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diff --git a/old/55589-0.txt b/old/55589-0.txt deleted file mode 100644 index 30b194e..0000000 --- a/old/55589-0.txt +++ /dev/null @@ -1,22719 +0,0 @@ -The Project Gutenberg EBook of History of Spanish Literature, vol. 2 (of 3), by -George Ticknor - -This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere 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/license - - -Title: History of Spanish Literature, vol. 2 (of 3) - -Author: George Ticknor - -Release Date: September 20, 2017 [EBook #55589] - -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. - - * The following words have been changed: - - p. 57: Sesa → Sessa - pp. 283, 424: Benevente → Benavente - pp. 359, 360: Copacobana → Copacabana - - * Footnotes have been renumbered into a single series and placed at - the end of the paragraph that includes each anchor. - - - - - HISTORY - OF - SPANISH LITERATURE. - - VOL. II. - - - - - HISTORY - OF - SPANISH LITERATURE. - - - BY - GEORGE TICKNOR. - - - IN THREE VOLUMES. - - VOLUME II. - - - 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. - - - - - CONTENTS - OF - VOLUME SECOND. - - - SECOND PERIOD. - (CONTINUED.) - - CHAPTER VII. - - THEATRE IN THE TIME OF CHARLES THE FIFTH, AND DURING THE FIRST - PART OF THE REIGN OF PHILIP THE SECOND. - - Drama opposed by the Church 3 - Inquisition interferes 4 - Religious Dramas continued 4 - Secular Plays, Castillejo, Oliva 5 - Juan de Paris 6 - Jaume de Huete 8 - Agostin Ortiz 9 - Popular Drama attempted 9 - Lope de Rueda 9 - His Four Comedias 11 - His Two Pastoral Colloquies 13 - His Ten Pasos 16 - His Two Dialogues in Verse 17 - His insufficient Apparatus 18 - He begins the Popular Drama 19 - Juan de Timoneda 20 - His Cornelia 21 - His Menennos 21 - His Blind Beggars 22 - - - CHAPTER VIII. - - THEATRE, CONTINUED. - - Followers of Lope de Rueda 25 - Alonso de la Vega, Cisneros 25 - Attempts at Seville 26 - Juan de la Cueva 26 - Romero de Zepeda 27 - Attempts at Valencia 28 - Cristóval de Virues 28 - Translations from the Ancients 30 - Villalobos, Oliva 30 - Boscan, Abril 30 - Gerónimo Bermudez 30 - Lupercio de Argensola 32 - Spanish Drama to this Time 34 - The Attempts to form it few 35 - The Apparatus imperfect 36 - Connection with the Hospitals 37 - Court-yards in Madrid 37 - Dramas have no uniform Character 37 - A National Drama demanded 39 - - - CHAPTER IX. - - LUIS DE LEON. - - Religious Element in Spanish Literature 40 - Luis de Leon 40 - His Birth and Training 40 - Professor at Salamanca 41 - His Version of Solomon’s Song 41 - His Persecution for it 42 - His Names of Christ 43 - His Perfect Wife 45 - His Exposition of Job 45 - His Death 46 - His Poetry 47 - His Translations 48 - His Original Poetry 49 - His Character 51 - - - CHAPTER X. - - MIGUEL DE CERVANTES SAAVEDRA. - - His Family 52 - His Birth 53 - His Education 54 - His first published Verses 54 - Goes to Italy 55 - Becomes a Soldier 55 - Fights at Lepanto 56 - And at Tunis 57 - Is captured at Sea 57 - Is a Slave at Algiers 57 - His cruel Captivity 58 - His Release 59 - Serves in Portugal 61 - His Galatea 61 - His Marriage 64 - His Literary Friends 65 - His First Dramas 65 - His Trato de Argel 67 - His Numantia 70 - Character of these Dramas 77 - - - CHAPTER XI. - - CERVANTES, CONTINUED. - - He goes to Seville 77 - His Life there 78 - Asks Employment in America 78 - Short Poems 79 - Tradition from La Mancha 80 - He goes to Valladolid 81 - First Part of Don Quixote 82 - He goes to Madrid 82 - Relations with Poets there 82 - With Lope de Vega 82 - His Novelas 84 - His Viage al Parnaso 88 - His Adjunta 89 - His Eight Comedias 90 - His Eight Entremeses 94 - Second Part of Don Quixote 97 - His Sickness 98 - His Death 99 - - - CHAPTER XII. - - CERVANTES, CONCLUDED. - - His Persiles y Sigismunda 100 - His Don Quixote, First Part 103 - His Purpose in writing it 104 - Passion for Romances of Chivalry 105 - He destroys it 107 - Character of the First Part 108 - Avellaneda’s Second Part 109 - Its Character 110 - Cervantes’s Satire on it 111 - His own Second Part 112 - Its Character 113 - Don Quixote and Sancho 114 - Blemishes in the Don Quixote 116 - Its Merits and Fame 118 - Claims of Cervantes 119 - - - CHAPTER XIII. - - LOPE FELIX DE VEGA CARPIO. - - His Birth 120 - His Education 121 - A Soldier 123 - Patronized by Manrique 123 - Bachelor at Alcalá 123 - His Dorothea 124 - Secretary to Alva 124 - His Arcadia 125 - Marries 127 - Is exiled for a Duel 127 - Life at Valencia 128 - Death of his Wife 128 - Establishes himself at Madrid 128 - Serves in the Armada 129 - Marries again 131 - His Children 132 - Death of his Sons 132 - Death of his Wife 132 - Becomes a Priest 133 - His Poem of San Isidro 134 - His Hermosura de Angélica 137 - His Dragontea 140 - His Peregrino en su Patria 142 - His Jerusalen Conquistada 143 - - - CHAPTER XIV. - - LOPE DE VEGA, CONTINUED. - - His Relations with the Church 146 - His Pastores de Belen 146 - Various Works 148 - Beatification of San Isidro 149 - Canonization of San Isidro 153 - Tomé de Burguillos 154 - His Gatomachia 154 - Various Works 155 - His Novelas 156 - He acts as an Inquisitor 157 - His Religious Poetry 158 - His Corona Trágica 159 - His Laurel de Apolo 160 - His Dorotea 160 - His Last Works 161 - His Illness and Death 162 - His Burial 162 - - - CHAPTER XV. - - LOPE DE VEGA, CONTINUED. - - His Miscellaneous Works 164 - Their Character 165 - His earliest Dramas 166 - At Valencia 167 - State of the Theatre 168 - El Verdadero Amante 169 - El Pastoral de Jacinto 169 - His Moral Plays 170 - The Soul’s Voyage 171 - The Prodigal Son 172 - The Marriage of the Soul 173 - The Theatre at Madrid 174 - His published Dramas 175 - Their great Number 175 - His Dramatic Foundation 177 - Varieties in his Plays 178 - Comedias de Capa y Espada 179 - Their Character 179 - Their Number 180 - El Azero de Madrid 181 - La Noche de San Juan 184 - Festival of the Count Duke 184 - La Boba para los Otros 189 - El Premio del Bien Hablar 190 - Various Plays 190 - - - CHAPTER XVI. - - LOPE DE VEGA, CONTINUED. - - Comedias Heróicas 192 - Roma Abrasada 193 - El Príncipe Perfeto 195 - El Nuevo Mundo 199 - El Castigo sin Venganza 202 - La Estrella de Sevilla 205 - National Subjects 206 - Various Plays 207 - Character of the Heroic Drama 207 - - - CHAPTER XVII. - - LOPE DE VEGA, CONTINUED. - - Dramas on Common Life 210 - El Cuerdo en su Casa 211 - La Donzella Teodor 212 - Cautivos de Argel 214 - Three Classes of Secular Plays 215 - The Influence of the Church 216 - Religious Plays 217 - Plays founded on the Bible 217 - El Nacimiento de Christo 218 - Other such Plays 221 - Comedias de Santos 223 - Several such Plays 224 - San Isidro de Madrid 225 - Autos Sacramentales 226 - Festival of the Corpus Christi 227 - Number of Lope’s Autos 229 - Their Form 230 - Their Loas 230 - Their Entremeses 231 - The Autos themselves 232 - Lope’s Secular Entremeses 234 - Popular Tone of his Drama 236 - His Eclogues 237 - - - CHAPTER XVIII. - - LOPE DE VEGA, CONCLUDED. - - Variety in the Forms of his Dramas 239 - Characteristics of all of them 239 - Personages 240 - Dialogue 240 - Irregular Plots 240 - History disregarded 241 - Geography 242 - Morals 242 - Dramatized Novelle 243 - Comic Underplot 243 - Graciosos 244 - Poetical Style 245 - Various Measures 246 - Ballad Poetry in them 247 - Popular Air of every thing 249 - His Success at home 249 - His Success abroad 250 - His large Income 251 - Still he is poor 251 - Great Amount of his Works 252 - Spirit of Improvisation 250 - - - CHAPTER XIX. - - FRANCISCO DE QUEVEDO Y VILLEGAS. - - Birth and Training 255 - Exile 256 - Public Service in Sicily 256 - In Naples 257 - Persecution at Home 257 - Marries 257 - Persecution again 258 - His Sufferings and Death 259 - Variety of his Works 259 - Many suppressed 260 - His Poetry 261 - Its Characteristics 262 - Cultismo 263 - El Bachiller de la Torre 263 - His Prose Works 267 - Paul the Sharper 269 - Various Tracts 269 - The Knight of the Forceps 269 - La Fortuna con Seso 270 - Visions 271 - Quevedo’s Character 274 - - - CHAPTER XX. - - THE DRAMA OF LOPE’S SCHOOL. - - Madrid the Capital 276 - Its Effect on the Drama 277 - Damian de Vegas 277 - Francisco de Tarrega 278 - His Enemiga Favorable 279 - Gaspar de Aguilar 280 - His Mercader Amante 280 - His Suerte sin Esperanza 281 - Guillen de Castro 283 - His Dramas 284 - His Don Quixote 285 - His Piedad y Justicia 285 - His Santa Bárbara 286 - His Mocedades del Cid 287 - Corneille’s Cid 289 - Other Plays of Guillen 292 - Luis Vélez de Guevara 293 - Mas pesa el Rey que la Sangre 294 - Other Plays of Guevara 296 - Juan Perez de Montalvan 297 - His San Patricio 298 - His Orfeo 299 - His Dramas 300 - His Amantes de Teruel 301 - His Don Carlos 304 - His Autos 305 - His Theory of the Drama 306 - His Success 307 - - - CHAPTER XXI. - - DRAMA OF LOPE’S SCHOOL, CONCLUDED. - - Tirso de Molina 308 - His Dramas 308 - His Burlador de Sevilla 309 - His Vergonzoso en Palacio 312 - His Theory of the Drama 314 - Antonio Mira de Mescua 315 - His Dramas and Poems 315 - Joseph de Valdivielso 316 - His Autos 317 - His Religious Dramas 317 - Antonio de Mendoza 318 - Ruiz de Alarcon 319 - His Dramas 320 - His Texedor de Segovia 320 - His Verdad Sospechosa 321 - Other Plays 322 - Belmonte, Cordero, Enriquez 323 - Villaizan, Sanchez, Herrera 323 - Barbadillo, Solorzano 324 - Un Ingenio 325 - El Diablo Predicador 325 - Opposition to Lope’s School 327 - By Men of Learning 328 - By the Church 329 - The Drama triumphs 331 - Lope’s Fame 332 - - - CHAPTER XXII. - - PEDRO CALDERON DE LA BARCA. - - Birth and Family 333 - Education 334 - Festivals of San Isidro 335 - Serves as a Soldier 336 - Writes for the Stage 336 - Patronized by Philip the Fourth 336 - Rebellion in Catalonia 337 - Controls the Theatre 337 - Enters the Church 337 - Less favored by Charles the Second 338 - Death and Burial 339 - Person and Character 340 - His Works 341 - His Dramas 342 - Many falsely ascribed to him 342 - Their Number 343 - His Autos Sacramentales 344 - Feast of the Corpus Christi 345 - His different Autos 347 - His Divino Orfeo 348 - Popularity of his Autos 350 - His Religious Plays 351 - Troubles with the Church 351 - Ecclesiastics write Plays 352 - Calderon’s San Patricio 353 - His Devocion de la Cruz 355 - His Mágico Prodigioso 355 - Other similar Plays 358 - - - CHAPTER XXIII. - - CALDERON, CONTINUED. - - Characteristics of his Drama 360 - Trusts to the Story 361 - Sacrifices much to it 362 - Dramatic Interest strong 363 - Love, Jealousy, and Honor 364 - Amar despues de la Muerte 364 - El Médico de su Honra 368 - El Pintor de su Deshonra 371 - El Mayor Monstruo los Zelos 371 - El Príncipe Constante 376 - - - CHAPTER XXIV. - - CALDERON, CONCLUDED. - - Comedias de Capa y Espada 381 - Antes que todo es mi Dama 382 - La Dama Duende 383 - La Vanda y la Flor 385 - Various Sources of Calderon’s Plots 389 - Castilian Tone everywhere 389 - Exaggerated Sense of Honor 391 - Domestic Authority 392 - Duels 393 - Immoral Tendency of his Dramas 394 - Attacked 394 - Defended 394 - Calderon’s courtly Tone 395 - His Style and Versification 396 - His long Success 397 - Changes the Drama little 399 - But gives it a lofty Tone 400 - His Dramatic Character 401 - - - CHAPTER XXV. - - DRAMA OF CALDERON’S SCHOOL. - - Most Brilliant Period 403 - Agustin Moreto 403 - His Dramas 404 - Figuron Plays 405 - El Lindo Don Diego 405 - El Desden con el Desden 406 - Francisco de Roxas 408 - His Dramas 408 - Del Rey abaxo Ninguno 409 - Several Authors to one Play 411 - Alvaro Cubillo 412 - Leyba and Cancer y Velasco 413 - Enriquez Gomez 414 - Sigler and Zabaleta 414 - Fernando de Zarate 414 - Miguel de Barrios 415 - Diamante 416 - Monroy, Monteser, Cuellar 417 - Juan de la Hoz 417 - Juan de Matos Fragoso 418 - Sebastian de Villaviciosa 419 - Antonio de Solís 420 - Francisco Banzes Candamo 422 - Zarzuelas 424 - Opera at Madrid 425 - Antonio de Zamora 426 - Lanini, Martinez 427 - Rosete, Villegas 427 - Joseph de Cañizares 427 - Decline of the Drama 428 - Vera y Villarroel 429 - Inez de la Cruz 429 - Fernandez de Leon 429 - Tellez de Azevedo 429 - Old Drama of Lope and of Calderon 429 - - - CHAPTER XXVI. - - OLD THEATRES. - - Nationality of the Drama 430 - The Autor of a Company 431 - Relations with the Dramatists 432 - Actors, their Number 433 - The most distinguished 434 - Their Character and hard Life 435 - Exhibitions in the Day-time 436 - Poor Scenery and Properties 437 - The Stage 437 - The Audience 437 - The Mosqueteros 437 - The Gradas, and Cazuela 438 - The Aposentos 438 - Entrance-money 439 - Rudeness of the Audiences 439 - Honors to the Authors 440 - Play-Bills 440 - Titles of Plays 441 - Representations 441 - Loa 441 - Ballad 441 - First Jornada 443 - First Entremes 444 - Second Jornada and Entremes 445 - Third Jornada and Saynete 445 - Dancing 445 - Ballads 446 - Xacaras 446 - Zarabandas 447 - Popular Character of the Drama 448 - Great Number of Authors 449 - Royal Patronage 450 - Great Number of Dramas 451 - All National 452 - - - CHAPTER XXVII. - - HISTORICAL AND NARRATIVE POEMS. - - Old Epic Tendencies 454 - Revived in the Time of Charles the Fifth 455 - Hierónimo Sempere 455 - Luis de Çapata 456 - Diego Ximenez de Ayllon 457 - Hippólito Sanz 457 - Alfonso Fernandez 458 - Espinosa and Coloma 458 - Alonso de Ercilla 459 - His Araucana 461 - Diego de Osorio 464 - Pedro de Oña 466 - Gabriel Lasso de la Vega 467 - Antonio de Saavedra 467 - Juan de Castellanos 468 - Centenera 469 - Gaspar de Villagra 469 - Religious Narrative Poems 470 - Hernandez Blasco 470 - Gabriel de Mata 470 - Cristóval de Virues 470 - His Monserrate 471 - Nicolas Bravo 472 - Joseph de Valdivielso 472 - Diego de Hojeda 473 - His Christiada 473 - Alonso Diaz 474 - Antonio de Escobar 474 - Alonso de Azevedo 474 - Rodriguez de Vargas 474 - Jacobo Uziel 474 - Sebastian de Nieva Calvo 474 - Duran Vivas 474 - Juan Dávila 474 - Antonio Enriquez Gomez 474 - Hernando Dominguez Camargo 474 - Juan de Encisso y Monçon 474 - Imaginative Epics 475 - Orlando Furioso 476 - Nicolas Espinosa 476 - Abarca de Bolea 477 - Garrido de Villena 477 - Agostin Alonso 477 - Luis Barahona de Soto 477 - His Lágrimas de Angélica 478 - Bernardo de Balbuena 479 - His Bernardo 480 - - - CHAPTER XXVIII. - - HISTORICAL AND NARRATIVE POEMS, CONCLUDED. - - Subjects from Antiquity 481 - Boscan, Mendoza, Silvestre 481 - Montemayor, Villegas 481 - Perez, Romero de Cepeda 482 - Fábulas, Góngora 483 - Villamediana, Pantaleon 483 - Moncayo, Villalpando 483 - Salazar 483 - Miscellaneous Poems 483 - Yague de Salas 484 - Miguel de Silveira 485 - Fr. Lopez de Zarate 486 - Mock-heroic Poems 487 - Cosmé de Aldana 487 - Cintio Merctisso 488 - Villaviciosa 489 - Heroic Poems 491 - Don John of Austria 491 - Hierónimo de Cortereal 492 - Juan Rufo 493 - Pedro de la Vezilla 494 - Miguel Giner 495 - Duarte Diaz 495 - Lorenzo de Zamora 495 - Cristóval de Mesa 496 - Juan de la Cueva 497 - Alfonso Lopez, El Pinciano 498 - Francisco Mosquera 499 - Vasconcellos 499 - Bernarda Ferreira 500 - Antonio de Vera y Figueroa 501 - Francisco de Borja 501 - Rise of Heroic Poetry 502 - Its Decline 503 - - - CHAPTER XXIX. - - LYRIC POETRY. - - Early Lyric Tendency 505 - Italian School of Boscan 505 - National School 506 - Lomas de Cantorál 506 - Francisco de Figueroa 507 - Vicente Espinel 507 - Montemayor 507 - Barahona de Soto, Rufo 508 - Vegas, Padilla 508 - Lopez Maldonado 508 - Fernando de Herrera 509 - His Odes 511 - His Castilian Style 513 - Pedro Espinosa 515 - His Flores de Poetas Ilustres 515 - Rey de Artieda 516 - Manoel de Portugal 516 - Cristóval de Mesa 517 - Francisco de Ocaña 517 - Lope de Sosa 517 - Alonso de Ledesma 517 - The Conceptistas 518 - Cultismo and its Causes 519 - Luis de Góngora 521 - His earlier Poetry 522 - His later Poetry 523 - His Extravagance 524 - His Obscurity 524 - His Commentators 525 - His Followers 526 - Count Villamediana 527 - Felix de Arteaga 528 - Roca y Serna 528 - Antonio de Vega 529 - Anastasio Pantaleon 529 - Violante del Cielo 529 - Manoel de Melo 529 - Moncayo, La Torre 530 - Vergara 530 - Rozas, Ulloa 530 - Salazar 530 - Spread of Cultismo 531 - Contest about it 532 - Francisco de Medrano 533 - Pedro Venegas 533 - Baltasar de Alcazar 533 - Arguijo 534 - Antonio Balvas 534 - - - CHAPTER XXX. - - LYRIC POETRY, CONCLUDED. - - The Argensolas 536 - Lupercio 536 - Bartolomé 537 - Their Poetry 538 - Juan de Jauregui 539 - His Orfeo 540 - His Aminta 540 - His Lyrical Poetry 541 - Estévan Manuel de Villegas 542 - Imitates Anacreon 543 - Bernardo de Balbuena 544 - Barbadillo, Polo, Rojas 544 - Francisco de Rioja 545 - Borja y Esquilache 546 - Antonio de Mendoza 547 - Bernardino de Rebolledo 548 - Ribero, Quiros 549 - Barrios, Lucio y Espinossa 549 - Evia, Inez de la Cruz 549 - Solís, Candamo, Marcante 549 - Montoro, Negrete 549 - Success of Lyric Poetry 550 - Religious 550 - Secular and Popular 550 - Secular and more formal 551 - Its General Character 552 - - - - - 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. - - (CONTINUED.) - - - - - HISTORY - OF - SPANISH LITERATURE. - - - SECOND PERIOD. - (CONTINUED.) - - - - -CHAPTER VII. - -THEATRE.--INFLUENCE OF THE CHURCH AND THE -INQUISITION.--MYSTERIES.--CASTILLEJO, OLIVA, JUAN DE PARIS, AND -OTHERS.--POPULAR DEMANDS FOR DRAMATIC LITERATURE.--LOPE DE RUEDA.--HIS -LIFE, COMEDIAS, COLOQUIOS, PASOS, AND DIALOGUES IN VERSE.--HIS -CHARACTER AS FOUNDER OF THE POPULAR DRAMA IN SPAIN.--JUAN DE TIMONEDA. - - -The theatre in Spain, as in most other countries of modern Europe, -was early called to contend with formidable difficulties. Dramatic -representations there, perhaps more than elsewhere, had been for -centuries in the hands of the Church; and the Church was not willing to -give them up, especially for such secular and irreligious purposes as -we have seen were apparent in the plays of Naharro. The Inquisition, -therefore, already arrogating to itself powers not granted by the -state, but yielded by a sort of general consent, interfered betimes. -After the publication of the Seville edition of the “Propaladia” in -1520,--but how soon afterward we do not know,--the representation of -its dramas was forbidden, and the interdict was continued till 1573.[1] -Of the few pieces written in the early part of the reign of Charles -the Fifth, nearly all, except those on strictly religious subjects, -were laid under the ban of the Church; several, like the “Orfea,” 1534, -and the “Custodia,” 1541, being now known to have existed only because -their names appear in the Index Expurgatorius;[2] and others, like the -“Amadis de Gaula” of Gil Vicente, though printed and published, being -subsequently forbidden to be represented.[3] - - [1] In the edition of Madrid, 1573, 18mo, we are told, “La - Propaladia estava prohibida en estos reynos, años avia”; and - Martinez de la Rosa (Obras, Paris, 1827, 12mo, Tom. II. p. - 382) says that this prohibition was laid soon after 1520, and - not removed till August, 1573. The period is important; but I - suspect the authority of Martinez de la Rosa for its termination - is merely the permission to print an edition, which is dated 21 - Aug., 1573; an edition, too, which is, after all, expurgated - severely. - - [2] These are in the “Catálogo” of L. F. Moratin, Nos. 57 and 63, - Obras, Madrid, 1830, 8vo, Tom. I. Parte I. - - [3] The fate of this long heroic and romantic drama of Gil - Vicente, in Spanish, is somewhat singular. It was forbidden by - the Inquisition, we are told, as early as the Index Expurgatorius - of 1549 [1559?]; but it was not printed at all till 1562, and - not separately till 1586. By the Index of Lisbon, 1624, it is - permitted, if expurgated, and there is an edition of it of that - year at Lisbon. As it was never printed in Spain, the prohibition - there must have related chiefly to its representation. Barbosa, - Bib. Lusitana, Tom. II. p. 384. - -The old religious drama, meantime, was still upheld by ecclesiastical -power. Of this we have sufficient proof in the titles of the Mysteries -that were from time to time performed, and in the well-known fact, -that, when, with all the magnificence of the court of Charles the -Fifth, the infant heir to the crown, afterwards Philip the Second, was -baptized at Valladolid, in 1527, five religious plays, one of which -was on the Baptism of Saint John, constituted a part of the gorgeous -ceremony.[4] Such compositions, however, did not advance the drama; -though perhaps some of them, like that of Pedro de Altamira, on the -Supper at Emmaus, are not without poetical merit.[5] On the contrary, -their tendency must have been to keep back theatrical representations -within their old religious purposes and limits.[6] - - [4] The account of this ceremony, and the facts concerning the - dramas in question, are given by Sandoval, “Historia de Carlos - V.,” (Anvers, 1681, fol. Tom. I. p. 619, Lib. XVI., § 13), and - are of some consequence in the history of the Spanish drama. - - [5] It was printed in 1523, and a sufficient extract from it is - to be found in Moratin, Catálogo, No. 36. - - [6] A specimen of the Mysteries of the age of Charles V. may be - found in an extremely rare volume, entitled, in its three parts, - “Triaca del Alma,” “Triaca de Amor,” and “Triaca de Tristes”;--or - Medley for the Soul, for Love, and for Sadness. Its author was - Marcelo de Lebrixa, son of the famous scholar Antonio; and the - dedication and conclusion of the first part imply that it was - composed when the author was forty years old,--after the death - of his father, which happened in 1522, and during the reign of - the Emperor, which ended in 1556. The first part, to which I - particularly allude, consists of a Mystery on the Incarnation, in - above eight thousand short verses. It has no other action than - such as consists in the appearance of the angel Gabriel to the - Madonna, bringing Reason with him in the shape of a woman, and - followed by another angel, who leads in the Seven Virtues;--the - whole piece being made up out of their successive discourses and - exhortations, and ending with a sort of summary, by Reason and - by the author, in favor of a pious life. Certainly, so slight - a structure, with little merit in its verses, could do nothing - to advance the drama of the sixteenth century. It was, however, - intended for representation. “It was written,” says its author, - “for the praise and solemnization of the Festival of Our Lady’s - Incarnation; so that it may be acted as a play [la puedan por - farça representar] by devout nuns in their convents, since no - men appear in it, but only angels and young damsels.” - - The second part of this singular volume, which is more poetical - than the first, is against human, and in favor of Divine love; - and the third, which is very long, consists of a series of - consolations deemed suitable for the different forms of human - sorrow and care;--these two parts being necessarily didactic in - their character. Each of the three is addressed to a member of - the great family of Alva, to which their author seems to have - been attached; and the whole is called by him _Triaca_; a word - which means _Treacle_, or _Antidote_, but which Lebrixa says - he uses in the sense of _Ensalada_,--_Salad_ or _Medley_. The - volume, taken as a whole, is as strongly marked with the spirit - of the age that produced it as the contemporary Cancioneros - Generales, and its poetical merit is much like theirs. - -Nor were the efforts made to advance them in other directions marked -by good judgment or permanent success. We pass over the “Costanza” by -Castillejo, which seems to have been in the manner of Naharro, and -is assigned to the year 1522,[7] but which, from its indecency, was -never published, and is now probably lost; and we pass over the free -versions, made about 1530, by Perez de Oliva, Rector of the University -of Salamanca, from the “Amphitryon” of Plautus, the “Electra” of -Sophocles, and the “Hecuba” of Euripides, because they fell, for the -time, powerless on the early attempts of the national theatre, which -had nothing in common with the spirit of antiquity.[8] But a single -play, printed in 1536, should be noticed, as showing how slowly the -drama made progress in Spain. - - [7] Moratin, Catálogo, No. 35, and _ante_, Vol. I. p. 503. - - [8] Oliva died in 1533; but his translations were not printed - till 1585. - -It is called “An Eclogue,” and is written by Juan de Paris, in _versos -de arte mayor_, or long verses divided into stanzas of eight lines -each, which show, in their careful construction, not a little labor -and art.[9] It has five interlocutors: an esquire, a hermit, a young -damsel, a demon, and two shepherds. The hermit enters first. He seems -to be in a meadow, musing on the vanity of human life; and, after -praying devoutly, determines to go and visit another hermit. But he -is prevented by the esquire, who comes in weeping and complaining of -ill treatment from Cupid, whose cruel character he illustrates by -his conduct in the cases of Medea, the fall of Troy, Priam, David, -and Hercules; ending with his own determination to abandon the world -and live in a “nook merely monastical.” He accosts the hermit, who -discourses to him on the follies of love, and advises him to take -religion and works of devotion for a remedy in his sorrows. The -young man determines to follow counsel so wise, and they enter the -hermitage together. But they are no sooner gone than the demon appears, -complaining bitterly that the esquire is likely to escape him, and -determining to do all in his power to prevent it. One of the shepherds, -whose name is Vicente, now comes in, and is much shocked by the -glimpse he has caught of the retiring spirit, who, indeed, from his -description, and from the wood-cut on the title-page, seems to have -been a truly fantastic and hideous personage. Vicente thereupon hides -himself; but the damsel, who is the lady-love of the esquire, enters, -and, after drawing him from his concealment, holds with him a somewhat -metaphysical dialogue about love. The other shepherd, Cremon, at this -difficult point interrupts the discussion, and has a rude quarrel with -Vicente, which the damsel composes; and then Cremon tells her where the -hermit and the lover she has come to seek are to be found. All now go -towards the hermitage. The esquire, overjoyed, receives the lady with -open arms, and cries out,-- - - But now I abjure this friardom poor, - And will neither be hermit nor friar any more.[10] - - [9] This extremely curious drama, of which I know no copy, except - the one kindly lent to me by M. H. Ternaux-Compans of Paris, is - entitled “Egloga nuevamente composta por Juan de Paris, en la - qual se introducen cinco personas: un Escudero llamado Estacio, - y un Hermitaño, y una Moça, y un Diablo, y dos Pastores, uno - llamado Vicente y el otro Cremon” (1536). It is in black letter, - small quarto, 12 leaves, without name of place or printer; but, I - suppose, printed at Zaragoza, or Medina del Campo. - - [10] - Agora reniego de mala fraylia, - Ni quiero hermitaño ni frayle mas ser. - -The hermit marries them, and determines to go with them to their -house in the town; and then the whole ends somewhat strangely with a -_villancico_, which has for its burden,-- - - Let us fly, I say, from Love’s power away; - ’T is a vassalage hard, - Which gives grief for reward.[11] - - [11] - Huyamos de ser vasallos - Del Amor, - Pues por premio da dolor. - -The piece is curious, because it is a wild mixture of the spirit of -the old Mysteries with that of Juan de la Enzina’s Eclogues and the -Comedies of Naharro, and shows by what awkward means it was attempted -to conciliate the Church, and yet amuse an audience which had little -sympathy with monks and hermits. But it has no poetry in it, and very -little dramatic movement. Of its manner and measure the opening stanza -is quite a fair specimen. The hermit enters, saying to himself,-- - - The suffering life we mortal men below, - Upon this terrene world, are bound to spend, - If we but carefully regard its end, - We find it very full of grief and woe: - Torments so multiplied, so great, and ever such, - That but to count an endless reckoning brings, - While, like the rose that from the rose-tree springs, - Our life itself fades quickly at their touch.[12] - - [12] As another copy of this play can be found, I suppose, only - by some rare accident, I give the original of the passage in the - text, with its original pointing. It is the opening of the first - scene:-- - - _Hermitaño._ - - La vida peñosa; que nos los mortales - En aqueste mundo; terreno passamos - Si con buen sentido; la consideramos - Fallar la hemos; lleno de muy duros males - De tantos tormentos; tan grandes y tales - Que aver de contallos; es cuento infinita - Y allende de aquesto; tan presto es marchita - Como la rosa; qu’ esta en los rosales. - - “Una Farça a Manera de Tragedia,” in prose and partly pastoral, - was printed at Valencia, anonymously, in 1537, and seems to - have resembled this one in some particulars. It is mentioned in - Aribau, “Biblioteca de Autores Españoles,” 1846, Tom. II. p. 193, - note. - -Other attempts followed this, or appeared at just about the same -time, which approach nearer to the example set by Naharro. One of -them is called “La Vidriana,” by Jaume de Huete, on the loves of a -gentleman and lady of Aragon, who desired the author to represent -them dramatically;[13] and another, by the same hand, is called “La -Tesorina,” and was afterwards forbidden by the Inquisition.[14] This -last is a direct imitation of Naharro; has an _intróito_; is divided -into five _jornadas_; and is written in short verses. Indeed, at the -end, Naharro is mentioned by name, with much implied admiration on -the part of the author, who in the title-page announces himself as an -Aragonese, but of whom we know nothing else. And, finally, we have a -play in five acts, and in the same style, with an _intróito_ at the -beginning and a _villancico_ at the end, by Agostin Ortiz,[15] leaving -no doubt that the manner and system of Naharro had at last found -imitators in Spain, and were fairly recognized there. - - [13] “Comedia llamada Vidriana, compuesta por Jaume de Huete - agora nuevamente,” etc., sm. 4to, black letter, 18 leaves, - without year, place, or printer. It has ten interlocutors, and - ends with an apology in Latin, that the author cannot write like - Mena,--Juan de Mena I suppose,--though I know not why he should - have been selected, as the piece is evidently in the manner of - Naharro. - - [14] Another drama, from the same volume with the last two. - Moratin (Catálogo, No. 47) had found it noticed in the Index - Expurgatorius of Valladolid, 1559, and assigns it, at a venture, - to the year 1531, but he never saw it. Its title is “Comedia - intitulada Tesorina, la materia de la qual es unos amores de - un penado por una Señora y otras personas adherentes. Hecha - nuevamente por Jaume de Huete. Pero si por ser su natural lengua - Aragonesa, no fuere por muy cendrados terminos, quanto a este - merece perdon.” Small 4to, black letter, 15 leaves, no year, - place, or printer. It has ten interlocutors, and is throughout an - imitation of Naharro, who is mentioned in some mean Latin lines - at the end, where the author expresses the hope that his Muse may - be tolerated, “quamvis non Torris digna Naharro venit.” - - [15] “Comedia intitulada Radiana, compuesta por Agostin Ortiz,” - small 4to, black letter, 12 leaves, no year, place, or printer. - It is in five _jornadas_, and has ten personages,--a favorite - number apparently. It comes from the volume above alluded to, - which contains besides:--1. A poor prose story, interspersed with - dialogue, on the tale of Mirrha, taken chiefly from Ovid. It is - called “La _Tragedia_ de Mirrha,” and its author is the Bachiller - Villalon. It was printed at Medina del Campo, 1536, por Pedro - Toraus, small 4to, black letter. 2. An eclogue somewhat in the - manner of Juan de la Enzina, for a _Nacimiento_. It is called a - _Farza_,--“El Farza siguiente hizo Pero Lopez Ranjel,” etc. It - is short, filling only 4 ff., and contains three _villancicos_. - On the title-page is a coarse wood-cut of the manger, with - Bethlehem in the background. 3. A short, dull farce, entitled - “Jacinta”;--not the Jacinta of Naharro. These three, together - with the four previously noticed, are, I believe, known to - exist only in the copy I have used from the library of M. H. - Ternaux-Compans. - -But the popular vein had not yet been struck. Except dramatic -exhibitions of a religious character, and under ecclesiastical -authority, nothing had been attempted in which the people, as such, had -any share. The attempt, however, was now made, and made successfully. -Its author was a mechanic of Seville, Lope de Rueda, a goldbeater by -trade, who, from motives now entirely unknown, became both a dramatic -writer and a public actor. The period in which he flourished has -been supposed to be between 1544 and 1567, in which year he is spoken -of as dead; and the scene of his adventures is believed to have -extended to Seville, Córdova, Valencia, Segovia, and probably other -places, where his plays and farces could be represented with profit. -At Segovia, we know he acted in the new cathedral, during the week of -its consecration, in 1558; and Cervantes and the unhappy Antonio Perez -both speak with admiration of his powers as an actor; the first having -been twenty years old in 1567, the period commonly assumed as that of -Rueda’s death,[16] and the last having been eighteen. Rueda’s success, -therefore, even during his lifetime, seems to have been remarkable; -and when he died, though he belonged to the despised and rejected -profession of the stage, he was interred with honor among the mazy -pillars in the nave of the great cathedral at Córdova.[17] - - [16] It is known that he was certainly dead as early as that - year, because the edition of his “Comedias” then published at - Valencia, by his friend Timoneda, contains, at the end of the - “Engaños,” a sonnet on his death by Francisco Ledesma. The last, - and, indeed, almost the only, date we have about him, is that - of his acting in the cathedral at Segovia in 1558; of which we - have a distinct account in the learned and elaborate History of - Segovia, by Diego de Colmenares, (Segovia, 1627, fol., p. 516), - where he says, that, on a stage erected between the choirs, “Lope - de Rueda, a well-known actor [famoso comediante] of that age - represented an entertaining play [gustosa comedia].” - - [17] The well-known passage about Lope de Rueda, in Cervantes’s - Prólogo to his own plays, is of more consequence than all the - rest that remains concerning him. Every thing, however, is - collected in Navarrete, “Vida de Cervantes,” pp. 255-260; and in - Casiano Pellicer, “Orígen de la Comedia y del Histrionismo en - España,” Madrid, 1804, 12mo, Tom. II. pp. 72-84. - -His works were collected after his death by his friend Juan de -Timoneda, and published in different editions, between 1567 and -1588.[18] They consist of four Comedias, two Pastoral Colloquies, -and ten Pasos, or dialogues, all in prose; besides two dialogues in -verse. They were all evidently written for representation, and were -unquestionably acted before popular audiences, by the strolling company -Lope de Rueda led about. - - [18] “Las Quatro Comedias y Dos Coloquios Pastorales del - excelente poeta y gracioso representante, Lope de Rueda,” etc., - impresas en Sevilla, 1576, 8vo,--contains his principal works, - with the “Diálogo sobre la Invencion de las Calzas que se usan - agora.” From the Epistola prefixed to it by Juan de Timoneda, I - infer that he made alterations in the manuscripts, as Lope de - Rueda left them; but not, probably, any of much consequence. Of - the “Deleytoso,” printed at Valencia, 1577, I have never been - able to see more than the very ample extracts given by Moratin, - amounting to six _Pasos_ and a _Coloquio_. The first edition of - the Quatro Comedias, etc., was 1567, at Valencia; the last at - Logroño, 1588. - -The four Comedias are merely divided into scenes, and extend to the -length of a common farce, whose spirit they generally share. The first -of them, “Los Engaños,”--Frauds,--contains the story of a daughter -of Verginio, who has escaped from the convent where she was to be -educated, and is serving as a page to Marcelo, who had once been her -lover, and who had left her because he believed himself to have been -ill treated. Clavela, the lady to whom Marcelo now devotes himself, -falls in love with the fair page, somewhat as Olivia does in “Twelfth -Night,” and this brings in several effective scenes and situations. -But a twin brother of the lady-page returns home, after a considerable -absence, so like her, that he proves the other Sosia, who, first -producing great confusion and trouble, at last marries Clavela, and -leaves his sister to her original lover. This is at least a plot; and -some of its details and portions of the dialogue are ingenious, and -managed with dramatic skill. - -The next, the “Medora,” is, also, not without a sense of what belongs -to theatrical composition and effect. The interest of the action -depends, in a considerable degree, on the confusion produced by the -resemblance between a young woman stolen when a child by Gypsies, -and the heroine, who is her twin sister. But there are well-drawn -characters in it, that stand out in excellent relief, especially -two: Gargullo,--the “miles gloriosus,” or Captain Bobadil, of the -story,--who, by an admirable touch of nature, is made to boast of his -courage when quite alone, as well as when he is in company; and a Gypsy -woman, who overreaches and robs him at the very moment he intends to -overreach and rob her.[19] - - [19] This is the _Rufian_ of the old Spanish dramas and - stories,--parcel _rowdy_, parcel bully, and wholly knave;--a - different personage from the _Rufian_ of recent times, who is the - elder _Alcahuete_ or pander. - -The story of the “Eufemia” is not unlike that of the slandered Imogen, -and the character of Melchior Ortiz is almost exactly that of the fool -in the old English drama,--a well-sustained and amusing mixture of -simplicity and shrewdness. - -The “Armelina,” which is the fourth and last of the longer pieces of -Lope de Rueda, is more bold in its dramatic incidents than either of -the others.[20] The heroine, a foundling from Hungary, after a series -of strange incidents, is left in a Spanish village, where she is kindly -and even delicately brought up by the village blacksmith; while her -father, to supply her place, has no less kindly brought up in Hungary -a natural son of this same blacksmith, who had been carried there by -his unworthy mother. The father of the lady, having some intimation -of where his daughter is to be found, comes to the Spanish village, -bringing his adopted son with him. There he advises with a Moorish -necromancer how he is to proceed in order to regain his lost child. The -Moor, by a fearful incantation, invokes Medea, who actually appears on -the stage, fresh from the infernal regions, and informs him that his -daughter is living in the very village where they all are. Meanwhile -the daughter has seen the youth from Hungary, and they are at once -in love with each other;--the blacksmith, at the same time, having -decided, with the aid of his wife, to compel her to marry a shoemaker, -to whom he had before promised her. Here, of course, come troubles -and despair. The young lady undertakes to cut them short, at once, by -throwing herself into the sea, but is prevented by Neptune, who quietly -carries her down to his abodes under the roots of the ocean, and brings -her back at the right moment to solve all the difficulties, explain the -relationships, and end the whole with a wedding and a dance. This is, -no doubt, very wild and extravagant, especially in the part containing -the incantation and in the part played by Neptune; but, after all, the -dialogue is pleasant and easy, and the style natural and spirited. - - [20] It may be worth noticing, that both the “Armelina” and the - “Eufemia” open with scenes of calling up a lazy young man from - bed, in the early morning, much like the first in the “Nubes” of - Aristophanes. - -The two Pastoral Colloquies differ from the four Comedias, partly in -having even less carefully constructed plots, and partly in affecting, -through their more bucolic portions, a stately and pedantic air, which -is any thing but agreeable. They belong, however, substantially to -the same class of dramas, and received a different name, perhaps, -only from the circumstance, that a pastoral tone was always popular -in Spanish poetry, and that, from the time of Enzina, it had been -considered peculiarly fitted for public exhibition. The comic parts of -the colloquies are the only portions of them that have merit; and the -following passage from that of “Timbria” is as characteristic of Lope -de Rueda’s light and natural manner as any thing, perhaps, that can be -selected from what we have of his dramas. It is a discussion between -Leno, the shrewd fool of the piece, and Troico,[21] in which Leno -ingeniously contrives to get rid of all blame for having eaten up a -nice cake which Timbria, the lady in love with Troico, had sent to him -by the faithless glutton. - - [21] Troico, it should be observed, is a woman in disguise. - -_Leno._ Ah, Troico, are you there? - -_Troico._ Yes, my good fellow, don’t you see I am? - -_Leno._ It would be better if I did not see it. - -_Troico._ Why so, Leno? - -_Leno._ Why then you would not know a piece of ill-luck that has -just happened. - -_Troico._ What ill-luck? - -_Leno._ What day is it to-day? - -_Troico._ Thursday. - -_Leno._ Thursday? How soon will Tuesday come, then? - -_Troico._ Tuesday is passed two days ago. - -_Leno._ Well, that’s something;--but tell me, are there not other -days of ill-luck as well as Tuesdays?[22] - - [22] This superstition about Tuesday as an unlucky day is not - unfrequent in the old Spanish drama:-- - - Está escrito, - El Martes es dia aciago. - - Lope de Vega, El Cuerdo en su Casa, Acto II. Comedias, Madrid, - 1615, 4to, Tom. VI. f. 112. a. - -_Troico._ What do you ask that for? - -_Leno._ I ask, because there may be unlucky pancakes, if there are -unlucky Thursdays. - -_Troico._ I suppose so. - -_Leno._ Now stop there;--suppose one of yours had been eaten of a -Thursday; on whom would the ill-luck have fallen? on the pancake or on -you? - -_Troico._ No doubt, on me. - -_Leno._ Then, my good Troico, comfort yourself, and begin to suffer and -be patient; for men, as the saying is, are born to misfortunes, and -there are matters, in fine, that come from God; and in the order of -time you must die yourself, and, as the saying is, your last hour will -then be come and arrived. Take it, then, patiently, and remember that -we are here to-morrow and gone to-day. - -_Troico._ For heaven’s sake, Leno, is any body in the family dead? Or -else why do you console me so? - -_Leno._ Would to heaven that were all, Troico! - -_Troico._ Then what is it? Can’t you tell me, without so many -circumlocutions? What is all this preamble about? - -_Leno._ When my poor mother died, he that brought me the news, before -he told me of it, dragged me round through more turn-abouts than there -are windings in the Pisuerga and Zapardiel.[23] - - [23] Rivers in the North of Spain, often mentioned in Spanish - poetry, especially the first of them. - -_Troico._ But I have got no mother, and never knew one. I don’t -comprehend what you mean. - -_Leno._ Then smell of this napkin. - -_Troico._ Very well, I have smelt of it. - -_Leno._ What does it smell of? - -_Troico._ Something like butter. - -_Leno._ Then you may truly say, “Here Troy _was_.” - -_Troico._ What do you mean, Leno? - -_Leno._ For you it was given to me; for you Madam Timbria sent it, all -stuck over with nuts;--but as I have (and Heaven and every body else -knows it) a sort of natural relationship to whatever is good, my eyes -watched and followed it just as a hawk follows chickens. - -_Troico._ Followed whom, villain? Timbria? - -_Leno._ Heaven forbid! But how nicely she sent it, all made up with -butter and sugar! - -_Troico._ And what was that? - -_Leno._ The pancake, to be sure,--don’t you understand? - -_Troico._ And who sent a pancake to me? - -_Leno._ Why, Madam Timbria. - -_Troico._ Then what became of it? - -_Leno._ It was consumed. - -_Troico._ How? - -_Leno._ By looking at it. - -_Troico._ Who looked at it? - -_Leno._ I, by ill-luck. - -_Troico._ In what fashion? - -_Leno._ Why, I sat down by the way-side. - -_Troico._ Well, what next? - -_Leno._ I took it in my hand. - -_Troico._ And then? - -_Leno._ Then I tried how it tasted; and what between taking and leaving -all round the edges of it, when I tried to think what had become of it, -I found I had no sort of recollection. - -_Troico._ The upshot is, that you ate it? - -_Leno._ It is not impossible. - -_Troico._ In faith, you are a trusty fellow! - -_Leno._ Indeed! do you think so? Hereafter, if I bring two, I will eat -them both, and so be better yet. - -_Troico._ The business goes on well. - -_Leno._ And well advised, and at small cost; and to my content. But -now, go to; suppose we have a little jest with Timbria. - -_Troico._ Of what sort? - -_Leno._ Suppose you make her believe you ate the pancake yourself, and, -when she thinks it is true, you and I can laugh at the trick till you -split your sides. Can you ask for any thing better? - -_Troico._ You counsel well. - -_Leno._ Well, Heaven bless the men that listen to reason! But tell me, -Troico, do you think you can carry out the jest with a grave face? - -_Troico._ I? What have I to laugh about? - -_Leno._ Why, don’t you think it is a laughing matter to make her -believe you ate it, when all the time it was your own good Leno that -did it? - -_Troico._ Wisely said. But now hold your tongue, and go about your -business.[24] - - [24] _Len._ Ah, Troico! estás acá? - - _Tro._ Sí, hermano: tu no lo ves? - - _Len._ Mas valiera que no. - - _Tro._ Porque, Leno? - - _Len._ Porque no supieras una desgracia, que ha sucedido harto - poco ha. - - _Tro._ Y que ha sido la desgracia? - - _Len._ Que es hoy? - - _Tro._ Jueves. - - _Len._ Jueves? Quanto le falta para ser Martes? - - _Tro._ Antes le sobran dos dias. - - _Len._ Mucho es eso! Mas dime, suele haber dias aziagos así como - los Martes? - - _Tro._ Porque lo dices? - - _Len._ Pregunto, porque tambien habrá hojaldres desgraciadas, - pues hay Jueves desgraciados. - - _Tro._ Creo que sí! - - _Len._ Y ven acá: si te la hubiesen comido á ti una en Jueves, en - quien habria caido la desgracia, en la hojaldre ó en ti? - - _Tro._ No hay duda sino que en mí. - - _Len._ Pues, hermano Troico, aconortaos, y comenzad á sufrir, y - ser paciente, que por los hombres (como dicen) suelen venir las - desgracias, y estas son cosas de Dios en fin, y tambien segun - órden de los dias os podriades vos morir, y (como dicen) ya - seria recomplida y allegada la hora postrimera, rescebildo con - paciencia, y acórdaos que mañana somos y hoy no. - - _Tro._ Válame Dios, Leno! Es muerto alguno en casa? O como me - consuelas ansí? - - _Len._ Ojalá, Troico! - - _Tro._ Pues que fué? No lo dirás sin tantos circunloquios? Para - que es tanto preámbulo? - - _Len._ Quando mi madre murió, para decírmelo él que me llevó la - nueva me trajó mas rodeos que tiene bueltas Pisuerga ó Zapardiel. - - _Tro._ Pues yo no tengo madre, ni la conoscí, ni te entiendo. - - _Len._ Huele ese pañizuelo. - - _Tro._ Y bien? Ya está olido. - - _Len._ A que huele? - - _Tro._ A cosa de manteca. - - _Len._ Pues bien puedes decir, aquí hué Troya. - - _Tro._ Como, Leno? - - _Len._ Para ti me la habian dado, para ti la embiaba rebestida - de piñones la Señora Timbria; pero como yo soy (y lo sabe Dios - y todo el mundo) allegado á lo bueno, en viéndola así, se me - vinieron los ojos tras ella como milano tras de pollera. - - _Tro._ Tras quien, traidor? tras Timbria? - - _Len._ Que no, válame Dios! Que empapada la embiaba de manteca y - azúcar! - - _Tro._ La que? - - _Len._ La hojaldre: no lo entiendes? - - _Tro._ Y quien me la embiaba? - - _Len._ La Señora Timbria. - - _Tro._ Pues que la heciste? - - _Len._ Consumióse. - - _Tro._ De que? - - _Len._ De ojo. - - _Tro._ Quien la ojeó? - - _Len._ Yo, mal punto! - - _Tro._ De que manera? - - _Len._ Asentéme en el camino. - - _Tro._ Y que mas? - - _Len._ Toméla en la mano. - - _Tro._ Y luego? - - _Len._ Prové á que sabia, y como por una vanda y por otra estaba - de dar y tomar, quando por ella acordé, ya no habia memoria. - - _Tro._ En fin, te la comiste? - - _Len._ Podria ser. - - _Tro._ Por cierto, que eres hombre de buen recado. - - _Len._ A fe? que te parezco? De aquí adelante si trugere dos, me - las comeré juntas, para hacello mejor. - - _Tro._ Bueno va el negocio. - - _Len._ Y bien regido, y con poca costa, y á mi contento. Mas ven - acá, si quies que riamos un rato con Timbria? - - _Tro._ De que suerte? - - _Len._ Puedes le hacer en creyente, que la comiste tu, y como - ella piense que es verdad, podremos despues tu y yo reir acá de - la burla; que rebentarás riyendo! Que mas quies? - - _Tro._ Bien me aconsejas. - - _Len._ Agora bien; Dios bendiga los hombres acogidos á razon! - Pero dime, Troico, sabrás disimular con ella sin reirte? - - _Tro._ Yo? de que me habia de reir? - - _Len._ No te paresce, que es manera de reir, hacelle en creyente, - que tu te la comiste, habiéndosela comido tu amigo Leno? - - _Tro._ Dices sabiamente; mas calla, vete en buen hora. - - Las Quatro Comedias, etc., de Lope de Rueda, Sevilla, 1576, 8vo. - -The ten Pasos are much like this dialogue,--short and lively, without -plot or results, and merely intended to amuse an idle audience for a -few moments. Two of them are on glutton tricks, like that practised by -Leno; others are between thieves and cowards; and all are drawn from -common life, and written with spirit. It is very possible that some of -them were taken out of larger and more formal dramatic compositions, -which it was not thought worth while to print entire.[25] - - [25] This I infer from the fact, that, at the end of the edition - of the Comedias and Coloquios, 1576, there is a “Tabla de los - pasos graciosos que se pueden sacar de las presentes Comedias - y Coloquios y poner en otras obras.” Indeed, _paso_ meant _a - passage_. Pasos were, however, undoubtedly sometimes written as - separate works by Lope de Rueda, and were not called _entremeses_ - till Timoneda gave them the name. Still, they may have been - earlier used as such, or as introductions to the longer dramas. - -The two dialogues in verse are curious, as the only specimens of Lope -de Rueda’s poetry that are now extant, except some songs and a fragment -preserved by Cervantes.[26] One is called “Proofs of Love,” and is a -sort of pastoral discussion between two shepherds, on the question, -which was most favored, the one who had received a finger-ring as a -present, or the one who had received an ear-ring. It is written in easy -and flowing _quintillas_, and is not longer than one of the slight -dialogues in prose. The other is called “A Dialogue on the Breeches -now in Fashion,” and is in the same easy measure, but has more of its -author’s peculiar spirit and manner. It is between two lackeys, and -begins thus abruptly:-- - - [26] There is a _Glosa_ printed at the end of the Comedias; but - it is not of much value. The passage preserved by Cervantes is in - his “Baños de Argel,” near the end. - - _Peralta._ Master Fuentes, what’s the change, I pray, - I notice in your hosiery and shape? - You seem so very swollen as you walk. - - _Fuentes._ Sir, ’t is the breeches fashion now prescribes. - - _Peralta._ I thought it was an under-petticoat! - - _Fuentes._ I’m not ashamed of what I have put on. - Why must I wear my breeches made like yours? - Good friend, your own are wholly out of vogue. - - _Peralta._ But what are yours so lined and stuffed withal, - That thus they seem so very smooth and tight? - - _Fuentes._ Of that we’ll say but little. An old mantle, - And a cloak still older and more spoiled, - Do vainly struggle from my hose t’ escape. - - _Peralta._ To my mind, they were used to better ends, - If sewed up for a horse’s blanket, Sir. - - _Fuentes._ But others stuff in plenty of clean straw - And rushes to make out a shapely form---- - - _Peralta._ Proving that they are more or less akin - To beasts of burden. - - _Fuentes._ But they wear, at least, - Such gallant hosiery, that things of taste - May well be added to fit out their dress. - - _Peralta._ No doubt, the man that dresses thus in straw - May tastefully put on a saddle too.[27] - - [27] - _Per._ Señor Fuentes, que mudanza - Habeis hecho en el calzado, - Con que andais tan abultado? - - _Fuent._ Señor, calzas á la usanza. - - _Per._ Pense qu’ era verdugado. - - _Fuent._ Pues yo d’ ellas no me corro. - Que han de ser como las vuesas? - Hermano, ya no usan d’ esas. - - _Per._ Mas que les hechais de aforro, - Que aun se paran tan tiesas? - - _Fuent._ D’ eso poco: un sayo viejo - Y toda una ruin capa, - Que á esta calza no escapa. - - _Per._ Pues, si van á mi consejo, - Hecharan una gualdrapa. - - _Fuent._ Y aun otros mandan poner - Copia de paja y esparto, - Porque les abulten harto. - - _Per._ Esos deben de tener - De bestias quizá algun quarto. - - _Fuent._ Pondrase qualquier alhaja - Por traer calza gallarda. - - _Per._ Cierto yo no sé que aguarda - Quien va vestido de paja - De hacerse alguna albarda. - - I do not know that this dialogue is printed anywhere but at the - end of the edition of the Comedias, 1576. It refers evidently to - the broad-bottomed stuffed hose, then coming into fashion; such - as the daughter of Sancho, in her vanity, when she heard her - father was governor of Barrataria, wanted to see him wear; and - such as Don Carlos, according to the account of Thuanus, wore, - when he used to hide in their strange recesses the pistols that - alarmed Philip II.;--“caligis, quæ amplissimæ de more gentis in - usu sunt.” They were forbidden by a royal ordinance in 1623. See - D. Quixote, (Parte II. c. 50), with two amusing stories told in - the notes of Pellicer, and Thuani Historiarum, Lib. XLI., at the - beginning. - -In all the forms of the drama attempted by Lope de Rueda, the main -purpose is evidently to amuse a popular audience. But to do this, his -theatrical resources were very small and humble. “In the time of this -celebrated Spaniard,” says Cervantes, recalling the gay season of his -youth,[28] “the whole apparatus of a manager was contained in a large -sack, and consisted of four white shepherd’s jackets, turned up with -leather, gilt and stamped; four beards and false sets of hanging locks; -and four shepherd’s crooks, more or less. The plays were colloquies, -like eclogues, between two or three shepherds and a shepherdess, -fitted up and extended with two or three interludes, whose personages -were sometimes a negress, sometimes a bully, sometimes a fool, and -sometimes a Biscayan;--for all these four parts, and many others, Lope -himself performed with the greatest excellence and skill that can be -imagined.... The theatre was composed of four benches, arranged in a -square, with five or six boards laid across them, that were thus raised -about four palms from the ground.... The furniture of the theatre -was an old blanket drawn aside by two cords, making what they call a -tiring-room, behind which were the musicians, who sang old ballads -without a guitar.” - - [28] Comedias, Prólogo. - -The place where this rude theatre was set up was a public square, and -the performances occurred whenever an audience could be collected; -apparently both forenoon and afternoon, for, at the end of one of his -plays, Lope de Rueda invites his “hearers only to eat their dinner and -return to the square,”[29] and witness another. - - [29] “Auditores, no hagais sino comer, y dad la vuelta á la - plaza.” - -His four longer dramas have some resemblance to portions of the earlier -English comedy, which, at precisely the same period, was beginning to -show itself in pieces such as “Ralph Royster Doyster,” and “Gammer -Gurton’s Needle.” They are divided into what are called scenes,--the -shortest of them consisting of six, and the longest of ten; but in -these scenes the place sometimes changes, and the persons often,--a -circumstance of little consequence, where the whole arrangements -implied no real attempt at scenic illusion.[30] Much of the success -of all depended on the part played by the fools, or _simples_, who, -in most of his dramas, are important personages, almost constantly -on the stage;[31] while something is done by mistakes in language, -arising from vulgar ignorance or from foreign dialects, like those of -negroes and Moors. Each piece opens with a brief explanatory prologue, -and ends with a word of jest and apology to the audience. Naturalness -of thought, the most easy, idiomatic Castilian turns of expression, -a good-humored, free gayety, a strong sense of the ridiculous, and -a happy imitation of the manners and tone of common life, are the -prominent characteristics of these, as they are of all the rest of his -shorter efforts. He was, therefore, on the right road, and was, in -consequence, afterwards justly reckoned, both by Cervantes and Lope de -Vega, to be the true founder of the popular national theatre.[32] - - [30] In the fifth _escena_ of the “Eufemia,” the place changes, - when Valiano comes in. Indeed, it is evident that Lope de Rueda - did not know the meaning of the word _scene_, or did not employ - it aright. - - [31] The first traces of these _simples_, who were afterwards - expanded into the _graciosos_, is to be found in the _parvos_ of - Gil Vicente. - - [32] Cervantes, in the Prólogo already cited, calls him “_el - gran_ Lope de Rueda,” and, when speaking of the Spanish Comedias, - treats him as “el primero que en España las sacó de mantillas y - las puso en toldo y vistió de gala y apariencia.” This was in - 1615; and Cervantes spoke from his own knowledge and memory. In - 1620, in the Prólogo to the thirteenth volume of his Comedias, - (Madrid, 4to), Lope de Vega says, “Las comedias no eran mas - antiguas que Rueda, á quien oyeron muchos, que hoy viven.” - -The earliest follower of Lope de Rueda was his friend and editor, Juan -de Timoneda, a bookseller of Valencia, who certainly flourished during -the middle and latter part of the sixteenth century, and probably died -in extreme old age, soon after the year 1597.[33] His thirteen or -fourteen pieces that were printed pass under various names, and have -a considerable variety in their character; the most popular in their -tone being the best. Four are called “Pasos,” and four “Farsas,”--all -much alike. Two are called “Comedias,” one of which, the “Aurelia,” -written in short verses, is divided into five _jornadas_, and has -an _intróito_, after the manner of Naharro; while the other, the -“Cornelia,” is merely divided into seven scenes, and written in prose, -after the manner of Lope de Rueda. Besides these, we have what, in the -present sense of the word, is for the first time called an “Entremes”; -a Tragicomedia, which is a mixture of mythology and modern history; a -religious Auto, on the subject of the Lost Sheep; and a translation, -or rather an imitation, of the “Menæchmi” of Plautus. In all of them, -however, he seems to have relied for success on a spirited, farcical -dialogue, like that of Lope de Rueda; and all were, no doubt, written -to be acted in the public squares, to which, more than once, they make -allusion.[34] - - [33] Ximeno, Escritores de Valencia, Tom. I. p. 72, and Fuster, - Biblioteca Valenciana, Tom. I. p. 161. - - [34] In the Prologue to the Cornelia, one of the speakers says - that one of the principal personages of the piece lives in - Valencia, “in this house which you see,” he adds, pointing the - spectators picturesquely, and no doubt with comic effect, to some - house they could all see. A similar jest about another of the - personages is repeated a little farther on. - -The “Cornelia,” first printed in 1559, is somewhat confused in its -story. We have in it a young lady, taken, when a child, by the Moors, -and returned, when grown up, to the neighbourhood of her friends, -without knowing who she is; a foolish fellow, deceived by his wife, and -yet not without shrewdness enough to make much merriment; and Pasquin, -partly a quack doctor, partly a magician, and wholly a rogue; who, with -five or six other characters, make rather a superabundance of materials -for so short a drama. Some of the dialogues are full of life; and the -development of two or three of the characters is good, especially that -of Cornalla, the clown; but the most prominent personage, perhaps,--the -magician,--is taken, in a considerable degree, from the “Negromante” of -Ariosto, which was represented at Ferrara about thirty years earlier, -and proves that Timoneda had some scholarship, if not always a ready -invention.[35] - - [35] “Con privilegio. Comedia llamada Cornelia, nuevamente - compuesta, por Juan de Timoneda. Es muy sentida, graciosa, y - vozijada. Año 1559.” 8vo. - -The “Menennos,” published in the same year with the Cornelia, is -further proof of his learning. It is in prose, and taken from Plautus; -but with large changes. The plot is laid in Seville; the play is -divided into fourteen scenes, after the example of Lope de Rueda; and -the manners are altogether Spanish. There is even a talk of Lazarillo -de Tórmes, when speaking of an unprincipled young servant.[36] But it -shows frequently the same free and natural dialogue, fresh from common -life, that is found in his master’s dramas; and it can be read with -pleasure throughout, as an amusing _rifacimento_.[37] - - [36] It is in the twelfth scene. “Es el mas agudo rapaz del - mundo, y es hermano de Lazarillo de Tórmes, el que tuvo - trezientos y cincuenta amos.” - - [37] “Con privilegio. La Comedia de los Menennos, traduzida - por Juan Timoneda, y puesta en gracioso estilo y elegantes - sentencias. Año 1559.” 8vo. - -The Paso, however, of “The Blind Beggars and the Boy” is, like the -other short pieces, more characteristic of the author and of the little -school to which he belonged. It is written in short, familiar verses, -and opens with an address to the audience by Palillos, the boy, asking -for employment, and setting forth his own good qualities, which he -illustrates by showing how ingeniously he had robbed a blind beggar who -had been his master. At this instant, Martin Alvarez, the blind beggar -in question, approaches on one side of a square where the scene passes, -chanting his prayers, as is still the wont of such persons in the -streets of Spanish cities; while on the other side of the same square -approaches another of the same class, called Pero Gomez, similarly -employed. Both offer their prayers in exchange for alms, and are -particularly earnest to obtain custom, as it is Christmas eve. Martin -Alvarez begins:-- - - What pious Christian here - Will bid me pray - A blessed prayer, - Quite singular - And new, I say, - In honor of our Lady dear? - -On hearing the well-known voice, Palillos, the boy, is alarmed, and, -at first, talks of escaping; but recollecting that there is no need -of this, as the beggar is blind, he merely stands still, and his old -master goes on:-- - - O, bid me pray! O, bid me pray!-- - The very night is holy time,-- - O, bid me pray the blessed prayer, - The birth of Christ in rhyme! - -But as nobody offers an alms, he breaks out again:-- - - Good heavens! the like was never known! - The thing is truly fearful grown; - For I have cried, - Till my throat is dried, - At every corner on my way, - And not a soul heeds what I say! - The people, I begin to fear, - Are grown too careful of their gear, - For honest prayers to pay. - -The other blind beggar, Pero Gomez, now comes up and strikes in:-- - - Who will ask for the blind man’s prayer?-- - O gentle souls that hear my word! - Give but an humble alms, - And I will sing the holy psalms - For which Pope Clement’s bulls afford - Indulgence full, indulgence rare, - · · · · · · · · · · · · - And add, besides, the blessed prayer - For the birth of our blessed Lord.[38] - - [38] - Devotos cristianos, quien - Manda rezar - Una oracion singular - Nueva de nuestra Señora? - - Mandadme rezar, pues que es - Noche santa, - La oracion segun se canta - Del nacimiento de Cristo. - Jesus! nunca tal he visto, - Cosa es esta que me espanta: - Seca tengo la garganta - De pregones - Que voy dando por cantones, - Y nada no me aprovecha: - Es la gente tan estrecha, - Que no cuida de oraciones. - - Quien manda sus devociones, - Noble gente, - Que rece devotamente - Los salmos de penitencia, - Por los cuales indulgencia - Otorgó el Papa Clemente? - · · · · · · · · - La oracion del nacimiento - De Cristo. - - L. F. Moratin, Obras, Madrid, 1830, 8vo, Tom. I. p. 648. - -The two blind men, hearing each other, enter into conversation, and, -believing themselves to be alone, Alvarez relates how he had been -robbed by his unprincipled attendant, and Gomez explains how he avoids -such misfortunes by always carrying the ducats he begs sewed into his -cap. Palillos, learning this, and not well pleased with the character -he has just received, comes very quietly up to Gomez, knocks off his -cap, and escapes with it. Gomez thinks it is his blind friend who has -played him the trick, and asks civilly to have his cap back again. The -friend denies, of course, all knowledge of it; Gomez insists; and the -dialogue ends, as many of its class do, with a quarrel and a fight, to -the great amusement, no doubt, of audiences such as were collected in -the public squares of Valencia or Seville.[39] - - [39] This Paso--true to the manners of the times, as we can see - from a similar scene in the “Diablo Cojuelo,” Tranco VI.--is - reprinted by L. F. Moratin, (Obras, 8vo, Madrid, 1830, Tom. I. - Parte II. p. 644), who gives (Parte I. Catálogo, Nos. 95, 96, - 106-118) the best account of all the works of Timoneda. The habit - of singing popular poetry of all kinds in the streets has been - common, from the days of the Archpriest Hita (Copla 1488) to our - own times. I have often listened to it, and possess many of the - ballads and other verses still paid for by an alms as they were - in this Paso of Timoneda. - - In one of the plays of Cervantes,--that of “Pedro de - Urdemalas,”--the hero is introduced enacting the part of a blind - beggar, and advertising himself by his chant, just as the beggar - in Timoneda does:-- - - The prayer of the secret soul I know, - That of Pancras the blessed of old; - The prayer of Acacius and Quirce; - One for chilblains, that come from the cold, - One for jaundice that yellows the skin, - And for scrofula working within. - - The lines in the original are not consecutive, but those I have - selected are as follows:-- - - Se la del anima sola, - Y se la de San Pancracio, - La de San Quirce y Acacio, - Se la de los sabañones, - La de curar tericia - Y resolver lamparones. - - Comedias, Madrid, 1615, 4to, f. 207. - - - - -CHAPTER VIII. - -THEATRE.--FOLLOWERS OF LOPE DE RUEDA.--ALONSO DE LA VEGA.-- -CISNEROS.--SEVILLE.--MALARA.--CUEVA.--ZEPEDA.--VALENCIA.--VIRUES.-- -TRANSLATIONS AND IMITATIONS OF THE ANCIENT CLASSICAL DRAMA.-- -VILLALOBOS.--OLIVA.--BOSCAN.--ABRIL.--BERMUDEZ.--ARGENSOLA.-- -STATE OF THE THEATRE. - - -Two of the persons attached to Lope de Rueda’s company were, like -himself, authors as well as actors. One of them, Alonso de la Vega, -died at Valencia as early as 1566, in which year three of his dramas, -all in prose, and one of them directly imitated from his master, were -published by Timoneda.[40] The other, Antonio Cisneros, lived as late -as 1579, but it does not seem certain that any dramatic work of his -now exists.[41] Neither of them was equal to Lope de Rueda or Juan de -Timoneda; but the four taken together produced an impression on the -theatrical taste of their times, which was never afterwards wholly -forgotten or lost,--a fact of which the shorter dramatic compositions -that have been favorites on the Spanish stage ever since give decisive -proof. - - [40] C. Pellicer, Orígen de la Comedia, Tom. I. p. 111; Tom. II. - p. 18; with L. F. Moratin, Obras, Tom. I. Parte II. p. 638, and - his Catálogo, Nos. 100, 104, and 105. - - [41] C. Pellicer, Orígen, Tom. I. p. 116; Tom. II. p. 30. - -But dramatic representations in Spain between 1560 and 1590 were by -no means confined to what was done by Lope de Rueda, his friends, and -his strolling company of actors. Other efforts were made in various -places, and upon other principles; sometimes with more success than -theirs, sometimes with less. In Seville, a good deal seems to have been -done. It is probable the plays of Malara, a native of that city, were -represented there during this period; but they are now all lost.[42] -Those of Juan de la Cueva, on the contrary, have been partly preserved, -and merit notice for many reasons, but especially because most of them -are historical. They were represented--at least, the few that still -remain--in 1579, and the years immediately subsequent; but were not -printed till 1588, and then only a single volume appeared.[43] Each of -them is divided into four _jornadas_, or acts, and they are written in -various measures, including _terza rima_, blank verse, and sonnets, but -chiefly in _redondillas_ and octave stanzas. Several are on national -subjects, like “The Children of Lara,” “Bernardo del Carpio,” and “The -Siege of Zamora”; others are on subjects from ancient history, such as -Ajax, Virginia, and Mutius Scævola; some are on fictitious stories, -like “The Old Man in Love,” and “The Decapitated,” which last is -founded on a Moorish adventure; and one, at least, is on a great event -of times then recent, “The Sack of Rome” by the Constable Bourbon. All, -however, are crude in their structure, and unequal in their execution. -The Sack of Rome, for instance, is merely a succession of dialogues -thrown together in the loosest manner, to set forth the progress of the -Imperial arms, from the siege of Rome in May, 1527, to the coronation -of Charles the Fifth, at Bologna, in February, 1530; and though the -picture of the outrages at Rome is not without an air of truth, there -is little truth in other respects; the Spaniards being made to carry -off all the glory.[44] - - [42] Navarrete, Vida de Cervantes, p. 410. - - [43] L. F. Moratin, Obras, Tom. I. Parte I., Catálogo, Nos. - 132-139, 142-145, 147, and 150. Martinez de la Rosa, Obras, - Paris, 1827, 12mo, Tom. II. pp. 167, etc. - - [44] “El Saco de Roma” is reprinted in Ochoa, Teatro Español, - Paris, 1838, 8vo, Tom. I. p. 251. - -“El Infamador,” or The Calumniator, sets forth, in a different tone, -the story of a young lady who refuses the love of a dissolute young -man, and is, in consequence, accused by him of murder and other crimes, -and condemned to death, but is rescued by preternatural power, while -her accuser suffers in her stead. It is almost throughout a revolting -picture; the fathers of the hero and heroine being each made to desire -the death of his own child, while the whole is rendered absurd by -the not unusual mixture of heathen mythology and modern manners. Of -poetry, which is occasionally found in Cueva’s other dramas, there is -in this play no trace; and so carelessly is it written, that there is -no division of the acts into scenes.[45] Indeed, it seems difficult -to understand how several of his twelve or fourteen dramas should -have been brought into practical shape and represented at all. It is -probable they were merely spoken as consecutive dialogues, to bring out -their respective stories, without any attempt at theatrical illusion; a -conjecture which receives confirmation from the fact, that nearly all -of them are announced, on their titles, as having been represented in -the garden of a certain Doña Elvira at Seville.[46] - - [45] “El Infamador” is reprinted in Ochoa, Tom. I. p. 264. - - [46] One of the plays, not represented in the Huerta de Doña - Elvira, is represented “en el Corral de Don Juan,” and another in - the Atarazanas,--Arsenal, or Ropewalks. None of them, I suppose, - appeared on a public theatre. - -The two plays of Joaquin Romero de Zepeda, of Badajoz, which were -printed at Seville in 1582, are somewhat different from those of -Cueva. One, “The Metamorfosea,” is in the nature of the old dramatic -pastorals, but is divided into three short _jornadas_, or acts. -It is a trial of wits and love, between three shepherds and three -shepherdesses, who are constantly at cross purposes with each other, -but are at last reconciled and united;--all except one shepherd, -who had originally refused to love any body, and one shepherdess, -Belisena, who, after being cruel to one of her lovers, and slighted by -another, is finally rejected by the rejected of all. The other play, -called “La Comedia Salvage,” is taken, in its first two acts, from the -well-known dramatic novel of “Celestina”; the last act being filled -with atrocities of Zepeda’s own invention. It obtains its name from the -Salvages or wild men, who figure in it, as such personages did in the -old romances of chivalry and the old English drama, and is as strange -and rude as its title implies. Neither of these pieces, however, can -have done any thing of consequence for the advancement of the drama at -Seville, though each contains passages of flowing and apt verse, and -occasional turns of thought that deserve to be called graceful.[47] - - [47] These two pieces are in “Obras de Joachim Romero de Zepeda, - Vezino de Badajoz,” (Sevilla, 1582, 4to, ff. 130 and 118), and - are reprinted by Ochoa. The opening of the second _jornada_ of - the Metamorfosea may be cited for its pleasant and graceful tone - of poetry,--lyrical, however, rather than dramatic,--and its air - of the olden time. Other authors living in Seville at about the - same period are mentioned by La Cueva in his “Exemplar Poético” - (Sedano, Parnaso Español, Tom. VIII. p. 60):-- - - Los Sevillanos comicos, Guevara, - Gutierre de Cetina, Cozar, Fuentes, - El ingenioso Ortiz;-- - - who adds that there were _otros muchos_, many more;--but they are - all lost. Some of them, from his account, wrote in the manner of - the ancients; and perhaps Malara and Megia are the persons he - refers to. - -During the same period, there was at Valencia, as well as at Seville, -a poetical movement in which the drama shared, and in which, perhaps, -Lope de Vega, an exile in Valencia for several years, about 1585, took -part. At any rate, his friend Cristóval de Virues, of whom he often -speaks, and who was born there in 1550, was among those who then gave -an impulse to the theatrical taste of his native city. He claims to -have first divided Spanish dramas into three _jornadas_ or acts, and -Lope de Vega assents to the claim; but they were both mistaken, for we -now know that such a division was made by Francisco de Avendaño, not -later than 1553, when Virues was but three years old.[48] - - [48] See L. F. Moratin, Catálogo, No. 84. - -Only five of the plays of Virues, all in verse, are extant; and these, -though supposed to have been written as early as 1579-1581, were -not printed till 1609, when Lope de Vega had already given its full -development and character to the popular theatre; so that it is not -improbable some of the dramas of Virues, as printed, may have been -more or less altered and accommodated to the standard then considered -as settled by the genius of his friend. Two of them, the “Cassandra” -and the “Marcela,” are on subjects apparently of the Valencian poet’s -own invention, and are extremely wild and extravagant; in “El Átila -Furioso” above fifty persons come to an untimely end, without reckoning -the crew of a galley who perish in the flames for the diversion of the -tyrant and his followers; and in the “Semíramis,” the action extends to -twenty or thirty years. All four of them are absurd. - -The “Elisa Dido” is better, and may be regarded as an effort to -elevate the drama. It is divided into five acts, and observes the -unities, though Virues can hardly have comprehended what was afterwards -considered as their technical meaning. Its plot, invented by himself, -and little connected with the stories found in Virgil or the old -Spanish chronicles, supposes the Queen of Carthage to have died by her -own hand for a faithful attachment to the memory of Sichæus, and to -avoid a marriage with Iarbas. It has no division into scenes, and each -act is burdened with a chorus. In short, it is an imitation of the -ancient Greek masters; and as some of the lyrical portions, as well as -parts of the dialogue, are not unworthy the talent of the author of the -“Monserrate,” it is, for the age in which it appeared, a remarkable -composition. But it lacks a good development of the characters, as -well as life and poetical warmth in the action; and being, in fact, an -attempt to carry the Spanish drama in a direction exactly opposite to -that of its destiny, it did not succeed.[49] - - [49] L. F. Moratin, Catálogo, Nos. 140, 141, 146, 148, 149; with - Martinez de la Rosa, Obras, Tom. II. pp. 153-167. The play of - Andres Rey de Artieda, on the “Lovers of Teruel,” 1581, belongs to - this period and place. Ximeno, Tom. I. p. 263; Fuster, Tom. I. p. - 212. - -Such an attempt, however, was not unlikely to be made more than once; -and this was certainly an age favorable for it. The theatre of the -ancients was now known in Spain. The translations already noticed, of -Villalobos in 1515, and of Oliva before 1536, had been followed, as -early as 1543, by one from Euripides by Boscan;[50] in 1555, by two -from Plautus, the work of an unknown author;[51] and in 1570-1577, -by the “Plutus” of Aristophanes, the “Medea” of Euripides, and the -six comedies of Terence, by Pedro Simon de Abril.[52] The efforts of -Timoneda in his “Menennos” and of Virues in his “Elisa Dido” were among -the consequences of this state of things, and were succeeded by others, -two of which should be noticed. - - [50] The translation of Boscan from Euripides was never - published, though it is included in the permission to print that - poet’s works, given by Charles V. to Boscan’s widow, 18 Feb., - 1543, prefixed to the first edition of his Works, which appeared - that year at Barcelona. - - [51] L. F. Moratin, Catálogo, Nos. 86 and 87. - - [52] Pellicer, Biblioteca de Traductores Españoles, Tom. II. pp. - 145, etc. - -The first is by Gerónimo Bermudez, a native of Galicia, who is -supposed to have been born about 1530, and to have lived as late -as 1589. He was a learned Professor of Theology at Salamanca, and -published, at Madrid, in 1577, two dramas which he somewhat boldly -called “the first Spanish tragedies.”[53] They are both on the subject -of Inez de Castro; both are in five acts, and in various verse; and -both have choruses in the manner of the ancients. But there is a great -difference in their respective merits. The first, “Nise Lastimosa,” -or Inez to be Compassionated,--Nise being a poor anagram of Inez,--is -hardly more than a skilful translation of the Portuguese tragedy of -“Inez de Castro,” by Ferreira, which, with considerable defects in its -structure, is yet full of tenderness and poetical beauty. The last, -“Nise Laureada,” or Inez Triumphant, takes up the tradition where the -first left it, after the violent and cruel death of the princess, -and gives an account of the coronation of her ghastly remains above -twenty years after their interment, and of the renewed marriage of the -prince to them;--the closing scene exhibiting the execution of her -murderers with a coarseness, both in the incidents and in the language, -as revolting as can well be conceived. Neither probably produced any -perceptible effect on the Spanish drama; and yet the “Nise Lastimosa” -contains passages of no little poetical merit; such as the beautiful -chorus on Love at the end of the first act, the dream of Inez in the -third, and the truly Greek dialogue between the princess and the women -of Coimbra; for the last two of which, however, Bermudez was directly -indebted to Ferreira.[54] - - [53] Sedano’s “Parnaso Español” (Tom. VI., 1772) contains both - the dramas of Bermudez, with notices of his life. - - [54] The “Castro” of Ferreira, one of the most pure and beautiful - compositions in the Portuguese language, is found in his “Poemas” - (Lisboa, 1771, 12mo, Tom. I. pp. 123, etc.). Its author died of - the plague at Lisbon, in 1569, only forty-one years old. - -Three tragedies by Lupercio Leonardo de Argensola, the accomplished -lyric poet, who will hereafter be amply noticed, produced a much more -considerable sensation, when they first appeared, though they were soon -afterwards as much neglected as their predecessors. He wrote them when -he was hardly more than twenty years old, and they were acted about -the year 1585. “Do you not remember,” says the canon in Don Quixote, -“that, a few years ago, there were represented in Spain three tragedies -composed by a famous poet of these kingdoms, which were such that they -delighted and astonished all who heard them; the ignorant as well as -the judicious, the multitude as well as the few; and that these three -alone brought more profit to the actors than the thirty best plays -that have been written since?” “No doubt,” replied the manager of the -theatre, with whom the canon was conversing, “no doubt you mean the -‘Isabela,’ the ‘Philis,’ and the ‘Alexandra.’“[55] - - [55] Don Quixote, Parte I. c. 48. - -This statement of Cervantes is certainly extraordinary, and the more -so from being put into the mouth of the wise canon of Toledo. But -notwithstanding the flush of immediate success which it implies, all -trace of these plays was soon so completely lost, that, for a long -period, the name of the famous poet Cervantes had referred to was not -known, and it was even suspected that he had intended to compliment -himself. At last, between 1760 and 1770, two of them--the “Alexandra” -and “Isabela”--were accidentally discovered, and all doubt ceased. They -were found to be the work of Lupercio Leonardo de Argensola.[56] - - [56] They first appeared in Sedano’s “Parnaso Español,” Tom. VI., - 1772. All the needful explanations about them are in Sedano, - Moratin, and Martinez de la Rosa. The “Philis” has not been found. - -But, unhappily, they quite failed to satisfy the expectations that -had been excited by the good-natured praise of Cervantes. They are in -various verse, fluent and pure, and were intended to be imitations -of the Greek style of tragedy, called forth, perhaps, by the recent -attempts of Bermudez. Each, however, is divided into three acts; and -the choruses, originally prepared for them, are omitted. The Alexandra -is the worse of the two. Its scene is laid in Egypt; and the story, -which is fictitious, is full of loathsome horrors. Every one of its -personages, except perhaps a messenger, perishes in the course of the -action; children’s heads are cut off and thrown at their parents on -the stage; and the false queen, after being invited to wash her hands -in the blood of the person to whom she was unworthily attached, bites -off her own tongue and spits it at her monstrous husband. Treason -and rebellion form the lights in a picture composed mainly of such -atrocities. - -The Isabela is better; but still is not to be praised. The story -relates to one of the early Moorish kings of Saragossa, who exiles the -Christians from his kingdom in a vain attempt to obtain possession of -Isabela, a Christian maiden with whom he is desperately in love, but -who is herself already attached to a noble Moor whom she has converted, -and with whom, at last, she suffers a triumphant martyrdom. The -incidents are numerous, and sometimes well imagined; but no dramatic -skill is shown in their management and combination, and there is little -easy or living dialogue to give them effect. Like the Alexandra, it -is full of horrors. The nine most prominent personages it represents -come to an untimely end, and the bodies, or at least the heads, of most -of them are exhibited on the stage, though some reluctance is shown -at the conclusion about committing a supernumerary suicide before the -audience. Fame opens the piece with a prologue, in which complaints -are made of the low state of the theatre; and the ghost of Isabela, who -is hardly dead, comes back at the end, with an epilogue very flat and -quite needless. - -With all this, however, a few passages of poetical eloquence, rather -than of absolute poetry, are scattered through the long and tedious -speeches of which the piece is principally composed; and once or -twice there is a touch of passion truly tragic, as in the discussion -between Isabela and her family on the threatened exile and ruin of -their whole race, and in that between Adulce, her lover, and Aja, the -king’s sister, who disinterestedly loves Adulce, notwithstanding she -knows his passion for her fair Christian rival. But still it seems -incomprehensible how such a piece should have produced the popular -dramatic effect attributed to it, unless we suppose that the Spaniards -had from the first a passion for theatrical exhibitions, which, down -to this period, had been so imperfectly gratified, that any thing -dramatic, produced under favorable circumstances, was run after and -admired. - -The dramas of Argensola, by their date, though not by their character -and spirit, bring us at once within the period which opens with -the great and prevalent names of Cervantes and Lope de Vega. They, -therefore, mark the extreme limits of the history of the early Spanish -theatre; and if we now look back and consider its condition and -character during the long period we have just gone over, we shall -easily come to three conclusions of some consequence.[57] - - [57] It seems probable that a considerable number of dramas - belonging to the period between Lope de Rueda and Lope de Vega, - or between 1560 and 1590, could even now be collected, whose - names have not yet been given to the public; but it is not likely - that they would add any thing important to our knowledge of the - real character or progress of the drama at that time. Aribau, - Biblioteca, Tom. II. pp. 163, 225, notes. - -The first is, that the attempts to form and develop a national drama in -Spain have been few and rare. During the two centuries following the -first notice of it, about 1250, we cannot learn distinctly that any -thing was undertaken but rude exhibitions in pantomime; though it is -not unlikely dialogues may sometimes have been added, such as we find -in the more imperfect religious pageants produced at the same period in -England and France. During the next century, which brings us down to -the time of Lope de Rueda, we have nothing better than “Mingo Revulgo,” -which is rather a spirited political satire than a drama, Enzina’s and -Vicente’s dramatic eclogues, and Naharro’s more dramatic “Propaladia,” -with a few translations from the ancients which were little noticed or -known. And during the half-century which Lope de Rueda opened with an -attempt to create a popular drama, we have obtained only a few farces -from himself and his followers, the little that was done at Seville and -Valencia, and the countervailing tragedies of Bermudez and Argensola, -who intended, no doubt, to follow what they considered the safer and -more respectable traces of the ancient Greek masters. Three centuries -and a half, therefore, or four centuries, furnished less dramatic -literature to Spain, than the last half-century of the same portion of -time had furnished to France and Italy; and near the end of the whole -period, or about 1585, it is apparent that the national genius was -not more turned towards the drama than it was at the same period in -England, where Greene and Peele were just preparing the way for Marlowe -and Shakspeare. - -In the next place, the apparatus of the stage, including scenery and -dresses, was very imperfect. During the greater part of the period we -have gone over, dramatic exhibitions in Spain were either religious -pantomimes shown off in the churches to the people, or private -entertainments given at court and in the houses of the nobility. Lope -de Rueda brought them out into the public squares, and adapted them -to the comprehension, the taste, and the humors of the multitude. But -he had no theatre anywhere, and his genial farces were represented -on temporary scaffolds, by his own company of strolling players, who -stayed but a few days at a time in even the largest cities, and were -sought, when there, chiefly by the lower classes of the people. - -The first notice, therefore, we have of any thing approaching to a -regular establishment--and this is far removed from what that phrase -generally implies--is in 1568, when an arrangement or compromise -between the Church and the theatre was begun, traces of which have -subsisted at Madrid and elsewhere down to our own times. Recollecting, -no doubt, the origin of dramatic representations in Spain for religious -edification, the government ordered, in form, that no actors should -make an exhibition in Madrid, except in some place to be appointed by -two religious brotherhoods designated in the decree, and for a rent to -be paid to them;--an order in which, after 1583, the general hospital -of the city was included.[58] Under this order, as it was originally -made, we find plays acted from 1568; but only in the open area of a -court-yard, without roof, seats, or other apparatus, except such as is -humorously described by Cervantes to have been packed, with all the -dresses of the company, in a few large sacks. - - [58] The two brotherhoods were the Cofradía de la Sagrada Pasion, - established 1565, and the Cofradía de la Soledad, established - 1567. The accounts of the early beginnings of the theatre at - Madrid are awkwardly enough given by C. Pellicer in his “Orígen - de la Comedia en España.” But they can be found so well nowhere - else. See Tom. I. pp. 43-77. - -In this state things continued several years. None but strolling -companies of actors were known, and they remained but a few days -at a time even in Madrid. No fixed place was prepared for their -reception; but sometimes they were sent by the pious brotherhoods to -one court-yard, and sometimes to another. They acted in the day-time, -on Sundays and other holidays, and then only if the weather permitted -a performance in the open air;--the women separated from the men,[59] -and the entire audience so small, that the profit yielded by the -exhibitions to the religious societies and the hospital rose only to -eight or ten dollars each time.[60] At last, in 1579 and 1583, two -court-yards were permanently fitted up for them, belonging to houses in -the streets of the “Príncipe” and “Cruz.” But though a rude stage and -benches were provided in each, a roof was still wanting; the spectators -all sat in the open air, or at the windows of the house whose -court-yard was used for the representation; and the actors performed -under a slight and poor awning, without any thing that deserved to be -called scenery. The theatres, therefore, at Madrid, as late as 1586, -could not be said to be in a condition materially to further any -efforts that might be made to produce a respectable national drama. - - [59] C. Pellicer, Orígen, Tom. I. p. 83. - - [60] Ibid., p. 56. - -In the last place, the pieces that had been written had not the -decided, common character on which a national drama could be fairly -founded, even if their number had been greater. Juan de la Enzina’s -eclogues, which were the first dramatic compositions represented in -Spain by actors who were neither priests nor cavaliers, were really -what they were called, though somewhat modified in their bucolic -character by religious and political feelings and events;--two or -three of Naharro’s plays, and several of those of Cueva, give more -absolute intimations of the intriguing and historical character of -the stage, though the effect of the first at home was delayed, from -their being for a long time published only in Italy;--the translations -from the ancients by Villalobos, Oliva, Abril, and others, seem hardly -to have been intended for representation, and certainly not for -popular effect;--and Bermudez, with one of his pieces stolen from the -Portuguese and the other full of horrors of his own, was, it is plain, -little thought of at his first appearance, and soon quite neglected. - -There were, therefore, before 1586, only two persons to whom it was -possible to look for the establishment of a popular and permanent -drama. The first of them was Argensola, whose three tragedies enjoyed -a degree of success before unknown; but they were so little in the -national spirit, that they were early overlooked, and soon completely -forgotten. The other was Lope de Rueda, who, himself an actor, wrote -such farces as he found would amuse the common audiences he served, and -thus created a school in which other actors, like Alonso de la Vega and -Cisneros, wrote the same kind of farces, chiefly in prose, and intended -so completely for temporary effect, that hardly one of them has come -down to our own times. Of course, the few and rare efforts made before -1586 to produce a drama in Spain had been made upon such various or -contradictory principles, that they could not be combined so as to -constitute the safe foundation for a national theatre. - -But though the proper foundation was not yet laid, all was tending -to it and preparing for it. The stage, rude as it was, had still the -great advantage of being confined to two spots, which, it is worth -notice, have continued to be the sites of the two principal theatres -of Madrid ever since. The number of authors, though small, was yet -sufficient to create so general a taste for theatrical representations, -that Lopez Pinciano, a learned man, and one of a temper little likely -to be pleased with a rude drama, said, “When I see that Cisneros or -Galvez is going to act, I run all risks to hear him; and when I am in -the theatre, winter does not freeze me, nor summer make me hot.”[61] -And finally, the public, who resorted to the imperfect entertainments -offered them, if they had not determined what kind of drama should -become national, had yet decided that a national drama should be -formed, and that it should be founded on the national character and -manners. - - [61] Philosophia Antigua Poetica de A. L. Pinciano, Madrid, 1596, - 4to, p. 128. Cisneros was a famous actor of the time of Philip - II., about whom Don Carlos had a quarrel with Cardinal Espinosa. - Cabrera, Felipe II., Madrid, 1619, folio, p. 470. He flourished - 1579-86. C. Pellicer, Orígen, Tom. I. pp. 60, 61. - - - - -CHAPTER IX. - -LUIS DE LEON.--EARLY LIFE.--PERSECUTIONS.--TRANSLATION OF THE -CANTICLES.--NAMES OF CHRIST.--PERFECT WIFE AND OTHER PROSE WORKS.--HIS -DEATH.--HIS POEMS.--HIS CHARACTER. - - -It should not be forgotten, that, while we have gone over the -beginnings of the Italian school and of the existing theatre, we have -had little occasion to notice one distinctive element of the Spanish -character, which is yet almost constantly present in the great mass of -the national literature: I mean, the religious element. A reverence -for the Church, or, more properly, for the religion of the Church, and -a deep sentiment of devotion, however mistaken in the forms it wore -or in the direction it took, had been developed in the old Castilian -character by the wars against Islamism, as much as the spirit of -loyalty and knighthood, and had, from the first, found no less fitting -poetical forms of expression. That no change took place in this respect -in the sixteenth century, we find striking proof in the character of -a noble Spaniard born in the city of Granada about twenty years later -than Diego de Mendoza; but one whose gentler and graver genius easily -took the direction which that of the elder cavalier so decidedly -refused. - -Luis Ponce de Leon, called, from his early and unbroken connection -with the Church, “Brother Luis de Leon,” was born in 1528, and enjoyed -advantages for education which, in his time, were almost exclusively -confined to the children of noble and distinguished families. He was -early sent to Salamanca, and there, when only sixteen years old, -voluntarily entered the order of Saint Augustin. From this moment, -the final direction was given to his life. He never ceased to be a -monk; and he never ceased to be attached to the University where he -was bred. In 1560, he became a Licentiate in Theology, and immediately -afterwards was made a Doctor of Divinity. The next year, at the age of -thirty-four, he obtained the chair of Saint Thomas Aquinas, which he -won after a public competition against several opponents, four of whom -were already professors; and to these honors he added, ten years later, -that of the chair of Sacred Literature. - -By this time, however, his influence and success had gathered round -him a body of enemies, who soon found means to disturb his peace.[62] -A friend, who did not understand the ancient languages, had desired -him to translate “The Song of Solomon” into Castilian, and explain its -character and purposes. This he had done; and the version which he thus -made is commonly regarded as the earliest, or one of the earliest, -among his known works. But in making it, he had treated the whole poem -as a pastoral eclogue, in which the different personages converse -together like shepherds.[63] This opinion, of course, was not agreeable -to the doctrines of his Church and its principles of interpretation; -but what he had done had been done only as an act of private -friendship, and he had taken some pains to have his version known only -to the individual at whose request it had been made. His manuscript, -however, was copied and circulated by the treachery of a servant. One -of the copies thus obtained fell into the hands of an enemy, and its -author, in 1572, was brought before the Inquisition of Valladolid, -charged with Lutheranism and with making a vernacular translation from -the Scriptures, contrary to the decree of the Council of Trent. It was -easy to answer the first part of the complaint, for Luis de Leon was -no Protestant; but it was not possible to give a sufficient answer to -the last. He had, however, powerful friends, and by their influence -escaped the final terrors of the Inquisition, though not until he had -been almost five years imprisoned in a way that seriously impaired his -health and broke down his spirits.[64] - - [62] Obras del M. Fr. Luis de Leon, (Madrid, 1804-16, 6 tom. 8vo, - Tom. V. p. 292), where, writing from his prison, he speaks of - “those who in the ministry of a tribunal so holy have wreaked the - vengeance of their own passions upon me.” Elsewhere he repeats - the same accusation against his enemies. - - [63] Obras, Tom. V. p. i. and p. 5. - - [64] A poetical version of Solomon’s Song was made, not long - afterwards, by the famous Arias Montano, on the same principle. - When it was first published I do not know; but it may be found - in Faber’s “Floresta,” No. 717, and parts of it are beautiful. - Montano died in 1598. - -But the University remained faithful to him. He was reinstated in -all his offices, with marks of the sincerest respect, on the 30th -of December, 1576; and it is a beautiful circumstance attending -his restoration, that, when, for the first time, he rose before a -crowded audience, eager to hear what allusion he would make to his -persecutions, he began by simply saying, “As we remarked when we last -met,” and then went on, as if the five bitter years of his imprisonment -had been a blank in his memory, bearing no record of the cruel -treatment he had suffered.[65] - - [65] Villanueva (Vida, Lóndres, 1825, 8vo, Tom. I. p. 340) says - that all the papers relating to the inquisitorial process against - Luis de Leon, including admirable answers of the accused, were - found, in 1813, in the archives of the tribunal of Valladolid, - but were not printed for want of means. They must be very curious - documents. - -It seems, however, to have been thought advisable that he should -vindicate his reputation from the suspicions that had been cast -upon it; and therefore, in 1580, at the request of his friends, -he published, in Latin, an extended commentary on the Canticles, -interpreting each part in three different ways,--directly, -symbolically, and mystically,--and giving the whole as theological and -obscure a character as the most orthodox could desire, though still -without concealing his opinion that it was originally intended to be a -pastoral eclogue. - -Another work on the same subject, but in Spanish, and in some respects -like the one that had caused his imprisonment, was also prepared by -him and found among his manuscripts after his death. But it was not -thought advisable to print it till 1798. Even then a version of the -Canticles, in Spanish octaves, as an eclogue, intended originally to -accompany it, was not added, and did not appear till 1806;--a beautiful -translation, which discovers, not only its author’s power as a poet, -but the remarkable freedom of his theological inquiries, in a country -where such freedom was, in that age, not tolerated for an instant.[66] -The fragment of a defence of this version, or of some parts of it, is -dated from his prison, in 1573, and was found long afterwards among the -state papers of the kingdom in the archives of Simancas.[67] - - [66] Luis de Leon, Obras, Tom. V. pp. 258-280. - - [67] Ibid., Tom. V. p. 281. - -While in prison he prepared a long prose work, which he entitled -“The Names of Christ.” It is a singular specimen at once of Spanish -theological learning, eloquence, and devotion. Of this, between 1583 -and 1585, he published three books, but he never completed it.[68] It -is thrown into the form of a dialogue, like the “Tusculan Questions,” -which it was probably intended to imitate; and its purpose is, by means -of successive discussions of the character of the Saviour, as set -forth under the names of Son, Prince, Shepherd, King, etc., to excite -devout feelings in those who read it. The form, however, is not adhered -to with great strictness. The dialogue, instead of being a discussion, -is, in fact, a series of speeches; and once, at least, we have a -regular sermon, of as much merit, perhaps, as any in the language;[69] -so that, taken together, the entire work may be regarded as a series of -declamations on the character of Christ, as that character was regarded -by the more devout portions of the Spanish Church in its author’s time. -Many parts of it are eloquent, and its eloquence has not unfrequently -the gorgeous coloring of the elder Spanish literature; such, for -instance, as is found in the following passage, illustrating the title -of Christ as the Prince of Peace, and proving the beauty of all harmony -in the moral world from its analogies with the physical:-- - - [68] Ibid., Tom. III. and IV. - - [69] This sermon is in Book First of the treatise. Obras, Tom. - III. pp. 160-214. - -“Even if reason should not prove it, and even if we could in no other -way understand how gracious a thing is peace, yet would this fair show -of the heavens over our heads and this harmony in all their manifold -fires sufficiently bear witness to it. For what is it but peace, or, -indeed, a perfect image of peace, that we now behold, and that fills -us with such deep joy? Since if peace is, as Saint Augustin, with the -brevity of truth, declares it to be, a quiet order, or the maintenance -of a well-regulated tranquillity in whatever order demands,--then what -we now witness is surely its true and faithful image. For while these -hosts of stars, arranged and divided into their several bands, shine -with such surpassing splendor, and while each one of their multitude -inviolably maintains its separate station, neither pressing into the -place of that next to it, nor disturbing the movements of any other, -nor forgetting its own; none breaking the eternal and holy law God has -imposed on it; but all rather bound in one brotherhood, ministering -one to another, and reflecting their light one to another,--they do -surely show forth a mutual love, and, as it were, a mutual reverence, -tempering each other’s brightness and strength into a peaceful unity -and power, whereby all their different influences are combined into -one holy and mighty harmony, universal and everlasting. And therefore -may it be most truly said, not only that they do all form a fair and -perfect model of peace, but that they all set forth and announce, in -clear and gracious words, what excellent things peace contains within -herself and carries abroad whithersoever her power extends.”[70] - - [70] Obras, Tom. III. pp. 342, 343. This beautiful passage may - well be compared to his more beautiful ode, entitled “Noche - Serena,” to which it has an obvious resemblance. - -The eloquent treatise on the Names of Christ was not, however, the most -popular of the prose works of Luis de Leon. This distinction belongs to -his “Perfecta Casada,” or Perfect Wife; a treatise which he composed, -in the form of a commentary on some portions of Solomon’s Proverbs, -for the use of a lady newly married, and which was first published -in 1583.[71] But it is not necessary specially to notice either this -work, or his Exposition of Job, in two volumes, accompanied with a -poetical version, which he began in prison for his own consolation, -and finished the year of his death, but which none ventured to publish -till 1779.[72] Both are marked with the same humble faith, the same -strong enthusiasm, and the same rich eloquence, that appear, from time -to time, in the work on the Names of Christ; though perhaps the last, -which received the careful corrections of its author’s matured genius, -has a serious and settled power greater than he has shown anywhere -else. But the characteristics of his prose compositions--even those -which from their nature are the most strictly didactic--are the same -everywhere; and the rich language and imagery of the passage already -cited afford a fair specimen of the style towards which he constantly -directed his efforts. - - [71] Ibid., Tom. IV. - - [72] Ibid., Tom. I. and II. - -Luis de Leon’s health never recovered from the shock it suffered in -the cells of the Inquisition. He lived, indeed, nearly fourteen years -after his release; but most of his works, whether in Castilian or in -Latin, were written before his imprisonment or during its continuance, -while those he undertook afterwards, as his account of Santa Teresa and -some others, were never finished. His life was always, from choice, -very retired, and his austere manners were announced by his habitual -reserve and silence. In a letter that he sent with his poems to his -friend Puertocarrero, a statesman at the court of Philip the Second and -a member of the principal council of the Inquisition, he says, that, in -the kingdom of Old Castile, where he had lived from his youth, he could -hardly claim to be familiarly acquainted with ten persons.[73] Still -he was extensively known, and was held in great honor. In the latter -part of his life especially, his talents and sufferings, his religious -patience and his sincere faith, had consecrated him in the eyes alike -of his friends and his enemies. Nothing relating to the monastic -brotherhood of which he was a member, or to the University where he -taught, was undertaken without his concurrence and support; and when -he died, in 1591, he was in the exercise of a constantly increasing -influence, having just been chosen the head of his Order, and being -engaged in the preparation of new regulations for its reform.[74] - - [73] Obras, Tom. VI. p. 2. - - [74] The materials for the life of Luis de Leon are to be - gathered from the notices of him in the curious MS. of Pacheco, - published, Semanario Pintoresco, 1844, p. 374;--those in N. - Antonio, Bib. Nova, _ad verb._;--in Sedano, Parnaso Español, Tom. - V.;--and in the Preface to a collection of his poetry, published - at Valencia by Mayans y Siscar, 1761; the last being also found - in Mayans y Siscar, “Cartas de Varios Autores” (Valencia, 1773, - 12mo, Tom. IV. pp. 398, etc.). His birthplace has been by some - supposed to have been Belmonte in La Mancha, or else Madrid. - But Pacheco, who is a sufficient authority, gives that honor to - Granada, and settles the date of Luis de Leon’s birth at 1528, - though it is more commonly given as of 1526 or 1527; adding a - description of his person, and the singular fact, not elsewhere - noticed, that he amused himself with the art of painting, and - succeeded in his own portrait. - -But besides the character in which we have thus far considered him, -Luis de Leon was a poet, and a poet of no common genius. He seems, it -is true, to have been little conscious, or, at least, little careful, -of his poetical talent; for he made hardly an effort to cultivate -it, and never took pains to print any thing, in order to prove its -existence to the world. Perhaps, too, he showed more deference than -was due to the opinion of many persons of his time, who thought poetry -an occupation not becoming one in his position; for, in the prefatory -notice to his sacred odes, he says, in a deprecating tone: “Let none -regard verse as any thing new and unworthy to be applied to Scriptural -subjects, for it is rather appropriate to them; and so old is it in -this application, that, from the earliest ages of the Church to the -present day, men of great learning and holiness have thus employed it. -And would to God that no other poetry were ever sounded in our ears; -that only these sacred tones were sweet to us; that none else were -heard at night in the streets and public squares; that the child might -still lisp it, the retired damsel find in it her best solace, and the -industrious tradesman make it the relief of his toil! But the Christian -name is now sunk to such immodest and reckless degradation, that we -set our sins to music, and, not content with indulging them in secret, -shout them joyfully forth to all who will listen.” - -But whatever may have been his own feelings on the suitableness of such -an occupation to his profession, it is certain, that, while most of the -poems he has left us were written in his youth, they were not collected -by him till the latter part of his life, and then only to please a -personal friend, who never thought of publishing them; so that they -were not printed at all till forty years after his death, when Quevedo -gave them to the public, in the hope that they might help to reform the -corrupted taste of the age. But from this time they have gone through -many editions, though still they never appeared properly collated and -arranged till 1816.[75] - - [75] The poems of Luis de Leon fill the last volume of his Works; - but there are several among them that are probably spurious. - -They are, however, of great value. They consist of versions of all -the Eclogues and two of the Georgics of Virgil, about thirty Odes of -Horace, about forty Psalms, and a few passages from the Greek and -Italian poets; all executed with freedom and spirit, and all in a -genuinely Castilian style. His translations, however, seem to have been -only in the nature of exercises and amusements. But though he thus -acquired great facility and exactness in his versification, he wrote -little. His original poems fill no more than about a hundred pages; but -there is hardly a line of them which has not its value; and the whole, -when taken together, are to be placed at the head of Spanish lyric -poetry. They are chiefly religious, and the source of their inspiration -is not to be mistaken. Luis de Leon had a Hebrew soul, and kindles his -enthusiasm almost always from the Jewish Scriptures. Still he preserved -his nationality unimpaired. Nearly all the best of his poetical -compositions are odes written in the old Castilian measures, with a -classical purity and rigorous finish before unknown in Spanish poetry, -and hardly attained since.[76] - - [76] In noticing the Hebrew temperament of Luis de Leon, I am - reminded of one of his contemporaries, who possessed in some - respects a kindred spirit, and whose fate was even more strange - and unhappy. I refer to Juan Pinto Delgado, a Portuguese Jew, - who lived long in Spain, embraced the Christian religion, was - reconverted to the faith of his fathers, fled from the terrors of - the Inquisition to France, and died there about the year 1590. - In 1627, a volume of his works, containing narrative poems on - Queen Esther and on Ruth, free versions from the Lamentations of - Jeremiah in the old national _quintillas_, and sonnets and other - short pieces, generally in the Italian manner, was published - at Rouen in France, and dedicated to Cardinal Richelieu, then - the all-powerful minister of Louis XIII. They are full of the - bitter and sorrowful feelings of his exile, and parts of them - are written, not only with tenderness, but in a sweet and pure - versification. The Hebrew spirit of the author, whose proper - name is Moseh Delgado, breaks through constantly, as might be - expected. Barbosa, Biblioteca, Tom. II. p. 722. Amador de los - Rios, Judios de España, Madrid, 1848, 8vo, p. 500. - -This is eminently the case, for instance, with what the Spaniards have -esteemed the best of his poetical works: his ode, called “The Prophecy -of the Tagus,” in which the river-god predicts to Roderic the Moorish -conquest of his country, as the result of that monarch’s violence to -Cava, the daughter of one of his principal nobles. It is an imitation -of the Ode of Horace in which Nereus rises from the waves and predicts -the overthrow of Troy to Paris, who, under circumstances not entirely -dissimilar, is transporting the stolen wife of Menelaus to the scene of -the fated conflict between the two nations. But the Ode of Luis de Leon -is written in the old Spanish _quintillas_, his favorite measure, and -is as natural, fresh, and flowing as one of the national ballads.[77] -Foreigners, however, less interested in what is so peculiarly Spanish, -and so full of allusions to Spanish history, may sometimes prefer -the serener ode “On a Life of Retirement,” that “On Immortality,” or -perhaps the still more beautiful one “On the Starry Heavens”; all -written with the same purity and elevation of spirit, and all in the -same national measure and manner. - - [77] It is the eleventh of Luis de Leon’s Odes, and may well - bear a comparison with that of Horace (Lib. I. Carm. 15) which - suggested it. - -A truer specimen of his prevalent lyrical tone, and, indeed, of his -tone in much else of what he wrote, is perhaps to be found in his “Hymn -on the Ascension.” It is both very original and very natural in its -principal idea, being supposed to express the disappointed feelings of -the disciples as they see their Master passing out of their sight into -the opening heavens above them. - - And dost them, holy Shepherd, leave - Thine unprotected flock alone, - Here, in this darksome vale, to grieve, - While thou ascend’st thy glorious throne? - - O, where can they their hopes now turn, - Who never lived but on thy love? - Where rest the hearts for thee that burn, - When thou art lost in light above? - - How shall those eyes now find repose - That turn, in vain, thy smile to see? - What can they hear save mortal woes, - Who lose thy voice’s melody? - - And who shall lay his tranquil hand - Upon the troubled ocean’s might? - Who hush the winds by his command? - Who guide us through this starless night? - - For THOU art gone!--that cloud so bright, - That bears thee from our love away, - Springs upward through the dazzling light, - And leaves us here to weep and pray![78] - - [78] It is in _quintillas_ in the original; but that stanza, I - think, can never, in English, be made flowing and easy as it is - in Spanish. I have, therefore, used in this translation a freedom - greater than I have generally permitted to myself, in order to - approach, if possible, the bold outline of the original thought. - It begins thus:-- - - Y dexas, pastor santo, - Tu grey en este valle hondo escuro - Con soledad y llanto, - Y tu rompiendo el puro - Ayre, te vas al immortal seguro! - Los antes bien hadados, - Y los agora tristes y afligidos, - A tus pechos criados, - De tí desposeidos, - A dó convertirán ya sus sentidos? - - Obras de Luis de Leon, Madrid, 1816, Tom. VI. p. 42. - -In order, however, to comprehend aright the genius and spirit of Luis -de Leon, we must study, not only his lyrical poetry, but much of his -prose; for, while his religious odes and hymns, beautiful in their -severe exactness of style, rank him before Klopstock and Filicaja, his -prose, more rich and no less idiomatic, places him at once among the -greatest masters of eloquence in his native Castilian.[79] - - [79] In 1837, D. José de Castro y Orozco produced on the stage at - Madrid a drama, entitled “Fray Luis de Leon,” in which the hero, - whose name it bears, is represented as renouncing the world and - entering a cloister, in consequence of a disappointment in love. - Diego de Mendoza is also one of the principal personages in the - same drama, which is written in a pleasing style, and has some - poetical merit, notwithstanding its unhappy subject and plot. - - - - -CHAPTER X. - -CERVANTES.--HIS FAMILY.--EDUCATION.--FIRST VERSES.--LIFE IN ITALY.--A -SOLDIER IN THE BATTLE OF LEPANTO.--A CAPTIVE IN ALGIERS.--RETURNS -HOME.--SERVICE IN PORTUGAL.--LIFE IN MADRID.--HIS GALATEA, AND -ITS CHARACTER.--HIS MARRIAGE.--WRITES FOR THE STAGE.--HIS LIFE IN -ALGIERS.--HIS NUMANCIA.--POETICAL TENDENCIES OF HIS DRAMA. - - -The family of Cervantes was originally Galician, and, at the time of -his birth, not only numbered five hundred years of nobility and public -service, but was spread throughout Spain, and had been extended to -Mexico and other parts of America.[80] The Castilian branch, which, in -the fifteenth century, became connected by marriage with the Saavedras, -seems, early in the sixteenth, to have fallen off in its fortunes; -and we know that the parents of Miguel, who has given to the race a -splendor which has saved its old nobility from oblivion, were poor -inhabitants of Alcalá de Henares, a small, but nourishing city, about -twenty miles from Madrid. There he was born, the youngest of four -children, on one of the early days of October, 1547.[81] - - [80] Many lives of Cervantes have been written, of which four - need to be mentioned. 1. That of Gregorio Mayans y Siscar, first - prefixed to the edition of Don Quixote in the original published - in London in 1738, (4 tom., 4to), under the auspices of Lord - Carteret, and afterwards to several other editions; a work of - learning, and the first proper attempt to collect materials for - a life of Cervantes, but ill arranged and ill written, and of - little value now, except for some of its incidental discussions. - 2. The Life of Cervantes, with the Analysis of his Don Quixote, - by Vicente de los Rios, prefixed to the sumptuous edition of Don - Quixote by the Spanish Academy, (Madrid, 1780, 4 tom., fol.), - and often printed since;--better written than the preceding, - and containing some new facts, but with criticisms full of - pedantry and of extravagant eulogy. 3. Noticias para la Vida de - Miguel de Cervantes Saavedra, by J. Ant. Pellicer, first printed - in his “Ensayo de una Biblioteca de Traductores,” 1778, but - much enlarged afterwards, and prefixed to his edition of Don - Quixote (Madrid, 1797-1798, 5 tom., 8vo);--poorly digested, and - containing a great deal of extraneous, though sometimes curious, - matter; but more complete than any life that had preceded it. - 4. Vida de Miguel de Cervantes, etc., por D. Martin Fernandez - de Navarrete, published by the Spanish Academy (Madrid, 1819, - 8vo);--the best of all, and indeed one of the most judicious and - best-arranged biographical works that have been published in any - country. Navarrete has used in it, with great effect, many new - documents; and especially the large collection of papers found in - the archives of the Indies at Seville, in 1808, which comprehend - the voluminous _Informacion_ sent by Cervantes himself, in - 1590, to Philip II., when asking for an office in one of the - American colonies;--a mass of well-authenticated certificates - and depositions, setting forth the trials and sufferings of the - author of Don Quixote, from the time he entered the service of - his country, in 1571; through his captivity in Algiers; and, - in fact, till he reached the Azores in 1582. This thorough and - careful life is skilfully abridged by L. Viardot, in his French - translation of Don Quixote, (Paris, 1836, 2 tom., 8vo), and forms - the substance of the “Life and Writings of Miguel de Cervantes - Saavedra,” by Thomas Roscoe, London, 1839, 18mo. - - In the notice which follows in the text, I have relied for my - facts on the work of Navarrete, whenever no other authority is - referred to; but in the literary criticisms Navarrete can hardly - afford aid, for he hardly indulges himself in them at all. - - [81] The date of the baptism of Cervantes is Oct. 9, 1547; and as - it is the practice in the Catholic Church to perform this rite - soon after birth, we may assume, with sufficient probability, - that Cervantes was born on that very day, or the day preceding. - -No doubt, he received his early education in the place of his nativity, -then in the flush of its prosperity and fame from the success of the -University founded there by Cardinal Ximenes, about fifty years before. -At any rate, like many other generous spirits, he has taken an obvious -delight in recalling the days of his childhood in different parts -of his works; as in his Don Quixote, where he alludes to the burial -and enchantments of the famous Moor Muzaraque on the great hill of -Zulema,[82] just as he had probably heard them in some nursery story; -and in his prose pastoral, “Galatea,” where he arranges the scene of -some of its most graceful adventures “on the banks,” as he fondly calls -it, “of the famous Henares.”[83] But concerning his youth we know only -what he incidentally tells us himself;--that he took great pleasure in -attending the theatrical representations of Lope de Rueda;[84] that he -wrote verses when very young;[85] and that he always read every thing -within his reach, even, as it should seem, the torn scraps of paper he -picked up in the public streets.[86] - - [82] Don Quixote, Parte I. c. 29. - - [83] “En las riberas del famoso Henares.” (Galatea, Madrid, 1784, - 8vo, Tom. I. p. 66.) Elsewhere, he speaks of “_nuestro_ Henares”; - the “_famoso_ Compluto” (p. 121); and “_nuestro_ fresco Henares,” - p. 108. - - [84] Comedias, Madrid, 1749, 4to, Tom. I., Prólogo. - - [85] Galatea, Tom. I. p. x., Prólogo; and in the well-known - fourth chapter of the “Viage al Parnaso,” (Madrid, 1784, 8vo, p. - 53), he says:-- - - Desde mis tiernos años amé el arte - Dulce de la agradable poesía, - Y en ella procuré siempre agradarte. - - [86] “Como soy aficionado á leer aunque sean los papeles rotos - de las calles, llevado desta mi natural inclinacion, tomé un - cartapacio,” etc., he says, (Don Quixote, Parte I. c. 9, ed. - Clemencin, Madrid, 1833, 4to, Tom. I. p. 198), when giving an - account of his taking up the waste paper at the silk-mercer’s, - which, as he pretends, turned out to be the Life of Don Quixote - in Arabic. - -It has been conjectured that he pursued his studies in part at Madrid, -and there is some probability, notwithstanding the poverty of his -family, that he passed two years at the University of Salamanca. But -what is certain is, that he obtained a public and decisive mark of -respect, before he was twenty-two years old, from one of his teachers; -for, in 1569, Lope de Hoyos published, by authority, on the death of -the unhappy Isabelle de Valois, wife of Philip the Second, a volume of -verse, in which, among other contributions of his pupils, are six short -poems by Cervantes, whom he calls his “dear and well-beloved disciple.” -This was, no doubt, Cervantes’s first appearance in print as an author; -and though he gives in it little proof of poetical talent, yet the -affectionate words of his master by which his verses were accompanied, -and the circumstance, that one of his elegies was written in the name -of the whole school, show that he enjoyed the respect of his teacher -and the good-will of his fellow-students.[87] - - [87] The verses of Cervantes on this occasion may be found partly - in Rios, “Pruebas de la Vida de Cervantes,” ed. Academia, Nos. - 2-5, and partly in Navarrete, Vida, pp. 262, 263. They are poor, - and the only circumstance that makes it worth while to refer to - them is, that Hoyos, who was a professor of elegant literature, - calls Cervantes repeatedly “_caro_ discípulo,” and “_amado_ - discípulo”; and says that the _Elegy_ is written “en nombre de - _todo el estudio_.” These, with other miscellaneous poems of - Cervantes, are collected for the first time in the first volume - of the “Biblioteca de Autores Españoles,” by Aribau (Madrid, - 1846, 8vo, pp. 612-620); and prove the pleasant relations in - which Cervantes stood with some of the principal poets of his - day, such as Padilla, Maldonado, Barros, Yague de Salas, Hernando - de Herrera, etc. - -The next year, 1570, we find him, without any notice of the cause, -removed from all his early connections, and serving at Rome as -chamberlain in the household of Monsignor Aquaviva, soon afterwards -a cardinal; the same person who had been sent, in 1568, on a special -mission from the Pope to Philip the Second, and who, as he seems to -have had a regard for literature and for men of letters, may, on his -return to Italy, have taken Cervantes with him from interest in his -talents. The term of service of the young man must, however, have been -short. Perhaps he was too much of a Spaniard, and had too proud a -spirit, to remain long in a position at best very equivocal, and that, -too, at a period when the world was full of solicitations to adventure -and military glory. - -But whatever may have been his motive, he soon left Rome and its -court. In 1571, the Pope, Philip the Second, and the state of Venice, -concluded what was called a “Holy League” against the Turks, and set -on foot a joint armament, commanded by the chivalrous Don John of -Austria, a natural son of Charles the Fifth. The temptations of such a -romantic, as well as imposing, expedition against the ancient oppressor -of whatever was Spanish, and the formidable enemy of all Christendom, -were more than Cervantes, at the age of twenty-three, could resist; -and the next thing we hear of him is, that he had volunteered in it -as a common soldier. For, as he says in a work written just before -his death, he had always observed “that none make better soldiers than -those who are transplanted from the region of letters to the fields -of war, and that never scholar became soldier that was not a good and -brave one.”[88] Animated with this spirit, he entered the service of -his country among the troops with which Spain then filled a large part -of Italy, and continued in it till he was honorably discharged in 1575. - - [88] “No hay mejores soldados, que los que se trasplantan de la - tierra de los estudios en los campos de la guerra; ninguno salió - de estudiante para soldado, que no lo fuese por estremo,” etc. - Persiles y Sigismunda, Lib. III. c. 10, Madrid, 1802, 8vo, Tom. - II. p. 128. - -During these four or five years he learned many of the hardest lessons -of life. He was present in the sea-fight of Lepanto, October 7, 1571, -and, though suffering at the time under a fever, insisted on bearing -his part in that great battle, which first decisively arrested the -intrusion of the Turks into the West of Europe. The galley in which he -served was in the thickest of the contest, and that he did his duty -to his country and to Christendom he carried proud and painful proof -to his grave; for, besides two other wounds, he received one which -deprived him of the use of his left hand and arm during the rest of -his life. With the other sufferers in the fight, he was taken to the -hospital at Messina, where he remained till April, 1572; and then, -under Mark Antonio Colonna, went on the expedition to the Levant, to -which he alludes with so much satisfaction in his dedication of the -“Galatea,” and which he has so well described in the story of the -Captive, in Don Quixote. - -The next year, 1573, he was in the affair of the Goleta at Tunis, -under Don John of Austria, and afterwards, with the regiment to which -he was attached,[89] returned to Sicily and Italy, many parts of -which, in different journeys or expeditions, he seems to have visited, -remaining at one time in Naples above a year.[90] This period of his -life, however, though marked with much suffering, seems never to -have been regarded by him with regret. On the contrary, above forty -years afterwards, with a generous pride in what he had undergone, he -declared, that, if the alternative were again offered him, he should -account his wounds a cheap exchange for the glory of having been -present in that great enterprise.[91] - - [89] The regiment in which he served was one of the most famous - in the armies of Philip II. It was the “Tercio de Flandes,” and - at the head of it was Lope de Figueroa, who acts a distinguished - part in two of the plays of Calderon,--“Amar despues de la - Muerte,” and “El Alcalde de Zalamea.” Cervantes probably joined - this favorite regiment again, when, as we shall see, he engaged - in the expedition to Portugal in 1581, whither we know not only - that he went that year, but that the Flanders regiment went also. - - [90] All his works contain allusions to the experiences of his - life, and especially to his travels. When he sees Naples in his - imaginary Viage del of Parnaso, (c. 8, p. 126), he exclaims,-- - - Esta ciudad es Nápoles la ilustre, - Que yo pisé sus ruas mas de un año. - - [91] “Si ahora me propusieran y facilitaran un imposible,” says - Cervantes, in reply to the coarse personalities of Avellaneda, - “quisiera ántes haberme hallado en aquella faccion prodigiosa, - que sano ahora de mis heridas, sin haberme hallado en ella.” - Prólogo á Don Quixote, Parte Segunda, 1615. - -When he was discharged, in 1575, he took with him letters from the -Duke of Sessa and Don John, commending him earnestly to the king, and -embarked for Spain. But on the 26th of September he was captured and -carried into Algiers, where he passed five years yet more disastrous -and more full of adventure than the five preceding. He served -successively three cruel masters,--a Greek and a Venetian, both -renegadoes, and the Dey, or King, himself; the first two tormenting him -with that peculiar hatred against Christians which naturally belonged -to persons who, from unworthy motives, had joined themselves to the -enemies of all Christendom; and the last, the Dey, claiming him for -his slave, and treating him with great severity, because he had fled -from his master and become formidable by a series of efforts to obtain -liberty for himself and his fellow-captives. - -Indeed, it is plain that the spirit of Cervantes, so far from -having been broken by his cruel captivity, had been only raised and -strengthened by it. On one occasion he attempted to escape by land -to Oran, a Spanish settlement on the coast, but was deserted by his -guide and compelled to return. On another, he secreted thirteen -fellow-sufferers in a cave on the sea-shore, where, at the constant -risk of his own life, he provided during many weeks for their daily -wants, while waiting for rescue by sea; but at last, after he had -joined them, was basely betrayed, and then nobly took the whole -punishment of the conspiracy on himself. Once he sent for help to break -forth by violence, and his letter was intercepted; and once he had -matured a scheme for being rescued, with sixty of his countrymen,--a -scheme of which, when it was defeated by treachery, he again announced -himself as the only author and the willing victim. And finally, he had -a grand project for the insurrection of all the Christian slaves in -Algiers, which was, perhaps, not unlikely to succeed, as their number -was full twenty-five thousand, and which was certainly so alarming -to the Dey, that he declared, that, “if he could but keep that lame -Spaniard well guarded, he should consider his capital, his slaves, -and his galleys safe.”[92] On each of these occasions, severe, but -not degrading,[93] punishments were inflicted upon him. Four times he -expected instant death in the awful form of impalement or of fire; and -the last time a rope was absolutely put about his neck, in the vain -hope of extorting from a spirit so lofty the names of his accomplices. - - [92] One of the most trustworthy and curious sources for this - part of the life of Cervantes is “La Historia y Topografia de - Argel,” por D. Diego de Haedo, (Valladolid, 1612, folio), in - which Cervantes is often mentioned, but which seems to have been - overlooked in all inquiries relating to him, till Sarmiento - stumbled upon it, in 1752. It is in this work that occur the - words cited in the text, and which prove how formidable Cervantes - had become to the Dey,--“Decia Asan Bajá, Rey de Argel, que como - él tuviese guardado al estropeado Español tenia seguros sus - cristianos, sus baxeles y aun toda la ciudad.” (f. 185.) And just - before this, referring to the bold project of Cervantes to take - the city by an insurrection of the slaves, Haedo says, “Y si á - su animo, industria, y trazas, correspondiera la ventura, hoi - fuera el dia, que Argel fuera de cristianos; porque no aspiraban - á menos sus intentos.” All this, it should be recollected, was - published four years before Cervantes’s death. The whole book, - including not only the history, but the dialogues at the end on - the sufferings and martyrdom of the Christians in Algiers, is - very curious, and often throws a strong light on passages of - Spanish literature in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, - which so often refer to the Moors and their Christian slaves on - the coasts of Barbary. - - [93] With true Spanish pride, Cervantes, when alluding to himself - in the story of the Captive, (Don Quixote, Parte I. c. 40), says - of the Dey, “Solo libró bien con él un soldado Español llamado - tal de Saavedra, al qual con haber hecho cosas que quedarán en la - memoria de aquellas gentes por muchos años, y todos por alcanzar - libertad, _jamas le dió palo_, ni se lo mandó dar, ni le dixo - mala palabra, y por la menor cosa de muchas que hizo, temiamos - todos que habia de ser empalado, y _así lo temió él mas de una - vez_.” - -At last, the moment of release came. His elder brother, who was -captured with him, had been ransomed three years before; and now his -widowed mother was obliged to sacrifice, for her younger son’s freedom, -all the pittance that remained to her in the world, including the dowry -of her daughters. But even this was not enough; and the remainder of -the poor five hundred crowns that were demanded as the price of his -liberty was made up partly by small borrowings, and partly by the -contributions of religious charity.[94] In this way he was ransomed on -the 19th of September, 1580, just at the moment when he had embarked -with his master, the Dey, for Constantinople, whence his rescue would -have been all but hopeless. A short time afterwards he left Algiers, -where we have abundant proof, that, by his disinterestedness, his -courage, and his fidelity, he had, to an extraordinary degree, gained -the affection and respect of the multitude of Christian captives with -which that city of anathemas was then crowded.[95] - - [94] A beautiful tribute is paid by Cervantes, in his tale of - the “Española Inglesa,” (Novelas, Madrid, 1783, 8vo, Tom. I. pp. - 358, 359), to the zeal and disinterestedness of the poor priests - and monks, who went, sometimes at the risk of their lives, to - Algiers to redeem the Christians, and one of whom remained there, - giving his person in pledge for four thousand ducats which he had - borrowed to send home captives. Of Father Juan Gil, who effected - the redemption of Cervantes himself from slavery, Cervantes - speaks expressly, in his “Trato de Argel,” as - - Un frayle Trinitario, Christianísimo, - Amigo de hacer bien y conocido, - Porque ha estado otra vez en esta tierra - Rescatando Christianos; y dió exemplo - De una gran Christiandad y gran prudencia;-- - Su nombre es Fray Juan Gil. - - Jornada V. - - A friar of the blessed Trinity, - A truly Christian man, known as the friend - of all good charities, who once before - Came to Algiers to ransom Christian slaves, - And gave example in himself, and proof - Of a most wise and Christian faithfulness. - His name is Friar Juan Gil. - - [95] Cervantes was evidently a person of great kindliness and - generosity of disposition; but he never overcame a strong feeling - of hatred against the Moors, inherited from his ancestors and - exasperated by his own captivity. This feeling appears in both - his plays, written at distant periods, on the subject of his life - in Algiers; in the fifty-fourth chapter of the second part of Don - Quixote; and elsewhere. But except this, and an occasional touch - of satire against duennas,--in which Quevedo and Luis Vélez de - Guevara are as sever as he is,--and a little bitterness about - private chaplains that exercised a cunning influence in the - houses of the great, I know nothing, in all his works, to impeach - his universal good-nature. See Don Quixote, ed. Clemencin, Vol. - V. p. 260, note, and p. 138, note. - -But though he was thus restored to his home and his country, and though -his first feelings may have been as fresh and happy as those he has -so eloquently expressed more than once when speaking of the joys of -freedom,[96] still it should be remembered that he returned after an -absence of ten years, beginning at a period of life when he could -hardly have taken root in society, or made for himself, amidst its -struggling interests, a place which would not be filled almost as soon -as he left it. His father was dead. His family, poor before, had been -reduced to a still more bitter poverty by his own ransom and that of -his brother. He was unfriended and unknown, and must have suffered -naturally and deeply from a sort of grief and disappointment which he -had felt neither as a soldier nor as a slave. It is not remarkable, -therefore, that he should have entered anew into the service of his -country,--joining his brother, probably in the same regiment to which -he had formerly belonged, and which was now sent to maintain the -Spanish authority in the newly acquired kingdom of Portugal. How long -he remained there is not certain. But he was at Lisbon, and went, under -the Marquis of Santa Cruz, in the expedition of 1581, as well as in the -more important one of the year following, to reduce the Azores, which -still held out against the arms of Philip the Second. From this period, -therefore, we are to date the full knowledge he frequently shows of -Portuguese literature, and that strong love for Portugal which, in the -third book of “Persiles and Sigismunda,” as well as in other parts of -his works, he exhibits with a kindliness and generosity remarkable in a -Spaniard of any age, and particularly in one of the age of Philip the -Second.[97] - - [96] For a beautiful passage on Liberty, see Don Quixote, Parte - II., opening of chapter 58. - - [97] - “Well doth the Spanish hind the difference know - ’Twixt him and Lusian slave, the lowest of the low”;-- - - an opinion which Childe Harold found in Spain when he was there, - and could have found at any time for two hundred years before. - -It is not unlikely that this circumstance had some influence on the -first direction of his more serious efforts as an author, which, soon -after his return to Spain, ended in the pastoral romance of “Galatea.” -For prose pastorals have been a favorite form of fiction in Portugal -from the days of the “Menina e Moça”[98] down to our own times; and -had already been introduced into Spanish literature by George of -Montemayor, a Portuguese poet of reputation, whose “Diana Enamorada” -and the continuation of it by Gil Polo were, as we know, favorite books -with Cervantes. - - [98] The “Menina e Moça” is the graceful little fragment of a - prose pastoral, by Bernardino Ribeyro, which dates from about - 1500, and has always been admired, as indeed it deserves to be. - It gets its name from the two words with which it begins,--“Small - and young”; a quaint circumstance, showing its extreme popularity - with those classes that were little in the habit of referring to - books by their formal titles. - -But whatever may have been the cause, Cervantes now wrote all he ever -published of his Galatea, which was licensed on the 1st of February, -1584, and printed in the December following. He himself calls it -“An Eclogue,” and dedicates it, as “the first fruits of his poor -genius,”[99] to the son of that Colonna under whose standard he had -served, twelve years before, in the Levant. It is, in fact, a prose -pastoral, after the manner of Gil Polo’s; and, as he intimates in the -Preface, “its shepherds and shepherdesses are many of them such only in -their dress.”[100] Indeed, it has always been understood that Galatea, -the heroine, is the lady to whom he was soon afterwards married; that -he himself is Elicio, the hero; and that several of his literary -friends, especially Luis Barahona de Soto, whom he seems always to -have overrated as a poet, Francisco de Figueroa, Pedro Lainez, and -some others, are disguised under the names of Lauso, Tirsi, Damon, and -similar pastoral appellations. At any rate, these personages of his -fable talk with so much grace and learning, that he finds it necessary -to apologize for their too elegant discourse.[101] - - [99] “Estas primicias de mi corto ingenio.” Dedicatoria. - - [100] “Muchos de los disfrazados pastores della lo eran solo en - el hábito.” - - [101] “Cuyas razones y argumentos mas parecen de ingenios - entre libros y las aulas criados que no de aquellos que entre - pagizas cabañas son crecidos.” (Libro IV. Tomo II. p. 90.) This - was intended, no doubt, at the same time, as a compliment to - Figueroa, etc. - -Like other works of the same sort, the Galatea is founded on an -affectation which can never be successful; and which, in this -particular instance, from the unwise accumulation and involution of -the stories in its fable, from the conceited metaphysics with which it -is disfigured, and from the poor poetry profusely scattered through -it, is more than usually unfortunate. Yet there are traces both of -Cervantes’s experience in life, and of his talent, in different parts -of it. Some of the tales, like that of Sileno, in the second and third -books, are interesting; others, like Timbrio’s capture by the Moors, in -the fifth book, remind us of his own adventures and sufferings; while -yet one, at least, that of Rosaura and Grisaldo, in the fourth book, -is quite emancipated from pastoral conceits and fancies. In all, we -have passages marked with his rich and flowing style, though never, -perhaps, with what is most peculiar to his genius. The inartificial -texture of the whole, and the confusion of Christianity and mythology, -almost inevitable in such a work, are its most obvious defects; though -nothing, perhaps, is more incongruous than the representation of that -sturdy old soldier and formal statesman, Diego de Mendoza, as a lately -deceased shepherd.[102] - - [102] The chief actors in the Galatea visit the tomb of Mendoza, - in the sixth book, under the guidance of a wise and gentle - Christian priest; and when there, Calliope strangely appears - to them and pronounces a tedious poetical eulogium on a vast - number of the contemporary Spanish poets, most of whom are now - forgotten. The Galatea was abridged by Florian, at the end of - the eighteenth century, and reproduced, with an appropriate - conclusion, in a prose pastoral, which, in the days when Gessner - was so popular, was frequently reprinted. In this form, it is by - no means without grace. - -But when speaking thus slightingly of the Galatea, we ought to -remember, that, though it extends to two volumes, it is unfinished, -and that passages which now seem out of proportion or unintelligible -might have their meaning, and might be found appropriate, if the second -part, which Cervantes had perhaps written, and which he continued to -talk of publishing till a few days before his death,[103] had ever -appeared. And certainly, as we make up our judgment on its merits, we -are bound to bear in mind his own touching words, when he represents -it as found by the barber and curate in Don Quixote’s library.[104] -“‘But what book is the next one?’ said the curate. ‘The Galatea of -Miguel de Cervantes,’ replied the barber. ‘This Cervantes,’ said the -curate, ‘has been a great friend of mine these many years; and I know -that he is more skilled in sorrows than in verse. His book is not -without happiness in the invention; it proposes something, but finishes -nothing. So we must wait for the second part, which he promises; for -perhaps he will then obtain the favor that is now denied him; and in -the mean time, my good gossip, keep it locked up at home.’” - - [103] In the Dedication to “Persiles y Sigismunda,” 1616, April - 19th, only four days before his death. - - [104] Parte Primera, cap. 6. - -If the story be true, that he wrote the Galatea to win the favor of his -lady, his success may have been the reason why he was less interested -to finish it; for, almost immediately after the appearance of the first -part, he was married, December 12th, 1584, to a lady of a good family -in Esquivias, a village near Madrid.[105] The pecuniary arrangements -consequent on the marriage, which have been published,[106] show that -both parties were poor; and the Galatea intimates that Cervantes had a -formidable Portuguese rival, who was, at one time, nearly successful -in winning his bride.[107] But whether the course of his love ran -smooth before marriage or not, his wedded life, for above thirty years, -seems to have been happy, and his widow, at her death, desired to be -buried by his side. - - [105] He alludes, I think, but twice in all his works to - Esquivias; and, both times, it is to praise its wines. The first - is in the “Cueva de Salamanca,” (Comedias, 1749, Tom. II. p. - 313), and the last is in the Prólogo to “Persiles y Sigismunda,” - though in the latter he speaks, also, of its “ilustres linages.” - - [106] See the end of Pellicer’s Life of Cervantes, prefixed to - his edition of Don Quixote (Tom. I. p. ccv.). There seems to have - been an earlier connection between the family of Cervantes and - that of his bride, for the lady’s mother had been named executrix - of his father’s will, who died while Cervantes himself was a - slave in Algiers. - - [107] At the end of the sixth book. - -In order to support his family, he probably lived much at Madrid, -where, we know, he was familiar with several contemporary poets, -such as Juan Rufo, Pedro de Padilla, and others, whom, with his -inherent good-nature, he praises constantly in his later works, and -often unreasonably. From the same motive, too, and perhaps partly -in consequence of these intimacies, he now undertook to gain some -portion of his subsistence by authorship, turning away from the life of -adventure to which he had earlier been attracted. - -His first efforts in this way were for the stage, which naturally -presented strong attractions to one who was early fond of dramatic -representations, and who was now in serious want of such immediate -profit as the theatre sometimes yields. The drama, however, in the time -of Cervantes, was rude and unformed. He tells us, as we have already -noticed, that he had witnessed its beginnings in the time of Lope de -Rueda and Naharro,[108] which must have been before he went to Italy, -and when, from his description of its dresses and apparatus, we plainly -see that the theatre was not so well understood and managed as it -is now by strolling companies and in puppet-shows. From this humble -condition, which the efforts made by Bermudez and Argensola, Virues, La -Cueva, and their contemporaries, had not much ameliorated, Cervantes -undertook to raise it; and he succeeded so far, that, thirty years -afterwards, he thought his success of sufficient consequence frankly -to boast of it.