Chapter 16

=1.--Abenámar= is one of a very few _romances_ which are supposed to have their origin in Moorish popular poetry. The Christian king referred to is Juan II, who defeated the Moors at La Higueruela, near Granada, in 1431. It is said that on the morning of the battle he questioned one of his Moorish allies, Yusuf Ibn Alahmar, concerning the conspicuous objects of Granada. The poem was utilized by Chateaubriand for two passages of _Les aventures du dernier Abencérage_.

=I. Abenámar= = _Ibn Alahmar_: see above.

9. The verbal forms in-_ara_ and-_iera_ were used then as now as the equivalent of the pluperfect or the preterit indicative.

=II. la=: _la verdad_ is probably understood. Cf. p. 2, l. I.

=2.--I. diría= = _diré_. In the _romances_ the conditional often replaces the future, usually to fit the assonance.

5. =relucían:= in the old ballads the imperfect indicative is often used to express loosely past time or even present time.

6. =El Alhambra:= in the language of the old ballads _el_, not _la_, is used before a feminine noun with initial-_a_ or _e_-, whether the accent be on the first syllable or not.

25. =viuda= in old Spanish was pronounced _viuda_ and assonated in _í-a_. This expletive =que= is common in Spanish: do not translate.

27. =grande= merely strengthens =bien=.

=3.--Fonte-frida= is a poem of erotic character, much admired for its suave melancholy. Probably it is merely an allegorical fragment of a longer poem now lost. It is one of those printed in the _Cancionero general_ of 1511. It was well translated by Bowring. There is also a metrical version in Ticknor, I, III. This theme is found in the _Physiologus_, a medieval bestiary. One of these page 256 animal stories relates that the turtle-dove has but one mate and if this mate dies the dove remains faithful to its memory. Cf. _Mod. Lang. Notes_, June, 1904 (_Turtel-Taube_), and February, 1906.

3. In =avecicas= and =tortolica= the diminutive ending-_ica_ seems to be quite equivalent to-_ito_. Cf. Knapp's _Span. Gram., 760a_.

4. =van tomar= = _van á tomar_.

7. =fuera=: note that _fué_ (or =fuera=) =á pasar= = _pasó_. This usage is now archaic, although it is still sometimes used by modern poets: see p. 136, l. 18.

18. =bebía=: see note, p. 2, l. 5.

19. =haber=, in the ballads, often = _tener_. See also =haya= in the following line.

=4=.--=El Conde Arnaldos=. Lockhart says of "Count Arnaldos," "I should be inclined to suppose that

'More is meant than meets the ear,'

--that some religious allegory is intended to be shadowed forth." Others have thought the same, and the strong mystic strain in Spanish character may bear out the opinion. In order that the reader may judge for himself he should have before him the mysterious song itself, which, omitted in the earliest version, is thus given in the _Cancionero de romances_ of 1550, to follow line 18 of the poem:

--Galera, la mi galera, Dios te me guarde de mal, de los peligros del mundo sobre aguas de la mar, de los llanos de Almería, del estrecho de Gibraltar, y del golfo de Venecia, y de los bancos de Flandes, y del golfo de León, donde suelen peligrar. page 257 Popular poems which merely extol the power of music over animals are not uncommon.

=I. ¡Quién hubiese!= _would that one might have_! or _would that I might have_! Note =¡quién me diese!= (p. 7, 1. 25), _would that some one would give me_!: this is the older meaning of _quién_ in these expressions. Note also =¡Quién supiera escribir!= (p.134), _would that I could write_! where the modern usage occurs.

22. =dígasme= = _dime_ This use of the pres. subj. with the force of an imperative is not uncommon in older Spanish.

24.=le fué á dar=: see note, p. 3,1. 7.

=5.=--=La constancia=. These few lines, translated by Lockhart as "The Wandering Knight's Song," are only part of a lost ballad which began:

Á las armas, Moriscote, si las has en voluntad.

Six lines of it have recently been recovered (Menéndez y Pelayo, _Antología_, IX, 211). It seems to have dealt with an incursion of the French into Spain, and the lines here given are spoken by the hero Moriscote, when called upon to defend his country. Don Quijote quotes the first two lines of this ballad, Part I, Cap. II.

8. =de me dañar= = _de dañarme_.

13. =vos= was formerly used in Spanish as _usted_ is now used,--in formal address.

=El amante desdichado=. Named by Lockhart "Valladolid." It is one of the few old _romances_ which have kept alive in oral tradition till the present day, and are still repeated by the Spanish peasantry (cf. _Antología_, X, 132, 192).

