight of Spain and Portugal, or of Spanish and Portuguese -literature; as is shown, not only by several of his larger original -works, but by his translations, and by his articles in the London -Quarterly Review on Lope de Vega and Camoens; especially by one in the -second volume of that journal, which was translated into Portuguese, -with notes, by Müller, Secretary of the Academy of Sciences at Lisbon, -and so made into an excellent compact manual for Portuguese literary -history.</p> - -</div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p id="Footnote_8"><span class="label"><a -href="#FNanchor_8">[8]</a></span> The Arabic accounts represent the Cid -as having died of grief, at the defeat of the Christians near Valencia, -which fell again into the hands of the Moslem in 1100. (Gayangos, -Mohammedan Dynasties, Vol. II. Appendix, p. xliii.) It is necessary to -read some one of the many Lives of the Cid in order to understand the -Poema del Cid, and much else of Spanish literature; I will therefore -notice four or five of the more suitable and important. 1. The oldest -is the Latin “Historia Didaci Campidocti,” written before 1238, and -published as an Appendix in Risco. 2. The next is the cumbrous and -credulous one by Father Risco, 1792. 3. Then we have a curious one -by John von Müller, the historian of Switzerland, 1805, prefixed to -his friend Herder’s Ballads of the Cid. 4. The classical Life by -Manuel Josef Quintana, in the first volume of his “Vidas de Españoles -Célebres” (Madrid, 1807, 12mo). 5. That of Huber, 1829; acute and safe. -The best of all, however, is the old Spanish “Chronicle of the Cid,” -or Southey’s Chronicle, 1808;—the best, I mean, for those who read in -order to enjoy what may be called the literature of the Cid;—to which -may be added a pleasant little volume by George Dennis, entitled “The -Cid, a Short Chronicle founded on the Early Poetry of Spain,” London, -1845, 12mo.</p> - -</div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p id="Footnote_9"><span class="label"><a -href="#FNanchor_9">[9]</a></span> Chrónica del Cid, Burgos, 1593, fol., -c. 19.</p> - -</div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p id="Footnote_10"><span class="label"><a -href="#FNanchor_10">[10]</a></span> Huber, p. 96. Müller’s Leben des -Cid, in Herder’s Sämmtliche Werke, zur schönen Literatur und Kunst, -Wien, 1813, 12mo, Theil III. p. xxi.</p> - -</div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p id="Footnote_11"><span class="label"><a -href="#FNanchor_11">[11]</a></span> “No period of Spanish history is so -deficient in contemporary documents.” Huber, Vorwort, p. xiii.</p> - -</div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p id="Footnote_12"><span class="label"><a -href="#FNanchor_12">[12]</a></span> It is amusing to compare the -Moorish accounts of the Cid with the Christian. In the work of Conde on -the Arabs of Spain, which is little more than a translation from Arabic -chronicles, the Cid appears first, I think, in the year 1087, when he -is called “the Cambitur [Campeador] who <i>infested</i> the frontiers of -Valencia.” (Tom. II. p. 155.) When he had taken Valencia, in 1094, we -are told, “Then the Cambitur—<i>may he be accursed of Allah!</i>—entered in -with all his people and allies.” (Tom. II. p. 183.) In other places he -is called “Roderic the Cambitur,”—“Roderic, Chief of the Christians, -known as the Cambitur,”—and “the Accursed”;—all proving how thoroughly -he was hated and feared by his enemies. He is nowhere, I think, called -Cid or Seid by Arab writers; and the reason why he appears in Conde’s -work so little is, probably, that the manuscripts used by that writer -relate chiefly to the history of events in Andalusia and Granada, where -the Cid did not figure at all. The tone in Gayangos’s more learned and -accurate work on the Mohammedan Dynasties is the same. When the Cid -dies, the Arab chronicler (Vol. II. App., p. xliii.) adds, “May God not -show him mercy!”</p> - -</div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p id="Footnote_13"><span class="label"><a -href="#FNanchor_13">[13]</a></span> This is the opinion of John von -Müller and of Southey, the latter of whom says, in the Preface to -his Chronicle, (p. xi.,) “The poem is to be considered as metrical -history, not as metrical romance.” But Huber, in the excellent Vorwort -to his Geschichte, (p. xxvi.,) shows this to be a mistake; and in the -introduction to his edition of the Chronicle, (Marburg, 1844, 8vo, p. -xlii.,) shows further, that the poem was certainly not taken from the -old Latin Life, which is the proper foundation for what is historical -in our account of the Cid.</p> - -</div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p id="Footnote_14"><span class="label"><a -href="#FNanchor_14">[14]</a></span> Mariana is much troubled about -the history of the Cid, and decides nothing (Historia, Lib. X. c. -4);—Sandoval controverts much, and entirely denies the story of the -Counts of Carrion (Reyes de Castilla, Pamplona, 1615, fol., f. 54);—and -Ferreras (Synopsis Histórica, Madrid, 1775, 4to, Tom. V. pp. 196-198) -endeavours to settle what is true and what is fabulous, and agrees -with Sandoval about the marriage of the daughters of the Cid with the -Counts. Southey (Chronicle, pp. 310-312) argues both sides, and shows -his desire to believe the story, but does not absolutely succeed in -doing so.</p> - -</div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p id="Footnote_15"><span class="label"><a -href="#FNanchor_15">[15]</a></span> The poem was originally published -by Sanchez, in the first volume of his valuable “Poesías Castellanas -Anteriores al Siglo XV.” (Madrid, 1779-90, 4 tom., 8vo; reprinted by -Ochoa, Paris, 1842, 8vo.) It contains three thousand seven hundred -and forty-four lines, and, if the deficiencies in the manuscript were -supplied, Sanchez thinks the whole would come up to about four thousand -lines. But he saw a copy made in 1596, which, though not entirely -faithful, showed that the older manuscript had the same deficiencies -then that it has now. Of course, there is little chance that they will -ever be supplied.</p> - -</div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p id="Footnote_16"><span class="label"><a -href="#FNanchor_16">[16]</a></span> I would instance the following -lines on the famine in Valencia during its Siege by the Cid:—</p> - -<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> -<p class="i0">Mal se aquexan los de Valencia · que non sabent ques’ far;</p> -<p class="i0">De ninguna part que sea · no les viene pan;</p> -<p class="i0">Nin da consejo padre à fijo, · nin fijo à padre:</p> -<p class="i0">Nin amigo à amigo nos · pueden consolar.</p> -<p class="i0">Mala cuenta es, Señores, · aver mengua de pan,</p> -<p class="i0">Fijos e mugieres verlo · morir de fambre.</p> -<p class="dr">vv. 1183-1188.</p> -</div></div> - -<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> -<p class="i0">Valencian men doubt what to do, · and bitterly complain,</p> -<p class="i0">That, wheresoe’er they look for bread, · they look for it in vain.</p> -<p class="i0">No father help can give his child, · no son can help his sire,</p> -<p class="i0">Nor friend to friend assistance lend, · or cheerfulness inspire.</p> -<p class="i0">A grievous story, Sirs, it is, · when fails the needed bread,</p> -<p class="i0">And women fair and children young · in hunger join the dead.</p> -</div></div> - -<p>From the use of <i>Señores</i>, “Sirs,” in this passage, as well as -from other lines, like v. 734 and v. 2291, I have thought the poem -was either originally addressed to some particular persons, or was -intended—which is most in accordance with the spirit of the age—to be -recited publicly.</p> - -</div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p id="Footnote_17"><span class="label"><a -href="#FNanchor_17">[17]</a></span> For example:—</p> - -<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> -<p class="i0">Ferran Gonzalez non vió alli dos’ alzase · nin camara abierta nin torre.—v. 2296.</p> -</div></div> - -<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> -<p class="i0">Feme ante vos yo · è vuestras fijas,</p> -<p class="i0">Infantes son è · de dias chicas.—vv. 268, 269.</p> -</div></div> - -<p class="ti1">Some of the irregularities of the versification may be -owing to the copyist, as we have but one manuscript to depend upon; but -they are too grave and too abundant to be charged, on the whole, to any -account but that of the original author.</p> - -</div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p id="Footnote_18"><span class="label"><a -href="#FNanchor_18">[18]</a></span> Some of the lines of this passage -in the original (vv. 723, etc.) may be cited, to show that gravity and -dignity were among the prominent attribute of the Spanish language from -its first appearance.</p> - -<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> -<p class="i0">Embrazan los escudos · delant los corazones,</p> -<p class="i0">Abaxan las lanzas apuestas · de los pendones,</p> -<p class="i0">Enclinaron las caras · de suso de los arzones,</p> -<p class="i0">Iban los ferir · de fuertes corazones,</p> -<p class="i0">A grandes voces lama · el que en buen ora nasceò:</p> -<p class="i0">“Ferid los, cavalleros, por · amor de caridad,</p> -<p class="i0">Yo soy Ruy Diaz el Cid · Campeador de Bibar,” etc.</p> -</div></div> - -</div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p id="Footnote_19"><span class="label"><a -href="#FNanchor_19">[19]</a></span> This and the two following -translations were made by Mr. J. Hookham Frere, one of the most -accomplished scholars England has produced, and one whom Sir James -Mackintosh has pronounced to be the first of English translators. He -was, for some years, British Minister in Spain, and, by a conjectural -emendation which he made of a line in <i>this very poem</i>, known only to -himself and the Marquis de la Romana, was able to accredit a secret -agent to the latter in 1808, when he was commanding a body of Spanish -troops in the French service on the soil of Denmark;—a circumstance -that led to one of the most important movements in the war against -Bonaparte. (Southey’s History of the Peninsular War, London, 1823, 4to, -Tom. I. p. 657.) The admirable translations of Mr. Frere from the Poem -of the Cid, are to be found in the Appendix to Southey’s Chronicle of -the Cid; itself an entertaining book, made out of free versions and -compositions from the Spanish Poem of the Cid, the old ballads, the -prose Chronicle of the Cid, and the General Chronicle of Spain. Mr. Wm. -Godwin, in a somewhat singular “Letter of Advice to a Young American on -a Course of Studies,” (London, 1818, 8vo,) commends it justly as one of -the books best calculated to give an idea of the age of chivalry.</p> - -<p class="ti1">It is proper I should add here, that, except in this -case of the Poem of the Cid, where I am indebted to Mr. Frere for the -passages in the text, and in the case of the Coplas of Manrique, (Chap. -21 of this Period,) where I am indebted to the beautiful version of Mr. -Longfellow, the translations in these volumes are made by myself.</p> - -</div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p id="Footnote_20"><span class="label"><a -href="#FNanchor_20">[20]</a></span> This division, and some others -less distinctly marked, have led Tapia (Historia de la Civilización de -España, Madrid, 1840, 12mo, Tom. I. p. 268) to think, that the whole -poem is but a congeries of ballads, as the Iliad has sometimes been -thought to be, and, as there is little doubt, the Nibelungenlied really -is. But such breaks occur so frequently in different parts of it, and -seem so generally to be made for other reasons, that this conjecture is -not probable. (Huber, Chrónica del Cid, p. xl.) Besides, the whole poem -more resembles the Chansons de Geste of old French poetry, and is more -artificial in its structure, than the nature of the ballad permits.</p> - -</div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p id="Footnote_21"><span class="label"><a -href="#FNanchor_21">[21]</a></span></p> - -<div class="poem mt-05"><div class="stanza"> -<p class="i0">Asur Gonzalez entraba · por el palacio;</p> -<p class="i0">Manto armino è un · Brial rastrando:</p> -<p class="i0">Bermeio viene, · ca era almorzado.</p> -<p class="i0">En lo que fabló · avie poco recabdo.</p> -<p class="i0">“Hya varones, quien · vió nunca tal mal?</p> -<p class="i0">Quien nos darie nuevas · de Mio Cid, el de Bibar?</p> -<p class="i0">Fues’ á Riodouirna · los molinos picar,</p> -<p class="i0">E prender maquilas · como lo suele far’:</p> -<p class="i0">Quil’ darie con los · de Carrion a casar’?”</p> -<p class="i0">Esora Muno Gustioz · en pie se levantó:</p> -<p class="i0">“Cala, alevoso, · malo, è traydor:</p> -<p class="i0">Antes almuerzas, · que bayas à oracion:</p> -<p class="i0">A los que das paz, · fartas los aderredor.</p> -<p class="i0">Non dices verdad · amigo ni à Señor,</p> -<p class="i0">Falso à todos · è mas al Criador.</p> -<p class="i0">En tu amistad non · quiero aver racion.</p> -<p class="i0">Facertelo decir, que · tal eres qual digo yo.”</p> -<p class="dr">Sanchez. Tom. I., p. 359.</p> -</div></div> - -<p class="ti1">This passage, with what precedes and what follows it, -may be compared with the challenge in Shakspeare’s “Richard II.,” Act -IV.</p> - -</div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p id="Footnote_22"><span class="label"><a -href="#FNanchor_22">[22]</a></span></p> - -<div class="poem mt-05"><div class="stanza"> -<p class="i0">Los Fieles è el rey · enseñaron los moiones.</p> -<p class="i0">Librabanse del campo · todos aderredor:</p> -<p class="i0">Bien gelo demostraron · à todos seis como son,</p> -<p class="i0">Que por y serie vencido · qui saliese del moion.</p> -<p class="i0">Todas las yentes · esconbraron aderredor</p> -<p class="i0">De seis astas de lanzas · que non legasen al moion.</p> -<p class="i0">Sorteabanles el campo, · ya les partien el sol:</p> -<p class="i0">Salien los Fieles de medio, · ellos cara por cara son.</p> -<p class="i0">Desi vinien los de Mio Cid · à los Infantes de Carrion,</p> -<p class="i0">Ellos Infantes de Carrion · à los del Campeador.</p> -<p class="i0">Cada uno dellos mientes · tiene al so.</p> -<p class="i0">Abrazan los escudos · delant’ los corazones:</p> -<p class="i0">Abaxan las lanzas · abueltas con los pendones:</p> -<p class="i0">Enclinaban las caras · sobre los arzones:</p> -<p class="i0">Batien los cavallos · con los espolones:</p> -<p class="i0">Tembrar querie la tierra · dod eran movedores.</p> -<p class="i0">Cada uno dellos mientes · tiene al só.</p> -<p class="dr">Sanchez, Tom. I. p. 368.</p> -</div></div> - -<p class="ti1">A parallel passage from Chaucer’s “Knight’s Tale”—the -combat between Palamon and Arcite (Tyrwhitt’s edit., v. 2601)—should -not be overlooked.</p> - -<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> -<p class="i0">“The heraudes left hir priking up and down,</p> -<p class="i0">Now ringen trompes loud and clarioun,</p> -<p class="i0">There is no more to say, but est and west,</p> -<p class="i0">In gon the speres sadly in the rest;</p> -<p class="i0">In goth the sharpe spore into the side:</p> -<p class="i0">Ther see men who can just and who can ride.”</p> -</div></div> - -<p class="ti1">And so on twenty lines farther, both in the English -and the Spanish. But it should be borne in mind, when comparing them, -that the Poem of the Cid was written two centuries earlier than the -“Canterbury Tales” were.</p> - -</div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p id="Footnote_23"><span class="label"><a -href="#FNanchor_23">[23]</a></span> The change of opinion in relation -to the Poema del Cid, and the different estimates of its value, are -remarkable circumstances in its history. Bouterwek speaks of it very -slightingly,—probably from following Sarmiento, who had not read -it,—and the Spanish translators of Bouterwek almost agree with him. -F. v. Schlegel, however, Sismondi, Huber, Wolf, and nearly or quite -all who have spoken of it of late, express a strong admiration of its -merits. There is, I think, truth in the remark of Southey (Quarterly -Review, 1814, Vol. XII. p. 64): “The Spaniards have not yet discovered -the high value of their metrical history of the Cid, as a poem; they -will never produce any thing great in the higher branches of art, till -they have cast off the false taste which prevents them from perceiving -it.”</p> - -<p class="ti1">Of all poems belonging to the early ages of any modern -nation, the one that can best be compared with the Poem of the Cid -is the Nibelungenlied, which, according to the most judicious among -the German critics, dates, in its present form at least, about half -a century after the time assigned to the Poem of the Cid. A parallel -might easily be run between them, that would be curious.</p> - -<p class="ti1 mt2">In the Jahrbücher der Literatur, Wien, 1846, Band -CXVI., M. Francisque Michel, the scholar to whom the literature of the -Middle Ages owes so much, published, for the first time, what remains -of an old poetical Spanish chronicle,—“Chrónica Rimada de las Cosas de -España,”—on the history of Spain from the death of Pelayo to Ferdinand -the Great;—the same poem that is noticed in Ochoa, “Catálogo de -Manuscritos,” (Paris, 1844, 4to, pp. 106-110,) and in Huber’s edition -of the Chronicle of the Cid, Preface, App. E.</p> - -<p class="ti1">It is a curious, though not important, contribution -to our resources in early Spanish literature, and one that -immediately reminds us of the old Poem of the Cid. It begins with -a prose introduction on the state of affairs down to the time of -Fernan Gonzalez, compressed into a single page, and then goes on -through eleven hundred and twenty-six lines of verse, when it breaks -off abruptly in the middle of a line, as if the copyist had been -interrupted, but with no sign that the work was drawing to an end. -Nearly the whole of it is taken up with the history of the Cid, his -family and his adventures, which are sometimes different from those in -the old ballads and chronicles. Thus, Ximena is represented as having -three brothers, who are taken prisoners by the Moors and released by -the Cid; and the Cid is made to marry Ximena, by the royal command, -against his own will; after which he goes to Paris, in the days of -the Twelve Peers, and performs feats like those in the romances of -chivalry. This, of course, is all new. But the old stories are altered -and amplified, like those of the Cid’s charity to the leper, which is -given with a more picturesque air, and of Ximena and the king, and -of the Cid and his father, which are partly thrown into dialogue, -not without dramatic effect. The whole is a free version of the old -traditions of the country, apparently made in the fifteenth century, -after the fictions of chivalry began to be known, and with the -intention of giving the Cid rank among their heroes.</p> - -<p class="ti1">The measure is that of the long verses used in the older -Spanish poetry, with a cæsural pause near the middle of each, and the -termination of the lines is in the <i>asonante</i> a-o.<a id="FNanchor_23_1" -href="#Footnote_23_1" class="fnanchor">[*]</a> But in all this there -is great irregularity;—many of the verses running out to twenty or -more syllables, and several passages failing to observe the proper -<i>asonante</i>. Every thing indicates that the old ballads were familiar to -the author, and from one passage I infer that he knew the old poem of -the Cid:—</p> - -<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> -<p class="i0">Veredes lidiar a porfia · e tan firme se dar,</p> -<p class="i0">Atantos pendones obrados · alçar e abaxar,</p> -<p class="i0">Atantas lanças quebradas · por el primor quebrar,</p> -<p class="i0">Atantos cavallos caer · e non se levantar,</p> -<p class="i0">Atanto cavallo sin dueño · por el campo andar.</p> -<p class="dr">vv. 895-899.</p> -</div></div> - -<p class="ti1">The preceding lines seem imitated from the Cid’s fight -before Alcocer, in such a way as to leave no doubt that its author had -seen the old poem:—</p> - -<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> -<p class="i0">Veriedes tantas lanzas · premer è alzar;</p> -<p class="i0">Tanta adarga à · foradar è pasar;</p> -<p class="i0">Tanta loriga falsa · desmanchar;</p> -<p class="i0">Tantos pendones blancos · salir bermeios en sangre;</p> -<p class="i0">Tantos buenos cavallos · sin sos duenos andar.</p> -<p class="dr">vv. 734-738.</p> -</div></div> - -<p id="Footnote_23_1"><span class="label"><a -href="#FNanchor_23_1">[*]</a></span> For the meaning of <i>asonante</i>, -and an explanation of <i>asonante</i> verse, see <a href="#asonante">Chap. -VI.</a> and the notes to it.</p> - -</div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p id="Footnote_24"><span class="label"><a -href="#FNanchor_24">[24]</a></span> The only knowledge of the -manuscript containing these three poems was long derived from a few -extracts in the “Biblioteca Española” of Rodriguez de Castro;—an -important work, whose author was born in Galicia, in 1739, and died at -Madrid, in 1799. The first volume, printed in 1781, in folio, under -the patronage of the Count Florida Blanca, consists of a chronological -account of the Rabbinical writers who appeared in Spain from the -earliest times to his own, whether they wrote in Hebrew, Spanish, or -any other language. The second, printed in 1786, consists of a similar -account of the Spanish writers, heathen and Christian, who wrote either -in Latin or in Spanish down to the end of the thirteenth century, and -whose number he makes about two hundred. Both volumes are somewhat -inartifically compiled, and the literary opinions they express are of -small value; but their materials, largely derived from manuscripts, are -curious, and frequently such as can be found in print nowhere else.</p> - -<p class="ti1">In this work, (Madrid, 1786, fol., Vol. II. pp. 504, -505,) and for a long time, as I have said, there alone, were found -notices of these poems; but all of them were printed at the end of the -Paris edition of Sanchez’s “Coleccion de Poesías Anteriores al Siglo -XV.,” from a copy of the original manuscript in the Escurial, marked -there III. K. 4to. Judging by the specimens given in De Castro, the -spelling of the manuscript has not been carefully followed in the copy -used for the Paris edition.</p> - -</div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p id="Footnote_25"><span class="label"><a -href="#FNanchor_25">[25]</a></span> The story of Apollonius, Prince -of Tyre, as it is commonly called, and as we have its incidents in -this long poem, is the 153d tale of the “Gesta Romanorum” (s. l., -1488, fol.). It is, however, much older than that collection. (Douce, -Illustrations of Shakspeare, London, 1807, 8vo, Vol. II. p. 135; and -Swan’s translation of the Gesta, London, 1824, 12mo, Vol. II. pp. -164-495.) Two words in the original Spanish of the passage translated -in the text should be explained. The author says,—</p> - -<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> -<p class="i18">Estudiar querria</p> -<p class="i0">Componer un <i>romance</i> de nueva <i>maestría</i>.</p> -</div></div> - -<p><i>Romance</i> here evidently means <i>story</i>, and this is the earliest -use of the word in this sense that I know of. <i>Maestría</i>, like our old -English <i>Maisterie</i>, means <i>art</i> or <i>skill</i>, as in Chaucer, being the -word afterwards corrupted into <i>Mystery</i>.</p> - -</div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p id="Footnote_26"><span class="label"><a -href="#FNanchor_26">[26]</a></span> St. Mary of Egypt was a saint of -great repute in Spain and Portugal, and had her adventures written by -Pedro de Ribadeneyra in 1609, and Diogo Vas Carrillo in 1673; they were -also fully given in the “Flos Sanctorum” of the former, and, in a more -attractive form, by Bartolomé Cayrasco de Figueroa, at the end of his -“Templo Militante,” (Valladolid, 1602, 12mo,) where they fill about 130 -flowing octave stanzas, and by Montalvan, in the drama of “La Gitana de -Menfis.” She has, too, a church dedicated to her at Rome on the bank -of the Tiber, made out of the graceful ruins of the temple of Fortuna -Virilis. But her coarse history has often been rejected as apocryphal, -or at least as unfit to be repeated. Bayle, Dictionaire Historique et -Critique, Amsterdam, 1740, fol., Tom. III. pp. 334-336.</p> - -</div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p id="Footnote_27"><span class="label"><a -href="#FNanchor_27">[27]</a></span> Both of the last poems in this -MS. were first printed by Pidal in the Revista de Madrid, 1841, and, -as it would seem, from bad copies. At least, they contain many more -inaccuracies of spelling, versification, and style than the first, and -appear to be of a later age; for I do not think the French Fabliaux, -which they imitate, were known in Spain till after the period commonly -assigned to the Apollonius.</p> - -</div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p id="Footnote_28"><span class="label"><a -href="#FNanchor_28">[28]</a></span> It is in Sta. Oria, st. 2.</p> - -<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> -<p class="i0">Quiero en mi vegez, maguer so ya cansado,</p> -<p class="i0">De esta santa Virgen romanzar su dictado.</p> -</div></div> - -</div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p id="Footnote_29"><span class="label"><a -href="#FNanchor_29">[29]</a></span> Sanchez, Poesías Anteriores, Tom. -II. p. iv.; Tom. III. pp. xliv.-lvi. As Berceo was ordained Deacon -in 1221, he must have been born as early as 1198, since deacon’s -orders were not taken before the age of twenty-three. See some curious -remarks on the subject of Berceo in the “Examen Crítico del Tomo -Primero de el Anti-Quixote,” (Madrid, 1806, 12mo, pp. 22 et seq.,) an -anonymous pamphlet, written, I believe, by Pellicer, the editor of Don -Quixote.</p> - -</div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p id="Footnote_30"><span class="label"><a -href="#FNanchor_30">[30]</a></span> The second volume of Sanchez’s -Poesías Anteriores.</p> - -</div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p id="Footnote_31"><span class="label"><a -href="#FNanchor_31">[31]</a></span> The metrical form adopted by -Berceo, which he himself calls the <i>quaderna via</i>, and which is in fact -that of the poem of Apollonius, should be particularly noticed, because -it continued to be a favorite one in Spain for above two centuries. The -following stanzas, which are among the best in Berceo, may serve as a -favorable specimen of its character. They are from the “Signs of the -Judgment,” Sanchez, Tom. II. p. 274.</p> - -<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> -<p class="i0">Esti sera el uno · de los signos dubdados:</p> -<p class="i0">Subira a los nubes · el mar muchos estados,</p> -<p class="i0">Mas alto que las sierras · è mas que los collados,</p> -<p class="i0">Tanto que en sequero · fincaran los pescados.</p> -<p class="i0"> </p> -<p class="i0">Las aves esso mesmo · menudas è granadas</p> -<p class="i0">Andaran dando gritos · todas mal espantadas;</p> -<p class="i0">Assi faran las bestias · por domar è domadas,</p> -<p class="i0">Non podran à la noche · tornar à sus posadas.</p> -<p class="i0"> </p> -<p class="i0">And this shall be one of the signs · that fill with doubts and fright:</p> -<p class="i0">The sea its waves shall gather up, · and lift them, in its might,</p> -<p class="i0">Up to the clouds, and far above · the dark sierra’s height,</p> -<p class="i0">Leaving the fishes on dry land, · a strange and fearful sight.</p> -<p class="i0"> </p> -<p class="i0">The birds besides that fill the air, · the birds both small and great,</p> -<p class="i0">Shall screaming fly and wheel about, · scared by their coming fate;</p> -<p class="i0">And quadrupeds, both those we tame · and those in untamed state,</p> -<p class="i0">Shall wander round nor shelter find · where safe they wonned of late.</p> -</div></div> - -<p class="ti1">There was, no doubt, difficulty in such a protracted -system of rhyme, but not much; and when rhyme first appeared in the -modern languages, an excess of it was the natural consequence of its -novelty. In large portions of the Provençal poetry, its abundance -is quite ridiculous; as in the “Croisade contre les Hérétiques -Albigeois,”—a remarkable poem, dating from 1210, excellently edited -by M. C. Fauriel, (Paris, 1837, 4to,)—in which stanzas occur where -the same rhyme is repeated above a hundred times. When and where this -quaternion rhyme, as it is used by Berceo, was first introduced, cannot -be determined; but it seems to have been very early employed in poems -that were to be publicly recited. (F. Wolf, Ueber die Lais, Wien. 1841, -8vo, p. 257.) The oldest example I know of it, in a modern dialect, -dates from about 1100, and is found in the curious MS. of Poetry of -the Waldenses (F. Diez, Troubadours, Zwickau, 1826, 8vo, p. 230) used -by Raynouard;—the instance to which I refer being “Lo novel Confort,” -(Poésies des Troubadours, Paris, 1817, 8vo, Tom. II. p. 111,) which -begins,—</p> - -<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> -<p class="i0">Aquest novel confort de vertuos lavor</p> -<p class="i0">Mando, vos scrivent en carita et en amor:</p> -<p class="i0">Prego vos carament per l’amor del segnor,</p> -<p class="i0">Abandona lo segle, serve a Dio cum temor.</p> -</div></div> - -<p>In Spain, whither it no doubt came from Provence, its history is -simply,—that it occurs in the poem of Apollonius; that it gets its -first known date in Berceo about 1230; and that it continued in use -till the end of the fourteenth century.</p> - -<p class="ti1">The thirteen thousand verses of Berceo’s poetry, -including even the Hymns, are, with the exception of about twenty -lines of the “Duelo de la Vírgen,” in this measure. These twenty lines -constitute a song of the Jews who watched the sepulchre after the -crucifixion, and, like the parts of the demons in the old Mysteries, -are intended to be droll, but are, in fact, as Berceo himself says of -them, more truly than perhaps he was aware, “not worth three figs.” -They are, however, of some consequence, as perhaps the earliest -specimen of Spanish lyrical poetry that has come down to us with a -date. They begin thus:—</p> - -<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> -<p class="i0">Velat, aliama de los Judios,</p> -<p class="i2">Eya velar!</p> -<p class="i0">Que no vos furten el fijo de Dios,</p> -<p class="i2">Eya velar!</p> -<p class="i0">Car furtarvoslo querran,</p> -<p class="i2">Eya velar!</p> -<p class="i0">Andre è Piedro et Johan,</p> -<p class="i2">Eya velar!</p> -<p class="dr">Duelo, 178-9.</p> -</div></div> - -<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> -<p class="i0">Watch, congregation of the Jew,</p> -<p class="i2">Up and watch!</p> -<p class="i0">Lest they should steal God’s son from you,</p> -<p class="i2">Up and watch!</p> -<p class="i0">For they will seek to steal the son,</p> -<p class="i2">Up and watch!</p> -<p class="i0">His followers, Andrew, and Peter, and John,</p> -<p class="i2">Up and watch!</p> -</div></div> - -<p>Sanchez considers it a <i>Villancico</i>, to be sung like a litany (Tom. -IV. p. ix.); and Martinez de la Rosa treats it much in the same way. -Obras, Paris, 1827, 12mo, Tom. I. p. 161.</p> - -<p class="ti1">In general, the versification of Berceo is -regular,—sometimes it is harmonious; and though he now and then -indulges himself in imperfect rhymes, that may be the beginning of -the national <i>asonantes</i> (Sanchez, Tom. II. p. xv.) still the license -he takes is much less than might be anticipated. Indeed, Sanchez -represents the harmony and finish of his versification as quite -surprising, and uses stronger language in relation to it than seems -justifiable, considering some of the facts he admits. Tom. II. p. -xi.</p> - -</div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p id="Footnote_32"><span class="label"><a -href="#FNanchor_32">[32]</a></span> San Domingo de Silos, st. 1 and 2. -The Saviour, according to the fashion of the age, is called, in v. 2, -<i>Don</i> Jesu Christo,—the word then being synonymous with Dominus. See a -curious note on its use, in Don Quixote, ed. Clemencin, Madrid, 1836, -4to, Tom. V. p. 408.</p> - -</div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p id="Footnote_33"><span class="label"><a href="#FNanchor_33">[33]</a></span></p> - -<div class="poem mt-05"><div class="stanza"> -<p class="i0">Amigos è vasallos de · Dios omnipotent,</p> -<p class="i0">Si vos me escuchasedes · por vuestro consiment,</p> -<p class="i0">Querriavos contar un · buen aveniment:</p> -<p class="i0">Terrédeslo en cabo por · bueno verament.</p> -<p class="i0"> </p> -<p class="i0">Yo Maestro Gonzalvo de · Berceo nomnado</p> -<p class="i0">Iendo en Romeria · caeci en un prado,</p> -<p class="i0">Verde è bien sencido, · de flores bien poblado,</p> -<p class="i0">Logar cobdiciaduero · pora ome cansado.</p> -<p class="i0"> </p> -<p class="i0">Daban olor sobeio · las flores bien olientes,</p> -<p class="i0">Refrescaban en ome · las caras è las mientes,</p> -<p class="i0">Manaban cada canto · fuentes claras corrientes,</p> -<p class="i0">En verano bien frias, · en yvierno calientes.</p> -<p class="i0"> </p> -<p class="i0">Avie hy grand abondo · de buenas arboledas,</p> -<p class="i0">Milgranos è figueras, · peros è mazanedas,</p> -<p class="i0">E muchas otras fructas · de diversas monedas;</p> -<p class="i0">Mas non avie ningunas · podridas nin acedas.</p> -<p class="i0"> </p> -<p class="i0">La verdura del prado, · la olor de las flores,</p> -<p class="i0">Las sombras de los arbores · de temprados sabores</p> -<p class="i0">Refrescaronme todo, · è perdi los sudores:</p> -<p class="i0">Podrie vevir el ome · con aquellos olores.</p> -<p class="dr">Sanchez, Tom. II. p. 285.</p> -</div></div> - -</div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p id="Footnote_34"><span class="label"><a -href="#FNanchor_34">[34]</a></span> A good account of this part of -Berceo’s works, though, I think, somewhat too severe, is to be found -in Dr. Dunham’s “History of Spain and Portugal,” (London, 1832, 18mo, -Tom. IV. pp. 215-229,) a work of merit, the early part of which, as -in the case of Berceo, rests more frequently than might be expected -on original authorities. Excellent translations will be found in -Prof. Longfellow’s Introductory Essay to his version of the Coplas de -Manrique, Boston, 1833, 12mo, pp. 5 and 10.</p> - -</div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p id="Footnote_35"><span class="label"><a -href="#FNanchor_35">[35]</a></span> For example, when the Madonna is -represented looking at the cross, and addressing her expiring son:—</p> - - -<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> -<p class="i0">Fiio, siempre oviemos · io è tu una vida;</p> -<p class="i0">Io à ti quisi mucho, · è fui de ti querida;</p> -<p class="i0">Io sempre te crey, · è fui de ti creida;</p> -<p class="i0">La tu piedad larga · ahora me oblida?</p> -<p class="i0"> </p> -<p class="i0">Fiio, non me oblides · è lievame contigo,</p> -<p class="i0">Non me finca en sieglo · mas de un buen amigo;</p> -<p class="i0">Juan quem dist por fiio · aqui plora conmigo:</p> -<p class="i0">Ruegote quem condones · esto que io te digo.</p> -<p class="dr">St. 78, 79.</p> -</div></div> - -<p class="ti1">I read these stanzas with a feeling akin to that with -which I should look at a picture on the same subject by Perugino. They -may be translated thus:—</p> - -<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> -<p class="i0">My son, in thee and me · life still was felt as one;</p> -<p class="i0">I loved thee much, and thou lovedst me · in perfectness, my son;</p> -<p class="i0">My faith in thee was sure, · and I thy faith had won;</p> -<p class="i0">And doth thy large and pitying love · forget me now, my son?</p> -<p class="i0"> </p> -<p class="i0">My son, forget me not, · but take my soul with thine;</p> -<p class="i0">The earth holds but one heart · that kindred is with mine,—</p> -<p class="i0">John, whom thou gavest to be my child, · who here with me doth pine;</p> -<p class="i0">I pray thee, then, that to my prayer · thou graciously incline.</p> -</div></div> - -</div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p id="Footnote_36"><span class="label"><a -href="#FNanchor_36">[36]</a></span> Mariana, Hist., Lib. XII. c. 15, ad -fin.</p> - -</div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p id="Footnote_37"><span class="label"><a -href="#FNanchor_37">[37]</a></span> Diez, Poesie der Troubadours, pp. -75, 226, 227, 331-350. A long poem on the influence of the stars was -addressed to Alfonso by Nat de Mons (Raynouard, Troub., Tom. V. p. -269); and besides the curious poem addressed to him by Giraud Riquier -of Narbonne, in 1275, given by Diez, we know that in another poem this -distinguished Troubadour mourned the king’s death. Raynouard, Tom. V. -p. 171. Millot, Histoire des Troubadours, Paris, 1774, 12mo, Tom. III. -pp. 329-374.</p> - -</div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p id="Footnote_38"><span class="label"><a -href="#FNanchor_38">[38]</a></span> Historia, Lib. XIII. c. 20. The -less favorable side of Alfonso’s character is given by the cynical -Bayle, Art., <i>Castile</i>.</p> - -</div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p id="Footnote_39"><span class="label"><a -href="#FNanchor_39">[39]</a></span> This letter, which the Spanish -Academy calls “inimitable,” though early known in MS., seems to have -been first printed by Ortiz de Zuñiga (Anales de Sevilla, Sevilla, -1677, fol., p. 124). Several old ballads have been made out of it, one -of which is to be found in the “Cancionero de Romances,” por Lorenço -de Sepúlveda (Sevilla, 1584, 18mo, f. 104). The letter is found in the -preface to the Academy’s edition of the Partidas, and is explained by -the accounts in Mariana, (Hist., Lib. XIV. c. 5,) Conde, (Dominacion -de los Árabes, Tom. III. p. 69,) and Mondejar (Memorias, Lib. VI. -c. 14). The original is said to be in the possession of the Duke of -Medina-Sidonia. Semanario Pintoresco, 1845, p. 303.</p> - -</div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p id="Footnote_40"><span class="label"><a -href="#FNanchor_40">[40]</a></span> A race of African princes, who -reigned in Morocco, and subjected all Western Africa. Crónica de -Alfonso XI., Valladolid, 1551, fol., c. 219. Gayangos, Mohammedan -Dynasties, Vol. II. p. 325.</p> - -</div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p id="Footnote_41"><span class="label"><a -href="#FNanchor_41">[41]</a></span> Alonzo Perez de Guzman, of the -great family of that name, the person to whom this remarkable letter -is addressed, went over to Africa in 1276, with many knights, to serve -Aben Jusaf against his rebellious subjects, stipulating that he should -not be required to serve against Christians. Ortiz de Zuñiga, Anales, -p. 113.</p> - -</div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p id="Footnote_42"><span class="label"><a -href="#FNanchor_42">[42]</a></span> The principal life of Alfonso X. is -that by the Marquis of Mondejar (Madrid, 1777, fol.); but it did not -receive its author’s final revision, and is an imperfect work. (Prólogo -de Cerdá y Rico; and Baena, Hijos de Madrid, Madrid, 1790, 4to, Tom. -II. pp. 304-312.) For the part of Alfonso’s life devoted to letters, -ample materials are to be found in Castro, (Biblioteca Española, Tom. -II. pp. 625-688,) and in the Repertorio Americano (Lóndres, 1827, Tom. -III. pp. 67-77); where there is a valuable paper, written, I believe, -by Salvá, who published that journal.</p> - -</div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p id="Footnote_43"><span class="label"><a -href="#FNanchor_43">[43]</a></span> The works attributed to Alfonso -are:—<span class="smcap">In Prose</span>: 1. Crónica General de -España, to be noticed hereafter. 2. A Universal History, containing an -abstract of the history of the Jews. 3. A Translation of the Bible. 4. -El Libro del Tesoro, a work on general philosophy; but Sarmiento, in -a MS. which I possess, says that this is a translation of the Tesoro -of Brunetto Latini, Dante’s master, and that it was not made by order -of Alfonso; adding, however, that he has seen a book entitled “Flores -de Filosofía,” which professes to have been compiled by this king’s -command, and may be the work here intended. 5. The Tábulas Alfonsinas, -or Astronomical Tables. 6. Historia de todo el Suceso de Ultramar, to -be noticed presently. 7. El Espéculo ó Espejo de todos los Derechos; -El Fuero Real, and other laws published in the Opúsculos Legales del -Rey Alfonso el Sabio (ed. de la Real Academia de Historia, Madrid, -1836, 2 tom., fol.). 8. Las Siete Partidas.—<span class="smcap">In -Verse</span>: 1. Another Tesoro. 2. Las Cántigas. 3. Two stanzas of the -Querellas. Several of these works, like the Universal History and the -Ultramar, were, as we know, only compiled by his order, and in others -he must have been much assisted. But the whole mass shows how wide were -his views, and how great must have been his influence on the language, -the literature, and the intellectual progress of his country.</p> - -</div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p id="Footnote_44"><span class="label"><a -href="#FNanchor_44">[44]</a></span> Castro, Biblioteca, Tom. II. p. -632, where he speaks of the MS. of the Cántigas in the Escurial. The -one at Toledo, which contains only a hundred, is the MS. of which a -fac-simile is given in the “Paleographía Española,” (Madrid, 1758, 4to, -p. 72,) and in the notes to the Spanish translation of Bouterwek’s -History (p. 129). Large extracts from the Cántigas are found in Castro, -(Tom. II. pp. 361, 362, and pp. 631-643,) and in the “Nobleza del -Andaluzia” de Argote de Molina, (Sevilla, 1588, fol., f. 151,) followed -by a curious notice of the king, in Chap. 19, and a poem in his -honor.</p> - -</div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p id="Footnote_45"><span class="label"><a -href="#FNanchor_45">[45]</a></span> Mondejar, Memorias, p. 438.</p> - -</div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p id="Footnote_46"><span class="label"><a -href="#FNanchor_46">[46]</a></span> Mondejar, Mem., p. 434. His body, -however, was in fact buried at Seville, and his heart, which he had -desired should be sent to Palestine, at Murcia, because, as he says -in his testament, “Murcia was the first place which it pleased God I -should gain in the service and to the honor of King Ferdinand.” Laborde -saw his monument there. Itinéraire de l’Espagne, Paris, 1809, 8vo, Tom. -II. p. 185.</p> - -</div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p id="Footnote_47"><span class="label"><a -href="#FNanchor_47">[47]</a></span> J. P. Ribeiro, Dissertaçoes, -etc., publicadas per órdem da Academia Real das Sciencias de Lisboa, -Lisboa, 1810, 8vo, Tom. I. p. 180. A glossary of French words occurring -in the Portuguese, by Francisco de San Luiz, is in the Memorias da -Academia Real de Sciencias, Lisboa, 1816, Tom. IV. Parte II. Viterbo -(Elucidario, Lisboa, 1798, fol., Tom. I., Advert. Preliminar., pp. -viii.-xiii.) also examines this point.</p> - -</div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p id="Footnote_48"><span class="label"><a -href="#FNanchor_48">[48]</a></span> Paleographía Española, p. 10.</p> - -</div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p id="Footnote_49"><span class="label"><a -href="#FNanchor_49">[49]</a></span> A. Ribeiro dos Santos, Orígem, -etc., da Poesía Portugueza, in Memorias da Lett. Portugueza, pela -Academia, etc., 1812, Tom. VIII. pp. 248-250.</p> - -</div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p id="Footnote_50"><span class="label"><a -href="#FNanchor_50">[50]</a></span> J. P. Ribeiro, Diss., Tom. I. p. -176. It is <i>possible</i> the document in App., pp. 273-275, is older, as -it appears to be from the time of Sancho I., or 1185-1211; but the next -document (p. 275) is <i>dated</i> “Era 1230,” which is A. D. 1192, and is, -therefore, the oldest <i>with a date</i>.</p> - -</div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p id="Footnote_51"><span class="label"><a -href="#FNanchor_51">[51]</a></span> Europa Portugueza, Lisboa, 1680, -fol., Tom. III. Parte IV. c. 9; and Diez, Grammatik der Romanischen -Sprachen, Bonn, 1836, 8vo, Tom. I. p. 72.</p> - -</div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p id="Footnote_52"><span class="label"><a -href="#FNanchor_52">[52]</a></span> Bibl. Española, Tom. II. pp. 404, -405.</p> - -</div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p id="Footnote_53"><span class="label"><a -href="#FNanchor_53">[53]</a></span> Sanchez, Tom. I., Pról., p. -lvii.</p> - -</div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p id="Footnote_54"><span class="label"><a -href="#FNanchor_54">[54]</a></span> After quoting the passage of -Santillana just referred to, Sarmiento, who was very learned in all -that relates to the earliest Spanish verse, says, with a simplicity -quite delightful, “I, as a Galician, interested in this conclusion, -should be glad to possess the grounds of the Marquis of Santillana; but -I have not seen a single word of any author that can throw light on the -matter.” Memorias de la Poesía y Poetas Españoles, Madrid, 1775, 4to, -p. 196.</p> - -</div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p id="Footnote_55"><span class="label"><a href="#FNanchor_55">[55]</a></span></p> - -<div class="poem mt-05"><div class="stanza"> -<p class="i4">Que tolleu</p> -<p class="i0">A Mouros Neul e Xeres,</p> -</div></div> - -<p>he says (Castro, Tom. II. p. 637); and Xerez was taken in 1263. But -all these Cántigas were not, probably, written in one period of the -king’s life.</p> - -</div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p id="Footnote_56"><span class="label"><a -href="#FNanchor_56">[56]</a></span> Ortiz de Zuñiga, Anales, p. 129.</p> - -</div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p id="Footnote_57"><span class="label"><a -href="#FNanchor_57">[57]</a></span> Take the following as a specimen. -Alfonso beseeches the Madonna rather to look at her merits than at his -own claims, and runs through five stanzas, with the choral echo to -each, “Saint Mary, remember me!”</p> - -<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> -<p class="i4">Non catedes como</p> -<p class="i4">Pequei assas,</p> -<p class="i4">Mais catad o gran</p> -<p class="i4">Ben que en vos ias;</p> -<p class="i4">Ca uos me fesestes</p> -<p class="i4">Como quen fas</p> -<p class="i4">Sa cousa quita</p> -<p class="i4">Toda per assi.</p> -<p class="i0">Santa Maria! nenbre uos de mi!</p> -<p class="i0"> </p> -<p class="i4">Non catedes a como</p> -<p class="i4">Pequey greu,</p> -<p class="i4">Mais catad o gran ben</p> -<p class="i4">Que uos Deus deu;</p> -<p class="i4">Ca outro ben se non</p> -<p class="i4">Uos non ei eu</p> -<p class="i4">Nen ouue nunca</p> -<p class="i4">Des quando naci.</p> -<p class="i0">Santa Maria! nenbre uos de mi!</p> -</div></div> - -<p class="dcha fs90 mt-1">Castro, Bibl., Tom. II. p. 640.</p> - -<p class="ti1 mt1">This has, no doubt, a very Provençal air; but others -of the Cántigas have still more of it. The Provençal poets, in fact, -as we shall see more fully hereafter, fled in considerable numbers -into Spain at the period of their persecution at home; and that -period corresponds to the reigns of Alfonso and his father. In this -way a strong tinge of the Provençal character came into the poetry -of Castile, and remained there a long time. The proofs of this early -intercourse with Provençal poets are abundant. Aiméric de Bellinoi was -at the court of Alfonso IX., who died in 1214, (Histoire Littéraire de -la France, par des Membres de l’Institut, Paris, 4to, Tom. XIX. 1838, -p. 507,) and was afterwards at the court of Alfonso X. (Ibid., p. 511.) -So were Montagnagout, and Folquet de Lunel, both of whom wrote poems -on the election of Alfonso X. to the throne of Germany. (Ibid., Tom. -XIX. p. 491, and Tom. XX. p. 557; with Raynouard, Troubadours, Tom. IV. -p. 239.) Raimond de Tours and Nat de Mons addressed verses to Alfonso -X. (Ibid., Tom. XIX. pp. 555, 577.) Bertrand Carbonel dedicated his -works to him; and Giraud Riquier, sometimes called the last of the -Troubadours, wrote an elegy on his death, already referred to. (Ibid., -Tom. XX. pp. 559, 578, 584.) Others might be cited, but these are -enough.</p> - -</div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p id="Footnote_58"><span class="label"><a -href="#FNanchor_58">[58]</a></span> The two stanzas of the Querellas, -or Complaints, still remaining to us, are in Ortiz de Zuñiga, (Anales, -p. 123,) and elsewhere.</p> - -</div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p id="Footnote_59"><span class="label"><a -href="#FNanchor_59">[59]</a></span> First published by Sanchez, -(Poesías Anteriores, Tom. I. pp. 148-170,) where it may still be best -consulted. The copy he used had belonged to the Marquis of Villena, -who was suspected of the black art, and whose books were burnt on -that account after his death, temp. John II. A specimen of the cipher -is given in Cortinas’s translation of Bouterwek (Tom. I. p. 129). In -reading this poem, it should be borne in mind that Alfonso believed in -astrological predictions, and protected astrology by his laws. (Partida -VII. Tít. xxiii. Ley 1.) Moratin the younger (Obras, Madrid, 1830, 8vo, -Tom. I. Parte I. p. 61) thinks that both the Querellas and the Tesoro -were the work of the Marquis of Villena; relying, first, on the fact -that the only manuscript of the latter known to exist once belonged to -the Marquis; and, secondly, on the obvious difference in language and -style between both and the rest of the king’s known works,—a difference -which certainly may well excite suspicion, but does not much encourage -the particular conjecture of Moratin as to the Marquis of Villena.</p> - -</div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p id="Footnote_60"><span class="label"><a -href="#FNanchor_60">[60]</a></span> Mariana, Hist., Lib. XIV. c. -7; Castro, Bibl., Tom. I. p. 411; and Mondejar, Memorias, p. 450. -The last, however, is mistaken in supposing the translation of the -Bible printed at Ferrara in 1553 to have been that made by order of -Alfonso, since it was the work of some Jews of the period when it was -published.</p> - -</div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p id="Footnote_61"><span class="label"><a -href="#FNanchor_61">[61]</a></span> La Gran Conquista de Ultramar -was printed at Salamanca, by Hans Giesser, in folio, in 1503. That -additions are made to it is apparent from Lib. III. c. 170, where is an -account of the overthrow of the order of the Templars, which is there -said to have happened in the year of the Spanish era 1412; and that it -is a translation, so far as it follows William of Tyre, from an old -French version of the thirteenth century, I state on the authority of a -manuscript of Sarmiento. The Conquista begins thus:—</p> - -<p class="ti1">“Capitulo Primero. Como Mahoma predico en Aravia: y gano -toda la tierra de Oriente.</p> - -<p class="ti1">“En aql. tiēpo q̄ eraclius emperador en Roma q̄ fue buē -Xpiano, et mātuvo gran tiēpo el imperio en justicia y en paz, levantose -Mahoma en tierra de Aravia y mostro a las gētes necias sciēcia nueva, -y fizo les creer q̄ era profeta y mensagero de dios, y que le avia -embiado al mundo por saluar los hombres qēle creyessen,” etc.</p> - -<p class="ti1">The story of the Knight of the Swan, full of -enchantments, duels, and much of what marks the books of chivalry, -begins abruptly at Lib. 1. cap. 47, fol. xvii., with these words: “And -now the history leaves off speaking for a time of all these things, -in order to relate what concerns the Knight of the Swan,” etc.; and -it ends with Cap. 185, f. lxxx., the next chapter opening thus: “Now -this history leaves off speaking of this, and turns to relate how three -knights went to Jerusalem,” etc. This story of the Knight of the Swan, -which fills 63 leaves, or about a quarter part of the whole work, -appeared originally in Normandy or Belgium, begun by Jehan Renault and -finished by Gandor or Graindor of Douay, in 30,000 verses, about the -year 1300. (De la Rue, Essai sur les Bardes, etc., Caen, 1834, 8vo, -Tom. III. p. 213. Warton’s English Poetry, London, 1824, 8vo, Vol. II. -p. 149. Collection of Prose Romances, by Thoms, London, 1838, 12mo, -Vol. III., Preface.) It was, I suppose, inserted in the Ultramar, when -the Ultramar was prepared for publication, because it was supposed to -illustrate and dignify the history of Godfrey of Bouillon, its hero; -but this is not the only part of the work made up later than its date. -The last chapter, for instance, giving an account of the death of -Conradin of the Hohenstauffen, and the assassination in the church of -Viterbo, at the moment of the elevation of the host, of Henry, the -grandson of Henry III. of England, by Guy of Monfort,—both noticed by -Dante,—has nothing to do with the main work, and seems taken from some -later chronicle.</p> - -</div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p id="Footnote_62"><span class="label"><a -href="#FNanchor_62">[62]</a></span> There is a curious collection of -documents, published by royal authority, (Madrid, 1829-33, 6 tom. -8vo,) called “Coleccion de Cédulas, Cartas, Patentes,” etc., relating -to Biscay and the Northern provinces, where the Castilian first -appeared. They contain nothing in that language so old as the letter -of confirmation to the Fueros of Avilés by Alfonso the Seventh already -noted; but they contain materials of some value for tracing the decay -of the Latin, by documents dated from the year 804 downwards. (Tom. VI. -p. 1.) There is, however, a difficulty relating both to the documents -in Latin and to those in the early modern dialect; e. g. in relation to -the one in Tom. V. p. 120, dated 1197. It is, that we are not certain -that we possess them in precisely their <i>original</i> form and integrity. -Indeed, in not a few instances we are sure of the opposite. For these -Fueros, Privilegios, or whatever they are called, being but arbitrary -grants of an absolute monarch, the persons to whom they were made were -careful to procure confirmations of them from succeeding sovereigns, -as often as they could; and when these confirmations were made, the -original document, if in Latin, was sometimes translated, as was that -of Peter the Cruel, given by Marina (Teoría de las Cortes, Madrid, -1813, 4to, Tom. III. p. 11); or, if in the modern dialect, it was -sometimes copied and accommodated to the changed language and spelling -of the age. Such confirmations were in some cases numerous, as in the -grant first cited, which was confirmed thirteen times between 1231 -and 1621. Now it does not appear from the published documents in this -Coleccion what is, in each instance, the true date of the particular -version used. The Avilés document, however, is not liable to this -objection. It is extant on the original parchment, upon which the -confirmation was made in 1155, with the original signatures of the -persons who made it, as testified by the most competent witnesses. See -<i>post</i>, Vol. III., Appendix (A), near the end.</p> - -</div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p id="Footnote_63"><span class="label"><a -href="#FNanchor_63">[63]</a></span> Fuero Juzgo is a barbarous phrase, -which signifies the same as Forum Judicum, and is perhaps a corruption -of it. (Covarrubias, Tesoro, Madrid, 1674, fol., <i>ad verb.</i>) The first -printed edition of the Fuero Juzgo is of 1600; the best is that by the -Academy, in Latin and Spanish, Madrid, 1815, folio.</p> - -</div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p id="Footnote_64"><span class="label"><a -href="#FNanchor_64">[64]</a></span> See the Discurso prefixed to the -Academy’s edition, by Don Manuel de Lardizabal y Uribe; and Marina’s -Ensayo, p. 29, in Mem. de la Acad. de Hist., Tom. IV., 1805. Perhaps -the most curious passage in the Fuero Juzgo is the law (Lib. XII. Tít. -iii. Ley 15) containing the tremendous oath of abjuration prescribed -to those Jews who were about to enter the Christian Church. But I -prefer to give as a specimen of its language one of a more liberal -spirit, viz., the eighth Law of the Primero Titolo, or Introduction, -“concerning those who may become kings,” which in the Latin original -dates from A. D. 643: “Quando el rey morre, nengun non deve tomar el -regno, nen facerse rey, nen ningun religioso, nen otro omne, nen servo, -nen otro omne estrano, se non omne de linage de los godos, et fillo -dalgo, et noble et digno de costumpnes, et con el otorgamiento de los -obispos, et de los godos mayores, et de todo el poblo. Asi que mientre -que fórmos todos de un corazon, et de una veluntat, et de una fé, que -sea entre nos paz et justicia enno regno, et que podamos ganar la -companna de los angeles en el otro sieglo; et aquel que quebrantar esta -nuestra lee sea escomungado por sempre.”</p> - -</div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p id="Footnote_65"><span class="label"><a -href="#FNanchor_65">[65]</a></span> For the Setenario, see Castro, -Biblioteca, Tom. II. pp. 680-684; and Marina, Historia de la -Legislacion, Madrid, 1808, fol., §§ 290, 291. As far as it goes, which -is not through the first of the seven divisions proposed, it consists, -1. of an introduction by Alfonso; and 2. of a series of discussions -on the Catholic religion, on Heathenism, etc., which were afterwards -substantially incorporated into the first of the Partidas of Alfonso -himself.</p> - -</div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p id="Footnote_66"><span class="label"><a -href="#FNanchor_66">[66]</a></span> Opúsculos Legales del Rey Alfonso -el Sabio, publicados, etc., por la Real Academia de la Historia, -Madrid, 1836, 2 tom. fol. Marina, Legislacion, § 301.</p> - -</div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p id="Footnote_67"><span class="label"><a -href="#FNanchor_67">[67]</a></span> “El Setenario” was the name given -to the work begun in the reign of St. Ferdinand, “because,” says -Alfonso, in the preface to it, “all it contains is arranged by sevens.” -In the same way his own code is divided into seven parts; but it does -not seem to have been cited by the name of “The Seven Parts” till above -a century after it was composed. Marina, Legislacion, §§ 292-303. -Preface to the edition of the Partidas by the Academy, Madrid, 1807, -4to, Tom. I. pp. xv.-xviii.</p> - -</div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p id="Footnote_68"><span class="label"><a -href="#FNanchor_68">[68]</a></span> Much trouble arose from the -attempt of Alfonso X. to introduce his code. Marina, Legislacion, §§ -417-419.</p> - -</div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p id="Footnote_69"><span class="label"><a -href="#FNanchor_69">[69]</a></span> Marina, Legis., § 449. Fuero Juzgo, -ed. Acad., Pref., p. xliii.</p> - -</div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p id="Footnote_70"><span class="label"><a -href="#FNanchor_70">[70]</a></span> See a curious and learned book -entitled “The Laws of the Siete Partidas, which are still in Force -in the State of Louisiana,” translated by L. Moreau Lislet and H. -Carleton, New Orleans, 1820, 2 vols. 8vo; and a discussion on the same -subject in Wheaton’s “Reports of Cases in the Supreme Court of the -United States,” Vol. V. 1820, Appendix; together with various cases in -the other volumes of the Reports of the Supreme Court of the United -States, e. g. Wheaton, Vol. III. 1818, p. 202, note (a). “We may -observe,” says Dunham, (Hist. of Spain and Portugal, Vol. IV. p. 121,) -“that, if all the other codes were banished, Spain would still have a -respectable body of jurisprudence; for we have the experience of an -eminent advocate in the Royal Tribunal of Appeals for asserting, that, -during an extensive practice of twenty-nine years, scarcely a case -occurred which could not be virtually or expressly decided by the code -in question.”</p> - -</div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p id="Footnote_71"><span class="label"><a -href="#FNanchor_71">[71]</a></span> Partida II. Tít. I. Ley 10, ed. -Acad., Tom. II. p. 11.</p> - -</div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p id="Footnote_72"><span class="label"><a -href="#FNanchor_72">[72]</a></span> Partida II. Tít. VII. Ley 10, and -Tít. V. Ley 16.</p> - -</div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p id="Footnote_73"><span class="label"><a -href="#FNanchor_73">[73]</a></span> Partida II. Tít. VII. Ley 11.</p> - -</div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p id="Footnote_74"><span class="label"><a -href="#FNanchor_74">[74]</a></span> Partida II. Tít. XXI. Leyes 9, -13.</p> - -</div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p id="Footnote_75"><span class="label"><a -href="#FNanchor_75">[75]</a></span> The laws about the -Estudios Generales,—the name then given to what we now call -Universities,—filling the thirty-first Título of the second Partida, -are remarkable for their wisdom, and recognize some of the arrangements -that still obtain in many of the Universities of the Continent. There -was, however, at that period, no such establishment in Spain, except -one which had existed in a very rude state at Salamanca for some time, -and to which Alfonso X. gave the first proper endowment in 1254.</p> - -</div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p id="Footnote_76"><span class="label"><a -href="#FNanchor_76">[76]</a></span> Marina, in Mem. de la Acad. de -Hist., Tom. IV., Ensayo, p. 52.</p> - -</div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p id="Footnote_77"><span class="label"><a -href="#FNanchor_77">[77]</a></span> As no more than a fair specimen of -the genuine Castilian of the Partidas, I would cite Part. II. Tít. V. -Ley 18, entitled “Como el Rey debe ser granado et franco”: “Grandeza -es virtud que está bien á todo home poderoso et señaladamente al rey -quando usa della en tiempo que conviene et como debe; et por ende dixo -Aristóteles á Alexandro que él puñase de haber en si franqueza, ca por -ella ganarie mas aina el amor et los corazones de la gente: et porque -él mejor podiese obrar desta bondat, espaladinol qué cosa es, et dixo -que franqueza es dar al que lo ha menester et al que lo meresce, segunt -el poder del dador, dando de lo suyo et non tomando de lo ageno para -darlo á otro, ca el que da mas de lo que puede non es franco, mas -desgastador, et demas haberá por fuerza á tomar de lo ageno quando lo -suyo non compliere, et si de la una parte ganare amigos por lo que -les diere, de la otra parte serle han enemigos aquellos á quien lo -tomare; et otrosi dixo que el que da al que non lo ha menester non le -es gradecido, et es tal come el que vierte agua en la mar, et el que da -al que lo non meresce es como el que guisa su enemigo que venga contra -él.”</p> - -</div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p id="Footnote_78"><span class="label"><a -href="#FNanchor_78">[78]</a></span> The Alexandro fills the third -volume of the Poesías Anteriores of Sanchez, and was for a long time -strangely attributed to Alfonso the Wise, (Nic. Antonio, Bibliotheca -Hispana Vetus, ed. Bayer, Matriti, 1787-8, fol., Tom. II. p. 79, and -Mondejar, Memorias, pp. 458, 459,) though the last lines of the poem -itself declare its author to be Johan Lorenzo Segura.</p> - -</div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p id="Footnote_79"><span class="label"><a -href="#FNanchor_79">[79]</a></span> Walter de Chatillon’s Latin poem -on Alexander the Great was so popular, that it was taught in the -rhetorical schools, to the exclusion of Lucan and Virgil. (Warton’s -English Poetry, London, 1824, 8vo, Vol. I. p. clxvii.) The French poem -begun by Lambert li Cors, and finished by Alexandre de Paris, was less -valued, but much read. Ginguené, in the Hist. Lit. de la France, Paris, -4to, Tom. XV. 1820, pp. 100-127.</p> - -</div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p id="Footnote_80"><span class="label"><a -href="#FNanchor_80">[80]</a></span> Transactions of the Royal Society -of Literature, Vol. I Part II. pp. 5-23, a curious paper by Sir W. -Ouseley.</p> - -</div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p id="Footnote_81"><span class="label"><a -href="#FNanchor_81">[81]</a></span> Coplas 225, 1452, and 1639, where -Segura gives three Latin lines from Walter.</p> - -</div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p id="Footnote_82"><span class="label"><a href="#FNanchor_82">[82]</a></span></p> - -<div class="poem mt-05"><div class="stanza"> -<p class="i0">Quiero leer un libro · de un rey noble pagano,</p> -<p class="i0">Que fue de grant esforcio, · de corazon lozano,</p> -<p class="i0">Conquistó todel mundo, · metiol so su mano,</p> -<p class="i0">Terné, se lo compriere, · que soe bon escribano.</p> -<p class="i0"> </p> -<p class="i0">Del Princepe Alexandre, · que fue rey de Grecia,</p> -<p class="i0">Que fue franc è ardit · è de grant sabencia.</p> -<p class="i0">Venció Poro è Dário, · dos Reyes de grant potencia,</p> -<p class="i0">Nunca conosció ome su par · en la sufrencia.</p> -<p class="i0"> </p> -<p class="i0">El infante Alexandre · luego en su ninnéz</p> -<p class="i0">Comenzó à demostrar · que seríe de grant prez:</p> -<p class="i0">Nunca quiso mamar leche · de mugier rafez,</p> -<p class="i0">Se non fue de linage · è de grant gentiléz.</p> -<p class="i0"> </p> -<p class="i0">Grandes signos contiron · quando est infant nasció:</p> -<p class="i0">El ayre fue cambiado, · el sol escureció,</p> -<p class="i0">Todol mar fue irado, · la tierra tremeció,</p> -<p class="i0">Por poco quel mundo · todo non pereció.</p> -<p class="dr">Sanchez, Tom. III. p. 1.</p> -</div></div> - -</div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p id="Footnote_83"><span class="label"><a -href="#FNanchor_83">[83]</a></span> Coplas 78, 80, 83, 89, etc.</p> - -</div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p id="Footnote_84"><span class="label"><a -href="#FNanchor_84">[84]</a></span> Coplas 1086-1094, etc.</p> - -</div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p id="Footnote_85"><span class="label"><a -href="#FNanchor_85">[85]</a></span> Coplas 299-716.</p> - -</div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p id="Footnote_86"><span class="label"><a -href="#FNanchor_86">[86]</a></span> Coplas 300 and 714.</p> - -</div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p id="Footnote_87"><span class="label"><a -href="#FNanchor_87">[87]</a></span> Coplas 386, 392, etc.</p> - -</div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p id="Footnote_88"><span class="label"><a -href="#FNanchor_88">[88]</a></span> Southey, in the notes to his -“Madoc,” Part I. Canto xi., speaks justly of the “sweet flow of -language and metre in Lorenzo.” At the end of the Alexandro are two -prose letters supposed to have been written by Alexander to his mother; -but I prefer to cite, as a specimen of Lorenzo’s style, the following -stanzas on the music which the Macedonians heard in Babylon:—</p> - -<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> -<p class="i0">Alli era la musica · cantada per razon,</p> -<p class="i0">Las dobles que refieren · coitas del corazon,</p> -<p class="i0">Las dolces de las baylas, · el plorant semiton,</p> -<p class="i0">Bien podrien toller precio · à quantos no mundo son.</p> -<p class="i0"> </p> -<p class="i0">Non es en el mundo · ome tan sabedor,</p> -<p class="i0">Que decir podiesse · qual era el dolzor,</p> -<p class="i0">Mientre ome viviesse · en aquella sabor</p> -<p class="i0">Non avrie sede · nen fame nen dolor.</p> -<p class="dr">St. 1976, 1977.</p> -</div></div> - -<p class="ti1"><i>Las dobles</i> in modern Spanish means the tolling for the -dead;—here, I suppose, it means some sort of sad chanting.</p> - -</div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p id="Footnote_89"><span class="label"><a -href="#FNanchor_89">[89]</a></span> Los Votos del Pavon is first -mentioned by the Marquis of Santillana (Sanchez, Tom. I. p. lvii.); and -Fauchet says, (Recueil de l’Origine de la Langue et Poésie Française, -Paris, 1581, fol., p. 88,) “Le Roman du Pavon est une continuation -des faits d’Alexandre.” There is an account of a French poem on this -subject, in the “Notices et Extraits des Manuscrits de la Bibliothèque -Nationale,” etc., (Paris, an VII. 4to,) Tom. V. p. 118. Vows were -frequently made in ancient times over favorite birds (Barante, Ducs de -Bourgogne, ad an. 1454, Paris, 1837, 8vo, Tom. VII. pp. 159-164); and -the vows in the Spanish poem seem to have involved a prophetic account -of the achievements and troubles of Alexander’s successors.</p> - -</div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p id="Footnote_90"><span class="label"><a -href="#FNanchor_90">[90]</a></span> The extracts are in Castro, (Tom. -II. pp. 725-729,) and the book, which contained forty-nine chapters, -was called “Castigos y Documentos para bien vivir, ordenados por el Rey -Don Sancho el Quarto, intitulado el Brabo”; <i>Castigos</i> being used to -mean <i>advice</i>, as in the old French poem, “Le <i>Castoiement</i> d’un Père -a son Fils”; and <i>Documentos</i> being taken in its primitive sense of -<i>instructions</i>. The spirit of his father seems to speak in Sancho, when -he says of kings, “que han de governar regnos e gentes con ayuda de -çientificos sabios.”</p> - -</div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p id="Footnote_91"><span class="label"><a -href="#FNanchor_91">[91]</a></span> Argote de Molina, Sucesion de -los Manueles, prefixed to the Conde Lucanor, 1575. The date of his -birth has been heretofore considered unsettled, but I have found it -given exactly by himself in an unpublished letter to his brother, the -Archbishop of Toledo, which occurs in a manuscript in the National -Library at Madrid, to be noticed hereafter.</p> - -</div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p id="Footnote_92"><span class="label"><a -href="#FNanchor_92">[92]</a></span> In his report of his conversation -with King Sancho, when that monarch was on his death-bed, he says, “The -King Alfonso and my father in his lifetime, and King Sancho and myself -in his lifetime, always had our households together, and our officers -were always the same.” Farther on, he says he was brought up by Don -Sancho, who gave him the means of building the castle of Peñafiel, and -calls God to witness that he was always true and loyal to Sancho, to -Fernando, and to Alfonso XI., adding cautiously, “as far as this last -king gave me opportunities to serve him.” Manuscript in the National -Library at Madrid.</p> - -</div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p id="Footnote_93"><span class="label"><a -href="#FNanchor_93">[93]</a></span> Crónica de Alfonso XI., ed. 1551, -fol., c. 19-21.</p> - -</div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p id="Footnote_94"><span class="label"><a -href="#FNanchor_94">[94]</a></span> Ibid., c. 46 and 48.</p> - -</div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p id="Footnote_95"><span class="label"><a -href="#FNanchor_95">[95]</a></span> Crónica de Alfonso XI., c. 49.</p> - -</div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p id="Footnote_96"><span class="label"><a -href="#FNanchor_96">[96]</a></span> Mariana, Hist., Lib. XV. c. 19.</p> - -</div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p id="Footnote_97"><span class="label"><a -href="#FNanchor_97">[97]</a></span> Ibid., Lib. XVI. c. 4. Crónica de -Alfonso XI., c. 178. Argote de Molina, Sucesion de los Manueles.</p> - -</div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p id="Footnote_98"><span class="label"><a -href="#FNanchor_98">[98]</a></span> Mariana, in one of those happy -hits of character which are not rare in his History, says of Don John -Manuel, that he was “de condicion inquieta y mudable, tanto que a -muchos parecia nació solamente para revolver el reyno.” Hist., Lib. XV. -c. 12.</p> - -</div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p id="Footnote_99"><span class="label"><a -href="#FNanchor_99">[99]</a></span> Argote de Molina, Life of Don -John, in the ed. of the Conde Lucanor, 1575. The accounts of Argote -de Molina, and of the manuscript in the National Library, are not -precisely the same; but the last is imperfect, and evidently omits one -work. Both contain the four following, viz.:—1. Chronicle of Spain; -2. Book of Hunting; 3. Book of Poetry; and 4. Book of Counsels to his -Son. Argote de Molina gives besides these,—1. Libro de los Sabios; -2. Libro del Caballero; 3. Libro del Escudero; 4. Libro del Infante; -5. Libro de Caballeros; 6. Libro de los Engaños; and 7. Libro de los -Exemplos. The manuscript gives, besides the four that are clearly -in common, the following:—1. Letter to his brother, containing an -account of the family arms, etc.; 2. Book of Conditions, or Libro de -los Estados, which may be Argote de Molina’s Libro de los Sabios; 3. -Libro del Caballero y del Escudero, of which Argote de Molina seems to -make two separate works; 4. Libro de la Caballería, probably Argote de -Molina’s Libro de Caballeros; 5. La Cumplida; 6. Libro de los Engeños, -a treatise on Military Engines, misspelt by Argote de Molina, Engaños, -so as to make it a treatise on <i>Frauds</i>; and 7. Reglas como se deve -trovar. But, as has been said, the manuscript has a hiatus, and, though -it says there were twelve works, gives the titles of only eleven, and -omits the Conde Lucanor, which is the Libro de los Exemplos of Argote’s -list.</p> - -</div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p id="Footnote_100"><span class="label"><a -href="#FNanchor_100">[100]</a></span> Mem. de Alfonso el Sabio, p. -464.</p> - -</div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p id="Footnote_101"><span class="label"><a -href="#FNanchor_101">[101]</a></span> Note to Don Quixote, ed. -Pellicer, Parte II. Tom. I. p. 284.</p> - -</div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p id="Footnote_102"><span class="label"><a -href="#FNanchor_102">[102]</a></span> Poesías Anteriores, Tom. IV. p. -xi.