[109] - - [108] Prólogo al Lector, prefixed to his eight plays and eight - Entremeses, Madrid, 1615, 4to. - - [109] Adjunta al Parnaso, first printed in 1614; and the Prólogo - last cited. - -But it is curious to see the methods he deemed it expedient to adopt -for such a purpose. He reduced, he says, the number of acts from five -to three; but this is a slight matter, and, though he does not seem -to be aware of the fact, it had been done long before by Avendaño. He -claims to have introduced phantasms of the imagination, or allegorical -personages, like War, Disease, and Famine; but, besides that Juan de la -Cueva had already done this, it was, at best, nothing more in either of -them than reviving the forms of the old religious shows. And finally, -though this is not one of the grounds on which he himself places his -dramatic merits, he seems to have endeavoured in his plays, as in his -other works, to turn his personal travels and sufferings to account, -and thus, unconsciously, became an imitator of some of those who were -among the earliest inventors of such representations in modern Europe. - -But, with a genius like that of Cervantes, even changes or attempts -as crude as these were not without results. He wrote, as he tells us -with characteristic carelessness, twenty or thirty pieces, which were -received with applause;--a number greater than can be with certainty -attributed to any preceding Spanish author, and a success before quite -unknown. None of these pieces were printed at the time, but he has -given us the names of nine of them, two of which were discovered in -1782, and printed, for the first time, in 1784.[110] The rest, it is -to be feared, are irrecoverably lost, and among them is “La Confusa,” -which, long after Lope de Vega had given its final character to the -proper national drama, Cervantes fondly declared was still one of the -very best of the class to which it belonged;[111] a judgment which the -present age might perhaps confirm, if the proportions and finish of the -drama he preferred were equal to the strength and originality of the -two that have been rescued. - - [110] They are in the same volume with the “Viage al Parnaso,” - Madrid, 1784, 8vo. - - [111] Adjunta al Parnaso, p. 139, ed. 1784. - -The first of these is “El Trato de Argel,” or, as he elsewhere calls -it, “Los Tratos de Argel,” which may be translated Life, or Manners, -in Algiers. It is a drama slight in its plot, and so imperfect in its -dialogue, that, in these respects, it is little better than some of the -old eclogues on which the earlier theatre was founded. His purpose, -indeed, seems to have been simply to set before a Spanish audience such -a picture of the sufferings of the Christian captives at Algiers as his -own experience would justify, and such as might well awaken sympathy -in a country which had furnished a deplorable number of the victims. -He, therefore, is little careful to construct a regular plot, if, after -all, he were aware that such a plot was important; but, instead of it, -he gives us a stiff and unnatural love-story, which he thought good -enough to be used again, both in one of his later plays and in one of -his tales;[112] and then trusts the main success of the piece to its -episodical sketches. - - [112] In the “Baños de Argel,” and the “Amante Liberal.” - -Of these sketches, several are striking. First, we have a scene between -Cervantes himself and two of his fellow-captives, in which they are -jeered at as slaves and Christians by the Moors, and in which they give -an account of the martyrdom in Algiers of a Spanish priest, which was -subsequently used by Lope de Vega in one of his dramas. Next, we have -the attempt of Pedro Alvarez to escape to Oran, which is, no doubt, -taken from the similar attempt of Cervantes, and has all the spirit of -a drawing from life. And, in different places, we have two or three -painful scenes of the public sale of slaves, and especially of little -children, which he must often have witnessed, and which again Lope de -Vega thought worth borrowing, when he had risen, as Cervantes calls -it, to the monarchy of the scene.[113] The whole play is divided into -five _jornadas_ or acts, and written in octaves, _redondillas_, _terza -rima_, blank verse, and almost all the other measures known to Spanish -poetry; while among the persons of the drama are strangely scattered, -as prominent actors, Necessity, Opportunity, a Lion, and a Demon. - - [113] The “Esclavos en Argel” of Lope is found in his Comedias, - Tom. XXV., (Çaragoça, 1647, 4to, pp. 231-260), and shows that - he borrowed very freely from the play of Cervantes, which, it - should be remembered, had not then been printed, so that he must - have used a manuscript. The scenes of the sale of the Christian - children, (pp. 249, 250), and the scenes between the same - children after one of them had become a Mohammedan, (pp. 259, - 260), as they stand in Lope, are taken from the corresponding - scenes in Cervantes (pp. 316-323, and 364-366, ed. 1784). Much - of the story, and passages in other parts of the play, are also - borrowed. The martyrdom of the Valencian priest, which is merely - described by Cervantes, (pp. 298-305), is made a principal - dramatic point in the third _jornada_ of Lope’s play, where the - execution occurs, in the most revolting form, on the stage (p. - 263). - -Yet, notwithstanding the unhappy confusion and carelessness all -this implies, there are passages in the Trato de Argel which are -poetical. Aurelio, the hero,--who is a Christian captive, affianced -to another captive named Sylvia,--is loved by Zara, a Moorish lady, -whose confidante, Fatima, makes a wild incantation in order to obtain -means to secure the gratification of her mistress’s love; the result -of which is that a demon rises and places in her power Necessity -and Opportunity. These two immaterial agencies are then sent by her -upon the stage, and--invisible to Aurelio himself, but seen by the -spectators--tempt him with evil thoughts to yield to the seductions -of the fair unbeliever.[114] When they are gone, he thus expresses, in -soliloquy, his feelings at the idea of having nearly yielded:-- - - [114] Cervantes, no doubt, valued himself upon these immaterial - agencies; and after his time, they became common on the Spanish - stage. Calderon, in his “Gran Príncipe de Fez,” (Comedias, - Madrid, 1760, 4to, Tom. III. p. 389), thus explains two, whom he - introduces, in words that may be applied to those of Cervantes:-- - - Representando los dos - De su buen Genio y mal Genio - Exteriormente la lid, - Que arde interior en su pecho. - - His good and evil genius bodied forth, - To show, as if it were in open fight, - The hot encounter hidden in his heart. - - Aurelio, whither goest thou? Where, O where, - Now tend thine erring steps? Who guides thee on? - Is, then, thy fear of God so small, that thus, - To satisfy mad fantasy’s desires, - Thou rushest headlong? Can light and easy - Opportunity, with loose solicitation, - Thus persuade and overcome thy soul, - And yield thee up to love a prisoner? - Is this the lofty thought and firm resolve - In which thou once wast rooted, to resist - Offence and sin, although in torments sharp - Thy days should end and earthly martyrdom? - So soon hast thou offended, to the winds - Thy true and loving hopes cast forth, - And yielded up thy soul to low desire? - Away with such wild thoughts, of basest birth - And basest lineage sprung! Such witchery - Of foul, unworthy love shall by a love - All pure be broke! A Christian soul is mine, - And as a Christian’s shall my life be marked;-- - Nor gifts, nor promises, nor cunning art, - Shall from the God I serve my spirit turn, - Although the path I trace lead on to death![115] - - [115] - Aurelio donde vas? para dó mueves - El vagaroso paso? Quien te guia? - Con tan poco temor de Dios te atreves - A contentar tu loca fantasía? etc. - - Jornada V. - -The conception of this passage and of the scene preceding it is -certainly not dramatic, though it is one of those on which, from the -introduction of spiritual agencies, Cervantes valued himself. But -neither is it without poetry. Like the rest of the piece, it is a -mixture of personal feelings and fancies, struggling with an ignorance -of the proper principles of the drama, and with the rude elements of -the theatre in its author’s time. He calls the whole a _Comedia_; but -it does not deserve the name. Like the old Mysteries, it is rather an -attempt to exhibit, in living show, a series of unconnected incidents; -but it has no properly constructed plot, and, as he honestly confesses -afterwards, it comes to no proper conclusion.[116] - - [116] - Y aquí da este trato fin, - Que _no lo tiene_ el de Argel, - - is the jest with which he ends his other play on the same - subject, printed thirty years after the representation of this - one. - -The other play of Cervantes, that has reached us from this period of -his life, is founded on the tragical fate of Numantia, which, having -resisted the Roman arms fourteen years,[117] was reduced by famine; -the Roman forces consisting of eighty thousand men, and the Numantian -of less than four thousand, not one of whom was found alive when the -conquerors entered the city.[118] Cervantes probably chose this subject -in consequence of the patriotic recollections it awakened and still -continues to awaken in the minds of his countrymen; and, for the same -reason, he filled his drama chiefly with the public and private horrors -consequent on the self-devotion of the Numantians. - - [117] Cervantes makes Scipio say of the siege, on his arrival,-- - - Diez y seis años son y mas pasados. - - The true length of the contest with Numantia was, however, - fourteen years, and the length of the last siege fourteen months. - - [118] It is well to read, with the “Numancia” of Cervantes, - the account of Florus, (Epit. II. 18), and especially that in - Mariana, (Lib. III. c. 6-10), the latter being the proud Spanish - version of it. - -It is divided into four _jornadas_, and, like the Trato de Argel, -is written in a great variety of measures; the ancient _redondilla_ -being preferred for the more active portions. Its _dramatis personæ_ -are no fewer than forty in number; and among them are Spain and the -River Duero, a Dead Body, War, Sickness, Famine, and Fame; the last -personage speaking the Prologue. The action opens with Scipio’s -arrival. He at once reproaches the Roman army, that, in so long a time, -they had not conquered so small a body of Spaniards,--as Cervantes -always patriotically calls the Numantians,--and then announces that -they must now be subdued by Famine. Spain enters, as a fair matron, -and, aware of what awaits her devoted city, invokes the Duero in two -poetical octaves,[119] which the river answers in person, accompanied -by three of his tributary streams, but gives no hope to Numantia, -except that the Goths, the Constable of Bourbon, and the Duke of Alva -shall one day avenge its fate on the Romans. This ends the first act. - - [119] - Duero gentil, que, con torcidas vueltas, - Humedeces gran parte de mi seno, - Ansí en tus aguas siempre veas envueltas - Arenas de oro qual el Tajo ameno, - Y ansí las ninfas fugitivas sueltas, - De que está el verde prado y bosque lleno, - Vengan humildes á tus aguas claras, - Y en prestarte favor no sean avaras, - - Que prestes á mis ásperos lamentos - Atento oido, ó que á escucharlos vengas, - Y aunque dexes un rato tus contentos, - Suplícote que en nada te detengas: - Si tú con tus continos crecimientos - Destos fieros Romanos no te vengas, - Cerrado veo ya qualquier camino - A la salud del pueblo Numantino. - - Jorn. I., Sc. 2. - - It should be added, that these two octaves occur at the end of a - somewhat tedious soliloquy of nine or ten others, all of which - are really octave stanzas, though not printed as such. - -The other three divisions are filled with the horrors of the siege -endured by the unhappy Numantians; the anticipations of their defeat; -their sacrifices and prayers to avert it; the unhallowed incantations -by which a dead body is raised to predict the future; and the cruel -sufferings to old and young, to the loved and the lovely, and even to -the innocence of childhood, through which the stern fate of the city is -accomplished. The whole ends with the voluntary immolation of those who -remained alive among the starving inhabitants, and the death of a youth -who holds up the keys of the gates, and then, in presence of the Roman -general, throws himself headlong from one of the towers of the city; -its last self-devoted victim. - -In such a story there is no plot, and no proper development of any -thing like a dramatic action. But the romance of real life has rarely -been exhibited on the stage in such bloody extremity; and still more -rarely, when thus exhibited, has there been so much of poetical effect -produced by individual incidents. In a scene of the second act, -Marquino, a magician, after several vain attempts to compel a spirit -to reënter the body it had just left on the battle-field, in order to -obtain from it a revelation of the coming fate of the city, bursts -forth indignantly and says:-- - - Rebellious spirit! Back again, and fill - The form which, but a few short hours ago, - Thyself left tenantless. - -To which the spirit, reëntering the body, replies:-- - - Restrain the fury of thy cruel power! - Enough, Marquino! O, enough of pain - I suffer in those regions dark, below, - Without the added torments of thy spell! - Thou art deluded, if thou deem’st indeed - That aught of earthly pleasure can repay - Such brief return to this most wretched world, - Where, when I barely seem to live again, - With urgent speed life harshly shrinks away. - Nay, rather dost thou bring a shuddering pain; - Since, on the instant, all-prevailing death - Triumphant reigns anew, subduing life and soul; - Thus yielding twice the victory to my foe, - Who now, with others of his grisly crew, - Obedient to thy will, and stung with rage, - Awaits the moment when shall be fulfilled - The knowledge thou requirest at my hand; - The knowledge of Numantia’s awful fate.[120] - - [120] - _Marquino._ - - Alma rebelde, vuelve al aposento - Que pocas horas ha desocupaste. - - _El Cuerpo._ - - Cese la furia del rigor violento - Tuyo. Marquino, baste, triste, baste, - La que yo paso en la region escura, - Sin que tú crezcas mas mi desventura. - Engáñaste, si piensas que recibo - Contento de volver á esta penosa, - Mísera y corta vida, que ahora vivo, - Que ya me va faltando presurosa; - Antes, me causas un dolor esquivo, - Pues otra vez la muerte rigurosa - Triunfará de mi vida y de mi alma; - Mi enemigo tendrá doblada palma, - El cual, con otros del escuro bando - De los que son sugetos á aguardarte, - Está con rabia en torno, aquí esperando - A que acabe, Marquino, de informarte - Del lamentable fin, del mal nefando, - Que de Numancia puedo asegurarte. - - Jorn. II., Sc. 2. - -There is nothing of so much dignity in the incantations of Marlowe’s -“Faustus,” which belong to the contemporary period of the English -stage; nor does even Shakspeare demand from us a sympathy so strange -with the mortal head reluctantly rising to answer Macbeth’s guilty -question, as Cervantes makes us feel for this suffering spirit, -recalled to life only to endure a second time the pangs of dissolution. - -The scenes of private and domestic affliction arising from the pressure -of famine are sometimes introduced with unexpected effect, especially -one between a mother and her child, and the following between Morandro, -a lover, and his mistress, Lira, whom he now sees wasted by hunger and -mourning over the universal desolation. She turns from him to conceal -her sufferings, and he says tenderly,-- - - Nay, Lira, haste not, haste not thus away; - But let me feel an instant’s space the joy - Which life can give even here, amidst grim death. - Let but mine eyes an instant’s space behold - Thy beauty, and, amidst such bitter woes, - Be gladdened! O my gentle Lira!--thou, - That dwell’st for ever in such harmony - Amidst the thoughts that throng my fantasy, - That suffering grows glorious for thy sake;-- - What ails thee, love? On what are bent thy thoughts, - Chief honor of mine own? - - _Lira._ I think, how fast - All happiness is gliding both from thee - And me; and that, before this cruel war - Can find a close, my life must find one too. - - _Morandro._ What sayst thou, love? - - _Lira._ That hunger so prevails - Within me, that it soon must triumph quite, - And break my life’s thin thread. What wedded love - Canst thou expect from me in such extremity,-- - Looking for death perchance in one short hour? - With famine died my brother yesterday; - With famine sank my mother; and if still - I struggle on, ’t is but my youth that bears - Me up against such rigors horrible. - But sustenance is now so many days - Withheld, that all my weakened powers - Contend in vain. - - _Morandro._ O Lira! dry thy tears, - And let but mine bemoan thy bitter griefs! - For though fierce famine press thee merciless, - Of famine, while I live, thou shalt not die. - Fosse deep and wall of strength shall be o’erleaped, - And death confronted, and yet warded off! - The bread the bloody Roman eats to-day - Shall from his lips be torn and placed in thine;-- - My arms shall hew a passage for thy life;-- - For death is naught when I behold thee thus. - Food thou shall have, in spite of Roman power, - If but these hands are such as once they were. - - _Lira._ Thou speak’st, Morandro, with a loving heart;-- - But food thus bought with peril to thy life - Would lose its savor. All that thou couldst snatch - In such an onset must be small indeed, - And rather cost thy life than rescue mine. - Enjoy, then, love, thy fresh and glowing youth! - Thy life imports the city more than mine; - Thou canst defend it from this cruel foe, - Whilst I, a maiden, weak and faint at heart, - Am worthless all. So, gentle love, dismiss this thought; - I taste no food bought at such deadly price. - And though a few short, wretched days thou couldst - Protect this life, still famine, at the last, - Must end us all. - - _Morandro._ In vain thou strivest, love, - To hinder me the way my will alike - And destiny invite and draw me on. - Pray rather, therefore, to the gods above, - That they return me home, laden with spoils, - Thy sufferings and mine to mitigate. - - _Lira._ Morandro, gentle friend, O, go not forth! - For here, before me, gleams a hostile sword, - Red with thy blood! O, venture, venture not - Such fierce extremity, light of my life! - For if the sally be with dangers thick, - More dread is the return.[121] - - [121] - _Morandro._ - - No vayas tan de corrida, - Lira, déxame gozar - Del bien que me puede dar - En la muerte alegre vida: - Dexa, que miren mis ojos - Un rato tu hermosura, - Pues tanto mi desventura - Se entretiene en mis enojos. - O dulce Lira, que suenas - Contino en mi fantasía - Con tan suave harmonía - Que vuelve en gloria mis penas! - Que tienes? Que estás pensando, - Gloria de mi pensamiento? - - _Lira._ - - Pienso como mi contento - Y el tuyo se va acabando, - Y no será su homicida - El cerco de nuestra tierra, - Que primero que la guerra - Se me acabará la vida. - - _Morandro._ - - Que dices, bien de mi alma? - - _Lira._ - - Que me tiene tal la hambre, - Que de mi vital estambre - Llevará presto la palma. - Que tálamo has de esperar - De quien está en tal extremo, - Que te aseguro que temo - Antes de una hora espirar? - Mi hermano ayer espiró - De la hambre fatigado, - Y mi madre ya ha acabado, - Que la hambre la acabó. - Y si la hambre y su fuerza - No ha rendido mi salud, - Es porque la juventud - Contra su rigor se esfuerza. - Pero como ha tantos dias - Que no le hago defensa, - No pueden contra su ofensa - Las débiles fuerzas mias. - - _Morandro._ - - Enjuga, Lira, los ojos, - Dexa que los tristes mios - Se vuelvan corrientes rios - Nacidos de tus enojos; - Y aunque la hambre ofendida - Te tenga tan sin compas, - De hambre no morirás - Mientras yo tuviere vida. - Yo me ofrezco de saltar - El foso y el muro fuerte, - Y entrar por la misma muerte - Para la tuya escusar. - El pan que el Romano toca, - Sin que el temor me destruya, - Lo quitaré de la suya - Para ponerlo en tu boca. - Con mi brazo haré carrera - A tu vida y á mi muerte, - Porque mas me mata el verte, - Señora, de esa manera. - Yo te traeré de comer - A pesar de los Romanos, - Si ya son estas mis manos - Las mismas que solian ser. - - _Lira._ - - Hablas como enamorado, - Morandro, pero no es justo, - Que ya tome gusto el gusto - Con tu peligro comprado. - Poco podrá sustentarme - Qualquier robo que harás, - Aunque mas cierto hallarás - El perderte que ganarme. - Goza de tu mocedad - En fresca edad y crecida, - Que mas importa tu vida - Que la mia, á la ciudad. - Tu podrás bien defendella, - De la enemiga asechanza, - Que no la flaca pujanza - Desta tan triste doncella. - Ansí que, mi dulce amor, - Despide ese pensamiento, - Que yo no quiero sustento - Ganado con tu sudor. - Que aunque puedes alargar - Mi muerte por algun dia, - Esta hambre que porfia - En fin nos ha de acabar. - - _Morandro._ - - En vano trabajas, Lira, - De impidirme este camino, - Do mi voluntad y signo - Allá me convida y tira. - Tú rogarás entre tanto - A los Dioses, que me vuelvan - Con despojos que resuelvan - Tu miseria y mi quebranto. - - _Lira._ - - Morandro, mi dulce amigo, - No vayas, que se me antoja, - Que de tu sangre veo roxa - La espada del enemigo. - No hagas esta jornada, - Morandro, bien de mi vida, - Que si es mala la salida, - Es muy peor la tornada. - - Jorn. III., Sc. 1. - - There is, in this scene, a tone of gentle, broken-hearted - self-devotion on the part of Lira, awakening a fierce despair in - her lover, that seems to me very true to nature. The last words - of Lira, in the passage translated, have, I think, much beauty in - the original. - -He persists, and, accompanied by a faithful friend, penetrates into the -Roman camp and obtains bread. In the contest he is wounded; but still, -forcing his way back to the city, by the mere energy of despair, he -gives to Lira the food he has won, wet with his own blood, and then -falls dead at her feet. - -A very high authority in dramatic criticism speaks of the Numancia -as if it were not merely one of the more distinguished efforts of -the early Spanish theatre, but one of the more striking exhibitions -of modern poetry.[122] It is not probable that this opinion will -prevail. Yet the whole piece has the merit of originality, and, in -several of its parts, succeeds in awakening strong emotions; so that, -notwithstanding the want of dramatic skill and adaptation, it may still -be cited as a proof of its author’s poetical talent, and, in the actual -condition of the Spanish stage when he wrote, as a bold effort to raise -it. - - [122] A. W. von Schlegel, Vorlesungen über dramatische Kunst und - Literatur, Heidelberg, 1811, Tom. II. Abt. ii. p. 345. - - - - -CHAPTER XI. - -CERVANTES NEGLECTED.--AT SEVILLE.--HIS FAILURE.--ASKS EMPLOYMENT IN -AMERICA.--AT VALLADOLID.--HIS TROUBLES.--PUBLISHES THE FIRST PART OF -DON QUIXOTE.--HE REMOVES TO MADRID.--HIS LIFE THERE.--HIS RELATIONS -WITH LOPE DE VEGA.--HIS TALES AND THEIR CHARACTER.--HIS JOURNEY -TO PARNASSUS, AND DEFENCE OF HIS DRAMAS.--PUBLISHES HIS PLAYS AND -ENTREMESES.--THEIR CHARACTER.--SECOND PART OF DON QUIXOTE.--HIS DEATH. - - -The low condition of the theatre in his time was a serious misfortune -to Cervantes. It prevented him from obtaining, as a dramatic author, -a suitable remuneration for his efforts, even though they were, as -he tells us, successful in winning public favor. If we add to this, -that he was now married, that one of his sisters was dependent on -him, and that he was maimed in his person and a neglected man, it -will not seem remarkable, that, after struggling on for three years -at Esquivias and Madrid, he found himself obliged to seek elsewhere -the means of subsistence. In 1588, therefore, he went to Seville, then -the great mart for the vast wealth coming in from America, and, as he -afterwards called it, “a shelter for the poor and a refuge for the -unfortunate.”[123] There he acted for some time as one of the agents -of Antonio de Guevara, a royal commissary for the American fleets, -and afterwards as a collector of moneys due to the government and to -private individuals; an humble condition, certainly, and full of cares, -but still one that gave him the bread he had vainly sought in other -pursuits. - - [123] “Volvíme á Sevilla,” says Berganza, in the “Coloquio de - los Perros,” “que es amparo de pobres y refugio de desdichados.” - Novelas, Madrid, 1783, 8vo, Tom. II. p. 362. - -The chief advantage, perhaps, of these employments to a genius like -that of Cervantes was, that they led him to travel much for ten years -in different parts of Andalusia and Granada, and made him familiar with -life and manners in these picturesque parts of his native country. -During the latter portion of the time, indeed, partly owing to the -failure of a person to whose care he had intrusted some of the moneys -he had received, and partly, it is to be feared, owing to his own -negligence, he became indebted to the government, and was imprisoned -at Seville, as a defaulter, for a sum so small, that it seems to mark -a more severe degree of poverty than he had yet suffered. After a -strong application to the government, he was released from prison under -an order of December 1, 1597, when he had been confined, apparently, -about three months; but the claims of the public treasury on him were -not adjusted in 1608, nor do we know what was the final result of his -improvidence in relation to them, except that he does not seem to have -been molested on the subject after that date. - -During his residence at Seville, which, with some interruptions, -extended from 1588 to 1598, or perhaps somewhat longer, Cervantes -made an ineffectual application to the king for an appointment in -America; setting forth by exact documents--which now constitute the -most valuable materials for his biography--a general account of his -adventures, services, and sufferings while a soldier in the Levant, -and of the miseries of his life while he was a slave in Algiers.[124] -This was in 1590. But no other than a formal answer seems ever to have -been returned to the application; and the whole affair only leaves us -to infer the severity of that distress which should induce him to seek -relief in exile to a colony of which he has elsewhere spoken as the -great resort of rogues.[125] - - [124] This extraordinary mass of documents is preserved in the - Archivos de las Indias, which are admirably arranged in the - old and beautiful Exchange built by Herrera in Seville, when - Seville was the great _entrepôt_ between Spain and her colonies. - The papers referred to may be found in Estante II. Cajon 5, - Legajo 1, and were discovered by the venerable Cean Bermudez in - 1808. The most important of them are published entire, and the - rest are well abridged, in the Life of Cervantes by Navarrete - (pp. 311-388). Cervantes petitioned in them for one of four - offices:--the Auditorship of New Granada; that of the galleys of - Carthagena; the Governorship of the Province of Soconusco; or the - place of Corregidor of the city of Paz. - - [125] “Viéndose pues tan falto de dineros y aun no con muchos - amigos, se acogió al remedio á que otros muchos perdidos en - aquella ciudad [Sevilla] se acogen; que es, el pasarse á las - Indias, refugio y amparo de los desesperados de España, iglesia - de los alzados, salvo conducto de los homicidas, pala y cubierta - de los jugadores, añagaza general de mugeres libres, engaño comun - de muchos y remedio particular de pocos.” El Zeloso Estremeño, - Novelas, Tom. II. p. 1. - -As an author, his residence at Seville has left few distinct traces of -him. In 1595, he sent some trifling verses to Saragossa, which gained -one of the prizes offered at the canonization of San Jacinto;[126] in -1596, he wrote a sonnet in ridicule of a great display of courage made -in Andalusia after all danger was over and the English had evacuated -Cadiz, which, under Essex, Elizabeth’s favorite, they had for a short -time occupied;[127] and in 1598, he wrote another sonnet, in ridicule -of an unseemly uproar that took place in the cathedral at Seville, from -a pitiful jealousy between the municipality and the Inquisition, on -occasion of the religious ceremonies observed there after the death of -Philip the Second.[128] But except these trifles, we know of nothing -that he wrote, during this active period of his life, unless we are to -assign to it some of his tales, which, like the “Española Inglesa,” -are connected with known contemporary events, or, like “Rinconete y -Cortadillo,” savor so much of the manners of Seville, that it seems as -if they could have been written nowhere else. - - [126] These verses may be found in Navarrete, Vida, pp. 444, 445. - - [127] Pellicer, Vida, ed. Don Quixote, (Madrid, 1797, 8vo, Tom. I. - p. lxxxv.), gives the sonnet. - - [128] Sedano, Parnaso Español, Tom. IX. p. 193. In the “Viage al - Parnaso,” c. 4, he calls it “Honra principal de mis escritos.” - But he was mistaken, or he jested,--I rather think the last. - For an account of the indecent uproar Cervantes ridiculed, and - needful to explain this sonnet, see Semanario Pintoresco, Madrid, - 1842, p. 177. - -Of the next period of his life,--and it is the important one -immediately preceding the publication of the First Part of Don -Quixote,--we know even less than of the last. A uniform tradition, -however, declares that he was employed by the Grand Prior of the Order -of Saint John in La Mancha to collect rents due to his monastery in -the village of Argamasilla; that he went there on this humble agency -and made the attempt, but that the debtors refused payment, and, -after persecuting him in different ways, ended by throwing him into -prison, where, in a spirit of indignation, he began to write the Don -Quixote, making his hero a native of the village that treated him so -ill, and laying the scene of most of the knight’s earlier adventures -in La Mancha. But though this is possible, and even probable, we have -no direct proof of it. Cervantes says, indeed, in his Preface to the -First Part, that his Don Quixote was begun in a prison;[129] but this -may refer to his earlier imprisonment at Seville, or his subsequent one -at Valladolid. All that is certain, therefore, is, that he had friends -and relations in La Mancha; that, at some period of his life, he must -have enjoyed an opportunity of acquiring the intimate knowledge of its -people, antiquities, and topography, which the Don Quixote shows; and -that this could hardly have happened except between the end of 1598, -when we lose all trace of him at Seville, and the beginning of 1603, -when we find him established at Valladolid. - - [129] “Se engendró en una cárcel.” Avellaneda says the same thing - in his Preface, but says it contemptuously: “Pero disculpan los - yerros de su Primera Parte en esta materia, el haberse escrito - entre _los_ de una cárcel,” etc. A base insinuation seems implied - in the use of the relative article _los_. - -To Valladolid he went, apparently because the court had been removed -thither by the caprice of Philip the Third and the interests of his -favorite, the Duke of Lerma; but, as everywhere else, there too, he -was overlooked and left in poverty. Indeed, we should hardly know he -was in Valladolid at all before the publication of the First Part of -his Don Quixote, but for two painful circumstances. The first is an -account, in his own handwriting, for sewing done by his sister, who, -having sacrificed every thing for his redemption from captivity, became -dependent on him during her widowhood and died in his family. The other -is, that, in one of those night-brawls common among the gallants of the -Spanish court, a stranger was killed near the house where Cervantes -lived; in consequence of which, and of some suspicions that fell on -the family, he was, according to the hard provisions of the Spanish -law, confined with the other principal witnesses until an investigation -could take place.[130] - - [130] Pellicer’s Life, pp. cxvi.-cxxxi. - -But in the midst of poverty and embarrassments, and while acting in the -humble capacity of general agent and amanuensis for those who needed -his services,[131] Cervantes had prepared for the press the First Part -of his Don Quixote, which was licensed in 1604, at Valladolid, and -printed in 1605, at Madrid. It was received with such decided favor, -that, before the year was out, another edition was called for at -Madrid, and two more elsewhere; circumstances which, after so many -discouragements in other attempts to procure a subsistence, naturally -turned his thoughts more towards letters than they had been at any -previous period of his life. - - [131] One of the witnesses in the preceding criminal inquiry says - that Cervantes was visited by different persons, “por ser hombre - que escribe y trata negocios.” - -In 1606, the court having gone back to Madrid, Cervantes followed it, -and there passed the remainder of his life; changing his residence -to different parts of the city at least seven times in the course -of ten years, apparently as he was driven hither and thither by -his necessities. In 1609, he joined the Brotherhood of the Holy -Sacrament,--one of those religious associations which were then -fashionable, and the same of which Quevedo, Lope de Vega, and other -distinguished men of letters of the time, were members. About the same -period, too, he seems to have become known to most of these persons, as -well as to others of the favored poets round the court, among whom were -Espinel and the two Argensolas; though what were his relations with -them, beyond those implied in the commendatory verses they prefixed to -each other’s works, we do not know. - -Concerning his relations with Lope de Vega there has been much -discussion to little purpose. Certain it is, that Cervantes often -praises this great literary idol of his age, and that four or five -times Lope stoops from his pride of place and compliments Cervantes, -though never beyond the measure of praise he bestows on many whose -claims were greatly inferior. But in his stately flight, it is plain -that he soared much above the author of Don Quixote, to whose highest -merits he seemed carefully to avoid all homage;[132] and though I find -no sufficient reason to suppose their relation to each other was marked -by any personal jealousy or ill-will, as has been sometimes supposed, -yet I can find no proof that it was either intimate or kindly. On the -contrary, when we consider the good-nature of Cervantes, which made him -praise to excess nearly all his other literary contemporaries, as well -as the greatest of them all, and when we allow for the frequency of -hyperbole in such praises at that time, which prevented them from being -what they would now be, we may perceive an occasional coolness in his -manner, when he speaks of Lope, which shows, that, without overrating -his own merits and claims, he was not insensible to the difference in -their respective positions, or to the injustice towards himself implied -by it. Indeed, his whole tone, whenever he notices Lope, seems to be -marked with much personal dignity, and to be singularly honorable to -him.[133] - - [132] Laurel de Apolo, Silva 8, where he is praised _only_ as a - poet. - - [133] Most of the materials for forming a judgment on this point - in Cervantes’s character are to be found in Navarrete, (Vida, - pp. 457-475), who maintains that Cervantes and Lope were sincere - friends, and in Huerta, (Leccion Crítica, Madrid, 1786, 12mo, - pp. 33-47), who maintains that Cervantes was an envious rival - of Lope. As I cannot adopt either of these results, and think - the last particularly unjust, I will venture to add one or two - considerations. - - Lope was fifteen years younger than Cervantes, and was - forty-three years old when the First Part of the Don Quixote was - published; but from that time till the death of Cervantes, a - period of eleven years, he does not, that I am aware, once allude - to him. The five passages in the immense mass of Lope’s works, in - which alone, so far as I know, he speaks of Cervantes are,--1. - In the “Dorothea,” 1598, twice slightly and without praise. 2. - In the Preface to his own Tales, 1621, still more slightly, and - even, I think, coldly. 3. In the “Laurel de Apolo,” 1630, where - there is a somewhat stiff eulogy of him, fourteen years after his - death. 4. In his play, “El Premio del Bien Hablar,” printed in - Madrid, 1635, where Cervantes is barely mentioned (Comedias, 4to, - Tom. XXI. f. 162). And 5. In “Amar sin Saber á Quien,” (Comedias, - Madrid, Tom. XXII., 1635), where (Jornada primera) Leonarda, one - of the principal ladies, says to her maid, who had just cited a - ballad of Audalla and Xarifa to her,-- - - Inez, take care; your common reading is, - I know, the Ballad-book; and, after all, - Your case may prove like that of the poor knight---- - - to which Inez replies, interrupting her mistress,-- - - Don Quixote of la Mancha, if you please,-- - May God Cervantes pardon!--was a knight - Of that wild, erring sort the Chronicle - So magnifies. For me, I only read - The Ballad-book, and find myself from day - To day the better for it. - - All this looks very reserved; but when we add to it, that - there were numberless occasions on which Lope could have - gracefully noticed the merit to which he could never have - been insensible,--especially when he makes so free a use of - Cervantes’s “Trato de Argel” in his own “Esclavos de Argel,” - absolutely introducing him by name on the stage, and giving him - a prominent part in the action, (Comedias, Çaragoça, 1647, 4to, - Tom. XXV. pp. 245, 251, 257, 262, 277), without showing any of - those kindly or respectful feelings which it was easy and common - to show to friends on the Spanish stage, and which Calderon, - for instance, so frequently shows to Cervantes, (e. g. Casa con - Dos Puertas, Jorn. I., etc.),--we can hardly doubt that Lope - willingly overlooked and neglected Cervantes, at least from the - time of the appearance of the First Part of Don Quixote, in 1605, - till after its author’s death, in 1616. - - On the other hand, Cervantes, from the date of the “Canto de - Calíope” in the “Galatea,” 1584, when Lope was only twenty-two - years old, to the date of the Preface to the Second Part of Don - Quixote, 1615, only a year before his own death, was constantly - giving Lope the praises due to one who, beyond all _contemporary_ - doubt or rivalship, was at the head of Spanish literature; and, - among other proofs of such elevated and generous feelings, - prefixed, in 1598, a laudatory sonnet to Lope’s “Dragontea.” But - at the same time that he did this, and did it freely and fully, - there is a dignified reserve and caution in some parts of his - remarks about Lope that show he was not impelled by any warm, - personal regard; a caution which is so obvious, that Avellaneda, - in the Preface to his Don Quixote, maliciously interpreted it - into envy. - - It therefore seems to me difficult to avoid the conclusion, - that the relations between the two great Spanish authors of - this period were such as might be expected, where one was, to - an extraordinary degree, the idol of his time, and the other a - suffering and neglected man. What is most agreeable about the - whole matter is the generous justice Cervantes never fails to - render to Lope’s merits. - -In 1613, he published his “Novelas Exemplares,” Instructive or Moral -Tales,[134] twelve in number, and making one volume. Some of them were -written several years before, as was “The Impertinent Curiosity,” -inserted in the First Part of Don Quixote,[135] and “Rinconete y -Cortadillo,” which is mentioned there, so that both must be dated as -early as 1604; while others contain internal evidence of the time of -their composition, as the “Española Inglesa” does, which seems to have -been written in 1611. All of these stories are, as he intimates in -their Preface, original, and most of them have the air of being drawn -from his personal experience and observation. - - [134] He explains in his Preface the meaning he wishes to - give the word _exemplares_, saying, “Heles dado nombre de - _exemplares_, y si bien lo miras, no hay ninguna de quien no se - puede sacar algun exemplo provechoso.” The word _exemplo_, from - the time of the Archpriest of Hita and Don Juan Manuel, has had - the meaning of _instruction_ or _instructive story_. - - [135] The “Curioso Impertinente,” first printed in 1605, in - the First Part of Don Quixote, was separately printed in Paris - in 1608,--five years before the collected Novelas appeared in - Madrid,--by Cæsar Oudin, a teacher of Spanish at the French - court, who caused several other Spanish books to be printed - in Paris, where the Castilian was in much favor from the - intermarriages between the crowns of France and Spain. - -Their value is different, for they are written with different views, -and in a variety of style and manner greater than he has elsewhere -shown; but most of them contain touches of what is peculiar in his -talent, and are full of that rich eloquence and of those pleasing -descriptions of natural scenery which always flow so easily from his -pen. They have little in common with the graceful story-telling spirit -of Boccaccio and his followers, and still less with the strictly -practical tone of Don Juan Manuel’s tales; nor, on the other hand, -do they approach, except in the case of the Impertinent Curiosity, -the class of short novels which have been frequent in other countries -within the last century. The more, therefore, we examine them, the more -we shall find that they are original in their composition and general -tone, and that they are strongly marked with the individual genius of -their author, as well as with the more peculiar traits of the national -character,--the ground, no doubt, on which they have always been -favorites at home, and less valued than they deserve to be abroad. As -works of invention, they rank, among their author’s productions, next -after Don Quixote; in correctness and grace of style they stand before -it. - -The first in the series, “The Little Gypsy Girl,” is the story of a -beautiful creature, Preciosa, who had been stolen, when an infant, -from a noble family, and educated in the wild community of the -Gypsies,--that mysterious and degraded race which, until within the -last fifty years, has always thriven in Spain since it first appeared -there in the fifteenth century. There is a truth, as well as a -spirit, in parts of this little story, that cannot be overlooked. The -description of Preciosa’s first appearance in Madrid during a great -religious festival; the effect produced by her dancing and singing in -the streets; her visits to the houses to which she was called for the -amusement of the rich; and the conversations, compliments, and style of -entertainment, are all admirable, and leave no doubt of their truth and -reality. But there are other passages which, mistaking in some respects -the true Gypsy character, seem as if they were rather drawn from some -such imitations of it as the “Life of Bampfylde Moore Carew” than from -a familiarity with Gypsy life as it then existed in Spain.[136] - - [136] This story has been dramatized more than once in Spain, - and freely used elsewhere. See note on the “Gitanilla” of Solís, - _post_, Chap. 25. - -The next of the tales is very different, and yet no less within the -personal experience of Cervantes himself. It is called “The Generous -Lover,” and is nearly the same in its incidents with an episode found -in his own “Trato de Argel.” The scene is laid in Cyprus, two years -after the capture of that island by the Turks in 1570; but here it is -his own adventures in Algiers upon which he draws for the materials -and coloring of what is Turkish in his story, and the vivacity of his -descriptions shows how much of reality there is in both. - -The third story, “Rinconete y Cortadillo,” is again quite unlike any -of the others. It is an account of two young vagabonds, not without -ingenuity and spirit, who join at Seville, in 1569, one of those -organized communities of robbers and beggars which often recur in the -history of Spanish society and manners during the last three centuries. -The realm of Monipodio, their chief, reminds us at once of Alsatia in -Sir Walter Scott’s “Nigel,” and the resemblance is made still more -obvious afterwards, when, in “The Colloquy of the Dogs,” we find the -same Monipodio in secret league with the officers of justice. A single -trait, however, will show with what fidelity Cervantes has copied from -nature. The members of this confederacy, who lead the most dissolute -and lawless lives, are yet represented as superstitious, and as -having their images, their masses, and their contributions for pious -charities, as if robbery were a settled and respectable vocation, a -part of whose income was to be devoted to religious purposes in order -to consecrate the remainder; a delusion which, in forms alternately -ridiculous and revolting, has subsisted in Spain from very early times -down to the present day.[137] - - [137] It is an admirable hit, when Rinconete, first becoming - acquainted with one of the rogues, asks him, “Es vuesa merced - por ventura ladron?” and the rogue replies, “_Sí, para servir - á Dios y á la buena gente._” (Novelas, Tom. I. p. 235.) And, - again, the scene (pp. 242-247) where Rinconete and Cortadillo are - received among the robbers, and that (pp. 254, 255) where two - of the shameless women of the gang are very anxious to provide - candles to set up as devout offerings before their patron saints, - are hardly less happy, and are perfectly true to the characters - represented. Indeed, it is plain from this tale, and from several - of the Entremeses of Cervantes, that he was familiar with the - life of the rogues of his time. Fermin Caballero, in a pleasant - tract on the Geographical Knowledge of Cervantes, (Pericia - Geográfica de Cervantes, Madrid, 1840, 12mo), notes the aptness - with which Cervantes alludes to the different localities in the - great cities of Spain, which constituted the rendezvous and - lurking-places of its vagabond population. (p. 75.) Among these - Seville was preëminent. Guevara, when he describes a community - like that of Monipodio, places it, as Cervantes does, in Seville. - Diablo Cojuelo, Tranco IX. - -It would be easy to go on and show how the rest of the tales are marked -with similar traits of truth and nature: for example, the story founded -on the adventures of a Spanish girl carried to England when Cadiz -was sacked in 1596; “The Jealous Estremadurian,” and “The Fraudulent -Marriage,” the last two of which bear internal evidence of being -founded on fact; and even “The Pretended Aunt,” which, as he did not -print it himself,--apparently in consequence of its coarseness,--ought -not now to be placed among his works, is after all the story of an -adventure that really occurred at Salamanca in 1575.[138] Indeed, they -are all fresh from the racy soil of the national character, as that -character is found in Andalusia; and are written with an idiomatic -richness, a spirit, and a grace, which, though they are the oldest -tales of their class in Spain, have left them ever since without -successful rivals. - - [138] Coarse as it is, however, the “Tia Fingida” was found, - with “Rinconete y Cortadillo,” and several other tales and - miscellanies, in a manuscript collection of stories and trifles - made 1606-10, for the amusement of the Archbishop of Seville, - D. Fernando Niño de Guevara; and long afterwards carefully - preserved by the Jesuits of St. Hermenegild. A castigated copy - of it was printed by Arrieta in his “Espíritu de Miguel de - Cervantes” (Madrid, 1814, 12mo); but the Prussian ambassador in - Spain, if I mistake not, soon afterwards obtained possession of - an unaltered copy and sent it to Berlin, where it was published - by the famous Greek scholar, F. A. Wolf, first in one of the - periodicals of Berlin, and afterwards in a separate pamphlet. - (See his Vorbericht to the “Tia Fingida, Novela inédita de Miguel - de Cervantes Saavedra,” Berlin, 1818, 8vo.) It has since been - printed in Spain with the other tales of Cervantes. - - Some of the tales of Cervantes were translated into English as - early as 1640; but not into French, I think, till 1768, and not - well into that language till Viardot published his translation - (Paris, 1838, 2 tom., 8vo). Even he, however, did not venture - on the obscure puns and jests of the “Licenciado Vidriera,” a - fiction of which Moreto made some use in his play of the same - name, representing the Licentiate, however, as a feigned madman - and not as a real one, and showing little of the humor of the - original conception. (Comedias Escogidas, Madrid, 4to, Tom. V. - 1653.) Under the name of “Léocadie,” there is a poor abridgment - of the “Fuerza de la Sangre,” by Florian. The old English - translation by Mabbe (London, 1640, folio) is said by Godwin to - be “perhaps the most perfect specimen of prose translation in the - English language.” (Lives of E. and J. Phillips, London, 1815, - 4to, p. 246.) The praise is excessive, but the translation is - certainly very well done. It, however, extends only to six of the - tales. - -In 1614, the year after they appeared, Cervantes printed his “Journey -to Parnassus”; a satire in _terza rima_, divided into eight short -chapters, and written in professed imitation of an Italian satire, by -Cesare Caporali, on the same subject and in the same measure.[139] -The poem of Cervantes has little merit. It is an account of a summons -by Apollo, requiring all good poets to come to his assistance for the -purpose of driving all the bad poets from Parnassus, in the course -of which Mercury is sent in a royal galley, allegorically built -and rigged with different kinds of verses, to Cervantes, who, being -confidentially consulted about the Spanish poets that can be trusted as -allies in the war against bad taste, has an opportunity of speaking his -opinion on whatever relates to the poetry of his time. - - [139] The first edition is in small duodecimo, (Madrid, 1614), - 80 leaves; better printed, I think, than any other of his works - that were published under his own care. Little but the opening is - imitated from Cesare Caporali’s “Viaggio in Parnaso,” which is - only about one fifth as long as the poem of Cervantes. - -The most interesting part is the fourth chapter, in which he slightly -notices the works he has himself written,[140] and complains, with -a gayety that at least proves his good-humor, of the poverty and -neglect with which they have been rewarded.[141] It may be difficult, -perhaps, to draw a line between such feelings as Cervantes here very -strongly expresses, and the kindred ones of vanity and presumption; -but yet, when his genius, his wants, and his manly struggles against -the gravest evils of life are considered, and when to this are added -the light-heartedness and simplicity with which he always speaks -of himself, and the indulgence he always shows to others, few will -complain of him for claiming with some boldness honors that had been -coldly withheld, and to which he felt that he was entitled. - - [140] Among them he speaks of many ballads that he had written:-- - - Yo he compuesto Romances infinitos, - Y el de los Zelos es aquel que estimo - Entre otros, que los tengo por malditos. - - c. 4. - - All these are lost, except such as may be found scattered through - his longer works, and some which have been suspected to be his - in the Romancero General. Clemencin, notes to his ed. of Don - Quixote, Tom. III. pp. 156, 214. Coleccion de Poesías de Don - Ramon Fernandez, Madrid, 1796, 8vo, Tom. XVI. p. 175. Mayans, - Vida de Cervantes, No. 164. - - [141] Apollo tells him, (Viage, ed. 1784, p. 55),-- - - “Mas si quieres salir de tu querella, - Alegre y no confuso y consolado, - Dobla tu capa y siéntate sobre ella. - Que tal vez suele un venturoso estado, - Quando le niega sin razon la suerte, - Honrar mas merecido que alcanzado.” - “Bien parece, Señor, que no se advierte,” - Le respondí, “que yo no tengo capa.” - El dixo: “Aunque sea así, gusto de verte.” - -At the end he has added a humorous prose dialogue, called the -“Adjunta,” defending his dramas, and attacking the actors who refused -to represent them. He says that he had prepared six full-length plays, -and six Entremeses or farces; but that the theatre had its pensioned -poets, and so took no note of him. The next year, however, when -their number had become eight plays and eight Entremeses, he found a -publisher, though not without difficulty; for the bookseller, as he -says in the Preface, had been warned by a noble author, that from his -prose much might be hoped, but from his poetry nothing. And truly his -position in relation to the theatre was not one to be desired. Thirty -years had passed since he had himself been a successful writer for -it; and the twenty or more pieces he had then produced, some of which -he mentions anew with great complacency,[142] were, no doubt, long -since forgotten. In the interval, as he tells us, “that great prodigy -of nature, Lope de Vega, has raised himself to the monarchy of the -theatre, subjected it to his control, and placed all its actors under -his jurisdiction; filled the world with becoming plays, happily and -well written; ... and if any persons (and in truth there are not a few -such) have desired to enter into competition with him and share the -glory of his labors, all they have done, when put together, would not -equal the half of what has been done by him alone.”[143] - - [142] The “Confusa” was evidently his favorite among these - earlier pieces. In the Viage he says of it,-- - - Soy por quien La Confusa nada fea - Pareció en los teatros admirable; - - and in the “Adjunta” he says, “De la que mas me precio fué _y - es_, de una llamada La Confusa, la qual, con paz sea dicho, de - quantas comedias de capa y espada hasta hoy se han representado, - bien puede tener lugar señalado por buena entre las mejores.” - This boast, it should be remembered, was made in 1614, when - Cervantes had printed the First Part of the Don Quixote, and - when Lope and his school were at the height of their glory. It - is probable, however, that we, at the present day should be - more curious to see the “Batalla Naval,” which, from its name, - contained, I think, his personal experiences at the fight of - Lepanto, as the “Trato de Argel” contained those at Algiers. - - [143] After alluding to his earlier efforts on the stage, - Cervantes goes on in the Prólogo to his new plays: “Tuve otras - cosas en que ocuparme; dexé la pluma y las comedias, y entró - luego el monstruo de naturaleza, el gran Lope de Vega, y - alzóse con la monarquía cómica; avasalló y puso debaxo de su - jurisdiccion á todos los Farsantes, llenó el mundo de Comedias - propias, felices y bien razonadas; y tantas que passan de diez - mil pliegos los que tiene escritos, y todas (que es una de las - mayores cosas que puede decirse) las ha visto representar, ú - oido decir (por lo menos) que se han representado; y si algunos, - (que hay muchos) han querido entrar á la parte y gloria de sus - trabajos, todos juntos no llegan en lo que han escrito á la mitad - de lo que él solo,” etc. - -The number of these writers for the stage in 1615 was, as Cervantes -intimates, very considerable; and when he goes on to enumerate, among -the more successful, Mira de Mescua, Guillen de Castro, Aguilar, Luis -Vélez de Guevara, Gaspar de Avila, and several others, we perceive, at -once, that the essential direction and character of the Spanish drama -were at last determined. Of course, the free field open to him when he -composed the plays of his youth was now closed; and as he wrote from -the pressure of want, he could venture to write only according to the -models triumphantly established by Lope de Vega and his imitators. - -The eight plays or Comedias he now produced were, therefore, all -composed in the style and in the forms of verse already fashionable and -settled. Their subjects are as various as the subjects of his tales. -One of them is a _rifacimento_ of his “Trato de Argel,” and is curious, -because it contains some of the materials, and even occasionally the -very phraseology, of the story of the Captive in Don Quixote, and -because Lope de Vega thought fit afterwards to use it somewhat too -freely in the composition of his own “Esclavos en Argel.”[144] Much -of it seems to be founded in fact; among the rest, the deplorable -martyrdom of a child in the third act, and the representation of one -of the _Coloquios_ or farces of Lope de Rueda by the slaves in their -prison-yard. - - [144] This play, which Cervantes calls “Los Baños de Argel,” - (Comedias, 1749, Tom. I. p. 125), opens with the landing of a - Moorish corsair on the coast of Valencia; gives an account of the - sufferings of the captives taken in this descent, as well as the - sufferings of others afterward; and ends with a Moorish wedding - and a Christian martyrdom. He says of it himself,-- - - No de la imaginacion - Este trato se sacó, - Que la verdad lo fraguó - Bien lejos de la ficcion. - - p. 186. - - The verbal resemblances between the play and the story of the - Captive are chiefly in the first _jornada_ of the play, as - compared with Don Quixote, Parte I. c. 40. - -Another of the plays, the story of which is also said to be true, is -“El Gallardo Español,” or The Bold Spaniard.[145] Its hero, named -Saavedra, and therefore, perhaps, of the old family into which that -of Cervantes had long before intermarried, goes over to the Moors for -a time, from a point of honor about a lady, but turns out at last a -true Spaniard in every thing else, as well as in the exaggeration of -his gallantry. “The Sultana” is founded on the history of a Spanish -captive, who rose so high in the favor of the Grand Turk, that she is -represented in the play as having become, not merely a favorite, but -absolutely the Sultana, and yet as continuing to be a Christian,--a -story which was readily believed in Spain, though only the first part -of it is true, as Cervantes must have known, since Catharine of Oviedo, -who is the heroine, was his contemporary.[146] The “Rufian Dichoso” is -a Don Juan in licentiousness and crime, who is converted and becomes -so extraordinary a saint, that, to redeem the soul of a dying sinner, -Doña Ana de Treviño, he formally surrenders to her his own virtues and -good works, and assumes her sins, beginning anew, through incredible -sufferings, the career of penitence and reformation; all of which, or -at least what is the most gross and revolting in it, is declared by -Cervantes, as an eye-witness, to be true.[147] - - [145] The part we should least willingly suppose to be true--that - of a droll, roistering soldier, who gets a shameful subsistence - by begging for souls in Purgatory, and spending on his own - gluttony the alms he receives--is particularly vouched for by - Cervantes. “Esto de pedir para las ánimas es cuento verdadero, - que _yo lo ví_.” How so indecent an exhibition on the stage could - be permitted is the wonder. Once, for instance, when in great - personal danger, he prays thus, as if he had read the “Clouds” of - Aristophanes:-- - - Animas de Purgatorio! - Favoreced me, Señoras! - Que mi peligro es notorio, - Si ya no estais en estas horas - Durmiendo en el dormitorio. - - Tom. I. p. 34. - - At the end he says his principal intent has been-- - - Mezclar verdades - Con fabulosos intentos. - - The Spanish doctrine of the play--all for love and glory--is well - expressed in the two following lines from the second _jornada_:-- - - Que por reynar y por amor no hay culpa, - Que no tenga perdon, y halle disculpa. - - [146] - Se vino á Constantinopla, - Creo el ano de seiscientos. - - Jor. III. - - [147] The Church prayers on the stage, in this play and - especially in Jornada II., and the sort of legal contract used - to transfer the merits of the healthy saint to the dying sinner, - are among the revolting exhibitions of the Spanish drama which - at first seem inexplicable, but which anyone who reads far in - it easily understands. Cervantes, in many parts of this strange - play, avers the truth of what he thus represents, saying, “Todo - esto fué verdad”; “Todo esto fué así”; “Así se cuenta en su - historia,” etc. - -The remaining four plays are no less various in their subjects and -no less lawless in the modes of treating them; and all the eight -are divided into three _jornadas_, which Cervantes uses as strictly -synonymous with acts.[148] All preserve the character of the Fool, who -in one instance is an ecclesiastic,[149] and all extend over any amount -of time and space that is found convenient to the action; the “Rufian -Dichoso,” for instance, beginning in Seville and Toledo, during the -youth of the hero, and ending in Mexico in his old age. The personages -represented are extravagant in their number,--once amounting to above -thirty,--and among them, besides every variety of human existences, -are Demons, Souls in Purgatory, Lucifer, Fear, Despair, Jealousy, and -other similar phantasms. The truth is, Cervantes had renounced all -the principles of the drama which his discreet canon had so gravely -set forth ten years earlier in the First Part of Don Quixote; and -now, whether with the consent of his will, or only with that of his -poverty, we cannot tell, but, as may be seen, not merely in the plays -themselves, but in a sort of induction to the second act of the Rufian -Dichoso, he had fully and knowingly adopted the dramatic theories of -Lope’s school. - - [148] He uses the words as convertible. Tom. I. pp. 21, 22; Tom. - II. p. 25, etc. - - [149] In the “Baños de Argel,” where he is sometimes indecorous - enough, as when, (Tom. I. p. 151), giving the Moors the reason - why his old general, Don John of Austria, does not come to subdue - Algiers, he says:-- - - Sin duda, que, en el cielo, - Debia de haber gran guerra, - Do el General faltaba, - Y á Don Juan se llevaron para serlo. - -The eight Entremeses are better than the eight full-length plays. -They are short farces, generally in prose, with a slight plot, and -sometimes with none, and were intended merely to amuse an audience in -the intervals between the acts of the longer pieces. “The Spectacle -of Wonders,” for instance, is only a series of practical tricks to -frighten the persons attending a puppet-show, so as to persuade them -that they see what is really not on the stage. “The Watchful Guard” -interests us, because he seems to have drawn the character of the -soldier from his own; and the date of 1611, which is contained in -it, may indicate the time when it was written. “The Jealous Old Man” -is a reproduction of the tale of “The Jealous Estremadurian,” with a -different and more spirited conclusion. And the “Cueva de Salamanca” is -one of those jests at the expense of husbands which are common enough -on the Spanish stage, and were, no doubt, equally common in Spanish -life and manners. All, indeed, have an air of truth and reality, which, -whether they were founded in fact or not, it was evidently the author’s -purpose to give them. - -But there was an insuperable difficulty in the way of all his efforts -on the stage. Cervantes had not dramatic talent, nor a clear perception -how dramatic effects were to be produced. From the time when he wrote -the “Trato de Argel,” which was an exhibition of the sufferings he -had himself witnessed and shared in Algiers, he seemed to suppose -that whatever was both absolutely true and absolutely striking -could be produced with effect on the theatre; thus confounding the -province of romantic fiction and story-telling with that of theatrical -representation, and often relying on trivial incidents and an humble -style for effects which could be produced only by ideal elevation and -incidents so combined by a dramatic instinct as to produce a dramatic -interest. - -This was, probably, owing in part to the different direction of his -original genius, and in part to the condition of the theatre, which -in his youth he had found open to every kind of experiment and really -settled in nothing. But whatever may have been the cause of his -failure, the failure itself has been a great stumbling-block in the -way of Spanish critics, who have resorted to somewhat violent means -in order to prevent the reputation of Cervantes from being burdened -with it. Thus, Blas de Nasarre, the king’s librarian,--who, in 1749, -published the first edition of these unsuccessful dramas that had -appeared since they were printed above a century earlier,--would -persuade us, in his Preface, that they were written by Cervantes to -parody and caricature the theatre of Lope de Vega;[150] though, setting -aside all that at once presents itself from the personal relations of -the parties, nothing can be more serious than the interest Cervantes -took in the fate of his plays, and the confidence he expressed in their -dramatic merit; while, at the same time, not a line has ever been -pointed out as a parody in any one of them.[151] - - [150] See the early part of the “Prólogo del que hace imprimir.” - I am not certain that Blas de Nasarre was perfectly fair in - all this; for he printed, in 1732, an edition of Avellaneda’s - continuation of Don Quixote, in the Preface to which he says - that he thinks the character of Avellaneda’s Sancho is more - natural than that of Cervantes’s Sancho; that the Second Part of - Cervantes’s Don Quixote is taken from Avellaneda’s; and that, - in its essential merits, the work of Avellaneda is equal to - that of Cervantes. “No se puede disputar,” he says, “la gloria - de la invencion de Cervantes, aunque no es inferior la de la - imitacion de Avellaneda”; to which he adds afterwards, “Es cierto - que es necesario mayor esfuerzo de ingenio para añadir á las - primeras invenciones, que para hacerlas.” (See Avellaneda, Don - Quixote, Madrid, 1805, 12mo, Tom. I. p. 34.) Now, the _Juicio_, - or Preface, from which these opinions are taken, and which is - really the work of Nasarre, is announced by him, not as his own, - but as the work of an anonymous friend, precisely as if he were - not willing to avow such opinions under his own name. (Pellicer’s - Vida de Cervantes, ed. Don Quixote, I. p. clxvi.) In this way a - disingenuous look is given to what would otherwise have been only - an absurdity; and what, taken in connection with this reprint of - Cervantes’s poor dramas and the Preface to them, seems like a - willingness to let down the reputation of a genius that Nasarre - could not comprehend. - - It is intimated, in an anonymous pamphlet, called “Exámen Crítico - del Tomo Primero del Antiquixote,” (Madrid, 1806, 12mo), that - Nasarre had sympathies with Avellaneda as an Aragonese; and the - pamphlet in question being understood to be the work of J. A. - Pellicer, the editor of Don Quixote, this intimation deserves - notice. It may be added, that Nasarre belonged to the French - school of the eighteenth century in Spain;--a school that saw - little merit in the older Spanish drama. - - [151] The extravagant opinion, that these plays of Cervantes were - written to discredit the plays then in fashion on the stage, - just as the Don Quixote was written to discredit the fashionable - books of chivalry, did not pass uncontradicted at the time. The - year after it was published, a pamphlet appeared, entitled “La - Sinrazon impugnada y Beata de Lavapies, Coloquio Crítico apuntado - al disparatado Prólogo que sirve de delantal (segun nos dice su - Autor) á las Comedias de Miguel de Cervantes, compuesto por Don - Joseph Carillo” (Madrid, 1750, 4to, pp. 25). It is a spirited - little tract, chiefly devoted to a defence of Lope and of - Calderon, though the point about Cervantes is not forgotten (pp. - 13-15.) But in the same year a more formidable work appeared on - the same side, called “Discurso Crítico sobre el Orígen, Calidad, - y Estado presente de las Comedias de España, contra el Dictámen - que las supone corrompidas, etc., por un Ingenio de esta Corte” - (Madrid, 1750, 4to, pp. 285). The author was a lawyer in Madrid, - D. Thomas Zavaleta, and he writes with as little philosophy and - judgment as the other Spanish critics of his time; but he treats - Blas de Nasarre with small ceremony. - -This position being untenable, Lampillas, who, in the latter part of -the last century, wrote a long defence of Spanish literature against -the suggestions of Tiraboschi and Bettinelli in Italy, gravely -maintains that Cervantes sent, indeed, eight plays and eight Entremeses -to the booksellers, but that the booksellers took the liberty to -change them, and printed eight others with his name and Preface. It -should not, however, be forgotten that Cervantes lived to prepare two -works after this, and if such an insult had been offered him, the -country, judging from the way in which he treated the less gross -offence of Avellaneda, would have been filled with his reproaches and -remonstrances.[152] - - [152] “Ensayo Histórico-apologético de la Literatura Española,” - Madrid, 1789, 8vo, Tom. VI. pp. 170, etc. “Suprimiendo las que - verdaderamente eran de él,” are the bold words of the critic. - -Nothing remains, therefore, but to confess--what seems, indeed, to be -quite incontestable--that Cervantes wrote several plays which fell -seriously below what might have been hoped from him. Passages, indeed, -may be found in them where his genius asserts itself. “The Labyrinth -of Love,” for instance, has a chivalrous air and plot that make it -interesting; and the Entremes of “The Pretended Biscayan,” contains -specimens of the peculiar humor with which we always associate the name -of its author. But it is quite too probable that he had made up his -mind to sacrifice his own opinions respecting the drama to the popular -taste; and if the constraint he thus laid upon himself was one of the -causes of his failure, it only affords another ground for our interest -in the fate of one whose whole career was so deeply marked with trials -and calamity.[153] - - [153] There can be little doubt, I think, that this was the - case, if we compare the opinions expressed by the canon on the - subject of the drama in the 48th chapter of the First Part of - Don Quixote, 1605, and the opinions in the opening of the third - _jornada_ of the “Baños de Argel,” 1615. - -But the life of Cervantes, with all its troubles and sufferings, was -now fast drawing to a close. In October of the same year, 1615, he -published the Second Part of his Don Quixote; and in its Dedication -to the Count de Lemos, who had for some time favored him,[154] he -alludes to his failing health, and intimates that he hardly looked for -the continuance of life beyond a few months. His spirits, however, -which had survived his sufferings in the Levant, at Algiers, and in -prisons at home, and which, as he approached his seventieth year, had -been sufficient to produce a work like the Second Part of Don Quixote, -did not forsake him, now that his strength was wasting away under -the influence of disease and old age. On the contrary, with unabated -vivacity he urged forward his romance of “Persiles and Sigismunda”; -anxious only that life enough should be allowed him to finish it, -as the last offering of his gratitude to his generous patron. In -the spring he went to Esquivias, where was the little estate he had -received with his wife, and after his return wrote a Preface to his -unpublished romance, full of a delightful and simple humor, in which he -tells a pleasant story of being overtaken in his ride back to Madrid -by a medical student, who gave him much good advice about the dropsy, -under which he was suffering; to which he replied, that his pulse had -already warned him that he was not to live beyond the next Sunday. “And -so,” says he, at the conclusion of this remarkable Preface, “farewell -to jesting, farewell my merry humors, farewell my gay friends, for I -feel that I am dying, and have no desire but soon to see you happy in -the other life.” - - [154] It has been generally conceded that the Count de Lemos and - the Archbishop of Toledo favored and assisted Cervantes; the - most agreeable proof of which is to be found in the Dedication - of the Second Part of Don Quixote. I am afraid, however, that - their favor was a little too much in the nature of alms. Indeed, - it is called _limosna_ the only time it is known to be mentioned - by any contemporary of Cervantes. See Salas Barbadillo, in the - Dedication of the “Estafeta del Dios Momo,” Madrid, 1627, 12mo. - -In this temper he prepared to meet death, as many Catholics of strong -religious impressions were accustomed to do at that time;[155] and, on -the 2d of April, entered the order of Franciscan friars, whose habit he -had assumed three years before at Alcalá. Still, however, his feelings -as an author, his vivacity, and his personal gratitude did not desert -him. On the 18th of April he received the extreme unction, and the next -day wrote a Dedication of his “Persiles y Sigismunda” to the Count -de Lemos, marked, to an extraordinary degree, with his natural humor, -and with the solemn thoughts that became his situation.[156] The last -known act of his life, therefore, shows that he still possessed his -faculties in perfect serenity, and four days afterwards, on the 23d of -April, 1616, he died, at the age of sixty-eight.[157] He was buried, -as he probably had desired, in the convent of the Nuns of the Trinity; -but a few years afterwards this convent was removed to another part of -the city, and what became of the ashes of the greatest genius of his -country is, from that time, wholly unknown.[158] - - [155] - “Who, to be sure of Paradise, - Dying put on the weeds of Dominic, - Or in Franciscan think to pass disguised.” - - [156] The only case I recollect at all parallel is that of - the graceful Dedication of Addison’s works to his friend and - successor in office, Secretary Craggs, which is dated June 4, - 1719; thirteen days before his death. But the Dedication of - Cervantes is much more genial and spirited. - - [157] Bowle says, (Anotaciones á Don Quixote, Salisbury, 1781, - 4to, Prólogo ix., note), that Cervantes died on the same day with - Shakspeare; but this is a mistake, the calendar not having then - been altered in England, and there being, therefore, a difference - between that and the Spanish calendar of ten days. - - [158] Nor was any monument raised to Cervantes, in Spain, until - 1835, when a bronze statue of him larger than life, cast at Rome - by Solá of Barcelona, was placed in the Plaza del Estamento at - Madrid. (See El Artista, a journal published at Madrid, 1834, - 1835, Tom. I. p. 205; Tom. II. p. 12; and Semanario Pintoresco, - 1836, p. 249.) Before this I believe there was nothing that - approached nearer to a monument in honor of Cervantes throughout - the world than an ordinary medal of him, struck in 1818, at - Paris, as one of a large series which would have been absurdly - incomplete without it; and a small medallion or bust, that was - placed in 1834, at the expense of an individual, over the door - of the house in the Calle de los Francos, where he died. But, in - saying this, I ought to add,--whether in praise or censure,--that - I believe the statue of Cervantes was the first erected in Spain - to honor a man of letters or science. - - - - -CHAPTER XII. - -CERVANTES.--HIS PERSILES AND SIGISMUNDA, AND ITS CHARACTER.--HIS DON -QUIXOTE.--CIRCUMSTANCES UNDER WHICH IT WAS WRITTEN.--ITS PURPOSE AND -GENERAL PLAN.--PART FIRST.--AVELLANEDA.--PART SECOND.--CHARACTER OF THE -WHOLE.--CHARACTER OF CERVANTES. - - -Six months after the death of Cervantes,[159] the license for -publishing “Persiles y Sigismunda” was granted to his widow, and in -1617 it was printed.[160] His purpose seems to have been to write -a serious romance, which should be to this species of composition -what the Don Quixote is to comic romance. So much, at least, may be -inferred from the manner in which it is spoken of by himself and by -his friends. For in the Dedication of the Second Part of Don Quixote -he says, “It will be either the worst or the best book of amusement -in the language”; adding, that his friends thought it admirable; and -Valdivielso,[161] after his death, said he had equalled or surpassed in -it all his former efforts. - - [159] At the time of his death Cervantes seems to have had the - following works more or less prepared for the press, namely: “Las - Semanas del Jardin,” announced as early as 1613;--the Second Part - of “Galatea,” announced in 1615;--the “Bernardo,” mentioned in - the Dedication of “Persiles,” just before he died;--and several - plays, referred to in the Preface to those he published, and in - the Appendix to the “Viage al Parnaso.” All these works are now - probably lost. - - [160] The first edition of Persiles y Sigismunda was printed with - the following title: “Los Trabajos de Persiles y Sigismunda. - Historia Setentrional, por M. de Cervantes Saavedra, dirigida,” - etc., Madrid, 1617, 8vo, por Juan de la Cuesta; and reprints - of it appeared in Valencia, Pamplona, Barcelona, and Brussels, - the same year. I have a copy of the first edition; but the most - agreeable one is that of Madrid, 1802, 8vo, 2 tom. There is - an English translation by M. L., published 1619, which I have - never seen; but from which I doubt not Fletcher borrowed the - materials for that part of the Persiles which he has used, or - rather abused, in his “Custom of the Country,” acted as early as - 1628, but not printed till 1647; the very names of the personages - being sometimes the same. See Persiles, Book I. c. 12 and 13; and - compare Book II. c. 4 with the English play, Act IV. scene 3, and - Book III. c. 6, etc., with Act II. scene 4, etc. Sometimes we - have almost literal translations, like the following:-- - - “Sois Castellano?” me preguntó en su lengua Portuguesa. “No, - Señora,” le respondí yo, “sino forastero, y bien lejos de esta - tierra.” “Pues aunque fuerades mil veces Castellano,” replicó - ella, “os librara yo, si pudiera, y os libraré si puedo; subid - por cima deste lecho, y éntraos debaxo de este tapiz, y éntraos - en un hueco que aquí hallareis, y no os movais, que si la - justicia viniere, me tendrá respeto, y creerá lo que yo quisiere - decirles.” Persiles, Lib. III. cap. 6. - - In Fletcher we have it as follows:-- - - _Guiomar._ Are you a Castilian? - - _Rutilio._ No, Madam: Italy claims my birth. - - _Gui._ I ask not - With purpose to betray you. If you were - Ten thousand times a Spaniard, the nation - We Portugals most hate, I yet would save you, - If it lay in my power. Lift up these hangings; - Behind my bed’s head there’s a hollow place, - Into which enter. - - [_Rutilio retires behind the bed._ - - So;--but from this stir not. - If the officers come, as you expect they will do, - I know they owe such reverence to my lodgings, - That they will easily give credit to me - And search no further. - - Act II. Sc. 4. - - Other parallel passages might be cited; but it should not be - forgotten, that there is one striking difference between the - two; for that, whereas the Persiles is a book of great purity of - thought and feeling, “The Custom of the Country” is one of the - most indecent plays in the language; so indecent, indeed, that - Dryden rather boldly says it is worse in this particular than all - his own plays put together. Dryden’s Works, Scott’s ed., London, - 1808, 8vo, Vol. XI. p. 239. - - [161] In the Aprobacion, dated Sept. 9, 1616, ed. 1802, Tom. I. - p. vii. - -But serious romantic fiction, which is peculiarly the offspring of -modern civilization, was not yet far enough developed to enable one -like Cervantes to obtain a high degree of success in it, especially as -the natural bent of his genius was to humorous fiction. The imaginary -travels of Lucian, three or four Greek romances, and the romances of -chivalry, were all he had to guide him; for any thing approaching -nearer to the proper modern novel than some of his own tales had not -yet been imagined. Perhaps his first impulse was to write a romance -of chivalry, modified by the spirit of the age, and free from the -absurdities which abound in the romances that had been written before -his time.[162] But if he had such a thought, the success of his own -Don Quixote almost necessarily prevented him from attempting to put it -in execution. He therefore looked rather to the Greek romances, and, -as far as he used any model, took the “Theagenes and Chariclea” of -Heliodorus.[163] He calls what he produced “A Northern Romance,” and -makes its principal story consist of the sufferings of Persiles and -Sigismunda,--the first the son of a king of Iceland, and the second -the daughter of a king of Friesland,--laying the scene of one half of -his fiction in the North of Europe, and that of the other half in the -South. He has some faint ideas of the sea-kings and pirates of the -Northern Ocean, but very little of the geography of the countries that -produced them; and as for his savage men and frozen islands, and the -wild and strange adventures he imagines to have passed among them, -nothing can be more fantastic and incredible. - - [162] This may be fairly suspected from the beginning of the 48th - chapter of the First Part of Don Quixote. - - [163] Once he intimates that it is a translation, but does not - say from what language. (See opening of Book II.) An acute - and elegant critic of our own time says, “Des naufrages, des - déserts, des descentes par mer, et des ravissements, c’est donc - toujours plus ou moins l’ancien roman d’Héliodore.” (Sainte - Beuve, Critiques, Paris, 1839, 8vo, Tom. IV. p 173.) These words - describe more than half of the Persiles and Sigismunda. Two - imitations of the Persiles, or, at any rate, two imitations of - the Greek romance which was the chief model of the Persiles, - soon appeared in Spain. The first is the “Historia de Hipólito y - Aminta” of Francisco de Quintana, (Madrid, 1627, 4to), divided - into eight books, with a good deal of poetry intermixed. The - other is “Eustorgio y Clorilene, Historia Moscovica,” by Enrique - Suarez de Mendoza y Figueroa, (1629), in thirteen books, with - a hint of a continuation; but my copy was printed Çaragoça, - 1665, 4to. Both are written in bad taste, and have no value as - fictions. The latter seems to have been plainly suggested by the - Persiles. - -In Portugal, Spain, and Italy, through which his hero and -heroine--disguised as they are from first to last under the names of -Periandro and Auristela--make a pilgrimage to Rome, we get rid of most -of the extravagances which deform the earlier portion of the romance. -The whole, however, consists of a labyrinth of tales, showing, indeed, -an imagination quite astonishing in an old man like Cervantes, already -past his grand climacteric,--a man, too, who might be supposed to be -broken down by sore calamities and incurable disease;--but it is a -labyrinth from which we are glad to be extricated, and we feel relieved -when the labors and trials of his Persiles and Sigismunda are over, -and when, the obstacles to their love being removed, they are happily -united at Rome. No doubt, amidst the multitude of separate stories with -which this wild work is crowded, several are graceful in themselves, -and others are interesting because they contain traces of Cervantes’s -experience of life,[164] while, through the whole, his style is more -carefully finished, perhaps, than in any other of his works. But, after -all, it is far from being what he and his friends fancied it was,--a -model of this peculiar style of fiction, and the best of his works. - - [164] From the beginning of Book III., we find that the action - of Persiles and Sigismunda is laid in the time of Philip II. or - Philip III., when there was a Spanish viceroy in Lisbon, and the - travels of the hero and heroine in the South of Spain and Italy - seem to be, in fact, Cervantes’s own recollections of the journey - he made through the same countries in his youth; while Chapters - 10 and 11 of Book III. show bitter traces of his Algerine - captivity. His familiarity with Portugal, as seen in this work, - should also be noticed. Frequently, indeed, as in almost every - thing else he wrote, we meet intimations and passages from his - own life. - -This honor, if we may trust the uniform testimony of two centuries, -belongs, beyond question, to his Don Quixote,--the work which, above -all others, not merely of his own age, but of all modern times, bears -most deeply the impression of the national character it represents, -and has, therefore, in return, enjoyed a degree and extent of national -favor never granted to any other.[165] When Cervantes began to write -it is wholly uncertain. For twenty years preceding the appearance of -the First Part he printed nothing;[166] and the little we know of -him, during that long and dreary period of his life, shows only how -he obtained a hard subsistence for himself and his family by common -business agencies, which, we have reason to suppose, were generally of -trifling importance, and which, we are sure, were sometimes distressing -in their consequences. The tradition, therefore, of his persecutions -in La Mancha, and his own averment that the Don Quixote was begun in a -prison, are all the hints we have received concerning the circumstances -under which it was first imagined; and that such circumstances should -have tended to such a result is a striking fact in the history, not -only of Cervantes, but of the human mind, and shows how different was -his temperament from that commonly found in men of genius. - - [165] My own experience in Spain fully corroborates the - suggestion of Inglis, in his very pleasant book, (Rambles in the - Footsteps of Don Quixote, London, 1837, 8vo, p. 26), that “no - Spaniard is entirely ignorant of Cervantes.” At least, none I - ever questioned on the subject--and their number was great in the - lower conditions of society--seemed to be entirely ignorant what - sort of personages were Don Quixote and Sancho Panza. - - [166] He felt this himself as a dreary interval in his life, - for he says in his Prólogo: “Al cabo de tantos años como ha, - que duermo en el silencio del olvido,” etc. In fact, from 1584 - till 1605 he had printed nothing except a few short poems of - little value, and seems to have been wholly occupied in painful - struggles to secure a subsistence. - -His purpose in writing the Don Quixote has sometimes been enlarged by -the ingenuity of a refined criticism, until it has been made to embrace -the whole of the endless contrast between the poetical and the prosaic -in our natures,--between heroism and generosity on one side, as if -they were mere illusions, and a cold selfishness on the other, as if -it were the truth and reality of life.[167] But this is a metaphysical -conclusion drawn from views of the work at once imperfect and -exaggerated; a conclusion contrary to the spirit of the age, which was -not given to a satire so philosophical and generalizing, and contrary -to the character of Cervantes himself, as we follow it from the time -when he first became a soldier, through all his trials in Algiers, -and down to the moment when his warm and trusting heart dictated the -Dedication of “Persiles and Sigismunda” to the Count de Lemos. His -whole spirit, indeed, seems rather to have been filled with a cheerful -confidence in human virtue, and his whole bearing in life seems to -have been a contradiction to that discouraging and saddening scorn for -whatever is elevated and generous, which such an interpretation of the -Don Quixote necessarily implies.[168] - - [167] This idea is found partly developed by Bouterwek, - (Geschichte der Poesie und Beredsamkeit, Göttingen, 1803, 8vo, - Tom. III. pp. 335-337), and fully set forth and defended by - Sismondi, with his accustomed eloquence. Littérature du Midi de - l’Europe, Paris, 1813, 8vo, Tom. III. pp. 339-343. - - [168] Many other interpretations have been given to the Don - Quixote. One of the most absurd is that of Daniel De Foe, who - declares it to be “an emblematic history of, and a just satire - upon, the Duke de Medina Sidonia, a person very remarkable at - that time in Spain.” (Wilson’s Life of De Foe, London, 1830, - 8vo, Vol. III. p. 437, note.) The “Buscapié”--if there ever was - such a publication--pretended that it set forth “some of the - undertakings and gallantries of the Emperor Charles V.” See - Appendix (D). - -Nor does he himself permit us to give to his romance any such secret -meaning; for, at the very beginning of the work, he announces it to -be his sole purpose to break down the vogue and authority of books of -chivalry, and, at the end of the whole, he declares anew, in his own -person, that “he had had no other desire than to render abhorred of -men the false and absurd stories contained in books of chivalry”;[169] -exulting in his success, as an achievement of no small moment. And -such, in fact, it was; for we have abundant proof that the fanaticism -for these romances was so great in Spain, during the sixteenth century, -as to have become matter of alarm to the more judicious. Many of the -distinguished contemporary authors speak of its mischiefs, and among -the rest the venerable Luis de Granada, and Malon de Chaide, who wrote -the eloquent “Conversion of Mary Magdalen.”[170] Guevara, the learned -and fortunate courtier of Charles the Fifth, declares that “men did -read nothing in his time but such shameful books as ‘Amadis de Gaula,’ -‘Tristan,’ ‘Primaleon,’ and the like”;[171] the acute author of “The -Dialogue on Languages” says that “the ten years he passed at court he -wasted in studying ‘Florisando,’ ‘Lisuarte,’ ‘The Knight of the Cross,’ -and other such books, more than he can name”;[172] and from different -sources we know, what, indeed, we may gather from Cervantes himself, -that many who read these fictions took them for true histories.[173] At -last, they were deemed so noxious, that, in 1553, they were prohibited -by law from being printed or sold in the American colonies, and in 1555 -the same prohibition, and even the burning of all copies of them extant -in Spain itself, was earnestly asked for by the Cortes.[174] The evil, -in fact, had become formidable, and the wise began to see it. - - [169] In the Prólogo to the First Part, he says, “_No mira á - mas_ que á deshacer la autoridad y cabida, que en el mundo y _en - el vulgo_ tienen los libros de Caballerías”; and he ends the - Second Part, ten years afterwards, with these remarkable words: - “_No ha sido otro mi deseo_, que poner en aborrecimiento de los - hombres las fingidas y disparatadas historias de los libros de - Caballerías, que por las de mi verdadero Don Quixote van ya - tropezando, y han de caer del todo sin duda alguna. Vale.” It - seems really hard that a great man’s word of honor should thus be - called in question by the spirit of an over-refined criticism, - two centuries after his death. D. Vicente Salvá has partly, but - not wholly, avoided this difficulty in an ingenious and pleasant - essay on the question, “Whether the Don Quixote has yet been - judged according to its merits”;--in which he maintains, that - Cervantes did not intend to satirize the substance and essence - of books of chivalry, but only to purge away their absurdities - and improbabilities; and that, after all, he has given us only - another romance of the same class which has ruined the fortunes - of all its predecessors by being itself immensely in advance of - them all. Ochoa, Apuntes para una Biblioteca, Paris, 1842, 8vo, - Tom. II. pp. 723-740. - - [170] Símbolo de la Fé, Parte II. cap. 17, near the end. - Conversion de la Magdalena, 1592, Prólogo al Letor. Both are - strong in their censures. - - [171] “Vemos, que ya no se ocupan los hombres sino en leer libros - que es affrenta nombrarlos, como son Amadis de Gaula, Tristan de - Leonis, Primaleon,” etc. Argument to the Aviso de Privados, Obras - de Ant. de Guevara, Valladolid, 1545, folio, f. clviii. b. - - [172] The passage is too long to be conveniently cited, but it is - very severe. See Mayans y Siscar, Orígenes, Tom. II. pp. 157, 158. - - [173] See _ante_, Vol. I. pp. 249-254. But, besides what is said - there, Francisco de Portugal, who died in 1632, tells us in his - “Arte de Galantería,” (Lisboa, 1670, 4to, p. 96), that Simon de - Silveira (I suppose the Portuguese poet who lived about 1500; - Barbosa, Tom. III. p. 722) once swore upon the Evangelists, that - he believed the whole of the Amadis to be true history. - - [174] Clemencin, in the Preface to his edition of Don Quixote, - Tom. I. pp. xi.-xvi., cites many other proofs of the passion for - books of chivalry at that period in Spain; adding a reference - to the “Recopilacion de Leyes de las Indias,” Lib. I. Tít. 24, - Ley 4, for the law of 1553, and printing at length the very - curious petition of the Cortes of 1555, which I have not seen - anywhere else, and which would probably have produced the law it - demanded, if the abdication of the Emperor, the same year, had - not prevented all action upon the matter. - -To destroy a passion that had struck its roots so deeply in -the character of all classes of men,[175] to break up the only -reading which at that time could be considered widely popular and -fashionable,[176] was certainly a bold undertaking, and one that marks -any thing rather than a scornful or broken spirit, or a want of faith -in what is most to be valued in our common nature. The great wonder -is, that Cervantes succeeded. But that he did there is no question. -No book of chivalry was written after the appearance of Don Quixote, -in 1605; and from the same date, even those already enjoying the -greatest favor ceased, with one or two unimportant exceptions, to be -reprinted;[177] so that, from that time to the present, they have -been constantly disappearing, until they are now among the rarest of -literary curiosities;--a solitary instance of the power of genius to -destroy, by a single well-timed blow, an entire department, and that, -too, a flourishing and favored one, in the literature of a great and -proud nation. - - [175] Allusions to the fanaticism of the lower classes on the - subject of books of chivalry are happily introduced into Don - Quixote, Parte I. c. 32, and in other places. It extended, too, - to those better bred and informed. Francisco de Portugal, in the - “Arte de Galantería,” cited in a preceding note, and written - before 1632, tells the following anecdote: “A knight came home - one day from the chase and found his wife and daughters and - their women crying. Surprised and grieved, he asked them if any - child or relation were dead. ‘No,’ they answered, suffocated - with tears. ‘Why, then, do you weep so?’ he rejoined, still more - amazed. ‘Sir,’ they replied, ‘Amadis is dead.’ They had read so - far.” p. 96. - - [176] Cervantes himself, as his Don Quixote amply proves, must, - at some period of his life, have been a devoted reader of the - romances of chivalry. How minute and exact his knowledge of them - was may be seen, among other passages, from one at the end of - the twentieth chapter of Part First, where, speaking of Gasabal, - the esquire of Galaor, he observes that his name is mentioned - _but once_ in the history of Amadis of Gaul;--a fact which the - indefatigable Mr. Bowle took the pains to verify, when reading - that huge romance. See his “Letter to Dr. Percy, on a New and - Classical Edition of Don Quixote.” London, 1777, 4to, p. 25. - - [177] Clemencin, in his Preface, notes “D. Policisne de Boecia,” - printed in 1602, as the _last_ book of chivalry that was written - in Spain, and adds, that, after 1605, “_no se publicó_ de nuevo - libro alguno de caballerías, y _dejaron de_ reimprimirse los - anteriores.” (p. xxi.) To this remark of Clemencin, however, - there are exceptions. For instance, the “Genealogía de la - Toledana Discreta, Primera Parte,” por Eugenio Martinez, a tale - of chivalry in octave stanzas, was reprinted in 1608; and “El - Caballero del Febo,” and “Claridiano,” his son, are extant in - editions of 1617. The period of the passion for such books in - Spain can be readily seen in the Bibliographical Catalogue, and - notices of them by Salvá, in the Repertorio Americano, London, - 1827, Tom. IV. pp. 29-74. It was eminently the sixteenth century. - -The general plan Cervantes adopted to accomplish this object, without, -perhaps, foreseeing its whole course, and still less all its results, -was simple as well as original. In 1605,[178] he published the First -Part of Don Quixote, in which a country gentleman of La Mancha--full -of genuine Castilian honor and enthusiasm, gentle and dignified in his -character, trusted by his friends, and loved by his dependants--is -represented as so completely crazed by long reading the most famous -books of chivalry, that he believes them to be true, and feels himself -called on to become the impossible knight-errant they describe,--nay, -actually goes forth into the world to defend the oppressed and avenge -the injured, like the heroes of his romances. - - [178] See Appendix (E). - -To complete his chivalrous equipment--which he had begun by fitting -up for himself a suit of armour strange to his century--he took an -esquire out of his neighbourhood; a middle-aged peasant, ignorant -and credulous to excess, but of great good-nature; a glutton and a -liar; selfish and gross, yet attached to his master; shrewd enough -occasionally to see the folly of their position, but always amusing, -and sometimes mischievous, in his interpretations of it. These two -sally forth from their native village in search of adventures, of which -the excited imagination of the knight, turning windmills into giants, -solitary inns into castles, and galley-slaves into oppressed gentlemen, -finds abundance, wherever he goes; while the esquire translates them -all into the plain prose of truth with an admirable simplicity, -quite unconscious of its own humor, and rendered the more striking -by its contrast with the lofty and courteous dignity and magnificent -illusions of the superior personage. There could, of course, be but one -consistent termination of adventures like these. The knight and his -esquire suffer a series of ridiculous discomfitures, and are at last -brought home, like madmen, to their native village, where Cervantes -leaves them, with an intimation that the story of their adventures is -by no means ended. - -From this time we hear little of Cervantes and nothing of his hero, -till eight years afterwards, in July, 1613, when he wrote the Preface -to his Tales, where he distinctly announces a Second Part of Don -Quixote. But before this Second Part could be published, and, indeed, -before it was finished, a person calling himself Alonso Fernandez de -Avellaneda, who seems, from some provincialisms in his style, to have -been an Aragonese, and who, from other internal evidence, is suspected -to have been a Dominican monk, came out, in the summer of 1614, with -what he impertinently called “The Second Volume of the Ingenious -Knight, Don Quixote de la Mancha.”[179] - - [179] Cervantes reproaches Avellaneda with being an Aragonese, - because he sometimes omits the article where a Castilian would - insert it. (Don Quixote, Parte II. c. 59.) The rest of the - discussion about him is found in Pellicer, Vida, pp. clvi.-clxv.; - in Navarrete, Vida, pp. 144-151; in Clemencin’s Don Quixote, - Parte II. c. 59, notes; and in Adolfo de Castro’s Conde Duque de - Olivares, Cadiz, 1846, 8vo, pp. 11, etc. This Avellaneda, whoever - he was, called his book “_Segundo_ Tomo del Ingenioso Hidalgo Don - Quixote de la Mancha,” etc., (Tarragona, 1614, 12mo), and printed - it so that it matches very well with the Valencian edition, - 1605, of the First Part of the genuine Don Quixote;--both of - which I have. There are editions of it, Madrid, 1732 and 1805; - and a translation by Le Sage, 1704, in which,--after his manner - of translating,--he alters and enlarges the original work with - little ceremony or good faith. The edition of 1805, in 2 vols. - 12mo, is expurgated. - -Two things are remarkable in relation to this book. The first is, -that, though it is hardly possible its author’s name should not have -been known to many, and especially to Cervantes himself, still it is -only by remote conjecture that it has been sometimes assigned to Luis -de Aliaga, the king’s confessor, a person whom, from his influence at -court, it might not have been deemed expedient openly to attack; and -sometimes to Juan Blanco de Paz, a Dominican friar, who had been an -enemy of Cervantes in Algiers. The second is, that the author seems -to have had hints of the plan Cervantes was pursuing in his Second -Part, then unfinished, and to have used them in an unworthy manner, -especially in making Don Alvaro Tarfe play substantially the same -part that is played by the Duke and Duchess towards Don Quixote, -and in carrying the knight through an adventure at an inn with -play-actors rehearsing one of Lope de Vega’s dramas, almost exactly -like the adventure with the puppet-show man so admirably imagined by -Cervantes.[180] - - [180] Avellaneda, c. 26. - -But this is all that can interest us about the book, which, if not -without merit in some respects, is generally low and dull, and would -now be forgotten, if it were not connected with the fame of Don -Quixote. In its Preface, Cervantes is treated with coarse indignity, -his age, his sufferings, and even his honorable wounds, being sneered -at;[181] and in the body of the book, the character of Don Quixote, -who appears as a vulgar madman, fancying himself to be Achilles, or -any other character that happened to occur to the author,[182] is -so completely without dignity or consistency, that it is clear the -writer did not possess the power of comprehending the genius he at -once basely libelled and meanly attempted to supplant. The best parts -of the work are those in which Sancho is introduced; the worst are its -indecent stories and the adventures of Barbara, who is a sort of brutal -caricature of the graceful Dorothea, and whom the knight mistakes for -Queen Zenobia.[183] But it is almost always wearisome, and comes to a -poor conclusion by the confinement of Don Quixote in a mad-house.[184] - - [181] “Tiene mas lengua que manos,” says Avellaneda, coarsely. - - [182] Chapter 8;--just as he makes Don Quixote fancy a poor - peasant in his melon-garden to be Orlando Furioso (c. 6);--a - little village to be Rome (c. 7);--and its decent priest - alternately Lirgando and the Archbishop Turpin. Perhaps the most - obvious comparison, and the fairest that can be made, between the - two Don Quixotes is in the story of the goats, told by Sancho, - in the twentieth chapter of the First Part in Cervantes, and - the story of the geese, by Sancho, in Avellaneda’s twenty-first - chapter, because the latter professes to improve upon the former. - The failure to do so, however, is obvious enough. - - [183] The whole story of Barbara, beginning with Chapter 22, and - going nearly through the remainder of the work, is miserably - coarse and dull. - - [184] In 1824, a curious attempt was made, probably by some - ingenious German, to add two chapters more to Don Quixote, as if - they had been suppressed when the Second Part was published. But - they were not thought worth printing by the Spanish Academy. See - Don Quixote, ed. Clemencin, Tom. VI. p. 296. - -Cervantes evidently did not receive this affronting production until -he was far advanced in the composition of his Second Part; but in the -fifty-ninth chapter, written apparently when it first reached him, he -breaks out upon it, and from that moment never ceases to persecute it, -in every form of ingenious torture, until, in the seventy-fourth, he -brings his own work to its conclusion. Even Sancho, with his accustomed -humor and simplicity, is let loose upon the unhappy Aragonese; for, -having understood from a chance traveller who first brings the book to -their knowledge, that his wife is called in it Mary Gutierrez, instead -of Teresa Panza,-- - -“‘A pretty sort of a history-writer,’ cried Sancho, ‘and a deal -must he know of our affairs, if he calls Teresa Panza, my wife, Mary -Gutierrez. Take the book again, Sir, and see if I am put into it, and -if he has changed my name, too.’ ‘By what I hear you say, my friend,’ -replied the stranger, ‘you are, no doubt, Sancho Panza, the esquire -of Don Quixote.’ ‘To be sure I am,’ answered Sancho, ‘and proud of -it, too.’ ‘Then, in truth,’ said the gentleman, ‘this new author does -not treat you with the propriety shown in your own person; he makes -you a glutton and a fool; not at all amusing, and quite another thing -from the Sancho described in the first part of your master’s history.’ -‘Well, Heaven forgive him!’ said Sancho; ‘but I think he might have -left me in my corner, without troubling himself about me; for, _Let -him play that knows the way_; and, _Saint Peter at Rome is well off at -home_.’”[185] - - [185] Parte II. c. 59. - -Stimulated by the appearance of this rival work, as well as offended -with its personalities, Cervantes urged forward his own, and, if we may -judge by its somewhat hurried air, brought it to a conclusion sooner -than he had intended.[186] At any rate, as early as February, 1615, -it was finished, and was published in the following autumn; after -which we hear nothing more of Avellaneda, though he had intimated his -purpose to exhibit Don Quixote in another series of adventures at -Avila, Valladolid, and Salamanca.[187] This, indeed, Cervantes took -some pains to prevent; for--besides a little changing his plan, and -avoiding the jousts at Saragossa, because Avellaneda had carried his -hero there[188]--he finally restores Don Quixote, through a severe -illness, to his right mind, and makes him renounce all the follies -of knight-errantry, and die, like a peaceful Christian, in his own -bed;--thus cutting off the possibility of another continuation with the -pretensions of the first. - - [186] See Appendix (E). - - [187] At the end of Cap. 36. - - [188] When Don Quixote understands that Avellaneda has given an - account of his being at Saragossa, he exclaims, “Por el mismo - caso, no pondré los pies en Zaragoza, y así sacaré á la plaza del - mundo la mentira dese historiador moderno.” Parte II. c. 59. - -This latter half of Don Quixote is a contradiction of the proverb -Cervantes cites in it,--that second parts were never yet good for -much. It is, in fact, better than the first. It shows more freedom and -vigor; and if the caricature is sometimes pushed to the very verge of -what is permitted, the invention, the style of thought, and, indeed, -the materials throughout, are richer, and the finish is more exact. -The character of Samson Carrasco, for instance,[189] is a very happy, -though somewhat bold, addition to the original persons of the drama; -and the adventures at the castle of the Duke and Duchess, where Don -Quixote is fooled to the top of his bent; the managements of Sancho -as governor of his island; the visions and dreams of the cave of -Montesinos; the scenes with Roque Guinart, the freebooter, and with -Gines de Passamonte, the galley-slave and puppet-show man; together -with the mock-heroic hospitalities of Don Antonio Moreno at Barcelona, -and the final defeat of the knight there, are all admirable. In truth, -every thing in this Second Part, especially its general outline and -tone, show that time and a degree of success he had not before known -had ripened and perfected the strong manly sense and sure insight into -human nature which are visible everywhere in the works of Cervantes, -and which here become a part, as it were, of his peculiar genius, -whose foundations had been laid, dark and deep, amidst the trials and -sufferings of his various life. - - [189] Don Quixote, Parte II. c. 4. The style of both parts of the - genuine Don Quixote is, as might be anticipated, free, fresh, and - careless;--genial, like the author’s character, full of idiomatic - beauties, and by no means without blemishes. Garcés, in his - “Fuerza y Vigor de la Lengua Castellana,” Tom. II., Prólogo, as - well as throughout that excellent work, has given it, perhaps, - more uniform praise than it deserves;--while Clemencin, in his - notes, is very rigorous and unpardoning to its occasional defects. - -But throughout both parts, Cervantes shows the impulses and instincts -of an original power with most distinctness in his development of the -characters of Don Quixote and Sancho; characters in whose contrast and -opposition is hidden the full spirit of his peculiar humor, and no -small part of what is most characteristic of the entire fiction. They -are his prominent personages. He delights, therefore, to have them as -much as possible in the front of his scene. They grow visibly upon his -favor as he advances, and the fondness of his liking for them makes -him constantly produce them in lights and relations as little foreseen -by himself as they are by his readers. The knight, who seems to have -been originally intended for a parody of the Amadis, becomes gradually -a detached, separate, and wholly independent personage, into whom is -infused so much of a generous and elevated nature, such gentleness and -delicacy, such a pure sense of honor, and such a warm love for whatever -is noble and good, that we feel almost the same attachment to him that -the barber and the curate did, and are almost as ready as his family -was to mourn over his death. - -The case of Sancho is again very similar, and perhaps in some respects -stronger. At first, he is introduced as the opposite of Don Quixote, -and used merely to bring out his master’s peculiarities in a more -striking relief. It is not until we have gone through nearly half -of the First Part that he utters one of those proverbs which form -afterwards the staple of his conversation and humor; and it is not till -the opening of the Second Part, and, indeed, not till he comes forth, -in all his mingled shrewdness and credulity, as governor of Barataria, -that his character is quite developed and completed to the full measure -of its grotesque, yet congruous, proportions. - -Cervantes, in truth, came, at last, to love these creations of his -marvellous power, as if they were real, familiar personages, and to -speak of them and treat them with an earnestness and interest that -tend much to the illusion of his readers. Both Don Quixote and Sancho -are thus brought before us, like such living realities, that, at -this moment, the figures of the crazed, gaunt, dignified knight and -of his round, selfish, and most amusing esquire dwell bodied forth -in the imaginations of more, among all conditions of men throughout -Christendom, than any other of the creations of human talent. The -greatest of the great poets--Homer, Dante, Shakspeare, Milton--have -no doubt risen to loftier heights, and placed themselves in more -imposing relations with the noblest attributes of our nature; but -Cervantes--always writing under the unchecked impulse of his own -genius, and instinctively concentrating in his fiction whatever was -peculiar to the character of his nation--has shown himself of kindred -to all times and all lands; to the humblest degrees of cultivation -as well as to the highest; and has thus, beyond all other writers, -received in return a tribute of sympathy and admiration from the -universal spirit of humanity. - -It is not easy to believe, that, when he had finished such a work, he -was insensible to what he had done. Indeed, there are passages in the -Don Quixote itself which prove a consciousness of his own genius, its -aspirations, and its power.[190] And yet there are, on the other hand, -carelessnesses, blemishes, and contradictions scattered through it, -which seem to show him to have been almost indifferent to contemporary -success or posthumous fame. His plan, which he seems to have modified -more than once while engaged in the composition of the work, is loose -and disjointed; his style, though full of the richest idiomatic -beauties, abounds with inaccuracies; and the facts and incidents that -make up his fiction are full of anachronisms, which Los Rios, Pellicer, -and Eximeno have in vain endeavoured to reconcile, either with the -main current of the story itself, or with one another.[191] Thus, in -the First Part, Don Quixote is generally represented as belonging to -a remote age, and his history is supposed to have been written by an -ancient Arabian author;[192] while, in the examination of his library, -he is plainly contemporary with Cervantes himself, and, after his -defeats, is brought home confessedly in the year 1604. To add further -to this confusion, when we reach the Second Part, which opens only -a month after the conclusion of the First, and continues only a few -weeks, we have, at the side of the same claims of an ancient Arabian -author, a conversation about the expulsion of the Moors,[193] which -happened after 1609, and a criticism on Avellaneda, whose work was -published in 1614.[194] - - [190] The concluding passages of the work, for instance, are in - this tone; and this is the tone of his criticism on Avellaneda. - I do not count in the same sense the passage, in the Second - Part, c. 16, in which Don Quixote is made to boast that thirty - thousand copies had been printed of the First Part, and that - thirty thousand thousands would follow; for this is intended as - the mere rhodomontade of the hero’s folly; but I confess I think - Cervantes is somewhat in earnest when he makes Sancho say to his - master, “I will lay a wager, that, before long, there will not - be a two-penny eating-house, a hedge tavern, or a poor inn, or - barber’s shop, where the history of what we have done shall not - be painted and stuck up.” Parte II. c. 71. - - [191] Los Rios, in his “Análisis,” prefixed to the edition - of the Academy, 1780, undertakes to defend Cervantes on the - authority of the ancients, as if the Don Quixote were a poem, - written in imitation of the Odyssey. Pellicer, in the fourth - section of his “Discurso Preliminar” to his edition of Don - Quixote, 1797, follows much the same course; besides which, at - the end of the fifth volume, he gives what he gravely calls - a “Geographico-historical Description of the Travels of Don - Quixote,” accompanied with a map; as if some of Cervantes’s - geography were not impossible, and as if half his localities were - to be found anywhere but in the imaginations of his readers. On - the ground of such irregularities in his geography, and on other - grounds equally absurd, Nicholas Perez, a Valencian, attacked - Cervantes in the “Anti-Quixote,” the first volume of which was - published in 1805, but was followed by none of the five that - were intended to complete it; and received an answer, quite - satisfactory, but more severe than was needful, in a pamphlet, - published at Madrid in 1806, 12mo, by J. A. Pellicer, without - his name, entitled “Exámen Crítico del Tomo Primero de el - Anti-Quixote.” And finally, Don Antonio Eximeno, in his “Apología - de Miguel de Cervantes,” (Madrid, 1806, 12mo), excuses or defends - every thing in the Don Quixote, giving us a new chronological - plan, (p. 60), with exact astronomical reckonings, (p. 129), - and maintaining, among other wise positions, that Cervantes - _intentionally_ represented Don Quixote to have lived both in an - earlier age and in his own time, in order that curious readers - might be confounded, and, after all, only some imaginary period - be assigned to his hero’s achievements (pp. 19, etc.). All this, - I think, is eminently absurd; but it is the consequence of the - blind admiration with which Cervantes was idolized in Spain - during the latter part of the last century and the beginning of - the present;--itself partly a result of the coldness with which - he had been overlooked by the learned of his countrymen for - nearly a century previous to that period. Don Quixote, Madrid, - 1819, 8vo, Prólogo de la Academia, p. [3]. - - [192] Conde, the learned author of the “Dominacion de los Árabes - en España,” undertakes, in a pamphlet published in conjunction - with J. A. Pellicer, to show that the name of this pretended - Arabic author, _Cid Hamete Benengeli_, is a combination of - Arabic words, meaning _noble, satirical, and unhappy_. (Carta - en Castellano, etc., Madrid, 1800, 12mo, pp. 16-27.) It may - be so; but it is not in character for Cervantes to seek such - refinements, or to make such a display of his little learning, - which does not seem to have extended beyond a knowledge of the - vulgar Arabic spoken in Barbary, the Latin, the Italian, and the - Portuguese. Like Shakspeare, however, Cervantes had read and - remembered nearly all that had been printed in his own language, - and constantly makes the most felicitous allusions to the large - stores of his knowledge of this sort. - - [193] Don Quixote, Parte II. c. 54. - - [194] The criticism on Avellaneda begins, as we have said, Parte - II. c. 59. - -But this is not all. As if still further to accumulate contradictions -and incongruities, the very details of the story he has invented are -often in whimsical conflict with each other, as well as with the -historical facts to which they allude. Thus, on one occasion, the -scenes which he had represented as having occurred in the course of a -single evening and the following morning are said to have occupied two -days;[195] on another, he sets a company down to a late supper, and, -after conversations and stories that must have carried them nearly -through the night, he says, “It began to draw towards evening.”[196] -In different places he calls the same individual by different names, -and--what is rather amusing--once reproaches Avellaneda with a mistake -which was, after all, his own.[197] And finally, having discovered -the inconsequence of saying seven times that Sancho was on his mule -after Gines de Passamonte had stolen it, he took pains, in the only -edition of the First Part that he ever revised, to correct two of his -blunders,--heedlessly overlooking the rest; and when he published -the Second Part, laughed heartily at the whole,--the errors, the -corrections, and all,--as things of little consequence to himself or -any body else.[198] - - [195] Parte I. c. 46. - - [196] “Llegaba ya la noche,” he says in c. 42 of Parte I., when - all that had occurred from the middle of c. 37 had happened after - they were set down to supper. - - [197] Cervantes calls Sancho’s wife by three or four different - names (Parte I. c. 7 and 52, and Parte II. c. 5 and 59); and - Avellaneda having, in some degree, imitated him, Cervantes makes - himself very merry at the confusion; not noticing that the - mistake was really his own. - - [198] The facts referred to are these. Gines de Passamonte, - in the 23d chapter of Part First, (ed. 1605, f. 108), steals - Sancho’s ass. But hardly three leaves farther on, in the same - edition, we find Sancho riding again, as usual, on the poor - beast, which reappears yet six other times out of all reason. In - the edition of 1608, Cervantes corrected _two_ of these careless - mistakes on leaves 109 and 112; but left the _five_ others just - as they stood before; and in Chapters 3 and 27 of the Second - Part, (ed. 1615), jests about the whole matter, but shows no - disposition to attempt further corrections. - -The romance, however, which he threw so carelessly from him, and which, -I am persuaded, he regarded rather as a bold effort to break up the -absurd taste of his time for the fancies of chivalry than as any thing -of more serious import, has been established by an uninterrupted, -and, it may be said, an unquestioned, success ever since, both as -the oldest classical specimen of romantic fiction, and as one of the -most remarkable monuments of modern genius. But though this may be -enough to fill the measure of human fame and glory, it is not all -to which Cervantes is entitled; for, if we would do him the justice -that would have been dearest to his own spirit, and even if we would -ourselves fully comprehend and enjoy the whole of his Don Quixote, -we should, as we read it, bear in mind, that this delightful romance -was not the result of a youthful exuberance of feeling and a happy -external condition, nor composed in his best years, when the spirits -of its author were light and his hopes high; but that--with all its -unquenchable and irresistible humor, with its bright views of the -world, and its cheerful trust in goodness and virtue--it was written in -his old age, at the conclusion of a life nearly every step of which had -been marked with disappointed expectations, disheartening struggles, -and sore calamities; that he began it in a prison, and that it was -finished when he felt the hand of death pressing heavy and cold upon -his heart. If this be remembered as we read, we may feel, as we ought -to feel, what admiration and reverence are due, not only to the living -power of Don Quixote, but to the character and genius of Cervantes;--if -it be forgotten or underrated, we shall fail in regard to both.[199] - - [199] Having expressed so strong an opinion of Cervantes’s - merits, I cannot refuse myself the pleasure of citing the words - of the modest and wise Sir William Temple, who, when speaking - of works of satire, and rebuking Rabelais for his indecency and - profaneness, says: “The matchless writer of Don Quixote is much - more to be admired for having made up so excellent a composition - of satire or ridicule without those ingredients; and seems to be - the best and highest strain that ever has _or will be_ reached - by that vein.” Works, London, 1814, 8vo, Vol. III. p. 436. See - Appendix (E). - - - - -CHAPTER XIII. - -LOPE DE VEGA.--HIS EARLY LIFE.--A SOLDIER.--HE WRITES THE -ARCADIA.--MARRIES.--HAS A DUEL.--FLIES TO VALENCIA.--DEATH OF -HIS WIFE.--HE SERVES IN THE ARMADA.--RETURNS TO MADRID.--MARRIES -AGAIN.--DEATH OF HIS SONS.--HE BECOMES RELIGIOUS.--HIS POSITION AS A -MAN OF LETTERS.--HIS SAN ISIDRO, HERMOSURA DE ANGÉLICA, DRAGONTEA, -PEREGRINO EN SU PATRIA, AND JERUSALEN CONQUISTADA. - - -It is impossible to speak of Cervantes as the great genius of the -Spanish nation without recalling Lope de Vega, the rival who far -surpassed him in contemporary popularity, and rose, during the lifetime -of both, to a degree of fame which no Spaniard had yet attained, and -which has been since reached by few of any country. To the examination, -therefore, of this great man’s claims--which extend to almost every -department of the national literature--we naturally turn, after -examining those of the author of Don Quixote. - -Lope Felix de Vega Carpio was born on the 25th of November, 1562, at -Madrid, whither his father had recently removed, almost by accident, -from the old family estate of Vega, in the picturesque valley of -Carriedo.[200] From his earliest youth he discovered extraordinary -powers. At five years of age, we are assured by his friend Montalvan, -that he could not only read Latin as well as Spanish, but that he had -such a passion for poetry as to pay his more advanced school-fellows -with a share of his breakfast for writing down the verses he dictated -to them, before he had learned to do it for himself.[201] His father, -who, he intimates, was a poet,[202] and who was much devoted to -works of charity in the latter years of his life, died when he was -very young, and left, besides Lope, a son who perished in the Armada -in 1588, and a daughter who died in 1601. In the period immediately -following the father’s death, the family seems to have been scattered -by poverty; and during this interval Lope probably lived with his -uncle, the Inquisitor, Don Miguel de Carpio, of whom he long afterwards -speaks with great respect.[203] - - [200] There is a life of Lope de Vega, which was first published - in a single volume, by the third Lord Holland, in 1806, and - again, with the addition of a life of Guillen de Castro, in two - volumes, 8vo, London, 1817. It is a pleasant book, and contains - a good notice of both its subjects, and judicious criticisms on - their works; but it is quite as interesting for the glimpses it - gives of the fine accomplishments and generous spirit of its - author, who spent some time in Spain when he was about thirty - years old, and never afterwards ceased to take an interest in its - affairs and literature. He was much connected with Jovellanos, - Blanco White, and other distinguished Spaniards; not a few - of whom, in the days of disaster that fell on their country - during the French invasion, and the subsequent misgovernment - of Ferdinand VII., enjoyed the princely hospitality of Holland - House, where the benignant and frank kindliness of its noble - master shed a charm and a grace over what was most intellectual - and elevated in European society that could be given by nothing - else. - - Lope’s own account of his origin and birth, in a poetical epistle - to a Peruvian lady, who addressed him in verse, under the name - of “Amarylis,” is curious. The correspondence is found in the - first volume of his Obras Sueltas, (Madrid, 1776-1779, 21 tom. - 4to), Epístolas XV. and XVI.; and was first printed by Lope, if - I mistake not, in 1624. It is now referred to for the following - important lines:-- - - Tiene su silla en la bordada alfombra - De Castilla el valor de la montaña, - Que el valle de Carriedo España nombra. - Allí otro tiempo se cifraba España; - Allí tuve principio; mas que importa - Nacer laurel y ser humilde caña? - Falta dinero allí, la tierra es corta; - Vino mi padre del solar de Vega: - Assí á los pobres la nobleza exhorta; - Siguióle hasta Madrid, de zelos ciega, - Su amorosa muger, porque él queria - Una Española Helena, entonces Griega. - Hicieron amistades, y aquel dia - Fué piedra en mi primero fundamento - La paz de su zelosa fantasía, - En fin por zelos soy; que nacimiento! - Imaginalde vos que haver nacido - De tan inquieta causa fué portento. - - And then he goes on with a pleasant account of his making verses - as soon as he could speak; of his early passion for Raymond - Lulli, the metaphysical doctor then so much in fashion; of his - subsequent studies, his family, etc. Lope loved to refer to - his origin in the mountains. He speaks of it in his “Laurel - de Apolo,” (Silva VIII.), and in two or three of his plays he - makes his heroes boast that they came from that part of Spain to - which he traced his own birth. Thus, in “La Venganza Venturosa,” - (Comedias, 4to, Madrid, Tom. X., 1620, f. 33. b), Feliciano, a - high-spirited old knight, says,-- - - El noble solar que heredo, - No lo daré á rico infame, - Porque nadie me lo llame - En el valle de Carriedo. - - And again, in the opening of the “Premio del Bien Hablar,” (4to, - Madrid, Tom. XXI, 1635, f. 159), where he seems to describe his - own case and character:-- - - Nací en Madrid, aunque son - En Galicia los solares - De mi nacimiento noble, - De mis abuelos y padres. - Para noble nacimiento - Ay en España tres partes, - Galicia, Vizcaya, Asturias, - O ya montañas le llaman. - - The valley of Carriedo is said to be very beautiful, and Miñano, - in his “Diccionario Geográfico,” (Madrid, 8vo, Tom. II., 1826, p. - 40), describes La Vega as occupying a fine position on the banks - of the Sandoñana. - - [201] “Before he knew how to write, he loved verses so much,” - says Montalvan, his friend and executor, “that he shared his - breakfast with the older boys, in order to get them to take down - for him what he dictated.” Fama Póstuma, Obras Sueltas, Tom. XX. - p. 28. - - [202] In the “Laurel de Apolo” he says he found rough copies of - verses among his father’s papers, that seemed to him better than - his own. - - [203] See Dedication of the “Hermosa Ester” in Comedias, Madrid, - 4to, Tom. XV., 1621. - -But though the fortunes of his house were broken, his education was -not neglected. He was sent to the Imperial College at Madrid, and -in two years made extraordinary progress in ethics and in elegant -literature, avoiding, as he tells us, the mathematics, which he found -unsuited to his humor, if not to his genius. Accomplishments, too, -were added,--fencing, dancing, and music; and he was going on in a way -to gratify the wishes of his friends, when, at the age of fourteen, -a wild, giddy desire to see the world took possession of him; and, -accompanied by a schoolfellow, he ran away from college. At first, they -went on foot for two or three days. Then they bought a sorry horse, -and travelled as far as Astorga, in the northwestern part of Spain, -not far from the old fief of the Vega family; but there, growing tired -of their journey, and missing more seriously than they had anticipated -the comforts to which they had been accustomed, they determined to come -home. At Segovia, they attempted, in a silversmith’s shop, to exchange -some doubloons and a gold chain for small coin, but were suspected -to be thieves and arrested. The magistrate, however, before whom -they were brought, being satisfied that they were guilty of nothing -but folly, released them; though, wishing to do a kindness to their -friends, as well as to themselves, he sent an officer of justice to -deliver them safely in Madrid.[204] - - [204] In the “Fama Póstuma.” - -At the age of fifteen, as he tells us in one of his poetical epistles, -he was serving as a soldier against the Portuguese in Terceira;[205] -but only a little later than this, we know that he filled some place -about the person of Gerónimo Manrique, Bishop of Avila, to whose -kindness he acknowledged himself to be much indebted, and in whose -honor he wrote several eclogues, and inserted a long passage in his -“Jerusalem.”[206] Under the patronage of Manrique, he was, probably, -sent to the University of Alcalá, where he certainly studied some time, -and not only took the degree of Bachelor, but was near submitting -himself to the irrevocable tonsure of the priesthood.[207] - - [205] This curious passage is in the Epistle, or Metro Lyrico, to - D. Luis de Haro, Obras Sueltas, Tom. IX. p. 379:-- - - Ni mi fortuna muda - Ver en tres lustros de mi edad primera - Con la espada desnuda - Al bravo Portugues en la Tercera, - Ni despues en las naves Españolas - Del mar Ingles los puertos y las olas. - - I do not quite make out how this can have happened in 1577; - but the assertion seems unequivocal. Schack (Geschichte der - dramatischen Literatur in Spanien, Berlin, 1845, 8vo, Tom. II. p. - 164) thinks the fifteen years here referred to are intended to - embrace the fifteen years of Lope’s _life as a soldier_, which he - extends from Lope’s eleventh year to his twenty-sixth,--1573 to - 1588. But Schack’s ground for this is a mistake he had himself - previously made in supposing the Dedication of the “Gatomachia” - to be addressed to Lope _himself_; whereas it is addressed to - his _son_, named _Lope_, who served, at the age of _fifteen_, - under the Marquis of Santa Cruz, as we shall see hereafter. The - “Cupid in arms,” therefore, referred to in this Dedication, fails - to prove what Schack thought it proved; and leaves the “fifteen - years” as dark a point as ever. See Schack pp. 157, etc. - - [206] These are the earliest works of Lope mentioned by his - eulogists and biographers, (Obras Sueltas, Tom. XX. p. 30), and - must be dated as early as 1582 or 1583. The “Pastoral de Jacinto” - is in the Comedias, Tom. XVIII., but was not printed till 1623. - - [207] In the epistle to Doctor Gregorio de Ángulo, (Obras - Sueltas, Tom. I. p. 420), he says: “Don Gerónimo Manrique brought - me up. I studied in Alcalá, and took the degree of Bachelor; I - was even on the point of becoming a priest; but I fell blindly - in love, God forgive it; I am married now, and he that is so ill - off fears nothing.” Elsewhere he speaks of his obligations to - Manrique more warmly; for instance, in his Dedication of “Pobreza - no es Vileza,” (Comedias, 4to, Tom. XX., Madrid, 1629), where his - language is very strong. - -But, as we learn from some of his own accounts, he now fell in love. -Indeed, if we are to believe the tales he tells of himself in his -“Dorothea,” which was written in his youth and printed with the -sanction of his old age, he suffered great extremity from that passion -when he was only seventeen. Some of the stories of that remarkable -dramatic romance, in which he figures under the name of Fernando, are, -it may be hoped, fictitious;[208] though it must be admitted that -others, like the scene between the hero and Dorothea, in the first act, -the account of his weeping behind the door with Marfisa, on the day she -was to be married to another, and most of the narrative parts in the -fourth act, have an air of reality about them that hardly permits us to -doubt they were true.[209] Taken together, however, they do him little -credit as a young man of honor and a cavalier. - - [208] See Dorotea, Acto I. sc. 6, in which, having coolly made up - his mind to abandon Marfisa, he goes to her and pretends he has - killed one man and wounded another in a night brawl, obtaining - by this base falsehood the unhappy creature’s jewels, which he - needed to pay his expenses, and which she gave him out of her - overflowing affection. - - [209] Act. I. sc. 5, and Act. IV. sc. 1, have a great air of - reality about them. But other parts, like that of the discourses - and troubles that came from giving to one person the letter - intended for another, are quite too improbable and too much like - the inventions of some of his own plays, to be trusted. (Act. V. - sc. 3, etc.) M. Fauriel, however, whose opinion on such subjects - is always to be respected, regards the whole as true. Revue des - Deux Mondes, Sept. 1, 1839. - -From Alcalá Lope came to Madrid, and attached himself to the Duke of -Alva; not, as it has been generally supposed, the remorseless favorite -of Philip the Second, but Antonio, the great Duke’s grandson, who had -succeeded to his ancestor’s fortunes without inheriting his formidable -spirit.[210] Lope was much liked by his new patron, and rose to be -his confidential secretary; living with him both at court and in his -retirement at Alva, where letters seem, for a time, to have taken the -place of arms and affairs. At the suggestion of the Duke, he wrote -his “Arcadia,” a pastoral romance, making a volume of considerable -size; and though chiefly in prose, yet with poetry of various kinds -freely intermixed. Such compositions, as we have seen, were already -in favor in Spain;--the last of them, the “Galatea” of Cervantes, -published in 1584, giving, perhaps, occasion to the Arcadia, which -seems to have been written almost immediately afterwards. Most of them -have one striking peculiarity; that of concealing, under the forms of -pastoral life in ancient times, adventures which had really occurred -in the times of their respective authors. The Duke was desirous to -figure among these somewhat fantastic shepherds and shepherdesses, and -therefore induced Lope to write the Arcadia, and make him its hero, -furnishing some of his own experiences as materials for the work. At -least, so the affair was understood both in Spain and France, when -the Arcadia was published, in 1598; besides which, Lope himself, a -few years later, in the Preface to some miscellaneous poems, tells us -expressly, “The Arcadia is a true history.”[211] - - [210] Lord Holland treats him as the _old_ Duke (Life of Lope de - Vega, London, 1817, 2 vols., 8vo); and Southey (Quarterly Review, - 1817, Vol. XVIII. p. 2) undertakes to show that it could be no - other; while Nicolas Antonio (Bib. Nov., Tom. II. p. 74) speaks - as if he were doubtful, though he inclines to think it was the - elder. But there is no doubt about it. Lope repeatedly speaks of - Antonio, _the grandson_, as his patron; e. g. in his epistle to - the Bishop of Oviedo, where he says,-- - - Y yo del Duque _Antonio_ dexé el Alva. - - Obras Sueltas, Tom. I. p. 289. - - He, however, praised the elder Duke abundantly in the second, - third, and fifth books of the “Arcadia,” giving in the last an - account of his death and of the glories of _his grandson_, whom - he again notices as his patron. Indeed, the case is quite plain, - and it is only singular that it should need an explanation; for - the idea of making the Duke of Alva, who was minister to Philip - II., a shepherd, seems to be a caricature or an absurdity, or - both. It is, however, the common impression, and may be found - again in the Semanario Pintoresco, 1839, p. 18. The younger Duke, - on the contrary, loved letters, and, if I mistake not, there is a - _Cancion_ of his in the Cancionero General of 1573, f. 178. - - [211] The truth of the stories, or some of the stories, in the - Arcadia may be inferred from the mysterious intimations of Lope - in the Prólogo to the first edition; in the “Egloga á Claudio”; - and in the Preface to the “Rimas,” (1602), put into the shape of - a letter to Juan de Arguijo. Quintana, too, in the Dedication - to Lope of his “Experiencias de Amor y Fortuna,” (1626), says - of the Arcadia, that, “under a rude covering, are hidden souls - that are noble and events that really happened.” See, also, Lope, - Obras Sueltas, Tom. XIX. p. xxii., and Tom. II. p. 456. That it - was believed to be true in France is apparent from the Preface - to old Lancelot’s translation, under the title of “Délices de la - Vie Pastorale” (1624). It is important to settle the fact; for it - must be referred to hereafter. - -But whether it be throughout a true history or not, it is a very -unsatisfactory one. It is commonly regarded as an imitation of its -popular namesake, the “Arcadia” of Sannazaro, of which a Spanish -translation had appeared in 1547; but it much more resembles the -similar works of Montemayor and Cervantes, both in story and style. -Metaphysics and magic, as in the “Diana” and “Galatea,” are strangely -mixed up with the shows of a pastoral life; and, as in them, we listen -with little interest to the perplexities and sorrows of a lover who, -from mistaking the feelings of his mistress, treats her in such a way -that she marries another, and then, by a series of enchantments, is -saved from the effects of his own despair, and his heart is washed so -clean, that, like Orlando’s, there is not one spot of love left in it. -All this, of course, is unnatural; for the personages it represents are -such as can never have existed, and they talk in a language strained -above the tone becoming prose; all propriety of costume and manners -is neglected; so much learning is crowded into it, that a dictionary -is placed at the end to make it intelligible; and it is drawn out to -a length which now seems quite absurd, though the editions it soon -passed through show that it was not too long for the taste of its -time. It should be added, however, that it occasionally furnishes -happy specimens of a glowing declamatory eloquence, and that in its -descriptions of natural scenery there is often great felicity of -imagery and illustration.[212] - - [212] The Arcadia fills the sixth volume of Lope’s Obras - Sueltas. Editions of it were printed in 1599, 1601, 1602, twice, - 1603, 1605, 1612, 1615, 1617, and often since, showing a great - popularity. - -About the time when Lope was writing the Arcadia, he married Isabela de -Urbina, daughter of the King-at-arms to Philip the Second and Philip -the Third; a lady, we are told, not a little loved and admired in the -high circle to which she belonged.[213] But his domestic happiness -was soon interrupted. He fell into a quarrel with a nobleman of no -very good repute; lampooned him in a satirical ballad; was challenged, -and wounded his adversary;--in consequence of all which, and of other -follies of his youth that seem now to have been brought up against him, -he was cast into prison.[214] He was not, however, left without a true -friend. Claudio Conde, who on more than one occasion showed a genuine -attachment to Lope’s person, accompanied him to his cell, and, when he -was released, went with him to Valencia, where Lope himself was treated -with extraordinary kindness and consideration, though exposed, he says, -at times, to dangers as great as those from which he had suffered so -much at Madrid.[215] - - [213] Her father, Diego de Urbina, was a person of some - consequence, and figures among the more distinguished natives of - Madrid in Baena, “Hijos de Madrid.” - - [214] Montalvan, it should be noted, seems willing to slide over - these “frowns of fortune, brought on by his youth and aggravated - by his enemies.” But Lope attributes to them his exile, which - came, he says, from “love in early youth, whose trophies were - exile and its results tragedies.” (Epístola Primera á D. Ant. de - Mendoza.) But he also attributes it to false friends, in the fine - ballad where he represents himself as looking down upon the ruins - of Saguntum and moralizing on his own exile:--“Bad friends,” he - says, “have brought me here.” (Obras Sueltas, Tom. XVII. p. 434, - and Romancero General, 1602, f. 108.) But again, in the Second - Part of his “Philomena,” 1621, (Obras Sueltas, Tom. II. p. 452), - he traces his troubles to his earlier adventures; “love to hatred - turned.” “Love-vengeance,” he declares, “_disguised as justice_, - exiled me.” - - [215] His relations with Claudio are noticed by himself in the - Dedication to that “true friend,” as he justly calls him, of the - well-known play, “Courting his own Misfortunes”; “which title,” - he adds, “is well suited to those adventures, when, with so - much love, you accompanied me to prison, from which we went to - Valencia, where we ran into no less dangers than we had incurred - at home, and where I repaid you by liberating you from the tower - of Serranos [a jail at Valencia] and the severe sentence you were - there undergoing,” etc. Comedias, Tom. XV., Madrid, 1621, f. 26. - -The exile of Lope lasted several years, and was chiefly passed at -Valencia, then in literary reputation next after Madrid among the -cities of Spain. Nor does he seem to have missed the advantages it -offered him; for it was, no doubt, during his residence there that he -formed a friendship with Gaspar de Aguilar and Guillen de Castro, of -which many traces are to be found in his works; while, on the other -hand, it is perhaps not unreasonable to assume that the theatre, which -was just then beginning to take its form in Valencia, was indebted -to the fresh power of Lope for an impulse it never afterwards lost. -At any rate, we know that he was much connected with the Valencian -poets, and that, a little later, they were among his marked followers -in the drama. But his exile was still an exile,--bitter and wearisome -to him,--and he gladly returned to Madrid as soon as he could venture -there safely. - -His home, however, soon ceased to be what it had been. His young wife -died in less than a year after his return, and one of his friends, -Pedro de Medinilla, joined him in an eclogue to her memory, which is -dedicated to Lope’s patron, Antonio Duke of Alva,[216]--a poem of -little value, and one that does much less justice to his feelings -than some of his numerous verses to the same lady, under the name of -Belisa, which are scattered through his own works and found in the old -Romanceros.[217] - - [216] Obras Sueltas, Tom. IV. pp. 430-443. _Belardo_, the name - Lope bears in this eclogue, is the one he gave himself in the - Arcadia, as may be seen from the sonnet prefixed to that pastoral - by Amphryso, or Antonio Duke of Alva; and it is the poetical - name Lope bore to the time of his death, as may be seen from the - beginning of the third act of the drama in honor of his memory. - (Obras Sueltas, Tom. XX. p. 494.) Even his Peruvian Amaryllis - knew it, and under this name addressed to him the poetical - epistle already referred to. This fact--that Belardo was his - recognized poetical appellation--should be borne in mind when - reading the poetry of his time, where it frequently recurs. - - [217] _Belisa_ is an anagram of Isabela, the first name of his - wife, as is plain from a sonnet on the death of her mother, - Theodora Urbina, where he speaks of her as “the heavenly image - of his Belisa, whose silent words and gentle smiles had been the - consolation of his exile.” (Obras Sueltas, Tom. IV. p. 278.) - There are several ballads connected with her in the Romancero - General, and a beautiful one in the third of Lope’s Tales, - written evidently while he was with the Duke of Alva. Obras, Tom. - VIII. p. 148. - -It must be admitted, however, that there is some confusion in this -matter. The ballads bear witness to the jealousy felt by Isabela on -account of his relations with another fair lady, who passes under the -name of Filis,--a jealousy which seems to have caused him no small -embarrassment; for while, in some of his verses, he declares it has -no foundation, in others he admits and justifies it.[218] But however -this may have been, a very short time after Isabela’s death he made no -secret of his passion for the rival who had disturbed her peace. He was -not, however, successful. For some reason or other, the lady rejected -his suit. He was in despair, as his ballads prove; but his despair did -not last long. In less than a year from the death of Isabela it was all -over, and he had again taken, to amuse and distract his thoughts, the -genuine Spanish resource of becoming a soldier. - - [218] For instance, in the fine ballad beginning, “Llenos de - lágrimas tristes,” (Romancero of 1602, f. 47), he says to Belisa, - “Let Heaven condemn me to eternal woe, if I do not detest Phillis - and adore thee”;--which may be considered as fully contradicted - by the equally fine ballad addressed to Filis, (f. 13), “Amada - pastora mia”; as well as by six or eight others of the same sort; - some more, some less tender. - -The moment in which he made this decisive change in his life was one -when a spirit of military adventure was not unlikely to take possession -of a character always seeking excitement; for it was just as Philip the -Second was preparing the portentous Armada, with which he hoped, by one -blow, to overthrow the power of Elizabeth and bring back a nation of -heretics to the bosom of the Church. Lope, therefore, as he tells us in -one of his eclogues, finding the lady of his love would not smile upon -him, took his musket on his shoulder, amidst the universal enthusiasm -of 1588, marched to Lisbon, and, accompanied by his faithful friend -Conde, went on board the magnificent armament destined for England, -where, he says, he used up for wadding the verses he had written in his -lady’s praise.