The History of the Reign of Ferdinand and Isabella the Catholic Volume II Part 14

[23] For a notice of this scholar, see the postscript to Part I. Chap. 11, of this History.

[24] Mendez, Typographia Espanola, pp. 271, 272. In the second edition, published 1482, the author states, that no work of the time had a greater circulation, more than a thousand copies of it, at a high price, having been disposed of in the preceding year. Ibid., p. 237.

[25] Nic. Antonio, Bibliotheca Nova, tom. i. pp. 132-139.--Lampillas, Letteratura Spagnuola, tom. ii. dis. 2, sec. 3.--Dialogo de las Lenguas, apud Mayans y Siscar, Origenes, (Madrid, 1737,) tom. ii. pp. 46, 47.

Lucio Marineo pays the following elegant compliment to this learned Spaniard, in his discourse before quoted. "Amisit nuper Hispania maximum sui cultorem in re litteraria, Antonium Nebrissensem, qui primus ex Italia in Hispaniam Musas adduxit, quibusc.u.m barbariem ex sua patria fugavit, et Hispaniam totam linguae Latinae lectionibus ill.u.s.travit." "Meruerat id,"

says Gomez de Castro of Lebrija, "et multo majora hominis eruditio, cui Hispania debet, quicquid habet bonarum literarum."

The acute author of the "Dialogo de las Lenguas," while he renders ample homage to Lebrija's Latin erudition, disputes his critical acquaintance with his own language, from his being a native of Andalusia, where the Castilian was not spoken with purity. "Hablaba y escrivia como en el Andalucia y no como en la Castilla." P. 92. See also pp. 9, 10, 46, 53.

[26] Barbosa, Bibliotheca Lusitana, (Lisboa Occidental, 1741,) tom. i. pp.

76-78.--Signorelli, Coltura nelle Sicilie, tom. iv. pp. 315-321.--Mayans y Siscar, Origenes, tom. i. p. 173.--Lampillas, Letteratura Spagnuola, tom.

ii. dis. 2, sect. 5.--Nic. Antonio, Bibliotheca Nova, tom. i. pp. 170, 171.

[27] Among these are particularly deserving of attention the brothers John and Francis Vergara, professors at Alcala, the latter of whom was esteemed one of the most accomplished scholars of the age; Nunez de Guzman, of the ancient house of that name, professor for many years at Salamanca and Alcala, and the author of the Latin version in the famous Polyglot of Cardinal Ximenes; he left behind him numerous works, especially commentaries on the cla.s.sics; Olivario, whose curious erudition was abundantly exhibited in his ill.u.s.trations of Cicero and other Latin authors; and lastly Vives, whose fame rather belongs to Europe than his own country, who, when only twenty-six years old, drew from Erasmus the encomium, that "there was scarcely any one of the age whom he could venture to compare with him in philosophy, eloquence, and liberal learning." But the most unequivocal testimony to the deep and various scholars.h.i.+p of the period is afforded by that stupendous literary work of Cardinal Ximenes, the Polyglot Bible, whose versions in the Greek, Latin, and Oriental tongues were collated, with a single exception, by Spanish scholars. Erasmus, Epistolae, lib. 19, epist. 101.--Lampillas, Letteratura Spagnuola, tom. ii. pp. 382-384, 495, 792-794; tom. ii. p. 208 et seq.-- Gomez, De Rebus Gestis, fol. 37.

[28] Erasmus, Epistolae, p. 977.

[29] "La muy esclarecida ciudad de Salamanca, madre de las artes liberales, y todas virtudes, y ansi de cavalleros como de letrados varones, muy il.u.s.tre." Cosas Memorables, fol. 11.--Chacon, Hist. de la Universidad de Salamanca, apud Semanario Erudito, tom. xviii. pp. 1-61.

[30] "Academia Complutensis," says Erasmus of this university, "non aliunde celebritatem nominis auspicata est quam a complectendo linguae ac bonas literas. Cujus praecipuum oramentum est egregius ille senex, planeque dignus qui multos vincat Nestoras, Antonius Nebrissensis." Epist.

ad Ludovic.u.m Vivem, 1521. Epistolae, p. 755.

