Spanish literature; an elementary handbook with indices, etc.

Preface

During the time that I have held the Taylorian Teachership of Spanish at Oxford, I have frequently received letters asking what there is to read in Spanish besides Cervantes and Calderon, and what editions should be used. The present volume is intended to answer these questions, and to show the position occupied by the great writers in the general scheme of the literature of their country. The various divisions of this great subject have been exhaustively treated up to their several dates by Nicolas Antonio, Ticknor, Amador de los Rios, Schack and Wolf, to whose books I beg to acknowledge my many obligations, hoping at the same time that the present general sketch may be useful to the general reader, and to the beginner, and may serve as an introduction to more extensive works.

I am aware that a few short extracts, however well chosen, can give no adequate idea of the manner of a great writer or of the merits of a great book, and that translations, even by the most skilful hands, are wont to reproduce the defects rather than the beauties of their original. The extracts here viii SPANISH LITERATURE

printed are intended to relieve the monotony of a long list of short notices of authors, and to illustrate the development of the language and the progress of literary method ; they are, as far as possible, characteristically Spanish in subject and, it is hoped, of sufficient interest to induce readers to refer to the books from which they are taken. The translations are literal rather than literary, and are meant to assist beginners in reading the extracts without the help of a dictionary. My aim has been to stimulate inquiry rather than to satisfy it. I have given brief outlines of well-known stories, such as that of the Cid, in order that on opening the Ro?nancero del Ctd, or meeting with an allusion to it, the reader may at once recognise his whereabouts.

If the literature of a country forms an organic whole, all divisions into periods must necessarily be somewhat arbitrary. I have avoided them as much as possible. The short chapter on the novel ranges from the fifteenth to the seventeenth century, from the period preceding the Golden Age of Spanish

/ literature to its decadence. As a mere aid to memory a division into five periods may be adopted. [The first period extends from the earliest documents in the language to the beginning of the fifteenth century ; the second brings us down to Garcilaso de la Vega; the Golden Age reaches from the middle of the sixteenth century to the death of Calderdn ; it is followed by a period of stagnation which prevailed until late in

\ the last century; the fifth period includes the last hundred years. The eighteenth century has been passed over in a few pages

PREFACE ix fecause of the lack of originality in its colourless writings. Of iontemporary authors few only have been mentioned, for the Spanish literature of the present day cannot vie with that of a more glorious age.

English booksellers are generally almost entirely ignorant of Spanish books. Existing bibliographies are chiefly occupied with the rare editions dear to collectors. It was my original intention to give a select bibliography of all authors mentioned. Finding, however, that it took up too much space, and was likely to confuse the beginner without satisfying the student, I have merely appended a list of the cheap and easily obtainable editions of the books best suited for a preliminary course of Spanish reading. For help in its compilation I beg to thank Senor Murillo of Madrid, the most learned and courteous of Spanish booksellers.

A list of some of the principal writers on Spanish literature is added for those who wish to continue the study of the subject.

My best thanks are due to Miss Florence Freeman whose help in revising proofs has been invaluable, to Mr. York- Powell for advice and encouragement, and to other friends.

We have good reason to be proud of the illustrious English-speaking men of letters who have devoted themselves to Spanish subjects. Most of them, however, are primarily though not exclusively students of Cervantes or Calderdn ; it is to be hoped that, without neglecting the greatest writers, some one will come forward to bring up our knowledge of the more illustrious of their rivals to the same level of pi tion. A large amount of treasures lie ready for him who seek in the rich storehouses of our great libraries. I h. recently discovered in the library of Wadham College, Oxfoi a manuscript of parts of the works of Luis de Le6n, som twenty years older than the first edition and containing some interesting variants.

Writing in sight of the Spanish hills, with my memory full of Spanish kindness, and the echo of the most stately of languages still in my ears, I hope that the time is approaching for a better understanding between my own country and what was once the greatest, and is still the most chivalrous, nation upon earth. If, by aiding the study of the ancient literature, the present volume in any degree furthers this great end, its author's purpose will have been amply fulfilled.

