Chapters on Spanish Literature

If asked to indicate the most interesting development in Spanish literature during the last century, I should point—not to the drama and poetry of the Romantic movement, but—to...

The _Romancero_ has been described, in a phrase attributed to Lope de Vega, as ‘an _Iliad_ without a Homer.’ More prosaically, it is a collection of _romances_; and, before goin...

Many of the earliest poems extant in Castilian are anonymous, impersonal compositions, more or less imitative. The _Misterio de los Reyes Magos_, for instance, is suggested by a...

For some time before Lope de Vega’s death, it was evident that Calderón would succeed him as dictator of the stage. There was no serious competitor in sight. Tirso de Molina was...

Just as a portrait discloses the artist’s opinion of his sitter, so the choice of a hero is an involuntary piece of self-revelation. As man fashions his idols in his own image,...

Some men live their romances, and some men write them. It was given to Cervantes to do both, and, as his art was not of the impersonal order, it is scarcely possible to read his...

Cervantes is unquestionably the most glorious figure in the annals of Spanish literature, but his very universality makes him less representative of his race. A far more typical...

The best and wisest of men have their delusions—especially with respect to themselves and their capabilities—and Cervantes was not free from such natural infirmities. He made hi...

The reign of Juan II. is one of the longest and most troubled in the history of Castile. In his second year he succeeded his father, Enrique _el Doliente_, at the end of 1406, a...

Lope de Vega, as I have tried to persuade you in a previous lecture, may fairly be regarded as the real founder of the national theatre in Spain. His victory was complete, and t...