</p> - -</div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p id="Footnote_103"><span class="label"><a -href="#FNanchor_103">[103]</a></span> I am aware there are poems in the -Cancioneros Generales, by a Don John Manuel, which have been generally -attributed to Don John Manuel, the Regent of Castile in the time of -Alfonso XI., as, for instance, those in the Cancionero of Antwerp -(1573, 8vo, ff. 175, 207, 227, 267). But they are not his. Their -language and thoughts are quite too modern. Probably they are the work -of Don John Manuel who was Camareiro Mòr of King Emanuel of Portugal, -(† 1524,) and whose poems, both in Portuguese and in Spanish, figure -largely in the Cancioneiro Gerale of Garcia Rresende, (Lisboa, 1516, -fol.,) where they are found at ff. 48-57, 148, 169, 212, 230, and I -believe in some other places. He is the author of the Spanish “Coplas -sobre los Siete Pecados Mortales,” dedicated to John II. of Portugal, -(† 1495,) which are in Bohl de Faber’s “Floresta,” (Hamburgo, 1821-25, -8vo, Tom. I. pp. 10-15,) taken from Rresende, f. 55, in one of the -three copies of whose Cancioneiro then existing (that at the Convent -of the Necessidades in Lisbon) I read them many years ago. Rresende’s -Cancioneiro is now no longer so rare, being in course of publication -by the Stuttgard Verein. The Portuguese Don John Manuel was a person -of much consideration in his time; and in 1497 concluded a treaty for -the marriage of King Emanuel of Portugal with Isabella, daughter of -Ferdinand and Isabella of Spain. (Barbosa, Biblioteca Lusitana, Lisboa, -1747, fol., Tom. II. p. 688.) But he appears very little to his honor -in Lope de Vega’s play entitled “El Príncipe Perfeto,” under the name -of Don Juan de Sosa. Comedias, Tom. XI., Barcelona, 1618, 4to, p. -121.</p> - -</div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p id="Footnote_104"><span class="label"><a -href="#FNanchor_104">[104]</a></span> A similar story is told of Dante, -who was a contemporary of Don John Manuel, by Sachetti, who lived about -a century after both of them. It is in his Novella 114, (Milano, 1815, -18mo, Tom. II. p. 154,) where, after giving an account of an important -affair, about which Dante was desired to solicit one of the city -officers, the story goes on thus:—</p> - -<p class="ti1">“When Dante had dined, he left his house to go about -that business, and, passing through the Porta San Piero, heard a -blacksmith singing as he beat the iron on his anvil. What he sang was -from Dante, and he did it as if it were a ballad, (<i>un cantare</i>,) -jumbling the verses together, and mangling and altering them in a -way that was a great offence to Dante. He said nothing, however, but -went into the blacksmith’s shop, where there were many tools of his -trade, and, seizing first the hammer, threw it into the street, then -the pincers, then the scales, and many other things of the same sort, -all which he threw into the street. The blacksmith turned round in a -brutal manner, and cried out, ‘What the devil are you doing here? Are -you mad?’ ‘Rather,’ said Dante, ‘what are <i>you</i> doing?’ ‘<i>I</i>,’ replied -the blacksmith, ‘<i>I</i> am working at my trade; and you spoil my things -by throwing them into the street.’ ‘But,’ said Dante, ‘if you do not -want to have me spoil your things, don’t spoil mine.’ ‘What do I spoil -of yours?’ said the blacksmith. ‘You sing,’ answered Dante, ‘out of my -book, but not as I wrote it; I have no other trade, and you spoil it.’ -The blacksmith, in his pride and vexation, did not know what to answer; -so he gathered up his tools and went back to his work, and when he -afterward wanted to sing, he sang about Tristan and Launcelot, and let -Dante alone.”</p> - -<p class="ti1">One of the stories is probably taken from the other: but -that of Don John is older, both in the date of its event and in the -time when it was recorded.</p> - -</div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p id="Footnote_105"><span class="label"><a -href="#FNanchor_105">[105]</a></span> Of this manuscript of Don John -in the Library at Madrid, I have, through the kindness of Professor -Gayangos, a copy, filling 199 closely written folio pages.</p> - -</div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p id="Footnote_106"><span class="label"><a -href="#FNanchor_106">[106]</a></span> It seems not unlikely that Don -John Manuel intended originally to stop at the end of the twelfth tale; -at least, he there intimates such a purpose.</p> - -</div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p id="Footnote_107"><span class="label"><a -href="#FNanchor_107">[107]</a></span> That the general form of the -Conde Lucanor is Oriental may be seen by looking into the fables of -Bidpai, or almost any other collection of Eastern stories; the form, -I mean, of separate tales, united by some fiction common to them -all, like that of relating them all to amuse or instruct some third -person. The first appearance in Europe of such a series of tales -grouped together was in the Disciplina Clericalis; a remarkable work, -composed by Petrus Alphonsus, originally a Jew, by the name of Moses -Sephardi, born at Huesca in Aragon in 1062, and baptized as a Christian -in 1106, taking as one of his names that of Alfonso VI. of Castile, -who was his godfather. The Disciplina Clericalis, or Teaching for -Clerks or Clergymen, is a collection of thirty-seven stories, and many -apophthegms, supposed to have been given by an Arab on his death-bed -as instructions to his son. It is written in such Latin as belonged -to its age. Much of the book is plainly of Eastern origin, and some -of it is extremely coarse. It was, however, greatly admired for a -long time, and was more than once turned into French verse, as may be -seen in Barbazan (Fabliaux, ed. Méon, Paris, 1808, 8vo, Tom. II. pp. -39-183). That the Disciplina Clericalis was the prototype of the Conde -Lucanor is probable, because it was popular when the Conde Lucanor -was written; because the framework of both is similar, the stories of -both being given as counsels; because a good many of the proverbs are -the same in both; and because some of the stories in both resemble -one another, as the thirty-seventh of the Conde Lucanor, which is -the same with the first of the Disciplina. But in the tone of their -manners and civilization, there is a difference quite equal to the two -centuries that separate the two works. Through the French version, the -Disciplina Clericalis soon became known in other countries, so that we -find traces of its fictions in the “Gesta Romanorum,” the “Decameron,” -the “Canterbury Tales,” and elsewhere. But it long remained, in other -respects, a sealed book, known only to antiquaries, and was first -printed in the original Latin, from seven manuscripts in the King’s -Library, Paris, by the Société des Bibliophiles (Paris, 1824, 2 tom. -12mo). Fr. W. V. Schmidt—to whom those interested in the early history -of romantic fiction are much indebted for the various contributions -he has brought to it—published the Disciplina anew in Berlin, 1827, -4to, from a Breslau manuscript; and, what is singular for one of his -peculiar learning in this department, he supposed his own edition -to be the first. It is, on account of its curious notes, the best; -but the text of the Paris edition is to be preferred, and a very old -French prose version that accompanies it makes it as a book still more -valuable.</p> - -</div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p id="Footnote_108"><span class="label"><a -href="#FNanchor_108">[108]</a></span> They are all called <i>Enxiemplos</i>; -a word which then meant <i>story</i> or <i>apologue</i>, as it does in the -Archpriest of Hita, st. 301, and in the “Crónica General.” Old Lord -Berners, in his delightful translation of Froissart, in the same way, -calls the fable of the Bird in Borrowed Plumes “an Ensample.”</p> - -</div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p id="Footnote_109"><span class="label"><a -href="#FNanchor_109">[109]</a></span> Cap. 2.</p> - -</div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p id="Footnote_110"><span class="label"><a -href="#FNanchor_110">[110]</a></span> Cap. 3.</p> - -</div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p id="Footnote_111"><span class="label"><a -href="#FNanchor_111">[111]</a></span> Cap. 4.</p> - -</div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p id="Footnote_112"><span class="label"><a -href="#FNanchor_112">[112]</a></span> Capp. 24 and 26. The followers of -Don John, however, have been more indebted to him than he was to his -predecessors. Thus, the story of “Don Illan el Negromantico” (Cap. 13) -was found by Mr. Douce in two French and four English authors. (Blanco -White, Variedades, Lóndres, 1824, Tom. I. p. 310.) The apologue which -Gil Blas, when he is starving, relates to the Duke of Lerma, (Liv. -VIII. c. 6,) and “which,” he says, “he had read in Pilpay or some other -fable writer,” I sought in vain in Bidpai, and stumbled upon it, when -not seeking it, in the Conde Lucanor, Cap. 18. It may be added, that -the fable of the Swallows and the Flax (Cap. 27) is better given there -than it is in La Fontaine.</p> - -</div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p id="Footnote_113"><span class="label"><a -href="#FNanchor_113">[113]</a></span> Shakspeare, it is well known, -took the materials for his “Taming of the Shrew,” with little ceremony, -from a play with the same title, printed in 1594. But the story, in -its different parts, seems to have been familiar in the East from the -earliest times, and was, I suppose, found there among the traditions -of Persia by Sir John Malcolm. (Sketches of Persia, London, 1827, 8vo, -Vol. II. p. 54.) In Europe I am not aware that it can be detected -earlier than the Conde Lucanor, Cap. 45. The doctrine of unlimited -submission on the part of the wife seems, indeed, to have been a -favorite one with Don John Manuel; for, in another story, (Cap. 5,) he -says, in the very spirit of Petruchio’s jest about the sun and moon, -“If a husband says the stream runs up hill, his wife ought to believe -him, and say that it is so.”</p> - -</div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p id="Footnote_114"><span class="label"><a -href="#FNanchor_114">[114]</a></span> Fernan Gonzalez is the great -hero of Castile, whose adventures will be noticed when we come to the -poem about them; and in the battle of Hazinas he gained the decisive -victory over the Moors which is well described in the third part of the -“Crónica General.”</p> - -</div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p id="Footnote_115"><span class="label"><a -href="#FNanchor_115">[115]</a></span> “Y el Conde tovo este por buen -exemplo,”—an old Castilian formula. (Crónica General, Parte III. -c. 5.) Argote de Molina says of such phrases, which abound in the -Conde Lucanor, that “they give a taste of the old proprieties of the -Castilian”; and elsewhere, that “they show what was the pure idiom of -our tongue.” Don John himself, with his accustomed simplicity, says, “I -have made up the book with the handsomest words I could.” (Ed. 1575, -f. 1, b.) Many of his words, however, needed explanation in the reign -of Philip the Second, and, on the whole, the phraseology of the Conde -Lucanor sounds older than that of the Partidas, which were yet written -nearly a century before it. Some of its obsolete words are purely -Latin, like <i>cras</i> for <i>to-morrow</i>, f. 83, and elsewhere.</p> - -</div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p id="Footnote_116"><span class="label"><a -href="#FNanchor_116">[116]</a></span> Cap. 20.</p> - -</div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p id="Footnote_117"><span class="label"><a -href="#FNanchor_117">[117]</a></span> Cap. 48.</p> - -</div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p id="Footnote_118"><span class="label"><a -href="#FNanchor_118">[118]</a></span> Cap. 8.—I infer from the Conde -Lucanor, that Don John knew little about the Bible, as he cites it -wrong in Cap. 4, and in Cap. 44 shows that he did not know it contained -the comparison about the blind who lead the blind.</p> - -</div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p id="Footnote_119"><span class="label"><a -href="#FNanchor_119">[119]</a></span> There are two Spanish editions -of the Conde Lucanor: the first and best by Argote de Molina, 4to, -Sevilla, 1575, with a life of Don John prefixed, and a curious essay on -Castilian verse at the end,—one of the rarest books in the world; and -the other, only less rare, published at Madrid, 1642. The references in -the notes are to the first. A reprint, made, if I mistake not, from the -last, and edited by A. Keller, appeared at Stuttgard, 1839, 12mo, and a -German translation by J. von Eichendorff, at Berlin, in 1840, 12mo. Don -John Manuel, I observe, cites Arabic twice in the Conde Lucanor, (Capp. -11 and 14,)—a rare circumstance in early Spanish literature.</p> - -</div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p id="Footnote_120"><span class="label"><a -href="#FNanchor_120">[120]</a></span> Libro de la Monteria, que mando -escrivir, etc., el Rey Don Alfonso de Castilla y de Leon, ultimo deste -nombre, acrecentado por Argote de Molina, Sevilla, 1582, folio, 91 -leaves,—the text not correct, as Pellicer says (note to Don Quixote, -Parte II. c. 24). The Discurso of Argote de Molina, that follows, and -fills 21 leaves more, is illustrated with curious woodcuts, and ends -with a description of the palace of the Pardo, and an eclogue in octave -stanzas, by Gomez de Tapia of Granada, on the birth of the Infanta Doña -Isabel, daughter of Philip II.</p> - -</div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p id="Footnote_121"><span class="label"><a -href="#FNanchor_121">[121]</a></span> This old rhymed chronicle was -found by the historian Diego de Mendoza among his Arabic manuscripts in -Granada, and was sent by him, with a letter dated December 1, 1573, to -Zurita, the annalist of Aragon, intimating that Argote de Molina would -be interested in it. He says truly, that “it is well worth reading, to -see with what simplicity and propriety men wrote poetical histories -in the olden times”; adding, that “it is one of those books called in -Spain <i>Gestas</i>,” and that it seems to him curious and valuable, because -he thinks it was written by a secretary of Alfonso XI., and because it -differs in several points from the received accounts of that monarch’s -reign. (Dormer, Progresos de la Historia de Aragon, Zaragoza, 1680, -fol., p. 502.) The thirty-four stanzas of this chronicle that we now -possess were first published by Argote de Molina, in his very curious -“Nobleza del Andaluzia,” (Sevilla, 1588, f. 198,) and were taken from -him by Sanchez (Poesías Anteriores, Tom. I. pp. 171-177). Argote de -Molina says, “I copy them on account of their curiosity as specimens -of the language and poetry of that age, and because they are the best -and most fluent of any thing for a long time written in Spain.” The -truth is, they are so facile, and have so few archaisms in them, that -I cannot believe they were written earlier than the ballads of the -fifteenth century, which they so much resemble. The following account -of a victory, which I once thought was that of Salado, gained in 1340, -and described in the “Crónica de Alfonso XI.,” (1551, fol., Cap. 254,) -but which I now think must have been some victory gained before 1330, -is the best part of what has been published:—</p> - -<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> -<p class="i0">Los Moros fueron fuyendo</p> -<p class="i2">Maldiziendo su ventura;</p> -<p class="i0">El Maestre los siguiendo</p> -<p class="i2">Por los puertos de Segura.</p> -<p class="i0"> </p> -<p class="i0">E feriendo e derribando</p> -<p class="i2">E prendiendo a las manos,</p> -<p class="i0">E Sanctiago llamando,</p> -<p class="i2">Escudo de los Christianos.</p> -<p class="i0"> </p> -<p class="i0">En alcance los llevaron</p> -<p class="i2">A poder de escudo y lança,</p> -<p class="i0">E al castillo se tornaron</p> -<p class="i2">E entraron por la matanza.</p> -<p class="i0"> </p> -<p class="i0">E muchos Moros fallaron</p> -<p class="i2">Espedaçados jacer;</p> -<p class="i0">El nombre de Dios loaron,</p> -<p class="i2">Que les mostró gran plazer.</p> -</div></div> - -<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> -<p class="i0">The Moors fled on, with headlong speed,</p> -<p class="i2">Cursing still their bitter fate;</p> -<p class="i0">The Master followed, breathing blood,</p> -<p class="i2">Through old Segura’s opened gate;—</p> -<p class="i0"> </p> -<p class="i0">And struck and slew, as on he sped,</p> -<p class="i2">And grappled still his flying foes;</p> -<p class="i0">While still to heaven his battle shout,</p> -<p class="i2">“St. James! St. James!” triumphant rose.</p> -<p class="i0"> </p> -<p class="i0">Nor ceased the victory’s work at last,</p> -<p class="i2">That bowed them to the shield and spear,</p> -<p class="i0">Till to the castle’s wall they turned</p> -<p class="i2">And entered through the slaughter there;—</p> -<p class="i0"> </p> -<p class="i0">Till there they saw, to havoc hewn,</p> -<p class="i2">Their Moorish foemen prostrate laid;</p> -<p class="i0">And gave their grateful praise to God,</p> -<p class="i2">Who thus vouchsafed his gracious aid.</p> -</div></div> - -<p class="ti1">It is a misfortune that this poem is lost.</p> - -</div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p id="Footnote_122"><span class="label"><a -href="#FNanchor_122">[122]</a></span> Slight extracts from the -Beneficiado de Ubeda are in Sanchez, Poesías Anteriores, Tom. I. pp. -116-118. The first stanza, which is like the beginning of several of -Berceo’s poems, is as follows:—</p> - -<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> -<p class="i0">Si me ayudare Christo · è la Virgen sagrada,</p> -<p class="i0">Querria componer · una faccion rimada</p> -<p class="i0">De un confesor que fizo · vida honrada,</p> -<p class="i0">Que nació en Toledo, · en esa Cibdat nombrada.</p> -</div></div> - -</div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p id="Footnote_123"><span class="label"><a -href="#FNanchor_123">[123]</a></span> See, for his life, Sanchez, -Tom. I. pp. 100-106, and Tom. IV. pp. ii.-vi.;—and for an excellent -criticism of his works, one in the Wiener Jahrbücher der Literatur, -1832, Band LVIII. pp. 220-255. It is by Ferdinand Wolf, and he boldly -compares the Archpriest to Cervantes.</p> - -</div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p id="Footnote_124"><span class="label"><a -href="#FNanchor_124">[124]</a></span> Sanchez, Tom. IV. p. x.</p> - -</div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p id="Footnote_125"><span class="label"><a -href="#FNanchor_125">[125]</a></span> Ibid., p. 283.</p> - -</div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p id="Footnote_126"><span class="label"><a -href="#FNanchor_126">[126]</a></span> The immoral tendency of many -of the poems is a point that not only embarrasses the editor of the -Archpriest, (see p. xvii. and the notes on pp. 76, 97, 102, etc.,) but -somewhat disturbs the Archpriest himself. (See stanzas 7, 866, etc.) -The case, however, is too plain to be covered up; and the editor only -partly avoids trouble by quietly leaving out long passages, as from st. -441 to 464, etc.</p> - -</div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p id="Footnote_127"><span class="label"><a -href="#FNanchor_127">[127]</a></span> St. 61-68.</p> - -</div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p id="Footnote_128"><span class="label"><a -href="#FNanchor_128">[128]</a></span> There is some little obscurity -about this important personage (st. 71, 671, and elsewhere); but she -was named Urraca, (st. 1550,) and belonged to the class of persons -technically called <i>Alcahuetas</i>, or “Go-betweens”; a class which, from -the seclusion of women in Spain, and perhaps from the influence of -Moorish society and manners, figures largely in the early literature -of the country, and sometimes in the later. The Partidas (Part. VII. -Tít. 22) devotes two laws to them; and the “Tragicomedia of Celestina,” -who is herself once called Trota-conventos, (end of Act. II.,) is -their chief monument. Of their activity in the days of the Archpriest -a whimsical proof is given in the extraordinary number of odious and -ridiculous names and epithets accumulated on them in st. 898-902.</p> - -</div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p id="Footnote_129"><span class="label"><a -href="#FNanchor_129">[129]</a></span> St. 72 etc., 88 etc., 95 etc.</p> - -</div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p id="Footnote_130"><span class="label"><a -href="#FNanchor_130">[130]</a></span> When the affair is over, he says -quaintly, “<i>El</i> comiò la vianda, è a <i>mi</i> fiso rumiar.”</p> - -</div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p id="Footnote_131"><span class="label"><a -href="#FNanchor_131">[131]</a></span> St. 119, 142 etc., 171 etc., 203 -etc. Such discoursing as this last passage affords on the seven deadly -sins is common in the French Fabliaux, and the English reader finds a -striking specimen of it in the “Persone’s Tale” of Chaucer.</p> - -</div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p id="Footnote_132"><span class="label"><a -href="#FNanchor_132">[132]</a></span> St. 557-559, with 419 and 548. -Pamphylus de Amore, F. A. Ebert, Bibliographisches Lexicon, Leipzig, -1830, 4to, Tom. II. p. 297. P. Leyseri Hist. Poet. Medii Ævi, Halæ, -1721, 8vo, p. 2071. Sanchez, Tom. IV. pp. xxiii., xxiv. The story -of Pamphylus in the Archpriest’s version is in stanzas 555-865. The -story of the Archpriest’s own journey is in stanzas 924-1017. The -<i>Serranas</i> in this portion are, I think, imitations of the <i>Pastoretas</i> -or <i>Pastorelles</i> of the Troubadours. (Raynouard, Troubadours, Tom. II. -pp. 229, etc.) If such poems occurred frequently in the Northern French -literature of the period, I should think the Archpriest had found his -models there, since it is there he generally resorts; but I have never -seen any that came from north of the Loire so old as his time.</p> - -</div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p id="Footnote_133"><span class="label"><a -href="#FNanchor_133">[133]</a></span> St. 1017-1040. The “Bataille des -Vins,” by D’Andeli, may be cited, (Barbazan, ed. Méon, Tom. I. p. 152,) -but the “Bataille de Karesme et de Charnage” (Ibid., Tom. IV. p. 80) is -more in point. There are others on other subjects. For the marvellously -savory personages in the Archpriest’s battle, see stanzas 1080, 1169, -1170, etc.</p> - -</div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p id="Footnote_134"><span class="label"><a -href="#FNanchor_134">[134]</a></span> St. 1184 etc., 1199-1229. It is -not quite easy to see how the Archpriest ventured some things in the -last passage. Parts of the procession come singing the most solemn -hymns of the Church, or parodies of them, applied to Don Amor, like the -<i>Benedictus qui venit</i>. It seems downright blasphemy against what was -then thought most sacred.</p> - -</div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p id="Footnote_135"><span class="label"><a -href="#FNanchor_135">[135]</a></span> Stanzas 1221, 1229 etc., 1277 -etc., 1289, 1491, 1492 etc., 1550 etc., 1553-1681.</p> - -</div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p id="Footnote_136"><span class="label"><a -href="#FNanchor_136">[136]</a></span> Stanzas 464, etc. As in many -other passages, the Archpriest is here upon ground already occupied -by the Northern French poets. See the “Usurer’s Pater-Noster,” and -“Credo,” in Barbazan, Fabliaux, Tom. IV. pp. 99 and 106.</p> - -</div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p id="Footnote_137"><span class="label"><a -href="#FNanchor_137">[137]</a></span> Stanzas 1494 etc., 1609 etc.</p> - -</div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p id="Footnote_138"><span class="label"><a -href="#FNanchor_138">[138]</a></span> The Archpriest says of the fable -of the Mountain that brought forth a Mouse, that it “was composed by -Isopete.” Now there were at least two collections of fables in French -in the thirteenth century, that passed under the name of Ysopet, and -are published in Robert, “Fables Inédites,” (Paris, 1825, 2 tom. -8vo); and as Marie de France, who lived at the court of Henry III. -of England, then the resort of the Northern French poets, alludes to -them in the Prologue to her own Fables, they are probably as early as -1240. (See Poésies de Marie de France, ed. Roquefort, Paris, 1820, 8vo, -Tom. II. p. 61, and the admirable discussions in De la Rue sur les -Bardes, les Jongleurs et les Trouvères, Caen, 1834, 8vo, Tom. I. pp. -198-202, and Tom. III. pp. 47-101.) To one or both of these Isopets the -Archpriest went for a part of his fables,—perhaps for all of them. Don -Juan Manuel, his contemporary, probably did the same, and sometimes -took the same fables; e. g. Conde Lucanor, Capp. 43, 26, and 49, which -are the fables of the Archpriest, stanzas 1386, 1411, and 1428.</p> - -</div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p id="Footnote_139"><span class="label"><a -href="#FNanchor_139">[139]</a></span> Stanzas 189, 206, 1419.</p> - -</div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p id="Footnote_140"><span class="label"><a -href="#FNanchor_140">[140]</a></span> It begins thus, stanza 1344:—</p> - -<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> -<p class="i0">Mur de Guadalaxara · un Lunes madrugaba,</p> -<p class="i0">Fuese à Monferrado, · à mercado andaba;</p> -<p class="i0">Un mur de franca barba · recibiol’ en su cava,</p> -<p class="i0">Convidol’ à yantar · e diole una faba.</p> -<p class="i0"> </p> -<p class="i0">Estaba en mesa pobre · buen gesto è buena cara,</p> -<p class="i0">Con la poca vianda · buena voluntad para,</p> -<p class="i0">A los pobres manjares · el plaser los repara,</p> -<p class="i0">l’agos del buen talante · mur de Guadalaxara.</p> -</div></div> - -<p class="ti1">And so on through eight more stanzas. Now, besides the -Greek attributed to Æsop and the Latin of Horace, there can be found -above twenty versions of this fable, among which are two in Spanish, -one by Bart. Leon. de Argensola, and the other by Samaniego; but I -think the Archpriest’s is the best of the whole.</p> - -</div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p id="Footnote_141"><span class="label"><a -href="#FNanchor_141">[141]</a></span> There are at least two -manuscripts of the poems of this Jew, from which nothing has been -published but a few poor extracts. The one commonly cited is that -of the Escurial, used by Castro, (Biblioteca Española, Tom. I. pp. -198-202,) and by Sanchez (Tom. I. pp. 179-184, and Tom. IV. p. 12, -etc.). The one I have used is in the National Library, Madrid, marked -B. b. 82, folio, in which the poem of the Rabbi is found on leaves 61 -to 81. Conde, the historian of the Arabs, preferred this manuscript to -the one in the Escurial, and held the Rabbi’s true name to be given -in it, viz. <i>Santob</i>, and not <i>Santo</i>, as it is in the manuscript of -the Escurial; the latter being a name not likely to be taken by a Jew -in the time of Peter the Cruel, though very likely to be written so -by an ignorant monkish transcriber. The manuscript of Madrid begins -thus, differing from that of the Escurial, as may be seen in Castro, ut -sup.:—</p> - -<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> -<p class="i0">Señor Rey, noble, alto,</p> -<p class="i2">Oy este Sermon,</p> -<p class="i0">Que vyene desyr Santob,</p> -<p class="i2">Judio de Carrion.</p> -<p class="i0"> </p> -<p class="i0">Comunalmente trobado,</p> -<p class="i2">De glosas moralmente,</p> -<p class="i0">De la Filosofia sacado,</p> -<p class="i2">Segunt que va syguiente.</p> -<p class="i0"> </p> -<p class="i0">My noble King and mighty Lord,</p> -<p class="i2">Hear a discourse most true;</p> -<p class="i0">’T is Santob brings your Grace the word,</p> -<p class="i2">Of Carrion’s town the Jew.</p> -<p class="i0"> </p> -<p class="i0">In plainest verse my thoughts I tell,</p> -<p class="i2">With gloss and moral free,</p> -<p class="i0">Drawn from Philosophy’s pure well,</p> -<p class="i2">As onward you may see.</p> -</div></div> - -<p class="ti1">The oldest notice of the Jew of Carrion is in the letter -of the Marquis of Santillana to the Constable of Portugal, from which -there can be no doubt that the Rabbi still enjoyed much reputation in -the middle of the fifteenth century.</p> - -</div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p id="Footnote_142"><span class="label"><a -href="#FNanchor_142">[142]</a></span></p> - -<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> -<p class="i0">Por nascer en el espino,</p> -<p class="i2">No val la rosa cierto</p> -<p class="i0">Menos; ni el buen vino,</p> -<p class="i2">Por nascer en el sarmyento.</p> -<p class="i0"> </p> -<p class="i0">Non val el açor menos,</p> -<p class="i2">Por nascer de mal nido;</p> -<p class="i0">Nin los exemplos buenos,</p> -<p class="i2">Por los decir Judio.</p> -</div></div> - -<p class="ti1">These lines seem better given in the Escurial manuscript -as follows:—</p> - -<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> -<p class="i0">Por nascer en el espino,</p> -<p class="i2">La rosa ya non siento,</p> -<p class="i0">Que pierde; ni el buen vino,</p> -<p class="i2">Por salir del sarmiento.</p> -<p class="i0"> </p> -<p class="i0">Non vale el açor menos,</p> -<p class="i2">Porque en vil nido siga;</p> -<p class="i0">Nin los enxemplos buenos,</p> -<p class="i2">Porque Judio los diga.</p> -</div></div> - -<p class="ti1">The manuscripts ought to be collated, and this curious -poem published.</p> - -<p class="ti1">After a preface in prose, which seems to be by another -hand, and an address to the king by the poet himself, he goes on:—</p> - -<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> -<p class="i0">Quando el Rey Don Alfonso</p> -<p class="i2">Fynò, fyncò la gente,</p> -<p class="i0">Como quando el pulso</p> -<p class="i2">Fallesçe al doliente.</p> -<p class="i0"> </p> -<p class="i0">Que luego no ayudava,</p> -<p class="i2">Que tan grant mejoria</p> -<p class="i0">A ellos fyncava</p> -<p class="i2">Nin omen lo entendia.</p> -<p class="i0"> </p> -<p class="i0">Quando la rosa seca,</p> -<p class="i2">En su tiempo sale</p> -<p class="i0">El agua que della fynca,</p> -<p class="i2">Rosada que mas vale.</p> -<p class="i0"> </p> -<p class="i0">Asi vos fyncastes del</p> -<p class="i2">Para mucho tu far,</p> -<p class="i0">Et facer lo que el</p> -<p class="i2">Cobdiciaba librar, etc.</p> -</div></div> - -<p class="ti1">One of the philosophical verses is very quaint:—</p> - -<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> -<p class="i0">Quando no es lo que quiero,</p> -<p class="i2">Quiero yo lo que es;</p> -<p class="i0">Si pesar he primero,</p> -<p class="i2">Plaser avré despues.</p> -<p class="i0"> </p> -<p class="i0">If what I find, I do not love,</p> -<p class="i2">Then love I what I find;</p> -<p class="i0">If disappointment go before,</p> -<p class="i2">Joy sure shall come behind.</p> -</div></div> - -<p class="ti1">I add from the unpublished original:—</p> - -<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> -<p class="i0">Las mys canas teñilas,</p> -<p class="i2">Non por las avorrescer,</p> -<p class="i0">Ni por desdesyrlas,</p> -<p class="i2">Nin mancebo parescer.</p> -<p class="i0"> </p> -<p class="i0">Mas con miedo sobejo</p> -<p class="i2">De omes que bastarian<a id="FNanchor_142_1" href="#Footnote_142_1" class="fnanchor">[*]</a></p> -<p class="i0">En mi seso de viejo,</p> -<p class="i2">E non lo fallarian.</p> -<p class="i0"> </p> -<p class="i0">My hoary locks I dye with care,</p> -<p class="i2">Not that I hate their hue,</p> -<p class="i0">Nor yet because I wish to seem</p> -<p class="i2">More youthful than is true.</p> -<p class="i0"> </p> -<p class="i0">But ’t is because the words I dread</p> -<p class="i2">Of men who speak me fair,</p> -<p class="i0">And ask within my whitened head</p> -<p class="i2">For wit that is not there.</p> -</div></div> - -<p id="Footnote_142_1"><span class="label"><a -href="#FNanchor_142_1">[*]</a></span> buscarian?</p> - -</div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p id="Footnote_143"><span class="label"><a -href="#FNanchor_143">[143]</a></span> Castro, Bibl. Esp., Tom. I. p. -199. Sanchez, Tom. I. p. 182; Tom. IV. p. xii.</p> - -<p class="ti1">I am aware that Don José Amador de los Rios, in his -“Estudios Históricos, Políticos y Literarios sobre los Judios de -España,” a learned and pleasant book published at Madrid in 1848, is of -a different opinion, and holds the three poems, including the Doctrina -Christiana, to be the work of Don Santo or Santob of Carrion. (See pp. -304-335.) But I think the objections to this opinion are stronger than -the reasons he gives to support it; especially the objections involved -in the following facts, viz.: that Don Santob calls himself a Jew; -that both the manuscripts of the Consejos call him a Jew; that the -Marquis of Santillana, the only tolerably early authority that mentions -him, calls him a Jew; that no one of them intimates that he ever was -converted,—a circumstance likely to have been much blazoned abroad, -if it had really occurred; and that, if he were an unconverted Jew, -it is wholly impossible he should have written the Dança General, the -Doctrina Christiana, or the Ermitaño.</p> - -<p class="ti1">I ought, perhaps, to add, in reference both to the -remarks made in this note, and to the notices of the few Jewish authors -in Spanish literature generally, that I did not receive the valuable -work of Amador de los Rios till just as the present one was going to -press.</p> - -</div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p id="Footnote_144"><span class="label"><a -href="#FNanchor_144">[144]</a></span> Castro, Bibl. Esp., Tom. I. p. -200. By the kindness of Prof. Gayangos, I have a copy of the whole. To -judge from the opening lines of the poem, it was probably written in -1382:—</p> - -<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> -<p class="i0">Despues de la prima · la ora passada,</p> -<p class="i0">En el mes de Enero · la noche primera</p> -<p class="i0">En cccc e veiynte · durante la hera,</p> -<p class="i0">Estando acostado alla · en mi posada, etc.</p> -</div></div> - -<p class="ti1">The first of January, 1420, of the Spanish Era, when the -scene is laid, corresponds to A. D. 1382. A copy of the poem printed -at Madrid, 1848, 12mo, pp. 13, differs from my manuscript copy, but is -evidently taken from one less carefully made.</p> - -</div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p id="Footnote_145"><span class="label"><a -href="#FNanchor_145">[145]</a></span> Hist. of Eng. Poetry, Sect. 24, -near the end. It appears also in French very early, under the title of -“Le Débat du Corps et de l’Ame,” printed in 1486. (Ebert, Bib. Lexicon, -Nos. 5671-5674.) The source of the fiction has been supposed to be a -poem by a Frankish monk (Hagen und Büsching, Grundriss, Berlin, 1812, -8vo, p. 446); but it is very old, and found in many forms and many -languages. See Latin Poems attributed to Walter Mapes, and edited for -the Camden Society by T. Wright (1841, 4to, pp. 95 and 321). It was -printed in the ballad form in Spain as late as 1764.</p> - -</div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p id="Footnote_146"><span class="label"><a -href="#FNanchor_146">[146]</a></span> Castro, Bibl. Española, Tom. -I. p. 200. Sanchez, Tom. I. pp. 182-185, with Tom. IV. p. xii. I -suspect the Spanish Dance of Death is an imitation from the French, -because I find, in several of the early editions, the French Dance of -Death is united, as the Spanish is in the manuscript of the Escurial, -with the “Débat du Corps et de l’Ame,” just as the “Vows over the -Peacock” seems, in both languages, to have been united to a poem on -Alexander.</p> - -</div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p id="Footnote_147"><span class="label"><a -href="#FNanchor_147">[147]</a></span> In what a vast number of forms -this strange fiction occurs may be seen in the elaborate work of F. -Douce, entitled “Dance of Death,” (London, 1833, 8vo,) and in the -“Literatur der Todtentänze,” von H. F. Massmann (Leipzig, 1840, 8vo). -To these, however, for our purpose, should be added notices from the -Allgemeine Deutsche Bibliothek, (Berlin, 1792, Vol. CVI. p. 279,) -and a series of prints that appeared at Lubec in 1783, folio, taken -from the paintings there, which date from 1463, and which might well -serve to illustrate the old Spanish poem. See also K. F. A. Scheller, -Bücherkunde der Sässisch-niederdeutschen Sprache, Braunschweig, 1826, -8vo, p. 75. The whole immense series, whether existing in the paintings -at Basle, Hamburg, etc., or in the old poems in all languages, one -of which is by Lydgate, were undoubtedly intended for religious -edification, just as the Spanish poem was.</p> - -</div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p id="Footnote_148"><span class="label"><a -href="#FNanchor_148">[148]</a></span> I have a manuscript copy of the -whole poem, made for me by Professor Gayangos, and give the following -as specimens. First, one of the stanzas translated in the text:—</p> - -<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> -<p class="i0">A esta mi Danza traye de presente</p> -<p class="i2">Estas dos donçellas que vedes fermosas;</p> -<p class="i0">Ellas vinieron de muy mala mente</p> -<p class="i2">A oyr mis canciones que son dolorosas.</p> -<p class="i2">Mas non les valdran flores ny rosas,</p> -<p class="i0">Nin las composturas que poner solian.</p> -<p class="i0">De mi si pudiesen partir se querrian,</p> -<p class="i2">Mas non puede ser, que son mis esposas.</p> -</div></div> - -<p> And the two following, which have not, I believe, been printed; the -first being the reply of Death to the Dean he had summoned, and the -last the objections of the Merchant:—</p> - -<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> -<p class="centra"><i>Dice la Muerte.</i></p> -<p class="i0">Don rico avariento Dean muy ufano,</p> -<p class="i2">Que vuestros dineros trocastes en oro,</p> -<p class="i0">A pobres e a viudas cerrastes la mano,</p> -<p class="i2">E mal despendistes el vuestro tesoro,</p> -<p class="i2">Non quiero que estedes ya mas en el coro;</p> -<p class="i0">Salid luego fuera sin otra peresa.</p> -<p class="i0">Ya vos mostraré venir à pobresa.—</p> -<p class="i2">Venit, Mercadero, a la dança del lloro.</p> -</div></div> - -<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> -<p class="centra"><i>Dice el Mercader.</i></p> -<p class="i0">A quien dexaré todas mis riquesas,</p> -<p class="i2">E mercadurias, que traygo en la mar?</p> -<p class="i0">Con muchos traspasos e mas sotilesas</p> -<p class="i2">Gané lo que tengo en cada lugar.</p> -<p class="i2">Agora la muerte vinó me llamar;</p> -<p class="i0">Que sera de mi, non se que me faga.</p> -<p class="i0">O muerte tu sierra á mi es gran plaga.</p> -<p class="i2">Adios, Mercaderes, que voyme á finar!</p> -</div></div> - -</div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p id="Footnote_149"><span class="label"><a -href="#FNanchor_149">[149]</a></span> See a learned dissertation of -Fr. Benito Montejo, on the Beginnings of the Independence of Castile, -Memorias de la Acad. de Hist., Tom. III. pp. 245-302. Crónica General -de España, Parte III. c. 18-20. Duran, Romances Caballerescos, Madrid, -1832, 12mo, Tom. II. pp. 27-39. Extracts from the manuscript in the -Escurial are to be found in Bouterwek, trad. por J. G. de la Cortina, -etc., Tom. I. pp. 154-161. I have a manuscript copy of the first part -of it, made for me by Professor Gayangos. For notices, see Castro, -Bibl., Tom. I. p. 199, and Sanchez, Tom. I. p. 115.</p> - -</div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p id="Footnote_150"><span class="label"><a -href="#FNanchor_150">[150]</a></span> Crónica General, ed. 1604, Parte -III. f. 55. b, 60. a-65. b. Compare, also, Cap. 19, and Mariana, -Historia, Lib. VIII. c. 7, with the poem. That the poem was taken -from the Chronicle may be assumed, I conceive, from a comparison of -the Chronicle, Parte III. c. 18, near the end, containing the defeat -and death of the Count of Toulouse, with the passage in the poem as -given by Cortina, and beginning “Cavalleros Tolesanos trezientos y -prendieron”; or the vision of San Millan (Crónica, Parte III. c. 19) -with the passage in the poem beginning “El Cryador te otorga quanto -pedido le as.” Perhaps, however, the following, being a mere rhetorical -illustration, is a proof as striking, if not as conclusive, as a longer -one. The Chronicle says, (Parte III. c. 18,) “Non cuentan de Alexandre -los dias nin los años; mas los buenos fechos e las sus cavallerías que -fizo.” The poem has it, in almost the same words:—</p> - -<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> -<p class="i0">Non cuentan de Alexandre · las noches nin los dias;</p> -<p class="i0">Cuentan sus buenos fechos · e sus cavalleryas.</p> -</div></div> - -</div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p id="Footnote_151"><span class="label"><a href="#FNanchor_151">[151]</a></span></p> - -<div class="poem mt-05"><div class="stanza"> -<p class="i0">El Rey y el Conde · ambos se ayuntaron,</p> -<p class="i0">El uno contra el otro · ambos endereçaron,</p> -<p class="i0">E la lid campal alli · la escomençaron.</p> -<p class="i0"> </p> -<p class="i0">Non podrya mas fuerte · ni mas brava ser,</p> -<p class="i0">Ca alli les yva todo · levantar o caer;</p> -<p class="i0">El nin el Rey non podya · ninguno mas façer,</p> -<p class="i0">Los unos y los otros · façian todo su poder.</p> -<p class="i0"> </p> -<p class="i0">Muy grande fue la façienda · e mucho mas el roydo;</p> -<p class="i0">Daria el ome muy grandes voces, · y non seria oydo.</p> -<p class="i0">El que oydo fuese seria · como grande tronydo;</p> -<p class="i0">Non podrya oyr voces · ningun apellido.</p> -<p class="i0"> </p> -<p class="i0">Grandes eran los golpes, · que mayores non podian;</p> -<p class="i0">Los unos y los otros · todo su poder façian;</p> -<p class="i0">Muchos cayan en tierra · que nunca se ençian;</p> -<p class="i0">De sangre los arroyos · mucha tierra cobryan.</p> -<p class="i0"> </p> -<p class="i0">Asas eran los Navarros · cavalleros esforçados</p> -<p class="i0">Que en qualquier lugar · seryan buenos y priados,</p> -<p class="i0">Mas es contra el Conde · todos desaventurados;</p> -<p class="i0">Omes son de gran cuenta · y de coraçon loçanos.</p> -<p class="i0"> </p> -<p class="i0">Quiso Dios al buen Conde · esta gracia façer,</p> -<p class="i0">Que Moros ni Crystyanos · non le podian vençer, etc.</p> -<p class="dr">Bouterwek, trad. Cortina, p. 160.</p> -</div></div> - -</div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p id="Footnote_152"><span class="label"><a -href="#FNanchor_152">[152]</a></span> Other manuscripts of this sort -are known to exist; but I am not aware of any so old, or of such -poetical value. (Ochoa, Catálogo de Manuscritos Españoles, etc., pp. -6-21. Gayangos, Mohammedan Dynasties in Spain, Tom. I. pp. 492 and -503.) As to the spelling in the Poem of Joseph, we have <i>sembraredes</i>, -<i>chiriador</i>, <i>certero</i>, <i>marabella</i>, <i>taraydores</i>, etc. To avoid a -hiatus, a consonant is prefixed to the second word; as “cada <i>g</i>uno” -repeatedly for <i>cada uno</i>. The manuscript of the Poema de José, in -4to, 49 leaves, was first shown to me in the Public Library at Madrid, -marked G. g. 101, by Conde, the historian; but I owe a copy of the -whole of it to the kindness of Don Pascual de Gayangos, Professor of -Arabic in the University there.</p> - -</div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p id="Footnote_153"><span class="label"><a -href="#FNanchor_153">[153]</a></span> The passage I have translated is -in Coplas 5-7, in the original manuscript, as it now stands, imperfect -at the beginning.</p> - -<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> -<p class="i0">Dijieron sus filhos: · “Padre, eso no pensedes;</p> -<p class="i0">Somos diez ermanos, · eso bien sabedes;</p> -<p class="i0">Seriamos taraidores, · eso no dubdedes;</p> -<p class="i0">Mas, empero, si no vos place, · aced lo que queredes.</p> -<p class="i0"> </p> -<p class="i0">“Mas aquesto pensamos, · sabelo el Criador;</p> -<p class="i0">Porque supiese mas, · i ganase el nuestro amor,</p> -<p class="i0">Enseñarle aiemos las obelhas, · i el ganado mayor;</p> -<p class="i0">Mas, enpero, si no vos place, · mandad como señor.”</p> -<p class="i0"> </p> -<p class="i0">Tanto le dijeron, · de palabras fermosas,</p> -<p class="i0">Tanto le prometieron, · de palabras piadosas,</p> -<p class="i0">Que el les dió el ninno, · dijoles las oras,</p> -<p class="i0">Que lo guardasen a el · de manos enganosas.</p> -<p class="dr">Poema de José, MS.</p> -</div></div> - -</div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p id="Footnote_154"><span class="label"><a href="#FNanchor_154">[154]</a></span></p> - -<div class="poem mt-05"><div class="stanza"> -<p class="i0">Rogo Jacob al Criador, · e al lobo fue a fablar;</p> -<p class="i0">Dijo el lobo: “No lo mando · Allah, que a nabi<a id="FNanchor_154_1" href="#Footnote_154_1" class="fnanchor">[*]</a> fuese a matar,</p> -<p class="i0">En tan estranna tierra · me fueron á cazar,</p> -<p class="i0">Anme fecho pecado, · i lebanme a lazrar.”</p> -<p class="dr">MS.</p> -</div></div> - -<p id="Footnote_154_1"><span class="label"><a -href="#FNanchor_154_1">[*]</a></span> <i>Nabi</i>, Prophet, Arabic.</p> - -</div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p id="Footnote_155"><span class="label"><a href="#FNanchor_155">[155]</a></span></p> - -<div class="poem mt-05"><div class="stanza"> -<p class="i0">La mesura del pan · de oro era labrada,</p> -<p class="i0">E de piedras preciosas · era estrellada,</p> -<p class="i0">I era de ver toda · con guisa enclabada,</p> -<p class="i0">Que fazia saber al Rey · la berdad apurada.</p> -<p class="i2 g4">· · · · · · · · · · · ·</p> -<p class="i0">E firio el Rey en la mesura · e fizola sonar,</p> -<p class="i0">Pone la á su orella · por oir e guardar;</p> -<p class="i0">Dijoles, e no quiso · mas dudar,</p> -<p class="i0">Segun dize la mesura, · berdad puede estar.</p> -<p class="dr">MS.</p> -</div></div> - -<p class="ti1">It is Joseph who is here called king, as he is often in -the poem,—once he is called emperor, though the Pharaoh of the period -is fully recognized; and this costly measure, made of gold and precious -stones, corresponds to the cup of the Hebrew account, and is found, -like that, in the sack of Benjamin, where it had been put by Joseph, -(after he had secretly revealed himself to Benjamin,) as the means of -seizing Benjamin and detaining him in Egypt, with his own consent, but -without giving his false brethren the reason for it.</p> - -</div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p id="Footnote_156"><span class="label"><a -href="#FNanchor_156">[156]</a></span></p> - -<div class="poem mt-05"><div class="stanza"> -<p class="i0">Dijo Jusuf: “Ermanos, · perdoneos el Criador,</p> -<p class="i0">Del tuerto que me tenedes, · perdoneos el Señor,</p> -<p class="i0">Que para siempre e nunca · se parta el nuestro amor.”</p> -<p class="i0">Abrasò a cada guno, · e partiòse con dolor.</p> -<p class="dr">MS.</p> -</div></div> - -</div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p id="Footnote_157"><span class="label"><a -href="#FNanchor_157">[157]</a></span> As the original has not been -printed, I transcribe the following stanzas of the passage I have last -translated:—</p> - -<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> -<p class="i0">Dio salto del camello, · donde iba cabalgando;</p> -<p class="i0">No lo sintio el negro, · que lo iba guardando;</p> -<p class="i0">Fuese a la fuesa de su madre, · a pedirla perdon doblando,</p> -<p class="i0">Jusuf a la fuesa · tan apriesa llorando.</p> -<p class="i0"> </p> -<p class="i0">Disiendo: “Madre, sennora, · perdoneos el Sennor;</p> -<p class="i0">Madre, si me bidieses, · de mi abriais dolor;</p> -<p class="i0">Boi con cadenas al cuello, · catibo con sennor,</p> -<p class="i0">Bendido de mis ermanos, · como si fuera traidor.</p> -<p class="i0"> </p> -<p class="i0">“Ellos me han bendido, · no teniendoles tuerto;</p> -<p class="i0">Partieronme de mi padre, · ante que fuese muerto;</p> -<p class="i0">Con arte, con falsia, ellos · me obieron buelto;</p> -<p class="i0">Por mal precio me han · bendido, por do boi ajado e cucito.”</p> -<p class="i0"> </p> -<p class="i0">E bolbiose el negro · ante la camella,</p> -<p class="i0">Requiriendo à Jusuf, · e no lo bido en ella;</p> -<p class="i0">E bolbiose por el camino · aguda su orella,</p> -<p class="i0">Bidolo en el fosal · llorando, que es marabella.</p> -<p class="i0"> </p> -<p class="i0">E fuese alla el negro, · e obolo mal ferido,</p> -<p class="i0">E luego en aquella ora · caio amortesido;</p> -<p class="i0">Dijo, “Tu eres malo, · e ladron conpilido;</p> -<p class="i0">Ansi nos lo dijeron tus señores · que te hubieron bendido.”</p> -<p class="i0"> </p> -<p class="i0">Dijo Jusuf: “No soi · malo, ni ladron,</p> -<p class="i0">Mas, aqui iaz mi madre, · e bengola a dar perdon;</p> -<p class="i0">Ruego ad Allah i a · el fago loaiçon,</p> -<p class="i0">Que, si colpa no te tengo, · te enbie su maldicion.”</p> -<p class="i0"> </p> -<p class="i0">Andaron aquella noche · fasta otro dia,</p> -<p class="i0">Entorbioseles el mundo, · gran bento corria,</p> -<p class="i0">Afallezioseles el sol · al ora de mediodia,</p> -<p class="i0">No vedian por do ir · con la mercaderia.</p> -<p class="dr">Poema de José, MS.</p> -</div></div> - -</div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p id="Footnote_158"><span class="label"><a -href="#FNanchor_158">[158]</a></span> This is apparent also in the -addition sometimes made of an <i>o</i> or an <i>a</i> to a word ending with a -consonant, as <i>mercadero</i> for <i>mercader</i>.</p> - -</div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p id="Footnote_159"><span class="label"><a -href="#FNanchor_159">[159]</a></span> Thus, the merchant who buys -Joseph talks of Palestine as “the Holy Land,” and Pharaoh talks of -making Joseph a Count. But the general tone is Oriental.</p> - -</div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p id="Footnote_160"><span class="label"><a -href="#FNanchor_160">[160]</a></span> For the Rimado de Palacio, see -Bouterwek, trad. de Cortina, Tom. I. pp. 138-154. The whole poem -consists of 1619 stanzas. For notices of Ayala, see Chap. IX.</p> - -</div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p id="Footnote_161"><span class="label"><a -href="#FNanchor_161">[161]</a></span> <i>Letrado</i> has continued to be -used to mean a <i>lawyer</i> in Spanish down to our day, as <i>clerk</i> has -to mean a <i>writer</i> in English, though the original signification of -both was different. When Sancho goes to his island, he is said to be -“parte de letrado, parte de Capitan”; and Guillen de Castro, in his -“Mal Casados de Valencia,” Act. III., says of a great rogue, “engaño -como letrado.” A description of Letrados, worthy of Tacitus for its -deep satire, is to be found in the first book of Mendoza’s “Guerra de -Granada.”</p> - -</div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p id="Footnote_162"><span class="label"><a -href="#FNanchor_162">[162]</a></span> The passage is in Cortina’s notes -to Bouterwek, and begins:—</p> - -<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> -<p class="i0">Si quisiers sobre un pleyto · d’ ellos aver consejo,</p> -<p class="i0">Pónense solemnmente, · luego abaxan el cejo:</p> -<p class="i0">Dis: “Grant question es esta, · grant trabajo sobejo:</p> -<p class="i0">El pleyto sera luengo, · ca atañe a to el consejo.</p> -<p class="i0"> </p> -<p class="i0">“Yo pienso que podria · aquí algo ayudar,</p> -<p class="i0">Tomando grant trabajo · mis libros estudiar;</p> -<p class="i0">Mas todos mis negoçios · me conviene á dexar,</p> -<p class="i0">E solamente en aqueste · vuestro pleyto estudiar.”</p> -</div></div> - -</div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p id="Footnote_163"><span class="label"><a href="#FNanchor_163">[163]</a></span> The original reads thus:—</p> - -<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> -<p class="centra"><i>Aqui fabla de la Justicia.</i></p> -<p class="i0">Justicia que es virtud · atan noble e loada,</p> -<p class="i0">Que castiga los malos · e ha la tierra poblada,</p> -<p class="i0">Devenla guardar Reyes · é la tien olvidada,</p> -<p class="i0">Siendo piedra preciosa · de su corona onrrada.</p> -<p class="i0"> </p> -<p class="i0">Muchos ha que por cruesa · cuydan justicia fer;</p> -<p class="i0">Mas pecan en la maña, · ca justicia ha de ser</p> -<p class="i0">Con toda piedat, · e la verdat bien saber:</p> -<p class="i0">Al fer la execucion · siempre se han de doler.</p> -</div></div> - -<p class="ti1">Don José Amador de los Rios has given further extracts -from the Rimado de Palacio in a pleasant paper on it in the Semanario -Pintoresco, Madrid, 1847, p. 411.</p> - -</div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p id="Footnote_164"><span class="label"><a -href="#FNanchor_164">[164]</a></span> Alfonso el Sabio says of his -father, St. Ferdinand: “And, moreover, he liked to have men about -him who knew how to make verses (<i>trobar</i>) and sing, and Jongleurs, -who knew how to play on instruments. For in such things he took -great pleasure, and knew who was skilled in them and who was not.” -(Setenario, Paleographía, pp. 80-83, and p. 76.) See, also, what is -said hereafter, when we come to speak of Provençal literature in Spain, -<a href="#Ch_1_16">Chap. XVI</a>.</p> - -</div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p id="Footnote_165"><span class="label"><a -href="#FNanchor_165">[165]</a></span> The Edinburgh Review, No. 146, on -Lockhart’s Ballads, contains the ablest statement of this theory.</p> - -</div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p id="Footnote_166"><span class="label"><a -href="#FNanchor_166">[166]</a></span> The passage in Strabo here -referred to, which is in Book III. p. 139, (ed. Casaubon, fol., 1620,) -is to be taken in connection with the passage (p. 151) in which he says -that both the language and its poetry were wholly lost in his time.</p> - -</div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p id="Footnote_167"><span class="label"><a -href="#FNanchor_167">[167]</a></span> Argote de Molina (Discurso de la -Poesía Castellana, in Conde Lucanor, ed. 1575, f. 93. a) may be cited -to this point, and one who believed it tenable might also cite the -“Crónica General,” (ed. 1604, Parte II. f. 265,) where, speaking of the -Gothic kingdom, and mourning its fall, the Chronicle says, “Forgotten -are its songs, (<i>cantares</i>,)” etc.</p> - -</div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p id="Footnote_168"><span class="label"><a -href="#FNanchor_168">[168]</a></span> W. von Humboldt, in the -Mithridates of Adelung and Vater, Berlin, 1817, 8vo, Tom. IV. p. 354, -and Argote de Molina, ut sup., f. 93;—but the Basque verses the latter -gives cannot be older than 1322, and were, therefore, quite as likely -to be imitated from the Spanish as to have been themselves the subjects -of Spanish imitation.</p> - -</div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p id="Footnote_169"><span class="label"><a -href="#FNanchor_169">[169]</a></span> Dominacion de los Árabes, Tom. -I., Prólogo, pp. xviii.-xix., p. 169, and other places. But in a -manuscript preface to a collection which he called “Poesías Orientales -traducidas por Jos. Ant. Conde,” and which he never published, he -expresses himself yet more positively: “In the versification of our -Castilian ballads and <i>seguidillas</i>, we have received from the Arabs -<i>an exact type</i> of their verses.” And again he says, “From the period -of the infancy of our poetry, we have rhymed verses according to <i>the -measures used by the Arabs before the times of the Koran</i>.” This -is the work, I suppose, to which Blanco White alludes (Variedades, -Tom. II. pp. 45, 46). The theory of Conde has been often approved. -See Retrospective Review, Tom. IV. p. 31, the Spanish translation of -Bouterwek, Tom. I. p. 164, etc.</p> - -</div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p id="Footnote_170"><span class="label"><a -href="#FNanchor_170">[170]</a></span> Argote de Molina (Discurso sobre -la Poesía Castellana, in Conde Lucanor, 1575, f. 92) will have it that -the ballad verse of Spain is quite the same with the eight-syllable -verse in Greek, Latin, Italian, and French; “but,” he adds, “it is -properly native to Spain, in whose language it is found earlier than -in any other modern tongue, and in Spanish alone it has all the grace, -gentleness, and spirit that are more peculiar to the Spanish genius -than to any other.” The only example he cites in proof of this position -is the Odes of Ronsard,—“the most excellent Ronsard,” as he calls -him,—then at the height of his euphuistical reputation in France; but -Ronsard’s odes are miserably unlike the freedom and spirit of the -Spanish ballads. (See Odes de Ronsard, Paris, 1573, 18mo, Tom. II. pp. -62, 139.) The nearest approach that I recollect to the mere <i>measure</i> -of the ancient Spanish ballad, where there was no thought of imitating -it, is in a few of the old French Fabliaux, in Chaucer’s “House of -Fame,” and in some passages of Sir Walter Scott’s poetry. Jacob Grimm, -in his “Silva de Romances Viejos,” (Vienna, 1815, 18mo,) taken chiefly -from the collection of 1555, has printed the ballads he gives us as -if their lines were originally of fourteen or sixteen syllables; so -that one of his lines embraces two of those in the old Romanceros. His -reason was, that their epic nature and character required such long -verses, which are in fact substantially the same with those in the old -“Poem of the Cid.” But his theory, which was not generally adopted, -is sufficiently answered by V. A. Huber, in his excellent tract, “De -Primitivâ Cantilenarum Popularium Epicarum (vulgo, <i>Romances</i>) apud -Hispanos Formâ,” (Berolini, 1844, 4to,) and in his preface to his -edition of the “Chrónica del Cid,” 1844.</p> - -</div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p id="Footnote_171"><span class="label"><a -href="#FNanchor_171">[171]</a></span> The only suggestion I have -noticed affecting this statement is to be found in the Repertorio -Americano, (Lóndres, 1827, Tom. II. pp. 21, etc.,) where the writer, -who, I believe, is Don Andres Bello, endeavours to trace the <i>asonante</i> -to the “Vita Mathildis,” a Latin poem of the twelfth century, reprinted -by Muratori, (Rerum Italicarum Scriptores, Mediolani, 1725, fol., Tom. -V. pp. 335, etc.,) and to a manuscript Anglo-Norman poem, of the same -century, on the fabulous journey of Charlemagne to Jerusalem. But the -Latin poem is, I believe, singular in this attempt, and was, no doubt, -wholly unknown in Spain; and the Anglo-Norman poem, which has since -been published by Michel, (London, 1836, 12mo,) with curious notes, -turns out to be <i>rhymed</i>, though not carefully or regularly. Raynouard, -in the Journal des Savants, (February, 1833, p. 70,) made the same -mistake with the writer in the Repertorio; probably in consequence of -following him. The imperfect rhyme of the ancient Gaelic seems to have -been different from the Spanish <i>asonante</i>, and, at any rate, can have -had nothing to do with it. Logan’s Scottish Gael, London, 1831, 8vo, -Vol. II. p. 241.</p> - -</div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p id="Footnote_172"><span class="label"><a -href="#FNanchor_172">[172]</a></span> Cervantes, in his “Amante -Liberal,” calls them <i>consonancias</i> or <i>consonantes dificultosas</i>. No -doubt, their greater difficulty caused them to be less used than the -<i>asonantes</i>. Juan de la Enzina, in his little treatise on Castilian -Verse, Cap. 7, written before 1500, explains these two forms of rhyme, -and says that the old romances “no van verdaderos consonantes.” Curious -remarks on the <i>asonantes</i> are to be found in Renjifo, “Arte Poetica -Española,” (Salamanca, 1592, 4to, Cap. 34,) and the additions to it -in the edition of 1727 (4to, p. 418); to which may well be joined the -philosophical suggestions of Martinez de la Rosa, Obras, Paris, 1827, -12mo, Tom. I. pp. 202-204.</p> - -</div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p id="Footnote_173"><span class="label"><a -href="#FNanchor_173">[173]</a></span> A great poetic license was -introduced before long into the use of the <i>asonante</i>, as there had -been, in antiquity, into the use of the Greek and Latin measures, until -the sphere of the <i>asonante</i> became, as Clemencin well says, extremely -wide. Thus, <i>u</i> and <i>o</i> were held to be <i>asonante</i>, as in Ven<i>u</i>s and -Min<i>o</i>s; <i>i</i> and <i>e</i>, as in Par<i>i</i>s and mal<i>e</i>s; a diphthong with a -vowel, as gr<i>a</i>c<i>ia</i> and <i>a</i>lm<i>a</i>, c<i>ui</i>t<i>a</i>s and b<i>u</i>rl<i>a</i>s; and other -similar varieties, which, in the times of Lope de Vega and Góngora, -made the permitted combinations all but indefinite, and the composition -of <i>asonante</i> verses indefinitely easy. Don Quixote, ed. Clemencin, -Tom. III. pp. 271, 272, note.</p> - -</div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p id="Footnote_174"><span class="label"><a -href="#FNanchor_174">[174]</a></span> Poesía Española, Madrid, 1775, -4to, sec. 422-430.</p> - -</div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p id="Footnote_175"><span class="label"><a -href="#FNanchor_175">[175]</a></span> It would be easy to give many -specimens of ballads made from the old chronicles, but for the present -purpose I will take only a few lines from the “Crónica General,” (Parte -III. f. 77. a, ed. 1604,) where Velasquez, persuading his nephews, -the Infantes de Lara, to go against the Moors, despite of certain ill -auguries, says, “<i>Sobrinos estos agueros</i> que oystes mucho son buenos; -<i>ca nos dan a entender que ganaremos muy gran</i> algo de lo ageno, e -<i>de lo nuestro non perderemos</i>; e <i>fizol muy mal Don Nuño</i> Salido <i>en -non venir combusco</i>, e <i>mande Dios que se arrepienta</i>,” etc. Now, -in Sepúlveda, (Romances, Anvers, 1551, 18mo, f. 11), in the ballad -beginning “Llegados son los Infantes,” we have these lines:—</p> - -<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> -<p class="i0"><i>Sobrinos esos agueros</i></p> -<p class="i0">Para nos gran bien serian,</p> -<p class="i0">Porque <i>nos dan a entender</i></p> -<p class="i0">Que bien nos sucediera.</p> -<p class="i0"><i>Ganaremos grande</i> victoria,</p> -<p class="i0"><i>Nada no se perdiera</i>,</p> -<p class="i0"><i>Don Nuño lo hizo mal</i></p> -<p class="i0"><i>Que convusco non venia</i>,</p> -<p class="i0"><i>Mande Dios que se arrepienta</i>, etc.</p> -</div></div> - -</div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p id="Footnote_176"><span class="label"><a -href="#FNanchor_176">[176]</a></span> Duran, Romances Caballerescos, -Madrid, 1832, 12mo, Prólogo, Tom. I. pp. xvi., xvii., with xxxv., note -(14).</p> - -</div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p id="Footnote_177"><span class="label"><a -href="#FNanchor_177">[177]</a></span> The peculiarities of a metrical -form so entirely national can, I suppose, be well understood only by -an example; and I will, therefore, give here, in the original Spanish, -a few lines from a spirited and well-known ballad of Góngora, which I -select, because they have been translated into <i>English asonantes</i>, by -a writer in the Retrospective Review, whose excellent version follows, -and may serve still further to explain and illustrate the measure:—</p> - -<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> -<p class="i0">Aquel rayo de la guerra,</p> -<p class="i0">Alferez mayor del r<i>é</i>yn<i>o</i>,</p> -<p class="i0">Tan galan como valiente,</p> -<p class="i0">Y tan noble como fi<i>é</i>r<i>o</i>,</p> -<p class="i0">De los mozos embidiado,</p> -<p class="i0">Y admirado de los vi<i>é</i>j<i>o</i>s,</p> -<p class="i0">Y de los niños y el vulgo</p> -<p class="i0">Señalado con el d<i>é</i>d<i>o</i>,</p> -<p class="i0">El querido de las damas,</p> -<p class="i0">Por cortesano y discr<i>é</i>t<i>o</i>,</p> -<p class="i0">Hijo hasta alli regalado</p> -<p class="i0">De la fortuna y el ti<i>e</i>mp<i>o</i>, etc.</p> -</div></div> - -<p class="dcha fs90 mt-1">Obras, Madrid, 1654, 4to, f. 83.</p> - -<p class="ti1 mt1">This rhyme is perfectly perceptible to any ear well -accustomed to Spanish poetry, and it must be admitted, I think, that, -when, as in the ballad cited, it embraces two of the concluding vowels -of the line, and is continued through the whole poem, the effect, even -upon a foreigner, is that of a graceful ornament, which satisfies -without fatiguing. In English, however, where our vowels have such -various powers, and where the consonants preponderate, the case is -quite different. This is plain in the following translation of the -preceding lines, made with spirit and truth, but failing to produce -the effect of the Spanish. Indeed, the rhyme can hardly be said to be -perceptible except to the eye, though the measure and its cadences are -nicely managed.</p> - -<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> -<p class="i0">“He the thunderbolt of battle,</p> -<p class="i0">He the first Alferez t<i>i</i>tl<i>e</i>d,</p> -<p class="i0">Who as courteous is as valiant,</p> -<p class="i0">And the noblest as the f<i>i</i>erc<i>e</i>st;</p> -<p class="i0">He who by our youth is envied,</p> -<p class="i0">Honored by our gravest anc<i>ie</i>nts,</p> -<p class="i0">By our youth in crowds distinguished</p> -<p class="i0">By a thousand pointed f<i>i</i>ng<i>e</i>rs;</p> -<p class="i0">He beloved by fairest damsels,</p> -<p class="i0">For discretion and pol<i>i</i>ten<i>e</i>ss,</p> -<p class="i0">Cherished son of time and fortune,</p> -<p class="i0">Bearing all their gifts div<i>i</i>n<i>e</i>st,” etc.</p> -</div></div> - -<p class="dcha fs90 mt-1">Retrospective Review, Vol. IV. p. 35.</p> - -<p class="ti1 mt1">Another specimen of English <i>asonantes</i> is to be found -in Bowring’s “Ancient Poetry of Spain” (London, 1824, 12mo, p. 107); -but the result is substantially the same, and always must be, from the -difference between the two languages.</p> - -</div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p id="Footnote_178"><span class="label"><a -href="#FNanchor_178">[178]</a></span> Speaking of the ballad verses, he -says, (Prólogo á las Rimas Humanas, Obras Sueltas, Tom. IV., Madrid, -1776, 4to, p. 176,) “I regard them as capable, not only of expressing -and setting forth any idea whatever with easy sweetness, but carrying -through <i>any</i> grave action in a versified poem.” His prediction was -fulfilled in his own time by the “Fernando” of Vera y Figueroa, a -long epic published in 1632, and in ours by the very attractive -narrative poem of Don Ángel de Saavedra, Duke de Rivas, entitled “El -Moro Exposito,” in two volumes, 1834. The example of Lope de Vega, -in the latter part of the sixteenth and beginning of the seventeenth -centuries, no doubt did much to give currency to the <i>asonantes</i>, -which, from that time, have been more used than they were earlier.</p> - -</div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p id="Footnote_179"><span class="label"><a -href="#FNanchor_179">[179]</a></span> See the barbarous Latin poem -printed by Sandoval, at the end of his “Historia de los Reyes de -Castilla,” etc. (Pamplona, 1615, fol., f. 193). It is on the taking of -Almeria in 1147, and seems to have been written by an eyewitness.</p> - -</div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p id="Footnote_180"><span class="label"><a -href="#FNanchor_180">[180]</a></span> The authority for this is -sufficient, though the fact itself of a man being named from the sort -of poetry he composed is a singular one. It is found in Diego Ortiz de -Zuñiga, “Anales Ecclesiasticos y Seglares de Sevilla,” (Sevilla, 1677, -fol., pp. 14, 90, 815, etc.). He took it, he says, from the <i>original</i> -documents of the <i>repartimientos</i>, which he describes minutely as -having been used by Argote de Molina, (Preface and p. 815,) and from -documents in the archives of the Cathedral. The <i>repartimiento</i>, or -distribution of lands and other spoils in a city, from which, as -Mariana tells us, a hundred thousand Moors emigrated or were expelled, -was a serious matter, and the documents in relation to it seem to have -been ample and exact. (Zuñiga, Preface, and pp. 31, 62, 66, etc.) The -meaning of the word <i>Romance</i> in this place is a more doubtful matter. -But if <i>any</i> kind of popular poetry is meant by it, what was it likely -to be, at so early a period, but ballad poetry? The verses, however, -which Ortiz de Zuñiga, on the authority of Argote de Molina, attributes -(p. 815) to Domingo Abad de los Romances, are not his; they are by the -Arcipreste de Hita. See Sanchez, Tom. IV. p. 166.</p> - -</div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p id="Footnote_181"><span class="label"><a -href="#FNanchor_181">[181]</a></span> Stanzas 426, 427, 483-495, ed. -Paris, 1844, 8vo.</p> - -</div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p id="Footnote_182"><span class="label"><a -href="#FNanchor_182">[182]</a></span> Partida II. Tít. XXI. Leyes -20, 21. “Neither let the singers (<i>juglares</i>) rehearse before them -other songs (<i>cantares</i>) than those of military gestes, or those that -relate feats of arms.” The <i>juglares</i>—a word that comes from the -Latin <i>jocularis</i>—were originally strolling ballad-singers, like the -<i>jongleurs</i>, but afterwards sunk to be jesters and <i>jugglers</i>. See -Clemencin’s curious note to Don Quixote, Parte II. c. 31.</p> - -</div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p id="Footnote_183"><span class="label"><a -href="#FNanchor_183">[183]</a></span> Crónica General, Valladolid, -1604, Parte III. ff. 30, 33, 45.</p> - -</div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p id="Footnote_184"><span class="label"><a -href="#FNanchor_184">[184]</a></span> El Conde Lucanor, 1575. Discurso -de la Poesía Castellana por Argote de Molina, f. 93. a.</p> - -</div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p id="Footnote_185"><span class="label"><a -href="#FNanchor_185">[185]</a></span> The end of the Second Part of the -General Chronicle, and much of the third, relating to the great heroes -of the early Castilian and Leonese history, seem to me to have been -indebted to older poetical materials.</p> - -</div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p id="Footnote_186"><span class="label"><a -href="#FNanchor_186">[186]</a></span> Discurso, Conde Lucanor, ed. -1575, ff. 92. a, 93. b. The poetry contained in the Cancioneros -Generales, from 1511 to 1573, and bearing the name of Don John Manuel, -is, as we have already explained, the work of Don John Manuel of -Portugal, who died in 1524.</p> - -</div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p id="Footnote_187"><span class="label"><a -href="#FNanchor_187">[187]</a></span> The Marquis of Santillana, in -his well-known letter, (Sanchez, Tom. I.,) speaks of the <i>Romances e -cantares</i>, but very slightly.</p> - -</div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p id="Footnote_188"><span class="label"><a -href="#FNanchor_188">[188]</a></span> <i>Cancion</i>, <i>Canzone</i>, <i>Chansos</i>, -in the Romance language, signified originally any kind of poetry, -because all poetry, or almost all, was then sung. (Giovanni Galvani, -Poesia dei Trovatori, Modena, 1829, 8vo, p. 29.) In this way, -<i>Cancionero</i> in Spanish was long understood to mean simply a collection -of poetry,—sometimes all by one author, sometimes by many.</p> - -</div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p id="Footnote_189"><span class="label"><a -href="#FNanchor_189">[189]</a></span> The whole ballad, with a -different reading of the passage here translated, is in the Cancionero -de Romances, Saragossa, 1550, 12mo, Parte II. f. 188, beginning “Media -noche era por hilo.” Often, however, as the adventures of the Count -Claros are alluded to in the old Spanish poetry, there is no trace of -them in the old chronicles. The fragment in the text begins thus, in -the Cancionero General (1535, f. 106. a):—</p> - -<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> -<p class="i0">Pesame de vos, el Conde,</p> -<p class="i0">Porque assi os quieren matar;</p> -<p class="i0">Porque el yerro que hezistes</p> -<p class="i0">No fue mucho de culpar;</p> -<p class="i0">Que los yerros por amores</p> -<p class="i0">Dignos son de perdonar.</p> -<p class="i0">Suplique por vos al Rey,</p> -<p class="i0">Cos mandasse de librar;</p> -<p class="i0">Mas el Rey, con gran enojo,</p> -<p class="i0">No me quisiera escuchar, etc.</p> -</div></div> - -<p class="ti1">The beginning of this ballad in the complete copy from -the Saragossa Romancero shows that it was composed before clocks were -known.</p> - -</div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p id="Footnote_190"><span class="label"><a -href="#FNanchor_190">[190]</a></span> The forced alliteration of the -first lines, and the phraseology of the whole, indicate the rudeness of -the very early Castilian:—</p> - -<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> -<p class="i0">Yo mera mora Morayma,</p> -<p class="i0">Morilla d’un bel catar;</p> -<p class="i0">Christiano vino a mi puerta,</p> -<p class="i0">Cuytada, por me enganar.</p> -<p class="i0">Hablome en algaravia,</p> -<p class="i0">Como aquel que la bien sabe:</p> -<p class="i0">“Abras me las puertas, Mora,</p> -<p class="i0">Si Ala te guarde de mal!”</p> -<p class="i0">“Como te abrire, mezquina,</p> -<p class="i0">Que no se quien tu seras?”</p> -<p class="i0">“Yo soy el Moro Maçote,</p> -<p class="i0">Hermano de la tu madre,</p> -<p class="i0">Que un Christiano dejo muerto;</p> -<p class="i0">Tras mi venia el alcalde.</p> -<p class="i0">Sino me abres tu, mi vida,</p> -<p class="i0">Aqui me veras matar.”</p> -<p class="i0">Quando esto oy, cuytada,</p> -<p class="i0">Comenceme a levantar;</p> -<p class="i0">Vistierame vn almexia,</p> -<p class="i0">No hallando mi brial;</p> -<p class="i0">Fuerame para la puerta,</p> -<p class="i0">Y abrila de par en par.</p> -</div></div> - -<p class="dcha fs90 mt-1">Cancionero General, 1535, f. 111. a.