H. B. C.

St. Jean de Luz, \st January 1893.

Contents

CHAP.

i. Introduction .......

2. Formation of the Spanish Language and Beginning of

Introduction

Remarks o?i the History of Spain down to the Time of the earliest Writers in the Vernacular. Local Distinctions of Language and Character

Among the histories of the great nations of the world, it would be difficult to find any one more characteristic and interesting than that of Spain. Its interest, however, is romantic rather than political or social ; it is the history of great individuals and of great deeds rather than of corporate bodies and of great ideas. In spite of the by no means unimportant part taken by Spain in the struggle for liberty against oppressors from within, her constitutional development has been irregular, and her present position is far from satisfactory. But the history of the Spanish municipalities, of the liberties of Aragdn and of other provinces, of the war of the Comunidades (guilds) in the sixteenth century, and of the bitter contest that marked the beginning of the present century, affords sufficient proof of her free spirit and of her sturdy independence.

Except during the centuries of the Roman occupation, and the short and fictitiously brilliant period during which she herself was the most powerful country in the world, Spain has, as it were, stood apart from what have been at different times

b the centres of civilisation. Her development and her success, her struggles and her failures, have been the work of her own sons j she has stood or fallen alone. To this may be attributed the romantic charm which she has exercised, and continues to exercise, over the minds of most of those to whom her history and literature, her art and national characteristics, are familiar. From the first the Western Land was a land of mystery, the land from which came the gold, and of whose riches fabulous accounts were given by the Phoenician and Greek traders whose factories fringed her coasts. The interior remained unknown to them, and beyond lay the great encircling ocean and the Islands of the Blessed.

The Roman conquest here, as elsewhere, introduced order amongst a host of contending elements, but it cost centuries to carry it out. The north, the traditional mountain home of Spanish liberty, was indeed never thoroughly subdued. In other parts of the country repeated rebellions gave rise to bloody and obstinately contested wars, which taught the conquerors to respect the proud and warlike spirit of their subjects. When resistance became hopeless, the Iberian and Celtic inhabitants rapidly and thoroughly assimilated the language, laws, and manners of the Romans. It is certain, however, that the native languages were still spoken side by side with Latin. Money with Celt-Iberian inscriptions was coined in the time of Augustus, and Cicero mentions a Spanish tongue unintelligible to the Romans ; but the thoroughness with which the centralising process was carried out is best proved by the list of distinguished writers, natives of Spain, who contributed to the Latin literature of the Silver Age. Quintilian, Martial, Lucan, and Seneca, were Spaniards ; Latin names are borne by many of the principal towns of the peninsula, and the gigantic public works by which the Mistress of the World adorned and strengthened her ^^ empire may still be seen in almost every part of the country. Once pacified Spain rose rapidly to the position of one of

INTRODUCTION the most prosperous provinces of the Empire. The almost incredible amount of wealth that flowed yearly from her mines and fields to the Imperial treasury seems to have been incapable of exhausting her marvellous resources. Agriculture, mining, manufactures, and commerce flourished ; Christianity was introduced and spread rapidly. The last three centuries of Roman rule are almost qualified to rank among the happy class that have no history.

With the dismemberment of the Empire Spain shared the fate of the other Roman provinces. Successive armies of conquering Teutonic tribes overran the land. Some of these passed through on their way to Africa, as the Vandals who have left their name in (V)andalucia. Others remained to carve out for themselves an empire amongst a people which, under the powerful protection of its former masters, had lost the habit of carrying arms and, with it, the power of defending its own independence. The numerical importance of the so-called Gothic conquerors of Spain seems to have been as greatly over-rated as their level of civilisation has been underrated. The bodies of aliens that settled in the country were rather armies than tribes. For some generations they maintained their position as a conquering and privileged race by means of laws forbidding intermarriage with their subjects. Of Gothic blood there remains little trace in the present population of the Peninsula. The Teutonic conquerors of Spain had, for the most part, been for some time established in Gaul before they crossed the Pyrenees, and they had adopted the more civilised customs as well as the laws and language of the people amongst whom they had settled. In Spain they have not left a single Teutonic inscription or monument, and it is doubtful if to them can be traced the origin of any of the few Gothic words existing in the languages now spoken in the Peninsula. The fuero juzgo, the so-called Gothic code of law, is almost entirely Roman in character.