[219] - - [219] - Volando en tacos del cañon violento - Los papeles de Filis por el viento. - - Egloga á Claudio, Obras, Tom. IX. p. 356. - -A succession of disasters followed this ungallant jest. His brother, -from whom he had long been separated, and whom he now found as a -lieutenant on board the Saint John, in which he himself served, died -in his arms of a wound received during a fight with the Dutch. Other -great troubles crowded after this one. Storms scattered the unwieldy -fleet; calamities of all kinds confounded prospects that had just -before been so full of glory; and Lope must have thought himself but -too happy, when, after the Armada had been dispersed or destroyed, he -was brought back in safety, first to Cadiz and afterwards to Toledo -and Madrid, reaching the last city, probably, in 1590. It is a curious -fact, however, in his personal history, that, amidst all the terrors -and sufferings of this disastrous expedition, he found leisure and -quietness of spirit to write the greater part of his long poem on -“The Beauty of Angelica,” which he intended as a continuation of the -“Orlando Furioso.”[220] - - [220] One of his poetical panegyrists, after his death, speaking - of the Armada, says: “There and in Cadiz he wrote the Angelica.” - (Obras, Tom. XX. p. 348.) The remains of the Armada returned - to Cadiz in September, 1588, having sailed from Lisbon in the - preceding May; so that Lope was probably at sea about four - months. Further notices of his naval service may be found in - the third canto of his “Corona Trágica,” and the second of his - “Philomena.” - -But Lope could not well return from such an expedition without -something of that feeling of disappointment which, with the nation -at large, accompanied its failure. Perhaps it was owing to this that -he entered again on the poor course of life of which he had already -made an experiment with the Duke of Alva, and became secretary, first -of the Marquis of Malpica and afterwards of the generous Marquis of -Sarria, who, as Count de Lemos, was, a little later, the patron of -Cervantes and the Argensolas. While he was in the service of the last -distinguished nobleman, and already known as a dramatist, he became -attached to Doña Juana de Guardio, a lady of good family in Madrid, -whom he married in 1597; and soon afterwards leaving the Count de -Lemos, had never any other patrons than those whom, like the Duke de -Sessa, his literary fame procured for him.[221] - - [221] Don Pedro Fernandez de Castro, Count of Lemos and Marquis - of Sarria, who was born in Madrid about 1576, married a daughter - of the Duke de Lerma, the reigning favorite and minister of the - time, with whose fortunes he rose, and in whose fall he was - ruined. The period of his highest honors was that following - his appointment as Viceroy of Naples, in 1610, where he kept a - literary court of no little splendor, that had for its chief - directors the two Argensolas, and with which, at one time, - Quevedo was connected. The Count died in 1622, at Madrid. Lope’s - principal connections with him were when he was young, and before - he had come to his title as Count de Lemos. He records himself - as “Secretary of the Marquis of Sarria,” in a sonnet prefixed to - the “Peregrino Indiano” of Saavedra, 1599, and on the title-page - of the “San Isidro,” printed the same year; besides which, many - years afterwards, when writing to the Count de Lemos, he says: - “You know how I love and reverence you, and that, many a night, I - have slept at your feet like a dog.” Obras Sueltas, Tom. XVII. p. - 403. Clemencin, Don Quixote, Parte II., note to the Dedicatoria. - -Lope had now reached the age of thirty-five, and seems to have enjoyed -a few years of happiness, to which he often alludes, and which, in -two of his poetical epistles, he has described with much gentleness -and grace.[222] But it did not last long. A son, Carlos, to whom he -was tenderly attached, lived only to his seventh year;[223] and the -mother, broken down by grief at his loss, soon died, giving birth, at -the same time, to Feliciana,[224] who was afterwards married to Don -Luis de Usategui, the editor of some of his father-in-law’s posthumous -works. Lope seems to have felt bitterly his desolate estate after -the death of his wife and son, and speaks of it with much feeling in -a poem addressed to his faithful friend Conde.[225] But in 1605 an -illegitimate daughter was born to him, whom he named Marcela,--the same -to whom, in 1620, he dedicated one of his plays, with extraordinary -expressions of affection and admiration,[226] and who, in 1621, took -the veil and retired from the world, renewing griefs which, with his -views of religion, he desired rather to bear with patience, and even -with pride.[227] In 1606, the same lady--Doña María de Luxan--who was -the mother of Marcela bore him a son, whom he named Lope, and who, at -the age of fourteen, appears among the poets at the canonization of San -Isidro.[228] But though his father had fondly destined him for a life -of letters, he insisted on becoming a soldier, and, after serving under -the Marquis of Santa Cruz against the Dutch and the Turks, perished, -when only fifteen years old, in a vessel which was totally lost at sea -with all on board.[229] Lope poured forth his sorrows in a piscatory -eclogue, less full of feeling than the verses in which he describes -Marcela taking the veil.[230] - - [222] Epístola al Doctor Mathias de Porras, and Epístola á - Amarylis; to which may be added the pleasant epistle to Francisco - de Rioja, in which he describes his garden and the friends he - received in it. - - [223] On this son, see Obras, Tom. I. p. 472;--the tender - _Cancion_ on his death, Tom. XIII. p. 365;--and the beautiful - Dedication to him of the “Pastores de Belen,” Tom. XVI. p. xi. - - [224] Obras, Tom. I. p. 472, and Tom. XX. p. 34. - - [225] Obras, Tom. IX. p. 355. - - [226] “El Remedio de la Desdicha,” a play whose story is from - the “Diana” of Montemayor, (Comedias, Tom. XIII., Madrid, 1620), - in the Preface to which he begs his daughter to read and correct - it; and prays that she may be happy in spite of the perfections - which render earthly happiness almost impossible to her. She long - survived her father, and died, much reverenced for her piety, in - 1688. - - [227] The description of his grief and of his religious feelings - as she took the veil is solemn, but he dwells a little too - complacently on the splendor given to the occasion by the king, - and by his patron, the Duke de Sessa, who desired to honor thus a - favorite and famous poet. Obras, Tom. I. pp. 313-316. - - [228] Obras, Tom. XI. pp. 495 and 596, where his father jests - about it. It is a _Glosa_. He is called Lope de Vega Carpio, _el - mozo_; and it is added, that he was not yet fourteen years old. - - [229] Obras, Tom. I. pp. 472 and 316. - - [230] In the eclogue, (Obras, Tom. X. p. 362), he is called, - after both his father and his mother, Don Lope Felix del Carpio y - Luxan. - -After the birth of these two children, we hear nothing more of their -mother. Indeed, soon afterwards, Lope, no longer at an age to be -deluded by his passions, began, according to the custom of his time -and country, to turn his thoughts seriously to religion. He devoted -himself to pious works, as his father had done; visited the hospitals -regularly; resorted daily to a particular church; entered a secular -religious congregation; and finally, at Toledo, in 1609, received -the tonsure and became a priest. The next year he joined the same -brotherhood of which Cervantes was afterwards a member.[231] In 1625, -he entered the congregation of the native priesthood of Madrid, and was -so faithful and exact in the performance of his duties, that, in 1628, -he was elected to be its chief chaplain. He is, therefore, for the -twenty-six latter years of his long life, to be regarded as strictly -connected with the Spanish Church, and as devoting to its daily service -some portion of his time. - - [231] Pellicer, ed. Don Quixote, Tom. I. p. cxcix. - -But we must not misunderstand the position in which, through these -relations, Lope had now placed himself, nor overrate the sacrifices -they required of him. Such a connection with the Church, in his -time, by no means involved an abandonment of the world,--hardly an -abandonment of its pleasures. On the contrary, it was rather regarded -as one of the means for securing the leisure suited to a life of -letters and social ease. As such, unquestionably, Lope employed it; -for, during the long series of years in which he was a priest, and gave -regular portions of his time to offices of devotion and charity, he was -at the height of favor and fashion as a poet. And, what may seem to us -more strange, it was during the same period he produced the greater -number of his dramas, not a few of whose scenes offend against the -most unquestioned precepts of Christian morality, while, at the same -time, in their title-pages and dedications, he carefully sets forth his -clerical distinctions, giving peculiar prominence to his place as a -Familiar or Servant of the Holy Office of the Inquisition.[232] - - [232] I notice the title _Familiar del Santo Oficio_ as early as - the “Jerusalen Conquistada,” 1609. Frequently afterwards, as in - the Comedias, Tom. II., VI., XI., etc., he puts no other title to - his name, as if this were glory enough. In his time, _Familiar_ - meant a person who could at any moment be called into the service - of the Inquisition; but had no special office, and no duties, - till he was summoned. Covarruvias, _ad verb_. - -It was, however, during the happier period of his married life that he -laid the foundations for his general popularity as a poet. His subject -was well chosen. It was that of the great fame and glory of San Isidro -the Ploughman. This remarkable personage, who plays so distinguished a -part in the ecclesiastical history of Madrid, is supposed to have been -born in the twelfth century, on what afterwards became the site of that -city, and to have led a life so eminently pious, that the angels came -down and ploughed his grounds for him, which the holy man neglected in -order to devote his time to religious duties. From an early period, -therefore, he enjoyed much consideration, and was regarded as the -patron and friend of the whole territory, as well as of the city of -Madrid itself. But his great honors date from the year 1598. In that -year Philip the Third was dangerously ill at a neighbouring village; -the city sent out the remains of Isidro in procession to avert the -impending calamity; the king recovered; and for the first time the holy -man became widely famous and fashionable. - -Lope seized the occasion, and wrote a long poem on the life of “Isidro -the Ploughman,” or Farmer; so called to distinguish him from the -learned saint of Seville who bore the same name. It consists of ten -thousand lines, exactly divided among the ten books of which it is -composed; and yet it was finished within the year, and published in -1599. It has no high poetical merit, and does not, indeed, aspire to -any. But it was intended to be popular, and succeeded. It is written in -the old national five-line stanza, carefully rhymed throughout; and, -notwithstanding the apparent difficulty of the measure, it everywhere -affords unequivocal proof of that facility and fluency of versification -for which Lope became afterwards so famous. Its tone, which, on the -most solemn matters of religion, is so familiar that we should now -consider it indecorous, was no doubt in full consent with the spirit -of the times and one main cause of its success. Thus, in Canto Third, -where the angels come to Isidro and his wife Mary, who are too poor to -entertain them, Lope describes the scene--which ought to be as solemn -as any thing in the poem, since it involves the facts on which Isidro’s -claim to canonization was subsequently admitted--in the following light -verses, which may serve as a specimen of the measure and style of the -whole:-- - - Three angels, sent by grace divine, - Once on a time blessed Abraham’s sight;-- - To Mamre came that vision bright, - Whose number should our thoughts incline - To Him of whom the Prophets write. - But six now came to Isidore! - And, heavenly powers! what consternation! - Where is his hospitable store? - Surely they come with consolation, - And not to get a timely ration. - Still, if in haste unleavened bread - Mary, like Sarah, now could bake, - Or Isidore, like Abraham, take - The lamb that in its pasture fed, - And honey from its waxen cake, - I know he would his guests invite;-- - But whoso ploughs not, it is right - His sufferings the price should pay;-- - And how has Isidore a way - Six such to harbour for a night? - And yet he stands forgiven there, - Though friendly bidding he make none; - For poverty prevents alone;-- - But, Isidore, thou still canst spare - What surest rises to God’s throne. - Let Abraham to slay arise; - But, on the ground, in sacrifice, - Give, Isidore, thy soul to God, - Who never doth the heart despise - That bows beneath his rod. - He did not ask for Isaac’s death; - He asked for Abraham’s willing faith.[233] - - [233] - Tres ángeles á Abraham - Una vez aparecieron, - Que á verle á Mambre vinieron: - Bien que á este número dan - El que en figura trujeron. - Seis vienen á Isidro á ver: - O gran Dios, que puede ser? - Donde los ha de alvergar? - Mas vienen á consolar, - Que no vienen á comer. - Si como Sara, María - Cocer luego pan pudiera, - Y él como Abraham truxera - El cordero que pacia, - Y la miel entre la cera, - Yo sé que los convidara. - Mas quando lo que no ara. - Le dicen que ha de pagar; - Como podrá convidar - A seis de tan buena cara? - Disculpado puede estar, - Puesto que no los convide, - Pues su pobreza lo impide, - Isidro, aunque puede dar - Muy bien lo que Dios le pide. - Vaya Abraham al ganado, - Y en el suelo humilde echado, - Dadle el alma, Isidro, vos, - Que nunca desprecia Dios - El corazon humillado. - No queria el sacrificio - De Isaac, sino la obediencia - De Abraham. - - Obras Sueltas, Tom. XI. p. 69. - -No doubt, some of the circumstances in the poem are invented for the -occasion, though there is in the margin much parade of authorities for -almost every thing;--a practice very common at that period, to which -Lope afterwards conformed only once or twice. But however we may now -regard the “San Isidro,” it was printed four times in less than nine -years; and, by addressing itself more to the national and popular -feeling than the “Arcadia” had done, it became the foundation for its -author’s fame as the favorite poet of the whole nation. - -At this time, however, he was beginning to be so much occupied with the -theatre, and so successful, that he had little leisure for any thing -else. His next considerable publication,[234] therefore, was not till -1602, when the “Hermosura de Angélica,” or the Beauty of Angelica, -appeared; a poem already mentioned as having been chiefly written -while its author served at sea in the ill-fated Armada. It somewhat -presumptuously claims to be a continuation of the “Orlando Furioso,” -and is stretched out through twenty cantos, comprehending above eleven -thousand lines in octave verse. In the Preface, he says he wrote it -“under the rigging of the galleon Saint John and the banners of the -Catholic king,” and that “he and the generalissimo of the expedition -finished their labors together”;--a remark which must not be taken -too strictly, since both the thirteenth and twentieth cantos contain -passages relating to events in the reign of Philip the Third. Indeed, -in the Dedication, he tells his patron that he had suffered the whole -poem to lie by him long for want of leisure to correct it; and he -elsewhere adds, that he leaves it still unfinished, to be completed by -some happier genius. - - [234] The “Fiestas de Denia,” a poem in two short cantos, on - the reception of Philip III. at Denia, near Valencia, in 1598, - soon after his marriage, was printed in 1599, but is of little - consequence. - -It is not unlikely that Lope was induced to write the Angelica by -the success of several poems that had preceded it on the same series -of fictions, and especially by the favor shown to one published only -two years before, in the same style and manner; the “Angélica” of -Luis Barahona de Soto, which is noticed with extraordinary praise in -the scrutiny of the Knight of La Mancha’s library, as well as in the -conclusion to Don Quixote, where a somewhat tardy compliment is paid to -this very work of Lope. Both poems are obvious imitations of Ariosto; -and if that of De Soto has been too much praised, it is, at least, -better than Lope’s. And yet, in “The Beauty of Angelica,” the author -might have been deemed to occupy ground well suited to his genius; for -the boundless latitude afforded him by a subject filled with the dreamy -adventures of chivalry was, necessarily, a partial release from the -obligation to pursue a consistent plan,--while, at the same time, the -example of Ariosto, as well as that of Luis de Soto, may be supposed -to have launched him fairly forth upon the open sea of an unrestrained -fancy, careless of shores or soundings. - -But perhaps this very freedom was a principal cause of his failure; -for his story is to the last degree wild and extravagant, and is -connected by the slightest possible thread to the graceful fiction of -Ariosto.[235] A king of Andalusia, as it pretends, leaves his kingdom -by testament to the most beautiful man or woman that can be found.[236] -All the world throngs to win the mighty prize; and one of the most -amusing parts of the whole poem is that in which its author describes -to us the crowds of the old and the ugly who, under such conditions, -still thought themselves fit competitors. But as early as the fifth -canto, the two lovers, Medoro and Angelica, who had been left in India -by the Italian master, have already won the throne, and, for the sake -of the lady’s unrivalled beauty, are crowned king and queen at Seville. - - [235] The point where it branches off from the story of Ariosto - is the sixteenth stanza of the thirtieth canto of the “Orlando - Furioso.” - - [236] La Angélica, Canto III. - -Here, of course, if the poem had a regular subject, it would end; -but now we are plunged at once into a series of wars and disasters, -arising out of the discontent of unsuccessful rivals, which threaten -to have no end. Trials of all kinds follow. Visions, enchantments -and counter enchantments, episodes quite unconnected with the main -story, and broken up themselves by the most perverse interruptions, -are mingled together, we hardly know why or how; and when at last the -happy pair are settled in their hardly won kingdom, we are as much -wearied by the wild waste of fancy in which Lope has indulged himself, -as we should have been by almost any degree of monotony arising from -a want of inventive power. The best parts of the poem are those that -contain descriptions of persons and scenery;[237] the worst are those -where Lope has displayed his learning, which he has sometimes done by -filling whole stanzas with a mere accumulation of proper names. The -versification is extraordinarily fluent.[238] - - [237] Cantos IV. and VII. - - [238] La Hermosura de Angélica was printed for the first time in - 1604, says the editor of the Obras, in Tom. II. But Salvá gives - an edition in 1602. It certainly appeared at Barcelona in 1605. - The stanzas where proper names occur so often as to prove that - Lope was guilty of the affectation of taking pains to accumulate - them are to be found in Obras, Tom. II. pp. 27, 55, 233, 236, etc. - -As the Beauty of Angelica was written in the ill-fated Armada, it -contains occasional intimations of the author’s national and religious -feelings, such as were naturally suggested by his situation. But in -the same volume he originally published a poem in which these feelings -are much more fully and freely expressed;--a poem, indeed, which is -devoted to nothing else. It is called “La Dragontea,” and is on the -subject of Sir Francis Drake’s last expedition and death. Perhaps no -other instance can be found of a grave epic devoted to the personal -abuse of a single individual; and to account for the present one, we -must remember how familiar and formidable the name of Sir Francis Drake -had long been in Spain. - -He had begun his career as a brilliant pirate in South America above -thirty years before; he had alarmed all Spain by ravaging its coasts -and occupying Cadiz, in a sort of doubtful warfare which Lord Bacon -tells us the free sailor used to call “singeing the king of Spain’s -beard”;[239] and he had risen to the height of his glory as second in -command of the great fleet which had discomfited the Armada, one of -whose largest vessels was known to have surrendered to the terror of -his name alone. In Spain, where he was as much hated as he was feared, -he was regarded chiefly as a bold and successful buccaneer, whose -melancholy death at Panamá, in 1596, was held to be a just visitation -of the Divine vengeance for his piracies;--a state of feeling of which -the popular literature of the country, down to its very ballads, -affords frequent proof.[240] - - [239] “Considerations touching a War with Spain, inscribed to - Prince Charles, 1624”; a curious specimen of the political - discussions of the time. See Bacon’s Works, London, 1810, 8vo, - Vol. III. p. 517. - - [240] Mariana, Historia, ad an. 1596, calls him simply “Francis - Drake, an English corsair”;--and in a graceful little anonymous - ballad, imitated from a more graceful one by Góngora, we have - again a true expression of the popular feeling. The ballad - in question, beginning “Hermano Perico,” is in the Romancero - General, 1602, (f. 34), and contains the following significant - passage:-- - - And Bartolo, my brother, - To England forth is gone, - Where the Drake he means to kill;-- - And the Lutherans every one, - Excommunicate from God, - Their queen among the first, - He will capture and bring back, - Like heretics accurst. - And he promises, moreover, - Among his spoils and gains, - A heretic young serving-boy - To give me, bound in chains; - And for my lady grandmamma, - Whose years such waiting crave, - A little handy Lutheran, - To be her maiden slave. - - Mi hermano Bartolo - Se va á Ingalaterra, - A matar al Draque, - Y á prender la Reyna, - Y á los Luteranos - De la Bandomessa. - Tiene de traerme - A mí de la guerra - Un Luteranico - Con una cadena, - Y una Luterana - A señora agüela. - - Romancero General, Madrid, 1602, 4to, f. 35. - -The Dragontea, however, whose ten cantos of octave verse are devoted -to the expression of this national hatred, may be regarded as its -chief monument. It is a strange poem. It begins with the prayers of -Christianity, in the form of a beautiful woman, who presents Spain, -Italy, and America in the court of Heaven, and prays God to protect -them all against what Lope calls “that Protestant Scotch pirate.”[241] -It ends with rejoicings in Panamá because “the Dragon,” as he is -called through the whole poem, has died, poisoned by his own people, -and with the thanksgivings of Christianity that her prayers have -been heard, and that “the scarlet lady of Babylon”--meaning Queen -Elizabeth--had been at last defeated. The substance of the poem is such -as may beseem such an opening and such a conclusion. It is violent and -coarse throughout. But although it appeals constantly to the national -prejudices that prevailed in its author’s time with great intensity, it -was not received with favor. It was written in 1597, immediately after -the occurrence of most of the events to which it alludes; but was not -published till 1602, and has been printed since only in the collective -edition of Lope’s miscellaneous works, in 1776.[242] - - [241] He was in fact of Devonshire. See Fuller’s Worthies and - Holy State. - - [242] There is a curious poem in English, by Charles Fitzgeffrey, - on the Life and Death of Sir Francis Drake, first printed in - 1596, which is worth comparing with the Dragontea, as its - opposite, and which was better liked in England in its time than - Lope’s poem was in Spain. See Wood’s Athenæ, London, 1815, 4to, - Vol. II. p. 607. - -In the same year, however, in which he gave the Dragontea to the -world, he published a prose romance, “The Pilgrim in his own Country”; -dedicating it to the Marquis of Priego, on the last day of 1603, from -the city of Seville. It contains the story of two lovers, who, after -many adventures in Spain and Portugal, are carried into captivity among -the Moors, and return home by the way of Italy, as pilgrims. We first -find them at Barcelona, shipwrecked, and the principal scenes are laid -there and in Valencia and Saragossa;--the whole ending in the city -of Toledo, where, with the assent of their friends, they are at last -married.[243] Several episodes are ingeniously interwoven with the -thread of the principal narrative, and, besides many poems, chiefly -written, no doubt, for other occasions, several dramas are inserted, -which seem actually to have been performed under the circumstances -described.[244] - - [243] The time of the story is quite unsettled. - - [244] At the end of the whole, it is said, that, during the eight - nights following the wedding, eight other dramas were acted, - whose names are given; two of which, “El Perseguido,” and “El - Galan Agradecido,” do not appear among Lope’s printed plays;--at - least, not under these titles. - -The entire romance is divided into five books, and is carefully -constructed and finished. Some of Lope’s own experiences at Valencia -and elsewhere evidently contributed materials for it; but a poetical -coloring is thrown over the whole, and, except in some of the details -about the city, and descriptions of natural scenery, we rarely feel -that what we read is absolutely true.[245] The story, especially when -regarded from the point of view chosen by its author, is interesting; -and it is not only one of the earliest specimens in Spanish literature -of the class to which it belongs, but one of the best.[246] - - [245] Among the passages that have the strongest air of reality - about them are those relating to the dramas, said to have been - acted in different places; and those containing descriptions of - Monserrate and of the environs of Valencia, in the first and - second books. A sort of ghost-story, in the fifth, seems also to - have been founded on fact. - - [246] The first edition of the “Peregrino en su Patria” is that - of Madrid, 1604, 4to, and it was soon reprinted; but the best - edition is that in the fifth volume of the Obras Sueltas, 1776. - A worthless abridgment of it in English appeared anonymously in - London in 1738, 12mo. - -Passing over some of his minor poems and his “New Art of Writing -Plays,” for noticing both of which more appropriate occasions will -occur hereafter, we come to another of Lope’s greater efforts, his -“Jerusalem Conquered,” which appeared in 1609, and was twice reprinted -in the course of the next ten years. He calls it “a tragic epic,” and -divides it into twenty books of octave rhymes, comprehending, when -taken together, above twenty-two thousand verses. The attempt was -certainly an ambitious one, since we see, on its very face, that it is -nothing less than to rival Tasso on the ground where Tasso’s success -had been so brilliant. - -As might have been foreseen, Lope failed. His very subject is -unfortunate, for it is not the conquest of Jerusalem by the Christians, -but the failure of Cœur de Lion to rescue it from the infidels in the -end of the twelfth century;--a theme evidently unfit for a Christian -epic. All the poet could do, therefore, was to take the series of -events as he found them in history, and, adding such episodes and -ornaments as his own genius could furnish, give to the whole as much -as possible of epic form, dignity, and completeness. But Lope has -not done even this. He has made merely a long narrative poem, of -which Richard is the hero; and he relies for success, in no small -degree, on the introduction of a sort of rival hero, in the person of -Alfonso the Eighth of Castile, who, with his knights, is made, after -the fourth book, to occupy a space in the foreground of the action -quite disproportionate and absurd, since it is certain that Alfonso -was never in Palestine at all.[247] What is equally inappropriate, -the real subject of the poem is ended in the eighteenth book, by the -return home of both Richard and Alfonso; the nineteenth being filled -with the Spanish king’s subsequent history, and the twentieth with the -imprisonment of Richard and the quiet death of Saladin, as master of -Jerusalem,--a conclusion so abrupt and unsatisfactory, that it seems as -if its author could hardly have originally foreseen it. - - [247] Lope insists, on all occasions, upon the fact of Alfonso’s - having been in the Crusades. For instance, in “La Boba para los - otros,” (Comedias, Tom. XXI., Madrid, 1635, f. 60), he says,-- - - To this crusade - There went together France and England’s powers, - And our own King Alfonso. - - But the whole is a mere fiction of the age succeeding that of - Alfonso, for using which Lope is justly rebuked by Navarrete, in - his acute essay on the part the Spaniards took in the Crusades. - Memorias de la Academia de la Hist., Tom. V., 1817, 4to, p. 87. - -But though, with the exception of what relates to the apocryphal -Spanish adventurers, the series of historical events in that -brilliant crusade is followed down with some regard to the truth of -fact, still we are so much confused by the visions and allegorical -personages mingled in the narrative, and by the manifold episodes and -love-adventures which interrupt it, that it is all but impossible to -read any considerable portion consecutively and with attention. Lope’s -easy and graceful versification is, indeed, to be found here, as it is -in nearly all his poetry; but even on the holy ground of chivalry, at -Cyprus, Ptolemais, and Tyre, his narrative has much less movement and -life than we might claim from its subject, and almost everywhere else -it is languid and heavy. Of plan, proportions, or a skilful adaptation -of the several parts so as to form an epic whole, there is no thought; -and yet Lope intimates that his poem was written with care some time -before it was published,[248] and he dedicates it to his king, in a -tone indicating that he thought it by no means unworthy the royal favor. - - [248] See the Prólogo. The whole poem is in Obras Sueltas, Tom. - XIV. and XV. - - - - -CHAPTER XIV. - -LOPE DE VEGA, CONTINUED.--HIS RELATIONS WITH THE CHURCH.--HIS PASTORES -DE BELEN.--HIS RELIGIOUS POEMS.--HIS CONNECTION WITH THE FESTIVALS -AT THE BEATIFICATION AND CANONIZATION OF SAN ISIDRO.--TOMÉ DE -BURGUILLOS.--LA GATOMACHIA.--AN AUTO DA FÉ.--TRIUNFOS DIVINOS.--POEM ON -MARY QUEEN OF SCOTS.--LAUREL DE APOLO.--DOROTEA.--HIS OLD AGE AND DEATH. - - -Just at the time the Jerusalem was published, Lope began to wear the -livery of his Church. Indeed, it is on the title-page of this very poem -that he, for the first time, announces himself as a “Familiar of the -Holy Inquisition.” Proofs of the change in his life are soon apparent -in his works. In 1612, he published “The Shepherds of Bethlehem,” a -long pastoral in prose and verse, divided into five books. It contains -the sacred history, according to the more popular traditions of the -author’s Church, from the birth of Mary, the Saviour’s mother, to the -arrival of the holy family in Egypt,--all supposed to be related or -enacted by shepherds in the neighbourhood of Bethlehem, at the time the -events occurred. - -Like the other prose pastorals written at the same period, it is -full of incongruities. Some of the poems, in particular, are as -inappropriate and in as bad taste as can well be conceived; and why -three or four poetical contests for prizes and several common Spanish -games are introduced at all, it is not easy to imagine, since they -are permitted by the conditions of no possible poetical theory for -such fictions. But it must be confessed, on the other hand, that there -runs through the whole an air of amenity and gentleness well suited to -its subject and purpose. Several stories from the Old Testament are -gracefully told, and translations from the Psalms and other parts of -the Jewish Scriptures are brought in with a happy effect. Some of the -original poetry, too, is to be placed among the best of Lope’s minor -compositions;--such as the following imaginative little song, which -is supposed to have been sung in a palm-grove, by the Madonna, to her -sleeping child, and is as full of the tenderest feelings of Catholic -devotion as one of Murillo’s pictures on the same subject:-- - - Holy angels and blest, - Through these palms as ye sweep, - Hold their branches at rest, - For my babe is asleep. - - And ye Bethlehem palm-trees, - As stormy winds rush - In tempest and fury, - Your angry noise hush;-- - Move gently, move gently, - Restrain your wild sweep; - Hold your branches at rest,-- - My babe is asleep. - - My babe all divine, - With earth’s sorrows oppressed, - Seeks in slumber an instant - His grievings to rest; - He slumbers,--he slumbers,-- - O, hush, then, and keep - Your branches all still,-- - My babe is asleep! - - Cold blasts wheel about him,-- - A rigorous storm,-- - And ye see how, in vain, - I would shelter his form;-- - Holy angels and blest, - As above me ye sweep, - Hold these branches at rest,-- - My babe is asleep![249] - - [249] - Pues andais en las palmas, - Angeles santos, - Que se duerme mi niño, - Tened los ramos. - - Palmas de Belen, - Que mueven ayrados - Los furiosos vientos, - Que suenan tanto, - No le hagais ruido, - Corred mas passo; - Que se duerme mi niño, - Tened los ramos. - - El niño divino, - Que está cansado - De llorar en la tierra: - Por su descanso, - Sosegar quiere un poco - Del tierno llanto; - Que se duerme mi niño, - Tened los ramos. - - Rigurosos hielos - Le estan cercando, - Ya veis que no tengo - Con que guardarlo: - Angeles divinos, - Que vais volando, - Que se duerme mi niño, - Tened los ramos. - - Obras Sueltas, Tom. XVI. p. 332. - -The whole work is dedicated with great tenderness, in a few simple -words, to Cárlos, the little son that died before he was seven years -old, and of whom Lope always speaks so lovingly. But it breaks off -abruptly, and was never finished;--why, it is not easy to tell, for it -was well received, and was printed four times in as many years. - -In 1612, the year of the publication of this pastoral, Lope printed -a few religious ballads and some “Thoughts in Prose,” which he -pretended were translated from the Latin of Gabriel Padecopeo, an -imperfect anagram of his own name; and in 1614, there appeared a volume -containing, first, a collection of his short sacred poems, to which -were afterwards added four solemn and striking poetical Soliloquies, -composed while he knelt before a cross on the day he was received into -the Society of Penitents; then two contemplative discourses, written at -the request of his brethren of the same society; and finally, a short -spiritual Romancero, or ballad-book, and a “Via Crucis,” or meditations -on the passage of the Saviour from the judgment-seat of Pilate to the -hill of Calvary.[250] - - [250] Obras, Tom. XIII., etc. - -Many of these poems are full of a deep and solemn devotion;[251] others -are strangely coarse and free;[252] and a few are merely whimsical and -trifling.[253] Some of the more religious of the ballads are still -sung about the streets of Madrid by blind beggars;--a testimony to -the devout feelings which, occasionally at least, glowed in their -author’s heart, that is not to be mistaken. These poems, however, with -an account of the martyrdom of a considerable number of Christians at -Japan, in 1614, which was printed four years later,[254] were all the -miscellaneous works published by Lope between 1612 and 1620;--the rest -of his time during this period having apparently been filled with his -brilliant successes in the drama, both secular and sacred. - - [251] For instance, the sonnet beginning, “Yo dormiré en el - polvo.” Obras, Tom. XIII. p. 186. - - [252] Such as “Gertrudis siendo Dios tan amoroso.” Obras, Tom. - XIII. p. 223. - - [253] Some of them are very flat;--see the sonnet, “Quando en tu - alcazar de Sion.” Obras, Tom. XIII. p. 225. - - [254] Triumfos de la Fé en los Reynos de Japon. Obras, Tom. XVII. - -But in 1620 and 1622, he had an opportunity to exhibit himself to the -mass of the people, as well as to the court, at Madrid, in a character -which, being both religious and dramatic, was admirably suited to his -powers and pretensions. It was the double occasion of the beatification -and the canonization of Saint Isidore, in whose honor, above twenty -years earlier, Lope had made one of his most successful efforts for -popularity,--a long interval, but one during which the claims of the -Saint had been by no means overlooked. On the contrary, the king, -from the time of his restoration to health, had been constantly -soliciting the honors of the Church for a personage to whose miraculous -interposition he believed himself to owe it. At last they were -granted, and the 19th of May, 1620, was appointed for celebrating the -beatification of the pious “Ploughman of Madrid.” - -Such occasions were now often seized in the principal cities of -Spain, as a means alike of exhibiting the talents of their poets, -and amusing and interesting the multitude;--the Church gladly -contributing its authority to substitute, as far as possible, a -sort of poetical tournament, held under its own management, for the -chivalrous tournaments which had for centuries exercised so great and -so irreligious an influence throughout Europe. At any rate, these -literary contests, in which honors and prizes of various kinds were -offered, were called “Poetical Joustings,” and soon became favorite -entertainments with the mass of the people. We have already noticed -such festivals, as early as the end of the fifteenth century; and -besides the prize which, as we have seen, Cervantes gained at Saragossa -in May, 1595,[255] Lope gained one at Toledo, in June, 1608;[256] and -in September, 1614, he was the judge at a poetical festival in honor of -the beatification of Saint Theresa, at Madrid, where the rich tones of -his voice and his graceful style of reading were much admired.[257] - - [255] See _ante_, Vol. I. p. 338, and Vol. II. p. 79. - - [256] The successful poem, a jesting ballad of very small merit, - is in the Obras Sueltas, Tom. XXI. pp. 171-177. - - [257] An account of some of the poetical joustings of this period - is to be found in Navarrete, “Vida de Cervantes,” § 162, with the - notes, p. 486; and a good illustration of the mode in which they - were conducted is to be found in the “Justa Poética,” in honor of - our Lady of the Pillar at Saragossa, collected by Juan Bautista - Felices de Caceres, (Çaragoça, 1629, 4to), in which Joseph de - Valdivielso and Vargas Machuca figured. Such joustings became so - frequent at last as to be subjects of ridicule. In the “Caballero - Descortes” of Salas Barbadillo, (Madrid, 1621, 12mo, f. 99, - etc.), there is a _certámen_ in honor of the recovery of a lost - hat;--merely a light caricature. - -The occasion of the beatification of the Saint who presided over the -fortunes of Madrid was, however, one of more solemn importance than -either of these had been. All classes of the inhabitants of that -“Heroic Town,” as it is still called, took an interest in it; for it -was believed to concern the well-being of all.[258] The Church of -Saint Andrew, in which reposed the body of the worthy Ploughman, was -ornamented with unwonted splendor. The merchants of the city completely -encased its altars with plain, but pure silver. The goldsmiths -enshrined the form of the Saint, which five centuries had not wasted -away, in a sarcophagus of the same metal, elaborately wrought. Other -classes brought other offerings; all marked by the gorgeous wealth that -then flowed through the privileged portions of Spanish society, from -the mines of Peru and Mexico. In front of the church a showy stage was -erected, from which the poems sent in for prizes were read, and over -this part of the ceremonies Lope presided. - - [258] The details of the festival, with the poems offered on the - occasion, were neatly printed at Madrid, in 1620, in a small - quarto, ff. 140, and fill about three hundred pages in the - eleventh volume of Lope’s Works. The number of poetical offerings - was great, but much short of what similar contests sometimes - produced. Figueroa says in his “Pasagero,” (Madrid, 1617, 12mo, - f. 118), that, at a festival, held a short time before, in honor - of St. Antonio of Padua, five thousand poems of different kinds - were offered; which, after the best of them had been hung round - the church and the cloisters of the monks who originally proposed - the prizes, were distributed to other monasteries. The custom - extended to America. In 1585, Balbuena carried away a prize in - Mexico from three hundred competitors. See his Life, prefixed to - the Academy’s edition of his “Siglo de Oro,” Madrid, 1821, 8vo. - -As a sort of prologue, a few satirical petitions were produced, which -were intended to excite merriment, and, no doubt, were successful; -after which Lope opened the literary proceedings of the festival, by -pronouncing a poetical oration of above seven hundred lines in honor -of San Isidro. This was followed by reading the subjects for the nine -prizes offered by the nine Muses, together with the rules according to -which the honors of the occasion were to be adjudged; and then came -the poems themselves. Among the competitors were many of the principal -men of letters of the time: Zarate, Guillen de Castro, Jauregui, -Espinel, Montalvan, Pantaleon, Silveira, the young Calderon, and Lope -himself, with the son who bore his name, still a boy. All this, or -nearly all of it, was grave, and beseeming the grave occasion. But at -the end of the list of those who entered their claims for each prize, -there always appeared a sort of masque, who, under the assumed name -of Master Burguillos, “seasoned the feast in the most savory manner,” -it is said, with his amusing verses, caricaturing the whole, like the -_gracioso_ of the popular theatre, and serving as a kind of interlude -after each division of the more regular drama. - -Lope took hardly any pains to conceal that this savory part of the -festival was entirely his own; so surely had his theatrical instincts -indicated to him the merry relief its introduction would give to -the stateliness and solemnity of the occasion.[259] All the various -performances were read by him with much effect, and at the end he -gave a light and pleasant account, in the old popular ballad measure, -of what had been done; after which the judges pronounced the names -of the successful competitors. Who they were, we are not told; but -the offerings of all--those of the unsuccessful as well as of the -successful--were published by him without delay. - - [259] “But let the reader note well,” says Lope, “that the verses - of Master Burguillos must be supposititious; for he did not - appear at the contest; and all he wrote is in jest, and made the - festival very savory. And as he did not appear for any prize, it - was generally believed that he was a character introduced by Lope - himself.” Obras, Tom. XI. p. 401. See also p. 598. - -A greater jubilee followed two years afterwards, when, at the opening -of the reign of Philip the Fourth, the negotiations of his grateful -predecessor were crowned with a success he did not live to witness; -and San Isidro, with three other devout Spaniards, was admitted by -the Head of the Church at Rome to the full glories of saintship, by -a formal canonization. The people of Madrid took little note of the -Papal bull, except so far as it concerned their own particular saint -and protector. But to him the honors they offered were abundant.[260] -The festival they instituted for the occasion lasted nine days. Eight -pyramids, above seventy feet high, were arranged in different parts -of the city, and nine magnificent altars, a castle, a rich garden, -and a temporary theatre. All the houses of the better sort were hung -with gorgeous tapestry; religious processions, in which the principal -nobility took the meanest places, swept through the streets; and -bull-fights, always the most popular of Spanish entertainments, -were added, in which above two thousand of those noble animals were -sacrificed in amphitheatres or public squares open to all. - - [260] The proceedings and poems of this second great festival - were printed at once at Madrid, in a quarto volume, 1622, ff. - 156, and fill Tom. XII. of the Obras Sueltas. - -As a part of the show, a great literary contest or jousting was -held on the 19th of May,--exactly two years after that held at the -beatification. Again Lope appeared on the stage in front of the Church -of Saint Andrew, and, with similar ceremonies and a similar admixture -of the somewhat broad farce of Tomé de Burguillos, most of the leading -poets of the time joined in the universal homage. Lope carried away the -principal prizes. Others were given to Zarate, Calderon, Montalvan, and -Guillen de Castro. Two plays--one on the childhood, and the other on -the youth of San Isidro, but both expressly ordered from Lope by the -city--were acted on open, movable stages, before the king, the court, -and the multitude, making their author the most prominent figure of a -festival which, rightly understood, goes far to explain the spirit of -the times and of the religion on which it all depended. An account of -the whole, comprehending the poems offered on the occasion, and his own -two plays, was published by Lope before the close of the year. - -His success at these two jubilees was, no doubt, very flattering to -him. It had been of the most public kind; it had been on a very popular -subject; and it had, perhaps, brought him more into the minds and -thoughts of the great mass of the people, and into the active interests -of the time, than even his success in the theatre. The caricatures of -Tomé de Burguillos, in particular, though often rude, seem to have been -received with extraordinary favor. Later, therefore, he was induced -to write more verses in the same style; and, in 1634, he published a -volume, consisting almost wholly of humorous and burlesque poems, under -the same disguise. Most of the pieces it contains are sonnets and other -short poems;--some very sharp and satirical, and nearly all fluent -and happy. But one of them is of considerable length, and should be -separately noticed. - -It is a mock-heroic, in irregular verse, divided into six _silvas_ or -cantos, and is called “La Gatomachia,” or the Battle of the Cats; being -a contest between two cats for the love of a third. Like nearly all the -poems of the class to which it belongs, from the “Batrachomyomachia” -downwards, it is too long. It contains about twenty-five hundred lines, -in various measures. But if it is not the first in the Spanish language -in the order of time, it is the first in the order of merit. The last -two _silvas_, in particular, are written with great lightness and -spirit; sometimes parodying Ariosto and the epic poets, and sometimes -the old ballads, with the gayest success. From its first appearance, -therefore, it has been a favorite in Spain; and it is now, probably, -more read than any other of its author’s miscellaneous works. An -edition printed in 1794 assumes, rather than attempts to prove, that -Tomé de Burguillos was a real personage. But few persons have ever been -of this opinion; for though, when it first appeared, Lope prefixed to -it one of those accounts concerning its pretended author that deceive -nobody, yet he had, as early as the first festival in honor of San -Isidro, almost directly declared Master Burguillos to be merely a -disguise for himself and a means of adding interest to the occasion,--a -fact, indeed, plainly intimated by Quevedo in the Approbation prefixed -to the volume, and by Coronel in the verses which immediately -follow.[261] - - [261] The edition which claims a separate and real existence - for Burguillos is that found in the seventeenth volume of the - “Poesías Castellanas,” collected by Fernandez and others. But, - besides the passages from Lope himself cited in a preceding note, - Quevedo says, in an _Aprobacion_ to the very volume in question, - that “the style is such as has been seen only in the writings - of Lope de Vega”; and Coronel, in some _décimas_ prefixed to - it, adds, “These verses are dashes from the pen of the Spanish - Phœnix”; hints which it would have been dishonorable for Lope - himself to publish, unless the poems were really his own. The - poetry of Burguillos is in Tom. XIX. of the Obras Sueltas, just - as Lope originally published it in 1634. There is a spirited - German translation of the Gatomachia in Bertuch’s Magazin der - Span. und Port. Literatur, Dessau, 1781, 8vo, Tom. I. - -In 1621, just in the interval between the two festivals, Lope published -a volume containing the “Filomena,” a poem, in the first canto of -which he gives the mythological story of Tereus and the Nightingale, -and in the second, a vindication of himself, under the allegory of the -Nightingale’s Defence against the Envious Thrush. To this he added, -in the same volume, “La Tapada,” a description, in octave verse, of -a country-seat of the Duke of Braganza in Portugal; the “Andromeda,” -a mythological story like the Filomena; “The Fortunes of Diana,” -the first prose tale he ever printed; several poetical epistles and -smaller poems; and a correspondence on the subject of the New Poetry, -as it was called, in which he boldly attacked the school of Góngora, -then at the height of its favor.[262] The whole volume added nothing -to its author’s permanent reputation; but parts of it, and especially -passages in the epistles and in the Filomena, are interesting from the -circumstance that they contain allusions to his own personal history. - - [262] The poems are in Tom. II. of the Obras Sueltas. The - discussion about the new poetry is in Tom. IV. pp. 459-482; to - which should be added some trifles in the same vein, scattered - through his Works, and especially a sonnet beginning, “Boscan, - tarde llegamos”;--which, as it was printed by him with the - “Laurel de Apolo,” (1630, f. 123), shows, that, though he himself - sometimes wrote in the affected style then in fashion, to please - the popular taste, he continued to disapprove it to the last. The - Novela is in Obras, Tom. VIII. - -Another volume, not unlike the last, followed in 1624. It contains -three poems in the octave stanza: “Circe,” an unfortunate amplification -of the well-known story found in the Odyssey; “The Morning of Saint -John,” on the popular celebration of that graceful festival in the time -of Lope; and a fable on the Origin of the White Rose. To these he added -several epistles in prose and verse, and three more prose tales, which, -with the one already mentioned, constitute all the short prose fictions -he ever published.[263] - - [263] The three poems are in Tom. III.; the epistles in Tom. I. - pp. 279, etc.; and the three tales in Tom. VIII. - -The best part of this volume is, no doubt, the three stories. Probably -Lope was induced to write them by the success of those of Cervantes, -which had now been published eleven years, and were already known -throughout Europe. But Lope’s talent seems not to have been more -adapted to this form of composition than that of the author of Don -Quixote was to the drama. Of this he seems to have been partially -aware himself; for he says of the first tale, that it was written -to please a lady in a department of letters where he never thought -to have adventured, and the other three are addressed to the same -person, and seem to have been written with the same feelings.[264] -None of them excited much attention at the time when they appeared. -But, twenty years afterwards, they were reprinted with four others, -torn, apparently, from some connected series of similar stories, and -certainly not the work of Lope. The last of the eight is the best of -the collection, though it ends awkwardly, with an intimation that -another is to follow; and all are thrust together into the complete -edition of Lope’s miscellaneous works, though there is no pretence for -claiming any of them to be his, except the first four.[265] - - [264] Obras Sueltas, Tom. VIII. p. 2; also Tom. III. Preface. - - [265] There are editions of the eight at Saragossa, (1648), - Barcelona, (1650), etc. There is some confusion about a part of - the poems published originally with these tales, and which appear - among the works of Fr. Lopez de Zarate, Alcalá, 1651, 4to. (See - Lope, Obras, Tom. III. p. iii.) But such things are not very rare - in Spanish literature, and will occur again in relation to Zarate. - -In the year preceding the appearance of the tales we find him in a -new character. A miserable man, a Franciscan monk, from Catalonia, -was suspected of heresy; and the suspicion fell on him the more -heavily because his mother was of the Jewish faith. Having been, in -consequence of this, expelled successively from two religious houses -of which he had been a member, he seems to have become disturbed -in his mind, and at last he grew so frantic, that, while mass was -celebrating in open church, he seized the consecrated host from the -hands of the officiating priest and violently destroyed it. He was -at once arrested and given up to the Inquisition. The Inquisition, -finding him obstinate, declared him to be a Lutheran and a Calvinist, -and, adding to this the crime of his Hebrew descent, delivered him -over to the secular arm for punishment. He was, almost as a matter of -course, ordered to be burned alive; and in January, 1623, the sentence -was literally executed outside the gate of Alcalá at Madrid. The -excitement was great, as it always was on such occasions. An immense -concourse of people was gathered to witness the edifying spectacle; -the court was present; the theatres and public shows were suspended -for a fortnight; and we are told that Lope de Vega, who, in some parts -of his “Dragontea,” shows a spirit not unworthy of such an office, was -one of those who presided at the loathsome sacrifice and directed its -ceremonies.[266] - - [266] The account is found in a MS. history of Madrid, by Leon - Pinelo, in the King’s Library; and so much as relates to this - subject I possess, as well as a notice of Lope himself, given - in the same MS. under the date of his death. It is cited, and - an abstract of it given, in Casiano Pellicer, “Orígen de las - Comedias,” (Madrid, 1804, 12mo), Tom. I. pp. 104, 105. - -His fanaticism, however, in no degree diminished his zeal for poetry. -In 1625, he published his “Divine Triumphs,” a poem in five cantos, in -the measure and the manner of Petrarch, beginning with the triumphs of -“the Divine Pan” and ending with those of Religion and the Cross.[267] -It was a failure, and the more obviously so, because its very title -placed it in direct contrast with the “Trionfi” of the great Italian -master. It was accompanied, in the same volume, by a small collection -of sacred poetry, which was increased in later editions until it became -a large one. Some of it is truly tender and solemn, as, for instance, -the _cancion_ on the death of his son,[268] and the sonnet on his own -death, beginning, “I must lie down and slumber in the dust”; while -other parts, like the _villancicos_ to the Holy Sacrament, are written -with unseemly levity, and are even sometimes coarse and sensual.[269] -All, however, are specimens of what respectable and cultivated -Spaniards in that age called religion. - - [267] Obras Sueltas, Tom. XIII. - - [268] A la Muerte de Carlos Felix, Obras, Tom. XIII. p. 365. - - [269] See particularly the two beginning on pp. 413 and 423. - -A similar remark may be made in relation to the “Corona Trágica,” The -Tragic Crown, which he published in 1627, on the history and fate -of the unhappy Mary of Scotland, who had perished just forty years -before.[270] It is intended to be a religious epic, and fills five -books of octave stanzas. But it is, in fact, merely a specimen of -intolerant controversy. Mary is represented as a pure and glorious -martyr to the Catholic faith, while Elizabeth is alternately called a -Jezebel and an Athaliah, whom it was a doubtful merit in Philip the -Second to have spared, when, as king-consort of England, he had her -life in his power.[271] In other respects it is a dull poem; beginning -with an account of Mary’s previous history, as related by herself -to her women in prison, and ending with her death. But it savors -throughout of its author’s sympathy with the religious spirit of his -age and country;--a spirit, it should be remembered, which made the -Inquisition what it was. - - [270] It is in Obras Sueltas, Tom. IV. - - [271] The atrocious passage is on p. 5. In an epistle, which he - addressed to Ovando, the Maltese envoy, and published at the end - of the “Laurel de Apolo,” (Madrid, 1630, 4to, f. 118), he gives - an account of this poem, and says he wrote it in the country, - where “the soul in solitude labors more gently and easily!” - -The Corona Trágica was, however, perhaps on this very account, thought -worthy of being dedicated to Pope Urban the Eighth, who had himself -written an epitaph on the unfortunate Mary of Scotland, which Lope, in -courtly phrase, declared was “beatifying her in prophecy.” The flattery -was well received. Urban sent the poet in return a complimentary -letter; gave him a degree of Doctor in Divinity, and the cross of the -Order of Saint John; and appointed him to the honorary places of Fiscal -in the Apostolic Chamber and Notary of the Roman Archives. The measure -of his ecclesiastical honors was now full. - -In 1630, he published “The Laurel of Apollo,” a poem somewhat like -“The Journey to Parnassus” of Cervantes, but longer, more elaborate, -and still more unsatisfactory. It describes a festival, supposed to -have been held by the god of Poetry, on Mount Helicon, in April, 1628, -and records the honors then bestowed on nearly three hundred Spanish -poets;--a number so great, that the whole account becomes monotonous -and almost valueless, partly from the impossibility of drawing with -distinctness or truth so many characters of little prominence, and -partly from its too free praise of nearly all of them. It is divided -into ten _silvas_, and contains about seven thousand irregular verses. -At the end, besides a few minor and miscellaneous poems, Lope added -an eclogue, in seven scenes, which had been previously represented -before the king and court with a costly magnificence in the theatre and -a splendor in its decorations that show, at least, how great was the -favor he enjoyed, when he was indulged, for so slight an offering, with -such royal luxuries.[272] - - [272] It is not easy to tell why these later productions of - Lope are put in the first volume of his Miscellaneous Works, - (1776-79), but so it is. That collection was made by Cerdá y - Rico; a man of learning, though not of good taste or sound - judgment. - -The last considerable work he published was his “Dorotea,” a long -prose romance in dialogue.[273] It was written in his youth, and, as -has been already suggested, probably contains more or less of his own -youthful adventures and feelings. But whether this be so or not, it -was a favorite with him. He calls it “the most beloved of his works,” -and says he has revised it with care and made additions to it in his -old age.[274] It was first printed in 1632. A moderate amount of verse -is scattered through it, and there is a freshness and a reality in -many passages that remind us constantly of its author’s life before -he served as a soldier in the Armada. The hero, Fernando, is a poet, -like Lope, who, after having been more than once in love and married, -refuses Dorotea, the object of his first attachment, and becomes -religious. There is, however, little plan, consistency, or final -purpose in most of the manifold scenes that go to make up its five long -acts; and it is now read only for its rich and easy prose style, for -the glimpses it seems to give of the author’s own life, and for a few -of its short poems, some of which were probably written for occasions -not unlike those to which they are here applied. - - [273] It fills the whole of the seventh volume of his Obras - Sueltas. - - [274] “Dorotea, the posthumous child of my Muse, the most beloved - of my long-protracted life, still asks the public light,” etc. - Egloga á Claudio; Obras, Tom. IX. p. 367. - -The last work he printed was an eclogue in honor of a Portuguese lady; -and the last things he wrote--only the day before he was seized with -his mortal illness--were a short poem on the Golden Age, remarkable for -its vigor and harmony, and a sonnet on the death of a friend.[275] All -of them are found in a collection consisting chiefly of a few dramas, -published by his son-in-law, Luis de Usategui, two years after Lope’s -death. - - [275] These three poems--curious as his last works--are in Tom. - X. p. 193, and Tom. IX. pp. 2 and 10. - -But as his life drew to a close, his religious feelings, mingled with a -melancholy fanaticism, predominated more and more. Much of his poetry -composed at this time expressed them; and at last they rose to such a -height, that he was almost constantly in a state of excited melancholy, -or, as it was then beginning to be called, of hypochondria.[276] Early -in the month of August, he felt himself extremely weak, and suffered -more than ever from that sense of discouragement which was breaking -down his resources and strength. His thoughts, however, were so -exclusively occupied with his spiritual condition, that, even when thus -reduced, he continued to fast, and on one occasion went through with a -private discipline so cruel, that the walls of the apartment where it -occurred were afterwards found sprinkled with his blood. From this he -never recovered. He was taken ill the same night; and, after fulfilling -the offices prescribed by his Church with the most submissive -devotion,--mourning that he had ever been engaged in any occupations -but such as were exclusively religious,--he died on the 25th of August, -1635, nearly seventy-three years old. - - [276] “A continued melancholy passion, which of late has been - called hypochondria,” etc., is the description Montalvan gives - of his disease. The account of his last days follows it. Obras, - Tom. XX. pp. 37, etc.; and Baena, Hijos de Madrid, Tom. III. pp. - 360-363. - -The sensation produced by his death was such as is rarely witnessed -even in the case of those upon whom depends the welfare of nations. -The Duke of Sessa, who was his especial patron, and to whom he left -his manuscripts, provided for the funeral in a manner becoming his -own wealth and rank. It lasted nine days. The crowds that thronged -to it were immense. Three bishops officiated, and the first nobles -of the land attended as mourners. Eulogies and poems followed on all -sides, and in numbers all but incredible. Those written in Spain make -one considerable volume, and end with a drama in which his apotheosis -was brought upon the public stage. Those written in Italy are hardly -less numerous, and fill another.[277] But more touching than any of -them was the prayer of that much-loved daughter who had been shut up -from the world fourteen years, that the long funeral procession might -pass by her convent and permit her once more to look on the face she -so tenderly venerated; and more solemn than any was the mourning of -the multitude, from whose dense mass audible sobs burst forth, as his -remains slowly descended from their sight into the house appointed for -all living.[278] - - [277] See Obras Sueltas, Tom. XIX.-XXI., in which they are - republished;--Spanish, Latin, French, Italian, and Portuguese. - The Spanish, which were brought together by Montalvan, and are - preceded by his “Fama Póstuma de Lope de Vega,” may be regarded - as a sort of _justa poética_ in honor of the great poet, in which - above a hundred and fifty of his contemporaries bore their part. - - [278] Obras Sueltas, Tom. XX. p. 42. For an excellent and - interesting discussion of Lope’s miscellaneous works, and one to - which I have been indebted in writing this chapter, see London - Quarterly Review, No. 35, 1818. It is by Mr. Southey. - - - - -CHAPTER XV. - -LOPE DE VEGA, CONTINUED.--CHARACTER OF HIS MISCELLANEOUS WORKS.--HIS -DRAMAS.--HIS LIFE AT VALENCIA.--HIS MORAL PLAYS.--HIS SUCCESS AT -MADRID.--VAST NUMBER OF HIS DRAMAS.--THEIR FOUNDATION AND THEIR VARIOUS -FORMS.--HIS COMEDIAS DE CAPA Y ESPADA, AND THEIR CHARACTERISTICS. - - -The works of Lope de Vega that we have considered, while tracing his -long and brilliant career, are far from being sufficient to explain -the degree of popular admiration that, almost from the first, followed -him. They show, indeed, much original talent, a still greater power -of invention, and a wonderful facility of versification. But they are -rarely imbued with the deep and earnest spirit of a genuine poetry; -they generally have an air of looseness and want of finish; and almost -all of them are without that national physiognomy and character, in -which, after all, resides so much of the effective power of genius over -any people. - -The truth is, that Lope, in what have been called his miscellaneous -works, was seldom in the path that leads to final success. He was -turned aside by a spirit which, if not that of the whole people, was -the spirit of the court and the higher classes of Castilian society. -Boscan and Garcilasso, who preceded him by only half a century, had -made themselves famous by giving currency to the lighter forms of -Italian verse, especially those of the sonnet and the _canzone_; and -Lope, who found these fortunate poets the idols of the period, when -his own character was forming, thought that to follow their brilliant -course would open to him the best chances for success. His aspirations, -however, stretched very far beyond theirs. He felt other and higher -powers within him, and entered boldly into rivalship, not only with -Sannazaro and Bembo, as they had done, but with Ariosto, Tasso, and -Petrarch. Eleven of his longer poems, epic, narrative, and descriptive, -are in the stately _ottava rima_ of his great masters; besides which -he has left us two long pastorals in the manner of the “Arcadia,” many -adventurous attempts in the _terza rima_, and numberless specimens of -all the varieties of Italian lyrics, including, among the rest, nearly -seven hundred sonnets. - -But in all this there is little that is truly national,--little that -is marked with the old Castilian spirit; and if this were all he had -done, his fame would by no means stand where we now find it. His prose -pastorals and his romances are, indeed, better than his epics; and -his didactic poetry, his epistles, and his elegies are occasionally -excellent; but it is only when he touches fairly and fully upon the -soil of his country,--it is only in his _glosas_, his _letrillas_, his -ballads, and his light songs and roundelays, that he has the richness -and grace which should always have accompanied him. We feel at once, -therefore, whenever we meet him in these paths, that he is on ground -he should never have deserted, because it is ground on which, with his -extraordinary gifts, he could easily have erected permanent monuments -to his own fame. But he himself determined otherwise. Not that he -entirely approved the innovations of Boscan and Garcilasso; for he -tells us distinctly, in his “Philomena,” that their imitations of the -Italian had unhappily supplanted the grace and the glory that belonged -peculiarly to the old Spanish genius.[279] The theories and fashions -of his time, therefore, misled, though they did not delude, a spirit -that should have been above them; and the result is, that little of -poetry such as marks the old Castilian genius is to be found in the -great mass of his works we have thus far been called on to examine. -In order to account for his permanent success, as well as marvellous -popularity, we must, then, turn to another and wholly distinct -department,--that of the drama,--in which he gave himself up to the -leading of the national spirit as completely as if he had not elsewhere -seemed sedulously to avoid it; and thus obtained a kind and degree of -fame he could never otherwise have reached. - - [279] Philomena, Segunda Parte, Obras Sueltas, Tom. II. p. 458. - -It is not possible to determine the year when Lope first began to write -for the public stage; but whenever it was, he found the theatre in a -rude and humble condition. That he was very early drawn to this form of -composition, though not, perhaps, for the purposes of representation, -we know on his own authority; for, in his pleasant didactic poem on -the New Art of Making Plays, which he published in 1609, but read -several years earlier to a society of _dilettanti_ in Madrid, he says -expressly,-- - - The Captain Virues, a famous wit, - Cast dramas in three acts, by happy hit; - For, till his time, upon all fours they crept, - Like helpless babes that never yet had stepped. - Such plays I wrote, eleven and twelve years old; - Four acts--each measured to a sheet’s just fold-- - Filled out four sheets; while still, between, - Three _entremeses_ short filled up the scene.[280] - - [280] - El capitan Virues, insigne ingenio, - Puso en tres actos la Comedia, que ántes - Andaba en quatro, como pies de niño; - Que eran entonces niñas las Comedias: - Y yo las escribí, de once y doce años, - De á quatro actos y de á quatro pliegos, - Porque cada acto un pliego contenia: - Y era que entonces en las tres distancias - Se hacian tres pequeños entremeses. - - Obras Sueltas, Tom. IV. p. 412. - -This was as early as 1574. A few years later, or about 1580, when the -poet was eighteen years old, he attracted the notice of his early -patron, Manrique, the Bishop of Avila, by a pastoral. His studies -at Alcalá followed; then his service under the young Duke of Alva, -his marriage, and his exile of several years; for all which we must -find room before 1588, when we know he served in the Armada. In 1590, -however, if not a year earlier, he had returned to Madrid; and it does -not seem unreasonable to assume that soon afterwards he began to be -known in the capital as a dramatic writer, being then twenty-eight -years old. - -But it was during the period of his exile that he seems to have -really begun his public dramatic career, and prepared himself, in -some measure, for his subsequent more general popularity. Much of -this interval was passed in Valencia; and in Valencia a theatre had -been known for a long time.[281] As early as 1526, the hospital there -received an income from it, by a compromise similar to that in virtue -of which the hospitals of Madrid long afterwards laid the theatre -under contribution for their support.[282] The Captain Virues, who was -a friend of Lope de Vega, and is commemorated by him more than once, -wrote for this theatre, as did Timoneda, the editor of Lope de Rueda; -the works of both the last being printed in Valencia about 1570. These -Valencian dramas, however, except in the case of Lope de Rueda, were -of moderate amount and value; nor was what was done at Seville by Cueva -and his followers, about 1580, or at Madrid by Cervantes, a little -later, of more real importance, regarded as the foundations for a -national theatre. - - [281] Dramatic entertainments of some kind are spoken of at - Valencia in the fourteenth century. In 1394, we are told, there - was represented at the palace a tragedy, entitled “L’ hom - enamorat e la fembra satisfeta,” by Mossen Domingo Maspons, - a counsellor of John I. This was undoubtedly a Troubadour - performance. Perhaps the _Entramesos_ mentioned as having - occurred in the same city in 1412, 1413, and 1415, were of the - same sort. At any rate, they seem to have belonged, like those - we have noticed (_ante_, Vol. I. p. 259) by the Constable Alvaro - de Luna, to courtly festivities. Aribau, Biblioteca de Autores - Españoles, Madrid, 1846, 8vo, Tom. II. p. 178, note; and an - excellent article on the early Spanish theatre, by F. Wolf, in - Blätter für literarische Unterhaltung, 1848, p. 1287, note. - - [282] Jovellanos, Diversiones Públicas, Madrid, 1812, 8vo, p. 57. - -Indeed, if we look over all that can be claimed for the Spanish drama -from the time of the eclogues of Juan de la Enzina, in 1492, to the -appearance of Lope de Rueda, about 1544, and then, again, from his time -to that of Lope de Vega, we shall find, not only that the number of -dramas was small, but that they had been written in forms so different -and so often opposed to each other as to have little consistency or -authority, and to offer no sufficient indication of the channel in -which the dramatic literature of the country was at last destined to -flow. We may even say, that, except Lope de Rueda, no author for the -theatre had yet enjoyed a permanent popularity; and he having now been -dead more than twenty years, Lope de Vega must be admitted to have had -a fair and free field open before him. - -Unfortunately we have few of his earlier efforts. He seems, however, -to have begun upon the old foundations of the eclogues and moralities, -whose religious air and tone commended them to that ecclesiastical -toleration without which little could thrive in Spain.[283] An eclogue, -which is announced as having been represented, and which seems -really to be arranged for exhibition, is found in the third book of -the “Arcadia,” the earliest of Lope’s published works, and one that -was written before his exile.[284] Several similar attempts occur -elsewhere,--so rude and pious, that it seems almost as if they might -have belonged to the age of Juan de la Enzina and Gil Vicente; and -others of the same character are scattered through other parts of his -multitudinous works.[285] - - [283] In one of his earlier efforts he says, (Obras, Tom. V. p. - 346), “The laws help them little.” But of this we shall see more - hereafter. - - [284] It is probable, from internal evidence, that this eclogue, - and some others in the same romance, were acted before the Duke - Antonio de Alva. At any rate, we know similar representations - were common in the age of Cervantes and Lope, as well as before - and after it. - - [285] Such dramas are found in the “Pastores de Belen,” Book - III., and elsewhere. - -Of his more regular plays, the two oldest, that were subsequently -included in his printed collection, are not without similar indications -of their origin. Both are pastorals. The first is called “The True -Lover,” and was written when Lope was fourteen years old, though it -may have been altered and improved before he published it, when he -was fifty-eight. It is the story of a shepherd who refuses to marry a -shepherdess, though she had put him in peril of his life by accusing -him of having murdered her husband, who, as she was quite aware, had -died a natural death, but whose supposed murderer could be released -from his doom only at her requisition, as next of kin to the pretended -victim;--a process by which she hoped to obtain all power over his -spirit, and compel him to marry her, as Ximena married the Cid, by -royal authority. Lope admits it to be a rude performance; but it is -marked by the sweetness of versification which seems to have belonged -to him at every period of his career.[286] - - [286] “El Verdadero Amante” is in the Fourteenth Part of the - Comedias, printed at Madrid, 1620, and is dedicated to his son - Lope, who died the next year, only fifteen years old;--the father - saying in the Dedication, “This play was written when I was of - about your age.” - -The other of his early performances above alluded to is the “Pastoral -de Jacinto,” which Montalvan tells us was the first play Lope wrote -in three acts, and that it was composed while he was attached to the -person of the Bishop of Avila. This must have been about the year -1580; but as the Jacinto was not printed till thirty-seven years -afterwards, it may perhaps have undergone large changes before it was -offered to the public, whose requisitions had advanced in the interval -no less than the condition of the theatre. He says in the Dedication, -that it was “written in the years of his youth,” and it is founded -on the somewhat artificial story of a shepherd fairly made jealous -of himself by the management of another shepherd, who hopes thus to -obtain the shepherdess they both love, and who passes himself off, for -some time, as another Jacinto, and as the only one to whom the lady is -really attached. It has the same flowing versification with the “True -Lover,” but it is not superior in merit to that drama, which can hardly -have preceded it by more than two or three years.[287] - - [287] Montalvan says, “Lope greatly pleased Manrique, the Bishop - of Avila, by certain eclogues which he wrote for him, and by the - drama of ‘The Pastoral of Jacinto,’ the earliest he wrote in - three acts.” (Obras, Tom. XX. p. 30.) It was first printed at - Madrid, in 1617, 4to, by Sanchez, in a volume entitled “Quatro - Comedias Famosas de Don Luis de Góngora y Lope de Vega Carpio,” - etc.; and afterwards in the eighteenth volume of the Comedias of - Lope, Madrid, 1623. It was also printed separately, under the - double title of “La Selva de Albania, y el Çeloso de sí mismo.” - -Moralities, too, written with no little spirit, and with strong -internal evidence of having been publicly performed, occur here and -there;--sometimes where we should least look for them. Four such are -produced in his “Pilgrim in his own Country”; the romance, it may be -remembered, which is not without allusions to its author’s exile, and -which seems to contain some of his personal experiences at Valencia. -One of these allegorical plays, “The Salvation of Man,” is declared to -have been performed in front of the venerable cathedral at Saragossa, -and is among the more curious specimens of such entertainments, since -it is accompanied with explanations of the way in which the churches -were used for theatrical purposes, and ends with an account of the -exposition of the Host, as an appropriate conclusion for a drama so -devout.[288] - - [288] It fills nearly fifty pages in the third book of the - romance. - -Another, called “The Soul’s Voyage,” is set forth as if represented in -a public square of Barcelona.[289] It opens with a ballad, which is -sung by three persons, and is followed, first, by a prologue full of -cumbrous learning, and then by another ballad both sung and danced, -as we are told, “with much skill and grace.” After all this note of -preparation comes the “Moral Action” itself. The Soul enters dressed -in white,--the way in which a disembodied spirit was indicated to the -audience. A clown, who, as the droll of the piece, represents the -Human Will, and a gallant youth, who represents Memory, enter at the -same time; one of them urging the Soul to set out on the voyage of -salvation, and the other endeavouring to jest her out of such a pious -purpose. At this critical moment, Satan appears as a ship-captain, in -a black suit, fringed with flames, and accompanied by Selfishness, -Appetite, and other vices, as his sailors, and offers to speed the Soul -on her voyage, all singing merrily together,-- - - [289] In the first book. It is entitled “A Moral Representation - of the Soul’s Voyage”;--in other words, _A Morality_. - - Holloa! the good ship of Delight - Spreads her sails for the sea to-day; - Who embarks? who embarks, then, I say? - To-day, the good ship of Content, - With a wind at her choice for her course, - To a land where no troubles are sent, - Where none knows the stings of remorse, - With a wind fair and free takes her flight;-- - Who embarks? who embarks, then, I say?[290] - - [290] - Oy la Nabe del deleyte - Se quiere hazer á la Mar;-- - Ay quien se quiera embarcar? - Oy la Nabe del contento, - Con viento en popa de gusto, - Donde jamas ay disgusto, - Penitencia, ni tormento, - Viendo que ay prospero viento, - Se quiere hazer á la Mar. - Ay quien se quiera embarcar? - - El Peregrino en su Patria, Sevilla, 1604, 4to, f. 36. b. - -A new world is announced as their destination, and the Will asks -whether it is the one lately discovered by Columbus; to which and to -other similar questions Satan replies evasively, but declares that -he is a greater pilot of the seas than Magellan or Drake, and will -insure to all who sail with him a happy and prosperous voyage. Memory -opposes the project, but, after some resistance, is put asleep; and -Understanding, who follows as a greybeard full of wise counsel, comes -too late. The adventurers are already gone. But still he shouts after -them, and continues his warnings, till the ship of Penitence arrives, -with the Saviour for its pilot, a cross for its mast, and sundry Saints -for its sailors. They summon the Soul anew. The Soul is surprised and -shocked at her situation; and the piece ends with her embarkation on -board the sacred vessel, amidst a _feu de joie_, and the shouts of the -delighted spectators, who, we may suppose, had been much edified by the -show. - -Another of these strange dramas is founded on the story of the Prodigal -Son, and is said to have been represented at Perpignan, then a Spanish -fortress, by a party of soldiers; one of the actors being mentioned -by name in its long and absurdly learned Prologue.[291] Among the -interlocutors are Envy, Youth, Repentance, and Good Advice; and among -other extraordinary passages, it contains a flowing paraphrase of -Horace’s “Beatus ille,” pronounced by the respectable proprietor of the -swine intrusted to the unhappy Prodigal. - - [291] Book Fourth. The compliment to the actor shows, of course, - that the piece was acted. Indeed, this is the proper inference - from the whole Prologue. Obras, Tom. V. p. 347. - -The fourth Morality, found in the romance of the Pilgrim, is entitled -“The Marriage of the Soul and Divine Love”; and is set forth as having -been acted in a public square at Valencia, on occasion of the marriage -of Philip the Third with Margaret of Austria, which took place in -that city,--an occasion, we are told, when Lope himself appeared in -the character of a buffoon,[292] and one to which this drama, though -it seems to have been written earlier, was carefully adjusted.[293] -The World, Sin, the City of Jerusalem, and Faith, who is dressed in -the costume of a captain-general of Spain, all play parts in it. Envy -enters, in the first scene, as from the infernal regions, through -a mouth casting forth flames; and the last scene represents Love, -stretched on the cross, and wedded to a fair damsel who figures as the -Soul of Man. Some parts of this drama are very offensive; especially -the passage in which Margaret of Austria, with celestial attributes, -is represented as arriving in the galley of Faith, and the passage in -which Philip’s entrance into Valencia is described literally as it -occurred, but substituting the Saviour for the king, and the prophets, -the martyrs, and the hierarchy of heaven for the Spanish nobles and -clergy who really appeared on the occasion.[294] - - [292] Miñana, in his continuation of Mariana, (Lib. X. c. 15, - Madrid, 1804, folio, p. 589), says, when speaking of the marriage - of Philip III. at Valencia, “In the midst of such rejoicings, - tasteful and frequent festivities and masquerades were not - wanting, in which Lope de Vega played the part of the buffoon.” - - [293] In Book Second. - - [294] Lope boasts that he has made this sort of commutation - and accommodation, as if it were a merit. “This was literally - the way,” he says, “in which his Majesty, King Philip, entered - Valencia.” Obras, Tom. V. p. 187. - -Such were, probably, the unsteady attempts with which Lope began his -career on the public stage during his exile at Valencia and immediately -afterwards. They are certainly wild enough in their structure, and -sometimes gross in sentiment, though hardly worse in either respect -than the similar allegorical mysteries and farces which, till just -about the same period, were performed in France and England, and much -superior in their general tone and style. How long he continued to -write them, or how many he wrote, we do not know. Few of them appear in -the collection of his dramas, which does not begin till 1604, though an -allegorical spirit is occasionally visible in some of his plays, which -are, in other respects, quite in the temper of the secular theatre. -But that he wrote such religious dramas early, and that he wrote great -numbers of them, is unquestionable. - -In Madrid, if he found little to hinder, he also found little to help -him, except two rude theatres, or rather court-yards, licensed for the -representation of plays, and a dramatic taste formed or forming in the -character of the people. But this was enough for a spirit like his. -His success was immediate and complete; his popularity overwhelming. -Cervantes, as we have seen, declared him to be a “prodigy of nature”; -and, though himself seeking both the fame and the profit of a writer -for the public stage, generously recognized his great rival as its sole -monarch.[295] - - [295] See _ante_, p. 90, and Comedias, Madrid, 1615, 4to, - Prólogo. The phrase _monstruo de naturaleza_, in this passage, - has been sometimes supposed to imply a censure of Lope on - the part of Cervantes. But this is a mistake. It is a phrase - frequently used; and though sometimes understood _in malam - partem_, as it is in D. Quixote, Part I. c. 46,--“Vete de mi - presencia, monstruo de naturaleza,”--it is generally understood - to be complimentary; as, for instance, in the “Hermosa Ester” of - Lope, (Comedias, Tom. XV., Madrid, 1621), near the end of the - first act, where Ahasuerus, in admiration of the fair Esther, - says,-- - - Tanta belleza - Monstruo será de la naturaleza. - - Cervantes, I have no doubt, used it in wonder at Lope’s - prodigious fertility. - -Many years, however, elapsed before he published even a single volume -of the plays with which he was thus delighting the audiences of -Madrid, and settling the final forms of the national drama. This was, -no doubt, in part owing to the habit, which seems to have prevailed -in Spain from the first appearance of the theatre, of regarding -its literature as ill-suited for publication; and in part to the -circumstance, that, when plays were produced on the stage, the author -usually lost his right in them, if not entirely, yet so far that he -could not publish them without the assent of the actors. But whatever -may have been the cause, it is certain that a multitude of Lope’s plays -had been acted before he published any of them; and that, to this -day, not a fourth part of those he wrote has been preserved by the -press.[296] - - [296] Lope must have been a writer for the public stage as early - as 1586 or 1587, and a popular writer at Madrid soon after 1590; - but we have no knowledge that any of his plays were printed, - with his own consent, before the volume which appeared at - Valladolid, in 1604. Yet, in the Preface to the “Peregrino en su - Patria,” licensed in 1603, he gives us a list of three hundred - and forty-one plays which he acknowledges and claims. Again, in - 1618, when he says he had written eight hundred, (Comedias, Tom. - XI., Barcelona, 1618, Prólogo), he had printed but one hundred - and thirty-four full-length plays, and a few _entremeses_. - Finally, of the eighteen hundred attributed to him in 1635, - after his death, by Montalvan and others, (Obras Sueltas, Tom. - XX. p. 49), only about three hundred and twenty or thirty can be - found in the volumes of his collected plays; and Lord Holland, - counting _autos_ and all, which would swell the _general_ claim - of Montalvan to at least twenty-two hundred, makes out but five - hundred and sixteen printed dramas of Lope. Life of Lope de Vega, - London, 1817, 8vo, Vol. II. pp. 158-180. - -Their very number, however, may have been one obstacle to their -publication; for the most moderate and certain accounts on this point -have almost a fabulous air about them; so extravagant do they seem. In -1603, he gives us the titles of three hundred and forty-one pieces that -he had already written;[297] in 1609, he says their number had risen -to four hundred and eighty-three;[298] in 1618, he says it was eight -hundred;[299] in 1619, again in round numbers, he states it at nine -hundred;[300] and in 1624, at one thousand and seventy.[301] After his -death, in 1635, Perez de Montalvan, his intimate friend and executor, -who three years before had declared the number to be fifteen hundred, -without reckoning the shorter pieces,[302] puts it at eighteen hundred -plays and four hundred _autos_;[303] numbers which are confidently -repeated by Antonio in his notice of Lope,[304] and by Franchi, an -Italian, who had been much with Lope at Madrid, and who wrote one of -the multitudinous eulogies on him after his death.[305] The prodigious -facility implied by this is further confirmed by the fact stated by -himself in one of his plays, that it was written and acted in five -days,[306] and by the anecdotes of Montalvan, that he wrote five -full-length dramas at Toledo in fifteen days, and one act of another in -a few hours of the early morning, without seeming to make any effort in -either case.[307] - - [297] This curious list, with the Preface in which it stands, is - worth reading over carefully, as affording indications of the - history and progress of Lope’s genius. It is to Lope’s dramatic - life what the list in Meres is to Shakspeare. It is found in the - Obras Sueltas, Tom. V. - - [298] In his “New Art of Writing Plays,” he says, “I have now - written, including one that I have finished this week, four - hundred and eighty-three plays.” He printed this for the first - time in 1609; and though it was probably written four or five - years earlier, yet these lines near the end may have been added - at the moment the whole poem went to the press. Obras Sueltas, - Tom. IV. p. 417. - - [299] In the Prólogo to Comedias, Tom. XI., Barcelona, 1618;--a - witty address of the theatre to the readers. - - [300] Comedias, Tom. XIV., Madrid, 1620, Dedication of “El - Verdadero Amante” to his son. - - [301] Comedias, Tom. XX., Madrid, 1629, Preface,--where he says, - “Candid minds will hope, that, as I have lived long enough to - write a thousand and seventy dramas, I may live long enough to - print them.” The certificates of this volume are dated 1624-25. - - [302] In the “Índice de los Ingenios de Madrid,” appended to the - “Para Todos” of Montalvan, printed in 1632, he says Lope had - then published twenty volumes of plays, and that the number of - those that had been acted, without reckoning _autos_, was fifteen - hundred. Lope also himself puts it at fifteen hundred in the - “Egloga á Claudio,” which, though not published till after his - death, must have been written as early as 1632, since it speaks - of the “Dorotea,” first published in that year, as still waiting - for the light. - - [303] Fama Póstuma, Obras Sueltas, Tom. XX. p. 49. - - [304] Art. _Lupus Felix de Vega_. - - [305] Obras Sueltas, Tom. XXI. pp. 3, 19. - - [306] “All studied out and written in five days.” Comedias, Tom. - XXI., Madrid, 1635, f. 72. b. - - [307] Obras Sueltas, Tom. XX. pp. 51, 52. How eagerly his plays - were sought by the actors and received by the audiences of - Madrid may be understood from the fact Lope mentions in the - poem to his friend Claudio, that above a hundred were acted - within twenty-four hours of the time when their composition was - completed. Obras Sueltas, Tom. IX. p. 368. - -Of this enormous mass, a little more than five hundred dramas appear -to have been published at different times,--most of them in the -twenty-five, or more properly twenty-eight, volumes which were printed -in various places between 1604 and 1647, but of which it is now nearly -impossible to form a complete collection. In these volumes, so far -as any rules of the dramatic art are concerned, it is apparent that -Lope took the theatre in the state in which he found it; and instead -of attempting to adapt it to any previous theory, or to any existing -models, whether ancient or recent, made it his great object to satisfy -the popular audiences of his age;[308]--an object which he avows so -distinctly in his “Art of Writing Plays,” and in the Preface to the -twentieth volume of his Dramas, that there is no doubt it was the -prevailing purpose with which he labored for the theatre. For such a -purpose, he certainly appeared at a fortunate moment; and, possessing -a genius no less fortunate, was enabled to become the founder of -the national Spanish theatre, which, since his time, has rested -substantially on the basis where he placed and left it. - - [308] As early as 1603, Lope maintains this doctrine in the - Preface to his “Peregrino”;--it occurs frequently afterwards in - different parts of his works, as, for instance, in the Prólogo - to his “Castigo sin Venganza”; and he left it as a legacy in the - “Egloga á Claudio,” printed after his death. The “Nueva Arte de - Hacer Comedias,” however, is abundantly explicit on the subject - in 1609, and, no doubt, expressed the deliberate purpose of its - author, from which he seems never to have swerved during his - whole dramatic career. - -But this very system--if that may be called a system which was rather -an instinct--almost necessarily supposes that he indulged his audiences -in a great variety of dramatic forms; and accordingly we find, among -his plays, a diversity, alike in spirit, tone, and structure, which -was evidently intended to humor the uncertain cravings of the popular -taste, and which we know was successful. Whether he himself ever took -the trouble to consider what were the different classes into which his -dramas might be divided does not appear. Certainly no attempt at any -technical arrangement of them is made in the collection he printed, -except that, in the first and third volumes, a few _entremeses_, or -farces, generally in prose, are thrown in at the end of each, as a -sort of appendix. All the rest of the plays contained in them are -in verse, and are called _comedias_,--a word which is by no means -to be translated “comedies,” but “dramas,” since no other name is -comprehensive enough to include their manifold varieties,--and all of -them are divided into three _jornadas_, or acts. - -But in every thing else there seems no end to their -diversities,--whether we regard their subjects, running from the -deepest tragedy to the broadest farce, and from the most solemn -mysteries of religion down to the loosest frolics of common life, or -their style, which embraces every change of tone and measure known to -the poetical language of the country. And all these different masses -of Lope’s drama, it should be further noted, run insensibly into each -other,--the sacred and the secular; the tragic and the comic; the -heroic action and that from vulgar life,--until sometimes it seems as -if there were neither separate form nor distinctive attribute to any of -them. - -This, however, is less the case than it at first appears to be. Lope, -no doubt, did not always know or care into what peculiar form the -story of his drama was cast; but still there were certain forms and -attributes invented by his own genius, or indicated to him by the -success of his predecessors or the demands of his time, to which each -of his dramas more or less tended. A few, indeed, may be found so -nearly on the limits that separate the different classes, that it is -difficult to assign them strictly to either; but in all--even in those -that are the freest and wildest--the distinctive elements of some -class are apparent, while all, by the peculiarly national spirit that -animates them, show the source from which they come, and the direction -they are destined to follow. - -The _first_ class of plays that Lope seems to have invented--the -one in which his own genius seemed most to delight, and which still -remains more popular in Spain than any other--consists of those called -“Comedias de Capa y Espada,” or Dramas with Cloak and Sword. They took -their name from the circumstance, that their principal personages -belong to the genteel portion of society, accustomed, in Lope’s time, -to the picturesque national dress of cloaks and swords,--excluding, -on the one hand, those dramas in which royal personages appear, -and, on the other, those which are devoted to common life and the -humbler classes. Their main and moving principle is gallantry,--such -gallantry as existed in the time of their author. The story is almost -always involved and intriguing, and almost always accompanied with an -underplot and parody on the characters and adventures of the principal -parties, formed out of those of the servants and other inferior -personages. - -Their titles are intended to be attractive, and are not infrequently -taken from among the old rhymed proverbs that were always popular, -and that sometimes seem to have suggested the subject of the drama -itself. They uniformly extend to the length of regular pieces for the -theatre, now settled at three _jornadas_, or acts, each of which, -Lope advises, should have its action compressed within the limits of -a single day, though he himself is rarely scrupulous enough to follow -his own recommendation. They are not properly comedies, for nothing -is more frequent in them than duels, murders, and assassinations; and -they are not tragedies, for, besides that they end happily, they are -generally composed of humorous and sentimental dialogue, and their -action is carried on chiefly by lovers full of romance, or by low -characters whose wit is mingled with buffoonery. All this, it should be -understood, was new on the Spanish stage; or if hints might have been -furnished for individual portions of it as far back as Torres Naharro, -the combination, at least, was new, as well as the manners, tone, and -costume. - -Of such plays Lope wrote a very large number; several hundreds, at -least. His genius--rich, free, and eminently inventive--was well fitted -for their composition, and in many of them he shows great dramatic -tact and talent. Among the best are “The Ugly Beauty”;[309] “Money -makes the Man”;[310] “The Pruderies of Belisa,”[311] which has the -accidental merit of being all but strictly within the rules; “The Slave -of her Lover,”[312] in which he has sounded the depths of a woman’s -tenderness; and “The Dog in the Manger,” in which he has almost equally -well sounded the depths of her selfish vanity.[313] But perhaps there -are some others which, even better than these, will show the peculiar -character of this class of Lope’s dramas, and his peculiar position in -relation to them. To two or three such we will, therefore, now turn. - - [309] Comedias, Tom. XXIV., Zaragoza, 1641, 4to, f. 22, etc. - - [310] I know this play, “Dineros son Calidad,” only among the - Comedias Sueltas of Lope; but it is no doubt his, as it is in - Tom. XXIV. printed at Zaragoza in 1632, which contains different - plays from a Tom. XXIV. printed at Zaragoza in 1641, which I - have. There is yet a third Tom. XXIV., printed at Madrid in 1638. - The internal evidence would, perhaps, be enough to prove its - authorship. - - [311] Comedias, Tom. IX., Barcelona, 1618, f. 277, etc., but - often reprinted since under the title of “La Melindrosa.” - - [312] Comedias, Tom. XXV., Çaragoça, 1647, f. 1, etc. - - [313] Comedias, Tom. XI, Barcelona, 1618, f. 1, etc. The Preface - to this volume is curious, on account of Lope’s complaints of - the booksellers. He calls it “Prólogo del Teatro,” and makes the - surreptitious publication of his plays an offence against the - drama itself. He intimates that it was not very uncommon for one - of his plays to be acted seventy times. - -“El Azero de Madrid,” or The Madrid Steel, is one of them, and is -among his earlier works for the stage.[314] It takes its name from -the preparations of steel for medicinal purposes, which, in Lope’s -time, had just come into fashionable use; but the main story is that -of a light-hearted girl who deceives her father, and especially a -hypocritical old aunt, by pretending to be ill and taking steel -medicaments from a seeming doctor, who is a friend of her lover, and -who prescribes walking abroad, and such other free modes of life as may -best afford opportunities for her admirer’s attentions. - - [314] The “Azero de Madrid,” which was written as early as 1603, - has often been printed separately, and is found in the regular - collection, Tom. XI., Barcelona, 1618, f. 27, etc. - -There can be little doubt that in this play we find some of the -materials for the “Médecin Malgré Lui”; and though the full success -of Molière’s original wit is not to be questioned, still the happiest -portions of his comedy can do no more than come into fair competition -with some passages in that of Lope. The character of the heroine, for -instance, is drawn with more spirit in the Spanish than it is in the -French play; and that of the devotee aunt, who acts as her duenna, and -whose hypocrisy is exposed when she herself falls in love, is one which -Molière might well have envied, though it was too exclusively Spanish -to be brought within the courtly conventions by which he was restrained. - -The whole drama is full of life and gayety, and has a truth and reality -about it rare on any stage. Its opening is both a proof of this and a -characteristic specimen of its author’s mode of placing his audience -at once, by a decisive movement, in the midst of the scene and the -personages he means to represent. Lisardo, the hero, and Riselo, his -friend, appear watching the door of a fashionable church in Madrid, -at the conclusion of the service, to see a lady with whom Lisardo is -in love. They are wearied with waiting, while the crowds pass out, -and Riselo at last declares he will wait for his friend’s fancy no -longer. At this moment appears Belisa, the lady in question, attended -by her aunt, Theodora, who wears an affectedly religious dress and is -lecturing her:-- - - _Theodora._ Show more of gentleness and modesty;-- - Of gentleness in walking quietly, - Of modesty in looking only down - Upon the earth you tread. - - _Belisa._ ’T is what I do. - - _Theodora._ What? When you’re looking straight towards that man? - - _Belisa._ Did you not bid me look upon the earth? - And what is he but just a bit of it? - - _Theodora._ I said the earth whereon you tread, my niece. - - _Belisa._ But that whereon I tread is hidden quite - With my own petticoat and walking-dress. - - _Theodora._ Words such as these become no well-bred maid. - But, by your mother’s blessed memory, - I’ll put an end to all your pretty tricks;-- - What? You look back at him again? - - _Belisa._ Who? I? - - _Theodora._ Yes, you;--and make him secret signs besides. - - _Belisa._ Not I. ’T is only that you troubled me - With teasing questions and perverse replies, - So that I stumbled and looked round to see - Who would prevent my fall. - - _Riselo._ (_to Lisardo_). She falls again. - Be quick and help her. - - _Lisardo._ (_to Belisa_). Pardon me, lady, - And forgive my glove. - - _Theodora._ Who ever saw the like? - - _Belisa._ I thank you, Sir; you saved me from a fall. - - _Lisardo._ An angel, lady, might have fallen so; - Or stars that shine with heaven’s own blessed light. - - _Theodora._ I, too, can fall; but ’t is upon your trick. - Good gentleman, farewell to you! - - _Lisardo._ Madam, - Your servant. (Heaven save us from such spleen!) - - _Theodora._ A pretty fall you made of it; and now, I hope, - You’ll be content, since they assisted you. - - _Belisa._ And you no less content, since now you have - The means to tease me for a week to come. - - _Theodora._ But why again do you turn back your head? - - _Belisa._ Why, sure you think it wise and wary - To notice well the place I stumbled at, - Lest I should stumble there when next I pass. - - _Theodora._ Mischief befall you! But I know your ways! - You’ll not deny this time you looked upon the youth? - - _Belisa._ Deny it? No! - - _Theodora._ You dare confess it, then? - - _Belisa._ Be sure I dare. You saw him help me,-- - And would you have me fail to thank him for it? - - _Theodora._ Go to! Come home! come home! - - _Belisa._ Now we shall have - A pretty scolding cooked up out of this.[315] - - [315] - _Teo._ Lleua cordura y modestia;-- - Cordura en andar de espacio; - Modestia en que solo veas - La misma tierra que pisas. - - _Bel._ Ya hago lo que me enseñas. - - _Teo._ Como miraste aquel hombre? - - _Bel._ No me dixiste que viera - Sola tierra? pues, dime, - Aquel hombre no es de tierra? - - _Teo._ Yo la que pisas te digo. - - _Bel._ La que piso va cubierta - De la saya y los chapines. - - _Teo._ Que palabras de donzella! - Por el siglo de tu madre, - Que yo te quite essas tretas! - Otra vez le miras? - - _Bel._ Yo? - - _Teo._ Luego no le hiziste señas? - - _Bel._ Fuy á caer, como me turbas - Con demandas y respuestas, - Y miré quien me tuuiesse. - - _Ris._ Cayó! llegad á tenerla! - - _Lis._ Perdone, vuessa merced, - El guante. - - _Teo._ Ay cosa como esta? - - _Bel._ Beso os las manos, Señor; - Que, si no es por vos, cayera. - - _Lis._ Cayera un ángel, Señora, - Y cayeran las estrellas, - A quien da mas lumbre el sol. - - _Teo._ Y yo cayera en la cuenta. - Yd, cauallero, con Dios! - - _Lis._ El os guarde, y me defienda - De condicion tan estraña! - - _Teo._ Ya cayste, y vás contenta, - De que te dieron la mano. - - _Bel._ Y tú lo irás de que tengas - Con que pudrirme seys dias. - - _Teo._ A que bueluas la cabeça? - - _Bel._ Pues no te parece que es - Advertencia muy discreta - Mirar adonde cahí, - Para que otra vez no buelua - A tropeçar en lo mismo? - - _Teo._ Ay, mala pascua te venga, - Y como entiendo tus mañas. - Otra vez, y dirás que esta - No miraste el mancebito? - - _Bel._ Es verdad. - - _Teo._ Y lo confiessas? - - _Bel._ Si me dió la mano allí, - No quieres que lo agradesca? - - _Teo._ Anda, que entraras en casa. - - _Bel._ O lo que harás de quimeras! - - Comedias de Lope de Vega. Tom. XI., Barcelona, 1618, f. 27. - -Other passages are equally spirited and no less Castilian. The scene, -at the beginning of the second act, between Octavio, another lover of -the lady, and his servant, who jests at his master’s passion, as well -as the scene with the mock doctor, that follows, are both admirable in -their way, and must have produced a great effect on the audiences of -Madrid, who felt how true they were to the manners of the time. - -But all Lope’s dramas were not written for the public theatres of the -capital. He was the courtly, no less than the national, poet of his -age; and as we have already noticed a play full of the spirit of his -youth, and of the popular character, to which it was addressed, we will -now turn to one no less buoyant and free, which was written in his old -age and prepared expressly for a royal entertainment. It is the “Saint -John’s Eve,” and shows that his manner was the same, whether he was -to be judged by the unruly crowds gathered in one of the court-yards -of the capital, or by a few persons selected from whatever was most -exclusive and elevated in the kingdom. - -The occasion for which it was prepared and the arrangements for its -exhibition mark, at once, the luxury of the royal theatres in the reign -of Philip the Fourth, and the consideration enjoyed by their favored -poet.[316] The drama itself was ordered expressly by the Count Duke -Olivares, for a magnificent entertainment which he wished to give his -sovereign in one of the gardens of Madrid, on Saint John’s eve, in -June, 1631. No expense was spared by the profligate favorite to please -his indulgent master. The Marquis Juan Bautista Crescencio--the same -artist to whom we owe the sombre Pantheon of the Escurial--arranged the -architectural constructions, which consisted of luxurious bowers for -the king and his courtiers, and a gorgeous theatre in front of them, -where, amidst a blaze of torch-light, the two most famous companies of -actors of the time performed successively two plays: one written by the -united talent of Francisco de Quevedo and Antonio de Mendoça; and the -other, the crowning grace of the festival, by Lope de Vega. - - [316] The facts relating to this play are taken partly from the - play itself, (Comedias, Tom. XXI., Madrid, 1635, f. 68. b), and - partly from Casiano Pellicer, Orígen y Progresos de la Comedia, - Madrid, 1804, 12mo, Tom. I. pp. 174-181. - - A similar entertainment had been given by his queen to Philip - IV., on his birthday, in 1622, at the beautiful country-seat - of Aranjuez, for which the unfortunate Count of Villamediana - furnished the poetry, and Fontana, the distinguished Italian - architect, erected a theatre of great magnificence. The drama, - which was much like a masque of the English theatre, and was - performed by the queen and her ladies, is in the Works of Count - Villamediana (Çaragoça, 1629, 4to, pp. 1-55); and an account of - the entertainment itself is given in Antonio de Mendoça (Obras, - Lisboa, 1690, 4to, pp. 426-464);--all indicating the most - wasteful luxury and extravagance. - -The subject of the play of Lope is happily taken from the frolics of -the very night on which it was represented;--a night frequently alluded -to in the old Spanish stories and ballads, as one devoted, both by -Moors and Christians, to gayer superstitions, and adventures more -various, than belonged to any other of the old national holidays.[317] -What was represented, therefore, had a peculiar interest, from its -appropriateness both as to time and place. - - [317] Lope himself, in 1624, published a poem on the same - subject, which fills thirty pages in the third volume of his - Works; but a description of the frolics of St. John’s eve, better - suited to illustrate this play of Lope, and much else on St. - John’s eve in Spanish poetry, is in “Doblado’s Letters,” (1822, - p. 309),--a work full of the most faithful sketches of Spanish - character and manners. - -Leonora, the heroine, first comes on the stage, and confesses her -attachment to Don Juan de Hurtado, a gentleman who has recently -returned rich from the Indies. She gives a lively sketch of the way in -which he had made love to her in all the forms of national admiration, -at church by day, and before her grated balcony in the evenings. Don -Luis, her brother, ignorant of all this, gladly becomes acquainted with -the lover, whom he interests in a match of his own with Doña Blanca, -sister of Bernardo, who is the cherished friend of Don Juan. Eager to -oblige the brother of the lady he loves, Don Juan seeks Bernardo, and, -in the course of their conversation, ingeniously describes to him a -visit he has just made to see all the arrangements for the evening’s -entertainment now in progress before the court, including this -identical play of Lope; thus whimsically claiming from the audience a -belief that the action they are witnessing on the stage in the garden -is, at the very same moment, going on in real life in the streets -of Madrid, just behind their backs;--a passage which, involving, as -it does, compliments to the king and the Count Duke, to Quevedo and -Mendoça, must have been one of the most brilliant in its effect that -can be imagined. But when Don Juan comes to explain his mission about -the lady Blanca, although he finds a most willing consent on the part -of her brother, Bernardo, he is thunderstruck at the suggestion, that -this brother, his most intimate friend, wishes to make the alliance -double and marry Leonora himself. - -Now, of course, begin the involutions and difficulties. Don Juan’s -sense of what he owes to his friend forbids him from setting up his own -claim to Leonora, and he at once decides that nothing remains for him -but flight. At the same time, it is discovered that the Lady Blanca is -already attached to another person, a noble cavalier, named Don Pedro, -and will, therefore, never marry Don Luis, if she can avoid it. The -course of true love, therefore, runs smooth in neither case. But both -the ladies avow their determination to remain steadfastly faithful to -their lovers, though Leonora, from some fancied symptoms of coldness in -Don Juan, arising out of his over-nice sense of honor, is in despair at -the thought that he may, after all, prove false to her. - -So ends the first act. The second opens with the lady Blanca’s account -of her own lover, his condition, and the way in which he had made -his love known to her in a public garden;--all most faithful to the -national costume. But just as she is ready to escape and be privately -married to him, her brother, Don Bernardo, comes in and proposes to -her to make her first visit to Leonora, in order to promote his own -suit. Meantime, the poor Leonora, quite desperate, rushes into the -street with her attendant, and meets her lover’s servant, the clown -and harlequin of the piece, who tells her that his master, unable any -longer to endure his sufferings, is just about escaping from Madrid. -The master, Don Juan, follows in hot haste, booted for his journey. -The lady faints. When she revives, they come to an understanding, -and determine to be married on the instant; so that we have now two -private marriages, beset with difficulties, on the carpet at once. -But the streets are full of frolicsome crowds, who are indulged in -a sort of carnival freedom during this popular festival. Don Juan’s -rattling servant gets into a quarrel with some gay young men, who -are impertinent to his master, and to the terrified Leonora. Swords -are drawn, and Don Juan is arrested by the officers of justice and -carried off,--the lady, in her fright, taking refuge in a house, -which accidentally turns out to be that of Don Pedro. But Don Pedro -is abroad, seeking for his own lady, Doña Blanca. When he returns, -however, making his way with difficulty through the rioting populace, -he promises, as in Castilian honor bound, to protect the helpless and -unknown Leonora, whom he finds in his balcony timidly watching the -movements of the crowd in the street, among whom she is hoping to catch -a glimpse of her own lover. - -In the last act we learn that Don Juan has at once, by bribes, easily -rid himself of the officers of justice, and is again in the noisy and -gay streets seeking for Leonora. He falls in with Don Pedro, whom he -has never seen before; but Don Pedro, taking him, from his inquiries, -to be the brother from whom Leonora is anxious to be concealed, -carefully avoids betraying her to him. Unhappily, the Lady Blanca now -arrives, having been prevented from coming earlier by the confusion in -the streets; and he hurries her into his house for concealment till -the marriage ceremony can be performed. But she hurries out again no -less quickly, having found another lady already concealed there;--a -circumstance which she takes to be direct proof of her lover’s -falsehood. Leonora follows her, and begins an explanation; but in the -midst of it, the two brothers, who had been seeking these same missing -sisters, come suddenly in; a scene of great confusion and mutual -reproaches ensues; and then the curtain falls with a recognition of -all the mistakes and attachments, and the full happiness of the two -ladies and their two lovers. At the end, the poet, in his own person, -declares, that, if his art permits him to extend his action over -twenty-four hours, he has, in the present case, kept within its rules, -since he has occupied less than ten. - -As a specimen of plays founded on Spanish manners, few are happier -than the “Saint John’s Eve.” The love-scenes, all honor and passion; -the scenes between the cavaliers and the populace, at once rude and -gay; and the scenes with the free-spoken servant who plays the wit are -almost all excellent, and instinct with the national character. It was -received with the greatest applause, and constituted the finale of the -Count Duke’s magnificent entertainment, which, with its music and -dances, interludes and refreshments, occupied the whole night, from -nine o’clock in the evening till daylight the next morning. - -Another of the plays of Lope, and one that belongs to the division of -the _Capa y Espada_, but approaches that of the heroic drama, is his -“Fool for Others and Wise for Herself.”[318] It is of a lighter and -livelier temper throughout than most of its class. Diana, educated in -the simple estate of a shepherdess, and wholly ignorant that she is the -daughter and heir of the Duke of Urbino, is suddenly called, by the -death of her father, to fill his place. She is surrounded by intriguing -enemies, but triumphs over them by affecting a rustic simplicity in -whatever she says and does, while, at the same time, she is managing -all around her, and carrying on a love intrigue with the Duke Alexander -Farnese, which ends in her marriage with him. - - [318] Comedias, Tom. XXI., Madrid, 1635, f. 45, etc. - -The jest of the piece lies in the wit she is able to conceal under her -seeming rusticity. For instance, at the very opening, after she has -been secretly informed of the true state of things, and has determined -what course to pursue, the ambassadors from Urbino come in and tell -her, with a solemnity suited to the occasion,-- - - Lady, our sovereign lord, the Duke, is dead! - -To which she replies,-- - - What’s that to me? But if ’t is surely so, - Why then, Sirs, ’t is for you to bury him. - I’m not the parish curate.[319] - - [319] - _Camilo._ Señora, el Duque es muerto. - - _Diana._ Pues que se me da á mí? pero si es cierto, - Enterralde, Señores, - Que yo no soi el Cura. - - Comedias, Tom. XXI., Madrid, 1635. f. 47. - -This tone is maintained to the end, whenever the heroine appears; and -it gives Lope an opportunity to bring forth a great deal of the fluent, -light wit of which he had such ample store. - -Little like all we have yet noticed, but still belonging to the same -class, is “The Reward of Speaking Well,”[320] a charming play, in which -the accounts of the hero’s birth and early condition are so absolutely -a description of his own, that it can hardly be doubted that Lope -intended to draw the character in some degree from himself. Don Juan, -who is the hero, is standing with some idle gallants near a church in -Seville, to see the ladies come out; and, while there, defends, though -he does not know her, one of them who is lightly spoken of. A quarrel -ensues. He wounds his adversary, is pursued, and chances to take -refuge in the house of the very lady whose honor he had so gallantly -maintained a few moments before. She from gratitude secretes him, and -the play ends with a wedding, though not until there has been a perfect -confusion of plots and counterplots, intrigues and concealments, such -as so often go to make up the three acts of Lope’s dramas. - - [320] Comedias, Tom. XXI., Madrid, 1635, f. 158, etc. - -Many other plays might be added to these, showing, by the diversity -of their tone and character, how diverse were the gifts of the -extraordinary man who invented them and filled them with various and -easy verse. Among them are “Por la Puente Juana,”[321] “El Anzuelo -de Fenisa,”[322] “El Ruyseñor de Sevilla,”[323] and “Porfiar hasta -Morir”;[324] which last is on the story of Macias el Enamorado, always -a favorite with the old Spanish, and Provençal poets. But it is -neither needful nor possible to go farther. Enough has been said to -show the general character of their class, and we therefore now turn to -another. - - [321] Ibid., f. 243, etc. It has often been printed separately; - once in London. - - [322] Comedias, Tom. VIII., Madrid, 1617, and often printed - separately; a play remarkable for its gayety and spirit. - - [323] Comedias, Tom. XVII., Madrid, 1621, f. 187, etc. - - [324] Comedias, Tom. XXIII., Madrid, 1638, f. 96, etc. - - - - -CHAPTER XVI. - -LOPE DE VEGA, CONTINUED.--HIS HEROIC DRAMA, AND ITS -CHARACTERISTICS.--GREAT NUMBER ON SUBJECTS FROM SPANISH HISTORY, AND -SOME ON CONTEMPORARY EVENTS. - - -The dramas of Lope de Vega that belong to the next class were called -“Comedias Heróicas,” or “Comedias Historiales,”--Heroic or Historical -Dramas. The chief differences between these and the last are that -they bring on the stage personages in a higher rank of life, such as -kings and princes; that they generally have an historical foundation, -or, at least, use historical names, as if claiming it; and that -their prevailing tone is grave, imposing, and even tragical. They -have, however, in general, the same involved, intriguing stories and -underplots, the same play of jealousy and an over-sensitive honor, and -the same low, comic caricatures to relieve their serious parts, that -are found in the dramas of “the Cloak and Sword.” Philip the Second -disapproved of this class of plays, thinking they tended to diminish -the royal dignity,--a circumstance which shows at once the state of -manners at the time, and the influence attributed to the theatre.[325] - - [325] Lope de Vega, Obras Sueltas, Tom. IV. p. 410. - -Lope wrote a very large number of plays in the forms of the heroic -drama, which he substantially invented,--perhaps as many as he wrote -in any other class. Every thing historical seemed, indeed, to furnish -him with a subject, from the earliest annals of the world down to the -events of his own time; but his favorite materials were sought in Greek -and Roman records, and especially in the chronicles and ballads of -Spain itself. - -Of the manner in which he dealt with ancient history, his “Roma -Abrasada,” or Rome in Ashes, may be taken as a specimen, though -certainly one of the least favorable specimens of the class to which -it belongs.[326] The facts on which it is founded are gathered from -the commonest sources open to its author,--chiefly from the “General -Chronicle of Spain”; but they are not formed into a well-constructed -or even ingenious plot,[327] and they relate to the whole twenty years -that elapsed between the death of Messalina, in the reign of Claudius, -and the death of Nero himself, who is not only the hero, but the -_gracioso_, or droll, of the piece. - - [326] Comedias, Tom. XX., Madrid, 1629, ff. 177, etc. It is - entitled “_Tragedia_ Famosa.” - - [327] It is worth while to compare Suetonius, (Books V. and VI.), - and the “Crónica General,” (Parte I. c. 110 and 111), with the - corresponding passages in the “Roma Abrasada.” In one passage of - Act III., Lope uses a ballad, the first lines of which occur in - the first act of the “Celestina.” - -The first act, which comes down to the murder of Claudius by Nero and -Agrippina, contains the old jest of the Emperor asking why his wife -does not come to dinner, after he had put her to death, and adds, -for equally popular effect, abundant praises of Spain and of Lucan -and Seneca, claiming both of them to be Spaniards, and making the -latter an astrologer as well as a moralist. The second act shows Nero -beginning his reign with great gentleness, and follows Suetonius and -the old Chronicle in making him grieve that he knew how to write, since -otherwise he could not have been required to sign an order for a -just judicial execution. The subsequent violent change in his conduct -is not, however, in any way explained or accounted for. It is simply -set before the spectators as a fact, and from this moment begins the -headlong career of his guilt. - -A curious scene, purely Spanish, is one of the early intimations of -this change of character. Nero falls in love with Eta; but not at all -in the Roman fashion. He visits her by night at her window, sings a -sonnet to her, is interrupted by four men in disguise, kills one of -them, and escapes from the pursuit of the officers of justice with -difficulty; all, as if he were a wandering knight so fair of the time -of Philip the Third.[328] The more historical love for Poppæa follows, -with a shocking interview between Nero and his mother, in consequence -of which he orders her to be at once put to death. The execution of -this order, with the horrid exposure of her person afterwards, ends the -act, which, gross as it is, does not sink to the revolting atrocities -of the old Chronicle from which it is chiefly taken. - - [328] This scene is in the second act, and forms that part of the - play where Nero enacts the _gracioso_. - -The third act is so arranged as partly to gratify the national vanity -and partly to conciliate the influence of the Church, of which -Lope, like his contemporaries, always stood in awe. Several devout -Christians, therefore, are now introduced, and we have an edifying -confession of faith, embracing the history of the world from the -creation to the crucifixion, with an account of what the Spanish -historians regard as the first of the twelve persecutions. The deaths -of Seneca and Lucan follow; and then the conflagration of Rome, which, -as it constitutes the show part of the play and is relied on for -the stage effect it would produce, is brought in near the end, out -of the proper order of the story, and after the building of Nero’s -luxurious palace, the “aurea domus,” which was really constructed -in the desert the fire had left. The audience, meantime, have been -put in good humor by a scene in Spain, where a conspiracy is on foot -to overthrow the Emperor’s power; and the drama concludes with the -death of Poppæa,--again less gross than the account of it in the -Chronicle,--with Nero’s own death, and with the proclamation of Galba -as his successor; all of them crowded into a space disproportionately -small for incidents so important. - -But it was not often that Lope wrote so ill or so grossly. On modern, -and especially on national subjects, he is almost always more -fortunate, and sometimes becomes powerful and imposing. Among these, -as a characteristic, though not as a remarkably favorable, specimen -of his success, is to be placed the “Príncipe Perfeto,”[329] in which -he intends to give his idea of a perfect prince under the character -of Don John of Portugal, son of Alfonso the Fifth and contemporary -with Ferdinand and Isabella, a full-length portrait of whom, by his -friend and confidant, is drawn in the opening of the second act, with a -minuteness of detail that leaves no doubt as to the qualities for which -princes were valued in the age of the Philips, if not those for which -they would be valued now. - - [329] Comedias, Tom. XI., Barcelona, 1618, ff. 121, etc. - -Elsewhere in the piece, Don John is represented to have fought bravely -in the disastrous battle of Toro, and to have voluntarily restored -the throne to his father, who had once abdicated in his favor and had -afterwards reclaimed the supreme power. Personal courage and strict -justice, however, are the attributes most relied on to exhibit him -as a perfect prince. Of the former he gives proof by killing a man in -self-defence, and entering into a bull-fight under the most perilous -circumstances. Of the latter--his love of justice--many instances are -brought on the stage, and, among the rest, his protection of Columbus, -after the return of that great navigator from America, though aware how -much his discoveries had redounded to the honor of a rival country, -and how great had been his own error in not obtaining the benefit of -them for Portugal. But the most prominent of these instances of justice -relates to a private and personal history, and forms the main subject -of the drama. It is as follows. - -Don Juan de Sosa, the king’s favorite, is twice sent by him to Spain -on embassies of consequence, and, while residing there, lives in the -family of a gentleman connected with him by blood, to whose daughter, -Leonora, he makes love and wins her affections. Each time, when Don -Juan returns to Portugal, he forgets his plighted faith and leaves the -lady to languish. At last, she comes with her father to Lisbon in the -train of the Spanish princess, Isabella, now married to the king’s son. -But even there the false knight refuses to recognize his obligations. -In her despair, she presents herself to the king, and explains her -position in the following conversation, which is a favorable specimen -of the easy narrative in which resides so much of the charm of Lope’s -drama. As Leonora enters, she exclaims:-- - - Prince, whom in peace and war men perfect call, - Listen a woman’s cry! - - _King._ Begin;--I hear. - - _Leonora._ Fadrique--he of ancient Lara’s house, - And governor of Seville--is my sire. - - _King._ Pause there, and pardon first the courtesy - That owes a debt to thy name and to his, - Which ignorance alone could fail to pay. - - _Leonora._ Such condescending gentleness, my lord, - Is worthy of the wisdom and the wit - Which through the world are blazoned and admired.-- - But to my tale. Twice came there to Castile - A knight from this thy land, whose name I hide - Till all his frauds are manifest. For thou, - My lord, dost love him in such wise, that, wert - Thou other than thou art, my true complaints - Would fear to seek a justice they in vain - Would strive to find. Each time within our house - He dwelt a guest, and from the very first - He sought my love. - - _King._ Speak on, and let not shame - Oppress thy words; for to the judge and priest - Alike confession’s voice should boldly come. - - _Leonora._ I was deceived. He went and left me sad - To mourn his absence; for of them he is - Who leave behind their knightly, nobler parts, - When they themselves are long since fled and gone. - Again he came, his voice more sweetly tuned, - More syren-like, than ever. I heard the voice, - Nor knew its hidden fraud. O, would that Heaven - Had made us, in its highest justice, deaf, - Since tongues so false it gave to men! He lured, - He lured me as the fowler lures the bird - And snares in meshes hid beneath the grass. - I struggled, but in vain; for Love, heaven’s child, - Has power the mightiest fortress to subdue. - He pledged his knightly word,--in writing pledged it,-- - Trusting that afterwards, in Portugal, - The debt and all might safely be denied;-- - As if the heavens were narrower than the earth, - And justice not supreme. In short, my lord, - He went; and, proud and vain, the banners bore - That my submission marked, not my defeat; - For where love is, there comes no victory. - His spoils he carried to his native land, - As if they had been torn in heathen war - From Africa; such as in Arcila, - In earliest youth, thyself with glory won; - Or such as now, from shores remote, thy ships - Bring home,--dark slaves, to darker slavery. - No written word of his came back to me. - My honor wept its obsequies, and built its tomb - With Love’s extinguished torches. Soon, the prince, - Thy son, was wed with our Infanta fair,-- - God grant it for a blessing to both realms!-- - And with her, as ambassador, my sire - To Lisbon came, and I with him. But here-- - Even here--his promises that knight denies, - And so disheartens and despises me, - That, if your Grace no remedy can find, - The end of all must be the end of life,-- - So heavy is my misery. - - _King._ That scroll? - Thou hast it? - - _Leonora._ Surely. It were an error - Not to be repaired, if I had lost it. - - _King._ It cannot be but I should know the hand, - If he who wrote it in my household serve. - - _Leonora._ This is the scroll, my lord. - - _King._ And John de Sosa’s is - The signature! But yet, unless mine eyes - Had seen and recognized his very hand, - I never had believed the tale thou bring’st;-- - So highly deem I of his faithfulness.[330] - - [330] - _D. Leo._ Principe, qu’ en paz, y en guerra, - Te llama perfeto el mundo, - Oye una muger! - - _Rey._ Comiença. - - _D. Leo._ Del gobernador Fadrique - De Lara soy hija. - - _Rey._ Espera. - Perdona al no conocerte - La cortesia, que es deuda - Digna á tu padre y á ti. - - _D. Leo._ Essa es gala y gentileza - Digna de tu ingenio claro, - Que el mundo admira y celebra.-- - For dos vezes á Castilla - Fue un fidalgo desta tierra,-- - Que quiero encubrir el nombre, - Hasta que su engaño sepas; - Porque le quieres de modo, - Que temiera que mis quexas - No hallaran justicia en ti, - Si otro que tu mismo fueras. - Poso entrambas en mi casa; - Solicito la primera - Mi voluntad. - - _Rey._ Di adelante, - Y no te oprima verguença, - Que tambien con los juezes - Las personas se confiessan. - - _D. Leo._ Agradeci sus engaños. - Partiose; llore su ausencia; - Que las partes deste hidalgo, - Quando el se parte, ellas quedan. - Boluio otra vez, y boluio - Mas dulcemente Sirena. - Con la voz no vi el engaño. - Ay, Dios! Señor, si nacieran - Las mugeres sin oydos, - Ya que los hombres con lenguas. - Llamome al fin, como suele - A la perdiz la cautela - Del caçador engañoso, - Las redes entre la yerua. - Resistime; mas que importa, - Si la mayor fortaleza - No contradize el amor, - Que es hijo de las estrellas? - Una cedula me hizo - De ser mi marido, y esta - Deuio de ser con intento - De no conocer la deuda, - En estando en Portugal, - Como si el cielo no fuera - Cielo sobre todo el mundo, - Y su justicia suprema. - Al fin, Señor, el se fue, - Ufano con las banderas - De una muger ya rendida; - Que donde hay amor, no hay fuerça. - Despojos traxo á su patria, - Como si de Africa fueran, - De los Moros, que en Arcila - Venciste en tu edad primera, - O de los remotos mares, - De cuyas blancas arenas - Te traen negros esclauos - Tus armadas Portuguesas. - Nunca mas vi letra suya. - Lloro mi amor sus obsequias, - Hize el tumulo del llanto, - Y de amor las hachas muertas. - Caso el Principe tu hijo - Con nuestra Infanta, que sea - Para bien de entrambos reynos. - Vino mi padre con ella. - Vine con el á Lisboa, - Donde este fidalgo niega - Tan justas obligaciones, - Y de suerte me desprecia, - Que me ha de quitar la vida, - Si tu Alteza no remedia - De una muger la desdicha. - - _Rey._ Viue la cedula? - - _D. Leo._ Fuera - Error no auerla guardado. - - _Rey._ Yo conocere la letra, - Si es criado de mi casa. - - _D. Leo._ Señor, la cedula es esta. - - _Rey._ La firma dize, Don Juan - De Sosa! No lo creyera, - A no conocer la firma, - De su virtud y prudencia. - - Comedias de Lope de Vega, Tom. XI., Barcelona, 1618, - ff. 143, 144. - - This passage is near the end of the piece, and leads to the - _dénouement_ by one of those flowing narratives, like an Italian - _novella_, to which Lope frequently resorts, when the intriguing - fable of the drama has been carried far enough to fill up the - three customary acts. - -The _dénouement_ naturally consists in the marriage, which is thus made -a record of the king’s perfect justice. - -Columbus, as we have seen, appears in this piece. He is introduced with -little skill, but the dignity of his pretensions is not forgotten. In -another drama, devoted to the discovery of America, and called “The New -World of Columbus,” his character is further and more truly developed. -The play itself embraces the events of the great Admiral’s life between -his first vain effort to obtain countenance in Portugal and his -triumphant presentation of the spoils of the New World to Ferdinand -and Isabella at Barcelona,--a period amounting to about fourteen -years.[331] It is one of Lope’s more wild and extravagant attempts, -but not without marks of his peculiar talent, and fully embodies -the national feeling in regard to America, as a world rescued from -heathenism. Some of its scenes are in Portugal; others on the plain of -Granada, at the moment of its fall; others in the caravel of Columbus -during the mutiny; and yet others in the West Indies, and before his -sovereigns on his return home. - - [331] Comedias, Tom. IV., Madrid, 1614; and also in the Appendix - to Ochoa’s “Teatro Escogido de Lope de Vega” (Paris, 1838, 8vo). - Fernando de Zarate took some of the materials for his “Conquista - de Mexico,” (Comedias escogidas, Tom. XXX., Madrid, 1668), such - as the opening of Jornada II., from this play of Lope de Vega. - -Among the personages, besides such as might be reasonably anticipated -from the course of the story, are Gonzalvo de Córdova, sundry Moors, -several American Indians, and several spiritual beings, such as -Providence, Christianity, and Idolatry; the last of whom struggles with -great vehemence against the introduction of the Spaniards and their -religion into the New World, and in passages like the following seems -in danger of having the best of the argument. - - O Providence Divine, permit them not - To do me this most plain unrighteousness! - ’T is but base avarice that spurs them on. - Religion is the color and the cloak; - But gold and silver, hid within the earth, - Are all they truly seek and strive to win.[332] - - [332] - No permitas, Providencia, - Hacerme esta sinjusticia; - Pues los lleua la codicia - A hacer esta diligencia. - So color de religion, - Van á buscar plata y oro - Del encubierto tesoro. - - El Nuevo Mundo, Jorn. I. - -The greater part of the action and the best portions of it pass in the -New World; but it is difficult to imagine any thing more extravagant -than the whole fable. Dramatic propriety is constantly set at naught. -The Indians, before the appearance of Europeans among them, sing -about Phœbus and Diana; and while, from the first, they talk nothing -but Spanish, they frequently pretend, after the arrival of the -Spaniards, to be unable to understand a word of their language. The -scene in which Idolatry pleads its cause against Christianity before -Divine Providence, the scenes with the Demon, and those touching the -conversion of the heathen, might have been presented in the rudest -of the old Moralities. Those, on the contrary, in which the natural -feelings and jealousies of the simple and ignorant natives are brought -out, and those in which Columbus appears,--always dignified and -gentle,--are not without merit. Few, however, can be said to be truly -good or poetical; and yet a poetical interest is kept up through the -worst of them, and the story they involve is followed to the end with a -living curiosity. - -The common traditions are repeated, that Columbus was born at Nervi, -and that he received from a dying pilot at Madeira the charts that led -him to his grand adventure; but it is singular, that, in contradiction -to all this, Lope, in other parts of the play, should have hazarded -the suggestion, that Columbus was moved by Divine inspiration. The -friar, in the scene of the mutiny, declares it expressly; and Columbus -himself, in his discourse with his brother Bartholomew, when their -fortunes seemed all but desperate, plainly alludes to it, when he -says,-- - - A hidden Deity still drives me on, - Bidding me trust the truth of what I feel, - And, if I watch, or if I sleep, impels - The strong will boldly to work out its way. - But what is this that thus possesses me? - What spirit is it drives me onward thus? - Where am I borne? What is the road I take? - What track of destiny is this I tread? - And what the impulse that I blindly follow? - Am I not poor, unknown, a broken man, - Depending on the pilot’s anxious trade? - And shall I venture on the mighty task - To add a distant world to this we know?[333] - - [333] - Una secreta deidad - A que lo intente me impele, - Diciéndome que es verdad, - Que en fin, que duerma ó que vele, - Persigue mi voluntad. - Que es esto que ha entrado en mí? - Quien me lleva ó mueve ansí? - Donde voy, donde camino? - Que derrota, que destino - Sigo, ó me conduce aquí? - Un hombre pobre, y aun roto, - Que ansí lo puedo decir, - Y que vive de piloto, - Quiere á este mundo añadir - Otro mundo tan remoto! - - El Nuevo Mundo, Jorn. I. - -The conception of the character in this particular is good, and, being -founded, as we know it was, on the personal convictions of Columbus -himself, might have been followed out by further developments with -poetical effect. But the opportunity is neglected, and, like many -other occasions for success, is thrown away by Lope, through haste and -carelessness. - -Another of the dramas of this class, “El Castigo sin Venganza,” or -Punishment, not Revenge, is important from the mode in which its -subject is treated, and interesting from the circumstance that its -history can be more exactly traced than that of any other of Lope’s -plays. It is founded on the dark and hideous story in the annals of -Ferrara, during the fifteenth century, which Lord Byron found in -Gibbon’s “Antiquities of the House of Brunswick,” and made the subject -of his “Parisina,”[334] but which Lope, following the old chronicles of -the duchy, has presented in a somewhat different light, and thrown with -no little skill into a dramatic form. - - [334] The story was well known, from its peculiar horrors, though - the events occurred in 1405,--more than two centuries before the - date of the play. Lope, in the Preface to his version of it, says - it was extant in Latin, French, German, Tuscan, and Castilian. - -The Duke of Ferrara, in his tragedy, is a person of mark and spirit; a -commander of the Papal forces, and a prince of statesmanlike experience -and virtues. He marries when already past the middle age of life, and -sends his natural son, Frederic, to receive his beautiful bride, a -daughter of the Duke of Mantua, and to conduct her to Ferrara. Before -he reaches Mantua, however, Frederic meets her accidentally on the way; -and his first interview with his step-mother is when he rescues her -from drowning. From this moment they become gradually more and more -attached to each other, until their attachment ends in guilt; partly -through the strong impulses of their own natures, and partly from the -coldness and faithlessness of the Duke to his young and passionate wife. - -On his return home from a successful campaign, the Duke discovers the -intrigue. A struggle ensues between his affection for his son and the -stinging sense of his own dishonor. At last he determines to punish; -but in such a manner as to hide the grounds of his offence. To effect -this, he confines his wife in a darkened room, and so conceals and -secures her person, that she can neither move, nor speak, nor be seen. -He then sends his offending son to her, under the pretence that beneath -the pall that hides her is placed a traitor, whom the son is required -to kill in order to protect his father’s life; and when the desperate -young man rushes from the room, ignorant who has been his victim, he is -instantly cut down by the by-standers, on his father’s outcry, that he -has just murdered his step-mother, with whose blood his hands are, in -fact, visibly reeking. - -Lope finished this play on the 1st of August, 1631, when he was nearly -sixty-nine years old; and yet there are few of his dramas, in the class -to which it belongs, that are more marked with poetical vigor, and in -none is the versification more light and various.[335] The characters, -especially those of the father and son, are better defined and better -sustained than usual; and the whole was evidently written with care, -for there are not infrequently large alterations, as well as many -minute verbal corrections, in the original manuscript, which is still -extant. - - [335] This play contains all the usual varieties of - measure,--_redondillas_, _tercetas_, a sonnet, etc.; but - especially, in the first act, a _silva_ of beautiful fluency. - -It was not licensed for representation till the 9th of May, -1632,--apparently from the known unwillingness of the court to have -persons of rank, like the Duke of Ferrara, brought upon the stage in a -light so odious. At any rate, when the tardy permission was granted, -it was accompanied with a certificate that the Duke was treated with -“the decorum due to his person”; though, even with this assurance, it -was acted but once, notwithstanding it made a strong impression at -the time, and was brought out by the company of Figueroa, the most -successful of the period,--Arias, whose acting Montalvan praises -highly, taking the part of the son. In 1634, Lope printed it, with more -than common care, at Barcelona, dedicating it to his great patron, the -Duke of Sessa, among “the servants of whose house,” he says, he “was -inscribed”; and the next year, immediately after his death, it appeared -again, without the Dedication, in the twenty-first volume of his plays, -prepared anew by himself for the press, but published by his daughter -Feliciana.[336] - - [336] I possess the original MS., entirely in Lope’s handwriting, - with many alterations, corrections, and interlineations by - himself. It is prepared for the actors, and has the certificate - to license it by Pedro de Vargas Machuca, a poet himself, and - Lope’s friend, who was much employed to license plays for - the theatre. He also figured at the “Justas Poéticas” of San - Isidro, published by Lope in 1620 and 1622; and in the “Justa” - in honor of the Vírgen del Pilar, published by Caceres in 1629; - in neither of which, however, do his poems give proof of much - talent, though there is no doubt of his popularity with his - contemporaries. (Baena, Hijos de Madrid, Tom. IV. p. 199.) At - the top of each page in the MS. of Lope de Vega is a cross with - the names or ciphers of “Jesus, Maria, Josephus, Christus”; and - at the end, “Laus Deo et Mariæ Virgini,” with the date of its - completion and the signature of the author. Whether Lope thought - it possible to consecrate the gross immoralities of such a drama - by religious symbols, I do not know; but if he did, it would not - be inconsistent with his character or the spirit of his time. A - cross was commonly put at the top of Spanish letters,--a practice - alluded to in Lope’s “Perro del Hortelano,” (Jornada II.), and - one that must have led often to similar incongruities. - -Like “Punishment, not Vengeance,” several other dramas of its class are -imbued with the deepest spirit of tragedy. “The Knights Commanders of -Córdova” is an instance in point.[337] It is a parallel to the story -of Ægisthus and Clytemnestra in its horrors; but the husband, instead -of meeting the fate of Agamemnon, puts to death, not only his guilty -wife, but all his servants and every living thing in his household, to -satisfy his savage sense of honor. Poetry is not wanting in some of -its scenes, but the atrocities of the rest will hardly permit it to be -perceived. - - [337] Comedias, Tom. II., Madrid, 1609. Thrice, at - least,--viz., in this play, in his “Fuente Ovejuna,” and in his - “Peribañez,”--Lope has shown us commanders of the great military - orders of his country in very odious colors, representing them as - men of the most fierce pride and the grossest passions, like the - Front-de-Bœuf of Ivanhoe. - -“The Star of Seville,” on the other hand, though much more truly -tragic, is liable to no such objection.