=7.=--=El prisionero=. Twelve lines of this poem were printed in 1511. It seems to be rather troubadouresque than popular in origin, but it became very well known later. Lockhart's version is called "The Captive Knight and the Blackbird." page 258 16. This line is too short by one syllable, or has archaic hiatus. See _Versification_,(4) a.

19. =las mis manos:= in old Spanish the article was often used before a possessive adjective that preceded its noun. This usage is now archaic or dialectic.

21. =hacía= is here exactly equivalent to =hace= in 1. 23: see note, p. 2, 1. 5.

25. =quien...me diese=: see note, p. 4, 1. I.

=8.=--12. =Oídolo había= = _lo había oído_.

13. This line is too long by one syllable.

14. Gil Vicente (1470?-1540?), a Portuguese poet who wrote dramas in both Portuguese and Castilian. A strong creative artist and thinker, Vicente is the greatest dramatist of Portugal and one of the great literary figures of the Peninsula. This Canción to the Madonna occurs in _El auto de la Sibila Casandra_, a religious pastoral drama. Vicente himself wrote music for the song, which was intended to accompany a dance. John Bowring made a very good metrical translation of the song (_Ancient Poetry and Romances of Spain_, 1824, p. 315). Another may be found in Ticknor's _History of Spanish Literature,_ I, 259.

16. =digas tú=: see note, p. 4, I. 22. =el marinero=: omit =el= in translation. In the Spanish of the ballads the article is regularly used with a noun in the vocative.

24. =pastorcico=: see note, p. 3, I. 3.

=9.=--Santa Teresa de Jesús (1515-1582), born at Ávila; became a Carmelite nun and devoted her life to reforming her Order and founding convents and monasteries. Saint Theresa believed herself inspired of God, and her devotional and mystic writings have a tone of authority. Her chief works in prose are the _Castillo interior_ and the _Camino de perfección_. She is one of the greatest of Spanish mystics, and her influence is still potent (cf. Juan Valera, _Pepita Jiménez_; Huysmans, _En route; et al._). Cf. _Bibl. de Aut. Esp._, vols. 53 and page 259 55, for her works. This _Letrilla_ has been translated by Longfellow ("Santa Teresa's Book-Mark," Riverside ed., 1886, VI., 216.)

=9.=--Fray Luis Ponce de León (1527-1591), born at Belmonte; educated at the University of Salamanca; became an Augustinian monk. While a professor at the same university he was accused by the Inquisition and imprisoned from 1572 to 1576, while his trial proceeded. He was acquitted, and he taught till his death, which occurred just after he had been chosen Vicar-General of his Order. The greatest of the mystic poets, he wrote as well religious works in prose (_Los nombres de Cristo, La perfecta casada_), and in verse translated Virgil, Horace and other classical authors and parts of the Old Testament. In gentleness of character and in the purity in which he wrote his native tongue, he resembles the Frenchman Pascal. His poems are in vol. 37 of the _Bibl. de Aut. Esp._ Cf. Ticknor, Period II, Cap. IX, and _Introduction_, p. xxii. =La vida retirada= is written in imitation of Horace's _Beatus ille_.

=9=.--17 to =10=.--3. In these lines there is much poetic inversion of word-order. The logical order would be: _Que_ ('for') _el estado de los soberbios grandes no le enturbia el pecho, ni se admira del dorado techo, en jaspes sustentado, fabricado del sabio moro_.

5. =pregonera=, as its gender indicates, modifies =voz=.

=12=.--10. In the sixteenth century great fortunes were made by Spaniards who exploited the mines of their American colonies across the seas.

II. Note, this unusual _enjambement_; but the _mente_ of adverbs still has largely the force of a separate word.

=Soneto: Á Cristo Crucificado=. This famous sonnet has been ascribed to Saint Theresa and to various other writers, but without sufficient proof. Cf. Fouché-Delbosc in _Revue Hispanique_, II, 120-145; and _ibid._, VI, 56-57. The poem was translated by J.Y. Gibson (_The Cid Ballads_, etc., 1887, II, 144), and there is also a version attributed to Dryden. page 260 =13=.--Lope Félix de Vega Carpio (1562-1635) was the most fertile playwright ever known to the world. Alone he created the Spanish drama almost out of nothing. Born at Madrid, where he spent most of his life, Lope was an infant prodigy who fulfilled the promise of his youth. His first play was written at the age of thirteen. He fought against the Portuguese in the expedition of 1583 and took part in the disastrous Armada of 1588. His life was marked by unending literary success, numerous love-affairs and occasional punishments therefor. In 1614 he was ordained priest. For the last twenty years of his life he was the acknowledged dictator of Spanish letters.