</p> - -</div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p id="Footnote_191"><span class="label"><a -href="#FNanchor_191">[191]</a></span> These two ballads are in the -Cancionero of 1535, ff. 107 and 108; both evidently very old. The use -of <i>carta</i> in the last for an unwritten message is one proof of this. I -give the originals of both for their beauty. And first:—</p> - -<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> -<p class="i0">Fonte frida, fonte frida,</p> -<p class="i0">Fonte frida, y con amor,</p> -<p class="i0">Do todas las avezicas</p> -<p class="i0">Van tomar consolacion,</p> -<p class="i0">Sino es la tortolica,</p> -<p class="i0">Que esta biuda y con dolor.</p> -<p class="i0">Por ay fue a passar</p> -<p class="i0">El traydor del ruyseñor;</p> -<p class="i0">Las palabras que el dezia</p> -<p class="i0">Llenas son de traicion:</p> -<p class="i0">“Si tu quisiesses, Señora,</p> -<p class="i0">Yo seria tu seruidor.”</p> -<p class="i0">“Vete de ay, enemigo,</p> -<p class="i0">Malo, falso, engañador,</p> -<p class="i0">Que ni poso en ramo verde</p> -<p class="i0">Ni en prado que tenga flor;</p> -<p class="i0">Que si hallo el agua clara,</p> -<p class="i0">Turbia la bebia yo:</p> -<p class="i0">Que no quiero aver marido,</p> -<p class="i0">Porque hijos no haya, no;</p> -<p class="i0">No quiero plazer con ellos,</p> -<p class="i0">Ni menos consolacion.</p> -<p class="i0">Dejame, triste enemigo,</p> -<p class="i0">Malo, falso, mal traidor,</p> -<p class="i0">Que no quiero ser tu amiga,</p> -<p class="i0">Ni casar contigo, no.”</p> -</div></div> - -<p class="ti1">The other is as follows:—</p> - -<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> -<p class="i0">“Rosa fresca, Rosa fresca,</p> -<p class="i0">Tan garrida y con amor;</p> -<p class="i0">Quando yos tuve en mis brazos,</p> -<p class="i0">No vos supe servir, no!</p> -<p class="i0">Y agora quos serviria,</p> -<p class="i0">No vos puedo aver, no!”</p> -<p class="i0">“Vuestra fue la culpa, amigo,</p> -<p class="i0">Vuestra fue, que mia, no!</p> -<p class="i0">Embiastes me una carta,</p> -<p class="i0">Con un vuestro servidor,</p> -<p class="i0">Y en lugar de recaudar,</p> -<p class="i0">El dixera otra razon:</p> -<p class="i0">Querades casado, amigo,</p> -<p class="i0">Alla en tierras de Leon;</p> -<p class="i0">Que teneis muger hermosa,</p> -<p class="i0">Y hijos como una flor.”</p> -<p class="i0">“Quien os lo dixo, Señora,</p> -<p class="i0">No vos dixo verdad, no!</p> -<p class="i0">Que yo nunca entre en Castilla,</p> -<p class="i0">Ni alla en tierras de Leon,</p> -<p class="i0">Si no quando era pequeño,</p> -<p class="i0">Que no sabia de amor.”</p> -</div></div> - -</div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p id="Footnote_192"><span class="label"><a -href="#FNanchor_192">[192]</a></span> These ballads are in the edition -of 1535, on ff. 109, 111, and 113.</p> - -</div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p id="Footnote_193"><span class="label"><a -href="#FNanchor_193">[193]</a></span> One of the most spirited of these -later ballads in the edition of 1573, begins thus (f. 373):—</p> - -<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> -<p class="i0">Ay, Dios de mi tierra,</p> -<p class="i2">Saqueis me de aqui!</p> -<p class="i0">Ay, que Ynglaterra</p> -<p class="i2">Ya no es para mi.</p> -</div></div> - -<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> -<p class="i0">God of my native land,</p> -<p class="i2">O, once more set me free!</p> -<p class="i0">For here, on England’s soil,</p> -<p class="i2">There is no place for me.</p> -</div></div> - -<p class="ti1">It was probably written by some homesick follower of -Philip II.</p> - -</div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p id="Footnote_194"><span class="label"><a -href="#FNanchor_194">[194]</a></span> Salvá (Catalogue, London, 1826, -8vo, No. 60) reckons nine Cancioneros Generales, the principal of which -will be noticed hereafter.</p> - -</div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p id="Footnote_195"><span class="label"><a -href="#FNanchor_195">[195]</a></span> Those on Gayferos begin, -“Estabase la Condessa,” “Vamonos, dixo mi tio,” and “Assentado esta -Gayferos.” The two long ones on the Marquis of Mantua and the Conde d’ -Irlos begin, “De Mantua salió el Marqués,” and “Estabase el Conde d’ -Irlos.”</p> - -</div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p id="Footnote_196"><span class="label"><a -href="#FNanchor_196">[196]</a></span> Compare the story of the angels -in disguise, who made the miraculous cross for Alfonso, A. D. 794, -as told in the ballad, “Reynando el Rey Alfonso,” in the Romancero -of 1550, with the same story as told in the “Crónica General” (1604, -Parte III. f. 29);—and compare the ballad, “Apretada està Valencia,” -(Romancero, 1550,) with the “Crónica del Cid,” 1593, c. 183, p. 154.</p> - -</div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p id="Footnote_197"><span class="label"><a -href="#FNanchor_197">[197]</a></span> It begins, “Retrayida està -la Infanta,” (Romancero, 1550,) and is one of the most tender and -beautiful ballads in any language. There are translations of it by -Bowring (p. 51) and by Lockhart (Spanish Ballads, London, 1823, 4to, -p. 202). It has been at least four times brought into a dramatic -form;—viz., by Lope de Vega, in his “Fuerza Lastimosa”; by Guillen de -Castro; by Mira de Mescua; and by José J. Milanes, a poet of Havana, -whose works were printed there in 1846 (3 vols. 8vo);—the three last -giving their dramas simply the name of the ballad,—“Conde Alarcos.” The -best of them all is, I think, that of Mira de Mescua, which is found in -Vol. V. of the “Comedias Escogidas” (1653, 4to); but that of Milanes -contains passages of very passionate poetry.</p> - -</div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p id="Footnote_198"><span class="label"><a -href="#FNanchor_198">[198]</a></span> “Mandó el Rey prender Virgilios” -(Romancero, 1550). It is among the very old ballads, and is full of -the loyalty of its time. Virgil, it is well known, was treated, in the -Middle Ages, sometimes as a knight, and sometimes as a wizard.</p> - -</div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p id="Footnote_199"><span class="label"><a -href="#FNanchor_199">[199]</a></span> Compare the ballads beginning, -“Las Huestes de Don Rodrigo,” and “Despues que el Rey Don Rodrigo,” -with the “Crónica del Rey Don Rodrigo y la Destruycion de España” -(Alcalá, 1587, fol., Capp. 238, 254). There is a stirring translation -of the first by Lockhart, in his “Ancient Spanish Ballads,” (London, -1823, 4to, p. 5,)—a work of genius beyond any of the sort known to me -in any language.</p> - -</div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p id="Footnote_200"><span class="label"><a -href="#FNanchor_200">[200]</a></span> Ortiz de Zuñiga (Anales de -Sevilla, Appendix, p. 831) gives this ballad, and says it had been -printed two hundred years. If this be true, it is, no doubt, the oldest -<i>printed</i> ballad in the language. But Ortiz is uncritical in such -matters, like nearly all of his countrymen. The story of Garci Perez -de Vargas is in the “Crónica General,” Parte IV., in the “Crónica de -Fernando III.,” c. 48, etc., and in Mariana, Historia, Lib. XIII. c. -7.</p> - -</div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p id="Footnote_201"><span class="label"><a -href="#FNanchor_201">[201]</a></span> See Appendix (B), on the -Romanceros.</p> - -</div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p id="Footnote_202"><span class="label"><a -href="#FNanchor_202">[202]</a></span> Sismondi, Hist. des Français, -Paris, 1821, 8vo, Tom. II. pp. 257-260.</p> - -</div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p id="Footnote_203"><span class="label"><a -href="#FNanchor_203">[203]</a></span> Montesinos and Durandarte figure -so largely in Don Quixote’s visit to the cave of Montesinos, that all -relating to them is to be found in the notes of Pellicer and Clemencin -to Parte II. cap. 23, of the history of the mad knight.</p> - -</div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p id="Footnote_204"><span class="label"><a -href="#FNanchor_204">[204]</a></span> These ballads begin, “Estabase -el Conde d’ Irlos,” which is the longest I know of; “Assentado esta -Gayferos,” which is one of the best, and cited more than once by -Cervantes; “Media noche era por hilo,” where the counting of time by -the dripping of water is a proof of antiquity in the ballad itself; -“A caça va el Emperador,” also cited repeatedly by Cervantes; and “O -Belerma, O Belerma,” translated by M. G. Lewis; to which may be added, -“Durandarte, Durandarte,” found in the Antwerp Romancero, and in the -old Cancioneros Generales.</p> - -</div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p id="Footnote_205"><span class="label"><a -href="#FNanchor_205">[205]</a></span> Memorias para la Poesía Española, -Sect. 528.</p> - -</div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p id="Footnote_206"><span class="label"><a -href="#FNanchor_206">[206]</a></span> The story of Bernardo is in the -“Crónica General,” Parte III., beginning at f. 30, in the edition of -1604. But it must be almost entirely fabulous.</p> - -</div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p id="Footnote_207"><span class="label"><a -href="#FNanchor_207">[207]</a></span></p> - -<div class="poem mt-05"><div class="stanza"> -<p class="i2">Los tiempos de mi prision</p> -<p class="i0">Tan aborrecida y larga,</p> -<p class="i0">Por momentos me lo dizen</p> -<p class="i0">Aquestas mis tristes canas.</p> -<p class="i2">Quando entre en este castillo,</p> -<p class="i0">Apenas entre con barbas,</p> -<p class="i0">Y agora por mis pecados</p> -<p class="i0">Las veo crecidas y blancas.</p> -<p class="i2">Que descuydo es este, hijo?</p> -<p class="i0">Como a vozes no te llama</p> -<p class="i0">La sangre que tienes mia,</p> -<p class="i0">A socorrer donde falta?</p> -<p class="i2">Sin duda que te detiene</p> -<p class="i0">La que de tu madre alcanças,</p> -<p class="i0">Que por ser de la del Rey</p> -<p class="i0">Juzgaras qual el mi causa.</p> -<p class="i2">Todos tres sois mis contrarios;</p> -<p class="i0">Que a un desdichado no basta</p> -<p class="i0">Que sus contrarios lo sean,</p> -<p class="i0">Sino sus propias entrañas.</p> -<p class="i2">Todos los que aqui me tienen</p> -<p class="i0">Me cuentan de tus hazañas:</p> -<p class="i0">Si para tu padre no,</p> -<p class="i0">Dime para quien las guardas?</p> -<p class="i2">Aqui estoy en estros hierros,</p> -<p class="i0">Y pues dellos no me sacas,</p> -<p class="i0">Mal padre deuo de ser,</p> -<p class="i0">O mal hijo pues me faltas.</p> -<p class="i2">Perdoname, si te ofendo,</p> -<p class="i0">Que descanso en las palabras,</p> -<p class="i0">Que yo como viejo lloro,</p> -<p class="i0">Y tu como ausente callas.</p> -</div></div> - -<p class="dcha fs90 mt-1">Romancero General, 1602, f. 46.</p> - -<p class="ti1 mt1">But it was printed as early as 1593.</p> - -</div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p id="Footnote_208"><span class="label"><a -href="#FNanchor_208">[208]</a></span> This is evidently among the older -ballads. The earliest printed copy of it that I know is to be found in -the “Flor de Romances,” Novena Parte, (Madrid, 1597, 18mo, f. 45,) and -the passage I have translated is very striking in the original:—</p> - -<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> -<p class="i0">Cansadas ya las paredes</p> -<p class="i0">De guardar en tanto tiempo</p> -<p class="i0">A un hombre, que vieron moço</p> -<p class="i0">Y ya le ven cano y viejo.</p> -<p class="i0">Si ya sus culpas merecen,</p> -<p class="i0">Que sangre sea en su descuento,</p> -<p class="i0">Harta suya he derramado,</p> -<p class="i0">Y toda en servicio vuestro.</p> -</div></div> - -<p class="ti1">It is given a little differently by Duran.</p> - -</div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p id="Footnote_209"><span class="label"><a -href="#FNanchor_209">[209]</a></span> The ballad beginning “En Corte -del casto Alfonso,” in the ballad-book of 1555, is taken from the -“Crónica General,” (Parte III. ff. 32, 33, ed. 1604,) as the following -passage, speaking of Bernardo’s first knowledge that his father was the -Count of Saldaña, will show:—</p> - -<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> -<p class="i0"><i>Quando</i> Bernaldo <i>lo supo</i></p> -<p class="i0"><i>Pesóle</i> a gran demasia,</p> -<p class="i0">Tanto que <i>dentro en el cuerpo</i></p> -<p class="i0"><i>La sangre se le volvia</i>.</p> -<p class="i0">Yendo <i>para su posada</i></p> -<p class="i0">Muy grande llanto hacia,</p> -<p class="i0"><i>Vistióse paños de luto</i>,</p> -<p class="i0">Y delante el Rey se iba.</p> -<p class="i0"><i>El Rey quando</i> asi <i>le vió</i>,</p> -<p class="i0">Desta suerte le decía:</p> -<p class="i0">“<i>Bernaldo</i>, por aventura</p> -<p class="i0"><i>Cobdicias la muerte mia</i>?”</p> -</div></div> - -<p class="ti1">The Chronicle reads thus: “E el [Bernardo] <i>quandol -supo</i>, que su padre era preso, <i>pesol</i> mucho de coraçon, e <i>bolbiosele -la sangre en el cuerpo</i>, e fuesse <i>para su posada</i>, faziendo el mayor -duelo del mundo; e <i>vistióse paños de duelo</i>, e fuesse para el Rey Don -Alfonso; e <i>el Rey, quando lo vido</i>, dixol: ‘<i>Bernaldo, cobdiciades la -muerte mia?</i>’” It is plain enough, in this case, that the Chronicle -is the original of the ballad; but it is very difficult, if not -impossible, from the nature of the case, to show that any particular -ballad was used in the composition of the Chronicle, because, we have -undoubtedly none of the ballads in the form in which they existed when -the Chronicle was compiled in the middle of the thirteenth century, -and therefore a correspondence of phraseology like that just cited is -not to be expected. Yet it would not be surprising, if some of these -ballads on Bernardo, found in the Sixth Part of the “Flor de Romances,” -(Toledo, 1594, 18mo,) which Pedro Flores tells us he collected far and -wide from tradition, were known in the time of Alfonso the Wise, and -were among the Cantares de Gesta to which he alludes. I would instance -particularly the three beginning, “Contandole estaba un dia,” “Antesque -barbas tuviesse,” and “Mal mis servicios pagaste.” The language of -those ballads is, no doubt, chiefly that of the age of Charles V. and -Philip II., but the thoughts and feelings are evidently much older.</p> - -</div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p id="Footnote_210"><span class="label"><a -href="#FNanchor_210">[210]</a></span> Among the ballads taken from the -“Crónica General” is, I think, the one in the ballad-book of 1555, -beginning “Preso esta Fernan Gonzalez,” though the Chronicle says -(Parte III. f. 62, ed. 1604) that it was a Norman count who bribed the -castellan, and the ballad says it was a Lombard. Another, which, like -the two last, is very spirited, is found in the “Flor de Romances,” -Séptima Parte, (Alcalá, 1597, 18mo, f. 65,) beginning “El Conde Fernan -Gonzalez,” and contains an account of one of his victories over -Almanzor not told elsewhere, and therefore the more curious.</p> - -</div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p id="Footnote_211"><span class="label"><a -href="#FNanchor_211">[211]</a></span> The story of the Infantes de -Lara is in the “Crónica General,” Parte III., and in the edition of -1604 begins at f. 74. I possess, also, a striking volume, containing -forty plates, on their history, by Otto Vaenius, a scholar and artist, -who died in 1634. It is entitled “Historia Septem Infantium de Lara” -(Antverpiae, 1612, fol.); the same, no doubt, an imperfect copy of -which Southey praises in his notes to the “Chronicle of the Cid” (p. -401). Sepúlveda (1551-84) has a good many ballads on the subject; the -one I have partly translated in the text beginning,—</p> - -<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> -<p class="i0">Quien es aquel caballero</p> -<p class="i0">Que tan gran traycion hacia?</p> -<p class="i0">Ruy Velasquez es de Lara,</p> -<p class="i0">Que à sus sobrinos vendia.</p> -</div></div> - -<p class="ti1">The corresponding passage of the Chronicle is at f. 78, -ed. 1604.</p> - -</div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p id="Footnote_212"><span class="label"><a -href="#FNanchor_212">[212]</a></span> In the barbarous rhymed Latin -poem, printed with great care by Sandoval, (Reyes de Castilla, -Pamplona, 1615, f. 189, etc.,) and apparently written, as we have -noticed, by some one who witnessed the siege of Almeria in 1147, we -have the following lines:—</p> - -<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> -<p class="i0">Ipse Rodericus, <i>Mio Cid</i> semper vocatus,</p> -<p class="i0"><i>De quo cantatur</i>, quod ab hostibus haud superatus,</p> -<p class="i0">Qui domuit Moros, comites quoque domuit nostros, etc.</p> -</div></div> - -<p class="ti1">These poems must, by the phrase <i>Mio Cid</i>, have been in -Spanish; and, if so, could hardly have been any thing but ballads.</p> - -</div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p id="Footnote_213"><span class="label"><a -href="#FNanchor_213">[213]</a></span> Nic. Antonio (Bib. Nova, Tom. I. -p. 684) gives 1612 as the date of the oldest Romancero del Cid. The -oldest I possess is of Pamplona (1706, 18mo); but the Madrid edition, -(1818, 18mo,) the Frankfort, (1827, 12mo,) and the collection in Duran, -(Caballerescos, Madrid, 1832, 12mo, Tom. II. pp. 43-191,) are more -complete. The most complete of all is that by Keller, (Stuttgard, 1840, -12mo,) and contains 154 ballads. But a few could be added even to this -one.</p> - -</div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p id="Footnote_214"><span class="label"><a -href="#FNanchor_214">[214]</a></span> The ballads beginning, “Guarte, -guarte, Rey Don Sancho,” and “De Zamora sale Dolfos,” are indebted -to the “Crónica del Cid,” 1593, c. 61, 62. Others, especially those -in Sepúlveda’s collection, show marks of other parts of the same -chronicle, or of the “Crónica General,” Parte IV. But the whole amount -of such indebtedness in the ballads of the Cid is small.</p> - -</div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p id="Footnote_215"><span class="label"><a -href="#FNanchor_215">[215]</a></span> The earliest place in which I -have seen this ballad—evidently very old in its <i>matériel</i>—is “Flor de -Romances,” Novena Parte, 1597, f. 133.</p> - -<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> -<p class="i0">Cuydando Diego Laynez</p> -<p class="i0">En la mengua de su casa,</p> -<p class="i0">Fidalga, rica y antigua,</p> -<p class="i0">Antes de Nuño y Abarca,</p> -<p class="i0">Y viendo que le fallecen</p> -<p class="i0">Fuerças para la vengança,</p> -<p class="i0">Porque por sus luengos años,</p> -<p class="i0">Por si no puede tomalla,</p> -<p class="i0">Y que el de Orgaz se passea</p> -<p class="i0">Seguro y libre en la plaça,</p> -<p class="i0">Sinque nadie se lo impida,</p> -<p class="i0">Loçano en nombre y en gala.</p> -<p class="i0">Non puede dormir de noche,</p> -<p class="i0">Nin gustar de las viandas,</p> -<p class="i0">Nin alçar del suelo los ojos,</p> -<p class="i0">Nin osa salir de su casa,</p> -<p class="i0">Nin fablar con sus amigos,</p> -<p class="i0">Antes les niega la fabla,</p> -<p class="i0">Temiendo no les ofenda</p> -<p class="i0">El aliento de su infamia.</p> -</div></div> - -<p class="ti1">The pun on the name of Count <i>Lozano</i> (Haughty or Proud) -is of course not translated.</p> - -</div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p id="Footnote_216"><span class="label"><a -href="#FNanchor_216">[216]</a></span> This is a very old, as well -as a very spirited, ballad. It occurs first in print in 1555; but -“Durandarte, Durandarte,” found as early as 1511, is an obvious -imitation of it, so that it was probably old and famous at that time. -In the oldest copy now known it reads thus, but was afterwards changed. -I omit the last lines, which seem to be an addition.</p> - -<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> -<p class="i0">A fuera, a fuera, Rodrigo,</p> -<p class="i0">El soberbio Castellano!</p> -<p class="i0">Acordarte te debria</p> -<p class="i0">De aquel tiempo ya passado,</p> -<p class="i0">Quando fuiste caballero</p> -<p class="i0">En el altar de Santiago;</p> -<p class="i0">Quando el Rey fue tu padrino,</p> -<p class="i0">Tu Rodrigo el ahijado.</p> -<p class="i0">Mi padre te dio las armas,</p> -<p class="i0">Mi madre te dio el caballo,</p> -<p class="i0">Yo te calze las espuelas,</p> -<p class="i0">Porque fuesses mas honrado,</p> -<p class="i0">Que pensé casar contigo.</p> -<p class="i0">No lo quiso mi pecado;</p> -<p class="i0">Casaste con Ximena Gomez,</p> -<p class="i0">Hija del Conde Loçano.</p> -<p class="i0">Con ella uviste dineros,</p> -<p class="i0">Conmigo uvieras estado.</p> -<p class="i0">Bien casaste, Rodrigo,</p> -<p class="i0">Muy mejor fueras casado;</p> -<p class="i0">Dexaste hija de Rey,</p> -<p class="i0">Por tomar la de su vasallo.</p> -</div></div> - -<p class="ti1">This was one of the most popular of the old ballads. -It is often alluded to by the writers of the best age of Spanish -literature; for example, by Cervantes, in “Persiles y Sigismunda,” -(Lib. III. c. 21,) and was used by Guillen de Castro in his play on the -Cid.</p> - -</div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p id="Footnote_217"><span class="label"><a -href="#FNanchor_217">[217]</a></span> “En lo que hubo Cid, no hay duda, -ni menos Bernardo del Carpio; pero de que hicieron las hazañas que -dicen, creo que hay muy grande.” (Parte I. c. 49.) This, indeed, is the -good sense of the matter,—a point in which Cervantes rarely fails,—and -it forms a strong contrast to the extravagant faith of those who, on -the one side, consider the ballads good historical documents, as Müller -and Herder are disposed to do, and the sturdy incredulity of Masdeu, on -the other, who denies that there ever was a Cid.</p> - -</div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p id="Footnote_218"><span class="label"><a -href="#FNanchor_218">[218]</a></span> See the fine ballad beginning -“Si el cavallo vos han muerto,”—which first appears in the “Flor de -Romances,” Octava Parte (Alcalá, 1597, f. 129). It is boldly translated -by Lockhart.</p> - -</div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p id="Footnote_219"><span class="label"><a -href="#FNanchor_219">[219]</a></span> I refer to the ballad in the -“Romancero del Cid” beginning “Llego Alvar Fañez a Burgos,” with the -letter following it,—“El vasallo desleale.” This trait in the Cid’s -character is noticed by Diego Ximenez Ayllon, in his poem on that -hero, 1579, where, having spoken of his being treated by the king with -harshness,—“Tratado de su Rey con aspereza,”—the poet adds,—</p> - -<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> -<p class="i0">Jamas le dio lugar su virtud alta</p> -<p class="i0">Que en su lealtad viniese alguna falta.</p> -<p class="dr">Canto I.</p> -</div></div> - -</div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p id="Footnote_220"><span class="label"><a -href="#FNanchor_220">[220]</a></span> On one of the occasions when -Bernardo had been most foully and falsely treated by the king, he -says,—</p> - -<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> -<p class="i0">Señor, Rey sois, y haredes</p> -<p class="i0">A vuestro querer y guisa.</p> -</div></div> - -<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> -<p class="i0">A king you are, and you must do,</p> -<p class="i0">In your own way, what pleases you.</p> -</div></div> - -<p class="ti1">And on another similar occasion, another ballad, he says -to the king,—</p> - -<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> -<p class="i0">De servir no os dejaré</p> -<p class="i0">Mientras que tenga la vida.</p> -</div></div> - -<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> -<p class="i0">Nor shall I fail to serve your Grace</p> -<p class="i0">While life within me keeps its place.</p> -</div></div> - -</div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p id="Footnote_221"><span class="label"><a -href="#FNanchor_221">[221]</a></span> In the humorous ballad, “Tanta -Zayda y Adalifa,” (first printed, Flor de Romances, Quinta Parte, -Burgos, 1594, 18mo, f. 158,) we have the following:—</p> - -<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> -<p class="i0">Renegaron de su ley</p> -<p class="i0">Los Romancistas de España,</p> -<p class="i0">Y ofrecieronle a Mahoma</p> -<p class="i0">Las primicias de sus galas.</p> -<p class="i0">Dexaron los graves hechos</p> -<p class="i0">De su vencedora patria,</p> -<p class="i0">Y mendigan de la agena</p> -<p class="i0">Invenciones y patrañas.</p> -</div></div> - -<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> -<p class="i0">Like renegades to Christian faith,</p> -<p class="i2">These ballad-mongers vain</p> -<p class="i0">Have given to Mahound himself</p> -<p class="i2">The offerings due to Spain;</p> -<p class="i0">And left the record of brave deeds</p> -<p class="i2">Done by their sires of old,</p> -<p class="i0">To beg abroad, in heathen lands,</p> -<p class="i2">For fictions poor and cold.</p> -</div></div> - -<p class="ti1">Góngora, too, attacked them in an amusing ballad,—“A mis -Señores poetas,”—and they were defended in another, beginning “Porque, -Señores poetas.”</p> - -</div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p id="Footnote_222"><span class="label"><a -href="#FNanchor_222">[222]</a></span> “Ocho á ocho, diez á diez,” and -“Sale la estrella de Venus,” two of the ballads here referred to, are -in the Romancero of 1593. Of the last there is a good translation in -an excellent article on Spanish Poetry in the Edinburgh Review, Vol. -XXXIX. p. 419.</p> - -</div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p id="Footnote_223"><span class="label"><a -href="#FNanchor_223">[223]</a></span> Among the fine ballads on Gazul -are, “Por la plaza de San Juan,” and “Estando toda la corte.”</p> - -</div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p id="Footnote_224"><span class="label"><a -href="#FNanchor_224">[224]</a></span> For example, “Que es de mi -contento,” “Plega á Dios que si yo creo,” “Aquella morena,” “Madre, un -cavallero,” “Mal ayan mis ojos,” “Niña, que vives,” etc.</p> - -</div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p id="Footnote_225"><span class="label"><a -href="#FNanchor_225">[225]</a></span> The oldest copy of this ballad -or <i>letra</i> that I have seen is in the “Flor de Romances,” Sexta Parte, -(1594, f. 27,) collected by Pedro Flores, from popular traditions, and -of which a less perfect copy is given, by an oversight, in the Ninth -Part of the same collection, 1597, f. 116. I have not translated the -verses at the end, because they seem to be a poor gloss by a later hand -and in a different measure. The ballad itself is as follows:—</p> - -<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> -<p class="i0">Riño con Juanilla</p> -<p class="i2">Su hermana Miguela;</p> -<p class="i0">Palabras le dize,</p> -<p class="i2">Que mucho le duelan:</p> -<p class="i0">“Ayer en mantillas</p> -<p class="i2">Andauas pequeña,</p> -<p class="i0">Oy andas galana</p> -<p class="i2">Mas que otras donzellas.</p> -<p class="i0">Tu gozo es suspiros,</p> -<p class="i2">Tu cantar endechas;</p> -<p class="i0">Al alua madrugas,</p> -<p class="i2">Muy tarde te acuestas;</p> -<p class="i0">Quando estas labrando,</p> -<p class="i2">No se en que te piensas,</p> -<p class="i0">Al dechado miras,</p> -<p class="i2">Y los puntos yerras.</p> -<p class="i0">Dizenme que hazes</p> -<p class="i2">Amorosas señas:</p> -<p class="i0">Si madre lo sabe,</p> -<p class="i2">Aura cosas nueuas.</p> -<p class="i0">Clauara ventanas,</p> -<p class="i2">Cerrara las puertas;</p> -<p class="i0">Para que baylemos,</p> -<p class="i2">No dara licencia;</p> -<p class="i0">Mandara que tia</p> -<p class="i2">Nos lleue a la Yglesia,</p> -<p class="i0">Porque no nos hablen</p> -<p class="i2">Las amigas nuestras.</p> -<p class="i0">Quando fuera salga,</p> -<p class="i2">Dirale a la dueña,</p> -<p class="i0">Que con nuestros ojos</p> -<p class="i2">Tenga mucha cuenta;</p> -<p class="i0">Que mire quien passa,</p> -<p class="i2">Si miro a la reja,</p> -<p class="i0">Y qual de nosotras</p> -<p class="i2">Boluio la cabeça.</p> -<p class="i0">Por tus libertades</p> -<p class="i2">Sere yo sugeta;</p> -<p class="i0">Pagaremos justos</p> -<p class="i2">Lo que malos pecan.”</p> -<p class="i0">“Ay! Miguela hermana,</p> -<p class="i2">Que mal que sospechas!</p> -<p class="i0">Mis males presumes,</p> -<p class="i2">Y no los aciertas.</p> -<p class="i0">A Pedro, el de Juan,</p> -<p class="i2">Que se fue a la guerra,</p> -<p class="i0">Aficion le tuue,</p> -<p class="i2">Y escuche sus quexas;</p> -<p class="i0">Mas visto que es vario</p> -<p class="i2">Mediante el ausencia,</p> -<p class="i0">De su fe fingida</p> -<p class="i2">Ya no se me acuerda.</p> -<p class="i0">Fingida la llamo,</p> -<p class="i2">Porque, quien se ausenta,</p> -<p class="i0">Sin fuerça y con gusto,</p> -<p class="i2">No es bien que le quiera.”</p> -<p class="i0">“Ruegale tu a Dios</p> -<p class="i2">Que Pedro no buelua,”</p> -<p class="i0">Respondio burlando</p> -<p class="i2">Su hermana Miguela,</p> -<p class="i0">“Que el amor comprado</p> -<p class="i2">Con tan ricas prendas</p> -<p class="i0">No saldra del alma</p> -<p class="i2">Sin salir con ella.</p> -<p class="i0">Creciendo tus años,</p> -<p class="i2">Creceran tus penas;</p> -<p class="i0">Y si no lo sabes,</p> -<p class="i2">Escucha esta letra:</p> -<p class="i0">Si eres niña y has amor,</p> -<p class="i0">Que haras quando mayor?”</p> -</div></div> - -<p class="dcha fs90 mt-1">Sexta Parte de Flor de Romances, Toledo, -1594, 18mo, f. 27.</p> - -</div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p id="Footnote_226"><span class="label"><a -href="#FNanchor_226">[226]</a></span> If we choose to strike more -widely, and institute a comparison with the garrulous old Fabliaux, -or with the overdone refinements of the Troubadours and Minnesingers, -the result would be yet more in favor of the early Spanish ballads, -which represent and embody the excited poetical feeling that filled the -whole nation during that period when the Moorish power was gradually -broken down by an enthusiasm that became at last irresistible, because, -from the beginning, it was founded on a sense of loyalty and religious -duty.</p> - -</div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p id="Footnote_227"><span class="label"><a -href="#FNanchor_227">[227]</a></span> See Appendix, B.</p> - -</div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p id="Footnote_228"><span class="label"><a -href="#FNanchor_228">[228]</a></span> In the code of the Partidas, -(circa A. D. 1260,) good knights are directed to listen at their meals -to the reading of “las hestorias de los grandes fechos de armas que los -otros fecieran,” etc. (Parte II. Título XXI. Ley 20.) Few knights at -that time could understand Latin, and the “<i>hestorias</i>” in Spanish must -probably have been the Chronicle now to be mentioned, and the ballads -or gestes on which it was, in part, founded.</p> - -</div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p id="Footnote_229"><span class="label"><a -href="#FNanchor_229">[229]</a></span> It is the opinion of Mondejar -that the original title of the “Crónica de España” was “Estoria de -España.” Memorias de Alfonso el Sabio, p. 464.</p> - -</div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p id="Footnote_230"><span class="label"><a -href="#FNanchor_230">[230]</a></span> The distinction Alfonso makes -between <i>ordering</i> the <i>materials</i> to be collected by others (“mandamos -ayuntar”) and <i>composing</i> or <i>compiling</i> the <i>Chronicle</i> himself -(“composimos este libro”) seems to show that he was its author or -compiler,—certainly that he claimed to be such. But there are different -opinions on this point. Florian de Ocampo, the historian, who, in 1541, -published in folio, at Zamora, the first edition of the Chronicle, -says, in notes at the end of the Third and Fourth Parts, that some -persons believe only the first three parts to have been written by -Alfonso, and the fourth to have been compiled later; an opinion to -which it is obvious that he himself inclines, though he says he will -neither affirm nor deny any thing about the matter. Others have gone -farther, and supposed the whole to have been compiled by several -different persons. But to all this it may be replied,—1. That the -Chronicle is more or less well ordered, and more or less well written, -according to the materials used in its composition; and that the -objections made to the looseness and want of finish in the Fourth Part -apply also, in a good degree, to the Third; thus proving more than -Florian de Ocampo intends, since he declares it to be certain (“sabemos -por cierto”) that the first three parts were the work of Alfonso. 2. -Alfonso declares, more than once, in his Prólogo, whose genuineness has -been made sure by Mondejar, from the four best manuscripts, that his -History comes down to his own times, (“fasta el nuestro tiempo,”)—which -we reach only at the end of the Fourth Part,—treating the whole, -throughout the Prólogo, as his own work. 3. There is strong internal -evidence that he himself wrote the last part of the work, relating to -his father; as, for instance, the beautiful account of the relations -between St. Ferdinand and his mother, Berenguela (ed. 1541, f. 404); -the solemn account of St. Ferdinand’s death, at the very end of the -whole; and other passages between ff. 402 and 426. 4. His nephew Don -John Manuel, who made an abridgment of the Crónica de España, speaks of -his uncle Alfonso the Wise as if he were its acknowledged author.</p> - -<p class="ti1">It should be borne in mind, also, that Mondejar says the -edition of Florian de Ocampo is very corrupt and imperfect, omitting -whole reigns in one instance; and the passages he cites from the old -manuscripts of the entire work prove what he says. (Memorias, Lib. -VII. capp. 15, 16.) The only other edition of the Chronicle, that of -Valladolid, (fol., 1604,) is still worse. Indeed, it is, from the -number of its gross errors, one of the worst printed books I have ever -used.</p> - -</div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p id="Footnote_231"><span class="label"><a -href="#FNanchor_231">[231]</a></span> The statement referred to in the -Chronicle, that it was written four hundred years after the time of -Charlemagne, is, of course, a very loose one; for Alfonso was not born -in 1210. But I think he would hardly have said, “It is now full four -hundred years,” (ed. 1541, fol. 228,) if it had been full four hundred -and fifty. From this it may be inferred that the Chronicle was composed -before 1260. Other passages tend to the same conclusion. Conde, in -his Preface to his “Árabes en España,” notices the Arabic air of the -Chronicle, which, however, seems to me to have been rather the air of -its age throughout Europe.</p> - -</div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p id="Footnote_232"><span class="label"><a -href="#FNanchor_232">[232]</a></span> The account of Dido is worth -reading, especially by those who have occasion to see her story -referred to in the Spanish poets, as it is by Ercilla and Lope de Vega, -in a way quite unintelligible to those who know only the Roman version -of it as given by Virgil. It is found in the Crónica de España, (Parte -I. c. 51-57,) and ends with a very heroical epistle of the queen to -Æneas;—the Spanish view taken of the whole matter being in substance -that which is taken by Justin, very briefly, in his “Universal -History,” Lib. XVIII. c. 4-6.</p> - -</div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p id="Footnote_233"><span class="label"><a -href="#FNanchor_233">[233]</a></span> Crónica de España, Parte III. c. -1, 2.</p> - -</div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p id="Footnote_234"><span class="label"><a -href="#FNanchor_234">[234]</a></span> Ibid., Capp. 10 and 13.</p> - -</div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p id="Footnote_235"><span class="label"><a -href="#FNanchor_235">[235]</a></span> Ibid., Capp. 18, etc.</p> - -</div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p id="Footnote_236"><span class="label"><a -href="#FNanchor_236">[236]</a></span> Ibid., Cap. 20.</p> - -</div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p id="Footnote_237"><span class="label"><a -href="#FNanchor_237">[237]</a></span> Ibid., Cap. 10.</p> - -</div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p id="Footnote_238"><span class="label"><a -href="#FNanchor_238">[238]</a></span> Ibid., Cap. 10, with the ballad -made out of it, beginning “Reynando el Rey Alfonso.”</p> - -</div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p id="Footnote_239"><span class="label"><a -href="#FNanchor_239">[239]</a></span> Ibid., Capp. 11 and 19. A -drama by Rodrigo de Herrera, entitled “Voto de Santiago y Batalla de -Clavijo,” (Comedias Escogidas, Tom. XXXIII., 1670, 4to,) is founded on -the first of these passages, but has not used its good material with -much skill.</p> - -</div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p id="Footnote_240"><span class="label"><a -href="#FNanchor_240">[240]</a></span> The separate history of the Cid -begins with the beginning of Part Fourth, f. 279, and ends on f. 346, -ed. 1541.</p> - -</div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p id="Footnote_241"><span class="label"><a -href="#FNanchor_241">[241]</a></span> These <i>Cantares</i> and <i>Cantares de -Gesta</i> are referred to in Parte III. c. 10 and 13.</p> - -</div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p id="Footnote_242"><span class="label"><a -href="#FNanchor_242">[242]</a></span> I cannot help feeling, as I read -it, that the beautiful story of the Infantes de Lara, as told in this -Third Part of the Crónica de España, beginning f. 261 of the edition of -1541, is from a separate and older chronicle; probably from some old -monkish Latin legend. But it can be traced no farther back than to this -passage in the Crónica de España, on which rests every thing relating -to the Children of Lara in Spanish poetry and romance.</p> - -</div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p id="Footnote_243"><span class="label"><a -href="#FNanchor_243">[243]</a></span> “La Pérdida de España” is the -common name, in the older writers, for the Moorish conquest.</p> - -</div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p id="Footnote_244"><span class="label"><a -href="#FNanchor_244">[244]</a></span> “Los Bienes que tiene España” -(ed. 1541, f. 202);—and, on the other side of the leaf, the passage -that follows, called “El Llanto de España.”</p> - -</div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p id="Footnote_245"><span class="label"><a -href="#FNanchor_245">[245]</a></span> The original, in <i>both</i> the -printed editions, is <i>tierras</i>, though it should plainly be <i>sierras</i> -from the context; but this is noticed as only one of the thousand gross -typographical errors with which these editions are deformed.</p> - -</div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p id="Footnote_246"><span class="label"><a -href="#FNanchor_246">[246]</a></span> This remark will apply to many -passages in the Third Part of the Chronicle of Spain, but to none, -perhaps, so strikingly as to the stories of Bernardo del Carpio and -the Infantes de Lara, large portions of which may be found almost -verbatim in the ballads. I will now refer only to the following:—1. -On Bernardo del Carpio, the ballads beginning, “El Conde Don Sancho -Diaz,” “En corte del Casto Alfonso,” “Estando en paz y sosiego,” -“Andados treinta y seis años,” and “En gran pesar y tristeza.” 2. On -the Infantes de Lara, the ballads beginning, “A Calatrava la Vieja,” -which was evidently arranged for singing at a puppet-show or some such -exhibition, “Llegados son los Infantes,” “Quien es aquel caballero,” -and “Ruy Velasquez de Lara.” All these are found in the older -collections of ballads; those, I mean, printed before 1560; and it is -worthy of particular notice, that this same General Chronicle makes -especial mention of <i>Cantares de Gesta</i> about Bernardo del Carpio that -were known and popular when it was itself compiled, in the thirteenth -century.</p> - -</div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p id="Footnote_247"><span class="label"><a -href="#FNanchor_247">[247]</a></span> See the Crónica General de -España, ed. 1541, f. 227, a.</p> - -</div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p id="Footnote_248"><span class="label"><a -href="#FNanchor_248">[248]</a></span> Crónica Gen., ed. 1541, f. 236. -a.</p> - -</div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p id="Footnote_249"><span class="label"><a -href="#FNanchor_249">[249]</a></span> This is the opinion of Southey, -in the Preface to his “Chronicle of the Cid,” which, though one of -the most amusing and instructive books, in relation to the manners -and feelings of the Middle Ages, that is to be found in the English -language, is not quite so wholly a translation from its three Spanish -sources as it claims to be. The opinion of Huber on the same point is -like that of Southey.</p> - -</div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p id="Footnote_250"><span class="label"><a -href="#FNanchor_250">[250]</a></span> Both the chronicles cite for -their authorities the Archbishop Rodrigo of Toledo, and the Bishop -Lucas of Tuy, in Galicia, (Cid, Cap. 293; General, 1604, f. 313. b, and -elsewhere,) and represent them as dead. Now the first died in 1247, -and the last in 1250; and as the General Chronicle of Alfonso X. was -<i>necessarily</i> written between 1252 and 1282, and <i>probably</i> written -soon after 1252, it is not to be supposed, either that the Chronicle -of the Cid, or any other chronicle in the <i>Spanish</i> language which -the General Chronicle could use, was already compiled. But there are -passages in the Chronicle of the Cid which prove it to be later than -the General Chronicle. For instance, in Chapters 294, 295, and 296 of -the Chronicle of the Cid, there is a correction of an error of two -years in the General Chronicle’s chronology. And again, in the General -Chronicle, (ed. 1604, f. 313. b,) after relating the burial of the Cid, -by the bishops, in a vault, and dressed in his clothes, (“vestido con -sus paños,”) it adds, “And thus he was laid where he still lies” (“<i>E -assi yaze ay do agora yaze</i>”); but in the Chronicle of the Cid, the -words in Italics are stricken out, and we have instead, “And there he -remained a long time, till King Alfonso came to reign (“E hy estudo muy -grand tiempo, fasta que vino el Rey Don Alfonso a reynar”); after which -words we have an account of the translation of his body to another -tomb, by Alfonso the Wise, the son of Ferdinand. But, besides that -this is plainly an addition to the Chronicle of the Cid, made later -than the account given in the General Chronicle, there is a little -clumsiness about it that renders it quite curious; for, in speaking of -St. Ferdinand with the usual formulary, as “he who conquered Andalusia, -and the city of Jaen, and many other royal towns and castles,” it adds, -“As the history will relate to you <i>farther on</i> (“Segun que adelante -vos lo contará la historia”). Now the history of the Cid has nothing to -do with the history of St. Ferdinand, who lived a hundred years after -him, and is never again mentioned in this Chronicle; and therefore the -little passage containing the account of the translation of the body -of the Cid, in the thirteenth century, to its next resting-place was -probably cut out from some other chronicle which contained the history -of St. Ferdinand, as well as that of the Cid. My own conjecture is, -that it was cut out from the abridgment of the General Chronicle of -Alfonso the Wise made by his nephew Don John Manuel, who would be quite -likely to insert an addition so honorable to his uncle, when he came -to the point of the Cid’s interment; an interment of which the General -Chronicle’s account had ceased to be the true one. Cap. 291.</p> - -<p class="ti1">It is a curious fact, though not one of consequence to -this inquiry, that the remains of the Cid, besides their removal by -Alfonso the Wise, in 1272, were successively transferred to different -places, in 1447, in 1541, again in the beginning of the eighteenth -century, and again, by the bad taste of the French General Thibaut, -in 1809 or 1810, until, at last, in 1824, they were restored to their -original sanctuary in San Pedro de Cardenas. Semanario Pintoresco, -1838, p. 648.</p> - -</div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p id="Footnote_251"><span class="label"><a -href="#FNanchor_251">[251]</a></span> If it be asked what were the -authorities on which the portion of the Crónica General relating to -the Cid relies for its materials, I should answer:—1. Those cited in -the Prólogo to the whole work by Alfonso himself, some of which are -again cited when speaking of the Cid. Among these, the most important -is the Archbishop Rodrigo’s “Historia Gothica.” (See Nic. Ant., Bibl. -Vet., Lib. VIII. c. 2, § 28.) 2. It is probable there were Arabic -records of the Cid, as a life of him, or part of a life of him, by -a nephew of Alfaxati, the converted Moor, is referred to in the -Chronicle itself, Cap. 278, and in Crón. Gen., 1541, f. 359. b. But -there is nothing in the Chronicle that sounds like Arabic, except the -“Lament for the Fall of Valencia,” beginning “Valencia, Valencia, -vinieron sobre ti muchos quebrantos,” which is on f. 329. a, and again, -poorly amplified, on f. 329. b, but out of which has been made the -fine ballad, “Apretada esta Valencia,” which can be traced back to -the ballad-book printed by Martin Nucio, at Antwerp, 1550, though, I -believe, no farther. If, therefore, there be any thing in the Chronicle -of the Cid taken from documents in the Arabic language, such documents -were written by Christians, or a Christian character was impressed on -the facts taken from them.<a id="FNanchor_251_1" href="#Footnote_251_1" -class="fnanchor">[*]</a> 3. It has been suggested by the Spanish -translators of Bouterwek, (p. 255,) that the Chronicle of the Cid in -Spanish is substantially taken from the “Historia Roderici Didaci,” -published by Risco, in “La Castilla y el mas Famoso Castellano” (1792, -App., pp. xvi.-lx.). But the Latin, though curious and valuable, is a -meagre compendium, in which I find nothing of the attractive stories -and adventures of the Spanish, but occasionally something to contradict -or discredit them. 4. the old “Poem of the Cid” was, no doubt, used, -and used freely, by the chronicler, whoever he was, though he never -alludes to it. This has been noticed by Sanchez, (Tom. I. pp. 226-228,) -and must be noticed again, in note 28, where I shall give an extract -from the Chronicle. I add here only, that it is clearly the Poem that -was used by the Chronicle, and not the Chronicle that was used by the -Poem.</p> - -<p class="mt1" id="Footnote_251_1"><span class="label"><a -href="#FNanchor_251_1">[*]</a></span> Since writing this note, I learn -that my friend Don Pascual de Gayangos possesses an Arabic chronicle -that throws much light on this Spanish chronicle and on the life of the -Cid.</p> - -</div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p id="Footnote_252"><span class="label"><a -href="#FNanchor_252">[252]</a></span> Prohemio. The good abbot -considers the Chronicle to have been written in the lifetime of the -Cid, i. e. before A. D. 1100, and yet it refers to the Archbishop of -Toledo and the Bishop of Tuy, who were of the thirteenth century. -Moreover, he speaks of the intelligent interest the Prince Ferdinand -took in it; but Oviedo, in his Dialogue on Cardinal Ximenes, says the -young prince was only eight years and some months old when he gave the -order. Quinquagena, MS.</p> - -</div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p id="Footnote_253"><span class="label"><a -href="#FNanchor_253">[253]</a></span> Sometimes it is necessary earlier -to allude to a portion of the Cid’s history, and then it is added, “As -we shall relate farther on”; so that it is quite certain the Cid’s -history was originally regarded as a necessary portion of the General -Chronicle. (Crónica General, ed. 1604, Tercera Parte, f. 92. b.) -When, therefore, we come to the Fourth Part, where it really belongs, -we have, first, a chapter on the accession of Ferdinand the Great, -and then the history of the Cid connected with that of the reigns of -Ferdinand, Sancho II., and Alfonso VI.; but the whole is so truly an -integral part of the General Chronicle and not a separate chronicle of -the Cid, that, when it was taken out to serve as a separate chronicle, -it was taken out as <i>the three reigns</i> of the three sovereigns above -mentioned, beginning with one chapter that goes back ten years before -the Cid was born, and ending with five chapters that run forward ten -years after his death; while, at the conclusion of the whole, is a -sort of colophon, apologizing (Chrónica del Cid, Burgos, 1593, fol., -f. 277) for the fact that it is so much a chronicle of these three -kings, rather than a mere chronicle of the Cid. This, with the peculiar -character of the differences between the two that have been already -noticed, has satisfied me that the Chronicle of the Cid was taken from -the General Chronicle.</p> - -</div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p id="Footnote_254"><span class="label"><a -href="#FNanchor_254">[254]</a></span> Masdeu (Historia Crítica de -España, Madrid, 1783-1805, 4to, Tom. XX.) would have us believe that -the whole is a fable; but this demands too much credulity. The question -is discussed with acuteness and learning in “Jos. Aschbach de Cidi -Historiæ Fontibus Dissertatio,” (Bonnæ, 4to, 1843, pp. 5, etc.,) but -little can be settled about individual facts.</p> - -</div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p id="Footnote_255"><span class="label"><a -href="#FNanchor_255">[255]</a></span> The portion of the Chronicle -of the Cid from which I have taken the extract is among the portions -which least resemble the corresponding parts of the General Chronicle. -It is in Chap. 91; and from Chap. 88 to Chap. 93 there is a good deal -not found in the parallel passages in the General Chronicle, (1604, f. -224, etc.,) though, where they do resemble each other, the phraseology -is still frequently identical. The particular passage I have selected -was, I think, suggested by the first lines that remain to us of the -“Poema del Cid”; and perhaps, if we had the preceding lines of that -poem, we should be able to account for yet more of the additions to the -Chronicle in this passage. The lines I refer to are as follows:—</p> - -<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> -<p class="i0">De los sos oios tan fuertes · mientre lorando</p> -<p class="i0">Tornaba la cabeza, · e estabalos catando.</p> -<p class="i0">Vio puertas abiertas · e uzos sin cañados,</p> -<p class="i0">Alcándaras vacias, · sin pielles e sin mantos,</p> -<p class="i0">E sin falcones e sin · adtores mudados.</p> -<p class="i0">Sospiró mio Cid, ca · mucho avie grandes cuidados.</p> -</div></div> - -<p class="ti1">Other passages are quite as obviously taken from the -poem.</p> - -</div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p id="Footnote_256"><span class="label"><a -href="#FNanchor_256">[256]</a></span> It sounds much like the -“Partidas,” beginning, “Los sabios antiguos que fueron en los tiempos -primeros, y fallaron los saberes y las otras cosas, tovieron que -menguarien en sus fechos y en su lealtad, si tambien no lo quisiessen -para los otros que avien de venir, como para si mesmos o por los otros -que eran en su tiempo,” etc. But such introductions are common in other -early chronicles, and in other old Spanish books.</p> - -</div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p id="Footnote_257"><span class="label"><a -href="#FNanchor_257">[257]</a></span> “Chrónica del muy Esclarecido -Príncipe y Rey D. Alfonso, el que fue par de Emperador, y hizo el Libro -de las Siete Partidas, y ansimismo al fin deste Libro va encorporada -la Crónica del Rey D. Sancho el Bravo,” etc., Valladolid, 1554, folio; -to which should be added “Crónica del muy Valeroso Rey D. Fernando, -Visnieto del Santo Rey D. Fernando,” etc., Valladolid, 1554, folio.</p> - -</div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p id="Footnote_258"><span class="label"><a -href="#FNanchor_258">[258]</a></span> All this may be found abundantly -discussed in the “Memorias de Alfonso el Sabio,” by the Marques de -Mondejar, pp. 569-635. Clemencin, however, still attributes the -Chronicle to Fernan Sanchez de Tovar. Mem. de la Acad. de Historia, -Tom. VI. p. 451.</p> - -</div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p id="Footnote_259"><span class="label"><a -href="#FNanchor_259">[259]</a></span> There is an edition of this -Chronicle (Valladolid, 1551, folio) better than the old editions of -such Spanish books commonly are; but the best is that of Madrid, 1787, -4to, edited by Cerdá y Rico, and published under the auspices of the -Spanish Academy of History.</p> - -</div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p id="Footnote_260"><span class="label"><a -href="#FNanchor_260">[260]</a></span> The phrase is, “Mandó á Juan -Nuñez de Villaizan, Alguacil de la su Casa, que la ficiese trasladar en -Pergaminos, e fizola trasladar, et escribióla Ruy Martinez de Medina de -Rioseco,” etc. See <a href="#Ch_0">Preface</a>.</p> - -</div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p id="Footnote_261"><span class="label"><a -href="#FNanchor_261">[261]</a></span> In Cap. 340 and elsewhere.</p> - -</div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p id="Footnote_262"><span class="label"><a -href="#FNanchor_262">[262]</a></span> Ed. 1787, p. 3.</p> - -</div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p id="Footnote_263"><span class="label"><a -href="#FNanchor_263">[263]</a></span> Ed. 1787, p. 80.</p> - -</div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p id="Footnote_264"><span class="label"><a -href="#FNanchor_264">[264]</a></span> For the Life of Ayala, see Nic. -Antonio, Bib. Vet., Lib. X. c. 1.</p> - -</div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p id="Footnote_265"><span class="label"><a -href="#FNanchor_265">[265]</a></span> The whole account in Froissart is -worth reading, especially in Lord Berners’s translation, (London, 1812, -4to, Vol. I. c. 231, etc.,) as an illustration of Ayala.</p> - -</div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p id="Footnote_266"><span class="label"><a -href="#FNanchor_266">[266]</a></span> See the passage in which Mariana -gives an account of the battle. Historia, Lib. XVII. c. 10.</p> - -</div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p id="Footnote_267"><span class="label"><a -href="#FNanchor_267">[267]</a></span> Generaciones y Semblanzas, Cap. -7, Madrid, 1775, 4to, p. 222.</p> - -</div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p id="Footnote_268"><span class="label"><a -href="#FNanchor_268">[268]</a></span> It is probable Ayala translated, -or caused to be translated, all these books. At least, such has been -the impression; and the mention of Isidore of Seville among the authors -“made known” seems to justify it, for, as a Spaniard of great fame, -St. Isidore must always have been <i>known</i> in Spain in every other -way, except by a translation into Spanish. See, also, the Preface to -the edition of Boccaccio, Caída de Príncipes, 1495, in Fr. Mendez, -Typografía Española, Madrid, 1796, 4to, p. 202.</p> - -</div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p id="Footnote_269"><span class="label"><a -href="#FNanchor_269">[269]</a></span> The first edition of Ayala’s -Chronicles is of Seville, 1495, folio, but it seems to have been -printed from a MS. that did not contain the entire series. The best -edition is that published under the auspices of the Academy of History, -by D. Eugenio de Llaguno Amirola, its secretary (Madrid, 1779, 2 tom. -4to). That Ayala was the authorized chronicler of Castile is apparent -from the whole tone of his work, and is directly asserted in an old MS. -of a part of it, cited by Bayer in his notes to N. Antonio, Bib. Vet., -Lib. X. cap. 1, num. 10, n. 1.</p> - -</div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p id="Footnote_270"><span class="label"><a -href="#FNanchor_270">[270]</a></span> There are about a dozen ballads -on the subject of Don Pedro, of which the best, I think, are those -beginning, “Doña Blanca esta en Sidonia,” “En un retrete en que -apenas,” “No contento el Rey D. Pedro,” and “Doña Maria de Padilla,” -the last of which is in the Saragossa Cancionero of 1550, Parte II. f. -46.</p> - -</div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p id="Footnote_271"><span class="label"><a -href="#FNanchor_271">[271]</a></span> See the Crónica de Don Pedro, -Ann. 1353, Capp. 4, 5, 11, 12, 14, 21; Ann. 1354, Capp. 19, 21; Ann. -1358, Capp. 2 and 3; and Ann. 1361, Cap. 3.</p> - -</div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p id="Footnote_272"><span class="label"><a -href="#FNanchor_272">[272]</a></span> The fairness of Ayala in regard -to Don Pedro has been questioned, and, from his relations to that -monarch, may naturally be suspected;—a point on which Mariana touches, -(Historia, Lib. XVII. c. 10,) without settling it, but one of some -little consequence in Spanish literary history, where the character -of Don Pedro often appears connected with poetry and the drama. The -first person who attacked Ayala was, I believe, Pedro de Gracia Dei, a -courtier in the time of Ferdinand and Isabella and in that of Charles -V. He was King-at-Arms and Chronicler to the Catholic sovereigns, and -I have, in manuscript, a collection of his professional <i>coplas</i> on -the lineages and arms of the principal families of Spain, and on the -general history of the country;—short poems, worthless as verse, and -sneered at by Argote de Molina, in the Preface to his “Nobleza del -Andaluzia,” (1588,) for the imperfect knowledge their author had of the -subjects on which he treated. His defence of Don Pedro is not better. -It is found in the Seminario Erudito, (Madrid, 1790, Tom. XXVIII. and -XXIX.,) with additions by a later hand, probably Diego de Castilla, -Dean of Toledo, who, I believe, was one of Don Pedro’s descendants. -It cites no sufficient authorities for the averments which it makes -about events that happened a century and a half earlier, and on -which, therefore, it was unsuitable to trust the voice of tradition. -Francisco de Castilla, who certainly had blood of Don Pedro in his -veins, followed in the same track, and speaks, in his “Pratica de las -Virtudes,” (Çaragoça, 1552, 4to, fol. 28,) of the monarch and of Ayala -as</p> - -<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> -<p class="i0">El gran rey Don Pedro, quel vulgo reprueva</p> -<p class="i0">Por selle enemigo, quien hizo su historia, etc.</p> -</div></div> - -<p>All this, however, produced little effect. But, in process of -time, books were written upon the question;—the “Apologia del Rey Don -Pedro,” by Ledo del Pozo, (Madrid, folio, s. a.,) and “El Rey Don Pedro -defendido,” (Madrid, 1648, 4to,) by Vera y Figueroa, the diplomatist of -the reign of Philip IV.; works intended, apparently, only to flatter -the pretensions of royalty, but whose consequences we shall find when -we come to the “Valiente Justiciero” of Moreto, Calderon’s “Médico de -su Honra,” and similar poetical delineations of Pedro’s character in -the seventeenth century. The ballads, however, it should be noticed, -are almost always true to the view of Pedro given by Ayala;—the most -striking exception that I remember being the admirable ballad beginning -“A los pies de Don Enrique,” Quinta Parte de Flor de Romances, -recopilado por Sebastian Velez de Guevara, Burgos, 1594, 18mo.</p> - -</div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p id="Footnote_273"><span class="label"><a -href="#FNanchor_273">[273]</a></span> The first edition of the “Crónica -del Señor Rey D. Juan, segundo de este Nombre,” was printed at Logroño, -(1517, fol.,) and is the most correct of the old editions that I -have used. The best of all, however, is the beautiful one printed at -Valencia, by Monfort, in 1779, folio, to which may be added an Appendix -by P. Fr. Liciniano Saez, Madrid, 1786, folio.</p> - -</div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p id="Footnote_274"><span class="label"><a -href="#FNanchor_274">[274]</a></span> See his Prólogo, in the edition -of 1779, p. xix., and Galindez de Carvajal, Prefacion, p. 19.</p> - -</div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p id="Footnote_275"><span class="label"><a -href="#FNanchor_275">[275]</a></span> He lived as late as 1444; for he -is mentioned more than once in that year, in the Chronicle. See Ann. -1444, Capp. 14, 15.</p> - -</div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p id="Footnote_276"><span class="label"><a -href="#FNanchor_276">[276]</a></span> Prefacion de Carvajal.</p> - -</div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p id="Footnote_277"><span class="label"><a -href="#FNanchor_277">[277]</a></span> Fernan Gomez de Cibdareal, -physician to John II., Centon Epistolario, Madrid, 1775, 4to, Epist. -23 and 74; a work, however, whose genuineness I shall be obliged to -question hereafter.</p> - -</div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p id="Footnote_278"><span class="label"><a -href="#FNanchor_278">[278]</a></span> Prefacion de Carvajal. Poetry -of Rodriguez del Padron is found in the Cancioneros Generales; and of -Diego de Valera there is “La Crónica de España abreviada por Mandado -de la muy Poderosa Señora Doña Isabel, Reyna de Castilla,” made in -1481, when its author was sixty-nine years old, and printed, 1482, -1493, 1495, etc.,—a chronicle of considerable merit for its style, and -of some value, notwithstanding it is a compendium, for the original -materials it contains towards the end, such as two eloquent and bold -letters by Valera himself to John II., on the troubles of the time, -and an account of what he personally saw of the last days of the Great -Constable, (Parte IV. c. 125,)—the last and the most important chapter -in the book. (Mendez, p. 138. Capmany, Eloquencia Española, Madrid, -1786, 8vo, Tom. I. p. 180.) It should be added, that the editor of the -Chronicle of John II. (1779) thinks Valera was the person who finally -arranged and settled that Chronicle; but the opinion of Carvajal -seems the more probable. Certainly, I hope Valera had no hand in the -praise bestowed on himself in the excellent story told of him in the -Chronicle, (Ann. 1437, Cap. 3,) showing how, in presence of the king -of Bohemia, at Prague, he defended the honor of his liege lord, the -king of Castile. A treatise of a few pages on Providence, by Diego de -Valera, printed in the edition of the “Vision Deleytable,” of 1489, and -reprinted, almost entire, in the first volume of Capmany’s “Eloquencia -Española,” is worth reading, as a specimen of the grave didactic prose -of the fifteenth century. A Chronicle of Ferdinand and Isabella, by -Valera, which may well have been the best and most important of his -works, has never been printed. Gerónimo Gudiel, Compendio de Algunas -Historias de España, Alcalá, 1577, fol., f. 101. b.</p> - -</div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p id="Footnote_279"><span class="label"><a -href="#FNanchor_279">[279]</a></span> From the phraseology of -Carvajal, (p. 20,) we may infer that Fernan Perez de Guzman is chiefly -responsible for the style and general character of the Chronicle. -“Cogió de cada uno lo que le pareció mas probable, y abrevió algunas -cosas, tomando la sustancia dellas; porque así creyó que convenia.” -He adds, that this Chronicle was much valued by Isabella, who was the -daughter of John II.</p> - -</div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p id="Footnote_280"><span class="label"><a -href="#FNanchor_280">[280]</a></span> Anno 1451, Cap. 2, and Anno 1453, -Cap. 2. See, also, some remarks on the author of this Chronicle by -the editor of the “Crónica de Alvaro de Luna,” (Madrid, 1784, 4to,) -Prólogo, pp. xxv.-xxviii.</p> - -</div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p id="Footnote_281"><span class="label"><a -href="#FNanchor_281">[281]</a></span> For example, 1406, Cap. 6, etc.; -1430, Cap. 2; 1441, Cap. 30; 1453, Cap. 3.</p> - -</div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p id="Footnote_282"><span class="label"><a -href="#FNanchor_282">[282]</a></span> “Es sin duda la mas puntual i -la mas segura de quantas se conservan antiguas.” Mondejar, Noticia y -Juicio de los mas Principales Historiadores de España, Madrid, 1746, -fol., p. 112.</p> - -</div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p id="Footnote_283"><span class="label"><a -href="#FNanchor_283">[283]</a></span> Anno 1453, Cap. 4.</p> - -</div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p id="Footnote_284"><span class="label"><a -href="#FNanchor_284">[284]</a></span> Anno 1406, Capp. 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, -and 15; Anno 1407, Capp. 6, 7, 8, etc.</p> - -</div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p id="Footnote_285"><span class="label"><a -href="#FNanchor_285">[285]</a></span> This Chronicle affords us, in -one place that I have noticed,—probably not the only one,—a curious -instance of the way in which the whole class of Spanish chronicles to -which it belongs were sometimes used in the poetry of the old ballads -we so much admire. The instance to which I refer is to be found in the -account of the leading event of the time, the violent death of the -Great Constable Alvaro de Luna, which the fine ballad beginning “Un -Miercoles de mañana” takes plainly from this Chronicle of John II. -The two are worth comparing throughout, and their coincidences can be -properly felt only when this is done; but a little specimen may serve -to show how curious is the whole.</p> - -<p class="ti1">The Chronicle (Anno 1453, Cap. 2) has it as follows:—“E -vidó a Barrasa, Caballerizo del Principe, e llamóle é dixóle: ‘Ven acá, -Barrasa, tu estas aqui mirando la muerte que me dan. Yo te ruego, que -digas al Principe mi Señor, que dé mejor gualardon a sus criados, quel -Rey mi Señor mandó dar á mi.’”</p> - -<p class="ti1">The ballad, which is cited as anonymous by Duran, but -is found in Sepúlveda’s Romances, etc., 1584, (f. 204,) though not in -the edition of 1551, gives the same striking circumstance, a little -amplified, in these words:—</p> - -<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> -<p class="i0">Y vido estar a Barrasa,</p> -<p class="i0">Que al Principe le servia,</p> -<p class="i0">De ser su cavallerizo,</p> -<p class="i0">Y vino a ver aquel dia</p> -<p class="i0">A executar la justicia,</p> -<p class="i0">Que el maestre recebia:</p> -<p class="i0">“Ven aca, hermano Barrasa,</p> -<p class="i0">Di al Principe por tu vida,</p> -<p class="i0">Que de mejor galardon</p> -<p class="i0">A quien sirve a su señoria,</p> -<p class="i0">Que no el, que el Rey mi Señor</p> -<p class="i0">Me ha mandado dar este dia.”</p> -</div></div> - -<p class="ti1">So near do the old Spanish chronicles often come to -being poetry, and so near do the old Spanish ballads often come to -being history. But the Chronicle of John II. is, I think, the last to -which this remark can be applied.</p> - -<p class="ti1">If I felt sure of the genuineness of the “Centon -Epistolario” of Gomez de Cibdareal, I should here cite the one hundred -and third Letter as the material from which the Chronicle’s account was -constructed.</p> - -</div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p id="Footnote_286"><span class="label"><a -href="#FNanchor_286">[286]</a></span> When the first edition of -Castillo’s Chronicle was published I do not know. It is treated as if -still only in manuscript by Mondejar in 1746 (Advertencias, p. 112); -by Bayer, in his notes to Nic. Antonio, (Bib. Vetus, Vol. II. p. 349,) -which, though written a little earlier, were published in 1788; and by -Ochoa, in the notes to the inedited poems of the Marquis of Santillana, -(Paris, 1844, 8vo, p. 397,) and in his “Manuscritos Españoles” (1844, -p. 92, etc.). The very good edition, however, prepared by Josef Miguel -de Flores, published in Madrid, by Sancha, (1787, 4to,) as a part of -the Academy’s collection, is announced, on its title-page, as the -<i>second</i>. If these learned men have all been mistaken on such a point, -it is very strange.</p> - -</div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p id="Footnote_287"><span class="label"><a -href="#FNanchor_287">[287]</a></span> For the use of a manuscript copy -of Palencia’s Chronicle I am indebted to my friend, W. H. Prescott, -Esq., who notices it among the materials for his “Ferdinand and -Isabella,” (Vol. I. p. 136, Amer. ed.,) with his accustomed acuteness. -A full life of Palencia is to be found in Juan Pellicer, Bib. de -Traductores, (Madrid, 1778, 4to,) Second Part, pp. 7-12.</p> - -</div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p id="Footnote_288"><span class="label"><a -href="#FNanchor_288">[288]</a></span> I owe my knowledge of this -manuscript, also, to my friend Mr. Prescott, whose copy I have used. -It consists of one hundred and forty-four chapters, and the credulity -and bigotry of its author, as well as his better qualities, may be seen -in his accounts of the Sicilian Vespers, (Cap. 193,) of the Canary -Islands, (Cap. 64,) of the earthquake of 1504, (Cap. 200,) and of the -election of Leo X. (Cap. 239). Of his prejudice and partiality, his -version of the bold visit of the great Marquis of Cadiz to Isabella, -(Cap. 29,) when compared with Mr. Prescott’s notice of it, (Part I. -Chap. 6,) will give an idea; and of his intolerance, the chapters -(110-114) about the Jews afford proof even beyond what might be -expected from his age. There is an imperfect article about Bernaldez in -N. Antonio, Bib. Nov., but the best materials for his life are in the -egotism of his own Chronicle.</p> - -</div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p id="Footnote_289"><span class="label"><a -href="#FNanchor_289">[289]</a></span> The chapters about Columbus are -118-131. The account of Columbus’s visit to him is in Cap. 131, and -that of the manuscripts intrusted to him is in Cap. 123. He says, that, -when Columbus came to court in 1496, he was dressed as a Franciscan -monk, and wore the cord <i>por devocion</i>. He cites Sir John Mandeville’s -Travels, and seems to have read them (Cap. 123); a fact of some -significance, when we bear in mind his connection with Columbus.</p> - -</div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p id="Footnote_290"><span class="label"><a -href="#FNanchor_290">[290]</a></span> A notice of him is prefixed to -his “Claros Varones” (Madrid, 1775, 4to); but it is not much. We know -from himself that he was an old man in 1490.</p> - -</div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p id="Footnote_291"><span class="label"><a -href="#FNanchor_291">[291]</a></span> The first edition of his -Chronicle, published by an accident, as if it were the work of the -famous Antonio de Lebrija, appeared in 1565, at Valladolid. But -the error was soon discovered, and in 1567 it was printed anew, at -Saragossa, with its true author’s name. The only other edition of it, -and by far the best of the three, is the beautiful one, Valencia, -1780, folio. See the Prólogo to this edition for the mistake by which -Pulgar’s Chronicle was attributed to Lebrija.</p> - -</div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p id="Footnote_292"><span class="label"><a -href="#FNanchor_292">[292]</a></span> Read, for instance, the long -speech of Gomez Manrique to the inhabitants of Toledo. (Parte II. -c. 79.) It is one of the best, and has a good deal of merit as an -oratorical composition, though its Roman tone is misplaced in such a -chronicle. It is a mistake, however, in the publisher of the edition -of 1780 to suppose that Pulgar first introduced these formal speeches -into the Spanish. They occur, as has been already observed, in the -Chronicles of Ayala, eighty or ninety years earlier.</p> - -</div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p id="Footnote_293"><span class="label"><a -href="#FNanchor_293">[293]</a></span> “Indicio harto probable de que -falleció ántes de la toma de Granada,” says Martinez de la Rosa, -“Hernan Perez del Pulgar, el de las Hazañas.” Madrid, 1834, 8vo, p. -229.</p> - -</div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p id="Footnote_294"><span class="label"><a -href="#FNanchor_294">[294]</a></span> This important document, which -does Pulgar some honor as a statesman, is to be found at length in the -Seminario Erudito, Madrid, 1788, Tom. XII. pp. 57-144.</p> - -</div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p id="Footnote_295"><span class="label"><a -href="#FNanchor_295">[295]</a></span> Some account of the Passo Honroso -is to be found among the Memorabilia of the time in the “Crónica de -Juan el IIº,” (ad Ann. 1433, Cap. 5,) and in Zurita, “Anales de Aragon” -(Lib. XIV. c. 22). The book itself, “El Passo Honroso,” was prepared -on the spot, at Orbigo, by Delena, one of the authorized scribes of -John II.; and was abridged by Fr. Juan de Pineda, and published at -Salamanca, in 1588, and again at Madrid, under the auspices of the -Academy of History, in 1783 (4to). Large portions of the original are -preserved in it verbatim, as in sections 1, 4, 7, 14, 74, 75, etc. In -other parts, it seems to have been disfigured by Pineda. (Pellicer, -note to Don Quixote, Parte I. c. 49.) The poem of “Esvero y Almedora,” -in twelve cantos, by D. Juan María Maury, (Paris, 1840, 12mo,) is -founded on the adventures recorded in this Chronicle, and so is the -“Passo Honroso,” by Don Ángel de Saavedra, Duque de Rivas, in four -cantos, in the second volume of his Works (Madrid, 1820-21, 2 tom. -12mo).</p> - -</div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p id="Footnote_296"><span class="label"><a -href="#FNanchor_296">[296]</a></span> See Sections 23 and 64; and for -a curious vow made by one of the wounded knights, that he would never -again make love to nuns as he had done, see Sect. 25.