[338] In some respects it -resembles Corneille’s “Cid.” At the command of his king and from the -loftiest loyalty, a knight of Seville kills his friend, a brother of -the lady whom he is about to marry. The king afterwards endeavours -to hold him harmless for the crime; but the royal judges refuse to -interrupt the course of the law in his favor, and the brave knight -is saved from death only by the plenary confession of his guilty -sovereign. It is one of the very small number of Lope’s pieces that -have no comic and distracting underplot. Not a few of its scenes are -admirable; especially that in which the king urges the knight to -kill his friend; that in which the lovely and innocent creature whom -the knight is about to marry receives, in the midst of the frank and -delightful expressions of her happiness, the dead body of her brother, -who has been slain by her lover; and that in which the Alcaldes -solemnly refuse to wrest the law in obedience to the royal commands. -The conclusion is better than that in the tragedy of Corneille. The -lady abandons the world and retires to a convent. - - [338] Old copies of this play are excessively scarce, and I - obtained, therefore, many years ago, a manuscript of it, from - which it was reprinted twice in this country by Mr. F. Sales, - in his “Obras Maestras Dramáticas” (Boston, 1828 and 1840); the - last time with corrections, kindly furnished by Don A. Duran, of - Madrid;--a curious fact in Spanish bibliography, and one that - should be mentioned to the honor of Mr. Sales, whose various - publications have done much to spread the love of Spanish - literature in the United States, and to whom I am indebted for my - first knowledge of it. The same play is well known on the modern - Spanish stage, and has been reprinted, both at Madrid and London, - with large alterations, under the title of “Sancho Ortis de las - Roelas.” An excellent abstract of it, in its original state, and - faithful translations of parts of it, are to be found in Lord - Holland’s Life of Lope (Vol. I. pp. 155-200); out of which, and - not out of the Spanish original, Baron Zedlitz composed “Der - Stern von Sevilla”; a play by no means without merit, which - was printed at Stuttgard in 1830, and has been often acted in - different parts of Germany. - -Of the great number of Lope’s heroic dramas on national subjects, a few -should be noticed, in order to indicate the direction he gave to this -division of his theatre. One, for instance, is on the story of Bamba, -taken from the plough to be made king of Spain;[339] and another, -“The Last Goth,” is on the popular traditions of the loss of Spain by -Roderic;[340]--the first being among the earliest of his published -plays,[341] and the last not printed till twelve years after his -death, but both written in one spirit and upon the same system. On the -attractive subject of Bernardo del Carpio he has several dramas. One is -called “The Youthful Adventures of Bernardo,” and relates his exploits -down to the time when he discovered the secret of his birth. Another, -called “Bernardo in France,” gives us the story of that part of his -life for which the ballads and chronicles afford only slight hints. And -a third, “Marriage in Death,” involves the misconduct of King Alfonso, -and the heart-rending scene in which the dead body of Bernardo’s father -is delivered to the hero, who has sacrificed every thing to filial -piety, and now finds himself crushed and ruined by it.[342] The seven -Infantes of Lara are not passed over, as we see both in the play that -bears their name, and in the more striking one on the story of Mudarra, -“El Bastardo Mudarra.”[343] Indeed, it seems as if no picturesque point -in the national annals were overlooked by Lope;[344] and that, after -bringing on the stage the great events in Spanish history and tradition -consecutively down to his own times, he looks round on all sides for -subjects, at home and abroad, taking one from the usurpation of Boris -Gudunow at Moscow, in 1606,[345] another from the conquest of Arauco, -in 1560,[346] and another from the great league that ended with the -battle of Lepanto, in 1571; in which last, to avoid the awkwardness -of a sea-fight on the stage, he is guilty of introducing the greater -awkwardness of an allegorical figure of Spain describing the battle to -the audience in Madrid, at the very moment when it is supposed to be -going on near the shores of Greece.[347] - - [339] Comedias, Tom. I., Valladolid, 1604, ff. 91, etc., in which - Lope has wisely followed the old monkish traditions, rather than - either the “Crónica General,” (Parte II. c. 51), or the yet more - sobered account of Mariana, Hist., Lib. VI. c. 12. - - [340] Comedias, Tom. XXV., Çaragoça, 1647, ff. 369, etc. It is - called “Tragicomedia.” - - [341] The first edition of the first volume of Lope’s plays is - that of Valladolid, 1604. See Brunet, etc. - - [342] The first two of these plays, which are not to be found in - the collected dramatic works of Lope, have often been printed - separately; but the last occurs, I believe, only in the first - volume of the Comedias, (Valladolid, 1604, f. 98), and in - the reprints of it. It makes free use of the old ballads of - Durandarte and Belorma. - - [343] The “Siete Infantes de Lara” is in the Comedias, Tom. - V., Madrid, 1615; and the “Bastardo Mudarra” is in Tom. XXIV., - Zaragoza, 1641. - - [344] Thus, the attractive story of “El Mejor Alcalde el Rey” is, - as he himself tells us at the conclusion, taken from the fourth - part of the “Crónica General.” - - [345] “El Gran Duque de Muscovia,” Comedias, Tom. VII., Madrid, - 1617. - - [346] “Arauco Domado,” Comedias, Tom. XX., Madrid, 1629. - The scene is laid about 1560; but the play is intended as a - compliment to the living son of the conqueror. In the Dedication - to him, Lope asserts it to be a true history; but there is, of - course, much invention mingled with it, especially in the parts - that do honor to the Spaniards. Among its personages is the - author of the “Araucana,” Alonso de Ercilla, who comes upon the - stage beating a drum. Another and earlier play of Lope may be - compared with the “Arauco”; I mean “Los Guanches de Tenerife” - (Comedias, Tom. X., Madrid, 1620, f. 128). It is on the similar - subject of the conquest of the Canary Islands, in the time of - Ferdinand and Isabella, and, as in the “Arauco Domado,” the - natives occupy much of the canvas. - - [347] “La Santa Liga,” Comedias, Tom. XV., Madrid, 1621. - -The whole class of these heroic and historical dramas, it should be -remembered, makes little claim to historical accuracy. A love-story, -filled as usual with hairbreadth escapes, jealous quarrels, and -questions of honor, runs through nearly every one of them; and though, -in some cases, we may trust to the facts set before us, as we must in -“The Valiant Cespedes,” where the poet gravely declares that all except -the love adventures are strictly true,[348] still, in no case can it be -pretended, that the manners of an earlier age, or of foreign nations, -are respected, or that the general coloring of the representation is -to be regarded as faithful. Thus, in one play we see Nero hurrying -about the streets of Rome, like a Spanish gallant, with a guitar on -his arm, and making love to his mistress at her grated window.[349] In -another, Belisarius, in the days of his glory, is selected to act the -part of Pyramus in an interlude before the Emperor Justinian, much as -if he belonged to Nick Bottom’s company, and afterwards has his eyes -put out, on a charge of making love to the Empress.[350] And in yet a -third, Cyrus the Great, after he is seated on his throne, marries a -shepherdess.[351] But there is no end to such absurdities in Lope’s -plays; and the explanation of them all is, that they were not felt to -be such at the time. Truth and faithfulness in regard to the facts, -manners, and costume of a drama were not supposed to be more important, -in the age of Lope, than an observation of the unities;--not more -important than they were supposed to be a century later, in France, in -the unending romances of Calprenède and Scudéry;--not more important -than they are deemed in an Italian opera now:--so profound is the -thought of the greatest of all the masters of the historical drama, -that “the best in this kind are but shadows, and the worst are no -worse, if imagination amend them.” - - [348] “El Valiente Cespedes,” Comedias, Tom. XX., Madrid, 1629. - This notice is specially given to the reader by Lope, out of - tenderness to the reputation of Doña María de Cespedes, who does - not appear in the play with all the dignity which those who, in - Lope’s time, claimed to be descended from her might exact at his - hands. - - [349] In “Roma Abrasada,” Acto II. f. 89, already noticed, - _ante_, p. 193. - - [350] Jornada II. of “Exemplo Mayor de la Desdicha, y Capitan - Belisario”; not in the collection of Lope’s plays, and though - often printed separately as his, and inserted as such on Lord - Holland’s list, it is published in the old and curious collection - entitled “Comedias de Diferentes Autores,” (4to, Tom. XXV., - Zaragoza, 1633), as the work of Montalvan, both he and Lope being - then alive. - - [351] “Contra Valor no hay Desdicha.” Like the last, it has been - often reprinted. It begins with the romantic account of Cyrus’s - exposure to death, in consequence of his grandfather’s dream, - and ends with a battle and his victory over Astyages and all his - enemies. - - - - -CHAPTER XVII. - -LOPE DE VEGA, CONTINUED.--DRAMAS THAT ARE FOUNDED ON THE MANNERS OF -COMMON LIFE.--THE WISE MAN AT HOME.--THE DAMSEL THEODORA.--CAPTIVES -IN ALGIERS.--INFLUENCE OF THE CHURCH ON THE DRAMA.--LOPE’S PLAYS FROM -SCRIPTURE.--THE BIRTH OF CHRIST.--THE CREATION OF THE WORLD.--LOPE’S -PLAYS ON THE LIVES OF SAINTS.--SAINT ISIDORE OF MADRID.--LOPE’S -SACRAMENTAL AUTOS FOR THE FESTIVAL OF THE CORPUS CHRISTI.--THEIR -PROLOGUES.--THEIR INTERLUDES.--THE AUTOS THEMSELVES. - - -The historical drama of Lope was but a deviation from the more -truly national type of the “Comedia de Capa y Espada,” made by the -introduction of historical names for its leading personages, instead of -those that belong to fashionable and knightly life. This, however, was -not the only deviation he made.[352] He went sometimes quite as far on -the other side, and created a variety or subdivision of the theatre, -founded _on common life_, in which the chief personages, like those -of “The Watermaid,” and “The Slave of her Lover,” belong to the lower -classes of society.[353] Of such dramas he has left only a few, but -these few are interesting. - - [352] We occasionally meet with the phrase _comedias de ruido_; - but it does not mean a class of plays separated from the others - by different rules of composition. It refers to the machinery - used in their exhibition; so that _comedias de capa y espada_, - and especially _comedias de santos_, which often demanded a large - apparatus, were not unfrequently _comedias de ruido_. In the same - way, _comedias de apariencias_ were plays demanding much scenery - and scene-shifting. - - [353] “La Moza de Cantaro” and “La Esclava de su Galan” have - continued to be favorites down to our own times. The first was - printed at London, not many years ago, and the last at Paris, - in Ochoa’s collection, 1838, 8vo, and at Bielefeld, in that of - Schütz, 1840, 8vo. - -Perhaps the best specimen of them is “The Wise Man at Home,” in -which the hero, if he may be so called, is Mendo, the son of a poor -charcoal-burner.[354] He has married the only child of a respectable -farmer, and is in an easy condition of life, with the road to -advancement, at least in a gay course, open before him. But he prefers -to remain where he is. He refuses the solicitations of a neighbouring -lawyer or clerk, engaged in public affairs, who would have the honest -Mendo take upon himself the airs of an _hidalgo_ and _caballero_. -Especially upon what was then the great point in private life,--his -relations with his pretty wife,--he shows his uniform good sense, while -his more ambitious friend falls into serious embarrassments, and is -obliged at last to come to him for counsel and help. - - [354] Comedias, Tom. VI., Madrid, 1615, ff. 101, etc. It may be - worth notice, that the character of Mendo is like that of Camacho - in the Second Part of Don Quixote, which was first printed in the - same year, 1615. The resemblance between the two, however, is not - very strong, and I dare say is wholly accidental. - -The doctrine of the piece is well explained in the following reply of -Mendo to his friend, who had been urging him to lead a more showy life, -and raise the external circumstances of his father. - - He that was born to live in humble state - Makes but an awkward knight, do what you will. - My father means to die as he has lived, - The same plain collier that he always was; - And I, too, must an honest ploughman die. - ’T is but a single step, or up or down; - For men there must be that will plough and dig, - And, when the vase has once been filled, be sure - ’T will always savor of what first it held.[355] - - [355] - El que nacio para humilde - Mal puede ser cauallero. - Mi padre quiere morir, - Leonardo, como nacio. - Carbonero me engendró; - Labrador quiero morir. - Y al fin es un grado mas, - Aya quien are y quien caue. - Siempre el vaso al licor sabe. - - Comedias, Tom. VI, Madrid, 1615, f. 117. - -The story is less important than it is in many of Lope’s dramas; -but the sketches of common life are sometimes spirited, like the one -in which Mendo describes his first sight of his future wife busied -in household work, and the elaborate scene where his first child is -christened.[356] The characters, on the other hand, are better defined -and drawn than is common with him; and that of the plain, practically -wise Mendo is sustained, from beginning to end, with consistency and -skill, as well as with good dramatic effect.[357] - - [356] There is in these passages something of the euphuistical - style then in favor, under the name of the _estilo culto_, with - which Lope sometimes humored the more fashionable portions of his - audience, though on other occasions he bore a decided testimony - against it. - - [357] This play, I think, gave the hint to Calderon for his - “Alcalde de Zalamea,” in which the character of Pedro Crespo, the - peasant, is drawn with more than his accustomed distinctness. - It is the last piece in the common collection of Calderon’s - Comedias, and nearly all its characters are happily touched. - -Another of these more domestic pieces is called “The Damsel Theodora,” -and shows how gladly and with what ingenuity Lope seized on the -stories current in his time and turned them to dramatic account. The -tale he now used, which bears the same name with the play, and is -extremely simple in its structure, was written by an Aragonese, of -whom we know only that his name was Alfonso.[358] The damsel Theodora, -in this original fiction, is a slave in Tunis, and belongs to a -Hungarian merchant living there, who has lost his whole fortune. At her -suggestion, she is offered by her master to the king of Tunis, who is -so much struck with her beauty and with the amount of her knowledge, -that he purchases her at a price which reëstablishes her master’s -condition. The point of the whole consists in the exhibition of this -knowledge through discussions with learned men; but the subjects are -most of them of the commonest kind, and the merit of the story is quite -inconsiderable,--less, for instance, than that of “Friar Bacon,” in -English, to which, in several respects, it may be compared.[359] - - [358] This is among the more curious of the old popular Spanish - tales. N. Antonio (Bib. Nov., Tom. I. p. 9) assigns no age to - its author, and no date to the published story. Denis, in his - “Chroniques de l’Espagne,” etc., (Paris, 1839, 8vo, Tom. I. p. - 285) gives no additional light, but, in one of his notes, treats - its ideas on natural history as those of the _moyen âge_. It - seems, however, from internal evidence, to have been composed - after the fall of Granada. Brunet (Table, No. 17,572) notices - an edition of it in 1607. The copy I use is of 1726, showing - that it was in favor in the eighteenth century; and I possess - another printed for popular circulation about 1845. We find early - allusions to the Donzella Teodor, as a well-known personage; for - example, in the “Modest Man at Court” of Tirso de Molina, where - one of the characters, speaking of a lady he admires, cries out, - “Que Donzella Teodor!” Cigarrales de Toledo, Madrid, 1624, 4to, - p. 158. - - [359] The popular English story of “Fryer Bacon” hardly goes back - farther than to the end of the sixteenth century, though some - of its materials may be traced to the “Gesta Romanorum.” Robert - Greene’s play on it was printed in 1594. Both may be considered - as running parallel with the story and play of the “Donzella - Teodor,” so as to be read with advantage when comparing the - Spanish drama with the English. - -But Lope knew his audiences, and succeeded in adapting this old tale -to their taste. The damsel Theodora, as he arranges her character for -the stage, is the daughter of a professor at Toledo, and is educated in -all the learning of her father’s schools. She, however, is not raised -by it above the influences of the tender passion, and, running away -with her lover, is captured by a vessel from the coast of Barbary, -and carried as a slave successively to Oran, to Constantinople, and -finally to Persia, where she is sold to the Sultan for an immense sum -on account of her rare knowledge, displayed in the last act of the play -much as it is in the original tale of Alfonso, and sometimes in the -same words. But the love intrigue, with a multitude of jealous troubles -and adventures, runs through the whole; and as the Sultan is made to -understand at last the relations of all the parties, who are strangely -assembled before him, he gives the price of the damsel as her dower, -and marries her to the lover with whom she originally fled from Toledo. -The principal jest, both in the drama and the story, is, that a -learned doctor, who is defeated by Theodora in a public trial of wits, -is bound by the terms of the contest to be stripped naked, and buys off -his ignominy with a sum which goes still further to increase the lady’s -fortune and the content of her husband.[360] - - [360] Comedias, Tom. IX., Barcelona, 1618, ff. 27, etc. - -The last of Lope’s plays to be noticed among those whose subjects -are drawn from common life is a more direct appeal, perhaps, than -any other of its class to the popular feeling. It is his “Captives -in Algiers,”[361] and has been already alluded to as partly borrowed -from a play of Cervantes. In its first scenes, a Morisco of Valencia -leaves the land where his race had suffered so cruelly, and, after -establishing himself among those of his own faith in Algiers, returns -by night as a corsair, and, from his familiar knowledge of the Spanish -coast, where he was born, easily succeeds in carrying off a number -of Christian captives. The fate of these victims, and that of others -whom they find in Algiers, including a lover and his mistress, form -the subject of the drama. In the course of it, we have scenes in -which Christian Spaniards are publicly sold in the slave-market; -Christian children torn from their parents and cajoled out of their -faith;[362] and a Christian gentleman made to suffer the most dreadful -forms of martyrdom for his religion;--in short, we have set before us -whatever could most painfully and powerfully excite the interest and -sympathy of an audience in Spain at a moment when such multitudes of -Spanish families were mourning the captivity of their children and -friends.[363] It ends with an account of a play to be acted by the -Christian slaves in one of their vast prison-houses, to celebrate the -recent marriage of Philip the Third; from which, as well as from a -reference to the magnificent festivities that followed it at Denia, in -which Lope, as we know, took part, we may be sure that the “Cautivos de -Argel” was written as late as 1598, and probably not much later.[364] - - [361] Comedias, Tom. XXV., Çaragoça, 1647, ff. 231, etc. - - [362] These passages are much indebted to the “Trato de Argel” of - Cervantes. - - [363] See, _passim_, Haedo, “Historia de Argel” (Madrid, 1612, - folio). He reckons the number of Christian captives, chiefly - Spaniards, in Algiers, at twenty-five thousand. - - [364] Lope, Obras Sueltas, Tom. III. p. 377. I am much disposed - to think the play referred to as acted in the prisons of Algiers - is Lope’s own moral play of the “Marriage of the Soul to Divine - Love,” in the second book of the “Peregrino en su Patria.” - -A love-story unites its rather incongruous materials into something -like a connected whole; but the part we read with the most interest -is that assigned to Cervantes, who appears under his family name of -Saavedra, without disguise, though without any mark of respect.[365] -Considering that Lope took from him some of the best materials for this -very piece, and that the sufferings and heroism of Cervantes at Algiers -must necessarily have been present to his thoughts when he composed -it, we can hardly do him any injustice by adding, that he ought either -to have given Cervantes a more dignified part, and alluded to him with -tenderness and consideration, or else have refrained from introducing -him at all. - - [365] The passages in which Cervantes occurs are on ff. 245, 251, - and especially 262 and 277, Comedias, Tom. XXV. - -The three forms of Lope’s drama which have thus far been considered, -and which are nearly akin to each other,[366] were, no doubt, the -spontaneous productions of his own genius; modified, indeed, by what -he found already existing, and by the taste and will of the audiences -for which he wrote, but still essentially his own. Probably, if he -had been left to himself and to the mere influences of the theatre, -he would have preferred to write no other dramas than such as would -naturally come under one of these divisions. But neither he nor his -audiences were permitted to settle the whole of this question. The -Church, always powerful in Spain, but never so powerful as during the -latter part of the reign of Philip the Second, when Lope was just -rising into notice, was offended with the dramas then so much in -favor, and not without reason. Their free love-stories, their duels, -and, indeed, their ideas generally upon domestic life and personal -character, have, unquestionably, any thing but a Christian tone.[367] A -controversy, therefore, naturally arose concerning their lawfulness, -and this controversy was continued till 1598, when, by a royal decree, -the representation of secular plays in Madrid was entirely forbidden, -and the common theatres were closed for nearly two years.[368] - - [366] The fusion of the three classes may be seen at a glance - in Lope’s fine play, “El Mejor Alcalde el Rey,” (Comedias, Tom. - XXI., Madrid, 1635), founded on a passage in the fourth part of - the “General Chronicle” (ed. 1604, f. 327). The hero and heroine - belong to the condition of peasants; the person who makes the - mischief is their liege lord; and, from the end of the second - act, the king and one or two of the principal persons about the - court play leading parts. On the whole, it ranks technically with - the _comedias heróicas_; and yet the best and most important - scenes are those relating to common life, while others of no - little consequence belong to the class of _capa y espada_. - - [367] How the Spanish theatre, as it existed in the time of - Philip IV., ought to have been regarded may be judged by the - following remarks on such of its plays as continued to be - represented at the end of the eighteenth century, read in 1796 to - the Spanish Academy of History, by Jovellanos,--a personage who - will be noticed when we reach the period during which he lived. - - “As for myself,” says that wise and faithful magistrate, “I - am persuaded there can be found no proof so decisive of the - degradation of our taste as the cool indifference with which we - tolerate the representation of dramas, in which modesty, the - gentler affections, good faith, decency, and all the virtues and - principles belonging to a sound morality, are openly trampled - under foot. Do men believe that the innocence of childhood and - the fervor of youth, that an idle and dainty nobility and an - ignorant populace, can witness without injury such examples of - effrontery and grossness, of an insolent and absurd affectation - of honor, of contempt of justice and the laws, and of public and - private duty, represented on the stage in the most lively colors, - and rendered attractive by the enchantment of scenic illusions - and the graces of music and verse? Let us, then, honestly - confess the truth. Such a theatre is a public nuisance, and the - government has no just alternative but to reform it or suppress - it altogether.” Memorias de la Acad., Tom. V. p. 397. - - Elsewhere, in the same excellent discourse, its author shows that - he was by no means insensible to the poetical merits of the old - theatre, whose moral influences he deprecated. - - “I shall always be the first,” he says, “to confess its - inimitable beauties; the freshness of its inventions, the charm - of its style, the flowing naturalness of its dialogue, the - marvellous ingenuity of its plots, the ease with which every - thing is at last explained and adjusted; the brilliant interest, - the humor, the wit, that mark every step as we advance;--but what - matters all this, if this same drama, regarded in the light of - truth and wisdom, is infected with vices and corruptions that can - be tolerated neither by a sound state of morals nor by a wise - public policy?” Ibid., p. 413. - - [368] C. Pellicer, Orígen del Teatro, Madrid, 1804, 12mo, Tom. I. - pp. 142-148. Plays were prohibited in Barcelona in 1591 by the - bishop; but the prohibition was not long respected, and in 1597 - was renewed with increased earnestness. Bisbe y Vidal, Tratado - de las Comedias, Barcelona, 1618, 12mo, f. 94;--a curious book, - attacking the Spanish theatre with more discretion than any - other old treatise against it that I have read, but not with - much effect. Its author would have all plays carefully examined - and expurgated before they were licensed, and then would permit - them to be performed, not by professional actors, but by persons - belonging to the place where the representation was to occur, and - known as respectable men and decent youths; for, he adds, “when - this was done for hundreds of years, none of those strange vices - were committed that are the consequence of our present modes.” - (f. 106.) Bisbe y Vidal is a pseudonyme for Juan Ferrer, the head - of a large congregation of devout men at Barcelona, and a person - who was so much scandalized at the state of the theatre in his - time, that he published this attack on it for the benefit of - the brotherhood whose spiritual leader he was. (Torres y Amat, - Biblioteca, Art. _Ferrer_.) It is encumbered with theological - learning; but less so than other similar works of the time. - -Lope was compelled to accommodate himself to this new state of things, -and seems to have done it easily and with his accustomed address. He -had, as we have seen, early written _religious plays_, like the old -Mysteries and Moralities; and he now undertook to infuse their spirit -into the more attractive forms of his secular drama, and thus produce -an entertainment which, while it might satisfy the popular audiences of -the capital, would avoid the rebukes of the Church. His success was as -marked as it had been before; and the new varieties of form in which -his genius now disported itself were hardly less striking. - -His most obvious resource was the Scriptures, to which, as they had -been used more than four centuries for dramatic purposes, on the -greater religious festivals of the Spanish Church, the ecclesiastical -powers could hardly, with a good grace, now make objection. Lope, -therefore, resorted to them freely; sometimes constructing dramas out -of them which might be mistaken for the old Mysteries, were it not for -their more poetical character, and their sometimes approaching so near -to his own intriguing comedies, that, but for the religious parts, they -might seem to belong to the merely secular and fashionable theatre that -had just been interdicted. - -Of the first, or more religious sort, his “Birth of Christ” may be -taken as a specimen.[369] It is divided into three acts, and begins in -Paradise, immediately after the creation. The first scene introduces -Satan, Pride, Beauty, and Envy;--Satan appearing with “dragon’s wings, -a bushy wig, and above it a serpent’s head”; and Envy carrying a heart -in her hand and wearing snakes in her hair. After some discussion about -the creation, Adam and Eve approach in the characters of King and -Queen. Innocence, who is the clown and wit of the piece, and Grace, who -is dressed in white, come in at the same time, and, while Satan and his -friends are hidden in the thicket, hold the following dialogue, which -may be regarded as characteristic, not only of this particular drama, -but of the whole class to which it belongs:-- - - [369] Comedias, Tom. XXIV., Zaragoza, 1641, ff. 110, etc. Such - plays were often acted at Christmas, and went under the name - of _Nacimientos_;--a relique of the old dramas mentioned in - the “Partidas,” and written in various forms after the time of - Juan de la Enzina and Gil Vicente. They seem, from hints in the - “Viage” of Roxas, 1602, and elsewhere, to have been acted in - private houses, in the churches, on the public stage, and in the - streets, as they happened to be asked for. They were not exactly - _autos_, but very like them, as may be seen from the “Nacimiento - de Christo” by Lope de Vega, (in a curious volume entitled - “Navidad y Corpus Christi Festejados,” Madrid, 1664, 4to, f. - 346),--a drama quite different from this one, though bearing - the same name; and quite different from another _Nacimiento de - Christo_, in the same volume, (f. 93), attributed to Lope, and - called “_Auto_ del Nacimiento de Christo Nuestro Señor.” There - are besides, in this volume, _Nacimientos_ attributed to Cubillo, - (f. 375), and Valdivielso, f. 369. - - _Adam._ Here, Lady Queen, upon this couch of grass and flowers - Sit down. - - _Innocence._ Well, that’s good, i’ faith; - He calls her Lady Queen. - - _Grace._ And don’t you see - She is his wife; flesh of his flesh indeed, - And of his bone the bone? - - _Innocence._ That’s just as if - You said, She, through his being, being hath.-- - What dainty compliments they pay each other! - - _Grace._ Two persons are they, yet one flesh they are. - - _Innocence._ And may their union last a thousand years, - And in sweet peace continue evermore! - - _Grace._ The king his father and his mother leaves - For his fair queen. - - _Innocence._ And leaves not overmuch, - Since no man yet has been with parents born. - But, in good faith, good master Adam, - All fine as you go on, pranked out by Grace, - I feel no little trouble at your course, - Like that of other princes made of clay. - But I admit it was a famous trick, - In your most sovereign Lord, out of the mud - A microcosm nice to make, and do it - In one day. - - _Grace._ He that the greater world could build - By his commanding power alone, to him - It was not much these lesser works on earth - To do. And see you not the two great lamps - Which overhead he hung so fair? - - _Innocence._ And how - The earth he sowed with flowers, the heavens with - stars?[370] - - [370] - _Adan._ Aqui, Reyna, en esta alfõbra - De yerua y flores te assienta. - - _Inoc._ Esso á la fe me contenta. - Reyna y Señora la nombra. - - _Gra._ Pues no ves que es su muger, - Carne de su carne y hueso - De sus huesos? - - _Inoc._ Y aũ por esso, - Porque es como ser su ser. - Lindos requiebros se dizen. - - _Gra._ Dos en una carne son. - - _Inoc._ Dure mil años la union, - Y en esta paz se eternizen. - - _Gra._ Por la Reyna dexará - El Rey a su padre y madre. - - _Inoc._ Ninguno nació con padre, - Poco en dexarlos hará; - Y á la fe, Señor Adan, - Que aunque de Gracia vizarro, - Que los Principes del barro - Notable pena me dan. - Brauo artificio tenia - Vuestro soberano dueño, - Quãdo un mũdo aunq̄ pequeño - Hizo de barro en un dia. - - _Gra._ Quiẽ los dos mũdos mayores - Pudo hacer con su palabra, - Que mucho que rompa y abra - En la tierra estas labores. - No ves las lamparas bellas, - Que de los cielos colgó? - - _Inoc._ Como de flores sembró - La tierra, el cielo de estrellas. - - Comedias de Lope de Vega. Tom. XXIV., Zaragoza, 1641, f. 111. - -Immediately after the fall, and therefore, according to the common -Scriptural computation, about four thousand years before she was born, -the Madonna appears, and personally drives Satan down to perdition, -while, at the same time, an Angel expels Adam and Eve from Paradise. -The Divine Prince and the Celestial Emperor, as the Saviour and the -Supreme Divinity are respectively called, then come upon the vacant -stage, and, in a conference full of theological subtilties, arrange the -system of man’s redemption, which, at the Divine command, Gabriel, - - Accompanied with armies all of stars - To fill the air with glorious light,[371] - - [371] - Baxa esclareciendo el ayre - Con exercitos de estrellas. - -descending to Galilee, announces as about to be accomplished by the -birth of the Messiah. This ends the first act. - -The second opens with the rejoicings of the Serpent, Sin, and -Death,--confident that the World is now fairly given up to them. But -their rejoicings are short. Clarionets are sounded, and Divine Grace -appears on the upper portion of the stage, and at once expels the -sinful rout from their boasted possessions; explaining afterwards to -the World, who now comes on as one of the personages of the scene, that -the Holy Family are immediately to bring salvation to men. - -The World replies with rapture:-- - - O holy Grace, already I behold them; - And, though the freezing night forbids, will haste - To border round my hoar frost all with flowers; - To force the tender buds to spring again - From out their shrunken branches; and to loose - The gentle streamlets from the hill-tops cold, - That they may pour their liquid crystal down; - While the old founts, at my command, shall flow - With milk, and ash-trees honey pure distil - To quench our joyful thirst.[372] - - [372] - Gracia santa, ya los veo. - Voy á hazer que aquesta noche, - Aunque lo defienda el yelo, - Borden la escarcha las flores, - Salgan los pimpollos tiernos - De las encogidas ramas, - Y de los montes soberbios - Bajen los arroyos mansos - Liquido cristal vertiendo. - Hare que las fuentes manen - Candida leche, y los fresnos - Pura miel, diluvios dulces, - Que aneguen nuestros deseos. - - Comedias, Tom. XXIV., Zaragoza, 1641, f. 116. - -The next scene is in Bethlehem, where Joseph and Mary appear begging -for entrance at an inn, but, owing to the crowd, they are sent to a -stable just outside the city, in whose contiguous fields shepherds and -shepherdesses are seen suffering from the frosty night, but jesting -and singing rude songs about it. In the midst of their troubles and -merriment, an angel appears in a cloud announcing the birth of the -Saviour; and the second act is then concluded by the resolution of all -to go and find him, and carry him their glad salutations. - -The last act is chiefly taken up with discussions of the same subjects -by the same shepherds and shepherdesses, and an account of the visit -to the mother and child; some parts of which are not without poetical -merit. It ends with the appearance of the three Kings, preceded by -dances of Gypsies and Negroes, and with the worship and offerings -brought by all to the newborn Saviour. - -Such dramas do not seem to have been favorites with Lope, and perhaps -were not favorites with his audiences. At least, few of them appear -among his printed works;--the one just noticed, and another, called -“The Creation of the World and Man’s First Sin,” being the most -prominent and curious;[373] and one on the atonement, entitled “The -Pledge Redeemed,” being the most wild and gross. But to the proper -stories of the Scriptures he somewhat oftener resorted, and with -characteristic talent. Thus, we have full-length plays on the history -of Tobias and the seven-times-wedded maid;[374] on the fair Esther -and Ahasuerus;[375] and on the somewhat unsuitable subject of the -Ravishment of Dinah, the daughter of Jacob, as it is told in the book -of Genesis.[376] In all these, and in the rest of the class to which -they belong, Spanish manners and ideas, rather than Jewish, give their -coloring to the scene; and the story, though substantially taken from -the Hebrew records, is thus rendered much more attractive, for the -purposes of its representation at Madrid, than it would have been in -its original simplicity; as, for instance, in the case of the “Esther,” -where a comic underplot between a coquettish shepherdess and her lover -is much relied upon for the popular effect of the whole.[377] - - [373] It is in the twenty-fourth volume of the Comedias of Lope, - Madrid, 1632, and is one of a very few of his religious plays - that have been occasionally reprinted. - - [374] “Historia de Tobias,” Comedias, Tom. XV., Madrid, 1621, ff. - 231, etc. - - [375] “La Hermosa Ester,” Ibid. ff. 151, etc. - - [376] “El Robo de Dina,” Comedias, Tom. XXIII., Madrid, 1638, - ff. 118, etc. To this may be added a better one, in Tom. XXII., - Madrid, 1635, “Los Trabajos de Jacob,” on the beautiful story of - Joseph and his brethren. - - [377] The underplot is slightly connected with the main story - of Esther, by a proclamation of King Ahasuerus, calling before - him all the fair maidens of his empire, which, coming to the - ears of Silena, the shepherdess, she insists upon leaving her - lover, Selvagio, and trying the fortune of her beauty at court. - She fails, and on her return is rejected by Selvagio, but still - maintains her coquettish spirit to the last, and goes off saying - or singing, as gayly as if it were part of an old ballad,-- - - For the vulture that flies apart, - I left my little bird’s nest; - But still I can soften his heart, - And soothe down his pride to rest. - - The best parts of the play are the more religious; like Esther’s - prayers in the first and last acts, and the ballad sung at the - triumphant festival when Ahasuerus yields to her beauty; but the - whole, like many other plays of the same sort, is intended, under - the disguise of a sacred subject, to serve the purposes of the - secular theatre. - - Perhaps one of the most amusing instances of incongruity in - Lope, and their number is not few, is to be found in the first - _jornada_ of the “Trabajos de Jacob,” where Joseph, at the - moment he escapes from Potiphar’s wife, leaving his cloak in her - possession, says in soliloquy,-- - - So mayest thou, woman-like, upon my cloak - Thy vengeance wreak, as the bull wreaks his wrath - Upon the cloak before him played; the man - Meanwhile escaping safe. - - Y assi haras en essa capa, - Con venganza de muger, - Lo que el toro suele hacer, - Del hombre que se escapa. - - Yet, absurd as the passage is for its incongruity, it may have - been loudly applauded by an audience that thought much more of - bull-fights than of the just rules of the drama. - -Still, even these dramas were not able to satisfy audiences accustomed -to the more national spirit of plays founded on fashionable life and -intriguing adventures. A wider range, therefore, was taken. Striking -religious events of all kinds--especially those found in the lives of -holy men--were resorted to, and ingenious stories were constructed -out of the miracles and sufferings of saints, which were often as -interesting as the intrigues of Spanish gallants, or the achievements -of the old Spanish heroes, and were sometimes hardly less free and -wild. Saint Jerome, under the name of the “Cardinal of Bethlehem,” is -brought upon the stage in one of them, first as a gay gallant, and -afterwards as a saint scourged by angels, and triumphing, in open show, -over Satan.[378] In another, San Diego of Alcalá rises, from being the -attendant of a poor hermit, to be a general with military command, -and, after committing most soldier-like atrocities in the Fortunate -Islands, returns and dies at home in the odor of sanctity.[379] And in -yet others, historical subjects of a religious character are taken, -like the story of the holy Bamba torn from the plough, in the seventh -century, and by miraculous command made king of Spain;[380] or like the -life of the Mohammedan prince of Morocco, who, in 1593, was converted -to Christianity and publicly baptized in presence of Philip the Second, -with the heir of the throne for his godfather.[381] - - [378] “El Cardenal de Belen,” Comedias, Tom. XIII., Madrid, 1620. - - [379] This play is not in the collection of Lope’s Comedias, - but it is in Lord Holland’s list. My copy of it is an old one, - without date, printed for popular use at Valladolid. - - [380] Comedias, Tom. I., Valladolid, 1604, ff. 91, etc. - - [381] “Bautismo del Príncipe de Marruecos,” in which there are - nearly sixty personages. Comedias, Tom. XI., Barcelona, 1618, ff. - 269, etc. C. Pellicer, Orígen del Teatro, Tom. I. p. 86. - -All these, and many more like them, were represented with the consent -of the ecclesiastical powers,--sometimes even in convents and other -religious houses, but oftener in public, and always under auspices -no less obviously religious.[382] The favorite materials for such -dramas, however, were found, at last, almost exclusively in the lives -of popular saints; and the number of plays filled with such histories -and miracles was so great, soon after the year 1600, that they came to -be considered as a class by themselves, under the name of “Comedias -de Santos,” or Saints’ Plays. Lope wrote many of them. Besides those -already mentioned, we have from his pen dramatic compositions on the -lives of Saint Francis, San Pedro de Nolasco, Saint Thomas Aquinas, -Saint Julian, Saint Nicholas of Tolentino, Santa Teresa, three on -San Isidro de Madrid, and not a few others. Many of them, like Saint -Nicholas of Tolentino,[383] are very strange and extravagant; but -perhaps none will give a more true idea of the entire class than the -first one he wrote, on the subject of the favored saint of his own -city, San Isidro de Madrid.[384] - - [382] C. Pellicer, Orígen, Tom. I. p. 153. - - [383] “San Nicolas de Tolentino,” Comedias, Tom. XXIV., Zaragoza, - 1641, ff. 167, etc. Each act, as is not uncommon in the old - Spanish theatre, is a sort of separate play, with its separate - list of personages prefixed. The first has twenty-one; among - which are God, the Madonna, History, Mercy, Justice, Satan, etc. - It opens with a masquerading scene in a public square, of no - little spirit; immediately after which we have a scene in heaven, - containing the Divine judgment on the soul of one who had died - in mortal sin; then another spirited scene, in a public square, - among loungers, with a sermon from a fervent, fanatical monk; - and afterwards, successive scenes between Nicholas, who has - been moved by this sermon to enter a convent, and his family, - who consent to his purpose with reluctance; the whole ending - with a dialogue of the rudest humor between Nicholas’s servant, - who is the buffoon of the piece, and a servant-maid, to whom he - was engaged to be married, but whom he now abandons, determined - to follow his master into a religious seclusion, which, at the - same time, he is making ridiculous by his jests and parodies. - This is the first act. The other two acts are such as might be - anticipated from it. - - [384] This is not either of the plays ordered by the city of - Madrid, to be acted in the open air in 1622, in honor of the - canonization of San Isidro, and found in the twelfth volume of - Lope’s Obras Sueltas; though, on a comparison with these last, it - will be seen that it was used in their composition. It, in fact, - was printed five years earlier, in the seventh volume of Lope’s - Comedias, Madrid, 1617, and continued long in favor, for it is - reprinted in Parte XXVIII. of “Comedias Escogidas de los Mejores - Ingenios,” Madrid, 1667, 4to. - -It seems to have all the varieties of interest and character that -belong to the secular divisions of the Spanish drama. Scenes of -stirring interest occur in it among warriors just returned to Madrid -from a successful foray against the Moors; gay scenes, with rustic -dancing and frolics, at the marriage of Isidro and the birth of his -son; and scenes of broad farce with the sacristan, who complains, -that, owing to Isidro’s power with Heaven, he no longer gets fees for -burials, and that he believes Death is gone to live elsewhere. But -through the whole runs the loving and devout character of the Saint -himself, and gives it a sort of poetical unity. The angels come down -to plough for him, that he may no longer incur reproach by neglecting -his labors in order to attend mass; and at the touch of his goad, a -spring of pure water, still looked upon with reverence, rises in a -burning waste to refresh his unjust master. Popular songs and poetry, -meanwhile,[385] with a parody of the old Moorish ballad of “Gentle -River, Gentle River,”[386] and allusions to the holy image of Almudena, -and the church of Saint Andrew, give life to the dialogue, as it goes -on;--all familiar as household words at Madrid, and striking chords -which, when this drama was first represented, still vibrated in -every heart. At the end, the body of the Saint, after his death, is -exposed before the well-known altar of his favorite church; and there, -according to the old traditions, his former master and the queen come -to worship him, and, with pious sacrilege, endeavour to bear away from -his person relics for their own protection; but are punished on the -spot by a miracle, which thus serves at once as the final and crowning -testimony to the divine merits of the Saint, and as an appropriate -_dénouement_ for the piece. - - [385] A spirited ballad or popular song is sung and danced at the - young Saint’s wedding, beginning,-- - - Al villano se lo dan - La cebolla con el pan. - Mira que el tosco villano, - Quando quiera alborear, - Salga con su par de bueyes - Y su arado otro que tal. - Le dan pan, le dan cebolla, - Y vino tambien le dan, etc. - - Comedias, Tom. XXVIII. 1667, p. 54. - - [386] - Rio verde, rio verde, - Mas negro vas que la tinta - De sangre de los Christianos, - Que no de la Moreria. - - p. 60. - -No doubt, such a drama, extending over forty or fifty years of time, -with its motley crowd of personages,--among whom are angels and demons, -Envy, Falsehood, and the River Manzanares,--would now be accounted -grotesque and irreverent, rather than any thing else. But in the -time of Lope, the audiences not only brought a willing faith to such -representations, but received gladly an exhibition of the miracles -which connected the saint they worshipped and his beneficent virtues -with their own times and their personal well-being.[387] If to this we -add the restraints on the theatre, and Lope’s extraordinary facility, -grace, and ingenuity, which never failed to consult and gratify the -popular taste, we shall have all the elements necessary to explain the -great number of religious dramas he composed, whether of the nature of -Mysteries, Scripture stories, or lives of saints. They belonged to his -age and country as much as he himself did. - - [387] How far these plays were felt to be religious by the crowds - who witnessed them may be seen in a thousand ways; among the - rest, by the fact mentioned by Madame d’Aulnoy, in 1679, that, - when St. Antony, on the stage, repeated his _Confiteor_, the - audience all fell on their knees, smote their breasts heavily, - and cried out, _Meâ culpâ_. Voyage d’Espagne à la Haye, 1693, - 18mo, Tom. I. p. 56. - -But Lope adventured with success in another form of the drama, not -only more grotesque than that of the full-length religious plays, -but intended yet more directly for popular edification,--the “Autos -Sacramentales,” or Sacramental Acts,--a sort of religious plays -performed in the streets during the season when the gorgeous ceremonies -of the “Corpus Christi” filled them with rejoicing crowds.[388] No -form of the Spanish drama is older, and none had so long a reign, or -maintained during its continuance so strong a hold on the general -favor. Its representations, as we have already seen, may be found -among the earliest intimations of the national literature; and, as we -shall learn hereafter, they were with difficulty suppressed by the -royal authority after the middle of the eighteenth century. In the age -of Lope, and in that immediately following, they were at the height -of their success, and had become an important part of the religious -ceremonies arranged for the solemn sacramental festival to which -they were devoted, not only in Madrid, but throughout Spain; all the -theatres being closed for a month to give place to them and to do them -honor.[389] - - [388] _Auto_ was originally a forensic term, from the Latin - _actus_, and meant a decree or a judgment of a court. Afterwards - it was applied to these religious dramas, which were called - _Autos sacramentales_ or _Autos del Corpus Christi_, and to the - _autos de fé_ of the Inquisition; in both cases, because they - were considered solemn religious _acts_. Covarrubias, Tesoro de - la Lengua Castellana, ad verb. _Auto_. - - [389] Great splendor was used, from the earliest times down to - the present century, in the processions of the Corpus Christi - throughout Spain; as may be judged from the accounts of them in - Valencia, Seville, and Toledo, in the Semanario Pintoresco, 1839, - p. 167; 1840, p. 187; and 1841, p. 177. In those of Toledo, there - is an intimation that Lope de Rueda was employed in the dramatic - entertainments connected with them in 1561; and that Alonso - Cisneros, Cristóbal Navarro, and other known writers for the rude - popular stage of that time, were his successors;--all serving to - introduce Lope and Calderon. - -Yet to our apprehensions, notwithstanding their religious claims, they -seem almost wholly gross and irreverent. Indeed, the very circumstances -under which they were represented would seem to prove that they were -not regarded as really solemn. A sort of rude mumming, which certainly -had nothing grave about it, preceded them, as they advanced through the -thronged streets, where the windows and balconies of all the better -sort of houses were hung with silks and tapestries to do honor to the -occasion. First in this extraordinary procession came the figure of -a misshapen marine monster, called the _Tarasca_, half serpent in -form, borne by men concealed in its cumbrous bulk, and surmounted -by another figure representing the Woman of Babylon,--the whole so -managed as to fill with wonder and terror the poor country people that -crowded round it, some of whose hats and caps were generally snatched -away by the grinning beast, and regarded as the lawful plunder of his -conductors.[390] - - [390] Pellicer, notes, D. Quixote, Tom. IV. pp. 105, 106, and - Covarrubias, _ut supra_, ad verb. _Tarasca_. The populace at - Toledo called the woman on the Tarasca, Anne Boleyn. Sem. Pint., - 1841, p. 177. - -Then followed a company of fair children, with garlands on their heads, -singing hymns and litanies of the Church; and sometimes companies of -men and women with castanets, dancing the national dances. Two or more -huge Moorish or negro giants, commonly called the _Gigantones_, made -of pasteboard, came next, jumping about grotesquely, to the great -alarm of some of the less experienced part of the crowd, and to the -great amusement of the rest. Then, with much pomp and fine music, -appeared the priests, bearing the Host under a splendid canopy; and -after them a long and devout procession, where was seen, in Madrid, -the king, with a taper in his hand, like the meanest of his subjects, -together with the great officers of state and foreign ambassadors, -who all crowded in to swell the splendor of the scene.[391] Last of -all came showy cars, filled with actors from the public theatres, who -were to figure on the occasion, and add to its attractions, if not to -its solemnity;--personages who constituted so important a part of the -day’s festivity, that the whole was often called, in popular phrase, -The Festival of the Cars,--“La Fiesta de los Carros.”[392] - - [391] The most lively description I have seen of this procession - is contained in the _loa_ to Lope’s first _fiesta_ and _auto_ - (Obras Sueltas, Tom. XVIII. pp. 1-7). Another description, to - suit the festival as it was got up about 1655-65, will be found - when we come to Calderon. It is given here as it occurred in the - period of Lope’s success; and a fancy drawing of the procession, - as it may have appeared in 1623, is to be found in the Semanario - Pintoresco, 1846, p. 185. But Lope’s _loa_ is the best authority. - - [392] A good idea of the contents of the _carro_ may be found in - the description of the one met by Don Quixote, (Parte II. c. 11), - as he was returning from Toboso. - -This procession--not, indeed, magnificent in the towns and hamlets of -the provinces, as it was in the capital, but always as imposing as the -resources of the place where it occurred could make it--stopped from -time to time under awnings in front of the house of some distinguished -person,--perhaps that of the President of the Council of Castile at -Madrid; perhaps that of the alcalde of a village,--and there waited -reverently till certain religious offices could be performed by the -ecclesiastics; the multitude, all the while, kneeling, as if in church. -As soon as these duties were over, or at a later hour of the day, the -actors from the cars appeared on a neighbouring stage, in the open air, -and performed, according to their limited service, the sacramental -_auto_ prepared for the occasion, and always alluding to it directly. -Of such _autos_, we know, on good authority, that Lope wrote about -four hundred,[393] though no more than twelve or thirteen of the whole -number are now extant, and these, we are told, were published only that -the towns and villages of the interior might enjoy the same devout -pleasures that were enjoyed by the court and capital;--so universal was -the fanaticism for this strange form of amusement, and so deeply was it -seated in the popular character.[394] - - [393] Montalvan, in his “Fama Póstuma.” - - [394] Preface of Joseph Ortis de Villena, prefixed to the Autos - in Tom. XVIII. of the Obras Sueltas. They were not printed till - 1644, nine years after Lope’s death, and then they appeared - at Zaragoza. One other _auto_, attributed to Lope, “El Tirano - Castigado,” occurs in a curious volume, entitled “Navidad y - Corpus Christi Festejados,” collected by Isidro de Robles, and - already referred to. - -At an earlier period, and perhaps as late as the time of Lope’s first -appearance, this part of the festival consisted of a very simple -exhibition, accompanied with rustic songs, eclogues, and dancing, such -as we find it in a large collection of manuscript _autos_, of which two -that have been published are slight and rude in their structure and -dialogue, and seem to date from a period as early as that of Lope;[395] -but during his lifetime, and chiefly under his influence, it became -a formal and well-defined popular entertainment, divided into three -parts, each of which was quite distinct in its character from the -others, and all of them dramatic. - - [395] The manuscript collection referred to in the text was - acquired by the National Library at Madrid in 1844. It fills 468 - leaves in folio, and contains ninety-five dramatic pieces. All of - them are anonymous, except one, which is said to be by Maestro - Ferruz, and is on the subject of Cain and Abel; and all but one - seem to be on religious subjects. This last is called “_Entremes_ - de las Esteras,” and is the only one bearing that title, The - rest are called _Coloquios_, _Farsas_, and _Autos_; nearly all - being called _Autos_, but some of them _Farsas del Sacramento_, - which seems to have been regarded as synonymous. One only is - dated. It is called “Auto de la Resurreccion de Christo,” and - is licensed to be acted March 28, 1568. Two have been published - in the Museo Literario, 1844, by Don Eugenio de Tapia, of the - Royal Library, Madrid, one of the most eminent Spanish scholars - and writers of this century. The first, entitled “Auto de los - Desposorios de Moisen,” is a very slight performance, and, except - the Prologue or Argument, is in prose. The other, called “Auto de - la Residencia del Hombre,” is no better, but is all in verse. In - a subsequent number, Don Eugenio publishes a complete list of the - titles, with the _figuras_ or personages that appear in each. It - is much to be desired that all the contents of this MS. should - be properly edited. Meanwhile, we know that _saynetes_ were - sometimes interposed between different parts of the performances; - that allegorical personages were abundant; and that the _Bobo_ or - Fool constantly recurs. Some of them were probably earlier than - the time of Lope de Vega; perhaps as early as the time of Lope de - Rueda, who, as I have already said in note 38 to this chapter, - prepared _autos_ of some kind for the city of Toledo, in 1561. - But the language and versification of the two pieces that have - been printed, and the general air of the fictions and allegories - of the rest, so far as we can gather them from what has been - published, indicate a period nearly or quite as late as that of - Lope de Vega. - -First of all, in its more completed state, came the _loa_. This was -always of the nature of a prologue; but sometimes, in form, it was a -dialogue spoken by two or more actors. One of the best of Lope’s is of -this kind. It is filled with the troubles of a peasant who has come -to Madrid in order to see these very shows, and has lost his wife in -the crowd; but, just as he has quite consoled himself and satisfied -his conscience by determining to have her cried once or twice, and -then to give her up as a lucky loss and take another, she comes in -and describes with much spirit the wonders of the procession she had -seen, precisely as her audience themselves had just seen it; thus -making, in the form of a prologue, a most amusing and appropriate -introduction for the drama that was to follow.[396] Another of -Lope’s _loas_ is a discussion between a gay gallant and a peasant, -who talks, in his rustic dialect, on the subject of the doctrine -of transubstantiation.[397] Another is given in the character of a -Morisco, and is a monologue, in the dialect of the speaker, on the -advantages and disadvantages of his turning Christian in earnest, after -having for some time made his living fraudulently by begging in the -assumed character of a Christian pilgrim.[398] All of them are amusing, -though burlesque; but some of them are any thing rather than religious. - - [396] This is the first of the _loas_ in the volume, and, on the - whole, the best. - - [397] Obras Sueltas, Tom. XVIII. p. 367. - - [398] Ibid., p. 107. - -After the _loa_ came an _entremes_. All that remain to us of Lope’s -_entremeses_ are mere farces, like the interludes used every day in -the secular theatres. In one instance he makes an _entremes_ a satire -upon lawyers, in which a member of the craft, as in the old French -“Maistre Pathelin,” is cheated and robbed by a seemingly simple -peasant, who first renders him extremely ridiculous, and then escapes -by disguising himself as a blind ballad-singer, and dancing and singing -in honor of the festival,--a conclusion which seems to be peculiarly -irreverent for this particular occasion.[399] In another instance, he -ridicules the poets of his time by bringing on the stage a lady who -pretends she has just come from the Indies, with a fortune, in order -to marry a poet, and succeeds in her purpose; but both find themselves -deceived, for the lady has no income but such as is gained by a pair -of castanets, and her husband turns out to be a ballad-maker. Both, -however, have good sense enough to be content with each other, and to -agree to go through the world together singing and dancing ballads, -of which, by way of _finale_ to the _entremes_, they at once give the -crowd a specimen.[400] Yet another of Lope’s successful attempts in -this way is an interlude containing within itself the representation -of a play on the story of Helen, which reminds us of the similar -entertainment of Pyramus and Thisbe in the “Midsummer Night’s Dream”; -but it breaks off in the middle,--the actor who plays Paris running off -in earnest with the actress who plays Helen, and the piece ending with -a burlesque scene of confusions and reconciliations.[401] And finally, -another is a parody of the procession itself, with its giants, cars, -and all; treating the whole with the gayest ridicule.[402] - - [399] Obras Sueltas, Tom. XVIII. p. 8. “Entremes del Letrado.” - - [400] Ibid., p. 114. “Entremes del Poeta.” - - [401] Ibid., p. 168. “El Robo de Helena.” - - [402] Ibid., p. 373. “Muestra de los Carros.” - -Thus far, all has been avowedly comic in the dramatic exhibitions -of these religious festivals. But the _autos_ or sacramental acts -themselves, with which the whole concluded, and to which all that -preceded was only introductory, claim to be more grave in their general -tone, though in some cases, like the prologues and interludes, parts -of them are too whimsical and extravagant to be any thing but amusing. -“The Bridge of the World” is one of this class.[403] It represents -the Prince of Darkness placing the giant Leviathan on the bridge of -the world, to defend its passage against all comers who do not confess -his supremacy. Adam and Eve, who, we are told in the directions to the -players, appear “dressed very gallantly after the French fashion,” -are naturally the first that present themselves.[404] They subscribe -to the hard condition, and pass over in sight of the audience. In the -same manner, as the dialogue informs us, the patriarchs, with Moses, -David, and Solomon, go over; but at last the Knight of the Cross, -“the Celestial Amadis of Greece,” as he is called, appears in person, -overthrows the pretensions of the Prince of Darkness, and leads -the Soul of Man in triumph across the fatal passage. The whole is -obviously a parody of the old story of the Giant defending the Bridge -of Mantible;[405] and when to this are added parodies of the ballad of -“Count Claros” applied to Adam,[406] and of other old ballads applied -to the Saviour,[407] the confusion of allegory and farce, of religion -and folly, seems to be complete. - - [403] It is the last in the collection, and, as to its poetry, - one of the best of the twelve, if not the very best. - - [404] The direction to the actors is,--“Salen Adan y Eva vestidos - de Franceses muy galanes.” - - [405] See Historia del Emperador Cárlos Magno, Cap. 26, 30, etc. - - [406] The giant says to Adam, referring to the temptation:-- - - Yerros Adan por amores - Dignos son de perdonar, etc.; - - which is out of the beautiful and well-known old ballad of the - “Conde Claros,” beginning “Pésame de vos, el Conde,” which has - been already noticed, _ante_, Vol. I. p. 121. It must have been - perfectly familiar to many persons in Lope’s audience, and - how the allusion to it could have produced any other than an - irreverent effect I know not. - - [407] The address of the music, “Si dormis, Príncipe mio,” refers - to the ballads about those whose lady-loves had been carried - captive among the Moors. - -Others of the _autos_ are more uniformly grave. “The Harvest” is a -spiritualized version of the parable in Saint Matthew on the Field -that was sowed with Good Seed and with Tares,[408] and is carried -through with some degree of solemnity; but the unhappy tares, that -are threatened with being cut down and cast into the fire, are nothing -less than Judaism, Idolatry, Heresy, and all Sectarianism, who are -hardly saved from their fate by the mercy of the Lord of the Harvest -and his fair spouse, the Church. However, notwithstanding a few such -absurdities and awkwardnesses in the allegory, and some very misplaced -compliments to the reigning Spanish family, this is one of the best -of the class to which it belongs, and one of the most solemn. Another -of those open to less reproach than usual is called “The Return from -Egypt,”[409] which, with its shepherds and gypsies, has quite the grace -of an eclogue, and, with its ballads and popular songs, has some of -the charms that belong to Lope’s secular dramas. These two, with “The -Wolf turned Shepherd,”[410]--which is an allegory on the subject of the -Devil taking upon himself the character of the true shepherd of the -flock,--constitute as fair, or perhaps, rather, as favorable, specimens -of the genuine Spanish _auto_ as can be found in the elder school. All -of them rest on the grossest of the prevailing notions in religion; -all of them appeal, in every way they can, whether light or serious, -to the popular feelings and prejudices; many of them are imbued with -the spirit of the old national poetry; and these, taken together, are -the foundation on which their success rested,--a success which, if -we consider the religious object of the festival, was undoubtedly of -extraordinary extent and extraordinary duration. - - [408] “La Siega,” (Obras Sueltas, Tom. XVIII. p. 328), of which - there is an excellent translation in Dohrn’s Spanische Dramen, - Berlin, 1841, 8vo, Tom. I. - - [409] “La Vuelta de Egypto,” Obras, Tom. XVIII. p. 435. - - [410] “El Pastor Lobo y Cabaña Celestial,” Ibid., p. 381. - -But the _entremeses_ or interludes that were used to enliven the -dramatic part of this rude, but gorgeous ceremonial, were by no means -confined to it. They were, as has been intimated, acted daily in the -public theatres, where, from the time when the full-length dramas were -introduced, they had been inserted between their different divisions or -acts, to afford a lighter amusement to the audience. Lope wrote a great -number of them; how many is not known. From their slight character, -however, hardly more than thirty have been preserved. But we have -enough to show that in this, as in the other departments of his drama, -popular effect was chiefly sought, and that, as everywhere else, the -flexibility of his genius is manifested in the variety of forms in -which it exhibits its resources. Generally speaking, those we possess -are written in prose, are very short, and have no plot; being merely -farcical dialogues drawn from common or vulgar life. - -The “Melisendra,” however, one of the first he published, is an -exception to this remark. It is composed almost entirely in verse, is -divided into acts, and has a _loa_ or prologue;--in short, it is a -parody in the form of a regular play, founded on the story of Gayferos -and Melisendra in the old ballads.[411] The “Padre Engañado,” which -Holcroft brought upon the English stage under the name of “The Father -Outwitted,” is another exception, and is a lively farce of eight or -ten pages, on the ridiculous troubles of a father who gives his own -daughter in disguise to the very lover from whom he supposed he had -carefully shut her up.[412] But most of them, like “The Indian,” “The -Cradle,” and “The Robbers Cheated,” would occupy hardly more than -fifteen minutes each in their representation,--slight dialogues of the -broadest farce, continued as long as the time between the acts would -conveniently permit, and then abruptly terminated to give place to the -principal drama.[413] A vigorous spirit, and a popular, rude humor are -rarely wanting in them. - - [411] Primera Parte de Entremeses, “Entremes Primero de - Melisendra,” Comedias, Tom. I., Valladolid, 1604, 4to, ff. 333, - etc. It is founded on the fine old ballads of the Romancero of - 1550-1555, “Asentado está Gayferos,” etc.; the same out of which - the puppet-show man made his exhibition at the inn before Don - Quixote, Parte II. c. 26. - - [412] Comedias, Valladolid, 1604, Tom. I. p. 337. - - [413] All three of these pieces are in the same volume. - -But Lope, whenever he wrote for the theatre, seems to have remembered -its old foundations, and to have shown a tendency to rest upon them -as much as possible of his own drama. This is apparent in the very -_entremeses_ we have just noticed. They are to be traced back to Lope -de Rueda, whose short farces were of the same nature, and were used, -after the introduction of dramas of three acts, in the same way.[414] -It is apparent, too, as we have seen, in his moral and allegorical -plays, in his sacramental acts, and in his dramas taken from the -Scripture and the lives of the saints; all founded on the earlier -Mysteries and Moralities. And now we find the same tendency again in -yet one more class, that of his eclogues and pastorals,--a form of the -drama which may be recognized at least as early as the time of Juan de -la Enzina.[415] Of these Lope wrote a considerable number, that are -still extant,--twenty or more,--not a few of which bear distinct marks -of their origin in that singular mixture of a bucolic and a religious -tone that is seen in the first beginnings of a public theatre in Spain. - - [414] “Lope de Rueda,” says Lope de Vega, “was an example of - these precepts in Spain; for from him has come down the custom - of calling the old plays _Entremeses_.” (Obras Sueltas, Tom. IV. - p. 407.) A single scene taken out and used in this way as an - _entremes_ was called a _Paso_ or “passage.” We have noted such - by Lope de Rueda, etc. See _ante_, pp. 16, 22. - - [415] Among the imitators of Juan de la Enzina should be noted - Lucas Fernandez, a native of Salamanca, who published in that - city a thin folio volume, in 1514, entitled “Farsas y Eglogas al - Modo y Estilo Pastoril y Castellano.” Judged by their titles, - they are quite in the manner and style of the eclogues and farces - of his predecessor; but one of them is called a _Comedia_, two - others are called _Farsa ó quasi Comedia_, and another _Auto ó - Farsa_. There are but six in all. I have never seen the book; - but the notices I have found of its contents show that it is - undoubtedly an imitation of the dramatic attempts of its author’s - countryman, and that it is probably one of little poetical - merit. - -Some of the eclogues of Lope, we know, were performed; as, for -instance, “The Wood and no Love in it,”--Selva sin Amor,--which was -represented with costly pomp and much ingenious apparatus before the -king and the royal family.[416] Others, like seven or eight in his -“Pastores de Belen,” and one published under the name of “Tomé de -Burguillos,”--all of which claim to have been arranged for Christmas -and different religious festivals,--so much resemble such as we know -were really performed on these occasions, that we can hardly doubt, -that, like those just mentioned, they also were represented.[417] While -yet others, like the first he ever published, called the “Amorosa,” and -his last, addressed to Philis, together with one on the death of his -wife, and one on the death of his son, were probably intended only to -be read.[418] But all may have been acted, if we are to judge from the -habits of the age, when, as we know, eclogues never destined for the -stage were represented, as much as if they had been expressly written -for it.[419] At any rate, all Lope’s compositions of this kind show -how gladly and freely his genius overflowed into the remotest of the -many forms of the drama that were recognized or permitted in his time. - - [416] Obras, Tom. I. p. 225. - - [417] Obras, Tom. XVI., _passim_, and XIX. p. 278. - - [418] For these, see Obras, Tom. III. p. 463; Tom. X. p. 193; - Tom. IV. p. 430; and Tom. X. p. 362. The last passage contains - nearly all we know about his son, Lope Felix. - - [419] See the scene in the Second Part of Don Quixote, where some - gentlemen and ladies, for their own entertainment in the country, - were about to represent the eclogues of Garcilasso and Camoens. - In the same way, I think, the well-known eclogue which Lope - dedicated to Antonio Duke of Alva, (Obras, IV. p. 295), that to - Amaryllis, which was the longest he ever wrote, (Tom. X. p. 147), - that for the Prince of Esquilache, (Tom. I. p. 352), and most of - those in the “Arcadia,” (Tom. VI.), were acted, and written in - order to be acted. Why the poem to his friend Claudio, (Tom. IX. - p. 355), which is in fact an account of some passages in his own - life, with nothing pastoral in its tone or form, is called “an - eclogue,” I do not know; nor will I undertake to assign to any - particular class the “Military Dialogue in Honor of the Marquis - of Espinola,” (Tom. X. p. 337), though I think it is dramatic - in its structure, and was probably represented, on some show - occasion, before the Marquis himself. - - - - -CHAPTER XVIII. - -LOPE DE VEGA, CONTINUED.--HIS CHARACTERISTICS AS A DRAMATIC -WRITER.--HIS STORIES, CHARACTERS, AND DIALOGUE.--HIS DISREGARD OF -RULES, OF HISTORICAL TRUTH, AND MORAL PROPRIETY.--HIS COMIC UNDERPLOT -AND GRACIOSO.--HIS POETICAL STYLE AND MANNER.--HIS FITNESS TO WIN -GENERAL FAVOR.--HIS SUCCESS.--HIS FORTUNE, AND THE VAST AMOUNT OF HIS -WORKS. - - -The extraordinary variety in the character of Lope’s dramas is as -remarkable as their number, and contributed not a little to render -him the monarch of the stage while he lived, and the great master -of the national theatre ever since. But though this vast variety -and inexhaustible fertility constitute, as it were, the two great -corner-stones on which his success rested, still there were other -circumstances attending it that should by no means be overlooked, when -we are examining, not only the surprising results themselves, but the -means by which they were obtained. - -The first of these is the principle which may be considered as -running through the whole of his full-length plays,--that of making -all other interests subordinate to the interest of the story. Thus, -the characters are a matter evidently of inferior moment with him; -so that the idea of exhibiting a single passion giving a consistent -direction to all the energies of a strong will, as in the case of -Richard the Third, or, as in the case of Macbeth, distracting them -all no less consistently, does not occur in the whole range of his -dramas. Sometimes, it is true, though rarely, as in Sancho Ortiz, he -develops a marked and generous spirit, with distinctive lineaments; -but in no case is this the main object, and in no case is it done with -the appearance of an artist-like skill or a deliberate purpose. On -the contrary, a great majority of his characters are almost as much -standing masks as Pantalone is on the Venetian stage, or Scapin on the -French. The _primer galan_, or hero, all love, honor, and jealousy; -the _dama_, or heroine, no less loving and jealous, but yet more -rash and heedless; and the brother, or if not the brother, then the -_barba_, or old man and father, ready to cover the stage with blood, -if the lover has even been seen in the house of the heroine,--these -recur continually, and serve, not only in the secular, but often in -the religious pieces, as the fixed points round which the different -actions, with their different incidents, are made to revolve. - -In the same way, the dialogue is used chiefly to bring out the plot, -and hardly at all to bring out the characters. This is obvious in the -long speeches, sometimes consisting of two or three hundred verses, -which are as purely narrative as an Italian _novella_, and often much -like one; and it is seen, too, in the crowd of incidents that compose -the action, which not infrequently fails to find space sufficient -to spread out all its ingenious involutions and make them easily -intelligible; a difficulty of which Lope once gives his audience fair -warning, telling them at the outset of the piece, that they must not -lose a syllable of the first explanation, or they will certainly fail -to understand the curious plot that follows. - -Obeying the same principle, he sacrifices regularity and congruity -in his stories, if he can but make them interesting. His longer -plays, indeed, are regularly divided into three _jornadas_, or acts; -but this, though he claims it as a merit, is not an arrangement of -his own invention, and is, moreover, merely an arbitrary mode of -producing the pauses necessary to the convenience of the actors and -spectators; pauses which, in Lope’s theatre, have too often nothing -to do with the structure and proportions of the piece itself.[420] As -for the six plays which, as he intimates, were written according to -the rules, Spanish criticism has sought for them in vain;[421] nor -does any of them, probably, exist now, if any ever existed, unless -“La Melindrosa”--The Prude--may have been one of them. But he avows -very honestly that he regards rules of all kinds only as obstacles to -his success. “When I am going to write a play,” he says, “I lock up -all precepts, and cast Terence and Plautus out of my study, lest they -should cry out against me, as truth is wont to do even from such dumb -volumes; for I write according to the art invented by those who sought -the applause of the multitude, whom it is but just to humor in their -folly, since it is they who pay for it.”[422] - - [420] This division can be traced back to a play of Francisco de - Avendaño, 1553. L. F. Moratin, Obras, 1830, Tom. I. Parte I. p. - 182. - - [421] “Except six,” says Lope, at the end of his “Arte Nuevo,” - “all my four hundred and eighty-three plays have offended gravely - against the rules [el arte].” See Montiano y Luyando, “Discurso - sobre las Tragedias Españolas,” (Madrid, 1750, 12mo, p. 47), - and Huerta, in the Preface to his “Teatro Hespañol,” for the - difficulty of finding even these six. - - [422] Arte Nuevo de Hacer Comedias, Obras, Tom. IV. p. 406. - -The extent to which, following this principle, Lope sacrificed dramatic -probabilities and possibilities, geography, history, and a decent -morality, can be properly understood only by reading a large number -of his plays. But a few instances will partially illustrate it. In -his “First King of Castile,” the events fill thirty-six years in -the middle of the eleventh century, and a Gypsy is introduced four -hundred years before Gypsies were known in Europe.[423] The whole -romantic story of the Seven Infantes of Lara is put into the play of -“Mudarra.”[424] In “Spotless Purity,” Job, David, Jeremiah, Saint John -the Baptist, and the University of Salamanca figure together;[425] and -in “The Birth of Christ” we have, for the two extremes, the creation -of the world and the Nativity.[426] So much for history. Geography is -treated no better, when Constantinople is declared to be four thousand -leagues from Madrid,[427] and Spaniards are made to disembark from a -ship in Hungary.[428] And as to morals, it is not easy to tell how -Lope reconciled his opinions to his practice. In the Preface to the -twentieth volume of his Theatre, he declares, in reference to his own -“Wise Vengeance,” that “its title is absurd, because all revenge is -unwise and unlawful”; and yet it seems as if one half of his plays go -to justify it. It is made a merit in San Isidro, that he stole his -master’s grain to give it to the starving birds.[429] The prayers of -Nicolas de Tolentino are accounted sufficient for the salvation of -a kinsman who, after a dissolute life, had died in an act of mortal -sin;[430] and the cruel and atrocious conquest of Arauco is claimed as -an honor to a noble family and a grace to the national escutcheon.[431] - - [423] “El Primer Rey de Castilla,” Comedias, Tom. XVII., Madrid, - 1621, ff. 114, etc. - - [424] “El Bastardo Mudarra,” Comedias, Tom. XXIV., Zaragoza, 1641. - - [425] “La Limpieza no Manchada,” Comedias, Tom. XIX., Madrid, - 1623. - - [426] “El Nacimiento de Christo,” Comedias, Tom. XXIV., _ut - supra_. - - [427] It is the learned Theodora, a person represented as capable - of confounding the knowing professors brought to try her, who - declares Constantinople to be four thousand leagues from Madrid. - La Donzella Teodor, end of Act II. - - [428] This extraordinary disembarkation takes place in the - “Animal de Ungria” (Comedias, Tom. IX., Barcelona, 1618, ff. 137, - 138). One is naturally reminded of Shakspeare’s “Winter’s Tale”; - but it is curious that the Duke de Luynes, a favorite minister - of state to Louis XIII., made precisely the same mistake, at - about the same time, to Lord Herbert of Cherbury, then (1619-21) - ambassador in France. But Lope certainly knew better, and I doubt - not Shakspeare did, however ignorant the French statesman may - have been. Herbert’s Life, by himself, London, 1809, 8vo, p. 217. - - [429] See “San Isidro Labrador,” in Comedias Escogidas, Tom. - XXVIII., Madrid, 1667, f. 66. - - [430] “San Nicolas de Tolentino,” Comedias, Tom. XXIV., Zaragoza, - 1641, f. 171. - - [431] “Arauco Domado,” Comedias, Tom. XX., Madrid, 1629. After - reading such absurdities, we wonder less that Cervantes, even - though he committed not a few like them himself, should make the - puppet-show man exclaim, “Are not a thousand plays represented - now-a-days, full of a thousand improprieties and absurdities, - which yet run their course successfully, and are heard, not only - with applause, but with admiration?” D. Quixote, Parte II. c. 26. - -But all these violations of the truth of fact and of the commonest -rules of Christian morals, of which nobody was more aware than their -perpetrator, were overlooked by Lope himself, and by his audiences, -in the general interest of the plot. A dramatized novel was the form -he chose to give to his plays, and he succeeded in settling it as the -main principle of the Spanish stage. “Tales,” he declares, “have the -same rules with dramas, the purpose of whose authors is to content -and please the public, though the rules of art may be strangled by -it.”[432] And elsewhere, when defending his opinions, he says: “Keep -the explanation of the story doubtful till the last scene; for, as soon -as the public know how it will end, they turn their faces to the door -and their backs to the stage.”[433] This had never been said before; -and though some traces of intriguing plots are to be found from the -time of Torres de Naharro, yet nobody ever thought of relying upon -them, in this way, for success, till Lope had set the example, which -his school have so faithfully followed. - - [432] “Tienen las novelas los mismos preceptos que las comedias, - cuyo fin es haber dado su autor contento y gusto al pueblo, - aunque se ahorque el arte.” Obras Sueltas, Tom. VIII. p. 70. - - [433] Arte Nuevo, Obras, Tom. IV. p. 412. From an autograph MS. - of Lope, still extant, it appears that he sometimes wrote out - his plays first in the form of _pequeñas novelas_. Semanario - Pintoresco, 1839, p. 19. - -Another element which he established in the Spanish drama was the -comic underplot. All his plays, with the signal exception of the “Star -of Seville,” and a few others of less note, have it;--sometimes in -a pastoral form, but generally as a simple admixture of farce. The -characters contained in this portion of each of his dramas are as much -standing masks as those in the graver portion, and were perfectly well -known under the name of the _graciosos_ and _graciosas_, or drolls, -to which was afterwards added the _vegete_, or a little, old, testy -esquire, who is always boasting of his descent, and is often employed -in teasing the _gracioso_. In most cases, they constitute a parody -on the dialogue and adventures of the hero and heroine, as Sancho is -partly a parody of Don Quixote, and in most cases they are the servants -of the respective parties;--the men being good-humored cowards and -gluttons, the women mischievous and coquettish, and both full of wit, -malice, and an affected simplicity. Slight traces of such characters -are to be found on the Spanish stage as far back as the servants in the -“Serafina” of Torres Naharro; and in the middle of that century, the -_bobo_, or fool, figures freely in the farces of Lope de Rueda, as the -_simplé_ had done before in those of Enzina. But the variously witty -_gracioso_, the full-blown parody of the heroic characters of the play, -the dramatic _pícaro_, is the work of Lope de Vega. He first introduced -it into the “Francesilla,” where the oldest of the tribe, under the -name of Tristan, was represented by Rios, a famous actor of his time, -and produced a great effect;[434]--an event which, Lope tells us, in -the Dedication of the drama itself, in 1620, to his friend Montalvan, -occurred before that friend was born, and therefore before the year -1602. - - [434] See the Dedication of the “Francesilla” to Juan Perez de - Montalvan, in Comedias, Tom. XIII., Madrid, 1620, where we have - the following words: “And note in passing that this is the first - play in which was introduced the character of the jester, which - has been so often repeated since. Rios, unique in all parts, - played it, and is worthy of this record. I pray you to read it - as a new thing; for when I wrote it, you were not born.” The - _gracioso_ was generally distinguished by his name on the Spanish - stage, as he was afterwards on the French stage. Thus, Calderon - often calls his _gracioso_ Clarin, or Trumpet; as Molière called - his Sganarelle. The _simplé_, who, as I have said, can be traced - back to Enzina, and who was, no doubt, the same with the _bobo_, - is mentioned as very successful, in 1596, by Lopez Pinciano, - who, in his “Philosofía Antigua Poética,” (1596, p. 402), says, - “They are characters that commonly amuse more than any other that - appear in the plays.” The _gracioso_ of Lope was, like the rest - of his theatre, founded on what existed before his time; only the - character itself was further developed, and received a new name. - D. Quixote, Clemencin, Parte II. cap. 3, note. - -From this time the _gracioso_ is found in nearly all of his plays, and -in nearly every other play produced on the Spanish stage, from which -it passed, first to the French, and then to all the other theatres of -modern times. Excellent specimens of it may be found in the sacristan -of the “Captives of Algiers,” in the servants of the “Saint John’s -Eve,” and in the servants of the “Ugly Beauty”; in all which, as well -as in many more, the _gracioso_ is skilfully turned to account, by -being made partly to ridicule the heroic extravagances and rhodomontade -of the leading personages, and partly to shield the author himself -from rebuke by good-humoredly confessing for him that he was quite -aware he deserved it. Of such we may say, as Don Quixote did, when -speaking of the whole class to the Bachelor Samson Carrasco, that they -are the shrewdest fellows in their respective plays. But of others, -whose ill-advised wit is inopportunely thrust, with their foolscaps -and bawbles, into the gravest and most tragic scenes of plays like -“Marriage in Death,” we can only avow, that, though they were demanded -by the taste of the age, nothing in any age can suffice for their -justification. - -The last among the circumstances which should not be overlooked, when -considering the means of Lope’s great success, is his poetical style, -the metres he adopted, and especially the use he made of the elder -poetry of his country. In all these respects, he is to be praised; -always excepting the occasions when, to obtain universal applause, he -permitted himself the use of that obscure and affected style which the -courtly part of his audience demanded, and which he himself elsewhere -condemned and ridiculed.[435] - - [435] The specimens of his bad taste in this particular occur - but too frequently; e. g. in “El Cuerdo en su Casa” (Comedias, - Tom. VI., Madrid, 1615, ff. 105, etc.); in the “Niña de Plata” - (Comedias, Tom. IX., Barcelona, 1618, ff. 125, etc.); in the - “Cautivos de Argel” (Comedias, Tom. XXV., Zaragoza, 1647, p. - 241); and in other places. But in opposition to all this, see his - deliberate condemnation of such euphuistical follies in his Obras - Sueltas, Tom. IV. pp. 459-482; and the jests at their expense - in his “Amistad y Obligacion,” and his “Melindres de Belisa” - (Comedias, Tom. IX., Barcelona, 1618). - -No doubt, indeed, much of his power over the mass of the people of his -time is to be sought in the charm that belonged to his versification; -not unfrequently careless, but almost always fresh, flowing, and -effective. Its variety, too, was remarkable. No metre of which the -language was susceptible escaped him. The Italian octave stanzas are -frequent; the _terza rima_, though more sparingly used, occurs often; -and hardly a play is without one or more sonnets. All this was to -please the more fashionable and cultivated among his audience, who had -long been enamoured of whatever was Italian; and though some of it was -unhappy enough, like sonnets with echoes,[436] it was all fluent and -all successful. - - [436] Sonnets seem to have been a sort of choice morsels thrown - in to please the over-refined portion of the audience. In - general, only one or two occur in a play; but in the “Discreta - Venganza” (Comedias, Tom. XX., Madrid, 1629) there are five. In - the “Palacios de Galiana” (Comedias, Tom. XXIII., Madrid, 1638, - f. 256) there is a foolish sonnet with echoes, and another in - the “Historia de Tobias” (Comedias, Tom. XV., Madrid, 1621, f. - 244). The sonnet in ridicule of sonnets, in the “Niña de Plata,” - (Comedias, Tom. IX., Barcelona, 1618, f. 124), is witty, and has - been imitated in French and in English. - -Still, as far as his verse was concerned,--besides the _silvas_, or -masses of irregular lines, the _quintillas_, or five-line stanzas, -and the _liras_, or six-line,--he relied, above every thing else, -upon the old national ballad-measure;--both the proper _romance_, -with _asonantes_, and the _redondilla_, with rhymes between the first -and fourth lines and between the second and third. In this he was -unquestionably right. The earliest attempts at dramatic representation -in Spain had been somewhat lyrical in their tone, and the more -artificial forms of verse, therefore, especially those with short lines -interposed at regular intervals, had been used by Juan de la Enzina, -by Torres Naharro, and by others; though, latterly, in these, as in -many respects, much confusion had been introduced into Spanish dramatic -poetry. But Lope, making his drama more narrative than it had been -before, settled it at once and finally on the true national narrative -measure. He went farther. He introduced into it much old ballad-poetry, -and many separate ballads of his own composition. Thus, in “The Sun -Delayed,” the Master of Santiago, who has lost his way, stops and sings -a ballad;[437] and in his “Poverty no Disgrace,” he has inserted a -beautiful one, beginning, - - [437] “El Sol Parado,” Comedias, Tom. XVII., Madrid, 1621, pp. - 218, 219. It reminds one of the much more beautiful _serrana_ of - the Marquis of Santillana, beginning “Moza tan formosa,” _ante_, - Vol. I. p. 372. - - O noble Spanish cavalier, - You hasten to the fight; - The trumpet rings upon your ear, - And victory claims her right.[438] - - [438] “Pobreza no es Vileza,” Comedias, Tom. XX., Madrid, 1629, - f. 61. - -Probably, however, he produced a still greater effect when he brought -in passages, not of his own, but of old and well-known ballads, or -allusions to them. Of these his plays are full. For instance, his -“Sun Delayed,” and his “Envy of Nobility,” are all-redolent of the -Morisco ballads, that were so much admired in his time; the first -taking those that relate to the loves of Gazul and Zayda,[439] and the -last those from the “Civil Wars of Granada,” about the wild feuds of -the Zegris and the Abencerrages.[440] Hardly less marked is the use -he makes of the old ballads on Roderic, in his “Last Goth”;[441] of -those concerning the Infantes of Lara, in his several plays relating -to their tragical story;[442] and of those about Bernardo del Carpio, -in “Marriage and Death.”[443] Occasionally, the effect of their -introduction must have been very great. Thus, when, in his drama of -“Santa Fé,” crowded with the achievements of Hernando del Pulgar, -Garcilasso de la Vega, and whatever was most glorious and picturesque -in the siege of Granada, one of his personages breaks out with a -variation of the familiar and grand old ballad,-- - - [439] He has even ventured to take the beautiful and familiar - ballad, “Sale la Estrella de Venus,”--which is in the Romancero - General, the “Guerras de Granada,” and many other places,--and - work it up into a dialogue. “El Sol Parado,” Comedias, Tom. - XVII., Madrid, 1621, ff. 223-224. - - [440] In the same way, he seizes upon the old ballad, “Reduan - bien se te acuerda,” and uses it in the “Embidia de la Nobleza,” - Comedias, Tom. XXIII., Madrid, 1638, f. 192. - - [441] For example, the ballad in the Romancero of 1555, beginning - “Despues que el Rey Rodrigo,” at the end of Jornada II., in “El - Ultimo Godo,” Comedias, Tom. XXV., Zaragoza, 1647. - - [442] Compare “El Bastardo Mudarra” (Comedias, Tom. XXIV., - Zaragoza, 1641, ff. 75, 76) with the ballads, “Ruy Velasquez de - Lara,” and “Llegados son los Infantes”; and, in the same play, - the dialogue between Mudarra and his mother, (f. 83), with the - ballad, “Sentados á un ajedrez.” - - [443] “El Casamiento en la Muerte,” (Comedias, Tom. I., - Valladolid, 1604, ff. 198, etc.), in which the following - well-known old ballads are freely used, viz.:--“O Belerma! O - Belerma!” “No tiene heredero alguno”; “Al pie de un túmulo - negro”; “Bañando está las prisiones”; and others. - - Now Santa Fé is circled round - With canvas walls so fair, - And tents that cover all the ground - With silks and velvets rare,--[444] - - [444] It is in the last chapter of the “Guerras Civiles de - Granada”; but Lope has given it, with a slight change in the - phraseology, as follows:-- - - Cercada está Sancta Fé - Con mucho lienço encerado; - Y al rededor muchas tiendas - De terciopelo y damasco. - - It occurs in many collections of ballads, and is founded on the - fact, that a sort of village of rich tents was established near - Granada, which, after an accidental conflagration, was turned - into a town, that still exists, within whose walls were signed - both the commission of Columbus to seek the New World, and the - capitulation of Granada. The imitation of this ballad by Lope is - in his “Cerco de Santa Fé,” Comedias, Tom. I., Valladolid, 1604, - f. 69. - -it must have stirred his audience as with the sound of a trumpet. - -Indeed, in all respects, Lope well understood how to win the general -favor, and how to build up and strengthen his fortunate position as -the leading dramatic poet of his time. The ancient foundations of the -theatre, as far as any existed when he appeared, were little disturbed -by him. He carried on the drama, he says, as he found it; not venturing -to observe the rules of art, because, if he had done so, the public -never would have listened to him.[445] The elements that were floating -about, crude and unsettled, he used freely; but only so far as they -suited his general purpose. The division into three acts, known so -little, that he attributed it to Virues, though it was made much -earlier; the ballad-measure, which had been timidly used by Tarraga and -two or three others, but relied upon by nobody; the intriguing story, -and the amusing underplot, of which the slight traces that existed -in Torres Naharro had been long forgotten,--all these he seized with -the instinct of genius, and formed from them, and from the abundant -and rich inventions of his own overflowing fancy, a drama which, as a -whole, was unlike any thing that had preceded it, and yet was so truly -national and rested so faithfully on tradition, that it was never -afterwards disturbed, till the whole literature, of which it was so -brilliant a part, was swept away with it. - - [445] He says this apparently as a kind of apology to foreigners, - in the Preface to the “Peregrino en su Patria,” 1603, where he - gives a list of his plays to that date. - -Lope de Vega’s immediate success, as we have seen, was in proportion to -his rare powers and favorable opportunities. For a long time, nobody -else was willingly heard on the stage; and during the whole of the -forty or fifty years that he wrote for it, he stood quite unapproached -in general popularity. His unnumbered plays and farces, in all the -forms that were demanded by the fashions of the age, or permitted by -religious authority, filled the theatres both of the capital and the -provinces; and so extraordinary was the impulse he gave to dramatic -representations, that, though there were only two companies of -strolling players at Madrid when he began, there were, about the period -of his death, no less than forty, comprehending nearly a thousand -persons.[446] - - [446] See the curious facts collected on this subject in - Pellicer’s note to Don Quixote, ed. 1798, Parte II., Tom. I. pp. - 109-111. - -Abroad, too, his fame was hardly less remarkable. In Rome, Naples, -and Milan, his dramas were performed in their original language; in -France and Italy, his name was announced in order to fill the theatres -when no play of his was to be performed;[447] and once even, and -probably oftener, one of his dramas was represented in the seraglio -at Constantinople.[448] But perhaps neither all this popularity, -nor yet the crowds that followed him in the streets and gathered in -the balconies to watch him as he passed along,[449] nor the name -of Lope, that was given to whatever was esteemed singularly good -in its kind,[450] is so striking a proof of his dramatic success, -as the fact, so often complained of by himself and his friends, -that multitudes of his plays were fraudulently noted down as they -were acted, and then printed for profit throughout Spain; and that -multitudes of other plays appeared under his name, and were represented -all over the provinces, that he had never even heard of till they were -published and performed.[451] - - [447] This is stated by the well-known Italian poet, Marini, in - his Eulogy on Lope, Obras Sueltas, Tom. XXI. p. 19. - - [448] Obras Sueltas, Tom. VIII. pp. 94-96, and Pellicer’s note to - Don Quixote, Parte I., Tom. III. p. 93. - - [449] This is said in a discourse preached over his mortal - remains in St. Sebastian’s, at his funeral. Obras Sueltas, Tom. - XIX. p. 329. - - [450] “Frey Lope Felix de Vega, whose name has become universally - a proverb for whatever is good,” says Quevedo, in his Aprobacion - to “Tomé de Burguillos.” (Obras Sueltas de Lope, Tom. XIX. p. - xix.) “It became a common proverb to praise a good thing by - calling it _a Lope_; so that jewels, diamonds, pictures, etc., - were raised into esteem by calling them his,” says Montalvan. - (Obras Sueltas, Tom. XX. p. 53.) Cervantes intimates the same - thing in his _entremes_, “La Guarda Cuidadosa.” - - [451] His complaints on the subject begin as early as 1603, - before he had published any of his plays himself, (Obras Sueltas, - Tom. V. p. xvii.), and are renewed in the “Egloga á Claudio,” - (Ib., Tom. IX. p. 369), printed after his death; besides which, - they occur in the Prefaces to his Comedias, (Tom. IX., XI., XV., - XXI., and elsewhere), as a matter that seems to have been always - troubling him. - -A large income naturally followed such popularity, for his plays -were liberally paid for by the actors;[452] and he had patrons of a -munificence unknown in our days, and always undesirable.[453] But -he was thriftless and wasteful; exceedingly charitable; and, in -hospitality to his friends, prodigal. He was, therefore, almost always -embarrassed. At the end of his “Jerusalem,” printed as early as 1609, -he complains of the pressure of his domestic affairs;[454] and in his -old age he addressed some verses, in the nature of a petition, to the -still more thriftless Philip the Fourth, asking the means of living for -himself and his daughter.[455] After his death, his poverty was fully -admitted by his executor; and yet, considering the relative value of -money, no poet, perhaps, ever received so large a compensation for his -works. - - [452] Montalvan sets the price of each play at five hundred - reals, and says that in this way Lope received, during his life, - eighty thousand ducats. Obras, Tom. XX. p. 47. - - [453] The Duke of Sessa alone, besides many other benefactions, - gave Lope, at different times, twenty-four thousand ducats, and a - sinecure of three hundred more per annum. _Ut supra._ - - [454] Libro XX., last three stanzas. - - [455] “I have a daughter, and am old,” he says. “The Muses give - me honor, but not income,” etc. (Obras, Tom. XVII. p. 401.) From - his will, an abstract of which may be found in the Semanario - Pintoresco, 1839, p. 19, it appears that Philip IV. promised an - office to the person who should marry this daughter, and failed - to keep his word. - -It should, however, be remembered, that no other poet ever wrote -so much with popular effect. For, if we begin with his dramatic -compositions, which are the best of his efforts, and go down to his -epics, which, on the whole, are the worst,[456] we shall find the -amount of what was received with favor, as it came from the press, -quite unparalleled. And when to this we are compelled to add his own -assurance, just before his death, that the greater part of his works -still remained in manuscript,[457] we pause in astonishment, and, -before we are able to believe the account, demand some explanation -that will make it credible;--an explanation which is the more -important, because it is the key to much of his personal character, -as well as of his poetical success. And it is this. No poet of any -considerable reputation ever had a genius so nearly related to that of -an improvisator, or ever indulged his genius so freely in the spirit of -improvisation. This talent has always existed in the southern countries -of Europe; and in Spain has, from the first, produced, in different -ways, the most extraordinary results. We owe to it the invention and -perfection of the old ballads, which were originally improvisated and -then preserved by tradition; and we owe to it the _seguidillas_, the -_boleros_, and all the other forms of popular poetry that still exist -in Spain, and are daily poured forth by the fervent imaginations of the -uncultivated classes of the people, and sung to the national music, -that sometimes seems to fill the air by night as the light of the sun -does by day. - - [456] Like some other distinguished authors, however, he was - inclined to undervalue what he did most happily, and to prefer - what is least worthy of preference. Thus, in the Preface to his - Comedias, (Vol. XV., Madrid, 1621), he shows that he preferred - his longer poems to his plays, which he says he holds but “as the - wild-flowers of his field, that grow up without care or culture.” - - [457] This might be inferred from the account in Montalvan’s - “Fama Póstuma”; but Lope himself declares it distinctly in the - “Egloga á Claudio,” where he says, “The printed part of my - writings, though too much, is small, compared with what remains - unpublished.” (Obras Sueltas, Tom. IX. p. 369.) Indeed, we - know we have hardly a fourth part of his full-length plays; - only twelve _autos_ out of four hundred; only twenty or thirty - _entremeses_ out of the “infinite number” ascribed to him. - -In the time of Lope de Vega, the passion for such improvisation had -risen higher than it ever rose before, if it had not spread out more -widely. Actors were expected sometimes to improvisate on themes given -to them by the audience.[458] Extemporaneous dramas, with all the -varieties of verse demanded by a taste formed in the theatres, were -not of rare occurrence. Philip the Fourth, Lope’s patron, had such -performed in his presence, and bore a part in them himself.[459] And -the famous Count de Lemos, the viceroy of Naples, to whom Cervantes -was indebted for so much kindness, kept, as an _apanage_ to his -viceroyalty, a poetical court, of which the two Argensolas were the -chief ornaments, and in which extemporaneous plays were acted with -brilliant success.[460] - - [458] Bisbe y Vidal, “Tratado de Comedias,” (1618, f. 102), - speaks of the “glosses which the actors make extempore upon lines - given to them on the stage.” - - [459] Viardot, Études sur la Littérature en Espagne, Paris, 1835, - 8vo, p. 339. - - [460] Pellicer, Biblioteca de Traductores Españoles, (Madrid, - 1778, 4to, Tom. I. pp. 89-91), in which there is a curious - narrative by Diego, Duke of Estrada, giving an account of one of - these entertainments, (a burlesque play on the story of Orpheus - and Eurydice), performed before the viceroy and his court. - -Lope de Vega’s talent was undoubtedly of near kindred to this genius -of improvisation, and produced its extraordinary results by a similar -process, and in the same spirit. He dictated verse, we are told, with -ease, more rapidly than an amanuensis could take it down;[461] and -wrote out an entire play in two days, which could with difficulty be -transcribed by a copyist in the same time. He was not absolutely an -improvisator, for his education and position naturally led him to -devote himself to written composition, but he was continually on the -borders of whatever belongs to an improvisator’s peculiar province; he -was continually showing, in his merits and defects, in his ease, grace, -and sudden resource, in his wildness and extravagance, in the happiness -of his versification and the prodigal abundance of his imagery, that a -very little more freedom, a very little more indulgence given to his -feelings and his fancy, would have made him at once and entirely, not -only an improvisator, but the most remarkable one that ever lived. - - [461] Obras Sueltas, Tom. XX. pp. 51, 52. - - - - -CHAPTER XIX. - -QUEVEDO.--HIS LIFE, PUBLIC SERVICE, AND PERSECUTIONS.--HIS WORKS, -PUBLISHED AND UNPUBLISHED.--HIS POETRY.--THE BACHILLER FRANCISCO DE LA -TORRE.--HIS PROSE WORKS, RELIGIOUS AND DIDACTIC.--HIS PAUL THE SHARPER, -PROSE SATIRES, AND VISIONS.--HIS CHARACTER. - - -Francisco Gomez de Quevedo y Villegas, the contemporary of both Lope de -Vega and Cervantes, was born at Madrid, in 1580.[462] His family came -from that mountainous region at the northwest, to which, like other -Spaniards, he was well pleased to trace his origin;[463] but his father -held an office of some dignity at the court of Philip the Second, -which led to his residence in the capital at the period of his son’s -birth;--a circumstance which was no doubt favorable to the development -of the young man’s talents. But whatever were his opportunities, we -know, that, when he was only fifteen years old, he was graduated in -theology at the University of Alcalá, where he not only made himself -master of such of the ancient and modern languages as would be most -useful to him, but extended his studies into the civil and canon -law, mathematics, medicine, politics, and other still more various -branches of knowledge, showing that he was thus early possessed with -the ambition of becoming a universal scholar. His accumulations, in -fact, were vast, as the learning scattered through his works plainly -proves, and bear witness, not less to his extreme industry than to his -extraordinary natural endowments. - - [462] A diffuse life of Quevedo was published at Madrid in 1663, - by Don Pablo Antonio de Tarsia, a Neapolitan, and is inserted in - the tenth volume of the best edition of Quevedo’s Works,--that - of Sancha, Madrid, 1791-94, 11 tom., 8vo. A shorter, and, on the - whole, a more satisfactory, life of him is to be found in Baena, - Hijos de Madrid, Tom. II. pp. 137-154. - - [463] In his “Grandes Anales de Quince Dias,” speaking of the - powerful President Acevedo, he says, “I was unwelcome to him, - because, coming myself from the mountains, I never flattered the - ambition he had to make himself out to be above men to whom we, - in our own homes, acknowledge no superiors.” Obras, Tom. XI. p. - 63. - -On his return to Madrid, he seems to have been associated both with -the distinguished scholars and with the fashionable cavaliers of -the time; and an adventure, in which, as a man of honor, he found -himself accidentally involved, had wellnigh proved fatal to his better -aspirations. A woman of respectable appearance, while at her devotions -in one of the parish churches of Madrid, during Holy Week, was grossly -insulted in his presence. He defended her, though both parties were -quite unknown to him. A duel followed on the spot; and, at its -conclusion, it was found he had killed a person of rank. He fled, of -course, and, taking refuge in Sicily, was invited to the splendid court -then held there by the Duke of Ossuna, viceroy of Philip the Third, and -was soon afterwards employed in important affairs of state,--sometimes, -as we are told by his nephew, in such as required personal courage and -involved danger to his life. - -At the conclusion of the Duke of Ossuna’s administration of Sicily, -Quevedo was sent, in 1615, to Madrid, as a sort of plenipotentiary -to confirm to the crown all past grants of revenue from the island, -and to offer still further subsidies. So welcome a messenger was not -ungraciously received. His former offence was overlooked; a pension of -four hundred ducats was given him; and he returned, in great honor, -to the Duke, his patron, who was already transferred to the more -important and agreeable viceroyalty of Naples. - -Quevedo now became minister of finance at Naples, and fulfilled the -duties of his place so skilfully and honestly, that, without increasing -the burdens of the people, he added to the revenues of the state. An -important negotiation with Rome was also intrusted to his management; -and in 1617 he was again in Madrid, and stood before the king with -such favor, that he was made a knight of the Order of Santiago. On his -return to Naples, or, at least, during the nine years he was absent -from Spain, he made treaties with Venice and Savoy, as well as with -the Pope, and was almost constantly occupied in difficult and delicate -affairs connected with the administration of the Duke of Ossuna. - -But in 1620 all this was changed. The Duke fell from power, and those -who had been his ministers shared his fate. Quevedo was exiled to -his patrimonial estate of Torre de Juan Abad, where he endured an -imprisonment or detention of three years and a half; and then was -released without trial and without having had any definite offence laid -to his charge. He was, however, cured of all desire for public honors -or royal favor. He refused the place of Secretary of State, and that -of Ambassador to Genoa, both of which were offered him, accepting the -merely titular rank of Secretary to the King. He, in fact, was now -determined to give himself to letters; and did so for the rest of his -life. - -In 1634, he was married; but his wife soon died, and left him to -contend alone with the troubles of life that still pursued him. In -1639, some satirical verses were placed under the king’s napkin at -dinner-time; and, without proper inquiry, they were attributed to -Quevedo. In consequence of this he was seized, late at night, with -great suddenness and secrecy, in the palace of the Duke of Medina-Cœli, -and thrown into rigorous confinement in the royal convent of San Márcos -de Leon. There, in a damp and unwholesome cell, his health was soon -broken down by diseases from which he never recovered; and the little -that remained to him of his property was wasted away till he was -obliged to depend on charity for support. With all these cruelties the -unprincipled favorite of the time, the Count Duke Olivares, seems to -have been connected; and the anger they naturally excited in the mind -of Quevedo may well account for two papers against that minister which -have generally been attributed to him, and which are full of personal -severity and bitterness.[464] A heart-rending letter, too, which, when -he had been nearly two years in prison, he wrote to Olivares, should be -taken into the account, in which he in vain appeals to his persecutor’s -sense of justice, telling him, in his despair, “No clemency can add -many years to my life; no rigor can take many away.”[465] At last, -the hour of the favorite’s disgrace arrived; and, amidst the jubilee -of Madrid, he was driven into exile. The release of Quevedo followed -as a matter of course, since it was already admitted that another had -written the verses[466] for which he had been punished by above four -years of the most unjust suffering. - - [464] The first is the very curious paper entitled “Caida de su - Privanza y Muerte del Conde Duque de Olivares,” in the Seminario - Erudito (Madrid, 1787, 4to, Tom. III.); and the other is - “Memorial de Don F. Quevedo contra el Conde Duque de Olivares,” - in the same collection, Tom. XV. - - [465] This letter, often reprinted, is in Mayans y Siscar, - “Cartas Morales,” etc., Valencia, 1773, 12mo, Tom. I. p. 151. - Another letter to his friend Adan de la Parra, giving an account - of his mode of life during his confinement, shows that he was - extremely industrious. Indeed, industry was his main resource a - large part of the time he was in San Márcos de Leon. Seminario - Erudito, Tom. I. p. 65. - - [466] Sedano, Parnaso Español, Tom. IV. p. xxxi. - -But justice came too late. Quevedo remained, indeed, a little time at -Madrid, among his friends, endeavouring to recover some of his lost -property; but failing in this, and unable to subsist in the capital, -he retired to the mountains from which his race had descended. His -infirmities, however, accompanied him wherever he went; his spirits -sunk under his trials and sorrows; and he died, wearied out with life, -in 1645.[467] - - [467] His nephew, in a Preface to the second volume of his - uncle’s Poems, (published at Madrid, 1670, 4to), says that - Quevedo died of two imposthumes on his chest, which were formed - during his last imprisonment. - -Quevedo sought success, as a man of letters, in a great number of -departments,--from theology and metaphysics down to stories of vulgar -life and Gypsy ballads. But many of his manuscripts were taken from -him when his papers were twice seized by the government, and many -others seem to have been accidentally lost in the course of a life -full of change and adventure. In consequence of this, his friend -Antonio de Tarsia tells us that the greater part of his works could -not be published; and we know that many are still to be found in his -own handwriting, both in the National Library of Madrid and in other -collections, public and private.[468] Those already printed fill eleven -considerable volumes, eight of prose and three of poetry; leaving us -probably little to regret concerning the fate of the rest, unless, -perhaps, it be the loss of his dramas, of which two are said to have -been represented with applause at Madrid, during his lifetime.[469] - - [468] Obras, Tom. X. p. 45, and N. Antonio, Bib. Nova, Tom. I. - p. 463. A considerable amount of his miscellaneous works may be - found in the Seminario Erudito, Tom. I., III., VI., and XV. - - [469] Besides these dramas, whose names are unknown to us, he - wrote, in conjunction with Ant. Hurtado de Mendoza, and at the - command of the Count Duke Olivares, who afterwards treated him so - cruelly, a play called “Quien mas miente, medra mas,”--_He that - lies most, will rise most_,--for the gorgeous entertainment that - prodigal minister gave to Philip IV. on St. John’s eve, 1631. See - the account of it in the notice of Lope de Vega, _ante_, p. 185, - and _post_, p. 324, note 21. - -Of his poetry, so far as we know, he himself published nothing with his -name, except such as occurs in his poor translations from Epictetus and -Phocylides; but in the tasteful and curious collection of his friend -Pedro de Espinosa, called “Flowers of Illustrious Poets,” printed when -Quevedo was only twenty-five years old, a few of his minor poems are to -be found. This was, probably, his first appearance as an author; and -it is worthy of notice, that, taken together, these few poems announce -much of his future poetical character, and that two or three of them, -like the one beginning, - - A wight of might - Is Don Money, the knight,[470] - - [470] - Poderoso cavallero - Es Don Dinero, etc. - - is in Pedro Espinosa, “Flores de Poetas Ilustres,” Madrid, 1605, - 4to, f. 18. - -are among his happy efforts. But though he himself published scarcely -any of them, the amount of his verses found after his death is -represented to have been very great; much greater, we are assured, than -could be discovered among his papers a few years later,[471]--probably -because, just before he died, “he denounced,” as we are told, “all his -works to the Holy Tribunal of the Inquisition, in order that the parts -less becoming a modest reserve might be reduced, _as they were_, to -just measure by serious and prudent reflection.”[472] - - [471] “Not the twentieth part was saved of the verses which many - persons knew to have been extant at the time of his death, and - which, during our constant intercourse, I had countless times - held in my hands,” says Gonzalez de Salas, in the Preface to the - first part of Quevedo’s Poems, 1648. - - [472] Preface to Tom. VII. of Obras. His request on his - death-bed, that nearly all his works, printed or manuscript, - might be suppressed, is triumphantly recorded in the Index - Expurgatorius of 1667, p. 425. - -Such of his poetry as was easily found was, however, published;--the -first part by his friend Gonzalez de Salas, in 1648, and the rest, in -a most careless and crude manner, by his nephew, Pedro Alderete, in -1670, under the conceited title of “The Spanish Parnassus, divided -into its Two Summits, with the Nine Castilian Muses.” The collection -itself is very miscellaneous, and it is not always easy to determine -why the particular pieces of which it is composed were assigned rather -to the protection of one Muse than of another. In general, they are -short. Sonnets and ballads are far more numerous than any thing else; -though _canciones_, odes, elegies, epistles, satires of all kinds, -idyls, _quintillas_, and _redondillas_ are in great abundance. There -are, besides, four _entremeses_ of little value, and the fragment of a -poem on the subject of Orlando Furioso, intended to be in the manner of -Berni, but running too much into caricature. - -The longest of the nine divisions is that which passes under the name -and authority of Thalia, the goddess who presided over rustic wit, as -well as over comedy. Indeed, the more prominent characteristics of the -whole collection are a broad, grotesque humor, and a satire sometimes -marked with imitations of the ancients, especially of Juvenal and -Persius, but oftener overrun with puns, and crowded with conceits and -allusions, not easily understood at the time they first appeared, and -now quite unintelligible.[473] His burlesque sonnets, in imitation of -the Italian poems of that class, are the best in the language, and -have a bitterness rarely found in company with so much wit. Some of -his lighter ballads, too, are to be placed in the very first rank, and -fifteen that he wrote in the wild dialect of the Gypsies have been -ever since the delight of the lower classes of his countrymen, and -are still, or were lately, to be heard, among their other popular -poetry, sung to the guitars of the peasants and the soldiery throughout -Spain.[474] In regular satire he has generally followed the path -trodden by Juvenal; and, in the instances of his complaint “Against the -existing Manners of the Castilians,” and “The Dangers of Marriage,” has -proved himself a bold and successful disciple.[475] Some of his amatory -poems, and some of those on religious subjects, especially when they -are in a melancholy tone, are full of beauty and tenderness;[476] and -once or twice, when most didactic, he is no less powerful than grave -and lofty.[477] - - [473] “Los equívocos y las alusiones suyas,” says his editor, in - 1648, “son tan frequentes y multiplicados, aquellos y estas, ansí - en un solo verso y aun en una palabra, que es bien infalible que - mucho número sin advertirse se haya de perder.” Obras, Tom. VII., - Elogios, etc. - - [474] They are at the end of the seventh volume of the Obras, - and also in Hidalgo, “Romances de Germania” (Madrid, 1779, 12mo, - pp. 226-295). Of the lighter ballads in good Castilian, we may - notice, especially, “Padre Adan, no lloreis duelos,” (Tom. VIII. - p. 187), and “Dijo á la rana el mosquito,” Tom. VII. p. 514. - - [475] Obras, Tom. VII. pp. 192-200, and VIII. pp. 533-550. The - last is somewhat coarse, though not so bad as its model in this - respect. - - [476] See the _cancion_ (Tom. VII. p. 323) beginning, “Pues quita - al año Primavera el ceño”; also some of the poems in the “Erato” - to the lady he calls Fili, who seems to have been more loved by - him than any other. - - [477] Particularly in “The Dream,” (Tom. IX. p. 296), and in the - “Hymn to the Stars,” p. 338. - -His chief fault--besides the indecency of some of his poetry, and the -obscurity and extravagance that pervade yet more of it--is the use of -words and phrases that are low and essentially unpoetical. This, as far -as we can now judge, was the result partly of haste and carelessness, -and partly of a false theory. He sought for strength, and he became -affected and rude. But we should not judge him too severely. He wrote -a great deal, and with extraordinary facility, but refused to print; -professing his intention to correct and prepare his poems for the press -when he should have more leisure and a less anxious mind. That time, -however, never came. We should, therefore, rather wonder that we find -in his works so many passages of the purest and most brilliant wit and -poetry, than complain that they are scattered through so very large a -mass of what is idle, unsatisfactory, and sometimes unintelligible. - -Once, and once only, Quevedo published a small volume of poetry, which -has been supposed to be his own, though not originally appearing as -such. The occasion was worthy of his genius, and his success was equal -to the occasion. For some time, Spanish literature had been overrun -with a species of affectation resembling the euphuism that prevailed in -England a little earlier. It passed under the name of _cultismo_, or -the polite style; and when we come to speak of its more distinguished -votaries, we shall have occasion fully to explain its characteristic -extravagances. At present, it is enough to say, that, in Quevedo’s -time, this fashionable fanaticism was at the height of its folly; and -that, perceiving its absurdity, he launched against it the shafts of -his unsparing ridicule, in several shorter pieces of poetry, as well -as in a trifle called “A Compass for the Polite to steer by,” and in a -prose satire called “A Catechism of Phrases to teach Ladies how to talk -Latinized Spanish.”[478] - - [478] There are several poems about _cultismo_, Obras, Tom. VIII. - pp. 82, etc. The “Aguja de Navegar Cultos” is in Tom. I. p. 443; - and immediately following it is the Catechism, whose whimsical - title I have abridged somewhat freely. - -But finding the disease deeply fixed in the national taste, and -models of a purer style of poetry wanting to resist it, he printed, -in 1631,--the same year in which, for the same purpose, he published -a collection of the poetry of Luis de Leon,--a small volume which he -announced as “Poems by the Bachiller Francisco de la Torre,”--a person -of whom he professed, in his Preface, to know nothing, except that he -had accidentally found his manuscripts in the hands of a bookseller, -with the Approbation of Alonso de Ercilla attached to them; and that -he supposed him to be the ancient Spanish poet referred to by Boscan -nearly a hundred years before. But this little volume is a work of no -small consequence. It contains sonnets, odes, _canciones_, elegies, and -eclogues; many of them written with antique grace and simplicity, and -all in a style of thought easy and natural, and in a versification of -great exactness and harmony. It is, in short, one of the best volumes -of miscellaneous poems in the Spanish language.[479] - - [479] Perhaps there is a little too much of the imitation of - Petrarch and of the Italians in the Poems of the Bachiller de la - Torre; but they are, I think, not only graceful and beautiful, - but generally full of the national tone, and of a tender spirit, - connected with a sincere love of nature and natural scenery. I - would instance the ode, “Alexis que contraria,” in the edition of - Velazquez (p. 17), and the truly Horatian ode (p. 44) beginning, - “O tres y quatro veces venturosa,” with the description of - the dawn of day, and the sonnet to Spring (p. 12). The first - eclogue, too, and all the _endechas_, which are in the most - flowing Adonian verse, should not be overlooked. Sometimes he has - unrhymed lyrics, in the ancient measures, not always successful, - but seldom without beauty. - -No suspicion seems to have been whispered, either at the moment of -their first publication, or for a long time afterwards, that these -poems were the productions of any other than the unknown personage -whose name appeared on their title-page. In 1753, however, a second -edition of them was published by Velazquez, the author of the -“Essay on Spanish Poetry,” claiming them to be entirely the work of -Quevedo;[480]--a claim which has been frequently noticed since, some -admitting and some denying it, but none, in any instance, fairly -discussing the grounds on which it is placed by Velazquez, or settling -their validity.[481] - - [480] “Poesías que publicó D. Francisco de Quevedo Villegas, - Cavallero del Órden de Santiago, Señor de la Torre de Juan Abad, - con el nombre del Bachiller Francisco de la Torre. Añadese en - esta segunda edicion un Discurso, en que se descubre ser el - verdadero autor el mismo D. Francisco de Quevedo, por D. Luis - Joseph Velazquez,” etc. Madrid, 1753, 4to. - - [481] Quintana denies it in the Preface to his “Poesías - Castellanas” (Madrid, 1807, 12mo, Tom. I. p. xxxix.). So does - Fernandez (or Estala for him), in his Collection of “Poesías - Castellanas” (Madrid, 1808, 12mo, Tom. IV. p. 40); and, what - is of more significance, so does Wolf, in the Jahrbücher der - Literatur, Wien, 1835, Tom. LXIX. p. 189. On the other side are - Baena, in his Life of Quevedo; Sedano, in his “Parnaso Español”; - Luzan, in his “Poética”; and Bouterwek, in his History. Martinez - de la Rosa and Faber seem unable to decide. But none of them - gives any reasons. I have in the text, and in the subsequent - notes, stated the case as fully as seems needful, and have no - doubt that Quevedo was the author, or that he knew and concealed - the author. - -The question certainly is among the more curious of those that involve -literary authorship; but it can hardly be brought to an absolute -decision. The argument, that the poems thus published by Quevedo are -really the work of an unknown Bachiller de la Torre, is founded, -first, on the alleged approbation of them by Ercilla,[482] which, -though referred to by Valdivielso, as well as by Quevedo, has never -been printed; and, secondly, on the fact, that, in their general tone, -they are unlike the recognized poetry of Quevedo, being all on grave -subjects and in a severely simple and pure style, whereas he himself -not unfrequently runs into the affected style he undoubtedly intended -by this work to counteract and condemn. - - [482] We know, concerning the conclusion of Ercilla’s life, - only that he died as early as 1595; thirty-six years before the - publication of the Bachelor, and when Quevedo was only fifteen - years old. - -On the other hand, it may be alleged, that the pretended Bachiller -de la Torre is clearly not the Bachiller de la Torre referred to by -Boscan and Quevedo, who lived in the time of Ferdinand and Isabella, -and whose rude verses are found in the old Cancioneros from 1511 to -1573;[483] that, on the contrary, the forms of the poems published by -Quevedo, their tone, their thoughts, their imitations of Petrarch and -of the ancients, their versification, and their language,--except a few -antiquated words which could easily have been inserted,--all belong to -his own age; that among Quevedo’s recognized poems are some, at least, -which prove he was capable of writing any one among those attributed to -the Bachiller de la Torre; and finally, that the name of the Bachiller -Francisco de la Torre is merely an ingenious disguise of his own, since -he was himself a Bachelor at Alcalá, had been baptized Francisco, and -was the owner of Torre de la Abad, in which he sometimes resided, and -which was twice the place of his exile.[484] - - [483] It is even doubtful who this Bachiller de la Torre of - Boscan was. Velazquez (Pref., v.) thinks it was probably _Alonso_ - de la Torre, author of the “Vision Deleytable,” (circa 1465), of - which we have spoken, Vol. I. p. 417; and Baena (Hijos de Madrid, - Tom. IV. p. 169) thinks it may perhaps have been _Pedro Diaz_ de - la Torre, who died in 1504, one of the counsellors of Ferdinand - and Isabella. But, in either case, the name does not correspond - with that of Quevedo’s Bachiller _Francisco_ de la Torre any - better than the style, thoughts, and forms of the few poems which - may be found in the Cancionero of 1573, at ff. 124-127, etc., do - with those published by Quevedo. - - [484] He was exiled there in 1628, for six months, as well as - imprisoned there in 1620. Obras, Tom. X. p. 88. - -There is, therefore, no doubt, a mystery about the whole matter which -will probably never be cleared up; and we can now come to only one -of two conclusions:--either that the poems in question are the work -of some contemporary and friend of Quevedo, whose name he knew and -concealed; or that they were selected by himself out of the great mass -of his own unpublished manuscripts, choosing such as would be least -likely to betray their origin, and most likely, by their exact finish -and good taste, to rebuke the folly of the affected and fashionable -poetry of his time. But whoever may be their author, one thing is -certain,--they are not unworthy the genius of any poet belonging to the -brilliant age in which they appeared.[485] - - [485] It is among the suspicious circumstances accompanying the - first publication of the Bachiller de la Torre’s works, that one - of the two persons who give the required _Aprobaciones_ is Vander - Hammen, who played the sort of trick upon the public of which - Quevedo is accused; a vision he wrote being, to this day, printed - as Quevedo’s own, in Quevedo’s works. The other person who gives - an _Aprobacion_ to the Bachiller de la Torre is Valdivielso, a - critic of the seventeenth century, whose name often occurs in - this way; whose authority on such points is small; and who does - not say that he ever _saw_ the manuscript or the Approbation of - Ercilla. See, for Vander Hammen, _post_, p. 273. - -Quevedo’s principal works, however,--those on which his reputation -mainly rests, both at home and abroad,--are in prose. The more grave -will hardly come under our cognizance. They consist of a treatise on -the Providence of God, including an essay on the Immortality of the -Soul; a treatise addressed to Philip the Fourth, singularly called -“God’s Politics and Christ’s Government,” in which he endeavours to -collect a complete body of political philosophy from the example -of the Saviour; treatises on a Holy Life and on the Militant Life -of a Christian; and biographies of Saint Paul and Saint Thomas of -Villanueva. These, with translations of Epictetus and the false -Phocylides, of Anacreon, of Seneca “De Remediis utriusque Fortunæ,” -of Plutarch’s “Marcus Brutus,” and other similar works, seem to have -been chiefly produced by his sufferings, and to have constituted the -occupation of his weary hours during his different imprisonments. -As their titles indicate, they belong to theology and metaphysics -rather than to elegant literature. They, however, sometimes show the -spirit and the style that mark his serious poetry;--the same love of -brilliancy, and the same extravagance and hyperbole, with occasional -didactic passages full of dignity and eloquence. Their learning is -generally abundant, but it is, at the same time, often very pedantic -and cumbersome.[486] - - [486] These works, chiefly theological, metaphysical, and - ascetic, fill more than six of the eleven octavo volumes that - constitute Quevedo’s works in the edition of 1791-94, and belong - to the class of didactic prose. - -Not so his prose satires. By these he is remembered and will always -be remembered throughout the world. The longest of them, called “The -History and Life of the Great Sharper, Paul of Segovia,” was first -printed in 1627. It belongs to the style of fiction invented by -Mendoza, in his “Lazarillo,” and has most of the characteristics of its -class; showing, notwithstanding the evident haste and carelessness with -which it was written, more talent and spirit than any of them, except -its prototype. Like the rest, it sets forth the life of an adventurer, -cowardly, insolent, and full of resources, who begins in the lowest and -most infamous ranks of society, but, unlike most others of his class, -never fairly rises above his original condition; for all his ingenuity, -wit, and spirit only enable him to struggle up, as it were by accident, -to some brilliant success, from which he is immediately precipitated -by the discovery of his true character. Parts of it are very coarse. -Once or twice it becomes--at least, according to the notions of the -Romish Church--blasphemous. And almost always it is of the nature of a -caricature, overrun with conceits, puns, and a reckless, fierce humor. -But everywhere it teems with wit and the most cruel sarcasm against -all orders and conditions of society. Some of its love adventures are -excellent. Many of the disasters it records are extremely ludicrous. -But there is nothing genial in it; and it is hardly possible to read -even its scenes of frolic and riot at the University, or those among -the gay rogues of the capital or the gayer vagabonds of a strolling -company of actors, with any thing like real satisfaction. It is a -satire too hard, coarse, and unrelenting to be amusing.[487] - - [487] Watt, in his Bibliotheca, art. _Quevedo_, cites an edition - of “El Gran Tacaño,” at Zaragoza, 1626; but I do not find it - mentioned elsewhere. I know of none earlier than that of 1627. - Since that time, it has appeared in the original in a great - number of editions, both at home and abroad. Into Italian it was - translated by P. Franco, as early as 1634; into French by Genest, - the well-known translator of that period, as early as 1644; and - into English, anonymously, as early as 1657. Many other versions - have been made since;--the last, known to me, being one of Paris, - 1843, 8vo, by A. Germond de Lavigne. His translation is made with - spirit; but, besides that he has thrust into it passages from - other works of Quevedo, and a story by Salas Barbadillo, he has - made a multitude of petty additions, alterations, and omissions; - some desirable, perhaps, from the indecency of the original, - others not; and winds off the whole with a conclusion of his own, - which savors of the sentimental and extravagant school of Victor - Hugo. There is, also, a translation of it into English, in a - collection of some of Quevedo’s works, printed at Edinburgh, in 3 - vols., 8vo, 1798; and a German translation in Bertuch’s Magazin - der Spanischen und Portug. Litteratur (Dessau, 1781, 8vo, Band - II.). But neither of them is to be commended for its fidelity. - -This, too, is the character of most of his other prose satires, which -were chiefly written, or at least published, nearly at the same period -of his life;--the interval between his two great imprisonments, when -the first had roused up all his indignation against a condition of -society which could permit such intolerable injustice as he had -suffered, and before the crushing severity of the last had broken down -alike his health and his courage. Among them are the treatise “On all -Things and many more,”--an attack on pretension and cant; “The Tale of -Tales,” which is in ridicule of the too frequent use of proverbs; and -“Time’s Proclamation,” which is apparently directed against whatever -came uppermost in its author’s thoughts when he was writing it. These, -however, with several more of the same sort, may be passed over to -speak of a few better known and of more importance.[488] - - [488] They are in Vols. I. and II. of the edition of his Works, - Madrid, 1791, 8vo. - -The first is called the “Letters of the Knight of the Forceps,” and -consists of two-and-twenty notes of a miser to his lady-love, refusing -all her applications and hints for money, or for amusements that -involve the slightest expense. Nothing can exceed their dexterity, or -the ingenuity and wit that seem anxious to defend and vindicate the -mean vice, which, after all, they are only making so much the more -ridiculous and odious.[489] - - [489] The “Cartas del Cavallero de la Tenaza” were first printed, - I believe, in 1635; and there is a very good translation of them - in Band I. of the Magazin of Bertuch, an active man of letters, - the friend of Musäus, Wieland, and Goethe, who, by translations - and in other ways, did much, between 1769 and 1790, to promote a - love for Spanish literature in Germany. - -The next is called “Fortune no Fool, and the Hour of All”;--a long -apologue, in which Jupiter, surrounded by the deities of Heaven, -calls Fortune to account for her gross injustice in the affairs of -the world; and, having received from her a defence no less spirited -than amusing, determines to try the experiment, for a single hour, -of apportioning to every human being exactly what he deserves. The -substance of the fiction, therefore, is an exhibition of the scenes of -intolerable confusion which this single hour brings into the affairs of -the world; turning a physician instantly into an executioner; marrying -a match-maker to the ugly phantom she was endeavouring to pass off -upon another; and, in the larger concerns of nations, like France and -Muscovy, introducing such violence and uproar, that, at last, by the -decision of Jupiter and with the consent of all, the empire of Fortune -is restored, and things are allowed to go on as they always had done. -Many parts of it are written in the gayest spirit, and show a great -happiness of invention; but, from the absence of much of Quevedo’s -accustomed bitterness, it may be suspected, that, though it was not -printed till several years after his death, it was probably written -before either of his imprisonments.[490] - - [490] I know of no edition of “La Fortuna con Seso” earlier than - one I possess, printed at Zaragoza, 1650, 12mo; and as N. Antonio - declares this satire to have been a posthumous work, I suppose - there is none older. It is there said to be translated from the - Latin of Rifroscrancot Viveque Vasgel Duacense; an imperfect - anagram of Quevedo’s own name, Francisco Quevedo Villegas. - -But what is wanting of severity in this whimsical fiction is fully made -up in his Visions, six or seven in number, some of which seem to have -been published separately soon after his first persecution, and all of -them in 1635.[491] Nothing can well be more free and miscellaneous than -their subjects and contents. One, called “El Alguazil alguazilado,” -or The Catchpole Caught, is a satire on the inferior officers of -justice, one of whom being possessed, the demon complains bitterly -of his disgrace in being sent to inhabit the body of a creature so -infamous. Another, called “Visita de los Chistes,” A Visit in Jest, is -a visit to the empire of Death, who comes sweeping in surrounded by -physicians, surgeons, and especially a great crowd of idle talkers and -slanderers, and leads them all to a sight of the infernal regions, with -which Quevedo at once declares he is already familiar, in the crimes -and follies to which he has long been accustomed on earth. But a more -distinct idea of his free and bold manner will probably be obtained -from the opening of his “Dream of Skulls,” or “Dream of the Judgment,” -than from any enumeration of the subjects and contents of his Visions; -especially since, in this instance, it is a specimen of that mixture of -the solemn and the ludicrous in which he so much delighted. - - [491] One of these _Sueños_ is dated as early as 1608,--the - “Zahurdas de Pluton”; but none, I think, was printed earlier than - 1627; and all the six that are certainly by Quevedo were first - printed together in a small collection of his satirical works - that appeared at Barcelona, in 1635, entitled “Juguetes de la - Fortuna.” They were translated into French by Genest, and printed - in 1641. Into English they were very freely rendered by Sir - Roger L’Estrange, and published in 1668 with such success, that - the tenth edition of them was printed at London in 1708, 8vo, - and I believe there was yet one more. This is the basis of the - translations of the Visions found in Quevedo’s Works, Edinburgh, - 1798, Vol. I., and in Roscoe’s Novelists, 1832, Vol. II. All the - translations I have seen are bad. The best is that of L’Estrange, - or at least the most spirited; but still L’Estrange is not always - faithful when he knew the meaning, and he is sometimes unfaithful - from ignorance. Indeed, the great popularity of his translations - was probably owing, in some degree, to the additions he boldly - made to his text, and the frequent accommodations he hazarded - of its jests to the scandal and taste of his times by allusions - entirely English and local. - -“Methought I saw,” he says, “a fair youth borne with prodigious speed -through the heavens, who gave a blast to his trumpet so violent, that -the radiant beauty of his countenance was in part disfigured by it. -But the sound was of such power, that it found obedience in marble and -hearing among the dead; for the whole earth began straightway to move, -and to give free permission to the bones it contained to come forth -in search of each other. And thereupon I presently saw those who had -been soldiers and captains start fiercely from their graves, thinking -it a signal for battle; and misers coming forth, full of anxiety and -alarm, dreading some onslaught; while those who were given to vanity -and feasting thought, from the shrillness of the sound, that it was a -call to the dance or the chase. At least, so I interpreted the looks -of each of them, as they started forth; nor did I see one, to whose -ears the sound of that trumpet came, who understood it to be what it -really was. Soon, however, I noted the way in which certain souls fled -from their former bodies; some with loathing, and others with fear. -In one an arm was missing, in another an eye; and while I was moved -to laughter as I saw the varieties of their appearance, I was filled -with wonder at the wise providence which prevented any one of them, -all shuffled together as they were, from putting on the legs or other -limbs of his neighbours. In one grave-yard alone I thought that there -was some changing of heads, and I saw a notary whose soul did not quite -suit him, and who wanted to get rid of it by declaring it to be none of -his. - -“But when it was fairly understood of all that this was the Day of -Judgment, it was worth seeing how the voluptuous tried to avoid -having their eyes found for them, that they need not bring into court -witnesses against themselves,--how the malicious tried to avoid their -own tongues, and how robbers and assassins seemed willing to wear -out their feet in running away from their hands. And turning partly -round, I saw one miser asking another, (who, having been embalmed and -his bowels left at a distance, was waiting silently till they should -arrive), whether, because the dead were to rise that day, certain -money-bags of his must also rise. I should have laughed heartily at -this, if I had not, on the other side, pitied the eagerness with -which a great rout of notaries rushed by, flying from their own ears, -in order to avoid hearing what awaited them, though none succeeded -in escaping, except those who in this world had lost their ears as -thieves, which, owing to the neglect of justice, was by no means the -majority. But what I most wondered at was, to see the bodies of two or -three shop-keepers, that had put on their souls wrong side out, and -crowded all five of their senses under the nails of their right hands.” - -The “Casa de los Locos de Amor,” the Lovers’ Mad-house,--which is -placed among Quevedo’s Visions, though it is the work of his friend -Lorenzo Vander Hammen, to whom it is dedicated,--lacks, no doubt, the -freedom and force which characterize the Vision of the Judgment.[492] -But this is a remark that can by no means be extended to the Vision of -“Las Zahurdas de Pluton,” Pluto’s Pigsties, which is a show of what -may be called the rabble of Pandemonium; “El Mundo por de Dentro,” The -World Inside Out; and “El Entremetido, la Dueña, y el Soplon,” The -Busy-body, the Duenna, and the Informer;--all of which are full of the -most truculent sarcasm, recklessly cast about, by one to whom the world -had not been a friend, nor the world’s law. - - [492] The six unquestioned _Sueños_ are in Tom. I. of the Madrid - edition of Quevedo, 1791. The “Casa de los Locos de Amor” is in - Tom. II.; and as N. Antonio (Bib. Nov., I. 462, and II. 10) says - Vander Hammen, a Spanish author of Flemish descent, _told him_ - that he wrote it himself, we are bound to take it from the proper - list of Quevedo’s works. - -In these Visions, as well as in nearly all that Quevedo wrote, much is -to be found that indicates a bold, original, and independent spirit. -His age and the circumstances amidst which he was placed have, however, -left their traces both on his poetry and on his prose. Thus, his long -residence in Italy is seen in his frequent imitations of the Italian -poets, and once, at least, in the composition of an original Italian -sonnet;[493]--his cruel sufferings during his different persecutions -are apparent in the bitterness of his invectives everywhere, and -especially in one of his Visions, dated from his prison, against -the administration of justice and the order of society;--while the -influence of the false taste of his times, which, in some of its forms, -he manfully resisted, is yet no less apparent in others, and persecutes -him with a perpetual desire to be brilliant, to say something quaint -or startling, and to be pointed and epigrammatic. But over these, -and over all his other defects, his genius from time to time rises, -and reveals itself with great power. He has not, indeed, that sure -perception of the ridiculous which leads Cervantes, as if by instinct, -to the exact measure of satirical retribution; but he perceives quickly -and strongly; and though he often errs, from the exaggeration and -coarseness to which he so much tended, yet, even in the passages where -these faults most occur, we often find touches of a solemn and tender -beauty, that show he had higher powers and better qualities than his -extraordinary wit, and add to the effect of the whole, though without -reconciling us to the broad and gross farce that is too often mingled -with his satire.