Lope's writings include some 2000 plays, of which perhaps 500 are extant, epics, pastorals, parodies, short stories and minor poems beyond telling. He undertook to write in every genre attempted by another and seldom scored a complete failure. His _Obras completas_ are being published by the Spanish Academy (1890-); vol. 1 contains his life by Barrera. Most of his non-dramatic poems are in vol. 38 of the _Bibl. de Aut. Esp._; others are in vols. 16 and 35. There is a _Life_ in English by H.A. Rennert (1904). Cf. also _Introduction_, p. xxiv.

=Canción de la Virgen= is a lullaby sung by the Madonna to her sleeping child in a palm grove. The song occurs in Lope's pastoral, _Los pastores de Belén_ (1612). In Ticknor (II, 177), there is a metrical translation of the _Canción_.

The palm has great significance in the Roman Catholic Church. On Palm Sunday,--the last Sunday of Lent,--branches of the palm-tree are blessed and are carried in a solemn procession, in commemoration of the triumphal entry of Jesus into Jerusalem (cf. John, xii).

14. Ticknor translates these lines as follows:

Holy angels and blest, Through these palms as you sweep, Hold their branches at rest, For my babe is asleep. page 261 The literal meaning is: _Since you are moving among the palms, holy angels, hold the branches, for my child sleeps_. When the wind blows through the palm-trees their leaves rustle loudly.

=14.=--=Mañana=: translated by Longfellow (Riverside ed., 1886, VI, 204).

=15.=--Francisco Gómez de Quevedo y Villegas (1580-1645), the greatest satirist in Spanish literature, was one of the very few men of his time who dared criticize the powers that were. He was born in the province of Santander and was a precocious student at Alcalá. His brilliant mind and his honesty led him to Sicily and Naples, as a high official under the viceroy, and to Venice and elsewhere on private missions; his plain-speaking tongue and ready sword procured him numerous enemies and therefore banishments. He was confined in a dungeon from 1639 to 1643 at the instance of Olivares, at whom some of his sharpest verses were directed.

Quevedo was a statesman and lover of his country driven into pessimism by the ineptitude which he saw about him. He wrote hastily on many subjects and lavished a bitter, biting wit on all. His best-known works in prose are the picaresque novel popularly called _El gran tacaño_ (1626) and the _Sueños_ (1627). His _Obras completas_ are in course of publication at Seville (1898-); his poems are in vol. 69 of the _Bibl. de Aut. Esp._ Cf. E. Mérimée, _Essai sur la vie et les oeuvres de Francisco de Quevedo_ (Paris, 1886), and _Introduction_, p. xxv. For a modern portrayal of one side of Quevedo's character, see Bréton de los Herreros, ¿_Quién es ella_?

=Epístola satírica=: this epistle was addressed to Don Gaspar de Guzmán, Conde-Duque de Olivares (d. 1645), the favorite and prime minister of Philip IV. It is a remarkably bold protest, for it was published in 1639 when Olivares was at the height of his power. His disgrace did not occur till 1643.

8. Note the double meaning of =sentir=,--'to feel' and 'to regret.' page 262 9. =libre= modifies =ingenio=. Translate: _its freedom_.

16. =Que es lengua la verdad de Dios severo= = _que la verdad es lengua de Dios severo_.

=16.=--=Letrilla Satírica= was published in 1640.

14. Genoa was then, as now, an important seaport and commercial center. As the Spaniards bought many manufactured articles from Genoa, much of their money was "buried" there.

=17.=--Esteban Manuel de Villegas (d. 1669) was a lawyer who wrote poetry only in his extreme youth. His _Eróticas ó Amatorias_ were published in 1617, and he says himself that they were written at fourteen and polished at twenty. Later the cares of life prevented him from increasing the poetical fame that he gained thus early. He had a reputation for excessive vanity, due partly to the picture of the rising sun which he placed upon the title-page of his poems with the motto _Me surgente, quid istae_? _Istae_ referred to Lope, Quevedo and others. Villegas' poems may be found in vol. 42 of the _Bibl. de Aut. Esp._ Cf. Menéndez y Pelayo, _Hist. de los heterodoxos españoles_, III, 859-875.

There is a parody of this well-known =cantilena= by Iglesias in the _Bibl. de Aut. Esp._, vol. 61, p. 477.