</p> - -</div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p id="Footnote_297"><span class="label"><a -href="#FNanchor_297">[297]</a></span> Don Quixote makes precisely such -a use of the Passo Honroso as might be expected from the perverse -acuteness so often shown by madmen,—one of the many instances in which -we see Cervantes’s nice observation of the workings of human nature. -Parte I. c. 49.</p> - -</div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p id="Footnote_298"><span class="label"><a -href="#FNanchor_298">[298]</a></span> Take the years immediately about -1434, in which the Passo Honroso occurred, and we find four or five -instances. (Crónica de Juan el IIº, 1433, Cap. 2; 1434, Cap. 4; 1435, -Capp. 3 and 8; 1436, Cap. 4.) Indeed, the Chronicle is full of them; -and in several, the Great Constable Alvaro de Luna figures.</p> - -</div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p id="Footnote_299"><span class="label"><a -href="#FNanchor_299">[299]</a></span> The “Seguro de Tordesillas” was -first printed at Milan, 1611; but the only other edition, that of -Madrid, 1784, (4to,) is much better.</p> - -</div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p id="Footnote_300"><span class="label"><a -href="#FNanchor_300">[300]</a></span> “Nos desnaturamos,” “We falsify -our natures,” is the striking old Castilian phrase used by the -principal personages on this occasion, and, among the rest, by the -Constable Alvaro de Luna, to signify that they are not, for the time -being, bound to obey even the king. Seguro, Cap. 3.</p> - -</div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p id="Footnote_301"><span class="label"><a -href="#FNanchor_301">[301]</a></span> See Crónica de Juan el IIº, -1440-41 and 1444, Cap. 3. Well might Manrique, in his beautiful Coplas -on the instability of fortune break forth,— </p> - -<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> -<p class="i0">Que se hizo el Rey Don Juan?</p> -<p class="i0">Los Infantes de Aragon,</p> -<p class="i0">Que se hizieron?</p> -<p class="i0">Que fue de tanto galan,</p> -<p class="i0">Que fue de tanta invencion,</p> -<p class="i0">Como truxeron?</p> -</div></div> - -<p>Luis de Aranda’s commentary on this passage is good, and well -illustrates the old Chronicle;—a rare circumstance in such commentaries -on Spanish poetry.</p> - -</div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p id="Footnote_302"><span class="label"><a -href="#FNanchor_302">[302]</a></span> Pulgar (Claros Varones de -Castilla, Madrid, 1775, 4to, Título 3) gives a beautiful character of -him.</p> - -</div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p id="Footnote_303"><span class="label"><a -href="#FNanchor_303">[303]</a></span> The “Crónica de Don Pero Niño” -was cited early and often, as containing important materials for the -history of the reign of Henry III., but was not printed until it -was edited by Don Eugenio de Llaguno Amirola (Madrid, 1782, 4to); -who, however, has omitted a good deal of what he calls “fábulas -caballerescas.” Instances of such omissions occur in Parte I. c. 15, -Parte II. c. 18, 40, etc., and I cannot but think Don Eugenio would -have done better to print the whole; especially the whole of what he -says he found in the part which he calls “La Crónica de los Reyes de -Inglaterra.”</p> - -</div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p id="Footnote_304"><span class="label"><a -href="#FNanchor_304">[304]</a></span> See Parte I. c. 4.</p> - -</div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p id="Footnote_305"><span class="label"><a -href="#FNanchor_305">[305]</a></span> Parte I. c. 14, 15.</p> - -</div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p id="Footnote_306"><span class="label"><a -href="#FNanchor_306">[306]</a></span> Parte II. c. 1-14.</p> - -</div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p id="Footnote_307"><span class="label"><a -href="#FNanchor_307">[307]</a></span> Parte II. c. 16-40.</p> - -</div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p id="Footnote_308"><span class="label"><a -href="#FNanchor_308">[308]</a></span> Parte III. c. 11, etc.</p> - -</div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p id="Footnote_309"><span class="label"><a -href="#FNanchor_309">[309]</a></span> Parte II. c. 31, 36.</p> - -</div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p id="Footnote_310"><span class="label"><a -href="#FNanchor_310">[310]</a></span> Parte III. c. 3-5. The love of -Pero Niño for the lady Beatrice comes, also, into the poetry of the -time; for he employed Villasandino, a poet of the age of Henry III. and -John II., to write verses for him, addressed to her. See Castro, Bibl. -Esp., Tom. I. pp. 271 and 274.</p> - -</div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p id="Footnote_311"><span class="label"><a -href="#FNanchor_311">[311]</a></span> The “Crónica de Don Alvaro -de Luna” was first printed at Milan, 1546, (folio,) by one of the -Constable’s descendants, but, notwithstanding its value and interest, -only one edition has been published since,—that by Flores, the diligent -Secretary of the Academy of History (Madrid, 1784, 4to). “Privado del -Rey” was the common style of Alvaro de Luna;—“Tan privado,” as Manrique -calls him;—a word which almost became English, for Lord Bacon, in -his twenty-seventh Essay, says, “The modern languages give unto such -persons the names of <i>favorites</i> or <i>privadoes</i>.”</p> - -</div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p id="Footnote_312"><span class="label"><a -href="#FNanchor_312">[312]</a></span> Tít. 91-95, with the curious -piece of poetry by the court poet, Juan de Mena, on the wound of the -Constable during the siege.</p> - -</div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p id="Footnote_313"><span class="label"><a -href="#FNanchor_313">[313]</a></span> Tít. 68.</p> - -</div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p id="Footnote_314"><span class="label"><a -href="#FNanchor_314">[314]</a></span> Tít. 74, etc.</p> - -</div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p id="Footnote_315"><span class="label"><a -href="#FNanchor_315">[315]</a></span> Tít. 127, 128. Some of the -details—the Constable’s composed countenance and manner, as he rode -on his mule to the place of death, and the awful silence of the -multitude that preceded his execution, with the universal sob that -followed it—are admirably set forth, and show, I think, that the author -witnessed what he so well describes.</p> - -</div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p id="Footnote_316"><span class="label"><a -href="#FNanchor_316">[316]</a></span> The mistake between the two -Pulgars—one called Hernan Perez del Pulgar, and the other Fernando del -Pulgar—seems to have been made while they were both alive. At least, I -so infer from the following good-humored passage in a letter from the -latter to his correspondent, Pedro de Toledo: “E pues quereis saber -como me aveis de llamar, sabed, Señor, que me llaman Fernando, e me -llamaban e llamaran Fernando, e si me dan el Maestrazgo de Santiago, -tambien Fernando,” etc. (Letra XII., Madrid, 1775, 4to, p. 153.) For -the mistakes made concerning them in more modern times, see Nic. -Antonio, (Bib. Nova, Tom. I. p. 387,) who seems to be sadly confused -about the whole matter.</p> - -</div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p id="Footnote_317"><span class="label"><a -href="#FNanchor_317">[317]</a></span> This dull old anonymous Chronicle -is the “Crónica del Gran Capitan Gonzalo Fernandez de Córdoba y -Aguilar, en la qual se contienen las dos Conquistas del Reino de -Napoles,” etc., (Sevilla, 1580, fol.,)—which does not yet seem to -be the first edition, because, in the <i>licencia</i>, it is said to be -printed, “porque hay falta de ellas.” It contains some of the family -documents that are found in Pulgar’s account of him, and was reprinted -at least twice afterwards, viz., Sevilla, 1582, and Alcalá, 1584.</p> - -</div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p id="Footnote_318"><span class="label"><a -href="#FNanchor_318">[318]</a></span> Pulgar was permitted by his -admiring sovereigns to have his burial-place where he knelt when he -affixed the Ave Maria to the door of the mosque, and his descendants -still preserve his tomb there with becoming reverence, and still -occupy the most distinguished place in the choir of the cathedral, -which was originally granted to him and to his heirs male in right -line. (Alcántara, Historia de Granada, Granada, 1846, 8vo, Tom. IV., -p. 102; and the curious documents collected by Martinez de la Rosa in -his “Hernan Perez del Pulgar,” pp. 279-283, for which see next note.) -The oldest play known to me on the subject of Hernan Perez del Pulgar’s -achievement is “El Cerco de Santa Fe,” in the first volume of Lope -de Vega’s “Comedias” (Valladolid, 1604, 4to). But the one commonly -represented is by an unknown author, and founded on Lope’s. It is -called “El Triunfo del Ave Maria,” and is said to be “de un Ingenio de -este Corte,” dating probably from the reign of Philip IV. My copy of it -is printed in 1793. Martinez de la Rosa speaks of seeing it, and of the -strong impression it produced on his youthful imagination.</p> - -</div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p id="Footnote_319"><span class="label"><a -href="#FNanchor_319">[319]</a></span> This Life of the Great Captain, -by Pulgar, was printed at Seville, by Cromberger, in 1527; but only one -copy of this edition—the one in the possession of the Royal Spanish -Academy—is now known to exist. A reprint was made from it at Madrid, -entitled “Hernan Perez del Pulgar,” 1834, 8vo, edited by D. Fr. -Martinez de la Rosa, with a pleasant Life of Pulgar and valuable notes, -so that we now have this very curious little book in an agreeable form -for reading,—thanks to the zeal and persevering literary curiosity of -the distinguished Spanish statesman who discovered it.</p> - -</div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p id="Footnote_320"><span class="label"><a -href="#FNanchor_320">[320]</a></span> Ed. Fr. Martinez de la Rosa, pp. -155, 156.</p> - -</div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p id="Footnote_321"><span class="label"><a -href="#FNanchor_321">[321]</a></span> Ibid., pp. 159-162.</p> - -</div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p id="Footnote_322"><span class="label"><a -href="#FNanchor_322">[322]</a></span> Hernan Perez del Pulgar, el de -las Hazañas, was born in 1451, and died in 1531.</p> - -</div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p id="Footnote_323"><span class="label"><a -href="#FNanchor_323">[323]</a></span> Discurso hecho por Argote de -Molina, sobre el Itinerario de Ruy Gonzalez de Clavijo, Madrid, 1782, -4to, p. 3.</p> - -</div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p id="Footnote_324"><span class="label"><a -href="#FNanchor_324">[324]</a></span> The edition of Argote de Molina -was published in 1582; and there is only one other, the very good one -printed at Madrid, 1782, 4to.</p> - -</div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p id="Footnote_325"><span class="label"><a -href="#FNanchor_325">[325]</a></span> They were much struck with the -works in mosaic in Constantinople, and mention them repeatedly, pp. -51, 59, and elsewhere. The reason why they did not, on the first day, -see all the relics they wished to see in the church of San Juan de la -Piedra is very quaint, and shows great simplicity of manners at the -imperial court: “The Emperor went to hunt, and left the keys with the -Empress his wife, and when she gave them, she forgot to give those -where the said relics were,” etc. p. 52.</p> - -</div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p id="Footnote_326"><span class="label"><a -href="#FNanchor_326">[326]</a></span> Page 84, etc.</p> - -</div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p id="Footnote_327"><span class="label"><a -href="#FNanchor_327">[327]</a></span> Page 118, etc.</p> - -</div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p id="Footnote_328"><span class="label"><a -href="#FNanchor_328">[328]</a></span> Pages 149-198.</p> - -</div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p id="Footnote_329"><span class="label"><a -href="#FNanchor_329">[329]</a></span> Page 207, etc.</p> - -</div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p id="Footnote_330"><span class="label"><a -href="#FNanchor_330">[330]</a></span> Hijos de Madrid, Ilustres en -Santidad, Dignidades, Armas, Ciencias, y Artes, Diccionario Histórico, -su Autor D. Joseph Ant. Alvarez y Baena, Natural de la misma Villa; -Madrid, 1789-91, 4 tom. 4to;—a book whose materials, somewhat crudely -put together, are abundant and important, especially in what relates to -the literary history of the Spanish capital. A Life of Clavijo is to be -found in it, Tom. IV. p. 302.</p> - -</div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p id="Footnote_331"><span class="label"><a -href="#FNanchor_331">[331]</a></span> “Hay en ella grandes edificios de -muy grande obra, que fizo Virgilio.” p. 30.</p> - -</div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p id="Footnote_332"><span class="label"><a -href="#FNanchor_332">[332]</a></span> All he says of Amalfi is, “Y -en esta ciudad de Malfa dicen que está la cabeza de Sant Andres.” p. -33.</p> - -</div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p id="Footnote_333"><span class="label"><a -href="#FNanchor_333">[333]</a></span> Mariana says that the Itinerary -contains “muchas otras cosas asaz maravillosas, si verdaderas.” (Hist., -Lib. XIX. c. 11.) But Blanco White, in his “Variedades,” (Tom. I. pp. -316-318,) shows, from an examination of Clavijo’s Itinerary, by Major -Rennell, and from other sources, that its general fidelity may be -depended upon.</p> - -</div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p id="Footnote_334"><span class="label"><a -href="#FNanchor_334">[334]</a></span> In the account of his first -voyage, rendered to his sovereigns, he says he was in 1492 at Granada, -“adonde, este presente año, á dos dias del mes de Enero, por fuerza -de armas, <i>vide</i> poner las banderas reales de Vuestras Altezas en -las torres de Alfambra,” etc. Navarrete, Coleccion de los Viajes y -Descubrimientos que hicieron por Mar los Españoles desde Fines del -Siglo XV., Madrid, 1825, 4to, Tom. I. p. 1;—a work admirably edited, -and of great value, as containing the authentic materials for the -history of the discovery of America. Old Bernaldez, the friend of -Columbus, describes more exactly what Columbus saw: “E mostraron en la -mas alta torre primeramente el estandarte de Jesu Cristo, que fue la -Santa Cruz de plata, que el rey traia siempre en la santa conquista -consigo.” Hist. de los Reyes Católicos, Cap. 102, MS.</p> - -</div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p id="Footnote_335"><span class="label"><a -href="#FNanchor_335">[335]</a></span> This appears from his letter -to the Pope, February, 1502, in which he says, he had counted upon -furnishing, in twelve years, 10,000 horse and 100,000 foot soldiers for -the conquest of the Holy City, and that his undertaking to discover -new countries was with the view of spending the means he might there -acquire in this sacred service. Navarrete, Coleccion, Tom. II. p. -282.</p> - -</div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p id="Footnote_336"><span class="label"><a -href="#FNanchor_336">[336]</a></span> One of the prophecies he -supposed himself called on to fulfil was that in the eighteenth Psalm. -(Navarrete, Col., Tom. I. pp. xlviii., xlix., note; Tom. II. pp. -262-266.) In King James’s version, the passage stands thus:—“Thou hast -made me the head of the heathen; a people whom I have not known shall -serve me. As soon as they hear of me, they shall obey me; the strangers -shall submit themselves unto me.” vv. 43, 44.</p> - -</div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p id="Footnote_337"><span class="label"><a -href="#FNanchor_337">[337]</a></span> “Ya dije que para la esecucion -de la impresa de las Indias no me aprovechó razon ni matematica ni -mapamundos;—llenamente se cumplió lo que dijo Isaías, y esto es -lo que deseo de escrebir aquí por le reducir á V. A. á memoria, y -porque se alegren del otro que yo le dije de Jerusalen por las mesmas -autoridades, de la qual impresa, si fe hay, tengo por muy cierto la -vitoria.” Letter of Columbus to Ferdinand and Isabella (Navarrete, -Col., Tom. II. p. 265). And elsewhere in the same letter he says: “Yo -dije que diria la razon que tengo de la restitucion de la Casa Santa -á la Santa Iglesia; digo que yo dejo todo mi navegar desde edad nueva -y las pláticas que yo haya tenido con tanta gente en tantas tierras y -de tantas setas, y dejo las tantas artes y escrituras de que yo dije -arriba; solamente me tengo á la Santa y Sacra Escritura y á algunas -autoridades proféticas de algunas personas santas, que por revelacion -divina han dicho algo desto.” Ibid., p. 263.</p> - -</div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p id="Footnote_338"><span class="label"><a -href="#FNanchor_338">[338]</a></span> “Segund esta cuenta, no falta, -salvo ciento e cincuenta y cinco años, para complimiento de siete mil, -en los quales digo arriba por las autoridades dichas que habrá de -fenecer el mundo.” Ibid., p. 264.</p> - -</div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p id="Footnote_339"><span class="label"><a -href="#FNanchor_339">[339]</a></span> See the very beautiful passage -about the Orinoco River, mixed with prophetical interpretations, in his -account of his third voyage, to the King and Queen, (Navarrete, Col., -Tom. I. pp. 256, etc.,)—a singular mixture of practical judgment and -wild, dreamy speculation. “I believe,” he says, “that <i>there</i> is the -terrestrial paradise, at which no man can arrive except by the Divine -will,”—“Creo, que allá es el Paraiso terrenal, adonde no puede llegar -nadie, salvo por voluntad divina.” The honest Clavijo thought he had -found another river of paradise on just the opposite side of the earth, -as he journeyed to Samarcand, nearly a century before. Vida del Gran -Tamorlan, p. 137.</p> - -</div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p id="Footnote_340"><span class="label"><a -href="#FNanchor_340">[340]</a></span> See the letter to Ferdinand and -Isabella, concerning his fourth and last voyage, dated, Jamaica, 7 -July, 1503, in which this extraordinary passage occurs. Navarrete, -Col., Tom. I. p. 303.</p> - -</div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p id="Footnote_341"><span class="label"><a -href="#FNanchor_341">[341]</a></span> To those who wish to know more -of Columbus as a writer than can be properly sought in a classical -life of him like that of Irving, I commend as precious: 1. The account -of his first voyage, addressed to his sovereigns, with the letter -to Rafael Sanchez on the same subject (Navarrete, Col., Tom. I. pp. -1-197); the first document being extant only in an abstract, which -contains, however, large extracts from the original made by Las Casas, -and of which a very good translation appeared at Boston, 1827 (8vo). -Nothing is more remarkable, in the tone of these narratives, than the -devout spirit that constantly breaks forth. 2. The account, by Columbus -himself, of his third voyage, in a letter to his sovereigns and in -a letter to the nurse of Prince John; the first containing several -interesting passages showing that he had a love for the beautiful in -nature. (Navarrete, Col., Tom. I. pp. 242-276.) 3. The letter to the -sovereigns about his fourth and last voyage, which contains the account -of his vision at Veragua. (Navarrete, Col., Tom. I. pp. 296-312.) 4. -Fifteen miscellaneous letters. (Ibid., Tom. I. pp. 330-352.) 5. His -speculations about the prophecies, (Tom. II. pp. 260-273,) and his -letter to the Pope (Tom. II. pp. 280-282). But whoever would speak -worthily of Columbus, or know what was most noble and elevated in his -character, will be guilty of an unhappy neglect, if he fails to read -the discussions about him by Alexander von Humboldt; especially those -in the “Examen Critique de l’Histoire de la Géographie du Nouveau -Continent,” (Paris, 1836-38, 8vo, Vol. II. pp. 350, etc., Vol. III. pp. -227-262,)—a book no less remarkable for the vastness of its views than -for the minute accuracy of its learning on some of the most obscure -subjects of historical inquiry. Nobody has comprehended the character -of Columbus as he has,—its generosity, its enthusiasm, its far-reaching -visions, which seemed watching beforehand for the great scientific -discoveries of the sixteenth century.</p> - -</div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p id="Footnote_342"><span class="label"><a -href="#FNanchor_342">[342]</a></span> All relating to these adventures -and voyages worth looking at on the score of language or style is to be -found in Vols. III., IV., V., of Navarrete, Coleccion, etc., published -by the government, Madrid, 1829-37, but unhappily not continued since, -so as to contain the accounts of the discovery and conquest of Mexico, -Peru, etc.</p> - -</div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p id="Footnote_343"><span class="label"><a -href="#FNanchor_343">[343]</a></span> My copy is of the edition of -Alcalá de Henares, 1587, and has the characteristic title, “Crónica -del Rey Don Rodrigo, con la Destruycion de España, y como los Moros la -ganaron. Nuevamente corregida. Contiene, demas de la Historia, muchas -vivas Razones y Avisos muy provechosos.” It is in folio, in double -columns, closely printed, and fills 225 leaves or 450 pages.</p> - -</div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p id="Footnote_344"><span class="label"><a -href="#FNanchor_344">[344]</a></span> From Parte II. c. 237 to the -end, containing the account of the fabulous and loathsome penance of -Don Roderic, with his death. Nearly the whole of it is translated as a -note to the twenty-fifth canto of Southey’s “Roderic, the Last of the -Goths.”</p> - -</div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p id="Footnote_345"><span class="label"><a -href="#FNanchor_345">[345]</a></span> See the grand <i>Torneo</i> when -Roderic is crowned, Parte I. c. 27; the tournament of twenty thousand -knights in Cap. 40; that in Cap. 49, etc.;—all just as such things are -given in the books of chivalry, and eminently absurd here, because -the events of the Chronicle are laid in the beginning of the eighth -century, and tournaments were unknown till above two centuries later. -(A. P. Budik, Ursprung, Ausbildung, Abnahme, und Verfall des Turniers, -Wien, 1837, 8vo.) He places the first tournament in 936. Clemencin -thinks they were not known in Spain till after 1131. Note to Don -Quixote, Tom. IV. p. 315.</p> - -</div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p id="Footnote_346"><span class="label"><a -href="#FNanchor_346">[346]</a></span> See the duels described, Parte -II. c. 80 etc., 84 etc., 93.</p> - -</div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p id="Footnote_347"><span class="label"><a -href="#FNanchor_347">[347]</a></span> The King of Poland is one of the -kings that comes to the court of Roderic “like a wandering knight so -fair” (Parte I. c. 39). One might be curious to know who was King of -Poland about A. D. 700.</p> - -</div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p id="Footnote_348"><span class="label"><a -href="#FNanchor_348">[348]</a></span> Thus, the Duchess of Loraine -comes to Roderic (Parte I. c. 37) with much the same sort of a case -that the Princess Micomicona brings to Don Quixote.</p> - -</div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p id="Footnote_349"><span class="label"><a -href="#FNanchor_349">[349]</a></span> Parte I. c. 234, 235, etc.</p> - -</div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p id="Footnote_350"><span class="label"><a -href="#FNanchor_350">[350]</a></span> To learn through what curious -transformations the same ideas can be made to pass, it may be worth -while to compare, in the “Crónica General,” 1604, (Parte III. f. 6,) -the original account of the famous battle of Covadonga, where the -Archbishop Orpas is represented picturesquely coming upon his mule -to the cave in which Pelayo and his people lay, with the tame and -elaborate account evidently taken from it in this Chronicle of Roderic -(Parte II. c. 196); then with the account in Mariana, (Historia, -Lib. VII. c. 2,) where it is polished down into a sort of dramatized -history; and, finally, with Southey’s “Roderic, the Last of the Goths,” -(Canto XXIII.,) where it is again wrought up to poetry and romance. It -is an admirable scene both for chronicling narrative and for poetical -fiction to deal with; but Alfonso the Wise and Southey have much the -best of it, while a comparison of the four will at once give the poor -“Chronicle of Roderic or the Destruction of Spain” its true place.</p> - -<p class="ti1">Another work, something like this Chronicle, but still -more worthless, was published, in two parts, in 1592-1600, and seven or -eight times afterwards; thus giving proof that it long enjoyed a degree -of favor to which it was little entitled. It was written by Miguel de -Luna, in 1589, as appears by a note to the first part, and is called -“Verdadera Historia del Rey Rodrigo, con la Perdida de España, y Vida -del Rey Jacob Almanzor, traduzida de Lengua Arábiga,” etc., my copy -being printed at Valencia, 1606, 4to. Southey, in his notes to his -“Roderic,” (Canto IV.,) is disposed to regard this work as an authentic -history of the invasion and conquest of Spain, coming down to the year -of Christ 761, and written in the original Arabic only two years later. -But this is a mistake. It is a bold and scandalous forgery, with even -less merit in its style than the elder Chronicle on the same subject, -and without any of the really romantic adventures that sometimes give -an interest to that singular work, half monkish, half chivalrous. -How Miguel de Luna, who, though a Christian, was of an old Moorish -family in Granada, and an interpreter of Philip II., should have shown -a great ignorance of the Arabic language and history of Spain, or, -showing it, should yet have succeeded in passing off his miserable -stories as authentic, is certainly a singular circumstance. That such, -however, is the fact, Conde, in his “Historia de la Dominacion de los -Arabes,” (Preface, p. x.,) and Gayangos, in his “Mohammedan Dynasties -of Spain,” (Vol. I. p. viii.,) leave no doubt,—the latter citing it -as a proof of the utter contempt and neglect into which the study of -Arabic literature had fallen in Spain in the sixteenth and seventeenth -centuries.</p> - -</div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p id="Footnote_351"><span class="label"><a -href="#FNanchor_351">[351]</a></span> Two Spanish translations of -chronicles should be here remembered; one for its style and author, and -the other for its subject.</p> - -<p class="ti1">The first is the “Universal Chronicle” of Felipe -Foresto, a modest monk of Bergamo, who refused the higher honors of -his Church, in order to be able to devote his life to letters, and who -died in 1520, at the age of eighty-six. He published, in 1486, his -large Latin Chronicle, entitled “Supplementum Chronicarum”;—meaning -rather a chronicle intended to supply all needful historical knowledge, -than one that should be regarded as a supplement to other similar -works. It was so much esteemed at the time, that its author saw it -pass through ten editions; and it is said to be still of some value -for facts stated nowhere so well as on his personal authority. At the -request of Luis Carroz and Pedro Boyl, it was translated into Spanish -by Narcis Viñoles, the Valencian poet, known in the old Cancioneros -for his compositions both in his native dialect and in Castilian. An -earlier version of it into Italian, published in 1491, may also have -been the work of Viñoles, since he intimates that he had made one; but -his Castilian version was printed at Valencia, in 1510, with a license -from Ferdinand the Catholic, acting for his daughter Joan. It is a -large book, of nearly nine hundred pages, in folio, entitled, “Suma de -todas las Crónicas del Mundo,” and though Viñoles hints it was a rash -thing in him to write in Castilian, his style is good and sometimes -gives an interest to his otherwise dry annals. Ximeno, Bib. Val., Tom. -I. p. 61. Fuster, Tom. I. p. 54. Diana Enam. de Polo, ed. 1802, p. 304. -Biographie Universelle, art. <i>Foresto</i>.</p> - -<p class="ti1">The other Chronicle referred to is that of St. Louis, by -his faithful follower Joinville; the most picturesque of the monuments -for the French language and literature of the thirteenth century. It -was translated into Spanish by Jacques Ledel, one of the suite of the -French Princess Isabel de Bourbon, when she went to Spain to become the -wife of Philip II. Regarded as the work of a foreigner, the version is -respectable; and though it was not printed till 1567, yet its whole -tone prevents it from finding an appropriate place anywhere except in -the period of the old Castilian chronicles. Crónica de San Luis, etc., -traducida por Jacques Ledel, Madrid, 1794, folio.</p> - -</div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p id="Footnote_352"><span class="label"><a -href="#FNanchor_352">[352]</a></span> An edition of the “Chronicle -of Don Roderic” is cited as early as 1511; none of “Amadis de Gaula” -earlier than 1510, and this one uncertain. But “Tirant lo Blanch” was -printed in 1490, in the Valencian dialect, and the Amadis appeared -perhaps soon afterwards, in the Castilian; so that it is not improbable -the “Chronicle of Don Roderic” may mark, by the time of its appearance, -as well as by its contents and spirit, the change, of which it is -certainly a very curious monument.</p> - -</div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p id="Footnote_353"><span class="label"><a -href="#FNanchor_353">[353]</a></span> Warton’s Hist. of English Poetry, -first Dissertation, with the notes of Price, London, 1824, 4 vols. 8vo. -Ellis’s Specimens of Early English Metrical Romance, London, 1811, 8vo, -Vol. I. Turner’s Vindication of Ancient British Poems, London, 1803, -8vo.</p> - -</div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p id="Footnote_354"><span class="label"><a -href="#FNanchor_354">[354]</a></span> Turpin, J., De Vitâ Caroli Magni -et Rolandi, ed. S. Ciampi, Florentiæ, 1822, 8vo.</p> - -</div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p id="Footnote_355"><span class="label"><a -href="#FNanchor_355">[355]</a></span> Preface to the “Roman de Rou,” by -Robert Wace, ed. F. Pluquet, Paris, 1827, 8vo, Vol. I.</p> - -</div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p id="Footnote_356"><span class="label"><a -href="#FNanchor_356">[356]</a></span> Letter to M. de Monmerqué, by -Paulin Paris, prefixed to “Li Romans de Berte aux Grans Piés,” Paris, -1836, 8vo.</p> - -</div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p id="Footnote_357"><span class="label"><a -href="#FNanchor_357">[357]</a></span> See, on the whole subject, the -Essays of F. W. Valentine Schmidt; Jahrbücher der Literatur, Vienna, -1824-26, Bände XXVI. p. 20, XXIX. p. 71, XXXI. p. 99, and XXXIII. p. -16. I shall have occasion to use the last of these discussions, when -speaking of the Spanish romances belonging to the family of Amadis.</p> - -</div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p id="Footnote_358"><span class="label"><a -href="#FNanchor_358">[358]</a></span> Don Quixote, in his conversation -with the curate, (Parte II. c. 1,) says, that, to defeat any army of -two hundred thousand men, it would only be necessary to have living -“alguno de los del inumerable linage de Amadis de Gaula,”—“any one of -the numberless descendants of Amadis de Gaul.”</p> - -</div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p id="Footnote_359"><span class="label"><a -href="#FNanchor_359">[359]</a></span> Ayala, in his “Rimado de -Palacio,” already cited, says:—</p> - -<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> -<p class="i0">Plegomi otrosi oir muchas vegadas</p> -<p class="i0">Libros de devaneos e mentiras probadas,</p> -<p class="i0">Amadis e Lanzarote, e burlas a sacadas,</p> -<p class="i0">En que perdi mi tiempo á mui malas jornadas.</p> -</div></div> - -</div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p id="Footnote_360"><span class="label"><a -href="#FNanchor_360">[360]</a></span> Barbosa, Bib. Lusitana, Lisboa, -1752, fol., Tom. III. p. 775, and the many authorities there cited, -none of which, perhaps, is of much consequence except that of João de -Barros, who, being a careful historian, born in 1496, and citing an -older author than himself, adds something to the testimony in favor of -Lobeira.</p> - -</div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p id="Footnote_361"><span class="label"><a -href="#FNanchor_361">[361]</a></span> Gomez de Zurara, in the outset -of his “Chronicle of the Conde Don Pedro de Meneses,” says that he -wishes to write an account only of “the things that happened in his -own times, or of those which happened so near to his own times that -he could have true knowledge of them.” This strengthens what he says -concerning Lobeira, in the passage cited in the text from the opening -of Chap. 63 of the Chronicle. The Ferdinand to whom Zurara there refers -was the father of John I. and died in 1383. The Chronicle of Zurara -is published by the Academy of Lisbon, in their “Colecção de Libros -Ineditos de Historia Portuguesa,” Lisboa, 1792, fol., Tom. II. I have -a curious manuscript “Dissertation on the Authorship of the Amadis -de Gaula,” by Father Sarmiento, who wrote the valuable fragment of a -History of Spanish Poetry to which I have often referred. This learned -Galician is much confused and vexed by the question;—first denying that -there is any authority at all for saying Lobeira wrote the Amadis; -then asserting, that, <i>if</i> Lobeira wrote it, he was a Galician; then -successively suggesting that it may have been written by Vasco Perez -de Camões, by the Chancellor Ayala, by Montalvo, or by the Bishop of -Cartagena;—all absurd conjectures, much connected with his prevailing -passion to refer the origin of all Spanish poetry to Galicia. He does -not seem to have been aware of the passage in Gomez de Zurara.</p> - -</div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p id="Footnote_362"><span class="label"><a -href="#FNanchor_362">[362]</a></span> The Saint Graal, or the Holy Cup -which the Saviour used for the wine of the Last Supper, and which, in -the story of Arthur, is supposed to have been brought to England by -Joseph of Arimathea, is alluded to in Amadis de Gaula (Lib. IV. c. 48). -Arthur himself—“El muy virtuoso rey Artur”—is spoken of in Lib. I. c. -1, and in Lib. IV. c. 49, where “the Book of Don Tristan and Launcelot” -is also mentioned. Other passages might be cited, but there can be no -doubt the author of Amadis knew some of the French fictions.</p> - -</div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p id="Footnote_363"><span class="label"><a -href="#FNanchor_363">[363]</a></span> See the end of Chap. 40, Book I., -in which he says, “The Infante Don Alfonso of Portugal, having pity on -the fair damsel, [the Lady Briolana,] ordered it to be otherwise set -down, and in this was done what was his good pleasure.”</p> - -</div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p id="Footnote_364"><span class="label"><a -href="#FNanchor_364">[364]</a></span> Ginguené, Hist. Litt. d’Italie, -Paris, 1812, 8vo, Tom. V. p. 62, note (4), answering the Preface of the -Conte de Tressan to his too free abridgment of the Amadis de Gaula, -Œuvres, Paris, 1787, 8vo, Tom. I. p. xxii.</p> - -</div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p id="Footnote_365"><span class="label"><a -href="#FNanchor_365">[365]</a></span> The fact that it was in the -Arveiro collection is stated in Ferreira, “Poemas Lusitanas,” (Lisboa, -1598, 4to,) where is the sonnet, No. 33, by Ferreira in honor of Vasco -de Lobeira, which Southey, in his Preface to his “Amadis of Gaul,” -(London, 1803, 12mo, Vol. I. p. vii.,) erroneously attributes to the -Infante Antonio of Portugal, and thus would make it of consequence -in the present discussion. Nic. Antonio, who leaves no doubt as to -the authorship of the sonnet in question, refers to the same note in -Ferreira to prove the deposit of the manuscript of the Amadis; so that -the two constitute only <i>one</i> authority, and not <i>two</i> authorities, as -Southey supposes. (Bib. Vetus, Lib. VIII. cap. vii. sect. 291.) Barbosa -is more distinct. (Bib. Lusitana, Tom. III. p. 775.) But there is a -careful summing up of the matter in Clemencin’s notes to Don Quixote, -(Tom. I. pp. 105, 106,) beyond which it is not likely we shall advance -in our knowledge concerning the fate of the Portuguese original.</p> - -</div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p id="Footnote_366"><span class="label"><a -href="#FNanchor_366">[366]</a></span> In his Prólogo, Montalvo alludes -to the conquest of Granada in 1492, and to <i>both</i> the Catholic -sovereigns as still alive, one of whom, Isabella, died in 1504.</p> - -</div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p id="Footnote_367"><span class="label"><a -href="#FNanchor_367">[367]</a></span> I doubt whether the <i>Salamanca</i> -edition of 1510, mentioned by Barbosa, (article <i>Vasco de Lobeira</i>,) -is not, after all, the edition of 1519 mentioned in Brunet as printed -by <i>Antonio de Salamanca</i>. The error in printing, or copying, would -be small, and nobody but Barbosa seems to have heard of the one he -notices. When the first edition appeared is quite uncertain.</p> - -</div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p id="Footnote_368"><span class="label"><a -href="#FNanchor_368">[368]</a></span> Ferrario, Storia ed Analisi -degli antichi Romanzi di Cavalleria, (Milano, 1829, 8vo, Tom. IV. p. -242,) and Brunet’s Manuel; to all which should be added the “Amadigi” -of Bernardo Tasso, 1560, constructed almost entirely from the Spanish -romance; a poem which, though no longer popular, had much reputation in -its time, and is still much praised by Ginguené.</p> - -</div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p id="Footnote_369"><span class="label"><a -href="#FNanchor_369">[369]</a></span> For the old French version, see -Brunet’s “Manuel du Libraire”; but Count Tressan’s <i>rifacimento</i>, first -printed in 1779, has kept it familiar to French readers down to our own -times. In German it was known from 1583, and in English from 1619; but -the abridgment of it by Southey (London, 1803, 4 vols. 12mo) is the -only form of it in English that can now be read. It was also translated -into Dutch; and Castro, somewhere in his “Biblioteca,” speaks of a -Hebrew translation of it.</p> - -</div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p id="Footnote_370"><span class="label"><a -href="#FNanchor_370">[370]</a></span> “Casi que <i>en nuestros dias</i> -vimos y comunicamos y oimos al invencible y valeroso caballero D. -Belianis de Grecia,” says the mad knight, when he gets to be maddest, -and follows out the consequence of making Amadis live above two hundred -years and have descendants innumerable. Parte I. c. 13.</p> - -</div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p id="Footnote_371"><span class="label"><a -href="#FNanchor_371">[371]</a></span> Don Quixote, ed. Clemencin, Tom. -I. p. 107, note.</p> - -</div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p id="Footnote_372"><span class="label"><a -href="#FNanchor_372">[372]</a></span> Amadis de Gaula, Lib. I. c. 4.</p> - -</div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p id="Footnote_373"><span class="label"><a -href="#FNanchor_373">[373]</a></span> Lib. II. c. 17.</p> - -</div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p id="Footnote_374"><span class="label"><a -href="#FNanchor_374">[374]</a></span> Lib. IV. c. 32.</p> - -</div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p id="Footnote_375"><span class="label"><a -href="#FNanchor_375">[375]</a></span> See Lib. II. c. 13, Lib. IV. c. -14, and in many other places, exhortations to knightly and princely -virtues.</p> - -</div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p id="Footnote_376"><span class="label"><a -href="#FNanchor_376">[376]</a></span> See the mourning about his own -time, as a period of great suffering (Lib. IV. c. 53). This could not -have been a just description of any part of the reign of the Catholic -kings in Spain; and must therefore, I suppose, have been in the -original work of Lobeira, and have referred to troubles in Portugal.</p> - -</div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p id="Footnote_377"><span class="label"><a -href="#FNanchor_377">[377]</a></span> Don Quixote, Parte I. c. 6. -Cervantes, however, is mistaken in his bibliography, when he says that -the Amadis was the <i>first</i> book of chivalry printed in Spain. It has -often been noted that this distinction belongs to “Tirant lo Blanch,” -1490; though Southey (Omniana, London, 1812, 12mo, Tom. II. p. 219) -thinks “there is a total want of the spirit of chivalry” in it; and it -should further be noted now, as curious facts, that “Tirant lo Blanch,” -though it appeared in Valencian in 1490, in Castilian in 1511, and -in Italian in 1538, was yet, like the Amadis, originally written in -Portuguese, to please a Portuguese prince, and that this Portuguese -original is now lost;—all remarkable coincidences. See note on Chap. -XVII. of this Period. On the point of the general merits of the Amadis, -two opinions are worth citing. The first, on its style, is by the -severe anonymous author of the “Diálogo de las Lenguas,” temp. Charles -V., who, after discussing the general character of the book, adds, “It -should be read by those who wish to learn our language.” (Mayans y -Siscar, Orígenes, Madrid, 1737, 12mo, Tom. II. p. 163.) The other, on -its invention and story, is by Torquato Tasso, who says of the Amadis, -“In the opinion of many, and particularly in my own opinion, it is the -most beautiful, and perhaps the most profitable, story of its kind that -can be read, because, in its sentiment and tone, it leaves all others -behind it, and, in the variety of its incidents, yields to none written -before or since.” Apologia della Gerusalemme, Opere, Pisa, 1824, 8vo, -Tom. X. p. 7.</p> - -</div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p id="Footnote_378"><span class="label"><a -href="#FNanchor_378">[378]</a></span> I possess of “Esplandian” the -curious edition printed at Burgos, in folio, double columns, 1587, by -Simon de Aguaya. It fills 136 leaves, and is divided into 184 chapters. -As in the other editions I have seen mentioned or have noticed in -public libraries, it is called “<i>Las Sergas</i> del muy Esforçado -Cavallero Esplandian,” in order to give it the learned appearance of -having really been translated, as it pretends to be, from the Greek -of Master Elisabad;—“Sergas” being evidently an awkward corruption -of the Greek Ἔργα, <i>works</i> or <i>achievements</i>. Allusions are made to -it, as to a continuation, in the Amadis, Lib. IV.; besides which, in -Lib. III. cap. 4, we have the birth and baptism of Esplandian; in Lib. -III. c. 8, his marvellous growth and progress; and so on, till, in -the last chapter of the romance, he is armed as a knight. So that the -Esplandian is, in the strictest manner, a continuation of the Amadis. -Southey (Omniana, Vol. I. p. 145) thinks there is some error about -the authorship of the Esplandian. If there is, I think it is merely -typographical.</p> - -</div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p id="Footnote_379"><span class="label"><a -href="#FNanchor_379">[379]</a></span> There are two <i>Canciones</i> in -Amadis, (Lib. II. c. 8 and c. 11,) which, notwithstanding something -of the conceits of their time, in the Provençal manner, are quite -charming, and ought to be placed among the similar <i>Canciones</i> in -the “Floresta” of Bohl de Faber. The last begins,—</p> - -<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> -<p class="i0">Leonoreta, fin roseta,</p> -<p class="i0">Blanca sobre toda flor;</p> -<p class="i0">Fin roseta, no me meta</p> -<p class="i0">En tal cuyta vuestro amor.</p> -</div></div> - -</div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p id="Footnote_380"><span class="label"><a -href="#FNanchor_380">[380]</a></span> The whole subject of these twelve -books of Amadis in Spanish and the twenty-four in French belongs -rather to bibliography than to literary history, and is among the most -obscure points in both. The twelve Spanish books are said by Brunet -never to have been all seen by any one bibliographer. I have seen, I -believe, seven or eight of them, and own the only two for which any -real value has ever been claimed,—the Amadis de Gaula, in the rare -and well-printed edition of Venice, 1533, folio, and the Esplandian -in the more rare, but very coarse, edition already referred to. When -the earliest edition of either of them, or of most of the others, was -printed cannot, I presume, be determined. One of Esplandian, of 1510, -is mentioned by N. Antonio, but by nobody else in the century and a -half that have since elapsed; and he is so inaccurate in such matters, -that his authority is not sufficient. In the same way, he is the only -authority for an edition in 1525 of the seventh book,—“Lisuarte of -Greece.” But, as the twelfth book was certainly printed in 1549, the -only fact of much importance is settled; viz., that the whole twelve -were published in Spain in the course of about half a century. For all -the curious learning on the subject, however, see an article by Salvá, -in the Repertorio Americano, Lóndres, Agosto de 1827, pp. 29-39; F. -A. Ebert, Lexicon, Leipzig, 1821, 4to, Nos. 479-489; Brunet, article -<i>Amadis</i>; and, especially, the remarkable discussion, already referred -to, by F. W. V. Schmidt, in the Wiener Jahrbücher, Band XXXIII. -1826.</p> - -</div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p id="Footnote_381"><span class="label"><a -href="#FNanchor_381">[381]</a></span> Like whatever relates to the -series of the Amadis, the account of the Palmerins is very obscure. -Materials for it are to be found in N. Antonio, Bibliotheca Nova, Tom. -II. p. 393; in Salvá, Repertorio Americano, Tom. IV. pp. 39, etc.; -Brunet, article <i>Palmerin</i>; Ferrario, Romanzi di Cavalleria, Tom. IV. -pp. 256, etc.: and Clemencin, notes to Don Quixote, Tom. I. pp. 124, -125.</p> - -</div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p id="Footnote_382"><span class="label"><a -href="#FNanchor_382">[382]</a></span> The fate of Palmerin of England -has been a very strange one. Until a few years since, the only -question was, whether it were originally French or Portuguese; for the -oldest forms in which it was then known to exist were, 1. the French -by Jacques Vicent, 1553, and the Italian by Mambrino Roseo, 1555, -both of which claimed to be translations from the Spanish; and, 2. -the Portuguese by Moraes, 1567, which claimed to be translated from -the French. In general, it was supposed to be the work of Moraes, -who, having long lived in France, was thought to have furnished his -manuscript to the French translator, (Barbosa, Bib. Lus., Tom. II. -p. 209,) and, under this persuasion, it was published as his, in -Portuguese, at Lisbon, in three handsome volumes, small 4to, 1786, and -in English, by Southey, London, 1807, 4 vols. 12mo. Even Clemencin, -(ed. Don Quixote, Tom. I. pp. 125, 126,) if he did not think it to be -the work of Moraes, had no doubt that it was originally Portuguese. At -last, however, Salvá found a copy of the lost Spanish original, which -settles the question, and places the date of the work in 1547-48, -Toledo, 3 tom. folio. (Repertorio Americano, Tom. IV. pp. 42-46.) The -little we know of its author, Luis Hurtado, is to be found in Antonio, -Bib. Nov., Tom. II. p. 44, where one of his works, “Cortes del Casto -Amor y de la Muerte,” is said to have been printed in 1557. He also -translated the “Metamorphoses” of Ovid.</p> - -</div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p id="Footnote_383"><span class="label"><a -href="#FNanchor_383">[383]</a></span> Barbosa, Bib. Lusit., Tom. I. p. -652, Tom. II. p. 17.</p> - - - -</div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p id="Footnote_384"><span class="label"><a -href="#FNanchor_384">[384]</a></span> Bishop Percy says that Dr. -Johnson read “Felixmarte of Hircania” quite through, when at his -parsonage-house, one summer. It may be doubted whether the book has -been read through since by any Englishman. Boswell’s Life, ed. Croker, -London, 1831, 8vo, Vol. I. p. 24.</p> - -</div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p id="Footnote_385"><span class="label"><a -href="#FNanchor_385">[385]</a></span> Ebert cites the first edition -known as of 1525; Bowle, in the list of his authorities, gives one -of 1534; Clemencin says there is one of 1543 in the Royal Library at -Madrid; and Pellicer used one of 1562. Which of these I have I do not -know, as the colophon is gone and there is no date on the title-page; -but its type and paper seem to indicate an edition from Antwerp, while -all the preceding were printed in Spain.</p> - -</div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p id="Footnote_386"><span class="label"><a -href="#FNanchor_386">[386]</a></span> See Parte I. c. 112, 144.</p> - -</div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p id="Footnote_387"><span class="label"><a -href="#FNanchor_387">[387]</a></span> “Merlin,” 1498, “Artus,” 1501, -“Tristan,” 1528, “Sancto Grial,” 1555, and “Segunda Tabla Redonda,” -1567, would seem to be the series of them given by the bibliographers. -But the last cannot, perhaps, now be found, though mentioned by -Quadrio, who, in his fourth volume, has a good deal of curious matter -on these old romances generally. I do not think it needful to notice -others, such as “Pierres y Magalona,” 1526, “Tallante de Ricamonte,” -and the “Conde Tomillas,”—the last referred to in Don Quixote, but -otherwise unknown.</p> - -</div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p id="Footnote_388"><span class="label"><a -href="#FNanchor_388">[388]</a></span> Discussions on the origin of -these stories may be found in the Preface to the excellent edition of -Einhard or Eginhard by Ideler (Hamburg, 1839, 8vo, Band I. pp. 40-46). -The very name, <i>Roncesvalles</i>, does not seem to have occurred out of -Spain till much later. (Ibid., p. 169.) There is an edition of the -“Carlo Magno” printed at Madrid, in 1806, 12mo, evidently for popular -use, and I notice others since.</p> - -</div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p id="Footnote_389"><span class="label"><a -href="#FNanchor_389">[389]</a></span> There are several editions of the -First Part of it mentioned in Clemencin’s notes to Don Quixote (Parte -I. c. 6); besides which, it had succession, in Parts II. and III., -before 1558.</p> - -</div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p id="Footnote_390"><span class="label"><a -href="#FNanchor_390">[390]</a></span> The “Cleomadez,” one of the most -popular stories in Europe for three centuries, was composed by Adenez, -at the dictation of Marie, queen of Philip III. of France, who married -her in 1272. (Fauchet, Recueil, Paris, 1581, folio, Liv. II. c. 116.) -Froissart gives a simple account of his reading and admiring it in his -youth. Poésies, Paris, 1829, 8vo, pp. 206, etc.</p> - -</div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p id="Footnote_391"><span class="label"><a -href="#FNanchor_391">[391]</a></span> The “Ethiopica,” or the “Loves -of Theagenes and Chariclea,” written in Greek by Heliodorus, who lived -in the time of the Emperors Theodosius, Arcadius, and Honorius. It was -well known in Spain at the period now spoken of, for, though it was -not printed in the original before 1534, a Spanish translation of it -appeared as early as 1554, anonymously, and another, by Ferdinand de -Mena, in 1587, which was republished at least twice in the course of -thirty years. (Nic. Antonio, Bib. Nov., Tom. I. p. 380, and Conde’s -Catalogue, London, 1824, 8vo, Nos. 263, 264.) It has been said that the -Bishop preferred to give up his rank and place rather than consent to -have this romance, the work of his youth, burned by public authority. -Erotici Græci, ed. Mitscherlich, Biponti, 1792, 8vo, Tom. II. p. -viii.</p> - -</div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p id="Footnote_392"><span class="label"><a -href="#FNanchor_392">[392]</a></span> The “Caballería Christiana” was -printed in 1570, the “Caballero de la Clara Estrella” in 1580, and the -“Caballero Peregrino” in 1601. Besides these, “Roberto el Diablo”—a -story which was famous throughout Europe in the fifteenth, sixteenth, -and seventeenth centuries, and has been revived in our own times—was -known in Spain from 1628, and probably earlier. (Nic. Antonio, Bib. -Nov., Tom. II. p. 251.) In France, it was printed in 1496, (Ebert, -No. 19175,) and in England by Wynkyn de Worde. See Thomas, Romances, -London, 1828, 12mo, Vol. I. p. v.</p> - -</div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p id="Footnote_393"><span class="label"><a -href="#FNanchor_393">[393]</a></span> Who this Hierónimo de San Pedro -was is a curious question. The Privilegio declares he was a Valencian, -alive in 1554; and in the Bibliothecas of Ximeno and Fuster, under -the year 1560, we have Gerónimo Sempere given as the name of the -well-known author of the “Carolea,” a long poem printed in that year. -But to him is not attributed the “Caballería Celestial”; nor does any -other Hierónimo de San Pedro occur in these collections of lives, -or in Nicolas Antonio, or elsewhere that I have noted. Are they, -nevertheless, one and the same person, the name of the poet being -sometimes written Sentpere, Senct Pere, etc.?</p> - -</div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p id="Footnote_394"><span class="label"><a -href="#FNanchor_394">[394]</a></span> It is prohibited in the Index -Expurgatorius, Madrid, 1667, folio, p. 863.</p> - -</div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p id="Footnote_395"><span class="label"><a -href="#FNanchor_395">[395]</a></span> I take, as in fairness I ought, -the date of the appearance of Montalvo’s Spanish version, as the period -of the first success of the Amadis in Spain, and not the date of the -Portuguese original; the difference being about a century.</p> - -</div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p id="Footnote_396"><span class="label"><a -href="#FNanchor_396">[396]</a></span> See the very curious laws that -constitute the twenty-first Title of the second of the Partidas, -containing the most minute regulations; such as how a knight should be -washed and dressed, etc.</p> - -</div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p id="Footnote_397"><span class="label"><a -href="#FNanchor_397">[397]</a></span> I should think there are accounts -of twenty or thirty such tournaments in the Chronicle of John II. There -are many, also, in that of Alvaro de Luna; and so there are in all the -contemporary histories of Spain during the fifteenth century. In the -year 1428, alone, four are recorded; two of which involved loss of -life, and all of which were held under the royal auspices.</p> - -</div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p id="Footnote_398"><span class="label"><a -href="#FNanchor_398">[398]</a></span> See the <a -href="#Page_193">account of the Passo Honroso</a> already given, to -which add the accounts in the Chronicle of John II. of one which was -attempted in Valladolid, by Rui Diaz de Mendoza, on occasion of the -marriage of Prince Henry, in 1440, but which was stopped by the royal -order, in consequence of the serious nature of its results. Chrónica -de Juan el IIº, Ann. 1440, c. 16.</p> - -</div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p id="Footnote_399"><span class="label"><a -href="#FNanchor_399">[399]</a></span> Ibid., Ann. 1435, c. 3.</p> - -</div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p id="Footnote_400"><span class="label"><a -href="#FNanchor_400">[400]</a></span> Claros Varones de Castilla, -Título XVII. He boasts, at the same time, that more Spanish knights -went abroad to seek adventures than there were foreign knights who came -to Castile and Leon; a fact pertinent to this point.</p> - -</div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p id="Footnote_401"><span class="label"><a -href="#FNanchor_401">[401]</a></span> Historia Imperial, Anvers, 1561, -folio, ff. 123, 124. The first edition was of 1545.</p> - -</div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p id="Footnote_402"><span class="label"><a -href="#FNanchor_402">[402]</a></span> Pellicer, note to Don Quixote, -Parte I. c. 13.</p> - -</div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p id="Footnote_403"><span class="label"><a -href="#FNanchor_403">[403]</a></span> Parte I. c. 32.</p> - -</div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p id="Footnote_404"><span class="label"><a -href="#FNanchor_404">[404]</a></span> The abdication of the emperor -happened the same year, and prevented this and other petitions of the -Cortes from being acted upon. For the laws here referred to, and other -proofs of the prevalence and influence of the romances of chivalry down -to the time of the appearance of Don Quixote, see Clemencin’s Preface -to his edition of that work.</p> - -</div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p id="Footnote_405"><span class="label"><a -href="#FNanchor_405">[405]</a></span> A Spanish Bishop of Barcelona, -in the seventh century, was deposed for merely permitting plays with -allusions to heathen mythology to be acted in his diocese. Mariana, -Hist., Lib. VI. c. 3.</p> - -</div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p id="Footnote_406"><span class="label"><a -href="#FNanchor_406">[406]</a></span> Onésime le Roy, Études sur -les Mystères, Paris, 1837, 8vo, Chap. I. De la Rue, Essai sur les -Bardes, les Jongleurs, etc., Caen, 1834, 8vo, Vol. I. p. 159. Spence’s -Anecdotes, ed. Singer, London, 1820, 8vo, p. 397. The exhibition still -annually made, in the church of Ara Cœli, on the Capitol at Rome, -of the manger and the scene of the Nativity is, like many similar -exhibitions elsewhere, of the same class.</p> - -</div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p id="Footnote_407"><span class="label"><a -href="#FNanchor_407">[407]</a></span> Remains of Roman theatres are -found at Seville (Triana), Tarragona, Murviedro (Saguntum), Merida, -etc.</p> - -</div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p id="Footnote_408"><span class="label"><a -href="#FNanchor_408">[408]</a></span> <i>Juegos por Escarnio</i> is the -phrase in the original. It is obscure; but I have followed the -intimation of Martinez de la Rosa, who is a good authority, and -who considers it to mean short satirical compositions, from which -arose, perhaps, afterwards, <i>Entremeses</i> and <i>Saynetes</i>. (Isabel de -Solís, Madrid, 1837, 12mo, Tom. I. p. 225, note 13.) <i>Escarnido</i>, in -Don Quixote, (Parte II. c. xxi.,) is used in the sense of “trifled -with.”</p> - -</div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p id="Footnote_409"><span class="label"><a -href="#FNanchor_409">[409]</a></span> Partida I. Tít. VI. Ley 34, ed. -de la Academia.</p> - -</div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p id="Footnote_410"><span class="label"><a -href="#FNanchor_410">[410]</a></span> He says that his grandfather, -Pedro Gonzalez de Mendoza, who lived in the time of Peter the Cruel, -wrote scenic poems in the manner of Plautus and Terence, in couplets -like <i>Serranas</i>. Sanchez, Poesías Anteriores, Tom. I. p. lix.</p> - -</div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p id="Footnote_411"><span class="label"><a -href="#FNanchor_411">[411]</a></span> Velazquez, Orígenes de la Poesía -Castellana, Málaga, 1754, 4to, p. 95. I think it not unlikely that -Zurita refers to this play of Villena, when he says, (Anales, Libro -XII., Año 1414,) that, at the coronation of Ferdinand, there were -“grandes juegos y <i>entremeses</i>.” Otherwise we must suppose there were -several different dramatic entertainments, which is possible, but not -probable.</p> - -</div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p id="Footnote_412"><span class="label"><a -href="#FNanchor_412">[412]</a></span> “He had a great deal of inventive -faculty, and was much given to making inventions and <i>entremeses</i> for -festivals,” etc. (Crónica del Condestable Don Alvaro de Luna, ed. -Flores, Madrid, 1784, 4to, Título 68.) It is not to be supposed that -these were like the gay farces that have since passed under the same -name, but there can be little doubt that they were poetical and were -exhibited. The Constable was beheaded in 1453.</p> - -</div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p id="Footnote_413"><span class="label"><a -href="#FNanchor_413">[413]</a></span> I am not unaware that attempts -have been made to give the Spanish theatre a different origin from -the one I have assigned to it. 1. The marriage of Doña Endrina and -Don Melon has been cited for this purpose in the French translation -of “Celestina” by De Lavigne (Paris, 12mo, 1841, pp. v., vi.). But -their adventures, taken from Pamphylus Maurianus, already noticed, -(p. 81,) constitute, in fact, a mere story arranged about 1335, by -the Archpriest of Hita, out of an old Latin dialogue, (Sanchez, Tom. -IV. stanz. 550-865,) but differing in nothing important from the -other tales of the Archpriest, and quite insusceptible of dramatic -representation. (See Preface of Sanchez to the same volume, pp. xxiii., -etc.) 2. The “Dança General de la Muerte,” already noticed as written -about 1350, (Castro, Biblioteca Española, Tom. I. pp. 200, etc.,) has -been cited by L. F. Moratin (Obras, ed. de la Academia, Madrid, 1830, -8vo, Tom. I. p. 112) as the earliest specimen of Spanish dramatic -literature. But it is unquestionably not a drama, but a didactic poem, -which it would have been quite absurd to attempt to exhibit. 3. The -“Comedieta de Ponza,” on the great naval battle fought near the island -of Ponza, in 1435, and written by the Marquis of Santillana, who died -in 1454, has been referred to as a drama by Martinez de la Rosa, (Obras -Literarias, Paris, 1827, 12mo, Tom. II. pp. 518, etc.,) who assigns it -to about 1436. But it is, in truth, merely an allegorical poem thrown -into the form of a dialogue and written in <i>coplas de arte mayor</i>. I -shall notice it hereafter. And finally, 4. Blas de Nasarre, in his -Prólogo to the plays of Cervantes, (Madrid, 1749, 4to, Vol. I.,) says -there was a <i>comedia</i> acted before Ferdinand and Isabella in 1469, at -the house of the Count de Ureña, in honor of their wedding. But we -have only Blas de Nasarre’s <i>dictum</i> for this, and he is not a good -authority: besides which, he adds that the author of the <i>comedia</i> in -question was John de la Enzina, who, we know, was not born earlier -than the year before the event referred to. The moment of the somewhat -secret marriage of these illustrious persons was, moreover, so full of -anxiety, that it is not at all likely <i>any</i> show or mumming accompanied -it. See Prescott’s Ferdinand and Isabella, Part I. c. 3.</p> - -</div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p id="Footnote_414"><span class="label"><a -href="#FNanchor_414">[414]</a></span> “Coplas de Mingo Revulgo,” often -printed, in the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries, with the beautiful -Coplas of Manrique. The editions I use are those of 1588, 1632, and the -one at the end of the “Crónica de Enrique IV.,” (Madrid, 1787, 4to, ed. -de la Academia,) with the commentary of Pulgar.</p> - -</div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p id="Footnote_415"><span class="label"><a -href="#FNanchor_415">[415]</a></span></p> - -<div class="poem mt-05"><div class="stanza"> -<p class="i0">A Mingo Revulgo, Mingo!</p> -<p class="i2">A Mingo Revulgo, hao!</p> -<p class="i2">Que es de tu sayo de blao?</p> -<p class="i2">No le vistes en Domingo?</p> -<p class="i0">Que es de tu jubon bermejo?</p> -<p class="i2">Por que traes tal sobrecejo?</p> -<p class="i2">Andas esta madrugada</p> -<p class="i2">La cabeza desgreñada:</p> -<p class="i2">No te llotras de buen rejo?</p> -<p class="dr">Copla I.</p> -</div></div> - -</div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p id="Footnote_416"><span class="label"><a -href="#FNanchor_416">[416]</a></span> Velazquez (Orígenes, p. 52) -treats Mingo Revulgo as a satire against King John and his court. But -it applies much more naturally and truly to the time of Henry IV., and -has, indeed, generally been considered as directed against that unhappy -monarch. Copla the sixth seems plainly to allude to his passion for -Doña Guiomar de Castro.</p> - -</div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p id="Footnote_417"><span class="label"><a -href="#FNanchor_417">[417]</a></span> The Coplas of Mingo Revulgo were -very early attributed to John de Mena, the most famous poet of the -time (N. Antonio, Bib. Nov., Tom. I. p. 387); but, unhappily for this -conjecture, Mena was of the opposite party in politics. Mariana, who -found Revulgo of consequence enough to be mentioned when discussing the -troubles of Henry IV., declares (Historia, Lib. XXIII. c. 17, Tom. II. -p. 475) the Coplas to have been written by Hernando del Pulgar, the -chronicler; but no reason is given for this opinion except the fact -that Pulgar wrote a commentary on them, making their allegory more -intelligible than it would have been likely to be made by any body not -quite familiar with the thoughts and purposes of the author. See the -dedication of this commentary to Count Haro, with the Prólogo, and -Sarmiento, Poesía Española, Madrid, 1775, 4to, § 872. But whoever wrote -Mingo Revulgo, there is no doubt it was an important and a popular poem -in its day.</p> - -</div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p id="Footnote_418"><span class="label"><a -href="#FNanchor_418">[418]</a></span> The “Diálogo entre el Amor y -un Viejo” was first printed, I believe, in the “Cancionero General” -of 1511, but it is found with the Coplas de Manrique, 1588 and 1632. -See, also, N. Antonio, Bib. Nov., Tom. II. pp. 263, 264, for notices -of Cota. The fact of this old Dialogue having an effect on the coming -drama may be inferred, not only from the obvious resemblance between -the two, but from a passage in Juan de la Enzina’s Eclogue beginning -“Vamonos, Gil, al aldea,” which plainly alludes to the opening of -Cota’s Dialogue, and, indeed, to the whole of it. The passage in Enzina -is the concluding <i>Villancico</i>, which begins,—</p> - -<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> -<p class="i0">Ninguno cierre las puertas;</p> -<p class="i0">Si Amor viniese a llamar,</p> -<p class="i0">Que no le ha aprovechar.</p> -</div></div> - -<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> -<p class="i0">Let no man shut his doors;</p> -<p class="i0">If Love should come to call,</p> -<p class="i0">’T will do no good at all.</p> -</div></div> - -</div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p id="Footnote_419"><span class="label"><a -href="#FNanchor_419">[419]</a></span> They are called <i>actos</i> in the -original; but neither <i>act</i> nor <i>scene</i> is a proper name for the parts -of which the Celestina is composed; since it occasionally mingles up, -in the most confused manner, and in the <i>same</i> act, conversations -that necessarily happened at the <i>same</i> moment in <i>different</i> places. -Thus, in the fourteenth act, we have conversations held partly between -Calisto and Melibœa inside her father’s garden, and partly between -Calisto’s servants, who are outside of it; all given as a consecutive -dialogue, without any notice of the change of place.</p> - -</div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p id="Footnote_420"><span class="label"><a -href="#FNanchor_420">[420]</a></span> Rojas, the author of all but the -first act of the Celestina, says, in a prefatory letter to a friend, -that the first act was supposed by some to have been the work of Juan -de Mena, and by others to have been the work of Rodrigo Cota. The -absurdity of the first conjecture was noticed long ago by Nicolas -Antonio, and has been admitted ever since, while, on the other hand, -what we have of Cota falls in quite well with the conjecture that <i>he</i> -wrote it; besides which, Alonso de Villegas, in the verses prefixed to -his “Selvagia,” 1554, to be noticed hereafter, says expressly, “Though -he was poor and of low estate, (<i>pobre y de baxo lugar</i>,) we know that -Cota’s skill (<i>ciencia</i>) enabled him to begin the great Celestina, and -that Rojas finished it with an ambrosial air that can never be enough -valued”;—a testimony heretofore overlooked, but one which, under the -circumstances of the case, seems sufficient to decide the question.</p> - -<p class="ti1">As to the time when the Celestina was written, we must -bring it into the reign of Ferdinand and Isabella, before which we -cannot find sufficient ground for believing such Spanish prose to have -been possible. It is curious, however, that, from one and the same -passage in the third act of the Celestina, Blanco White (Variedades, -London, 1824, 8vo, Tom. I. p. 226) supposes Rojas to have written -his part of it before the fall of Granada, and Germond de Lavigne -(Celestine, p. 63) supposes him to have written it either afterwards, -or at the very time when the last siege was going on. But Blanco -White’s inference seems to be the true one, and would place both parts -of it before 1490. If to this we add the allusions (Acts 4 and 7) to -the <i>autos da fé</i> and their arrangements, we must place it after 1480, -when the Inquisition was first established. But this is doubtful.</p> - -</div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p id="Footnote_421"><span class="label"><a -href="#FNanchor_421">[421]</a></span> Blanco White gives ingenious -reasons for supposing that Seville is the city referred to. He himself -was born there, and could judge well.</p> - -</div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p id="Footnote_422"><span class="label"><a -href="#FNanchor_422">[422]</a></span> The Trota-conventos of Juan -Ruiz, the Archpriest of Hita, has already been noticed; and certainly -is not without a resemblance to the Celestina. Besides, in the Second -Act of “Calisto y Melibœa,” Celestina herself is once expressly called -Trota-conventos.</p> - -</div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p id="Footnote_423"><span class="label"><a -href="#FNanchor_423">[423]</a></span> Rojas states these facts in -his prefatory anonymous letter, already mentioned, and entitled “El -Autor á un su Amigo”; and he declares his own name and authorship in -an acrostic, called “El Autor excusando su Obra,” which immediately -follows the epistle, and the initial letters of which bring out the -following words: “El Bachiller Fernando de Rojas acabó la comedia -de Calysto y Meliboea, y fue nascido en la puebla de Montalvan.” Of -course, if we believe Rojas himself, there can be no doubt on this -point.</p> - -</div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p id="Footnote_424"><span class="label"><a -href="#FNanchor_424">[424]</a></span> Blanco White, in a criticism -on the Celestina, (Variedades, Tom. I. pp. 224, 296,) expresses this -opinion, which is also found in the Preface to M. Germond de Lavigne’s -French translation of the Celestina. L. F. Moratin, too, (Obras, Tom. -I. Parte I. p. 88,) thinks there is no difference in style between the -two parts, though he treats them as the work of different writers. But -the acute author of the “Diálogo de las Lenguas” (Mayans y Siscar, -Orígenes, Madrid, 1737, 12mo, Tom. II. p. 165) is of a different -opinion, and so is Lampillas, Ensayo, Madrid, 1789, 4to, Tom. VI. p. -54.</p> - -</div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p id="Footnote_425"><span class="label"><a -href="#FNanchor_425">[425]</a></span> For a notice of the first known -edition,—that of 1499,—which is entitled “Comedia,” and is divided -into sixteen acts, see an article on the Celestina by F. Wolf, in -Blätter für Literarische Unterhaltung, 1845, Nos. 213 to 217, which -leaves little to desire on the subject it so thoroughly discusses. The -expurgations in the editions of Alcalá, 1586, and Madrid, 1595, are -slight, and in the Plantiniana edition, 1595, I think there are none. -It is curious to observe how few are ordered in the Index of 1667, (p. -948,) and that the <i>whole</i> book was not forbidden till 1793, having -been expressly permitted, with expurgations, in the Index of 1790, -and appearing first, as prohibited, in the Index of 1805. No other -book, that I know of, shows so distinctly how supple and compliant the -Inquisition was, where, as in this case, it was deemed impossible to -control the public taste. An Italian translation printed at Venice, -in 1525, which is well made, and is dedicated to a lady, is not -expurgated at all. There are lists of the editions of the original in -L. F. Moratin, (Obras, Tom. I. Parte I. p. 89,) and B. C. Aribau’s -“Biblioteca de Autores Españoles,” (Madrid, 1846, 8vo, Tom. III. p. -xii.,) to which, however, additions can be made by turning to Brunet, -Ebert, and the other bibliographers. The best editions are those of -Amarita (1822) and Aribau (1846).</p> - -</div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p id="Footnote_426"><span class="label"><a -href="#FNanchor_426">[426]</a></span> Mayans y Siscar, Orígenes, Tom. -II. p. 167. “No book in Castilian has been written in a language more -natural, appropriate, and elegant.”</p> - -</div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p id="Footnote_427"><span class="label"><a -href="#FNanchor_427">[427]</a></span> Verses by “El Donoso,” prefixed -to the first part of Don Quixote.</p> - -</div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p id="Footnote_428"><span class="label"><a -href="#FNanchor_428">[428]</a></span> Sebastian de Covarrubias, Tesoro -de la Lengua Castellana, Madrid, 1674, fol., ad verb.