[494] - - [493] Obras, Tom. VII. p. 289. - - [494] A violent attack was made on Quevedo, ten years before his - death, in a volume entitled “El Tribunal de la Justa Venganza,” - printed at Valencia, 1635, 12mo, pp. 294, and said to be written - by the Licenciado Arnaldo Franco-Furt; probably a pseudonyme. It - is thrown into the form of a trial, before regular judges, of the - satirical works of Quevedo then published; and, except when the - religious prejudices of the author prevail over his judgment, - is not more severe than Quevedo’s license merited. No honor, - however, is done to his genius or his wit; and personal malice - seems apparent in many parts of it. - - In 1794, Sancha printed, at Madrid, a translation of Anacreon, - with notes by Quevedo, making 160 pages, but not numbering them - as a part of the eleventh volume, 8vo, of Quevedo’s Works, which - he completed that year. They are more in the terse and classical - manner of the Bachiller de la Torre than the same number of pages - anywhere among Quevedo’s acknowledged works; but the translation - is not very strict, and the spirit of the original is not so well - caught as it is by Estévan Manuel de Villegas, whose “Eróticas” - will be noticed hereafter. The version of Quevedo is dedicated to - the Duke of Ossuna, his patron, Madrid, 1st April, 1609. Villegas - did not publish till 1617; but it is not likely that he knew any - thing of the labors of Quevedo. - - - - -CHAPTER XX. - -THE DRAMA.--MADRID AND ITS THEATRES.--DAMIAN DE VEGAS.--FRANCISCO -DE TARREGA.--GASPAR DE AGUILAR.--GUILLEN DE CASTRO.--LUIS VÉLEZ DE -GUEVARA.--JUAN PEREZ DE MONTALVAN. - - -The want of a great capital, as a common centre for letters and -literary men, was long felt in Spain. Until the time of Ferdinand and -Isabella, the country, broken into separate kingdoms and occupied -by continual conflicts with a hated enemy, had no leisure for the -projects that belong to a period of peace; and even later, when there -was tranquillity at home, the foreign wars and engrossing interests of -Charles the Fifth in Italy, Germany, and the Netherlands led him so -much abroad, that there was still little tendency to settle the rival -claims of the great cities; and the court resided occasionally in each -of them, as it had from the time of Saint Ferdinand. But already it -was plain that the preponderance which for a time had been enjoyed -by Seville was gone. Castile had prevailed in this, as it had in the -greater contest for giving a language to the country; and Madrid, which -had been a favorite residence of the Emperor, because he thought its -climate dealt gently with his infirmities, began, from 1560, under the -arrangements of Philip the Second, to be regarded as the real capital -of the whole monarchy.[495] - - [495] Quintana, Historia de Madrid, 1630, folio, Lib. III., c. - 24-26. Cabrera, Historia de Felipe II., Madrid, 1619, folio, Lib. - V., c. 9; where he says Charles V. had intended to make Madrid - his capital. - -On no department of Spanish literature did this circumstance produce -so considerable an influence as it did on the drama. In 1583, the -foundations for the two regular theatres that have continued such -ever since were already laid; and from about 1590, Lope de Vega, if -not the absolute monarch of the stage that Cervantes describes him -to have been, was, at least, its controlling spirit. The natural -consequences followed. Under the influence of the nobility, who -thronged to the royal residence, and led by the example of one of the -most popular writers and men that ever lived, the Spanish theatre -rose like an exhalation; and a school of poets--many of whom had -hastened from Seville, Valencia, and other parts of the country, and -thus extinguished the hopes of an independent drama in the cities -they deserted--was collected around him in the new capital, until the -dramatic writers of Madrid became suddenly more numerous, and in many -respects more remarkable, than any other similar body of poets in -modern times. - -The period of this transition of the drama is well marked by a single -provincial play, the “Comedia Jacobina,” printed at Toledo in 1590, -but written, as its author intimates, some years earlier. It was the -work of Damian de Vegas, an ecclesiastic of that city, and is on the -subject of the blessing of Jacob by Isaac. Its structure is simple, and -its action direct and unembarrassed. As it is religious throughout, -it belongs, in this respect, to the elder school of the drama; but, -on the other hand, as it is divided into three acts, has a prologue -and epilogue, a chorus, and much lyrical poetry in various measures, -including the _terza rima_ and blank verse, it is not unlike what was -attempted about the same time, on the secular stage, by Cervantes and -Argensola. Though uninteresting in its plot, and dry and hard in its -versification, it is not wholly without poetical merit; but we have no -proof that it ever was acted in Madrid, or, indeed, that it was known -on the stage beyond the limits of Toledo; a city to which its author -was much attached, and where he seems always to have lived.[496] - - [496] The “Comedia Jacobina” is found in a curious and rare - volume of religious poetry, entitled “Libro de Poesía, - Christiana, Moral, y Divina,” por el Doctor Frey Damian de - Vegas (Toledo, 1590, 12mo, ff. 503). It contains a poem on - the Immaculate Conception, long the turning-point of Spanish - orthodoxy; a colloquy between the Soul, the Will, and the - Understanding, which may have been represented; and a great - amount of religious poetry, both lyric and didactic, much of it - in the old Spanish measures, and much in the Italian, but none - better than the mass of poor verse on such subjects then in favor. - -Whether Francisco de Tarrega, who can be traced from 1591 to 1608, was -one of those who early came from Valencia to Madrid as writers for the -theatre is uncertain. But we have proof that he was a canon of the -cathedral in the first-named city, and yet was well known in the new -capital, where his plays were acted and printed.[497] One of them is -important, because it shows the modes of representation in his time, -as well as the peculiarities of his own drama. It begins with a _loa_, -which in this case is truly a compliment, as its name implies; but -it is, at the same time, a witty and quaint ballad in praise of ugly -women. Then comes what is called a “Dance at Leganitos,”--a popular -resort in the suburbs of Madrid, which here gives its name to a rude -farce founded on a contest in the open street between two lackeys.[498] - - [497] It is ascertained that the Canon Tarrega lived at Valencia - in 1591, and wrote eleven plays, two of which are known only by - their titles. The rest were printed at Madrid in 1614, and again - in 1616. Cervantes praises him in the Preface to his Comedias, - 1615, among the early followers of Lope, for his _discrecion é - inumerables conceptos_. It is evident from the notice of the - “Enemiga Favorable,” by the wise canon in Don Quixote, that it - was then regarded as the best of its author’s plays, as it has - been ever since. Rodriguez, Biblioteca Valentina, Valencia, 1747, - folio, p. 146. Ximeno, Escritores de Valencia, Valencia, 1747, - Tom. I. p. 240. Fuster, Biblioteca Valentina, Valencia, 1827, - folio, Tom. I. p. 310. Don Quixote, Parte I., c. 48. - - [498] This farce, much like an _entremes_ or _saynete_ of modern - times, is a quarrel between two lackeys for a damsel of their - own condition, which ends with one of them being half drowned by - the other in a public fountain. It winds up with a ballad older - than itself; for it alludes to a street as being about to be - constructed through Leganitos, while one of the personages in - the farce speaks of the street as already there. The fountain is - appropriately introduced, for Leganitos was famous for it. (See - Cervantes, Ilustre Fregona, and D. Quixote, Parte II., c. 22, - with the note of Pellicer.) Such little circumstances abound in - the popular portions of the old Spanish drama, and added much to - its effect at the time it appeared. - -After the audience have thus been put in good-humor, we have the -principal play, called “The Well-disposed Enemy”; a wild, but not -uninteresting, heroic drama, of which the scene is laid at the court -of Naples, and the plot turns on the jealousy of the Neapolitan king -and queen. Some attempt is made to compress the action within probable -limits of time and space; but the character of Laura--at first in -love with the king and exciting him to poison the queen, and at last -coming out in disguise as an armed champion to defend the same queen -when she is in danger of being put to death on a false accusation of -infidelity--destroys all regularity of movement, and is a blemish that -extends through the whole piece. Parts of it, however, are spirited, -like the opening,--a scene full of life and nature,--where the court -rush in from a bull-fight, that had been suddenly broken up by the -personal danger of the king; and parts of it are poetical, like -the first interview between Laura and Belisardo, whom she finally -marries.[499] But the impression left by the whole is, that, though the -path opened by Lope de Vega is the one that is followed, it is followed -with footsteps ill-assured and a somewhat uncertain purpose. - - [499] The “Enemiga Favorable” is divided into three _jornadas_ - called _actos_, and shows otherwise that it was constructed on - the model of Lope’s dramas. But Tarrega wrote also at least one - religious play, “The Foundation of the Order of Mercy.” It is the - story of a great robber who becomes a great saint, and may have - suggested to Calderon his “Devocion de la Cruz.” - -Gaspar de Aguilar was, as Lope tells us, the rival of Tarrega.[500] -He was secretary to the Viscount Chelva, and afterwards major-domo to -the Duke of Gandia, one of the most prominent noblemen at the court of -Philip the Third. But an allegorical poem which Aguilar wrote, in honor -of his last patron’s marriage, found so little favor, that its unhappy -author, discouraged and repulsed, died of mortification. He lived, as -Tarrega probably did, both in Valencia and in Madrid, and wrote several -minor poems, besides one of some length on the expulsion of the Moors -from Spain, which was printed in 1610. The last date we have relating -to his unfortunate career is 1623. - - [500] Laurel de Apolo, (Madrid, 1630, 4to, f. 21), where Lope - says, speaking of Tarrega, “Gaspar Aguilar _competia_ con él en - la dramática poesía.” - -Of the nine or ten plays he published, only two can claim our notice. -The first is “The Merchant Lover,” praised by Cervantes, who, like -Lope de Vega, mentions Aguilar more than once with respect. It is the -story of a rich merchant, who pretends to have lost his fortune in -order to see whether either of two ladies to whose favor he aspires -loved him for his own sake rather than for that of his money; and he -finally marries the one who, on this hard trial, proves herself to be -disinterested. It is preceded by a _prólogo_, or _loa_, which in this -case is a mere jesting tale; and it ends with six stanzas, sung for the -amusement of the audience, about a man who, having tried unsuccessfully -many vocations, and, among the rest, those of fencing-master, poet, -actor, and tapster, threatens, in despair, to enlist for the wars. -Neither the beginning nor the end, therefore, has any thing to do with -the subject of the play itself, which is written in a spirited style, -but sometimes shows bad taste and extravagance, and sometimes runs into -conceits. - -One character is happily hit,--that of the lady who loses the rich -merchant by her selfishness. When he first tells her of his pretended -loss of fortune, and seems to bear it with courage and equanimity, she -goes out saying,-- - - Heaven save me from a husband such as this, - Who finds himself so easily consoled! - Why, he would be as gay, if it were _me_ - That he had lost, and not his money! - -And again, in the second act, where she finally rejects him, she says, -in the same jesting spirit,-- - - Would you, Sir, see that you are not a man,-- - Since all that ever made you one is gone,-- - (The figure that remains availing but - To bear the empty name that marked you once),-- - Go and proclaim aloud your loss, my friend, - And then inquire of your own memory - What has become of you, and where you are; - And you will learn, at once, that you are not - The man to whom I lately gave my heart.[501] - - [501] - Dios me guarde de hombre - Que tan pronto se consuela, - Que lo mismo hará de mí. - - Mercader Amante, Jorn. I. - - Quieres ver que no eres hombre, - Pues el ser tuyo has perdido; - Y que de aquello que has sido, - No te queda sino el nombre? - Haz luego un alarde aquí - De tu perdida notoria; - Toma cuenta á tu memoria; - Pide á tí mismo por tí, - Verás que no eres aquel - A quien dí mi corazon. - - Ibid., Jorn. II. - -What, perhaps, is most remarkable about this drama is, that the unity -of place is observed, and possibly the unity of time; a circumstance -which shows that the freedom of the Spanish stage from such restraints -was not yet universally acknowledged. - -Quite different from this, however, is “The Unforeseen Fortune”; a -play which, if it have only one action, has one whose scene is laid at -Saragossa, at Valencia, and along the road between these two cities, -while the events it relates fill up several years. The hero, just at -the moment he is married by proxy in Valencia, is accidentally injured -in the streets of Saragossa, and carried into the house of a stranger, -where he falls in love with the fair sister of the owner, and is -threatened with instant death by her brother, if he does not marry her. -He yields to the threat. They are married and set out for Valencia. -On the way, he confesses his unhappy position to his bride, and very -coolly proposes to adjust all his difficulties by putting her to death. -From this, however, he is turned aside, and they arrive in Valencia, -where she serves him, from blind affection, as a voluntary slave; even -taking care of a child that is borne to him by his Valencian wife. - -Other absurdities follow. At last, she is driven to declare publicly -who she is. Her ungrateful husband then attempts to kill her, and -thinks he has succeeded. He is arrested for the supposed murder; but at -the same instant her brother arrives, and claims his right to single -combat with the offender. Nobody will serve as the base seducer’s -second. At the last moment, the injured lady herself, supposed till -then to be dead, appears in the lists, disguised in complete armour, -not to protect her guilty husband, but to vindicate her own honor and -prowess. Ferdinand, the king, who presides over the combat, interferes; -and the strange show ends by her marriage to a former lover, who -has hardly been seen at all on the stage,--a truly “Unforeseen -Fortune,”--which gives its name to the ill-constructed drama. - -The poetry, though not absolutely good, is better than the action. It -is generally in flowing _quintillas_, or stanzas of five short lines -each, but not without long portions in the old ballad-measure. The -scene of an entertainment on the sea-shore near Valencia, where all -the parties meet for the first time, is good. So are portions of the -last act. But, in general, the whole play abounds in conceits and puns, -and is poor. It opens with a _loa_, whose object is to assert the -universal empire of man; and it ends with an address to the audience -from King Ferdinand, in which he declares that nothing can give him so -much pleasure as the settlement of all these troubles of the lovers, -except the conquest of Granada. Both are grotesquely inappropriate.[502] - - [502] The accounts of Aguilar are found in Rodriguez, pp. 148, - 149, and in Ximeno, Tom. I. p. 255, who, as is often the case, - has done little but arrange in better order the materials - collected by Rodriguez. Aguilar’s nine plays are in collections - printed at Valencia in 1614 and 1616, mingled with the plays - of other poets. A copy of the “Suerte sin Esperanza” which I - possess, without date or paging, seems older. - -Better known than either of the last authors is another Valencian poet, -Guillen de Castro, who, like them, was respected at home, but sought -his fortunes in the capital. He was born of a noble family, in 1567, -and seems to have been early distinguished, in his native city, as a -man of letters; for, in 1591, he was a member of the _Nocturnos_, one -of the most successful of the fantastic associations established in -Spain, in imitation of the _Academias_ that had been for some time -fashionable in Italy. His literary tendencies were further cultivated -at the meetings of this society, where he found among his associates -Tarrega, Aguilar, and Artieda.[503] - - [503] In the note of Cerdá y Rico to the “Diana” of Gil Polo, - 1802, pp. 515-519, is an account of this Academy, and a list of - its members. - -His life, however, was not wholly devoted to letters. At one time, -he was a captain of cavalry; at another, he stood in such favor with -Benavente, the munificent viceroy of Naples, that he had a place -of consequence intrusted to his government; and at Madrid he was -so well received, that the Duke of Ossuna gave him an annuity of -nearly a thousand crowns, to which the reigning favorite, the Count -Duke Olivares, added a royal pension. But his unequal humor, his -discontented spirit, and his hard obstinacy ruined his fortunes, and -he was soon obliged to write for a living. Cervantes speaks of him, -in 1615, as among the popular authors for the theatre, and in 1620 -he assisted Lope at the festival of the canonization of San Isidro, -wrote several of the pieces that were exhibited, and gained one of the -prizes. Six years later, he was still earning a painful subsistence as -a dramatic writer; and in 1631 he died so poor, that he was buried by -charity.[504] - - [504] Rodriguez, p. 177; Ximeno, Tom. I. p. 305; Fuster, Tom. I. - p. 235. The last is important on this subject. - -Very few of his works have been published, except his plays. Of these -we have twenty-seven or twenty-eight, printed between 1614 and 1625. -They belong decidedly to the school of Lope, between whom and Guillen -de Castro there was a friendship, which can be traced back, by the -Dedication of one of Lope’s plays and by several passages in his -miscellaneous works, to the period of Lope’s exile to Valencia; while, -on the side of Guillen de Castro, a similar testimony is borne to the -same kindly regard by a volume of his own plays addressed to Marcela, -Lope’s favorite daughter. - -The marks of Guillen de Castro’s personal condition, and of the age in -which he lived and wrote, are no less distinct in his dramas than the -marks of his poetical allegiance. His “Mismatches in Valencia” seems as -if its story might have been constructed out of facts within the poet’s -own knowledge. It is a series of love intrigues, like those in Lope’s -plays, and ends with the dissolution of two marriages by the influence -of a lady, who, disguised as a page, lives in the same house with -her lover and his wife, but whose machinations are at last exposed, -and she herself driven to the usual resort of entering a convent. His -“Don Quixote,” on the other hand, is taken from the First Part of -Cervantes’s romance, then as fresh as any Valencian tale. The loves of -Dorothea and Fernando, and the madness of Cardenio, form the materials -for its principal plot; and the _dénouement_ is the transportation of -the knight, in a cage, to his own house, by the curate and barber, -just as he is carried home by them in the romance;--parts of the story -being slightly altered to give it a more dramatic turn, though the -language of the original fiction is often retained, and the obligations -to it are fully recognized. Both of these dramas are written chiefly -in the old _redondillas_, with a careful versification; but there is -little poetical invention in either of them, and the first act of the -“Mismatches in Valencia” is disfigured by a game of wits, fashionable, -no doubt, in society at the time, but one that gives occasion, in the -play, to nothing but a series of poor tricks and puns.[505] - - [505] Both these plays are in the first volume of his Comedias, - printed in 1614; but I have the Don Quixote in a separate - pamphlet, without paging or date, and with rude wood-cuts, such - as belong to the oldest Spanish publications of the sort. The - first time Don Quixote appears in it, the stage direction is, - “Enter Don Quixote on Rozinante, dressed as he is described in - his book.” The _redondillas_ in this drama, regarded as mere - verses, are excellent; e. g. Cardenio’s lamentations at the end - of the first act:-- - - Donde me llevan los pies - Sin la vida? El seso pierdo; - Pero como seré cuerdo - Si fué traydor el Marques? - - Que cordura, que concierto, - Tendré yo, si estoy sin mí? - Sin ser, sin alma y sin tí? - Ay, Lucinda, que me has muerto!-- - - and so on. Guerin de Bouscal, one of a considerable number of - French dramatists (see Puybusque, Tom. II. p. 441) who resorted - freely to Spanish sources between 1630 and 1650, brought this - drama of Guillen on the French stage in 1638. - -Very unlike them, though no less characteristic of the times, is -his “Mercy and Justice”; the shocking story of a prince of Hungary -condemned to death by his father for the most atrocious crimes, but -rescued from punishment by the multitude, because his loyalty has -survived the wreck of all his other principles, and led him to refuse -the throne offered to him by rebellion. It is written in a greater -variety of measures than either of the dramas just mentioned, and shows -more freedom of style and movement; relying chiefly for success on the -story, and on that sense of loyalty which, though originally a great -virtue in the relations of the Spanish kings and their people, was now -become so exaggerated, that it was undermining much of what was most -valuable in the national character.[506] - - [506] It is in the second volume of Guillen’s plays; but it is - also in the “Flor de las Mejores Doce Comedias,” etc., Madrid, - 1652. - -“Santa Bárbara, or the Mountain Miracle and Heaven’s Martyr,” belongs, -again, to another division of the popular drama as settled by Lope de -Vega. It is one of those plays where human and Divine love, in tones -too much resembling each other, are exhibited in their strongest -light, and, like the rest of its class, was no doubt a result of the -severe legislation in relation to the theatre at that period, and of -the influence of the clergy on which that legislation was founded. The -scene is laid in Nicomedia, in the third century, when it was still a -crime to profess Christianity; and the story is that of Saint Barbara, -according to the legend that represents her to have been a contemporary -of Origen, who, in fact, appears on the stage as one of the principal -personages. At the opening of the drama, the heroine declares that she -is already, in her heart, attached to the new sect; and at the end, she -is its triumphant martyr, carrying with her, in a public profession of -its faith, not only her lover, but all the leading men of her native -city. - -One of the scenes of this play is particularly in the spirit and faith -of the age when it was written; and was afterwards imitated by Calderon -in his “Wonder-working Magician.” The lady is represented as confined -by her father in a tower, where, in solitude, she gives herself up -to Christian meditations. Suddenly the arch-enemy of the human race -presents himself before her, in the dress of a fashionable Spanish -gallant. He gives an account of his adventures in a fanciful allegory, -but does not so effectually conceal the truth that she fails to suspect -who he is. In the mean time, her father and her lover enter. To her -father the mysterious gallant is quite invisible, but he is plainly -seen by the lover, whose jealousy is thus excited to the highest -degree; and the first act ends with the confusion and reproaches which -such a state of things necessarily brings on, and with the persuasion -of the father that the lover may be fit for a mad-house, but would make -a very poor husband for his gentle daughter.[507] - - [507] This _comedia de santo_ does not appear in the collection - of Guillen’s plays; but my copy of it (Madrid, 1729) attributes - it to him, and so does the Catalogue of Huerta; besides which, - the internal evidence from its versification and manner is strong - for its genuineness. The passages in which the lady speaks of - Christ as her lover and spouse are, like all such passages in the - old Spanish drama, offensive to Protestant ears. - -The most important of the plays of Guillen de Castro are two which he -wrote on the subject of Rodrigo the Cid,--“Las Mocedades del Cid,” -The Youth, or Youthful Adventures, of the Cid;--both founded on the -old ballads of the country, which, as we know from Santos, as well as -in other ways, continued long after the time of Castro to be sung in -the streets.[508] The first of these two dramas embraces the earlier -portion of the hero’s life. It opens with a solemn scene of his arming -as a knight, and with the insult immediately afterwards offered to -his aged father at the royal council-board; and then goes on with the -trial of the spirit and courage of Rodrigo, and the death of the proud -Count Lozano, who had outraged the venerable old man by a blow on the -cheek;--all according to the traditions in the old chronicles. - - [508] Fr. Santos, “El Verdad en el Potro, y el Cid resuscitado,” - (Madrid, 1686, 12mo), contains (pp. 9, 10, 51, 106, etc.) ballads - on the Cid, as he says they were _then_ sung in the streets by - the blind beggars. The same or similar statements are made by - Sarmiento, nearly a century later. - -Now, however, comes the dramatic part of the action, which was so -happily invented by Guillen de Castro. Ximena, the daughter of Count -Lozano, is represented in the drama as already attached to the young -knight; and a contest, therefore, arises between her sense of what she -owes to the memory of her father and what she may yield to her own -affection; a contest that continues through the whole of the play, -and constitutes its chief interest. She comes, indeed, at once to the -king, full of a passionate grief, that struggles with success, for a -moment, against the dictates of her heart, and claims the punishment -of her lover according to the ancient laws of the realm. He escapes, -however, in consequence of the prodigious victories he gains over the -Moors, who, at the moment when these events occurred, were assaulting -the city. Subsequently, by the contrivance of false news of the Cid’s -death, a confession of her love is extorted from her; and at last her -full consent to marry him is obtained, partly by Divine intimations, -and partly by the natural progress of her admiration and attachment -during a series of exploits achieved in her honor and in defence of her -king and country. - -This drama of Guillen de Castro has become better known throughout -Europe than any other of his works; not only because it is the best of -them all, but because Corneille, who was his contemporary, made it -the basis of his own brilliant tragedy of “The Cid”; a drama which did -more than any other to determine for two centuries the character of the -theatre all over the continent of Europe. But though Corneille--not -unmindful of the angry discussions carried on about the unities, under -the influence of Cardinal Richelieu--has made alterations in the action -of his play, which are fortunate and judicious, still he has relied, -for its main interest, on that contest between the duties and the -affections of the heroine which was first imagined by Guillen de Castro. - -Nor has he shown in this exhibition more spirit or power than his -Spanish predecessor. Indeed, sometimes he has fallen into considerable -errors, which are wholly his own. By compressing the time of the action -within twenty-four hours, instead of suffering it to extend through -many months, as it does in the original, he is guilty of the absurdity -of overcoming Ximena’s natural feelings in relation to the person who -had killed her father, while her father’s dead body is still before her -eyes. By changing the scene of the quarrel, which in Guillen occurs -in presence of the king, he has made it less grave and natural. By a -mistake in chronology, he establishes the Spanish court at Seville -two centuries before that city was wrested from the Moors. And by -a general straitening of the action within the conventional limits -which were then beginning to bind down the French stage, he has, it -is true, avoided the extravagance of introducing, as Guillen does, -so incongruous an episode out of the old ballads as the miracle of -Saint Lazarus; but he has hindered the free and easy movement of the -incidents, and diminished their general effect. - -Guillen, on the contrary, by taking the traditions of his country just -as he found them, instantly conciliated the good-will of his audience, -and at the same time imparted the freshness of the old ballad spirit -to his action, and gave to it throughout a strong national air and -coloring. Thus, the scene in the royal council, where the father of -the Cid is struck by the haughty Count Lozano, several of the scenes -between the Cid and Ximena, and several between both of them and the -king, are managed with great dramatic skill and a genuine poetical -fervor. - -The following passage, where the Cid’s father is waiting for him in the -evening twilight at the place appointed for their meeting after the -duel, is as characteristic, if not as striking, as any in the drama, -and is superior to the corresponding passage in the French play, which -occurs in the fifth and sixth scenes of the third act. - - The timid ewe bleats not so mournfully, - Its shepherd lost, nor cries the angry lion - With such a fierceness for its stolen young, - As I for Roderic.--My son! my son! - Each shade I pass, amid the closing night, - Seems still to wear thy form and mock my arms! - O, why, why comes he not? I gave the sign,-- - I marked the spot,--and yet he is not here! - Has he neglected? Can he disobey? - It may not be! A thousand terrors seize me. - Perhaps some injury or accident - Has made him turn aside his hastening step;-- - Perhaps he may be slain, or hurt, or seized. - The very thought freezes my breaking heart. - O holy Heaven, how many ways for fear - Can grief find out!--But hark! What do I hear? - Is it his footstep? Can it be? O, no! - I am not worthy such a happiness! - ’T is but the echo of my grief I hear.-- - But hark again! Methinks there comes a gallop - On the flinty stones. He springs from off his steed! - Is there such happiness vouchsafed to me? - Is it my son? - - _The Cid._ My father? - - _The Father._ May I truly - Trust myself, my child? O, am I, am I, then, - Once more within thine arms? Then let me thus - Compose myself, that I may honor thee - As greatly as thou hast deserved. But why - Hast thou delayed? And yet, since thou art here, - Why should I weary thee with questioning?-- - O, bravely hast thou borne thyself, my son; - Hast bravely stood the proof; hast vindicated well - Mine ancient name and strength; and well hast paid - The debt of life which thou receivedst from me. - Come near to me, my son. Touch the white hairs - Whose honor thou hast saved from infamy, - And kiss, in love, the cheek whose stain thy valor - Hath in blood washed out.--My son! my son! - The pride within my soul is humbled now, - And bows before the power that has preserved - From shame the race so many kings have owned - And honored.[509] - - [509] - - _Diego._ No la ovejuela su pastor perdido, - Ni el leon que sus hijos le han quitado, - Balo quejosa, ni bramo ofendido, - Como yo por Rodrigo. Ay, hijo amado! - Voy abrazando sombras descompuesto - Entre la oscura noche que ha cerrado. - Díle la seña, y señaléle el puesto, - Donde acudiese, en sucediendo el caso. - Si me habrá sido inobediente en esto? - Pero no puede ser; mil penas paso! - Algun inconveniente le habrá hecho, - Mudando la opinion, torcer el paso. - Que helada sangre me rebienta el pecho! - Si es muerto, herido, ó preso? Ay, Cielo santo! - Y quantas cosas de pesar sospecho! - Que siento? es él? mas no meresco tanto. - Será que corresponden á mis males - Los ecos de mi voz y de mi llanto. - Pero entre aquellos secos pedregales - Vuelvo á oir el galope de un caballo. - De él se apea Rodrigo! hay dichas tales? - - _Sale Rodrigo._ - - Hijo? - - _Cid._ Padre? - - _Diego._ Es posible que me hallo - Entre tus brazos? Hijo, aliento tomo - Para en tus alabanzas empleallo. - Como tardaste tanto? pues de plomo - Te puso mi deseo; y pues veniste, - No he de cansarte pregando el como. - Bravamente probaste! bien lo hiciste! - Bien mis pasados brios imitaste! - Bien me pagaste el ser que me debiste! - Toca las blancas canas que me honraste, - Llega la tierna boca á la mexilla - Donde la mancha de mi honor quitaste! - Soberbia el alma á tu valor se humilla, - Como conservador de la nobleza, - Que ha honrado tantos Reyes en Castilla. - - Mocedades del Cid, Primera Parte, Jorn. II. - -The Second Part, which gives the adventures of the siege of Zamora, the -assassination of King Sancho beneath its walls, and the defiance and -duels that were the consequence, is not equal in merit to the First -Part. Portions of it, such as some of the circumstances attending the -death of the king, are quite incapable of dramatic representation, so -gross and revolting are they; but even here, as well as in the more -fortunate passages, Guillen has faithfully followed the popular belief -concerning the heroic age he represents, just as it had come down to -him, and has thus given to his scenes a life and reality that could -hardly have been given by any thing else. - -Indeed, it is a great charm of this drama, that the popular traditions -everywhere break through so picturesquely, imparting to it their -peculiar tone and character. Thus, the insult offered to old Laynez in -the council; the complaints of Ximena to the king on the death of her -father, and the conduct of the Cid to herself; the story of the Leper; -the base treason of Bellido Dolfos; the reproaches of Queen Urraca from -the walls of the beleaguered city, and the defiance and duels that -follow,[510]--all are taken from the old ballads; often in their very -words, and generally in their fresh spirit and with their picture-like -details. The effect must have been great on a Castilian audience, -always sensible to the power of the old popular poetry, and always -stirred as with a battle-cry when the achievements of their earlier -national heroes were recalled to them.[511] - - [510] This impeachment of the honor of the whole city of Zamora, - for having harboured the murderer of King Sancho, fills a large - place in the “Crónica General,” (Parte IV.), in the “Crónica - del Cid,” and in the old ballads, and is called _El Reto de - Zamora_,--a form of challenge preserved in this play of Guillen, - and recognized as a legal form so far back as the Partida VII., - Tít. III., “De los Rieptos.” - - [511] The plays of Guillen on the Cid have often been reprinted, - though hardly one of his other dramas has been. Voltaire, in - his Preface to Corneille’s Cid, says Corneille took his hints - from Diamante. But the reverse is the case. Diamante wrote after - Corneille, and was indebted to him largely, as we shall see - hereafter. Lord Holland’s Life of Guillen, already referred to, - _ante_, p. 121, is interesting, though imperfect. - -In his other dramas we find traces of the same principles and the -same habits of theatrical composition that we have seen in those we -have already noticed. The “Impertinent Curiosity” is taken from the -tale which Cervantes originally printed in the First Part of his Don -Quixote. The “Count Alarcos,” and the “Count d’ Irlos,” are founded -on the fine old ballads that bear these names. And the “Wonders of -Babylon” is a religious play, in which the story of Susanna and -the Elders fills a space somewhat too large, and in which King -Nebuchadnezzar is introduced eating grass, like the beasts of the -field.[512] But everywhere there is shown a desire to satisfy the -demands of the national taste; and everywhere it is plain Guillen is -a follower of Lope de Vega, and is distinguished from his rivals more -by the sweetness of his versification than by any more prominent or -original attribute. - - [512] “Las Maravillas de Babilonia” is not in Guillen’s collected - dramas, and is not mentioned by Rodriguez or Fuster. But it is in - a volume entitled “Flor de las Mejores Doce Comedias,” Madrid, - 1652, 4to. - -Another of the early followers of Lope de Vega, and one recognized as -such at the time by Cervantes, is Luis Vélez de Guevara. He was born at -Ecija in Andalusia, in 1570, but seems to have lived almost entirely -at Madrid, where he died in 1644. Twelve years before his death, he is -said, on good authority, to have written already four hundred pieces -for the theatre; and as neither the public favor nor that of the court -seems to have deserted him during the rest of his long life, we may -feel assured that he was one of the most successful authors of his -time.[513] - - [513] Antonio, Bib. Nov., Tom. II. p. 68, and Montalvan, Para - Todos, in his catalogue of authors who wrote for the stage when - (in 1632) that catalogue was made out. Guevara will be noticed - again as the author of the “Diablo Cojuelo.” - -His plays, however, were never collected for publication, and few of -them have come down to us. One of those that have been preserved is -fortunately one of the best, if we are to judge of its relative rank -by the sensation it produced on its first appearance, or by the hold -it has since maintained on the national regard. Its subject is taken -from a well-known passage in the history of Sancho the Brave, when, -in 1293, the city of Tarifa, near Gibraltar, was besieged by that -king’s rebellious brother, Don John, at the head of a Moorish army, -and defended by Alonso Perez, chief of the great house of the Guzmans. -“And,” says the old Chronicle, “right well did he defend it. But the -Infante Don John had with him a young son of Alonso Perez, and sent and -warned him that he must either surrender that city, or else he would -put to death this child whom he had with him. And Don Alonso Perez -answered, that he held that city for the king, and that he could not -give it up; but that as for the death of his child, he would give him a -dagger wherewith to slay him; and so saying, he cast down a dagger from -the rampart in defiance, and added that it would be better he should -kill this son and yet five others, if he had them, than that he should -himself basely yield up a city of the king, his lord, for which he had -done homage. And the Infante Don John, in great fury, caused that child -to be put to death before him. But neither with all this could he take -the city.”[514] - - [514] Crónica de D. Sancho el Bravo, Valladolid, 1554, folio, f. - 76. - -Other accounts add to this atrocious story, that, after casting down -his dagger, Alonso Perez, smothering his grief, sat down to his -noon-day meal with his wife, and that, his people on the walls of the -city witnessing the death of the innocent child and bursting forth into -cries of horror and indignation, he rushed out, but, having heard what -was the cause of the disturbance, returned quietly again to the table, -saying only, “I thought, from their outcry, that the Moors had made -their way into the city.”[515] - - [515] Quintana, Vidas de Españoles Célebres, Tom. I., Madrid, - 1807, 12mo, p. 51, and the corresponding passage in the play. - Martinez de la Rosa, in his “Isabel de Solís,” describing a real - or an imaginary picture of the death of the young Guzman, gives a - tender turn to the father’s conduct; but the hard old chronicle - is more likely to tell the truth, and the play follows it. - -For thus sacrificing his other duties to his loyalty, in a way so well -fitted to excite the imagination of the age in which he lived, Guzman -received an appropriate addition to his armorial bearings, still seen -in the escutcheon of his family, and the surname of “El Bueno,”--the -Good, or the Faithful,--a title rarely forgotten in Spanish history, -whenever he is mentioned. - -This is the subject, and, in fact, the substance, of Guevara’s play, -“Mas pesa el Rey que la Sangre,” or King before Kin. A good deal of -skill, however, is shown in putting it into a dramatic form. Thus, -King Sancho, at the opening, is represented as treating his great -vassal, Perez de Guzman, with harshness and injustice, in order that -the faithful devotion of the vassal, at the end of the drama, may be -brought out with so much the more brilliant effect. And again, the -scene in which Guzman goes from the king in anger, but with perfect -submission to the royal authority; the scene between the father and the -son, in which they mutually sustain each other, by the persuasions of -duty and honor, to submit to any thing rather than give up the city; -and the closing scene, in which, after the siege has been abandoned, -Guzman offers the dead body of his child as a proof of his fidelity and -obedience to an unjust sovereign,--are worthy of a place in the best of -the earlier English tragedies, and not unlike some passages in Greene -and Webster. But it was as an expression of boundless loyalty--that -great virtue of the heroic times of Spain--that this drama won -universal admiration, and so became of consequence, not only in the -history of the national stage, but as an illustration of the national -character. Regarded in each of these points of view, it is one of the -most striking and solemn exhibitions of the modern theatre.[516] - - [516] The copy I use of this play was printed in 1745. Like most - of the other published dramas of Guevara, it has a good deal of - bombast, and some _Gongorism_. But a lofty tone runs through it, - that always found an echo in the Spanish character. - -In most of his other plays, Guevara deviated less from the beaten track -than he did in this deep tragedy. “The Diana of the Mountains,” for -instance, is a poetical picture of the loyalty, dignity, and passionate -force of character of the lower classes of the Spanish people, set -forth in the person of a bold and independent peasant, who marries -the beauty of his mountain region, but has the misfortune immediately -afterwards to find her pursued by the love of a man of rank, from whose -designs she is rescued by the frank and manly appeal of her husband to -Queen Isabella, the royal mistress of the offender.[517] “The Potter -of Ocaña,” too, which, like the last, is an intriguing drama, is quite -within the limits of its class;--and so is “Empire after Death,” a -tragedy full of a melancholy, idyl-like softness, which well harmonizes -with the fate of Inez de Castro, on whose sad story it is founded. - - [517] The “Luna de la Sierra” is the first play in the “Flor de - las Mejores Doce Comedias,” 1652. - -In Guevara’s religious dramas we have, as usual, the disturbing element -of love adventures, mingled with what ought to be most spiritual and -most separate from the dross of human passion. Thus, in his “Three -Divine Prodigies” we have the whole history of Saint Paul, who yet -first appears on the stage as a lover of Mary Magdalen; and in his -“Satan’s Court” we have a similar history of Jonah, who is announced -as a son of the widow of Sarepta, and lives at the court of Nineveh, -during the reign of Ninus and Semiramis, in the midst of atrocities -which it seems impossible could have been hinted at before any -respectable audience in Christendom. - -Once, indeed, Guevara stepped beyond the wide privileges granted to -the Spanish theatre; but his offence was not against the rules of the -drama, but against the authority of the Inquisition. In “The Lawsuit -of the Devil against the Curate of Madrilejos,” which he wrote with -Roxas and Mira de Mescua, he gives an account of the case of a poor mad -girl who was treated as a witch, and escaped death only by confessing -that she was full of demons, who are driven out of her on the stage, -before the audience, by conjurations and exorcisms. The story has every -appearance of being founded in fact, and is curious on account of the -strange details it involves. But the whole subject of witchcraft, its -exhibition and punishment, belonged exclusively to the Holy Office. The -drama of Guevara was, therefore, forbidden to be represented or read, -and soon disappeared quietly from public notice. Such cases, however, -are rare in the history of the Spanish theatre, at any period of its -existence.[518] - - [518] The plays last mentioned are found scattered in different - collections,--“The Devil’s Lawsuit” being in the volume just - cited, and “The Devil’s Court” in the twenty-eighth volume of - the Comedias Escogidas. My copy of the “Tres Portentos” is a - pamphlet without date. Fifteen of the plays of Guevara are in the - collection of Comedias Escogidas, to be noticed hereafter. - -The most strict, perhaps, of the followers of Lope de Vega was his -biographer and eulogist, Juan Perez de Montalvan. He was a son of the -king’s bookseller at Madrid, and was born in 1602.[519] At the age of -seventeen he was already a licentiate in theology and a successful -writer for the public stage, and at eighteen he contended with -the principal poets of the time at the festival of San Isidro at -Madrid, and gained, with Lope’s assent, one of the prizes that were -there offered.[520] Soon after this, he took the degree of Doctor in -Divinity, and, like his friend and master, joined a fraternity of -priests in Madrid, and received an office in the Inquisition. In 1626, -a princely merchant of Peru, with whom he was in no way connected, and -who had never even seen him, sent him, from the opposite side of the -world, a pension as his private chaplain to pray for him in Madrid; all -out of admiration for his genius and writings.[521] - - [519] Baena, Hijos de Madrid, Tom. III. p. 157;--a good life of - Montalvan. - - [520] Lope de Vega, Obras Sueltas, Tom. XI. pp. 501, 537, etc., - and Tom. XII. p. 424. - - [521] Para Todos, Alcalá, 1661, 4to, p. 428. - -In 1627, he published a small work on “The Life and Purgatory of Saint -Patrick”; a subject popular in his Church, and on which he now wrote, -probably, to satisfy the demands of his ecclesiastical position. But -his nature breaks forth, as it were, in spite of himself, and he has -added to the common legends of Saint Patrick a wild tale, wholly of his -own invention, and yet so interwoven with his principal subject as to -seem to be a part of it, and even to make equal claims on the faith of -the reader.[522] - - [522] It went through several editions as a book of - devotion,--the last I have seen being of 1739, 18mo. - -In 1632, he says he had composed thirty-six dramas and twelve -sacramental _autos_;[523] and in 1636, soon after Lope’s death, he -published the extravagant panegyric on him which has been already -noticed. This was probably the last work he gave to the press; for, -not long after it appeared, he became hopelessly deranged, from the -excess of his labors, and died on the 25th of June, 1638, when only -thirty-six years old. One of his friends showed the same pious care for -his memory which he had shown for that of his master; and, gathering -together short poems and other eulogies on him by above a hundred and -fifty of the known and unknown authors of his time, published them -under the title of “Panegyrical Tears on the Death of Doctor Juan Perez -de Montalvan”;--a poor collection, in which, though we meet the names -of Antonio de Solís, Gaspar de Avila, Tirso de Molina, Calderon, and -others of note, we find very few lines worthy either of their authors -or of their subject.[524] - - [523] Para Todos, 1661, p. 529, (prepared in 1632), where he - speaks also of a picaresque _novela_, “Vida de Malhagas,” and - other works, as ready for the press; but they have never been - printed. - - [524] “Lágrimas Panegiricas á la Temprana Muerte del Gran Poeta, - etc., J. Perez de Montalvan,” por Pedro Grande de Terra, Madrid, - 1639, 4to, ff. 164. Quevedo, Montalvan’s foe, is the only poet of - note whom I miss. - -Montalvan’s life was short, but it was brilliant. He early attached -himself to Lope de Vega with sincere affection, and continued to the -last the most devoted of his admirers; deserving in many ways the title -given him by Valdivielso,--“the first-born of Lope de Vega’s genius.” -Lope, on his side, was sensible to the homage thus frankly offered -him; and not only assisted and encouraged his youthful follower, but -received him almost as a member of his household and family. It has -even been said, that the “Orfeo”--a poem on the subject of Orpheus -and Eurydice, which Montalvan published in August, 1624, in rivalship -with one under the same title published by Jauregui in the June -preceding--was, in fact, the work of Lope himself, who was willing thus -to give his disciple an advantage over a formidable competitor. But -this is probably only the scandal of the next succeeding generation. -The poem itself, which fills about two hundred and thirty octave -stanzas, though as easy and spirited as if it were from Lope’s -hand, bears the marks rather of a young writer than of an old one; -besides which the verses prefixed to it by Lope, and especially his -extravagant praise of it when afterwards speaking of his own drama on -the same subject, render the suggestion that he wrote the work a grave -imputation on his character.[525] But however this may be, Montalvan -and Lope were, as we know from different passages in their works, -constantly together; and the faithful admiration of the disciple was -well returned by the kindness and patronage of the master. - - [525] “Orfeo en Lengua Castellana,” por J. P. de Montalvan, - Madrid, 1624, 4to. N. Ant., Bib. Nov., Tom. I. p. 757, and Lope - de Vega, Comedias, Tom. XX., Madrid, 1629, in the Preface to - which he says the Orfeo of Montalvan “contains whatever can - contribute to its perfection.” - -Montalvan’s chief success was on the stage, where his popularity was -so considerable, that the booksellers found it for their interest to -print under his name many plays that were none of his.[526] He himself -prepared for publication two complete volumes of his dramatic works, -which appeared in 1638 and 1639, and were reprinted in 1652; but -besides this, he had earlier inserted several plays in one of his works -of fiction, and printed many more in other ways, making in all about -sixty; the whole of which seem to have been published, as far as they -were published by himself, during the last seven years of his life.[527] - - [526] His complaints are as loud as Lope’s or Calderon’s, and - are to be found in the Preface to the first volume of his plays, - Alcalá, 1638, 4to, and in his “Para Todos,” 1661, p. 169. - - [527] The date of the first volume is 1639 on the title-page, but - 1638 at the end. - -If we take the first volume of his collection, which is more likely to -have received his careful revision than the last, and examine it, as -an illustration of his theories and style, we shall easily understand -the character of his drama. Six of the plays contained in it, or -one half of the whole number, are of the class of _capa y espada_, -and rely for their interest on some exhibition of jealousy, or some -intrigue involving the point of honor. They are generally, like the -one entitled “Fulfilment of Duty,” not skilfully put together, though -never uninteresting; and they all contain passages of poetical feeling, -injured in their effect by other passages, in which taste seems to -be set at defiance,--a remark particularly applicable to the play -called “What’s done can’t be helped.” Four of the remaining six are -historical. One of them is on the suppression of the Templars, which -Raynouard, referring to Montalvan, took as a subject for one of the -few successful French tragedies of the first half of the nineteenth -century. Another is on Sejanus, not as he is represented in Tacitus, -but as he appears in the “General Chronicle of Spain.” And yet another -is on Don John of Austria, which has no _dénouement_, except a sketch -of Don John’s life given by himself, and making out above three hundred -lines. A single play of the twelve is an extravagant specimen of the -dramas written to satisfy the requisitions of the Church, and is -founded on the legends relating to San Pedro de Alcántara.[528] - - [528] It should perhaps be added, that another religious play of - Montalvan, “El Divino Nazareno Sanson,” containing the history of - Samson from the contest with the lion to the pulling down of the - Philistine temple, is less offensive. - -The last drama in the volume, and the only one that has enjoyed a -permanent popularity and been acted and printed ever since it first -appeared, is the one called “The Lovers of Teruel.” It is founded on -a tradition, that, early in the thirteenth century, in the city of -Teruel, in Aragon, there lived two lovers, whose union was prevented by -the lady’s family, on the ground that the fortune of the cavalier was -not so considerable as they ought to claim for her. They, however, gave -him a certain number of years to achieve the position they required -of any one who aspired to her hand. He accepted the offer, and became -a soldier. His exploits were brilliant, but were long unnoticed. At -last he succeeded, and came home in 1217, with fame and fortune. But -he arrived too late. The lady had been reluctantly married to his -rival, the very night he reached Teruel. Desperate with grief and -disappointment, he followed her to the bridal chamber and fell dead at -her feet. The next day the lady was found, apparently asleep, on his -bier in the church, when the officiating priests came to perform the -funeral service. Both had died broken-hearted, and both were buried in -the same grave.[529] - - [529] I shall have occasion to recur to this subject when I - notice a long poem published on it by Yague de Salas, in 1616. - The story used by Montalvan is founded on a tradition already - employed for the stage, but with an awkward and somewhat coarse - plot, and a poor versification, by Andres Rey de Artieda, in his - “Amantes,” published in 1581, and by Tirso de Molina, in his - “Amantes de Teruel,” 1635. These two plays, however, had long - been forgotten, when an abstract of the first, and the whole of - the second, appeared in the fifth volume of Aribau’s “Biblioteca” - (Madrid, 1848); a volume which contains thirty-six well-selected - plays of Tirso de Molina, with valuable prefatory discussions - of his life and works. There can be no doubt, from a comparison - of the “Amantes de Teruel” of Tirso with that of Montalvan, - printed three years later, that Montalvan was largely indebted - to his predecessor; but he has added to his drama much that is - beautiful, and given to parts of it a tone of domestic tenderness - that, I doubt not, he drew from his own nature. Aribau, - Biblioteca de Autores Españoles, Tom. V. pp. xxxvii. and 690. - -A considerable excitement in relation to this story having arisen -in the youth of Montalvan, he seized the tradition on which it was -founded, and wrought it into a drama. His lovers are placed in the -time of Charles the Fifth, in order to connect them with that stirring -period of Spanish history. The first act begins with several scenes, -in which the difficulties and dangers of their situation are made -apparent, and Isabella, the heroine, expresses an attachment which, -after some anxiety and misgiving, becomes a passion so devoted that -it seems of itself to intimate their coming sorrows. Her father, -however, when he learns the truth, consents to their union; but on -condition that, within three years, the young man shall place himself -in a position worthy the claims of such a bride. Both of the lovers -willingly submit, and the act ends with hopes for their happiness. - -Nearly the whole of the limited period elapses before we begin the -second act, where we find the hero just landing in Africa for the -well-known assault on the Goleta at Tunis. He has achieved much, but -remains unnoticed and almost broken-hearted with long discouragement. -At this moment, he saves the Emperor’s life; but the next, he is -forgotten again in the rushing crowd. Still he perseveres, sternly -and heroically; and, led on by a passion stronger than death, is the -first to mount the walls of Tunis and enter the city. This time, his -merit is recognized. Even his forgotten achievements are recollected; -and he receives at once the accumulated reward of all his services and -sacrifices. - -But when the last act opens, we see that he is destined to a fatal -disappointment. Isabella, who has been artfully persuaded of his death, -is preparing, with sinister forebodings, to fulfil her promise to her -father and marry another. The ceremony takes place,--the guests are -about to depart,--and her lover stands before her. A heart-rending -explanation ensues, and she leaves him, as she thinks, for the last -time. But he follows her to her apartment; and in the agony of his -grief falls dead, while he yet expostulates and struggles with himself -no less than with her. A moment afterwards her husband enters. She -explains to him the scene he witnesses, and, unable any longer to -sustain the cruel conflict, faints and dies broken-hearted on the body -of her lover. - -Like nearly all the other pieces of the same class, there is much in -the “Lovers of Teruel” to offend us. The inevitable part of the comic -servant is peculiarly unwelcome; and so are the long speeches, and the -occasionally inflated style. But notwithstanding its blemishes, we -feel that it is written in the true spirit of tragedy. As the story -was believed to be authentic when it was first acted, it produced -the more deep effect; and whether true or not, being a tale of the -simple sorrows of two young and loving hearts, whose dark fate is -the result of no crime on their part, it can never be read or acted -without exciting a sincere interest. Parts of it have a more familiar -and domestic character than we are accustomed to find on the Spanish -stage, particularly the scene where Isabella sits with her women at -her wearisome embroidery, during her lover’s absence; the scene of her -discouragement and misgiving just before her marriage; and portions of -the scene of horror with which the drama closes. - -The two lovers are drawn with no little skill. Our interest in them -never falters; and their characters are so set forth and developed, -that the dreadful catastrophe is no surprise. It comes rather like the -foreseen and irresistible fate of the old Greek tragedy, whose dark -shadow is cast over the whole action from its opening. - -When Montalvan took historical subjects, he endeavoured, oftener than -his contemporaries, to observe historical truth. In two dramas on the -life of Don Cárlos, he has introduced that prince substantially in the -colors he must at last wear, as an ungoverned madman, dangerous to -his family and to the state; and if, in obedience to the persuasions -of his time, the poet has represented Philip the Second as more noble -and generous than we can regard him to have been, he has not failed to -seize and exhibit in a striking manner the severe wariness and wisdom -that were such prominent attributes in that monarch’s character.[530] -Don John of Austria, too, and Henry the Fourth of France, are happily -depicted and fairly sustained in the plays in which they respectively -appear as leading personages.[531] - - [530] “El Principe Don Carlos” is the first play in the - twenty-eighth volume of the Comedias Escogidas, 1667, and gives - an account of the miraculous cure of the Prince from an attack of - insanity; the other, entitled “El Segundo Seneca de España,” is - the first play in his “Para Todos,” and ends with the marriage of - the king to Anne of Austria, and the appointment of Don John as - generalissimo of the League. - - [531] Henry IV. is in “El Mariscal de Viron”; Don John in the - play that bears his name. - -Montalvan’s _autos_, of which only two or three remain to us, are not -to be spoken of in the same manner. His “Polyphemus,” for instance, -in which the Saviour and a Christian Church are introduced on one -side of the stage, while the principal Cyclops himself comes in as -an allegorical representation of Judaism on the other, is as wild -and extravagant as any thing in the Spanish drama. A similar remark -may be made on the “Escanderbech,” founded on the history of the -half-barbarous, half-chivalrous Iskander Beg, and his conversion to -Christianity in the middle of the fifteenth century. We find it, in -fact, difficult, at the present day, to believe that pieces like -the first of these, in which Polyphemus plays on a guitar, and an -island in the earliest ages of Greek tradition sinks into the sea -amidst a discharge of squibs and rockets, can have been represented -anywhere.[532] - - [532] Both of them are in the fifth day’s entertainments of his - “Para Todos.” - -But Montalvan followed Lope in every thing, and, like the rest of the -dramatic writers of his age, was safe from such censure as he would -now receive, because he wrote to satisfy the demands of the popular -audiences of Madrid.[533] He made the _novela_, or tale, the chief -basis of interest for his drama, and relied mainly on the passion of -jealousy to give it life and movement.[534] Bowing to the authority -of the court, he avoided, we are told, representing rebellion on the -stage, lest he should seem to encourage it; and was even unwilling to -introduce men of rank in degrading situations, for fear disloyalty -should be implied or imputed. He would gladly, it is added, have -restrained his action to twenty-four hours, and limited each of the -three divisions of his full-length dramas to three hundred lines, -never leaving the stage empty in either of them. But such rules were -not prescribed to him by the popular will, and he wrote too freely and -too fast to be more anxious about observing his own theories than his -master was.[535] - - [533] Preface to “Para Todos.” - - [534] The story of “El Zeloso Estremeño” is altered from that - of the same name by Cervantes, but is indebted to it largely, - and takes the names of several of its personages. At the end of - the play entitled “De un Castigo dos Venganzas,” a play full of - horrors, Montalvan declares the plot to be-- - - Historia tan verdadera, - Que no ha cincuenta semanas, - Que sucedió. - - Almost all his plays are founded on exciting and interesting - tales. - - [535] Pellicer de Tobar, in the “Lágrimas,” etc., _ut supra_, - gives this account of his friend Montalvan’s literary theories, - pp. 146-152. In the more grave parts of his plays, he says, - Montalvan employed _octavas_, _canciones_, and _silvas_; in the - tender parts, _décimas_, _glosas_, and other similar forms; and - _romances_ everywhere; but that he avoided dactyles and blank - verse, as unbecoming and hard. All this, however, is only the - system of Lope, in his “Arte Nuevo,” a little amplified. - -His “Most Constant Wife,” one of his plays which is particularly -pleasing, from the firm, yet tender, character of the heroine, -was written, he tells us, in four weeks, prepared by the actors -in eight days, and represented again and again, until the great -religious festival of the spring closed the theatres.[536] His -“Double Vengeance,” with all its horrors, was acted twenty-one days -successively.[537] His “No Life like Honor”--one of his more sober -efforts--appeared many times on both the principal theatres of Madrid -at the same moment;--a distinction to which, it is said, no other play -had then arrived in Spain, and in which none succeeded it till long -afterwards.[538] And, in general, during the period when his dramas -were produced, which was the old age of Lope de Vega, no author was -heard on the stage with more pleasure than Montalvan, except his great -master. - - [536] Para Todos, 1661, p. 508. - - [537] Ibid., p. 158. - - [538] C. Pellicer, Orígen, Tom. I. p. 202. - -He had, indeed, his trials and troubles, as all have whose success -depends on popular favor. Quevedo, the most unsparing satirist of his -time, attacked the less fortunate parts of one of his works of fiction -with a spirit and bitterness all his own; and, on another occasion, -when one of Montalvan’s plays had been hissed, wrote him a letter -which professed to be consolatory, but which is really as little so -as can well be imagined.[539] But, notwithstanding such occasional -discouragements, his course was, on the whole, fortunate, and he is -still to be remembered among the ornaments of the old national drama of -his country. - - [539] Quevedo, Obras, Tom. XI., 1794, pp. 125, 163. An indignant - answer was made to Quevedo, in the “Tribunal de la Justa - Venganza,” already noticed. - - - - -CHAPTER XXI. - -DRAMA, CONTINUED.--TIRSO DE MOLINA.--MIRA DE MESCUA.--VALDIVIELSO.-- -ANTONIO DE MENDOZA.--RUIZ DE ALARCON.--LUIS DE BELMONTE, AND OTHERS.-- -EL DIABLO PREDICADOR.--OPPOSITION OF LEARNED MEN AND OF THE CHURCH TO -THE POPULAR DRAMA.--A LONG STRUGGLE.--TRIUMPH OF THE DRAMA. - - -Another of the persons who, at this time, sought popular favor on -the public stage was Gabriel Tellez, an ecclesiastic of rank, better -known as Tirso de Molina,--the name under which he slightly disguised -himself when publishing works of a secular character. Of his life we -know little, except that he was born in Madrid; that he was educated -at Alcalá; that he entered the Church as early as 1613; and that he -died in the convent of Soria, of which he was the head, probably in -February, 1648;--some accounts representing him to have been sixty -years old at the time of his death, and some eighty.[540] - - [540] Deleytar Aprovechando, Madrid, 1765, 2 tom., 4to, Prólogo. - Baena, Hijos de Madrid, Tom. II. p. 267. - -In other respects we know more of him. As a writer for the theatre, -we have five volumes of his dramas, published between 1616 and 1636; -besides which, a considerable number of his plays can be found -scattered through his other works, or printed each by itself. His -talent seems to have been decidedly dramatic; but the moral tone -of his plots is lower than common, and many of his plays contain -passages whose indecency has caused them to be so hunted down by the -confessional and the Inquisition, that copies of them are among the -rarest of Spanish books.[541] Not a few of the less offensive, however, -have maintained their place on the stage, and are still familiar, as -popular favorites. - - [541] Of these five volumes, containing fifty-nine plays, and - a number of _entremeses_ and ballads, whose titles are given - in Aribau’s Biblioteca, (Madrid, 1848, Tom. V. p. xxxvi.), I - have never seen but four, and have been able with difficulty to - collect between thirty and forty separate plays. Their author - says, however, in the Preface to his “Cigarrales de Toledo,” - (1624), that he had written three hundred; and I believe about - eighty have been printed. - -Of these, the best known out of Spain is “El Burlador de Sevilla,” -or The Seville Deceiver,--the earliest distinct exhibition of that -Don Juan who is now seen on every stage in Europe, and known to the -lowest classes of Germany, Italy, and Spain, in puppet-shows and -street-ballads. The first rudiments for this character--which, it -is said, may be traced historically to the great Tenorio family of -Seville--had, indeed, been brought upon the stage by Lope de Vega, in -the second and third acts of “Money makes the Man”; where the hero -shows a similar firmness and wit amidst the most awful visitations of -the unseen world.[542] But in the character as sketched by Lope there -is nothing revolting. Tirso, therefore, is the first who showed it with -all its original undaunted courage united to an unmingled depravity -that asks only for selfish gratifications, and a cold, relentless humor -that continues to jest when surrounded by the terrors of a supernatural -retribution. - - [542] There are some details in this part of Lope’s play, such - as the mention of a walking stone statue, which leave no doubt - in my mind that Tirso de Molina used it. Lope’s play is in the - twenty-fourth volume of his Comedias (Zaragoza, 1632); but it is - one of his dramas that have continued to be reprinted and read. - -This conception of the character is picturesque, notwithstanding -the moral atrocities it involves. It was, therefore, soon carried -to Naples, and from Naples to Paris, where the Italian actors took -possession of it. The piece thus produced, which was little more than -an Italian translation of Tirso’s, had great success in 1656 on the -boards of that company, then very fashionable at the French court. Two -or three French translations followed, and in 1665 Molière brought -out his “Festin de Pierre,” in which, taking not only the incidents -of Tirso, but often his dialogue, he made the real Spanish fiction -known to Europe as it had not been known before.[543] From this time, -the strange and wild character conceived by the Spanish poet has gone -through the world under the name of Don Juan, followed by a reluctant -and shuddering interest, that at once marks what is most peculiar -in its conception, and confounds all theories of dramatic interest. -Zamora, a writer of the next half-century in Spain, Thomas Corneille in -France, and Lord Byron in England, are the prominent poets to whom it -is most indebted for its fame; though perhaps the genius of Mozart has -done more than any or all of them to reconcile the refined and elegant -to its dark and disgusting horrors.[544] - - [543] For the way in which this truly Spanish fiction was - spread through Italy to France, and then, by means of Molière, - throughout the rest of Europe, see Parfaicts, “Histoire du - Théatre François” (Paris, 12mo, Tom. VIII., 1746, p. 255; Tom. - IX., 1746, pp. 3 and 343; and Tom. X., 1747, p. 420); and - Cailhava, “Art de la Comédie” (Paris, 1786, 8vo, Tom. II. p. - 175). Shadwell’s “Libertine” (1676) is substantially the same - story, with added atrocities; and, if I mistake not, is the - foundation of the short drama which has often been acted on the - American stage. Shadwell’s own play is too gross to be tolerated - anywhere now-a-days, and besides has no literary merit. - - [544] That the popularity of the mere fiction of Don Juan has - been preserved in Spain may be seen from the many recent versions - of it; and especially from the two plays of “Don Juan Tenorio,” - by Zorrilla, (1844), and his two poems, “El Desafío del Diablo,” - and “Un Testigo de Bronce,” (1845), hardly less dramatic than the - plays that had preceded them. - -At home, “The Deceiver of Seville” has never been the most favored -of Tirso de Molina’s works. That distinction belongs to “Don Gil in -the Green Pantaloons,” perhaps the most strongly marked specimen of an -intriguing comedy in the language. Doña Juana, its heroine, a lady of -Valladolid, who has been shamefully deserted by her lover, follows him -to Madrid, whither he had gone to arrange for himself a more ambitious -match. In Madrid, during the fortnight the action lasts, she appears -sometimes as a lady named Elvira, and sometimes as a cavalier named Don -Gil; but never once, till the last moment, in her own proper person. -In these two assumed characters, she confounds all the plans and plots -of her faithless lover; makes his new mistress fall in love with her; -writes letters to herself, as a cavalier, from herself as a lady; and -passes herself off, sometimes for her own lover, and sometimes for -other personages merely imaginary. - -Her family at Valladolid, meantime, are made to believe she is dead; -and two cavaliers appearing in Madrid, the one from design and the -other by accident, in a green dress like the one she wears, all three -are taken to be one and the same individual, and the confusion becomes -so unintelligible, that her alarmed lover and her own man-servant--the -last of whom had never seen her but in masculine attire at Madrid--are -persuaded it is some spirit come among them in the fated green costume, -to work out a dire revenge for the wrongs it had suffered in the -flesh. At this moment, when the uproar and alarm are at their height, -the relations of the parties are detected, and three matches are made -instead of the one that had been broken off;--the servant, who had been -most frightened, coming in at the instant every thing is settled, with -his hat stuck full of tapers and his clothes covered with pictures -of saints, and crying out, as he scatters holy water in every body’s -face,-- - - Who prays, who prays for my master’s poor soul,-- - His soul now suffering purgatory’s pains - Within those selfsame pantaloons of green? - -And when his mistress turns suddenly round and asks him if he is mad, -the servant, horror-struck at seeing a lady, instead of a cavalier, -with the countenance and voice he at once recognizes, exclaims in -horror,-- - - I do conjure thee by the wounds--of all - Who suffer in the hospital’s worst ward,-- - Abrenuntio!--Get thee behind me! - - _Juana._ Fool! Don’t you see that I am your Don Gil, - Alive in body, and in mind most sound?-- - That I am talking here with all these friends, - And none is frightened but your foolish self? - - _Servant._ Well, then, what are you, Sir,--a man or woman? - Just tell me that. - - _Juana._ A woman, to be sure. - - _Servant._ No more! enough! That word explains the whole;-- - Ay, and if thirty worlds were going mad, - It would be reason good for all the uproar. - -The chief characteristic of this play is its extremely ingenious and -involved plot. Few foreigners, perhaps not one, ever comprehended all -its intrigue on first reading it, or on first seeing it acted. Yet it -has always been one of the most popular plays on the Spanish stage; and -the commonest and most ignorant in the audiences of the great cities -of Spain do not find its ingenuities and involutions otherwise than -diverting. - -Quite different from either of the preceding dramas, and in some -respects better than either, is Tirso’s “Bashful Man at Court,”--a -play often acted, on its first appearance, in Italy, as well as in -Spain, and one in which, as its author tells us, a prince of Castile -once performed the part of the hero. It is not properly historical, -though partly founded on the story of Pedro, Duke of Coimbra, who, in -1449, after having been regent of Portugal, was finally despoiled of -his power and defeated in an open rebellion.[545] Tirso supposes him -to have retired to the mountains, and there, disguised as a shepherd, -to have educated a son in complete ignorance of his rank. This son, -under the name of Mireno, is the hero of the piece. Finding himself -possessed of nobler sentiments and higher intelligence than those of -the rustics among whom he lives, he half suspects that he is of noble -origin; and, escaping from his solitude, appears at court, determined -to try his fortune. Accident favors him. He enters the service of the -royal favorite, and wins the love of his daughter, who is as free and -bold, from an excessive knowledge of the world, as her lover is humble -and gentle in his ignorance of it. There his rank is discovered, and -the play ends happily. - - [545] Crónica de D. Juan el Segundo, ad ann. - -A story like this, even with the usual accompaniment of an underplot, -is too slight and simple to produce much effect. But the character of -the principal personage, and its gradual development, rendered it long -a favorite on the Spanish stage. Nor was this preference unreasonable. -His noble pride, struggling against the humble circumstances in which -he finds himself placed; the suspicion he hardly dares to indulge, -that his real rank is equal to his aspirations,--a suspicion which yet -governs his life; and the modesty which tempers the most ambitious of -his thoughts, form, when taken together, one of the most lofty and -beautiful ideals of the old Castilian character.[546] - - [546] The “Vergonzoso en Palacio” was printed as early as 1624, - in the “Cigarrales de Toledo,” (Madrid, 1624, 4to, p. 100), - and took its name, I suppose, from a Spanish proverb, “Mozo - vergonzoso no es para palacio.” - -Some of Tirso’s secular dramas deal chiefly in recent events and -well-settled history, like his trilogy on the achievements of the -Pizarros in the New World, and their love-adventures at home. Others -are founded on facts, but with a larger admixture of fiction, like the -two on the election and pontificate of Sixtus Quintus. His religious -dramas and _autos_ are as extravagant as those of the other poets of -his time, and could hardly be more so. - -His mode of treating his subjects seems to be capricious. Sometimes -he begins his dramas with great naturalness and life, as in one that -opens with the accidents of a bull-fight,[547] and in another, with the -confusion consequent on the upsetting of a coach;[548] while, at other -times, he seems not to care how tedious he is, and once breaks ground -in the first act with a speech above four hundred lines long.[549] -Perhaps the most characteristic of his openings is in his “Love for -Reasons of State,” where we have, at the outset, a scene before a -lady’s balcony, a rope-ladder, and a duel, all full of Castilian -spirit. His more obvious defects are the too great similarity of his -characters and incidents; the too frequent introduction of disguised -ladies to help on the intrigue; and the needless and shameless -indelicacy of some of his stories,--a fault rendered more remarkable -by the circumstance, that he himself was an ecclesiastic of rank, and -honored in Madrid as a public preacher. His more uniform merits are -a most happy power of gay narration; an extraordinary command of his -native Castilian; and a rich and flowing versification in all the many -varieties of metre demanded by the audiences of the capital, who were -become more nice and exacting in this, perhaps, than in any other -single accessory of the drama. - - [547] “Todo es dar en una Cosa.” - - [548] “Por el Sotano y el Torno.” - - [549] “Escarmientos para Cuerdos.” - -But however various and capricious were the forms of Tirso’s drama, he -was, in substance, always a follower of Lope de Vega. This he himself -distinctly announces, boasting of the school to which he belongs, and -entering, at the same time, into an ingenious and elaborate defence -of its principles and practice, as opposed to those of the classical -school; a defence which, it is worthy of notice, was published twelve -years before the appearance of Corneille’s “Cid,” and which, therefore, -to a considerable extent, anticipated in Madrid the remarkable -controversy about the unities occasioned by that tragedy in Paris after -1636[550] and subsequently made the foundation of the dramatic schools -of Corneille, Racine, and Voltaire. - - [550] Cigarrales de Toledo, 1624, pp. 183-188. - -Contemporary with these events and discussions lived Antonio Mira de -Mescua, well known from 1602 to 1635 as a writer for the stage, and -much praised by Cervantes and Lope de Vega. He was a native of Guadix -in the kingdom of Granada, and in his youth became archdeacon of its -cathedral; but in 1610 he was at Naples, attached to the poetical court -of the Count de Lemos, and in 1620 he gained a prize in Madrid, where -he seems to have died while in the office of chaplain to Philip the -Fourth. He wrote secular plays, _autos_, and lyrical poetry; but his -works were never collected and are now found with difficulty, though -not a few of his lighter compositions are in nearly all the respectable -selections of the national poetry from his own time to the present. - -He, like Tirso de Molina, was an ecclesiastic of rank, but did not -escape the troubles common to writers for the stage. One of his dramas, -“The Unfortunate Rachel,” founded on the fable which represents -Alfonso the Eighth as having nearly sacrificed his crown to his passion -for a Jewess of Toledo, was much altered, by authority, before it -could be acted, though Lope de Vega had been permitted to treat the -same subject at large in the same way, in the nineteenth book of his -“Jerusalem Conquered.” Mira de Mescua, too, was concerned in the drama -of “The Curate of Madrilejos,” which, as we have seen, was forbidden -to be read or acted even after it had been printed. Still, there -is no reason to suppose he did not enjoy the consideration usually -granted to successful writers for the theatre. At least, we know he -was much imitated. His “Slave of the Devil” was not only remodelled -and reproduced by Moreto in “Fall to rise again,” but was freely used -by Calderon in two of his best-known dramas. His “Gallant both Brave -and True” was employed by Alarcon in “The Trial of Husbands.” And his -“Palace in Confusion” is the groundwork of Corneille’s “Don Sancho of -Aragon.”[551] - - [551] The notices of Mira de Mescua, or Amescua, as he is - sometimes called, are scattered like his works. He is mentioned - in Roxas, “Viage” (1602); and I have his “Desgraciada Raquel,” - both in a printed copy, where it is attributed to Diamante, - and in an autograph MS., where it is sadly cut up to suit the - ecclesiastical censors, whose permission to represent it is - dated April 10th, 1635. Guevara indicates his birthplace and - ecclesiastical office in the “Diablo Cojuelo,” Tranco VI. Antonio - (Bib. Nov., ad verb.) gives him extravagant praise, and says - that his dramas were collected and published together. But this, - I believe, is a mistake. Like his shorter poems, they can be - found only separate, or in collections made for other purposes. - See also, in relation to Mira de Mescua, Montalvan, Para Todos, - the Catalogue at the end; and Pellicer, Biblioteca, Tom. I. p. - 89. The story on which the “Raquel” is founded is a fiction, and - therefore need not so much have disturbed the censors of the - theatre. (Castro, Crónica de Sancho el Deseado, Alonso el Octavo, - etc., Madrid, 1665, folio, pp. 90, etc.) Two _autos_ by Mira de - Mescua are to be found in “Navidad y Corpus Christi Festejados,” - Madrid, 1664, 4to. - -Joseph de Valdivielso, another ecclesiastic of high condition, was -also a writer for the stage at the same time. He was connected with -the great cathedral of Toledo and with its princely primate, the -Cardinal Infante, but he lived in Madrid, where he was a member of the -same religious congregation with Cervantes and Lope, and where he was -intimately associated with the principal men of letters of his time. -He flourished from about 1607 to about 1633, and can be traced, during -the whole of that period, by his certificates of approbation and by -commendatory verses which were prefixed to the works of his friends as -they successively appeared. His own publications are almost entirely -religious;--those for the stage consisting of a single volume printed -in 1622, and containing twelve _autos_ and two religious plays. - -The twelve _autos_ seem, from internal evidence, to have been written -for the city of Toledo, and certainly to have been performed there, as -well as in other cities of Spain. He selected them from a large number, -and they undoubtedly enjoyed, during his lifetime, a wide popularity. -Some, perhaps, deserved it. “The Prodigal Son,” long a tempting subject -wherever religious dramas were known, was treated with more than -usual skill. “Psyche and Cupid,” too, is better managed for Christian -purposes than that mystical fancy commonly was by the poets of the -Spanish theatre. And “The Tree of Life” is a well-sustained allegory, -in which the old theological contest between Divine Justice and Divine -Mercy is carried through in the old theological spirit, beginning with -scenes in Paradise and ending with the appearance of the Saviour. But, -in general, the _autos_ of Valdivielso are not better than those of his -contemporaries. - -His two plays are not so good. “The Birth of the Best,” as the Madonna -is often technically called, and “The Guardian Angel,” which is, again, -an allegory, not unlike that of “The Tree of Life,” are both of them -crude and wild compositions, even within the broad limits permitted -to the religious drama. One reason of their success may, perhaps, be -found in the fact, that they have more of the tone of the elder poetry -than almost any of the sacred plays of the time;--a remark that may -be extended to the _autos_ of Valdivielso, in one of which there is a -spirited parody of the well-known ballad on the challenge of Zamora -after the murder of Sancho the Brave. But the social position of their -author, and, perhaps, his quibbles and quaintnesses, which humored the -bad taste of his age, must be taken into consideration before we can -account for the extensive popularity he undoubtedly enjoyed.[552] - - [552] Antonio, Bib. Nova, Tom. I. p. 821. His dramatic works - which I possess are “Doce Autos Sacramentales y dos Comedias - Divinas,” por el Maestro Joseph de Valdivielso, Toledo, 1622, - 4to, 183 leaves. Compare the old ballad, “Ya cabalga Diego - Ordoñez,” which can be traced to the Romancero of 1550-1555, - with the “Crónica del Cid,” c. 66, and the “Cautivos Libres,” f. - 25. a. of the Doce Autos. It will show how the old ballads rung - in the ears of all men, and penetrated everywhere into Spanish - poetry. There is a _nacimiento_ of Valdivielso in the “Navidad y - Corpus Christi,” mentioned in the preceding note; but it is very - slight and poor. - -Another sort of favor fell to the share of Antonio de Mendoza, who -wrote much for the court between 1623 and 1643. His Works--besides a -number of ballads and short poems addressed to the Duke of Lerma and -other principal persons of the kingdom--contain a Life of Our Lady, -in nearly eight hundred _redondillas_, and five plays, to which two -or three more may be added from different miscellaneous collections. -The poems are of little value; the plays are better. “He deserves most -who loves most” may have contributed materials to Moreto’s “Disdain -met with Disdain,” and is certainly a pleasant drama, with natural -situations and an easy dialogue. “Society changes Manners” is another -real comedy with much life and gayety. And “Love for Love’s Sake,” -which, has been called its author’s happiest effort, enjoyed the -distinction of being acted before the court by the queen’s maids of -honor, who took all the parts,--those of the cavaliers, as well as -those of the women.[553] - - [553] His works were not collected till long after his death, - which happened in 1644, and were then printed from a MS. found - in the library of the Archbishop of Lisbon, Luis de Souza, under - the affected title, “El Fenix Castellano, D. Antonio de Mendoza, - renascido,” etc. (Lisboa, 1690, 4to). The only notices of - consequence that I find of him are in Montalvan’s “Para Todos,” - and in Antonio, Bib. Nova, where he is called Antonio Hurtado - de Mendoza; probably a mistake, for he does not seem to have - belonged to the old Santillana family. A second edition of his - works, with trifling additions, appeared at Madrid in 1728, 4to. - -Ruiz de Alarcon, who was his contemporary, was less favored during his -lifetime than Mendoza, but has much more merit. He was born in the -province of Tasco, in Mexico, but was descended from a family that -belonged to Alarcon in the mother country. As early as 1622 he was -in Madrid, and assisted in the composition of a play in honor of the -Marquis of Cañete for his victories in Arauco, which was the joint -work of nine persons. In 1628, he published the first volume of his -Dramas, on the title-page of which he calls himself Prolocutor of the -Royal Council for the Indies; a place of both trust and profit. It is -dedicated to the _Público Vulgar_, or the Rabble, in a tone of savage -contempt for the audiences of Madrid, which, if it intimates that he -had been ill-treated on the stage, proves, also, that he felt strong -enough to defy his enemies. To the eight plays contained in this volume -he added twelve more in 1635, with a Preface, which, again, leaves -little doubt that his merit was undervalued, as he says he found it -difficult to vindicate for himself even the authorship of not a few of -the plays he had written. He died in 1639.[554] - - [554] Alarcon seems, in consequence of these remonstrances, or - perhaps in consequence of the temper in which they were made, to - have drawn upon himself a series of attacks, from the poets of - the time, Góngora, Lope de Vega, Mendoza, Montalvan, and others. - See Puibusque, Histoire Comparée des Littératures Espagnole et - Française, 2 tom., 8vo, Paris, 1843, Tom. II. pp. 155-164, and - 430-437;--a book written with much taste and knowledge of the - subject to which it relates. It gained the prize of 1842. - -His “Domingo de Don Blas,” one of the few among his works not found -in the collection printed by himself, is a sketch of the character of -a gentleman sunk into luxury and effeminacy by the possession of a -large fortune suddenly won from the Moors in the time of Alfonso the -Third of Leon; but who, at the call of duty, rouses himself again to -his earlier energy, and shows the old Castilian character in all its -loyalty and generosity. The scene where he refuses to risk his person -in a bull-fight, merely to amuse the Infante, is full of humor, and is -finely contrasted, first, with the scene where he runs all risks in -defence of the same prince, and afterwards, still more finely, with -that where he sacrifices the prince, because he had failed in loyalty -to his father. - -“How to gain Friends” gives us another exhibition of the principle -of loyalty in the time of Peter the Cruel, who is here represented -only as a severe, but just, administrator of the law in seasons of -great trouble. His minister and favorite, Pedro de Luna, is one of the -most noble characters offered to us in the whole range of the Spanish -drama;--a character belonging to a class in which Alarcon has several -times succeeded. - -A better-known play than either, however, is the “Weaver of Segovia.” -It is in two parts. In the first, its hero, Fernando Ramirez, is -represented as suffering the most cruel injustice at the hands of his -sovereign, who has put his father to death under a false imputation -of treason, and reduced Ramirez himself to the misery of earning his -subsistence, disguised as a weaver. Six years elapse, and, in the -second part, he appears again, stung by new wrongs and associated -with a band of robbers, at whose head, after spreading terror through -the mountain range of the Guadarrama, he renders such service to his -ungrateful king, in the crisis of a battle against the Moors, and -extorts such confessions of his own and his father’s innocence from -their dying enemy, that he is restored to favor, and becomes, in the -Oriental style, the chief person in the kingdom he has rescued. He is, -in fact, another Charles de Mohr, but has the advantage of being placed -in a period of the world and a state of society where such a character -is more possible than in the period assigned to it by Schiller, though -it can never be one fitted for exhibition in a drama that claims to -have a moral purpose. - -“Truth itself Suspected” is, on the other hand, obviously written for -such a purpose. It gives us the character of a young man, the son of a -high-minded father, and himself otherwise amiable and interesting, who -comes from the University of Salamanca to begin the world at Madrid, -with an invincible habit of lying. The humor of the drama, which is -really great, consists in the prodigious fluency with which he invents -all sorts of fictions to suit his momentary purposes; the ingenuity -with which he struggles against the true current of facts, which yet -runs every moment more and more strongly against him; and the final -result, when, nobody believing him, he is reduced to the necessity of -telling the truth, and--by a mistake which he now finds it impossible -to persuade any one he has really committed--loses the lady he had won, -and is overwhelmed with shame and disgrace. - -Parts of this drama are full of spirit; such as the description of a -student’s life at the university, and that of a brilliant festival -given to a lady on the banks of the Manzanares. These, with the -exhortations of the young man’s father, intended to cure him of his -shameful fault, and not a little of the dialogue between the hero--if -he may be so called--and his servant, are excellent. It is the piece -from which Corneille took the materials for his “Menteur,” and thus, -in 1642, laid the foundations of classical French comedy in a play of -Alarcon, as, six years before, he had laid the foundations for its -tragedy in the “Cid” of Guillen de Castro. Alarcon, however, was then -so little known, that Corneille supposed himself to be using a play of -Lope de Vega; though it should be remembered, that, when, some years -afterwards, he found out his mistake, he did Alarcon the justice to -restore to him his rights, adding that he would gladly give the two -best plays he had ever written to be the author of the one he had so -freely used. - -It would not be difficult to find other dramas of Alarcon showing -equal judgment and spirit. Such, in fact, is the one entitled “Walls -have Ears,” which, from its mode of exhibiting the ill consequences -of slander and mischief-making, may be regarded as the counterpart to -“Truth itself Suspected.” And such, too, is the “Trial of Husbands,” -which has had the fortune to pass under the names of Lope de Vega and -Montalvan, as well as of its true author, and would cast no discredit -on either of them. But it is enough to add to what we have already said -of Alarcon, that his style is excellent,--generally better than that -of any but the very best of his contemporaries,--with less richness, -indeed, than that of Tirso de Molina, and adhering more to the old -_redondilla_ measure than that of Lope, but purer in versification than -either of them, more simple and more natural; so that, on the whole, he -is to be ranked with the best Spanish dramatists during the best period -of the national theatre.[555] - - [555] Repertorio Americano, Tom. III. p. 61, Tom. IV. p. 93; - Denis, Chroniques de l’Espagne, Paris, 1839, 8vo, Tom. II. p. - 231; Comedias Escogidas, Tom. XXVIII., 1667, p. 131. Corneille’s - opinion of the “Verdad Sospechosa,” which is often misquoted, - is to be found in his “Examen du Menteur.” I will only add, - in relation to Alarcon, that, in “Nunca mucho costó poco,” he - has given us the character of an imperious old nurse, which is - well drawn, and made effective by the use of picturesque, but - antiquated, words and phrases. - -Other writers who devoted themselves to the drama were, however, as -well known at the time they lived as he was, if not always as much -valued. Among them may be mentioned Luis de Belmonte, whose “Renegade -of Valladolid” and “God the best Guardian” are singular mixtures of -what is sacred with what is profane; Jacinto Cordero, whose “Victory -through Love” was long a favorite on the stage; Andres Gil Enriquez, -the author of a pleasant play called “The Net, the Scarf, and the -Picture”; Diego Ximenez de Enciso, who wrote grave historical plays on -the life of Charles the Fifth at San Yuste, and on the death of Don -Carlos; Gerónimo de Villaizan, whose best play is “A Great Remedy for a -Great Wrong”; and many others, such as Felipe Godinez, Miguel Sanchez, -and Rodrigo de Herrera, who shared, in an inferior degree, the favor of -the popular audiences at Madrid.[556] - - [556] The plays of these authors are found in the large - collection entitled “Comedias Escogidas,” Madrid, 1652-1704, - 4to, with the exception of those of Sanchez and Villaizan, - which I possess separate. Of Belmonte, there are eleven in the - collection, and of Godinez, five. Those of Miguel Sanchez, who - was very famous in his time, and obtained the addition to his - name of _El Divino_, are nearly all lost. - -Writers distinguished in other branches of literature were also tempted -by the success of those devoted to the stage to adventure for the -brilliant prizes it scattered on all sides. Salas Barbadillo, who -wrote many pleasant tales and died in 1630, left behind him two dramas, -of which one claims to be in the manner of Terence.[557] Solorzano, -who died ten years later and was known in the same forms of elegant -literature with Barbadillo, is the author of a spirited play, founded -on the story of a lady, who, after having accepted a noble lover -from interested motives, gives him up for the servant of that lover, -put forward in disguise, as if he were possessor of the very estates -for which she had accepted his master.[558] Góngora wrote one play, -and parts of two others, still preserved in the collection of his -works;[559] and Quevedo, to please the great favorite, the Count Duke -Olivares, assisted in the composition of at least a single drama, which -is now lost, if it be not preserved, under another name, in the works -of Antonio de Mendoza.[560] But the circumstances of chief consequence -in relation to all these writers are, that they belonged to the school -of Lope de Vega, and that they bear witness to the vast popularity of -his drama in their time. - - [557] The plays of Salas Barbadillo, viz., “Victoria de España y - Francia,” and “El Galan Tramposo y Pobre,” are in his “Coronas - del Parnaso,” left for publication at his death, but not printed - till 1635, Madrid, 12mo. - - [558] It is called “El Mayorazgo,” and is found with its _loa_ at - the end of the author’s “Alivios de Casandra,” 1640. - - [559] These are, “Las Firmezas de Isabela,” “El Doctor Carlino,” - and “La Comedia Venatoria,”--the last two unfinished, and the - very last allegorical. - - [560] The play written to please the Count Duke was by Quevedo - and Antonio de Mendoza, and was entitled “Quien mas miente medra - mas,”--He that lies most will rise most. (C. Pellicer, Orígen del - Teatro, Tom. I. p. 177.) This play is lost, unless, as I suspect, - it is the “Empeños del Mentir” that occurs in Mendoza’s Works, - 1690, pp. 254-296. There are also four _entremeses_ of Quevedo in - his Works, 1791, Vol. IX. - -Indeed, so attractive was the theatre now become, that ecclesiastics -and the higher nobility, who, from their position in society, did not -wish to be known as dramatic authors, still wrote for the stage, -sending their plays to the actors or to the press anonymously. Such -persons generally announced their dramas as written by “A Wit of -this Court,”--_Un Ingenio de esta Corte_,--and a large collection -of pieces could now be made, which are known only under this mask; -a mask, it may be observed, often significant of the pretensions of -those whom it claims partly to conceal. Even Philip the Fourth, who -was an enlightened lover of the arts and of letters, is said to have -sometimes used it; and there is a tradition that “Giving my Life for -my Lady,” “The Earl of Essex,” and perhaps one or two other plays, -were either entirely his, or that he contributed materially to their -composition.[561] - - [561] Philip IV. was a lover of letters. Translations of - Francesco Guicciardini’s “Wars in Italy,” and of the “Description - of the Low Countries,” by his nephew, Luigi Guicciardini, made by - him, and preceded by a well-written Prólogo, are said to be in - the National Library at Madrid. (C. Pellicer, Orígen, Tom. I. p. - 162; Huerta, Teatro Hespañol, Madrid, 1785, 12mo, Parte I., Tom. - III. p. 159; and Ochoa, Teatro, Paris, 1838, 8vo, Tom. V. p. 98.) - “King Henry the Feeble” is also among the plays most confidently - ascribed to Philip IV., who is said to have often joined in - improvisating dramas, an amusement well known at the court of - Madrid, and at the hardly less splendid court of the Count de - Lemos at Naples. C. Pellicer, Teatro, Tom. I. p. 163, and J. A. - Pellicer, Bib. de Traductores, Tom. I. pp. 90-92, where a curious - account, already referred to, is given of one of these Neapolitan - exhibitions, by Estrada, who witnessed it. - -One of the most remarkable of these “Comedias de un Ingenio” is that -called “The Devil turned Preacher.” Its scene is laid in Lucca, and -its original purpose seems to have been to glorify Saint Francis, and -to strengthen the influence of his followers. At any rate, in the long -introductory speech of Lucifer, that potentate represents himself as -most happy at having so far triumphed over these his great enemies, -that a poor community of Franciscans, established in Lucca, is likely -to be starved out of the city by the universal ill-will he has excited -against them. But his triumph is short. Saint Michael descends with -the infant Saviour in his arms, and requires Satan himself immediately -to reconvert the same inhabitants whose hearts he had hardened; to -build up the very convent of the holy brotherhood which he had so -nearly overthrown; and to place the poor friars, who were now pelted by -the boys in the streets, upon a foundation of respectability safer than -that from which he had driven them. The humor of the piece consists -in his conduct while executing the unwelcome task thus imposed upon -him. To do it, he takes, at once, the habit of the monks he detests; -he goes round to beg for them; he superintends the erection of an -ampler edifice for their accommodation; he preaches; he prays; he -works miracles;--and all with the greatest earnestness and unction, in -order the sooner to be rid of a business so thoroughly disagreeable to -him, and of which he is constantly complaining in equivocal phrases -and bitter side-speeches, that give him the comfort of expressing a -vexation he cannot entirely control, but dares not openly make known. -At last he succeeds. The hateful work is done. But the agent is not -dismissed with honor. On the contrary, he is obliged, in the closing -scene, to confess who he is, and to avow that nothing, after all, -awaits him but the flames of perdition, into which he visibly sinks, -like another Don Juan, before the edified audience. - -The action occupies above five months. It has an intriguing underplot, -which hardly disturbs the course of the main story, and one of whose -personages--the heroine herself--is very gentle and attractive. The -character of the Father Guardian of the Franciscan monks, full of -simplicity, humble, trustful, and submissive, is also finely drawn; -and so is the opposite one,--the _gracioso_ of the piece,--a liar, -a coward, and a glutton; ignorant and cunning; whom Lucifer amuses -himself with teasing, in every possible way, whenever he has a moment -to spare from the grave work he is so anxious to finish. - -In some of the early copies, this drama, so characteristic of the age -to which it belongs, is attributed to Luis de Belmonte, and in some -of them to Antonio de Coello. Later, it is declared, though on what -authority we are not told, to have been written by Francisco Damian -de Cornejo, a Franciscan monk. But all this is uncertain. We only -know, that, for a long time after it appeared, it used to be acted -as a devout work, favorable to the interests of the Franciscans, who -then possessed great influence in Spain. In the latter part of the -eighteenth century, however, this state of things was partly changed, -and its public performance, for some reason or other, was forbidden. -About 1800, it reappeared on the stage, and was again acted, with great -profit, all over the country,--the Franciscan monks lending the needful -monastic dresses for an exhibition they thought so honorable to their -order. But in 1804 it was put anew under the ban of the Inquisition, -and so remained until after the political revolution of 1820, which -gave absolute liberty to the theatre.[562] - - [562] C. Pellicer, Orígen, Tom. I. p. 184, note; Suplemento al - Índice, etc., 1805; and an excellent article by Louis de Vieil - Castel, in the Revue des Deux Mondes, July 15, 1840. To these - should be added the pleasant description given by Blanco White, - in his admirable “Doblado’s Letters,” (1822, pp. 163-169), of a - representation he himself witnessed of the “Diablo Predicador,” - in the court-yard of a poor inn, where a cow-house served for the - theatre, or rather the stage, and the spectators, who paid less - than twopence apiece for their places, sat in the open air, under - a bright, starry sky. - - * * * * * - -The school of Lope, to which all the writers we have just enumerated, -and many more, belonged, was not received with an absolutely universal -applause. Men of learning, from time to time, refused to be reconciled -to it; and severe or captious critics found in its gross irregularities -and extravagances abundant opportunity for the exercise of a spirit -of complaint. Alonso Lopez, commonly called El Pinciano, in his -“Art of Poetry founded on the Doctrines of the Ancients,”--a modest -treatise, which he printed as early as 1596,--shows plainly, in his -discussions on the nature of tragedy and comedy, that he was far from -consenting to the forms of the drama then beginning to prevail in the -theatre. The Argensolas, who, about ten years earlier, had attempted -to introduce another and more classical type, would, of course, be -even less satisfied with the tendency of things in their time; and one -of them, Bartolomé, speaks his opinion very openly in his didactic -satires. Others joined them, among whom were Artieda, in a poetical -epistle to the Marquis of Cuellar; Villegas, the sweet lyrical poet, -in his seventh elegy; and Christóval de Mesa, in different passages -of his minor poems, and in the Preface to his ill-constructed tragedy -of “Pompey.” If to these we add a scientific discussion on the True -Structure of Tragedy and Comedy, in the third and fourth of the -Poetical Tables of Cascales, and a harsh attack on the whole popular -Spanish stage, by Suarez de Figueroa, in which little is noticed but -its follies, we shall have, if not every thing that was said on the -subject, at least every thing that needs now to be remembered. The -whole is of less consequence than the frank admissions of Lope de Vega, -in his “New Art of the Drama.”[563] - - [563] El Pinciano, Filosofía Antigua Poética, Madrid, 1596, - 4to, p. 381, etc.; Andres Rey de Artieda, Discursos, etc., de - Artemidoro, Çaragoça, 1605, 4to, f. 87; C. de Mesa, Rimas, - Madrid, 1611, 12mo, ff. 94, 145, 218, and his Pompeyo, Madrid, - 1618, 12mo, with its _Dedicatoria_; Cascales, Tablas Poéticas, - Murcia, 1616, 4to, Parte II.; C. S. de Figueroa, Pasagero, - Madrid, 1617, 12mo, Alivio tercero; Est. M. de Villegas, - Eróticas, Najera, 1617, 4to, Segunda Parte, f. 27; Los - Argensolas, Rimas, Zaragoza, 1634, 4to, p. 447. I have arranged - them according to their dates, because, in this case, the order - of time is important, and because it should be noticed that all - come within the period of Lope’s success as a dramatist. - -The opposition of the Church, more formidable than that of the scholars -of the time, was, in some respects, better founded, since many of -the plays of this period were indecent, and more of them immoral. -The ecclesiastical influence, as we have seen, had, therefore, been -early directed against the theatre, partly on this account and partly -because the secular drama had superseded those representations in the -churches which had so long been among the means used by the priesthood -to sustain their power with the mass of the people. On these grounds, -in fact, the plays of Torres Naharro were suppressed in 1545, and -a petition was sent, in 1548, by the Cortes, to Charles the Fifth, -against the printing and publishing of all indecent farces.[564] -For a long time, however, little was done but to suspend dramatic -representations in seasons of court mourning, and on other occasions of -public sorrow or trouble;--this being, perhaps, thought by the clergy -an exercise of their influence that would, in the course of events, -lead to more important concessions. - - [564] D. Quixote, ed. Clemencin, Tom. III. p. 402, note. - -But as the theatre rose into importance with the popularity of Lope de -Vega, the discussions on its character and consequences grew graver. -Even just before that time, in 1587, Philip the Second consulted some -of the leading theologians of the kingdom, and was urged to suppress -altogether the acted drama; but, after much deliberation, followed -the milder opinion of Alonso de Mendoza, a professor at Salamanca, -and determined still to tolerate it, but to subject it constantly -to a careful and even strict supervision. In 1590, Mariana, the -historian, in his treatise “De Spectaculis,” written with great fervor -and eloquence, made a bold attack on the whole body of the theatres, -particularly on their costumes and dances, and thus gave a new impulse -to the discussion, which was not wholly lost when, in 1597, Philip -the Second, according to the custom of the time, ordered the public -representations at Madrid to be suspended, in consequence of the -death of his daughter, the Duchess of Savoy. But Philip was now old -and infirm. The opposers of the theatre, among whom was Lupercio de -Argensola, gathered around him.[565] The discussion was renewed with -increased earnestness, and in 1598, not long before he breathed his -last in the Escurial, with his dying eyes fastened on its high altar, -he forbade theatrical representations altogether. - - [565] Pellicer, Bib. de Traductores, Tom. I. p. 11. - -Little, however, was really effected by this struggle on the part of -the Church, except that the dramatic poets were compelled to discover -ingenious modes for evading the authority exercised against them, and -that the character of the actors was degraded by it. To drive the drama -from ground where it was so well intrenched behind the general favor of -the people was impossible. The city of Madrid, already the acknowledged -capital of the country, begged that the theatres might again be opened; -giving, as one reason for their request, that many religious plays -were performed, by some of which both actors and spectators had been -so moved to penitence as to hasten directly from the theatre to enter -religious houses;[566] and as another reason, that the rent paid by -the companies of actors to the hospitals of Madrid was important to the -very existence of those great and beneficent charities.[567] - - [566] As a set-off to this alleged religious effect of the - _comedias de santos_, we have, in the Address that opens the - “Tratado de las Comedias,” (1618), by Bisbe y Vidal, an account - of a young girl who was permitted to see the representation of - the “Conversion of Mary Magdalen” several times, as an act of - devotion, and ended her visits to the theatre by falling in love - with the actor that personated the Saviour, and running off with - him, or rather following him to Madrid. - - [567] The account, however, was sometimes the other way. Bisbe - y Vidal (f. 98) says that the hospitals made such efforts to - sustain the theatres, in order to get an income from them - afterwards, that they themselves were sometimes impoverished by - the speculations they ventured to make; and adds, that in his - time (c. 1618) there was a person alive, who, as a magistrate of - Valencia, had been the means of such losses to the hospital of - that city, through its investments and advances for the theatre, - that he had entered a religious house, and given his whole - fortune to the hospital, to make up for the injury he had done it. - -Moved by such arguments, Philip the Third, in 1600, when the theatres -had been shut hardly two years, summoned a council of ecclesiastics -and four of the principal lay authorities of the kingdom, and laid the -whole subject before them. Under their advice,--which still condemned -in the strongest manner the theatres as they had heretofore existed in -Spain,--he permitted them to be opened anew; diminishing, however, the -number of actors, forbidding all immorality in the plays, and allowing -representations only on Sundays and three other days in the week, -which were required to be Church festivals, if such festivals should -occur. This decision has, on the whole, been hardly yet disturbed, -and the theatre in Spain, with occasional alterations and additions -of privilege, has continued to rest safely on its foundations ever -since;--closed, indeed, sometimes, in seasons of public mourning, as it -was three months on the death of Philip the Third, and again in 1665, -by the bigotry of the queen regent, but never interrupted for any long -period, and never again called to contend for its existence. - -The truth is, that, from the beginning of the seventeenth century, -the popular Spanish drama was too strong to be subjected either to -classical criticism or to ecclesiastical control. In the “Amusing -Journey” of Roxas, an actor who travelled over much of the country in -1602, visiting Seville, Granada, Toledo, Valladolid, and many other -places, we find plays acted everywhere, even in the smallest villages, -and the drama, in all its forms and arrangements, accommodated to the -public taste far beyond any other popular amusement.[568] In 1632, -Montalvan--the best authority on such a subject--gives us the names -of a crowd of writers for Castile alone; and three years later, Fabio -Franchi, an Italian, who had lived in Spain, published a eulogy on -Lope, which enumerates nearly thirty of the same dramatists, and shows -anew how completely the country was imbued with their influence. There -can, therefore, be no doubt, that, at the time of his death, Lope’s -name was the great poetical name that filled the whole breadth of the -land with its glory, and that the forms of the drama originated by him -were established, beyond the reach of successful opposition, as the -national and popular forms of the drama for all Spain.[569] - - [568] Roxas (1602) gives an amusing account of the nicknames and - resources of eight different kinds of strolling companies of - actors, beginning with the _bululu_, which boasted of but one - person, and going up to the full _compañía_, which was required - to have seventeen. (Viage, Madrid, 1614, 12mo, ff. 51-53.) These - nicknames and distinctions were long known in Spain. Four of them - occur in “Estebanillo Gonzalez,” 1646, c. 6. - - [569] On the whole subject of the contest between the Church - and the theatre, and the success of Lope and his school, see C. - Pellicer, Orígen, Tom. I. pp. 118-122, and 142-157; Don Quixote, - ed. J. A. Pellicer, Parte II., c. 11, note; Roxas, Viage, 1614, - _passim_ (f. 66, implying that he wrote in 1602); Montalvan, Para - Todos, 1661, p. 543; Lope de Vega, Obras Sueltas, Tom. XXI. p. - 66; and many other parts of Vols. XX. and XXI.;--all showing the - triumph of Lope and his school. A letter of Francisco Cascales - to Lope de Vega, published in 1634, in defence of plays and - their representation, is the third in the second decade of his - Epistles; but it goes on the untenable ground, that the plays - then represented were liable to no objection on the score of - morals. - - - - -CHAPTER XXII. - -CALDERON.--HIS LIFE AND VARIOUS WORKS.--DRAMAS FALSELY ATTRIBUTED TO -HIM.--HIS SACRAMENTAL AUTOS.--HOW REPRESENTED.--THEIR CHARACTER.--THE -DIVINE ORPHEUS.--GREAT POPULARITY OF SUCH EXHIBITIONS.--HIS FULL-LENGTH -RELIGIOUS PLAYS.--PURGATORY OF SAINT PATRICK.--DEVOTION TO THE -CROSS.--WONDER-WORKING MAGICIAN.--OTHER SIMILAR PLAYS. - - -Turning from Lope de Vega and his school, we come now to his great -successor and rival, Pedro Calderon de la Barca, who, if he invented -no new form of the drama, was yet so eminently a poet in the national -temper, and had a success so brilliant, that he must necessarily fill -a large space in all inquiries concerning the history of the Spanish -theatre. - -He was born at Madrid, on the 17th of January, 1600;[570] and one of -his friends claims kindred for him with nearly all the old kings of the -different Spanish monarchies, and even with most of the crowned heads -of his time, throughout Europe.[571] This is absurd. But it is of -consequence to know that his family was respectable, and its position -in society such as to give him an opportunity for early intellectual -culture;--his father being Secretary to the Treasury Board under Philip -the Second and Philip the Third, and his mother of a noble family, that -came from the Low Countries long before. Perhaps, however, the most -curious circumstance connected with his origin is to be found in the -fact, that, while the two masters of the Spanish drama, Lope de Vega -and Calderon, were both born in Madrid, the families of both are to be -sought for, at an earlier period, in the same little picturesque valley -of Carriedo, where each possessed an ancestral fief.[572] - - [570] There has been some discussion, and a general error, about - the date of Calderon’s birth; but in a rare book, entitled - “Obelisco Fúnebre,” published in his honor, by his friend Gaspar - Augustin de Lara, (Madrid, 1684, 4to), written immediately after - Calderon’s death, it is distinctly stated, on the authority of - Calderon himself, that he was born Jan. 17th, 1600. This settles - all doubts. The certificate of baptism given in Baena, “Hijos de - Madrid,” Tom. IV. p. 228, only says that he was baptized Feb. - 14th, 1600; but why that ceremony, contrary to custom, was so - long delayed, or why a person in the position of Vera Tassis y - Villarroel, who, like Lara, was a friend of Calderon, should - have placed the poet’s birth on January 1st, we cannot now even - conjecture. - - [571] See the learned genealogical introduction to the “Obelisco - Fúnebre,” just cited. The name of _Calderon_, as its author tells - us, came into the family in the thirteenth century, when one of - its number, being prematurely born, was supposed to be dead, but - was ascertained to be alive by being unceremoniously thrown into - a caldron--_calderon_--of warm water. As he proved to be a great - man, and was much favored by St. Ferdinand and Alfonso the Wise, - his nickname became a name of honor, and five _caldrons_ were, - from that time, borne in the family arms. The additional surname - of _Barca_ came in later, with an estate--_solar_--of one of - the house, who afterwards perished, fighting against the Moors; - in consequence of which, a castle, a gauntlet, and the motto, - _Por la fé moriré_, were added to their escutcheon, which, thus - arranged, constituted the not inappropriate arms of the poet in - the seventeenth century. - - [572] See the notice of Calderon’s father in Baena, Tom. I. - p. 305; that of Calderon himself, Tom. IV. p. 228; and that - of Lope de Vega, Tom. III. p. 350; but, especially, see the - different facts about Calderon scattered through the dull prose - introduction to the “Obelisco Fúnebre,” and its still more dull - poetry. The biographical sketch of him by his friend Vera Tassis - y Villarroel, originally prefixed to the fifth volume of his - Comedias, and to be found in the first volume of the editions - since, is formal, pedantic, and unsatisfactory, like most notices - of the old Spanish authors. - -When only nine years old, he was placed under the Jesuits, and from -them received instructions which, like those Corneille was receiving at -the same moment, in the same way, on the other side of the Pyrenees, -imparted their coloring to the whole of his life, and especially to its -latter years. After leaving the Jesuits, he went to Salamanca, where he -studied with distinction the scholastic theology and philosophy then in -fashion, and the civil and canon law. But when he left the University -in 1619, he was already known as a writer for the theatre; and when he -arrived at Madrid, he seems, probably on this account, to have been at -once noticed by some of those persons about the court who could best -promote his advancement and success. - -In 1620, he entered, with the leading spirits of his time, into the -first poetical contest opened by the city of Madrid in honor of San -Isidro, and received for his efforts the public compliment of Lope de -Vega’s praise.[573] In 1622, he appeared at the second and greater -contest proposed by the capital, on the canonization of the same saint; -and gained--all that could be gained by one individual--a single -prize, with still further and more emphatic praises from the presiding -spirit of the show.[574] In the same year, too, when Lope published -a considerable volume containing an account of all these ceremonies -and rejoicings, we find that the youthful Calderon approached him as -a friend, with a few not ungraceful lines, which Lope, to show that -he admitted the claim, prefixed to his book. But, from that time, we -entirely lose sight of Calderon as an author, for ten years, except -that in 1630 he figures in Lope de Vega’s “Laurel of Apollo,” among -the crowd of poets born in Madrid.[575] - - [573] His sonnet for this occasion is in Lope de Vega, Obras - Sueltas, Tom. XI. p. 432; and his _octavas_ are at p. 491. Both - are respectable for a youth of twenty. The praises of Lope, which - are unmeaning, are at p. 593 of the same volume. Who obtained the - prizes at this festival of 1620 is not known. - - [574] The different pieces offered by Calderon for the festival - of May 17, 1622, are in Lope de Vega, Obras Sueltas, Tom. XII. - pp. 181, 239, 303, 363, 384. Speaking of them, Lope (p. 413) - says, a prize was given to “Don Pedro Calderon, who, in his - tender years, earns the laurels which time is wont to produce - only with hoary hairs.” The six or eight poems offered by - Calderon at these two poetical joustings are valuable, not only - as being the oldest of his works that remain to us, but as being - almost the only specimens of his verse that we have, except his - dramas. Cervantes, in his Don Quixote, intimates, that, at these - poetical contests, the first prize was given from personal favor, - or from regard to the rank of the aspirant, and the second with - reference only to the merit of the poem presented. (Parte II. c. - 18.) Calderon took, on this occasion, only the _third_ prize for - a _cancion_; the first being given to Lope, and the second to - Zarate. - - [575] Silva VII. - -Much of this interval seems to have been filled with service in the -armies of his country. At least, he was in the Milanese in 1625, and -afterwards, as we are told, went to Flanders, where a disastrous -war was still carried on with unrelenting hatred, both national and -religious. That he was not a careless observer of men and manners -during his campaigns, we see by the plots of some of his plays, and by -the lively local descriptions with which they abound, as well as by the -characters of his heroes, who often come fresh from these same wars, -and talk of their adventures with an air of reality that leaves no -doubt that they speak of what had absolutely happened. But we soon find -him in the more appropriate career of letters. In 1632, Montalvan tells -us that Calderon was already the author of many dramas, which had been -acted with applause; that he had gained many public prizes; that he had -written a great deal of lyrical verse; and that he had begun a poem on -the General Deluge. His reputation as a poet, therefore, at the age of -thirty-two, was an enviable one, and was fast rising.[576] - - [576] Para Todos, ed. 1661, pp. 539, 540. But these sketches were - prepared in 1632. - -A dramatic author of such promise could not be overlooked in the reign -of Philip the Fourth, especially when the death of Lope, in 1635, had -left the theatre without a master. In 1636, therefore, Calderon was -formally attached to the court, for the purpose of furnishing dramas to -be represented in the royal theatres, and in 1637, as a further honor, -he was made a knight of the Order of Santiago. His very distinctions, -however, threw him back once more into a military life. When he was -just entering on his brilliant career as a poet, the rebellion excited -by France in Catalonia burst forth with great violence, and all the -members of the four great military orders of the kingdom were required, -in 1640, to appear in the field and sustain the royal authority. -Calderon, like a true knight, presented himself at once to fulfil his -duty. But the king was so anxious to enjoy his services in the palace, -that he was willing to excuse him from the field, and asked from him -yet another drama. In great haste, the poet finished his “Contest of -Love and Jealousy,”[577] and then joined the army; serving loyally -through the campaign in the body of troops commanded by the Count Duke -Olivares in person, and remaining in the field till the rebellion was -quelled. - - [577] It has been said that Calderon has given to none of his - dramas the title Vera Tassis assigns to this one, viz., “Certámen - de Amor y Zelos.” But this is a mistake. No play with this - precise title is to be found among his printed works; but it is - the last but one in the list of his plays furnished by Calderon - himself to the Duke of Veraguas, in 1680. - -After his return, the king testified his increased regard for -Calderon by giving him a pension of thirty gold crowns a month, and -by employing him in the arrangements for the festivities of the -court, when, in 1649, the new queen, Anna Maria of Austria, made her -entrance into Madrid. From this period, he uniformly enjoyed a high -degree of the royal favor; and, till the death of Philip the Fourth, -he had a controlling influence over whatever related to the drama, -writing secular plays for the theatres and _autos_ for the Church with -uninterrupted applause. - -In 1651, he followed the example of Lope de Vega and other men of -letters of his time, by entering a religious brotherhood; and the -king two years afterwards gave him the place of chaplain in a chapel -consecrated to the “New Kings” at Toledo;--a burial-place set apart -for royalty, and richly endowed from the time of Henry of Trastamara. -But it was found that his duties there kept him too much from the -court, to whose entertainment he had become important. In 1663, -therefore, he was created chaplain of honor to the king, who thus -secured his regular presence at Madrid; though, at the same time, -he was permitted to retain his former place, and even had a second -added to it. In the same year, he became a Priest of the Congregation -of Saint Peter, and soon rose to be its head; an office of some -importance, which he held during the last fifteen years of his life, -and exercised with great gentleness and dignity.[578] - - [578] “He knew how,” says Augustin de Lara, “to unite, by - humility and prudence, the duties of an obedient child and a - loving father.” - -This accumulation of religious benefices, however, did not lead him -to intermit in any degree his dramatic labors. On the contrary, it -was rather intended to stimulate him to further exertion; and his -fame was now so great, that the cathedrals of Toledo, Granada, and -Seville constantly solicited from him religious plays to be performed -on the day of the Corpus Christi,--that great festival, for which, -during nearly thirty-seven years, he furnished similar entertainments -regularly, at the charge of the city of Madrid. For these services, as -well as for his services at court, he was richly rewarded, so that he -accumulated an ample fortune. - -After the death of Philip the Fourth, which happened in 1665, he -seems to have enjoyed less of the royal patronage. Charles the Second -had a temper totally different from that of his predecessor; and -Solís, the historian, speaking of Calderon, with reference to these -circumstances, says pointedly, “He died without a Mæcenas.”[579] But -still he continued to write as before for the public theatres, for the -court, and for the churches; and retained, through his whole life, the -extraordinary general popularity of his best years. He died in 1681, -on the 25th of May,--the Feast of the Pentecost,--while all Spain was -ringing with the performance of his _autos_, in the composition of one -more of which he was himself occupied almost to the last moment of his -life.[580] - - [579] “Murió sin Mecenas.” Aprobacion to the “Obelisco,” dated - Oct. 30th, 1683. All that relates to Calderon in this very rare - volume is important, because it comes from a friend, and was - written,--at least the poetical part of it,--as the author tells - us, within fifty-three days after Calderon’s death. - - [580] “Estava un auto entonces en los fines, como su autor.” - (Obelisco, Canto I., st. 22. See also a sonnet at the end of the - volume.) Solís, the historian, in one of his letters, says, “Our - friend Don Pedro Calderon is just dead, and went off, as they - say the swan does, singing; for he did all he could, even when - he was in immediate danger, to finish the second _auto_ for the - Corpus. But, after all, he went through only a little more than - half of it, and it has been finished in some way or other by Don - Melchior de Leon.” (Cartas de N. Antonio y A. Solís, publicadas - por Mayans y Siscar, Leon de Francia, 1733, 12mo, p. 75.) I cite - three contemporary notices of so small a fact, to show how much - consequence was attached to every thing regarding Calderon and - his _autos_. - -The next day, he was borne, as his will required, without any show, -to his grave in the church of San Salvador, by the Priests of the -Congregation over which he had so long presided, and to which he -now left the whole of his fortune. A more gorgeous funeral ceremony -followed a few days later, to satisfy the claims of the popular -admiration; and even at Valencia, Naples, Lisbon, Milan, and Rome, -public notice was taken of his death by his countrymen, as of a -national calamity.[581] A monument to his memory was soon erected in -the church where he was buried; but in 1840 his remains were removed to -the more splendid church of the Atocha, where they now rest.[582] - - [581] Lara, in his “Advertencias,” speaks of “the funeral - eulogies _printed_ in Valencia.” Vera Tassis mentions them also, - without adding that they were printed. A copy of them would be - very interesting, as they were the work of “the illustrious - gentlemen” of the household of the Duke of Veraguas, Calderon’s - friend. The substance of the poet’s will is given in the - “Obelisco,” Cant. I., st. 32, 33. - - [582] An account of the first monument and its inscription is to - be found in Baena, Tom. IV. p. 231; and an account of the removal - of the poet’s ashes to the convent of “Our Lady of Atocha” is in - the Foreign Quarterly Review, April, 1841, p. 227. An attempt - to do still further honor to the memory of Calderon was made - by the publication of a life of him, and of poems in his honor - by Zamacola, Zorilla, Hartzenbusch, etc., in a folio pamphlet, - Madrid, 1840, as well as by a subscription. - -Calderon, we are told, was remarkable for his personal beauty, which -he long preserved by the serenity and cheerfulness of his spirit. The -engraving published soon after his death shows, at least, a strongly -marked and venerable countenance, to which in fancy we may easily -add the brilliant eye and gentle voice given to him by his friendly -eulogist, while, in its ample and finely turned brow, we are reminded -of that with which we are familiar in the portraits of our own great -dramatic poet.[583] His character, throughout, seems to have been -benevolent and kindly. In his old age, we learn that he used to collect -his friends round him on his birthdays, and tell them amusing stories -of his childhood;[584] and during the whole of the active part of his -life, he enjoyed the regard of many of the distinguished persons of his -time, who, like the Count Duke Olivares and the Duke of Veraguas, seem -to have been attracted to him quite as much by the gentleness of his -nature as by his genius and fame. - - [583] His fine capacious forehead is noticed by his eulogist, - and is obvious in the print of 1684, which little resembles the - copies made from it by later engravers:-- - - Considerava de su rostro grave - _Lo capaz de la frente_, la viveza - De los ojos alegres, lo suave - De la voz, etc. - - Canto I., st. 41. - - [584] Prólogo to the “Obelisco.” - -In a life thus extending to above fourscore years, nearly the whole -of which was devoted to letters, Calderon produced a large number of -works. Except, however, a panegyric on the Duke of Medina de Rioseco, -who died in 1647, and a single volume of _autos_, which he printed in -1676, he published hardly any thing of what he wrote;[585] and yet, -besides several longer works,[586] he prepared for the academies of -which he was a member, and for the poetical festivals and joustings -then so common in Spain, a great number of odes, songs, ballads, -and other poems, which gave him not a little of his fame with his -contemporaries.[587] His brother, indeed, printed some of his -full-length dramas between 1640 and 1674;[588] but we are expressly -told that Calderon himself never sent any of them to the press;[589] -and even in the case of the _autos_, where he deviated from his -established custom, he says he did it unwillingly, and only lest their -sacred character should be impaired by imperfect and surreptitious -publications. - - [585] The account of the entrance of the new queen into Madrid, - in 1649, written by Calderon, was indeed printed; but it was - under the name of Lorenço Ramirez de Prado, who, assisted by - Calderon, arranged the festivities of the occasion. - - [586] The unpublished works of Calderon, as enumerated by Vera - Tassis, Baena, and Lara, are:-- - - (1.) “Discurso de los Quatro Novísimos”; or what, in the technics - of his theology, are called the four last things to be thought - upon by man: viz., Death, Judgment, Heaven, and Hell. Lara - says Calderon read him three hundred octave stanzas of it, and - proposed to complete it in one hundred more. It is, no doubt, - lost. - - (2.) “Tratado defendiendo la Nobleza de la Pintura.” - - (3.) “Otro tratado, Defensa de la Comedia.” - - (4.) “Otro tratado, sobre el Diluvio General.” These three - _tratados_ were probably poems, like the “Discurso.” At least, - that on the Deluge is mentioned as such by Montalvan and by Lara. - - (5.) “Lágrimas, que vierte un Alma arrepentida á la Hora de la - Muerte.” This, however, is not unpublished, though so announced - by Vera Tassis. It is a little poem in the ballad measure, - which I detected first in a singular volume, where probably - it first appeared, entitled “Avisos para la Muerte, escritos - por algunos Ingenios de España, á la Devocion de Bernardo de - Obiedo, Secretario de su Majestad, etc., publicados por D. Luis - Arellano,” Valencia, 1634, 18mo, 90 leaves; reprinted, Zaragoza, - 1648, and often besides. It consists of the contributions of - thirty poets, among whom are no less personages than Luis Vélez - de Guevara, Juan Perez de Montalvan, and Lope de Vega. The burden - of Calderon’s poem, which is given with his name attached to it, - is “O dulce Jesus mio, no entres, Señor, con vuestro siervo en - juicio!” The two following stanzas are a favorable specimen of - the whole:-- - - O quanto el nacer, O quanto, - Al morir es parecido! - Pues, si nacimos llorando, - Llorando tambien morimos. - O dulce Jesus mio, etc. - - Un gemido la primera - Salva fué que al mundo hizimos, - Y el último vale que - Le hazemos es un gemido. - O dulce Jesus mio, etc. - - How much resembles here our birth - The final hour of all! - Weeping at first we see the earth, - And weeping hear Death’s call. - O, spare me, Jesus, spare me, Saviour dear, - Nor meet thy servant as a Judge severe! - - When first we entered this dark world, - We hailed it with a moan; - And when we leave its confines dark, - Our farewell is a groan. - O, spare me, Jesus, spare me, Saviour dear, - Nor meet thy servant as a Judge severe! - - The whole of the little volume in which it occurs serves - curiously to illustrate Spanish manners, in an age when a - minister of state sought spiritual comfort by such means and in - such sources. - - [587] Lara and Vera Tassis, both personal friends of Calderon, - speak of the number of these miscellanies as very great. - - [588] There were four volumes in all, and Calderon, in his - Preface to the _Autos_, 1676, seems to admit their genuineness, - though he abstains, with apparent caution, from directly - declaring it, lest he should seem to imply that their publication - had ever been authorized by him. - - [589] “All men well know,” says Lara, “that Don Pedro never sent - any of his _comedias_ to the press, and that those which were - printed were printed against his will.” Obelisco, Prólogo. - -For forty-five years of his life, however, the press teemed with -dramatic works bearing his name on their titles. As early as 1633, -they began to appear in the popular collections; but many of them were -not his, and the rest were so disfigured by the imperfect manner in -which they had been written down during their representations, that he -says he could often hardly recognize them himself.[590] His editor and -friend, Vera Tassis, gives several lists of plays, amounting in all to -a hundred and fifteen, printed by the cupidity of the booksellers as -Calderon’s, without having any claim whatsoever to that honor; and he -adds, that many others, which Calderon had never seen, were sent from -Seville to the Spanish possessions in America.[591] - - [590] The earliest of these fraudulent publications of - Calderon’s plays that I have seen is in the very rare collection - of “Comedias compuestas por Diferentes Autores,” Tom. XXV., - Zaragoza, 1633, 4to, where is Calderon’s “Astrólogo Fingido,” - given with a recklessness as to omissions and changes that is the - more remarkable, because Escuer, who published the volume, makes - great professions of his editorial care and faithfulness. (See - f. 191. b.) In the larger collection of Comedias, in forty-eight - volumes, begun in 1652, there are fifty-three plays attributed, - in whole or in part, to Calderon, some of which are certainly not - his, and all of them, so far as I have examined, scandalously - corrupted in their text. All of them, too, were printed as - early as 1679; that is, two years before Calderon’s death, and - therefore before there was sufficient authority for publishing - any one of them. - - [591] Probably several more may be added to the list of dramas - that are attributed to Calderon, and yet are not his. I have - observed one, entitled “El Garrote mas bien dado,” in “El Mejor - de los Mejores Libros de Comedias Nuevas,” (Madrid, 1653, 4to), - where it is inserted with others that are certainly genuine. - -By means like these, the confusion became at last so great, that the -Duke of Veraguas, then the honored head of the family of Columbus, and -Captain-general of the kingdom of Valencia, wrote a letter to Calderon -in 1680, asking for a list of his dramas, by which, as a friend and -admirer, he might venture to make a collection of them for himself. -The reply of the poet, complaining bitterly of the conduct of the -booksellers which had made such a request necessary, is accompanied -by a list of one hundred and eleven full-length dramas and seventy -sacramental _autos_ which he claims as his own.[592] This catalogue -constitutes the proper basis for a knowledge of Calderon’s dramatic -works, down to the present day. All the plays mentioned in it have -not, indeed, been found. Nine are not in the editions of Vera Tassis, -in 1682, and of Apontes, in 1760; but, on the other hand, a few not -in Calderon’s list have been added to theirs upon what has seemed -sufficient authority; so that we have now seventy-three sacramental -_autos_, with their introductory _loas_,[593] and one hundred and eight -_comedias_, on which his reputation as a dramatic poet is hereafter to -rest.[594] - - [592] This correspondence, so honorable to Calderon, as well as - to the head of the family of Columbus, who signs himself proudly, - _El Almirante Duque_,--as Columbus himself had required his - descendants always to sign themselves, (Navarrete, Tom. II. p. - 229),--is to be found in the “Obelisco,” and again in Huerta, - “Teatro Hespañol” (Madrid, 1785, 12mo, Parte II. Tom. III.). The - complaints of Calderon about the booksellers are very bitter, as - well they might be; for in 1676, in his Preface to his _Autos_, - he says that their frauds took away from the hospitals and other - charities--which yet received only a small part of the profits of - the theatre--no less than twenty-six thousand ducats annually. - - [593] All the _loas_, however, are not Calderon’s; but it is no - longer possible to determine which are not so. “No son todas - suyas” is the phrase applied to them in the Prólogo of the - edition of 1717. - - [594] Vera Tassis tells us, indeed, in his Life of Calderon, - that Calderon wrote a hundred _saynetes_, or short farces; about - a hundred _autos sacramentales_; two hundred _loas_; and more - than one hundred and twenty _comedias_. But he collected for - his edition (Madrid, 1682-91, 9 tom., 4to) only the _comedias_ - mentioned in the text, and a few more, probably twelve, intended - for an additional volume that never was printed. Nor do any more - appear in the edition by Apontes, Madrid, 1760-63, 11 tom., 4to; - nor in the more correct one published at Leipzig in 1827-30, 4 - bände, 8vo, by J. J. Keil, an accomplished Spanish scholar of - that city. It is probable, therefore, that their number will - not hereafter be much increased. And yet we know the names of - nine plays, recognized by Calderon himself, which are not in - any of these collections; and Vera Tassis gives us the names of - eight more, in which he says, Calderon, after the fashion of his - time, wrote a single act. Some of these ought to be recovered. - But though we should be curious to see any of them, we should - be more curious, considering how happy Calderon is in many of - his _graciosos_, to see some of the hundred _saynetes_ Vera - Tassis mentions, of which not one is known to be extant, though - the titles of six or seven are given in Huerta’s catalogue. The - _autos_, being the property of the city of Madrid, and annually - represented, were not permitted to be printed for a long time. - (Lara, Prólogo.) They were first published in 1717, in 6 volumes, - 4to, and they fill the same number of volumes in the edition of - Madrid, 1759-60, 4to. These, however, are all the editions of - Calderon’s dramatic works, except a sort of counterfeit of that - of Vera Tassis, printed at Madrid in 1726, and the selections and - single plays printed from time to time both in Spain and in other - countries. Two, however, have been undertaken lately in Spain, - (1846), and one in Havana, (1840), but probably none of them - will be finished. See notices of Calderon, by F. W. V. Schmidt, - in the Wiener Jahrbücher der Literatur, Bände XVII., XVIII., and - XIX., 1822, to which I am much indebted, and which deserve to be - printed separately, and preserved. - -In examining this large mass of Calderon’s dramatic works, it will be -most convenient to take first, and by themselves, those which are quite -distinct from the rest, and which alone he thought worthy of his care -in publication,--his _autos_ or dramas for the Corpus Christi day. Nor -are they undeserving of this separate notice. There is little in the -dramatic literature of any nation more characteristic of the people -that produced it than this department of the Spanish theatre; and among -the many poets who devoted themselves to it, none had such success as -Calderon. - -Of the early character and condition of the _autos_ and their -connection with the Church we have already spoken, when noticing -Juan de la Enzina, Gil Vicente, Lope de Vega, and Valdivielso. They -were, from the twelfth and thirteenth centuries, among the favorite -amusements of the mass of the people; but at the period at which we -are now arrived, they had gradually risen to be of great importance. -That they were spread through the whole country, even into the small -villages, we may see in the Travels of Augustin Roxas,[595] and in -the Second Part of Don Quixote, where the mad knight is represented -as meeting a car that was carrying the actors for the Festival of the -Sacrament from one hamlet to another.[596] This, it will be remembered, -was all before 1615. During the next thirty years, and especially -during the last portion of Calderon’s life, the number and consequence -of the _autos_ were much increased, and they were represented with -great luxury and at great expense in the streets of all the larger -cities;--so important were they deemed to the influence of the clergy, -and so attractive had they become to all classes of society; to the -noble and the cultivated no less than to the multitude. - - [595] Roxas, Viage Entretenido, 1614, ff. 51, 52, and many other - places. - - [596] Don Quixote, ed. Pellicer, Parte II. c. 11, with the notes. - -In 1654, when they were at the height of their success, Aarsens de -Somerdyck, an accomplished Dutch traveller, gives us an account of them -as he witnessed their exhibition at Madrid.[597] In the forenoon of -the festival, he says, a procession occurred such as we have seen was -usual in the time of Lope de Vega, where the king and court appeared -without distinction of rank, preceded by two fantastic figures of -giants, and sometimes by the grotesque form of the _Tarasca_,--one of -which, we are told, in a pleasant story of Santos, passing by night -from a place where it had been exhibited the preceding day to one -where it was to be exhibited the day following, so alarmed a body of -muleteers who accidentally met it, that they roused up the country, -as if a real monster were come among them to lay waste the land.[598] -These misshapen figures and all this strange procession, with music -of hautboys, tambourines, and castanets, with banners, and religious -shows, followed the sacrament through the streets for some hours, and -then returned to the principal church, and were dismissed. - - [597] Voyage d’Espagne, Cologne, 1667, 18mo, with Barbier, - Dictionnaire d’Anonymes, Paris, 1824, 8vo, No. 19,281. The _auto_ - which the Dutch traveller saw was, no doubt, one of Calderon’s; - since Calderon then, and for a long time before and after, - furnished the _autos_ for the city of Madrid. Madame d’Aulnoy - describes the same gorgeous procession as she saw it in 1679, - (Voyage, ed. 1693, Tom. III. pp. 52-55), with the impertinent - _auto_, as she calls it, that was performed that year. - - [598] La Verdad en el Potro, Madrid, 1686, 12mo, pp. 291, 292. - The Dutch traveller had heard the same story, but tells it less - well. (Voyage, p. 121.) The Tarasca was no doubt excessively - ugly. Montalvan (Comedias, Madrid, 4to, 1638, f. 13) alludes to - it for its monstrous deformity. - -In the afternoon they assembled again and performed the _autos_, on -that and many successive days, before the houses of the great officers -of state, where the audience stood either in the balconies that would -command a view of the exhibition, or else in the streets. The giants -and the Tarascas were there to make sport for the multitude; the music -came, that all might dance who chose; torches were added to give effect -to the scene, though the performance was only by daylight; and the king -and the royal family enjoyed the exhibition, sitting in state under a -magnificent canopy in front of the stage prepared for the occasion. - -As soon as the principal personages were seated, the _loa_ was spoken -or sung; then came a farcical _entremes_; afterwards the _auto_ itself; -and finally, something by way of conclusion that would contribute to -the general amusement, like music or dancing. And this was continued, -in different parts of the city, daily for a month, during which the -theatres were shut and the regular actors were employed in the streets, -in the service of the Church.