[31] Cosas Memorables, ubi supra.--Peter Martyr, Opus Epist., epist. 57.-- Gomez, De Rebus Gestis, lib. 4.--Chacon, Universidad de Salamanca, ubi supra.

It appears that the practice of sc.r.a.ping with the feet as an expression of disapprobation, familiar in our universities, is of venerable antiquity; for Martyr mentions, that he was saluted with it before finis.h.i.+ng his discourse by one or two idle youths, dissatisfied with its length. The lecturer, however, seems to have given general satisfaction, for he was escorted back in triumph to his lodgings, to use his own language, "like a victor in the Olympic games," after the conclusion of the exercise.

[32] For some remarks on the labors of this distinguished jurisconsult, see Part I. Chap. 6, and Part II. Chap. 26, of the present work.

[33] The most remarkable of these latter is Herrera's treatise on Agriculture, which since its publication in Toledo, in 1520, has pa.s.sed through a variety of editions at home and translations abroad. Nic.

Antonio, Bibliotheca Nova, tom. i. p. 503.

[34] This collection, with the ill luck which has too often befallen such repositories in Spain, was burnt in the war of the Communities, in the time of Charles V. Mem. de la Acad. de Hist., tom. vi. Il.u.s.t. 16.-- Morales, Obras, tom. vii. p. 18.--Informe de Riol, who particularly notices the solicitude of Ferdinand and Isabella for preserving the public doc.u.ments.

[35] Mendez, Typographia Espanola, p. 51.

[36] Archivo de Murcia, apud Mem. de la Acad. de Hist., tom. vi. p. 244.

[37] Mendez, Typographia Espanola, pp. 52, 332.

[38] Ordenancas Reales, lib. 4, t.i.t. 4, ley 22.--The preamble of this statute is expressed in the following enlightened terms; "Considerando los Reyes de gloriosa memoria quanto era provechoso y honroso, que a estos sus reynos se truxessen libros de otras partes para que con ellos se hiziessen los hombres letrados, quisieron y ordenaron, que de los libros no se paga.s.se el alcavala.... Lo qual parece que redunda en provecho universal de todos, y en enn.o.blecimiento de nuestros Reynos."

[39] Capmany, Mem. de Barcelona, tom. i. part. 2, lib. 2, cap. 6.--Mendez, Typographia Espanola, pp. 55, 93.

Bouterwek intimates, that the art of printing was first practised in Spain by German printers at Seville, _in the beginning of the sixteenth century_. (Bouterwek, Geschichte der Poesie und Beredsamkeit, (Gottingen, 1801-17,) band iii. p. 98.)--He appears to have been misled by a solitary example quoted from Mayans y Siscar. The want of materials has more than once led this eminent critic to build sweeping conclusions on slender premises.

[40] The t.i.tle of the book is "Certamen poetich en lohor de la Concecio,"

Valencia, 1474, 4to. The name of the printer is wanting. Mendez, Typographia Espanola, p. 56.

[41] Ibid., pp. 61-63.

[42] Mendez, Typographia Espanola, pp. 52, 53.--Pragmaticas del Reyno, fol. 138, 139.

[43] Llorente, Hist. de l'Inquisition, tom. i. chap. 13, art. 1.

"Adempto per _inquisitiones_," says Tacitus of the gloomy times of Domitian, "et loquendi audiendique commercio." (Vita Agricolae, sec. 2.) Beaumarchais, in a merrier vein, indeed, makes the same bitter reflections. "Il s'est etabli dans Madrid un systeme de liberte sur la vente des productions, qui s'etend meme a celles de la presse; et que, pourvu que je ne parle en mes ecrits ni de l'autorite, ni de culte, ni de la politique, ni de la morale, ni des gens en place, ni des corps en credit, ni de l'Opera, ni des autres spectacles, ni de personne qui tienne a quelque chose, je puis tout imprimer librement, sous l'inspection de deux ou trois censeurs," Mariage de Figaro, acte 5, sc. 3.