</p> - -</div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p id="Footnote_429"><span class="label"><a -href="#FNanchor_429">[429]</a></span> Puibusque, Hist. Comparée des -Littératures Espagnole et Française, Paris, 1843, 8vo, Tom. I. p. -478;—the Essay prefixed to the French translation of Lavigne, Paris, -1841, 12mo;—Montiano y Luyando, Discurso sobre las Tragedias Españolas, -Madrid, 1750, 12mo, p. 9, and <i>post</i>, c. 21. The “Ingeniosa Helena” -(1613) and the “Flora Malsabidilla” (1623) are by Salas Barbadillo, and -will be noticed hereafter, among the prose fictions of the seventeenth -century. The “Eufrosina” is by Ferreira de Vasconcellos, a Portuguese, -and why, in 1631, it was translated into Spanish by Ballesteros -Saavedra as if it had been anonymous, I know not. It is often mentioned -as the work of Lobo, another Portuguese, (Barbosa, Bib. Lusit., Tom. -II. p. 242, and Tom. IV. p. 143,) and Quevedo, in his Preface to the -Spanish version, seems to have been of that opinion; but this, too, is -not true. Lobo only prepared, in 1613, an edition of the Portuguese -original.</p> - -<p class="ti1">Of the imitations of the Celestina mentioned in the -text, two, perhaps, deserve further notice.</p> - -<p class="ti1">The first is the one entitled “Florinea,” which was -printed at Medina del Campo, in 1554, and which, though certainly -without the power and life of the work it imitates, is yet written in -a pure and good style. The principal personage is Marcelia,—parcel -witch, wholly shameless,—going regularly to matins and vespers, and -talking religion and philosophy, while her house and life are full of -whatever is most infamous. Some of the scenes are as indecent as any in -the Celestina; but the story is less disagreeable, as it ends with an -honorable love-match between Floriano and Belisea, the hero and heroine -of the drama, and promises to give their wedding in a continuation, -which, however, never appeared. It is longer than its prototype, -filling 312 pages of black letter, closely printed, in small quarto; -abounds in proverbs; and contains occasional snatches of poetry, which -are not in so good taste as the prose. Florian, the author, says, -that, though his work is called <i>comedia</i>, he is to be regarded as -“historiador cómico,” a dramatic narrator.</p> - -<p class="ti1">The other is the “Selvagia,” by Alonso de Villegas, -published at Toledo, in 1554, 4to, the same year with the Florinea, -to which it alludes with great admiration. Its story is ingenious. -Flesinardo, a rich gentleman from Mexico, falls in love with Rosiana, -whom he has only seen at a window of her father’s house. His friend -Selvago, who is advised of this circumstance, watches the same window, -and falls in love with a lady whom he supposes to be the same that had -been seen by Flesinardo. Much trouble naturally follows. But it is -happily discovered that the lady is <i>not</i> the same; after which—except -in the episodes of the servants, the bully, and the inferior -lovers—every thing goes on successfully, under the management of an -unprincipled counterpart of the profligate Celestina, and ends with -the marriage of the four lovers. It is not so long as the Celestina or -the Florinea, filling only seventy-three leaves in quarto, but it is -an avowed imitation of both. Of the genius that gives such life and -movement to its principal prototype there is little trace, nor has it -an equal purity of style. But some of its declamations, perhaps,—though -as misplaced as its pedantry,—are not without power, and some of its -dialogue is free and natural. It claims everywhere to be very religious -and moral, but it is any thing rather than either. Of its author there -can be no doubt. As in every thing else he imitates the Celestina, so -he imitates it in prefatory acrostic verses, from which I have spelt -out the following sentence: “Alonso de Villegas Selvago compuso la -Comedia Selvagia en servicio de su Sennora Isabel de Barrionuevo, -siendo de edad de veynte annos, en Toledo, su patria”;—a singular -offering, certainly, to a lady-love. It is divided into scenes, as well -as acts.</p> - -</div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p id="Footnote_430"><span class="label"><a -href="#FNanchor_430">[430]</a></span> L. F. Moratin, Obras, Tom. I. -Parte I. p. 280, and <i>post</i>, Period II. c. 28.</p> - -</div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p id="Footnote_431"><span class="label"><a -href="#FNanchor_431">[431]</a></span> The name of this author seems to -be somewhat uncertain, and has been given in two or three different -ways,—Alfonso Vaz, Vazquez, Velasquez, and Uz de Velasco. I take it as -it stands in Antonio, Bib. Nov. (Tom. I. p. 52). The shameless play -itself is to be found in Ochoa’s edition of the “Orígenes del Teatro -Español” (Paris, 1838, 8vo). Some of the characters are well drawn; -for instance, that of Inocencio, which reminds me occasionally of the -inimitable Dominie Sampson. An edition of it appeared at Milan in -1602, probably preceded—as in almost all cases seems of Spanish books -printed abroad—by an edition at home, and certainly followed by one at -Barcelona in 1613.</p> - -</div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p id="Footnote_432"><span class="label"><a -href="#FNanchor_432">[432]</a></span> Custine, L’Espagne sous Ferdinand -VII., troisième édit., Paris, 1838, 8vo, Tom. I. p. 279. The edition -of Celestina with the various readings is that of Madrid, 1822, 18mo, -by Leon Amarita. The French translation is the one already mentioned, -by Germond de Lavigne (Paris, 1841, 12mo); and the German translation, -which is very accurate and spirited, is by Edw. Bülow (Leipzig, 1843, -12mo). Traces of it on the English stage are found as early as about -1530 (Collier’s History of Dram. Poetry, etc., London, 1831, 8vo, Tom. -II. p. 408), and I have a translation of it by James Mabbe (London, -1631, folio), which, for its idiomatic English style, deserves to be -called beautiful. Three translations of it, in the sixteenth century, -into French, and three into Italian, which were frequently reprinted, -besides one into Latin, already alluded to, and one into German, may be -found noted in Brunet, Ebert, etc.</p> - -</div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p id="Footnote_433"><span class="label"><a -href="#FNanchor_433">[433]</a></span> He spells his name differently -in different editions of his works; Encina in 1496, Enzina in 1509 and -elsewhere.</p> - -</div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p id="Footnote_434"><span class="label"><a -href="#FNanchor_434">[434]</a></span> There is an edition of it -(Madrid, 1786, 12mo) filling a hundred pages, to which is added a -summary of the whole in a ballad of eighteen pages, which may have been -intended for popular recitation. The last is not, perhaps, the work of -Enzina. A similar pilgrimage, partly devout, partly poetical, was made -a century later by Pedro de Escobar Cabeza de la Vaca, who published an -account of it in 1587, (12mo,) at Valladolid, in twenty-five cantos of -blank verse, entitled “Lucero de la Tierra Santa,”—A Lighthouse for the -Holy Land. He went and returned by the way of Egypt, and at Jerusalem -became a knight-templar; but his account of what he saw and did, though -I doubt not it is curious for the history of geography, is as free -from the spirit of poetry as can well be imagined. Nearly the whole -of it, if not broken into verses, might be read as pure and dignified -Castilian prose, and parts of it would have considerable merit as -such.</p> - -</div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p id="Footnote_435"><span class="label"><a -href="#FNanchor_435">[435]</a></span> The best life of Enzina is one -in the “Allgemeine Encyclopedie der Wissenschaften und Künste” (Erste -Section, Leipzig, 4to, Tom. XXXIV. pp. 187-189). It is by Ferdinand -Wolf, of Vienna. An early and satisfactory notice of Enzina is to be -found in Gonzalez de Avila, “Historia de Salamanca,” (Salamanca, 1606, -4to, Lib. III. c. xxii.,) where Enzina is called “hijo desta patria,” -i. e. Salamanca.</p> - -</div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p id="Footnote_436"><span class="label"><a -href="#FNanchor_436">[436]</a></span> “Auto del Repelon,” or Auto of -the Brawl, being a quarrel in the market-place of Salamanca, between -some students of the University and sundry shepherds. The word <i>auto</i> -comes from the Latin <i>actus</i>, and was applied to any particularly -solemn acts, however different in their nature and character, like the -<i>autos sacramentales</i> of the <i>Corpus Christi</i> days, and the <i>autos da -fé</i> of the Inquisition. (See Covarrubias, Tesoro, ad verb.; and the -account of Lope de Vega’s drama, in the next period.) In 1514, Enzina -published, at Rome, a drama entitled “Placida y Victoriano,” which he -called <i>una egloga</i>, and which is much praised by the author of the -“Diálogo de las Lenguas”; but it was put into the Index Expurgatorius, -1559, and occurs again in that of 1667, p. 733. I believe no copy of it -is known to be extant.</p> - -</div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p id="Footnote_437"><span class="label"><a -href="#FNanchor_437">[437]</a></span> They may have been represented, -but I know of no proof that they were, except this accommodation of -them to personages some of whom are known to have been of his audience -on similar occasions.</p> - -</div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p id="Footnote_438"><span class="label"><a -href="#FNanchor_438">[438]</a></span> Agustin de Rojas, Viage -Entretenido, Madrid, 1614, 12mo, ff. 46, 47. Speaking of the bucolic -dramas of Enzina, represented before the Dukes of Alva, Infantado, -etc., he says expressly, “These were the first.” Rojas was not born -till 1577, but he was devoted to the theatre his whole life, and seems -to have been more familiar with its history than anybody else of his -time.</p> - -</div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p id="Footnote_439"><span class="label"><a -href="#FNanchor_439">[439]</a></span> Rodrigo Mendez de Silva, Catálogo -Real Genealógico de España, at the end of his “Poblacion de España” -(Madrid, 1675, folio, f. 250. b). Mendez de Silva was a learned and -voluminous author. See his Life, Barbosa, Bib. Lusitana, Tom. III. p. -649, where is a sonnet of Lope de Vega in praise of the learning of -this very Catálogo Real. The word “publicly,” however, seems only to -refer to the representations in the houses of Enzina’s patrons, etc., -as we shall see hereafter.</p> - -</div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p id="Footnote_440"><span class="label"><a -href="#FNanchor_440">[440]</a></span> The <i>villancicos</i> long retained a -pastoral tone and something of a dramatic character. At the marriage of -Philip II., in Segovia, 1570, “The youth of the choir, gayly dressed as -shepherds, danced and sang a <i>villancico</i>,” says Colmenares, (Hist. de -Segovia, Segovia, 1627, fol., p. 558,) and in 1600, <i>villancicos</i> were -again performed by the choir, when Philip III. visited the city. Ibid., -p. 594.</p> - -</div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p id="Footnote_441"><span class="label"><a -href="#FNanchor_441">[441]</a></span> This is the eclogue beginning -“Dios salva acá buena gente,” etc., and is on fol. 103 of the -“Cancionero de Todas las Obras de Juan de la Encina; impreso en -Salamanca, a veinte dias del Mes de Junio de M.CCCC. E XCVI. años” (116 -leaves, folio). It was represented before the Duke and Duchess of Alva, -while they were in the chapel for matins on Christmas morning; and the -next eclogue, beginning “Dios mantenga, Dios mantenga,” was represented -in the same place, at vespers, the same day.</p> - -</div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p id="Footnote_442"><span class="label"><a -href="#FNanchor_442">[442]</a></span> “This word,” says Covarruvias, -in his Tesoro, “is used in Salamanca, and means Carnival. In the -villages, they call it <i>Antruydo</i>; it is certain days before Lent.... -They savor a little of heathenism.” Later, <i>Antruejo</i> became, from -a provincialism, an admitted word. Villalobos, about 1520, in his -amusing “Dialogue between the Duke and the Doctor,” says, “Y el dia -de Antruejo,” etc. (Obras, Çaragoça, 1544, folio, f. 35); and the -Academy’s dictionary has it, and defines it to be “the three last days -of Carnival.”</p> - -</div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p id="Footnote_443"><span class="label"><a -href="#FNanchor_443">[443]</a></span> The “Antruejo” eclogue begins -“Carnal fuera! Carnal fuera!”—“Away, Carnival! away, Carnival!”—and -recalls the old ballad, “Afuera, afuera, Rodrigo!” It is found at f. 85 -of the edition of 1509, and is preceded by another “Antruejo” eclogue, -represented the same day before the Duke and Duchess, beginning “O -triste de mi cuytado,” (f. 83,) and ending with a <i>villancico</i> full of -hopes of a peace with France.</p> - -</div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p id="Footnote_444"><span class="label"><a -href="#FNanchor_444">[444]</a></span> It begins “Deo gracias, padre -onrado!” and is at f. 80 of the edition of 1509.</p> - -</div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p id="Footnote_445"><span class="label"><a -href="#FNanchor_445">[445]</a></span> These are the two eclogues, -“Pascuala, Dios te mantenga!” (f. 86,) and “Ha, Mingo, quedaste atras” -(f. 88). They were, I have little doubt, represented in succession, -with a pause between, like that between the acts of a modern play, in -which Enzina presented a copy of his Works to the Duke and Duchess, and -promised to write no more poetry unless they ordered him to do it.</p> - -</div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p id="Footnote_446"><span class="label"><a -href="#FNanchor_446">[446]</a></span> There is such a Doric simplicity -in this passage, with its antiquated, and yet rich, words, that I -transcribe it as a specimen of description very remarkable for its -age:—</p> - -<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> -<p class="i0">Cata, Gil, que las mañanas,</p> -<p class="i2">En el campo hay gran frescor,</p> -<p class="i2">Y tiene muy gran sabor</p> -<p class="i0">La sombra de las cabañas.</p> -<p class="i0"> </p> -<p class="i0">Quien es ducho de dormir</p> -<p class="i2">Con el ganado de noche,</p> -<p class="i2">No creas que no reproche</p> -<p class="i0">El palaciego vivir.</p> -<p class="i0">Oh! que gasajo es oir</p> -<p class="i2">El sonido de los grillos,</p> -<p class="i2">Y el tañer de los caramillos;</p> -<p class="i0">No hay quien lo pueda decir!</p> -<p class="i0"> </p> -<p class="i0">Ya sabes que gozo siente</p> -<p class="i2">El pastor muy caluroso</p> -<p class="i2">En beber con gran reposo,</p> -<p class="i0">De bruzas, agua en la fuente,</p> -<p class="i0">O de la que va corriente</p> -<p class="i2">Por el cascajal corriendo,</p> -<p class="i2">Que se va todo riendo;</p> -<p class="i0">Oh! que prazer tan valiente!</p> -<p class="dr0">Ed. 1509, f. 90.</p> -</div></div> - -</div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p id="Footnote_447"><span class="label"><a -href="#FNanchor_447">[447]</a></span> Barbosa, Biblioteca Lusitana, -Tom. II. pp. 383, etc. The dates of 1502 and 1536 are from the -prefatory notices, by the son of Vicente, to the first of his works, in -the “Obras de Devoção,” and to the “Floresta de Engaños,” which was the -latest of them.</p> - -</div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p id="Footnote_448"><span class="label"><a -href="#FNanchor_448">[448]</a></span> Damião de Goes, Crónica de -D. Manoel, Lisboa, 1749, fol., Parte IV. c. 84, p. 595. “Trazia -continuadamente na sua Corte choquarreiros Castellanos.”</p> - -</div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p id="Footnote_449"><span class="label"><a -href="#FNanchor_449">[449]</a></span> Married in 1500. (Ibid., Parte I. -c. 46.) As so many of Vicente’s Spanish verses were made to please the -Spanish queens, I cannot agree with Rapp, (Pruth’s Literärhistorisch -Taschenbuch, 1846, p. 341,) that Vicente used Spanish in his Pastorals -as a low, vulgar language. Besides, if it was so regarded, why did -Camoens and Saa de Miranda,—two of the four great poets of Portugal,—to -say nothing of a multitude of other proud Portuguese, write -occasionally in Spanish?</p> - -</div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p id="Footnote_450"><span class="label"><a -href="#FNanchor_450">[450]</a></span> The youngest son of Vicente -published his father’s Works at Lisbon, in folio, in 1562, of which -a reprint in quarto appeared there in 1586, much disfigured by the -Inquisition. But these are among the rarest and most curious books in -modern literature, and I remember to have seen hardly five copies, one -of which was in the library at Göttingen, and another in the public -library at Lisbon, the first in folio, and the last in quarto. Indeed, -so rare had the Works of Vicente become, that Moratin, to whom it -was very important to see a copy of them, and who knew whatever was -to be found at Madrid and Paris, in both which places he lived long, -never saw one, as is plain from No. 49 of his “Catálogo de Piezas -Dramáticas.” We therefore owe much to two Portuguese gentlemen, J. V. -Barreto Feio and J. G. Monteiro, who published an excellent edition of -Vicente’s Works at Hamburg, 1834, in three volumes, 8vo, using chiefly -the Göttingen copy. In this edition (Vol. I. p. 1) occurs the monologue -spoken of in the text, placed first, as the son says, “por ser á -<i>primeira</i> coisa, que o autor fez, <i>e que em Portugal se representou</i>.” -He says, the representation took place on the second night after the -birth of the prince, and, this being so exactly stated, we know that -the first secular dramatic exhibition in Portugal took place June 8, -1502, John III. having been born on the 6th. Crónica de D. Manoel, -Parte I. c. 62.</p> - -</div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p id="Footnote_451"><span class="label"><a -href="#FNanchor_451">[451]</a></span> The imitation of Enzina’s -poetry by Vicente is noticed by the Hamburg editors. (Vol. I. Ensaio, -p. xxxviii.) Indeed, it is quite too obvious to be overlooked, and -is distinctly acknowledged by one of his contemporaries, Garcia de -Resende, the collector of the Portuguese Cancioneiro of 1517, who says, -in some rambling verses on things that had happened in his time,—</p> - -<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> -<p class="i0">E vimos singularmente</p> -<p class="i0">Fazer representações</p> -<p class="i0">Destilo muy eloquente,</p> -<p class="i0">De muy novas invenções,</p> -<p class="i0">E feitas por Gil Vicente.</p> -<p class="i0">Elle foi o que inventou</p> -<p class="i0">Isto ca e o usou</p> -<p class="i0">Cõ mais graça e mais dotrina;</p> -<p class="i0">Posto que Joam del Enzina</p> -<p class="i0">O pastoril començou.</p> -</div></div> - -<p class="fs90 dcha mt-1">Miscellania e Variedade de Historias, at the -end of Resende’s Crónica de João II., 1622, folio, f. 164.</p> - -</div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p id="Footnote_452"><span class="label"><a href="#FNanchor_452">[452]</a></span></p> - -<div class="poem mt-05"><div class="stanza"> -<p class="i2">Dicen que me case yo;</p> -<p class="i0">No quiero marido, no!</p> -<p class="i0"> </p> -<p class="i2">Mas quiero vivir segura</p> -<p class="i0">Nesta sierra á mi soltura,</p> -<p class="i0">Que no estar en ventura</p> -<p class="i0">Si casaré bien ó no.</p> -<p class="i0">Dicen que me case yo;</p> -<p class="i0">No quiero marido, no!</p> -<p class="i0"> </p> -<p class="i2">Madre, no seré casada,</p> -<p class="i0">Por no ver vida cansada,</p> -<p class="i0">O quizá mal empleada</p> -<p class="i0">La gracia que Dios me dió.</p> -<p class="i0">Dicen que me case yo;</p> -<p class="i0">No quiero marido, no!</p> -<p class="i0"> </p> -<p class="i2">No será ni es nacido</p> -<p class="i0">Tal para ser mi marido;</p> -<p class="i0">Y pues que tengo sabido.</p> -<p class="i0">Que la flor yo me la só,</p> -<p class="i0">Dicen que me case yo;</p> -<p class="i0">No quiero marido, no!</p> -</div></div> - -<p class="fs90 dcha mt-1">Gil Vicente, Obras, Hamburgo, 1834, 8vo, Tom. -I. p. 42.</p> - -</div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p id="Footnote_453"><span class="label"><a -href="#FNanchor_453">[453]</a></span> Traz Salomão, Esaias, e Moyses, e -Abrahao cantando todos quatro de folia á cantiga seguinte:—</p> - -<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> -<p class="i2">Que sañosa está la niña!</p> -<p class="i0">Ay Dios, quien le hablaria?</p> -<p class="i0"> </p> -<p class="i2">En la sierra anda la niña</p> -<p class="i0">Su ganado á repastar;</p> -<p class="i0">Hermosa como las flores,</p> -<p class="i0">Sañosa como la mar.</p> -<p class="i0">Sañosa como la mar</p> -<p class="i0">Está la niña:</p> -<p class="i0">Ay Dios, quien le hablaria?</p> -</div></div> - -<p class="dcha fs90 mt-1">Vicente, Obras, Tom. I. p. 46.</p> - -</div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p id="Footnote_454"><span class="label"><a -href="#FNanchor_454">[454]</a></span></p> - -<div class="poem mt-05"><div class="stanza"> -<p class="i2">Muy graciosa es la doncella:</p> -<p class="i0">Como es bella y hermosa!</p> -<p class="i0"> </p> -<p class="i2">Digas tú, el marinero,</p> -<p class="i0">Que en las naves vivias,</p> -<p class="i0">Si la nave ó la vela ó la estrella</p> -<p class="i0">Es tan bella.</p> -<p class="i0"> </p> -<p class="i2">Digas tú, el caballero,</p> -<p class="i0">Que las armas vestías,</p> -<p class="i0">Si el caballo ó las armas ó la guerra</p> -<p class="i0">Es tan bella.</p> -<p class="i0"> </p> -<p class="i2">Digas tú, el pastorcico,</p> -<p class="i0">Que el ganadico guardas,</p> -<p class="i0">Si el ganado ó las valles ó la sierra</p> -<p class="i0">Es tan bella.</p> -</div></div> - -<p class="dcha fs90 mt-1">Vicente, Obras, Tom. I. p. 61.</p> - -</div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p id="Footnote_455"><span class="label"><a href="#FNanchor_455">[455]</a></span> It is in the Hamburg edition -(Tom. I. pp. 36-62); but though it -properly ends, as has been said, with -the song to the Madonna, there is -afterwards, by way of <i>envoi</i>, the following -<i>vilancete</i>, (“<i>por despedida ó -vilancete seguinte</i>,”) which is curious -as showing how the theatre was, from -the first, made to serve for immediate -excitement and political purposes; -since the <i>vilancete</i> is evidently intended -to stir up the noble company present -to some warlike enterprise in -which their services were wanted, -probably against the Moors of Africa, -as King Manoel had no other wars.</p> - -<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> -<p class="i0">To the field! To the field!</p> -<p class="i2">Cavaliers of emprise!</p> -<p class="i2">Angels pure from the skies</p> -<p class="i0">Come to help us and shield.</p> -<p class="i0">To the field! To the field!</p> -<p class="i0"> </p> -<p class="i0">With armour all bright,</p> -<p class="i2">They speed down their road,</p> -<p class="i2">On man call, on God,</p> -<p class="i0">To succour the right.</p> -<p class="i0"> </p> -<p class="i0">To the field! To the field!</p> -<p class="i2">Cavaliers of emprise,</p> -<p class="i2">Angels pure from the skies</p> -<p class="i0">Come to help us and shield.</p> -<p class="i0">To the field! To the field!</p> -</div></div> - -<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> -<p class="i4">A la guerra,</p> -<p class="i0">Caballeros esforzados;</p> -<p class="i0">Pues los angeles sagrados</p> -<p class="i0">A socorro son en tierra.</p> -<p class="i4">A la guerra!</p> -<p class="i2">Con armas resplandecientes</p> -<p class="i0">Vienen del cielo volando,</p> -<p class="i0">Dios y hombre apelidando</p> -<p class="i0">En socorro de las gentes.</p> -<p class="i4">A la guerra,</p> -<p class="i0">Caballeros esmerados;</p> -<p class="i0">Pues los angeles sagrados</p> -<p class="i0">A socorro son en tierra.</p> -<p class="i4">A la guerra!</p> -</div></div> - -<p class="dcha fs90 mt-1">Vicente, Obras, Tom. I. p 62.</p> - -<p class="ti1 mt1"> A similar tone is more fully heard in the spirited -little drama entitled “The Exhortation to War,” performed 1513.</p> - -</div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p id="Footnote_456"><span class="label"><a -href="#FNanchor_456">[456]</a></span> Obras, Hamburgo, 1834, 8vo, Tom. -II. pp. 68, etc.</p> - -</div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p id="Footnote_457"><span class="label"><a -href="#FNanchor_457">[457]</a></span> The “Rubena” is the first of the -plays called,—it is difficult to tell why,—by Vicente or his editor, -<i>Comedias</i>; and is partly in Spanish, partly in Portuguese. It is -among those prohibited in the Index Expurgatorius of 1667, (p. 464,)—a -prohibition renewed down to 1790.</p> - -</div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p id="Footnote_458"><span class="label"><a -href="#FNanchor_458">[458]</a></span> These two long plays, wholly in -Spanish, are the first two of those announced as “Tragicomedias” in -Book III. of the Works of Vicente. No reason that I know of can be -given for this precise arrangement and name.</p> - -</div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p id="Footnote_459"><span class="label"><a -href="#FNanchor_459">[459]</a></span> This, too, is one of the -“Tragicomedias,” and is chiefly, but not wholly, in Spanish.</p> - -</div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p id="Footnote_460"><span class="label"><a -href="#FNanchor_460">[460]</a></span> The first of these three <i>Autos</i>, -the “Barca do Inferno,” was represented, in 1517, before the queen, -Maria of Castile, in her sick-chamber, when she was suffering under -the dreadful disease of which she soon afterwards died. Like the -“Barca do Purgatorio,” (1518,) it is in Portuguese, but the remaining -<i>Auto</i>, the “Barca da Gloria,” (1519,) is in Spanish. The last two -were represented in the royal chapel. The moral play of Lope de Vega -which was suggested by them is the one called “The Voyage of the Soul,” -and is found in the First Book of his “Peregrino en su Patria.” The -opening of Vicente’s play resembles remarkably the setting forth of the -Demonio on his voyage in Lope, besides that the general idea of the two -fictions is almost the same. On the other side of the account, Vicente -shows himself frequently familiar with the old Spanish literature. For -instance, in one of his Portuguese <i>Farças</i>, called “Dos Físicos,” -(Tom. III. p. 323,) we have—</p> - -<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> -<p class="i0">En el mes era de Mayo,</p> -<p class="i0">Vespora de Navidad,</p> -<p class="i0">Cuando canta la cigarra, etc.;</p> -</div></div> - -<p>plainly a parody of the well-known and beautiful old Spanish ballad -beginning—</p> - -<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> -<p class="i0">Por el mes era de Mayo,</p> -<p class="i0">Quando hace la calor,</p> -<p class="i0">Quando canta la calandria, etc.,</p> -</div></div> - -<p>a ballad which, so far as I know, can be traced no farther back than -the ballad-book of 1555, or, at any rate, that of 1550, while here we -have a distinct allusion to it before 1536, giving a curious proof -how widely this old popular poetry was carried about by the memories -of the people before it was written down and printed, and how much it -was used for dramatic purposes from the earliest period of theatrical -compositions.</p> - -</div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p id="Footnote_461"><span class="label"><a -href="#FNanchor_461">[461]</a></span> This “Auto da Fé,” as it is -strangely called, is in Spanish (Obras, Tom. I. pp. 64, etc.); but -there is one in Portuguese, represented before John III., (1527,) which -is still more strangely called “Breve Summario da Historia de Deos,” -the action beginning with Adam and Eve, and ending with the Saviour. -Ibid., I. pp. 306, etc.</p> - -</div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p id="Footnote_462"><span class="label"><a -href="#FNanchor_462">[462]</a></span> Joam de Barros, the historian, -in his dialogue on the Portuguese Language, (Varias Obras, Lisboa, -1785, 12mo, p. 222,) praises Vicente for the purity of his thoughts and -style, and contrasts him proudly with the Celestina; “a book,” he adds, -“to which the Portuguese language has no parallel.”</p> - -</div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p id="Footnote_463"><span class="label"><a -href="#FNanchor_463">[463]</a></span> His touching verses, “Ven, -muerte, tan escondida,” so often cited, and at least once in Don -Quixote, (Parte II. c. 38,) are found as far back as the Cancionero -of 1511; but I am not aware that Escriva’s “Quexa de su Amiga” can be -found earlier than in the Cancionero, Sevilla, 1535, where it occurs, -f. 175. b, etc. He himself, no doubt, flourished about the year -1500-1510. But I should not, probably, have alluded to him here, if he -had not been noticed in connection with the early Spanish theatre, by -Martinez de la Rosa (Obras, Paris, 1827, 12mo, Tom. II. p. 336). Other -poems, written in dialogue, by Alfonso de Cartagena, and by Puerto -Carrero, occur in the Cancioneros Generales, but they can hardly be -regarded as dramatic; and Clemencin twice notices Pedro de Lerma as one -of the early contributors to the Spanish drama; but he is not mentioned -by Moratin, Antonio, Pellicer, or any of the other authors who would -naturally be consulted in relation to such a point. Don Quixote, ed. -Clemencin, Tom. IV. p. viii., and Memorias de la Academia de Historia, -Tom. VI. p. 406.</p> - -</div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p id="Footnote_464"><span class="label"><a -href="#FNanchor_464">[464]</a></span> Three editions of it are cited by -L. F. Moratin, (Catálogo, No. 20,) the earliest of which is in 1515. -My copy, however, is of neither of them. It is dated Çaragoça, 1544, -(folio,) and is at the end of the “Problemas” and of the other works of -Villalobos, which also precede it in the editions of 1543 and 1574.</p> - -</div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p id="Footnote_465"><span class="label"><a -href="#FNanchor_465">[465]</a></span> It fills about twenty-six pages -and six hundred lines, chiefly in octave stanzas, in the edition of -Antwerp, 1576, and contains a detailed account of the circumstances -attending its representation.</p> - -</div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p id="Footnote_466"><span class="label"><a -href="#FNanchor_466">[466]</a></span> This notice of Naharro is taken -from the slight accounts of him contained in the letter of Juan Baverio -Mesinerio prefixed to the “Propaladia” (Sevilla, 1573, 18mo) as a life -of its author, and from the article in Antonio, Bib. Nov., Tom. I. p. -202.</p> - -</div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p id="Footnote_467"><span class="label"><a -href="#FNanchor_467">[467]</a></span> Antonio (Preface to Biblioteca -Nova, Sec. 29) says he bred young men to become soldiers by teaching -them to read romances of chivalry.</p> - -</div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p id="Footnote_468"><span class="label"><a -href="#FNanchor_468">[468]</a></span> “Intitulélas” (he says, “Al -Letor”) “Propaladia a Prothon, quod est primum, et Pallade, id est, -primæ res Palladis, a differencia de las que segundariamente y con -mas maduro estudio podrian succeder.” They were, therefore, probably -written when he was a young man.</p> - -</div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p id="Footnote_469"><span class="label"><a -href="#FNanchor_469">[469]</a></span> I have never seen the first -edition, which is sometimes said to have been printed at Naples (Ebert, -etc.) and sometimes (Moratin, etc.) at Rome; but as it was dedicated to -one of its author’s Neapolitan patrons, and as Mesinerio, who seems to -have been a personal acquaintance of its author, implies that it was, -<i>at some time</i>, printed at Naples, I have assigned its <i>first</i> edition -to that city. Editions appeared at Seville in 1520, 1533, and 1545; one -at Toledo, 1535; one at Madrid, 1573; and one without date at Antwerp. -I have used the editions of Seville, 1533, small quarto, and Madrid, -1573, small 18mo; the latter being expurgated, and having “Lazarillo de -Tórmes” at the end. There were but six plays in the early editions; the -“Calamita” and “Aquilana” being added afterwards.</p> - -</div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p id="Footnote_470"><span class="label"><a -href="#FNanchor_470">[470]</a></span> “Viendo assi mismo todo el mundo -en fiestas de Comedias y destas cosas,” is part of his apology to Don -Fernando Davalos for asking leave to dedicate them to him.</p> - -</div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p id="Footnote_471"><span class="label"><a -href="#FNanchor_471">[471]</a></span> Trissino’s “Sofonisba” was -written as early as 1515, though not printed till later.</p> - -</div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p id="Footnote_472"><span class="label"><a -href="#FNanchor_472">[472]</a></span> “Jornadas,” days’-work, -days’-journey, etc. The old French mysteries were divided into -<i>journées</i> or portions each of which could conveniently be represented -in the time given by the Church to such entertainments on a single -day. One of the mysteries in this way required forty days for its -exhibition.</p> - -</div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p id="Footnote_473"><span class="label"><a -href="#FNanchor_473">[473]</a></span> La Aquilana.</p> - -</div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p id="Footnote_474"><span class="label"><a -href="#FNanchor_474">[474]</a></span> La Calamita.</p> - -</div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p id="Footnote_475"><span class="label"><a -href="#FNanchor_475">[475]</a></span> “Comedia á noticia” he calls -them, in the Address to the Reader, and “comedia á fantasía”; -and explains the first to be “de cosa nota y vista en realidad,” -illustrating the remark by his plays on recruiting and on the riotous -life of a cardinal’s servants. His <i>comedias</i> are extremely different -in length; one of them extending to about twenty-six hundred lines, -which would be very long, if represented, and another hardly reaching -twelve hundred. All, however, are divided into five <i>jornadas</i>.</p> - -</div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p id="Footnote_476"><span class="label"><a -href="#FNanchor_476">[476]</a></span> In the Dedication of “La -Francesilla” in his Comedias, Tom. XIII. Madrid, 1620, 4to.</p> - -</div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p id="Footnote_477"><span class="label"><a -href="#FNanchor_477">[477]</a></span> The “Aquilana,” absurd as its -story is, approaches, perhaps, even nearer to absolute regularity in -its form.</p> - -</div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p id="Footnote_478"><span class="label"><a -href="#FNanchor_478">[478]</a></span> This is an old proverb, “A otro -can con esse huesso.” It occurs more than once in Don Quixote. A little -lower we have another, “Ya las toman do las dan,”—“Where they give, -they take.” Naharro is accustomed to render his humorous dialogue -savory by introducing such old proverbs frequently.</p> - -</div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p id="Footnote_479"><span class="label"><a -href="#FNanchor_479">[479]</a></span></p> - -<div class="poem mt-05"><div class="stanza"> -<p class="i0"><i>Boreas.</i> Plugiera, Señora, a Dios,</p> -<p class="i4">En aquel punto que os vi,</p> -<p class="i4">Que quisieras tanto a mi,</p> -<p class="i4">Como luego quise a vos.</p> -<p class="i0"><i>Doresta.</i> Bueno es esso;</p> -<p class="i4">A otro can con esse huesso!</p> -<p class="i0"><i>Boreas.</i> Ensayad vos de mandarme</p> -<p class="i4">Quanto yo podré hazer,</p> -<p class="i4">Pues os desseo seruir:</p> -<p class="i4">Si quiera porqu’ en prouarme,</p> -<p class="i4">Conozcays si mi querer</p> -<p class="i4">Concierta con mi dezir.</p> -<p class="i0"><i>Doresta.</i> Si mis ganas fuessen ciertas</p> -<p class="i4">De quereros yo mandar,</p> -<p class="i4">Quiça de vuestro hablar</p> -<p class="i4">Saldrian menos offertas.</p> -<p class="i0"><i>Boreas.</i> Si mirays,</p> -<p class="i4">Señora, mal me tratais.</p> -<p class="i0"><i>Doresta.</i> Como puedo maltrataros</p> -<p class="i4">Con palabras tan honestas</p> -<p class="i4">Y por tan cortesas mañas?</p> -<p class="i0"><i>Boreas.</i> Como? ya no osso hablaros,</p> -<p class="i4">Que teneys ciertas respuestas</p> -<p class="i4">Que lastiman las entrañas.</p> -<p class="i0"><i>Doresta.</i> Por mi fe tengo manzilla</p> -<p class="i4">De veros assi mortal:</p> -<p class="i4">Morireys de aquesse mal?</p> -<p class="i0"><i>Boreas.</i> No seria maravilla.</p> -<p class="i0"><i>Doresta.</i> Pues, galan,</p> -<p class="i4">Ya las toman do las dan.</p> -<p class="i0"><i>Boreas.</i> Por mi fe, que holgaria,</p> -<p class="i4">Si, como otros mis yguales,</p> -<p class="i4">Pudiesse dar y tomar:</p> -<p class="i4">Mas veo, Señora mia,</p> -<p class="i4">Que recibo dos mil males</p> -<p class="i4">Y ninguno puedo dar.</p> -</div></div> -<p class="fs90 dcha mt-1">Propaladia, Madrid, 1573, 18mo, f. 222.</p> - -</div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p id="Footnote_480"><span class="label"><a -href="#FNanchor_480">[480]</a></span> There is a good deal of art in -Naharro’s verse. The “Hymenea,” for instance, is written in twelve-line -stanzas; the eleventh being a <i>pie quebrado</i>, or broken line. The -“Jacinta” is in twelve-line stanzas, without the <i>pie quebrado</i>. The -“Calamita” is in <i>quintillas</i>, connected by the <i>pie quebrado</i>. The -“Aquilana” is in <i>quartetas</i>, connected in the same way; and so on. But -the number of feet in each of his lines is not always exact, nor are -the rhymes always good, though, on the whole, a harmonious result is -generally produced.</p> - -</div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p id="Footnote_481"><span class="label"><a -href="#FNanchor_481">[481]</a></span> He partly apologizes for this in -his Preface to the Reader, by saying that Italian words are introduced -into the <i>comedias</i> because of the audiences in Italy. This will do, as -far as the Italian is concerned; but what is to be said for the other -languages that are used? In the <i>Introyto</i> to the “Serafina,” he makes -a jest of the whole, telling the audience,—</p> - -<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> -<p class="i0">But you must all keep wide awake,</p> -<p class="i0">Or else in vain you’ll undertake</p> -<p class="i0">To comprehend the differing speech,</p> -<p class="i0">Which here is quite distinct for each;—</p> -<p class="i0">Four languages, as you will hear,</p> -<p class="i0">Castilian with Valencian clear,</p> -<p class="i0">And Latin and Italian too;—</p> -<p class="i0">So take care lest they trouble you.</p> -</div></div> - -<p class="ti1">No doubt his <i>comedias</i> were exhibited before only a -few persons, who were able to understand the various languages they -contained, and found them only the more amusing for this variety.</p> - -</div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p id="Footnote_482"><span class="label"><a -href="#FNanchor_482">[482]</a></span> It is singular, however, that -a very severe passage on the Pope and the clergy at Rome, in the -“Jacinta,” was not struck out, ed. 1573, f. 256. b;—a proof, among -many others, how capriciously and carelessly the Inquisition acted in -such matters. In the Index of 1667, (p. 114,) only the “Aquilana” is -prohibited.</p> - -</div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p id="Footnote_483"><span class="label"><a -href="#FNanchor_483">[483]</a></span> As the question, whether -Naharro’s plays were acted in Italy or not, has been angrily discussed -between Lampillas (Ensayo, Madrid, 1789, 4to, Tom. VI. pp. 160-167) -and Signorelli (Storia dei Teatri, Napoli, 1813, 8vo, Tom. VI. pp. -171, etc.), in consequence of a rash passage in Nasarre’s Prólogo to -the Plays of Cervantes, (Madrid, 1749, 4to,) I will copy the original -phrase of Naharro himself, which had escaped all the combatants, and -in which he says he used Italian words in his plays, “aviendo respeto -<i>al lugar</i>, y á las personas, á quien <i>se recitaron</i>.” Neither of these -learned persons knew even that the first edition of the “Propaladia” -was probably printed in Italy, and that one early edition was certainly -printed there.</p> - -</div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p id="Footnote_484"><span class="label"><a -href="#FNanchor_484">[484]</a></span> “Las mas destas obrillas andavan -ya fuera de mi obediencia y voluntad.”</p> - -</div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p id="Footnote_485"><span class="label"><a -href="#FNanchor_485">[485]</a></span> In the opening of the <i>Introyto</i> -to the “Trofea.”</p> - -</div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p id="Footnote_486"><span class="label"><a -href="#FNanchor_486">[486]</a></span> I am quite aware, that, in -the important passage already cited from Mendez Silva, on the first -acting of plays in 1492, we have the words, “Año de 1492 comenzaron -en Castilla las compañías á representar <i>publicamente</i> comedias de -Juan de la Enzina”; but what the word <i>publicamente</i> was intended to -mean is shown by the words that follow: “<i>festejando con ellas á D. -Fadrique de Toledo, Enriquez Almirante de Castilla, y á Don Iñigo Lopez -de Mendoza segundo Duque del Infantado.</i>” So that the representations -in the halls and chapels of these great houses were accounted <i>public</i> -representations.</p> - -</div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p id="Footnote_487"><span class="label"><a -href="#FNanchor_487">[487]</a></span> F. Diez, Troubadours, Zwickau, -1826, 8vo, p. 5.</p> - -</div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p id="Footnote_488"><span class="label"><a -href="#FNanchor_488">[488]</a></span> Sismondi, Histoire des Français, -Paris, 1821, 8vo, Tom. III. pp. 239, etc.</p> - -</div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p id="Footnote_489"><span class="label"><a -href="#FNanchor_489">[489]</a></span> E. A. Schmidt, Geschichte -Aragoniens im Mittelalter, Leipzig, 1828, 8vo, p. 92.</p> - -</div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p id="Footnote_490"><span class="label"><a -href="#FNanchor_490">[490]</a></span> Barcelona was a prize often -fought for successfully by Moors and Christians, but it was finally -rescued from the misbelievers in 985 or 986. (Zurita, Anales de Aragon, -Lib. I. c. 9.) Whatever relates to its early power and glory may be -found in Capmany, (Memorias de la Antigua Ciudad de Barcelona, Madrid, -1779-1792, 4 tom. 4to,) and especially in the curious documents and -notes in Tom. II. and IV.</p> - -</div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p id="Footnote_491"><span class="label"><a -href="#FNanchor_491">[491]</a></span> The members of the French -Academy, in their continuation of the Benedictine Hist. Litt. de la -France, (Paris, 4to, Tom. XVI., 1824, p. 195,) trace it back a little -earlier.</p> - -</div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p id="Footnote_492"><span class="label"><a -href="#FNanchor_492">[492]</a></span> Catalan patriotism has denied -all this, and claimed that the Provençal literature was derived from -Catalonia. See Torres Amat, Prólogo to “Memorias de los Escritores -Catalanes,” and elsewhere. But it is only necessary to read what its -friends have said in defence of this position, to be satisfied that -it is untenable. The simple fact, that the literature in question -existed a full century in Provence before there is any pretence to -claim its existence in Catalonia, is decisive of the controversy, if -there really be a controversy about the matter. The “Memorias para -ayudar á formar un Diccionario Crítico de los Autores Catalanes,” -etc., by D. Felix Torres Amat, Bishop of Astorga, etc., (Barcelona, -1836, 8vo,) is, however, an indispensable book for the history of the -literature of Catalonia; for its author, descended from one of the old -and distinguished families of the country, and nephew of the learned -Archbishop Amat, who died in 1824, has devoted much of his life and of -his ample means to collect materials for it. It contains more mistakes -than it should; but a great deal of its information can be obtained -nowhere else in a printed form.</p> - -</div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p id="Footnote_493"><span class="label"><a -href="#FNanchor_493">[493]</a></span> See the articles in Torres Amat, -Memorias, pp. 104, 105.</p> - -</div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p id="Footnote_494"><span class="label"><a -href="#FNanchor_494">[494]</a></span> The poem is in Raynouard, -Troubadours, Tom. III. p. 118. It begins—</p> - -<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> -<p class="i0">Per mantas guizas m’ es datz</p> -<p class="i0">Joys e deport e solatz.</p> -</div></div> - -<p>The life of its author is in Zurita, “Anales de Aragon” (Lib. -II.); but the few literary notices needed of him are best found in -Latassa, “Biblioteca Antigua de los Escritores Aragoneses,” (Zaragoza, -1796, 8vo, Tom. I. p. 175,) and in “Histoire Littéraire de la France” -(Paris, 4to, Tom. XV. 1820, p. 158). As to the word <i>coblas</i>, I cannot -but think—notwithstanding all the refined discussions about it in -Raynouard, (Tom. II. pp. 174-178,) and Diez, “Troubadours,” (p. 111 and -note,)—that it was quite synonymous with the Spanish <i>coplas</i>, and may, -for all common purposes, be translated by our English <i>stanzas</i>, or -even sometimes by <i>couplets</i>.</p> - -</div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p id="Footnote_495"><span class="label"><a -href="#FNanchor_495">[495]</a></span> For Pierre Rogiers, see -Raynouard, Troubadours, Tom. V. p. 330, Tom. III. pp. 27, etc., with -Millot, Hist. Litt. des Troubadours, Paris, 1774, 12mo, Tom. I. pp. -103, etc., and the Hist. Litt. de la France, Tom. XV. p. 459. For -Pierre Raimond de Toulouse, see Raynouard, Tom. V. p. 322, and Tom. -III. p. 120, with Hist. Litt. de la France, Tom. XV. p. 457, and -Crescimbeni, Istoria della Volgar Poesia, (Roma, 1710, 4to, Tom. II. p. -55,) where, on the authority of a manuscript in the Vatican, he says of -Pierre Raimond, “Andò in corte del Re Alfonso d’Aragona, che l’accolse -e molto onorò.” For Aiméric de Péguilain, see Hist. Litt. de la France, -Paris, 4to, Tom. XVIII., 1835, p. 684.</p> - -</div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p id="Footnote_496"><span class="label"><a -href="#FNanchor_496">[496]</a></span> Sismondi (Hist. des Français, -Paris, 8vo, Tom. VI. and VII., 1823, 1826) gives an ample account of -the cruelties and horrors of the war of the Albigenses, and Llorente -(Histoire de l’Inquisition, Paris, 1817, 8vo, Tom. I. p. 43) shows -the connection of that war with the origin of the Inquisition. The -fact, that nearly all the Troubadours took part with the persecuted -Albigenses, is equally notorious. Histoire Litt. de la France, Tom. -XVIII. p. 588, and Fauriel, Introduction to the Histoire de la Croisade -contre les Hérétiques Albigeois, Paris, 1837, 4to, p. xv.</p> - -</div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p id="Footnote_497"><span class="label"><a -href="#FNanchor_497">[497]</a></span> Raynouard, Troub., Tom. V. p. -222, Tom. III. p. 330. Millot, Hist., Tom. II. p. 174.</p> - -</div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p id="Footnote_498"><span class="label"><a -href="#FNanchor_498">[498]</a></span> Hist. Litt. de la France, Tom. -XVIII. p. 586.</p> - -</div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p id="Footnote_499"><span class="label"><a -href="#FNanchor_499">[499]</a></span> Ibid., p. 644.</p> - -</div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p id="Footnote_500"><span class="label"><a -href="#FNanchor_500">[500]</a></span> Raynouard, Troub., Tom. V. pp. -382, 386. Hist. Litt. de la France, Tom. XVII. pp. 456-467.</p> - -</div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p id="Footnote_501"><span class="label"><a -href="#FNanchor_501">[501]</a></span> Hist. Litt. de la France, Tom. -XVIII. pp. 603-605. Millot, Hist., Tom. I. p. 428.</p> - -</div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p id="Footnote_502"><span class="label"><a -href="#FNanchor_502">[502]</a></span> For this cruel and false chief -among the crusaders, praised by Petrarca (Trionfo d’ Amore, C. IV.) -and by Dante (Parad., IX. 94, etc.), see Hist. Litt. de la France, -Tom. XVIII. p. 594. His poetry is in Raynouard, Troub., Tom. III. pp. -149-162.</p> - -</div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p id="Footnote_503"><span class="label"><a -href="#FNanchor_503">[503]</a></span> This important poem, admirably -edited by M. Charles Fauriel, one of the soundest and most genial -French scholars of the nineteenth century, is in a series of works on -the history of France, published by order of the king of France, and -begun under the auspices of M. Guizot, and by his recommendation, when -he was Minister of Public Instruction. It is entitled “Histoire de la -Croisade contre les Hérétiques Albigeois, écrite en Vers Provençaux, -par un Poète contemporain,” Paris, 1837, 4to, pp. 738. It consists of -9578 verses,—the notices of Peter II. occurring chiefly in the first -part of it, and the account of his death at vv. 3061, etc.</p> - -</div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p id="Footnote_504"><span class="label"><a href="#FNanchor_504">[504]</a></span> What remains of his poetry is in -Raynouard, Troub., Tom. V. pp. 290, -etc., and in Hist. Litt. de la France, -Tom. XVII., 1832, pp. 443-447, -where a sufficient notice is given of -his life.</p> - -</div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p id="Footnote_505"><span class="label"><a -href="#FNanchor_505">[505]</a></span></p> - -<div class="poem mt-05"><div class="stanza"> -<p class="i0">Reis d’ Aragon, tornem a vos,</p> -<p class="i0">Car etz capz de bes et de nos.</p> -<p class="dr">Pons Barba.</p> -</div></div> - -</div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p id="Footnote_506"><span class="label"><a -href="#FNanchor_506">[506]</a></span> Hist. Litt. de la France, Tom. -XVIII. p. 553. The poem begins—</p> - -<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> -<p class="i0">Al jove rei d’ Arago, que conferma</p> -<p class="i0">Merce e dreg, e malvestat desferma, etc.</p> -</div></div> - -</div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p id="Footnote_507"><span class="label"><a -href="#FNanchor_507">[507]</a></span> Millot, Hist. des Troubadours, -Tom. II. pp. 186, etc.</p> - -</div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p id="Footnote_508"><span class="label"><a -href="#FNanchor_508">[508]</a></span> Hist. Litt. de la France, Tom. -XVIII. p. 635, and Raynouard, Troub., Tom. V. p. 50.</p> - -</div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p id="Footnote_509"><span class="label"><a -href="#FNanchor_509">[509]</a></span> Raynouard, Troub., Tom. V. pp. -261, 262. Hist. Litt. de la France, Tom. XIX., Paris, 1838, p. 607.</p> - -</div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p id="Footnote_510"><span class="label"><a -href="#FNanchor_510">[510]</a></span> Hist. Litt. de la France, Tom. -XVIII. pp. 571-575.</p> - -</div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p id="Footnote_511"><span class="label"><a -href="#FNanchor_511">[511]</a></span> Ibid., pp. 576-579.</p> - -</div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p id="Footnote_512"><span class="label"><a -href="#FNanchor_512">[512]</a></span> Millot, Hist., Tom. II. p. 92.</p> - -</div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p id="Footnote_513"><span class="label"><a -href="#FNanchor_513">[513]</a></span> Raynouard, Troub., Tom. IV. pp. -203-205.</p> - -</div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p id="Footnote_514"><span class="label"><a -href="#FNanchor_514">[514]</a></span> Ibid., Tom. V. p. 302. Hist. -Litt. de la France, Tom. XX., 1842, p. 574.</p> - -</div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p id="Footnote_515"><span class="label"><a -href="#FNanchor_515">[515]</a></span> Quadrio (Storia d’ Ogni Poesia, -Bologna, 1741, 4to, Tom. II. p. 132) and Zurita (Anales, Lib. X. c. 42) -state it, but not with proof.</p> - -</div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p id="Footnote_516"><span class="label"><a -href="#FNanchor_516">[516]</a></span> In the Guía del Comercio de -Madrid, 1848, is an account of the disinterment, at Poblet, in 1846, -of the remains of several royal personages who had been long buried -there; among which the body of Don Jayme, after a period of six -hundred and seventy years, was found remarkably preserved. It was -easily distinguished by its size,—for when alive Don Jayme was seven -feet high,—and by the mark of an arrow-wound in his forehead which -he received at Valencia, and which was still perfectly distinct. An -eyewitness declared that a painter might have found in his remains the -general outline of his physiognomy. Faro Industrial de la Habana, 6 -Abril, 1848.</p> - -</div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p id="Footnote_517"><span class="label"><a -href="#FNanchor_517">[517]</a></span> Its first title is “Aureum Opus -Regalium Privilegiorum Civitatis et Regni Valentiæ,” etc., but the work -itself begins, “Comença la conquesta per lo serenisimo e Catholich -Princep de inmortal memoria, Don Jaume,” etc. It is not divided into -chapters nor paged, but it has ornamental capitals at the beginning -of its paragraphs, and fills 42 large pages in folio, double columns, -litt. goth., and was printed, as its colophon shows, at Valencia, in -1515, by Diez de Gumiel.</p> - -</div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p id="Footnote_518"><span class="label"><a -href="#FNanchor_518">[518]</a></span> Rodriguez, Biblioteca Valentina, -Valencia, 1747, fol., p. 574. Its title is “Chrónica o Commentari del -Gloriosissim e Invictissim Rey En Jacme, Rey d’ Aragò, de Mallorques, -e de Valencia, Compte de Barcelona e de Urgell e de Muntpeiller, feita -e scrita per aquell en sa llengua natural, e treita del Archiu del -molt magnifich Rational de la insigne Ciutat de Valencia, hon stava -custodita.” It was printed under the order of the Jurats of Valencia, -by the widow of Juan Mey, in folio, in 1557. The Rational being the -proper archive-keeper, the Jurats being the council of the city, and -the work being dedicated to Philip II., who asked to see it in print, -all needful assurance is given of its genuineness. Each part is divided -into very short chapters; the first containing one hundred and five, -the second one hundred and fifteen, and so on. A series of letters, -by Jos. Villaroya, printed at Valencia, in 1800, (8vo,) to prove that -James was not the author of this Chronicle, are ingenious, learned, -and well written, but do not, I think, establish their author’s -position.</p> - -</div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p id="Footnote_519"><span class="label"><a -href="#FNanchor_519">[519]</a></span> Alfonso was born in 1221 and -died in 1284, and Jayme I., whose name, it should be noted, is also -spelt Jaume, Jaime, and Jacme, was born in 1208 and died in 1276. It -is probable, as I have already said, that Alfonso’s Chronicle was -written a little before 1260; but that period was twenty-one years -after the date of <i>all</i> the facts recorded in Jayme’s account of the -conquest of Valencia. In connection with the question of the precedence -of these two Chronicles may be taken the circumstance, that it has -been believed by some persons that Jayme attempted to make Catalan the -language of the law and of all public records, thirty years before the -similar attempt already noticed was made by Alfonso X. in relation to -the Castilian. Villanueva, Viage Literario á las Iglesias de España, -Valencia, 1821, Tom. VII. p. 195.</p> - -<p class="ti1">Another work of the king remains in manuscript. It is -a moral and philosophical treatise, called “Lo Libre de la Saviesa,” -or The Book of Wisdom, of which an account may be found in Castro, -Biblioteca Española, Tom. II. p. 605.</p> - -</div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p id="Footnote_520"><span class="label"><a -href="#FNanchor_520">[520]</a></span> Probably the best notice of -Muntaner is to be found in Antonio, Bib. Vetus (ed. Bayer, Vol. II. p. -145). There is, however, a more ample one in Torres Amat, Memorias, (p. -437,) and there are other notices elsewhere. The title of his Chronicle -is “Crónica o Descripcio dels Fets e Hazanyes del Inclyt Rey Don Jaume -Primer, Rey Daragò, de Mallorques, e de Valencia, Compte de Barcelona, -e de Munpesller, e de molts de sos Descendents, feta per lo magnifich -En Ramon Muntaner, lo qual servi axi al dit inclyt Rey Don Jaume com -á sos Fills e Descendents, es troba present á las Coses contengudes -en la present Historia.” There are two old editions of it; the first, -Valencia, 1558, and the second, Barcelona, 1562; both in folio, and the -last consisting of 248 leaves. It was evidently much used and trusted -by Zurita. (See his Anales, Lib. VII. c. 1, etc.) A neat edition of -it in large 8vo, edited by Karl Lanz, was published in 1844, by the -Stuttgard Verein, and a translation of it into German, by the same -accomplished scholar, appeared at Leipzig in 1842, in 2 vols. 8vo.</p> - -</div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p id="Footnote_521"><span class="label"><a -href="#FNanchor_521">[521]</a></span> “E per ço començ al feyt del dit -senyor, Rey En Jacme, com yol viu, e asenyaladament essent yo fadrí, -e lo dit senyor Rey essent á la dita vila de Peralada hon yo naxqui, -e posa en lalberch de mon pare En Joan Muntaner, qui era dels majors -alberchs daquell lloch, e era al cap de la plaça,” (Cap. II.,)—“And -therefore I begin with the fact of the said Lord Don James, as I saw -him, and namely, when I was a little boy and the said Lord King was in -the said city of Peralada, where I was born, and tarried in the house -of my father, Don John Muntaner, which was one of the largest houses -in that place, and was at the head of the square.” <i>En</i>, which I have -translated <i>Don</i>, is the corresponding title in Catalan. See Andrev -Bosch, Titols de Honor de Cathalunya, etc., Perpinya, folio, 1628, p. -574.</p> - -</div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p id="Footnote_522"><span class="label"><a -href="#FNanchor_522">[522]</a></span> This passage reminds us of the -beautiful character of Sir Launcelot, near the end of the “Morte -Darthur,” and therefore I transcribe the simple and strong words of the -original: “E apres ques vae le pus bell princep del mon, e lo pus savi, -e lo pus gracios, e lo pus dreturer, e cell qui fo mes amat de totes -gents, axi dels seus sotsmesos com daltres estranys e privades gents, -que Rey qui hanch fos.” Cap. VII.</p> - -</div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p id="Footnote_523"><span class="label"><a -href="#FNanchor_523">[523]</a></span> This poem is in Cap. CCLXXII. -of the Chronicle, and consists of twelve stanzas, each of twenty -lines, and each having all its twenty lines in one rhyme, the first -rhyme being in <i>o</i>, the second in <i>ent</i>, the third in <i>ayle</i>, and so -on. It sets forth the counsel of Muntaner to the king and prince on -the subject of the conquest they had projected; counsel which the -chronicler says was partly followed, and so the expedition turned out -well, but that it would have turned out better, if the advice had been -followed entirely. How good Muntaner’s counsel was we cannot now judge, -but his poetry is certainly naught. It is in the most artificial style -used by the Troubadours, and is well called by its author a <i>sermo</i>. He -says, however, that it was actually given to the king.</p> - -</div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p id="Footnote_524"><span class="label"><a -href="#FNanchor_524">[524]</a></span> Raynouard, in Tom. III., shows -this; and more fully in Tom. V., in the list of poets. So does the -Hist. Litt. de la France, Tom. XVIII. See, also, Fauriel’s Introduction -to the poem on the Crusade against the Albigenses, pp. xv., xvi.</p> - -</div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p id="Footnote_525"><span class="label"><a -href="#FNanchor_525">[525]</a></span> Castro, Biblioteca Española, Tom. -I. p. 411, and Schmidt, Gesch. Aragoniens im Mittelalter, p. 465.</p> - -</div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p id="Footnote_526"><span class="label"><a -href="#FNanchor_526">[526]</a></span> Latassa, Bib. Antigua de los -Escritores Aragoneses, Tom. I. p. 242. Hist. Litt. de la France, Tom. -XX. p. 529.</p> - -</div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p id="Footnote_527"><span class="label"><a -href="#FNanchor_527">[527]</a></span> Antonio, Bib. Vetus, ed. Bayer, -Tom. II. Lib. VIII. c. vi., vii., and Amat, p. 207. But Serveri of -Girona, about 1277, mourns the good old days of James I., (Hist. Litt. -de la France, Tom. XX. p. 552,) as if poets were, when he wrote, -beginning to fail at the court of Aragon.</p> - -</div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p id="Footnote_528"><span class="label"><a -href="#FNanchor_528">[528]</a></span> Muntaner, Crónica, ed. 1562, -fol., ff. 247, 248.</p> - -</div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p id="Footnote_529"><span class="label"><a -href="#FNanchor_529">[529]</a></span> Du Cange, Glossarium Mediæ et -Infimæ Latinitatis, Parisiis, 1733, fol., Tom. I., Præfatio, sect. -34-36. Raynouard (Troub., Tom. I. pp. xii. and xiii.) would carry -back both the Catalonian and Valencian dialects to A. D. 728; but -the authority of Luitprand, on which he relies, is not sufficient, -especially as Luitprand shows that he believed these dialects to have -existed also in the time of Strabo. The most that should be inferred -from the passage Raynouard cites is, that they existed about 950, when -Luitprand wrote, which it is not improbable they did, though only in -their rudest elements, among the Christians in that part of Spain. Some -good remarks on the connection of the South of France with the South -of Spain, and their common idiom, may be found in Capmany, Memorias -Históricas de Barcelona, (Madrid, 1779-92, 4to,) Parte I., Introd., -and the notes on it. The second and fourth volumes of this valuable -historical work furnish many documents both curious and important for -the illustration of the Catalan language.</p> - -</div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p id="Footnote_530"><span class="label"><a -href="#FNanchor_530">[530]</a></span> Millot, Hist. des Troubadours, -Tom. II. pp. 186-201. Hist. Litt. de la France, Tom. XVIII. pp. 588, -634, 635. Diez, Troubadours, pp. 75, 227, and 331-350; but it may be -doubted whether Riquier did not write the answer of Alfonso, as well as -the petition to him given by Diez.</p> - -</div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p id="Footnote_531"><span class="label"><a -href="#FNanchor_531">[531]</a></span> Bouterwek, Hist. de la Lit. -Española, traducida por Cortina, Tom. I. p. 162. Latassa, Bib. Antigua, -Tom. II. pp. 25-38.</p> - -</div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p id="Footnote_532"><span class="label"><a -href="#FNanchor_532">[532]</a></span> Bouterwek, trad. Cortina, p. -177. This manuscript, it may be curious to notice, was once owned by -Ferdinand Columbus, son of the great discoverer, and is still to be -found amidst the ruins of his library in Seville, with a memorandum -by himself, declaring that he bought it at Barcelona, in June, 1536, -for 12 dineros, the ducat then being worth 588 dineros. See, also, the -notes of Cerdá y Rico to the “Diana Enamorada” of Montemayor, 1802, pp. -487-490 and 293-295.</p> - -</div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p id="Footnote_533"><span class="label"><a -href="#FNanchor_533">[533]</a></span> Bruce-Whyte (Histoire des Langues -Romanes et de leur Littérature, Paris, 1841, 8vo, Tom. II. pp. 406-414) -gives a striking extract from a manuscript in the Royal Library, Paris, -which shows this mixture of the Provençal and Catalan very plainly. He -implies, that it is from the middle of the fourteenth century; but he -does not prove it.</p> - -</div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p id="Footnote_534"><span class="label"><a -href="#FNanchor_534">[534]</a></span> Sarmiento, Memorias, Sect. -759-768. Torres Amat, Memorias, p. 651, article <i>Vidal de Besalú</i>. -Santillana, Proverbios, Madrid, 1799, 18mo, Introduccion, p. xxiii. -Sanchez, Poesías Anteriores, Tom. I. pp. 5-9. Sismondi, Litt. du -Midi, Paris, 1813, 8vo, Tom. I. pp. 227-230. Andres, Storia d’ Ogni -Letteratura, Roma, 1808, 4to, Tom. II. Lib. I. c. 1, sect. 23, where -the remarks are important at pp. 49, 50.</p> - -</div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p id="Footnote_535"><span class="label"><a -href="#FNanchor_535">[535]</a></span> Mariana, Hist. de España, Lib. -XVIII. c. 14.</p> - -</div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p id="Footnote_536"><span class="label"><a -href="#FNanchor_536">[536]</a></span> “El Arte de Trobar,” or the -“Gaya Sciencia,”—a treatise on the Art of Poetry, which, in 1433, -Henry, Marquis of Villena, sent to his kinsman, the famous Iñigo -Lopez de Mendoza, Marquis of Santillana, in order to facilitate the -introduction of such poetical institutions into Castile as then existed -in Barcelona,—contains the best account of the establishment of the -Consistory of Barcelona, which was a matter of such consequence as -to be mentioned by Mariana, Zurita, and other grave historians. The -treatise of Villena has never been printed entire; but a poor abstract -of its contents, with valuable extracts, is to be found in Mayans y -Siscar, Orígenes de la Lengua Española, Madrid, 1737, 12mo, Tom. II.</p> - -</div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p id="Footnote_537"><span class="label"><a -href="#FNanchor_537">[537]</a></span> See Zurita, passim, and Eichhorn, -Allg. Geschichte der Cultur, Göttingen, 1796, 8vo, Tom. I. pp. 127-131, -with the authorities he cites in his notes.</p> - -</div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p id="Footnote_538"><span class="label"><a -href="#FNanchor_538">[538]</a></span> Anales de la Corona de Aragon, -Lib. X. c. 43, ed. 1610, folio, Tom. II. f. 393.</p> - -</div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p id="Footnote_539"><span class="label"><a -href="#FNanchor_539">[539]</a></span> Torres Amat, Memorias, p. 666.</p> - -</div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p id="Footnote_540"><span class="label"><a -href="#FNanchor_540">[540]</a></span> Ibid., p. 408.</p> - -</div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p id="Footnote_541"><span class="label"><a -href="#FNanchor_541">[541]</a></span> The discussion makes out two -points quite clearly, viz.: 1st. There was a person named Jordi, -who lived in the thirteenth century and in the time of Jayme the -Conqueror, was much with that monarch, and wrote, as an eyewitness, -an account of the storm from which the royal fleet suffered at sea, -near Majorca, in September, 1269 (Ximeno, Escritores de Valencia, -Tom. I. p. 1; and Fuster, Biblioteca Valentiana, Tom. I. p. 1); and, -2d. There was a person named Jordi, a poet in the fifteenth century; -because the Marquis of Santillana, in his well-known letter, written -between 1454 and 1458, speaks of such a person as having lived in <i>his</i> -time. (See the letter in Sanchez, Tom. I. pp. lvi. and lvii., and the -notes on it, pp. 81-85.) Now the question is, to which of these two -persons belong the poems bearing the name of Jordi in the various -Cancioneros; for example, in the “Cancionero General,” 1573, f. 301, -and in the MS. Cancionero in the King’s Library at Paris, which is of -the fifteenth century. (Torres Amat, pp. 328-333.) This question is -of some consequence, because a passage attributed to Jordi is so very -like one in the 103d sonnet of Petrarch, (Parte I.,) that one of them -must be taken quite unceremoniously from the other. The Spaniards, and -especially the Catalans, have generally claimed the lines referred -to as the work of the <i>elder</i> Jordi, and so would make Petrarch -the copyist;—a claim in which foreigners have sometimes concurred. -(Retrospective Review, Vol. IV. pp. 46, 47, and Foscolo’s Essay on -Petrarch, London, 1823, 8vo, p. 65.) But it seems to me difficult for -an impartial person to read the verses printed by Torres Amat with -the name of Jordi from the <i>Paris</i> MS. Cancionero, and not believe -that they belong to the same century with the other poems in the same -manuscript, and that thus the Jordi in question lived after 1400, and -is the copyist of Petrarch. Indeed, the very position of these verses -in such a manuscript seems to prove it, as well as their tone and -character.</p> - -</div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p id="Footnote_542"><span class="label"><a -href="#FNanchor_542">[542]</a></span> Torres Amat, pp. 636-643.</p> - -</div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p id="Footnote_543"><span class="label"><a -href="#FNanchor_543">[543]</a></span> Of this remarkable manuscript, -which is in the Royal Library at Paris, M. Tastu, in 1834, gave an -account to Torres Amat, who was then preparing his “Memorias para -un Diccionario de Autores Catalanes” (Barcelona, 1836, 8vo). It is -numbered 7699, and consists of 260 leaves. See the Memorias, pp. xviii. -and xli., and the many poetical passages from it scattered through -other parts of that work. It is much to be desired that the whole -should be published; but, in the mean time, the ample extracts from it -given by Torres Amat leave no doubt of its general character. Another, -and in some respects even more ample, account of it, with extracts, is -to be found in Ochoa’s “Catálogo de Manuscritos” (4to, Paris, 1844, pp. -286-374). From this last description of the manuscript we learn that it -contains works of thirty-one poets.</p> - -</div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p id="Footnote_544"><span class="label"><a href="#FNanchor_544">[544]</a></span> Torres Amat, p. 237. Febrer -says expressly, that it is translated -“en rims vulgars Cathalans.” The -first verses are as follows, word for -word from the Italian:—</p> - -<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> -<p class="i0">En lo mig del cami de nostra vida</p> -<p class="i0">Me retrobe per una selva oscura, etc.,</p> -</div></div> - -<p>and the last is—</p> - -<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> -<p class="i0">L’amor qui mou lo sol e les stelles.</p> -</div></div> - -<p>It was done at Barcelona, and finished August 1, 1428, according to -the MS. copy in the Escurial.</p> - -</div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p id="Footnote_545"><span class="label"><a -href="#FNanchor_545">[545]</a></span> Don Quixote, Parte I. c. 6, -where Tirante is saved in the conflagration of the mad knight’s -library. But Southey is of quite a different opinion. See <i>ante</i>, <a -href="#Footnote_377">note to Chap. XI</a>. The best accounts of it -are those by Clemencin in his edition of Don Quixote, (Tom. I. pp. -132-134,) by Diosdado, “De Prima Typographiæ Hispanicæ Ætate,” (Romæ, -1794, 4to, p. 32,) and by Mendez, “Typographía Española” (Madrid, -1796, 4to, pp. 72-75). What is in Ximeno (Tom. I. p. 12) and Fuster -(Tom. I. p. 10) goes on the false supposition that the Tirante was -written in Spanish before 1383, and printed in 1480. It was, in -fact, originally written in Portuguese, but was printed first in -the Valencian dialect, in 1490. Of this edition only two copies are -known to exist, for one of which £300 was paid in 1825. Repertorio -Americano, Lóndres, 1827, 8vo, Tom. IV. pp. 57-60.</p> - -</div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p id="Footnote_546"><span class="label"><a -href="#FNanchor_546">[546]</a></span> The Life of Ausias March is found -in Ximeno, “Escritores de Valencia,” (Tom. I. p. 41,) and Fuster’s -continuation of it, (Tom. I. pp. 12, 15, 24,) and in the ample notes of -Cerdá y Rico to the “Diana” of Gil Polo (1802, pp. 290, 293, 486). For -his connection with the Prince of Viana,—“Mozo,” as Mariana beautifully -says of him, “dignisimo de mejor fortuna, y de padre mas manso,”—see -Zurita, Anales, (Lib. XVII. c. 24,) and the graceful Life of the -unfortunate prince by Quintana, in the first volume of his “Españoles -Célebres,” Madrid, Tom. I. 1807, 12mo.</p> - -</div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p id="Footnote_547"><span class="label"><a -href="#FNanchor_547">[547]</a></span> There are editions of his -Works of 1543, 1545, 1555, and 1560, in the original Catalan, and -translations of parts of them into Castilian by Romani, 1539, and -Montemayor, 1562, which are united in the edition of 1579, besides one -quite complete, but unpublished, by Arano y Oñate. Vicente Mariner -translated March into Latin, and wrote his life. (Opera, Turnoni, 1633, -8vo, pp. 497-856.) Who was his Italian translator I do not find. See -(besides Ximeno and others, cited in the last note) Rodriguez, Bib. -Val., p. 68, etc. The edition of March’s Works, 1560, Barcelona, 12mo, -is a neat volume, and has at the end a very short and imperfect list of -obscure terms, with the corresponding Spanish, supposed to have been -made by the tutor of Philip II., the Bishop of Osma, when, as we are -told, he used to delight that young prince and his courtiers by reading -the works of March aloud to them. I have seen none of the translations, -except those of Montemayor and Mariner, both good, but the last not -entire.</p> - -</div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p id="Footnote_548"><span class="label"><a -href="#FNanchor_548">[548]</a></span> Ximeno, Escritores de Valencia, -Tom. I. p. 50, with Fuster’s continuation, Tom. I. p. 30. Rodriguez, p. -196; and Cerdá’s notes to Polo’s Diana, pp. 300, 302, etc.