[599] - - [599] C. Pellicer, Orígen de las Comedias, 1804, Tom. I. p. 258. - -Of the entertainments of this sort which Calderon furnished for Madrid, -Toledo, and Seville, he has left, as has been said, no less than -seventy-three. They are all allegorical, and all, by the music and show -with which they abounded, are nearer to operas than any other class -of dramas then known in Spain; some of them reminding us, by their -religious extravagance, of the treatment of the gods in the plays of -Aristophanes, and others, by their spirit and richness, of the poetical -masques of Ben Jonson. They are upon a great variety of subjects, and -show, by their structure, that elaborate and costly machinery must have -been used in their representation. - -Including the _loa_ that accompanied each, those of Calderon are nearly -or quite as long as the full-length plays which he wrote for the -secular theatre. Some of them indicate their subjects by their titles, -like “The First and Second Isaac,” “God’s Vineyard,” and “Ruth’s -Gleanings.” Others, like “The True God Pan” and “The First Flower -of Carmel,” give no such intimations. All are crowded with shadowy -personages, such as Sin, Death, Mohammedanism, Judaism, Justice, Mercy, -and Charity; and the uniform purpose and end of all is to set forth and -glorify the doctrine of the Real Presence in the Eucharist. The great -Enemy of man, of course, fills a large space in them,--Quevedo says too -large, adding, that, at last, he had grown to be quite a presuming and -vainglorious personage, coming on the stage dressed finely, and talking -as if the theatre were altogether his own.[600] - - [600] Quevedo, Obras, 1791, Tom. I. p. 386. - -There is necessarily a good deal of sameness in the structure of dramas -like these; but it is wonderful with what ingenuity Calderon has varied -his allegories, sometimes mingling them with the national history, -as in the case of the two _autos_ on Saint Ferdinand; oftener with -incidents and stories from Scripture, like “The Brazen Serpent” and -“The Captivity of the Ark”; and always, where he could, seizing any -popular occasion to produce an effect, as he did after the completion -of the Escurial and of the Buen Retiro, and after the marriage of the -Infanta María Teresa; each of which events contributed materials for a -separate _auto_. Almost all of them have passages of striking lyrical -poetry; and a few, of which “Devotion to the Mass” is the chief, make a -free use of the old ballads. - -One of the most characteristic of the collection, and one that has -considerable poetical merit in separate passages, is “The Divine -Orpheus.”[601] It opens with the entrance of a huge black car, in the -shape of a boat, which is drawn along the street toward the stage where -the _auto_ is to be acted, and contains the Prince of Darkness, set -forth as a pirate, and Envy, as his steersman; both supposed to be thus -navigating through a portion of chaos. They hear, at a distance, sweet -music which proceeds from another car, advancing from the opposite -quarter in the form of a celestial globe, covered with the signs of -the planets and constellations, and containing Orpheus, who represents -allegorically the Creator of all things. This is followed by a third -car, setting forth the terrestrial globe, within which are the Seven -Days of the Week, and Human Nature, all asleep. These cars open, so -that the personages they contain can come upon the stage and retire -back again, as if behind the scenes, at their pleasure;--the machines -themselves constituting, in this as in all such representations, an -important part of the scenic arrangements of the exhibition, and, in -the popular estimation, not unfrequently the most important part. - - [601] It is in the fourth volume of the edition printed at Madrid - in 1759. - -On their arrival at the stage, the Divine Orpheus, with lyric poetry -and music, begins the work of creation, using always language borrowed -from Scripture; and at the suitable moment, as he advances, each Day -presents itself, roused from its ancient sleep and clothed with symbols -indicating the nature of the work that has been accomplished; after -which, Human Nature is, in the same way, summoned forth, and appears -in the form of a beautiful woman, who is the Eurydice of the fable. -Pleasure dwells with her in Paradise; and, in her exuberant happiness, -she sings a hymn in honor of her Creator, founded on the hundred and -thirty-sixth Psalm, the poetical effect of which is destroyed by an -unbecoming scene of allegorical gallantry that immediately follows -between the Divine Orpheus himself and Human Nature. - -The temptation and fall succeed; and then the graceful Days, which had -before always accompanied Human Nature and scattered gladness in her -path, disappear one by one, and leave her to her trials and her sins. -She is overwhelmed with remorse, and, endeavouring to escape from the -consequences of her guilt, is conveyed by the bark of Lethe to the -realms of the Prince of Darkness, who, from his first appearance on -the scene, has been laboring, with his coadjutor, Envy, for this very -triumph. But his triumph is short. The Divine Orpheus, who has, for -some time, represented the character of our Saviour, comes upon the -stage, weeping over the fall, and sings a song of love and grief to -the accompaniment of a harp made partly in the form of a cross; after -which, rousing himself in his omnipotence, he enters the realms of -darkness, amidst thunders and earthquakes; overcomes all opposition; -rescues Human Nature from perdition; places her, with the seven -redeemed Days of the Week, on a fourth car, in the form of a ship, -so ornamented as to represent the Christian Church and the mystery -of the Eucharist; and then, as the gorgeous machine sweeps away, the -exhibition ends with the shouts of the actors in the drama, accompanied -by the answering shouts of the spectators on their knees wishing the -good ship a good voyage and a happy arrival at her destined port. - -That these Sacramental Acts produced a great effect, there can be -no doubt. Allegory of all kinds, which, from the earliest periods, -had been attractive to the Spanish people, still continued so to an -extraordinary degree; and the imposing show of the _autos_, their -music, and the fact that they were represented in seasons of solemn -leisure, at the expense of the government, and with the sanction of the -Church, gave them claims on the popular favor which were enjoyed by no -other form of popular amusement. They were written and acted everywhere -throughout the country, and by all classes of people, because they -were everywhere demanded. How humble were some of their exhibitions in -the villages and hamlets may be seen in Roxas, who gives an account -of an _auto_ of Cain and Abel, in which two actors performed all the -parts;[602] and from Lope de Vega[603] and Cervantes,[604] who speak -of their being written by barbers and acted by shepherds. On the other -hand, we know that in Madrid no expense was spared to add to their -solemnity and effect, and that everywhere they had the countenance -and support of the public authorities. Nor has their influence even -yet entirely ceased. In 1765, Charles the Third forbade their public -representation; but the popular will and the habits of five centuries -could not be immediately broken down by a royal decree. _Autos_, -therefore, or dramatic religious farces resembling them, are still -heard in some of the remote villages of the country; while, in the -former dependencies of Spain, exhibitions of the same class and nature, -if not precisely of the same form, have never been interfered with.[605] - - [602] Viage, 1614, ff. 35-37. - - [603] Lope de Vega, Comedias, Tom. IX., Barcelona, 1618, f. 133, - El Animal de Ungria. - - [604] Don Quixote, Parte I. c. xii. - - [605] Doblado’s Letters, 1822, pp. 296, 301, 303-309; Madame - Calderon’s Life in Mexico, London, 1843, Letters 38 and 39; - and Thompson’s Recollections of Mexico, New York, 1846, 8vo, - Chap. 11. How much the _autos_ were valued to the last, even - by respectable ecclesiastics, may be inferred from the grave - admiration bestowed on them by Martin Panzano, chaplain to the - Spanish embassy at Turin, in his Latin treatise, “De Hispanorum - Literatura,” (Mantuæ, 1759, folio), intended as a defence of his - country’s literary claims, in which, speaking of the _autos_ of - Calderon, only a few years before they were forbidden, he says - they were dramas, “in quibus neque in inveniendo acumen, nec in - disponendo ratio, neque in ornando aut venustas, aut nitor, aut - majestas desiderantur.”--p. lxxv. - - * * * * * - -Of _full-length religious plays and plays of saints_ Calderon wrote, -in all, thirteen or fourteen. This was, no doubt, necessary to his -success; for at one time during his career, such plays were much -demanded. The death of Queen Isabella, in 1644, and of Balthasar, the -heir-apparent, in 1646, caused a suspension of public representations -on the theatres, and revived the question of their lawfulness. New -rules were prescribed about the number of actors and their costumes, -and an attempt was made even to drive from the theatre all plays -involving the passion of love, and especially all the plays of Lope -de Vega. This irritable state of things continued till 1649. But -nothing of consequence followed. The regulations that were made were -not executed in the spirit in which they were conceived. Many plays -were announced and acted as religious which had no claim whatever -to the title; and others, religious in their external framework, -were filled up with an intriguing love-plot, as free as any thing in -the secular drama had been. Indeed, there can be no doubt that the -attempts thus made to constrain the theatre were successfully opposed -or evaded, especially by private representations in the houses of the -nobility;[606] and that, when these attempts were given up, the drama, -with all its old attributes and attractions, broke forth with a greater -extravagance of popularity than ever;[607]--a fact apparent from the -crowd of dramatists that became famous, and from the circumstance -that so many of the clergy, like Tarraga, Mira de Mescua, Montalvan, -Tirso de Molina, and Calderon, to say nothing of Lope de Vega, who -was particularly exact in his duties as a priest, were all successful -writers for the stage.[608] - - [606] These representations in private houses had long been - common. Bisbe y Vidal (Tratado, 1618, c. 18) speaks of them as - familiar in Barcelona, and treats them, in his otherwise severe - attack on the theatre, with a gentleness that shows he recognized - their influence. - - [607] It is not easy to make out how much the theatre was really - interfered with during these four or five years; but the dramatic - writers seem to have felt themselves constrained in their course, - more or less, for a part of that time, if not the whole of it. - The accounts are to be found in Casiano Pellicer, Orígen, etc., - de la Comedia, Tom. I. pp. 216-222, and Tom. II. p. 135;--a work - important, but ill digested. Conde, the historian, once told - me, that its materials were furnished chiefly by the author’s - father, the learned editor of Don Quixote, and that the son did - not know how to put them together. A few hints and facts on the - subject of the secular drama of this period may also be found in - Ulloa y Pereira’s defence of it, written apparently to meet the - particular case, but not published till his works appeared in - Madrid, 1674, 4to. He contends that there was never any serious - purpose to break up the theatre, and that even Philip II. meant - only to regulate, not to suppress it. (p. 343.) Don Luis Crespé - de Borja, Bishop of Orihuela and ambassador of Philip IV. at - Rome, who had previously favored the theatre, made, in Lent, - 1646, an attack on it in a sermon, which, when published three - years afterwards, excited a considerable sensation, and was - answered by Andres de Avila y Heredia, el Señor de la Garena, and - sustained by Padre Ignacio Camargo. But nothing of this sort much - hindered or helped the progress of the drama in Spain. - - [608] The clergy writing loose and immoral plays is only one - exemplification of the unsound state of society so often set - forth in Madame d’Aulnoy’s Travels in Spain, in 1679-80;--a - curious and amusing book, which sometimes throws a strong - light on the nature of the religious spirit that so frequently - surprises us in Spanish literature. Thus, when she is giving - an account of the constant use made of the rosary or chaplet - of beads,--a well-known passion in Spain, connected, perhaps, - with the Mohammedan origin of the rosary, of which the Christian - rosary was made a rival,--she says, “They are going over - their beads constantly when they are in the streets, and in - conversation; when they are playing _ombre_, making love, telling - lies, or talking scandal. In short, they are for ever muttering - over their chaplets; and even in the most ceremonious society it - goes on just the same; how devoutly you may guess. But custom is - very potent in this country.” Ed. 1693, Tom. II. p. 124. - -Of the religious plays of Calderon, one of the most remarkable is -“The Purgatory of Saint Patrick.” It is founded on the little volume -by Montalvan, already referred to, in which the old traditions of an -entrance into Purgatory from a cave in an island off the coast of -Ireland, or in Ireland itself, are united to the fictitious history -of Ludovico Enio, a Spaniard, who, except that he is converted by -Saint Patrick and “makes a good ending,” is no better than another -Don Juan.[609] The strange play in which these are principal figures -opens with a shipwreck. Saint Patrick and the godless Enio drift ashore -and find themselves in Ireland,--the sinner being saved from drowning -by the vigorous exertions of the saint. The king of the country, who -immediately appears on the stage, is an atheist, furious against -Christianity; and after an exhibition, which is not without poetry, -of the horrors of savage heathendom, Saint Patrick is sent as a slave -into the interior of the island, to work for this brutal master. The -first act ends with his arrival at his destination, where, in the open -fields, after a fervent prayer, he is comforted by an angel, and warned -of the will of Heaven, that he should convert his oppressors. - - [609] The “Vida y Purgatorio del Glorioso San Patricio,” of - which I have a copy, (Madrid, 1739, 18mo), was long a popular - book of devotion, both in Spanish and in French. That Calderon - used it is obvious throughout his play. Wright, however, in his - pleasant work on St. Patrick’s Purgatory, (London, 1844, 12mo, - pp. 156-159), supposes that the French book of devotion was made - up chiefly from Calderon’s play; whereas they resemble each other - only because both were taken from the Spanish prose work of - Montalvan. See _ante_, p. 298. - -Before the second act opens, three years elapse, during which Saint -Patrick has visited Rome and been regularly commissioned for his -great work in Ireland, where he now appears, ready to undertake it. -He immediately performs miracles of all kinds, and, among the rest, -raises the dead before the audience; but still the old heathen king -refuses to be converted, unless the very Purgatory, Hell, and Paradise -preached to him are made sure to the senses of some well-known witness. -This, therefore, is Divinely vouchsafed to the intercession of Saint -Patrick. A communication with the unseen world is opened through a dark -and frightful cave. Enio, the godless Spaniard, already converted by -an alarming vision, enters it and witnesses its dread secrets; after -which he returns, and effects the conversion of the king and court by a -long description of what he had seen,--a description which is the only -catastrophe to the play. - -Besides its religious story, the Purgatory of Saint Patrick has -a love-plot, such as might become the most secular drama, and a -_gracioso_ as rude and free-spoken as the rudest of his class.[610] -But the whole was intended to produce what was then regarded as a -religious effect; and there is no reason to suppose that it failed of -its purpose. There is, however, much in it that would be grotesque and -unseemly under any system of faith; some wearying metaphysics; and two -speeches of Enio’s, each above three hundred lines long,--the first an -account of his shameful life before his conversion, and the last a -narrative of all he had witnessed in the cave, absurdly citing for its -truth fourteen or fifteen obscure monkish authorities, all of which -belong to a period subsequent to his own.[611] Such as it is, however, -the Purgatory of Saint Patrick is commonly ranked among the best -religious plays of the Spanish theatre in the seventeenth century. - - [610] When Enio determines to adventure into the cave of - Purgatory, he gravely urges his servant, who is the _gracioso_ of - the piece, to go with him; to which the servant replies,-- - - I never heard before, that any man - Took lackey with him when he went to hell! - No,--to my native village will I haste, - Where I can live in something like content; - Or, if the matter must to goblins come, - I think my wife will prove enough of one - For my purgation. - - Comedias, 1760, Tom. II. p. 264. - - There is, however, a good deal that is solemn in this wild drama. - Enio, when he goes to the infernal world, talks, in the spirit of - Dante himself, of - - Treading on the very ghosts of men. - - [611] See Chapters 4 and 6 of Montalvan’s “Patricio.” - -It is, indeed, on many accounts, less offensive than the more famous -drama, “Devotion to the Cross,” which is founded on the adventures of -a man who, though his life is a tissue of gross and atrocious crimes, -is yet made an object of the especial favor of God, because he shows a -uniform external reverence for whatever has the form of a cross; and -who, dying in a ruffian brawl, as a robber, is yet, in consequence of -this devotion to the cross, miraculously restored to life, that he may -confess his sins, be absolved, and then be transported directly to -heaven. The whole seems to be absolutely an invention of Calderon, and, -from the fervent poetical tone of some of its devotional passages, it -has always been a favorite in Spain, and, what is yet more remarkable, -has found admirers in Protestant Christendom.[612] - - [612] It is beautifully translated by A. W. Schlegel. A drama of - Tirso de Molina, “El Condenado por Desconfiado,” goes still more - profoundly into the peculiar religious faith of the age, and may - well be compared with this play of Calderon, which it preceded. - It represents a reverend hermit, Paulo, as losing the favor of - God, simply from want of trust in it; while Enrico, a robber and - assassin, obtains that favor by an exercise of faith and trust - at the last moment of a life which had been filled with the most - revolting crimes. - -“The Wonder-working Magician,” founded on the story of Saint -Cyprian,--the same legend on which Milman has founded his “Martyr of -Antioch,”--is, however, more attractive than either of the dramas just -mentioned, and, like “El Joseph de las Mugeres,” reminds us of Goethe’s -“Faust.” It opens--after one of those pleasing descriptions of natural -scenery in which Calderon loves to indulge--with an account by Cyprian, -still unconverted, of his retirement, on a day devoted to the service -of Jupiter, from the bustle and confusion of the city of Antioch, in -order to spend the time in inquiries concerning the existence of One -Supreme Deity. As he seems likely to arrive at conclusions not far -from the truth, Satan, to whom such a result would be particularly -unwelcome, breaks in upon his studies, and, in the dress of a fine -gentleman, announces himself to be a man of learning, who has -accidentally lost his way. In imitation of a fashion not rare among -scholars at European universities, in the poet’s time, this personage -offers to hold a dispute with Cyprian on any subject whatever. Cyprian -naturally chooses the one that then troubled his thoughts; and after a -long, logical discussion, according to the discipline of the schools, -obtains a clear victory,--though not without feeling enough of his -adversary’s power and genius to express a sincere admiration for both. -The evil spirit, however, though defeated, is not discouraged, and goes -away, determined to try the power of temptation. - -For this purpose he brings upon the stage Lelius, son of the governor -of Antioch, and Florus,--both friends of Cyprian,--who come to fight -a duel, near the place of his present retirement, concerning a fair -lady named Justina, against whose gentle innocence the Spirit of all -Evil is particularly incensed. Cyprian interferes; the parties refer -their quarrel to him; he visits Justina, who is secretly a Christian, -and supposes herself to be the daughter of a Christian priest; but, -unhappily, Cyprian, instead of executing his commission, falls -desperately in love with her; while, in order to make out the running -parody on the principal action, common in Spanish plays, the two -lackeys of Cyprian are both found to be in love with Justina’s maid. - -Now, of course, begins the complication of a truly Spanish intrigue, -for which all that precedes it is only a preparation. That same night, -Lelius and Floras, the two original rivals for the love of Justina, who -favors neither of them, come separately before her window to offer her -a serenade, and while there, Satan deceives them both into a confident -belief that the lady is disgracefully attached to some other person; -for he himself, in the guise of a gallant, descends from her balcony, -before their eyes, by a rope-ladder, and, having reached the bottom, -sinks into the ground between the two. As they did not see each other -till after his disappearance, though both had seen him, each takes the -other to be this favored rival, and a duel ensues on the spot. Cyprian -again opportunely interferes, but, having understood nothing of the -vision or the rope-ladder, is astonished to find that both renounce -Justina, as no longer worthy their regard. And thus ends the first act. - -In the other two acts, Satan is still a busy, bustling personage. He -appears in different forms; first, as if just escaped from shipwreck; -and afterwards, as a fashionable gallant; but uniformly for mischief. -The Christians, meantime, through his influence, are persecuted. -Cyprian’s love grows desperate; and he sells his soul to the Spirit -of Evil for the possession of Justina. The temptation of the fair -Christian maiden is then carried on in all possible ways; especially -in a beautiful lyrical allegory, where all things about her--the -birds, the flowers, the balmy air--are made to solicit her to love -with gentle and winning voices. But in every way the temptation fails. -Satan’s utmost power is defied and defeated by the mere spirit of -innocence. Cyprian, too, yields, and becomes a Christian, and with -Justina is immediately brought before the governor, already exasperated -by discovering that his own son is a lover of the fair convert. Both -are ordered to instant execution; the buffoon servants make many poor -jests on the occasion; and the piece ends by the appearance on a dragon -of Satan himself, who is compelled to confess the power of the Supreme -Deity, which, in the first scenes, he had denied, and to proclaim, -amidst thunder and earthquakes, that Cyprian and Justina are already -enjoying the happiness won by their glorious martyrdom.[613] - - [613] An interesting, but somewhat too metaphysical, discussion - of the character of this play, with prefatory remarks on the - general merits of Calderon, by Karl Rosenkranz, appeared at - Leipzig in 1829, (12mo), entitled, “Ueber Calderon’s Tragödie vom - wunderthätigen Magus.” - -Few pieces contain more that is characteristic of the old Spanish stage -than this one; and fewer still show so plainly how the civil restraints -laid on the theatre were evaded, and the Church was conciliated, while -the popular audiences lost nothing of the forbidden amusement to which -they had been long accustomed from the secular drama.[614] Of such -plays Calderon wrote fifteen, if we include in the number his “Aurora -in Copacabana,” which is on the conquest and conversion of the Indians -in Peru; and his “Origin, Loss, and Recovery of the Virgin of the -Reliquary,”--a strange collection of legends, extending over above four -centuries, full of the spirit of the old ballads, and relating to an -image of the Madonna still devoutly worshipped in the great cathedral -at Toledo. - - [614] How completely a light, worldly tone was taken in these - plays may be seen in the following words of the Madonna, when - she personally gives St. Ildefonso a rich vestment,--the - _chasuble_,--in which he is to say mass:-- - - Receive this robe, that, at my holy feast, - Thou mayst be seen as such a gallant should be. - My taste must be consulted in thy dress, - Like that of any other famous lady. - - Comedias, 1760, Tom. VI. p. 113. - - The lightness of tone in this passage is the more remarkable, - because the miracle alluded to in it is the crowning glory of the - great cathedral of Toledo, on which volumes have been written, - and on which Murillo has painted one of his greatest and most - solemn pictures. - - Figueroa (Pasagero, 1617, ff. 104-106) says, with much truth, - in the midst of his severe remarks on the drama of his time, - that the _comedias de santos_ were so constructed, that the - first act contained the youth of the saint, with his follies and - love-adventures; the second, his conversion and subsequent life; - and the third, his miracles and death; but that they often had - loose and immoral stories to render them attractive. But they - were of all varieties; and it is curious, in such a collection - dramas as the one in forty-eight volumes, extending over the - period from 1652 to 1704, to mark in how many ways the theatre - endeavoured to conciliate the Church; some of the plays being - filled entirely with saints, demons, angels, and allegorical - personages, and deserving the character given to the “Fenix de - España,” (Tom. XLIII., 1678), of being sermons in the shape of - plays; while others are mere intriguing comedies, with an angel - or a saint put in to consecrate their immoralities, like “La - Defensora de la Reyna de Ungria,” by Fernando de Zarate, in Tom. - XXIX., 1668. - - In other countries of Christendom besides those in which the - Church of Rome bears sway, this sort of irreverence in relation - to things divine has more or less shown itself among persons - accounting themselves religious. The Puritans of England in the - days of Cromwell, from their belief in the constant interference - of Providence about their affairs, sometimes addressed - supplications to God in a spirit not more truly devout than that - shown by the Spaniards in their _autos_ and their _comedias - de santos_. Both felt themselves to be peculiarly regarded of - Heaven, and entitled to make the most peremptory claims on the - Divine favor and the most free allusions to what they deemed - holy. But no people ever felt themselves to be so absolutely - soldiers of the cross as the Spaniards did, from the time of - their Moorish wars; no people ever trusted so constantly to the - recurrence of miracles in the affairs of their daily life; and - therefore no people ever talked of divine things as of matters in - their nature so familiar and commonplace. Traces of this state of - feeling and character are to be found in Spanish literature on - all sides. - - - - -CHAPTER XXIII. - -CALDERON, CONTINUED.--HIS SECULAR PLAYS.--DIFFICULTY OF CLASSIFYING -THEM.--THEIR PRINCIPAL INTEREST.--NATURE OF THEIR PLOTS.--LOVE SURVIVES -LIFE.--PHYSICIAN OF HIS OWN HONOR.--PAINTER OF HIS OWN DISHONOR.--NO -MONSTER LIKE JEALOUSY.--FIRM-HEARTED PRINCE. - - -Passing from the religious plays of Calderon to the secular, we at -once encounter an embarrassment which we have already felt in other -cases,--that of dividing them all into distinct and appropriate -classes. It is even difficult to determine, in every instance, -whether the piece we are considering belongs to one of the religious -subdivisions of his dramas or not; for the “Wonder-working Magician,” -for instance, is hardly less an intriguing play than “First of -all my Lady”; and “Aurora in Copacabana” is as full of spiritual -personages and miracles, as if it were not, in the main, a love-story. -But, even after setting this difficulty aside, as we have done, by -examining separately all the dramas of Calderon that can, in any -way, be accounted religious, it is not possible to make a definite -classification of the remainder. - -Some of them, such as “Nothing like Silence,” are absolutely intriguing -comedies, and belong strictly to the school of the _capa y espada_; -others, like “A Friend Loving and Loyal,” are purely heroic, both -in their structure and their tone; and a few others, such as “Love -survives Life,” and “The Physician of his own Honor,” belong to the -most terrible inspirations of genuine tragedy. Twice, in a different -direction, we have operas, which are yet nothing but plays in the -national taste, with music added;[615] and once we have a burlesque -drama,--“Cephalus and Procris,”--in which, using the language of the -populace, he parodies an earlier and successful performance of his -own.[616] But, in the great majority of cases, the boundaries of no -class are respected; and in many of them even more than two forms of -the drama melt imperceptibly into each other. Especially in those -pieces whose subjects are taken from known history, sacred or profane, -or from the recognized fictions of mythology or romance, there is -frequently a confusion that seems as though it were intended to set all -classification at defiance.[617] - - [615] “La Púrpura de la Rosa” and “Las Fortunas de Andrómeda - y Perseo” are both of them plays in the national taste, and - yet were sung throughout. The last is taken from Ovid’s - Metamorphoses, Lib. IV. and V., and was produced before the court - with a magnificent theatrical apparatus. The first, which was - written in honor of the marriage of Louis XIV. with the Infanta - Maria Teresa, 1660, was also taken from Ovid (Met., Lib. X.); and - in the _loa_ that precedes it we are told expressly, “The play - is to be _wholly_ in music, and is intended to _introduce_ this - style among us, that other nations may see they have competitors - for those distinctions of which they boast.” Operas in Spain, - however, never had any permanent success, though they had in - Portugal. - - [616] “Zelos aun del Ayre matan,” which Calderon parodied, is on - the same subject with his “Cephalus and Procris,” to which he - added, not very appropriately, the story of Erostratus and the - burning of the temple of Diana. - - [617] For instance, the “Armas de la Hermosura,” on the story of - Coriolanus; and the “Mayor Encanto Amor,” on the story of Ulysses. - -Still, in this confusion there was a principle of order, and perhaps -even a dramatic theory. For--if we except “Luis Perez the Galician,” -which is a series of sketches to bring out the character of a notorious -robber, and a few show pieces, presented on particular occasions to -the court with great magnificence--all Calderon’s full-length dramas -depend for their success on the interest excited by an involved plot, -constructed out of surprising incidents.[618] He avows this himself, -when he declares one of them to be-- - - [618] Calderon was famous for what are called _coups de théâtre_; - so famous, that _lances_ de Calderon became a sort of proverb. - - The most surprising tale - Which, in the dramas of Castile, a wit - Acute hath yet traced out, and on the stage - With tasteful skill produced.[619] - - [619] - La _novela_ mas notable - Que en Castellanas comedias, - Sutil el ingenio traza - Y gustoso representa. - - El Alcayde de sí mismo, Jorn. II. - -And again, where he says of another,-- - - This is a play of Pedro Calderon, - Upon whose scene you never fail to find - A hidden lover or a lady fair - Most cunningly disguised.[620] - - [620] No hay Burlas con el Amor, Jorn. II. - -But to this principle of making a story which shall sustain an eager -interest throughout Calderon has sacrificed almost as much as Lope de -Vega did. The facts of history and geography are not felt for a moment -as limits or obstacles. Coriolanus is a general who has served under -Romulus; and Veturia, his wife, is one of the ravished Sabines.[621] -The Danube, which must have been almost as well known to a Madrid -audience from the time of Charles the Fifth as the Tagus, is placed -between Russia and Sweden.[622] Jerusalem is on the sea-coast.[623] -Herodotus is made to describe America.[624] - - [621] Armas de la Hermosura, Jorn. I., II. - - [622] Afectos de Odio y Amor, Jorn. II. - - [623] El Mayor Monstruo los Zelos, Jorn. III. - - [624] La Vírgen del Sagrario, Jorn. I. The pious bishop who is - here represented as talking of America, on the authority of - Herodotus, is, at the same time, supposed to live seven or eight - centuries before America was discovered. - -How absurd all this was Calderon knew as well as any body. Once, -indeed, he makes a jest of it all; for one of his ancient Roman clowns, -who is about to tell a story, begins,-- - - A friar,--but that ’s not right,--there are no friars - As yet in Rome.[625] - - [625] - Un frayle,--mas no es bueno,-- - Porque aun no ay en Roma frayles. - - Los Dos Amantes del Cielo, Jorn. III. - -Nor is the preservation of national or individual character, except -perhaps the Moorish, a matter of any more moment in his eyes. Ulysses -and Circe sit down, as if in a saloon at Madrid, and, gathering an -academy of cavaliers and ladies about them, discuss questions of -metaphysical gallantry. Saint Eugenia does the same thing at Alexandria -in the third century. And Judas Maccabæus, Herod the tetrarch of Judea, -Jupangui the Inca of Peru, and Zenobia, are all, in their general -air, as much Spaniards of the time of Philip the Fourth, as if they -had never lived anywhere except at his court.[626] But we rarely miss -the interest and charm of a dramatic story, sustained by a rich and -flowing versification, and by long narrative passages, in which the -most ingenious turns of phraseology are employed in order to provoke -curiosity and enchain attention. - - [626] El Mayor Encanto Amor, Jorn. II.; El Joseph de las Mugeres, - Jorn. III., etc. - -No doubt, this is not the dramatic interest to which we are most -accustomed and which we most value. But still it is a dramatic -interest, and dramatic effects are produced by it. We are not to judge -Calderon by the example of Shakspeare, any more than we are to judge -Shakspeare by the example of Sophocles. The “Arabian Nights” are not -the less brilliant because the admirable practical fictions of Miss -Edgeworth are so different. The gallant audiences of Madrid still -give the full measure of an intelligent admiration to the dramas of -Calderon, as their fathers did; and even the poor Alguacil, who sat as -a guard of ceremony on the stage while the “Niña de Gomez Arias” was -acting, was so deluded by the cunning of the scene, that, when a noble -Spanish lady was dragged forward to be sold to the Moors, he sprang, -sword in hand, among the performers to prevent it.[627] It is in vain -to say that dramas which produce such effects are not dramatic. The -testimony of two centuries and of a whole nation proves the contrary. - - [627] Huerta, Teatro Hespañol, Parte II., Tom I., Prólogo, p. - vii. La Niña de Gomez Arias, Jorn. III. - -Admitting, then, that the plays of Calderon are really dramas, and that -their basis is to be sought in the structure of their plots, we can -examine them in the spirit, at least, in which they were originally -written. And if, while thus inquiring into their character and -merits, we fix our attention on the different degrees in which love, -jealousy, and a lofty and sensitive honor and loyalty enter into their -composition and give life and movement to their respective actions, we -shall hardly fail to form a right estimate of what Calderon did for the -Spanish secular theatre in its highest departments. - -Under the first head,--that of the passion of love,--one of the most -prominent of Calderon’s plays occurs early in the collection of his -works, and is entitled “Love survives Life.” It is founded on events -that happened in the rebellion of the Moors of Granada which broke out -in 1568, and though some passages in it bear traces of the history -of Mendoza,[628] yet it is mainly taken from the half fanciful, -half-serious narrative of Hita, where its chief details are recorded -as unquestionable facts.[629] The action occupies about five years, -beginning three years before the absolute outbreak of the insurgents, -and ending with their final overthrow. - - [628] Compare the eloquent speeches of El Zaguer, in Mendoza, ed. - 1776, Lib. I. p. 29, and Malec, in Calderon, Jorn. I.; or the - description of the Alpujarras, in the same _jornada_, with that - of Mendoza, p. 43, etc. - - [629] The story of Tuzani is found in Chapters XXII., XXIII., and - XXIV. of the second volume of Hita’s “Guerras de Granada,” and - is the best part of it. Hita says he had the account from Tuzani - himself, long afterwards, at Madrid, and it is not unlikely that - a great part of it is true. Calderon, though sometimes using its - very words, makes considerable alterations in it, to bring it - within the forms of the drama; but the leading facts are the same - in both cases, and the story belongs to Hita. - -The first act passes in the city of Granada, and explains the -intention of the conspirators to throw off the Spanish yoke, which -had become intolerable. Tuzani, the hero, is quickly brought to the -foreground of the piece by his attachment to Clara Malec, whose aged -father, dishonored by a blow from a Spaniard, causes the rebellion -to break out somewhat prematurely. Tuzani at once seeks the haughty -offender. A duel follows, and is described with great spirit; but it is -interrupted,[630] and the parties separate, to renew their quarrel on a -bloodier theatre. - - [630] While they are fighting in a room, with locked doors, - suddenly there is a great bustle and calling without. Mendoza, - the Spaniard, asks his adversary,-- - - What’s to be done? - - _Tuzani._ First let one fall, and the survivor then - May open straight the doors. - - _Mendoza._ Well said. - -The second act opens three years afterwards, in the mountains south -of Granada, where the insurgents are strongly posted, and where they -are attacked by Don John of Austria, represented as coming fresh from -the great victory at Lepanto, which yet happened, as Calderon and -his audience well knew, a year after this rebellion was quelled. The -marriage of Tuzani and Clara is hardly celebrated, when he is hurried -away from her by one of the chances of war; the fortress where the -ceremonies had taken place falling suddenly into the hands of the -Spaniards. Clara, who had remained in it, is murdered in the _mêlée_ -by a Spanish soldier, for the sake of her rich bridal jewels; and -though Tuzani arrives in season to witness her death, he is too late to -intercept or recognize the murderer. - -From this moment, darkness settles on the scene. Tuzani’s character -changes, or seems to change, in an instant, and his whole Moorish -nature is stirred to its deepest foundations. The surface, it is true, -remains, for a time, as calm as ever. He disguises himself carefully -in Castilian armour, and glides into the enemy’s camp in quest of -vengeance, with that fearfully cool resolution which marks, indeed, -the predominance of one great passion, but shows that all the others -are roused to contribute to its concentrated energy. The ornaments of -Clara enable her lover to trace out the murderer. But he makes himself -perfectly sure of his proper victim by coolly listening to a minute -description of Clara’s beauty and of the circumstances attending her -death; and when the Spaniard ends by saying, “I pierced her heart,” -Tuzani springs upon him like a tiger, crying out, “And was the blow -like this?” and strikes him dead at his feet. The Moor is surrounded, -and is recognized by the Spaniards as the fiercest of their enemies; -but, even from the very presence of Don John of Austria, he cuts his -way through all opposition, and escapes to the mountains. Hita says he -afterwards knew him personally. - -The power of this painful tragedy consists in the living impression -it gives us of a pure and elevated love, contrasted with the wild -elements of the age in which it is placed;--the whole being idealized -by passing through Calderon’s excited imagination, but still, in the -main, taken from history and resting on known facts. Regarded in this -light, it is a solemn exhibition of violence, disaster, and hopeless -rebellion, through whose darkening scenes we are led by that burning -love which has marked the Arab wherever he has been found, and by that -proud sense of honor which did not forsake him as he slowly retired, -disheartened and defeated, from the rich empire he had so long enjoyed -in Western Europe. We are even hurried by the course of the drama into -the presence of whatever is most odious in war, and should be revolted, -as we are made to witness, with our own eyes, its guiltiest horrors; -but in the midst of all, the form of Clara rises, a beautiful vision of -womanly love, before whose gentleness the tumults of the conflict seem, -at least, to be hushed; while, from first to last, in the characters of -Don John of Austria, Lope de Figueroa,[631] and Garcés, on one side, -and the venerable Malec and the fiery Tuzani, on the other, we are -dazzled by a show of the times that Calderon brings before us, and of -the passions which deeply marked the two most romantic nations that -were ever brought into a conflict so direct. - - [631] This character of Lope de Figueroa may serve as a - specimen of the way in which Calderon gave life and interest - to many of his dramas. Lope is an historical personage, and - figures largely in the second volume of Hita’s “Guerras,” as - well as elsewhere. He was the commander under whom Cervantes - served in Italy, and probably in Portugal, when he was in the - _Tercio de Flándes_,--the Flanders regiment,--one of the best - bodies of troops in the armies of Philip II. Lope de Figueroa - appears again, and still more prominently, in another good play - of Calderon, “El Alcalde de Zalamea,” the last in the common - collection. Its hero is a peasant, finely sketched, partly from - Lope de Vega’s Mendo, in the “Cuerdo en su Casa”; and it is said - at the end that it is a true story, whose scene is laid in 1581, - at the very time Philip II. was advancing toward Lisbon, and when - Cervantes was probably with this regiment at Zalamea. - -The play of “Love survives Life,” so far as its plot is concerned, -is founded on the passionate love of Tuzani and Clara, without any -intermixture of the workings of jealousy, or any questions arising, in -the course of that love, from an over-excited feeling of honor. This is -rare in Calderon, whose dramas are almost always complicated in their -intrigue by the addition of one or both of these principles; giving the -story sometimes a tragic and sometimes a happy conclusion. - -One of the best-known and most admired of these mixed dramas is “The -Physician of his own Honor,”--a play whose scene is laid in the time -of Peter the Cruel, but one which seems to have no foundation in known -facts, and in which the monarch has an elevation given to his character -not warranted by history.[632] His brother, Henry of Trastamara, is -represented as having been in love with a lady who, notwithstanding -his lofty pretensions, is given in marriage to Don Gutierre de -Solís, a Spanish nobleman of high rank and sensitive honor. She is -sincerely attached to her husband, and true to him. But the prince -is accidentally thrown into her presence. His passion is revived; -he visits her again, contrary to her will; he leaves his dagger, by -chance, in her apartment; and, the suspicions of the husband being -roused, she is anxious to avert any further danger, and begins, for -this purpose, a letter to her lover, which her husband seizes before -it is finished. His decision is instantly taken. Nothing can be more -deep and tender than his love; but his honor is unable to endure the -idea, that his wife, even before her marriage, had been interested -in another, and that, after it, she had seen him privately. When, -therefore, she awakes from the swoon into which she had fallen at the -moment he tore from her the equivocal beginning of her letter, she -finds at her side a note containing only these fearful words:-- - - [632] About this time, there was a strong disposition shown by - the overweening sensibility of Spanish loyalty to relieve the - memory of Peter the Cruel from the heavy imputations left resting - on it by Pedro de Ayala, of which I have taken notice, (Period - I., chap. 9, note 17), and of which traces may be found in - Moreto, and the other dramatists of the reign of Philip IV. Pedro - appears also in the “Niña de Plata” of Lope de Vega, but with - less strongly marked attributes. - - My love adores thee, but my honor hates; - And while the one must strike, the other warns. - Two hours hast thou of life. Thy soul is Christ’s; - O, save it, for thy life thou canst not save![633] - - [633] - El amor te adora, el honor te aborrece, - Y así el uno te mata, y el otro te avisa: - Dos horas tienes de vida; Christiana eres; - Salva el alma, que la vida es imposible. - - Jorn. III. - -At the end of these two fatal hours, Gutierre returns with a surgeon, -whom he brings to the door of the room in which he had left his wife. - - _Don Gutierre._ Look in upon this room. What seest thou there? - - _Surgeon._ A death-like image, pale and still, I see, - That rests upon a couch. On either side - A taper lit, while right before her stands - The holy crucifix. Who it may be - I cannot say; the face with gauze-like silk - Is covered quite.[634] - - [634] - _Don Gutierre._ Assomate á esse aposento; - Que ves en él? - - _Lud._ Una imagen - De la muerte, un bulto veo, - Que sobre una cama yaze; - Dos velas tiene a los lados - Y un Crucifixo delante: - Quien es, no puedo decir, - Que con unos tafetanes - El rostro tiene cubierto. - - Ibid. - -Gutierre, with the most violent threats, requires him to enter the -room and bleed to death the person who has thus laid herself out -for interment. He goes in and accomplishes the will of her husband, -without the least resistance on the part of his victim. But when he is -conducted away, blindfold as he came, he impresses his bloody hand upon -the door of the house, that he may recognize it again, and immediately -reveals to the king the horrors of the scene he has just passed through. - -The king rushes to the house of Gutierre, who ascribes the death of -his wife to accident, not from the least desire to conceal the part he -himself had in it, but from an unwillingness to explain his conduct, -by revealing reasons for it which involved his honor. The king makes -no direct reply, but requires him instantly to marry Leonore, a lady -then present, whom Gutierre was bound in honor to have married long -before, and who had already made known to the king her complaints of -his falsehood. Gutierre hesitates, and asks what he should do, if the -prince should visit his wife secretly and she should venture afterwards -to write to him; intending by these intimations to inform the king what -were the real causes of the bloody sacrifice before him, and that he -would not willingly expose himself to their recurrence. But the king is -peremptory, and the drama ends with the following extraordinary scene. - - _King._ There is a remedy for every wrong. - - _Don Gutierre._ A remedy for such a wrong as this? - - _King._ Yes, Gutierre. - - _Don Gutierre._ My lord! what is it? - - _King._ ’T is of your own invention, Sir! - - _Don Gutierre._ But what? - - _King._ ’T is blood. - - _Don Gutierre._ What mean your royal words, my lord? - - _King._ No more but this; cleanse straight your doors,-- - A bloody hand is on them. - - _Don Gutierre._ My lord, when men - In any business and its duties deal, - They place their arms escutcheoned on their doors. - _I_ deal, my lord, _in honor_, and so place - A bloody hand upon my door to mark - My honor is by blood made good. - - _King._ Then give thy hand to Leonore. - I know her virtue hath deserved it long. - - _Don Gutierre._ I give it, Sire. But, mark me, Leonore, - It comes all bathed in blood. - - _Leonore._ I heed it not; - And neither fear nor wonder at the sight. - - _Don Gutierre._ And mark me, too, that, if already once - Unto mine honor I have proved a leech, - I do not mean to lose my skill. - - _Leonore._ Nay, rather, - If _my_ life prove tainted, use that same skill - To heal it. - - _Don Gutierre._ I give my hand; but give it - On these terms alone.[635] - - [635] - _Rey._ Para todo avrá remedio. - - _D. Gut._ Posible es que á esto le aya? - - _Rey._ Sí, Gutierre. - - _D. Gut._ Qual, Señor? - - _Rey._ Uno vuestro. - - _D. Gut._ Que es? - - _Rey._ Sangrarla. - - _D. Gut._ Que dices? - - _Rey._ Que hagais borrar - Las puertas de vuestra casa, - Que ay mano sangrienta en ellas. - - _D. Gut._ Los que de un oficio tratan, - Ponen, Señor, á las puertas - Un escudo de sus armas. - Trato en honor; y assi, pongo - Mi mano en sangre bañada - A la puerta, que el honor - Con sangre, Señor, se laba. - - _Rey._ Dadsela, pues, á Leonor, - Que yo sé que su alabanza - La merece. - - _D. Gut._ Sí, la doy - Mas mira que va bañada - En sangre, Leonor. - - _Leon._ No importa, - Que no me admira, ni espanta. - - _D. Gut._ Mira que medico he sido - De mi honra; no está olvidada - La ciencia. - - _Leon._ Cura con ella - Mi vida en estando mala. - - _D. Gut._ Pues con essa condicion - Te la doy. - - Jorn. III. - -Undoubtedly such a scene could be acted only on the Spanish stage; but -undoubtedly, too, notwithstanding its violation of every principle of -Christian morality, it is entirely in the national temper, and has been -received with applause down to our own times.[636] - - [636] “El Médico de su Honra,” Comedias, Tom. VI. - -“The Painter of his own Dishonor” is another of the dramas founded on -love, jealousy, and the point of honor, in which a husband sacrifices -his faithless wife and her lover, and yet receives the thanks of each -of their fathers, who, in the spirit of Spanish chivalry, not only -approve the sacrifice of their own children, but offer their persons to -the injured husband to defend him against any dangers to which he may -be exposed in consequence of the murder he has committed.[637] “For a -Secret Wrong, Secret Revenge,” is yet a third piece, belonging to the -same class, and ending tragically like the two others.[638] - - [637] “El Pintor de su Deshonra,” Comedias, Tom. XI. - - [638] “A Secreto Agravio, Secreta Venganza,” Comedias, Tom. VI. - Calderon, at the end, vouches for the truth of the shocking - story, which he represents as founded on facts that occurred at - Lisbon just before the embarkation of Don Sebastian for Africa, - in 1578. - -But as a specimen of the effects of mere jealousy, and of the power -with which Calderon could bring on the stage its terrible workings, -the drama he has called “No Monster like Jealousy” is to be preferred -to any thing else he has left us.[639] It is founded on the well-known -story, in Josephus, of the cruel jealousy of Herod, tetrarch of Judea, -who twice gave orders to have his wife, Mariamne, destroyed, in case -he himself should not escape alive from the perils to which he was -exposed in his successive contests with Antony and Octavius;--all out -of dread lest, after his death, she should be possessed by another.[640] - - [639] “El Mayor Monstruo los Zelos,” Comedias, Tom. V. - - [640] Josephus de Bello Judaico, Lib. I. c. 17-22, and Antiq. - Judaicæ, Lib. XV. c. 2, etc. Voltaire has taken the same story - for the subject of his “Mariamne,” first acted in 1724. There - is a pleasant criticism on the play of Calderon in a pamphlet - published at Madrid, by Don A. Duran, without his name, in 1828, - 18mo, entitled, “Sobre el Influjo que ha tenido la Crítica - Moderna en la Decadencia del Teatro Antiguo Español,” pp. 106-112. - -In the early scenes of Calderon’s drama, we find Herod, with this -passionately cherished wife, alarmed by a prediction that he should -destroy, with his own dagger, what he most loved in the world, and -that Mariamne should be sacrificed to the most formidable of monsters. -At the same time we are informed, that the tetrarch, in the excess -of his passion for his fair and lovely wife, aspires to nothing less -than the mastery of the world,--then in dispute between Antony and -Octavius Cæsar,--an empire which he covets only to be able to lay it -at her feet. To obtain this end, he partly joins his fortunes to those -of Antony, and fails. Octavius, discovering his purpose, summons him -to Egypt to render an account of his government. But among the plunder -which, after the defeat of Antony, fell into the hands of his rival, -is a portrait of Mariamne, with which the Roman becomes so enamoured, -though falsely advised that the original is dead, that, when Herod -arrives in Egypt, he finds the picture of his wife multiplied on all -sides, and Octavius full of love and despair. - -Herod’s jealousy is now equal to his unmeasured affection; and, finding -that Octavius is about to move towards Jerusalem, he gives himself up -to its terrible power. In his blind fear and grief, he sends an old -and trusty friend, with written orders to destroy Mariamne in case of -his own death, but adds passionately,-- - - Let her not know the mandate comes from _me_ - That bids her die. Let her not--while she cries - To heaven for vengeance--name _me_ as she falls. - -His faithful follower would remonstrate, but Herod interrupts him:-- - - Be silent. You are right;-- - But still I cannot listen to your words; - -and then goes off in despair, exclaiming,-- - - O mighty spheres above! O sun! O moon - And stars! O clouds, with hail and sharp frost charged! - Is there no fiery thunderbolt in store - For such a wretch as I? O mighty Jove! - For what canst thou thy vengeance still reserve, - If now it strike not?[641] - - [641] - Calla, - Que sé, que tienes razon, - Pero no puedo escucharla. - · · · · · · · · - Esferas altas, - Cielo, sol, luna y estrellas, - Nubes, granizos, y escarchas, - No hay un rayo para un triste? - Pues si aora no los gastas, - Para quando, para quando - Son, Jupiter, tus venganzas? - - Jorn. II. - -But Mariamne obtains secretly a knowledge of his purpose; and, when he -arrives in the neighbourhood of Jerusalem, gracefully and successfully -begs his life of Octavius, who is well pleased to do a favor to -the fair original of the portrait he had ignorantly loved, and is -magnanimous enough not to destroy a rival, who had yet by treason -forfeited all right to his forbearance. - -As soon, however, as Mariamne has secured the promise of her husband’s -safety, she retires with him to the most private part of her palace, -and there, in her grieved and outraged love, upbraids him with his -design upon her life; announcing, at the same time, her resolution to -shut herself up from that moment, with her women, in widowed solitude -and perpetual mourning. But the same night Octavius gains access -to her retirement, in order to protect her from the violence of her -husband, which he, too, had discovered. She refuses, however, to admit -to _him_ that her husband can have any design against her life; and -defends both her lord and herself with heroic love. She then escapes, -pursued by Octavius, and, at the same instant, her husband enters. -He follows them, and a conflict ensues instantly. The lights are -extinguished, and in the confusion Mariamne falls under a blow from her -husband’s hand, intended for his rival; thus fulfilling the prophecy -at the opening of the play, that she should perish by his dagger and -by the most formidable of monsters, which is now interpreted to be -Jealousy. - -The result, though foreseen, is artfully brought about at last, and -produces a great shock on the spectator, and even on the reader. -Indeed, it does not seem as if this fierce and relentless passion could -be carried, on the stage, to a more terrible extremity. Othello’s -jealousy--with which it is most readily compared--is of a lower kind, -and appeals to grosser fears. But that of Herod is admitted, from the -beginning, to be without any foundation, except the dread that his -wife, after his death, should be possessed by a rival, whom, before his -death, she could never have seen;--a transcendental jealousy to which -he is yet willing to sacrifice her innocent life. - -Still, different as are the two dramas, there are several points of -accidental coincidence between them. Thus, we have, in the Spanish -play, a night scene, in which her women undress Mariamne, and, while -her thoughts are full of forebodings of her fate, sing to her those -lines of Escriva which are among the choice snatches of old poetry -found in the earliest of the General Cancioneros:-- - - Come, Death, but gently come and still;-- - All sound of thine approach restrain, - Lest joy of thee my heart should fill, - And turn it back to life again;[642]-- - - [642] - Ven, muerte, tan escondida, - Que no te sienta venir, - Porque el placer del morir - No me buelva á dar la vida. - - Jorn. III. - - See, also, Calderon’s “Manos Blancas no ofenden,” Jorn. II., - where he has it again; and Cancionero General, 1573, f. 185. - Lope de Vega made a gloss on it, (Obras, Tom. XIII. p. 256), and - Cervantes repeats it (Don Quixote, Parte II. c. 38);--so much was - it admired. - -beautiful words, which remind us of the scene immediately preceding -the death of Desdemona, when she is undressing and talks with Emilia, -singing, at the same time, the old song of “Willow, Willow.” - -Again, we are reminded of the defence of Othello by Desdemona down to -the instant of her death, in the answer of Mariamne to Octavius, when -he urges her to escape with him from the violence of her husband:-- - - My lips were dumb, when I beheld thy form; - And now I hear thy words, my breath returns - Only to tell thee, ’t is some traitor foul - And perjured that has dared to fill thy mind - With this abhorred conceit. For, Sire, my husband - Is my husband; and if he slay me, - I am guiltless, which, in the flight you urge, - I could not be. I dwell in safety here, - And you are ill informed about my griefs; - Or, if you are not, and the dagger’s point - Should seek my life, I die not through my fault, - But through my star’s malignant potency, - Preferring in my heart a guiltless death - Before a life held up to vulgar scorn. - If, therefore, you vouchsafe me any grace, - Let me presume the greatest grace would be - That you should straightway leave me.[643] - - [643] - El labio mudo - Quedó al veros, y al oiros - Su aliento le restituyo, - Animada para solo - Deciros, que algun perjuro - Aleve, y traydor, en tanto - Malquisto concepto os puso. - Mi esposo es mi esposo; y quando - Me mate algun error suyo, - No me matará mi error, - Y lo será si dél huyo. - Yo estoy segura, y vos mal - Informado en mis disgustos; - Y quando no lo estuviera, - Matandome un puñal duro, - Mi error no me diera muerte, - Sino mi fatal influxo; - Con que viene á importar menos - Morir inocente, juzgo. - Que vivir culpada á vista - De las malicias del vulgo. - Y assi, si alguna fineza - He de deberos, presumo, - Que la mayor es bolveros. - - Jorn. III. - -Other passages might be adduced; but, though striking, they do not -enter into the essential interest of the drama. This consists in the -exhibition of the heroic character of Herod, broken down by a cruel -jealousy, over which the beautiful innocence of his wife triumphs only -at the moment of her death; while above them both the fatal dagger, -like the unrelenting destiny of the ancient Greek tragedy, hangs -suspended, seen only by the spectators, who witness the unavailing -struggles of its victims to escape from a fate in which, with every -effort, they become more and more involved. - -Other dramas of Calderon rely for their success on a high sense of -loyalty, with little or no admixture of love or jealousy. The most -prominent of these is “The Firm-hearted Prince.”[644] Its plot is -founded on the expedition against the Moors in Africa by the Portuguese -Infante Don Ferdinand, in 1438, which ended with the total defeat of -the invaders before Tangier, and the captivity of the prince himself, -who died in a miserable bondage in 1443;--his very bones resting for -thirty years among the misbelievers, till they were at last brought -home to Lisbon and buried with reverence, as those of a saint and -martyr. This story Calderon found in the old and beautiful Portuguese -chronicles of Joam Alvares and Ruy de Pina; but he makes the sufferings -of the prince voluntary, thus adding to Ferdinand’s character the -self-devotion of Regulus, and so fitting it to be the subject of a deep -tragedy, founded on the honor of a Christian patriot.[645] - - [644] “El Príncipe Constante,” Comedias, Tom. III. It is - translated into German by A. W. Schlegel, and has been much - admired as an acting play in the theatres of Berlin, Vienna, - Weimar, etc. - - [645] Colecçaõ de Livros Ineditos de Hist. Port., Lisboa, folio, - Tom. I., 1790, pp. 290-294; an excellent work, published by the - Portuguese Academy, and edited by the learned Correa de Serra, - formerly Minister of Portugal to the United States. The story - of Don Ferdinand is also told in Mariana, Historia (Tom. II. - p. 345). But the principal resource of Calderon was, no doubt, - a life of the Infante, by his faithful friend and follower, - Joam Alvares, first printed in 1527, of which an abstract, with - long passages from the original, may be found in the “Leben des - standhaften Prinzen,” Berlin, 1827, 8vo. To these may be added, - for the illustration of the Príncipe Constante, a tract by J. - Schulze, entitled “Ueber den standhaften Prinzen,” printed at - Weimar, 1811, 12mo, at a time when Schlegel’s translation of - that drama, brought out under the auspices of Goethe, was in - the midst of its success on the Weimar stage; the part of Don - Ferdinand being acted with great power by Wolf. Schulze is quite - extravagant in his estimate of the poetical worth of the Príncipe - Constante, placing it by the side of the “Divina Commedia”; - but he discusses skilfully its merits as an acting drama, and - explains, in part, its historical elements. - -The first scene is one of lyrical beauty, in the gardens of the king -of Fez, whose daughter is introduced as enamoured of Muley Hassan, her -father’s principal general. Immediately afterwards, Hassan enters and -announces the approach of a Christian armament commanded by the two -Portuguese Infantes. He is despatched to prevent their landing, but -fails, and is himself taken prisoner by Don Ferdinand in person. A long -dialogue follows between the captive and his conqueror, entirely formed -by an unfortunate amplification of a beautiful ballad of Góngora, which -is made to explain the attachment of the Moorish general to the king’s -daughter, and the probability--if he continues in captivity--that -she will be compelled to marry the Prince of Morocco. The Portuguese -Infante, with chivalrous generosity, gives up his prisoner without -ransom, but has hardly done so, before he is attacked by a large army -under the Prince of Morocco, and made prisoner himself. - -From this moment begins that trial of Don Ferdinand’s patience and -fortitude which gives its title to the drama. At first, indeed, the -king treats him generously, thinking to exchange him for Ceuta, an -important fortress recently won by the Portuguese, and their earliest -foothold in Africa. But this constitutes the great obstacle. The -king of Portugal, who had died of grief on receiving the news of his -brother’s captivity, had, it is true, left an injunction in his will -that Ceuta should be surrendered and the prince ransomed. But when -Henry, one of his brothers, appears on the stage, and announces that he -has come to fulfil this solemn command, Ferdinand suddenly interrupts -him in the offer, and reveals at once the whole of his character:-- - - Cease, Henry, cease!--no farther shalt thou go;-- - For words like these should not alone be deemed - Unworthy of a prince of Portugal,-- - A Master of the Order of the Cross,-- - But of the meanest serf that sits beneath - The throne, or the barbarian hind whose eyes - Have never seen the light of Christian faith. - No doubt, my brother--who is now with God-- - May in his will have placed the words you bring, - But never with a thought they should be read - And carried through to absolute fulfilment; - But only to set forth his strong desire, - That, by all means which peace or war can urge, - My life should be enfranchised. When he says, - “Surrender Ceuta,” he but means to say, - “Work miracles to bring my brother home.” - But that a Catholic and faithful king - Should yield to Moorish and to heathen hands - A city his own blood had dearly bought, - When, with no weapon save a shield and sword, - He raised his country’s standards on its walls,-- - It cannot be!--It cannot be![646] - - [646] - No prosigas;--cessa, - Cessa, Enrique, porque son - Palabras indignas essas, - No de un Portugués Infante, - De un Maestre, que professa - De Christo la Religion, - Pero aun de un hombre lo fueran - Vil, de un barbaro sin luz - De la Fé de Christo eterna. - Mi hermano, que está en el Cielo, - Si en su testamento dexa - Essa clausula, no es - Para que se cumpla, y lea, - Sino para mostrar solo, - Que mi libertad desea, - Y essa se busque por otros - Medios, y otras conveniencias, - O apacibles, ó crueles; - Porque decir: Dese á Ceuta, - Es decir: Hasta esso haced - Prodigiosas diligencias; - Que un Rey Católico, y justo - Como fuera, como fuera - Possible entregar á un Moro - Una ciudad que le cuesta - Su sangre, pues fué el primero - Que con sola una rodela, - Y una espada, enarboló - Las Quinas en sus almenas? - - Jorn. II. - - When we read the Príncipe Constante, we seldom remember that this - Don Henry, who is one of its important personages, is the highly - cultivated prince who did so much to promote discoveries in - India. - -On this resolute decision, for which the old chronicle gives no -authority, the remainder of the drama rests; its deep enthusiasm being -set forth in a single word of the Infante, in reply to the renewed -question of the Moorish king, “And why not give up Ceuta?” to which -Ferdinand firmly and simply answers,-- - - Because it is not mine to give. - A Christian city,--it belongs to God. - -In consequence of this final determination, he is reduced to the -condition of a common slave; and it is not one of the least moving -incidents of the drama, that he finds the other Portuguese captives -among whom he is sent to work, and who do not recognize him, promising -freedom to themselves from the effort they know his noble nature -will make on their behalf, when the exchange which they consider so -reasonable shall have restored him to his country. - -At this point, however, comes in the operation of the Moorish general’s -gratitude. He offers Don Ferdinand the means of escape; but the -king, detecting the connection between them, binds his general to an -honorable fidelity by making him the prince’s only keeper. This leads -Don Ferdinand to a new sacrifice of himself. He not only advises his -generous friend to preserve his loyalty, but assures him, that, even -if foreign means of escape are offered him, he will not take advantage -of them, if, by doing so, his friend’s honor would be endangered. In -the mean time, the sufferings of the unhappy prince are increased -by cruel treatment and unreasonable labor, till his strength is -broken down. Still he does not yield. Ceuta remains in his eyes a -consecrated place, over which religion prevents him from exercising the -control by which his freedom might be restored. The Moorish general -and the king’s daughter, on the other side, intercede for mercy in -vain. The king is inflexible, and Don Ferdinand dies, at length, of -mortification, misery, and want; but with a mind unshaken, and with an -heroic constancy that sustains our interest in his fate to the last -extremity. Just after his death, a Portuguese army, destined to rescue -him, arrives. In a night scene of great dramatic effect, he appears at -their head, clad in the habiliments of the religious and military order -in which he had desired to be buried, and, with a torch in his hand, -beckons them on to victory. They obey the supernatural summons, entire -success follows, and the marvellous conclusion of the whole, by which -his consecrated remains are saved from Moorish contamination, is in -full keeping with the romantic pathos and high-wrought enthusiasm of -the scenes that lead to it. - - - - -CHAPTER XXIV. - -CALDERON, CONTINUED.--COMEDIAS DE CAPA Y ESPADA.--FIRST OF ALL MY -LADY.--FAIRY LADY.--THE SCARF AND THE FLOWER, AND OTHERS.--HIS -DISREGARD OF HISTORY.--ORIGIN OF THE EXTRAVAGANT IDEAS OF HONOR AND -DOMESTIC RIGHTS IN THE SPANISH DRAMA.--ATTACKS ON CALDERON.--HIS -ALLUSIONS TO PASSING EVENTS.--HIS BRILLIANT STYLE.--HIS LONG AUTHORITY -ON THE STAGE.--AND THE CHARACTER OF HIS POETICAL AND IDEALIZED DRAMA. - - -We must now turn to some of Calderon’s plays which are more -characteristic of his times, if not of his peculiar genius,--his -_comedias de capa y espada_. He has left us many of this class, and -not a few of them seem to have been the work of his early, but ripe, -manhood, when his faculties were in all their strength, as well as in -all their freshness. Nearly or quite thirty can be enumerated, and -still more may be added, if we take into the account those which, -with varying characteristics, yet belong to this particular division -rather than to any other. Among the more prominent are two, entitled -“It is Worse than it was” and “It is Better than it was,” which, -probably, were translated by Lord Bristol in his lost plays, “Worse -and Worse” and “Better and Better”;[647]--“The Pretended Astrologer,” -which Dryden used in his “Mock Astrologer”;[648]--“Beware of Smooth -Water”;--and “It is ill keeping a House with Two Doors”;--which all -indicate by their names something of the spirit of the entire class to -which they belong, and of which they are favorable examples. - - [647] “’T is Better than it was” and “Worse and Worse.” “These - two comedies,” says Downes, (Roscius Anglicanus, London, 1789, - 8vo, p. 36), “were made out of Spanish by the Earl of Bristol.” - There can be little doubt that Calderon was the source here - referred to. Tuke’s “Adventures of Five Hours,” in Dodsley’s - Collection, Vol. XII., is from Calderon’s “Empeños de Seis - Horas.” But such instances are rare in the old English drama, - compared with the French. - - [648] Dryden took, as he admits, “An Evening’s Love, or the Mock - Astrologer,” from the “Feint Astrologue” of Thomas Corneille. - (Scott’s Dryden, London, 1808, 8vo, Vol. III. p. 229.) Corneille - had it from Calderon’s “Astrólogo Fingido.” - -Another of the same division of the drama is entitled “First of all my -Lady.” A young cavalier from Granada arrives at Madrid, and immediately -falls in love with a lady, whose father mistakes him for another -person, who, though intended for his daughter, is already enamoured -elsewhere. Strange confusions are ingeniously multiplied out of this -mistake, and strange jealousies naturally follow. The two gentlemen are -found in the houses of their respective ladies,--a mortal offence to -Spanish dramatic honor,--and things are pushed to the most dangerous -and confounding extremities. The principle on which so many Spanish -dramas turn, that - - A sword-thrust heals more quickly than a wound - Inflicted by a word,[649] - - [649] - Mas facil sana una herida - Que no una palabra. - - And again, in “Amar despues de la Muerte,”-- - - Una herida mejor - Se sana que una palabra. - - Comedias, 1760. Tom. II. p. 352. - -is abundantly exemplified. More than once the lady’s secret is -protected rather than the friend of the lover, though the friend is in -mortal danger at the moment;--the circumstance which gives its name to -the drama. At last, the confusion is cleared up by a simple explanation -of the original mistakes of all the parties, and a double marriage -brings a happy ending to the troubled scene, which frequently seemed -quite incapable of it.[650] - - [650] “Antes que todo es mi Dama.” - -“The Fairy Lady”[651] is another of Calderon’s dramas that is full -of life, spirit, and ingenuity. Its scene is laid on the day of the -baptism of Prince Balthasar, heir-apparent of Philip the Fourth, which, -as we know, occurred on the 4th of November, 1629; and the piece itself -was, therefore, probably written and acted soon afterwards.[652] If we -may judge by the number of times Calderon complacently refers to it, we -cannot doubt that it was a favorite with him; and if we judge by its -intrinsic merits, we may be sure it was a favorite with the public.[653] - - [651] “La Dama Duende,” Comedias, Tom. III. - - [652] - Oy el bautismo celebra - Del primero Balthasar. - - Jorn. I. - - [653] I should think he refers to it eight times, perhaps more, - in the course of his plays: e. g. in “Mañanas de Avril y Mayo”; - “Agradecer y no Amar”; “El Joseph de las Mugeres,” etc. I notice - it, because he rarely alludes to his own works, and never, I - think, in the way he does to this one. The Dama Duende is well - known in the French “Répertoire” as the “Esprit Follet” of - Hauteroche. - -Doña Angela, the heroine of the intrigue, a widow, young, beautiful, -and rich, lives at Madrid, in the house of her two brothers; but, from -circumstances connected with her affairs, her life there is so retired, -that nothing is known of it abroad. Don Manuel, a friend, arrives in -the city to visit one of these brothers; and, as he approaches the -house, a lady strictly veiled stops him in the street, and conjures -him, if he be a cavalier of honor, to prevent her from being further -pursued by a gentleman already close behind. This lady is Doña Angela, -and the gentleman is her brother, Don Luis, who is pursuing her only -because he observes that she carefully conceals herself from him. The -two cavaliers not being acquainted with each other,--for Don Manuel -had come to visit the other brother,--a dispute is easily excited, -and a duel follows, which is interrupted by the arrival of this other -brother, and an explanation of his friendship for Don Manuel. - -Don Manuel is now brought home, and established in the house of the -two cavaliers, with all the courtesy due to a distinguished guest. -His apartments, however, are connected with those of Doña Angela by -a secret door, known only to herself and her confidential maid; and -finding she is thus unexpectedly brought near a person who has risked -his life to save her, she determines to put herself into a mysterious -communication with him. - -But Doña Angela is young and thoughtless. When she enters the -stranger’s apartment, she is tempted to be mischievous, and leaves -behind marks of her wild humor that are not to be mistaken. The servant -of Don Manuel thinks it is an evil spirit, or at best a fairy, that -plays such fantastic tricks; disturbing the private papers of his -master, leaving notes on his table, throwing the furniture of the room -into confusion, and--from an accident--once jostling its occupants in -the dark. At last, the master himself is confounded; and though he -once catches a glimpse of the mischievous lady, as she escapes to her -own part of the house, he knows not what to make of the apparition. He -says:-- - - She glided like a spirit, and her light - Did all fantastic seem. But still her form - Was human; I touched and felt its substance, - And she had mortal fears, and, woman-like, - Shrunk back again with dainty modesty. - At last, like an illusion, all dissolved, - And, like a phantasm, melted quite away. - If, then, to my conjectures I give rein, - By heaven above, I neither know nor guess - What I must doubt or what I may believe.[654] - - [654] - Como sombra se mostró; - Fantástica su luz fué. - Pero como cosa humana, - Se dexó tocar y ver; - Como mortal se temió, - Rezeló como muger, - Como ilusion se deshizó, - Como fantasma se fué: - Si doy la rienda al discurso, - No sé, vive Dios, no sé, - Ni que tengo de dudar, - Ni que tengo de creer. - - Jorn. II. - -But the tricksy lady, who has fairly frolicked herself in love with the -handsome young cavalier, is tempted too far by her brilliant successes, -and, being at last detected in the presence of her astonished brothers, -the intrigue, which is one of the most complicated and gay to be found -on any theatre, ends with an explanation of her fairy humors and her -marriage with Don Manuel. - -“The Scarf and the Flower,”[655] which, from internal evidence, is -to be placed in the year 1632, is another of the happy specimens of -Calderon’s manner in this class of dramas; but, unlike the last, -love-jealousies constitute the chief complication of its intrigue.[656] -The scene is laid at the court of the Duke of Florence. Two ladies -give the hero of the piece, one a scarf and the other a flower; but -they are both so completely veiled when they do it, that he is unable -to distinguish one of them from the other. The mistakes, which arise -from attributing each of these marks of favor to the wrong lady, -constitute the first series of troubles and suspicions. These are -further aggravated by the conduct of the Grand Duke, who, for his own -princely convenience, requires the hero to show marked attentions to -a third lady; so that the relations of the lover are thrown into the -greatest possible confusion, until a sudden danger to his life brings -out an involuntary expression of the true lady’s attachment, which is -answered with a delight so sincere on his part as to leave no doubt of -his affection. This restores the confidence of the parties, and the -_dénouement_ is of course happy. - - [655] “La Vanda y la Flor,” Comedias, Tom. V. It is admirably - translated into German, by A. W. Schlegel. - - [656] In Jornada I. there is a full-length description of the - _Jura de Baltasar_,--the act of swearing homage to Prince - Balthasar, as Prince of Asturias, which took place in 1632, and - which Calderon would hardly have introduced on the stage much - later, because the interest in such a ceremony is so short-lived. - -There are in this, as in most of the dramas of Calderon belonging to -the same class, great freshness and life, and a tone truly Castilian, -courtly, and graceful. Lisida, who loves Henry, the hero, and gave -him the flower, finds him wearing her rival’s scarf, and, from this -and other circumstances, naturally accuses him of being devoted to -that rival;--an accusation which he denies, and explains the delusive -appearance on the ground, that he approached one lady, as the only -way to reach the other. The dialogue in which he defends himself is -extremely characteristic of the gallant style of the Spanish drama, -especially in that ingenious turn and repetition of the same idea in -different figures of speech, which grows more and more condensed as it -approaches its conclusion. - - _Lisida._ But how can you deny the very thing - Which, with my very eyes, I now behold? - - _Henry._ By full denial that you see such thing. - - _Lisida._ Were you not, like the shadow of her house, - Still ever in the street before it? - - _Henry._ I was. - - _Lisida._ At each returning dawn, were you not found - A statue on her terrace? - - _Henry._ I do confess it. - - _Lisida._ Did you not write to her? - - _Henry._ I can’t deny - I wrote. - - _Lisida._ Served not the murky cloak of night - To hide your stolen loves? - - _Henry._ That, under cover - Of the friendly night, I sometimes spoke to her, - I do confess. - - _Lisida._ And is not this her scarf? - - _Henry._ It was hers once, I think. - - _Lisida._ Then what means this? - If seeing, talking, writing, be not making love,-- - If wearing on your neck her very scarf, - If following her and watching, be not love, - Pray tell me, Sir, what ’t is you call it? - And let me not in longer doubt be left - Of what can be with so much ease explained. - - _Henry._ A timely illustration will make clear - What seems so difficult. The cunning fowler, - As the bird glances by him, watches for - The feathery form he aims at, not where it is, - But on one side; for well he knows that he - Shall fail to reach his fleeting mark, unless - He cheat the wind to give its helpful tribute - To his shot. The careful, hardy sailor,-- - He who hath laid a yoke and placed a rein - Upon the fierce and furious sea, curbing - Its wild and monstrous nature,--even he - Steers not right onward to the port he seeks, - But bears away, deludes the opposing waves, - And wins the wished-for haven by his skill. - The warrior, who a fortress would besiege, - First sounds the alarm before a neighbour fort, - Deceives, with military art, the place - He seeks to win, and takes it unawares, - Force yielding up its vantage-ground to craft. - The mine that works its central, winding way - Volcanic, and, built deep by artifice, - Like Mongibello, shows not its effect - In those abysses where its pregnant powers - Lie hid, concealing all their horrors dark - E’en from the fire itself; but _there_ begins - The task which _here_ in ruin ends and woe,-- - Lightning beneath and thunderbolts above.-- - Now, if my love, amidst the realms of air, - Aim, like the fowler, at its proper quarry; - Or sail a mariner upon the sea, - Tempting a doubtful fortune as it goes; - Or chieftainlike contends in arms, - Nor fails to conquer even baseless jealousy; - Or, like a mine sunk in the bosom’s depths, - Bursts forth above with fury uncontrolled;-- - Can it seem strange that _I_ should still conceal - My many loving feelings with false shows? - Let, then, this scarf bear witness to the truth, - That I, a hidden mine, a mariner, - A chieftain, fowler, still in fire and water, - Earth and air, would hit, would reach, would conquer, - And would crush, my game, my port, my fortress, - And my foe. - - [_Gives her the scarf._ - - _Lisida._ You deem, perchance, that, flattered - With such shallow compliment, my injuries - May be passed over in your open folly. - But no, Sir, no!--you do mistake me quite. - I am a woman; I am proud,--so proud, - That I will neither have a love that comes - From pique, from fear of being first cast off, - Nor from contempt that galls the secret heart. - He who wins _me_ must love me for myself, - And seek no other guerdon for his love - But what that love itself will give.[657] - - [657] - _Lisid._ Pues como podeis negarme - Lo mismo que yo estoy viendo? - - _Enriq._ Negando que vos lo veis. - - _Lisid._ No fuisteis en el passeo - Sombra de su casa? - - _Enriq._ Sí. - - _Lisid._ Estatua de su terrero - No os halló el Alva? - - _Enriq._ Es verdad. - - _Lisid._ No la escrivisteis? - - _Enriq._ No niego, - Que escriví. - - _Lisid._ No fué la noche - De amantes delitos vuestros - Capa obscura? - - _Enriq._ Que la hablé - Alguna noche os confiesso. - - _Lisid._ No es suya essa vanda? - - _Enriq._ Suya - Pienso que fué. - - _Lisid._ Pues que es esto? - Si ver, si hablar, si escrivir, - Si traer su vanda al cuello, - Si seguir, si desvelar, - No es amar, yo, Enrique, os ruego - Me digais como se llama, - Y no ignore yo mas tiempo - Una cosa que es tan facil. - - _Enriq._ Respondaos un argumento: - El astuto cazador, - Que en lo rapido del buelo - Hace á un atomo de pluma - Blanco veloz del acierto, - No adonde la caza está - Pone la mira, advirtiendo, - Que para que el viento peche, - Le importa engañar el viento. - El marinero ingenioso, - Que al mar desbocado, y fiero - Monstruo de naturaleza, - Halló yugo, y puso freno, - No al puerto que solicita - Pone la proa, que haciendo - Puntas al agua, desmiente - Sus iras, y toma puerto. - El capitan que esta fuerza - Intenta ganar, primero - En aquella toca al arma, - Y con marciales estruendos - Engaña á la tierra, que - Mal prevenida del riesgo - La esperaba; assi la fuerza - Le da á partido al ingenio. - La mina, que en las entrañas - De la tierra estrenó el centro, - Artificioso volcan, - Inventado Mongibelo, - No donde preñado oculta - Abismos de horror inmensos - Hace el efecto, porque, - Engañando al mismo fuego, - Aquí concibe, allá aborta; - Allí es rayo, y aquí trueno. - Pues si es cazador mi amor - En las campañas del viento; - Si en el mar de sus fortunas - Inconstante marinero; - Si es caudillo victorioso - En las guerras de sus zelos: - Si fuego mal resistido - En mina de tantos pechos, - Que mucho engañasse en mí - Tantos amantes afectos? - Sea esta vanda testigo; - Porque, volcan, marinero, - Capitan, y cazador; - En fuego, agua, tierra, y viento; - Logre, tenga, alcanze, y tome - Ruina, caza, triunfo, y puerto. - - [_Dale la vanda._ - - _Lisid._ Bien pensareis que mis quexas, - Mal lisonjeadas con esso, - Os remitan de mi agravio - Las sinrazones del vuestro. - No, Enrique, yo soy muger - Tan sobervia, que no quiero - Ser querida por venganza, - Por tema, ni por desprecio. - El que á mí me ha de querer, - Por mí ha de ser; no teniendo - Conveniencias en quererme - Mas que quererme. - - Jorn. II. - -As may be gathered, perhaps, from what has been said concerning the -few dramas we have examined, the plots of Calderon are almost always -marked with great ingenuity. Extraordinary adventures and unexpected -turns of fortune, disguises, duels, and mistakes of all kinds, are put -in constant requisition, and keep up an eager interest in the concerns -of the personages whom he brings to the foreground of the scene. Yet -many of his stories are not wholly invented by him. Several are taken -from the books of the Old Testament, as is that on the rebellion of -Absalom, which ends with an exhibition of the unhappy prince hanging by -his hair and dying amidst reproaches on his personal beauty. A few are -from Greek and Roman history, like “The Second Scipio” and “Contests of -Love and Loyalty,”--the last being on the story of Alexander the Great. -Still more are from Ovid’s “Metamorphoses,”[658] like “Apollo and -Climene” and “The Fortunes of Andromeda.” And occasionally, but rarely, -he seems to have sought, with painstaking care, in obscure sources for -his materials, as in “Zenobia the Great,” where he has used Trebellius -Pollio and Flavius Vopiscus.[659] - - [658] I think there are six, at least, of Calderon’s plays - taken from the Metamorphoses; a circumstance worth noting, - because it shows the direction of his taste. He seems to have - used no ancient author, and perhaps no author at all, in his - plays, so much as Ovid, who was a favorite classic in Spain, six - translations of the Metamorphoses having been made there before - the time of Calderon. Don Quixote, ed. Clemencin, Tom. IV., 1835, - p. 407. - - [659] It is possible Calderon may not have gone to the originals, - but found his materials nearer at hand; and yet, on a comparison - of the triumphal entry of Aurelian into Rome, in the third - _jornada_, with the corresponding passages in Trebellius, “De - Triginta Tyrannis,” (c. xxix.), and Vopiscus, “Aurelianus,” (c. - xxxiii., xxxiv., etc.), it seems most likely that he had read - them. - - Sometimes Calderon is indebted to his dramatic predecessors. - Thus, his fine play of the “Alcalde de Zalamea” is compounded of - the stories in Lope’s “Fuente Ovejuna” and his “Mejor Alcalde el - Rey.” But I think his obligations of this sort are infrequent. - -But, as we have already noticed, Calderon makes every thing bend to his -ideas of dramatic effect; so that what he has borrowed from history -comes forth upon the stage with the brilliant attributes of a masque, -almost as much as what is drawn from the rich resources of his own -imagination. If the subject he has chosen falls naturally into the only -forms he recognizes, he indeed takes the facts much as he finds them. -This is the case with “The Siege of Breda,” which he has set forth with -an approach to statistical accuracy, as it happened in 1624-1625;--all -in honor of the commanding general, Spinola, who may well have -furnished some of the curious details of the piece,[660] and who, no -doubt, witnessed its representation. This is the case, too, with “The -Last Duel in Spain,” founded on the last single combat held there under -royal authority, which was fought at Valladolid, in the presence of -Charles the Fifth, in 1522; and which, by its showy ceremonies and -chivalrous spirit, was admirably adapted to Calderon’s purposes.[661] - - [660] For instance, the exact enumeration of the troops at the - opening of the play. Comedias, Tom. III. pp. 142, 149. - - [661] It ends with a voluntary anachronism,--the resolution of - the Emperor to apply to Pope Paul III. and to have such duels - abolished by the Council of Trent. By its very last words, it - shows that it was acted before the king, a fact that does not - appear on its title-page. The duel is the one Sandoval describes - with so much minuteness. Hist. de Carlos V., Anvers, 1681, folio, - Lib. XI. §§ 8, 9. - -But where the subject he selected was not thus fully fitted, by its -own incidents, to his theory of the drama, he accommodated it to -his end as freely as if it were of imagination all compact. “The -Weapons of Beauty” and “Love the Most Powerful of Enchantments” are -abundant proofs of this;[662] and so is “Hate and Love,” where he has -altered the facts in the life of Christina of Sweden, his whimsical -contemporary, till it is not easy to recognize her,--a remark which -may be extended to the character of Peter of Aragon in his “Tres -Justicias en Uno,” and to the personages in Portuguese history whom -he has so strikingly idealized in his “Weal and Woe,”[663] and in his -“Firm-hearted Prince.” To an English reader, however, the “Cisma de -Inglaterra,” on the fortunes and fate of Anne Boleyn and Cardinal -Wolsey, is probably the most obvious perversion of history; for the -Cardinal, after his fall from power, comes on the stage begging his -bread of Catherine of Aragon, while, at the same time, Henry, repenting -of the religious schism he has countenanced, promises to marry his -daughter Mary to Philip the Second of Spain.[664] - - [662] “Las Armas de la Hermosura,” Tom. I., and “El Mayor Encanto - Amor,” Tom. V., are the plays on Coriolanus and Ulysses. They - have been mentioned before. - - [663] Good, but somewhat over-refined, remarks on the use - Calderon made of Portuguese history in his “Weal and Woe” are to - be found in the Preface to the second volume of Malsburg’s German - translation of Calderon, Leipzig, 1819, 12mo. - - [664] Comedias, 1760, Tom. IV. See, also, Ueber die - Kirchentrennung von England, von F. W. V. Schmidt, Berlin, - 1819, 12mo;--a pamphlet full of curious matter, but quite too - laudatory, so far as Calderon’s merit is concerned. Nothing - will show the wide difference between Shakspeare and Calderon - more strikingly than a comparison of this play with the grand - historical drama of “Henry the Eighth.” - -Nor is Calderon more careful in matters of morals than in matters -of fact. Duels and homicides occur constantly in his plays, under -the slightest pretences, as if there were no question about their -propriety. The authority of a father or brother to put to death a -daughter or sister who has been guilty of secreting her lover under -her own roof is fully recognized.[665] It is made a ground of glory -for the king, Don Pedro, that he justified Gutierre in the atrocious -murder of his wife; and even the lady Leonore, who is to succeed to -the blood-stained bed, desires, as we have seen, that no other measure -of justice should be applied to herself than had been applied to the -innocent and beautiful victim who lay dead before her. Indeed, it is -impossible to read far in Calderon without perceiving that his object -is mainly to excite a high and feverish interest by his plot and story; -and that to do this, he relies almost constantly upon an exaggerated -sense of honor, which, in its more refined attributes, certainly did -not give its tone to the courts of Philip the Fourth and Charles the -Second, and which, with the wide claims he makes for it, could never -have been the rule of conduct and intercourse anywhere, without shaking -all the foundations of society and poisoning the best and dearest -relations of life. - - [665] Of these duels, and his notions about female honor, half - the plays of Calderon may be taken as specimens; but it is only - necessary to refer to “Casa con Dos Puertas” and “El Escondido y - la Tapada.” - -Here, therefore, we find pressed upon us the question, What was the -origin of these extravagant ideas of domestic honor and domestic -rights, which are found in the old Spanish drama from the beginning of -the full-length plays in Torres Naharro, and which are thus exhibited -in all their excess in the plays of Calderon? - -The question is certainly difficult to answer, as are all like it that -depend on the origin and traditions of national character; but--setting -aside as quite groundless the suggestion sometimes made, that the old -Spanish ideas of domestic authority might be derived from the Arabs--we -find that the ancient Gothic laws, which date back to a period long -before the Moorish invasion, and which fully represented the national -character till they were supplanted by the “Partidas” in the fourteenth -century, recognized the same fearfully cruel system that is found in -the old drama. Every thing relating to domestic honor was left by these -laws, as it is by Calderon, to domestic authority. The father had power -to put to death his wife or daughter who was dishonored under his roof; -and if the father were dead, the same terrible power was transferred to -the brother in relation to his sister, or even to the lover, where the -offending party had been betrothed to him. - -No doubt, these wild laws, though formally renewed and reënacted -as late as the reign of Saint Ferdinand, had ceased in the time -of Calderon to have any force; and the infliction of death under -circumstances in which they fully justified it would then have been -murder in Spain, as it would have been in any other civilized country -of Christendom. But, on the other hand, no doubt these laws were in -operation during many more centuries than had elapsed between their -abrogation and the age of Calderon and Philip the Fourth. The tradition -of their power, therefore, was not yet lost on the popular character, -and poetry was permitted to preserve their fearful principles long -after their enactments had ceased to be acknowledged anywhere else.[666] - - [666] Fuero Juzgo, ed. de la Academia, Madrid, 1815, folio, Lib. - III. Tít. IV. Leyes 3-5 and 9. It should be remembered, that - these laws were the old Gothic laws of Spain before A. D. 700; - that they were the laws of the Christians who did not fall under - the Arabic authority; and that they are published in the edition - of the Academy as they were consolidated and reënacted by St. - Ferdinand after the conquest of Córdova in 1241. - -Similar remarks may be made concerning duels. That duels were of -constant recurrence in Spain in the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries, -as well as earlier, we have abundant proof. But we know, too, that the -last which was countenanced by royal authority occurred in the youth -of Charles the Fifth; and there is no reason to suppose that private -encounters were much more common among the cavaliers at Madrid in -the time of Lope de Vega and Calderon than they were at London and -Paris.[667] But the traditions that had come down from the times when -they prevailed were quite sufficient warrant for a drama which sought -to excite a strong and anxious interest more than any thing else. In -one of the plays of Barrios there are eight, and in another twelve -duels;[668] an exhibition that, on any other supposition, would have -been absurd. - - [667] Howell, in 1623, when he had been a year in Madrid, under - circumstances to give him familiar knowledge of its gay society, - and at a time when the drama of Lope was at the height of its - favor, says, “One shall not hear of a duel here in an age.” - Letters, eleventh edition, London, 1754, 8vo, Book I. Sect. 3, - Letter 32. - - [668] In “El Canto Junto al Encanto,” and in “Pedir Favor.” - -Perhaps the very extravagance of such representations made them -comparatively harmless. It was, in the days of the Austrian dynasty, -so incredible that a brother should put his sister to death merely -because she had been found under his roof with her lover, or that one -cavalier should fight another in the street simply because a lady did -not wish to be followed, that there was no great danger of contagion -from the theatrical example. Still, the immoral tendency of the Spanish -drama was not overlooked, even at the time when Calderon’s fame was -at the highest. Guerra, one of his great admirers, in an _Aprobacion_ -prefixed to Calderon’s plays in 1682, praised, not only his friend, -but the great body of the dramas to whose brilliancy that friend had -so much contributed; and the war against the theatre broke out in -consequence, as it had twice before in the time of Lope. Four anonymous -attacks were made on the injudicious remarks of Guerra, and two more -by persons who gave their names,--Puente de Mendoza and Navarro;--the -last, oddly enough, replying in print to a defence of himself by -Guerra, which had then been seen only in manuscript. But the whole -of this discussion proceeded on the authority of the Church and the -Fathers, rather than upon the grounds of public morality and social -order; and therefore it ended, as previous attacks of the same kind had -done, by the triumph of the theatre;[669]--Calderon’s plays and those -of his school being performed and admired quite as much after it as -before. - - [669] Things had not been in an easy state, at any time, since - the troubles already noticed in the reigns of Philip II. and - Philip III., as we may see from the Approbation of Thomas de - Avellaneda to Tom. XXII., 1665, of the Comedias Escogidas, where - that personage, a grave and distinguished ecclesiastic, thought - it needful to step aside from his proper object, and defend the - theatre against attacks, which were evidently then common, though - they have not reached us. But the quarrel of 1682-85, which was - a violent and open rupture, can be best found in the “Apelacion - al Tribunal de los Doctos,” Madrid, 1752, 4to, (which is, in - fact, Guerra’s defence of himself written in 1683, but not before - published), and in “Discursos contra los que defienden el Uso de - las Comedias,” por Gonzalo Navarro, Madrid, 1684, 4to, which is a - reply to the last and to other works of the same kind. - -Calderon, however, not only relied on the interest he could thus excite -by an extravagant story full of domestic violence and duels, but -often introduced flattering allusions to living persons and passing -events, which he thought would be welcome to his audience, whether of -the court or the city. Thus, in “The Scarf and the Flower,” the hero, -just returned from Madrid, gives his master, the Duke of Florence, a -glowing description, extending through above two hundred lines, of the -ceremony of swearing fealty, in 1632, to Prince Balthasar, as prince of -Asturias; a passage which, from its spirit, as well as its compliments -to the king and the royal family, must have produced no small effect -on the stage.[670] Again, in “El Escondido y la Tapada,” we have a -stirring intimation of the siege of Valencia on the Po, in 1635;[671] -and in “Nothing like Silence,” repeated allusions to the victory over -the Prince of Condé at Fontarabia, in 1639.[672] In “Beware of Smooth -Water,” there is a dazzling account of the public reception of the -second wife of Philip the Fourth at Madrid, in 1649, for a part of -whose pageant, it will be recollected, Calderon was employed to furnish -inscriptions.[673] In “The Blood-stain of the Rose”--founded on the -fable of Venus and Adonis, and written in honor of the Peace of the -Pyrenees and the marriage of the Infanta with Louis the Fourteenth, in -1659--we have whatever was thought proper to be said on such subjects -by a favorite poet, both in the _loa_, which is fortunately preserved, -and in the play itself.[674] But there is no need of multiplying -examples. Calderon nowhere fails to consult the fashionable and -courtly, as well as the truly national, feeling of his time; and in -“The Second Scipio” he stoops even to gross flattery of the poor and -imbecile Charles the Second, declaring him equal to that great patriot -whom Milton pronounces to have been “the height of Rome.”[675] - - [670] The description of Philip IV. on horseback, as he passed - through the streets of Madrid, suggests a comparison with - Shakspeare’s Bolingbroke in the streets of London, but it is - wholly against the Spanish poet. (Jorn. I.) That Calderon meant - to be accurate in the descriptions contained in this play can - be seen by reading the official account of the “Juramento - del Príncipe Baltasar,” 1632, prepared by Antonio Hurtado de - Mendoza, of which the second edition was printed by order of the - government, in its printing-office, 1605, 4to. - - [671] It is genuine Spanish. The hero says,-- - - En Italia estaba, - Quando la _loca arrogancia_ - Del Frances, sobre Valencia - Del Po, etc. - - Jorn. I. - - [672] He makes the victory more important than it really was, - but his allusions to it show that it was not thought worth while - to irritate the French interest; so cautious and courtly is - Calderon’s whole tone. It is in Tom. X. of the Comedias. - - [673] The account, in “Guárdate de la Agua Mansa,” of the - triumphal arch, for which Calderon furnished the allegorical - ideas and figures, as well as the inscriptions, (both Latin and - Castilian, the play says), is very ample. Jornada III. - - [674] Here, again, we have the courtly spirit in Calderon. He - insists most carefully, that the Peace of the Pyrenees and the - marriage of the Infanta are _not_ connected with each other; and - that the marriage is to be regarded “as a _separate_ affair, - treated at the same time, but quite independently.” But his - audience knew better. - - From the “Viage del Rey Nuestro Señor D. Felipe IV. el Grande á - la Frontera de Francia,” por Leonardo del Castillo, Madrid, 1667, - 4to,--a work of official pretensions, describing the ceremonies - attending both the marriage of the Infanta and the conclusion - of the peace,--it appears, that, wherever Calderon has alluded - to either, he has been true to the facts of history. A similar - remark may be made of the “Tetis y Peleo,” evidently written - for the same occasion, and printed, Comedias Escogidas, Tom. - XXIX., 1668;--a poor drama by an obscure author, Josef de Bolea, - and probably one of several that we know, from Castillo, were - represented to amuse the king and court on their journey. - - [675] This flattery of Charles II. is the more disagreeable, - because it was offered in the poet’s old age; for Charles did - not come to the throne till Calderon was seventy-five years old. - But it is, after all, not so shocking as the sort of blasphemous - compliments to Philip IV. and his queen in the strange _auto_ - called “El Buen Retiro,” acted on the first Corpus Christi day - after that luxurious palace was finished. - -In style and versification, Calderon has high merits, though they are -occasionally mingled with the defects of his age. Brilliancy is one of -his great objects, and he easily attains it. But he frequently falls, -and with apparent willingness, into the showy folly of his time, the -absurd sort of euphuism, which Góngora and his followers called “the -cultivated style.” This is the case, for instance, in his “Love and -Fortune,” and in his “Conflicts of Love and Loyalty.” But in “April -and May Mornings,” on the contrary, and in “No Jesting with Love,” he -ridicules the same style with great severity; and in such charming -plays as “The Lady and the Maid,” and “The Loud Secret,” he wholly -avoids it,--thus adding another to the many instances of distinguished -men who have sometimes accommodated themselves to their age and its -fashions, which at other times they have rebuked and controlled. -Everywhere his verses charm us by their delicious melody; everywhere -he indulges himself in the rich variety of measures which Spanish or -Italian poetry offered him,--octave stanzas, _terza rima_, sonnets, -_silvas_, _liras_, and the different forms of the _redondilla_, with -the ballad _asonantes_ and _consonantes_;--showing a mastery over his -language extraordinary in itself, and one which, while it sometimes -enables him to rise to the loftiest tones of the national drama, -seduces him at other times to seek popular favor by fantastic tricks -that were wholly unworthy of his genius.[676] - - [676] I think Calderon never uses blank verse, though Lope does. - -But we are not to measure Calderon as his contemporaries did. We stand -at a distance too remote and impartial for such indulgence; and must -neither pass over his failures nor exaggerate his merits. We must look -on the whole mass of his efforts for the theatre, and inquire what -he really effected for its advancement,--or rather what changes it -underwent in his hands, both in its more gay and in its more serious -portions. - -Certainly Calderon appeared as a writer for the Spanish stage under -peculiarly favorable circumstances; and, by the preservation of his -faculties to an age beyond that commonly allotted to man, was enabled -long to maintain the ascendency he had early established. His genius -took its direction from the very first, and preserved it to the last. -When he was fourteen years old he had written a piece for the stage, -which, sixty years later, he thought worthy to be put into the list -of dramas that he furnished to the Admiral of Castile.[677] When he -was thirty-five, the death of Lope de Vega left him without a rival. -The next year, he was called to court by Philip the Fourth, the most -munificent patron the Spanish theatre ever knew; and from this time -till his death, the destinies of the drama were in his hands nearly as -much as they had been before in those of Lope. Forty-five of his longer -pieces, and probably more, were acted in magnificent theatres in the -different royal palaces in Madrid and its neighbourhood. Some must have -been exhibited with great pomp and at great expense, like “The Three -Greatest Wonders,” each of whose three acts was represented in the open -air on a separate stage by a different company of performers;[678] and -“Love the Greatest Enchantment,” brought out in a floating theatre -which the wasteful extravagance of the Count Duke Olivares had erected -on the artificial waters in the gardens of the Buen Retiro.[679] -Indeed, every thing shows that the patronage, both of the court and -capital, placed Calderon forward, as the favored dramatic poet of his -time. This rank he maintained for nearly half a century, and wrote -his last drama, “Hado y Devisa,” founded on the brilliant fictions -of Boiardo and Ariosto, when he was eighty-one years of age.[680] He -therefore was not only the successor of Lope de Vega, but enjoyed the -same kind of popular influence. Between them, they held the empire of -the Spanish drama for ninety years; during which, partly by the number -of their imitators and disciples, but chiefly by their own personal -resources, they gave to it all the extent and consideration it ever -possessed. - - [677] “El Carro del Cielo,” which Vera Tassis says he wrote at - fourteen, and which we should be not a little pleased to see. - - [678] The audience remained in the same seats, but there were - three stages before them. It must have been a very brilliant - exhibition, and is quaintly explained in the _loa_ prefixed to it. - - [679] This is stated in the title, and gracefully alluded to at - the end of the piece:-- - - Fué el agua tan dichosa, - En esta noche felice, - Que merecia ser Teatro. - - [680] Vera Tassis makes this statement. See also F. W. V. - Schmidt, Ueber die italienischen Heldengedichte, Berlin, 1820, - 12mo, pp. 269-280. - -Calderon, however, neither effected nor attempted any great changes -in its forms. Two or three times, indeed, he prepared dramas that -were either wholly sung, or partly sung and partly spoken; but even -these, in their structure, were no more operas than his other plays, -and were only a courtly luxury, which it was attempted to introduce, -in imitation of the genuine opera just brought into France by Louis -the Fourteenth, with whose court that of Spain was now intimately -connected.[681] But this was all. Calderon has added to the stage no -new form of dramatic composition. Nor has he much modified those forms -which had been already arranged and settled by Lope de Vega. But he has -shown more technical exactness in combining his incidents, and arranged -every thing more skilfully for stage-effect.[682] He has given to the -whole a new coloring, and, in some respects, a new physiognomy. His -drama is more poetical in its tone and tendencies, and has less the -air of truth and reality, than that of his great predecessor. In its -more successful portions,--which are rarely objectionable from their -moral tone,--it seems almost as if we were transported to another and -more gorgeous world, where the scenery is lighted up with unknown and -preternatural splendor, and where the motives and passions of the -personages that pass before us are so highly wrought, that we must have -our own feelings not a little stirred and excited before we can take -an earnest interest in what we witness or sympathize in its results. -But even in this he is successful. The buoyancy of life and spirit that -he has infused into the gayer divisions of his drama, and the moving -tenderness that pervades its graver and more tragical portions, lift -us unconsciously to the height where alone his brilliant exhibitions -can prevail with our imaginations,--where alone we can be interested -and deluded, when we find ourselves in the midst, not only of such a -confusion of the different forms of the drama, but of such a confusion -of the proper limits of dramatic and lyrical poetry. - - [681] The two decided attempts of Calderon in the opera style - have already been noticed. The “Laurel de Apolo” (Comedias, Tom. - VI.) is called a _Fiesta de Zarzuela_, in which it is said (Jorn. - I.): “Se canta y se representa”;--so that it was probably partly - sung and partly acted. Of the _Zarzuelas_ we must speak when we - come to Candamo. - - [682] Goethe had this quality of Calderon’s drama in his mind - when he said to Eckermann, (Gespräche mit Goethe, Leipzig, 1837, - Band I. p. 251), “Seine Stücke sind durchaus bretterrecht, es - ist in ihnen kein Zug, der nicht für die beabsichtigte Wirkung - calculirt wäre, Calderon ist dasjenige Genie, was zugleich den - grössten Verstand hatte.” - -To this elevated tone, and to the constant effort necessary in order -to sustain it, we owe much of what distinguishes Calderon from his -predecessors, and nearly all that is most individual and characteristic -in his separate merits and defects. It makes him less easy, graceful, -and natural than Lope. It imparts to his style a mannerism, -which, notwithstanding the marvellous richness and fluency of his -versification, sometimes wearies and sometimes offends us. It leads -him to repeat from himself till many of his personages become standing -characters, and his heroes and their servants, his ladies and their -confidants, his old men and his buffoons,[683] seem to be produced, -like the masked figures of the ancient theatre, to represent, with the -same attributes and in the same costume, the different intrigues of -his various plots. It leads him, in short, to regard the whole of the -Spanish drama as a form, within whose limits his imagination may be -indulged without restraint; and in which Greeks and Romans, heathen -divinities, and the supernatural fictions of Christian tradition, may -be all brought out in Spanish fashions and with Spanish feelings, and -led, through a succession of ingenious and interesting adventures, to -the catastrophes their stories happen to require. - - [683] A good many of Calderon’s _graciosos_, or buffoons, are - excellent, as, for instance, those in “La Vida es Sueño,” “El - Alcayde de sí mismo,” “Casa con Dos Puertas,” “La Gran Zenobia,” - “La Dama Duende,” etc. - -In carrying out this theory of the Spanish drama, Calderon, as we -have seen, often succeeds, and often fails. But when he succeeds, -his success is sometimes of no common character. He then sets before -us only models of ideal beauty, perfection, and splendor;--a world, -he would have it, into which nothing should enter but the highest -elements of the national genius. There, the fervid, yet grave, -enthusiasm of the old Castilian heroism; the chivalrous adventures -of modern, courtly honor; the generous self-devotion of individual -loyalty; and that reserved, but passionate love, which, in a state of -society where it was so rigorously withdrawn from notice, became a -kind of unacknowledged religion of the heart;--all seem to find their -appropriate home. And when he has once brought us into this land of -enchantment, whose glowing impossibilities his own genius has created, -and has called around him forms of such grace and loveliness as those -of Clara and Doña Angela, or heroic forms like those of Tuzani, -Mariamne, and Don Ferdinand, then he has reached the highest point he -ever attained, or ever proposed to himself;--he has set before us the -grand show of an idealized drama, resting on the purest and noblest -elements of the Spanish national character, and one which, with all -its unquestionable defects, is to be placed among the extraordinary -phenomena of modern poetry.[684] - - [684] Calderon, like many other authors of the Spanish theatre, - has, as we have seen, been a magazine of plots for the dramatists - of other nations. Among those who have borrowed the most from - him are the younger Corneille and Gozzi. Thus, Corneille’s - “Engagements du Hasard” is from “Los Empeños de un Acaso”; “Le - Feint Astrologue,” from “El Astrólogo Fingido”; “Le Géolier de - soi même,” from “El Alcayde de sí mismo”; besides which, his - “Circe” and “L’Inconnu” prove that he had well studied Calderon’s - show pieces. Gozzi took his “Pubblico Secreto” from the “Secreto - á Voces”; his “Eco e Narciso” from the play of the same name; and - his “Due Notti Affanose” from “Gustos y Disgustos.” And so of - others. - - - - -CHAPTER XXV. - -DRAMA AFTER CALDERON.--MORETO.--COMEDIAS DE FIGURON.--ROXAS.--PLAYS -BY MORE THAN ONE AUTHOR.--CUBILLO.--LEYBA.--CANCER.--ENRIQUEZ -GOMEZ.--SIGLER.--ZARATE.--BARRIOS.--DIAMANTE.--HOZ.--MATOS -FRAGOSO.--SOLÍS.--CANDAMO.--ZARZUELAS.--ZAMORA.--CAÑIZARES, AND -OTHERS.--DECLINE OF THE SPANISH DRAMA. - - -The most brilliant period of the Spanish drama falls within the reign -of Philip the Fourth, which extended from 1621 to 1665, and embraced -the last fourteen years of the life of Lope de Vega and the thirty most -fortunate years of the life of Calderon. But after this period a change -begins to be apparent; for the school of Lope was that of a drama in -the freshness and buoyancy of youth, while the school of Calderon -belongs to the season of its maturity and gradual decay. Not that this -change is strongly marked during Calderon’s life. On the contrary, so -long as he lived, and especially during the reign of his great patron, -there is little visible decline in the dramatic poetry of Spain; though -still, through the crowd of its disciples and amidst the shouts of -admiration that followed it on the stage, the symptoms of its coming -fate may be discerned. - -Of those that divided the favor of the public with their great master, -none stood so near to him as Agustin Moreto, of whom we know hardly any -thing, except that he lived retired in a religious house at Toledo -from 1657, and that he died there in 1669.[685] Three volumes of his -plays, however, and a number more never collected into a volume, -were printed between 1654 and 1681, though he himself seems to have -regarded them, during the greater part of that time, only as specious -follies or sins. They are in all the different forms known to the age -to which they belong, and, as in the case of Calderon, each form melts -imperceptibly into the character of some other. But the theatre was -not then so strictly watched as it had been; and the small number of -religious plays Moreto has left us are generally connected with known -events in history, like “The Most Fortunate Brothers,” which contains -the story of the Seven Sleepers of Ephesus, both before they were -inclosed in the cave and when they awoke from their miraculous repose -of two centuries.[686] A few are heroic, such as “The Brave Justiciary -of Castile,”--a drama of spirit and power, on the character of Peter -the Cruel, though, like most other plays in which he appears, not one -in which the truth of history is respected. But, in general, Moreto’s -dramas are of the old cavalier class; and when they are not, they take, -in order to suit the humor of the time, many of the characteristics of -this truly national form. - - [685] These few meagre facts, which constitute all we know - about Moreto, are due mainly to Ochoa (Teatro Español, Paris, - 1838, 8vo, Tom. IV. p. 248); but the suggestion he makes, that - Moreto was probably concerned in the violent death of Medinilla, - mourned by Lope de Vega in an elegy in the first volume of - his Works, seems to rest on no sufficient proof, and to be - quite inconsistent with the regard felt for Moreto by Lope, - Valdivielso, and other intimate friends of Medinilla. As to - Moreto’s works, I possess his Comedias, Tom. I., Madrid, 1677 - (of which Antonio notes an edition in 1654); Tom. II., Valencia, - 1676; and Tom. III., Madrid, 1681, all in 4to;--besides which I - have about a dozen of his plays, found in none of them. Calderon, - in his “Astrólogo Fingido,” first printed by his brother in 1637, - alludes to Moreto’s “Lindo Don Diego,” so that Moreto must have - been known as early as that date; and in the “Comedias Escogidas - de los Mejores Ingenios,” Tom. XXXVI., Madrid, 1671, we have - the “Santa Rosa del Perú,” the first two acts of which are said - to have been his last work, the remaining act being by Lanini, - but with no intimation when Moreto wrote his part of it. This - old collection of Comedias Escogidas contains forty-six plays - attributed in whole or in part to Moreto. - - [686] “Los mas Dichosos Hermanos.” It is the first play in the - third volume; and though it does not correspond in its story - with the beautiful legend as Gibbon gives it, there is a greater - attempt at the preservation of the truth of history in its - accompaniments than is common in the old Spanish drama. - -In one point, however, he made, if not a change in the direction of the -drama of his predecessors, yet an advance upon it. He devoted himself -more to character-drawing, and often succeeded better in it than they -had. His first play of this kind was “The Aunt and the Niece,” printed -as early as 1654. The characters are a widow extremely anxious to -be married, but foolishly jealous of the charms of her niece, and a -vaporing, epicurean officer in the army, who cheats the elder lady with -flattery, while he wins the younger. It is curious to observe, however, -that the hint for this drama--which is the oldest of the class called -_figuron_, from the prominence of one not very dignified _figure_ in -it--is yet to be found in Lope de Vega, to whom, as we have seen, is -to be traced, directly or indirectly, almost every form of dramatic -composition that finally succeeded on the Spanish stage.[687] - - [687] Comedias de Lope de Vega, Tom. XXIV., Zaragoza, 1641, f. 16. - -Moreto’s next attempt of the same sort is even better known, “The -Handsome Don Diego,”--a phrase that has become a national proverb. -It sets forth with great spirit the character of a fop, who believes -every lady he looks upon must fall in love with him. The very first -sketch of him at his morning toilet, and the exhibition of the sincere -contempt he feels for the more sensible lover, who refuses to take such -frivolous care of his person, are full of life and truth; and the whole -ends, with appropriate justice, by his being deluded into a marriage -with a cunning waiting-maid, who is passed off upon him as a rich -countess. - -Some of Moreto’s plays, as, for instance, his “Trampa Adelante,” -obtained the name of _gracioso_, because the buffoon is made the -character upon whom the action turns; and in one case, at least, he -wrote a burlesque farce of no value, taking his subject from the -achievements of the Cid. But his general tone is that of the old -intriguing comedy; and though he is sometimes indebted for his plots -to his predecessors, and especially to Lope, yet, in nearly every -instance, and perhaps in every one, he surpassed his model, and the -drama he wrote superseded on the public stage the one he imitated.[688] - - [688] “The Aunt and the Niece” is from Lope’s “De quando acá - nos vino,” and “It cannot be” from his “Mayor imposible.” There - are good remarks on these and other of Moreto’s imitations in - Martinez de la Rosa, Obras, Paris, 1827, 12mo, Tom. II. pp. - 443-446. But the excuses there given for him hardly cover such a - plagiarism as his “Valiente Justiciero” is, from Lope’s “Infanzon - de Illescas.” As usual, however, in such cases, Moreto improved - upon his model. Cancer y Velasco, a contemporary poet, in a - little _jeu d’esprit_, represents Moreto as sitting down with a - bundle of old plays to see what he can cunningly steal out of - them, spoiling all he steals. (Obras, Madrid, 1761, 4to, p. 113.) - But in this, Cancer was unjust to Moreto’s talent, if not to his - honesty. - -This was the case with the best of all his plays, “Disdain met with -Disdain,” for the idea of which he was indebted to Lope, whose -“Miracles of Contempt” has long been forgotten as an acting play, while -Moreto’s still maintains its place on the Spanish stage, of which it -is one of the brightest ornaments.[689] The plot is remarkably simple -and well contrived. Diana, heiress to the county of Barcelona, laughs -at love and refuses marriage, under whatever form it may be urged -upon her. Her father, whose projects are unreasonably thwarted by such -conduct, induces the best and gayest of the neighbouring princes to -come to his court, and engage in tournaments and other knightly sports, -in order to win her favor. She, however, treats them all with an equal -coldness, and even with a pettish disdain, until, at last, she is -piqued into admiration of the Count of Urgel, by his apparent neglect -of her charms,--a neglect which he skilfully places on the ground of a -contempt like her own for all love, but which, in fact, only conceals a -deep and faithful passion for herself. - - [689] In 1664 Molière imitated the “Desden con el Desden” in his - “Princesse d’Élide,” which was represented at Versailles by the - command of Louis XIV., with great splendor, before his queen - and his mother, both Spanish princesses. The compliment, as far - as the king was concerned in it, was a magnificent one;--on - Molière’s part, it was a failure, and his play is now no longer - acted. The original drama of Moreto, however, is known wherever - the Spanish language is spoken, and a good translation of it into - German is common on the German stage. - -The charm of the piece consists in the poetical spirit with which this -design is wrought out. The character of the _gracioso_ is well drawn -and well defined, and, as in most Spanish plays, he is his lord’s -confidant, and by his shrewdness materially helps on the action. At the -opening, after having heard from his master the position of affairs and -the humors of the lady, he gives his advice in the following lines, -which embody the entire argument of the drama. - - My lord, your case I have discreetly heard, - And find it neither wonderful nor new;-- - In short, it is an every-day affair. - Why, look ye, now! In my young boyhood, Sir,-- - When the full vintage came and grapes were strewed, - Yea, wasted, on the ground,--I had, be sure, - No appetite at all. But afterwards, - When they were gathered in for winter’s use, - And hung aloft upon the kitchen rafters, - Then nothing looked so tempting half as they; - And, climbing cunningly to reach them there, - I caught a pretty fall and broke my ribs. - Now, this, Sir, is your case,--the very same.[690] - - [690] - Atento, Señor, he estado, - Y el successo no me admira, - Porque esso, Señor, es cosa, - Que sucede cada dia. - Mira; siendo yo muchacho, - Auia en mi casa vendimia, - Y por el suelo las ubas - Nunca me dauan codicia. - Passó este tiempo, y despues - Colgaron en la cocina - Las ubas para el Inuierno; - Y yo viendolas arriba, - Rabiaua por comer dellas, - Tanto que, trepando un dia - Por alcançarlas, caí, - Y me quebré las costillas. - Este es el caso, el por el. - - Jorn. I. - -There is an excellent scene, in which the Count, perceiving he has made -an impression on the lady’s heart, fairly confesses his love, while -she, who is not yet entirely subdued, is able to turn round and treat -him with her accustomed disdain; from all which he recovers himself -with an address greater than her own, protesting his very confession -to have been only a part of the show they were by agreement carrying -on. But this confirms the lady’s passion, which at last becomes -uncontrollable, and the catastrophe immediately follows. She pleads -guilty to a desperate love, and marries him. - -Contemporary with Moreto, and nearly as successful as he was among the -earlier writers for the stage, was Francisco de Roxas, who flourished -during the greater part of Calderon’s life, and may have survived him. -He was born in Toledo, and in 1641 was made a knight of the Order of -Santiago, but when he died is not known. Two volumes of his plays -were published in 1640 and 1645, and in the Prologue to the second he -speaks of publishing yet a third, which never appeared; so that we -have still only the twenty-four plays contained in these volumes, and -a few others that at different times were printed separately.[691] He -belongs decidedly to Calderon’s school,--unless, indeed, he began his -career too early to be a mere follower; and in poetical merit, if not -in dramatic skill, takes one of the next places after Moreto. But he -is very careless and unequal. His plays entitled “He who is a King -must not be a Father” and “The Aspics of Cleopatra” are as extravagant -as almost any thing in the Spanish heroic drama; while, on the other -hand, “What Women really are” and “Folly rules here” are among the most -effective of the class of intriguing plays.[692] - - [691] Both volumes of the Comedias de Roxas were reprinted, - Madrid, 1680, 4to, and both their _Licencias_ are dated on the - same day; but the publisher of the first, who dedicates it to a - distinguished nobleman, is the same person to whom the second is - dedicated by the printer of both. _Autos_ of Roxas may be found - in “Autos, Loas, etc.,” 1655, and in “Navidad y Corpus Christi - Festejados,” collected by Pedro de Robles, 1664. But they are no - better than those of his contemporaries generally. - - [692] His “Persiles y Sigismunda” is from Cervantes’s novel of - the same name. On the other hand, his “Casarse por vengarse” is - plundered, without ceremony, for the story of “Le Mariage de - Vengeance,” (Gil Blas, Liv. IV. c. 4), by Le Sage, who never - neglected a good opportunity of the sort. - -His best, however, and one that has always kept its place on the stage, -is called “None below the King.” The scene is laid in the troublesome -times of Alfonso the Eleventh, and is in many respects true to them. -Don Garcia, the hero, is a son of Garci Bermudo, who had conspired -against the father of the reigning monarch, and, in consequence of this -circumstance, Garcia lives concealed as a peasant at Castañar, near -Toledo, very rich, but unsuspected by the government. In a period of -great anxiety, when the king wishes to take Algeziras from the Moors, -and demands, for that purpose, free contributions from his subjects, -those of Garcia are so ample as to attract especial attention. The -king inquires who is this rich and loyal peasant; and his curiosity -being still further excited by the answer, he determines to visit him -at Castañar, _incognito_, accompanied by only two or three favored -courtiers. Garcia, however, is privately advised of the honor that -awaits him, but, from an error in the description, mistakes the person -of one of the attendants for that of the king himself. - -On this mistake the plot turns. The courtier whom Garcia wrongly -supposes to be the king falls in love with Blanca, Garcia’s wife; and, -in attempting to enter her apartments by night, when he believes -her husband to be away, is detected by the husband in person. Now, -of course, comes the struggle between Spanish loyalty and Spanish -honor. Garcia can visit no vengeance on a person whom he believes -to be his king; and he has not the slightest suspicion of his wife, -whom he knows to be faithfully and fondly attached to him. But the -remotest appearance of an intrigue demands a bloody satisfaction. He -determines, therefore, at once, on the death of his loving wife. Amidst -his misgivings and delays, however, she escapes, and is carried to -court, whither he himself is, at the same moment, called to receive -the greatest honors that can be conferred on a subject. In the royal -presence, he necessarily discovers his mistake regarding the king’s -person. From this moment, the case becomes perfectly plain to him, and -his course perfectly simple. He passes instantly into the antechamber. -With a single blow his victim is laid at his feet; and he returns, -sheathing his bloody dagger, and offering, as his only and sufficient -defence, an account of all that had happened, and the declaration, -which gives its name to the play, that “none below the king” can be -permitted to stand between him and the claims of his honor. - -Few dramas in the Spanish language are more poetical; fewer still, more -national in their tone. The character of Garcia is drawn with great -vigor, and with a sharply defined outline. That of his wife is equally -well designed, but is full of gentleness and patience. Even the clown -is a more than commonly happy specimen of the sort of parody suitable -to his position. Some of the descriptions, too, are excellent. There is -a charming one of rustic life, such as it was fancied to be under the -most favorable circumstances in Spain’s best days; and, at the end of -the second act, there is a scene between Garcia and the courtier, at -the moment the courtier is stealthily entering his wife’s apartment, -in which we have the struggle between Spanish honor and Spanish -loyalty given with a picturesqueness and spirit that leave little -to be desired. In short, if we set aside the best plays of Lope de -Vega and Calderon, it is one of the most effective of the old Spanish -dramas.[693] - - [693] “Del Rey abaxo Ninguno” has been sometimes printed with the - name of Calderon, who might well be content to be regarded as its - author; but there is no doubt who wrote it. It is, however, among - the Comedias Sueltas of Roxas, and not in his collected works. - -Roxas was well known in France. Thomas Corneille imitated, and almost -translated, one of his plays; and as Scarron, in his “Jodelet,” did -the same with “Where there are real Wrongs there is no Jealousy,” -the second comedy that has kept its place on the French stage is due -to Spain, as the first tragedy and the first comedy had been before -it.[694] - - [694] T. Corneille’s play is “Don Bertrand de Cigarral,” (Œuvres, - Paris, 1758, 12mo, Tom. I. p. 209), and his obligations are - avowed in the Dedication. Scarron’s “Jodelet” (Œuvres, Paris, - 1752, 12mo, Tom. II. p. 73) is a spirited comedy, desperately - indebted to Roxas. But Scarron constantly borrowed from the - Spanish theatre. - -Like many writers for the Spanish theatre, Roxas prepared several of -his plays in conjunction with others. Franchi, in his eulogy on Lope -de Vega, who indulged in this practice as the rest did, complains of -it, and says a drama thus compounded is more like a conspiracy than -a comedy, and that such performances were, in their different parts, -necessarily unequal and dissimilar. But this was not the general -opinion of his age; and that the complaint is not always well founded, -we know, not only from the example of Beaumont and Fletcher, but from -the success that has attended the composition of many dramas in France -in the nineteenth century by more than one person. It should not be -forgotten, also, that in Spain, where, from the very structure of the -national drama, the story was of so much consequence, and where so many -of the characters had standing attributes assigned to them, such joint -partnerships were more easily carried through with success than they -could be on any other stage. At any rate, they were more common there -than they have ever been elsewhere.[695] - - [695] Three persons were frequently employed on one drama, - dividing its composition among them, according to its three - regular _jornadas_. In the large collection of Comedias printed - in the latter half of the seventeenth century, in forty-eight - volumes, there are, I think, about thirty such plays. Two are by - six persons each. One, in honor of the Marquis Cañete, is the - work of nine different poets, but it is not in any collection; it - is printed separately, and better than was usual, Madrid, 1622, - 4to. - -Alvaro Cubillo, who alludes to Moreto as his contemporary, and who -was perhaps known even earlier as a successful dramatist, says, in -1654, that he had already written a hundred plays. But the whole of -this great number, except ten published by himself, and two or three -others that appeared, if we may judge by his complaints, without -his permission, are now lost. Of those he published himself, “The -Thunderbolt of Andalusia,” in two parts, taken from the old ballads -about the Children of Lara, was much admired in his lifetime; but “The -Bracelets of Marcela,” a simple comedy, resting on the first childlike -love of a young girl, has since quite supplanted it. One of his plays, -“El Señor de Noches Buenas,” was early printed as Antonio de Mendoza’s, -but Cubillo at once made good his title to it; and yet, after the -death of both, it was inserted anew in Mendoza’s works;--a striking -proof of the great carelessness long common in Spain on the subject of -authorship. - -None of Cubillo’s plays has high poetical merit, though several of -them are pleasant, easy, and natural. The best is “The Perfect Wife,” -in which the gentle and faithful character of the heroine is drawn with -skill, and with a true conception of what is lovely in woman’s nature. -Two of his religious plays, on the other hand, are more than commonly -extravagant and absurd; one of them--“Saint Michael”--containing, in -the first act, the story of Cain and Abel; in the second, that of -Jonah; and in the third, that of the Visigoth king, Bamba, with a sort -of separate conclusion in the form of a vision of the times of Charles -the Fifth and his three successors.[696] - - [696] The plays of Cubillo that I have seen are,--ten in his - “Enano de las Musas” (Madrid, 1654, 4to); five in the Comedias - Escogidas, printed as early as 1660; and perhaps two or - three more scattered elsewhere. The “Enano de las Musas” is - a collection of his works, containing many ballads, sonnets, - etc., and an allegorical poem on “The Court of the Lion,” which, - Antonio says, was published as early as 1625, and which seems to - have been liked and to have gone through several editions. But - none of Cubillo’s poetry is so good as his plays. See Prólogo and - Dedication to the Enano, and Montalvan’s list of writers for the - stage at the end of his “Para Todos.” - -But the Spanish stage, as we advance in Calderon’s life, becomes more -and more crowded with dramatic authors, all eager in their struggles -for popular favor. One of them was Antonio de Leyba, whose “Mutius -Scævola” is an absurdly constructed and wild historical play; while, -on the contrary, his “Honor the First Thing” and “The Lady President” -are pleasant comedies, enlivened with short stories and apologues, -which he wrote with great naturalness and point.[697] Another dramatist -was Cancer y Velasco, whose poems are better known than his plays, -and whose “Muerte de Baldovinos” runs more into caricature and broad -farce than was commonly tolerated in the court theatre.[698] And -yet others were Antonio Enriquez Gomez, son of a Portuguese Jew, who -inserted in his “Moral Evenings with the Muses”[699] four plays, all of -little value, except “The Duties of Honor”;--Antonio Sigler de Huerta, -who wrote “No Good to Ourselves without Harm to Somebody Else”;--and -Zabaleta, who, though he made a satirical and harsh attack upon the -theatre, could not refuse himself the indulgence of writing for it.[700] - - [697] There are a few of Leyba’s plays in Duran’s collection, - and in the Comedias Escogidas, and I possess a few of them in - pamphlets. But I do not know how many he wrote, and I have no - notices of his life. He is sometimes called Francisco de Leyba; - unless, indeed, there were two of the same surname. - - [698] Obras de Don Gerónimo Cancer y Velasco, Madrid, 1761, 4to. - The first edition is of 1651, and Antonio sets his death at 1654. - The “Muerte de Baldovinos” is in the Index of the Inquisition, - 1790; as is also his “Vandolero de Flandes.” A play, however, - which he wrote in conjunction with Pedro Rosete and Antonio - Martinez, was evidently intended to conciliate the Church, - and well calculated for its purpose. It is called “El Mejor - Representante San Gines,” and is found in Tom. XXIX., 1668, of - the Comedias Escogidas,--San Gines being a Roman actor, converted - to Christianity, and undergoing martyrdom in the presence of - the spectators in consequence of being called on to act a play - written by Polycarp, which was ingeniously constructed so as to - defend the Christians. The tradition is absurd enough certainly, - but the drama may be read with interest throughout, and parts of - it with pleasure. It has a love-intrigue brought in with skill. - Cancer, I believe, wrote plays without assistance only once or - twice. Certainly, twelve written in conjunction with Moreto, - Matos Fragoso, and others, are all by him that are found in the - Comedias Escogidas. - - [699] “Academias Morales de las Musas,” Madrid, 4to, 1660; but my - copy was printed at Barcelona, 1704, 4to. - - [700] Flor de las Mejores Comedias, Madrid, 1652, 4to. Baena, - Hijos de Madrid, Tom. III. p. 227. A considerable number of the - plays of Zabaleta may be seen in the forty-eight volumes of the - Comedias Escogidas, 1652, etc. One of them, “El Hijo de Marco - Aurelio,” on the subject of the Emperor Commodus, was acted in - 1644, and, as the author tells us, being received with little - favor, and complaints being made that it was not founded in - truth, he began at once a life of that Emperor, which he calls - a translation from Herodian, but which has claims neither to - fidelity in its version, nor to purity in its style. It remained - long unfinished, until one morning in 1664, waking up and finding - himself struck entirely blind, he began, “as on an elevation,” - to look round for some occupation suited to his solitude and - affliction. His play had been printed in 1658, in the tenth - volume of the Comedias Escogidas, and he now completed the work - that was to justify it, and published it in 1666, announcing - himself on the title-page as a royal chronicler. But it failed, - as his drama had failed before it. In the “Vexámen de Ingenios” - of Cancer, where the failure of another of Zabaleta’s plays is - noticed, (Obras de Cancer, Madrid, 1761, 4to, p. 111), a punning - epigram is inserted on his personal ugliness, the amount of - which is, that, though his play was dear at the price paid for a - ticket, his face would repay the loss to those who should look on - it. - -If we now turn from these to a few whose success was more strongly -marked, none presents himself earlier than Fernando de Zarate, a poet -who was occasionally misled by the fashion and bad taste of his time, -and occasionally resisted and rebuked it. Thus, in his best play, “What -Jealousy drives Men to do,” there is no trace of Gongorism, while this -eminently Spanish folly is very obvious in his otherwise good drama, -“He that talks Most does Least,” and even in his “Presumptuous and -Beautiful,” which has continued to be acted down to our own days.[701] - - [701] The plays of Zarate are, I believe, easiest found in - the Comedias Escogidas, where twenty-two of them occur;--the - earliest in Tom. XV., 1661; and “La Presumida y la Hermosa,” in - Tom. XXIII., 1666. In the Index Expurgatorius of 1792, p. 288, - it is intimated that Fernando de Zarate is the same person with - Antonio Enriquez Gomez;--a mistake founded, probably, on the - circumstance, that a play of Enriquez Gomez, who was a Jew, was - printed with the name of Zarate attached to it, as others of his - plays were printed with the name of Calderon. Amador de los Rios, - Judios de España, Madrid, 1848, 8vo, p. 575. - -Another of the writers for the theatre at this time was Miguel de -Barrios, one of those unhappy children of Israel, who, under the -terrors of the Inquisition, concealed their religion and suffered some -of the worst penalties of unbelief from the jealous intolerance which -everywhere watched them. His family was Portuguese, but he himself was -born in Spain, and served long in the Spanish armies. At last, however, -when he was in Flanders, the temptations to a peaceful conscience were -too strong for him. He escaped to Amsterdam, and died there in the open -profession of the faith of his fathers about the year 1699. His plays -were printed as early as 1665, but the only one worth notice is “The -Spaniard in Oran”; longer than it should be, but not without merit.[702] - - [702] His “Coro de las Musas,” at the end of which his plays are - commonly added separately, was printed at Brussels in 1665, 4to, - and in 1672. In my copy, which is of the first edition, and which - once belonged to Mr. Southey, is the following characteristic - note in his handwriting: “Among the Lansdowne MSS. is a volume - of poems by this author, who, being a ‘New Christian,’ was happy - enough to get into a country where he could profess himself - a Jew.” There is a long notice of him in Barbosa, Biblioteca - Lusitana, Tom. III. p. 464, and a still longer one in Amador de - los Rios, Judios de España, Madrid, pp. 608, etc. - -Diamante was among those who wrote dramas especially accommodated -to the popular taste, while Calderon was still at the height of his -reputation. Their number is considerable. Two volumes were collected -by him and published in 1670 and 1674, and yet others still remain -in scattered pamphlets and in manuscript.[703] They are in all the -forms, and in all the varieties of tone, then in favor. Some of them, -like “Santa Teresa,” are religious. Others are historical, like “Mary -Stuart.” Others are taken from the old national traditions, like “The -Siege of Zamora,” which is on the same subject with the second part -of Guillen de Castro’s “Cid,” but much less poetical. Others are -_zarzuelas_, or dramas chiefly sung, of which the best specimen by -Diamante is his “Alpheus and Arethusa,” prepared with an amusing _loa_ -in honor of the Constable of Castile. There are more in the style of -the _capa y espada_ than in any other. But none of them has any marked -merit. The one that has attracted most attention, out of Spain, is -“The Son honoring his Father”; a play on the quarrel of the Cid with -Count Lozano, which, from a mistake of Voltaire, was long thought to -have been the model of Corneille’s “Cid,” while in fact the reverse is -true; since Diamante’s play was produced above twenty years after the -great French tragedy, and is deeply indebted to it.[704] Like most of -the dramatists of his time, Diamante was a follower of Calderon, and -inclined to the more romantic side of his character and school; and, -like so many Spanish poets of all times, he finished his career in -religious seclusion. Of the precise period of his death no notice has -been found, but it was probably near the end of the century. - - [703] The “Comedias de Diamante” are in two volumes, 4to, Madrid, - 1670 and 1674; but in the first volume eight plays are paged - together, and for the four others there is a separate paging; - though, as the whole twelve are recognized in the _Tassa_ and in - the table of contents, they are no doubt all his. - - [704] The “Cid” of Corneille dates from 1636, and Diamante’s - “Honrador de su Padre” is found earliest in the eleventh volume - of the Comedias Escogidas, licensed 1658. Indeed, it may be well - doubted whether Diamante was a writer for the stage so early as - 1636; for I find no play of his printed before 1657. Another - play on the subject of the Cid, partly imitated from this one of - Diamante, and with a similar title,--“Honrador de sus Hijas,”--is - found in the Comedias Escogidas, Tom. XXIII., 1662. Its author - is Francisco Polo, of whom I know only that he wrote this drama, - whose merit is very small, and whose subject is the marriage of - the daughters of the Cid with the Counts of Carrion, and their - subsequent ill-treatment by their husbands, etc. - -Passing over such writers of plays as Monroy, Monteser, Cuellar, and -not a few others, who flourished in the latter half of the seventeenth -century, we come to a pleasant comedy entitled “The Punishment of -Avarice,” written by Juan de la Hoz, a native of Madrid, who was made a -knight of Santiago in 1653, and Regidor of Burgos in 1657, after which -he rose to good offices about the court, and was living there as late -as 1689. How many plays he wrote, we are not told; but the only one now -remembered is “The Punishment of Avarice.” It is founded on the third -tale of María de Zayas, which bears the same name, and from which its -general outline and all the principal incidents are taken.