The government of the Gothic kings was feeble and suspicious. They acted on the system of weakening the subject race, in order that they themselves might be proportionately stronger. All their efforts were powerless to prevent their absorption into the larger body of Celt-Iberian people. When, in the eighth century, the Saracens arrived, they conquered the whole country in a single battle, and at once parcelled it out into a number of states owning a more or less nominal allegiance to the Califs of Bagdad. Coming from the warm southern countries, the Moors found the climate of the north of Spain unsuited to them, and the mountainous region, inhabited by rough and warlike shepherds, not worth the trouble of conquest. Here, in the mountain fastnesses of Cantabria, they left the germ of a hardy race that was fated in after times to exact from their descendants a bitter retribution for the invasion of its native land, and the subjection of its brethren. Almost immediately after the Saracen conquest, the war of liberation was begun by Pelayo's valiant band of refugees, sheltered in the cave of Covadonga, around which centre so many of the national traditions. After lasting for seven centuries, the struggle ended only when the miserable remnant of the Moors turned their backs on Granada, carrying with them to Africa the keys of their houses as relics of their beloved homes in Spain.

The rule of the Moors was by no means harsh. They found in the south a population accustomed to subjection, and allowed to it a considerable share in the administration of its own affairs. Patriotic historians have endeavoured to show that the Christians of the old stock persistently held aloof from their conquerors, and looked upon them as enemies throughout. This is far from being the truth. An ecclesiastical writer of the ninth century l complains that his co - religionists in

1 Alvaro of Cordova. Indiculum Luminosum. Even Alvar Fanez, the companion of the Cid, signed his name in Arabic characters. The large body

INTRODUCTION 5

Andalucfa had so thoroughly adopted the Arabic tongue that they were unable to follow the services of the Church in their native Romance, but were capable of writing verse in the language of their so-called oppressors. These Christians of the south rose against the Moslems amongst whom they lived, only when summoned by the trumpet-call from the north. When freed by their more hardy compatriots, they were regarded by them with some suspicion, and did not always escape the opprobrious but well-deserved name of Cristianos nuevos (new Christians). Until the thirteenth century, and even later, it is by no means rare to find Christians fighting side by side with Moors against their fellow-Christians. The spirit of religious I and national intolerance originated outside Spain with the Crusaders ; it was cultivated by the Church, and was carried south by the early conquistadores. The sentiment expressed in the lines of the ballad

1 Caballeros granadinos Aunque moros hijosdalgo

probably belongs to a date when, after the completion of the reconquest, the attribution of noble qualities to the vanquished became a means of glorifying the victor.

Of the civilisation and learning of the Moors very little filtered through to the rough Christian soldiers whom they successfully resisted when Islam was the common cause, but to whom they afforded an easy prey when, as so often happened, dissension prevailed amongst the Moslem states, or when single states were torn by internal division. More than half the land was already won back from the alien when, in the fourth century of this great war, Spanish literature begins.

The re-conquest, the story of which forms the history of

of Spanish documents written in Arabic characters are known as Textos Aljamiados ; see the excellent little book bearing this name, by Pablo Gil. Zaragoza, 1888.

1 " Knights of Granada — though Moors, yet gentlemen."