</p> - -</div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p id="Footnote_549"><span class="label"><a -href="#FNanchor_549">[549]</a></span> “Libre de Consells fet per lo -Magnifich Mestre Jaume Roig” is the title in the edition of 1531, as -given by Ximeno, and in that of 1561, (Valencia, 12mo, 149 leaves,) -which I use. In that of Valencia, 1735, (4to,) which is also before -me, it is called according to its subject, “Lo Libre de les Dones e de -Concells,” etc.</p> - -</div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p id="Footnote_550"><span class="label"><a -href="#FNanchor_550">[550]</a></span> Orígenes de la Lengua Española de -Mayans y Siscar, Tom. I. p. 57.</p> - -</div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p id="Footnote_551"><span class="label"><a -href="#FNanchor_551">[551]</a></span></p> - -<div class="poem mt-05"><div class="stanza"> -<p class="i0">Sorti del llit,</p> -<p class="i0">E mig guarit,</p> -<p class="i0">Yo men partì,</p> -<p class="i0">A peu anì</p> -<p class="i0">Seguint fortuna.</p> -<p class="i0">En Catalunya,</p> -<p class="i0">Un Cavaller,</p> -<p class="i0">Gran vandoler,</p> -<p class="i0">Dantitch llinatge,</p> -<p class="i0">Me près per patge.</p> -<p class="i0">Ab ell vixquì,</p> -<p class="i0">Fins quem ixquì,</p> -<p class="i0">Ja home fet.</p> -<p class="i0">Ab lhom discret</p> -<p class="i0">Temps no hi perdì,</p> -<p class="i0">Dell aprenguì,</p> -<p class="i0">De ben servir,</p> -<p class="i0">Armes seguir,</p> -<p class="i0">Fuy caçador,</p> -<p class="i0">Cavalcador,</p> -<p class="i0">De Cetrerìa,</p> -<p class="i0">Menescalia,</p> -<p class="i0">Sonar, ballar,</p> -<p class="i0">Fins à tallar</p> -<p class="i0">Ell men mostrà.</p> -</div></div> - -<p class="fs90 dcha mt-1">Libre de les Dones, Primera Part del Primer -Libre, ed. 1561, 4to, f. xv. b.</p> - -<p class="mt1">The “Cavaller, gran vandoler, dantitch llinatge,” whom I -have called, in the translation, “a highway knight, of ancient right,” -was one of the successors of the marauding knights of the Middle Ages, -who were not always without generosity or a sense of justice, and -whose character is well set forth in the accounts of Roque Guinart or -Rocha Guinarda, the personage referred to in the text, and found in -the Second Part of Don Quixote (Capp. 60 and 61). He and his followers -are all called by Cervantes <i>Bandoleros</i>, and are the “banished men” -of “Robin Hood” and “The Nut-Brown Maid.” They took their name of -<i>Bandoleros</i> from the shoulder-belts they wore. Calderon’s “Luis Perez, -el Gallego” is founded on the history of a Bandolero supposed to have -lived in the time of the Armada, 1588.</p> - -</div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p id="Footnote_552"><span class="label"><a -href="#FNanchor_552">[552]</a></span> The editor of the last edition -that has appeared is Carlos Ros, a curious collection of Valencian -proverbs by whom (in 12mo, Valencia, 1733) I have seen, and who, -I believe, the year previous, printed a work on the Valencian and -Castilian orthography.</p> - -</div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p id="Footnote_553"><span class="label"><a -href="#FNanchor_553">[553]</a></span> Fuster. Tom. I. p. 52, and -Mendez, Typographía Española, p. 56. Roig is one of the competitors.</p> - -</div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p id="Footnote_554"><span class="label"><a -href="#FNanchor_554">[554]</a></span> Ximeno, Tom. I. p. 59; Fuster, -Tom. I. p. 51; and the Diana of Polo, ed. Cerdá y Rico, p. 317. His -poems are in the “Cancionero General,” 1573, (leaves 240, 251, 307,) -in the “Obras de Ausias March,” (1560, f. 134,) and in the “Process de -les Olives,” mentioned in the next note. The “Historia de la Passio de -Nostre Senyor” was printed at Valencia, in 1493 and 1564.</p> - -</div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p id="Footnote_555"><span class="label"><a -href="#FNanchor_555">[555]</a></span> “Lo Process de les Olives è -Disputa del Jovens hi del Vels” was first printed in Barcelona, 1532. -But the copy I use is of Valencia, printed by Joan de Arcos, 1561 -(18mo, 40 leaves). One or two other poets took part in the discussion, -and the whole seems to have grown under their hands, by successive -additions, to its present state and size.</p> - -</div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p id="Footnote_556"><span class="label"><a -href="#FNanchor_556">[556]</a></span> There is an edition of 1497, -(Mendez, p. 88,) but I use one with this title: “Comença lo Somni de -Joan Ioan ordenat per lo Magnifich Mossen Jaume Gaçull, Cavaller, -Natural de Valencia, en Valencia, 1561” (18mo). At the end is -a humorous poem by Gaçull in reply to Fenollar, who had spoken -slightingly of many words used in Valencian, which Gaçull defends. It -is called “La Brama dels Llauradors del Orto de Valencia.” Gaçull also -occurs in the “Process de les Olives,” and in the poetical contest of -1474. See his Life in Ximeno, Tom. I. p. 59, and Fuster, Tom I. p. -37.</p> - -</div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p id="Footnote_557"><span class="label"><a -href="#FNanchor_557">[557]</a></span> Ximeno, Tom. I. p. 64.</p> - -</div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p id="Footnote_558"><span class="label"><a -href="#FNanchor_558">[558]</a></span> The poems of Ferrandis are in the -Cancionero General of Seville, 1535, ff. 17, 18, and in the Cancionero -of Antwerp, 1573, ff. 31-34. The notice of the <i>certamen</i> of 1511 is -in Fuster, Tom. I. pp. 56-58. </p> - -<p class="ti1">Some other poets in the ancient Valencian have been -mentioned, as Juan Roiz de Corella, (Ximeno, Tom. I. p. 62,) a friend -of the unhappy Prince Carlos de Viana; two or three, by no means -without merit, who remain anonymous (Fuster, Tom. I. pp. 284-293); and -several who joined in a <i>certamen</i> at Valencia, in 1498, in honor of -St. Christopher (Ibid., pp. 296, 297). But the attempt to press into -the service and to place in the thirteenth century the manuscript in -the Escurial containing the poems of Sta. María Egypciaca and King -Apollonius, already referred to (<i>ante</i>, <a href="#Page_24">p. 24</a>) -among the earliest Castilian poems, is necessarily a failure. Ibid., p. -284.</p> - -</div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p id="Footnote_559"><span class="label"><a -href="#FNanchor_559">[559]</a></span> Cancionero General, 1573, f. 251, -and elsewhere.</p> - -</div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p id="Footnote_560"><span class="label"><a -href="#FNanchor_560">[560]</a></span> Ximeno, Tom. I. p. 61. Fuster, -Tom. I. p. 54. Cancionero General, 1573, ff. 241, 251, 316, 318. -Cerdá’s notes to Polo’s Diana, 1802, p. 304. Viñoles, in the Prólogo -to the translation of the Latin Chronicle noticed on p. 216, says, “He -has ventured to stretch out his rash hand and put it into the pure, -elegant, and gracious Castilian, which, without falsehood or flattery, -may, among the many barbarous and savage dialects of our own Spain, be -called Latin-sounding and most elegant.” Suma de Todas las Crónicas, -Valencia, 1510, folio, f. 2.</p> - -</div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p id="Footnote_561"><span class="label"><a -href="#FNanchor_561">[561]</a></span> The religious poems of Tallante -begin, I believe, all the Cancioneros Generales, from 1511 to 1573.</p> - -</div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p id="Footnote_562"><span class="label"><a -href="#FNanchor_562">[562]</a></span> Cancionero General, 1573, ff. -238, 248, 300, 301. Fuster, Tom. I. p. 65; and Cerdá’s notes to Gil -Polo’s Diana, p. 306.</p> - -</div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p id="Footnote_563"><span class="label"><a -href="#FNanchor_563">[563]</a></span> Ximeno, Tom. I. p. 102. Fuster, -Tom. I. p. 87. Diana de Polo, ed. Cerdá, 326. Cancionero General, 1573, -ff. 185, 222, 225, 228, 230, 305-307.</p> - -</div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p id="Footnote_564"><span class="label"><a -href="#FNanchor_564">[564]</a></span> His Works were first printed -with the following title: “La Armonía del Parnas mes numerosa en las -Poesías varias del Atlant del Cel Poétic, lo D<sup>r.</sup> Vicent -Garcia” (Barcelona, 1700, 4to, 201 pp.). There has been some question -about the proper date of this edition, and therefore I give it as it -is in my copy. (See Torres Amat, Memorias, pp. 271-274.) It consists -chiefly of lyrical poetry, sonnets, <i>décimas</i>, <i>redondillas</i>, ballads, -etc.; but at the end is a drama called “Santa Barbara,” in three short -<i>jornadas</i>, with forty or fifty personages, some allegorical and some -supernatural, and the whole as fantastic as any thing of the age that -produced it. Another edition of Garcia’s Works was printed at Barcelona -in 1840, and a notice of him occurs in the Semanario Pintoresco, 1843, -p. 84.</p> - -</div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p id="Footnote_565"><span class="label"><a -href="#FNanchor_565">[565]</a></span> The Valencian has always remained -a sweet dialect. Cervantes praises it for its “honeyed grace” more than -once. See the second act of the “Gran Sultana,” and the opening of the -twelfth chapter in the third book of “Persiles and Sigismunda.” Mayans -y Siscar loses no occasion of honoring it; but he was a native of -Valencia, and full of Valencian prejudices.</p> - -<p class="ti1">The literary history of the kingdom of Valencia—both -that of the period when its native dialect prevailed, and that of -the more recent period during which the Castilian has enjoyed the -supremacy—has been illustrated with remarkable diligence and success. -The first person who devoted himself to it was Josef Rodriguez, a -learned ecclesiastic, who was born in its capital in 1630, and died -there in 1703, just at the moment when his “Biblioteca Valentina” was -about to be issued from the press, and when, in fact, all but a few -pages of it had been printed. But though it was so near to publication, -a long time elapsed before it finally appeared; for his friend, Ignacio -Savalls, to whom the duty of completing it was intrusted, and who at -once busied himself with his task, died, at last, in 1746, without -having quite accomplished it.</p> - -<p class="ti1">Meanwhile, however, copies of the imperfect work had -got abroad, and one of them came into the hands of Vicente Ximeno, -a Valencian, as well as Rodriguez, and, like him, interested in the -literary history of his native kingdom. At first, Ximeno conceived the -project of completing the work of his predecessor; but soon determined -rather to use its materials in preparing on the same subject another -and a larger one of his own, whose notices should come down to his own -time. This he soon completed, and published it at Valencia, in 1747-49, -in two volumes, folio, with the title of “Escritores de Valencia,”—not, -however, so quickly that the Biblioteca of Rodriguez had not been -fairly launched into the world, in the same city, in 1747, a few months -before the first volume of Ximeno’s appeared.</p> - -<p class="ti1">The dictionary of Ximeno, who died in 1764, brings down -the literary history of Valencia to 1748, from which date to 1829 it -is continued by the “Biblioteca Valenciana” of Justo Pastor Fuster, -(Valencia, 1827-30, 2 tom., folio,) a valuable work, containing a great -number of new articles for the earlier period embraced by the labors of -Rodriguez and Ximeno, and making additions to many which they had left -imperfect.</p> - -<p class="ti1">In the five volumes, folio, of which the whole series -consists, there are 2841 articles. How many of those in Ximeno relate -to authors noticed by Rodriguez, and how many of those in Fuster -relate to authors noticed by either or both of his predecessors, I -have not examined; but the number is, I think, smaller than might -be anticipated; while, on the other hand, the new articles and the -additions to the old ones are more considerable and important. Perhaps, -taking the whole together, no portion of Europe equally large has -had its intellectual history more carefully investigated than the -kingdom of Valencia;—a circumstance the more remarkable, if we bear -in mind that Rodriguez, the first person who undertook the work, -was, as he says, the first who attempted such a labor in any modern -language, and that Fuster, the last of them, though evidently a man -of curious learning, was by occupation a bookbinder, and was led to -his investigations, in a considerable degree, by his interest in the -rare books that were, from time to time, intrusted to his mechanical -skill.</p> - -</div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p id="Footnote_566"><span class="label"><a -href="#FNanchor_566">[566]</a></span> The Catalans have always felt -this regret, and have never reconciled themselves heartily to the -use of the Castilian; holding their own dialect to have been, in the -time of Ferdinand and Isabella, more abundant and harmonious than the -prouder one that has so far displaced it. Villanueva, Viage á las -Iglesias, Valencia, 1821, 8vo, Tom. VII. p. 202.</p> - -</div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p id="Footnote_567"><span class="label"><a -href="#FNanchor_567">[567]</a></span> One of the most valuable -monuments of the old dialects of Spain is a translation of the Bible -into Catalan, made by Bonifacio Ferrer, who died in 1477, and was the -brother of St. Vincent Ferrer. It was printed at Valencia, in 1478, -(folio,) but the Inquisition came so soon to suppress it, that it never -exercised much influence on the literature or language of the country; -nearly every copy of it having been destroyed. Extracts from it and -sufficient accounts of it may be found in Castro, Bib. Española, (Tom. -I. pp. 444-448,) and McCrie’s “Reformation in Spain” (Edinburgh, 1829, -8vo, pp. 191 and 414). Sismondi, at the end of his discussion of the -Provençal literature, in his “Littérature du Midi de l’Europe,” has -some remarks on its decay, which in their tone are not entirely unlike -those in the last pages of this chapter, and to which I would refer -both to illustrate and to justify my own.</p> - -</div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p id="Footnote_568"><span class="label"><a -href="#FNanchor_568">[568]</a></span> The University of Salamanca owes -its first endowment to Alfonso X., 1254; but in 1310 it had already -fallen into great decay, and did not become an efficient and frequented -university till some time afterwards. Hist. de la Universidad de -Salamanca, por Pedro Chacon. Seminario Erudito, Madrid, 1789, 4to, Tom. -XVIII. pp. 13, 21, etc.</p> - -</div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p id="Footnote_569"><span class="label"><a -href="#FNanchor_569">[569]</a></span> Tiraboschi, Storia della -Letteratura Italiana, Roma, 1782, 4to, Tom. IV. Lib. I. c. 3; and -Fuster, Biblioteca Valenciana, Tom. I. pp. 2, 9.</p> - -</div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p id="Footnote_570"><span class="label"><a -href="#FNanchor_570">[570]</a></span> Tiraboschi, ut sup.</p> - -</div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p id="Footnote_571"><span class="label"><a -href="#FNanchor_571">[571]</a></span> Tiraboschi, Tom. IV. Lib. I. c. -3, sect. 8. Antonio, Bib. Vetus, ed. Bayer, Tom. II. pp. 169, 170.</p> - -</div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p id="Footnote_572"><span class="label"><a -href="#FNanchor_572">[572]</a></span> Antonio, Bib. Nova, Tom. I. pp. -132-138.</p> - -</div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p id="Footnote_573"><span class="label"><a -href="#FNanchor_573">[573]</a></span> Prescott’s Hist. of Ferdinand and -Isabella, Introd., Section 2; to which add the account of the residence -in Barcelona of Carlos de Viana, in Quintana’s Life of that unhappy -prince, (Vidas de Españoles Célebres, Tom. I.,) and the very curious -notice of Barcelona in Leo Von Rözmital’s Ritter-Hof-und-Pilger-Reise, -1465-67, Stuttgard, 1844, 8vo, p. 111.</p> - -</div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p id="Footnote_574"><span class="label"><a -href="#FNanchor_574">[574]</a></span> Zurita, Anales de Aragon, -Zaragoza, 1604, folio, Lib. IV. c. 13, etc.; Mariana, Historia, Lib. -XIV. c. 6;—both important, but especially the first, as giving the -Spanish view of a case which we are more in the habit of considering -either in its Italian or its French relations.</p> - -</div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p id="Footnote_575"><span class="label"><a -href="#FNanchor_575">[575]</a></span> Schmidt, Geschichte Aragoniens -im Mittelalter, pp. 337-354. Heeren, Geschichte des Studiums der -Classischen Litteratur, Göttingen, 1797, 8vo, Tom. II. pp. 109-111.</p> - -</div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p id="Footnote_576"><span class="label"><a -href="#FNanchor_576">[576]</a></span> Prescott’s Hist. of Ferdinand and -Isabella, Vol. III.</p> - -</div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p id="Footnote_577"><span class="label"><a -href="#FNanchor_577">[577]</a></span> See <i>ante</i>, <a -href="#Page_180">p. 180</a>.</p> - -</div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p id="Footnote_578"><span class="label"><a -href="#FNanchor_578">[578]</a></span> “Con vos que emendays las Obras -de Dante,” says Gomez Manrique, in a poem addressed to his uncle, -the great Marquis, and found in the “Cancionero General,” 1573, f. -76. b;—words which, however we may interpret them, imply a familiar -knowledge of Dante, which the Marquis himself yet more directly -announces in his well-known letter to the Constable of Portugal. -Sanchez, Poesías Anteriores, Tom. I. p. liv.</p> - -</div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p id="Footnote_579"><span class="label"><a -href="#FNanchor_579">[579]</a></span> Mariana, Historia, Madrid, 1780, -fol., Tom. II. pp. 236-407. See also the very remarkable details given -by Fernan Perez de Guzman, in his “Generaciones y Semblanzas,” c. -33.</p> - -</div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p id="Footnote_580"><span class="label"><a -href="#FNanchor_580">[580]</a></span> Castro, Bib. Española, Tom. I. -pp. 265-346.</p> - -</div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p id="Footnote_581"><span class="label"><a -href="#FNanchor_581">[581]</a></span> See the amusing letters in the -“Centon Epistolario” of Fern. Gomez de Cibdareal, Nos. 47, 49, 56, -and 76;—a work, however, whose authority will hereafter be called in -question.</p> - -</div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p id="Footnote_582"><span class="label"><a -href="#FNanchor_582">[582]</a></span> Ibid., Epístola 105.</p> - -</div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p id="Footnote_583"><span class="label"><a -href="#FNanchor_583">[583]</a></span> <i>Minne</i> is the word for <i>love</i> in -the “Nibelungenlied” and in the oldest German poetry generally, and is -applied occasionally to spiritual and religious affections, but almost -always to the love connected with gallantry. There has been a great -deal of discussion about its etymology and primitive meanings in the -Lexicons of Wachter, Ménage, Adelung, etc.; but it is enough for our -purpose to know that the word itself is peculiarly appropriate to the -fanciful and more or less conceited school of poetry that everywhere -appeared under the influences of chivalry. It is the word that gave -birth to the French <i>mignon</i>, the English <i>minion</i>, etc.</p> - -</div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p id="Footnote_584"><span class="label"><a -href="#FNanchor_584">[584]</a></span> Crónica de D. Juan el Segundo, -Año 1454, c. 2.</p> - -</div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p id="Footnote_585"><span class="label"><a -href="#FNanchor_585">[585]</a></span> Generaciones y Semblanzas, Cap. -33. Diego de Valera, who, like Guzman, just cited, had much personal -intercourse with the king, gives a similar account of him, in a style -no less natural and striking. “He was,” says that chronicler, “devout -and humane; liberal and gentle; tolerably well taught in the Latin -tongue; bold, gracious, and of winning ways. He was tall of stature, -and his bearing was regal, with much natural ease. Moreover, he was -a good musician; sang, played, and danced; and wrote good verses -[<i>trobaua muy bien</i>]. Hunting pleased him much; he read gladly books -of philosophy and poetry, and was learned in matters belonging to the -Church.” Crónica de Hyspaña, Salamanca, 1495, folio, f. 89.</p> - -</div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p id="Footnote_586"><span class="label"><a -href="#FNanchor_586">[586]</a></span> Fernan Gomez de Cibdareal, Centon -Epistolario, Ep. 20.</p> - -</div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p id="Footnote_587"><span class="label"><a -href="#FNanchor_587">[587]</a></span> They are commonly printed with -the Works of Juan de Mena, as in the edition of Seville, 1534, folio, -f. 104, but are often found elsewhere.</p> - -<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> -<p class="i0">Amor, yo nunca pensé,</p> -<p class="i2">Que tan poderoso eras,</p> -<p class="i2">Que podrias tener maneras</p> -<p class="i2">Para trastornar la fé,</p> -<p class="i2">Fasta agora que lo sé.</p> -<p class="i0"> </p> -<p class="i0">Pensaba que conocido</p> -<p class="i2">Te debiera yo tener,</p> -<p class="i2">Mas no pudiera creer</p> -<p class="i2">Que fueras tan mal sabido.</p> -<p class="i0"> </p> -<p class="i0">Ni jamas no lo pensé,</p> -<p class="i2">Aunque poderoso eras,</p> -<p class="i2">Que podrias tener maneras</p> -<p class="i2">Para trastornar la fé,</p> -<p class="i2">Fasta agora que lo sé.</p> -</div></div> - -</div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p id="Footnote_588"><span class="label"><a -href="#FNanchor_588">[588]</a></span> His family, at the time of -his birth, possessed the only marquisate in the kingdom. Salazar de -Mendoza, Orígen de las Dignidades Seglares de Castilla y Leon, Toledo, -1618, folio, Lib. III. c. xii.</p> - -</div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p id="Footnote_589"><span class="label"><a -href="#FNanchor_589">[589]</a></span> Fernan Perez de Guzman, Gen. y -Semblanzas, Cap. 28.</p> - -</div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p id="Footnote_590"><span class="label"><a -href="#FNanchor_590">[590]</a></span> Crónica de D. Juan el Segundo, -Año 1407, Cap. 4, and 1434, Cap. 8, where his character is pithily -given in the following words: “Este caballero fue muy grande letrado -é supo muy poco en lo que le cumplia.” In the “Comedias Escogidas” -(Madrid, 4to, Tom. IX., 1657) is a poor play entitled “El Rey Enrique -el Enfermo, de seis Ingenios,” in which that unhappy king, contrary to -the truth of history, is represented as making the Marquis of Villena -Master of Calatrava, in order to dissolve his marriage and obtain -his wife. Who were the six wits that invented this calumny does not -appear.</p> - -</div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p id="Footnote_591"><span class="label"><a -href="#FNanchor_591">[591]</a></span> Zurita, Anales de Aragon, Lib. -XIV. c. 22. The best notice of the Marquis of Villena is in Juan -Antonio Pellicer, “Biblioteca de Traductores Españoles,” (Madrid, 1778, -8vo, Tom. II. pp. 58-76,) to which, however, the accounts in Antonio -(Bib. Vetus, ed. Bayer, Lib. X. c. 3) and Mariana (Hist., Lib. XX. c. -6) should be added. The character of a bold, unscrupulous, ambitious -man, given to Villena by Larra, in his novel entitled “El Doncel de Don -Enrique el Doliente,” published at Madrid, about 1835, has no proper -foundation in history.</p> - -</div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p id="Footnote_592"><span class="label"><a -href="#FNanchor_592">[592]</a></span> Pellicer speaks of the traditions -of Villena’s necromancy as if still current in his time (loc. cit. p. -65). How absurd some of them were may be seen in a note of Pellicer to -his edition of Don Quixote, (Parte I. c. 49,) and in the Dissertation -of Feyjoó, “Teatro Crítico” (Madrid, 1751, 8vo, Tom. VI. Disc. ii. -sect. 9). Mariana evidently regarded the Marquis as a dealer in the -black arts, (Hist., Lib. XIX. c. 8,) or, at least, chose to have it -thought he did.</p> - -</div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p id="Footnote_593"><span class="label"><a -href="#FNanchor_593">[593]</a></span> Lope de Barrientos was confessor -to John II., and perhaps his knowledge of these very books led him to -compose a treatise against Divination, which has never been printed. -(Antonio, Bib. Vetus, Lib. X. c. 11,) but of which I have ample -extracts, through the kindness of D. Pascual de Gayangos, and in -which the author says that among the books burned was the one called -“Raziel,” from the name of one of the angels who guarded the entrance -to Paradise, and taught the art of divination to a son of Adam, from -whose traditions the book in question was compiled. It may be worth -while to add, that this Barrientos was a Dominican, one of the order of -monks to whom, thirty years afterwards, Spain was chiefly indebted for -the Inquisition, which soon bettered his example by burning, not only -books, but men. He died in 1469, having filled, at different times, -some of the principal offices in the kingdom.</p> - -</div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p id="Footnote_594"><span class="label"><a -href="#FNanchor_594">[594]</a></span> Cibdareal, Centon Epistolario, -Epist. lxvi.</p> - -</div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p id="Footnote_595"><span class="label"><a -href="#FNanchor_595">[595]</a></span> Coplas 126-128.</p> - -</div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p id="Footnote_596"><span class="label"><a -href="#FNanchor_596">[596]</a></span> It is found in the “Cancionero -General,” 1573, (ff. 34-37,) and is a Vision in imitation of -Dante’s.</p> - -</div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p id="Footnote_597"><span class="label"><a -href="#FNanchor_597">[597]</a></span> The “Arte Cisoria ó Tratado del -Arte de cortar del Cuchillo” was first printed under the auspices of -the Library of the Escurial, (Madrid, 1766, 4to,) from a manuscript -in that precious collection marked with the fire of 1671. It is not -likely soon to come to a second edition. If I were to compare it with -any contemporary work, it would be with the old English “Treatyse on -Fyshynge with an Angle,” sometimes attributed to Dame Juliana Berners, -but it lacks the few literary merits found in that little work.</p> - -</div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p id="Footnote_598"><span class="label"><a -href="#FNanchor_598">[598]</a></span> All we have of this “Arte de -Trobar” is in Mayans y Siscar, “Orígenes de la Lengua Española” -(Madrid, 1737, 12mo, Tom. II. pp. 321-342). It seems to have been -written in 1433.</p> - -</div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p id="Footnote_599"><span class="label"><a -href="#FNanchor_599">[599]</a></span> The best account of them is in -Pellicer, Bib. de Traductores, loc. cit. I am sorry to add, that the -specimen given of the translation from Virgil, though short, affords -some reason to doubt whether the Marquis was a good Latin scholar. It -is in prose, and the Preface sets forth that it was written at the -earnest request of John, King of Navarre, whose curiosity about Virgil -had been excited by the reverential notices of him in Dante’s “Divina -Commedia.” See, also, Memorias de la Academia de Historia, Tom. VI. -p. 455, note. In the King’s Library at Paris is a prose translation -of the <i>last</i> nine books of Virgil’s Æneid, made, in 1430, by a Juan -de Villena, who qualifies himself as a “<i>servant</i> of Iñigo Lopez de -Mendoza.” (Ochoa, Catálogo de Manuscritos, Paris, 1844, 4to, p. 375.) -It would be curious to ascertain whether the two have any connection, -as both seem to be connected with the Marquis of Santillana.</p> - -</div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p id="Footnote_600"><span class="label"><a -href="#FNanchor_600">[600]</a></span> The “Trabajos de Hercules” is -one of the rarest books in the world, though there are editions of it -of 1483 and 1499, and perhaps one of 1502. The copy which I use is -of the first edition, and belongs to Don Pascual de Gayangos. It was -printed at Çamora, by Centenera, having been completed, as the colophon -tells us, on the 15th of January, 1483. It fills thirty leaves in -folio, double columns, and is illustrated by eleven curious woodcuts, -well done for the period and country. The mistakes made about it are -remarkable, and render the details I have given of some consequence. -Antonio, (Bib. Vetus, ed. Bayer, Tom. II. p. 222,) Velasquez, (Orígenes -de la Poesía Castellana, 4to, Málaga, 1754, p. 49,) L. F. Moratin, -(Obras, ed. de la Academia, Madrid, 1830, 8vo, Tom. I. Parte I. p. -114,) and even Torres Amat, in his “Memorias,” (Barcelona, 1836, 8vo, -p. 669,) all speak of it <i>as a poem</i>. Of the edition printed at Burgos, -in 1499, and mentioned in Mendez, Typog. Esp., (p. 289,) I have never -seen a copy, and, except the above-mentioned copy of the first edition -and an imperfect one in the Royal Library at Paris, I know of none of -any edition;—so rare is it become.</p> - -</div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p id="Footnote_601"><span class="label"><a -href="#FNanchor_601">[601]</a></span> See Heeren, Geschichte der -Class. Litteratur im Mittelalter, Göttingen, 8vo, Tom. II., 1801, pp. -126-131. From the Advertencia to the Marquis of Villena’s translation -of Virgil, it would seem that even Virgil was hardly known in Spain in -the beginning of the fifteenth century.</p> - -</div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p id="Footnote_602"><span class="label"><a -href="#FNanchor_602">[602]</a></span> Another work of the Marquis of -Villena is mentioned in Sempere y Guarinos, “Historia del Luxo de -España,” (Madrid, 1788, 8vo, Tom. I. pp. 176-179,) called “El Triunfo -de las Donas,” and is said to have been found by him in a manuscript -of the fifteenth century, “with other works of the same wise author.” -The extract given by Sempere is on the fops of the time, and is written -with spirit.</p> - -</div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p id="Footnote_603"><span class="label"><a -href="#FNanchor_603">[603]</a></span> The best account of Macias and -of his verses is in Bellermann’s “Alte Liederbücher der Portuguiesen” -(Berlin, 1840, 4to, pp. 24-26); to which may well be added, Argote de -Molina, “Nobleza del Andaluzia,” (Sevilla, 1588, folio, Lib. II. c. -148, f. 272,) Castro, “Biblioteca Española,” (Tom. I. p. 312,) and -Cortina’s notes to Bouterwek (p. 195). But the proofs of his early and -wide-spread fame are to be sought in Sanchez, “Poesías Anteriores” -(Tom. I. p. 138); in the “Cancionero General,” 1535 (ff. 67, 91); in -Juan de Mena, Copla 105, with the notes on it in the edition of Mena’s -Works, 1566; in “Celestina,” Act II.; in several plays of Calderon, -such as “Para vencer Amor querer vencerlo,” and “Qual es mayor -Perfeccion”; in Góngora’s ballads; and in many passages of Lope de Vega -and Cervantes. There are notices of Macias also in Ochoa, “Manuscritos -Españoles,” Paris, 1844, 4to, p. 505. In Vol. XLVIII. of “Comedias -Escogidas,” (1704, 4to,) is an anonymous play on his adventures and -death, entitled “El Español mas Amante,” in which the unhappy Macias -is killed at the moment the Marquis of Villena arrives to release him -from prison;—and in our own times, Larra has made him the hero of his -“Doncel de Don Enrique el Doliente,” already referred to, and of a -tragedy that bears his name, “Macias,” neither of them true to the -facts of history.</p> - -</div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p id="Footnote_604"><span class="label"><a -href="#FNanchor_604">[604]</a></span> Perez de Guzman, Generaciones y -Semblanzas, Cap. 9.</p> - -</div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p id="Footnote_605"><span class="label"><a -href="#FNanchor_605">[605]</a></span> This great family is early -connected with the poetry of Spain. The grandfather of Iñigo sacrificed -his own life voluntarily to save the life of John I. at the battle of -Aljubarrota in 1385, and became in consequence the subject of that -stirring and glorious ballad,—</p> - -<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> -<p class="i0">Si el cavallo vos han muerto,</p> -<p class="i0">Subid, Rey, en mi cavallo.</p> -</div></div> - -<p>It is found at the end of the Eighth Part of the Romancero, 1597, -and is translated with much spirit by Lockhart, who, however, evidently -did not seek exactness in his version.</p> - -</div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p id="Footnote_606"><span class="label"><a -href="#FNanchor_606">[606]</a></span> Crónica de D. Juan el Segundo, -Año 1414, Cap. 2.</p> - -</div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p id="Footnote_607"><span class="label"><a -href="#FNanchor_607">[607]</a></span> It is Perez de Guzman, uncle of -the Marquis, who declares (Generaciones y Semblanzas, Cap. 9) that -the father of the Marquis had larger estates than any other Castilian -knight; to which may be added what Oviedo says so characteristically -of the young nobleman, that, “as he grew up, he recovered his estates -partly by law and partly by force of arms, and <i>so began forthwith to -be accounted much of a man</i>.” Batalla I. Quinquagena i. Diálogo 8, -MS.</p> - -</div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p id="Footnote_608"><span class="label"><a -href="#FNanchor_608">[608]</a></span> Crónica de D. Juan el Segundo, -Año 1428, Cap. 7.</p> - -</div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p id="Footnote_609"><span class="label"><a -href="#FNanchor_609">[609]</a></span> Sanchez, Poesías Anteriores, Tom. -I. pp. v., etc.</p> - -</div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p id="Footnote_610"><span class="label"><a -href="#FNanchor_610">[610]</a></span> Crónica de D. Juan el Segundo, -Año 1438, Cap. 2; 1445, Cap. 17; and Salazar de Mendoza, Dignidades de -Castilla, Lib. III. c. 14.</p> - -</div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p id="Footnote_611"><span class="label"><a -href="#FNanchor_611">[611]</a></span> Crónica de D. Juan el Segundo, -Año 1432, Capp. 4 and 5.</p> - -</div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p id="Footnote_612"><span class="label"><a -href="#FNanchor_612">[612]</a></span> Ibid., Año 1433, Cap. 2.</p> - -</div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p id="Footnote_613"><span class="label"><a -href="#FNanchor_613">[613]</a></span> Ibid., Año 1449, Cap. 11.</p> - -</div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p id="Footnote_614"><span class="label"><a -href="#FNanchor_614">[614]</a></span> Ibid., Año 1452, Capp. 1, etc.</p> - -</div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p id="Footnote_615"><span class="label"><a -href="#FNanchor_615">[615]</a></span> The principal facts in the -life of the Marquis of Santillana are to be gathered—as, from his -rank and consideration in the state, might be expected—out of the -Chronicle of John II., in which he constantly appears after the year -1414; but a very lively and successful sketch of him is to be found -in the fourth chapter of Pulgar’s “Claros Varones,” and an elaborate, -but ill-digested, biography in the first volume of Sanchez, “Poesías -Anteriores.”</p> - -</div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p id="Footnote_616"><span class="label"><a -href="#FNanchor_616">[616]</a></span> In the “Introduction del Marques -á los Proverbios,” Anvers, 1552, 18mo, f. 150.</p> - -</div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p id="Footnote_617"><span class="label"><a -href="#FNanchor_617">[617]</a></span> Pulgar, Claros Varones, ut -supra.</p> - -</div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p id="Footnote_618"><span class="label"><a -href="#FNanchor_618">[618]</a></span> See the preceding <a -href="#Villena">notice of Villena</a>.</p> - -</div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p id="Footnote_619"><span class="label"><a -href="#FNanchor_619">[619]</a></span> In the Introduction to his -Proverbs, he boasts of his familiarity with the Provençal rules of -versifying.</p> - -</div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p id="Footnote_620"><span class="label"><a -href="#FNanchor_620">[620]</a></span> It is in the oldest Cancionero -General, and copied from that into Faber’s “Floresta,” No. 87.</p> - -</div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p id="Footnote_621"><span class="label"><a -href="#FNanchor_621">[621]</a></span> The <i>Serranas</i> of the Arcipreste -de Hita were noticed when speaking of his works; but the six by the -Marquis of Santillana approach nearer to the Provençal model, and -have a higher poetical merit. For their form and Structure, see Diez, -Troubadours, p. 114. The one specially referred to in the text is so -beautiful, that I add a part of it, with the corresponding portion of -the one by Riquier.</p> - -<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> -<p class="i0">Moza tan fermosa</p> -<p class="i0">Non vi en la frontera,</p> -<p class="i0">Como una vaquera</p> -<p class="i0">De la Finojosa.</p> -<p class="i2 g4">· · · · ·</p> -<p class="i0">En un verde prado</p> -<p class="i0">De rosas e flores,</p> -<p class="i0">Guardando ganado</p> -<p class="i0">Con otros pastores,</p> -<p class="i0">La vi tan fermosa,</p> -<p class="i0">Que apenas creyera,</p> -<p class="i0">Que fuese vaquera</p> -<p class="i0">De la Finojosa.</p> -</div></div> -<p class="fs90 dcha mt-1">Sanchez, Poesías Anteriores, Tom. I. p. -xliv.</p> - -<p class="ti1 mt1">The following is the opening of that by Riquier:—</p> - -<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> -<p class="i0">Gaya pastorelha</p> -<p class="i0">Trobey l’ autre dia</p> -<p class="i0">En una ribeira,</p> -<p class="i0">Que per caut la belha</p> -<p class="i0">Sos anhels tenia</p> -<p class="i0">Desotz un ombreira;</p> -<p class="i0">Un capelh fazia</p> -<p class="i0">De flors e sezia,</p> -<p class="i0">Sus en la fresqueria, etc.</p> -</div></div> -<p class="fs90 dcha mt-1">Raynouard, Troubadours, Tom. III. p. 470.</p> - -<p class="mt1">None of the Provençal poets, I think, wrote so beautiful -<i>Pastoretas</i> as Riquier; so that the Marquis chose a good model.</p> - -</div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p id="Footnote_622"><span class="label"><a -href="#FNanchor_622">[622]</a></span> See the Letter to the Constable -of Portugal.</p> - -</div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p id="Footnote_623"><span class="label"><a -href="#FNanchor_623">[623]</a></span> Cancionero General, 1573, f. 34. -It was, of course, written after 1434, that being the year Villena -died.</p> - -</div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p id="Footnote_624"><span class="label"><a -href="#FNanchor_624">[624]</a></span> Faber, Floresta, ut sup.</p> - -</div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p id="Footnote_625"><span class="label"><a -href="#FNanchor_625">[625]</a></span> Sanchez, Poesías Anteriores, -Tom. I. pp. xx., xxi., xl. Quintana, Poesías Castellanas, Madrid, -1807, 12mo, Tom. I. p. 13. There are imperfect discussions about the -introduction of sonnets into Spanish poetry in Argote de Molina’s -“Discurso,” at the end of the “Conde Lucanor,” (1575, f. 97,) and in -Herrera’s edition of Garcilasso (Sevilla, 1580, 8vo, p. 75). But all -doubts are put at rest, and all questions answered, in the edition of -the “Rimas Ineditas de Don Iñigo Lopez de Mendoza,” published at Paris, -by Ochoa (1844, 8vo); where, in a letter by the Marquis, dated May -4, 1444, and addressed, with his Poems, to Doña Violante de Pradas, -he tells her expressly that he imitated the Italian masters in the -composition of his poems.</p> - -</div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p id="Footnote_626"><span class="label"><a -href="#FNanchor_626">[626]</a></span> They are found in the Cancionero -General of 1573, ff. 24, 27, 37, 40, and 234.</p> - -</div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p id="Footnote_627"><span class="label"><a -href="#FNanchor_627">[627]</a></span> Sanchez, Poesías Anteriores, Tom. -I. pp. 143-147.</p> - -</div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p id="Footnote_628"><span class="label"><a -href="#FNanchor_628">[628]</a></span> It received its name from Ochoa, -who first printed it in his edition of the Marquis’s Poems (pp. -97-240); but Amador de los Rios, in his “Estudios sobre los Judios de -España,” (Madrid, 1848, 8vo, p. 342,) gives reasons which induce him to -believe it to be the work of Pablo de Sta. María, who will be noticed -hereafter.</p> - -</div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p id="Footnote_629"><span class="label"><a -href="#FNanchor_629">[629]</a></span> Faber, Floresta, No. 743. -Sanchez, Tom. I. p. xli. Claros Varones de Pulgar, ed. 1775, p. 224. -Crónica de D. Juan IIº, Año 1448, Cap. 4.</p> - -</div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p id="Footnote_630"><span class="label"><a -href="#FNanchor_630">[630]</a></span> Cancionero General, 1573, f. -37.</p> - -</div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p id="Footnote_631"><span class="label"><a -href="#FNanchor_631">[631]</a></span> Two or three other poems are -given by Ochoa: the “Pregunta de Nobles,” a sort of moral lament of -the poet, that he cannot see and know the great men of all times; the -“Doze Trabajos de Ercoles,” which has sometimes been confounded with -the prose work of Villena bearing the same title; and the “Infierno de -Enamoradas,” which was afterwards imitated by Garci Sanchez de Badajoz. -All three are short and of little value.</p> - -</div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p id="Footnote_632"><span class="label"><a -href="#FNanchor_632">[632]</a></span> For example, Crónica de D. Juan -el Segundo, Año 1435, Cap. 9.</p> - -</div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p id="Footnote_633"><span class="label"><a -href="#FNanchor_633">[633]</a></span> In the letter to Doña Violante de -Pradas, he says he began it immediately after the battle.</p> - -</div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p id="Footnote_634"><span class="label"><a -href="#FNanchor_634">[634]</a></span> Speaking of the dialogue he heard -about the battle, the Marquis says, using almost the very words of -Dante,—</p> - -<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> -<p class="i22">Tan pauroso,</p> -<p class="i0">Que solo en pensarlo me vence piedad.</p> -</div></div> - - -</div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p id="Footnote_635"><span class="label"><a -href="#FNanchor_635">[635]</a></span> As a specimen of the best parts -of the Comedieta, I copy the paraphrase from a manuscript, better, I -think, than that used by Ochoa:—</p> - -<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> -<p class="centra"><small>ST. XVI.</small></p> -<p class="i0">Benditos aquellos, que, con el açada,</p> -<p class="i0">Sustentan sus vidas y biven contentos,</p> -<p class="i0">Y de quando en quando conoscen morada,</p> -<p class="i0">Y sufren placientes las lluvias y vientos.</p> -<p class="i0">Ca estos no temen los sus movimientos,</p> -<p class="i0">Nin saben las cosas del tiempo pasado,</p> -<p class="i0">Nin de las presentes se hacen cuidado,</p> -<p class="i0">Nin las venideras do an nascimientos.</p> -</div></div> - -<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> -<p class="centra"><small>ST. XVII.</small></p> -<p class="i0">Benditos aquellos que siguen las fieras</p> -<p class="i0">Con las gruesas redes y canes ardidos,</p> -<p class="i0">Y saben las troxas y las delanteras,</p> -<p class="i0">Y fieren de arcos en tiempos devidos.</p> -<p class="i0">Ca estos por saña no son comovidos,</p> -<p class="i0">Nin vana cobdicia los tiene subjetos,</p> -<p class="i0">Nin quieren tesoros, ni sienten defetos,</p> -<p class="i0">Nin turba fortuna sus libres sentidos.</p> -</div></div> - -</div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p id="Footnote_636"><span class="label"><a -href="#FNanchor_636">[636]</a></span> There is another collection of -proverbs made by the Marquis of Santillana, that is to be found in -Mayans y Siscar, “Orígenes de la Lengua Castellana” (Tom. II. pp. -179, etc.). They are, however, neither rhymed nor glossed; but simply -arranged in alphabetical order, as they were gathered from the lips of -the common people, or, as the collector says, “from the old women in -their chimney-corners.” For an account of the printed editions of the -<i>rhymed</i> proverbs prepared for Prince Henry, see Mendez, Typog. Esp., -p. 196, and Sanchez, Tom. I. p. xxxiv. The seventeenth proverb, or that -on Prudence, may be taken as a fair specimen of the whole, all being in -the same measure and manner. It is as follows:—</p> - -<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> -<p class="i0">Si fueres gran eloquente</p> -<p class="i0">Bien será,</p> -<p class="i0">Pero mas te converrá</p> -<p class="i0">Ser prudente.</p> -<p class="i0">Que <i>el prudente es obediente</i></p> -<p class="i0">Todavia</p> -<p class="i0">A moral filosofía</p> -<p class="i0">Y sirviente.</p> -</div></div> - -<p>A few of the hundred proverbs have a prose commentary by the Marquis -himself; but neither have these the good fortune to escape the learned -discussions of the Toledan Doctor. The whole collection is spoken of -slightingly by the wise author of the “Diálogo de las Lenguas.” Mayans -y Siscar, Orígenes, Tom. II. p. 13.</p> - -<p class="ti1">The same Pero Diaz, who burdened the Proverbs of the -Marquis of Santillana with a commentary, prepared, at the request -of John II., a collection of proverbs from Seneca, which were first -printed in 1482, and afterwards went through several editions. (Mendez, -Typog., pp. 266 and 197.) I have one of Seville, 1500 (fol., 66 -leaves). They are about one hundred and fifty in number, and the prose -gloss with which each is accompanied seems in better taste and more -becoming its position than it does in the case of the rhymed proverbs -of the Marquis.</p> - -</div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p id="Footnote_637"><span class="label"><a -href="#FNanchor_637">[637]</a></span> In the Preface to the -“Coronacion,” Obras, Alcalá, 1566, 12mo, f. 260.</p> - -</div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p id="Footnote_638"><span class="label"><a -href="#FNanchor_638">[638]</a></span> This important letter—which, from -the notice of it by Argote de Molina, (Nobleza, 1588, f. 335,) was a -sort of acknowledged introduction to the Cancionero of the Marquis—is -found, with learned notes to it, in the first volume of Sanchez. The -Constable of Portugal, to whom it was addressed, died in 1466.</p> - -</div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p id="Footnote_639"><span class="label"><a -href="#FNanchor_639">[639]</a></span> I do not account him learned, -because he had not the accomplishment common to all learned men of his -time,—that of speaking Latin. This appears from the very quaint and -rare treatise of the “Vita Beata,” by Juan de Lucena, his contemporary -and friend, where (ed. 1483, fol., f. ii. b) the Marquis is made to -say, “Me veo defetuoso de letras Latinas,” and adds, that the Bishop of -Burgos and Juan de Mena would have carried on in Latin the discussion -recorded in that treatise, instead of carrying it on in Spanish, if he -had been able to join them in that learned language. That the Marquis -could <i>read</i> Latin, however, is probable from his works, which are full -of allusions to Latin authors, and sometimes contain imitations of -them.</p> - -</div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p id="Footnote_640"><span class="label"><a -href="#FNanchor_640">[640]</a></span> The chief materials for the -life of Juan de Mena are to be found in some poor verses by Francisco -Romero, in his “Epicedio en la Muerte del Maestro Hernan Nuñez,” -(Salamanca, 1578, 12mo, pp. 485, etc.,) at the end of the “Refranes de -Hernan Nuñez.” Concerning the place of his birth there is no doubt. He -alludes to it himself (Trescientas, Copla 124) in a way that does him -honor.</p> - -</div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p id="Footnote_641"><span class="label"><a -href="#FNanchor_641">[641]</a></span> Cibdareal, Epist. XX., XXIII.</p> - -</div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p id="Footnote_642"><span class="label"><a -href="#FNanchor_642">[642]</a></span> Ibid., Epist. XLVII.</p> - -</div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p id="Footnote_643"><span class="label"><a -href="#FNanchor_643">[643]</a></span> Ibid., Epist. XLIX.</p> - -</div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p id="Footnote_644"><span class="label"><a -href="#FNanchor_644">[644]</a></span> For the first verses, see Castro, -Bibl. Española, Tom. I. p. 331; and for those on the Constable, see his -Chronicle, Milano, 1546, fol., f. 60. b, Tít. 95.</p> - -</div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p id="Footnote_645"><span class="label"><a -href="#FNanchor_645">[645]</a></span> The verses inscribed “Do Ifante -Dom Pedro, Fylho del Rey Dom Joam, em Loor de Joam de Mena,” with Juan -de Mena’s answer, a short rejoinder by the Infante, and a conclusion, -are in the Cancioneiro de Rresende, (Lisboa, 1516, folio,) f. 72. -b. See, also, Die Alten Liederbücher der Portugiesen, von C. F. -Bellermann, (Berlin, 1840, 4to, pp. 27, 64,) and Mendez, Typographía -(p. 137, note). This Infante Don Pedro is, I suppose, the one alluded -to as a great traveller in Don Quixote (Part II., end of Chap. 23); but -Pellicer and Clemencin give us no light on the matter.</p> - -</div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p id="Footnote_646"><span class="label"><a -href="#FNanchor_646">[646]</a></span> See the Dialogue of Juan de -Lucena, “La Vita Beata,” <i>passim</i>, in which Juan de Mena is one of the -principal speakers.</p> - -</div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p id="Footnote_647"><span class="label"><a -href="#FNanchor_647">[647]</a></span> He stood well with the king and -the Infantes, with the Constable, with the Marquis of Santillana, -etc.</p> - -</div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p id="Footnote_648"><span class="label"><a -href="#FNanchor_648">[648]</a></span> Ant. Ponz, Viage de España, -Madrid, 1787, 12mo, Tom. X. p. 38. Clemencin, note to Don Quixote, -Parte II. c. 44, Tom. V. p. 379.</p> - -</div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p id="Footnote_649"><span class="label"><a -href="#FNanchor_649">[649]</a></span> Cibdareal, Epist. XX. No less -than twelve of the hundred and five letters of the courtly leech are -addressed to the poet, showing, if they are genuine, how much favor -Juan de Mena enjoyed.</p> - -</div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p id="Footnote_650"><span class="label"><a -href="#FNanchor_650">[650]</a></span> The last, which is not without -humor, is twice alluded to in Cibdareal, viz., Epist. XXXIII. and -XXXVI., and seems to have been liked at court and by the king.</p> - -</div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p id="Footnote_651"><span class="label"><a -href="#FNanchor_651">[651]</a></span> The minor poems of Juan de Mena -are to be found chiefly in the old Cancioneros Generales; but some -must be sought in the old editions of his own works. For example, -in the valuable folio one of 1534, in which the “Trescientas” and -the “Coronacion” form separate publications, with separate titles, -pagings, and colophons, each is followed by a few of the author’s short -poems.</p> - -</div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p id="Footnote_652"><span class="label"><a -href="#FNanchor_652">[652]</a></span> The author of the “Diálogo de -las Lenguas” (Mayans y Siscar, Orígenes, Tom. II. p. 148) complained -of the frequent obscurities in Juan de Mena’s poetry, three centuries -ago,—a fault made abundantly apparent in the elaborate explanations -of his dark passages by the two oldest and most learned of his -commentators.</p> - -</div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p id="Footnote_653"><span class="label"><a -href="#FNanchor_653">[653]</a></span> Juan de Mena has always stood -well with his countrymen, if he has not been absolutely popular. Verses -by him appeared, during his lifetime, in the Cancionero of Baena, and -immediately afterwards in the Chronicle of the Constable. Others are -in the collection of poems already noticed, printed at Saragossa in -1492, and in another collection of the same period, but without date. -They are in all the old Cancioneros Generales, and in a succession of -separate editions, from 1496 to our own times. And besides all this, -the learned Hernan Nuñez de Guzman printed a commentary on them in -1499, and the still more learned Francisco Sanchez de las Brozas, -commonly called El Brocense, printed another in 1582; one or the other -of which accompanies the poems for their elucidation in nearly every -edition since.</p> - -</div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p id="Footnote_654"><span class="label"><a -href="#FNanchor_654">[654]</a></span> Crónica de D. Juan el Segundo, -Año 1436, c. 3. Mena, Trescientas, Cop. 160-162.</p> - -<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> -<p class="i0">Aquel que en la barca parece sentado,</p> -<p class="i2">Vestido, en engaño de las bravas ondas,</p> -<p class="i2">En aguas crueles, ya mas que no hondas,</p> -<p class="i0">Con mucha gran gente en la mar anegado,</p> -<p class="i0">Es el valiente, no bien fortunado,</p> -<p class="i2">Muy virtuoso, perínclito Conde</p> -<p class="i2">De Niebla, que todos sabeis bien adonde</p> -<p class="i0">Dió fin al dia del curso hadado.</p> -<p class="i0"> </p> -<p class="i0">Y los que lo cercan por el derredor,</p> -<p class="i2">Puesto que fuessen magníficos hombres,</p> -<p class="i2">Los títulos todos de todos sus nombres,</p> -<p class="i0">El nombre les cubre de aquel su señor;</p> -<p class="i0">Que todos los hechos que son de valor</p> -<p class="i2">Para se mostrar por sí cada uno,</p> -<p class="i2">Quando se juntan y van de consuno,</p> -<p class="i0">Pierden el nombre delante el mayor.</p> -<p class="i0"> </p> -<p class="i0">Arlanza, Pisuerga, y aun Carrion,</p> -<p class="i2">Gozan de nombre de rios; empero</p> -<p class="i2">Despues de juntados llamamos los Duero;</p> -<p class="i0">Hacemos de muchos una relacion.</p> -</div></div> - -</div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p id="Footnote_655"><span class="label"><a -href="#FNanchor_655">[655]</a></span> Cibdareal, Epist. XX.</p> - -</div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p id="Footnote_656"><span class="label"><a -href="#FNanchor_656">[656]</a></span> Ibid., Epist. XLIX.</p> - -</div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p id="Footnote_657"><span class="label"><a -href="#FNanchor_657">[657]</a></span> Ibid., Epist. XX.</p> - -</div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p id="Footnote_658"><span class="label"><a -href="#FNanchor_658">[658]</a></span> They are printed separately in -the Cancionero General of 1573; but do not appear at all in the edition -of the Works of the poet in 1566, and were not commented upon by -Hernan Nuñez. It is, indeed, doubtful whether they were really written -by Juan de Mena. If they were, they must probably have been produced -after the king’s death, for they are far from being flattering to him. -On this account, I am disposed to think they are not genuine; for the -poet seems to have permitted his great eulogies of the king and of the -Constable to stand after the death of both of them.</p> - -</div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p id="Footnote_659"><span class="label"><a -href="#FNanchor_659">[659]</a></span> Thus <i>fi</i>, Valencian or Provençal -for <i>hijo</i>, in the “Trescientas,” Copla 37, and <i>trinquete</i> for -<i>foresail</i>, in Copla 165, may serve as specimens. Lope de Vega (Obras -Sueltas, Tom. IV. p. 474) complains of Juan de Mena’s Latinisms, which -are indeed very awkward and abundant, and cites the following line:—</p> - -<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> -<p class="i0">El amor es ficto, vaniloco, pigro.</p> -</div></div> - -<p>I do not remember it; but it is as bad as some of the worst verses -of the same sort for which Ronsard has been ridiculed. It should be -observed, however, that, in the earliest periods of the Castilian -language, there was a greater connection with the French than there -was in the time of Juan de Mena. Thus, in the “Poem of the Cid,” we -have <i>cuer</i> for <i>heart</i>, <i>tiesta</i> for <i>head</i>, etc.; in Berceo, we have -<i>asemblar</i>, <i>to meet</i>; <i>sopear</i>, <i>to sup</i>, etc. (See Don Quixote, ed. -Clemencin, 1835, Tom. IV. p. 56.) If, therefore, we find a few French -words in Juan de Mena that are no longer used, like <i>sage</i>, which he -makes a dissyllable guttural to rhyme with <i>viage</i> in Copla 167, we -may presume he found them already in the language, from which they -have since been dropped. But Juan de Mena was, in all respects, too -bold; and, as the learned Sarmiento says of him in a manuscript which -I possess, “Many of his words are not at all Castilian, and were never -used either before his time or after it.”</p> - -</div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p id="Footnote_660"><span class="label"><a -href="#FNanchor_660">[660]</a></span> The accounts of Villasandino are -found in Antonio, Bib. Vetus, ed. Bayer, Tom. II. p. 341; and Sanchez, -Poesías Anteriores, Tom. I. pp. 200, etc. His earlier poems are in -the Academy’s edition of the Chronicles of Ayala, Tom. II. pp. 604, -615, 621, 626, 646; but the mass of his works as yet printed is in the -Cancionero of Baena, extracted by Castro, Biblioteca Española, Tom. I. -pp. 268-296, etc.</p> - -</div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p id="Footnote_661"><span class="label"><a -href="#FNanchor_661">[661]</a></span> Sanchez, Tom. I. p. lx.</p> - -</div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p id="Footnote_662"><span class="label"><a -href="#FNanchor_662">[662]</a></span> The Hymn in question is in -Castro, Tom. I. p. 269; but, as a specimen of Villasandino’s easiest -manner, I prefer the following verses, which he wrote for Count Pero -Niño, to be given to the Lady Beatrice, of whom, as was noticed when -speaking of his Chronicle, the Count was enamoured:—</p> - -<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> -<p class="i0">La que siempre obedecí,</p> -<p class="i2">E obedezco todavia,</p> -<p class="i2">Mal pecado, solo un dia</p> -<p class="i0">Non se le membra de mi.</p> -<p class="i6">Perdí</p> -<p class="i2">Meu tempo en servir</p> -<p class="i2">A la que me fas vevir</p> -<p class="i0">Coidoso desque la ví, etc.</p> -</div></div> - -<p class="ti1">But as the editor of the Chronicle says, (Madrid, -1782, 4to, p. 223,) “They are verses that might be attributed to any -other gallant or any other lady, so that it seems as if Villasandino -prepared such couplets to be given to the first person that should ask -for them”;—words cited here, because they apply to a great deal of -the poetry of the time of John II., which deals often in the coldest -commonplaces, and some of which was used, no doubt, as this was.</p> - -</div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p id="Footnote_663"><span class="label"><a -href="#FNanchor_663">[663]</a></span> The notices of Francisco Imperial -are in Sanchez (Tom. I. pp. lx., 205, etc.); in Argote de Molina’s -“Nobleza del Andaluzia” (1588, ff. 244, 260); and his Discourse -prefixed to the “Vida del Gran Tamorlan” (Madrid, 1782, 4to, p. 3). His -poems are in Castro, Tom. I. pp. 296, 301, etc.</p> - -</div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p id="Footnote_664"><span class="label"><a -href="#FNanchor_664">[664]</a></span> Castro, Tom. I. pp. 319-330, -etc.</p> - -</div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p id="Footnote_665"><span class="label"><a -href="#FNanchor_665">[665]</a></span> Ferrant Manuel de Lando is noted -as a page of John II. in Argote de Molina’s “Sucesion de los Manueles,” -prefixed to the “Conde Lucanor,” 1575; and his poems are said to have -been “agradables para aquel siglo.”</p> - -</div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p id="Footnote_666"><span class="label"><a -href="#FNanchor_666">[666]</a></span> That is, if the Juan Rodriguez -del Padron, whose poems occur in Castro, (Tom. I. p. 331, etc.,) and in -the manuscript Cancionero called Estuñiga’s, (f. 18,) be the same, as -he is commonly supposed to be, with the Juan Rodriguez del Padron of -the “Cancionero General,” 1573 (ff. 121-124 and elsewhere). But of this -I entertain doubts.</p> - -</div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p id="Footnote_667"><span class="label"><a -href="#FNanchor_667">[667]</a></span> Sanchez, Tom. I. pp. 199, 207, -208.</p> - -</div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p id="Footnote_668"><span class="label"><a -href="#FNanchor_668">[668]</a></span> It is published by Ochoa, in the -same volume with the inedited poems of the Marquis of Santillana, where -it is followed by poems of Suero de Ribera, (who occurs also in Baena’s -Cancionero, and that of Estuñiga,) Juan de Dueñas, (who occurs in -Estuñiga’s,) and one or two others of no value,—all of the age of John -II.</p> - -</div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p id="Footnote_669"><span class="label"><a -href="#FNanchor_669">[669]</a></span> Castro, Tom. I. pp. 310-312.</p> - -</div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p id="Footnote_670"><span class="label"><a -href="#FNanchor_670">[670]</a></span> The best life of Cibdareal is -prefixed to his Letters (Madrid, ed. 1775, 4to). But his birth is there -placed about 1388, though he himself (Ep. 105) says he was sixty-eight -years old in 1454, which gives 1386 as the true date. But we know -absolutely nothing of him beyond what we find in the letters that pass -under his name. The Noticia prefixed to the edition referred to was—as -we are told in the Preface to the Chronicle of Alvaro de Luna (Madrid, -1784, 4to)—prepared by Llaguno Amirola.</p> - -</div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p id="Footnote_671"><span class="label"><a -href="#FNanchor_671">[671]</a></span> It is the last letter in the -collection. See Appendix (C), on the genuineness of the whole.</p> - -</div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p id="Footnote_672"><span class="label"><a -href="#FNanchor_672">[672]</a></span> Cibdareal, Epist. 51.</p> - -</div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p id="Footnote_673"><span class="label"><a -href="#FNanchor_673">[673]</a></span> The longest extracts from the -works of this remarkable family of Jews, and the best accounts of them, -are to be found in Castro, “Biblioteca Española,” (Tom. I. p. 235, -etc.,) and Amador de los Rios, “Estudios sobre los Judios de España” -(Madrid, 1848, 8vo, pp. 339-398, 458, etc.). Much of their poetry, -which is found in the Cancioneros Generales, is amatory, and is as -good as the poetry of those old collections generally is. Two of the -treatises of Alonso were printed;—the “Oracional,” or Book of Devotion, -mentioned in the text as written for Perez de Guzman, which appeared -at Murcia in 1487, and the “Doctrinal de Cavalleros,” which appeared -the same year at Burgos. (Diosdado, De Prima Typographiæ Hispan. Ætate, -Romæ, 1793, 4to, pp. 22, 26, 64.) Both are curious; but much of the -last is taken from the “Partidas” of Alfonso the Wise.</p> - -</div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p id="Footnote_674"><span class="label"><a -href="#FNanchor_674">[674]</a></span> The manuscript I have used is a -copy from one, apparently of the fifteenth century, in the magnificent -collection of Sir Thomas Phillips, Middle Hill, Worcestershire, -England. The printed poems are found in the “Cancionero General,” 1535, -ff. 28, etc.; in the “Obras de Juan de Mena,” ed. 1566, at the end; -in Castro, Tom. I. pp. 298, 340-342; and at the end of Ochoa’s “Rimas -Ineditas de Don Iñigo Lopez de Mendoza,” Paris, 1844, 8vo, pp. 269-356. -See also Mendez, Typog. Esp., p. 383; and Cancionero General, 1573, ff. -14, 15, 20-22.</p> - -</div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p id="Footnote_675"><span class="label"><a -href="#FNanchor_675">[675]</a></span> The “Generaciones y Semblanzas” -first appeared in 1512, as part of a <i>rifacimento</i> in Spanish of -Giovanni Colonna’s “Mare Historiarum,” which may have been the work -of Perez de Guzman. They begin, in this edition, at Cap. 137, after -long accounts of Trojans, Greeks, Romans, Fathers of the Church, and -others, taken from Colonna. (Mem. de la Acad. de Historia, Tom. VI. pp. -452, 453, note.) The first edition of the Generaciones y Semblanzas -separated from this connection occurs at the end of the Chronicle of -John II., 1517. They are also found in the edition of that Chronicle -of 1779, and with the “Centon Epistolario,” in the edition of Llaguno -Amirola, Madrid, 1775, 4to, where they are preceded by a life of Fernan -Perez de Guzman, containing the little we know of him. The suggestion -made in the Preface to the Chronicle of John II., (1779, p. xi.,) -that the two very important chapters at the end of the Generaciones -y Semblanzas are not the work of Fernan Perez de Guzman is, I think, -sufficiently answered by the editor of the Chronicle of Alvaro de Luna, -Madrid, 1784, 4to, Prólogo, p. xxiii.</p> - -</div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p id="Footnote_676"><span class="label"><a -href="#FNanchor_676">[676]</a></span> Generaciones y Semblanzas, c. 10. -A similar harshness is shown in Chapters 5 and 30.</p> - -</div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p id="Footnote_677"><span class="label"><a -href="#FNanchor_677">[677]</a></span> Generaciones, etc., c. 11, 15, -and 24.</p> - -</div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p id="Footnote_678"><span class="label"><a -href="#FNanchor_678">[678]</a></span> Chrónica de Don Juan el II., Año -1437, c. 4; 1438, c. 6; 1440, c. 18.</p> - -</div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p id="Footnote_679"><span class="label"><a -href="#FNanchor_679">[679]</a></span> Pulgar, Claros Varones, Tít. 13. -Cancionero General, 1573, f. 183. Mariana, Hist., Lib. XXIV. c. 14.</p> - -</div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p id="Footnote_680"><span class="label"><a -href="#FNanchor_680">[680]</a></span> The poetry of Gomez Manrique is -in the Cancionero General, 1573, ff. 57-77, and 243.</p> - -</div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p id="Footnote_681"><span class="label"><a -href="#FNanchor_681">[681]</a></span> Adiciones á Pulgar, ed. 1775, p. -239.</p> - -</div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p id="Footnote_682"><span class="label"><a -href="#FNanchor_682">[682]</a></span> Adiciones á Pulgar, p. 223.</p> - -</div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p id="Footnote_683"><span class="label"><a -href="#FNanchor_683">[683]</a></span> Mendez, Typog. Esp., p. 265. To -these poems, when speaking of Gomez Manrique, should be added,—1. his -poetical letter to his uncle, the Marquis of Santillana, asking for a -copy of his works, with the reply of his uncle, both of which are in -the Cancioneros Generales; and 2. some of his smaller trifles, which -occur in a manuscript of the poems of Alvarez Gato, belonging to the -Library of the Academy of History at Madrid and numbered 114,—trifles, -however, which ought to be published.</p> - -</div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p id="Footnote_684"><span class="label"><a -href="#FNanchor_684">[684]</a></span> Such as the word <i>definicion</i> for -<i>death</i>, and other similar euphuisms. For a notice of Gomez Manrique, -see Antonio, Bib. Vetus, ed. Bayer, Tom. II. p. 342.</p> - -</div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p id="Footnote_685"><span class="label"><a -href="#FNanchor_685">[685]</a></span> These poems, some of them too -free for the notions of his Church, are in the Cancioneros Generales; -for example, in that of 1535, ff. 72-76, etc., and in that of 1573, at -ff. 131-139, 176, 180, 187, 189, 221, 243, 245. A few are also in the -“Cancionero de Burlas,” 1519.</p> - -</div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p id="Footnote_686"><span class="label"><a -href="#FNanchor_686">[686]</a></span> The lines on the court of John -II. are among the most beautiful in the poem:—</p> - -<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> -<p class="i0">Where is the King, Don Juan? where</p> -<p class="i0">Each royal prince and noble heir</p> -<p class="i2">Of Aragon?</p> -<p class="i0">Where are the courtly gallantries?</p> -<p class="i0">The deeds of love and high emprise,</p> -<p class="i2">In battle done?</p> -<p class="i0">Tourney and joust, that charmed the eye,</p> -<p class="i0">And scarf, and gorgeous panoply,</p> -<p class="i2">And nodding plume,—</p> -<p class="i0">What were they but a pageant scene?</p> -<p class="i0">What but the garlands, gay and green,</p> -<p class="i2">That deck the tomb?</p> -<p class="i0"> </p> -<p class="i0">Where are the high-born dames, and where</p> -<p class="i0">Their gay attire, and jewelled hair,</p> -<p class="i2">And odors sweet?</p> -<p class="i0">Where are the gentle knights, that came</p> -<p class="i0">To kneel, and breathe love’s ardent flame,</p> -<p class="i2">Low at their feet?</p> -<p class="i0">Where is the song of the Troubadour?</p> -<p class="i0">Where are the lute and gay tambour</p> -<p class="i2">They loved of yore?</p> -<p class="i0">Where is the mazy dance of old,</p> -<p class="i0">The flowing robes, inwrought with gold,</p> -<p class="i2">The dancers wore?</p> -</div></div> - -<p class="ti1">These two stanzas, as well as the one in the text, are -from Mr. H. W. Longfellow’s beautiful translation of the Coplas, first -printed, Boston, 1833, 12mo, and often since. They may be compared with -a passage in the verses on Edward IV. attributed to Skelton, and found -in the “Mirror for Magistrates,” (London, 1815, 4to, Tom. II. p. 246,) -in which that prince is made to say, as if speaking from his grave,—</p> - -<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> -<p class="i0">“Where is now my conquest and victory?</p> -<p class="i0">Where is my riches and royall array?</p> -<p class="i0">Where be my coursers and my horses hye?</p> -<p class="i0">Where is my myrth, my solace, and my play?”</p> -</div></div> - -<p>Indeed, the tone of the two poems is not unlike, though, of course, -the old English laureate never heard of Manrique and never imagined any -thing half so good as the Coplas. The Coplas were often imitated;—among -the rest, as Lope de Vega tells us, (Obras Sueltas, Madrid, 1777, 4to, -Tom. XI. p. xxix.,) by Camoens; but I do not know the Redondillas of -Camoens to which he refers. Lope admired the Coplas very much. He says -they should be written in letters of gold.</p> - -</div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p id="Footnote_687"><span class="label"><a -href="#FNanchor_687">[687]</a></span> For the earliest editions of the -Coplas, 1492, 1494, and 1501, see Mendez, Typog. Española, p. 136. -I possess ten or twelve copies of other editions, one of which was -printed at Boston, 1833, with Mr. Longfellow’s translation. My copies, -dated 1574, 1588, 1614, 1632, and 1799, all have Glosas in verse. That -of Aranda is in folio, 1552, black letter, and in prose.</p> - -<p class="ti1">At the end of a translation of the “Inferno” of Dante, -made by Pero Fernandez de Villegas, Archdeacon of Burgos, published at -Burgos in 1515, folio, with an elaborate commentary, chiefly from that -of Landino,—a very rare book, and one of considerable merit,—is found, -in a few copies, a poem on the “Vanity of Life,” by the translator, -which, though not equal to the Coplas of Manrique, reminds me of them. -It is called “Aversion del Mundo y Conversion á Dios,” and is divided, -with too much formality, into twenty stanzas on the contempt of the -world, and twenty in honor of a religious life; but the verses, which -are in the old national manner, are very flowing, and their style is -that of the purest and richest Castilian. It opens thus:—</p> - -<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> -<p class="i0">Away, malignant, cruel world,</p> -<p class="i2">With sin and sorrow rife!</p> -<p class="i0">I seek the meeker, wiser way</p> -<p class="i2">That leads to heavenly life.</p> -<p class="i0">Your fatal poisons here we drink,</p> -<p class="i2">Lured by their savors sweet,</p> -<p class="i0">Though, lurking in our flowery path,</p> -<p class="i2">The serpent wounds our feet.</p> -<p class="i0"> </p> -<p class="i0">Away with thy deceitful snares,</p> -<p class="i2">Which all too late I fly!—</p> -<p class="i0">I, who, a coward, followed thee</p> -<p class="i2">Till my last years are nigh;</p> -<p class="i0">Till thy most strange, revolting sins</p> -<p class="i2">Force me to turn from thee,</p> -<p class="i0">And drive me forth to seek repose,</p> -<p class="i2">Thy service hard to flee.</p> -<p class="i0"> </p> -<p class="i0">Away with all thy wickedness,</p> -<p class="i2">And all thy heartless toil,</p> -<p class="i0">Where brother, to his brother false,</p> -<p class="i2">In treachery seeks for spoil!—</p> -<p class="i0">Dead is all charity in thee,</p> -<p class="i2">All good in thee is dead;</p> -<p class="i0">I seek a port where from thy storm</p> -<p class="i2">To hide my weary head.</p> -</div></div> - -<p class="ti1">I add the original, for the sake of its flowing -sweetness and power:—</p> - -<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> -<p class="i0">Quedate, mundo malino,</p> -<p class="i0">Lleno de mal y dolor,</p> -<p class="i0">Que me vo tras el dulçor</p> -<p class="i0">Del bien eterno divino.</p> -<p class="i0">Tu tosigo, tu venino,</p> -<p class="i0">Vevemos açucarado,</p> -<p class="i0">Y la sierpe esta en el prado</p> -<p class="i0">De tu tan falso camino.