[705] But the -miser’s character is much more fully and poetically drawn in the drama -than it is in the story. Indeed, the play is one of the best specimens -of character-drawing on the Spanish stage, and may, in many respects, -bear a comparison with the “Aulularia” of Plautus, and the “Avare” of -Molière. - - [705] Huerta, who reprints the “Castigo de la Miseria” in the - first volume of his “Teatro Hespañol,” expresses a doubt as to - who is the inventor of the story, Hoz or María de Zayas. But - there is no question about the matter. The “Novelas” were printed - at Zaragoza, 1637, 4to, and their _Aprobacion_ is dated in 1635. - See, also, Baena’s “Hijos de Madrid,” Tom. III. p. 271. In the - Prólogo to Candamo’s plays, (Madrid, Tom. I., 1722), Hoz is said - to have written the third act of Candamo’s “San Bernardo,” left - unfinished at its author’s death in 1704. If this were the case, - Hoz must have lived to a good old age. - -The sketch of the miser by one of his acquaintance in the first act, -ending with “He it was who first weakened water,” is excellent; -and, even to the last scene, where he goes to a conjurer to recover -his lost money, the character is consistently maintained and well -developed.[706] He is a miser throughout; and, what is more, he -is a Spanish miser. The moral is better in the prose tale, as the -_intrigante_, who cheats him into a marriage with herself, is there -made a victim of her crimes no less than he is; while in the drama -she profits by them, and comes off with success at last,--a strange -perversion of the original story, which it is not easy to explain. But -in poetical merit there is no comparison between the two. - - [706] The first of these scenes is taken, in a good degree, from - the “Novelas,” ed. 1637, p. 86; but the scene with the astrologer - is wholly the poet’s own, and parts of it are worthy of Ben - Jonson. It should be added, however, that the third act of the - play is technically superfluous, as the action really ends with - the second. But we could not afford to part with it, so full is - it of spirit and humor. - -Juan de Matos Fragoso, a Portuguese, who lived in Madrid at the same -time with Diamante and Hoz, and died in 1692, enjoyed quite as much -reputation with the public as they did, though he often writes in -the very bad taste of the age. But he never printed more than one -volume of his dramas, so that they are now to be sought chiefly in -separate pamphlets, and in collections made for other purposes than the -claims of the individual authors found in them. Those of his dramas -which are most known are his “Mistaken Experiment,” founded on the -“Impertinent Curiosity” of the first part of Don Quixote; his “Fortune -through Contempt,” a better-managed dramatic fiction; and his “Wise -Man in Retirement and Peasant by his own Fireside,” which is commonly -accounted the best of his works. - -“The Captive Redeemer,” however, in which he was assisted by another -well-known author of his time, Sebastian de Villaviciosa, is on many -accounts more picturesque and attractive. It is, he says, a true -story. It is certainly a heart-rending one, founded on an incident not -uncommon during the barbarous wars carried on between the Christians -in Spain and the Moors in Africa,--relics of the fierce hatreds of -a thousand years.[707] A Spanish lady is carried into captivity by -a marauding party, who land on the coast for plunder and instantly -escape with their prey. Her lover, in despair, follows her, and the -drama consists of their adventures till both are found and released. -Mingled with this sad story, there is a sort of underplot, which gives -its name to the piece, and is very characteristic of the state of the -theatre and the demands of the public, or at least of the Church. A -large bronze statue of the Saviour is discovered to be in the hands of -the infidels. The captive Christians immediately offer the money, sent -as the price of their own freedom, to rescue it from such sacrilege; -and, at last, the Moors agree to give it up for its weight in gold; -but when the value of the thirty pieces of silver, originally paid for -the person of the Saviour himself, has been counted into one scale, it -is found to outweigh the massive statue in the other, and enough is -still left to purchase the freedom of the captives, who, in offering -their ransoms, had, in fact, as they supposed, offered their own lives. -With this triumphant miracle the piece ends. Like the other dramas -of Fragoso, it is written in a great variety of measures, which are -managed with skill and are full of sweetness.[708] - - [707] I have already noticed plays of Lope and Cervantes that set - forth the cruel condition of Christian Spaniards in Algiers, and - must hereafter notice the great influence this state of things - had on Spanish romantic fiction. But it should be remembered - here, that many dramas were founded on it, besides those I - have had occasion to mention. One of the most striking is by - Moreto, which has some points of resemblance to the one spoken - of in the text. It is called “El Azote de su Patria,” (Comedias - Escogidas, Tom. XXXIV., 1670),--and is filled with the cruelties - of a Valencian renegade, who seems to have been an historical - personage. - - [708] In the Comedias Escogidas, there are, at least, twenty-five - plays written wholly or in part by Matos, the earliest of which - is in Tom. V., 1653. From the conclusion of his “Pocos bastan si - son Buenos,” (Tom. XXXIV., 1670), and, indeed, from the local - descriptions in other parts of it, there can be no doubt that - Matos Fragoso was at one time in Italy, and very little that - this drama was written at Naples, and acted before the Spanish - Viceroy there. One volume of the plays of Matos Fragoso, called - the first, was printed at Madrid, 1658, 4to. Other separate plays - are in Duran’s collection, but not, I think, the best of them. - Villaviciosa wrote a part of “Solo el Piadoso es mi Hijo,” of “El - Letrado del Cielo,” of “El Redentor Cautivo,” etc. The apologue - of the barber, in the second act of the last, is, I think, taken - from one of Leyba’s plays, but I have it not now by me to refer - to, and such things were too common at the time on a much larger - scale to deserve notice, except as incidental illustrations of a - well-known state of literary morals in Spain. Fragoso’s life is - in Barbosa, Tom. II. pp. 695-697. I have eighteen of his plays in - separate pamphlets, besides those in the Comedias Escogidas. - -The last of the good writers for the Spanish stage with its old -attributes is Antonio de Solís, the historian of Mexico. He was born -on the 18th of July, 1610, in Alcalá de Henares, and completed his -studies at the University of Salamanca, where, when only seventeen -years old, he wrote a drama. Five years later he had given to the -theatre his “Gitanilla” or “The Pretty Gypsy Girl,” founded on the -story of Cervantes, or rather on a play of Montalvan borrowed from -that story;--a graceful fiction, which has been constantly reproduced -in one shape or another, ever since it first appeared from the hand of -the great master. “One Fool makes a Hundred”--a pleasant _figuron_ play -of Solís, which was soon afterwards acted before the court--has less -merit, and is somewhat indebted to the “Don Diego” of Moreto. But, on -the other hand, his “Love à la Mode,” which is all his own, is among -the good plays of the Spanish stage, and furnished materials for one of -the best of Thomas Corneille’s. - -In 1642, Solís prepared, for a festival at Pamplona, a dramatic -entertainment on the story of Orpheus and Eurydice, in which the tone -of the Spanish national theatre is fantastically confounded with the -genius of the old Grecian mythology, even more than was common in -similar cases; but the whole ends, quite contrary to all poetical -tradition, by the rescue of Eurydice from the infernal regions, with -an intimation that a second part would follow, whose conclusion would -be tragical;--a promise which, like so many others of the same sort in -Spanish literature, was never fulfilled. - -As his reputation increased, Solís was made one of the royal -secretaries, and, while acting in this capacity, wrote an allegorical -drama, partly resembling a morality of the elder period, and partly -a modern masque, in honor of the birth of one of the princes, which -was acted in the palace of the Buen Retiro. The title of this wild, -but not unpoetical, opera is “Triumphs of Love and Fortune”; and -Diana and Endymion, Psyche and Venus, Happiness and Adversity, are -among its dramatic personages; though a tone of honor and gallantry -is as consistently maintained in it, as if its scene were laid at -Madrid, and its characters taken from the audience that witnessed the -performance. It is the more curious, however, from the circumstance, -that the _loa_, the _entremeses_, and the _saynete_, with which it was -originally accompanied, are still attached to it, all written by Solís -himself.[709] - - [709] The “Triunfos de Amor y Fortuna” appeared as early as 1660, - in Tom. XIII. of the Comedias Escogidas. - -In this way he continued, during the greater part of his life, one of -the favored writers for the private theatre of the king and the public -theatres of the capital; the dramas he produced being almost uniformly -marked by a skilful complication of their plots, which were not always -original, and by a purity of style and harmony of versification which -were quite his own. But at last, like many other Spanish poets, he -began to think such occupations sinful; and, after much deliberation, -he resolved on a life of religious retirement, and submitted to the -tonsure. From this time he renounced the theatre. He even refused to -write _autos sacramentales_, when he was applied to, in the hope that -he might be willing to become a successor to the fame and fortunes -of his great master; and, giving up his mind to devout meditation -and historical studies, seems to have lived contentedly, though in -seclusion and poverty, till his death, which happened in 1686. A volume -of his minor poems, published afterwards, which are in all the forms -then fashionable, has little value, except in a few short dramatic -entertainments, several of which are characteristic and amusing.[710] - - [710] The “Varias Poesías” of Solís were edited by Juan de - Goyeneche, who prefixed to them an ill-written life of their - author, and published them at Madrid, 1692 (4to). His Comedias - were first printed in Madrid, 1681, as Tom. XLVII. of the - Comedias Escogidas. The “Gitanilla,” of which I have said that - it has been occasionally reproduced from Cervantes, is to be - found in the “Spanish Gypsy” of Rowley and Middleton; in the - “Preciosa,” a pleasant German play by P. A. Wolff; and in Victor - Hugo’s “Notre Dame de Paris”; besides which certain resemblances - to it in the “Spanish Student” of Professor Longfellow are - noticed by the author. - -Later than Solís, but still partly his contemporary, was Francisco -Banzes Candamo. He was a gentleman of ancient family, and was born in -1662, in Asturias,--that true soil of the old Spanish cavaliers. His -education was careful, if not wise; and he was early sent to court, -where he received, first a pension, and afterwards several important -offices in the financial administration, whose duties, it is said, he -fulfilled with good faith and efficiency. But at last the favor of the -court deserted him; and he died in 1704, under circumstances of so much -wretchedness, that he was buried at the charge of a religious society -in the place to which he had been sent in disgrace. - -His plays, or rather two volumes of them, were printed in 1722; but -in relation to his other poems, a large mass of which he left to the -Duke of Alva, we only know, that, long after their author’s death, a -bundle of them was sold for a few pence, and that an inconsiderable -collection of such of them as could be picked up from different -sources was printed in a small volume in 1729.[711] Of his plays, -those which he most valued are on historical subjects,[712] such as -“The Recovery of Buda” and “For his King and his Lady.” He wrote for -the theatre, however, in other forms, and several of his dramas are -curious, from the circumstance that they are tricked out with the -_loas_ and _entremeses_ which served originally to render them more -attractive to the multitude. Nearly all his plots are ingenious, and, -though involved, are more regular in their structure than was common -at the time. But his style is swollen and presumptuous, and there is, -notwithstanding their ingenuity, a want of life and movement in most of -his plays that prevented them from being effective on the stage. - - [711] Candamo’s plays, entitled “Poesías Cómicas, Obras - Póstumas,” were printed at Madrid, in 1722, in 2 vols., 4to. - His miscellaneous poems, “Poesías Lyricas,” were published in - Madrid, in 18mo, but without a date on the title-page, while - the Dedication is of 1729, the _Licencias_ of 1720, and the _Fe - de Erratas_, which ought to be the latest of all, is of 1710. - This, however, is a specimen of the confusion of such matters - in Spanish books; a confusion which, in the present instance, - is carried into the contents of the volume itself, the whole of - which is entitled “Poesías Lyricas,” though it contains idyls, - epistles, ballads, and part of _three_ cantos of an epic on the - expedition of Charles V. against Tunis; _nine_ cantos having been - among the papers left by its author to the Duke of Alva. The life - of Candamo, prefixed to the whole, is very poorly written. Huerta - (Teatro, Parte III. Tom. II. p. 196) says he himself bought a - large mass of Candamo’s poetry, including _six_ cantos of this - epic, for two rials; no doubt, a part of the manuscripts left to - the Duke. - - [712] He boasts of it in the opening of his “Cesar Africano.” - -Candamo, however, should be noted as having given a decisive -impulse to a form of the drama which was known before his time, -and which served at last to introduce the genuine opera; I mean -the _zarzuela_, which took its name from that of one of the royal -residences near Madrid, where they were represented with great splendor -for the amusement of Philip the Fourth, by command of his brother -Ferdinand.[713] They are, in fact, plays of various kinds,--shorter or -longer; _entremeses_ or full-length comedies;--but all in the national -tone, and yet all accompanied with music. - - [713] At first, only airs were introduced into the play, but - gradually the whole was sung. (Ponz, Viage de España, Madrid, - 12mo, Tom. VI., 1782, p 152. Signorelli, Storia dei Teatri, - Napoli, 1813, 8vo, Tom. IX. p. 194.) One of these _zarzuelas_, - in which the portions that were sung are distinguished from the - rest, is to be found in the “Ocios de Ignacio Alvarez Pellicer - de Toledo,” s. l. 1635, 4to, p. 26. Its tendency to approach - the Italian opera is apparent in its subject, which is “The - Vengeance of Diana,” as well as in the treatment of the story, in - the theatrical machinery, etc.; but it has no poetical merit. A - small volume, by Andres Dávila y Heredia, (Valencia, 1676, 12mo), - called “Comedia sin Música,” seems intended, by its title, to - ridicule the beginnings of the opera in Spain; but it is a prose - satire, of little consequence in any respect. See _ante_, pp. - 160, 237, 361, 399. - -The first attempt to introduce dramatic performances with music was -made, as we have seen, about 1630, by Lope de Vega, whose eclogue -“Selva sin Amor,” wholly sung, was played before the court, with -a showy apparatus of scenery prepared by Cosmo Lotti, an Italian -architect, and “was a thing,” says the poet, “new in Spain.” Short -pieces followed soon afterward, _entremeses_, that were sung in place -of the ballads between the acts of the plays, and of which Benavente -was the most successful composer before 1645, when his works were first -published. But the earliest of the full-length plays that was ever -sung was Calderon’s “Púrpura de la Rosa,” which was produced before -the court in 1659, on occasion of the marriage of Louis the Fourteenth -with the Infanta Maria Theresa,--a compliment to the distinguished -personages of France who had come to Spain in honor of that great -solemnity, and whom it was thought no more than gallant to amuse with -something like the operas of Quinault and Lulli, which were then the -most admired entertainments of the court of France. - -From this time, as was natural, there was a tendency to introduce -singing on the Spanish stage, both in full-length comedies and in -farces of all kinds;--a tendency which is apparent in Matos Fragoso, in -Solís, and in most of the other writers contemporary with the latter -part of Calderon’s career. At last, under the management of Diamante -and Candamo, a separate form of the drama grew up, the subjects for -which were generally taken from ancient mythology, like those of -the “Circe” and “Arethusa”; and when they were not so taken, as in -Diamante’s “Birth of Christ,” they were still treated in a manner much -like that observed in the treatment of their fabulous predecessors. - -From this form of the drama to that of the proper Italian opera -was but a step, and one the more easily taken, as, from the period -when the Bourbon family succeeded the Austrian on the throne, the -national characteristics heretofore demanded in whatever appeared on -the Spanish stage had ceased to enjoy the favor of the court and the -higher classes. As early as 1705, therefore, something like an Italian -opera was established at Madrid, where, with occasional intervals -of suspension and neglect, it has ever since maintained a doubtful -existence, and where, of course, the old _zarzuelas_ and their kindred -musical farces have been more and more discountenanced, until, in their -original forms, at least, they have ceased to be heard.[714] - - [714] See “Selva sin Amor,” with its Preface, printed by Lope - de Vega at the end of his “Laurel de Apolo,” Madrid, 1630, - 4to;--Benavente, Joco-Seria, 1645, and Valladolid, 1653, 12mo, - where such pieces are called _entremeses cantados_;--Calderon’s - Púrpura de la Rosa;--Luzan, Poética, Lib. III. c. 1;--Diamante’s - Labyrinto de Creta, printed as early as 1667, in the Comedias - Escogidas, Tom. XXVII.;--Parra, El Teatro Español, Poema Lírico, - s. l. 1802, 8vo, _notas_, p. 295;--C. Pellicer, Orígen del - Teatro, Tom. I. p. 268;--and Stefano Arteaga, Teatro Musicale - Italiano, Bologna, 8vo, Tom. I., 1785, p. 241. The last is an - excellent book, written by one of the Jesuits driven from Spain - by Charles III., and who died at Paris in 1799. The second - edition, 1783-88, is the amplest and best. - -Another of the poets who lived at this time and wrote dramas that mark -the decline of the Spanish theatre is Antonio de Zamora, who seems -originally to have been an actor; who was afterwards in the office -of the Indies and in the royal household; and whose dramatic career -begins before the year 1700, though he did not die till after 1730, and -probably had his principal success in the reign of Philip the Fifth, -before whom his plays were occasionally performed in the Buen Retiro, -as late as 1744. - -Two volumes of his dramas were collected and published, with a solemn -dedication and consecration of them to their author’s memory, on the -ground of rendering unto Cæsar the things which are Cæsar’s. They -are only sixteen in number, each longer than had been common on the -Spanish stage in its best days, and, in general, very heavy. Those -that are on religious subjects sink into farce, with the exception of -“Judas Iscariot,” which is too full of wild horrors to permit it to be -amusing. The best of the whole number is, probably, the one entitled -“All Debts must be paid at Last,” which is an alteration of Tirso de -Molina’s “Don Juan,” skilfully made;--a remarkable drama, in which the -tread of the marble statue is heard with more solemn effect than it is -in any other of the many plays on the same subject. - -But notwithstanding the merit of this and two or three others, it -must be admitted that Zamora’s plays--of which above forty are extant, -and of which many were acted at the court with applause--are very -wearisome. They are crowded with long directions to the actors, and -imply the use of much imperfect machinery;--both of them unwelcome -symptoms of a declining dramatic literature. Still, Zamora writes with -facility, and shows, that, under favorable circumstances, he might -have trodden with more success in the footsteps of Calderon, whom he -plainly took for his model. But he came too late, and, while striving -to imitate the old masters, fell into their faults and extravagances, -without giving token of the fresh spirit and marvellous invention in -which their peculiar power resides.[715] - - [715] Comedias de Antonio de Zamora, Madrid, 1744, 2 tom., 4to. - The royal authority to print the plays gives also a right to - print the lyrical works, but I think they never appeared. His - life is in Baena, Tom. I. p. 177, and notices of him in L. F. - Moratin, Obras, ed. Acad., Tom. II., Prólogo, pp. v.-viii. - -Others followed the same direction with even less success, like Pedro -Francisco Lanini, Antonio Martinez, Pedro de Rosete, and Francisco de -Villegas;[716] but the person who continued longest in the paths opened -by Lope and Calderon was Joseph de Cañizares, a poet of Madrid, born -in 1676, who began to write for the stage when he was only fourteen -years old,--who was known as one of its more favored authors for above -forty years, pushing his success far into the eighteenth century,--and -who died in 1750. His plays are in all the old forms.[717] A few of -those on historical subjects are not without interest, such as “The -Tales of the Great Captain,” “Charles the Fifth at Tunis,” and “The -Suit of Fernando Cortés.” The best of his efforts in this class is, -however, “El Picarillo en España,” on the adventures of a sort of -Falconbridge, Frederic de Bracamonte, who, in the reign of John the -Second, discovered the Canaries, and held them for some time, as if he -were their king. But Cañizares, on the whole, had most success in plays -founded on character-drawing, introduced a little before his time by -Moreto and Roxas, and commonly called, as we have noticed, “Comedias -de Figuron.” His happiest specimens in this class are “The Famous -Kitchen-Wench,” taken from the story of Cervantes, “The Mountaineer at -Court,” and “Dómine Lucas,” where he drew from the life about him, and -selected his subjects from the poor, presumptuous, decayed nobility, -with which the court of Madrid was then infested.[718] - - [716] These and many others, now entirely forgotten, are found in - the old collection of Comedias Escogidas, published between 1652 - and 1704, where they occur in the later volumes; e. g. of Lanini, - nine plays; of Martinez, eighteen; and of Rosete and Villegas, - eleven each. I am not aware that any one of them deserves to be - rescued from the oblivion in which they are all sunk. - - [717] Two volumes of the plays of Cañizares were collected, but - more can still be found separate, and many are lost. In Moratin’s - list, the titles of above seventy are brought together. Notices - of his life are in Baena, Tom. III. p. 69, and in Huerta, Teatro, - Parte I. Tom. II. p. 347. - - [718] The “Dómine Lucas” of Cañizares has no resemblance to - the lively play with the same title by Lope de Vega, in the - seventeenth volume of his Comedias, 1621, which, he says in - the Dedication, is founded on fact, and which was reprinted in - Madrid, 1841, 8vo, with a Preface, attacking, not only Cañizares, - but several of the author’s contemporaries, in a most truculent - manner. The “Dómine Lucas” of Cañizares, however, is worth - reading, particularly in an edition where it is accompanied by - its two _entremeses_, improperly called _saynetes_;--the whole - newly arranged for representation in the Buen Retiro, on occasion - of the marriage of the Infanta María Luisa with the Archduke - Peter Leopold, in 1765. - -Still, with this partial success as a poet, and with a popularity that -made him of consequence to the actors, Cañizares shows more distinctly -than any of his predecessors or contemporaries the marks of a declining -drama. As we turn over the seventy or eighty plays he has left us, -we are constantly reminded of the towers and temples of the South -of Europe, which, during the Middle Ages, were built from fragments -of the nobler edifices that had preceded them, proving at once the -magnificence of the age in which the original structures were reared, -and the decay of that of which such relics and fragments were the chief -glory. The plots, intrigues, and situations in the dramas of Cañizares -are generally taken from Lope, Calderon, Moreto, Matos Fragoso, and -his other distinguished predecessors, to whom, not without the warrant -of many examples on the Spanish stage, he resorted as to rich and -ancient monuments, which could still yield to the demands of his age -materials such as the age itself could no longer furnish from its own -resources.[719] - - [719] The habit of using too freely the works of their - predecessors was common on the Spanish stage from an early - period. Cervantes says, in 1617, (Persiles, Lib. III. c. 2), that - some companies kept poets expressly to new-vamp old plays; and so - many had done it before him, that Cañizares seems to have escaped - censure, though nobody, certainly, had gone so far. - -It would be easy to add the names of not a few other writers for the -Spanish stage who were contemporary with Cañizares, and, like him, -shared in the common decline of the national drama, or contributed to -it. Such were Juan de Vera y Villarroel, Inez de la Cruz, Melchior -Fernandez de Leon, Antonio Tellez de Azevedo, and others yet less -distinguished while they lived, and long ago forgotten. But writers -like these had no real influence on the character of the theatre to -which they attached themselves. This, in its proper outlines, always -remained as it was left by Lope de Vega and Calderon, who, by a -remarkable concurrence of circumstances, maintained, as far as it was -in secular hands, an almost unquestioned control over it, while they -lived, and, at their death, left a character impressed upon it which it -never lost, till it ceased to exist altogether.[720] - - [720] See Appendix (F). - - - - -CHAPTER XXVI. - -CHARACTER OF THE SPANISH DRAMA.--THE AUTOR, OR MANAGER.--THE -WRITERS FOR THE STAGE.--THE ACTORS, THEIR NUMBER, SUCCESS, -AND CONDITION.--PERFORMANCES BY DAYLIGHT.--THE STAGE.--THE -COURT-YARD, MOSQUETEROS, GRADAS, CAZUELA, AND APOSENTOS.--THE -AUDIENCES.--PLAY-BILLS, AND TITLES OF PLAYS.--REPRESENTATIONS, BALLADS, -LOAS, JORNADAS, ENTREMESES, SAYNETES, AND DANCES.--BALLADS DANCED AND -SUNG.--XACARAS, ZARABANDAS, AND ALEMANAS.--POPULAR CHARACTER OF THE -WHOLE.--GREAT NUMBER OF WRITERS AND PLAYS. - - -The most prominent, if not the most important, characteristic of -the Spanish drama, at the period of its widest success, was its -nationality. In all its various forms, including the religious plays, -and in all its manifold subsidiary attractions, down to the recitation -of old ballads and the exhibition of popular dances, it addressed -itself more to the whole people of the country which produced it -than any other theatre of modern times. The Church, as we have seen, -occasionally interfered, and endeavoured to silence or to restrict it. -But the drama was too deeply seated in the general favor, to be much -modified, even by a power that overshadowed nearly every thing else -in the state; and during the whole of the seventeenth century,--the -century which immediately followed the severe legislation of Philip the -Second and his attempts to control the character of the stage,--the -Spanish drama was really in the hands of the mass of the people, and -its writers and actors were such as the popular will required them to -be.[721] - - [721] Mariana, in his treatise “De Spectaculis,” Cap. VII., - (Tractatus Septem, Coloniæ Agrippinæ, 1609, folio), earnestly - insists that actors of the low and gross character he gives to - them should not be permitted to perform in the churches, or to - represent sacred plays anywhere; and that the theatres should be - closed on Sundays. But he produced no effect against the popular - passion. - -At the head of each company of actors was their _Autor_. The name -descended from the time of Lope de Rueda, when the writer of the rude -farces then in favor collected about him a body of players to perform -what should rather be called his dramatic dialogues than his proper -dramas, in the public squares;--a practice soon imitated in France, -where Hardy, the “Author,” as he styled himself, of his own company, -produced, between 1600 and 1630, about five hundred rude plays and -farces, often taken from Lope de Vega, and whatever was most popular -at the same period in Spain.[722] But while Hardy was at the height -of his success and preparing the way for Corneille, the canon in Don -Quixote had already recognized in Spain the existence of two kinds of -authors;--the authors who wrote, and the authors who acted;[723]--a -distinction familiar from the time when Lope de Vega appeared, and -one that was never afterwards overlooked. At any rate, from that time -actors and managers were quite as rarely writers for the stage in Spain -as in other countries.[724] - - [722] For Hardy and his extraordinary career, which was almost - entirely founded on the Spanish theatre, see the “Parfaits,” or - any other history of the French stage. Corneille, in his “Remarks - on Mélite,” says, that, when he began, he had no guide but a - little common sense and the example of Hardy, and a few others - no more regular than he was. The example of Hardy led Corneille - directly to Spain for materials. - - [723] D. Quixote, Parte I. c. 48. The _Primera Dama_, or the - actress of first parts, was sometimes called the _Autora_. Diablo - Cojuelo, Tranco V. - - [724] Villegas was one of the last of the authors who were - managers. He wrote, we are told, fifty-four plays, and died about - 1600. (Roxas, Viage, 1614, f. 21.) After this, the next example - of any prominence is Diamante, who was an actor before he wrote - for the stage, and died about 1700. The managing _autor_ was - sometimes the object of ridicule in the play his own company - performed, as he is in the “Tres Edades del Mundo” of Luis Vélez - de Guevara, where he is the _gracioso_. Comedias Escogidas, Tom. - XXXVIII., 1672. - -The relations between the dramatic poets and the managers and actors -were not more agreeable in Spain than elsewhere. Figueroa, who was -familiar with the subject, says that the writers for the theatre -were obliged to flatter the heads of companies, in order to obtain -a hearing from the public, and that they were often treated with -coarseness and contempt, especially when their plays were read and -adapted to the stage in presence of the actors who were to perform -them.[725] Solorzano--himself a dramatist--gives similar accounts, -and adds the story of a poet, who was not only rudely, but cruelly, -abused by a company of players, to whose humors their _autor_ or -manager had abandoned him.[726] And even Lope de Vega and Calderon, the -master-spirits of the time, complain bitterly of the way in which they -were trifled with and defrauded of their rights and reputation, both -by the managers and by the booksellers.[727] At the end of the drama, -its author therefore sometimes announced his name, and, with more or -less of affected humility, claimed the work as his own.[728] But this -was not a custom. Almost uniformly, however, when the audience was -addressed at all,--and that was seldom neglected at the conclusion of a -drama,--it was saluted with the grave and flattering title of “Senate.” - - [725] Pasagero, 1617, ff. 112-116. - - [726] “Garduña de Sevilla,” near the end, and the “Bachiller - Trapaza,” c. 15. Cervantes, just as he is finishing his “Coloquio - de los Perros,” tells a story somewhat similar; so that authors - were early ill-treated by the actors. - - [727] See the Preface and Dedication of the “Arcadia,” by Lope, - as well as other passages, noted in his Life;--the letter of - Calderon to the Duke of Veraguas;--his Life by Vera Tassis, etc. - - [728] Thus, Mira de Mescua, at the conclusion of “The Death of - St. Lazarus,” (Comedias Escogidas, Tom. IX., 1657, p. 167), - says:-- - - Here ends the play - Whose wondrous tale Mira de Mescua wrote - To warn the many. Pray forgive our faults. - - And Francisco de Leyba finishes his “Amadis y Niquea” (Comedias - Escogidas, Tom. XL., 1675, f. 118) with these words:-- - - Don Francis Leyba humbly bows himself, - And at your feet asks,--not a victor shout,-- - But rather pardon for his many faults. - - In general, however, as in the “Mayor Venganza” of Alvaro - Cubillo, and in the “Caer para levantarse” of Matos, Cancer, - and Moreto, the annunciation is simple, and made, apparently, - to protect the rights of the author, which, in the seventeenth - century, were so little respected. - -Nor does the condition of the actors seem to have been one which -could be envied by the poets who wrote for them. Their numbers and -influence, indeed, soon became imposing under the great impulse given -to the drama in the beginning of the seventeenth century. When Lope de -Vega first appeared as a dramatic writer at Madrid, the only theatres -he found were two unsheltered court-yards, which depended on such -strolling companies of players as occasionally deemed it for their -interest to visit the capital. Before he died, there were, besides the -court-yards in Madrid, several theatres of great magnificence in the -royal palaces, and multitudinous bodies of actors, comprehending in all -above a thousand persons.[729] And half a century later, at the time of -Calderon’s death, when the Spanish drama had taken all its attributes, -the passion for its representations had spread into every part of the -kingdom, until there was hardly a village, we are told, that did not -possess some kind of a theatre.[730] Nay, so pervading and uncontrolled -was the eagerness for dramatic exhibitions, that, notwithstanding the -scandal it excited, secular comedies of a very equivocal complexion -were represented by performers from the public theatres in some of the -principal monasteries of the kingdom.[731] - - [729] Don Quixote, ed. Pellicer, 1797, Tom. IV. p. 110, note. - One account says there were three hundred companies of actors - in Spain about 1636; but this seems incredible, if it means - companies of persons who lived by acting. Pantoja, Sobre - Comedias, Murcia, 1814, 4to, Tom. I. p. 28. - - [730] Pellicer, Orígen de las Comedias, 1804, Tom. I. p. 185. - - [731] Ibid., pp. 226-228. When Philip III. visited Lisbon - in 1619, the Jesuits performed a play before him, partly - in Latin and partly in Portuguese, at their College of San - Antonio;--an account of which is given in the “Relacion de la - Real Tragicomedia con que los Padres de la Compañía de Jesus - recibieron á la Magestad Católica,” etc., por Juan Sardina - Mimoso, etc., Lisboa, 1620, 4to,--its author being, I believe, - Antonio de Sousa. Add to this that Mariana (De Spectaculis, c. - 7) says that the _entremeses_ and other exhibitions between the - acts of the plays, performed in the most holy religious houses, - were often of a gross and shameless character,--a statement which - he repeats, partly in the same words, in his treatise “De Rege,” - Lib. III. c. 16. - -Of course, out of so large a body of actors, all struggling for public -favor, some became famous. Among the more distinguished were Agustin -de Roxas, who wrote the gay travels of a company of comedians; Roque -de Figueroa and Rios, Lope’s favorites; Pinedo, much praised by Tirso -de Molina; Alonso de Olmedo and Sebastian Prado, who were rivals for -public applause in the time of Calderon; Juan Rana, who was the best -comic actor during the reigns of Philip the Third and Philip the -Fourth, and amused the audiences by his own extemporaneous wit; the two -Morales and Josefa Vaca, wife of the elder of them; Barbara Coronel, -the Amazon, who preferred to appear as a man; María de Córdoba, praised -by Quevedo and the Count Villamediana; and María Calderon, who, as the -mother of the second Don John of Austria, figured in affairs of state, -as well as in those of the stage. These and some others enjoyed, no -doubt, that ephemeral, but brilliant, reputation which is generally the -only reward of the best of their class; and enjoyed it to as high a -degree, perhaps, as any persons that have appeared on the stage in more -modern times.[732] - - [732] C. Pellicer, Orígen, Tom. II., _passim_, and Mad. d’Aulnoy, - Voyage en Espagne, ed. 1693, Tom. I. p. 97. One of the best-known - actors of the time was Sebastian Prado, mentioned above, the - head of a company that went to France after the marriage of - Louis XIV. with María Teresa, in 1659, and performed there some - time for the pleasure of the new queen;--one of the many proofs - of the spread and fashion of Spanish literature at this period. - (C. Pellicer, Tom. I. p. 39.) María de Córdoba is mentioned with - admiration, not only by the authors I have cited, but by Calderon - in the opening of the “Dama Duende,” as Amarilis. For the names - of other actors in the seventeenth century, see Don Quixote, ed. - Clemencin, Parte II. c. 11, note. - -But, regarded as a body, the Spanish actors seem to have been any -thing but respectable. In general, they were of a low and vulgar -caste in society,--so low, that, for this reason, they were at one -period forbidden to have women associated with them.[733] The rabble, -indeed, sympathized with them, and sometimes, when their conduct -called for punishment, protected them by force from the arm of the law; -but, between 1644 and 1649, when their number in the metropolis had -become very great, and they constituted no less than forty companies, -full of disorderly persons and vagabonds, their character did more -than any thing else to endanger the privileges of the drama, which -with difficulty evaded the restrictions their riotous lives brought -upon it.[734] One proof of their gross conduct is to be found in its -results. Many of them, filled with compunction at their own shocking -excesses, took refuge at last in a religious life, like Prado, who -became a devout priest, and Francisca Baltasara, who died a hermit, -almost in the odor of sanctity, and was afterwards made the subject of -a religious play.[735] - - [733] Alonso, Mozo de Muchos Amos, Parte I., Barcelona, 1625, f. - 141. A little earlier, viz. 1618, Bisbe y Vidal speaks of women - on the stage frequently taking the parts of men (Tratado de - Comedias, f. 50); and from the directions to the players in the - “Amadis y Niquea” of Leyba, (Comedias Escogidas, Tom. XL., 1675), - it appears that the part of Amadis was expected to be played - always by a woman. - - [734] C. Pellicer, Orígen, Tom. I. p. 183, Tom. II. p. 29; and - Navarro Castellanos, Cartas Apologéticas contra las Comedias, - Madrid, 1684, 4to, pp. 256-258. “Take my advice,” says Sancho to - his master, after their unlucky encounter with the players of the - _Auto Sacramental_,--“take my advice and never pick a quarrel - with play-actors: they are privileged people. I have known one of - them sent to prison for two murders, and get off scot-free. For - mark, your worship, as they are gay fellows, full of fun, every - body favors them; every body defends, helps, and likes them; - especially if they belong to the royal and privileged companies, - where all or most of them dress as if they were real princes.” - Don Quixote, Parte II. c. 11, with the note of Clemencin. - - [735] C. Pellicer, Orígen, Tom. II. p. 53, and elsewhere - throughout the volume. - -They had, besides, many trials. They were obliged to learn a great -number of pieces to satisfy the demands for novelty, which were more -exacting on the Spanish stage than on any other; their rehearsals were -severe, and their audiences rude. Cervantes says that their life was as -hard as that of the Gypsies;[736] and Roxas, who knew all there was to -be known on the subject, says that slaves in Algiers were better off -than they were.[737] - - [736] In the tale of the “Licenciado Vidriera.” - - [737] Roxas, Viage, 1614, f. 138. The necessities of the actors - were so pressing, that they were paid their wages every night, as - soon as the acting was over. - - Un Representante cobra - Cada noche lo que gana. - Y el Autor paga, aunque - No hay dinero en la Caxa. - - El Mejor Representante, Comedias Escogidas, Tom. XXIX., 1668, p. - 199. - - The Actor gets his wages every night; - For the poor Manager must pay him up, - Although his treasure-chest is clear of coin. - -To all this we must add that they were poorly paid, and that their -managers were almost always in debt. But, like other forms of vagabond -life, its freedom from restraints made it attractive to not a few -loose persons, in a country like Spain, where it was difficult to find -liberty of any sort. This attraction, however, did not last long. The -drama fell in its consequence and popularity as rapidly as it had -risen. Long before the end of the century, it ceased to encourage or -protect such numbers of idlers as were at one time needed to sustain -its success;[738] and in the reign of Charles the Second it was not -easy to collect three companies for the festivities occasioned by his -marriage.[739] Half a century earlier, twenty would have striven for -the honor. - - [738] “Pondus iners reipublicæ, atque inutile,” said Mariana, De - Spectaculis, c. 9. - - [739] Hugalde y Parra, Orígen del Teatro, p. 312. - -During the whole of the successful period of the drama in Spain, -its exhibitions took place in the day-time. On the stages of the -different palaces, where, when Howell was in Madrid, in 1623,[740] -there were representations once a week, it was sometimes otherwise; -but the religious plays and _autos_, with all that were intended to -be really popular, were represented in broad daylight,--in the winter -at two, and in the summer at three, in the afternoon, every day in -the week.[741] Till near the middle of the seventeenth century, the -scenery and general arrangements of the theatre were probably as good -as they were in France when Corneille appeared, or perhaps better; but -in the latter part of it, the French stage was undoubtedly in advance -of that at Madrid, and Madame d’Aulnoy makes herself merry by telling -her friends that the Spanish sun was made of oiled paper, and that in -the play of “Alcina” she saw the devils quietly climbing ladders out of -the infernal regions, to reach their places on the stage.[742] Plays -that required more elaborate arrangements and machinery were called -_comedias de ruido_,--noisy or showy dramas,--and are treated with -little respect by Figueroa and Luis Vélez de Guevara, because it was -thought unworthy of a poetical spirit to depend for success on means so -mechanical.[743] - - [740] Familiar Letters, London, 1754, 8vo, Book I. Sect. 3, - Letter 18. - - [741] C. Pellicer, Orígen, Tom. I. p. 220. Aarsens, Voyage, 1667, - p. 29. - - [742] Relation du Voyage d’Espagne, par Madame la Contesse - d’Aulnoy, La Haye, 1693, 18mo, Tom. III. p. 21,--the same who - wrote beautiful fairy tales. She was there in 1679-80; but - Aarsens gives a similar account of things fifteen years earlier. - Voyage, 1667, p. 59. - - [743] Figueroa, Pasagero, and Guevara, Diablo Cojuelo. - -The stage itself, in the two principal theatres of Madrid, was raised -only a little from the ground of the court-yard where it was erected, -and there was no attempt at a separate orchestra,--the musicians coming -to the forepart of the scene whenever they were wanted. Immediately -in front of the stage were a few benches, which afforded the best -places for those who bought single tickets, and behind them was the -unencumbered portion of the court-yard, where the common file were -obliged to stand in the open air. The crowd there was generally great, -and the persons composing it were called, from their standing posture -and their rude bearing, _mosqueteros_, or infantry. They constituted -the most formidable and disorderly part of the audience, and were the -portion that generally determined the success of new plays.[744] -One of their body, a shoemaker, who in 1680 reigned supreme in the -court-yard over the opinions of those around him, reminds us at once of -the critical trunk-maker in Addison.[745] Another, who was offered a -hundred rials to favor a play about to be acted, answered proudly that -he would first see whether it was good or not, and, after all, hissed -it.[746] Sometimes the author himself addressed them at the end of his -play, and stooped to ask the applause of this lowest portion of the -audience. But this was rare.[747] - - [744] C. Pellicer, Orígen, Tom. I. pp. 53, 55, 63, 68. - - [745] Mad. d’Aulnoy, Voyage, Tom. III. p. 21. Spectator, No. 235. - - [746] Aarsens, Relation, at the end of his Voyage, 1667, p. 60. - - [747] Manuel Morchon, at the end of his “Vitoria del Amor,” - (Comedias Escogidas, Tom. IX., 1657, p. 242), says:-- - - Most honorable Mosqueteros, here - Don Manuel Morchon, in gentlest form, - Beseeches you to give him, as an alms, - A victor shout;--if not for this his play, - At least for the good-will it shows to please you. - - In the same way, Antonio de Huerta, speaking of his “Cinco - Blancas de Juan Espera en Dios,” (Ibid., Tom. XXXII., 1669, p. - 179), addresses them:-- - - And should it now a victor cry deserve, - Señores Mosqueteros, you will here, - In charity, vouchsafe to give me one;-- - That is, in case the play has pleased you well. - - Perhaps we should not have expected of such a condescension from - Solís, but he stooped to it. At the conclusion of his well-known - “Doctor Carlino,” (Comedias, 1716, p. 262), he turns to them, - saying:-- - - And here expires my play. If it has pleased, - Let the Señores Mosqueteros cry a victor - At its burial. - - Every thing, indeed, that we know about the _mosqueteros_ shows - that their influence was great at the theatre in the theatre’s - best days. In the eighteenth century we shall find it governing - every thing. - -Behind the sturdy _mosqueteros_ were the _gradas_, or rising seats, for -the men, and the _cazuela_, or “stewpan,” where the women were strictly -inclosed, and sat crowded together by themselves. Above all these -different classes were the _desvanes_ and _aposentos_, or balconies -and rooms, whose open, shop-like windows extended round three sides of -the court-yard in different stories, and were filled by those persons -of both sexes who could afford such a luxury, and who not unfrequently -thought it one of so much consequence, that they held it as an heirloom -from generation to generation.[748] The _aposentos_ were, in fact, -commodious rooms, and the ladies who resorted to them generally went -masked, as neither the actors nor the audience were always so decent -that the ladylike modesty of the more courtly portion of society might -be willing to countenance them.[749] - - [748] Aarsens, Relation, p. 59. Zavaleta, Dia de Fiesta por la - Tarde, Madrid, 1660, 12mo, pp. 4, 8, 9. C. Pellicer, Tom. I. Mad. - d’Aulnoy, Tom. III. p. 22. - - [749] Guillen de Castro, “Mal Casadas de Valencia,” Jorn. II. - It may be worth notice, perhaps, that the traditions of the - Spanish theatre are still true to its origin;--_aposentos_, or - apartments, being still the name for the boxes; _patio_, or - court-yard, that of the pit; and _mosqueteros_, or musketeers, - that of the persons who fill the pit, and who still claim many - privileges, as the successors of those who stood in the heat of - the old court-yard. As to the _cazuela_, Breton de los Herreros, - in his spirited “Sátira contra los Abusos en el Arte de la - Declamacion Teatral,” (Madrid, 1834, 12mo), says:-- - - Tal vez alguna insípida mozuela - De tí se prende; mas si el _Patio_ brama, - Que te vale un rincon de la _Cazuela_? - - But this part of the theatre is more respectable than it was in - the seventeenth century. - -It was deemed a distinction to have free access to the theatre; and -persons who cared little about the price of a ticket struggled hard to -obtain it.[750] Those who paid at all paid twice,--at the outer door, -where the manager sometimes collected his claims in person, and at -the inner one, where an ecclesiastic collected what belonged to the -hospitals, under the gentler name of alms.[751] The audiences were -often noisy and unjust. Cervantes intimates this, and Lope directly -complains of it. Suarez de Figueroa says, that rattles, crackers, -bells, whistles, and keys were all put in requisition, when it was -desired to make an uproar; and Benavente, in a _loa_ spoken at the -opening of a theatrical campaign at Madrid by Roque, the friend of -Lope de Vega, deprecates the ill-humor of all the various classes -of his audience, from the fashionable world in the _aposentos_ to -the _mosqueteros_ in the court-yard; though, he adds, with some mock -dignity, that he little fears the hisses which he is aware must -follow such a defiance.[752] When the audience meant to applaud, -they cried “_Victor!_” and were no less tumultuous and unruly than -when they hissed.[753] In Cervantes’s time, after the play was over, -if it had been successful, the author stood at the door to receive -the congratulations of the crowd as they came out; and, later, his -name was placarded and paraded at the corners of the streets with an -annunciation of his triumph.[754] - - [750] Zabaleta, Dia de Fiesta por la Tarde, p. 2. - - [751] Cervantes, Viage al Parnaso, 1784, p. 148. - - [752] Cervantes, Prólogo á las Comedias. Lope, Prefaces to - several of his plays. Figueroa, Pasagero, 1617, p. 105. - Benavente, Joco-Seria, Valladolid, 1653, 12mo, f. 81. One of the - ways in which the audiences expressed their disapprobation was, - as Cervantes intimates, by throwing cucumbers (_pepinos_) at the - actors. - - [753] Mad. d’Aulnoy, Voyage, Tom. I. p. 55. Tirso de Molina, - Deleytar, Madrid, 1765, 4to, Tom. II. p. 333. At the end of a - play the _whole_ audience is not unfrequently appealed to for - a “Victor” by the second-rate authors, as we have seen the - _mosqueteros_ were sometimes, though rarely. Diego de Figueroa, - at the conclusion of his “Hija del Mesonero,” (Comedias - Escogidas, Tom. XIV., 1662, p. 182), asks for it as for an alms, - “Dadle un Vitor de limosna”; and Rodrigo Enriquez, in his “Sufrir - mas por querer menos,” (Tom. X., 1658, p. 222), asks for it as - for the vails given to servants in a gaming-house, “Venga un - Vitor de barato.” Sometimes a good deal of ingenuity is used to - bring in the word _Vitor_ just at the end of the piece, so that - it shall be echoed by the audience without an open demand for - it, as it is by Calderon in his “Amado y Aborrecido,” and in - the “Difunta Pleyteada” of Francisco de Roxas. But, in general, - when it is asked for at all, it is rather claimed as a right. - Once, in “Lealtad contra su Rey,” by Juan de Villegas, (Comedias - Escogidas, Tom. X., 1658), the two actors who end the piece - impertinently ask the applause for themselves, and not for the - author; a jest which was, no doubt, well received. - - [754] Cervantes, Viage, 1784, p. 138. Novelas, 1783, Tom. I. p. - 40. - -Cosmé de Oviedo, a well-known manager at Granada, was the first who -used advertisements for announcing the play that was to be acted. This -was about the year 1600. Half a century afterwards, the condition -of such persons was still so humble, that one of the best of them -went round the city and posted his play-bills himself, which were, -probably, written, and not printed.[755] From an early period they -seem to have given to acted plays the title which full-length Spanish -dramas almost uniformly bore during the seventeenth century and even -afterwards,--that of _comedia famosa_;--though we must except from -this remark the case of Tirso de Molina, who amused himself with -calling more than one of his successful performances “Comedia _sin_ -fama,”[756]--a play without repute. But this was, in truth, a matter -of mere form, soon understood by the public, who needed no especial -excitement to bring them to theatrical entertainments, for which they -were constitutionally eager. Some of the audience went early to secure -good places, and amused themselves with the fruit and confectionery -carried round the court-yard for sale, or with watching the movements -of the laughing dames who were inclosed within the balustrade of the -_cazuela_, and who were but too ready to flirt with all in their -neighbourhood. Others came late; and if they were persons of authority -or consequence, the actors waited for their appearance till the -disorderly murmurs of the groundlings compelled them to begin.[757] - - [755] Roxas, Viage, 1614, f. 51. Benavente, Joco-Seria, 1653, - f. 78. Alonso, Mozo de Muchos Amos;--by which (Tom. I. f. 137) - it appears that the placards were written as late as 1624, in - Seville. - - [756] This title he gave to “Como han de ser los Amigos,” “Amor - por Razon de Estado,” and some others of his plays. It may - be noted that a full-length play was sometimes called _Gran_ - Comedia, as twelve such are in Tom. XXXI. of “Las Mejores - Comedias que hasta oy han salido,” Barcelona, 1638. - - [757] Mad. d’Aulnoy, Voyage, Tom. III. p. 22, and Zabaleta, - Fiesta por la Tarde, 1660, pp. 4, 9. - -At last, though not always till the rabble had been composed by the -recitation of a favorite ballad or by some popular air on the guitars, -one of the more respectable actors, and often the manager himself, -appeared on the stage, and, in the technical phrase, “threw out the -_loa_” or compliment,[758]--a peculiarly Spanish form of the prologue, -of which we have abundant specimens from the time of Naharro, who calls -them _intróytos_, or overtures, down to the final fall of the old -drama. They are prefixed to all the _autos_ of Lope and Calderon; and -though, in the case of the multitudinous secular plays of the Spanish -theatre, the appropriate _loas_ are no longer found regularly attached -to each, yet we have them occasionally with the dramas of Tirso de -Molina, Calderon, Antonio de Mendoza, and not a few others. - - [758] Cigarrales de Toledo, Madrid, 1624, 4to, p. 99. There is - a good deal of learning about _loas_ in Pinciano, “Filosofía - Antigua,” Madrid, 1596, 4to, p. 413, and Salas, “Tragedia - Antigua,” Madrid, 1633, 4to, p. 184. - -The best are those of Agustin de Roxas, whose “Amusing Travels” are -full of them, and those of Quiñones de Benavente, found among his -“Jests in Earnest.” They were in different forms, dramatic, narrative, -and lyrical, and on very various subjects and in very various measures. -One of Tirso’s is in praise of the beautiful ladies who were present at -its representation;[759]--one of Mendoza’s is in honor of the capture -of Breda, and flatters the national vanity upon the recent successes -of the Marquis of Spinola;[760]--one by Roxas is on the glories of -Seville, where he made it serve as a conciliatory introduction for -himself and his company, when they were about to act there;[761]--one -by Sanchez is a jesting account of the actors who were to perform in -the play that was to follow it;[762]--and one by Benavente was spoken -by Roque de Figueroa, when he began a series of representations at -court, and is devoted to a pleasant exposition of the strength of his -company, and a boastful announcement of the new dramas they were able -to produce.[763] - - [759] The _loa_ to the “Vergonzoso en Palacio”: it is in _décimas - redondillas_. - - [760] It gives an account of the reception of the news at the - palace, (Obras de Mendoza, Lisboa, 1690, 4to, p. 78), and may - have been spoken before Calderon’s well-known play, “El Sitio de - Breda.” - - [761] Four persons appear in this _loa_,--a part of which is - sung,--and, at the end, Seville enters and grants them all leave - to act in her city. Viage, 1614, ff. 4-8. - - [762] Lyra Poética de Vicente Sanchez, Zaragoza, 1688, 4to, p. 47. - - [763] Joco-Seria, 1653, ff. 77, 82. In another he parodies some - of the familiar old ballads (ff. 43, etc.) in a way that must - have been very amusing to the _mosqueteros_: a practice not - uncommon in the lighter dramas of the Spanish stage, most of - which are lost. Instances of it are found in the _entremes_ of - “Melisandra,” by Lope (Comedias, Tom. I., Valladolid, 1609, p. - 333); and two burlesque dramas in Comedias Escogidas, Tom. XLV., - 1679,--the first entitled “Traycion en Propria Sangre,” being a - parody on the ballads of the “Infantes de Lara,” and the other - entitled “El Amor mas Verdadero,” a parody on the ballads of - “Durandarte” and “Belerma”;--both very extravagant and dull, but - showing the tendencies of the popular taste not a whit the less. - -Gradually, however, the _loas_, whose grand object was to conciliate -the audience, took more and more the popular dramatic form; and at -last, like several by Roxas, Mira de Mescua, Moreto, and Lope de -Vega,[764] differed little from the farces that followed them.[765] -Indeed, they were almost always fitted to the particular occasions that -called them forth, or to the known demands of the audience;--some of -them being accompanied with singing and dancing, and others ending with -rude practical jests.[766] They are, therefore, as various in their -tone as they are in their forms; and, from this circumstance, as well -as from their easy national humor, they became at last an important -part of all dramatic representations. - - [764] These curious _loas_ are found in a rare volume, called - “Autos Sacramentales, con Quatro Comedias Nuevas y sus Loas y - Entremeses,” Madrid, 1655, 4to. - - [765] A _loa_ entitled “El Cuerpo de Guardia,” by Luis Enriquez - de Fonseca, and performed by an amateur company at Naples on - Easter eve, 1669, in honor of the queen of Spain, is as long as a - _saynete_, and much like one. It is--together with another _loa_ - and several curious _bayles_--part of a play on the subject of - Viriatus, entitled “The Spanish Hannibal,” and to be found in a - collection of his poems, less in the Italian manner than might be - expected from a Spaniard who lived and wrote in Italy. Fonseca - published the volume containing them all at Naples, in 1683, - 4to, and called it “Ocios de los Estudios”; a volume not worth - reading, and yet not wholly to be passed over. - - [766] Roxas, Viage, ff. 189-193. - -The first _jornada_ or act of the principal performance followed the -_loa_, almost as a matter of course, though, in some instances, a dance -was interposed; and in others, Figueroa complains, that he had been -obliged still to listen to a ballad before he was permitted to reach -the regular drama which he had come to hear;[767]--so importunate were -the audience for what was lightest and most amusing. At the end of the -first act, though perhaps preceded by another dance, came the first of -the two _entremeses_,--a sort of “crutches,” as the editor of Benavente -well calls them, “that were given to the heavy _comedias_ to keep them -from falling.” - - [767] Cigarrales de Toledo, 1624, pp. 104 and 403. Figueroa, - Pasagero, 1617, f. 109. b. - -Nothing can well be gayer or more free than these favorite -entertainments, which were generally written in the genuine Castilian -idiom and spirit.[768] At first, they were farces, or parts of farces, -taken from Lope de Rueda and his school; but afterwards, Lope de Vega, -Cervantes, and the other writers for the theatre composed _entremeses_ -better suited to the changed character of the dramas in their -times.[769] Their subjects were generally chosen from the adventures -of the lower classes of society, whose manners and follies they -ridiculed; many of the earlier of the sort ending, as one of the Dogs -in Cervantes’s dialogue complains that they did too often, with vulgar -scuffles and blows.[770] But later, they became more poetical, and -were mingled with allegory, song, and dance; taking, in fact, whatever -forms and tone were deemed most attractive. They seldom exceeded a few -minutes in length, and never had any other purpose than to relieve the -attention of the audience, which it was supposed might have been taxed -too much by the graver action that had preceded them.[771] With this -action they had, properly, nothing to do;--though in one instance -Calderon has ingeniously made his _entremes_ serve as a graceful -conclusion to one of the acts of the principal drama.[772] - - [768] Sarmiento, the literary historian and critic, in a letter - cited in the “Declamacion contra los Abusos de la Lengua - Castellana,” (Madrid, 1793, 4to, p. 149), says: “I never knew - what the true Castilian idiom was till I read _entremeses_.” - - [769] The origin of _entremeses_ is distinctly set forth - in Lope’s “Arte Nuevo de hacer Comedias”; and both the - first and third volumes of his collection of plays contain - _entremeses_; besides which, several are to be found in his - Obras Sueltas;--almost all of them amusing. The _entremeses_ of - Cervantes are at the end of his Comedias, 1615. - - [770] Novelas, 1783, Tom. II. p. 441. “Coloquio de los Perros.” - - [771] A good many are to be found in the “Joco-Seria” of Quiñones - de Benavente. Those by Cancer are in the Autos, etc., 1655, cited - in note 44. - - [772] “El Castillo de Lindabridis,” end of Act I. There is an - _entremes_ called “The Chestnut Girl,” very amusing as far as the - spirited dialogue is concerned, but immoral enough in the story, - to be found in Chap. 15 of the “Bachiller Trapaza.” - -The second act was followed by a similar _entremes_, music, and -dancing;[773] and after the third, the poetical part of the -entertainment was ended with a _saynete_ or _bonne bouche_, first so -called by Benavente, but differing from the _entremeses_ only in name, -and written best by Cancer, Deza y Avila, and Benavente himself,--in -short, by those who best succeeded in the _entremeses_.[774] Last of -all came a national dance, which never failed to delight the audience -of all classes, and served to send them home in good-humor when the -entertainment was over.[775] - - [773] Mad. d’Aulnoy, Tom. I. p. 56. - - [774] C. Pellicer, Orígen, Tom. I. p. 277. The _entremeses_ of - Cancer are to be found in his Obras, Madrid, 1761, 4to; those of - Deza y Avila, in his “Donayres de Tersicore,” 1663; and those - of Benavente, in his “Joco-Seria,” 1653. The volume of Deza - y Avila--marked Vol. I., but I think the only one that ever - appeared--is almost filled with light, short compositions for the - theatre, under the name of _bayles_, _entremeses_, _saynetes_, - and _mogigangas_; the last being a sort of _mumming_. Some of - them are good; all are characteristic of the state of the theatre - in the middle of the seventeenth century. - - [775] - Al fin con un baylezito - Iba la gente contenta. - - Roxas, Viage, 1614, f. 48. - -Dancing, indeed, was very early an important part of theatrical -exhibitions in Spain, even of the religious, and its importance has -continued down to the present day. This was natural. From the first -intimations of history and tradition in antiquity, dancing was the -favorite amusement of the rude inhabitants of the country;[776] and, -so far as modern times are concerned, dancing has been to Spain what -music has been to Italy, a passion with the whole population. In -consequence of this, it finds a place in the dramas of Enzina, Vicente, -and Naharro; and, from the time of Lope de Rueda and Lope de Vega, -appears in some part, and often in several parts, of all theatrical -exhibitions. An amusing instance of the slight grounds on which it was -introduced may be found in “The Grand Sultana” of Lope de Vega, where -one of the actors says,-- - - There ne’er was born a Spanish woman yet - But she was born to dance; - -and a specimen is immediately given in proof of the assertion.[777] - - [776] The Gaditanæ Puellæ were the most famous; but see, on the - whole subject of the old Spanish dances, the notes to Juvenal, by - Ruperti, Lipsiæ, 1801, 8vo, Sat. XI. vv. 162-164, and the curious - discussion by Salas, “Nueva Idea de la Tragedia Antigua,” 1633, - pp. 127, 128. Gifford, in his remarks on the passage in Juvenal, - (Satires of Decimus Junius Juvenalis, Philadelphia, 1803, 8vo, - Vol. II. p. 159), thinks that it refers to “neither more nor less - than the _fandango_, which still forms the delight of all ranks - in Spain,” and that in the phrase “_testarum crepitus_” he hears - “the clicking of the castanets, which accompanies the dance.” - - [777] Jornada III. Every body danced. The Duke of Lerma was said - to be the best dancer of his time, being premier to Philip IV., - and afterwards a cardinal. Don Quixote, ed. Clemencin, Tom. VI., - 1839, p. 272. - -Many of these dances, and probably nearly all of them that were -introduced on the stage, were accompanied with words, and were what -Cervantes calls “recited dances.”[778] Such were the well-known -“Xacaras,”--roystering ballads, in the dialect of the rogues,--which -took their name from the bullies who sung them, and were at one time -rivals for favor with the regular _entremeses_.[779] Such, too, were -the more famous “Zarabandas”; graceful, but voluptuous dances, that -were known from about 1588, and, as Mariana says, received their name -from a devil in woman’s shape at Seville, though elsewhere they are -said to have derived it from a similar personage found at Guayaquil -in America.[780] Another dance, full of a mad revelry, in which the -audience were ready sometimes to join, was called “Alemana,” probably -from its German origin, and was one of those whose discontinuance -Lope, himself a great lover of dancing, always regretted.[781] Another -was “Don Alonso el Bueno,” so named from the ballad that accompanied -it; and yet others were called “El Caballero,” “La Carretería,” “Las -Gambetas,” “Hermano Bartolo,” and “La Zapateta.”[782] - - [778] “Danzas _habladas_” is the singular phrase applied to a - pantomime with singing and dancing in Don Quixote, Parte II. c. - 20. The _bayles_ of Fonseca, referred to in a preceding note, - are a fair specimen of the singing and dancing on the Spanish - stage in the middle of the seventeenth century. One of them is - an allegorical contest between Love and Fortune; another, a - discussion on Jealousy; and the third, a wooing by Peter Crane, a - peasant, carried on by shaking a purse before the damsel he would - win;--all three in the ballad measure, and none of them extending - beyond a hundred and twenty lines, or possessing any merit but a - few jests. - - [779] Some of them are very brutal, like one at the end of - “Crates y Hipparchia,” Madrid, 1636, 12mo; one in the “Enano - de las Musas”; and several in the “Ingeniosa Helena.” The best - are in Quiñones de Benavente, “Joco-Seria,” 1653, and Solís, - “Poesías,” 1716. There was originally a distinction between - _bayles_ and _danzas_, now no longer recognized;--the _danzas_ - being graver and more decent. See a note of Pellicer to Don - Quixote, Parte II. c. 48; partly discredited by one of Clemencin - on the same passage. - - [780] Covarrubias, ad verbum _Çarabanda_. Pellicer, Don Quixote, - 1797, Tom. I. pp. cliii.-clvi., and Tom. V. p. 102. There is a - list of many ballads that were sung with the _zarabandas_ in a - curious satire entitled “The Life and Death of La Zarabanda, - Wife of Anton Pintado,” 1603;--the ballads being given as a - bequest of the deceased lady. (C. Pellicer, Orígen, Tom. I. pp. - 129-131, 136-138.) Lopez Pinciano, in his “Filosofía Antigua - Poética,” 1596, pp. 418-420, partly describes the _zarabanda_, - and expresses his great disgust at its indecency. - - [781] Dorotea, Acto I. sc. 5. - - [782] Other names of dances are to be found in the “Diablo - Cojuelo,” Tranco I., where all of them are represented as - inventions of the Devil on Two Sticks; but these are the chief. - See, also, Covarrubias, Art. _Zapato_. - -Most of them were free or licentious in their tendency. Guevara says -that the Devil invented them all; and Cervantes, in one of his farces, -admits that the Zarabanda, which was the most obnoxious to censure, -could, indeed, have had no better origin.[783] Lope, however, was not -so severe in his judgment. He declares that the dances accompanied -by singing were better than the _entremeses_, which, he adds -disparagingly, dealt only in hungry men, thieves, and brawlers.[784] -But whatever may have been individual opinions about them, they -occasioned great scandal, and, in 1621, kept their place on the theatre -only by a vigorous exertion of the popular will in opposition to the -will of the government. As it was, they were for a time restrained and -modified; but still no one of them was absolutely exiled, except the -licentious Zarabanda,--many of the crowds that thronged the court-yards -thinking, with one of their leaders, that the dances were the salt -of the plays, and that the theatre would be good for nothing without -them.[785] - - [783] Cuevas de Salamanca. There is a curious _bayle entremesado_ - of Moreto, on the subject of Don Rodrigo and La Cava, in the - Autos, etc., 1655, f. 92; and another, called “El Médico,” in the - “Ocios de Ignacio Alvarez Pellicer,” s. l. 1685, 4to, p. 51. - - [784] See the “Gran Sultana,” as already cited, note 57. - - [785] C. Pellicer, Orígen, Tom. I. p. 102. - -Indeed, in all its forms, and in all its subsidiary attractions of -ballads, _entremeses_ and _saynetes_, music, and dancing, the old -Spanish drama was essentially a popular entertainment, governed by -the popular will. In any other country, under the same circumstances, -it would hardly have risen above the condition in which it was left -by Lope de Rueda, when it was the amusement of the lowest classes of -the populace. But the Spaniards have always been a poetical people. -There is a romance in their early history, and a picturesqueness -in their very costume and manners, that cannot be mistaken. A deep -enthusiasm runs, like a vein of pure and rich ore, at the bottom of -their character, and the workings of strong passions and an original -imagination are everywhere visible among the wild elements that break -out on its surface. The same energy, the same fancy, the same excited -feelings, which, in the fourteenth, fifteenth, and sixteenth centuries, -produced the most various and rich popular ballads of modern times, -were not yet stilled or quenched in the seventeenth. The same national -character, which, under Saint Ferdinand and his successors, drove the -Moorish crescent through the plains of Andalusia, and found utterance -for its exultation in poetry of such remarkable sweetness and power, -was still active under the Philips, and called forth, directed, and -controlled a dramatic literature which grew out of the national genius -and the condition of the mass of the people, and which, therefore, in -all its forms and varieties, is essentially and peculiarly Spanish. - -Under an impulse so wide and deep, the number of dramatic authors would -naturally be great. As early as 1605, when the theatre, such as it had -been constituted by Lope de Vega, had existed hardly more than fifteen -years, we can easily see, by the discussions in the first part of Don -Quixote, that it already filled a large space in the interests of the -time; and from the Prólogo prefixed by Cervantes to his plays in 1615, -it is quite plain that its character and success were already settled, -and that no inconsiderable number of its best authors had already -appeared. Even as early as this, dramas were composed in the lower -classes of society. Villegas tells us of a tailor of Toledo who wrote -many; Guevara gives a similar account of a sheep-shearer at Ecija; and -Figueroa, of a well-known tradesman of Seville;--all in full accordance -with the representations made in Don Quixote concerning the shepherd -Chrisóstomo, and the whole current of the story and conversations of -the actors in the “Journey” of Roxas.[786] In this state of things, -the number of writers for the theatre went on increasing out of all -proportion to their increase in other countries, as appears from the -lists given by Lope de Vega, in 1630; by Montalvan, in 1632, when -we find seventy-six dramatic poets living in Castile alone; and by -Antonio, about 1660. During the whole of this century, therefore, we -may regard the theatre as a part of the popular character in Spain, -and as having become, in the proper sense of the word, more truly a -national theatre than any other that has been produced in modern times. - - [786] Figueroa, Pasagero, 1617, f. 105. Villegas, Eróticas - Najera, 1617, 4to, Tom. II. p. 29. Diablo Cojuelo, Tranco V. - Figueroa, Plaza Universal, Madrid, 1733, folio, Discurso 91. - -It might naturally have been foreseen, that, upon a movement like this, -imparted and sustained by all the force of the national genius, any -accidents of patronage or opposition would produce little effect. And -so in fact it proved. The ecclesiastical authorities always frowned -upon it, and sometimes placed themselves so as directly to resist -its progress; but its sway and impulse were so heavy, that it passed -over their opposition, in every instance, as over a slight obstacle. -Nor was it more affected by the seductions of patronage. Philip the -Fourth, for above forty years, favored and supported it with princely -munificence. He built splendid saloons for it in his palaces; he wrote -for it; he acted in improvisated dramas. The reigning favorite, the -Count Duke Olivares, to flatter the royal taste, invented new dramatic -luxuries, such as that of magnificent floating theatres on the stream -of the Tormés, and on the sheets of water in the gardens of the Buen -Retiro. All royal entertainments seemed, in fact, for a time, to take -a dramatic tone, or tend to it. But still the popular character of the -theatre itself was unchecked and unaffected;--still the plays acted in -the royal theatres, before the principal persons in the kingdom, were -the same with those performed before the populace in the court-yards of -Madrid;--and when other times and other princes came, the old Spanish -drama left the halls and palaces, where it had been so long flattered, -with as little of a courtly air as that with which it had originally -entered them.[787] - - [787] Mad. d’Aulnoy, fresh from the stage of Racine and Molière, - then the most refined and best appointed in Europe, speaks with - great admiration of the theatres in the Spanish palaces, though - she ridicules those granted to the public. (Voyage, etc., ed. - 1693, Tom. III. p. 7, and elsewhere.) One way, however, in - which the kings patronized the drama was, probably, not very - agreeable to the authors, if it were often practised; I mean - that of requiring a piece to be acted nowhere but in the royal - presence. This was the case with Gerónimo de Villayzan’s “Sufrir - mas por querer mas.” Comedias por Diferentes Autores, Tom. XXV., - Zaragoza, 1633, f. 145. b. - -The same impulse that made it so powerful in other respects filled the -old Spanish theatre with an almost incredible number of cavalier and -heroic dramas, dramas for saints, sacramental _autos_, _entremeses_, -and farces of all names. Their whole amount, at the beginning of the -eighteenth century, has been estimated to exceed thirty thousand, of -which four thousand eight hundred by unknown authors had been, at one -time, collected by a single person in Madrid.[788] Their character and -merit were, as we have seen, very various. Still, the circumstance, -that they were all written substantially for one object and under one -system of opinions, gave them a stronger air of general resemblance -than might otherwise have been anticipated. For it should never be -forgotten, that the Spanish drama in its highest and most heroic -forms was still a popular entertainment, just as it was in its farces -and ballads. Its purpose was, not only to please all classes, but to -please all equally;--those who paid three maravedís, and stood crowded -together under a hot sun in the court-yard, as well as the rank and -fashion, that lounged in their costly apartments above, and amused -themselves hardly less with the picturesque scene of the audiences in -the _patio_ than with that of the actors on the stage. Whether the -story this mass of people saw enacted were probable or not was to them -a matter of small consequence. But it was necessary that it should be -interesting. Above all, it was necessary that it should be Spanish; -and therefore, though its subject might be Greek or Roman, Oriental or -mythological, the characters represented were always Castilian, and -Castilian after the fashion of the seventeenth century,--governed by -Castilian notions of gallantry and the Castilian point of honor. - - [788] Schack’s Geschichte der dramat. Lit. in Spanien, Berlin, - 1846, Tom. III. 8vo, pp. 22-24; a work of great value. - -It was the same with their costumes. Coriolanus was dressed like Don -John of Austria; Aristotle came on the stage with a curled periwig and -buckles in his shoes, like a Spanish Abbé; and Madame d’Aulnoy says, -the Devil she saw was dressed like any other Castilian gentleman, -except that his stockings were flame-colored and he wore horns.[789] -But however the actors might be dressed, or however the play might -confound geography and history, or degrade heroism by caricature, -still, in a great majority of cases, dramatic situations are skilfully -produced; the story, full of bustle and incident, grows more and more -urgent as it advances; and the result of the whole is, that, though we -may sometimes have been much offended, we are sorry we have reached the -conclusion, and find on looking back that we have almost always been -excited, and often pleased. - - [789] Relation du Voyage d’Espagne, ed. 1693, Tom. I. p. 55. - -The Spanish theatre, in many of its attributes and characteristics, -stands, therefore, by itself. It takes no cognizance of ancient -example; for the spirit of antiquity could have little in common with -materials so modern, Christian, and romantic. It borrowed nothing from -the drama of France or of Italy; for it was in advance of both when -its final character was not only developed, but settled. And as for -England, though Shakspeare and Lope were contemporaries, and there -are points of resemblance between them which it is pleasant to trace -and difficult to explain, still they and their schools, undoubtedly, -had not the least influence on each other. The Spanish drama is, -therefore, entirely national. Many of its best subjects are taken from -the chronicles and traditions familiar to the audience that listened -to them, and its prevalent versification reminded the hearers, by its -sweetness and power, of what had so often moved their hearts in the -earliest outpourings of the national genius. With all its faults, then, -this old Spanish drama, founded on the great traits of the national -character, maintained itself in the popular favor as long as that -character existed in its original attributes; and even now it remains -one of the most striking and one of the most interesting portions of -modern literature. - - - - -CHAPTER XXVII. - -HISTORICAL NARRATIVE POEMS.--SEMPERE.--ÇAPATA.--AYLLON.--SANZ.-- -FERNANDEZ.--ESPINOSA.--COLOMA.--ERCILLA AND HIS ARAUCANA, WITH OSORIO’S -CONTINUATION.--OÑA.--GABRIEL LASSO DE LA VEGA.--SAAVEDRA.--CASTELLANOS.-- -CENTENERA.--VILLAGRA.--RELIGIOUS NARRATIVE POEMS.--BLASCO.--MATA.--VIRUES -AND HIS MONSERRATE.--BRAVO.--VALDIVIELSO.--HOJEDA.--DIAZ AND OTHERS.-- -IMAGINATIVE NARRATIVE POEMS.--ESPINOSA AND OTHERS.--BARAHONA DE SOTO.-- -BALBUENA AND HIS BERNARDO. - - -Epic poetry, from its general dignity and pretensions, is almost -uniformly placed at the head of the different divisions of a -nation’s literature. But in Spain, though the series of efforts in -that direction begins early and boldly, and has been continued with -diligence down to our own times, little has been achieved that is -worthy of memory. The Poem of the Cid is, indeed, the oldest attempt at -narrative poetry in the languages of modern Europe that deserves the -name; and, composed, as it must have been, above a century before the -appearance of Dante and two centuries before the time of Chaucer, it -is to be regarded as one of the most remarkable outbreaks of poetical -and national enthusiasm on record. But the few similar attempts that -were made at long intervals in the periods immediately subsequent, -like those we witness in “The Chronicle of Fernan Gonzalez,” in “The -Life of Alexander,” and in “The Labyrinth” of Juan de Mena, deserve to -be mentioned chiefly in order to mark the progress of Spanish culture -during the lapse of three centuries. No one of them showed the power of -the old half-epic Poem of the Cid. - -At last, when we reach the reign of Charles the Fifth, or rather, when -we come to the immediate results of that reign, it seems as if the -national genius had been inspired with a poetical ambition no less -extravagant than the ambition for military glory which their foreign -successes had stirred up in the masters of the state. The poets of the -time, or those who regarded themselves as such, evidently imagined that -to them was assigned the task of worthily celebrating the achievements, -in the Old World and in the New, which had really raised their country -to the first place among the powers of Europe, and which it was then -thought not presumptuous to hope would lay the foundation for a -universal monarchy. - -In the reign of Philip the Second, therefore, we have an extraordinary -number of epic and narrative poems,--in all above twenty,--full of -the feelings which then animated the nation, and devoted to subjects -connected with Spanish glory, both ancient and recent,--poems in -which their authors endeavoured to imitate the great Italian epics, -already at the height of their reputation, and fondly believed they -had succeeded. But the works they thus produced, with hardly more than -a single exception, belong rather to patriotism than to poetry; the -best of them being so closely confined to matters of fact, that they -come with nearly equal pretensions into the province of history, while -the rest fall into a dull, chronicling style, which makes it of little -consequence under what class they may chance to be arranged. - -The first of these historical epics is the “Carolea” of Hierónimo -Sempere, published in 1560, and devoted to the victories and glories -of Charles the Fifth, whose name, in fact, it bears. The author was -a merchant,--a circumstance strange in Spanish literature,--and -it is written in the Italian _ottava rima_; the first part, which -consists of eleven cantos, being devoted to the first wars in Italy, -and ending with the captivity of Francis the First; while the second, -which consists of nineteen more, contains the contest in Germany, the -Emperor’s visit to Flanders, and his coronation at Bologna. The whole -fills two volumes, and ends abruptly with the promise of another, -devoted to the capture of Tunis; a promise which, happily, was never -redeemed.[790] - - [790] “La Carolea,” Valencia, 1560, 2 tom. 12mo. The first volume - ends with accounts of the author’s birthplace, in the course - of which he commemorates some of its merchants and some of its - scholars, particularly Luis Vives. Notices of Sempere are to be - found in Ximeno, Tom. I. p. 135, in Fuster, Tom. I. p. 110, and - in the notes to Polo’s “Diana,” by Cerdá, p. 380. - - A poem entitled “Conquista de la Nueva Castilla,” first published - at Paris in 1848, 12mo, by J. A. Sprecher de Bernegg, _may_, - perhaps, be older than the “Carolea.” It is a short narrative - poem, in two hundred and eighty-three octave stanzas, apparently - written about the middle of the sixteenth century, by some - unknown author of that period, and devoted to the glory of - Francisco Pizarro, from the time when he left Panamá, in 1524, to - the fall of Atabalipa. It was found in the Imperial Library at - Vienna, among the manuscripts there, but, from a review of it in - the Jahrbücher der Literatur, Band CXXI., 1848, it seems to have - been edited with very little critical care. It does not, however, - deserve more than it received. It is wholly worthless;--not - better than we can easily suppose to have been written by one of - Pizarro’s rude followers. - -The next narrative poem in the order of time was published by Luis -de Çapata, only five years later. It is the “Carlo Famoso,” devoted, -like the last, to the fame of Charles the Fifth, and, like that, more -praised than it deserves to be by Cervantes, when he places both -of them among the best poetry in Don Quixote’s library. Its author -declares that he was thirteen years in writing it; and it fills fifty -cantos, comprehending above forty thousand lines in octave stanzas. But -never was poem avowedly written in a spirit so prosaic. It gives year -by year the life of the Emperor, from 1522 to his death at San Yuste in -1558; and, to prevent the possibility of mistake, the date is placed -at the top of each page, and every thing of an imaginative nature or -of doubtful authority is distinguished by asterisks from the chronicle -of ascertained facts. Two passages in it are interesting, one of which -gives the circumstances of the death of Garcilasso, and the other an -ample account of Torralva, the great magician of the time of Ferdinand -and Isabella;--the same person who is commemorated by Don Quixote when -he rides among the stars. Such, however, as the poem is, Çapata had -great confidence in its merits, and boastfully published it at his own -expense. But it was unsuccessful, and he died regretting his folly.[791] - - [791] “Carlo Famoso de Don Luis de Çapata,” Valencia, 1565, 4to. - At the opening of the fiftieth canto, he congratulates himself - that he has “reached the end of his thirteen years’ journey”; - but, after all, is obliged to hurry over the last fourteen years - of his hero’s life in that one canto. For Garcilasso, see Canto - XLI.; and for Torralva’s story, which strongly illustrates the - Spanish character of the sixteenth century, see Cantos XXVIII., - XXX., XXXI., and XXXII., with the notes of the commentators to - Don Quixote, Parte II. c. 41. - -Diego Ximenez de Ayllon, of Arcos de la Frontera, who served as a -soldier under the Duke of Alva, wrote a poem on the history of the -Cid, and of some other of the early Spanish heroes, and dedicated it, -in 1579, to his great leader. But this, too, was little regarded at -the time, and is now hardly remembered.[792] Nor was more favor shown -to Hippólito Sanz, a knight of the Order of Saint John, in Malta, who -shared in the brave defence of that island against the Turks in 1565, -and wrote a poetical history of that defence, under the name of “La -Maltea,” which was published in 1582.[793] - - [792] Antonio (Bib. Nov., Tom. I. p. 323) gives the date and - title, and little else. The only copy of the poem known to me - is one printed at Alcalá de Henares, 1579, 4to, 149 leaves, - double columns. It is dedicated to the great Duke of Alva, under - whom its author had served, and consists chiefly of the usual - traditions about the Cid, told in rather flowing, but insipid, - octave stanzas. - - In the Library of the Society of History at Madrid, MS. D. No. - 42, is a poem in double _redondillas de arte mayor_, by Fray - Gonzalo de Arredondo, on the achievements both of the Cid and - of the Count Fernan Gonzalez, the merits of each being nicely - balanced in alternate cantos. It is hardly worth notice, except - from the circumstance that it was written as early as 1522, when - the unused license of Charles V. to print it was given. Fray - Arredondo is also the author of “El Castillo Inexpugnable y - Defensorio de la Fé,” Burgos, 1528, fol. - - [793] Ximeno, Tom. I. p. 179, and Velazquez, Dieze, p. 385. - -Other poems were produced during the same period, not unlike those -we have just noticed;--such as the “Historia Parthenopea” of Alfonso -Fernandez, whose hero is Gonzalvo de Córdova; Espinosa’s continuation -of the “Orlando Furioso,” which is not entirely without merit; “The -Decade on the Passion of Christ,” by Coloma, which is grave and -dignified, if nothing else;--all in the manner of the contemporary -Italian heroic and narrative poems. But no one of them obtained much -regard when it first appeared, and none of them can now be said to be -remembered. Indeed, there is but one long poem of the age of Philip -the Second which obtained an acknowledged reputation from the first, -and has preserved it ever since, both at home and abroad;--I mean the -“Araucana.”[794] - - [794] The “Historia Parthenopea,” in eight books, by Alfonso - Fernandez, was printed at Rome in 1516, says Antonio (Bib. Nov., - Tom. I. p. 23). Nicolas de Espinosa’s second part of the “Orlando - Furioso” is better known, as there are editions of it in 1555, - 1556, 1557, and 1559, the one of 1556 being printed at Antwerp - in 4to. Juan de Coloma’s “Década de la Pasion,” in ten books, - _terza rima_, was printed in 1579, in 8vo, at Caller (Cagliari) - in Sardinia, where its author was viceroy, and on which island - this has been said to be the first book ever printed. There is - an edition of it, also, of 1586. (Ximeno, Tom. I. p. 175.) It is - praised by Cervantes in his “Galatea,” and is a sort of harmony - of the Gospels, not without a dignified movement in its action, - and interspersed with narratives from the Old Testament. The - story of St. Veronica, (Lib. VII.), and the description of the - Madonna as she sees her son surrounded by the rude crowd and - ascending Mount Calvary under the burden of his cross, (Lib. - VIII.), are passages of considerable merit. Coloma says he chose - the _terza rima_ “because it is the gravest verse in the language - and the best suited to any grave subject.” In a poem in the same - volume, on the Resurrection, he has, however, taken the octave - rhyme; and half a century earlier, the _terza rima_ had been - rejected by Pedro Fernandez de Villegas, as quite unfitted for - Castilian poetry. See _ante_, Vol. I. p. 486, note. - -Its author, whose personal character is impressed on every part of -his poem, was Alonso de Ercilla, third son of a gentleman of Biscayan -origin,--a proud circumstance, to which the poet himself alludes -more than once.[795] He was born in 1533, at Madrid, and his father, -a member of the council of Charles the Fifth, was able, from his -influence at court, to have his son educated as one of the pages of the -prince who was afterwards Philip the Second, and whom the young Ercilla -accompanied in his journeys to different parts of Europe between 1547 -and 1551. In 1554, he was with Philip in England, when that prince -married Queen Mary; and news having arrived there, as he tells us in -his poem, of an outbreak of the natives in Chili which threatened to -give trouble to their conquerors, many noble Spaniards then at the -English court volunteered, in the old spirit of their country, to serve -against the infidels. - - [795] In Canto XXVII. he says: “Behold the rough soil of ancient - Biscay, whence it is certain comes that nobility now extended - through the whole land; behold Bermeo, the head of Biscay, - surrounded with thorn-woods, and above its port the old walls of - the house of Ercilla, a house older than the city itself.” - -Among those who presented themselves to join in this romantic -expedition was Ercilla, then twenty-one years old. By permission of -the prince, he says, he exchanged his civil for military service, and -for the first time girded on his sword in earnest. But the beginning -of the expedition was not auspicious. Aldrete, a person of military -experience, who was in the suite of Philip, and under whose standard -they had embarked in the enterprise, died on the way; and after their -arrival, Ercilla and his friends were sent, under the less competent -leading of a son of the viceroy of Peru, to achieve the subjugation -of the territory of Arauco,--an inconsiderable spot of earth, but -one which had been so bravely defended by its inhabitants against -the Spaniards as to excite respect for their heroism in many parts -of Europe.[796] The contest was a bloody one; for the Araucans were -desperate and the Spaniards cruel. Ercilla went through his part of it -with honor, meeting the enemy in seven severe battles, and suffering -still more severely from wanderings in the wilderness, and from long -exposure to the harassing warfare of savages. - - [796] “Arauco,” says Ercilla, “is a small province, about twenty - leagues long and twelve broad, which produces the most warlike - people in the Indies, and is therefore called The Unconquered - State.” Its people are still proud of their name. - -Once he was in greater danger from his countrymen and from his own -fiery temper than he was, perhaps, at any moment from the common enemy. -In an interval of the war, when a public tournament was held in honor -of the accession of Philip the Second to the throne, some cause of -offence occurred during the jousting between Ercilla and another of the -cavaliers. The mimic fight, as had not unfrequently happened on similar -occasions in the mother country, was changed into a real one; and, in -the confusion that followed, the young commander, who presided at the -festival, rashly ordered both the principal offenders to be put to -death,--a sentence which he reluctantly changed into imprisonment and -exile, though not until after Ercilla had been actually placed on the -scaffold for execution. - -When he was released he seems to have engaged in the romantic -enterprise of hunting down the cruel and savage adventurer, Lope de -Aguirre, but he did not arrive in the monster’s neighbourhood till the -moment when his career of blood was ended. From this time we know only, -that, after suffering from a long illness, Ercilla returned to Spain in -1562, at the age of twenty-nine, having been eight years in America. At -first, his unsettled habits made him restless, and he visited Italy and -other parts of Europe; but in 1570 he married a lady connected with -the great family of Santa Cruz, Doña María de Bazan, whom he celebrates -at the end of the eighteenth canto of his poem. About 1576, he was -made gentleman of the bed-chamber to the Emperor of Germany,--perhaps -a merely titular office; and about 1580, he was again in Madrid and in -poverty, complaining loudly of the neglect and ingratitude of the king -whom he had so long served, and who seemed now to have forgotten him. -During the latter part of his life, however, we almost entirely lose -sight of him, and know only that he began a poem in honor of the family -of Santa Cruz, and that he died as early as 1595. - -Ercilla is to be counted among the many instances in which Spanish -poetical genius and heroism were one feeling. He wrote in the spirit -in which he fought; and his principal work is as military as any -portion of his adventurous life. Its subject is the very expedition -against Arauco which occupied eight or nine years of his youth; and -he has simply called it “La Araucana,” making it a long heroic poem -in thirty-seven cantos, which, with the exception of two or three -trifles of no value, is all that remains of his works. Fortunately, -it has proved a sufficient foundation for his fame. But though it is -unquestionably a poem that discovers much of the sensibility of genius, -it has great defects; for it was written when the elements of epic -poetry were singularly misunderstood in Spain, and Ercilla, misled -by such models as the “Carolea” and “Carlo Famoso,” fell easily into -serious mistakes. - -The first division of the Araucana is, in fact, a versified history -of the early part of the war. It is geographically and statistically -accurate. It is a poem, thus far, that should be read with a map, and -one whose connecting principle is merely the succession of events. -Of this rigid accuracy he more than once boasts; and, to observe it, -he begins with a description of Arauco and its people, amidst whom he -lays his scene, and then goes on through fifteen cantos of consecutive -battles, negotiations, conspiracies, and adventures, just as they -occurred. He composed this part of his poem, he tells us, in the -wilderness, where he fought and suffered; taking the night to describe -what the day had brought to pass, and writing his verses on fragments -of paper, or, when these failed, on scraps of skins; so that it is, -in truth, a poetical journal, in octave rhymes, of the expedition in -which he was engaged. These fifteen cantos, written between 1555 and -1563, constitute the first part, which ends abruptly in the midst of a -violent tempest, and which was printed by itself in 1569. - -Ercilla intimates that he soon discovered such a description of -successive events to be monotonous; and he determined to intersperse -it with incidents more interesting and poetical. In his second part, -therefore, which was not printed till 1578, we have, it is true, the -same historical fidelity in the main thread of the narrative, but it is -broken with something like epic machinery; such as a vision of Bellona, -in the seventeenth and eighteenth cantos, where the poet witnesses -in South America the victory of Philip the Second at Saint Quentin, -the day it was won in France;--the cave of the magician Fiton, in the -twenty-third and twenty-fourth cantos, where he sees the battle of -Lepanto, which happened long afterwards, fought by anticipation;--the -romantic story of Tegualda in the twentieth, and that of Glaura in -the twenty-fourth: so that, when we come to the end of the second -part,--which concludes, again, with needless abruptness, we find that -we have enjoyed more poetry than we had in the first, if we have made -less rapid progress in the history. - -In the third part, which appeared in 1590, we have again a continuation -of the events of the war, though with episodes such as that in the -thirty-second and thirty-third cantos,--which the poet strangely -devotes to a defence, after the manner of the old Spanish chronicles, -of the character of Queen Dido from the imputations cast on it by -Virgil,--and that in the thirty-sixth, in which he pleasantly gives us -much of what little we know concerning his own personal history.[797] -In the thirty-seventh and last, he leaves all his previous subjects, -and discusses the right of public and private war, and the claims of -Philip the Second to the crown of Portugal; ending the whole poem, -as far as he himself ended it, with touching complaints of his own -miserable condition and disappointed hopes, and his determination to -give the rest of his life to penitence and devotion. - - [797] The accounts of himself are chiefly in Cantos XIII., - XXXVI., and XXXVII.; and besides the facts I have given in the - text, I find it stated (Seman. Pintoresco, 1842, p. 195) that - Ercilla in 1571 received the Order of Santiago, and in 1578 was - employed by Philip II. on an inconsiderable mission to Saragossa. - -This can hardly be called an epic. It is an historical poem, partly -in the manner of Silius Italicus, yet seeking to imitate the sudden -transitions and easy style of the Italian masters, and struggling -awkwardly to incorporate with different parts of its structure some -of the supernatural machinery of Homer and Virgil. But this is the -unfortunate side of the work. In other respects Ercilla is more -successful. His descriptive powers, except in relation to natural -scenery, are remarkable, and, whether devoted to battles or to the -wild manners of the unfortunate Indians, have not been exceeded by -any other Spanish poet. His speeches, too, are often excellent, -especially the remarkable one in the second canto, given to Colócolo, -the eldest of the Caciques, where the poet has been willing to place -himself in direct rivalship with the speech which Homer, under -similar circumstances, has given to Ulysses in the first book of the -Iliad.[798] And his characters, so far as the Araucan chiefs are -concerned, are drawn with force and distinctness, and lead us to -sympathize with the cause of the Indians rather than with that of the -invading Spaniards. Besides all this, his genius and sensibility often -break through, where we should least expect it, and his Castilian -feelings and character still oftener; the whole poem being pervaded -with that deep sense of loyalty which was always a chief ingredient in -Spanish honor and heroism, and which, in Ercilla, seems never to have -been chilled by the ingratitude of the master to whom he devoted his -life, and to whose glory he consecrated this poem.[799] - - [798] The great praise of this speech by Voltaire, in the Essay - prefixed to his “Henriade,” 1726, first made the Araucana known - beyond the Pyrenees; and if Voltaire had read the poem he - pretended to criticize, he might have done something in earnest - for its fame. (See his Works, ed. Beaumarchais, Paris, 1785, 8vo, - Tom. X. pp. 394-401.) But his mistakes are so gross as to impair - the value of his admiration. - - [799] The best edition of the Araucana is that of Sancha, Madrid, - 1776, 2 tom. 12mo; and the most exact life of its author is in - Baena, Tom. I. p. 32. Hayley published an abstract of the poem, - with bad translations of some of its best passages, in the - notes to his third epistle on Epic Poetry (London, 1782, 4to); - but there is a better and more ample examination of it in the - “Caraktere der vornehmsten Dichter aller Nationen,” Leipzig, - 1793, 8vo, Band II. Theil I. pp. 140 and 349. - -The Araucana, though one third longer than the Iliad, is a fragment; -but, as far as the war of Arauco is concerned, it was soon completed -by the addition of two more parts, embracing thirty-three additional -cantos,--the work of a poet by the name of Osorio, who published it in -1597. Of its author, a native of Leon, we know only that he describes -himself to have been young when he wrote it, and that in 1598 he gave -the world another poem, on the wars of the knights of Malta and the -capture of Rhodes. His continuation of the Araucana was several times -printed, but has long since ceased to be read. Its more interesting -portions are those in which the poet relates, with apparent accuracy, -many of the exploits of Ercilla among the Indians;--the more absurd are -those in which, under the pretext of visions of Bellona, an account -is given of the conquest of Oran by Cardinal Ximenes, and that of -Peru by the Pizarros, neither of which has any thing to do with the -main subject of the poem. Taken as a whole, it is nearly as dull and -chronicling as any thing of its class that preceded it.[800] - - [800] The last edition of the continuation of the Araucana, by - Diego de Sanisteban Osorio, of which I have any knowledge, was - printed with the poem of Ercilla at Madrid, 1733, folio. - -But there is one difficulty about both parts of this poem, which -must have been very obvious at the time. Neither shows any purpose -of doing honor to the commander in the war of Arauco, who was yet a -representative of the great Mendoza family, and a leading personage -at the courts of Philip the Second and Philip the Third. Why Osorio -should have passed him over so slightly is not apparent; but Ercilla -was evidently offended by the punishment inflicted on him after -the unfortunate tournament, and took this mode of expressing his -displeasure.[801] A poet of Chili, therefore, Pedro de Oña, attempted, -so far as Ercilla was concerned, to repair the wrong, and, in 1596, -published his “Arauco Subjugated,” in nineteen cantos, which he devoted -expressly to the honor of the neglected commander. Oña’s success was -inconsiderable, but was quite as much as he deserved. His poem was once -reprinted; but, though it contains sixteen thousand lines, it stops in -the middle of the events it undertakes to record, and has never been -finished. It contains consultations of the infernal powers, like those -in Tasso, and a love-story, in imitation of the one in Ercilla; but it -is mainly historical, and ends at last with an account of the capture -of “that English pirate Richerte Aquines,”--no doubt Sir Richard -Hawkins, who was taken in the Pacific in 1594, under circumstances -not more unlike those which Oña describes than might be expected in a -poetical version of them by a Spaniard.[802] - - [801] The injustice, as it was deemed by many courtly persons, - of Ercilla to Garcia de Mendoza, fourth Marquis of Cañete, who - commanded the Spaniards in the war of Arauco, may have been one - of the reasons why the poet was neglected by his own government - after his return to Spain, and was certainly a subject of remark - in the reigns of Philip III. and IV. In 1613, Christóval Suarez - de Figueroa, the well-known poet, published a life of the - Marquis, and dedicated it to the profligate Duke de Lerma, then - the reigning favorite. It is written with some elegance and some - affectation in its style, but is full of flattery to the great - family of which the Marquis was a member; and when its author - reaches the point of time at which Ercilla was involved in the - trouble at the tournament, already noticed, he says: “There - arose a difference between Don Juan de Pineda and Don Alonso - de Ercilla, which went so far, that they drew their swords. - Instantly a vast number of weapons sprang from the scabbards of - those on foot, who, without knowing what to do, rushed together - and made a scene of great confusion. A rumor was spread, that it - had been done in order to cause a revolt; and from some slight - circumstances it was believed that the two pretended combatants - had arranged it all beforehand. They were seized by command - of the general, who ordered them to be beheaded, intending to - infuse terror into the rest, and knowing that severity is the - most effectual way of insuring military obedience. The tumult, - however, was appeased; and as it was found, on inquiry, that - the whole affair was accidental, the sentence was revoked. The - becoming rigor with which Don Alonso was treated caused the - silence in which he endeavoured to bury the achievements of - Don Garcia. He wrote the wars of Arauco, carrying them on by a - body without a head;--that is, by an army, with no intimation - that it had a general. Ungrateful for the many favors he had - received from the same hand, he left his rude sketch without - the living colors that belonged to it; as if it were possible - to hide the valor, virtue, forecast, authority, and success of - a nobleman whose words and deeds always went together and were - alike admirable. But so far could passion prevail, that the - account thus given remained in the minds of many as if it were - an apocryphal one; whereas, had it been dutifully written, its - truth would have stood authenticated to all. For, by the consent - of all, the personage of whom the poet ought to have written was - without fault, gentle, and of great humanity; and he who was - silent in his praise strove in vain to dim his glory.” Hechos de - Don Garcia de Mendoza, por Chr. Suarez de Figueroa, Madrid, 1613, - 4to, p. 103. - - The theatre seemed especially anxious to make up for the - deficiencies of the greatest narrative poet of the country. In - 1622, a play appeared, entitled “Algunas Hazañas de las muchas - de Don Garcia Hurtado de Mendoza”; a poor attempt at flattery, - which, on its title-page, professes to be the work of Luis de - Belmonte, but, in a sort of table of contents, is ascribed - chiefly to eight other poets, among whom are Antonio Mira de - Mescua, Luis Vélez de Guevara, and Guillen de Castro. Of the - “Arauco Domado” of Lope de Vega, printed in 1629, and the humble - place assigned in it to Ercilla, I have spoken, _ante_, p. 207. - To these should be added two others, namely, the “Governador - Prudente” of Gaspar de Avila, in Tom. XXI. of the Comedias - Escogidas, printed in 1664, in which Don Garcia arrives first - on the scene of action in Chili, and distinguishes his command - by acts of wisdom and clemency; and in Tom. XXII., 1665, the - “Españoles en Chili,” by Francisco Gonzalez de Bustos, devoted - in part to the glory of Don Garcia’s father, and ending with - the impalement of Caupolican and the baptism of another of the - principal Indians; each as characteristic of the age as was the - homage of all to the Mendozas. - - [802] “Arauco Domado, compuesto por el Licenciado Pedro de Oña, - Natural de los Infantes de Engol en Chile, etc., impreso en la - Ciudad de los Reyes,” (Lima), 1596, 12mo, and Madrid, 1605. - Besides which, Oña wrote a poem on the earthquake at Lima in - 1599. Antonio is wrong in suggesting that Oña was not a native of - America. - -But as the marvellous discoveries of the conquerors of America -continued to fill the world with their fame, and to claim at home no -small part of the interest that had so long been given to the national -achievements in the Moorish wars, it was natural that the greatest of -all the adventurers, Hernando Cortés, should come in for his share of -the poetical honors that were lavishly scattered on all sides. In fact, -as early as 1588, Gabriel Lasso de la Vega, a young cavalier of Madrid, -stirred up by the example of Ercilla, published a poem, entitled “The -Valiant Cortés,” which six years later he enlarged and printed anew -under the name of “La Mexicana”; and in 1599, Antonio de Saavedra, a -native of Mexico, published his “Indian Pilgrim,” which contains a -regular life of Cortés in above sixteen thousand lines, written, as the -author assures us, on the ocean, and in seventy days. Both are mere -chronicling histories; but the last is not without freshness and truth, -from the circumstance that it was the work of one familiar with the -scenes he describes, and with the manners of the unhappy race of men -whose disastrous fate he records.[803] - - [803] “Cortés Valeroso, por Gabriel Lasso de la Vega,” Madrid, - 1588, 4to, and “La Mexicana,” Madrid, 1594, 8vo. Tragedies and - other works, which I have not seen, are also attributed to him. - (Hijos de Madrid, Tom. II. p. 264.) “El Peregrino Indiano, por - Don Antonio de Saavedra Guzman, Viznieto del Conde del Castellar, - nacido en Mexico,” Madrid, 1599, 12mo. It is in twenty cantos of - octave stanzas; and though we know nothing else of its author, we - know, by the laudatory verses prefixed to his poem, that Lope de - Vega and Vicente Espinel were among his friends. It brings the - story of Cortés down to the death of Guatimozin. - -In the same year with the “Valiant Cortés” appeared the first volume of -the lives of some of the early discoverers and adventurers in America, -by Juan de Castellanos, an ecclesiastic of Tunja in the kingdom of New -Granada; but one who, like many others that entered the Church in their -old age, had been a soldier in his youth, and had visited many of the -countries, and shared in many of the battles, he describes. It begins -with an account of Columbus, and ends, about 1560, with the expedition -of Orsua and the crimes of Aguirre, which Humboldt has called the most -dramatic episode in the history of the Spanish conquests, and of which -Southey has made an interesting, though painful, story. Why no more -of the poem of Castellanos was published does not appear. More was -known to exist; and at last, the second and third parts were found, -and, with the testimony of Ercilla to the truth of their narratives, -were published in 1847, bringing their broken accounts of the Spanish -conquests in America, and especially in that part of it since known -as Colombia, down to about 1588. The whole, except the conclusion, is -written in the Italian octave stanza, and extends to nearly ninety -thousand lines, in pure, fluent Castilian, which soon afterwards became -rare, but in a chronicling spirit, which, though it adds to its value -as history, takes from it all the best characteristics of poetry.[804] - - [804] The poem of Castellanos is singularly enough entitled - “_Elegias_ de Varones Ilustres de Indias,” and we have some - reason to suppose it originally consisted of four parts. - (Antonio, Bib. Nov., Tom. I. p. 674.) The first was printed - at Madrid, 1589, 4to; but the second and third, discovered, I - believe, in the National Library of that city, were not published - till they appeared in the fourth volume of the Biblioteca of - Aribau, Madrid, 1847, 8vo. _Elegias_ seems to have been used - by Castellanos in the sense of _eulogies_. Of their author the - little we know is told by himself. - -Other poems of the same general character followed. One on the -discovery and settlement of La Plata is by Centenera, who shared in the -trials and sufferings of the original conquest,--a long, dull poem, in -twenty-eight cantos, full of credulity, and yet not without value as a -record of what its author saw and learned in his wild adventures. It -contains, in the earlier parts, much irrelevant matter concerning Peru, -and is throughout a strange mixture of history and geography, ending -with three cantos devoted to “Captain Thomas Candis, captain-general -of the queen of England,”--in other words, Thomas Cavendish, half -gentleman, half pirate, whose overthrow in Brazil, in 1592, Centenera -thinks a sufficiently glorious catastrophe for his long poem.[805] -Another similar work on an expedition into New Mexico was written by -Gaspar de Villagra, a captain of infantry, who served in the adventures -he describes, and published his account in 1610, after his return to -Spain. But both belong to the domain of history rather than to that of -poetry.[806] - - [805] “Argentina, Conquista del Rio de la Plata y Tucuman, y - otros Sucesos del Peru,” Lisboa, 1602, 4to. There is a love-story - in Canto XII., and some talk about enchantments elsewhere; but, - with a few such slight exceptions, the poem is evidently pretty - good geography, and the best history the author could collect on - the spot. I know it only in the reprint of Barcia, who takes it - into his collection entirely for its historical claims. - - One thing has much struck me in this and all the poems written - by Spaniards on their conquests in America, and especially by - those who visited the countries they celebrate. It is, that - there are no proper sketches of the peculiar scenery through - which they passed, though much of it is among the most beautiful - and grand that exists on the globe, and must have been filling - them constantly with new wonder. The truth is, that, when they - describe woods and rivers and mountains, their descriptions - would as well fit the Pyrenees or the Guadalquivir as they do - Mexico, the Andes, or the Amazon. Perhaps this deficiency is - connected with the same causes that have prevented Spain from - ever producing a great landscape painter. - - [806] “La Conquista del Nuevo Mexico, por Gaspar de Villagra,” - was printed at Alcalá in 1610, 8vo. Antonio, Bib. Nov., Tom. I. - p. 535. - -No less characteristic of the national temper and genius than these -historical and heroic poems were the long religious narratives in verse -produced during the same period and later. To one of these--that of -Coloma on “The Passion of Christ,” printed in 1576--we have already -alluded. Another, “The Universal Redemption,” by Blasco, first printed -in 1584, should also be mentioned. It fills fifty-six cantos, and -contains nearly thirty thousand lines, embracing the history of man -from the creation to the descent of the Holy Spirit, and reading -in many parts like one of the old Mysteries.[807] A third poem, -by Mata, not unlike the last, extends through two volumes, and is -devoted to the glories of Saint Francis and five of his followers; a -collection of legends in octave stanzas, put together without order -or picturesqueness, the first of which sets forth the meek Saint -Francis in the disguise of a knight-errant. None of the three has any -value.[808] - - [807] “Universal Redencion de Francisco Hernandez Blasco,” - Toledo, 1584, 1589, 4to, Madrid, 1609, 4to. He was of Toledo, and - claims that a part of his poem was a revelation to a nun. - - [808] “El Cavallero Assisio, Vida de San Francisco y otros - Cinco Santos, por Gabriel de Mata,” Tom. I., Bilbao, 1587, with - a wood-cut of St. Francis on the title-page, as a knight on - horseback and in full armour; Tom. II., 1589, 4to. A third volume - was promised, but it never appeared. The five saints are St. - Anthony of Padua, St. Buenaventura, St. Luis the Bishop, Sta. - Bernadina, and Sta. Clara, all Minorites. St. Anthony preaching - to the fishes, whom he addresses (Canto XVII.) as _hermanos - peces_, is very quaint. - -The next in the list, as we descend, is one of the best of its class, -if not the very best. It is the “Monserrate” of Virues, the dramatic -and lyric poet, so much praised by Lope de Vega and Cervantes. The -subject is taken from the legends of the Spanish Church in the ninth -century. Garin, a hermit living on the desolate mountain of Monserrate, -in Catalonia, is guilty of one of the grossest and most atrocious -crimes of which human nature is capable. Remorse seizes him. He goes -to Rome for absolution, and obtains it only on the most degrading -conditions. His penitence, however, is sincere and complete. In proof -of it, the person he has murdered is restored to life, and the Madonna, -appearing on the wild mountain where the unhappy man had committed his -crime, consecrates its deep solitudes by founding there the magnificent -sanctuary which has ever since made the Monserrate holy ground to all -devout Spaniards. - -That such a legend should be taken by a soldier and a man of the -world as the subject of an epic would hardly have been possible in -the sixteenth century in any country except Spain. But many a soldier -there, even in our own times, has ended a life of excesses in a -hermitage as rude and solitary as that of Garin;[809] and in the time -of Philip the Second, it seemed nothing marvellous that one who had -fought at the battle of Lepanto, and who, by way of distinction, was -commonly called “the Captain Virues,” should yet devote the leisure -of his best years to a poem on Garin’s deplorable life and revolting -adventures. Such, at least, was the fact. The “Monserrate,” from the -moment of its appearance, was successful. Nor has its success been -materially diminished at any period since. It has more of the proper -arrangement and proportions of an epic than any other of the serious -poems of its class in the language; and in the richness and finish of -its versification, it is not surpassed, if it is equalled, by any of -those of its age. The difficulties Virues had to encounter lay in the -nature of his subject and the low character of his hero; but in the -course of twenty cantos, interspersed with occasional episodes, like -those on the battle of Lepanto and the glories of Monserrate, these -disadvantages are not always felt as blemishes, and, as we know, have -not prevented the “Monserrate” from being read and admired in an age -little inclined to believe the legend on which it is founded.[810] - - [809] In a hermitage on a mountain near Córdova, where about - thirty hermits lived in stern silence and subjected to the - most cruel penances, I once saw a person who had served with - distinction as an officer at the battle of Trafalgar, and another - who had been of the household of the first queen of Ferdinand - VII. The Duke de Rivas and his brother, Don Angel,--now wearing - the title himself, but more distinguished as a poet, or for - his eminent merits in the diplomatic and military service of - his country, than for his high rank,--who led me up that rude - mountain, and filled a long and beautiful morning with strange - sights and adventures and stories, such as can be found in no - other country but Spain, assured me that cases like those of - the Spanish officers who had become hermits were still of no - infrequent occurrence in their country. This was in 1818. - - [810] Of Virues a notice has been already given, (_ante_, p. - 28), to which it is only necessary to add here that there are - editions of the Monserrate of 1588, 1601, 1602, 1609, and 1805; - the last (Madrid, 8vo) with a Preface written, I think, by Mayans - y Siscar. A poem by Francisco de Ortega, on the same subject, - appeared about the middle of the eighteenth century, in small - quarto, without date, entitled “Orígen, Antiguedad é Invencion de - nuestra Señora de Monserrate.” It is entirely worthless. - -The “Benedictina,” by Nicholas Bravo, was published in 1604, and -seems to have been intended to give the lives of Saint Benedict and -his principal followers, in the way in which Castellanos had given -the lives of Columbus and the early American adventurers, but was -probably regarded rather as a book of devotion for the monks of the -brotherhood, in which the author held a high place, than as a book of -poetry. Certainly, to the worldly that is its true character. Nor can -any other than a similar merit be assigned to two poems for which the -social position of their author, Valdivielso, insured a wider temporary -reputation. The first is on the history of Joseph, the husband of -Mary, written, apparently, because Valdivielso himself had received -in baptism the name of that saint. The other is on the peculiarly -sacred image of the Madonna, preserved by a series of miracles from -contamination during the subjugation of Spain by the Moors, and -ever since venerated in the cathedral of Toledo, to whose princely -archbishop Valdivielso was attached as a chaplain. Both of these poems -are full of learning and of dulness, enormously long, and comprehend -together a large part of the history, not only of the Spanish Church, -but of the kingdom of Spain.[811] - - [811] “La Benedictina de F. Nicolas Bravo,” Salamanca, 1604, 4to. - Bravo was a professor at Salamanca and Madrid, and died in 1648, - the head of a rich monastery of his order in Navarre. (Antonio, - Bib. Nov., Tom. II. p. 151.) Of Valdivielso I have spoken, - _ante_, p. 316. His “Vida, etc., de San Josef,” printed 1607 and - 1647, makes above seven hundred pages in the edition of Lisbon, - 1615, 12mo; and his “Sagrario de Toledo,” Barcelona, 1618, 12mo, - fills nearly a thousand;--both in octave stanzas, as are nearly - all the poems of their class. - -Lope’s religious epic and narrative poems, of which we have already -spoken, appeared at about the same time with those of Valdivielso, and -enjoyed the success that attended whatever bore the name of the great -popular author of his age. But better than any thing of this class -produced by him was the “Christiada” of Diego de Hojeda, printed in -1611, and taken in a slight degree from the Latin poem with the same -title by Vida, but not enough indebted to it to impair the author’s -claims to originality. Its subject is very simple. It opens with the -Last Supper, and it closes with the Crucifixion. The episodes are few -and appropriate, except one,--that in which the dress of the Saviour -in the garden is made an occasion for describing all human sins, whose -allegorical history is represented as if woven with curses into the -seven ample folds of the mantle laid on the shoulders of the expiatory -victim, who thus bears them for our sake. The vision of the future -glories of his Church granted to the sufferer is, on the contrary, -happily conceived and well suited to its place; and still better are -the gentle and touching consolations offered him in prophecy. Indeed, -not a little skill is shown, in the general epic structure of the -poem, and its verse is uncommonly sweet and graceful. If the characters -were drawn with a firmer hand, and if the language were always -sustained with the dignity its subject demands, the “Christiada” would -stand deservedly at the side of the “Monserrate” of Virues. Even after -making this deduction from its merits, no other religious poem in the -language is to be placed before it.[812] - - [812] “La Christiada de Diego de Hojeda,” Sevilla, 1611, 4to. It - has the merit of having only twelve cantos, and, if this were the - proper place, it might well be compared with Milton’s “Paradise - Regained” for its scenes with the devils, and with Klopstock’s - “Messiah” for the scene of the crucifixion. Of the author we know - only that he was a native of Seville, but went young to Lima, in - Peru, where he wrote this poem, and where he died at the head of - a Dominican convent founded by himself. (Antonio, Bib. Nov., Tom. - I. p. 289.) There is a _rifacimento_ of the “Christiada,” by Juan - Manuel de Berriozabal, printed Madrid, 1841, 18mo, in a small - volume; not, however, an improvement on the original. - -In the same year, Alonso Diaz, of Seville, published a pious poem on -another of the consecrated images of the Madonna; and afterwards, in -rapid succession, we have heroic poems, as they are called, on Loyola, -and on the Madonna, both by Antonio de Escobar;--one on the creation -of the world, by Azevedo, but no more an epic than the “Week” of Du -Bartas, from which it is imitated;--and one on “The Brotherhood of the -Five Martyrs of Arabia,” by Rodriguez de Vargas; the last being the -result of a vow to two of their number, through whose intercession the -author believed himself to have been cured of a mortal disease. But all -these, and all of the same class that followed them,--the “David” of -Uziel,--Calvo’s poem on “The Virgin,”--Vivas’s “Life of Christ,”--Juan -Dávila’s “Passion of the Man-God,”--the “Samson” of Enriquez -Gomez,--another heroic poem on Loyola, by Camargo,--and another -“Christiad,” by Encisso,--which bring the list down to the end of the -century,--add nothing to the claims or character of Spanish religious -narrative poetry, though they add much to its cumbersome amount.[813] - - [813] “Poema Castellano de nuestra Señora de Aguas Santas, por - Alonso Diaz,” Seville, 1611, cited by Antonio (Bib. Nov., Tom. - I. p. 21).--“San Ignacio de Loyola, Poema Heróico,” Valladolid, - 1613, 8vo, and “Historia de la Vírgen Madre de Dios,” 1608, - afterwards published with the title of “Nueva Jerusalen María,” - Valladolid, 1625, 18mo; both by Antonio de Escobar y Mendoza, and - both the work of his youth, since he lived to 1668. (Ibid., p. - 115.) The last of these poems, my copy of which is of the fourth - edition, absurdly divides the life of the Madonna according to - the twelve precious stones that form the foundations of the New - Jerusalem in the twenty-first chapter of the Revelation; each - _fundamento_, as the separate portions or books are called, being - subdivided into three cantos; and the whole filling above twelve - thousand lines of octave stanzas, which are not always without - merit, though they generally have very little.--“Creacion del - Mundo de Alonso de Azevedo,” Roma, 1615. (Velazquez, Dieze, p. - 395.)--“La Verdadera Hermandad de los Cinco Martires de Arabia, - por Damian Rodriguez de Vargas,” Toledo, 1621, 4to. It is very - short for the class to which it belongs, containing only about - three thousand lines, but it is hardly possible that any of them - should be worse.--“David, Poema Heróico del Doctor Jacobo Uziel,” - Venetia, 1624, pp. 440; a poem in twelve cantos, on the story of - the Hebrew monarch whose name it bears, written in a plain and - simple style, evidently imitating the flow of Tasso’s stanzas, - but without poetical spirit, and in the ninth canto absurdly - bringing a Spanish navigator to the court of Jerusalem.--“La - Mejor Muger Madre y Vírgen, Poema Sacro, por Sebastian de Nieva - Calvo,” Madrid, 1625, 4to. It ends in the fourteenth book with - the victory of Lepanto, which is attributed to the intercession - of the Madonna and the virtue of the rosary.--“Grandezas Divinas, - Vida y Muerte de nuestro Salvador, etc., por Fr. Duran Vivas,” - found in scattered papers after his death, and arranged and - modernized in its language by his grandson, who published it, - (Madrid, 1643, 4to); a worthless poem, more than half of which - is thrown into the form of a speech from Joseph to Pontius - Pilate.--“Pasion del Hombre Dios, por el Maestro Juan Dávila,” - Leon de Francia, 1661, folio, written in the Spanish _décimas_ - of Espinel, and filling about three-and-twenty thousand lines, - divided into six books, which are subdivided into _estancias_, - or resting-places, and these again into cantos.--“Sanson - Nazareno, Poema Eróico, por Ant. Enriquez Gomez,” Ruan, 1656, - 4to, thoroughly infected with Gongorism, as is another poem by - the same author, half narrative, half lyrical, called “La Culpa - del Primer Peregrino,” Ruan, 1644, 4to.--“San Ignacio de Loyola, - Poema Heróico, escrivialo Hernando Dominguez Camargo,” 1666, 4to, - a native of Santa Fé de Bogotá, whose poem, filling nearly four - hundred pages of octave rhymes, is a fragment published after his - death.--“La Christiada, Poema Sacro y Vida de Jesu Christo, que - escrivió Juan Francisco de Encisso y Monçon,” Cadiz, 1694, 4to; - deformed, like almost every thing of the period when it appeared, - with the worst taste. - - * * * * * - -Of an opposite character to these religious poems are the purely, -or almost purely, imaginative epics of the same period, whose form -yet brings them into the same class. Their number is not large, and -nearly all of them are connected more or less with the fictions which -Ariosto, in the beginning of the sixteenth century, had thrown up -like brilliant fireworks into the Italian sky, and which had drawn to -them the admiration of all Europe, and especially of all Spain. There -a translation of the “Orlando Furioso,” poor, indeed, but popular, -had been published by Urrea as early as 1550. An imitation soon -followed,--the one already alluded to, as made by Espinosa in 1555. -It is called “The Second Part of the Orlando, with the True Event of -the Famous Battle of Roncesvalles, and the End and Death of the Twelve -Peers of France.” But at the very outset, its author tells us that “he -sings the great glory of Spaniards and the overthrow of Charlemagne -and his followers,” adding significantly, “This history will relate -the truth, and not give the story as it is told by that Frenchman, -Turpin.” Of course, we have, instead of the fictions to which we are -accustomed in Ariosto, the Spanish fictions of Bernardo del Carpio -and the rout of the Twelve Peers at Roncesvalles,--all very little to -the credit of Charlemagne, who, at the end, retreats, disgraced, to -Germany. But still, the whole is ingeniously connected with the stories -of the “Orlando Furioso,” and carries on, to a considerable extent, the -adventures of the personages who are its heroes and heroines. - -Some of the fictions of Espinosa, however, are very extravagant and -absurd. Thus, in the twenty-second canto, Bernardo goes to Paris and -overthrows several of the paladins; and in the thirty-third, whose -scene is laid in Ireland, he disenchants Olympia and becomes king of -the island;--both of them needless and worthless innovations on the -story of Bernardo, as it comes to us in the old Spanish ballads and -chronicles. But in general, though it is certainly not wanting in -giants and enchantments, Espinosa’s continuation of the Orlando is -less encumbered with impossibilities and absurdities than the similar -poem of Lope de Vega; and, in some parts, is very easy and graceful in -its story-telling spirit. It ends with the thirty-fifth canto, after -going through above fourteen thousand lines in _ottava rima_; and yet, -after all, the conclusion is abrupt, and we have an intimation that -more may follow.[814] - - [814] “Segunda Parte de Orlando, etc., por Nicolas Espinosa,” - Zaragoza, 1555, 4to, Anveres, 1656, 4to, etc. The Orlando of - Ariosto, translated by Urrea, was published at Lyons in 1550, - folio, (the same edition, no doubt, which Antonio gives to 1656), - and is treated with due severity by the curate in the scrutiny of - Don Quixote’s library, and by Clemencin in his commentary on that - passage. Tom. I. p. 120. - -But no more came from the pen of Espinosa. Others, however, continued -the same series of fictions, if they did not take up the thread where -he left it. An Aragonese nobleman, Abarca de Bolea, wrote two different -poems,--“Orlando the Lover” and “Orlando the Bold”;--and Garrido de -Villena of Alcalá, who, in 1577, had made known to his countrymen -the “Orlando Innamorato” of Boiardo, in a Spanish dress, published, -six years afterwards, his “Battle of Roncesvalles”; a poem which was -followed, in 1585, by one of Augustin Alonso, on substantially the same -subject. But all of them are now neglected or forgotten.[815] - - [815] “Orlando Enamorado de Don Martin Abarca de Bolea, Conde - de las Almunias, en Octava Rima,” Lerida, 1578;--“Orlando - Determinado, en Octava Rima,” Zaragoza, 1578. (Latassa, Bib. - Nov., Tom. II. p. 54.)--The “Orlando Enamorado” of Boiardo, by - Francisco Garrido de Villena, 1577, and the “Verdadero Suceso de - la Batalla de Roncesvalles,” by the same, 1683. (Antonio, Bib. - Nov., Tom. I. p. 428.)--“Historia de las Hazañas y Hechos del - Invencible Cavallero Bernardo del Carpio, por Agustin Alonso,” - Toledo, 1585. Pellicer (Don Quixote, Tom. I. p. 58, note) says he - had seen one copy of this book, and Clemencin says he never saw - any.--I have never met with either of those referred to in this - note. - -Not so the “Angelica” of Luis Barahona de Soto, or, as it is commonly -called, “The Tears of Angelica.” The first twelve cantos were published -in 1586, and received by the men of letters of that age with an -extraordinary applause, which has continued to be echoed and reëchoed -down to our own times. Its author was a physician in an obscure village -near Seville, but he was known as a poet throughout Spain, and praised -alike by Diego de Mendoza, Silvestre, Herrera, Cetina, Mesa, Lope de -Vega, and Cervantes,--the last of whom makes the curate hasten to save -“The Tears of Angelica” from the flames, when Don Quixote’s library -was carried to the court-yard, crying out, “Truly, I should shed tears -myself, if such a book had been burnt; for its author was one of the -most famous poets, not only of Spain, but of the whole world.” All this -admiration, however, was extravagant; and in Cervantes, who more than -once steps aside from the subject on which he happens to be engaged to -praise Soto, it seems to have been the result of a sincere personal -friendship. - -The truth is, that the Angelica, although so much praised, was never -finished or reprinted, and is now rarely seen and more rarely read. -It is a continuation of the “Orlando Furioso,” and relates the story -of the heroine after her marriage, down to the time when she recovers -her kingdom of Cathay, which had been violently wrested from her by -a rival queen. It is extravagant in its adventures, and awkward in -its machinery, especially in whatever relates to Demogorgon and the -agencies under his control. But its chief fault is its dulness. Its -whole movement is as far as possible removed from the life and gayety -of its great prototype; and, as if to add to the wearisomeness of its -uninteresting characters and languid style, one of De Soto’s friends -has added to each canto a prose explanation of its imagined moral -meanings and tendency, which, in a great majority of cases, it seems -impossible should have been in the author’s mind when he wrote the -poem.[816] - - [816] “Primera Parte de la Angélica de Luis Barahona de Soto,” - Granada, 1586, 4to. My copy contains a license to reprint from - it, dated July 15, 1805; but, like many other projects of the - sort in relation to old Spanish literature, this one was not - carried through. A notice of De Soto is to be found in Sedano - (Parnaso, Tom. II. p. xxxi.); but the pleasantest idea of him - and of his agreeable social relations is to be gathered from a - poetical epistle to him by Christóval de Mesa (Rimas, 1611, f. - 200);--from several poems in Silvestre (ed. 1599, ff. 325, 333, - 334);--and from the notices of him by Cervantes in his “Galatea,” - and in the Don Quixote, (Parte I. c. 6, and Parte II. c. 1), - together with the facts collected in the two last places by the - commentators.--Gerónimo de Huerta, then a young man, published in - 1588, at Alcalá, his “Florando de Castilla, Lauro de Cavalleros, - en Ottava Rima,”--an heroic poem it is called, but still, it is - said, in the manner of Ariosto. It is noticed, Antonio, Bib. - Nov., Tom. I. p. 587, and Mayans, Cartas de Varios Autores, Tom. - II., 1773, p. 36; but I have never seen it. - -Of the still more extravagant continuation of the “Orlando” by Lope de -Vega we have already spoken; and of the fragment on the same subject -by Quevedo it is not necessary to speak at all. But the “Bernardo” of -Balbuena, which belongs to the same period, must not be overlooked. It -is one of the two or three favored poems of its class in the language; -written in the fervor of the author’s youth, and published in 1624, -when his age and ecclesiastical honors made him doubt whether his -dignity would permit him any longer to claim it as his own. - -It is on the constantly recurring subject of Bernardo del Carpio; but -it takes from the old traditions only the slight outline of that hero’s -history, and then fills up the space between his first presentation at -the court of his uncle, Alfonso the Chaste, and the death of Roland at -Roncesvalles, with enchantments and giants, travels through the air and -over the sea, in countries known and in countries impossible, amidst -adventures as wild as the fancies of Ariosto, and more akin to his free -and joyous spirit than any thing else of the sort in the language. Many -of the descriptions are rich and beautiful; worthy of the author of -“The Age of Gold” and “The Grandeur of Mexico.” Some of the episodes -are full of interest in themselves, and happy in their position. Its -general structure is suited to the rules of its class,--if rules there -be for such a poem as the “Orlando Furioso.” And the versification -is almost always good;--easy where facility is required, and grave -or solemn, as the subject changes and becomes more lofty. But it has -one capital defect. It is fatally long;--thrice as long as the Iliad. -There seems, in truth, as we read on, no end to its episodes, which are -involved in each other till we entirely lose the thread that connects -them; and as for its crowds of characters, they come like shadows, and -so depart, leaving often no trace behind them, except a most indistinct -recollection of their wild adventures.[817] - - [817] “El Bernardo, Poema Heróico del Doctor Don Bernardo de - Balbuena,” Madrid, 1624, 4to, and 1808, 3 tom. 8vo, containing - about forty-five thousand lines, but abridged by Quintana, in the - second volume of his “Poesías Selectas, Musa Épica,” with skill - and judgment, to less than one third of that length. - - - - -CHAPTER XXVIII. - -NARRATIVE POEMS ON SUBJECTS FROM CLASSICAL ANTIQUITY.--BOSCAN, -MENDOZA, SILVESTRE, MONTEMAYOR, VILLEGAS, PEREZ, CEPEDA, GÓNGORA, -VILLAMEDIANA, PANTALEON, AND OTHERS.--NARRATIVE POEMS ON MISCELLANEOUS -SUBJECTS.--SALAS, SILVEIRA, ZARATE.--MOCK-HEROIC NARRATIVE -POEMS.--ALDANA, CHRESPO, VILLAVICIOSA AND HIS MOSQUEA.--SERIOUS -HISTORICAL POEMS.--CORTEREAL, RUFO, VEZILLA CASTELLANOS AND OTHERS, -MESA, CUEVA, EL PINCIANO, MOSQUERA, VASCONCELLOS, FERREIRA, FIGUEROA, -ESQUILACHE.--FAILURE OF NARRATIVE AND HEROIC POETRY ON NATIONAL -SUBJECTS. - - -There was little tendency in Spain, during the sixteenth and -seventeenth centuries, to take subjects for the long narrative and -heroic poems that were so characteristic of the country from ancient -history or fable. Shorter and in general more interesting tales, imbued -with the old national spirit, were, however, early attempted out of -classical materials. The “Leander” of Boscan, a gentle and pleasing -poem, in about three thousand lines of blank verse, is to be dated as -early as 1540, and is one of them. Diego de Mendoza, Boscan’s friend, -followed, with his “Adonis, Hippomenes, and Atalanta,” but in the -Italian octave stanza, and with less success. Silvestre’s “Daphne and -Apollo” and his “Pyramus and Thisbe,” both of them written in the old -Castilian verse, are of the same period and more genial, but they were -unfortunate in their effects, if they provoked the poems on “Pyramus -and Thisbe” by Montemayor and by Antonio Villegas, or that on “Daphne” -by Perez, in the second book of his continuation of the “Diana.”[818] - - [818] The story of “Leander” fills a large part of the third - book of Boscan and Garcilasso’s Works in the original edition of - 1543.--Diego de Mendoza’s “Adonis,” which is about half as long, - and on which the old statesman is said to have valued himself - very much, is in his Works, 1610, pp. 48-65.--Silvestre’s poems, - mentioned in the text, with two others, something like them, make - up the whole of the second book of his Works, 1599.--Montemayor’s - “Pyramus,” in the short ten-line stanzas, is at the end of the - “Diana,” in the edition of 1614.--The “Pyramus” of Ant. de - Villegas is in his “Inventario,” 1577, and is in _terza rima_, - which, like the other Italian measures attempted by him, he - manages awkwardly.--The “Daphne” of Perez is in various measures, - and better deserves reading in old Bart. Yong’s version of - it than it does in the original.--I might have added to the - foregoing the “Pyramus and Thisbe” of Castillejo, (Obras, 1598, - ff. 68, etc.), pleasantly written in the old Castilian short - verse, when he was twenty-eight years old, and living in Germany; - but it is so much a translation from Ovid, that it hardly belongs - here. - -The more formal effort of Romero de Cepeda on “The Destruction of -Troy,” published in 1582, is not better than the rest. It has, however, -the merit of being written more in the old national tone than almost -any thing of the kind; for it is in the ancient stanza of ten short -lines, and has a fluency and facility that make it sound sometimes like -the elder ballad poetry. But it extends to ten cantos, and is, after -all, the story to which we have always been accustomed, except that it -makes Æneas--against whom the Spanish poets and chroniclers seem to -have entertained a thorough ill-will--a traitor to his country and an -accomplice in its ruin.[819] - - [819] Obras de Romero de Cepeda, Sevilla, 1582, 4to. The poem - alluded to is entitled “El Infelice Robo de Elena Reyna de - Esparta por Paris, _Infante_ Troyano, del qual sucedió la - Sangrienta Destruycion de Troya.” It begins _ab ovo Ledæ_, and, - going through about two thousand lines, ends with the death of - six hundred thousand Trojans. The shorter poems in the volume are - sometimes agreeable. - - The poem of Manuel de Gallegos, entitled “Gigantomachia,” and - published at Lisbon, 1628, 4to, is also, like that of Cepeda, - on a classical subject, being devoted to the war of the Giants - against the Gods. Its author was a Portuguese, who lived many - years at Madrid in intimacy with Lope de Vega, and wrote - occasionally for the Spanish stage, but returned at last to his - native country, and died there in 1665. His “Gigantomachia,” in - about three hundred and forty octave stanzas, divided into five - short books, is written, for the period when it appeared, in a - pure style, but is a very dull poem. - -But with the appearance of Góngora, simplicity such as Cepeda’s -ceased in this class of poems almost entirely. Nothing, indeed, was -more characteristic of the extravagance in which this great poetical -heresiarch indulged himself than his monstrous poem,--half lyrical, -half narrative, and wholly absurd,--which he called “The Fable of -Polyphemus”; and nothing became more characteristic of his school than -the similar poems in imitation of the Polyphemus which commonly passed -under the designation he gave them,--that of _Fábulas_. Such were -the “Phaeton,” the “Daphne,” and the “Europa” of his great admirer, -Count Villamediana. Such were several poems by Pantaleon, and, among -them, his “Fábula de Eco,” which he dedicated to Góngora. Such was -Moncayo’s “Atalanta,” a long heroic poem in twelve cantos, published -as a separate work; and his “Venus and Adonis,” found among his -miscellanies. And such, too, were Villalpando’s “Love Enamoured, or -Cupid and Psyche”; Salazar’s “Eurydice”; and several more of the same -class and with the same name;--all worthless, and all published between -the time when Góngora appeared and the end of the century.[820] - - [820] These poems are all to be found in the works of their - respective authors, elsewhere referred to, except two. The first - is the “Atalanta y Hipomenes,” by Moncayo, Marques de San Felice, - (Zaragoza, 1656, 4to), in octave stanzas, about eight thousand - lines long, in which he manages to introduce much of the history - of Aragon, his native country; a general account of its men of - letters, who were his contemporaries; and, in canto fifth, all - the Aragonese ladies he admired, whose number is not small. The - other poem is the “Amor Enamorado,” which Jacinto de Villalpando - published (Zaragoça, 1655, 12mo) under the name of “Fabio - Clymente”; and which, like the last, is in octave stanzas, but - only about half as long. See, also, Latassa, Bib. Nueva, Tom III. - p. 272. - - * * * * * - -Of heroic poems on miscellaneous subjects, a few were produced -during the same period, but none of value. The first that needs to -be mentioned is that of Yague de Salas, on “The Lovers of Teruel,” -published in 1616, and preceded by an extraordinary array of laudatory -verses, among which are sonnets by Lope de Vega and Cervantes. It is on -the tragical fate of two young and faithful lovers, who, after the most -cruel trials, died at almost the same moment, victims of their passion -for each other,--the story on which, as we have already noticed, -Montalvan founded one of his best dramas. Salas calls his poem a tragic -epic, and it consists of twenty-six long cantos, comprehending, not -only the sad tale of the lovers themselves, which really ends in the -seventeenth canto, but a large part of the history of the kingdom of -Aragon and the whole history of the little town of Teruel. He declares -his story to be absolutely authentic; and in the Preface he appeals -for the truth of his assertion to the traditions of Teruel, of whose -municipality he had formerly been syndic and was then secretary. - -But his statements were early called in question, and, to sustain -them, he produced, in 1619, the copy of a paper which he professed to -have found in the archives of Teruel, and which contains, under the -date of 1217, a full account of the two lovers, with a notice of the -discovery and reinterment of their unchanged bodies in the church of -San Pedro, in 1555. This seems to have quieted the doubts that had -been raised; and for a long time afterwards, poets and tragic writers -resorted freely to a story so truly Spanish in its union of love -and religion, as if its authenticity were no longer questionable. -But since 1806, when the facts and documents in relation to it were -collected and published, there seems no reasonable doubt that the -whole is a fiction, founded on a tradition already used by Artieda in -a dull drama, and still floating about at the time when Salas lived, -to which, when urged by his skeptical neighbours, he gave a distinct -form. But the popular faith was too well settled to be disturbed by -antiquarian investigations, and the remains of the lovers of Teruel in -the cloisters of Saint Peter are still visited by faithful and devout -hearts, who look upon them with sincere awe, as mysterious witnesses -left there by Heaven, that they may testify, through all generations, -to the truth and beauty of a love stronger than the grave.