Spain during so many centuries, has left its lasting mark on the / country. Those who won back the several provinces planted respectively their native dialects in them. The Castilian language, known to foreigners as Spanish, is spoken, with slight local variations, throughout three-fourths of the country included in the present boundaries of Spain. This tract is roughly equivalent to the district won back by the descendants of the refugees from the mountains of Asturias. Their language is the language in which is written almost the whole of the works that will come under consideration in the present volume; and well does it deserve the title that has been bestowed upon it of "noblest daughter of the Latin." For from Latin it derives seven-tenths of its vocabulary, and the whole of its syntax. Sonorous and cadenced more than other tongues, it is peculiarly fitted for lofty verse and oratorical prose, yet in spite of its grave and dignified character it can scarcely be equalled \ for tenderness and pathos. Galicia keeps a dialect of its own, closely resembling the Portuguese, but possessing little or no literature.1 In Catalonia a dialect of Provencal is still spoken, but day by day it is adopting Castilian forms, in spite of the efforts of a small number of writers to revive a literature in the vernacular. In literature, as well as in ethnology and language, the Catalans belong rather to Provence than to Spain. (See chapter on Catalan Literature.)

Much misapprehension has been caused by regarding the inhabitants of the Peninsula as one people. Only in a political sense can they be properly so regarded. All general propositions about Spanish national character and customs must necessarily be false or only partially true. It would be as vain to seek a description which should apply equally to the national characteristics of Scotch and Irish, as to attempt to include in

1 See p. 75. The best collection of modern Galician verse is contained in the Cancionero Popular Gallego for lose" Perez Ballesteros con prdlogo de Tedfilo Braga. Madrid, 1886.

INTRODUCTION a single portrait the distinctive features of Asturian and Andalucian. To those who believe in the influence of physical environment upon national character this will be evident from a glance at the map, or better still, by a visit to the country. The climate and productions of Galicia, and parts of Asturias, are not unlike those of the south-west of Ireland. In Murcia is found an almost rainless region, producing the date, sugarcane, and rice, a region in which camels may be used as beasts of burden under an African sky. The lofty table-land, intersected by high mountain ranges, which forms almost the whole of the interior of the Peninsula, is bare, and in great part treeless ; its bleak brown uplands are parched by bitter winds in winter, and by a burning sun in summer, yet they produce corn, wine, and oil in abundance, and are capable, with the help of irrigation, of yielding the most delicious fruits and the most brilliant flowers.

The inhabitants of this country vary as much as the land in which they live. Brave, sober, honest, and persevering, but somewhat heavy and slow-witted as compared with his Andalucian cousin, the Asturian possesses in a marked degree the qualities common to mountaineers. His pride lies in his descent from the old stock, alike unconquered by Roman, Goth, or Moor. Writers of all times have made him a subject for good-natured ridicule on account of his claim to a long pedigree, his habit of presuming on his nobility, and his extreme poverty. Asturias now provides the men of letters, and, in conjunction with Aragon, the lawyers of Spain ; almost all the noble houses trace their origin to the 7nontaiia.

The Galician is somewhat similar to the Asturian ; in spite of his large share of Celtic blood he is sluggish, and on the Spanish stage he figures as the Auvergnat on the French stage. He is a hewer of wood and a drawer of water, yet with a strong vein of poetry underlying his rough exterior, and honest and reliable withal.

The Spaniard, with whose caricature the French and English stage have made us familiar, the Spaniard of pictures and painted fans, the man with the broad hat, red sash, and guitar, is the Andalucian, the most picturesque and brightest figure of the nation. Inhabiting a country in which the bounty of nature has reduced the necessity for labour to a very slight burden, the Andalucian has not been slow to take advantage of her kindness, and to make the best of life. Passionate, gay, communicative, and idle, the bulk of the population of this lovely region lead, so far as it is possible for a large body of ordinary human beings, a butterfly existence. In their blood, as on their manners and mode of life, the Eastern conquerors have left deep traces, without imparting to them anything of the gravity of Orientals. Their virtues and vices alike spring direct from the heart, and owe nothing either to moral training or to deliberate depravity.

The qualities, good and bad, of the Catalan are of a commercial and industrial kind ; he is the manufacturer of Spain, and betrays his separate origin by possessing, only in a modified degree, the two qualities which make all genuine Spaniards akin ; these are deep religious feeling in an exclusively Catholic sense, and a lofty idea of personal dignity.