</p> -<p class="i0"> </p> -<p class="i0">Quedate con tus engaños,</p> -<p class="i0">Maguera te dexo tarde,</p> -<p class="i0">Que te segui de cobarde</p> -<p class="i0">Fasta mis postreros años.</p> -<p class="i0">Mas ya tus males estraños</p> -<p class="i0">De ti me alançan forçoso,</p> -<p class="i0">Vome a buscar el reposo</p> -<p class="i0">De tus trabajosos daños.</p> -<p class="i0"> </p> -<p class="i0">Quedate con tu maldad,</p> -<p class="i0">Con tu trabajo inhumano,</p> -<p class="i0">Donde el hermano al hermano</p> -<p class="i0">No guarda fe ni verdad.</p> -<p class="i0">Muerta es toda caridad;</p> -<p class="i0">Todo bien en ti es ya muerto;—</p> -<p class="i0">Acojome para el puerto,</p> -<p class="i0">Fuyendo tu tempestad.</p> -</div></div> - -<p class="ti1">After the forty stanzas to which the preceding lines -belong, follow two more poems, the first entitled “The Complaint of -Faith,” partly by Diego de Burgos and partly by Pero Fernandez de -Villegas, and the second, a free translation of the Tenth Satire of -Juvenal, by Gerónimo de Villegas, brother of Pero Fernandez,—each poem -in about seventy or eighty octave stanzas, of <i>arte mayor</i>, but neither -of them as good as the “Vanity of Life.” Gerónimo also translated the -Sixth Satire of Juvenal into <i>coplas de arte mayor</i>, and published it -at Valladolid in 1519, in 4to.</p> - -</div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p id="Footnote_688"><span class="label"><a -href="#FNanchor_688">[688]</a></span> Mariana, Hist., Lib. XXIV. c. 19, -noticing his death, says, “He died in his best years,”—“en lo mejor de -su edad”; but we do not know how old he was. On three other occasions, -at least, Don Jorge is mentioned in the great Spanish historian -as a personage important in the affairs of his time; but on yet a -fourth,—that of the death of his father, Rodrigo,—the words of Mariana -are so beautiful and apt, that I transcribe them in the original. -“Su hijo D. Jorge Manrique, en unas trovas muy elegantes, en que hay -virtudes poeticas y ricas esmaltes de ingenio, y sentencias graves, -a manera de endecha, lloró la muerte de su padre.” Lib. XXIV. c. 14. -It is seldom History goes out of its bloody course to render such a -tribute to Poetry, and still more seldom that it does it so gracefully. -The old ballad on Jorge Manrique is in Fuentes, Libro de los Quarenta -Cantos, Alcalá, 1587, 12mo, p. 374.</p> - -</div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p id="Footnote_689"><span class="label"><a -href="#FNanchor_689">[689]</a></span> Cancionero de las Obras de Don -Pedro Manuel de Urrea, Logroño, fol., 1513, apud Ig. de Asso, De Libris -quibusdam Hispanorum Rarioribus, Cæsaraugustæ, 1794, 4to, pp. 89-92.</p> - -<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> -<p class="i0">En el placiente verano,</p> -<p class="i0">Dó son los dias mayores,</p> -<p class="i0">Acabaron mis placeres,</p> -<p class="i0">Comenzaron mis dolores.</p> -<p class="i0"> </p> -<p class="i0">Quando la tierra da yerva</p> -<p class="i0">Y los arboles dan flores,</p> -<p class="i0">Quando aves hacen nidos</p> -<p class="i0">Y cantan los ruiseñores;</p> -<p class="i0"> </p> -<p class="i0">Quando en la mar sosegada</p> -<p class="i0">Entran los navegadores,</p> -<p class="i0">Quando los lirios y rosas</p> -<p class="i0">Nos dan buenos olores;</p> -<p class="i0"> </p> -<p class="i0">Y quando toda la gente,</p> -<p class="i0">Ocupados de calores,</p> -<p class="i0">Van aliviando las ropas,</p> -<p class="i0">Y buscando los frescores;</p> -<p class="i0"> </p> -<p class="i0">Dó son las mejores oras</p> -<p class="i0">La noches y los albores;—</p> -<p class="i0">En este tiempo que digo,</p> -<p class="i0">Comenzaron mis amores.</p> -<p class="i0"> </p> -<p class="i0">De una dama que yo ví,</p> -<p class="i0">Dama de tantos primores,</p> -<p class="i0">De quantos es conocida</p> -<p class="i0">De tantos tiene loores:</p> -<p class="i0"> </p> -<p class="i0">Su gracia por hermosura</p> -<p class="i0">Tiene tantos servidores,</p> -<p class="i0">Quanto yo por desdichado</p> -<p class="i0">Tengo penas y dolores:</p> -<p class="i0">Donde se me otorga muerte</p> -<p class="i0">Y se me niegan favores.</p> -<p class="i0"> </p> -<p class="i0">Mas nunca olvidaré</p> -<p class="i0">Estos amargos dulzores,</p> -<p class="i0">Porque en la mucha firmeza</p> -<p class="i0">Se muestran los amadores.</p> -</div></div> - -</div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p id="Footnote_690"><span class="label"><a -href="#FNanchor_690">[690]</a></span> The monk, however, finds it -impossible to keep his secret, and fairly lets it out in a sort of -acrostic at the end of the “Retablo.” He was born in 1468, and died -after 1518.</p> - -</div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p id="Footnote_691"><span class="label"><a -href="#FNanchor_691">[691]</a></span> The “Doze Triumfos de los Doze -Apóstolos was printed entire in London, 1843, 4to, by Don Miguel del -Riego, Canon of Oviedo, and brother of the Spanish patriot and martyr -of the same name. In the volume containing the Triumfos, the Canon has -given large extracts from the “Retablo de la Vida de Christo,” omitting -Cantos VII., VIII., IX., and X. For notices of Juan de Padilla, see -Antonio, Bib. Nov., Tom. I. p. 751, and Tom. II. p. 332; Mendez, Typog. -Esp., p. 193; and Sarmiento, Memorias, Sect. 844-847. From the last, it -appears that he rose to important ecclesiastical authority under the -crown, as well as in his own order. The Doze Triumfos was first printed -in 1512, the Retablo in 1505. There is a contemporary Spanish book, -with a title something resembling that of the Retablo de la Vida de -Christo del Cartuxano;—I mean the “Vita Christi Cartuxano,” which is a -translation of the “Vita Christi” of Ludolphus of Saxony, a Carthusian -monk who died about 1370, made into Castilian by Ambrosio Montesino, -and first published at Seville, in 1502. It is, in fact, a Life of -Christ, compiled out of the Evangelists, with ample commentaries and -reflections from the Fathers of the Church,—the whole filling four -folio volumes,—and in the version of Montesino it appears in a grave, -pure Castilian prose. It was translated by him at the command, he says, -of Ferdinand and Isabella.</p> - -</div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p id="Footnote_692"><span class="label"><a -href="#FNanchor_692">[692]</a></span> My copy is of the first edition, -of Çamora, Centenera, 1483, folio, 23 leaves, double columns, black -letter. It begins with these singular words, instead of a title-page: -“Aqui comença un tratado en estillo breve, en sentencias no solo largo -mas hondo y prolixo, el qual ha nombre Vita Beata, hecho y compuesto -por el honrado y muy discreto Juan de Lucena,” etc. There are also -editions of 1499 and 1541, and, I believe, yet another of 1501. -(Antonio, Bib. Vetus, ed. Bayer, Tom. II. p. 250; and Mendez, Typog., -p. 267.) The following short passage—with an allusion to the opening -of Juvenal’s Tenth Satire, in better taste than is common in similar -works of the same period—will well illustrate its style. It is from -the remarks of the Bishop, in reply both to the poet and to the man of -the world. “Resta, pues, Señor Marques y tu Juan de Mena, mi sentencia -primera verdadera, que ninguno en esta vida vive beato. Desde Cadiz -hasta Ganges si toda la tierra expiamos [espiamos?] a ningund mortal -contenta su suerte. El caballero entre las puntas se codicia mercader; -y el mercader cavallero entre las brumas del mar, si los vientos -australes enpreñian las velas. Al parir de las lombardas desea hallarse -el pastor en el poblado; en campo el cibdadano; fuera religion los de -dentro como peçes y dentro querrian estar los de fuera,” etc. (fol. -xviii. a.) The treatise contains many Latinisms and Latin words, after -the absurd example of Juan de Mena; but it also contains many good old -words that we are sorry have become obsolete.</p> - -</div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p id="Footnote_693"><span class="label"><a -href="#FNanchor_693">[693]</a></span> The oldest edition, which is -without date, seems, from its type and paper, to have come from -the press of Centenera at Çamora, in which case it was printed -about 1480-1483. It begins thus: “Comença el tratado llamado Vision -Deleytable, compuesto por Alfonso de la Torre, bachiller, endereçado al -muy noble Don Juan de Beamonte, Prior de San Juan en Navarra.” It is -not paged, but fills 71 leaves in folio, double columns, black letter. -The little known of the different manuscripts and printed editions of -the Vision is to be found in Antonio, Bib. Vetus, ed. Bayer, Tom. II. -pp. 328, 329, with the note; Mendez, Typog., pp. 100 and 380, with the -Appendix, p. 402; and Castro, Biblioteca Española, Tom. I. pp. 630-635. -The Vision was written for the instruction of the Prince of Viana, who -is spoken of near the end as if still alive; and since this well-known -prince, the son of John, king of Navarre and Aragon, was born in 1421 -and died in 1461, we know the limits between which the Vision must have -been produced. Indeed, being addressed to Beamonte, the Prince’s tutor, -it was probably written about 1430-1440, during the Prince’s nonage. -One of the old manuscripts of it says, “It was held in great esteem, -and, as such, was carefully kept in the chamber of the said king of -Aragon.” There is a life of the author in Rezabal y Ugarte, “Biblioteca -de los Autores, que han sido individuos de los seis colegios mayores” -(Madrid, 1805, 4to, p. 359). The best passage in the Vision Deleytable -is at the end; the address of Truth to Reason. There is a poem of -Alfonso de la Torre in MS. 7826, in the National Library, Paris -(Ochoa, Manuscritos, Paris, 1844, 4to, p. 479); and the poems of the -Bachiller Francisco de la Torre in the Cancionero, 1573, (ff. 124-127,) -and elsewhere, so much talked about in connection with Quevedo, have -sometimes been thought to be his, though the names differ.</p> - -</div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p id="Footnote_694"><span class="label"><a -href="#FNanchor_694">[694]</a></span> Antonio, Bib. Vetus, ed. Bayer, -Tom. II. p. 325. Mendez, Typog., p. 315. It is singular that the -edition of the “Valerio de las Historias” printed at Toledo, 1541, -folio, which bears on its title-page the name of Fern. Perez de Guzman, -yet contains, at f. 2, the very letter of Almela, dated 1472, which -leaves no doubt that its writer is the author of the book.</p> - -</div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p id="Footnote_695"><span class="label"><a -href="#FNanchor_695">[695]</a></span> The volume of the learned Alonso -Ortiz is a curious one, printed at Seville, 1493, folio, 100 leaves. It -is noticed by Mendez, (p. 194,) and by Antonio, (Bib. Nov., Tom. I. p. -39,) who seems to have known nothing about its author, except that he -bequeathed his library to the University of Salamanca. Besides the two -treatises mentioned in the text, this volume contains an account of the -wound received by Ferdinand the Catholic, from the hand of an assassin, -at Barcelona, December 7, 1492; two letters from the city and cathedral -of Toledo, praying that the name of the newly conquered Granada may -not be placed before that of Toledo in the royal title; and an attack -on the Prothonotary Juan de Lucena,—probably not the author lately -mentioned,—who had ventured to assail the Inquisition, then in the -freshness of its holy pretensions. The whole volume is full of bigotry, -and the spirit of a triumphant priesthood.</p> - -</div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p id="Footnote_696"><span class="label"><a -href="#FNanchor_696">[696]</a></span> The notices of the life of -Pulgar are from the edition of his “Claros Varones,” Madrid, 1775, -4to; but there, as elsewhere, he is said to be a native of the kingdom -of Toledo. This, however, is probably a mistake. Oviedo, who knew him -personally, says, in his Dialogue on Mendoza, Duke of Infantado, that -Pulgar was “de Madrid <i>natural</i>.” Quinquagenas, MS.</p> - -</div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p id="Footnote_697"><span class="label"><a -href="#FNanchor_697">[697]</a></span> Claros Varones, Tít. 3.</p> - -</div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p id="Footnote_698"><span class="label"><a -href="#FNanchor_698">[698]</a></span> Ibid., Tít. 13.</p> - -</div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p id="Footnote_699"><span class="label"><a -href="#FNanchor_699">[699]</a></span> Claros Varones, Tít. 17.</p> - -</div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p id="Footnote_700"><span class="label"><a -href="#FNanchor_700">[700]</a></span> The letters are at the end of the -Claros Varones (Madrid, 1775, 4to); which was first printed in 1500.</p> - -</div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p id="Footnote_701"><span class="label"><a -href="#FNanchor_701">[701]</a></span> The Coplas of San Pedro on the -Passion of Christ and the Sorrows of the Madonna are in the Cancionero -of 1492, (Mendez, p. 135,) and many of his other poems are in the -Cancioneros Generales, 1511-1573; for example, in the last, at ff. -155-161, 176, 177, 180, etc.</p> - -</div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p id="Footnote_702"><span class="label"><a -href="#FNanchor_702">[702]</a></span> “El Desprecio de la Fortuna”—with -a curious dedication to the Count Urueña, whom he says he served -twenty-nine years—is at the end of Juan de Mena’s Works, ed. 1566.</p> - -</div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p id="Footnote_703"><span class="label"><a -href="#FNanchor_703">[703]</a></span> Of Nicolas Nuñez I know only a -few poems in the Cancionero General of 1573, (ff. 17, 23, 176, etc.,) -one or two of which are not without merit.</p> - -</div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p id="Footnote_704"><span class="label"><a -href="#FNanchor_704">[704]</a></span> Mendez, pp. 185, 283; Brunet, -etc. There is a translation of the Carcel into English by good old Lord -Berners. (Walpole’s Royal and Noble Authors, London, 1806, 8vo, Vol. -I. p. 241. Dibdin’s Ames, London, 1810, 4to, Vol. III. p. 195; Vol. -IV. p. 339.) To Diego de San Pedro is also attributed the “Tratado de -Arnalte y Lucenda,” of which an edition, apparently not the first, -was printed at Burgos in 1522, and another in 1527. (Asso, De Libris -Hisp. Rarioribus, Cæsaraugustæ, 1794, 4to, p. 44.) From a phrase in -his “Contempt of Fortune,” (Cancionero General, 1573, f. 158,) where -he speaks of “aquellas cartas de Amores, escriptas de dos en dos,” -I suspect he wrote the “Proceso de Cartas de Amores, que entre dos -amantes pasaron,”—a series of extravagant love-letters, full of the -conceits of the times; in which last case, he may also be the author -of the “Quexa y Aviso contra Amor,” or the story of Luzindaro and -Medusina, alluded to in the last of these letters. But as I know no -edition of this story earlier than that of 1553, I prefer to consider -it in the next period.</p> - -</div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p id="Footnote_705"><span class="label"><a -href="#FNanchor_705">[705]</a></span> The “Question de Amor” was -printed as early as 1527, and, besides several editions of it that -appeared separately, it often occurs in the same volume with the -Carcel. Both are among the few books criticized by the author of the -“Diálogo de las Lenguas,” who praises both moderately; the Carcel for -its style more than the Question de Amor. (Mayans y Siscar, Orígenes, -Tom. II. p. 167.) Both are in the Index Expurgatorius, 1667, pp. 323, -864; the last with a seeming ignorance, that regards it as a Portuguese -book.</p> - -</div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p id="Footnote_706"><span class="label"><a -href="#FNanchor_706">[706]</a></span> Accounts of the Cancionero of -Baena are found in Castro, “Biblioteca Española” (Madrid, 1785, folio, -Tom. I. pp. 265-346); in Puybusque, “Histoire Comparée des Littératures -Espagnole et Française” (Paris, 1843, 8vo, Tom. I. pp. 393-397); in -Ochoa, “Manuscritos” (Paris, 1844, 4to, pp. 281-286); and in Amador -de los Rios, “Estudios sobre los Judios” (Madrid, 1848, 8vo, pp. -408-419). The copy used by Castro was probably from the library of -Queen Isabella, (Mem. de la Acad. de Hist., Tom. VI. p. 458, note,) -and is now in the National Library, Paris. Its collector, Baena, is -sneered at in the Cancionero of Fernan Martinez de Burgos, (Memorias -de Alfonso VIII. por Mondexar, Madrid, 1783, 4to, App. cxxxix.,) as a -Jew who wrote vulgar verses.</p> - -<p class="ti1">The poems in this Cancionero that are probably not by -the persons whose names they bear are short and trifling,—such as -might be furnished to men of distinction by humble versifiers, who -sought their protection or formed a part of their courts. Thus, a poem -already noticed, that bears the name of Count Pero Niño, was, as we are -expressly told in a note to it, written by Villasandino, in order that -the Count might present himself before the lady Blanche more gracefully -than such a rough old soldier would be likely to do, unless he were -helped to a little poetical gallantry.</p> - -</div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p id="Footnote_707"><span class="label"><a -href="#FNanchor_707">[707]</a></span> See <i>ante</i>, Chapter XVII. <a -href="#Footnote_543">note 543</a>.</p> - -</div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p id="Footnote_708"><span class="label"><a -href="#FNanchor_708">[708]</a></span> The Cancionero of Lope de -Estuñiga is, or was lately, in the National Library at Madrid, among -the folio MSS., marked M. 48, well written and filling 163 leaves.</p> - -</div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p id="Footnote_709"><span class="label"><a -href="#FNanchor_709">[709]</a></span> The fashion of making such -collections of poetry, generally called “Cancioneros,” was very common -in Spain in the fifteenth century, just before and just after the -introduction of the art of printing.</p> - -<p class="ti1">One of them, compiled in 1464, with additions of a later -date, by Fernan Martinez de Burgos, begins with poems by his father, -and goes on with others by Villasandino, who is greatly praised both as -a soldier and a writer; by Fernan Sanchez de Talavera, some of which -are dated 1408; by Pero Velez de Guevara, 1422; by Gomez Manrique; by -Santillana; by Fernan Perez de Guzman; and, in short, by the authors -then best known at court. Mem. de Alfonso VIII., Madrid, 1783, 4to, -App. cxxxiv.-cxl.</p> - -<p class="ti1">Several other Cancioneros of the same period are in -the National Library, Paris, and contain almost exclusively the known -fashionable authors of that century; such as Santillana, Juan de -Mena, Lopez de Çuñiga [Estuñiga?], Juan Rodriguez del Padron, Juan de -Villalpando, Suero de Ribera, Fernan Perez de Guzman, Gomez Manrique, -Diego del Castillo, Alvaro Garcia de Santa María, Alonso Alvarez de -Toledo, etc. There are no less than seven such Cancioneros in all, -notices of which are found in Ochoa, “Catálogo de MSS. Españoles en la -Biblioteca Real de Paris,” Paris, 1844, 4to, pp. 378-525.</p> - -</div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p id="Footnote_710"><span class="label"><a -href="#FNanchor_710">[710]</a></span> Sanchez, Poesías Anteriores, -Tom. I. p. lxi., with the notes on the passage relating to the Duke -Fadrique.</p> - -</div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p id="Footnote_711"><span class="label"><a -href="#FNanchor_711">[711]</a></span> Fuster, Bib. Valenciana, Tom. I. -p. 52. All the Cancioneros mentioned before 1474 are still in MS.</p> - -</div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p id="Footnote_712"><span class="label"><a -href="#FNanchor_712">[712]</a></span> Mendez, Typog., pp. 134-137 and -383.</p> - -</div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p id="Footnote_713"><span class="label"><a -href="#FNanchor_713">[713]</a></span> For the bibliography of these -excessively rare and curious books, see Ebert, Bibliographisches -Lexicon; and Brunet, Manuel, in verb. <i>Cancionero</i>, and <i>Castillo</i>. I -have, I believe, seen copies of eight of the editions. Those which I -possess are of 1535 and 1573.</p> - -</div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p id="Footnote_714"><span class="label"><a -href="#FNanchor_714">[714]</a></span> A copy of the edition of 1535, -ruthlessly cut to pieces, bears this memorandum:—</p> - -<p class="ti1">“Este libro esta expurgado por el Expurgatorio del Santo -Oficio, con licencia.</p> - -<p class="dchap">F. Baptista Martinez.”</p> - -<p class="ti1">The whole of the religious poetry at the beginning is -torn out of it.</p> - -</div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p id="Footnote_715"><span class="label"><a -href="#FNanchor_715">[715]</a></span></p> - -<div class="poem mt-05"><div class="stanza"> -<p class="i0">Imenso Dios, perdurable,</p> -<p class="i2">Que el mundo todo criaste,</p> -<p class="i6">Verdadero,</p> -<p class="i0">Y con amor entrañable</p> -<p class="i2">Por nosotros espiraste</p> -<p class="i6">En el madero:</p> -<p class="i0"> </p> -<p class="i0">Pues te plugo tal passion</p> -<p class="i2">Por nuestras culpas sufrir,</p> -<p class="i6">O Agnus Dei,</p> -<p class="i0">Llevanos do está el ladron,</p> -<p class="i2">Que salvaste por decir,</p> -<p class="i6">Memento mei.</p> -</div></div> -<p class="fs90 dcha mt-1">Cancionero General, Anvers, 1573, f. 5.</p> - -<p class="ti1 mt1">Fuster, Bib. Valenciana, (Tom. I. p. 81,) tries to make -out something concerning the author of this little poem; but does not, -I think, succeed.</p> - -</div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p id="Footnote_716"><span class="label"><a -href="#FNanchor_716">[716]</a></span> In the Library of the Academy -of History at Madrid (Misc. Hist., MS., Tom. III., No. 2) is a poem -by Diego Lopez de Haro, of about a thousand lines, in a manuscript -apparently of the end of the fifteenth or beginning of the sixteenth -century, of which I have a copy. It is entitled “Aviso para Cuerdos,”—A -Word for the Wise,—and is arranged as a dialogue, with a few verses -spoken in the character of some distinguished personage, human or -superhuman, allegorical, historical, or from Scripture, and then an -answer to each, by the author himself. In this way above sixty persons -are introduced, among whom are Adam and Eve, with the Angel that drove -them from Paradise, Troy, Priam, Jerusalem, Christ, Julius Cæsar, and -so on down to King Bamba and Mahomet. The whole is in the old Spanish -verse, and has little poetical thought in it, as may be seen by the -following words of Saul and the answer by Don Diego, which I give as a -favorable specimen of the entire poem:—</p> - - -<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> -<p class="centra smcap">Saul.</p> -<p class="i0">En mi pena es de mirar,</p> -<p class="i0">Que peligro es para vos</p> -<p class="i0">El glosar u el mudar</p> -<p class="i0">Lo que manda el alto Dios;</p> -<p class="i0">Porque el manda obedecelle;</p> -<p class="i0">No juzgalle, mas creelle.</p> -<p class="i0">A quien a Dios a de entender,</p> -<p class="i0">Lo que el sabe a de saber.</p> -</div></div> - -<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> -<p class="centra smcap">Autor.</p> -<p class="i0">Pienso yo que en tal defecto</p> -<p class="i0">Cae presto el coraçon</p> -<p class="i0">Del no sabio en rreligion,</p> -<p class="i0">Creyendo que a lo perfecto</p> -<p class="i0">Puede dar mas perficion.</p> -<p class="i0">Este mal tiene el glosar;</p> -<p class="i0">Luego a Dios quiere enmendar.</p> -</div></div> - -<p class="ti1">Oviedo, in his “Quinquagenas,” says that Diego Lopez de -Haro was “the mirror of gallantry among the youth of his time”; and -he is known to history for his services in the war of Granada, and as -Spanish ambassador at Rome. (See Clemencin, in Mem. de la Acad. de -Hist., Tom. VI. p. 404.) He figures in the “Inferno de Amor” of Sanchez -de Badajoz; and his poems are found in the Cancionero General, 1573, -ff. 82-90, and a few other places.</p> - -</div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p id="Footnote_717"><span class="label"><a -href="#FNanchor_717">[717]</a></span> He founded the fortunes of the -family of which the Marquis of Pescara was so distinguished a member -in the time of Charles V.; his first achievement having been to kill a -Portuguese in fair fight, after public challenge, and in presence of -both the armies. The poet rose to be Constable of Castile. Historia de -D. Hernando Dávalos, Marques de Pescara, Anvers, 1558, 12mo, Lib. I., -c. 1.</p> - -</div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p id="Footnote_718"><span class="label"><a -href="#FNanchor_718">[718]</a></span> Besides what are to be found -in the Cancioneros Generales,—for example, in that of 1573, at ff. -148-152, 189, etc.,—there is a MS. in possession of the Royal Academy -at Madrid, (Codex No. 114,) which contains a large number of poems by -Alvarez Gato. Their author was a person of consequence in his time, and -served John II., Henry IV., and Ferdinand and Isabella, in affairs of -state. With John he was on terms of friendship. One day, when the king -missed him from his hunting-party and was told he was indisposed, he -replied, “Let us, then, go and see him; he is my friend,”—and returned -to make the kindly visit. Gato died after 1495. Gerónimo Quintana, -Historia de Madrid, Madrid, 1629, folio, f. 221.</p> - -<p class="ti1">The poetry of Gato is sometimes connected with public -affairs; but, in general, like the rest of that which marks the period -when it was written, it is in a courtly and affected tone, and devoted -to love and gallantry. Some of it is more lively and natural than most -of its doubtful class. Thus, when his lady-love told him “he must -talk sense,” he replied, that he had lost the little he ever had from -the time when he first saw her, ending his poetical answer with these -words:—</p> - -<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> -<p class="i0">But if, in good faith, you require</p> -<p class="i2">That sense should come back to me,</p> -<p class="i0">Show the kindness to which I aspire,</p> -<p class="i0">Give the freedom you know I desire,</p> -<p class="i2">And pay me my service fee.</p> -</div></div> - -<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> -<p class="i0">Si queres que de verdad</p> -<p class="i2">Torné a mi seso y sentido,</p> -<p class="i0">Usad agora bondad,</p> -<p class="i0">Torname mi libertad,</p> -<p class="i2">E pagame lo servido.</p> -</div></div> - -</div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p id="Footnote_719"><span class="label"><a -href="#FNanchor_719">[719]</a></span> Memorias de la Acad. de Historia, -Tom. VI. p. 404. The “Lecciones de Job,” by Badajoz, were early put -into the Index Expurgatorius, and kept there to the last.</p> - -</div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p id="Footnote_720"><span class="label"><a -href="#FNanchor_720">[720]</a></span> The Cancionero of 1535 consists -of 191 leaves, in large folio, Gothic letters, and triple columns. Of -these, the devotional poetry fills eighteen leaves, and the series -of authors mentioned above extends from f. 18 to f. 97. It is worth -notice, that the beautiful Coplas of Manrique do not occur in any one -of these courtly Cancioneros.</p> - -</div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p id="Footnote_721"><span class="label"><a -href="#FNanchor_721">[721]</a></span> The Canciones are found, ff. -98-106.</p> - -</div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p id="Footnote_722"><span class="label"><a -href="#FNanchor_722">[722]</a></span></p> - -<div class="poem mt-05"><div class="stanza"> -<p class="i0">No se para que nasci,</p> -<p class="i0">Pues en tal estremo esto</p> -<p class="i0">Que el morir no quiere a mi,</p> -<p class="i0">Y el viuir no quiero yo.</p> -<p class="i0"> </p> -<p class="i0">Todo el tiempo que viviere</p> -<p class="i0">Terne muy justa querella</p> -<p class="i0">De la muerte, pues no quiere</p> -<p class="i0">A mi, queriendo yo a ella.</p> -<p class="i0"> </p> -<p class="i0">Que fin espero daqui,</p> -<p class="i0">Pues la muerte me negó,</p> -<p class="i0">Pues que claramente vió</p> -<p class="i0">Quera vida para mi.</p> -<p class="dr0">f. 98. b.</p> -</div></div> - -</div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p id="Footnote_723"><span class="label"><a -href="#FNanchor_723">[723]</a></span> These ballads, already noticed, -<i>ante</i>, Chap. VI., are in the Cancionero of 1535, ff. 106-115.</p> - -</div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p id="Footnote_724"><span class="label"><a -href="#FNanchor_724">[724]</a></span> “Saco el Rey nuestro señor una -red de carcel, y decia la letra:—</p> - -<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> -<p class="i2">Qualquier prision y dolor</p> -<p class="i0">Que se sufra, es justa cosa,</p> -<p class="i0">Pues se sufre por amor</p> -<p class="i0">De la mayor y mejor</p> -<p class="i0">Del mundo, y la mas hermosa.</p> -</div></div> - -<p class="ti1">“El conde de Haro saco una noria, y dixo:—</p> - -<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> -<p class="i0">Los llenos, de males mios;</p> -<p class="i0">D’ esperança, los vazios.</p> -</div></div> - -<p class="ti1">“El mismo por cimera una carcel y el en ella, y -dixo:—</p> - -<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> -<p class="i2">En esta carcel que veys,</p> -<p class="i0">Que no se halla salida,</p> -<p class="i0">Viuire, mas ved que vida!”</p> -</div></div> - -<p class="ti1">The <i>Invenciones</i>, though so numerous, fill only three -leaves, 115 to 117. They occur, also, constantly in the old chronicles -and books of chivalry. The “Question de Amor” contains many of them.</p> - -</div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p id="Footnote_725"><span class="label"><a -href="#FNanchor_725">[725]</a></span> Though Lope de Vega, in his -“Justa Poética de San Isidro,” (Madrid, 1620, 4to, f. 76,) declares -the <i>Glosas</i> to be “a most ancient and peculiarly Spanish composition, -never used in any other nation,” they were, in fact, an invention of -the Provençal poets, and, no doubt, came to Spain with their original -authors. (Raynouard, Troub., Tom. II. pp. 248-254.) The rules for their -composition in Spain were, as we see also from Cervantes, (Don Quixote, -Parte II. c. 18,) very strict and rarely observed; and I cannot help -agreeing with the friend of the mad knight, that the poetical results -obtained were little worth the trouble they cost. The <i>Glosas</i> of the -Cancionero of 1535 are at ff. 118-120.</p> - -</div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p id="Footnote_726"><span class="label"><a -href="#FNanchor_726">[726]</a></span> The author of the “Diálogo de -las Lenguas” (Mayans y Siscar, Orígenes, Tom. II. p. 151) gives the -<i>refrain</i> or <i>ritornello</i> of a <i>Villancico</i>, which, he says, was sung -by every body in Spain in his time, and is the happiest specimen I know -of the genus, conceit and all.</p> - -<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> -<p class="i0">Since I have seen thy blessed face,</p> -<p class="i2">Lady, my love is not amiss;</p> -<p class="i0">But, had I never known that grace,</p> -<p class="i2">How could I have deserved such bliss?</p> -</div></div> - -</div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p id="Footnote_727"><span class="label"><a -href="#FNanchor_727">[727]</a></span> The <i>Villancicos</i> are in the -Cancionero of 1535 at ff. 120-125. See also Covarrubias, Tesoro, in -verb. <i>Villancico</i>.</p> - -</div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p id="Footnote_728"><span class="label"><a -href="#FNanchor_728">[728]</a></span> Galatea, Lib. VI.</p> - -</div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p id="Footnote_729"><span class="label"><a -href="#FNanchor_729">[729]</a></span> The <i>Preguntas</i> extend from f. -126 to f. 134.</p> - -</div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p id="Footnote_730"><span class="label"><a -href="#FNanchor_730">[730]</a></span> The complete list of the authors -in this part of the Cancionero is as follows:—Costana, Puerto Carrero, -Avila, the Duke of Medina Sidonia, the Count Castro, Luis de Tovar, Don -Juan Manuel, Tapia, Nicolas Nuñez, Soria, Pinar, Ayllon, Badajoz el -Músico, the Count of Oliva, Cardona, Frances Carroz, Heredia, Artes, -Quiros, Coronel, Escriva, Vazquez, and Ludueña. Of most of them only -a few trifles are given. The “Burlas provocantes a Risa” follow, in -the edition of 1514, after the poems of Ludueña, but do not appear in -that of 1526, or in any subsequent edition. Most of them, however, are -found in the collection referred to, entitled “Cancionero de Obras de -Burlas provocantes a Risa” (Valencia, 1519, 4to). It begins with one -rather long poem, and ends with another,—the last being a brutal parody -of the “Trescientas” of Juan de Mena. The shorter poems are often by -well-known names, such as Jorge Manrique, and Diego de San Pedro, and -are not always liable to objection on the score of decency. But the -general tone of the work, which is attributed to ecclesiastical hands, -is as coarse as possible. A small edition of it was printed at London, -in 1841, marked on its title-page “Cum Privilegio, en Madrid, por Luis -Sanchez.” It has a curious and well-written Preface, and a short, but -learned, Glossary. From p. 203 to the end, p. 246, are a few poems not -found in the original Cancionero de Burlas; one by Garci Sanchez de -Badajoz, one by Rodrigo de Reynosa, etc.</p> - -</div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p id="Footnote_731"><span class="label"><a -href="#FNanchor_731">[731]</a></span> This part of the Cancionero of -1535, which is of very little value, fills ff. 134-191. The whole -volume contains about 49,000 verses. The Antwerp editions of 1557 and -1573 are larger, and contain about 58,000; but the last part of each -is the worst part. One of the pieces near the end is a ballad on the -renunciation of empire made by Charles V. at Brussels, in October, -1555; the most recent date, so far as I have observed, that can be -assigned to any poem in any of the collections.</p> - -</div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p id="Footnote_732"><span class="label"><a -href="#FNanchor_732">[732]</a></span> There is a short poem by the -Constable in the Commentary of Fernan Nuñez to the 265th Copla of -Juan de Mena; and in the fine old Chronicle of the Constable’s life, -we are told of him, (Título LXVIII.,) “Fue muy inventivo e mucho dado -a fallar <i>invenciones</i> y sacar entremeses, o en justas o en guerra; -en las quales invenciones muy agudamente significaba lo que queria.” -He is also the author of an unpublished prose work, dated 1446, “On -Virtuous and Famous Women,” to which Juan de Mena wrote a Preface; -the Constable, at that time, being at the height of his power. It is -not, as its title might seem to indicate, translated from a work by -Boccaccio, with nearly the same name; but an original production of the -great Castilian minister of state. Mem. de la Acad. de Hist., Tom. VI. -p. 464, note.</p> - -</div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p id="Footnote_733"><span class="label"><a -href="#FNanchor_733">[733]</a></span> Obras Sueltas, Madrid, 1777, 4to, -Tom. XI. p. 358.</p> - -</div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p id="Footnote_734"><span class="label"><a -href="#FNanchor_734">[734]</a></span> The bitterness of this -unchristian and barbarous hatred of the Moors, that constituted not -a little of the foundation on which rested the intolerance that -afterwards did so much to break down the intellectual independence -of the Spanish people, can hardly be credited at the present day, -when stated in general terms. An instance of its operation, must, -therefore, be given to illustrate its intensity. When the Spaniards -made one of those forays into the territories of the Moors that were -so common for centuries, the Christian knights, on their return, often -brought, dangling at their saddle-bows, the heads of the Moors they -had slain, and threw them to the boys in the streets of the villages, -to exasperate their young hatred against the enemies of their faith;—a -practice which, we are told on good authority, was continued as late as -the war of the Alpuxarras, under Don John of Austria, in the reign of -Philip II. (Clemencin, in Memorias de la Acad. de Hist., Tom. VI. p. -390.) But any body who will read the “Historia de la Rebelion y Castigo -de los Moriscos del Reyno de Granada,” by Luis del Marmol Carvajal, -(Málaga, 1600, fol.,) will see how complacently an eyewitness, not so -much disposed as most of his countrymen to look with hatred on the -Moors, regarded cruelties which it is not possible now to read without -shuddering. See his account of the murder, by order of the chivalrous -Don John of Austria, (f. 192,) of four hundred women and children, his -captives at Galera;—“muchos en su presencia,” says the historian, who -was there. Similar remarks might be made about the second volume of -Hita’s “Guerras de Granada,” which will be noticed hereafter. Indeed, -it is only by reading such books that it is possible to learn how -much the Spanish character was impaired and degraded by this hatred, -inculcated, during the nine centuries that elapsed between the age of -Roderic the Goth and that of Philip III., not only as a part of the -loyalty of which all Spaniards were so proud, but as a religious duty -of every Christian in the kingdom.</p> - -</div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p id="Footnote_735"><span class="label"><a -href="#FNanchor_735">[735]</a></span> Bernaldez, Chrónica, c. 131, MS. -Navarrete, Coleccion de Viages, Tom. I. p. 72; Tom. II. p. 282.</p> - -</div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p id="Footnote_736"><span class="label"><a -href="#FNanchor_736">[736]</a></span> Prescott’s Ferdinand and -Isabella, Part I. c. 7.</p> - -</div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p id="Footnote_737"><span class="label"><a -href="#FNanchor_737">[737]</a></span> Mariana, Hist., Lib. XXIV. c. 17, -ed. 1780, Tom. II. p. 527. We are shocked and astonished, as we read -this chapter;—so devout a gratitude does it express for the Inquisition -as a national blessing. See also Llorente, Hist. de l’Inquisition, Tom. -I. p. 160.</p> - -</div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p id="Footnote_738"><span class="label"><a -href="#FNanchor_738">[738]</a></span> The eloquent Father Lacordaire, -in the sixth chapter of his “Mémoire pour le Rétablissement de l’Ordre -des Frères Prêcheurs,” (Paris, 1839, 8vo,) endeavours to prove that the -Dominicans were not in anyway responsible for the establishment of the -Inquisition in Spain. In this attempt I think he fails; but I think he -is successful when he elsewhere maintains that the Inquisition, from an -early period, was intimately connected with the political government -in Spain, and always dependent on the state for a large part of its -power.</p> - -</div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p id="Footnote_739"><span class="label"><a -href="#FNanchor_739">[739]</a></span> See the learned and acute -“Histoire des Maures Mudejares et des Morisques, ou des Arabes -d’Espagne sous la Domination des Chrétiens,” par le Comte Albert de -Circourt, (3 tom. 8vo, Paris, 1846,) Tom. II., <i>passim</i>.</p> - -</div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p id="Footnote_740"><span class="label"><a -href="#FNanchor_740">[740]</a></span> It is impossible to speak of -the Inquisition as I have spoken in this chapter, without feeling -desirous to know something concerning Antonio Llorente, who has done -more than all other persons to expose its true history and character. -The important facts in his life are few. He was born at Calahorra in -Aragon in 1756, and entered the Church early, but devoted himself to -the study of canon law and of elegant literature. In 1789, he was made -principal secretary to the Inquisition, and became much interested -in its affairs; but was dismissed from his place and exiled to his -parish in 1791, because he was suspected of an inclination towards the -French philosophy of the period. In 1793, a more enlightened General -Inquisitor than the one who had persecuted him drew Llorente again -into the councils of the Holy Office, and, with the assistance of -Jovellanos and other leading statesmen, he endeavoured to introduce -such changes into the tribunal itself as should obtain publicity for -its proceedings. But this, too, failed, and Llorente was disgraced -anew. In 1805, however, he was recalled to Madrid; and in 1809, when -the fortunes of Joseph Bonaparte made him the nominal king of Spain, -he gave Llorente charge of every thing relating to the archives and -the affairs of the Inquisition. Llorente used well the means thus put -into his hands; and having been compelled to follow the government of -Joseph to Paris, after its overthrow in Spain, he published there, -from the vast and rich materials he had collected during the period -when he had entire control of the secret records of the Inquisition, -an ample history of its conduct and crimes;—a work which, though -neither well arranged nor philosophically written, is yet the great -store-house from which are to be drawn more well-authenticated facts -relating to the subject it discusses than can be found in all other -sources put together. But neither in Paris, where he lived in poverty, -was Llorente suffered to live in peace. In 1823, he was required by -the French government to leave France, and being obliged to make his -journey during a rigorous season, when he was already much broken by -age and its infirmities, he died from fatigue and exhaustion, on the -3d of February, a few days after his arrival at Madrid. His “Histoire -de l’Inquisition” (4 tom., 8vo, Paris, 1817-1818) is his great work; -but we should add to it his “Noticia Biográfica,” (Paris, 1818, 12mo,) -which is curious and interesting, not only as an autobiography, but for -further notices respecting the spirit of the Inquisition.</p> - -</div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p id="Footnote_741"><span class="label"><a -href="#FNanchor_741">[741]</a></span> Traces of this feeling are found -abundantly in Spanish literature, for above a century; but nowhere, -perhaps, with more simplicity and good faith than in a sonnet of -Hernando de Acuña,—a soldier and a poet greatly favored by Charles -V.—in which he announces to the world, for its “great consolation,” as -he says, “promised by Heaven,”—</p> - -<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> -<p class="i0">Un Monarca, un Imperio, y una Espada.</p> -</div></div> -<p class="fs90 dcha mt-1">Poesías, Madrid, 1804, 12mo, p. 214.</p> - -<p class="ti1 mt1">Christóval de Mesa, however, may be considered more -simple-hearted yet; for, fifty years afterwards, he announces this -catholic and universal empire as absolutely completed by Philip III. -Restauracion de España, Madrid, 1607, 12mo, Canto I. st. 7.</p> - -</div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p id="Footnote_742"><span class="label"><a -href="#FNanchor_742">[742]</a></span> The facts in the subsequent -account of the progress and suppression of the Protestant Reformation -in Spain are taken, in general, from the “Histoire Critique de -l’Inquisition d’Espagne,” par J. A. Llorente, (Paris, 1817-1818, 4 -tom., 8vo,) and the “History of the Reformation in Spain,” by Thos. -McCrie, Edinburgh, 1829, 8vo.</p> - -</div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p id="Footnote_743"><span class="label"><a -href="#FNanchor_743">[743]</a></span> The Grand Inquisitors had always -shown an instinctive desire to obtain jurisdiction over books, whether -printed or manuscript. Torquemada, the fiercest, if not quite the first -of them, burned at Seville, in 1490, a quantity of Hebrew Bibles and -other manuscripts, on the ground that they were the work of Jews; and -at Salamanca, subsequently, he destroyed, in the same way, six thousand -volumes more, on the ground that they were books of magic and sorcery. -But in all this he proceeded, not by virtue of his Inquisitorial -office, but, as Barrientos had done forty years before, (see <i>ante</i>, -p. 359,) by direct royal authority. Until 1521, therefore, the press -remained in the hands of the <i>Oidores</i>, or judges of the higher -courts, and other persons civil and ecclesiastical, who, from the -first appearance of printing in the country, and certainly for above -twenty years after that period, had granted, by special power from the -sovereigns, whatever licenses were deemed necessary for the printing -and circulation of books. Llorente, Hist. de l’Inquisition, Tom. I. pp. -281, 456. Mendez, Typographía, pp. 51, 331, 375.</p> - -</div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p id="Footnote_744"><span class="label"><a -href="#FNanchor_744">[744]</a></span> I notice in a few works printed -before 1550, that the Inquisition, without formal authority, began -quietly to take cognizance and control of books that were about to -be published. Thus, in a curious treatise on Exchange, “Tratado de -Cambios,” by Cristóval de Villalon, printed at Valladolid in 1541, -4to, the title-page declares that it had been “visto por los Señores -Inquisidores”; and in Pero Mexia’s “Silva de Varia Leccion,” (Sevilla, -1543, folio,) though the title gives the imperial license for printing, -the colophon adds that of the Apostolical Inquisitor. There was no -reason for either, except the anxiety of the author to be safe from -an authority which rested on no law, but which was already recognized -as formidable. Similar remarks may be made about the “Theórica de -Virtudes” of Castilla, which was formally licensed, in 1536, by Alonso -Manrique, the Inquisitor-General, though it was dedicated to the -Emperor, and bears the Imperial authority to print.</p> - -</div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p id="Footnote_745"><span class="label"><a -href="#FNanchor_745">[745]</a></span> Peignot, Essai sur la Liberté -d’Écrire, Paris, 1832, 8vo, pp. 55, 61. Baillet, Jugemens des Savans, -Amsterdam, 1725, 12mo, Tom. II. Partie I. p. 43. Father Paul Sarpi’s -remarkable account of the origin of the Inquisition, and of the -Index Expurgatorius of Venice, which was the first ever printed, -Opere, Helmstadt, 1763, 4to, Tom. IV. pp. 1-67. Llorente, Hist. de -l’Inquisition, Tom. I. pp. 459-464, 470. Vogt, Catalogus Librorum -Rariorum, Hamburgi, 1753, 8vo, pp. 367-369. So much for Europe. Abroad -it was worse. From 1550, a certificate was obliged to accompany <i>every</i> -book, setting forth, that it was <i>not</i> a prohibited book, without which -certificate, <i>no</i> book was permitted to be <i>sold</i> or <i>read</i> in the -colonies. (Llorente, Tom. I. p. 467.) But thus far the Inquisition, in -relation to the Index Expurgatorius, consulted the civil authorities, -or was specially authorized by them to act. In 1640 this ceremony -was no longer observed, and the Index was printed by the Inquisition -alone, without any commission from the civil government. From the time -when the danger of the heresy of Luther became considerable, no books -arriving from Germany and France were permitted to be circulated in -Spain, except by special license. Bisbe y Vidal, Tratado de Comedias, -Barcelona, 1618, 12mo, f. 55.</p> - -</div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p id="Footnote_746"><span class="label"><a -href="#FNanchor_746">[746]</a></span> Cardinal Ximenes was really equal -to the position these extraordinary offices gave him, and exercised -his great authority with sagacity and zeal, and with a confidence -in the resources of his own genius that seemed to double his power. -It should, however, never be forgotten, that, <i>but for him</i>, the -Inquisition, instead of being enlarged, as it was, twenty years after -its establishment, would have been constrained within comparatively -narrow limits, and probably soon overthrown. For, in 1512, when the -embarrassments of the public treasury inclined Ferdinand to accept -from the persecuted new converts a large sum of money, which he needed -to carry on his war against Navarre,—a gift which they offered on -the single and most righteous condition, that witnesses cited before -the Inquisition should be examined <i>publicly</i>,—Cardinal Ximenes not -only used his influence with the king to prevent him from accepting -the offer, but furnished him with resources that made its acceptance -unnecessary. And again, in 1517, when Charles V., young and not without -generous impulses, received, on the same just condition, from the same -oppressed Christians, a still larger offer of money to defray his -expenses in taking possession of his kingdom, and when he had obtained -assurances of the reasonableness of granting their request from the -principal universities and men of learning in Spain and in Flanders, -Cardinal Ximenes interposed anew his great influence, and—not without -some suppression of the truth—prevented a second time the acceptance -of the offer. He, too, it was, who arranged the jurisdiction of the -tribunals of the Inquisition in the different provinces, settling them -on deeper and more solid foundations; and, finally, it was this master -spirit of his time who first carried the Inquisition beyond the limits -of Spain, establishing it in Oran, which was his personal conquest, -and in the Canaries, and Cuba, where he made provident arrangements, -by virtue of which it was subsequently extended through all Spanish -America. And yet, before he wielded the power of the Inquisition, he -opposed its establishment. Llorente, Hist., Chap. X., Art. 5 and 7.</p> - -</div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p id="Footnote_747"><span class="label"><a -href="#FNanchor_747">[747]</a></span> Llorente, Tom. I. p. 419.</p> - -</div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p id="Footnote_748"><span class="label"><a -href="#FNanchor_748">[748]</a></span> Llorente, Tom. II. pp. 183, -184.</p> - -</div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p id="Footnote_749"><span class="label"><a -href="#FNanchor_749">[749]</a></span> Ibid., Tom. II., Chap. XX., XXI., -and XXIV.</p> - -</div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p id="Footnote_750"><span class="label"><a -href="#FNanchor_750">[750]</a></span> Llorente, Tom. II., Chap. XIX., -XXV., and other places.</p> - -</div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p id="Footnote_751"><span class="label"><a -href="#FNanchor_751">[751]</a></span> See note to Chap. XL. of this -Part.</p> - -</div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p id="Footnote_752"><span class="label"><a -href="#FNanchor_752">[752]</a></span> Ginguené, Hist. Lit. d’ltalie, -Paris, 1812, 8vo, Tom. IV. pp. 87-90; and more fully in Historia de -Don Hernando Dávalos, Marques de Pescara, en Anvers, Juan Steelsio, -1558, 12mo;—a curious book, which seems, I think, to have been written -before 1546, and was the work of Pedro Valles, an Aragonese. Latassa, -Bib. Nueva de Escritores Aragoneses, Zaragossa, Tom. I. 4to, 1798, p. -289.</p> - -</div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p id="Footnote_753"><span class="label"><a -href="#FNanchor_753">[753]</a></span> The coronation of Charles V. at -Bologna, like most of the other striking events in Spanish history, was -brought upon the Spanish theatre. It is circumstantially represented in -“Los dos Monarcas de Europa,” by Bartolomé de Salazar y Luna. (Comedias -Escogidas, Madrid, 1665, 4to, Tomo XXII.) But the play is quite too -extravagant in its claims, both as respects the Emperor’s humiliation -and the Pope’s glory, considering that Clement VII. had so lately been -the Emperor’s prisoner. As the ceremony is about to begin, a procession -of priests enters, chanting,—</p> - -<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> -<p class="i0">In happy hour, let this child of the Church,</p> -<p class="i2">Her obedient, dutiful son,</p> -<p class="i0">Come forth to receive, with her holiest rites,</p> -<p class="i2">The crown which his valor has won.</p> -</div></div> - -<p>To which the Emperor is made to reply,—</p> - -<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> -<p class="i0">And in happy hour, let <i>him</i> show his power,</p> -<p class="i2">His dominion, and glorious might,</p> -<p class="i0">Who now sees, in the dust, a king faithful and just</p> -<p class="i2">Surrender, rejoicing, his right.</p> -</div></div> - -<p>But such things were common in Spain, and tended to conciliate the -favor of the clergy for the theatre.</p> - -</div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p id="Footnote_754"><span class="label"><a -href="#FNanchor_754">[754]</a></span> P. de Sandoval, Hist. del -Emperador Carlos V., Amberes, 1681, folio, Lib. XII. to XVIII., but -especially the last book.</p> - -</div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p id="Footnote_755"><span class="label"><a -href="#FNanchor_755">[755]</a></span> The Dictionary of Torres y Amat -contains a short, but sufficient, life of Boscan; and in Sedano, -“Parnaso Español,” (Madrid, 1768-78, 12mo, Tom. VIII. p. xxxi.,) there -is one somewhat more ample.</p> - -</div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p id="Footnote_756"><span class="label"><a -href="#FNanchor_756">[756]</a></span> Tiraboschi, Storia della Lett. -Italiana, Roma, 1784, 4to, Tom. VII., Parte I. p. 242; Parte II. p. -294; and Parte III. pp. 228-230.</p> - -</div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p id="Footnote_757"><span class="label"><a -href="#FNanchor_757">[757]</a></span> Andrea Navagiero, Il Viaggio -fatto in Spagna, etc., Vinegia, 1563, 12mo, ff. 18-30. Bayle gives -an article on Navagiero’s life, with discriminating praise of his -scholarship and genius.</p> - -</div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p id="Footnote_758"><span class="label"><a -href="#FNanchor_758">[758]</a></span> Letter to the Duquesa de Soma, -prefixed to the Second Book of Boscan’s Poems.</p> - -</div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p id="Footnote_759"><span class="label"><a -href="#FNanchor_759">[759]</a></span> Letter to the Duquesa de Soma.</p> - -</div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p id="Footnote_760"><span class="label"><a -href="#FNanchor_760">[760]</a></span> It is mentioned in the permission -to publish his works granted to Boscan’s widow, by Charles V., Feb. -18, 1543, and prefixed to the very rare and important edition of his -works and those of his friend Garcilasso, published for the first time -in the same year, at Barcelona, by Amoros; a small 4to, containing 237 -leaves. This edition is said to have been at once counterfeited, and -was certainly reprinted not less than six times as early as 1546, three -years after its first appearance. In 1553, Alonso de Ulloa, a Spaniard, -at Venice, who published many Spanish books there with prefaces of some -value by himself, printed it in 18mo, very neatly, and added a few -poems to those found in the first edition; particularly one, at the -beginning of the volume, entitled “Conversion de Boscan,” religious -in its subject, and national in its form. At the end Ulloa puts a -few pages of verse, attacking the Italian forms adopted by Boscan; -describing what he thus adds as by “an uncertain author.” They are, -however, the work of Castillejo, and are found in Obras de Castillejo, -Anvers, 1598, 18mo, f. 110, etc.</p> - -</div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p id="Footnote_761"><span class="label"><a -href="#FNanchor_761">[761]</a></span> Góngora, in the first two of his -Burlesque Ballads, has made himself merry (Obras, Madrid, 1654, 4to, -f. 104, etc.) at the expense of Boscan’s “Leandro.” But he has taken -the same freedom with better things.</p> - -<p class="ti1">The Leandro was, I think, the first attempt to introduce -blank verse, which was thus brought by Boscan into the poetry of -Spain in 1543, as it was a little later into English, from the -<i>versi sciolti</i> of the Italians, by Surrey, who called it “a strange -meter.” Acuña soon followed in Castilian with other examples of it; -but the first really good Spanish blank verse known to me is to be -found in the eclogue of “Tirsi” by Francisco de Figueroa, written -about half a century after the time of Boscan, and not printed till -1626. The translation of a part of the Odyssey by Perez, in 1553, and -the “Sagrada Eratos” of Alonso Carillo Laso de la Vega, which is a -paraphrase of the Psalms, printed at Naples in 1657, folio, afford -much longer specimens that are generally respectable. But the full -rhyme is so easy in Spanish, and the <i>asonante</i> is so much easier, that -blank verse, though it has been used from the middle of the sixteenth -century, has been little cultivated or favored.</p> - -</div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p id="Footnote_762"><span class="label"><a -href="#FNanchor_762">[762]</a></span> Boswell’s Life of Johnson, ed. -Croker, London, 1831, 8vo, Tom. II. p. 501.</p> - -</div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p id="Footnote_763"><span class="label"><a -href="#FNanchor_763">[763]</a></span> The first edition of it is in -black letter, without the name of place or printer, 4to, 140 leaves, -and is dated 1549. Another edition appeared as early as 1553; supposed -by Antonio to have been the oldest. It is on the Index of 1667, p. 245, -for expurgation.</p> - -</div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p id="Footnote_764"><span class="label"><a -href="#FNanchor_764">[764]</a></span> Ginguené, Hist. Lit. d’Italie, -Tom. VII. pp. 544, 550.</p> - -</div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p id="Footnote_765"><span class="label"><a -href="#FNanchor_765">[765]</a></span> “I have no mind,” he says in -the Prólogo, “to be so strict in the translation of this book, as to -confine myself to give it word for word. On the contrary, if any thing -occurs, which sounds well in the original language, and ill in our own, -I shall not fail to change it or to suppress it.” Ed. 1549, f. 2.</p> - -</div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p id="Footnote_766"><span class="label"><a -href="#FNanchor_766">[766]</a></span> “Every time I read it,” says -Garcilasso in a letter to Doña Gerónima Palova de Almogovar, prefixed -to the first edition, “it seems to me as if it had never been written -in any other language.” This letter of Garcilasso is very beautiful in -point of style.</p> - -</div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p id="Footnote_767"><span class="label"><a -href="#FNanchor_767">[767]</a></span> Morales, Discourse on the -Castilian Language, Obras de Oliva, Madrid, 1787, 12mo, Tom. I. p. -xli.</p> - -</div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p id="Footnote_768"><span class="label"><a -href="#FNanchor_768">[768]</a></span> Cancionero General, 1535, f. -153.</p> - -</div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p id="Footnote_769"><span class="label"><a -href="#FNanchor_769">[769]</a></span> Petrarca, Vita di Madonna Laura, -Canz. 9 and 14. But Boscan’s imitations of them are marred by a good -many conceits. Some of his sonnets, however, are free from this fault, -and are natural and tender.</p> - -</div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p id="Footnote_770"><span class="label"><a -href="#FNanchor_770">[770]</a></span></p> - -<div class="poem mt-05"><div class="stanza"> -<p class="i0">Y no es gusto tambien assi entenderos,</p> -<p class="i2">Que podays siēpre entrambos conformaros:</p> -<p class="i0">Entrambos en un punto entrísteceros,</p> -<p class="i2">Y en otro punto entrambos alegraros:</p> -<p class="i0">Y juntos sin razon embraueceros,</p> -<p class="i2">Y sin razon tambien luego amanssaros:</p> -<p class="i0">Y que os hagan, en fin, vuestros amores</p> -<p class="i0">Igualmente mudar de mil colores?</p> -</div></div> -<p class="fs90 dcha mt-1">Obras de Boscan, Barcelona, 1543, 4to, f. -clx.</p> - -</div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p id="Footnote_771"><span class="label"><a -href="#FNanchor_771">[771]</a></span> Pedro Fernandez de Villegas, -Archdeacon of Burgos, who, in 1515, published a translation of the -“Inferno” of Dante, (see <i>ante</i>, <a href="#Footnote_687">p. 409, -n.</a>,) says, in his Introduction, that he at first endeavoured -to make his version in <i>terza rima</i>, “which manner of writing,” he -goes on, “is not in use among us, and appeared to me so ungraceful, -that I gave it up.” This was about fifteen years before Boscan wrote -in it with success; perhaps a little earlier, for it is dedicated -to Doña Juana de Aragon, the natural daughter of Ferdinand the -Catholic, a lady of much literary cultivation, who died before it was -completed.</p> - -</div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p id="Footnote_772"><span class="label"><a -href="#FNanchor_772">[772]</a></span> The best life of Garcilasso de la -Vega is to be found in the edition of his works, Sevilla, 1580, 8vo, by -Fernando de Herrera, the poet. A play, comprising no small part of his -adventures, was produced in the Madrid theatre, by Don Gregorio Romero -y Larrañaga, in 1840.</p> - -</div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p id="Footnote_773"><span class="label"><a -href="#FNanchor_773">[773]</a></span> The story and the ballad are -found in Hita, “Guerras Civiles de Granada,” (Barcelona, 1737, 12mo, -Tom. I. cap. 17,) and in Lope de Vega’s “Cerco de Santa Fe” (Comedias, -Tom. I., Valladolid, 1604, 4to). But the tradition, I think, is not -true. Oviedo directly contradicts it, when giving an account of the -family of the poet’s father; and as he knew them, his authority is -perhaps decisive. (Quinquagenas, Batalla I. Quin. iii. Diálogo 43, MS.) -But, besides this, Lord Holland (Life of Lope, London, 1817, 8vo, Vol. -I. p. 2) gives good reasons against the authenticity of the story, -which Wiffen (Works of Garcilasso, London, 1823, 8vo, pp. 100 and 384) -answers as well as he can, but not effectually. It is really a pity it -cannot be made out to be true, it is so poetically appropriate.</p> - -</div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p id="Footnote_774"><span class="label"><a -href="#FNanchor_774">[774]</a></span> Sandoval, Hist. del Emperador -Carlos V., Lib. V.,and Oviedo in the Dialogue referred to in the last -note.</p> - -</div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p id="Footnote_775"><span class="label"><a -href="#FNanchor_775">[775]</a></span> Obras de Garcilasso, ed. Herrera, -1580, p. 234, and also p. 239, note.</p> - -</div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p id="Footnote_776"><span class="label"><a -href="#FNanchor_776">[776]</a></span> Soneto 33 and note, ed. -Herrera.</p> - -</div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p id="Footnote_777"><span class="label"><a -href="#FNanchor_777">[777]</a></span> Elegía II. and the Epístola, ed. -Herrera, p. 378.</p> - -</div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p id="Footnote_778"><span class="label"><a -href="#FNanchor_778">[778]</a></span> Obras, ed. Herrera, p. 18.</p> - -</div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p id="Footnote_779"><span class="label"><a -href="#FNanchor_779">[779]</a></span> Obras, ed. Herrera, p. 15. -Sandoval, Hist. de Carlos V., Lib. XXIII. § 12, and Mariana, Historia, -ad annum. Çapata, in his “Carlos Famoso,” (Valencia, 1565, 4to, Canto -41,) states the number of the peasants in the tower at thirteen; -and says that Don Luis de la Cueva, who executed the Imperial order -for their death, wished to save all but one or two. He adds, that -Garcilasso was without armour when he scaled the wall of the tower, and -that his friends endeavoured to prevent his rashness.</p> - -</div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p id="Footnote_780"><span class="label"><a -href="#FNanchor_780">[780]</a></span></p> - -<div class="poem mt-05"><div class="stanza"> -<p class="i0">Tomando ora la espada, ora la pluma;</p> -</div></div> - -<p>a verse afterwards borrowed by Ercilla, and used in his “Araucana.” -It is equally applicable to both poets.</p> - -</div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p id="Footnote_781"><span class="label"><a -href="#FNanchor_781">[781]</a></span> I am aware that Herrera, in his -notes to the poetry of Garcilasso, says that Garcilasso intended to -represent Don Antonio de Fonseca under the name of Nemoroso. But nearly -every body else supposes he meant that name for Boscan, taking it from -<i>Bosque</i> and <i>Nemus</i>; a very obvious conceit. Among the rest, Cervantes -is of this opinion. Don Quixote, Parte II. c. 67.</p> - -</div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p id="Footnote_782"><span class="label"><a -href="#FNanchor_782">[782]</a></span></p> - -<div class="poem mt-05"><div class="stanza"> -<p class="i0">Por ti el silencio de la selva umbrosa,</p> -<p class="i2">Por ti la esquividad y apartimiento</p> -<p class="i4">Del solitario monte me agradaba:</p> -<p class="i2">Por ti la verde hierba, el fresco viento,</p> -<p class="i0">El blanco lirio y colorada rosa,</p> -<p class="i4">Y dulce primavera deseaba.</p> -<p class="i4">Ay! quanto me engañaba,</p> -<p class="i6">Ay! quan diferente era,</p> -<p class="i6">Y quan de otra manera</p> -<p class="i0">Lo que en tu falso pecho se escondia.</p> -</div></div> -<p class="fs90 dcha mt-1">Obras de Garcilasso de la Vega, ed. Azara, -Madrid, 1765, 12mo, p. 5.</p> - -<p class="ti1 mt1">Something of the same idea and turn of phrase occurs -in Mendoza’s Epistle to Boscan, which will be noticed hereafter.</p> - -</div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p id="Footnote_783"><span class="label"><a -href="#FNanchor_783">[783]</a></span> Odyss. T. 518-524. Moschus, too, -has it, and Virgil; but it is more to the present purpose to say, that -it is found in Boscan’s “Leandro.”</p> - -</div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p id="Footnote_784"><span class="label"><a -href="#FNanchor_784">[784]</a></span></p> - -<div class="poem mt-05"><div class="stanza"> -<p class="i0">Qual suele el ruyseñor, con triste canto,</p> -<p class="i2">Quexarse, entre las hojas encondido,</p> -<p class="i4">Del duro laborador, que cautamente</p> -<p class="i2">Le despojo su caro y dulce nido</p> -<p class="i0">De los tiernos hijuelos, entre tanto</p> -<p class="i4">Que del amado ramo estaua ausente;</p> -<p class="i4">Y aquel dolor que siente,</p> -<p class="i6">Con diferencia tanta,</p> -<p class="i6">Por la dulce garganta</p> -<p class="i2">Despide, y a su canto el ayre suena;</p> -<p class="i2">Y la callada noche no refrena</p> -<p class="i0">Su lamentable oficio y sus querellas,</p> -<p class="i2">Trayendo de su pena</p> -<p class="i0">El cielo por testigo y las estrellas:</p> -<p class="i0"> </p> -<p class="i0">Desta manera suelto yo la rienda</p> -<p class="i2">A mi dolor, y anssi me quejo en vano</p> -<p class="i4">De la dureza de la muerte ayrada:</p> -<p class="i2">Ella en mi coraçon metyó la mano,</p> -<p class="i0">Y d’ alli me lleuó mi dulçe prenda,</p> -<p class="i4">Que aquel era su nido y su morada.</p> -</div></div> -<p class="fs90 dcha mt-1">Obras de Garcilasso de la Vega, ed. Azara, -1765, p. 14.</p> - -</div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p id="Footnote_785"><span class="label"><a -href="#FNanchor_785">[785]</a></span> For example,—</p> - -<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> -<p class="i0">Albanio, si tu mal comuni<i>cáras</i></p> -<p class="i0">Con otro, que pen<i>sáras</i>, que tu <i>péna</i></p> -<p class="i0">Juzgara como <i>agéna</i>, o que este fuego, etc.</p> -</div></div> - -<p>I know of no earlier instance of this precise rhyme, which is quite -different from the lawless rhymes that sometimes broke the verses of -the Minnesingers and Troubadours. Cervantes used it, nearly a century -afterwards, in his “Cancion de Grisóstomo,” (Don Quixote, Parte I. c. -14,) and Pellicer, in his commentary on the passage, regards Cervantes -as the inventor of it. Perhaps Garcilasso’s rhymes had escaped -all notice; for they are not the subject of remark by his learned -commentators. In English, instances of this peculiarity may be found -occasionally amidst the riotous waste of rhymes in Southey’s “Curse -of Kehama,” and in Italian they occur in Alfieri’s “Saul,” Act III. -sc. 4. I do not remember to have seen them again in Spanish except in -some <i>décimas</i> of Pedro de Salas, printed in 1638, and in the second -<i>jornada</i> of the “Pretendiente al Reves” of Tirso de Molina, 1634. No -doubt they occur elsewhere, but they are rare, I think.</p> - -</div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p id="Footnote_786"><span class="label"><a -href="#FNanchor_786">[786]</a></span> Francisco Sanchez—who was named -at home El Brocense, because he was born at Las Brozas in Estremadura, -but is known elsewhere as Sanctius, the author of the “Minerva,” -and other works of learning—published his edition of Garcilasso at -Salamanca, 1574, 18mo; a modest work, which has been printed often -since. This was followed at Seville, in 1580, by the elaborate edition -of Herrera, in 8vo, filling nearly seven hundred pages, chiefly -with its commentary, which is so cumbersome, that it has never been -reprinted, though it contains a good deal important, both to the -history of Garcilasso, and to the elucidation of the earlier Spanish -literature. Tamayo de Vargas was not satisfied with either of them, and -published a commentary of his own at Madrid in 1622, 18mo, but it is of -little worth. Perhaps the most agreeable edition of Garcilasso is one -published, without its editor’s name, in 1765, by the Chevalier Joseph -Nicolas de Azara; long the ambassador of Spain at Rome, and at the head -of what was most distinguished in the intellectual society of that -capital. In English, Garcilasso was made known by J. H. Wiffen, who, -in 1823, published at London, in 8vo, a translation of all his works, -prefixing a Life and an Essay on Spanish Poetry; but the translation is -constrained, and fails in the harmony that so much distinguishes the -original, and the dissertation is heavy and not always accurate in its -statement of facts.</p> - -</div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p id="Footnote_787"><span class="label"><a -href="#FNanchor_787">[787]</a></span> Don Quixote, (Parte II. c. 58,) -after leaving the Duke and Duchess, finds a party about to represent -one of Garcilasso’s Eclogues, at a sort of <i>fête champêtre</i>.</p> - -</div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p id="Footnote_788"><span class="label"><a -href="#FNanchor_788">[788]</a></span> I notice that the allusions to -Garcilasso by Cervantes are chiefly in the latter part of his life; -namely, in the second part of his Don Quixote, in his Comedias, his -Novelas, and his “Persiles y Sigismunda,” as if his admiration were the -result of his matured judgment. More than once he calls him “the prince -of Spanish poets”; but this title, which can be traced back to Herrera, -and has been continued down to our own times, has, perhaps, rarely been -taken literally.</p> - -</div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p id="Footnote_789"><span class="label"><a -href="#FNanchor_789">[789]</a></span> How decidedly Garcilasso rejected -the Spanish poetry written before his time can be seen, not only by -his own example, but by his letter prefixed to Boscan’s translation of -Castiglione, where he says that he holds it to be a great benefit to -the Spanish language to translate into it things really worthy to be -read; “for,” he adds, “I know not what ill luck has always followed us, -but hardly any body has written any thing in our tongue worthy of that -trouble.” It may be noted, on the other hand, that scarcely a word or -phrase used by Garcilasso has ceased to be accounted pure Castilian;—a -remark that can be extended, I think, to no writer so early. His -language lives as he does, and, in no small degree, <i>because</i> his -success has consecrated it. The word <i>desbañar</i>, in his second Eclogue, -is, perhaps, the only exception to this remark.</p> - -</div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p id="Footnote_790"><span class="label"><a -href="#FNanchor_790">[790]</a></span> Eleven years after the -publication of the works of Boscan and Garcilasso, Hernando de Hozes, -in the Preface to his “Triumfos de Petrarca,” (Medina del Campo, 1554, -4to,) says, with much truth: “Since Garcilasso de la Vega and Juan -Boscan introduced Tuscan measures into our Spanish language, every -thing earlier, written or translated, in the forms of verse then used -in Spain, has so much lost reputation, that few now care to read it, -though, as we all know, some of it is of great value.” If this opinion -had continued to prevail, Spanish literature would not have become what -it now is.</p> - -</div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p id="Footnote_791"><span class="label"><a -href="#FNanchor_791">[791]</a></span> Goujet, Bibliothèque Française, -Paris, 1745, 12mo, Tom. IX. pp. 372-380.