CHAPTER XX.

CASTILIAN LITERATURE.--ROMANCES OF CHIVALRY.--LYRICAL POETRY.-THE DRAMA.

This Reign an Epoch in Polite Letters.--Romances of Chivalry.--Ballads or _Romances_.--Moorish Minstrelsy.--"Cancionero General."--Its Literary Value.--Rise of the Spanish Drama.--Criticism on "Celestina."--Encina.-- Naharro.--Low Condition of the Stage.--National Spirit of the Literature of this Epoch.

Ornamental or polite literature, which, emanating from the taste and sensibility of a nation, readily exhibits its various fluctuations of fas.h.i.+on and feeling, was stamped in Spain with the distinguis.h.i.+ng characteristics of this revolutionary age. The Provencal, which reached such high perfection in Catalonia, and subsequently in Aragon, as noticed in an introductory chapter, [1] expired with the union of this monarchy with Castile, and the dialect ceased to be applied to literary purposes altogether, after the Castilian became the language of the court in the united kingdoms. The poetry of Castile, which throughout the present reign continued to breathe the same patriotic spirit, and to exhibit the same national peculiarities that had distinguished it from the time of the Cid, submitted soon after Ferdinand's death to the influence of the more polished Tuscan, and henceforth, losing somewhat of its distinctive physiognomy, a.s.sumed many of the prevalent features of continental literature. Thus the reign of Ferdinand and Isabella becomes an epoch as memorable in literary, as in civil history.

The most copious vein of fancy, in that day, was turned in the direction of the prose romance of chivalry; now seldom disturbed, even in its own country, except by the antiquary. The circ.u.mstances of the age naturally led to its production. The romantic Moorish wars, teeming with adventurous exploit and picturesque incident, carried on with the natural enemies of the Christian knight, and opening moreover all the legendary stores of Oriental fable,--the stirring adventures by sea as well as land,--above all, the discovery of a world beyond the waters, whose unknown regions gave full scope to the play of the imagination, all contributed to stimulate the appet.i.te for the incredible chimeras, the _magnanime menzogne_, of chivalry. The publication of "Amadis de Gaula" gave a decided impulse to this popular feeling. This romance, which seems now well ascertained to be the production of a Portuguese in the latter half of the fourteenth century, [2] was first printed in a Spanish version, probably not far from 1490. [3] Its editor, Garci Ordonez de Montalvo, states, in his prologue, that "he corrected it from the ancient originals, pruning it of all superfluous phrases, and subst.i.tuting others of a more polished and elegant style." [4] How far its character was benefited by this work of purification may be doubted; although it is probable it did not suffer so much by such a process as it would have done in a later and more cultivated period. The simple beauties of this fine old romance, its bustling incidents, relieved by the delicate play of Oriental machinery, its general truth of portraiture, above all, the knightly character of the hero, who graced the prowess of chivalry with a courtesy, modesty, and fidelity unrivalled in the creations of romance, soon recommended it to popular favor and imitation. A continuation, bearing the t.i.tle of "Las Sergas de Esplandian," was given to the world by Montalvo himself, and grafted on the original stock, as the fifth book of the Amadis, before 1510. A sixth, containing the adventures of his nephew, was printed at Salamanca in the course of the last-mentioned year; and thus the idle writers of the day continued to propagate dulness through a series of heavy tomes, amounting in all to four and twenty books, until the much- abused public would no longer suffer the name of Amadis to cloak the manifold sins of his posterity. [5] Other knights-errant were sent roving about the world at the same time, whose exploits would fill a library; but fortunately they have been permitted to pa.s.s into oblivion, from which a few of their names only have been rescued by the caustic criticism of the curate in Don Quixote; who, it will be remembered, after declaring that the virtues of the parent shall not avail his posterity, condemns them and their companions, with one or two exceptions only, to the fatal funeral pile. [6]