These two characteristics are particularly prominent in the Castilians, and under this name may be included for our present purpose the inhabitants of the country from Leon to La Mancha, and from Extremadura to Aragon. These form the backbone of the nation, the men who won back the country from the Moors, the men who discovered and colonised so large a part of America, and who once, as champions of the Catholic Faith, overawed or overran the greater part of civilised Europe. Noble and independent in bearing, they are grave without stolidity, and courteous in manner even to foreigners, in spite of their innate prejudices against strangers. They are sober, laborious, and thrifty, yet neither inhospitable

INTRODUCTION nor sordid. The popular songs (see p. 267) which, at the present day, have replaced the ballads of a more heroic age, show how intense is their appreciation of the beautiful, and more particularly of poetry. Their good qualities, alike with their defects, have an old-world flavour that renders their possessors unfit to excel in an inartistic, commercial, democratic, and sceptical age. The charge of dishonesty and peculation that has been so often brought against them is well founded only in so far as it applies to public life. Years of misgovernment have made corruption universal throughout the official classes, and from the official world the commercial has taken its tone. But in this respect, as in others, signs of improvement and progress are now everywhere apparent, and haply the day is not far distant when Spain will again take, amongst the nations of Europe, the position which is hers by right, not only of glorious traditions, but of noble and sterling qualities.

The pattern and type of Castilian character is Rodrigo or Ruy Diaz de Bivar, the Cid, the hero in whom the popular fancy has summed up the virtues that go to form the national ideal. In the successive developments of his story and character may be traced the strong lasting elements of this ideal, as well as the weaker but no less chivalrous ones that vary with varying circumstances. It was by such men and for such men that a great part of the older Spanish literature was created, and it is with the Cid's story that it begins.

Chapter II Formation Of The Spanish Language And Beginning Of

/For eight centuries after the abolition of Roman rule in Spain, Latin continued in use as the written language employed by native Spanish authors. A considerable number of important Latin works, mostly ecclesiastical, and written between the fifth and twelfth centuries, has come down to us. But these in no sense come under the heading of Spanish Literature. Between them and the earliest books in the vernacular there is no continuity, nor can any development be traced from the one to the other. The employment of the popular speech for literary purposes marks an entirely new departure,

\ in which almost all the traditions of the past were cast aside. An examination, therefore, of the Spanish-Latin literature does not enter into the province of the present volume.

Equally little have we to do with the Arabic authors who flourished in Spain at a time anterior to that of the earliest Spanish writings. These brought with them from the East their own literary and artistic traditions, and continued to hand them down with oriental immutability.1 The Arabic and Spanish literature ran parallel for a time, but in distinctly separate channels, and it is only in rare translations or adaptations that their currents mingle. Each has its own distinct ideals and methods.

1 See Schack, Poesla y Arte de los Arabes, trans. Juan Valera. Madrid, 1872.

FORMATION OF SPANISH LANGUAGE n

Whilst educated men, despising the speech of the vulgar, continued to write in literary Latin, Spanish was slowly developing from the popular language which had been planted in the country by the Roman legionaries, and is known as the lingua romana rustica. Except in such books as the Etymologies of St. Isidor of Seville, and in certain documents written in a mixture of the two languages, we have but little evidence as to how the change went on. But in the earliest Spanish writings we find that a wonderful change has taken place. The Spanish of the thirteenth century differs but little from the Spanish of to-day. The old Latin vocabulary is here almost complete, but supplemented by a large number of Arabic words relating mostly to agriculture and to the new arts and sciences brought from the East. The familiar Latin words, however, have undergone a transformation. The caseendings are gone, and their place has been taken by prepositions : the Latin tonic o and e have become split up into ue and ie respectively : h is rapidly taking the place of ,the Latin initial/.- ct has changed into ch: t between vowels into d ; and instead of the Latin initial pi, fl, cl, we find the peculiar Spanish ll.1 Some tenses of the verb have disappeared, and their places have been filled by others, whose importance is thereby greatly magnified. The Latin Future has suffered the same fate as in France and Italy; it has been given up, and in its place we have a new form constructed with the Infinitive and the verb habere, which did not become thoroughly welded together until the seventeenth century. The whole structure of the sentence has been vastly simplified, and a new instrument has been wrought from the material of the old to express the new ideas of a new age.