[821] - - [821] “Los Amantes de Teruel, Epopeya Trágica, con la - Restauracion de España por la Parte de Sobrarbe y Conquista del - Reino de Valencia, por Juan Yague de Salas,” Valencia, 1616, - 12mo. The latter part of it is much occupied with a certain - Friar John and a certain Friar Peter, who were great saints in - Teruel, and with the conquest of Valencia by Don Jaume of Aragon. - The poetry of the whole, it is not necessary to add, is naught. - The antiquarian investigation of the truth of the story of the - lovers is in a modest pamphlet entitled “Noticias Históricas - sobre los Amantes de Teruel, por Don Isidro de Antillon” (Madrid, - 1806, 18mo);--a respectable Professor of History in the College - of the Nobles at Madrid. (Latassa, Bib. Nueva, Tom. VI. p. - 123). It leaves no reasonable doubt about the forgery of Salas, - which, moreover, is done very clumsily. Ford, in his admirable - “Hand-Book of Spain,” (London, 1845, 8vo, p. 874), implies that - the tomb of the lovers is still much visited. It stands now in - the cloisters of St. Peter, whither, in 1709, in consequence - of alterations in the church, their bodies were removed;--much - decayed, says Antillon, notwithstanding the claim set up that - they are imperishable. The story of the lovers of Teruel has - often been resorted to, and, among others in our own time, by - Juan Eugenio Harzenbusch, in his drama, “Los Amantes de Teruel,” - and by an anonymous author in a tale with the same title, that - appeared at Valencia, 1838, 2 tom. 18mo. In the Preface to the - last, another of the certificates of Yague de Salas to the truth - of the story is produced for the first time, but adds nothing to - its probability. See _ante_, pp. 301-304. - -The attempt of Lope de Vega, in his “Jerusalem Conquered,” to rival -Tasso, turned the thoughts of other ambitious poets in the same -direction, and the result was two epics that are not yet quite -forgotten. The first is the “Macabeo” of Silveira, a Portuguese, who, -after living long at the court of Spain, accompanied the head of the -great house of the Guzmans when that nobleman was made viceroy of -Naples, and published there, in 1638, this poem, to the composition of -which he had given twenty-two years. The subject is the restoration -of Jerusalem by Judas Maccabæus,--the same which Tasso had at one time -chosen for his own epic. But Silveira had not the genius of Tasso. -He has, it is true, succeeded in filling twenty cantos with octave -stanzas, as Tasso did; but there the resemblance stops. The “Macabeo,” -besides being written in the affected style of Góngora, is wanting in -spirit, interest, and poetry throughout.[822] - - [822] “El Macabeo, Poema Heróico de Miguel de Silveira,” Nápoles, - 1638, 4to. Castro (Biblioteca, Tom. I. p. 626) makes Silveira - a converted Jew, and Barbosa places his death at 1636; but the - Dedication of “El Sol Vencido,” a short, worthless poem, written - to flatter the Vice-Queen of Naples, is dated 20 April, 1639, and - was printed there that year. - -The other contemporary poem of the same class is better, but does -not rise to the dignity of success. It is by Zarate, a poet long -attached to Rodrigo Calderon, the adventurer who, under the title -of Marques de Siete Iglesias, rose to the first places in the state -in the time of Philip the Third, and employed Zarate as one of his -secretaries. Zarate, however, was gentle and wise, and, having occupied -himself much with poetry in the days of his prosperity, found it a -pleasant resource in the days of adversity. In 1648, he published -“The Discovery of the Cross,” which, if we may trust an intimation in -the “Persiles and Sigismunda” of Cervantes, he must have begun thirty -years before, and which had undoubtedly been finished and licensed -twenty years when it appeared in print. But Zarate mistook the nature -of his subject. Instead of confining himself to the pious traditions -of the Empress Helena and the ascertained achievements of Constantine -against Maxentius, he has filled up his canvas with an impossible -and uninteresting contest between Constantine and an imaginary king -of Persia on the banks of the Euphrates, and so made out a long -poem, little connected in its different parts, and, though dry and -monotonous in its general tone, unequal in its execution; some portions -of it being simple and dignified, while others show a taste almost as -bad as that which disfigures the “Macabeo” of Silveira, and of quite -the same sort.[823] - - [823] “Poema Heróico de la Invencion de la Cruz, por Fr. Lopez de - Zarate,” Madrid, 1648, 4to; twenty-two cantos and four hundred - pages of octave stanzas. The infernal councils and many other - parts show it to be an imitation of Tasso. The notice of his life - by Sedano (Parnaso, Tom. VIII. p. xxiv.) is sufficient; but that - by Antonio is more touching, and reads like a tribute of personal - regard. Zarate died in 1658, above seventy years old. Semanario - Pintoresco, 1845, p. 82. - - * * * * * - -But there was always a tendency to a spirit of caricature in Spanish -literature,--perhaps owing to its inherent stateliness and dignity; -for these are qualities which, when carried to excess, almost surely -provoke ridicule. At least, as we know, parody appeared early among the -ballads, and was always prominent in the theatres; to say nothing of -romantic fiction, where Don Quixote is the great monument of its glory -for all countries and for all ages.[824] - - [824] The continual parody of the _gracioso_ on the hero shows - what was the tendency of the Spanish stage in this particular. - But there are also plays that are entirely burlesque, such as - “The Death of Baldovinos,” at the end of Cancer’s Works, 1651, - which is a parody on the old ballads and traditions respecting - that paladin; and the “Cavallero de Olmedo,” a favorite play, - by Francisco Felix de Monteser, which is in the volume entitled - “Mejor Libro de las Mejores Comedias,” Madrid, 1653, and which is - a parody of a play with the same title in the Comedias de Lope de - Vega, Vol. XXIV., Zaragoza, 1641. - -That the long and multitudinous narrative poems of Spain should call -forth mock-heroics was, therefore, in keeping with the rest of the -national character; and though the number of such caricatures is -not large, they have a merit quite equal to that of their serious -prototypes. The first in the order of time seems to be lost. It was -written by Cosmé de Aldana, who, in the latter part of the sixteenth -century, was attached to the Grand Constable Velasco, when he was -sent to govern Milan. In his capacity of poet, Aldana, it is said, -plied his master with flattery and sonnets, till one day the Constable -jestingly besought him to desist, and called him “an ass.” The cavalier -could not draw his sword on his friend and patron, but the poet -determined to avenge the affront offered to his genius. He did so in -a long poem, entitled the “Asneida,” which, on every page, seemed to -cry out to the governor, “You are a greater ass than I am.” But it was -hardly finished when the unhappy Aldana died, and the copies of his -poem were so diligently sought for and so faithfully destroyed, that it -seems to be one of the few books we should be curious to see, which, -after having been once printed, have entirely disappeared from the -world.[825] - - [825] Cosmé was editor of the poems of his brother, Francisco - de Aldana, in 1593. (Antonio, Bib. Nov., Tom. I. p. 256.) He - wrote in Italian and printed at Florence as early as 1578; - but Velasco did not go as governor to Milan till after 1586. - (Salazar, Dignidades, f. 131.) The only account I have seen of - the “Asneida” is in Figueroa’s “Pasagero,” 1617, f. 127. - -The next mock-heroic has also something mysterious about it. It is -called “The Death, Burial, and Honors of Chrespina Maranzmana, the -Cat of Juan Chrespo,” and was published at Paris in 1604, under what -seems to be the pseudonyme of “Cintio Merctisso.” The first canto -gives an account of Chrespina’s death; the second, of the _pésames_ or -condolences offered to her children; and the third and last, of the -public tributes to her memory, including the sermon preached at her -interment. The whole is done in the true spirit of such a poem,--grave -in form, and quaint and amusing in its details. Thus, when the children -are gathered round the death-bed of their venerable mother, among other -directions and commands, she tells them very solemnly:-- - - Up in the concave of the tiles, and near - That firm-set wall the north wind whistles by, - Close to the spot the cricket chose last year, - In a blind corner, far from every eye, - Beneath a brick that hides the treasure dear, - Five choice sardines in secret darkness lie;-- - These, brethren-like, I charge you, take by shares, - And also all the rest, to which you may be heirs. - - Moreover, you will find, in heaps piled fair,-- - Proofs of successful toil to build a name,-- - A thousand wings and legs of birds picked bare, - And cloaks of quadrupeds, both wild and tame, - All which your father had collected there, - To serve as trophies of an honest fame;-- - These keep, and count them better than all prey; - Nor give them, e’en for ease, or sleep, or life, away.[826] - - [826] - En la concavidad del tejadillo, - Hazia los paredones del gallego, - Junto adonde morava antaño el grillo, - En un rincon secreto, oscuro y ciego, - Escondidos debaxo de un ladrillo, - Estan cinco sardinas, lo que os ruego - Como hermanos partays, y seays hermanos - En quanto mas viniere á vuestras manos. - - Hallareys, item mas, amontonadas, - De gloria y fama prosperos deseos, - Alas y patas de mil aves tragadas, - De quadrupides pieles y manteos, - Que vuestro padre alli dexo allegadas - Por victoriosas señas y tropheos; - Estas tened en mas que la comida, - Qu’el descanso, qu’el sueño, y que la vida. - - p. 14. - -It is probably a satire on some event notorious at the time and long -since forgotten; but however its origin may be explained, it is one of -the best imitations extant of the Italian mock-heroics. It has, too, -the rare merit of being short.[827] - - [827] “La Muerte, Entierro y Honras de Chrespina Maranzmana, Gata - de Juan Chrespo, en tres cantos de octava rima, intitulados la - Gaticida, compuesta por Cintio Merctisso, Español, Paris, por - Nicolo Molinero,” 1604, 12mo, pp. 52. I know nothing of the poem - or its author, except what is to be found in this volume, of - which I have never met even with a bibliographical notice, and of - which I have seen only one copy,--that belonging to my friend Don - Pascual de Gayangos, of Madrid. - -Much better known than the Chrespina is the “Mosquea,” by -Villaviciosa;--a rich and fortunate ecclesiastic, who was born at -Siguenza in 1589, and died at Cuenca in 1658. The Mosquea, which is -the war of the flies and the ants, was printed in 1615; but though -the author lived so long afterwards, he left nothing else to mark the -genius of which this poem gives unquestionable proof. It is, as may -be imagined, an imitation of the “Batrachomyomachia,” attributed to -Homer, and the storm in the third canto is taken, with some minuteness -in the spirit of its parody, from the storm in the first book of the -Æneid. Still the Mosquea is as original as the nature of such a poem -requires it to be. It has, besides, a simple and well-constructed -fable; and notwithstanding it is protracted to twelve cantos, the -curiosity of the reader is sustained to the last. - -A war breaks out in the midst of the festivities of a tournament in -the capital city of the flies, which the false ants had chosen as a -moment when they could advantageously interrupt the peace that had long -subsisted between them and their ancient enemies. The heathen gods -are introduced, as they are in the Iliad,--the other insects become -allies in the great quarrel, after the manner of all heroic poems,--the -neighbouring chiefs come in,--there is an Achilles on one side, and -an Æneas on the other,--the characters of the principal personages -are skilfully drawn and sharply distinguished,--and the catastrophe -is a tremendous battle, filling the last two cantos, in which the -flies are defeated and their brilliant leader made the victim of his -own rashness. The faults of the poem are its pedantry and length. -Its merits are the richness and variety of its poetical conceptions, -the ingenious delicacy with which the minutest circumstances in the -condition of its insect heroes are described, and the air of reality, -which, notwithstanding the secret satire that is never entirely absent, -is given to the whole by the seeming earnestness of its tone. It ends, -precisely where it should, with the expiring breath of the principal -hero.[828] - - [828] The first edition of the “Mosquea” was printed in small - 12mo at Cuenca, when its author was twenty-six years old;--the - third is Sancha’s, Madrid, 1777, 12mo, with a life, from - which it appears, that, besides being a faithful officer of - the Inquisition himself, and making a good fortune out of it, - Villaviciosa exhorted his family, by his last will, to devote - themselves in all future time to its holy service with grateful - zeal. See, also, the Spanish translation of Sismondi, Sevilla, - 8vo, Tom. I., 1841, p. 354. - -No other mock-heroic poem followed that of Villaviciosa during this -period, except “The War of the Cats,” by Lope de Vega, who, in his -ambition for universal conquest, seized on this, as he did on every -other department of the national literature. But the “Gatomachia,” -which is one of the very best of his efforts, has already been noticed. -We turn, therefore, again to the true heroic poems, devoted to national -subjects, whose current flows no less amply and gravely, down to the -middle of the seventeenth century, than it did when it first began, -and continues through its whole course no less characteristic of the -national genius and temper than we have seen it in the poems on Charles -the Fifth and his achievements. - -The favorite hero of the next age, Don John of Austria, son of the -Emperor, was the occasion of two poems, with which we naturally resume -the examination of this curious series.[829] The first of them is -on the battle of Lepanto, and was published in 1578, the year of -Don John’s untimely death. The author, Cortereal, was a Portuguese -gentleman of rank and fortune, who distinguished himself as the -commander of an expedition against the infidels on the coasts of Africa -and Asia, in 1571, and died before 1593; but, being tired of fame, -passed the last twenty years of his life at Evora, and devoted himself -to poetry and to the kindred arts of music and painting. - - [829] A vast number of tributes were paid by contemporary men - of letters to Don John of Austria; but among them none is more - curious than a Latin poem in two books, containing seventeen - or eighteen hundred hexameters and pentameters, the work of a - negro, who had been brought as an infant from Africa, and who - by his learning rose to be professor of Latin and Greek in the - school attached to the cathedral of Granada. He is the same - person noticed by Cervantes as “el negro Juan Latino,” in a poem - prefixed to the Don Quixote. His volume of Latin verses on the - birth of Ferdinand, the son of Philip II., on Pope Pius V., on - Don John of Austria, and on the city of Granada, making above - a hundred and sixty pages in small quarto, printed at Granada - in 1573, is not only one of the rarest books in the world, but - is one of the most remarkable illustrations of the intellectual - faculties and possible accomplishments of the African race. The - author himself says he was brought to Spain from Ethiopia, and - was, until his emancipation, a slave to the grandson of the - famous Gonsalvo de Córdova. His Latin verse is respectable, and, - from his singular success as a scholar, he was commonly called - Joannes Latinus, a _sobriquet_ under which he is frequently - mentioned, and which was made the title of a play, I presume - about him, by Lopez de Enciso, called “Juan Latino.” He was - respectably married to a lady of Granada, who fell in love with - him, as Eloisa did with Abelard, while he was teaching her; and - after his death, which occurred later than 1573, his wife and - children erected a monument to his memory in the church of Sta. - Ana, in that city, inscribing it with an epitaph, in which he is - styled “Filius Æthiopum, prolesque nigerrima patrum.” Antonio, - Bib. Nov., Tom. I. p. 716. Don Quixote, ed. Clemencin, Tom. I. p. - lx., note. - - It may not be amiss here to add, that another negro is celebrated - in a play, written in tolerable Castilian, and claiming, at the - end, to be founded in fact. It is called “El Valiente Negro en - Flandes,” and is found in Tom. XXXI., 1638, of the collection - of Comedias printed at Barcelona and Saragossa. The negro in - question, however, was not, like Juan Latino, a native African, - but was a slave born in Merida, and was distinguished only as a - soldier, serving with great honor under the Duke of Alva, and - enjoying the favor of that severe general. - -It was amidst the beautiful and romantic nature that surrounded him -during the quiet conclusion of his bustling life, that he wrote three -long poems;--two in Portuguese, which were soon translated into Spanish -and published; and one, originally composed in Spanish, and entitled -“The Most Happy Victory granted by Heaven to the Lord Don John of -Austria, in the Gulf of Lepanto, over the Mighty Ottoman Armada.” -It is in fifteen cantos of blank verse, and is dedicated to Philip -the Second, who, contrary to his custom, acknowledged the compliment -by a flattering letter. The poem opens with a dream brought to the -Sultan from the infernal regions by the goddess of war, and inciting -him to make an attack on the Christians; but excepting this, and the -occasional use of similar machinery afterwards, it is merely a dull -historical account of the war, ending with the great sea-fight itself, -which is the subject of the last three cantos.[830] - - [830] “Felicissima Victoria concedida del Cielo al Señor Don - Juan d’Austria, etc., compuesta por Hierónimo de Cortereal, - Cavallero Portugues,” s. l. 1578, 8vo, with curious wood-cuts; - probably printed at Lisbon. (Life, in Barbosa, Tom. II. p. 495.) - His “Suceso do Segundo Cerco de Diu,” in twenty-one cantos, on - the siege, or rather defence, of Diu, in the East Indies, in - 1546, was published in 1574, and translated into Spanish by the - well-known poet, Pedro de Padilla, who published his version in - 1597. His “Naufragio y Lastimoso Suceso da Perdiçaõ de Manuel - de Souza de Sepúlveda,” etc., (Lisboa, 1594), in seventeen - cantos, was translated into Spanish by Francisco de Contreras, - with the title of “Nave Trágica de la India de Portugal,” 1624. - This Manuel de Souza, who had held a distinguished office in - Portuguese India, and who had perished miserably by shipwreck - near the Cape of Good Hope, in 1553, as he was returning home, - was a connection of Cortereal by marriage. Denis, Chroniques, - etc., Tom. II. p. 79. - -The other contemporary poem on Don John of Austria was still more -solemnly devoted to his memory. It was written by Juan Rufo Gutierrez, -a person much trusted in the government of Córdova, and expressly sent -by that city to Don John, whose service he seems never afterwards to -have left. He was, as he tells us, especially charged by that prince to -write his history, and received from him the materials for his task. -The result, after ten years of labor, was a long chronicling poem -called the “Austriada,” printed in 1584. It begins, in the first four -cantos, with the rebellion of the Moors in the Alpuxarras; and then, -after giving us the birth and education of Don John, as the general -sent to subdue them, goes on with his subsequent life and adventures, -and ends, in the twenty-fourth canto, with the battle of Lepanto and -the promise of a continuation. - -When it was thus far finished, which was not till after the death of -the prince to whose glory it is dedicated, it was solemnly presented, -both by the city of Córdova and by the Cortes of the kingdom, in -separate letters, to Philip the Second, asking for it his especial -favor, as for a work “that it seemed to them must last for many ages.” -The king received it graciously, and gave the author five hundred -ducats, regarding it, perhaps, with secret satisfaction, as a funeral -monument to one whose life had been so brilliant that his death was not -unwelcome. With such patronage, it soon passed through three editions; -but it had no real merit, except in the skilful construction of its -octave stanzas, and in some of its picturesque historical details, and -was, therefore, soon forgotten.[831] - - [831] “La Austriada de Juan Rufo, Jurado de la Ciudad de - Córdoba,” Madrid, 1584, 12mo, ff. 447. There are editions of 1585 - and 1587, and it is extravagantly praised by Cervantes, in a - prefatory sonnet, and in the scrutiny of Don Quixote’s library. - Rufo, when he was to be presented to Philip II.,--probably at the - time he offered his poem and dedication,--said he had prepared - himself fully for the reception, but lost all presence of mind, - from the severity of that monarch’s appearance. (Baltasar - Porreño, Dichos y Hechos de Philipe II., Bruselas, 1666, 12mo, p. - 39.) The best of Rufo’s works is his Letter to his young Son, at - the end of his “Apotegmas,” already noticed;--the same son, Luis, - who afterwards became a distinguished painter at Rome. - -In the neighbourhood of the city of Leon there are,--or in the -sixteenth century there were--three imperfect Roman inscriptions cut -into the living rock; two of them referring to Curienus, a Spaniard, -who had successfully resisted the Imperial armies in the reign of -Domitian, and the third to Polma, a lady, whose marriage to her -lover, Canioseco, is thus singularly recorded. On these inscriptions, -Vezilla Castellanos, a native of the territory where the persons they -commemorate are supposed to have lived, has constructed a romantic -poem, in twenty-nine cantos, called “Leon in Spain,” which he published -in 1586. - -Its main subject, however, in the last fifteen cantos, is the tribute -of a hundred damsels, which the usurper Mauregato covenanted by -treaty to pay annually to the Moors, and which, by the assistance of -the apostle Saint James, King Ramiro successfully refused to pay any -longer. Castellanos, therefore, passes lightly over the long period -intervening between the time of Domitian and that of the war of Pelayo, -giving only a few sketches from its Christian history, and then, in -the twenty-ninth canto, brings to a conclusion so much of his poem -as relates to the Moorish tribute, without, however, reaching the -ultimate limit he had originally proposed to himself. But it is long -enough. Some parts of the Roman fiction are pleasing, but the rest -of the poem shows that Castellanos is only what he calls himself in -the Preface,--“A modest poetical historian, or historical poet; an -imitator and apprentice of those who have employed poetry to record -such memorable things as kindle the minds of men and raise them to a -Christian and devout reverence for the saints, to an honorable exercise -of arms, to the defence of God’s holy law, and to the loyal service of -the king.”[832] If his poem have any subject, it is the history of the -city of Leon. - - [832] “Primera y Segunda Parte del Leon de España, por Pedro de - la Vezilla Castellanos,” Salamanca, 1586, 12mo, ff. 369. The - story of the gross tribute of the damsels has probably some - foundation in fact; one proof of which is, that the old General - Chronicle (Parte III., c. 8) seems a little unwilling to tell a - tale so discreditable to Spain. Mariana admits it, and Lobera, - in his “Historia de las Grandezas, etc., de Leon,” (Valladolid, - 1596, 4to, Parte II. c. 24) gives it in full, as unquestionable. - Leon is still often called Leon de _España_, as it is in the poem - of Castellanos, to distinguish it from Lyons in France, Leon de - _Francia_. - -In the course of the next four years after the appearance of this -rhymed chronicle of Leon, we find no less than three other long poems -connected with the national history: one by Miguel Giner, on the siege -of Antwerp by Alexander Farnese, who succeeded the unfortunate Don John -of Austria as generalissimo of Philip the Second in the war of the -Netherlands;--another, in twenty-one cantos, by Edward or Duarte Diaz, -a Portuguese, on the taking of Granada by the Catholic sovereigns;--and -the third by Lorenzo de Zamora, on the history of Saguntum and of its -siege by Hannibal, in which, preserving the outline of that early story -so far as it was well settled, he has wildly mixed up love-scenes, -tournaments, and adventures, suited only to the age of chivalry. Taken -together, they show how strong was the passion for narrative verse in -Spain, where, in so short a time, it produced three such poems.[833] - - [833] “Sitio y Toma de Amberes, por Miguel Giner,” Zaragoza, - 1587, 8vo.--“La Conquista que hicieron los Reyes Católicos en - Granada, por Edoardo Diaz,” 1590, 8vo, Barbosa, Tom. I. p. 730; - besides which, Diaz, who was long a soldier in the Spanish - service, and wrote good Castilian, published, in 1592, a volume - of verse in Spanish and Portuguese.--“De la Historia de Sagunto, - Numancia, y Cartago, compuesta por Lorencio de Zamora, Natural - de Ocaña,” Alcalá, 1589, 4to,--nineteen cantos of _ottava rima_, - and about five hundred pages, ending abruptly and promising more. - It was written, the author says, when he was eighteen years old; - but though he lived to be an old man, and died in 1614, having - printed several religious books, he never went farther with this - poem. Antonio, Bib. Nov., Tom. II. p. 11. - -To a similar result we should arrive from the single example of -Christóval de Mesa, who, between 1594 and 1612, published three more -national heroic poems;--the first on the tradition, that the body of -Saint James, after his martyrdom at Jerusalem, was miraculously carried -to Spain and deposited at Compostella, where that saint has ever since -been worshipped as the especial patron of the whole kingdom;--the -second on Pelayo and the recovery of Spain from the Moors down to the -battle of Covadonga;--and the third on the battle of Tolosa, which -broke the power of Mohammedanism and made sure the emancipation of the -whole Peninsula. All three, as well as Mesa’s elaborate translations -of the Æneid and Georgics, which followed them, are written in _ottava -rima_, and all three are dedicated to Philip the Third. - -Of their author we know little, and that little is told chiefly by -himself in his pleasant poetical epistles, and especially in two -addressed to the Count of Lemos and one to the Count de Castro. From -these we learn, that, in his youth, he was addicted to the study of -Fernando de Herrera and Luis de Soto, as well as to the teachings -of Sanchez, the first Spanish scholar of his time; but that, later, -he lived five years in Italy, much connected with Tasso, and from -this time belonged entirely to the Italian school of Spanish poetry, -to which, as his works show, he had always been inclined. But, with -all his efforts,--and they were not few,--he found little favor or -patronage. The Count de Lemos refused to carry him to Naples as a part -of his poetical court, and the king took no notice of his long poems, -which, indeed, were no more worthy of favor than the rest of their -class that were then jostling and crowding one another in their efforts -to obtain the royal protection.[834] - - [834] “Las Navas de Tolosa,” twenty cantos, Madrid, 1594, - 12mo;--“La Restauracion de España,” ten cantos, Madrid, 1607, - 12mo;--“El Patron de España,” six books, Madrid, 1611, 12mo, with - Rimas added. My copy of the last volume is one of the many proofs - that new title-pages with later dates were attached to Spanish - books that had been some time before the public. Mr. Southey, - to whom this copy once belonged, expresses his surprise, in a - MS. note on the fly-leaf, that the _last_ half of the volume - should be dated in 1611, while the _first_ half is dated in - 1612. But the reason is, that the title-page to the Rimas comes - at p. 94, in the middle of a sheet, and could not conveniently - be cancelled and changed, as was the title-page to the “Patron - de España,” with which the volume opens. Mesa’s translations - are later;--the Æneid, Madrid, 1615, 12mo; and the Eclogues of - Virgil, to which he added a few more Rimas and the poor tragedy - of “Pompeio,” Madrid, 1618, 12mo. The _ottava rima_ seems to me - very cumbrous in both these translations, and unsuited to their - nature, though we are reconciled to it, and to the _terza rima_, - in the Metamorphoses of Ovid, by Viana, a Portuguese, printed at - Valladolid, in 1589, 4to; one of the happiest translations made - in the pure age of Castilian literature. The Iliad, which Mesa is - also supposed to have translated, was never printed. In one of - his epistles, (Rimas, 1611, f. 201), he says he was bred to the - law; and in another, (f. 205), that he loved to live in Castile, - though he was of Estremadura. In many places he alludes to his - poverty and to the neglect he suffered; and in a sonnet in his - last publication, (1618, f. 113), he shows a poor, craven spirit - in flattering the Count de Lemos, with whom he was offended for - not taking him to Naples. - -Juan de la Cueva followed in the footsteps of Mesa. His “Bética,” -printed in 1603, is an heroic poem, in twenty-four cantos, on the -conquest of Seville by Saint Ferdinand. Its subject is good, and -its hero, who is the king himself, is no less so. But the poem is -a failure; heavy and uninteresting in its plan, and cold in its -execution;--for Cueva, who took his materials chiefly from the General -Chronicle of Saint Ferdinand’s son, was not able to mould them, as he -strove to do, into the form of the “Jerusalem Delivered.” The task -was, in fact, quite beyond his power. The most agreeable portion of -his work is that which involves the character of Tarfira, a personage -imitated from Tasso’s Clorinda; but, after all, the romantic episode of -which she is the heroine has great defects, and is too much interwoven -with the principal thread of the story. The general plan of the poem, -however, is less encumbered in its movement and more epic in its -structure than is common in those of its class in Spanish literature; -and the versification, though careless, is fluent and generally -harmonious.[835] - - [835] “Conquista de la Bética, Poema Heróico de Juan de la - Cueva,” 1603, reprinted in the fourteenth and fifteenth volumes - of the collection of Fernandez, (Madrid, 1795), with a Preface, - which is, I think, by Quintana, and is very good. A notice of - Cueva occurs in the Spanish translation of Sismondi, Tom. I. p. - 285; and a number of his unpublished works are said to be in - the possession of the Counts of Aguila in Seville. Semanario - Pintoresco, 1846, p. 250. - -A physician and scholar of Valladolid, Alfonso Lopez,--commonly called -El Pinciano, from the Roman name of his native city,--wrote in his -youth a poem on the subject of Pelayo, but did not publish it till -1605, when he was already an old man. It supposes Pelayo to have been -misled by a dream from Lucifer to undertake a journey to Jerusalem, -and, when at the Holy Sepulchre, to have been undeceived by another -dream, and sent back for the emancipation of his country. This last -is the obvious and real subject of the poem, which has episodes and -machinery enough to explain all the history of Spain down to the time -of Philip the Third, to whom the “Pelayo” is dedicated. It is long, -like the rest of its class, and, though ushered into notice with an -air of much scholarship and pretension, it is written with little skill -in the versification, and is one of the most wearisome poems in the -language.[836] - - [836] “El Pelayo del Pinciano,” Madrid, 1605, 12mo, twenty - cantos, filling above six hundred pages, with a poor attempt - at the end, after the manner of Tasso, to give an allegorical - interpretation to the whole. I notice in N. Antonio “La Iberiada, - de los Hechos de Scipion Africano, por Gaspar Savariego de Santa - Anna,” Valladolid, 1603, 8vo. I have never seen it. “La Patrona - de Madrid Restituida,” by Salas Barbadillo, an heroic poem in - honor of Our Lady of Atocha, printed in 1608, and reprinted, - Madrid, 1750, 12mo, which I possess, is worthless and does not - need to be noticed. - -In 1612 two more similar epics were published. The first is “La -Numantina,” which is on the siege of Numantia and the history of Soria, -a town standing in the neighbourhood of Numantia, and claiming to be -its successor. The author, Francisco Mosquera de Barnuevo, who belonged -to an ancient and distinguished family there, not only wrote this poem -of fifteen cantos in honor of the territory where he was born, but -accompanied it with a prose history, as a sort of running commentary, -in which whatever relates to Soria, and especially the Barnuevos, is -not forgotten. It is throughout a very solemn piece of pedantry, and -its metaphysical agencies, such as Europe talking to Nemesis, and -Antiquity teaching the author, seem to be a good deal in the tone -of the old Mysteries, and are certainly any thing but poetical. The -other epic referred to is by Vasconcellos, a Portuguese, who had an -important command and fought bravely against Spain when his country was -emancipating itself from the Spanish yoke, but still wrote with purity, -in the Castilian, seventeen cantos, nominally on the expulsion of the -Moriscos, but really on the history of the whole Peninsula, from the -time of the first entrance of the Moors down to the final exile of the -last of their hated descendants by Philip the Third. But neither of -these poems is now remembered, and neither deserves to be.[837] - - [837] “La Numantina del Licenciado Don Francisco Mosquera de - Barnuevo, etc., dirigida á la nobilissima Ciudad de Soria y á - sus doce Linages y Casas á ellas agregadas,” Sevilla, 1612, 4to. - He says “it was a book of his youth, printed when his hairs were - gray”; but it shows none of the judgment of mature years. - - “La Liga deshecha por la Expulsion de los Moriscos de los Reynos - de España,” Madrid, 1612, 12mo. It was printed, therefore, long - before Vasconcellos fought against Spain, and contains fulsome - compliments to Philip III., which must afterwards have given - their author no pleasure. (Barbosa, Tom. II. p. 701.) The poem - consists of about twelve hundred octave stanzas. - - “La España Defendida,” by Christ. Suarez de Figueroa, Madrid, - 1612, 12mo, and Naples, 1644, belongs to the same date, making, - in fact, three heroic poems in one year. - -From this point of time, such narrative poems, more or less approaching -an epic form, and devoted to the glory of Spain, become rare;--a -circumstance to be, in part, attributed to the success of Lope de Vega, -which gave to the national drama a prominence so brilliant. Still, in -the course of the next thirty years, two or three attempts were made -that should be noticed. - -The first of them is by a Portuguese lady, Bernarda Ferreira, and is -called “Spain Emancipated”; a tedious poem, in two parts, the earlier -of which appeared in 1618, and the latter in 1673, long after its -author’s death. It is, in fact, a rhymed chronicle,--to the first part -of which the dates are regularly attached,--and was intended, no doubt, -to cover the whole seven centuries of Spanish history from the outbreak -of Pelayo to the fall of Granada, but it is finished no farther than -the reign of Alfonso the Wise, where it stops abruptly. - -The second attempt is one of the most absurd known in literary history. -It was made by Vera y Figueroa, Count de la Roca, long the minister -of Spain at Venice, and the author of a pleasant prose treatise on -the Rights and Duties of an Ambassador. He began by translating -Tasso’s “Jerusalem Delivered,” but, just as his version was ready -to be published, he changed his purpose, and accommodated the whole -work--history, poetical ornaments, and all--to the delivery of Seville -from the Moors by Saint Ferdinand. The transformation is as complete as -any in Ovid, but certainly not as graceful;--a fact singularly apparent -in the second book, where Tasso’s beautiful and touching story of -Sophronia and Olindo is travestied by the corresponding one of Leocadia -and Galindo. As if to make the whole more grotesque and give it the air -of a grave caricature, the Spanish poem is composed throughout in the -old Castilian _redondillas_, and carried through exactly twenty books, -all running parallel to the twenty of the “Jerusalem Delivered.” - -The last of the three attempts just referred to, and the last one -of the period that needs to be noticed, is the “Naples Recovered” -of Prince Esquilache, which, though written earlier, dates, by its -publication, from 1651. It is on the conquest of Naples in the middle -of the fifteenth century by Alfonso the Fifth of Aragon, who seems to -have been selected as its hero, in part, at least, because the Prince -of Esquilache could boast his descent from that truly great monarch. - -The poem, however, is little worthy of its subject. The author avowedly -took great pains that it should have no more books than the Æneid; that -it should violate no historical proprieties; and that, in its episodes, -machinery, and style, as well as in its general fable and structure, -it should be rigorously conformed to the safest epic models. He even, -as he declares, had procured for it the crowning grace of a royal -approbation before he ventured to give it to the world. Still it is a -failure. It seems to foreshadow some of the severe and impoverishing -doctrines of the next century of Spanish literature, and is written -with a squeamish nicety in the versification that still further impairs -its spirit; so that the last of the class to which it belongs, if -it be not one of the most extravagant, is one of the most dull and -uninteresting.[838] - - [838] “Hespaña Libertada, Parte Primera, por Doña Bernarda - Ferreira de Lacerda, dirigida al Rey Católico de las Hespañas, - Don Felipe Tercero deste Nombre, _nuestro_ Señor,” (Lisboa, 1618, - 4to), was evidently intended as a compliment to the Spanish - usurpers, and, in this point of view, is as little creditable to - its author as it is in its poetical aspect. Parte Segunda was - published by her daughter, Lisboa, 1673, 4to. Bernarda de Lacerda - was a lady variously accomplished. Lope de Vega, who dedicated - to her his eclogue entitled “Phylis,” (Obras Sueltas, Tom. X. - p. 193), compliments her on her writing Latin with purity. - She published a volume of poetry, in Portuguese, Spanish, and - Italian, in 1634, and died in 1644. - - “El Fernando, ó Sevilla Restaurada, Poema Heróico, escrito con - los Versos de la Gerusalemme Liberata, etc., por Don Juan Ant. de - Vera y Figueroa, Conde de la Roca,” etc., Milan, 1632, 4to, pp. - 654. He died 1658. Antonio, _ad verb._ - - “Nápoles Recuperada por el Rey Don Alonso, Poema Heróico de D. - Francisco de Borja, Príncipe de Esquilache,” etc. Zaragoza, 1651, - Amberes, 1658, 4to. A notice of his honorable and adventurous - life will be given, when we speak of Spanish lyrical poetry, - where he was more successful than he was in epic. - - There were two or three other poems called heroic that appeared - after these; but they do not need to be recalled. One of the most - absurd of them is the “Orfeo Militar,” in two parts, by Joan de - la Victoria Ovando; the first being on the siege of Vienna by - the Turks, and the second on that of Buda, both printed in 1688, - 4to, at Malaga, where their author enjoyed a military office; but - neither, I think, was much read beyond the limits of the city - that produced them. - - * * * * * - -It is worth while, as we finish our notice of this remarkable series of -Spanish narrative and heroic poems, to recollect how long the passion -for them continued in Spain, and how distinctly they retained to the -last those ambitious feelings of national greatness which originally -gave them birth. For a century, during the reigns of Philip the Second, -Philip the Third, and Philip the Fourth, they were continually issuing -from the press, and were continually received with the same kind, if -not the same degree, of favor that had accompanied the old romances of -chivalry, which they had helped to supersede. Nor was this unnatural, -though it was extravagant. These old epic attempts were, in general, -founded on some of the deepest and noblest traits in the Castilian -character; and if that character had gone on rising in dignity and -developing itself under the three Philips, as it had under Ferdinand -and Isabella, there can be little doubt that the poetry built upon -it would have taken rank by the side of that produced under similar -impulses in Italy and England. But, unhappily, this was not the case. -These Spanish narrative poems devoted to the glory of their country -were produced when the national character was on the decline; and -as they sprang more directly from the essential elements of that -character, and depended more on its spirit, than did the similar poetry -of any other people in modern times, so they now more visibly declined -with it. - -It is in vain, therefore, that the semblance of the feelings which -originally gave them birth is continued till the last; for the -substance is wanting. We mark, it is true, in nearly every one of -them, a proud patriotism, which is just as presumptuous and exclusive -under the weakest of the Philips as it was when Charles the Fifth wore -half the crowns of Europe; but we feel that it is degenerating into -a dreary, ungracious prejudice in favor of their own country, which -prevented its poets from looking abroad into the world beyond the -Pyrenees, where they could only see their cherished hopes of universal -empire disappointed, and other nations rising to the state and power -their own was so fast losing. We mark, too, throughout these epic -attempts, the indications to which we have been accustomed of what was -most peculiar in Spanish loyalty,--bold, turbulent, and encroaching -against all other authority exactly in proportion as it was faithful -and submissive to the highest; but we find it is now become a loyalty -which, largely as it may share the spirit of military glory, has lost -much of the sensitiveness of its ancient honor. And finally, though -we mark in nearly every one of them that deep feeling of reverence -for religion which had come down from the ages of contest with the -infidel power of the Moors, yet we find it now constantly mingling -the arrogant fierceness of worldly passion with the holiest of its -offerings, and submitting, in the spirit of blind faith and devotion, -to a bigotry whose decrees were written in blood. These multitudinous -Spanish heroic poems, therefore, that were produced out of the elements -of the national character when that character was falling into decay, -naturally bear the marks of their origin. Instead of reaching, by the -fervid enthusiasm of a true patriotism, of a proud loyalty, and of an -enlightened religion, the elevation to which they aspire, they sink -away, with few exceptions, into tedious, rhyming chronicles, in which -the national glory fails to excite the interest that would belong to -an earnest narrative of real events, without gaining in its stead any -thing from the inspirations of poetical genius. - - - - -CHAPTER XXIX. - -LYRIC POETRY.--ITS CONDITION FROM THE TIME OF BOSCAN AND GARCILASSO DE -LA VEGA.--CANTORÁL, FIGUEROA, ESPINEL, MONTEMAYOR, BARAHONA DE SOTO, -RUFO, DAMIAN DE VEGAS, PADILLA, MALDONADO, LUIS DE LEON, FERNANDO -DE HERRERA AND HIS POETICAL LANGUAGE, ESPINOSA’S COLLECTION, MANOEL -DE PORTUGAL, MESA, LEDESMA AND THE CONCEPTISTAS.--CULTISMO, AND -SIMILAR BAD TASTE IN OTHER COUNTRIES.--GÓNGORA AND HIS FOLLOWERS, -VILLAMEDIANA, PARAVICINO, ROCA Y SERNA, ANTONIO DE VEGA, PANTALEON, -VIOLANTE DEL CIELO, MELO, MONCAYO, LA TORRE, VERGARA, ROZAS, ULLOA, -SALAZAR.--FASHION AND PREVALENCE OF THE SCHOOL OF GÓNGORA.--EFFORTS TO -OVERTURN IT BY LOPE DE VEGA, QUEVEDO, AND OTHERS.--MEDRANO, ALCAZAR, -ARGUIJO, BALVAS. - - -A decidedly lyric tendency is perceptible in Spanish literature from -the first. The ballads are full of it, and occasionally we find -snatches of songs that seem almost as old as the earliest ballads. All -this, of course, belongs to a period so remote and rude, that what -it produced was national, because Spain had as yet no intercourse -with other European countries that drew after it any of their culture -and refinement. Later, we have seen how the neighbouring Provençal -sometimes gave its measures and tones to the Castilian; and how both, -so far as Spain was concerned, were fashioned by the tastes of the -different courts of the country down to the time of Ferdinand and -Isabella. - -But, from the next age, which was that of Boscan and Garcilasso, a -new element was introduced into Spanish lyric poetry; for, from that -period, not only the forms, but the genius, of the more cultivated -Italian are perceptible, in a manner that does not permit us for a -moment to question their great influence and final success. Still, the -difference between the characters of the two nations was so great, that -the poetry of Spain could not be drawn into such relations with the -Italian models set before it as was at first attempted. Two currents, -therefore, were at once formed; and after the first encounter between -them, in which Castillejo was the most prominent, if not the earliest, -of those who strove to prevent their union, the respective streams have -continued to flow on, side by side, but still separate from each other, -down to our own days. - -At the end of the sixteenth century, the influence of such poetry as -had filled the Cancioneros from the time of John the Second was still -acknowledged, and Bibero Costana, Heredia, Sanchez de Badajoz, and -their contemporaries, continued to be read, though they no longer -enjoyed the fashionable admiration which had once waited on them. But -the change that was destined to overthrow the school to which these -poets belonged was rapidly advancing; and if it were not the most -favorable that could have been made in Spanish lyric poetry, it was one -which, as we have seen, the brilliant success of Garcilasso, and the -circumstances producing and attending it, rendered inevitable.[839] - - [839] See what is said in Chap. III. on Acuña, Cetina, Silvestre, - etc. - -Among those who contributed avowedly to this change was Cantorál, who, -in 1578, published a volume of verse, in the Preface to which he does -not hesitate to say that Spain had hardly produced a poet deserving -the name, except Garcilasso;--a poet, as he truly adds, formed on -Italian models, and one whose footsteps he himself follows, though at -a very humble distance.[840] Another of the lyric poets of the same -period, and one who, with better success, took the same direction, was -Francisco de Figueroa, a gentleman and a soldier, whose few Castilian -poems are still acknowledged in the more choice collections of his -native literature, but who lived so long in Italy, and devoted himself -so earnestly to the study of its language, that he wrote Italian verse -with purity, as well as Spanish.[841] To these should be added Vicente -Espinel, who invented the _décimas_, or renewed the use of them, and -who, in a volume of poetry printed in 1591, distinguishes the Italian -forms, to which he gives precedence, from the Castilian, in which his -efforts, though fewer in number, are occasionally more beautiful than -any thing he wrote in the forms he preferred.[842] - - [840] “Obras Poéticas de Lomas de Cantorál,” Madrid, 1578, 12mo. - It opens with a translation from Tansillo, and the lyrical - portions of the three books into which it is divided are in the - Italian manner; but the rest is often more national in its forms. - - [841] Figueroa, (born 1540, died 1620), often called El Divino, - was perhaps more known and admired in Italy, during the greater - part of his life, than he was in Spain; but he died at last, - much honored, in Alcalá, his native city. His poetry is dated in - 1572, and was circulated in manuscript quite as early as that - date implies; but it was not printed, I think, till it appeared - in 1626, at Lisbon, in a minute volume under the auspices of Luis - Tribaldo de Toledo, chronicler of Portugal. It is also in the - twentieth volume of the collection of Fernandez, Madrid. But, - though it is highly polished, it is not inspired by a masculine - genius. - - [842] “Diversas Rimas de V. Espinel,” Madrid, 1591, 18mo. His - lines on Seeking Occasions for Jealousy (f. 78) are very happy, - and his Complaints against Past Happiness (f. 128) are better - than those on the same subject by Silvestre, Obras, 1599, f. 71. - -But the disposition to follow the great masters of Italy was by no -means so general as the examples of Cantorál, Figueroa, and Espinel -might seem to imply. Their cases are, in fact, extreme cases, as we can -see from the circumstance, that, though Montemayor in his “Diana” was -a professed imitator of Sannazaro, still, among the poems scattered -through that prose pastoral, and in a volume which he afterwards -printed, are found many pieces--and some of them among the best he has -left--that belong decidedly to the older and more national school.[843] -Similar remarks may be applied to other authors of the same period. -Luis Barahona de Soto, of whose lyric poems only a few have reached us, -was by no means exclusively of the Italian school, though his principal -work, the famous “Tears of Angelica,” is in the manner of Ariosto.[844] -And Rufo, while he strove to tread in the footsteps of Petrarch, had -yet within him a Castilian genius, which seems to have compelled him, -as if against his will, to return to the paths of the elder poets of -his own country.[845] A still larger number of the contemporary lyrics -of Damian de Vegas[846] and Pedro de Padilla[847] are national in their -tone; but best of all is this tone heard, at this period, from Lopez -Maldonado, who, sometimes in a gay spirit, and sometimes in one full of -tenderness and melancholy, is almost uniformly inspired by the popular -feeling and true to the popular instincts.[848] - - [843] Montemayor, as we shall see hereafter, introduced the prose - pastorals, in imitation of Sannazaro, into Spanish in 1542; and a - collection of his poetry, called a “Cancionero,” was printed in - 1554. In the edition of Madrid, 1588, 12mo, which I use, about - one third of the volume is in the Castilian measures and manner; - after which it is formally announced, “Here begin the sonnets, - _canciones_, and other pieces in the measures of Italian verse.” - A _cancion_ occurs in the first book of the “Diana,” on the - regrets of a shepherdess who had driven her lover to despair, - which is very sweet and natural, and is well translated by old - Bartholomew Yong in his version of the Diana (London, 1598, - folio, p. 8). Polo, who continued the Diana, pursued the same - course in the poems he inserted in his continuation, and good - translations of several of them may be found in Yong. - - “The works of Montemayor touching on Devotion and - Religion”--those, I presume, in his “Cancionero”--are prohibited - in the Index of 1667, and in that of 1790. - - [844] The lyric poetry of Barahona de Soto is to be sought among - the works of Silvestre, 1599, and in the “Flores de Poetas - Ilustres,” by Espinosa, Valladolid, 1605, 4to. - - [845] “Las Seyscientas Apotegmas de Juan Rufo, y otras Obras - en Verso,” Toledo, 1596, 8vo. The _Apotegmas_ are, in fact, - anecdotes in prose. His sonnets and _canciones_ are not so good - as his Letter to his Son and his other more Castilian poems, such - as the one relating to the war in Flanders, where he served. - - [846] “Libro de Poesía, por Fray Damian de Vegas,” Toledo, 1590, - 12mo, above a thousand pages; most of it religious; most of it in - the old manner; and nearly all of it very dull. - - [847] “Pedro de Padilla, Eglogas, Sonetos,” etc., Sevilla, 1582, - 4to, ff. 246. There are many lyrics in this collection, _glosas_, - _villancicos_, and _letrillas_, that are quite Castilian, some of - them spirited and pleasant. Others may be found in his “Thesoro - de Varias Poesías,” (Madrid, 1587, 12mo), where, however, there - are yet more in the Italian forms. - - [848] The “Cancionero” of Maldonado was printed at Madrid, 1586, - in 4to, and the best parts of it are the amatory poetry, some - of which is found in the third volume of Faber’s “Floresta.” - One more poet might have been added here, as writing in the old - measures,--Joachim Romero de Çepeda,--whose works were printed - at Seville, 1582, in 4to, and contain a good many _canciones_, - _motes_, and _glosas_; among the rest, three remarkable sonnets, - presented by him to Philip II. as he passed through Badajoz, - where Çepeda lived, to take possession of Portugal, in 1580. But - the whole volume is marked with conceits and quibbles. - -But it should not be forgotten that during the same period lived the -two greatest lyrical poets that Spain has ever produced,--exercising -little influence over each other, and still less over their own times. -Of one of them, Luis de Leon, who died in 1591, after having given -hardly any thing of his poetry to the world, we have already spoken. -The other was Fernando de Herrera, an ecclesiastic of Seville,[849] of -whom we know only that he lived in the latter part of the sixteenth -century; that he died in 1597, at the age of sixty-three years; that -Cervantes wrote a sonnet in his honor;[850] and that, in 1619, his -friend Francisco Pacheco, the painter, published his works, with a -Preface by the kindred spirit of Rioja.[851] - - [849] Herrera’s praises of Seville and the Guadalquivir - sufficiently betray his origin, so constant are they. They are, - too, sometimes among the happy specimens of his verse; for - instance, in the ode in honor of St. Ferdinand, who rescued - Seville from the Moors, and in the elegy, “Bien debes asconder - sereno cielo.” - - [850] Navarrete, Vida de Cervantes, 1819, p. 447. The date of - Herrera’s death is given on the sure authority of some MS. notes - of Pacheco, his friend, published in the Semanario Pintoresco, - 1845, p. 299; before which it was unknown. These notes are - taken from an interesting MS. which seems to have been the - rough and imperfect draft of the “Imágines” and “Elogia Virorum - Illustrium,” which Antonio (Bib. Nov., Tom. I. p. 456) says - Pacheco gave to the well-known Count Duke Olivares. They are in - the Semanario Erudito, 1844, pp. 374, etc. See also Navarrete, - Vida de Cervantes, pp. 536-537. Pacheco was a good painter, and - Cean Bermudez (Diccionario, Tom. IV. p. 3) gives a life of him. - He was a man of some learning, and entered into a controversy - with Quevedo on the question of making Santa Teresa a copatroness - of Spain with Santiago, which Quevedo resisted; besides which, - in 1649, he published in 4to, at Seville, his “Arte de la - Pintura, su Antiguedad y Grandezas,” a rare work, praised by - Cean Bermudez, which I have never seen. Pacheco died in 1654. - Sedano (Parnaso Español, Tom. III. p. 117, and Tom. VII. p. 92) - gives two epigrams of Pacheco, which are connected with his art, - and which Sedano praises, I think, more than they deserve to be - praised. - - [851] Pacheco’s edition is accompanied with a fine portrait of - the author from a picture by the editor, which has often been - engraved since. - -That Herrera was acquainted with some of the unpublished poetry of -Luis de Leon is certain, because he cites it in his learned commentary -on Garcilasso, printed in 1580; but that he placed Garcilasso de la -Vega above Luis de Leon is no less certain from the same commentary, -where he often expresses an opinion that Garcilasso was the greatest of -all Spanish poets;[852]--an opinion sufficiently obvious in the volume -of his own poetry published by himself in 1582, which is altogether in -the Italian manner adopted by Garcilasso, and which, increased by poems -of a different character in the editions of Pacheco, in 1619, and of -Fernandez, in 1808,[853] constitutes all we possess of Herrera’s verse, -though certainly not all he wrote.[854] - - [852] “In our Spain, beyond all comparison, Garcilasso stands - first,” he says, (p. 409), and repeats the same opinion often - elsewhere. - - [853] The edition of Fernandez, the most complete of all, and - twice printed, is in the fourth and fifth volumes of his “Poesías - Castellanas.” The longer poems of Herrera, which we know only by - their unpromising titles, are “The Battle of the Giants,” “The - Rape of Proserpine,” “The Amadis,” and “The Loves of Laurino - and Cærona.” Perhaps we have reason to regret the loss of his - unpublished Eclogues and “Castilian Verses,” which last may - have been in the old Castilian measures. In 1572, he published - a descriptive account of the war of Cyprus and the battle of - Lepanto, and, in 1592, a Life of Sir Thomas More, taken from the - Latin “Lives of the Three Thomases,” by Stapleton, the obnoxious - English Papist. (Wood’s Athenæ, ed. Bliss, Tom. I. p. 671.) A - History of Spain, said by Rioja to have been finished by Herrera - about 1590, is probably lost. - - [854] In some remarks by the Licentiate Enrique de Duarte, - prefixed to the edition of Herrera’s poetry printed in 1619, he - says, that, a few days after Herrera’s death, a bound volume, - containing all his poetical works, prepared by himself for - the press, was destroyed, and that his scattered manuscripts - would probably have shared the same fate, if they had not been - carefully collected by Pacheco. - -Some parts of the volume published by himself have little value, such -as most of the sonnets,--a form of composition on which he placed an -extravagant estimate.[855] Other parts are excellent. Such are his -elegies, which are in _terza rima_, and of which the one addressed -to Love beseeching Repose is full of passion, while that in which -he expresses his gratitude for the resource of tears is full of -tenderness and the gentlest harmony.[856] But his principal success is -in his _canzones_. Of these he wrote sixteen. The least fortunate of -them is, perhaps, the one where he most strove to imitate Pindar;--that -on the rebellion of the Moors in the Alpuxarras, which he has rendered -cold by founding it on the Greek mythology. The best are one on the -battle of Lepanto, gained by Herrera’s favorite hero, the young and -generous Don John of Austria, and one on the overthrow of Sebastian -of Portugal, in his disastrous invasion of Africa. Both were probably -written when the minds of men were everywhere stirred by the great -events that called them forth; and both were fortunately connected with -those feelings of loyalty and religion that always seemed to spring up -together in the minds of the Spanish people, and to be of kindred with -all their highest poetical inspirations. - - [855] In his commentary on Garcilasso he says, “The sonnet is the - most beautiful form of composition in Spanish and Italian poetry, - and the one that demands the most art in its construction and the - greatest grace.” p. 66. - - [856] The lady to whom Herrera dedicated his love, in a spirit of - pure and Platonic affection, little known to Spanish poetry, is - said to have been the Countess of Gelves. - -The first--that on the battle of Lepanto, which emancipated many -thousand Christian captives, and stopped the second westward advance -of the Crescent--is a lofty and cheerful hymn of victory, mingling, -to a remarkable degree, the jubilant exultation which breaks forth -in the Psalms and Prophecies on the conquests of the Jews over their -unbelieving enemies, with the feelings of a devout Spaniard at the -thought of so decisive an overthrow of the ancient and hated enemy of -his faith and country. The other,--an ode on the death of Sebastian -of Portugal,--composed, on the contrary, in a vein of despondency, -is still romantic and striking, even more, perhaps, than its rival. -That unfortunate monarch, who was one of the most chivalrous princes -that ever sat on a throne in Christendom, undertook, in 1578, to -follow up the great victory of Lepanto by rescuing the whole of the -North of Africa from the Moslem yoke, under which it had so long -groaned, and to restore to their homes the multitudes of Christians -who were there suffering the most cruel servitude. He perished in the -generous attempt; hardly fifty of his large army returning to recount -the details of the fatal battle, in which he himself had disappeared -among the heaps of unrecognized slain. But so fond and fervent was -the popular admiration, that, for above a century afterwards, it was -believed in Portugal that Don Sebastian would still return and resume -the power which, for a time, had so dazzled and deluded the hearts of -his subjects.[857] - - [857] There is a book on this subject which should not be - entirely overlooked in a history of Spanish literature. It is an - account of a pastry-cook of Madrigal, who, seventeen years after - the rout in Africa, passed himself off in Spain as Don Sebastian, - and induced Anna of Austria, a cousin of that monarch and a nun, - to give him rich jewels, which led to the detection of the fraud. - The story is interesting and well told, and was first printed - in 1595, at Cadiz, under the title of “A History of Gabriel de - Espinosa, the Pastry-cook of Madrigal, who pretended to be King - Don Sebastian of Portugal.” Of course, Philip II. did not deal - gently with one who made such pretensions to the crown he himself - had clutched, or with any of his abettors. The pastry-cook and - a monk on whom he had imposed his fictions were both hanged, - after undergoing the usual appliances of racks and tortures; and - the poor princess was degraded from her rank, and shut up in a - conventual cell for life. There is an anonymous play of small - merit, which seems to have been written in the time of Philip - IV., and is entitled “El Pastelero de Madrigal.” - -To the main facts in this melancholy disaster Herrera has happily given -a religious turn. He opens his ode with a lament for the affliction of -Portugal, and then goes on to show that the generous glory which should -have accompanied such an effort against the common enemy of Christendom -had been lost in a cruel defeat, because those who undertook the great -expedition had been moved only by human ambition, forgetting the higher -Christian feelings that should have carried them into a war against -the infidel. In this spirit, he cries out,-- - - But woe to them who, trusting in the strength - Of horses and their chariots’ multitude, - Have hastened, Lybia, to thy desert sands!-- - O, woe to them! for theirs is not a hope - That humbly seeks for everlasting light, - But a presumptuous pride, that claims beforehand - The uncertain victory, and ere their eyes - Have looked to Heaven for help, with confident - And hardened hearts divides the unwon spoils. - But He who holds the headstrong back from ruin,-- - The God of Israel,--hath relaxed his hand, - And they have rushed--the chariot and the charioteer, - The horse and horseman--down the dread abyss - His anger has prepared for their presumption.[858] - - [858] - Ai de los que passaron, confiados - En sus cavallos, y en la muchadumbre - De sus carros, en tí, Libia desierta! - Y en su vigor y fuerças engañados, - No alçaron su esperança á aquella cumbre - D’eterna luz; mas con sobervia cierta - S’ofrecieron la incierta - Victoria, y sin bolver á Dios sus ojos, - Con ierto cuello y coraçon ufano, - Solo atendieron siempre á los despojos! - Y el Santo de Israel abrió su mano, - Y los dexó;--y cayó en despeñadero - El carro, y el cavallo y cavallero. - - Versos de Fern. Herrera, Sevilla, 1619, 4to, p. 350. - -Complaints, not entirely without foundation, have been made against -Herrera’s poetry, on the ground that he wants a sufficiently -discriminating taste in the choice of his words. Quevedo, who, when he -printed the poems of the Bachiller de la Torre as models of purity in -style, first made this suggestion, intimates that his objections do not -apply to the volume of poetry published by Herrera himself, but to the -additions that were made to it after the author’s death by his friend -Pacheco.[859] But, without stopping to inquire whether this intimation -be strictly true or not, it is enough to say, that, when Herrera’s -taste was formed and forming, the Castilian was in the state in which -it was described to have been about 1540 by the wise author of the -“Dialogue on Languages”;--that is, it was not, in all respects, fitted -for the highest efforts of the more cultivated lyric poetry. Herrera -felt this difficulty, and somewhat boldly undertook to find a remedy -for it. - - [859] See the address of Quevedo to his readers in the “Poesías - del Bachiller de la Torre.” Some of the words, however, to which - he objects, like _pensoso_, _infamia_, _dudanza_, etc., have been - recognized since as good Castilian, which from their nature they - were when Herrera used them. - -The course he pursued is sufficiently pointed out in the acute, -but pedantic, notes which he has published to his edition of -Garcilasso.[860] He began by claiming the right to throw out of -the higher poetry all words that gave a common or familiar air to -the thought. He introduced and defended inversions and inflections -approaching those in the ancient classical languages. And he adopted, -and sometimes succeeded in naturalizing in the Castilian, words from -the Latin, the Italian, and the Greek. A moderate and cautious use of -means like these was, perhaps, desirable in his time, as the author of -the “Dialogue on Languages” had already endeavoured to show. But the -misfortune with Herrera was, that he carried his practice, if not his -doctrines, too far, and has thus occasionally given to his poetry a -stiff and formal air, and made it, not only too much an imitation of -the Latin or the Italian, but a slight anticipation of the false taste -of Góngora, that so soon became fashionable. This is particularly true -of his sonnets and _sestinas_, which are often involved and awkward in -their structure; but in his more solemn odes, and especially in those -where the stanzas are regular, each consisting of thirteen or more -lines, there is a “long-resounding march” and a grand lyric movement, -that sweep on their triumphant way in old Castilian dignity, quite -unconscious of a spirit of imitation, and quite beyond its reach. - - [860] Obras de Garcilasso, 1580, pp. 75, 120, 126, 573, and other - places. - -Perhaps a better idea of the lyric poetry in highest favor among the -more cultivated classes of Spanish society, at the end of the sixteenth -century and the beginning of the seventeenth, can be obtained from the -collection of Pedro Espinosa, entitled “Flowers from the Most Famous -Poets of Spain,” than from any other single volume, or from any single -author.[861] It was printed in 1605, and contains more or less of the -works of about sixty poets of that period, including Espinosa himself, -of whom we have sixteen pieces that are worthy of their place. Most of -the collection consists of lyric verse in the usual forms,--chiefly -Italian, but not unfrequently national,--and many of the writers are -familiar to us. Among them are Lope de Vega, Quevedo, and others -already noticed, together with Góngora, the Argensolas, and some of -their contemporaries. - - [861] “Primera Parte de las Flores de Poetas Ilustres de España, - ordenada por Pedro Espinosa, Natural de la Ciudad de Antequera,” - Valladolid, 1605, 4to, ff. 204. Antonio (Bib. Nov., Tom. II. p. - 190) says Espinosa was attached to the great Andalusian family - of the Dukes of Medina-Sidonia, the Guzmans, and of the three - or four works he produced, two are in honor of his patrons, and - one was published by himself as late as 1644. Much of the poetry - in the “Flores” is Andalusian,--a circumstance that renders the - omission of Herrera the more striking; some of it is to be found - nowhere else; and, unhappily, the book itself is among the rarest - in Spanish poetry. - -Several of the poets from whom it gives selections or contributions -are to be found nowhere else,--such as two ladies named Narvaez, and -another called Doña Christovalina; while, from time to time, we find -poems by obscure authors, like those of Pedro de Liñan and Agustin de -Texada Paez, which, from their considerable merit, it would have been -a misfortune to lose.[862] But Fernando de Herrera does not appear -there at all; and of more than two thirds of its authors, only one -or two short pieces are given. It is to be regarded, therefore, as an -exhibition of the taste of the age when it appeared, rather than as a -selection of what was really best and highest in the older and more -recent Spanish lyric poetry at the opening of the seventeenth century. -But, whatever we may think of it in this point of view, it is certainly -among the more curious materials for a history of that poetry; and -before we condemn Espinosa for selecting less wisely than he might have -done, we should remember, that, after all, his taste was probably more -refined than that of his age, since a second part of his collection -which he proposed to publish was not called for, though he continued to -be known as an author many years after the appearance of the first. - - [862] Of the ladies whose poems occur in Espinosa, I think one, - Doña Christovalina, is noticed by Antonio (Bib. Nov., Tom. II. - p. 349). Of the others I know nothing, nor of Pedro de Liñan. - Texada, as we are told by Antonio, died in 1635, at the age of - sixty-seven;--the five poems printed thirty years before by - Espinosa being all we have of his works. - -But Herrera is not the only lyrical poet of the period who does not -appear in Espinosa’s collection. Rey de Artieda, whose sonnets are -among the best in the language,--Manoel de Portugal, whose numerous -religious poems are often in the national forms,--and Carrillo, a -soldier of promise, who died young, and who wrote sometimes with a -simplicity and freshness that never fail to be attractive,--are all -omitted; though their works, published at just about the same time with -the collection of Espinosa, had been known in manuscript long before, -as much as those of Luis de Leon and Góngora.[863] - - [863] Andres Rey de Artieda, better known under his academical - name of Artemidoro, is praised by Cervantes as a well-known poet - in 1584, though his works were not printed till they appeared - at Çaragoça, 1605, 4to. (Ximeno, Tom. I. p. 262.) Manoel de - Portugal, one of those Portuguese who, in the time of Philip - II. and III., sought favor of the oppressors of their country - by writing in Spanish, was known from 1577; but the collection - of his poems in nearly a thousand pages, some in Portuguese, - and all of little value, did not appear till it was printed at - Lisbon, 1605, 12mo, the year before his death. (Barbosa, Tom. - III. p. 345.) Luys de Carrillo y Sotomayor’s poems were published - after his death by his brother, at Madrid, 1611, 4to, and were - reprinted in 1613; but they had been circulated in MS. from the - time he was at the University of Salamanca, where he resided six - years. He died in 1610. Pellicer, Bib., Tom. II. p. 122. - -Christóval de Mesa comes a little later. His lyric poems were printed -in 1611, and again, more amply, in 1618. He professes to have taken -Herrera for his master, or for one of his masters; but he was long in -Italy, where, as he tells us, he changed his style, and from this time, -at least, he belongs with absolute strictness to the school of Boscan -and Garcilasso.[864] - - [864] “Rimas de Christóval de Mesa,” Madrid, 1611, 12mo; to which - add about fifty sonnets in the volume of his translation of - Virgil’s Eclogues, Madrid, 1618, 12mo. His notice of himself is - in a poetical epistle to the Count de Lemos, when he was going as - viceroy to Naples, (Rimas, f. 155), and is such as to show that - he was anxious to be a member of that poetical court, and much - disappointed at his failure. - -Francisco de Ocaña and Lope de Sosa, on the contrary, are as strictly -of the old Spanish school. The reason may be that their poetry is -almost all religious,--such as is found among the sacred verses of -Silvestre and Castillejo in the preceding century,--and that they wrote -for popular effect, seeking to connect themselves with feelings that -had grown old in the hearts of the multitude. The little hymns of the -former, on the Approach of the Madonna to Bethlehem, vainly asking for -Shelter, and one by the latter, on the Love and Grief of a Penitent -Soul, are specimens of what is best in this peculiar style of Spanish -poetry, which, marked as it is with some rudeness, carries back our -thoughts to the spirited old _villancicos_ in which it originated.[865] - - [865] The poetry of both of them was printed in 1603; but I do - not find any mention of the exact time when either of them lived, - and am not quite certain that Lope de Sosa is not the poet who - occurs often in the old Cancioneros. I might have added to the - notice of their poetry that of some of the poetry in an ascetic - work by Malon de Chaide, called “La Conversion de la Magdalena,” - consisting of sonnets, versions of the Psalms, etc., which are - very pleasing. The best, however,--an ode on the love of Mary - Magdalen to the Saviour after his resurrection,--is so grossly - amatory in its tone, that its poetical merit is quite dimmed by - it. Ed. Alcalá, 1592, 12mo, f. 336. - -Alonso de Ledesma, of Segovia, who was born in 1552, and died in -1623, wrote, or rather attempted to write, in the same style, but -failed; though he succeeded in what may be regarded as a corruption of -it. His “Spiritual Conceits,” as he called a volume which was first -printed in 1600, and which afterwards appeared six times during its -author’s life, are so full of quaintnesses and exaggerations as to -take from them nearly all poetical merit. They are religious, and owed -their success partly to the preservation of the old familiar forms -and tones, but more to the perverse ingenuity with which they abound, -and which they contributed much to make fashionable. Indeed, at that -time, and very much under the leading influence of Ledesma, there was -a well-known party in Spanish literature called the “Conceptistas”;--a -sect composed, in a considerable degree, of mystics, who expressed -themselves in metaphors and puns, alike in the pulpit and in poetry, -and whose influence was so extensive, that traces of it may be found -in many of the principal writers of the time, including Quevedo and -Lope de Vega. Of this school of the Conceptistas, though Quevedo was -the more brilliant master, Ledesma was the original head. His “Monstruo -Imaginado,” or Fanciful Monster, first printed in 1615, is little -else than a series of allegories hidden under the quibbles that are -heaped upon them; beginning with ballads, and ending with the short -prose fiction that gives its name to the volume. Several of the poems -it contains are on the death of Philip the Second, and sound very -strangely, from the irreverence with which that important event is -treated, both in its political and its religious aspects. Others, which -are on secular subjects, are in a tone even more free. But the little -he has left that is worth reading is to be sought in his “Spiritual -Conceits,” where there are a few sonnets and a few lyrical ballads -that are not likely to be forgotten.[866] - - [866] Sedano, Parnaso Español, Tom. V. p. xxxi. Lope de Vega - praises Ledesma more than once, unreasonably. His “Conceptos,” in - the first edition, Madrid, 1600, is a small volume of 258 leaves, - but I believe the subsequent editions contain more poems. His - “Juegos de la Noche Buena,” Barcelona, 1611, which I have never - seen, is strictly forbidden by the Index Expurgatorius of 1667, - p. 64. - -But there was a more formidable party in Spanish literature than that -of the Conceptistas; one that arose about the same time, and prevailed -longer and more injuriously. It was that of the “Cultos”; or the -writers who claimed for themselves a peculiarly elegant and cultivated -style of composition, and who, while endeavouring to justify their -claims, ran into the most ridiculous extravagances, pedantry, and -affectations. - -That such follies should thrive more in Spain than elsewhere was -natural. The broadest and truest paths to intellectual distinction -were there closed; and it was not remarkable, therefore, that men -should wander into by-ways and obscure recesses. They were forbidden -to struggle honestly and openly for truth, and pleased themselves -with brilliant follies that were at least free from moral mischiefs. -Despotic governments have sometimes sought to amuse an oppressed -multitude with holiday shows of rope-dancers and fireworks. Neither the -ministers of Philip the Third and Philip the Fourth nor the Inquisition -particularly patronized the false style of writing that prevailed -in their time, and served to amuse the better educated portions -of society. But they tolerated it; and that was enough. It became -fashionable at court immediately, and in time struck such root in the -soil of the whole country, and so flourished there, that it has not yet -been completely eradicated.[867] - - [867] Moro Expósito, Paris, 1834, 8vo, Tom. I. p. xvii. - -It was not, however, in Spain alone that such follies were known. -From the middle of the fifteenth century, when a knowledge of the -great masters of antiquity had become, for the first time, common -among scholars throughout the West, efforts had been made to build -up and cultivate a style of writing not unworthy of their example in -the languages of the principal countries of Europe. Some of these -efforts were wisely made, and resulted in the production of a series -of authors that now constitute the recognized poets and prose-writers -of Christendom, and emulate the models on which they were more or less -formed. Others, misled by pedantry and an unsound judgment, have long -since fallen into oblivion. But the period when such efforts were -made with the least taste and discretion was the latter part of the -sixteenth century and the beginning of the seventeenth; the period when -the Pleiades, as they were called, prevailed in France, the Euphuists -in England, and the Marinisti in Italy. - -How far the bad taste that was fashionable for a time in these several -countries had an effect on the contemporary tendencies of a similar -kind in Spain cannot be exactly determined. Probably what was the -favored literature of London or Paris was little known at Madrid, and -less cared for. But that whatever was done in Italy was immediately -carried to Spain, in the times of Philip the Second and Philip the -Third, we have abundant proof.[868] - - [868] It is a striking and important fact, to be taken in this - connection, that Lope de Vega, though opposed to the new school - upon principle, was a correspondent and admirer of Marini, to - whom he sent his portrait and dedicated a play; and of whom, in - the extravagance of his flattery, he said that Tasso was but - as a dawn to the full glory of Marini. Through this channel, - therefore, and through many others, traces of which may be found - in the collection of Italian eulogies on Lope de Vega, we can - at once see how Marini may easily have exercised an influence - over the poets of Spain contemporary with him. See Lope’s - “Jardin,” (Obras, Tom. I. p. 486), first printed in 1622, and - his Dedication to “Virtud, Pobreza y Mujer” (Comedias, Tom. XX., - Madrid, 1629, f. 203). - - Of the influence of classical antiquity in corrupting the proper - Castilian style, I know of no instance earlier than that of Vasco - Diaz de Frexenal, who published as early as 1547. His object - seems to have been to introduce Latin words and constructions, - just as the Pleiades did in France, at the same time and a little - later. This can be seen in his “Veinte Triunfos,” chiefly devoted - to a poetical account of events in the life of Charles V.; such - as his marriage, the birth of his son Philip II., his coronation - at Bologna, etc.,--all written in the old measures, and published - without notice of the place or year, but, necessarily, after - 1530, since that was the date of the Emperor’s coronation. Thus, - in the “Prohemio,” where he speaks of dedicating his “Twenty - Triumphs” to the twenty Spanish Dukes, Frexenal says, “Baste que - la ferventisima afeccion, y la observantisima veneracion, que á - vuestras dignisimas y felicisimas Señorias devo, á la dedicacion - de mis veinte triunphos me han convidado. Como quiera que mas - coronas ducales segun mi noticia en la indomita España no hay, - verdaderamente el presente es de poco precio, y las obras del de - menos valor, y el autor dellas de menos estima. Pero su apetitosa - observancia, su afeccionada fidelidad, y su optativa servidumbre, - por las nobilisimas bondades, y prestantisimas virtudes de - vuestras excelentes y dignisimas Señorias en algun precio - estimadas ser merecen.” - - He Latinizes less in the poems that follow, because it is more - difficult to do it in verse, but not because he desires it less, - as the following lines from the “Triumpho Nuptial Vandalico” (f. - ix.) prove plainly:-- - - Al tiempo que el fulminado - Apolo muy radial - Entrava en el primer grado, - Do nasció el vello dorado - En el equinocial; - Pasado el puerto final - De la hesperica nacion, - Su machina mundanal, - Por el curso occidental - Equitando en Phelegon. - - This is very different from what was attempted by Juan de Mena - a century before; he having desired only to take individual - Latin words, and knowing little of classical antiquity; whereas - Frexenal wishes, in Montaigne’s phrase, “to Latinize,” and give - to his Castilian sentences a Roman air and construction, and so - may have been, to a certain extent, the predecessor of Góngora. - Antonio mentions two or three other works of Frexenal in prose, - chiefly religious, which I have never seen; but I have some - ridiculous verses, printed at the end of his treatise entitled - “Jardin del Alma Christiana,” 1552, 4to. - -The poet who introduced “the cultivated style” into Spanish literature, -and whose name that style has ever since worn, was Luis de Góngora, -a gentleman of Córdova, who was born in 1561, and was educated at -Salamanca, where it was intended he should qualify himself for the -profession of the law, of which his father was a distinguished -ornament. But it was too late. The young man’s disposition for poetry -was already developed, and the only permanent result of his studies at -the University is to be sought in a large number of ballads and other -slight compositions, often filled with bitter satire, but written with -simplicity and spirit. - -In 1584 he is noticed by Cervantes as a known author.[869] He was -then only twenty-three years old; but he continued to live in his -native city, poor and unpatronized, yet twenty years longer, when, -to insure a decent subsistence for his old age, he took the tonsure -and became a priest. About the same time, he resorted to the court, -then at Valladolid, and was there in 1605, the year in which Espinosa -published his collection of poetry, to which Góngora was the largest -contributor.[870] But he was not more favored at court than he had been -at Córdova; and, after waiting and watching eleven years, we do not -find that he had obtained any thing more than a titular chaplaincy to -the king, a pleasant note from the patronizing Count de Lemos,[871] -the good-natured favor of the Duke de Lerma and the Marquis de Siete -Iglesias, and the general reputation of being a wit and a poet. At -last he was noticed by the all-powerful favorite, the Count Duke -Olivares, and seemed on the point of obtaining the fortune for which -he had waited so long. But at this moment his health failed. He -returned, languishing, to his native city, and died there in peace soon -afterwards, at the age of sixty-six.[872] - - [869] Galatea, ed. 1784, Tom. II. p. 284. - - [870] Pellicer, Vida de Cervantes, in Don Quixote, Tom. I. p. - cxiv. - - [871] Mayans y Siscar, Cartas, Tom. I. p. 125. - - [872] See his life, by his friend Hozes, prefixed to his Works, - Madrid, 1654, 4to. - -Much of the early poetry of Góngora is in short lines, and remarkable -for its simplicity. One of his lyrical ballads, beginning,-- - - The loveliest maiden - Our village has known, - Only yesterday wed, - To-day, widowed, alone,[873]-- - - [873] - La mas bella niña - De nuestro lugar; - Oy viuda, y sola, - Y ayer por casar. - - Obras de Góngora, 1654, f. 84. - -contains an admirably natural expression of grief, by a young bride to -her mother, on the occasion of her husband’s being suddenly called to -the wars. Another yet more lyrical, which begins,-- - - Ye fresh and soft breezes, - That now for the spring - Unfold your bright garlands, - Sweet violets bring,[874]-- - - [874] - Frescos ayrecillos, - Que á la primauera - Destexeis guirnaldas, - Y esparceis violetas. - - Obras de Góngora, 1654. f. 89. - -is, again, full of gentle tenderness. And so are some of his religious -popular poems, which occasionally approach the character of the old -_villancicos_. - -His odes of the same period are more stately. That on the Armada, -which must have been written as early as 1588, since it contains the -most confident predictions of a victory over England, is one of the -best; and that on Saint Hermenegild--a prince, who, in the sixth -century, partly for his resistance to Arianism and partly for political -rebellion, was put to death by his own father, and afterwards canonized -by the Church of Rome--is full of fervor and of the spirit of Catholic -devotion. Both are among the good specimens of the more formal Spanish -ode. - -But this poetry, all of which seems to have been written before he went -to court, and while he lived neglected at Córdova, failed to give him -the honors to which he aspired. It failed even to give him the means -of living. Moved, perhaps, by these circumstances, and perhaps by the -success of Ledesma and his conceited school, Góngora adopted another -style, and one that he thought more likely to command attention. -The most obvious feature in this style is, that it consists almost -entirely of metaphors, so heaped one upon another, that it is sometimes -as difficult to find out the meaning hidden under their grotesque mass -as if it were absolutely a series of confused riddles. Thus, when -his friend Luis de Bavia, in 1613, published a volume containing the -history of three Popes, Góngora sent him the following words, thrown -into the shape of a commendatory sonnet, to be prefixed to the book:-- - -“This poem, which Bavia has now offered to the world, if not tied up -in numbers, yet is filed down into a good arrangement, and licked into -shape by learning, is a cultivated history, whose gray-headed style, -though not metrical, is well combed, and robs three pilots of the -sacred bark from time and rescues them from oblivion. But the pen that -thus immortalizes the heavenly turnkeys on the bronze of its history is -not a pen, but the key of ages. It opens to their names, not the gates -of failing memory, which stamps shadows on masses of foam, but the -gates of immortality.” - -The meaning of this, as it is set forth in ten pages of commentary by -one of his admirers, is as follows:-- - -“The history which Bavia now offers to the world is not, indeed, in -verse, but it is written and finished in the spirit of wise learning -and of poetry. Immortalizing three Popes, it becomes the key of ages, -opening to them, not the gates of memory, which often give passage -to a transient and false fame, but the gates of sure and perpetual -renown.”[875] - - [875] A la Tercera Parte de la Historia Pontifical, que escriuió - el Doctor Bavia, Capellan de la Capilla Real de Granada. - - Este que Bavia al mundo oy ha ofrecido - Poema, si no á numeros atado, - De la disposicion antes limado, - Y de la erudicion despues lamido, - Historia es culta, cuyo encanecido - Estilo, sino metrico, peinado, - Tres ya Pilotos del vagel sagrado - Hurta al tiempo, y redime del oluido. - Pluma, pues, que claueros celestiales - Eterniza en los bronces du su historia, - Llaue es ya de los siglos, y no pluma. - Ella á sus nombres puertas immortales - Abre, no de caduca no memoria, - Que sombras sella en tumulos de espuma. - - Góngora, Obras, 1654, f. 5. - - The commentary is in Coronel, Obras de Góngora Comentadas, Tom. - II. Parte I., Madrid, 1645, pp. 148-159; but it should be noted, - that the concluding lines are so obscure, that Luzan (Poética, - Lib. II. c. 15) gives them a different interpretation, and - understands the phrase, “stamping shadows on masses of foam,” - to refer to the art of printing, which so often praises those - who do not deserve it. The whole sonnet is cited with admiration - by Gracian, “Agudeza y Arte de Ingenio,” Discurso XXXII.; a - work which we must mention hereafter as the art of poetry for - the _culto_ school; and the editors of the “Diario de los - Literatos de España”--men of better taste than was common in - their times--reproached Luzan, when they reviewed his “Poética” - in 1738, with being too severe on this extraordinary nonsense. - Lanuza, Discurso Apologético de Luzan, Pamplona, 1740, 12mo, pp. - 46-78. - -The extravagance of the metaphors used by Góngora was often as -remarkable as their confusion and obscurity. Thus, when, in 1619, -just after the appearance of two comets, one of his friends proposed -to accompany Philip the Third to Lisbon,--a city founded, according -to tradition, by Ulysses,--Góngora wrote to him, “Wilt thou, in a -year when a plural comet cuts out mourning of evil augury to crowns, -tread in the footsteps of the wily Greek?“[876] And again, in his -first “Solitude,” speaking of a lady whom he admired, he calls her “a -maiden so beautiful, that she might parch up Norway with her two suns -and bleach Ethiopia with her two hands.” But though these are extreme -cases, it is not to be denied that the later poems of Góngora are often -made unintelligible by similar extravagances.[877] - - [876] Obras, f. 32. - - [877] In the second _coro_. - -He did not, however, stop here. He introduced new words into his -verse, chiefly taken from the ancient classical languages; he used old -Castilian words in new and forced meanings; and he adopted involved and -unnatural constructions, quite foreign from the genius of the Spanish. -The consequence was, that his poetry, though not without brilliancy, -soon became unintelligible. This is the case with one or two of his -sonnets, printed as early as 1605;[878] and still more with his longer -poems, such as his “Solitudes,” or Deserts, his “Polyphemus,” his -“Panegyric on the Duke of Lerma,” and his “Pyramus and Thisbe”; none of -which appeared till after his death. - - [878] I suppose he changed his style about the time he went to - court; and the very first of his sonnets in Espinosa’s “Flores” - is proof that he had changed it as early as 1605. - -Commentaries, therefore, were necessary to explain them, even while -they still circulated only in manuscript. The earliest were prepared, -at his own request, by Pellicer, a scholar of much reputation, who -published them in 1630, under the title of “Solemn Discourses on the -Works of Don Luis de Góngora,” expressing, at the same time, his fears -that he might sometimes have failed to detect the meaning of what -was often really so obscure.[879] They were followed, in 1636, by a -defence and explanation of the “Pyramus and Thisbe,” from Salazar -Mardones.[880] And between that year and 1646, the series was closed -with an elaborate commentary of above fifteen hundred pages, by -Garcia de Salcedo Coronel, himself a poet.[881] To these were added -contemporary discussions, by Juan Francisco de Amaya, a jurist; by -Martin Angulo, in reply to an attack of Cascales, the rhetorician; -and by others, until the amount of the notes on Góngora’s poetry -was tenfold greater than that of the text they were intended to -elucidate.[882] - - [879] Jos. Pellicer, in his “Lecciones Solemnes,” (Madrid, - 1630, 4to, col. 610-612 and 684), explains his position in - relation to Góngora, and his trouble about finding the meaning - of some passages in his works; thus justifying what the Prince - of Esquilache said, probably in reference to these very - commentaries:-- - - Un docto comentador - (El mas presumido digo) - Es el mayor enemigo - Que tener pudo el autor. - - El Príncipe á su Libro. - - [880] “Ilustracion y Defensa de la Fábula de Píramo y Tisbe de - Christóval de Salazar Mardones,” Madrid, 1636, 4to. - - [881] There is a notice of Coronel in Antonio, Bib. Nova. The - three volumes of his commentary (Madrid, 4to, 1636-46) contain - six or seven hundred pages each;--the second being divided into - two parts. As a poet himself, he printed in Madrid, 1650, 4to, a - volume which he called “Crystals from Helicon,” one of the worst - productions of the school of Góngora. - - [882] Antonio, article “Ludovicus de Góngora,” mentions the - inferior commentators. The attack of Cascales, who seems afraid - to be thorough with it, is in his “Cartas Philológicas.” - -Followers, of course, would not be wanting to one who was so famous. -Of these, the most distinguished in rank, and perhaps in merit, was -the Count of Villamediana,--the same unfortunate nobleman whose very -bold and public assassination was attributed to the jealousy of Philip -the Third, and created a sensation, at the time it happened, in all -the courts of Europe. He was a man of wit and fashion, whose poetry -was a part of his pretensions as a courtier, and was not printed till -1629, eight years after his death. Some of it is written without -affectation,--probably the earlier portions; but, in general, both -by the choice of his subjects,--such as those of Phaeton, of Daphne, -and of Europa,--and by his mode of treating them, he bears witness to -his imitation of the worst parts of Góngora’s works. His sonnets, of -which there are two or three hundred, are in every style, satirical, -religious, and sentimental; and a few of his miscellaneous poems have -something of the older national air and tone. But he is rarely more -intelligible than his master, and never shows his master’s talent.[883] - - [883] The queen, who was a daughter of Henry IV. of France, was - one day passing through a gallery of the palace, when some one - came behind her and covered her eyes with his hands. “What is - that for, Count?” she exclaimed. But, unhappily for her, it was - not the Count;--it was the king. Soon afterwards Villamediana - received a hint to be on his guard, as his life was in danger. - He neglected the friendly notice, and was assassinated the same - evening. He had been very open in his admiration of the queen, - having, on occasion of a tournament, covered his person with - silver _reals_ and taken the punning motto,--“Mis amores son - _reales_.” (Velazquez, Dieze, Göttingen, 1796, 8vo, p. 255.) An - edition of his Works, Madrid, 1634, 4to, is a little more ample - than that of Çaragoça, 1629, 4to; but not the better for it. The - story of the Count’s unhappy presumption and fate may be found - in Mad. d’Aulnoy’s “Voyage d’Espagne,” ed. 1693, Tom. II. pp. - 17-21, and in the striking ballads of the Duke of Rivas, Romances - Históricos, Paris, 1841, 8vo. - -Another of those that favored and facilitated the success of the new -school was Paravicino, who died in 1633, and whose position as the -popular court preacher, during the last sixteen years of his life, -enabled him to introduce “the cultivated style” into the pulpit, and -help its currency among the higher classes of society. His poetical -works were not collected and published till 1641, when they appeared -under the imperfect disguise of a part of his family name,--Felix -de Arteaga. They fill a small volume, which abounds in sonnets, and -contains a single drama of no value. The best parts of it are the -lyrical ballads, which, though mystical and obscure, are not without -poetry; a remark that should be extended to the narrative ballad on the -Loves of Alfonso the Eighth and the Jewess of Toledo, which Arteaga -seems to have been willing to write in the older and simpler style.[884] - - [884] Baena, Hijos de Madrid, Tom. II. p. 389. His entire name - was Hortensio Felix Paravicino y Arteaga. Why the whole of it - was not given with his poems, which were not printed till after - his death, it is not easy to tell. There are editions of them in - 1641, 1645, and 1650; the last, Alcalá, 12mo. - -These were the principal persons whose example gave currency to the new -style. Its success, however, depended, in a great degree, on the tone -of the higher class of society and the favor of the court, to which -they all belonged, and in which their works were generally circulated -in manuscript long before they were printed,--a practice always common -in Spain, from the rigorous supervision exercised over the press, and -the formidable obstacles thrown in the way of all who were concerned -in its management, whether as authors or as publishers. Fashion was, -no doubt, the great means of success for the followers of Góngora, and -it was able to push their influence very widely. The inferior poets, -almost without exception, bowed to it throughout the country. Roca y -Serna published, in 1623, a collection of poems, called “The Light of -the Soul,” which was often reprinted between that time and the end -of the century.[885] Antonio Lopez de Vega, neither a kinsman nor a -countryman of his great namesake, who, however, praises him much beyond -his merits, printed his “Perfect Gentleman” in 1620; a political dream, -to which he added a small collection of poems of a nature not more -substantial.[886] - - [885] Ambrosio de la Roca y Serna was a Valencian, and died in - 1649. (Ximeno, Tom. I. p. 359, and Fuster, Tom. I. p. 249.) He - seems to have been valued little, except as a religious poet, but - he was valued long. I have a copy of his “Luz del Alma,” without - year or place, but printed as late as 1725, 12mo. - - [886] “El Perfeto Señor, Poesías Varias,” etc., Madrid, 1652, - 4to. He wrote _silvas_ darker than Góngora’s “Soledades.” His - madrigals and shorter poems are more intelligible, though none - are good. He was a Portuguese by birth, but lived in Madrid, - where he died after 1656. (Barbosa, Tom. I. p. 310.) There are - two editions of his works. - -Anastasio Pantaleon, a young cavalier, who enjoyed great consideration -at court, and was assassinated in the streets of Madrid, being mistaken -for another person, had his poems collected by the affection of his -friends, and published in 1634, five years after his death.[887] A -nun at Lisbon, Violante del Cielo, in 1646,[888] and Manoel de Melo, -in 1649,[889] gave proofs of a pride in the Castilian which we should -hardly have expected just at the time when their native country was -emancipating itself from the Spanish yoke; but which enabled them -to claim the favor of fashion alike at home and in Madrid. In 1652, -Moncayo published a volume of his own extravagant verses;[890] and, -two years later, persuaded his friend Francisco de la Torre to publish -a similar collection in equally bad taste.[891] Vergara followed, in -1660, under the affected title of “Ideas de Apolo,”[892] and Rozas, in -1662, under one still more affected,--“Conversation without Cards.”[893] - - [887] Baena, Tom. I. p. 93. The works of Pantaleon are obvious - imitations of Góngora, as may be seen in his “Fábula de - Prosérpina,” “Fábula de Alfeo y Aretusa,” etc., though perhaps - still more in his sonnets and _décimas_. They were first printed - in 1634, but appeared several times afterwards, with slight - additions. My copy is of Madrid, 1648, 18mo. - - [888] Violante del Cielo (do Ceo, in Portuguese) died in 1693, - ninety-two years old, having written and published many volumes - of Portuguese poetry and prose, some of the contents of which are - too gallant to be very nun-like. Her “Rimas,” chiefly Spanish, - were printed in Ruan, 1646, 12mo. One of the few poems among - them that can be read is an ode on the death of Lope de Vega (p. - 44); though it should be added, that some of her short religious - poems, scattered elsewhere in her works, are better. - - [889] Melo, who died in 1666, was one of the most successful - Portuguese authors of his time. (Barbosa, Tom. II. p. 182.) - His “Tres Musas del Melodino,” a volume containing his Spanish - poetry, and consisting, in a great measure, of sonnets, ballads, - odes, and other short lyrics, much in the manner of Quevedo, as - well as of Góngora, was printed twice, in 1649 and 1665,--the - former, Lisboa, 4to. - - [890] Moncayo is also known by his title of Marques de San - Felices. His poems are entitled “Rimas de Don Juan de Moncayo í - Gurrea,” (Çaragoça, 1652, 4to), and consist of sonnets, a “Fábula - de Venus í Adonis,” ballads, etc. Latassa, Bib. Nueva, Tom. III. - p. 320. - - [891] “Entretenimiento de las Musas en esta Baraxa Nueva de - Versos, dividida en Quatro Manjares, etc., por Fenix de la - Torre,” Çaragoça, 1654, 4to. The title speaks for itself. His - proper name was Francisco, and he was a Murcian. - - [892] “Ydeas de Apolo y Dignas Tareas del Ocio Cortesano,” - Madrid, 1661, 4to; abounding in sonnets, religious ballads, and - courtly lyrics. A few of its poems are narrative, like one in - the ballad form on the story of Danae, and another at the end in - _ottava rima_, on the finding of the Virgin of Balvanera. - - [893] “Noche de Invierno; Conversacion sin Naypes,” Madrid, 1662, - 4to. The second part of this volume consists of burlesque poems, - full of miserable puns and rudenesses. - -Ulloa, who prepared his poetry for the press as early as 1653, but did -not print it till many years afterwards, wrote sometimes pleasantly and -in a pure style, but often followed that prevailing in his time.[894] -And finally, in 1677, appeared “The Harp of Apollo,” by Salazar, quite -as bad as any of its predecessors, and quite worthy in all respects -to close up the series.[895] More names might be added, but they -would be of persons of less note; and even of those just enumerated -little is now remembered, and less read. The whole mass, indeed, is -of consequence chiefly to show the wide extent of the evil, and the -rapidity with which it spread on all sides. - - [894] “Obras de Don Luis de Ulloa, Prosas y Versos,” of which the - second edition was published by his son, at Madrid, 1674, 4to. - Some of the religious poems, in the old measures, are among the - best of the volume; but the very best is the “Raquel,” in about - eighty octave stanzas, on the story of the love of Alfonso VIII. - for the fair Jewess of Toledo. - - [895] “Cythara de Apolo,”--published after its author’s death - by Vera Tassis y Villarroel, “his greatest friend”;--the same - person who collected and published the plays of Calderon. Among - his works is a Soledad, in professed imitation of Góngora, and - Fábulas or Stories of Venus and Adonis, and Orpheus and Eurydice, - in the manner of Villamediana. Aug. de Salazar was born in 1642, - and died in 1675. - -The depth to which it struck its roots may, however, be better -estimated, if we consider two things: the unavailing efforts made by -the leading spirits of the age to resist it, and the fact, that, after -all, they themselves--Lope de Vega, Quevedo, and Calderon--yielded from -time to time to the popular taste, and wrote in the very style they -condemned.[896] - - [896] Of Quevedo and Calderon I have already spoken; and - Montalvan, Zarate, Tirso de Molina, and most of the dramatists of - note, might have been added. Cervantes, in his old age, heeded - the new school little, but he complains of the obscure style of - poetry in his “Ilustre Fregona,” 1613, giving a specimen of it, - and alludes to it again in the second part of his Don Quixote, c. - 16. - -Of these distinguished men, the most prominent, whether we consider the -influence he exercised over his contemporaries or the interest he took -in this particular discussion, was, undoubtedly, Lope de Vega. Góngora -had, at some period, been personally known to him, probably when he was -in Andalusia in 1599, or earlier, when he was hastening to join the -Armada; and from this time Lope always retained an unaffected respect -for the Cordovan poet’s genius, and always rendered full justice to his -earlier merits. But he did not spare the extravagances of Góngora’s -later style; attacking it in his seventh Epistle; in an amusing sonnet, -where he represents Boscan and Garcilasso as unable to understand it; -in the poetical contest at the canonization of San Isidro; in the -verses prefixed to the “Orfeo” of Montalvan; and in many other places; -but, above all, in a long letter to a friend, who had formally asked -his judgment on the whole subject.[897] - - [897] Lope de Vega, Obras Sueltas, Tom. I. pp. 271, 342; Tom. - XII. pp. 231-234; Tom. XIX. p. 49; and Tom. IV. pp. 459-482. In - the last cited passage, Lope says he always placed Fernando de - Herrera as a model before himself. - -There can be no doubt, then, as to his deliberate opinion in relation -to it. Indeed, Góngora assailed him with great severity for it; and -though Lope continued to praise the uneasy poet for such of his works -as deserved commendation, the attack on his “cultivated style” was -never forgiven by Góngora, and a small volume of his unpublished -verse still shows that his bitterness continued to the last.[898] -And yet Lope himself not unfrequently fell into the very fault he so -sharply and wittily reprehended; as may be seen in many of his plays, -particularly in his “Wise Man in his own House,” where it is singularly -unsuited to the subject; and in many of his poems, especially his -“Circe” and his “Festival at Denia,” in which, if they had not been -addressed to courtly readers, it can hardly be doubted that he would -have used the simple and flowing style most natural to him. - - [898] National Library, Madrid, Estante M, Codex 132, 4to. At - least, it _was_ there in 1818, at which date I saw it. - -The affected style of Góngora was attacked by others;--by Cascales, -the rhetorician, in his “Poetical Tables,” printed in 1616, and in his -“Philological Letters,” printed later;[899] by Jauregui, the poet, in -his “Discourse on the Cultivated and Obscure Style,” in 1628;[900] and -by Salas, in 1633, in his “Inquiries concerning Tragedy.”[901] But the -most formidable attack sustained by this style was made by Quevedo, -who, in 1631, published both his Bachiller de la Torre, and the poetry -of Luis de Leon, intending to show by them what Spanish lyrical verse -might become, when, with a preservation of the national spirit, it was -founded on pure models, whether ancient or modern, whether Castilian -or foreign. From this attack--made, it should be observed, about -the time Góngora’s works and those of his most successful followers -were published, rather than at the time when they were written and -circulated in manuscript--his school never entirely recovered the -measure of its former triumphant success.[902] - - [899] Tablas Poéticas, ed. 1779, p. 103. One of Góngora’s - friends, Mardones, answered Cascales, (Cartas Philológicas, 1771, - Dec. I. Cartas 8 and 10), who rejoined, and is again answered in - Carta 9. - - [900] I have never seen this book, but Antonio, in his article - on Jauregui, gives its title, and Flögel (Gesch. der Komischen - Literatur, Tom. II. p. 303) gives the date of its publication. - Jauregui, however, in his translation of the “Pharsalia” of - Lucan, falls into the false style of Góngora. Declamacion contra - los Abusos de la Lengua Castellana, 1793, p. 138. - - [901] Tragedia Antigua, Madrid, 1633, 4to, pp. 84, 85. - - [902] See Appendix (G). - -Quite unconscious of this discussion, if we may judge by his style and -manner, lived Francisco de Medrano, one of the purest and most genial -of Spanish lyric poets, and one who seemed to be such without an effort -to avoid the follies of his time. His poems, few in number, are better -than any thing in the “Sestinas” of Venegas, to which they form a sort -of supplement, and with which they were printed in 1617. Some of his -religious sonnets are especially to be noticed; but his Horatian odes, -and, above all, one on the Worthlessness of Human Pursuits, beginning, -“We all, we all mistake,” must be regarded as the best of his graceful -remains.[903] - - [903] We know nothing of Medrano, except his poems, printed at - Palermo, in 1617, at the end of an imitation, rather than a - translation, of Ovid by Venegas. But Pedro Venegas de Saavedra - was a Sevilian gentleman, and Antonio (Bib. Nov., Tom. II. p. - 246) hints that the imprint of the volume may not show the true - place of its publication. - -Another writer of the same class, who can be traced back to 1584, but -who did not die till 1606, is Baltasar de Alcazar, a witty Andalusian, -who has left a moderate number of short lyrical poems, most of them -gay, and all of them in a better taste than was common when they -appeared.[904] - - [904] He is mentioned in Cervantes, “Canto de Calíope,” and there - is a life of him in the notes to Sismondi, Spanish translation - (Tom. I. p 274). His poems are found in the “Flores” of Espinosa, - and in the eighteenth volume of Fernandez. - -Similar praise, if not the same, may be given to Arguijo, a Sevilian -gentleman of fortune, distinguished by his patronage of letters, -to whom Lope de Vega dedicated three poems, and whose verses -Espinosa--apparently to attract favor for his book--placed at the -opening of his selections from the poets of his time. He wrote, if we -are to judge from the little that has come down to us, in the Italian -forms; for his twenty-nine sonnets,--which, with a singularly antique -air, are sometimes quite poetical,--a good _cancion_ on the death of a -friend, and another on a religious festival at Cadiz, constitute the -greater part of his known works. But his little lyric to his guitar, -which he calls simply a “Silva,” is worth all the rest. It is entirely -Spanish in its tone, and breathes a gentle sensibility, not unmingled -with sadness, that finds its way at once to the heart.[905] - - [905] Varflora, Hijos de Sevilla, No. III. p. 14; Sismondi’s Lit. - Española por Figueroa, Tom. I. p. 282; Espinosa, Flores; and - Fernandez, Coleccion, Tom. XVIII. pp. 88-124. It may, perhaps, - be noted here, that the “Hijos de Sevilla Ilustres en Santidad, - Letras, Armas, Artes ó Dignidad,” published in that city in 1791, - in 8vo, is a poor book, but one that sometimes contains facts - not elsewhere to be found, and one that is now become very rare, - from the circumstance that it was published in separate numbers. - On its title-page it is said to have been written by Don Firmin - Arana de Varflora; but Blanco White, in “Doblado’s Letters,” - 1822, p. 469, says its author was Padre Valderrama. - -Antonio Balvas, who died in 1629, is of more humble pretensions as a -poet than either of the last, but perhaps was more distinctly opposed -than either of them to the fashionable taste. When in his old age he -had prepared for publication a volume of his verse, he called it, after -some hesitation, “The Castilian Poet,” and Lope de Vega pronounced it -to be purely written, and well fitted to a period “when,” as he added, -“the ancient language of the country was beginning to sound to him like -a strange tongue.” Still, in this very volume, humble in size and -modest in all its pretensions, Balvas compliments Góngora and praises -Ledesma: so necessary was it to conciliate the favored school.[906] - - [906] “El Poeta Castellano, Antonio Balvas Barona, Natural de la - Ciudad de Segovia,” Valladolid, 1627, 12mo. - - - - -CHAPTER XXX. - -LYRIC POETRY, CONTINUED.--THE ARGENSOLAS, JAUREGUI, ESTÉVAN VILLEGAS, -BALBUENA, BARBADILLO, POLO, ROJAS, RIOJA, ESQUILACHE, MENDOZA, -REBOLLEDO, QUIROS, EVIA, INEZ DE LA CRUZ, SOLÍS, CANDAMO, AND -OTHERS.--DIFFERENT CHARACTERISTICS OF SPANISH LYRICAL POETRY, RELIGIOUS -AND SECULAR, POPULAR AND ELEGANT. - - -Among the lyric poets who flourished in Spain at the beginning of -the seventeenth century, and who were opposed to what began to be -called the “Gongorism” of the time, the first, as far as their general -influence was concerned, were the two brothers Argensola,--Aragonese -gentlemen of a good Italian family, which had come from Ravenna in the -time of Ferdinand and Isabella. The eldest of them, Lupercio Leonardo, -was born about 1564; and Bartolomé Leonardo, the other, was his junior -by only a year. Lupercio was educated for the civil service of his -country, and married young. Not far from the year 1587 he wrote the -three tragedies which have already been noticed, and two years later -was distinguished at Alcalá de Henares in one of the public poetical -contests then so common in Spain. In 1591, he was sent as an agent -of the government of Philip the Second to Saragossa, when Antonio -Perez fled into Aragon; and he subsequently became chronicler of that -kingdom, and private secretary of the Empress Maria of Austria. - -The happiest part of the life of Lupercio was probably passed at -Naples, where he went, in 1610, with the Count de Lemos, when that -accomplished nobleman was made its viceroy, and seemed to be hardly -less anxious to have poets about him than statesmen,--taking both the -brothers, as part of his official suite, and not only giving Lupercio -the post of Secretary of State and of War, but authorizing him to -appoint his subordinates from among Spanish men of letters. But his -life at Naples was short. In March, 1613, he died suddenly, and was -buried with much solemnity by the Academy of the _Oziosi_, which he had -himself helped to establish, and of which Manso, the friend of Tasso -and of Milton, was then the head. - -Bartolomé, who, like his brother, bore the name of Leonardo, was -educated for the Church, and, under the patronage of the Duke of -Villahermosa, early received a living in Aragon, which finally -determined his position in society. But, until 1610, when he went to -Naples, he lived a great deal at the University of Salamanca, where he -was devoted to literary pursuits and prepared his history of the recent -conquest of the Moluccas, which was printed in 1609. At Naples, he was -a principal personage in the poetical court of the Count de Lemos, and -showed, as did others with whom he was associated, a pleasant facility -in acting dramas, that were improvisated as they were performed. At -Rome, too, he was favorably known and patronized; and before his return -home in 1616, he was made chronicler of Aragon; a place in which he -succeeded his brother, and which he continued to enjoy till his own -death, in 1631. - -There is little in what was most fortunate in the career of these -two remarkable brothers that can serve to distinguish them, except -the different lengths of their lives and the different amounts of -their works; for not only were both of them poets and possessed of -intellectual endowments able to command general respect, but both had -the good fortune to rise to positions in the world which gave them a -wide influence, and enabled them to become patrons of men of letters, -some of whom were their superiors. But both are now seldom mentioned, -except for a volume of poetry, chiefly lyrical, published in 1634, -after their deaths, by a son of Lupercio. It consists, he says, of such -of his father’s and his uncle’s poems as he had been able to collect, -but by no means of all they had written; for his father had destroyed -most of his manuscripts just before he died; and his uncle, though he -had given about twenty of his poems to Espinosa in 1605, had not, it is -apparent, been careful to preserve what had been only an amusement of -his leisure hours, rather than a serious occupation. - -Such as it is, however, this collection of their poems shows the -same resemblance in their talents and tastes that was apparent in -their lives. Italy, a country in which their family had its origin, -where they had themselves lived, and some of whose poets they had -familiarly known, seems almost always present to their thoughts as -they write. Nor is Horace often absent. His philosophical spirit, his -careful, but rich, versification, and his tempered enthusiasm, are the -characteristic merits to which the Argensolas aspired alike in their -formal odes and in the few of their poems that take the freer and -more national forms. The elder shows, on the whole, more of original -power; but he left only half as many poems, by which to judge his -merits, as his brother did. The younger is more graceful, and finishes -his compositions with more care and judgment. Both, notwithstanding -they were Aragonese, wrote with entire purity of style, so that Lope -de Vega said “it seemed as if they had come from Aragon to reform -Castilian verse.” Both, therefore, are to be placed high in the list of -Spanish lyric poets;--next, perhaps, after the great masters;--a rank -which we most readily assign them, when we are considering the shorter -poems addressed by the elder to the lady he afterwards married, and the -purity of manner and sustained dignity of feeling which mark the longer -compositions of each.[907] - - [907] All needful notices of the two Argensolas and their - works--and more too--can be found in the elaborate lives of - them by Pellicer, in his “Biblioteca de Traductores,” 1778, pp. - 1-141; and by Latassa, in the “Biblioteca Nueva de Escritores - Aragoneses,” Tom. II. pp. 143, 461. Besides the original edition - of their Rimas, (Zaragoza, 1634, 4to), two editions are found in - Fernandez, “Coleccion,” the last being of 1804. The sonnet of - Bartolomé on Sleep is commonly much admired; but of _his_ poems I - prefer the sonnet on Providence, (p. 330), and the ode in honor - of the Church after the battle of Lepanto, ed. 1634, p. 372. - -Among those who followed the Argensolas, the earliest of their -successful imitators was probably Jauregui, a Sevilian gentleman, -descended from an old Biscayan family, and born about 1570. Having a -talent for painting, as well as poetry,--a fact we learn in many ways, -and among the rest from an epigrammatic sonnet of Lope de Vega,--he -went to Rome and devoted himself to the study of the art to which, at -first, he seems to have given his life. But still poetry drew him away -from the path he had chosen. In 1607, while at Rome, he published a -translation of the “Aminta” of Tasso, and from that time was numbered -among the Spanish poets who were valued at home and abroad. On his -return to Spain, he seems to have gone to Madrid, where, heralded by a -good reputation, he was kindly received at court. This was probably as -early as 1613, for Cervantes in that year mentioned in his “Tales” a -portrait of himself, painted, as he says, “by the famous Jauregui.” - -In 1618, however, he was again in Seville, and published a collection -of his works; but in 1624 his “Orfeo” appeared at Madrid,--a poem -in five short cantos, on the story of Orpheus. It is written with -much less purity of style than might have been expected from one who -afterwards denounced the extravagances of Góngora. Still, it attracted -so lively an interest, that Montalvan thought it worth while to -publish another on the same subject, in competition with it, as soon -as possible;--a rivalship in which he was openly abetted by his great -master, Lope de Vega.[908] Both poems seem to have been well received, -and both authors continued to enjoy the favor of the capital till -their deaths, which happened at about the same time; that of Jauregui -as late as 1640, when he finished a too free translation, or rather a -presumptuous and distasteful rearrangement, of Lucan’s “Pharsalia.” - - [908] It is a curious fact, and one somewhat characteristic of - the carelessness with which works in Spain were attributed to - persons who did not write them, that the “Orfeo” of Jauregui is - printed in the “Cythara de Apolo,” a collection of the posthumous - poems of Agustin de Salazar, (which appeared at Madrid, 1694, - 4to), as if it were his. So far as I have compared the two, I - find nothing altered but the first stanza, and the title of the - poem, which, instead of being simply called “Orfeo,” as it was - by its author, is entitled, in imitation of Góngora’s school, - “Fábula de Euridice y Orfeo.” - -The reputation of Jauregui rests on the volume of poems he himself -published in 1618. The translation of Tasso’s “Aminta,” with which it -opens, is elaborately corrected from the edition he had previously -printed at Rome, without being always improved by the changes he -introduced. But, in each of its forms, it is probably the most -carefully finished and beautiful translation in the Spanish language; -marked by great ease and facility in its versification, and especially -by the charming lyrical tone that runs with such harmony and sweetness -through the Italian. - -Jauregui’s original poems are few, and now and then betray the same -traces of submission to the influence of Góngora that are to be seen -in his “Orfeo” and “Pharsalia.” But the more lyrical portions--which, -except those on religious subjects, have a very Italian air--are -almost entirely free from such faults. The Ode on Luxury is noble -and elevated; and the _silva_ on seeing his mistress bathing, more -cautiously managed than the similar scene in Thomson’s “Summer,” is -admirable in its diction, and betrays in its beautiful picturesqueness -something of its author’s skill and refinement in the kindred art to -which he had devoted himself. His sonnets and shorter pieces are less -successful.[909] - - [909] Sedano, Tom. IX. p. xxii. Lope de Vega, Obras Sueltas, Tom. - I. p. 38. Signorelli, Storia de’ Teatri, 1813, Tom. VI. p. 13. - Cervantes, Novelas, Prólogo. Orfeo de Juan de Jauregui, Madrid, - 1624, 4to. Fernandez, Coleccion, Tom. VII. and VIII., containing - the “Farsalia”; and Rimas de Juan de Jauregui, Sevilla, 1618, - 4to, reprinted by Fernandez, Tom. VI. But the best text of the - “Amynta” is that in Sedano, (Parnaso, Tom. I.), which is made by - a collation of both the editions that were prepared by Jauregui - himself. Of this beautiful version it may be noted that Cervantes - (Don Quixote, Parte II. c. 62) says, as he does of the “Pastor - Fido” by Figueroa, “We happily doubt which is the translation and - which the original.” The “Farsalia” of Jauregui was not printed - till 1684. - - Jauregui’s _silva_ on seeing his mistress bathing can be - compared, much to its advantage and honor, with a longer _silva_ - on the same subject, entitled “Anaxarete,” and published at the - end of his “Gigantomachia,” by Manuel de Gallegos, Lisboa, 1628, - 4to, ten years after the appearance of Jauregui’s poem. The - “Anaxarete” is not without graceful passages, but it is much too - long, and shows frequent traces of the school of Góngora. - -Another of the followers of the Argensolas--and one who boasted that -he had trodden in their footsteps from the days of his boyhood, when -Bartolomé had been pointed out to his young admiration in the streets -of Madrid--was Estévan Manuel de Villegas.[910] He was born at Naxera, -in 1596, and was educated partly at court and partly at Salamanca, -where he studied the law. After 1617, or certainly as early as 1626, -when he was married, he almost entirely abandoned letters, and gave -himself up to such profitable occupations connected with his profession -as would afford subsistence to those dependent on his labors. He, -however, found leisure to prepare for publication a number of learned -dissertations on ancient authors; to make considerable progress in a -professional commentary on the “Codex Theodosianus”; and to publish, in -1665, as a consolation for his own sorrows, a translation of Boethius, -which, besides its excellent version of the poetical parts, is among -the good specimens of Castilian prose. But he remained, during his -whole life, unpatronized and poor, and died in 1669, an unfortunate and -unhappy man.[911] - - [910] This allusion occurs in a satire on the _culto_ style of - poetry, not found in his collected works, but in Sedano, (Tom. - IX., 1778, p. 8), where it appeared for the first time. - - [911] An excellent life of Villegas is prefixed to the edition of - his Works, Madrid, 1774, 2 tom. 8vo, said by Guarinos (Biblioteca - de Escritores del Reinado de Carlos III., Madrid, 1785, 8vo, Tom. - V. p. 19) to have been written by Vicente de los Rios. - -The gay and poetical part of the life of Villegas--the period when -he presumptuously announced himself as the rising sun, and attacked -Cervantes, thinking to please the Argensolas[912]--began very early, -and was soon darkened by the cares and troubles of the world. He tells -us himself that he wrote much of his poetry when he was only fourteen -years old; and he certainly published nearly the whole of it when he -was hardly twenty-one.[913] And yet there are few volumes in the -Spanish language that afford surer proofs of a poetical temperament. -It is divided into two parts. The first contains versions of a number -of Odes from the First Book of Horace, and a translation of the whole -of Anacreon, followed by imitations of Anacreon’s manner, on subjects -relating to their author. The second contains satires and elegies, -which are really epistles; idyls in the Italian _ottava rima_; sonnets, -in the manner of Petrarch; and “Latinas,” as he calls them, from the -circumstance that they are written in the measures of Roman verse. - - [912] In the edition of his poetry published by himself and at - his own expense, in 1617, 4to, at Naxera, his birthplace, he - gives on the title-page a print of the rising sun, with the - stars growing dim, and two mottoes to explain its meaning: the - first, “Sicut sol matutinus,” and the other, “Me surgente, quid - istæ?“--the _istæ_ whom he thus slights being Lope de Vega, - Quevedo, and indeed the whole galaxy of the best period of - Spanish literature. Lope seems to have been a little annoyed at - this impertinence and vanity of Villegas; for, in allusion to it, - he says, in the midst of a passage otherwise laudatory,-- - - Aunque dixo que todos se escondiesen, - Quando los rayos de su ingenio viesen. - - Laurel de Apolo, Madrid, 1630, 4to, Silva iii. - - For the harsh words of Villegas about Cervantes, see Navarrete, - Vida, § 128. - - [913] - Mis dulces cantilenas, - Mis suaves delicias, - A los veinte limadas - I á los catorce escritas. - - Ed. 1617, f. 88. - -A poetical spirit runs through the whole. The translations are -generally free, but more than commonly true to the genius of their -originals. The “Latinas” are curious. They fill only a few pages; but, -except slight specimens of the ancient measures in the choruses of the -two tragedies of Bermudez, forty years before, they are the first and -the only attempt worthy of notice, to introduce into the Castilian -those forms of verse which, a little before the time of Bermudez, had -obtained some success in France, and which, a little later, our own -Spenser sought to establish in English poetry. - -But though Villegas did not succeed in this, he succeeded in his -imitations of Anacreon. We seem, indeed, as we read them, to have the -simple and joyous spirit of ancient festivity and love revived before -us, with nothing, or almost nothing, of what renders that spirit -offensive. The ode to a little bird whose nest had been robbed; one -to himself, “Love and the Bee”; the imitation of “Ut flos in septis,” -by Catullus; and, indeed, nearly every one of the smaller pieces that -compose the third book of the first division, with several in the first -book, are beautiful in their kind, and give such a faithful impression -of the native sweetness of Anacreon as is not easily found elsewhere -in modern literature. We close the volume of Villegas, therefore, with -sincere regret that he, who, in his boyhood, could write poetry so -beautiful,--poetry so imbued with the spirit of antiquity, and yet so -full of the tenderness of modern feeling; so classically exact, and yet -so fresh and natural,--should have survived its publication above forty -years without finding an interval when the cares and disappointments -of the world permitted him to return to the occupations that made his -youth happy, and that have preserved his name for a posterity of which, -when he first lisped in numbers, he could hardly have had a serious -thought.[914] - - [914] There is an interesting notice of Villegas and his works by - the kindred spirit of Wieland, in the Deutsche Merkur, 1774, Tom. - V. pp. 237, etc.; the first time, I suspect, that his name had - been mentioned with the praise it deserves, out of Spain, for a - century. It should be remembered, however, that Villegas, though - he generally wrote with very great simplicity, and, in his Elegy - to Bartolomé de Argensola (Eróticas, 1617, Tom. II. f. 28) and - elsewhere, censures the obscure and affected writers of his time, - yet sometimes himself writes in the bad style he condemns, and - devotes his sixth Elegy to praise of the absurd “Phaeton” of the - Count Villamediana. - -We pass over Balbuena, whose best lyric poetry is found in his prose -romance;[915] and Salas Barbadillo, who has scattered similar poetry -through his various publications and collected more of it in his -“Castilian Rhymes.”[916] Both of them flourished before 1630, and, -like Polo,[917] whose talent lay chiefly in lighter compositions, and -Rojas, who succeeded best in pastorals of a very lyric tone,[918] they -lived at a time when Lope de Vega was pouring forth floods of verse, -which were not only sufficient to determine the main current of the -literature of the country, but to sweep along, undistinguished in its -turbulent flood, the contributions of many a stream, smaller, indeed, -than its own, but purer and more graceful. - - [915] In the Academy’s edition of the “Siglo de Oro,” Madrid, - 1821, 8vo, there is other poetry besides that contained in the - pastoral itself. - - [916] Poems are found in all the stories of Salas Barbadillo, - which would, perhaps, double the amount published by himself in - his “Rimas Castellanas,” Madrid, 1618, 12mo, and by his friends - after his death, in the “Coronas del Parnaso,” Madrid, 1635, - 12mo. The volume of Rimas is more than half made up of sonnets - and epigrams. - - [917] “Obras de Salvador Jacinto Polo,” Zaragoça, 1670, 4to. His - “Apollo and Daphne” is partly in ridicule of the _culto_ style. - - [918] “Desengaño del Amor en Rimas por Pedro Soto de Rojas,” - Madrid, 1623, 4to. He was of Granada, and, as his sonnets show, a - great admirer of Góngora. - -Among these was the poetry of Francisco de Rioja, a native of Seville, -who was born in 1600, and died in 1658. From the circumstance that he -occupied a high place in the Inquisition, he might have counted on a -shelter from the storms of state, if he had not connected himself too -much with the Count Duke Olivares, whose fall drew after it that of -nearly all who had shared in his intrigues, or sought the protection of -his overshadowing patronage. But the disgrace of Rioja was temporary; -and the latter part of his life, which he gave to letters at Seville, -seems to have been as happy and fortunate as the first. - -The amount of his poetry that has come down to us is small, but it is -all valued and read. Some of his sonnets are uncommonly felicitous. So -are his ode “To Riches,” imitated from Horace, and the corresponding -one “To Poverty,” which is quite original. In that “To the Opening -Year,” exhorting his young friend Fonseca, almost in the words of -Pericles, not to lose the springtime out of his life, there is much -tenderness and melancholy; a reflection, perhaps, of the regrets that -he felt for mistakes in his own early and more ambitious career. But -his chief distinction has generally come from an ode, full of sadness -and genius, “On the Ruins of Italica,”--that Roman city, near Seville, -which claims the honor of having given birth to Trajan, and which he -celebrates with the enthusiasm of one whose childish fancy had been -nourished by wandering among the remains of its decaying amphitheatre -and fallen palaces. This distinction has, however, been contested; -and the ode in question, or rather a part of it, has been claimed for -Rodrigo Caro, known in his time rather as an antiquarian than as a -poet, among whose unpublished works a sketch of it is found with the -date of 1595, which, if genuine, carries the general conception, and -at least one of the best stanzas, back to a period before the birth of -Rioja.[919] - - [919] The poetry of Rioja was not published till near the end - of the eighteenth century, when it appeared in the collections - of Sedano and Fernandez in 1774 and 1797. The two odes of Rioja - and Caro are printed together in the Spanish translation of - Sismondi’s “History of Spanish Literature,” Sevilla, 1842, in the - notes to which is the best account to be found of Rioja. (Tom. - II. p. 173.) Rioja, it may be added, was a friend of Lope de - Vega, who addressed to him a pleasant poetical epistle on his own - garden, which was first printed in 1622. - -Among those who opposed the school of Góngora, and perhaps the person -who, from his influence in society, could best have checked its power, -if he had not himself been sometimes betrayed into its bad taste, -was the Prince Borja y Esquilache. His titles--which are, in fact, -corruptions of the great names borne by the Italian principalities -of Borgia and Squillace--betray his origin, and explain some of his -tendencies. But though, by a strange coincidence, he was great-grandson -of Pope Alexander the Sixth, and grandson of one of the heads of the -Order of the Jesuits, he was also descended from the old royal family -of Aragon, and had a faithful Spanish heart. From his high rank, he -easily found a high place in public affairs. He was distinguished -both as a soldier and as a diplomatist; and at one time he rose to be -viceroy of Peru, and administered its affairs during six years with -wisdom and success. - -But, like many others of his countrymen, he never forgot letters amidst -the anxieties of public life; and, in fact, found leisure enough to -write several volumes of poetry. Of these, the best portions are -his lyrical ballads. His sonnets, too, are good, especially those -in a gayer vein, and so are his madrigals, which, like that “To a -Nightingale,” are often graceful and sometimes tender. In general, -those of his shorter compositions which are a little epigrammatic in -their tone and very simple in their language are the best. They belong -to a class constantly reappearing in Spanish literature, of which the -following may be taken as a favorable specimen:-- - - Ye little founts, that laughing flow - And frolic with the sands, - Say, whither, whither do ye go, - And what such speed demands? - From all the tender flowers ye fly, - And haste to rocks,--rocks rude and high; - Yet, if ye here can gently sleep, - Why such a wearying hurry keep?[920] - - [920] - Fuentecillas, que reis, - Y con la arena jugais, - Donde vais? - Pues de las flores huis, - Y los peñascos buscais. - Si reposais - Donde risueña dormis, - Porque correis, y os cansais? - - Obras en Verso de Borja, Amberes, 1663, 4to, p. 395. - -Borja was much respected during his long life; and died at Madrid, -his native city, in 1658, seventy-seven years old. His religious -poetry, some of which was first published after his death, has little -value.[921] - - [921] The life of Borja is in Baena, Tom. II. p. 175; and his - opinions on poetry, defending the older and simpler school, are - set forth in some _décimas_ prefixed to his “Obras en Verso,” of - which there are editions of 1639, 1654, and 1663. Of his lyrical - ballads, I would notice particularly, in the edition of Amberes, - 1663, 4to, Nos. 40, 66, and 129. The trifle translated in the - text is No. 20 among the poems which he calls _Bueltas_, a sort - of _refrain_, with a gloss, where much poetical ingenuity is - shown, in the turn both of the thought and of the phraseology. - -Antonio de Mendoza, the courtly dramatist, who flourished between 1630 -and 1660, is also to be numbered among the lyric poets of his time; and -so are Cancer y Velasco, Cubillo, and Zarate, all of whom died in the -latter part of the same period. Mendoza and Cancer inclined to the old -national measures, and the two others to the Italian. None of them, -however, is now often remembered.[922] - - [922] “El Fenix Castellano de Ant. de Mendoza,” Lisboa, 1690, - 4to; “Obras Poéticas de Gerónimo Cancer y Velasco,” 1650, and - Madrid, 1761, 4to; with Latassa, Bib. Nueva, Tom. III. p. 224; - “El Enano de las Musas de Alvaro Cubillo de Aragon,” Madrid, - 1654, 4to, who was, however, of Granada; and “Obras Varias de Fr. - Lopez de Zarate,” Alcalá, 1651, 4to, which, after a great deal of - worthless poetry, both in Spanish and Italian measures, contains, - at the end, his equally worthless tragedy, “Hercules Furens y - Œta, _con todo el rigor del Arte_.” - -Not so the Count Bernardino de Rebolledo, a gentleman of the ancient -Castilian stamp, who, though not a great poet, is one of those that are -still kept in the memory and regard of their countrymen. He was born -at Leon, in 1597, and from the age of fourteen was a soldier; serving -first against the Turks and the powers of Barbary, and afterwards, -during the Thirty Years’ war, in different parts of Germany, where, -from the Emperor Ferdinand, he received the title of Count. In 1647, -when peace returned, he was made ambassador to Denmark and lived long -in the North, connected, as his poetry often proves him to have been, -with the Danish court and with that of Christina of Sweden, in whose -conversion one of his letters shows that he bore a part.[923] From 1662 -he was a minister of state at Madrid; and when he died, in 1676, he was -burdened with offices of all kinds, and enjoyed pensions and salaries -to the amount of fifty thousand ducats a year. - - [923] Obras, Madrid, 1778, 8vo, Tom. I. p. 571. - -It is singular that the poetry of a Spaniard should have first appeared -in the North of Europe. But so it was in the case of Count Rebolledo. -One volume of his works was published at Cologne in 1650, and another -at Copenhagen in 1655. Each contains lyrical poems, both in the -national and the Italian forms; and if none of them are remarkable, -many are written with simplicity, and a few are beyond the spirit of -their time.[924] - - [924] There is a notice of Rebolledo, which must have been - prepared by his own authority, in the Preface to his “Ocios,” - printed at Antwerp, 1650, 18mo; but there is a better life of him - in the fifth volume of Sedano’s “Parnaso”; and his poetry, and - every thing relating to him, is found in his Works printed at - Madrid, 1778, 3 tom. 8vo, the first volume being in two parts. - Some of his poetry falls into _Gongoresque_ affectations. He - wrote a single play, “Amar despreciando Riesgos,” which he called - a tragicomedy, and which is not without merit. - -The names of several other authors might be added to this list, though -they would add nothing to its dignity or value. Among them are Ribero, -a Portuguese; Pedro Quiros, a Sevilian of note; Barrios, the persecuted -Jew; Lucio y Espinossa, an Aragonese; Evia, a native of Guayaquil in -Peru; Inez de la Cruz, a Mexican nun; Solís, the historian; Candamo, -the dramatist; and Marcante, Montoro, and Negrete;--all of whom lived -in the latter part of the seventeenth century, and the last three of -whom reached the threshold of the eighteenth, when the poetical spirit -of their country seems to have become all but absolutely extinct.[925] - - [925] Ant. Luiz Ribero de Barros, “Jornada de Madrid,” Madrid, - 1672, 4to; a poor miscellany of prose and verse, whose author - died in 1683. (Barbosa, Bib., Tom. I. p. 313.)--Pedro Quiros, - 1670, best found in Sismondi, Lit. Esp., Sevilla, 1842, Tom. II. - p. 187, note; and Varflora, No. IV. p. 68.--Miguel de Barrios, - “Flor de Apolo,” Bruselas, 1665, 4to, and “Coro de las Musas,” - Bruselas, 1672, 18mo.--“Ociosidad Ocupada y Ocupacion Ociosa - de Felix de Lucio y Espinossa,” Roma, 1674, 4to; a hundred bad - sonnets. (Latassa, Bib. Nov., Tom. IV. p. 22.)--Jacinto de Evia, - “Ramillete de Flores Poéticas,” Madrid, 1676, 4to, which contains - other poems besides his own.--Inez de la Cruz, la Décima Musa, - “Poemas,” Zaragoza, 1682-1725, 3 tom. 4to, etc.--Ant. de Solís, - “Poesías,” Madrid, 1692, 4to.--Candamo, “Obras Líricas,” s. a. - 18mo.--Joseph Perez de Montoro, “Obras Póstumas Lyricas, Humanas - y Sagradas,” Madrid, 1736, 2 tom. 4to; not printed, I think, till - that year, though their author died in 1694.--Manuel de Leon - Marcante, “Obras Póstumas,” Madrid, 1733, 2 tom. 4to; where some - of the _villancicos_, by their rudeness, not their poetry, recall - Juan de la Enzina.--And, Joseph Tafalla Negrete, “Ramillete - Poético,” Zaragoça, 1706, 4to; to which last add Latassa, Bib. - Nueva, Tom. IV. p. 104.--Perhaps a volume printed in Valencia, - 1680, 4to, and entitled “Varias Hermosas Flores del Parnaso,” - will, especially if compared with the similar work of Espinosa - printed in 1605, give the fairest idea of the low state of poetry - at the time it appeared. It contains poems by Ant. Hurtado de - Mendoza, by Solís, and by the following poets, otherwise unknown - to me: namely, Francisco de la Torre y Sebil, Rodrigo Artes y - Muñoz, Martin, Juan Barcelo, and Juan Bautista Aguilar;--all - worthless. Of the persons mentioned in this note, the one that - produced the greatest sensation, after Solís, was Inez de la - Cruz,--a remarkable woman, but not a remarkable poet, who was - born in Guipuzcoa in 1651, and died in the city of Mexico in - 1695. Semanario Pintoresco, 1845, p. 12. - -But though its latter period is dark and disheartening, lyric poetry -in Spain, from the time of Charles the Fifth to the accession of the -Bourbons, had, on the whole, a more fortunate career than it enjoyed -in any other of the countries of Europe, except Italy and England, and -shows, in each of its different classes, traits that are original, -striking, and full of the national character. - -Perhaps, from the difficulty of satisfying the popular taste in what -was matter of such solemn regard, without adhering to the ancient and -settled forms, its _religious_ portions, more frequently than any -other, bear a marked resemblance to the simplest and oldest movements -of the national genius. Generally, they are picturesque, like the -little songs we have by Ocaña on the Madonna at Bethlehem, and on the -Flight to Egypt. Sometimes they are rude and coarse, recalling the -_villancicos_ sung by the shepherds of the early religious dramas. But -almost always, even when they grow mystical and fall into bad taste, -they are completely imbued with the spirit of the Catholic faith,--a -spirit more distinctly impressed on the lyric poetry of Spain, in this -department, than it is on any other of modern times. - -Nor is the _secular_ portion less strongly marked, though with -attributes widely different. In its popular divisions, it is fresh, -natural, and often rustic. Some of the short _canciones_, with which -it abounds, and some of its _chanzonetas_, overflow with tenderness, -and yet end waywardly with an epigrammatic point or a jest. Its -_villancicos_, _letras_, and _letrillas_ are even more true to the -nature of the people, and more fully express the popular feeling. -Generally they seize a common incident or an obvious thought for -their subject. Sometimes it is a little girl, who, in her childish -simplicity, confesses to her mother the very passion she is -instinctively anxious to conceal. Sometimes it is one older and more -severely tried, deprecating a power she is no longer able to control. -And sometimes it is a fortunate and happy maiden, openly exulting in -her love as the light and glory of her life. Many of these little -lyrical snatches are anonymous, and express the feelings of the lower -classes of society, from whose hearts they came as freshly as did the -old ballads, with which they are often found mingled, and to which they -are almost always akin. Their forms, too, are old and characteristic, -and there is occasionally a frolicsome and mischievous spirit in -them,--not unimbued with the truest tenderness and passion,--which, -again, is faithful to their origin, and unlike any thing found in the -poetry of other nations. - -In the division of secular lyric poetry that is less popular and less -faithful to the traditions of the country a large diversity of spirit -is exhibited, and exhibited almost always in the Italian measures. -Sonnets, above all, were looked upon with extravagant favor during the -whole of this period, and their number became enormously large; larger, -perhaps, than that of all the ballads in the language. But from this -restricted form up to that of long grave odes, in regularly constructed -stanzas of nineteen or twenty lines each, we have every variety of -manner;--much that is solemn, stately, and imposing, but much, also, -that is light, gay, and genial. - -Taking all the different classes of Spanish lyric poetry together, the -number of authors whose works, or some of them, have been preserved, -between the beginning of the reign of Charles the Fifth and the end -of that of the last of his race, is not less than a hundred and -twenty.[926] But the number of those who were successful is small, -as it is everywhere, and the amount of real poetry produced, even by -the best, is rarely considerable. A little of what was written by the -Argensolas, more of Herrera, and nearly the whole of the Bachiller -de la Torre and Luis de Leon,--with occasional efforts of Lope de -Vega and Quevedo, and single odes of Figueroa, Jauregui, Arguijo, and -Rioja,--make up what gives its character to the graver and less popular -portion of Spanish lyric poetry. And if to these we add Villegas, who -stands quite separate, uniting the spirit of Greek antiquity to that -of a truly Castilian genius, and the fresh, graceful popular songs and -roundelays, which, by their very nature, break loose from all forms -and submit to no classification, we shall have a body of poetry, not, -indeed, large, but one that, for its living national feeling on the -one side, and its dignity on the other, may be placed without question -among the more successful efforts of modern literature. - - [926] I possess, I believe, works of more than one hundred and - twenty lyric poets of this period. - - -END OF VOL. 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