These romances of chivalry must have undoubtedly contributed to nourish those exaggerated sentiments, which from a very early period entered into the Spanish character. Their evil influence, in a literary view, resulted less from their improbabilities of situation, which they possessed in common with the inimitable Italian epics, than from the false pictures which they presented of human character, familiarizing the eye of the reader with such models as debauched the taste, and rendered him incapable of relis.h.i.+ng the chaste and sober productions of art. It is remarkable that the chivalrous romance, which was so copiously cultivated through the greater part of the sixteenth century, should not have a.s.sumed the poetic form, as in Italy, and indeed among our Norman ancestors; and that, in its prose dress, no name of note appears to raise it to a high degree of literary merit. Perhaps such a result might have been achieved, but for the sublime parody of Cervantes, which cut short the whole race of knights-errant, and by the fine irony, which it threw around the mock heroes of chivalry, extinguished them for ever. [7]

The most popular poetry of this period, that springing from the body of the people, and most intimately addressed to it, is the ballads, or _romances_, as they are termed in Spain. These indeed were familiar to the Peninsula as far back as the twelfth and thirteenth centuries; but in the present reign they received a fresh impulse from the war with Granada, and composed, under the name of the Moorish ballads, what may perhaps be regarded, without too high praise, as the most exquisite popular minstrelsy of any age or country.

The humble narrative lyrics making up the ma.s.s of ballad poetry, and forming the natural expression of a simple state of society, would seem to be most abundant in nations endowed with keen sensibilities, and placed in situations of excitement and powerful interest, fitted to develop them.

The light and lively French have little to boast of in this way. [8] The Italians, with a deeper poetic feeling, were too early absorbed in the gross business habits of trade, and their literature received too high a direction from its master spirits, at its very commencement, to allow any considerable deviation in this track. The countries where it has most thriven, are probably Great Britain and Spain. The English and the Scotch, whose const.i.tutionally pensive and even melancholy temperament has been deepened by the sober complexion of the climate, were led to the cultivation of this poetry still further by the stirring scenes of feudal warfare in which they were engaged, especially along the borders. The Spaniards, to similar sources of excitement, added that of high religious feeling in their struggles with the Saracens, which gave a somewhat loftier character to their effusions. Fortunately for them, their early annals gave birth, in the Cid, to a hero whose personal renown was identified with that of his country, round whose name might be concentrated all the scattered lights of song, thus enabling the nation to build up its poetry on the proudest historic recollections. [9] The feats of many other heroes, fabulous as well as real, were permitted to swell the stream of traditionary verse; and thus a body of poetical annals, springing up as it were from the depths of the people, was bequeathed from sire to son, contributing, perhaps, more powerfully than any real history could have done, to infuse a common principle of patriotism into the scattered members of the nation.

There is considerable resemblance between the early Spanish ballad and the British. The latter affords more situations of pathos and deep tenderness, particularly those of suffering, uncomplaining love, a favorite theme with old English poets of every description. [10] We do not find, either, in the ballads of the Peninsula, the wild, romantic adventures of the roving outlaw, of the Robin Hood genus, which enter so largely into English minstrelsy. The former are in general of a more sustained and chivalrous character, less gloomy, and although fierce not so ferocious, nor so decidedly tragical in their aspect, as the latter. The ballads of the Cid, however, have many points in common with the border poetry; the same free and cordial manner, the same love of military exploit, relieved by a certain tone of generous gallantry, and accompanied by a strong expression of national feeling.

The resemblance between the minstrelsy of the two countries vanishes, however, as we approach the Moorish ballads. The Moorish wars had always afforded abundant themes of interest for the Castilian muse; but it was not till the fall of the capital, that the very fountains of song were broken up, and those beautiful ballads were produced, which seem like the echoes of departed glory, lingering round the ruins of Granada.