1 The date of the introduction of the characteristic harsh guttural sound now represented by the Spanish / (g), and replacing the Latin j, g, x, Ij, cl, is uncertain. Such evidence as is obtainable points to the sixteenth century.

The earliest literary work in Spanish, which is probably at the same time the earliest existing document in the language, is the Poema de Myo Ctd, a short epic or c/mnson de geste of about four thousand lines. Its beginning is lost, and it comes to an end somewhat abruptly. Some critics have maintained that it is an agglomeration of several distinct ballads. This view is not confirmed by consideration of language or style, but the arguments drawn from internal evidence and from the lack of unity in its subject are strong enough to warrant it. The name of its author and the place in which it was composed are unknown ; the most probable conjecture as to its date is that it belongs to the latter half of the twelfth century, and, consequently, was written about a century and a half after the death of its hero. The language of the poem is rude and uncouth, a language struggling into existence. The versification is barbarous and irregular ; the normal lines are of fourteen syllables, with a strong caesura after the eighth ; many, however, fall short of this limit, and many exceed it ; the same rhyme, more or less correct, is employed until exhausted, when another takes its place. I The subject of the poem is the exile of My Cid ; 1 his campaign against the Moors of Alcocer ; his victory over the Count of Barcelona ; his conquest of Valencia ; his reconciliation with the king who had treated him with so much ingratitude; the marriage of his daughters with the Counts of Carrion, and the vengeance exacted by the Cid for the ill-treatment received by them at the hands of their husbands. That these verses were at one time recited by wandering minstrels is proved by the last lines which contain the request —

2 Dal nos del vino si non tenedes dineros.

1 For an outline of the traditional history of the Cid, see the chapter on the Ballads. In the Poema, Rodrigo de Bivar is generally called " My Cid," or " he who was born in a happy hour " {el que en buen hora fud nado).

2 " Give us wine if ye have no money."

Apart from its value as the earliest monument of the language which, in after times, was to spread over so large a part of the earth, the Poema is worthy of attention and admiration by reason of its heroic simplicity, its rapid movement, the life-like pictures it presents of the turbulent times in which it was composed, and the free and light-hearted spirit which it breathes throughout. Here is chivalry indeed, without the false and sickly sentimentality with which it was corrupted in a later age. The Cid's notions of honour, nay, even of 4 honesty, are somewhat hazy and not over refined, but, such as they are, he puts them into practice ; he is a good husband and a good father, brave, loyal, and disinterested. The hero of the poem is also a scrupulously devout son of the Church l and a patriot, though it is more than doubtful whether the Cid of history could establish a claim to these virtues as nowadays understood. One of the most characteristic and animated passages, and one that has been most often quoted, is the description of how the Cid rescues his banner when in danger of falling into the hands of the Moors through the rashness of his standard-bearer, Pero Vermuez (lines 715-732). It runs as follows : —

2 Enbra9an los escudos delant los coracones, Abaxan las lancas abuestas de los pendones, Enclinaron las caras de suso de los arzones. Yuan los ferir de fuertes coracones.

A grandes vozes lama el que en buen hora nasco ; " Ferid los, caualleros, por amor de caridad : Yo so Rruy Diaz el Cid Campeador de Biuar ! " Todos fieren en el az do esta Pero Vermuez.

1 Cf. the curious references to auguries and other superstitious observances in which the poem abounds.

2 "They clasp their shields before their hearts ; — their lances are levelled with pennants decked : — their heads they bent low over the saddle ; — to smite them they went with valiant hearts. — Loudly calls he who was born in happy hour, — 'Strike them my knights for love of charity — I am Ruy Diaz the Cid Campeador of Bivar ! ' — One and all shower blows on the band