</p> - -</div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p id="Footnote_792"><span class="label"><a -href="#FNanchor_792">[792]</a></span> It is something like the -well-known German poem “Theuerdank,” which was devoted to the -adventures of Maximilian I. up to the time when he married Mary of -Burgundy, and, like that, owes some of its reputation to the bold -engravings with which its successive editions were ornamented. One -of the best of the Cavallero Determinado is the Plantiniana, Anvers, -1591, 8vo. The account of the part—earlier unsuspected—borne by the -Emperor in the composition of the Cavallero Determinado is found on pp. -15 and 16 of the “Lettres sur la Vie Intérieure de l’Empereur Charles -Quint, par Guillaume Van Male, Gentilhomme de sa Chambre, publiées -pour la première fois par le Baron de Reiffenberg, Bruxelles, Société -des Bibliophiles Belgiques, à Bruxelles, 1843,” 4to; a very curious -collection of thirty-one Latin letters, that often contain strange -details of the infirmities of the Emperor from 1550 to 1555. Their -author, Van Male, or Malinæus as he was called in Latin, and Malinez -in Spanish, was one of the needy Flemings who sought favor at the -court of Charles V. Being ill treated by the Duke of Alva, who was -his first patron; by Avila y Zuñiga, whose Commentaries he translated -into Latin, in order to purchase his regard; and by the Emperor, to -whom he rendered many kind and faithful services, he was, like many -others who had come to Spain with similar hopes, glad to return to -Flanders as poor as he came. He died in 1560. He was an accomplished -and simple-hearted scholar, and deserved a better fate than to be -rewarded for his devotion to the Imperial humors by a present of -Acuña’s manuscript, which Avila had the malice to assure the Emperor -would be well worth five hundred gold crowns to the suffering man of -letters;—a remark to which the Emperor replied by saying, “William will -come rightfully by the money; he has sweat hard at the work,”—“Bono -jure fructus ille ad Gulielmum redeat; ut qui plurimum in illo opere -sudârit.” Of the Emperor’s personal share in the version of the -Chevalier Délibéré Van Male gives the following account (Jan. 13, -1551):—“Cæsar maturat editionem libri, cui titulus erat Gallicus,—Le -Chevalier Délibéré. Hunc per otium <i>a seipso traductum</i> tradidit -Ferdinando Acunæ, Saxonis custodi, ut ab eo aptaretur ad numeros rithmi -Hispanici; quæ res cecidit felicissimè. <i>Cæsari, sine dubio, debetur -primaria traductionis industria, cùm non solùm linguam, sed et carmen -et vocum significantiam mirè expressit</i>,” etc. Epist. vi. </p> - -<p class="ti1">A version of the Chevalier Délibéré was also made by -Gerónimo de Urrea, and was printed in 1555. I have never seen it.</p> - -</div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p id="Footnote_793"><span class="label"><a -href="#FNanchor_793">[793]</a></span> The second edition of Acuña’s -Poesías is that of Madrid, 1804, 12mo. His life is in Baena, “Hijos de -Madrid,” Tom. II. p. 387; Tom. IV. p. 403.</p> - -</div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p id="Footnote_794"><span class="label"><a -href="#FNanchor_794">[794]</a></span></p> - -<div class="poem mt-05"><div class="stanza"> -<p class="i0">Ojos claros serenos,</p> -<p class="i2">Si de dulce mirar sois alabados,</p> -<p class="i2">Porqué, si me mirais, mirais ayrados?</p> -<p class="i0">Si quanto mas piadosos,</p> -<p class="i2">Mas bellos pareceis á quien os mira,</p> -<p class="i2">Porqué a mí solo me mirais con ira?</p> -<p class="i0">Ojos claros serenos,</p> -<p class="i0">Ya que asi me mirais, miradme al menos.</p> -</div></div> -<p class="fs90 dcha mt-1">Sedano, Parnaso Español, Tom. VII. p. 75.</p> - -</div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p id="Footnote_795"><span class="label"><a -href="#FNanchor_795">[795]</a></span> A few of Cetina’s poems are -inserted by Herrera in his notes to Garcilasso, 1580, pp. 77, 92, 190, -204, 216, etc.; and a few more by Sedano in the “Parnaso Español,” Tom. -VII. pp. 75, 370; Tom. VIII. pp. 96, 216; Tom. IX. p. 134. The little -we know of him is in Sismondi, Lit. Esp., Sevilla, 1841, Tom. I. p. -381. Probably he died young. (Conde Lucanor, 1575, ff. 93, 94.) The -poems of Cetina were, in 1776, extant in a MS. in the library of the -Duke of Arcos, at Madrid. (Obras Sueltas de Lope de Vega, Madrid, 1776, -4to, Tom. I., Prólogo, p. ii., note.) It is much to be desired that -they should be sought out and published.</p> - -<p class="ti1">In a sonnet by Castillejo, found in his attack on the -Italian school, (Obras, 1598, f. 114. a) he speaks of Luis de Haro as -one of the four persons who had most contributed to the success of that -school in Spain. I know of no poetry by any author of this name.</p> - -</div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p id="Footnote_796"><span class="label"><a -href="#FNanchor_796">[796]</a></span> The little that is known of -Castillejo is to be found in his Poems, the publication of which was -first permitted to Juan Lopez de Velasco. Antonio says, that Castillejo -died about 1596, in which case he must have been very old; especially -if, as Moratin thinks, he was born in 1494! But the facts stated about -him are quite uncertain, with the exception of those told by himself. -(L. F. Moratin, Obras, Tom. I. Parte I. pp. 154-156.) His works were -well published at Antwerp, by Bellero, in 1598, 18mo, and in Madrid, -by Sanchez, in 1600, 18mo, and they form the twelfth and thirteenth -volumes of the Collection of Fernandez, Madrid, 1792, 12mo, besides -which I have seen editions cited of 1582, 1615, etc. His dramas are -lost;—even the “Costanza,” which Moratin saw in the Escurial, could not -be found there in 1844, when I caused a search to be made for it.</p> - -</div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p id="Footnote_797"><span class="label"><a href="#FNanchor_797">[797]</a></span></p> - -<div class="poem mt-05"><div class="stanza"> -<p class="centra"><i>Comparacion.</i></p> -<p class="i0">Señora, estan ya tan diestras</p> -<p class="i2">En serviros mis porfias,</p> -<p class="i2">Que acuden como a sus muestras</p> -<p class="i2">Sola a vos mis alegrias,</p> -<p class="i2">Y mis sañas a las vuestras.</p> -<p class="i0">Y aunque en parte se destempla</p> -<p class="i2">Mi estado de vuestro estado,</p> -<p class="i2">Mi ser al vuestro contempla,</p> -<p class="i2">Como instrumento templado</p> -<p class="i2">Al otro con quien se templa.</p> -<p class="dr0">f. 37.</p> -</div></div> - -<p class="ti1">These poems are in a small volume of miscellanies, -published at Medina del Campo, called “Inventario de Obras, por -Antonio de Villegas, Vezino de la Villa de Medina del Campo,” 1565, -4to. The copy I use is of another, and, I believe, the only other, -edition, Medina del Campo, 1577, 12mo. Like other poets who deal in -prettinesses, Villegas repeats himself occasionally, because he so -much admires his own conceits. Thus, the idea in the little <i>décima</i> -translated in the text is also in a pastoral—half poetry, half prose—in -the same volume. “Assi como dos instrumentos bien templados tocando las -cuerdas del uno se tocan y suenan las del otro ellas mismas; assi yo en -viendo este triste, me assoné con el,” etc. (f. 14, b.) It should be -noticed, that the license to print the Inventario, dated 1551, shows it -to have been written as early as that period.</p> - -</div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p id="Footnote_798"><span class="label"><a -href="#FNanchor_798">[798]</a></span> He is much praised for this in -a poetical epistle of Luis Barahona de Soto, printed with Silvestre’s -works, Granada, 1599, 12mo, f. 330.</p> - -</div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p id="Footnote_799"><span class="label"><a -href="#FNanchor_799">[799]</a></span> The best are his glosses on the -Paternoster, f. 284, and the Ave Maria, f. 289.</p> - -</div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p id="Footnote_800"><span class="label"><a -href="#FNanchor_800">[800]</a></span></p> - -<div class="poem mt-05"><div class="stanza"> -<p class="i0">Señora, vuestros cabellos</p> -<p class="i2">De oro son,</p> -<p class="i2">Y de azero el coraçon,</p> -<p class="i0">Que no se muere por ellos.</p> -</div></div> -<p class="fs90 dcha mt-1">Obras, Granada, 1599, 12mo, f. 69.</p> - -<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> -<p class="i0">No quieren ser de oro, no,</p> -<p class="i2">Señora, vuestros cabellos,</p> -<p class="i0">Quel oro quiere ser dellos.</p> -</div></div> -<p class="fs90 dcha mt-1">Ibid., f. 71.</p> - -</div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p id="Footnote_801"><span class="label"><a -href="#FNanchor_801">[801]</a></span> There were three editions of the -poetry of Silvestre;—two at Granada, 1582 and 1599; and one at Lisbon, -1592, with a very good life of him by his editor, to which occasional -additions are made, though, on the whole, it is abridged, by Barbosa, -Tom. II. p. 419. Luis Barahona de Soto, the friend of Silvestre, speaks -of him pleasantly in several of his poetical epistles, and Lope de Vega -praises him in the second Silva of his “Laurel de Apolo.” His Poems are -divided into four books, and fill 387 leaves in the edition of 1599, -18mo. He wrote also, religious dramas for his cathedral, which are -lost. One single word is ordered by the Index of 1667 (p. 465) to be -expurgated from his works!</p> - -</div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p id="Footnote_802"><span class="label"><a -href="#FNanchor_802">[802]</a></span> The Discourse follows the first -edition of the “Conde Lucanor,” 1575, and is strongly in favor of the -old Spanish verse. Argote de Molina wrote poetry himself, but such as -he has given us in his “Nobleza” is of little value.</p> - -</div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p id="Footnote_803"><span class="label"><a -href="#FNanchor_803">[803]</a></span> Pastor de Filida, Parts IV. and -VI.</p> - -</div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p id="Footnote_804"><span class="label"><a -href="#FNanchor_804">[804]</a></span> Obras Sueltas, Madrid, 1777, Tom. -XI. pp. xxviii.-xxx.</p> - -</div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p id="Footnote_805"><span class="label"><a -href="#FNanchor_805">[805]</a></span> Lives of Mendoza are to be found -in Antonio, “Bibliotheca Nova,” and in the edition of the “Guerra de -Granada,” Valencia, 1776, 4to;—the last of which was written by Iñigo -Lopez de Ayala, the learned Professor of Poetry at Madrid. Cerdá, in -Vossii Rhetorices, Matriti, 1781, 8vo, App., p. 189, note.</p> - -</div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p id="Footnote_806"><span class="label"><a href="#FNanchor_806">[806]</a></span></p> - -<div class="poem mt-05"><div class="stanza"> -<p class="i20">Toma</p> -<p class="i0">Veinte y tres generaciones</p> -<p class="i0">La prosapia de Mendoça.</p> -<p class="i0">No hay linage en toda España,</p> -<p class="i0">De quien conozca</p> -<p class="i0">Tan notable antiguedad.</p> -<p class="i0">De padre á hijos se nombran,</p> -<p class="i0">Sin interrumpir la linea,</p> -<p class="i0">Tan excelentes personas,</p> -<p class="i0">Y de tanta calidad,</p> -<p class="i0">Que fuera nombrarlas todas</p> -<p class="i0">Contar estrellas al cielo,</p> -<p class="i0">Y á la mar arenas y ondas:</p> -<p class="i0">Desde el señor de Vizcaya,</p> -<p class="i0">Llamado Zuria, consta</p> -<p class="i0">Que tiene origen su sangre.</p> -</div></div> - -<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> -<p class="i0">For three-and-twenty generations past</p> -<p class="i0">Hath the Mendozas’ name been nobly great.</p> -<p class="i0">In all the realm of Spain, no other race</p> -<p class="i0">Can claim such notable antiquity;</p> -<p class="i0">For, reckoning down from sire to son, they boast,</p> -<p class="i0">Without a break in that long, glorious line,</p> -<p class="i0">So many men of might, men known to fame,</p> -<p class="i0">And of such noble and grave attributes,</p> -<p class="i0">That the attempt to count them all were vain</p> -<p class="i0">As would be his who sought to count the stars,</p> -<p class="i0">Or the wide sea’s unnumbered waves and sands.</p> -<p class="i0">Their noble blood goes back to Zuria,</p> -<p class="i0">The lord of all Biscay.</p> -</div></div> -<p class="fs90 dcha mt-1">Arauco Domado, Acto III., Comedias, Tom. XX. -4to, 1629, f. 95.</p> - -<p class="ti1 mt1">Gaspar de Avila, in the first act of his “Governador -Prudente,” (Comedias Escogidas, Madrid, 4to, Tomo XXI., 1664,) gives -even a more minute genealogy of the Mendozas than that of Lope de Vega; -so famous were they in verse as well as in history.</p> - -</div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p id="Footnote_807"><span class="label"><a -href="#FNanchor_807">[807]</a></span> The number of editions of the -Lazarillo, during the sixteenth century, in the Low Countries, in -Italy, and in Spain is great; but those printed in Spain, beginning -with the one of Madrid, 1573, 18mo, are expurgated of the passages -most offensive to the clergy by an order of the Inquisition; an order -renewed in the Index Expurgatorius, 1667. Indeed, I do not know how the -chapter on the seller of indulgences could have been written by any -but a Protestant, after the Reformation was so far advanced as it then -was. Mendoza does not seem ever to have acknowledged himself to be the -author of Lazarillo de Tórmes, which, in fact, was sometimes attributed -to Juan de Ortega, a monk. Of a translation of Lazarillo into English, -reported by Lowndes (art. <i>Lazarillo</i>) as the work of David Rowland, -1586, and probably the same praised in the Retrospective Review, Vol. -II. p. 133, above twenty editions are known. Of a translation by James -Blakeston, which seems to me better, I have a copy, dated London, 1670, -18mo.</p> - -</div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p id="Footnote_808"><span class="label"><a -href="#FNanchor_808">[808]</a></span> This continuation was printed -at Antwerp in 1555, as “La Segunda Parte de Lazarillo de Tórmes,” but -probably appeared earlier in Spain.</p> - -</div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p id="Footnote_809"><span class="label"><a -href="#FNanchor_809">[809]</a></span> Antonio, Bib. Nov., Tom. I. pp. -680 and 728. Juan de Luna is called “H. de Luna” on the title-page of -his Lazarillo,—why, I do not know.</p> - -</div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p id="Footnote_810"><span class="label"><a -href="#FNanchor_810">[810]</a></span> Francisco de Portugal, in -his “Arte de Galantería,” (Lisboa, 1670, 4to, p. 49,) says, that, -when Mendoza went ambassador to Rome, he took no books with him for -travelling companions but “Amadis de Gaula” and the “Celestina.”</p> - -</div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p id="Footnote_811"><span class="label"><a -href="#FNanchor_811">[811]</a></span> Mendoza’s success as an -ambassador passed into a proverb. Nearly a century afterwards, Salas -Barbadillo, in one of his tales, says of a <i>chevalier d’industrie</i>, -“According to his own account, he was an ambassador to Rome, and as -much of one as that wise and great knight, Diego de Mendoza, was in his -time.” Cavallero Puntual, Segunda Parte, Madrid, 1619, 12mo, f. 5.</p> - -</div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p id="Footnote_812"><span class="label"><a -href="#FNanchor_812">[812]</a></span> Mendoza seems to have been -treated harshly by Philip II. about some money matters relating to his -accounts for work done on the castle of Siena, when he was governor -there. Navarrete, Vida de Cervantes, Madrid, 1819, 8vo, p. 441.</p> - -</div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p id="Footnote_813"><span class="label"><a -href="#FNanchor_813">[813]</a></span> One of his poems is “A Letter in -<i>Redondillas</i>, being under Arrest.” Obras, 1610, f. 72.</p> - -</div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p id="Footnote_814"><span class="label"><a -href="#FNanchor_814">[814]</a></span> There is but one edition of the -poetry of Mendoza. It was published by Juan Diaz Hidalgo at Madrid, -with a sonnet of Cervantes prefixed to it, in 1610, 4to; and is a -rare and important book. In the address “Al Lector,” we are told that -his lighter works are not published, as unbecoming his dignity; and -if a sonnet, printed for the first time by Sedano, (Parnaso Español, -Tom. VIII. p. 120,) is to be regarded as a specimen of those that -were suppressed, we have no reason to complain.</p> - -<p class="ti1">There is in the Royal Library at Paris, MS. No. 8293, -a collection of the poetry of Mendoza, which has been supposed to -contain notes in his own handwriting, and which is more ample than the -published volume, Ochoa, Catálogo, Paris, 1844, 4to, p. 532.</p> - -</div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p id="Footnote_815"><span class="label"><a -href="#FNanchor_815">[815]</a></span> This epistle was printed, during -Mendoza’s lifetime, in the first edition of Boscan’s Works (ed. 1543, -f. 129); and is to be found in the Poetical Works of Mendoza himself, -(f. 9,) in Sedano, Faber, etc. The earliest <i>printed</i> work of Mendoza -that I have seen is a <i>cancion</i> in the Cancionero Gen. of 1535, f. 99. -b.</p> - -</div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p id="Footnote_816"><span class="label"><a -href="#FNanchor_816">[816]</a></span> The Hymn to Cardinal Espinosa is -in the Poetical Works of Mendoza, f. 143. See also, Sedano, Tom. IV., -(Indice, p. ii.,) for its history.</p> - -</div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p id="Footnote_817"><span class="label"><a -href="#FNanchor_817">[817]</a></span> Obras, f. 99.</p> - -</div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p id="Footnote_818"><span class="label"><a -href="#FNanchor_818">[818]</a></span> See the sonnet of Mendoza in -Silvestre’s Poesías, (1599, f. 333,) in which he says,—</p> - -<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> -<p class="i2">De vuestro ingenio y invencion</p> -<p class="i0">Piensa hacer industria por do pueda</p> -<p class="i0">Subir la tosca rima a perfeccion;</p> -</div></div> - -<p>and the epistle of Mesa to the Count de Castro, in Mesa, Rimas, -Madrid, 1611, 12mo, f. 158,—</p> - -<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> -<p class="i0">Acompaño a Boscan y Garcilasso</p> -<p class="i0">El inclito Don Diego de Mendoza, etc.</p> -</div></div> - -</div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p id="Footnote_819"><span class="label"><a href="#FNanchor_819">[819]</a></span> The one called a <i>Villancico</i> -(Obras, f. 117) is a specimen of the -best of the gay <i>letrillas</i>.</p> - -</div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p id="Footnote_820"><span class="label"><a -href="#FNanchor_820">[820]</a></span> These two letters are printed in -that rude and ill-digested collection called the “Seminario Erudito,” -Madrid, 1789, 4to; the first in Tom. XVIII., and the second in Tom. -XXIV. Pellicer, however, says that the latter is taken from a very -imperfect copy (ed. Don Quixote, Parte I. c. 1, note); and, from some -extracts of Clemencin, (ed. Don Quixote, Tom. I. p. 5,) I infer that -the other must be so likewise. They pass, in the MS., under the title -of “Cartas del Bachiller de Arcadia.” The <i>Catariberas</i>, whom Mendoza -so vehemently attacks in the first of them, seem to have sunk still -lower after his time, and become a sort of jackals to the lawyers. See -the “Soldado Pindaro” of Gonçalo de Cespedes y Meneses, (Lisboa, 1626, -4to, f. 37. b,) where they are treated with the cruellest satire. I -have seen it suggested that Diego de Mendoza is not the author of the -last of the two letters, but I do not know on what ground.</p> - -</div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p id="Footnote_821"><span class="label"><a -href="#FNanchor_821">[821]</a></span> The first edition of the “Guerra -de Granada” is of Madrid, 1610, 4to; but it is incomplete. The first -complete edition is the beautiful one by Monfort (Valencia, 1776, 4to); -since which there have been several others.</p> - -</div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p id="Footnote_822"><span class="label"><a -href="#FNanchor_822">[822]</a></span> The passage in Tacitus is -Annales, Lib. I. c. 61, 62; and the imitation in Mendoza is Book IV. -ed. 1776, pp. 300-302.</p> - -</div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p id="Footnote_823"><span class="label"><a -href="#FNanchor_823">[823]</a></span> The accounts may be found in -Mariana, (Lib. XXVII. c. 5,) and at the end of Hita, “Guerras de -Granada,” where two of the ballads are inserted.</p> - -</div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p id="Footnote_824"><span class="label"><a -href="#FNanchor_824">[824]</a></span> “Incedunt,” says Tacitus, “mœstos -locos, visuque ac memoriâ deformes.”</p> - -</div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p id="Footnote_825"><span class="label"><a -href="#FNanchor_825">[825]</a></span> “Medio campi albentia ossa, ut -fugerant, ut restiterant, disjecta vel aggerata; adjacebant fragmina -telorum, equorumque artus, simul truncis arborum antefixa ora.”</p> - -</div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p id="Footnote_826"><span class="label"><a -href="#FNanchor_826">[826]</a></span> “Igitur Romanus, qui aderat, -exercitus, sextum post cladis annum, trium legionum ossa, nullo -noscente alienas reliquias an suorum humo tegeret, omnes, ut conjunctos -ut consanguineos, auctâ in hostem irâ, mœsti simul et infensi -condebant.”</p> - -</div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p id="Footnote_827"><span class="label"><a -href="#FNanchor_827">[827]</a></span> The speech of El Zaguer is in the -first book of the History.</p> - -</div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p id="Footnote_828"><span class="label"><a -href="#FNanchor_828">[828]</a></span> There are some acute remarks on -the style of Mendoza in the Preface to Garces, “Vigor y Elegancia de la -Lengua Castellana,” Madrid, 1791, 4to, Tom. II.</p> - -</div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p id="Footnote_829"><span class="label"><a -href="#FNanchor_829">[829]</a></span> Pleasant glimpses of the -occupations and character of Mendoza, during the last two years of -his life, may be found in several letters he wrote to Zurita, the -historian, which are preserved in Dormer, “Progresos de la Historia de -Aragon” (Zaragoza, 1680, folio, pp. 501, etc.). The way in which he -announces his intention of giving his books to the Escurial Library, in -a letter, dated at Granada, 1 Dec., 1573, is very characteristic: “I -keep collecting my books and sending them to Alcalá, because the late -Doctor Velasco wrote me word, that his Majesty would be pleased to see -them, and perhaps put them in the Escurial. And I think he is right; -for as it is the most sumptuous building of ancient or modern times, -that I have seen, so I think that nothing should be wanting in it, and -that it ought to contain the most sumptuous library in the world.” In -another, a few months only before his death, he says, “I go on dusting -my books and examining them to see whether they are injured by the -rats, and am well pleased to find them in good condition. Strange -authors there are among them, of whom I have no recollection; and I -wonder I have learnt so little, when I find how much I have read.” -Letter of Nov. 18, 1574.</p> - -</div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p id="Footnote_830"><span class="label"><a -href="#FNanchor_830">[830]</a></span> Escobar complains that many of -the questions sent to him were in such bad verse, that it cost him -a great deal of labor to put them into a proper shape; and it must -be admitted, that both questions and answers generally read as if -they came from one hand. Sometimes a long moral dissertation occurs, -especially in the prose of the second volume, but the answers are -rarely tedious from their length. Those in the first volume are the -best, and Nos. 280, 281, 282, are curious, from the accounts they -contain of the poet himself, who must have died after 1552. In the -Preface to the first volume, he says the Admiral died in 1538. If the -whole work had been completed, according to its author’s purpose, it -would have contained just a thousand questions and answers. For a -specimen, we may take No. 10 (Quatrocientas Preguntas, Çaragoça, 1545, -folio) as one of the more ridiculous, where the Admiral asks how many -keys Christ gave to St. Peter, and No. 190 as one of the better sort, -where the Admiral asks, whether it be necessary to kneel before the -priest at confession, if the penitent finds it very painful; to which -the old monk answers gently and well,—</p> - -<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> -<p class="i0">He that, through suffering sent from God above</p> -<p class="i2">Confessing, kneels not, still commits no sin;</p> -<p class="i0">But let him cherish modest, humble love,</p> -<p class="i2">And that shall purify his heart within.</p> -</div></div> - -<p>The fifth part of the first volume consists of riddles in the old -style; and, as Escobar adds, they are sometimes truly very old riddles; -so old, that they must have been generally known. The second volume was -printed at Valladolid, 1552, and both are in folio.</p> - -</div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p id="Footnote_831"><span class="label"><a -href="#FNanchor_831">[831]</a></span> The volume of Corelas’s -“Trezientas Preguntas” (Valladolid, 1546, 4to) is accompanied by a -learned prose commentary in a respectable didactic style.</p> - -</div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p id="Footnote_832"><span class="label"><a -href="#FNanchor_832">[832]</a></span> Docientas Preguntas, etc., por -Juan Gonzalez de la Torre, Madrid, 1590, 4to.</p> - -</div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p id="Footnote_833"><span class="label"><a -href="#FNanchor_833">[833]</a></span> I should rather have said, -perhaps, that the Preguntas were soon restricted to the fashionable -societies and academies of the time, as we see them wittily exhibited -in the first <i>jornada</i> of Calderon’s “Secreto á voces.”</p> - -</div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p id="Footnote_834"><span class="label"><a -href="#FNanchor_834">[834]</a></span> The general tendency and tone of -the didactic prose-writers in the reign of Charles V. prove this fact; -but the Discourse of Morales, the historian, prefixed to the works of -his uncle, Fernan Perez de Oliva, shows the way in which the change was -brought about. Some Spaniards, it is plain from this curious document, -were become ashamed to write any longer in Latin, as if their own -language were unfit for practical use in matters of grave importance, -when they had, in the Italian, examples of entire success before them. -Obras de Oliva, Madrid, 1787, 12mo, Tom. I. pp. xvi.-xlvii.</p> - -</div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p id="Footnote_835"><span class="label"><a -href="#FNanchor_835">[835]</a></span> There is a letter of Villalobos, -dated at Calatayud, Oct. 6, 1515, in which he says he was detained in -that city by the king’s severe illness, (Obras, Çaragoça, 1544, folio, -f. 71. b.) This was the illness of which Ferdinand died in less than -four months afterward.</p> - -</div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p id="Footnote_836"><span class="label"><a -href="#FNanchor_836">[836]</a></span> Mendez, Typographía, p. 249. -Antonio, Bib. Vetus, ed. Bayer, Tom. II. p. 344, note.</p> - -</div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p id="Footnote_837"><span class="label"><a -href="#FNanchor_837">[837]</a></span> He seems, from the letter just -noticed, to have been displeased with his position as early as 1515; -but he must have continued at court above twenty years longer, when -he left it poor and disheartened. (Obras, f. 45.) From a passage two -leaves farther on, I think he left it after the death of the Empress, -in 1539.</p> - -</div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p id="Footnote_838"><span class="label"><a -href="#FNanchor_838">[838]</a></span> If Poggio’s trifle, “An Seni sit -Uxor ducenda,” had been <i>published</i> when Villalobos wrote, I should not -doubt he had seen it. As it is, the coincidence may not be accidental, -for Poggio died in 1449, though his Dialogue was not, I believe, -printed till the present century.</p> - -</div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p id="Footnote_839"><span class="label"><a -href="#FNanchor_839">[839]</a></span> The Problemas constitute the -first part of the Obras de Villalobos, 1544, and fill 34 leaves.</p> - -</div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p id="Footnote_840"><span class="label"><a -href="#FNanchor_840">[840]</a></span> Obras, f. 35.</p> - -</div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p id="Footnote_841"><span class="label"><a -href="#FNanchor_841">[841]</a></span> I have translated the title -of this Treatise “The Three Great <i>Annoyances</i>.” In the original it -is “The Three Great ——,” leaving the title, says Villalobos in his -Prólogo, unfinished, so that every body may fill it up as he likes.</p> - -</div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p id="Footnote_842"><span class="label"><a -href="#FNanchor_842">[842]</a></span> The most ample life of Oliva -is in Rezabal y Ugarte, “Biblioteca de los Escritores, que han sido -individuos de los seis Colegios Mayores” (Madrid, 1805, 4to, pp. 239, -etc.). But all that we know about him, of any real interest, is to -be found in the exposition he made of his claims and merits when he -contended publicly for the chair of Moral Philosophy at Salamanca. -(Obras, 1787, Tom. II. pp. 26-51.) In the course of it, he says his -travels all over Spain and out of it, in pursuit of knowledge, had -amounted to more than three thousand leagues.</p> - -</div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p id="Footnote_843"><span class="label"><a -href="#FNanchor_843">[843]</a></span> Obras, Tom. I. p. xxiii.</p> - -</div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p id="Footnote_844"><span class="label"><a -href="#FNanchor_844">[844]</a></span> The works of Oliva have been -published at least twice, the first time by his nephew, Ambrosio de -Morales, 4to, Córdova, in 1585, and again at Madrid, 1787, 2 vols. -12mo. In the Index Expurgatorius, (1667, p. 424,) they are forbidden -to be read, “till they are corrected,”—a phrase which seems to have -left each copy of them to the discretion of the spiritual director of -its owner. In the edition of 1787, a sheet was cancelled, in order -to get rid of a note of Morales. See Index of 1790.</p> - -<p class="ti1">In the same volume with the minor works of Oliva, -Morales published fifteen moral discourses of his own, and one by Pedro -Valles of Córdova, none of which have much literary value, though -several, like one on the Advantage of Teaching with Gentleness, and one -on the Difference between Genius and Wisdom, are marked with excellent -sense. That of Valles is on the Fear of Death.</p> - -</div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p id="Footnote_845"><span class="label"><a -href="#FNanchor_845">[845]</a></span> Siguense dos Coloquios de Amores -y otro de Bienaventurança, etc., por Juan de Sedeño, vezino de Arevalo, -1536, sm. 4to, no printer or place, pp. 16. This is the same Juan de -Sedeño who translated the “Celestina” into verse in 1540, and who -wrote the “Suma de Varones Ilustres” (Arevalo, 1551, and Toledo, 1590, -folio);—a poor biographical dictionary, containing lives of about -two hundred distinguished personages, alphabetically arranged, and -beginning with Adam. Sedeño was a soldier, and served in Italy.</p> - -</div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p id="Footnote_846"><span class="label"><a -href="#FNanchor_846">[846]</a></span> The whole Dialogue—both the part -written by Oliva and that written by Francisco Cervantes—was published -at Madrid (1772, 4to) in a new edition by Cerdá y Rico, with his usual -abundant, but awkward, prefaces and annotations.</p> - -</div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p id="Footnote_847"><span class="label"><a -href="#FNanchor_847">[847]</a></span> It is republished in the volume -mentioned in the last note; but we know nothing of its author.</p> - -</div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p id="Footnote_848"><span class="label"><a -href="#FNanchor_848">[848]</a></span> Diálogos muy Subtiles y Notables, -etc., por D. Pedro de Navarra, Obispo de Comenge, Çaragoça, 1567, -12mo, 118 leaves. The first five Dialogues are on the Character -becoming a Royal Chronicler; the next four on the Differences between -a Rustic and a Noble Life; and the remaining thirty-one on Preparation -for Death;—all written in a pure, simple Castilian style, but with -little either new or striking in the thoughts. Their author says, -it was a rule of the <i>Academia</i>, that the person who arrived last -at each meeting should furnish a subject for discussion, and direct -another member to reduce to writing the remarks that might be made on -it,—Cardinal Poggio, Juan d’Estuñiga, knight-commander of Castile, -and other persons of note, being of the society. Navarra adds, that -he had written two hundred dialogues, in which there were “few -matters that had not been touched upon in that excellent Academy,” -and notes especially, that the subject of Preparation for Death had -been discussed after the decease of Cobos, a confidential minister -of Charles V., and that he himself had acted as secretary on the -occasion. Traces of any thing contemporary are, however, rare in the -forty dialogues he printed;—the most important that I have noticed -relating to Charles V. and his retirement at San Yuste, which the good -Bishop seems to have believed was a sincere abandonment of all worldly -thoughts and passions. I find nothing to illustrate the character of -Cortés, except the fact that such meetings were held at his house.</p> - -</div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p id="Footnote_849"><span class="label"><a -href="#FNanchor_849">[849]</a></span> Silva de Varia Leccion, por Pedro -Mexia. The first edition (Sevilla, 1543, fol., lit. got., 144 leaves) -is in only three parts. Another, which I also possess, is of Madrid, -1669, and in six books, filling about 700 closely printed quarto pages. -It was long very popular, and there are many editions of it, besides -translations into Italian, German, French, Flemish, and English. One -English version is by Thomas Fortescue, and appeared in 1571. (Warton’s -Eng. Poetry, London, 1824, 8vo, Tom. IV. p. 312.) Another, which is -anonymous, is called “The Treasure of Ancient and Modern Times, etc., -translated out of that worthy Spanish Gentleman, Pedro Mexia, and Mr. -Francisco Sansovino, the Italian,” etc. (London, 1613, fol.). It is a -curious mixture of similar discussions by different authors, Spanish, -Italian, and French. Mexia’s part begins at Book I. c. 8.</p> - -</div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p id="Footnote_850"><span class="label"><a -href="#FNanchor_850">[850]</a></span> The earliest edition of the -Dialogues, I think, is that of Seville, 1547, 8vo. The one I use is -in 12mo, and was printed at Seville, 1562, black letter, 167 leaves. -The second dialogue, which is on Inviting to Feasts, is amusing; but -the last, which is on subjects of physical science, such as the causes -of thunder, earthquakes, and comets, is now-a-days only curious or -ridiculous. At the end of the Dialogues, and sometimes at the end -of old editions of the Silva, is found a free translation of the -Exhortation to Virtue by Isocrates, made from the Latin of Agricola, -because Mexia did not understand Greek. It is of no value.</p> - -</div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p id="Footnote_851"><span class="label"><a -href="#FNanchor_851">[851]</a></span> Diálogo de la Verdadera Honra -Militar, por Gerónimo Ximenez de Urrea. There are editions of 1566, -1575, 1661, etc. (Latassa, Bib. Arag. Nueva, Tom. I. p. 264.) Mine -is a small quarto volume, Zaragoza, 1642. One of the most amusing -passages in the Dialogue of Urrea is the one in Part First, containing -a detailed statement of every thing relating to the duel proposed by -Francis I. to Charles V.</p> - -</div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p id="Footnote_852"><span class="label"><a -href="#FNanchor_852">[852]</a></span> As late as 1592, when the -“Conversion de la Magdalena,” by Pedro Malon de Chaide was published, -the opposition to the use of the Castilian in grave subjects was -continued. He says, people talked to him as if it were “a sacrilege” -to discuss such matters except in Latin. (f. 15.) But he replies, like -a true Spaniard, that the Castilian is better for such purposes than -Latin or Greek, and that he trusts before long to see it as widely -spread as the arms and glories of his country. (f. 17.)</p> - -</div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p id="Footnote_853"><span class="label"><a -href="#FNanchor_853">[853]</a></span> A full account of Juan Lopez de -Vivero Palacios Rubios, who was a man of consequence in his time, and -engaged in the famous compilation of the Spanish laws called “Leyes -de Toro,” is contained in Rezabal y Ugarte (Biblioteca, pp. 266-271). -His works in Latin are numerous; but in Spanish he published only “Del -Esfuerzo Belico Heroyco,” which appeared first at Salamanca in 1524, -folio, but of which there is a beautiful Madrid edition, 1793, folio, -with notes by Francisco Morales.</p> - -</div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p id="Footnote_854"><span class="label"><a -href="#FNanchor_854">[854]</a></span> Antonio, Bib. Nov., Tom. I. p. 8. -He flourished about 1531-45. His “Agonía del Tránsito de la Muerte,” -a glossary to which, by its author, is dated 1543, was first printed -from his corrected manuscript, many years later. My copy, which seems -to be of the first edition, is dated Alcalá, 1574, and is in 12mo. The -treatise called “Diferencias de Libros que ay en el Universo,” by the -same author, who, however, here writes his name V<i>e</i>negas, was finished -in 1539, and printed at Toledo in 1540, 4to. It is written in a good -style, though not without conceits of thought, and conceited phrases. -But it is not, as its title might seem to imply, a criticism on books -and authors, but the opinion of Vanegas himself, how we should study -the great books of God, nature, man, and Christianity. It is, in fact, -intended to discourage the reading of books then much in fashion, and -deemed by him bad.</p> - -</div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p id="Footnote_855"><span class="label"><a -href="#FNanchor_855">[855]</a></span> He died in 1569. In 1534 he was -in the prisons of the Inquisition, and in 1559 one of his books was -put into the Index Expurgatorius. Nevertheless, he was regarded as a -sort of Saint. (Llorente, Histoire de l’Inquisition, Tom. II. pp. 7 -and 423.) His “Cartas Espirituales” were not printed, I believe, till -the year of his death. (Antonio, Bib. Nova, Tom. I. pp. 639-642.) -His treatises on Self-knowledge, on Prayer, and on other religious -subjects, are equally well written, and in the same style of eloquence. -A long life, or rather eulogy, of him is prefixed to the first volume -of his works, (Madrid, 1595, 4to,) by Juan Diaz.</p> - -</div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p id="Footnote_856"><span class="label"><a -href="#FNanchor_856">[856]</a></span> A life of Guevara is prefixed -to the edition of his Epístolas, Madrid, 1673, 4to; but there is a -good account of him by himself in the Prólogo to his “Menosprecio de -Corte.”</p> - -</div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p id="Footnote_857"><span class="label"><a -href="#FNanchor_857">[857]</a></span> See the argument to the “Década -de los Césares.”</p> - -</div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p id="Footnote_858"><span class="label"><a -href="#FNanchor_858">[858]</a></span> Watt, in his “Bibliotheca -Britannica,” and Brunet, in his “Manuel du Libraire,” give quite -curious lists of the different editions and translations of the works -of Guevara, showing their great popularity all over Europe. In French, -the number of translations in the sixteenth century was extraordinary. -See La Croix du Maine et du Verdier, Bibliothèques, (Paris, 1772, 4to, -Tom. III. p. 123,) and the articles there referred to.</p> - -</div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p id="Footnote_859"><span class="label"><a -href="#FNanchor_859">[859]</a></span> There are editions of the Cartas -del Bachiller Rua, Burgos, 1549, 4to, and Madrid, 1736, 4to, and a -life of him in Bayle, Dict. Historique, Amsterdam, 1740, folio, Tom. -IV. p. 95. The letters of Rua, or Rhua, as his name is often written, -are respectable in style, though their critical spirit is that of the -age and country in which they were written. The short reply of Guevara -following the second of Rua’s letters is not creditable to him.</p> - -</div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p id="Footnote_860"><span class="label"><a -href="#FNanchor_860">[860]</a></span> Antonio, in his article on -Guevara, (Bib. Nova, Tom. I. p. 125,) is very severe; but his tone -is gentle, compared with that of Bayle, (Dict. Hist., Tom. II. p. -631,) who always delights to show up any defects he can find in the -characters of priests and monks. There are editions of the Relox de -Principes, of 1529, 1532, 1537, etc.</p> - -</div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p id="Footnote_861"><span class="label"><a -href="#FNanchor_861">[861]</a></span> La Fontaine, Fables, Lib. XI. -fab. 7, and Guevara, Relox, Lib. III. c. 3. The speech which the -Spanish Bishop, the true inventor of this happy fiction, gives to his -Rústico de Germania is, indeed, too long; but it was popular. Tirso de -Molina, after describing a peasant who approached Xerxes, says in the -Prologue to one of his plays,—</p> - -<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> -<p class="i20">In short,</p> -<p class="i0">He represented to the very life</p> -<p class="i0">The Rustic that so boldly spoke</p> -<p class="i0">Before the Roman Senate.</p> -</div></div> -<p class="fs90 dcha mt-1">Cigarrales de Toledo, Madrid, 1624, 4to, p. 102</p> - -<p class="ti1 mt1">La Fontaine, however, did not trouble himself about -the original Spanish or its popularity. He took his beautiful version -of the fable from an old French translation, made by a gentleman who -went to Madrid in 1526 with the Cardinal de Grammont, on the subject of -Francis the First’s imprisonment. It is in the rich old French of that -period, and La Fontaine often adopts, with his accustomed skill, its -picturesque phraseology. I suppose this translation is the one cited by -Brunet as made by René Bertaut, of which there were many editions. Mine -is of Paris, 1540, folio, by Galliot du Pré, and is entitled “Lorloge -des Princes, traduict Despaignol en Langaige François”; but does not -give the translator’s name.</p> - -</div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p id="Footnote_862"><span class="label"><a -href="#FNanchor_862">[862]</a></span> The “Década de los Césares,” with -the other treatises of Guevara here spoken of, except his Epistles, are -to be found in a collection of his works first printed at Valladolid in -1539. My copy is of the second edition, Valladolid, 1545, folio, black -letter, 214 leaves.</p> - -</div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p id="Footnote_863"><span class="label"><a -href="#FNanchor_863">[863]</a></span> These very letters, however, were -thought worth translating into English by Sir Geoffrey Fenton, and are -found ff. 68-77 of a curious collection taken from different authors -and published in London, (1575, 4to, black letter,) under the title of -“Golden Epistles.” Edward Hellowes had already translated the whole of -Guevara’s Epistles in 1574; which were again translated, but not very -well, by Savage, in 1657.</p> - -</div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p id="Footnote_864"><span class="label"><a -href="#FNanchor_864">[864]</a></span> Epístolas Familiares de D. -Antonio de Guevara, Madrid, 1673, 4to p. 12, and elsewhere. Cervantes, -<i>en passant</i>, gives a blow at the letter of Guevara about Laïs, in the -Prólogo to the first part of his Don Quixote.</p> - -</div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p id="Footnote_865"><span class="label"><a -href="#FNanchor_865">[865]</a></span> One of these religious treatises -is entitled “Monte Calvario,” 1542, translated into English in 1595; -and the other, “Oratorio de Religiosos,” 1543, which is a series of -short exhortations or homilies with a text prefixed to each. The first -is ordered to be expurgated in the Index of 1667, (p. 67,) and both are -censured in that of 1790.</p> - -</div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p id="Footnote_866"><span class="label"><a -href="#FNanchor_866">[866]</a></span> Hellowes translated this, also, -and printed it in 1578. (Sir E. Brydges, Censura Literaria, Tom. III. -1807, p. 210.) It is an unpromising subject in any language, but in the -original Guevara has shown some pleasantry, and an easier style than is -common with him.</p> - -</div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p id="Footnote_867"><span class="label"><a -href="#FNanchor_867">[867]</a></span> Both these treatises were -translated into English; the first by Sir Francis Briant, in 1548. -Ames’s Typog. Antiquities, ed. Dibdin, London, 1810, 4to, Tom. III. p. -460.</p> - -</div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p id="Footnote_868"><span class="label"><a -href="#FNanchor_868">[868]</a></span> Llorente (Hist. de l’Inquisition, -Tom. II. pp. 281 and 478) makes some mistakes about Valdés, of whom the -best accounts are to be found in McCrie’s “Hist. of the Progress, etc., -of the Reformation in Italy,” (Edinburgh, 1827, 8vo, pp. 106 and 121,) -and in his “Hist. of the Progress, etc., of the Reformation in Spain” -(Edinburgh, 1829, 8vo, pp. 140-146). Valdés is supposed to have been an -anti-Trinitarian, but McCrie does not admit it.</p> - -</div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p id="Footnote_869"><span class="label"><a -href="#FNanchor_869">[869]</a></span> His chief error is in supposing -that the Greek language once prevailed generally in Spain, and -constituted the basis of an ancient Spanish language, which, he thinks, -was spread through the country before the Romans appeared in Spain.</p> - -</div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p id="Footnote_870"><span class="label"><a -href="#FNanchor_870">[870]</a></span> The intimations alluded to are, -that the Valdés of the Dialogue had been at Rome; that he was a person -of some authority; and that he had lived long at Naples and in other -parts of Italy. He speaks of Garcilasso de la Vega as if he were alive, -and Garcilasso died in 1536. Llorente, in a passage just cited, calls -Valdés the author of the Diálogo de las Lenguas; and Clemencin—a safer -authority—does the same, once, in the notes to his edition of Don -Quixote, (Tom. IV. p. 285,) though in many other notes he treats it as -if its author were unknown.</p> - -</div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p id="Footnote_871"><span class="label"><a -href="#FNanchor_871">[871]</a></span> The Diálogo de las Lenguas was -not printed till it appeared in Mayans y Siscar, “Orígenes de la Lengua -Española,” (Madrid, 1737, 2 tom. 12mo); where it fills the first -half of the second volume, and is the best thing in the collection. -Probably the manuscript had been kept out of sight as the work of a -well-known heretic. Mayans says, that it could be traced to Zurita, the -historian, and that, in 1736, it was purchased for the Royal Library, -of which Mayans himself was then librarian. One leaf was wanting, which -he could not supply; and though he seems to have believed Valdés to -have been the author of the Dialogue, he avoids saying so,—perhaps -from an unwillingness to attract the notice of the Inquisition to it. -(Orígenes, Tom. I. pp. 173-180.) Iriarte, in the “Aprobacion” of the -collection, treats the Diálogo as if its author were quite unknown.</p> - -</div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p id="Footnote_872"><span class="label"><a -href="#FNanchor_872">[872]</a></span> Mayans y Siscar, Orígenes, Tom. -I. p. 97.</p> - -</div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p id="Footnote_873"><span class="label"><a -href="#FNanchor_873">[873]</a></span> Ibid., p. 98.</p> - -</div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p id="Footnote_874"><span class="label"><a -href="#FNanchor_874">[874]</a></span> Sandoval says that Charles V. -suffered greatly in the opinion of the Spaniards, on his first arrival -in Spain, because, owing to his inability to speak Spanish, they had -hardly any proper intercourse with him. It was, he adds, as if they -could not talk with him at all. Historia, Anvers, 1681, folio, Tom. I. -p. 141.</p> - -</div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p id="Footnote_875"><span class="label"><a -href="#FNanchor_875">[875]</a></span> Mayans y Siscar, Orígenes, Tom. -II. pp. 127-133. The author of the Diálogo urges the introduction of -a considerable number of words from the Italian, such as <i>discurso</i>, -<i>facilitar</i>, <i>fantasia</i>, <i>novela</i>, etc., which have long since been -adopted and fully recognized by the Academy. Diego de Mendoza, though -partly of the Italian school, objected to the word <i>centinela</i> as a -needless Italianism; but it was soon fully received into the language. -(Guerra de Granada, ed. 1776, Lib. III. c. 7, p. 176.) A little later, -Luis Velez de Guevara, in Tranco X. of his “Diablo Cojuelo,” denied -citizenship to <i>fulgor</i>, <i>purpurear</i>, <i>pompa</i>, and other words now in -good use.</p> - -</div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p id="Footnote_876"><span class="label"><a -href="#FNanchor_876">[876]</a></span> Mendez, Typographía, p. 175. -Antonio, Bib. Vetus, ed. Bayer, Tom. II. p. 333.</p> - -</div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p id="Footnote_877"><span class="label"><a -href="#FNanchor_877">[877]</a></span> Mendez, Typog., pp. 239-242. For -the great merits of Antonio de Lebrixa, in relation to the Spanish -language, see “Specimen Bibliothecæ Hispano-Mayansianæ ex Museo D. -Clementis,” Hannoveræ, 1753, 4to, pp. 4-39.</p> - -</div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p id="Footnote_878"><span class="label"><a -href="#FNanchor_878">[878]</a></span> Mendez, pp. 243 and 212, and -Antonio, Bib. Nova, Tom. II. p. 266.</p> - -</div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p id="Footnote_879"><span class="label"><a -href="#FNanchor_879">[879]</a></span> The Grammar of Juan de Navidad, -1567, is not an exception to this remark, because it was intended to -teach Spanish to Italians, and not to natives.</p> - -</div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p id="Footnote_880"><span class="label"><a -href="#FNanchor_880">[880]</a></span> Clemencin, in Mem. de la Academia -de Historia, Tom. VI. p. 472, notes.</p> - -</div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p id="Footnote_881"><span class="label"><a -href="#FNanchor_881">[881]</a></span> It is curious to observe, that -the author of the “Diálogo de las Lenguas,” (Orígenes, Tom. II. p. 31,) -who wrote about 1535, Mayans, (Orígenes, Tom. I. p. 8,) who wrote in -1737, and Sarmiento, (Memorias, p. 94,) who wrote about 1760, all speak -of the character of the Castilian and the prevalence of the dialects in -nearly the same terms.</p> - -</div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p id="Footnote_882"><span class="label"><a -href="#FNanchor_882">[882]</a></span> De las Fiebres Interpoladas, -Metro I., Obras, 1543, f. 27.</p> - -</div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p id="Footnote_883"><span class="label"><a -href="#FNanchor_883">[883]</a></span> See Mariana’s account of the -glories of Toledo, Historia, Lib. XVI. c. 15, and elsewhere. He was -himself from the kingdom of Toledo, and often boasts of its renown. -Cervantes, in Don Quixote, (Parte II. c. 19,) implies that the Toledan -was accounted the purest Spanish of his time. It still claims to be so -in ours.</p> - -</div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p id="Footnote_884"><span class="label"><a -href="#FNanchor_884">[884]</a></span> “Also, at the same Cortes, -the same King, Don Alfonso X., ordered, if thereafter there should -be a doubt in any part of his kingdom about the meaning of any -Castilian word, that reference thereof should be had to this city as -to the standard of the Castilian tongue [como á metro de la lengua -Castellana], and that they should adopt the meaning and definition -here given to such word, because our tongue is more perfect here than -elsewhere.” (Francisco de Pisa, Descripcion de la Imperial Ciudad de -Toledo, ed. Thomas Tamaio de Vargas, Toledo, 1617, fol., Lib. I. c. 36, -f. 56.) The Cortes here referred to is said by Pisa to have been held -in 1253; in which year the Chronicle of Alfonso X. (Valladolid, 1554, -fol., c. 2) represents the king to have been there.</p> - -</div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p id="Footnote_885"><span class="label"><a -href="#FNanchor_885">[885]</a></span> Antonio, Bib. Nov., Tom. I. p. -127, and Preface to Epístolas Familiares of Guevara, ed. 1673.</p> - -</div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p id="Footnote_886"><span class="label"><a -href="#FNanchor_886">[886]</a></span> See the vituperative article -<i>Guevara</i>, in Bayle.</p> - -</div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p id="Footnote_887"><span class="label"><a -href="#FNanchor_887">[887]</a></span> The best life of Ocampo is to be -found in the “Biblioteca de los Escritores que han sido Individuos de -los Seis Colegios Mayores,” etc., por Don Josef de Rezabal y Ugarte -(pp. 233-238); but there is one prefixed to the edition of his Crónica, -1791.</p> - -</div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p id="Footnote_888"><span class="label"><a -href="#FNanchor_888">[888]</a></span> The first edition of the first -four books of the Chronicle of Ocampo was published at Zamora, 1544, in -a beautiful black-letter folio, and was followed by an edition of the -whole at Medina del Campo, 1553, folio. The best, I suppose, is the one -published at Madrid, 1791, in 2 vols. 4to.</p> - -</div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p id="Footnote_889"><span class="label"><a -href="#FNanchor_889">[889]</a></span> For this miserable forgery see -Niceron (Hommes Illustres, Paris, 1730, Tom. XI. pp. 1-11; Tom. XX., -1732, pp. 1-6);—and for the simplicity of Ocampo in trusting to it, see -the last chapter of his first book, and all the passages where he cites -Juan de Viterbo <i>y su Beroso</i>, etc.</p> - -</div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p id="Footnote_890"><span class="label"><a -href="#FNanchor_890">[890]</a></span> Pero Mexia, in the concluding -words of his “Historia Imperial y Cesarea.”</p> - -</div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p id="Footnote_891"><span class="label"><a -href="#FNanchor_891">[891]</a></span> Capmany, Eloquencia Española, -Tom. II. p. 295.</p> - -</div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p id="Footnote_892"><span class="label"><a -href="#FNanchor_892">[892]</a></span> I say “apparently,” because -in his “Historia Imperial y Cesarea,” he declares, speaking of the -achievements of Charles V., “I never was so presumptuous as to deem -myself sufficient to record them.” This was in 1545. He was not -appointed Historiographer till 1548. See notices of him by Pacheco, in -the Semanario Pintoresco, 1844, p. 406. He died in 1552.</p> - -<p class="ti1">From the time of Charles V. there seem generally to have -been chroniclers of the kingdom and chroniclers of the personal history -of its kings. At any rate, that monarch had Ocampo and Garibay for -the first purpose; and Guevara, Sepúlveda, and Mexia for the second. -Lorenço de Padilla, Archdeacon of Málaga, is also mentioned by Dormer -(Progresos, Lib. II. c. 2) as one of his chroniclers. Indeed, it does -not seem easy to determine how many enjoyed the honor of that title.</p> - -</div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p id="Footnote_893"><span class="label"><a -href="#FNanchor_893">[893]</a></span> The first edition appeared -in 1545. The one I use is of Anvers, 1561, fol. The best notice -of his life, perhaps, is the article about him in the Biographie -Universelle.</p> - -</div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p id="Footnote_894"><span class="label"><a -href="#FNanchor_894">[894]</a></span> He left Salamanca two or three -years before he came to the New World; but old Bernal Diaz, who knew -him well, says: “He was a scholar, and I have heard it said he was a -Bachelor of Laws; and when he talked with lawyers and scholars, he -answered in Latin. He was somewhat of a poet, and made couplets in -metre and in prose, [en metro y en prosa,]” etc. It would be amusing -to see poems by Cortés, and especially what the rude old chronicler -calls <i>coplas en prosa</i>; but he knew about as much concerning such -matters as Mons. Jourdain. Cortés, however, was always fond of the -society of cultivated men. In his house at Madrid, (see <i>ante</i>, <a -href="#Page_537">p. 537</a>,) after his return from America, was held -one of those <i>Academies</i> which were then beginning to be imitated -from Italy.</p> - -</div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p id="Footnote_895"><span class="label"><a -href="#FNanchor_895">[895]</a></span> The printed “Relaciones” may be -found in Barcia, “Historiadores Primitivos de las Indias Occidentales,” -(Madrid, 1749, 3 tom., folio,)—a collection printed after its editor’s -death and very ill arranged. Barcia was a man of literary distinction, -much employed in affairs of state, and one of the founders of the -Spanish Academy. He died in 1743. (Baena, Hijos de Madrid, Tom. I. p. -106.) For the last and unpublished “Relacion” of Cortés, as well as for -his unpublished letters, I am indebted to my friend Mr. Prescott, who -has so well used them in his “Conquest of Mexico.”</p> - -</div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p id="Footnote_896"><span class="label"><a -href="#FNanchor_896">[896]</a></span> “The first worthy of being so -called,” says Muñoz, Hist. del Nuevo Mundo, Madrid, 1793, folio, p. -xviii.</p> - -</div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p id="Footnote_897"><span class="label"><a -href="#FNanchor_897">[897]</a></span> The two works of Gomara may be -well consulted in Barcia, “Historiadores Primitivos,” Tom. II., which -they fill. They were first printed in 1553, and though, as Antonio -says, (Bib. Nov., Tom. I. p. 437,) they were forbidden to be either -reprinted or read, four editions of them appeared before the end of the -century.</p> - -</div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p id="Footnote_898"><span class="label"><a -href="#FNanchor_898">[898]</a></span> “About this first going of Cortés -as captain on this expedition, the ecclesiastic Gomara tells many -things grossly untrue in his history, as might be expected from a man -who neither saw nor heard any thing about them, except what Fernando -Cortés told him and gave him in writing; Gomara being his chaplain -and servant, after he was made Marquis and returned to Spain the last -time.” Las Casas, (Historia de las Indias, Parte III. c. 113, MS.,) a -prejudiced witness, but, on a point of fact within his own knowledge, -one to be believed.</p> - -</div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p id="Footnote_899"><span class="label"><a -href="#FNanchor_899">[899]</a></span> See “Historia Verdadera de la -Conquista de la Nueva España, por el Capitan Bernal Diaz del Castillo, -uno de los Conquistadores,” Madrid, 1632, folio, cap. 211.</p> - -</div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p id="Footnote_900"><span class="label"><a -href="#FNanchor_900">[900]</a></span> He says he was in one hundred -and nineteen battles (f. 254. d); that is, I suppose, fights of all -kinds.</p> - -</div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p id="Footnote_901"><span class="label"><a -href="#FNanchor_901">[901]</a></span> It was not printed till long -afterwards, and was then dedicated to Philip IV. Some of its details -are quite ridiculous. He gives even a list of the individual horses -that were used on the great expedition of Cortés, and often describes -the separate qualities of a favorite charger as carefully as he does -those of his rider.</p> - -</div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p id="Footnote_902"><span class="label"><a -href="#FNanchor_902">[902]</a></span> “Yo naci año de 1478,” he says, -in his “Quinquagenas,” when noticing Pedro Fernandez de Córdoba; and he -more than once speaks of himself as a native of Madrid. He says, too, -expressly, that he was present at the surrender of Granada, and that he -saw Columbus at Barcelona, on his first return from America in 1493. -Quinquagenas, MS.</p> - -</div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p id="Footnote_903"><span class="label"><a -href="#FNanchor_903">[903]</a></span> “Veedor de las Fundiciones de -Oro,” he describes himself in the Proemio of his work presented to -Charles V. in 1525 (Barcia, Tom. I.); and long afterwards, in the -opening of Book XLVII. of his Historias, MS., he still speaks of -himself as holding the same office.</p> - -</div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p id="Footnote_904"><span class="label"><a -href="#FNanchor_904">[904]</a></span> I do not feel sure that Antonio -is not mistaken in ascribing to Oviedo a <i>separate</i> life of Cardinal -Ximenes, because the life contained in the “Quinquagenas” is so ample; -but the Chronicles of Ferdinand and Isabella, and Charles V., are -alluded to by Oviedo himself in the Proemio to Charles V. Neither has -ever been printed.</p> - -</div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p id="Footnote_905"><span class="label"><a -href="#FNanchor_905">[905]</a></span> He calls it, in his letter -to the Emperor, at the end of the “Sumario” in 1525, “La General y -Natural Historia de las Indias, que de mi mano tengo escrita”;—in the -Introduction to Lib. XXXIII. he says, “En treinta y quatro años que ha -que estoy en estas partes”;—and in the ninth chapter, which ends Lib. -XXXIV., we have an event recorded with the date of 1548;—so that, for -these three-and-twenty years, he was certainly employed, more or less, -on this great work. But at the end of Book XXXVII. he says, “Y esto -baste quanto a este breve libro del numero treinta y siete, hasta que -el tiempo nos avise de otras cosas que en el se acrescientan”; from -which I infer that he kept each book, or each large division of his -work, open for additions, as long as he lived, and therefore that parts -of it <i>may</i> have been written as late as 1557.</p> - -</div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p id="Footnote_906"><span class="label"><a -href="#FNanchor_906">[906]</a></span> “I have royal orders that the -governors should send me a relation of whatever I shall touch in -the affairs of their governments, for this History.” (Lib. XXXIII., -Introd., MS.) I apprehend, Oviedo was the first authorized Chronicler -of the New World, an office which was at one period better paid than -any other similar office in the kingdom, and was held, at different -times, by Herrera, Tamayo, Solís, and other writers of distinction. It -ceased, I believe, with the creation of the Academy of History.</p> - -</div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p id="Footnote_907"><span class="label"><a -href="#FNanchor_907">[907]</a></span> “We owe much to those who give -us notice of what we have not seen or known ourselves; as I am now -indebted to a remarkable and learned man, of the illustrious Senate of -Venice, called Secretary Juan Bautista Ramusio, who, hearing that I -was inclined to the things of which I here treat, has, without knowing -me personally, sought me for his friend and communicated with me by -letters, sending me a new geography,” etc. Lib. XXXVIII., MS.</p> - -</div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p id="Footnote_908"><span class="label"><a -href="#FNanchor_908">[908]</a></span> As a specimen of his manner, I -add the following account of Almagro, one of the early adventurers in -Peru, whom the Pizarros put to death in Cuzco, after they had obtained -uncontrolled power there. “Therefore hear and read all the authors -you may, and compare, one by one, whatever they relate, that all men, -not kings, have freely given away, and you shall surely see how there -is none that can equal Almagro in this matter, and how none can be -compared to him; for kings, indeed, may give and know how to give -whatever pleaseth them, both cities and lands, and lordships, and other -great gifts; but that a man whom yesterday we saw so poor, that all he -possessed was a very small matter, should have a spirit sufficient for -what I have related,—I hold it to be so great a thing, that I know not -the like of it in our own or any other time. For I myself saw, when his -companion, Pizarro, came from Spain, and brought with him that body of -three hundred men to Panamá, that, if Almagro had not received them -and shown them so much free hospitality with so generous a spirit, few -or none of them could have escaped alive; for the land was filled with -disease, and the means of living were so dear, that a bushel of maize -was worth two or three <i>pesos</i>, and an <i>arroba</i> of wine six or seven -gold pieces. To all of them he was a father, and a brother, and a true -friend; for inasmuch as it is pleasant and grateful to some men to make -gain, and to heap up and to gather together moneys and estates, even -so much and more pleasant was it to him to share with others and to -give away; so that the day when he gave nothing, he accounted it for -a day lost. And in his very face you might see the pleasure and true -delight he felt when he found occasion to help him who had need. And -since, after so long a fellowship and friendship as there was between -these two great leaders, from the days when their companions were few -and their means small, till they saw themselves full of wealth and -strength, there hath at last come forth so much discord, scandal, and -death, well must it appear matter of wonder even to those who shall but -hear of it, and much more to us, who knew them in their low estate, and -have no less borne witness to their greatness and prosperity.” (General -y Natural Historia de las Indias, Lib. XLVII., MS.) Much of it is, -like the preceding passage, in the true, old, rambling, moralizing, -chronicling vein.</p> - -</div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p id="Footnote_909"><span class="label"><a -href="#FNanchor_909">[909]</a></span> “En este que estamos de 1545.” -Quinquagenas, MS., El Cardinal Cisneros.</p> - -</div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p id="Footnote_910"><span class="label"><a -href="#FNanchor_910">[910]</a></span> As in the Dialogue on Juan de -Silva, Conde de Cifuentes, he says, “En este año en que estamos 1550”; -and in the Dialogue on Mendoza, Duke of Infantado, he uses the same -words, as he does again in that on Pedro Fernandez de Córdova. There -is an excellent note on Oviedo, in Vol. I. p. 112 of the American ed. -of “Ferdinand and Isabella,” by my friend Mr. Prescott, to whom I am -indebted for the manuscript of the Quinquagenas, as well as of the -Historia.</p> - -</div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p id="Footnote_911"><span class="label"><a -href="#FNanchor_911">[911]</a></span> There is a valuable life of Las -Casas in Quintana, “Vidas de Españoles Célebres” (Madrid, 1833, 12mo, -Tom. III. pp. 255-510). The seventh article in the Appendix, concerning -the connection of Las Casas with the slave-trade, will be read with -particular interest; because, by materials drawn from unpublished -documents of unquestionable authenticity, it makes it certain, that, -although at one time Las Casas favored what had been begun earlier,—the -transportation of negroes to the West Indies, in order to relieve the -Indians,—as other good men in his time favored it, he did so under the -impression, that, according to the law of nations, the negroes thus -brought to America were both rightful captives taken by the Portuguese -in war and rightful slaves. But afterwards he changed his mind on the -subject. He declared “the captivity of the negroes to be as unjust as -that of the Indians,”—“ser tan injusto el cautiverio de los negros -como el de los Indios,”—and even expressed a fear, that, though he had -fallen into the error of favoring the importation of black slaves into -America from ignorance and good-will, he might, after all, fail to -stand excused for it before the Divine Justice. Quintana, Tom. III. p. -471.</p> - -</div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p id="Footnote_912"><span class="label"><a -href="#FNanchor_912">[912]</a></span> Quintana, Españoles Célebres, -Tom. III. p. 321.</p> - -</div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p id="Footnote_913"><span class="label"><a -href="#FNanchor_913">[913]</a></span> Quintana (p. 413, note) doubts -<i>when</i> this famous treatise was written; but Las Casas himself says, -in the opening of his “Brevísima Relacion,” that it was written in -1542.</p> - -</div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p id="Footnote_914"><span class="label"><a -href="#FNanchor_914">[914]</a></span> This important tract continued -long to be printed separately, both at home and abroad. I use a copy -of it in double columns, Spanish and Italian, Venice, 1643, 12mo; but, -like the rest, the Brevísima Relacion may be consulted in an edition of -the Works of Las Casas by Llorente, which appeared at Paris in 1822, in -2 vols. 8vo, in the original Spanish, almost at the same time with his -translation of them into French. It should be noticed, perhaps, that -Llorente’s version is not always strict, and that the two new treatises -he imputes to Las Casas, as well as the one on the Authority of Kings, -are not absolutely proved to be his.</p> - -<p class="ti1">The translation referred to above appeared, in fact, -the same year, and at the end of it an “Apologie de Las Casas,” by -Grégoire, with letters of Funes and Mier, and notes of Llorente to -sustain it,—all to defend Las Casas on the subject of the slave-trade; -but Quintana, as we have seen, has gone to the original documents, -and leaves no doubt, both that Las Casas once favored it, and that he -altered his mind afterwards.</p> - -</div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p id="Footnote_915"><span class="label"><a -href="#FNanchor_915">[915]</a></span> “Todo esto me dixo el mismo -Cortés con otras cosas cerca dello, despues de Marques, en la villa -de Monçon, estando alli celebrando cortes el Emperador, año de mil -y quinientos y quarenta y dos, riendo y mofando con estas formales -palabras, a la mi fé andubé por alli como un gentil cosario.” (Historia -General de las Indias, Lib. III. c. 115, MS.) It may be worth noting, -that 1542, the year when Cortés made this scandalous speech, was the -year in which Las Casas wrote his Brevísima Relacion.</p> - -</div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p id="Footnote_916"><span class="label"><a -href="#FNanchor_916">[916]</a></span> For a notice of all the works of -Las Casas, see Quintana, Vidas, Tom. III. pp. 507-510.</p> - -</div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p id="Footnote_917"><span class="label"><a -href="#FNanchor_917">[917]</a></span> The two works of Alvar Nuñez -Cabeza de Vaca, namely, his “Naufragios” and his “Comentarios y Sucesos -de su Gobierno en el Rio de la Plata,” were first printed in 1555, and -are to be found in Barcia, Historiadores Primitivos, Tom. I.</p> - -</div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p id="Footnote_918"><span class="label"><a -href="#FNanchor_918">[918]</a></span> The work of Francisco de Xerez, -“Conquista de Peru,” written by order of Francisco Pizarro, was first -published in 1547, and is to be found in Ramusio, (Venezia, ed. Giunti, -folio, Tom. III.,) and in Barcia’s collection (Tom. III.). It ends with -some poor verses in defence of himself.</p> - -</div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p id="Footnote_919"><span class="label"><a -href="#FNanchor_919">[919]</a></span> “Historia del Descubrimiento y -Conquista del Peru,” first printed in 1555, and several times since. -It is in Barcia, Tom. III., and was translated into Italian by Ulloa. -Çarate was sent out by Charles V. to examine into the state of the -revenues of Peru, and brings down his accounts as late as the overthrow -of Gonzalo Pizarro. See an excellent notice of Çarate at the end of Mr. -Prescott’s last chapter on the Conquest of Peru.</p> - -</div> - -</div> -</div> - -<hr class="chap0" /> - - -<div class="chapter pt3"> -<div class="transnote" id="tnote"> - <p class="tnotetit">Transcriber’s note</p> - <ul> - <li>Obvious printer errors have been silently corrected.</li> - <li>Original spelling was kept, but variant spellings were made consistent when a predominant - usage was found.</li> - <li>Footnotes have been renumbered and moved to the end of the book.</li> - <li>Footnotes inside a footnote are not numbered, but marked with “[*]” - and placed at the end of the main footnote. They are found at - footnotes <a href="#Footnote_23">[23]</a>, - <a href="#Footnote_142">[142]</a>, - <a href="#Footnote_154">[154]</a> and - <a href="#Footnote_251">[251]</a>.</li> - <li>The anchor placements for footnote - <a href="#Footnote_543">[543]</a> (<a href="#FNanchor_543">p. 331</a>) - and footnote - <a href="#Footnote_696">[696]</a> (<a href="#FNanchor_696">p. 421</a>) - are conjectured. No anchors were found in the printed original.</li> - <li>Caesuras in split verses have been marked as “ · ”.</li> - </ul> -</div> -</div> - -<hr class="full" /> - - - - - - - - - -<pre> - - - - - -End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of History of Spanish Literature, vol. 1 -(of 3), by George Ticknor - -*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK SPANISH LITERATURE *** - -***** This file should be named 54928-h.htm or 54928-h.zip ***** -This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: - http://www.gutenberg.org/5/4/9/2/54928/ - -Produced by Josep Cols Canals, Ramon Pajares Box, and the -Online Distributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net -(This file was produced from images generously made -available by The Internet Archive/Canadian Libraries) - - -Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions will -be renamed. - -Creating the works from print editions not protected by U.S. copyright -law means that no one owns a United States copyright in these works, -so the Foundation (and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United -States without permission and without paying copyright -royalties. 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