Incompetent as these pieces may be as historical records, they are doubtless sufficiently true to manners. [11] They present a most remarkable combination, of not merely the exterior form, but the n.o.ble spirit of European chivalry, with the gorgeousness and effeminate luxury of the east. They are brief, seizing single situations of the highest poetic interest, and striking the eye of the reader with a brilliancy of execution, so artless in appearance withal as to seem rather the effect of accident than study. We are transported to the gay seat of Moorish power, and witness the animating bustle, its pomp and its revelry, prolonged to the last hour of its existence. The bull-fight of the Vivarrambla, the graceful tilt of reeds, the amorous knights with their quaint significant devices, the dark Zegris, or Gomeres, and the royal, self-devoted Abencerrages, the Moorish maiden radiant at the tourney, the moonlight serenade, the stolen interview, where the lover gives vent to all the intoxication of pa.s.sion in the burning language of Arabian metaphor and hyperbole, [12]--these, and a thousand similar scenes, are brought before the eye, by a succession of rapid and animated touches, like the lights and shadows of a landscape. The light trochaic structure of the _redondilla_ [13], as the Spanish ballad measure is called, rolling on its graceful, negligent _asonante_, [14] whose continued repet.i.tion seems by its monotonous melody to prolong the note of feeling originally struck, is admirably suited by its flexibility to the most varied and opposite expression; a circ.u.mstance which has recommended it as the ordinary measure of dramatic dialogue.

Nothing can be more agreeable than the general effect of the Moorish ballads, which combine the elegance of a riper period of literature, with the natural sweetness and simplicity, savoring sometimes even of the rudeness, of a primitive age. Their merits have raised them to a sort of cla.s.sical dignity in Spain, and have led to their cultivation by a higher order of writers, and down to a far later period, than in any other country in Europe. The most successful specimens of this imitation may be a.s.signed to the early part of the seventeenth century; but the age was too late to enable the artist, with all his skill, to seize the true coloring of the antique. It is impossible, at this period, to ascertain the authors of these venerable lyrics, nor can the exact time of their production be now determined; although, as their subjects are chiefly taken from the last days of the Spanish Arabian empire, the larger part of them was probably posterior, and, as they were printed in collections at the beginning of the sixteenth century, could not have been long posterior, to the capture of Granada. How far they may be referred to the conquered Moors, is uncertain. Many of these wrote and spoke the Castilian with elegance, and there is nothing improbable in the supposition, that they should seek some solace under present evils in the splendid visions of the past. The bulk of this poetry, however, was in all probability the creation of the Spaniards themselves, naturally attracted by the picturesque circ.u.mstances in the character and condition of the conquered nation to invest them with poetic interest.

The Moorish _romances_ fortunately appeared after the introduction of printing into the Peninsula, so that they were secured a permanent existence, instead of peris.h.i.+ng with the breath that made them, like so many of their predecessors. This misfortune, which attaches to so much of popular poetry in all nations, is not imputable to any insensibility in the Spaniards to the excellence of their own. Men of more erudition than taste may have held them light, in comparison with more ostentatious and learned productions. This fate has befallen them in other countries than Spain. [15] But persons of finer poetic feeling, and more enlarged spirit of criticism, have estimated them as a most essential and characteristic portion of Castilian literature. Such was the judgment of the great Lope de Vega, who, after expatiating on the extraordinary compa.s.s and sweetness of the _romance_, and its adaptation to the highest subjects, commends it as worthy of all estimation for its peculiar national character. [16] The modern Spanish writers have adopted a similar tone of criticism, insisting on its study, as essential to a correct appreciation and comprehension of the genius of the language. [17]

