The Bible in Spain Volume II Part 45

{62a} The port of Oviedo.

{62b} See the Glossary, _s.v._ COPLA.

{66} "G.o.d bless me!"

{67} I.e. _Bascuence_, or _Vascuence_, the Basque language.

{70} Query, Aviles?

{71} Job x.x.xix. 25: ". . . the thunder of the captains, and the shouting."

{75} "Good heavens!"

{76} I.e. _jacas_.

{79a} The cathedral at Oviedo is one of the oldest and most interesting foundations in Spain. The first stone was laid by Alfonso II. in 802; the greater part of the existing edifice is of the fourteenth century.

But the great glory of Oviedo, ent.i.tling it to rank as second among the holy cities of Christian Spain, is the Camara Santa, and the relics therein contained (see Burke's _History of Spain_ vol. i. pp. 122124, 140, 141, 147150, 165, 275; vol. ii. pp. 811; and Murray's _Handbook_, sub. _Oviedo_).

{79b} Benito Feyjoo was born in 1676, and having a.s.sumed the Benedictine habit early in life, settled at length in a convent of his order at Oviedo, where he lived for hard on fifty years. He died in 1764.

A strange mixture of a devout Catholic and a scientific innovator, he was an earnest student of Bacon, Newton, Pascal, Leibnitz, and others, whose opinions he embodied in his own works. Learned, judicious, and diligent rather than a man of genius, he was original at least as regards his conceptions of the nature and limits of scientific research in Spain. He kept on good terms with the Inquisition, while he continued to publish in his _Teatro Critico_ and his _Cartas Eruditas y Curiosas_ all that the Inquisitors would desire to remain unread; attacked the dialectics and metaphysics then taught everywhere in Spain; maintained Bacon's system of induction in the physical sciences; ridiculed the general opinion as regards eclipses, comets, magic, and divination; and laid down canons of historical criticism which would exclude many of the most cherished traditions of his country and his Church. The best edition of his works is that by Campomanes, the minister of the enlightened Charles III., with a Life of the author. 16 vols. Madrid, 1778.

{80} Charles III. of Spain (17591788), the most enlightened of the Bourbon kings.

{82} Literally, _dry_.

{92} George Dawson Flinter began life in an English West India regiment, served in the Spanish American forces, and afterwards obtained a commission in the Spanish army. In 1833, on the outbreak of the civil war, he declared for Isabella, and served with considerable distinction in the const.i.tutional army. A prisoner in 1836, he was entrusted with a high command at Toledo in 1837, but having failed to satisfy the Cortes in an engagement in September, 1838, he cut his throat (see _Gentl.

Mag._, 1838, vol. ii. p. 553, and Duncan, _The English in Spain_, pp. 13, 189).

{98} There is still a fairly frequented high-road from Santander to Burgos, inasmuch as the railway from Santander to Madrid takes a more westerly route through Palencia, the actual junction with the main line from Irun being at Venta de Banos, a new creation of the railway not even mentioned in the guidebooks a few years ago, and now one of the most important stations in Spain.

Yet in railway matters Spain has still some progress to make. From Santander to Burgos _via_ Venta de Banos is just 120 English miles; but the time occupied in the journey by train in this year 1895 is just seventeen hours, the traveller having to leave Santander at 1 p.m. in order to reach Burgos at 6 o'clock the following morning!

{100} See Introduction.

{101} "_Office of the Biblical and Foreign Society_," rather an odd rendering of the original t.i.tle!

{103a} The briefest of all abbreviations and modifications of the objectionable _Carajo_.

{103b} Rather south-south-west.

{104} Domenico Theotocoupoulis, a Greek or Byzantine who settled at Toledo in 1577. He is said to have been a pupil of t.i.tian. The picture so highly praised in the text is said by Professor Justi to be in "his worst manner," and is indeed a very stiff performance. There are many of _El Greco's_ pictures in Italy, where his work is often a.s.signed to Ba.s.sano, Paul Veronese, and t.i.tian. His acknowledged masterpiece is the Christ on Mount Calvary in the cathedral of Toledo. _El Greco_ died in 1625, after an uninterrupted residence of nearly forty years in Spain.

{107} See _The Zincali_, part. ii. chap. vi.

{111a} Borrow's translation of St. Luke into Spanish gypsy was published with the following t.i.tle: _Embeo e Majaro Lucas_. _Brotoboro randado andre la chipe griega_, _acana chibado andre o Romano o chipe es Zincales de Sese_. (No place) 1837. A new edition was published five and thirty years later by the British and Foreign Bible Society, as _Criscote e Majaro Lucas chibado andre o Romano o chipe es Zincales de Sese_.

Lundra, 1872. Both these works are now out of print, but I have had the advantage of seeing a copy of each in the library of the Society in Queen Victoria Street.

{111b} _The Zincali_, part ii. ch. viii.

{114} Modern linguistic science is so entirely at variance with these theories that it is difficult to add a note at once modest, instructive, or of reasonable length. On the whole it is perhaps better to leave the chapter entirely alone.

{116a} See the Glossary.

{116b} _Evangelioa San Lucasen Guissan_. _El Evangelio Segun S. Lucas_.

_Traducido al vascuence_. _Madrid_: _Imprenta de la Compania Tipografica_. 1838.

{117} See _Proverbes Basques suivis des Poesies Basques_, by Arnauld Oihenart, 1847.

{118a} See F. Michel, _Le Pays Basque_, p. 213, and the Glossary, _s.v._ ICHASOA.

{118b} No one who has ever read the work of this _Abbe_ would ever think of citing it as a serious authority. It is ent.i.tled, _L'histoire des Cantabres par l'Abbe d'Iharce de Bida.s.souet_. Paris, 1825. Basque, according to the author, was the primaeval language; _Noah_ being still the Basque for _wine_ is an etymological record of the patriarch's unhappy inebriety!

{118c} This work is ent.i.tled, _Euscaldun ancina ancinaco_, _etc._ _Donostian_, 1826, by Juan Ignacio de Iztueta, with an Introduction in Spanish, and many Basque songs with musical notation, but without accompaniment.

{120} See further as to the Basques, Burke's _History of Spain_, vol. i.

App. I.

{121a} 1838.

{121b} See _ante_, p. 100, and Introduction.

{121c} Ofalia was prime minister from November 30, 1837, to August, 1838, when he was succeeded by the Duke of Frias.

{127} The mayor or chief magistrate. _Politico_ is here used in the old sense of civic, p???t????, of the p????; _gefe_, now spelt _jefe_ = chief.

{129a} In _The Zincali_, part ii. ch. iv., Borrow places his imprisonment in March.

{129b} Rather _civic_; see note on p. 127.

{131} "The city prison." _La Corte_ is the _capital_, as well as the _court_.

{133} "My master! the constables, and the catchpolls, and all the other thieves . . . "

{134a} See the Glossary, _s.v._ JARGON.

{134b} "He is very skilful."

{136} "Are there no more?"

{141} More like the French _Juge d'Instruction_.

{143a} "Come along, Sir George; to your house, to your lodgings!"

{143b} Acts xvi. 37.

{146} People of renown.