The Castilian ballads were first printed in the "Cancionero General" of Fernando del Castillo, in 1511. They were first incorporated into a separate work, by Sepulveda, under the name of "Romances sacados de Historias Antiguas," printed at Antwerp, in 1551. [18] Since that period, they have pa.s.sed into repeated editions, at home and abroad, especially in Germany, where they have been ill.u.s.trated by able critics. [19] Ignorance of their authors, and of the era of their production, has prevented any attempt at exact chronological arrangement; a circ.u.mstance rendered, moreover, nearly impossible, by the perpetual modification which the original style of the more ancient ballads has experienced, in their transition through successive generations; so that, with one or two exceptions, no earlier date should probably be a.s.signed to the oldest of them, in their present form, than the fifteenth century. [20] Another system of cla.s.sification has been adopted, of distributing them according to their subjects; and independent collections also of the separate departments, as ballads of the Cid, of the Twelve Peers, the Moris...o...b..llads, and the like, have been repeatedly published, both at home and abroad. [21]

The higher and educated cla.s.ses of the nation were not insensible to the poetic spirit, which drew forth such excellent minstrelsy from the body of the people. Indeed, Castilian poetry bore the same patrician stamp through the whole of the present reign, which had been impressed on it in its infancy. Fortunately, the new art of printing was employed here, as in the case of the _romances_, to arrest those fugitive sallies of imagination, which in other countries were permitted, from want of this care, to pa.s.s into oblivion; and _cancioneros_, or collections of lyrics, were published, embodying the productions of this reign and that of John the Second, thus bringing under one view the poetic culture of the fifteenth century.

The earliest _cancionero_ printed was at Saragossa, in 1492. It comprehended the works of Mena, Manrique, and six or seven other bards of less note. [22] A far more copious collection was made by Fernando del Castillo, and first published at Valencia, in 1511, under the t.i.tle of "Cancionero General," since which period it has pa.s.sed into repeated editions. This compilation is certainly more creditable to Castillo's industry, than to his discrimination or power of arrangement. Indeed, in this latter respect it is so defective, that it would almost seem to have been put together fortuitously, as the pieces came to hand. A large portion of the authors appear to have been persons of rank; a circ.u.mstance to which perhaps they were indebted, more than to any poetic merit, for a place in the miscellany, which might have been decidedly increased in value by being diminished in bulk. [23]

The _works of devotion_ with which the collection opens, are on the whole the feeblest portion of it. We discern none of the inspiration and lyric glow, which were to have been antic.i.p.ated from the devout, enthusiastic Spaniard. We meet with anagrams on the Virgin, glosses on the creed and pater noster, _canciones_ on original sin and the like unpromising topics, all discussed in the most bald, prosaic manner, with abundance of Latin phrase, scriptural allusion, and commonplace precept, unenlivened by a single spark of true poetic fire, and presenting altogether a farrago of the most fantastic pedantry.

The lighter, especially the amatory poems, are much more successfully executed, and the primitive forms of the old Castilian versification are developed with considerable variety and beauty. Among the most agreeable effusions in this way, may be noticed those of Diego Lopez de Haro, who, to borrow the encomium of a contemporary, was "the mirror of gallantry for the young cavaliers of the time." There are few verses in the collection composed with more facility and grace. [24] Among the more elaborate pieces, Diego de San Pedro's "Desprecio de la Fortuna" may be distinguished, not so much for any poetic talent which it exhibits, as for its mercurial and somewhat sarcastic tone of sentiment. [25] The similarity of subject may suggest a parallel between it and the Italian poet Guidi's celebrated ode on Fortune; and the different styles of execution may perhaps be taken, as indicating pretty fairly the distinctive peculiarities of the Tuscan and the old Spanish school of poetry. The Italian, introducing the fickle G.o.ddess, in person, on the scene, describes her triumphant march over the ruins of empires and dynasties, from the earliest time, in a flow of lofty dithyrambic eloquence, adorned with all the brilliant coloring of a stimulated fancy and a highly finished language. The Castilian, on the other hand, instead of this splendid personification, deepens his verse into a moral tone, and, dwelling on the vicissitudes and vanities of human life, points his reflections with some caustic warning, often conveyed with enchanting simplicity, but without the least approach to lyric exaltation, or indeed the affectation of it.

This p.r.o.neness to moralize the song is in truth a characteristic of the old Spanish bard. He rarely abandons himself, without reserve, to the frolic puerilities so common with the sister Muse of Italy,