=18.=--Pedro Calderón de la Barca Henao de la Barreda y Riaño (1600-1681) was the greatest representative of the second generation of playwrights in the _Siglo de oro_. He took some part in the nation's foreign wars, but his life was spent mostly without event at court as the favorite dramatist of the aristocracy. He became a priest in 1651 and was made chaplain of honor to Philip IV in 1663. There are extant over two hundred of his dramatic works, _comedias, autos, entremeses_, etc. Calderón constructed his plots more carefully than Lope and was stronger in exalted lyric and religious passages; but he was more mannered, more tainted with Gongorism and less skilled in creating characters. page 263 His _Comedias_ are contained in vols. 7, 9, 12 and 14 of the _Bibl. de Aut. Esp._; a few of his _autos_ are in vol. 58, and some of his poems are in vols. 14 and 35. Cf. also _Poesías inéditas_, Madrid, 1881; Menéndez y Pelayo, _Calderón y su teatro_, Madrid, 1884; R.C. Trench, _Calderón_, London, 1880.

The sonnet, _Estas que fueron..._, is found in _El príncipe constante_, II.

=20.=--Diego Tadeo González (1733-1794) was born at Ciudad-Rodrigo. He entered the order of Augustinians at eighteen, and filled various important offices within the Order during his life. His duties took him to Seville, Salamanca and Madrid. From youth he showed a particular bent for poetry, and Horace and Luis de León were his admiration. He was an intimate friend of Jovellanos, who induced him to forsake light subjects and attempt a didactic poem, _Las edades_, which was left unfinished. Fray Diego's modest and lovable character and his friendly relations with other men of letters made him an attractive figure. His poems are in vol. 61 of the _Bibl. de Aut. Esp._ Cf. _Introduction_, p. xxx.

II. =Mirta= was a lady with whom the author long corresponded and to whom he addressed many poems. =Delio= (l. 15) was the name by which Fray Diego González was known among his literary intimates: Jovellanos was called "Jovino"; Meléndez Valdés, "Batilo"; etc.

=21=.--4. =recogellos= = _recogerlos_.

12. =á la ave=: a more usual construction would be _al ave_, although the sound wouhd be approximately the same in either case. See also below in line 24, =á la alba=.

=22=.--4. =reluciente=, modified by an adverb, here = _reluciendo_.

6. =recio=: a predicate adjective with the force of an adverb.

=26.=--Nicolás Fernández de Moratín (1737-1780) was born in Madrid of a noble Asturian family. He studied for the law and practised it in Madrid, but irregularly, devoting most of his time to literary work. Besides his page 264 poems in the national style (see _Introduction_, p. xxix) he wrote an epic on the burning of the ships of Cortés and several plays in the French manner, of which only one, _Hormesinda_ (1770), ever had a stage production. His works, with his _Life_ written by his son Leandro, are printed in vol. 2 of the _Bibl. de Ant. Esp._

=Fiesta de toros en Madrid=. Baedeker's guide-book to Spain and Portugal says: "Bull-fights were instituted for the encouragement of proficiency in the use of martial weapons and for the celebration of festal occasions, and were a prerogative of the aristocracy down to the sixteenth century. As the mounted _caballero_ encountered the bull, armed only with a lance, accidents were very frequent. No less than ten knights lost their lives at a single _Fiesta de Toros_ in 1512. The present form of the sport, so much less dangerous for the man and so much more cruel for the beast, was adopted about the beginning of the seventeenth century. The construction, in 1749, of the first great _Plaza de Toros_ in Madrid definitely converted the once chivalrous sport into a public spectacle, in which none took part but professional _Toreros_." The padded _picador_ of to-day, astride a blinded, worn-out old hack, is the degenerate successor of the knight of old. In the seventeenth century bull-fights in Madrid were sometimes given in the _Plaza Mayor_ (or _Plaza de la Constitución_).

6. =Aliatar=: this, like most of the names of persons in this poem, is fictitious; but in form these words are of Arabic origin, and it is probable that Moratin borrowed most of them from the _romances moriscos_. The names of places, it should be noticed, are also Arabic, but the places still retain these names. See =Alimenón=, and all names of places, in the _Vocab._

=28=.--19. =Hecho un lazo por airón=, _tied in a knot [to look] like a crest of plumes_. This was doubtless the forerunner of the modern _banderilla_ (barbed page 265 dart ornamented with streamers of colored paper).

=30.=--26-28. =Cual... nube= = _cual la ardiente madeja del sol deja mirarse tal vez entre cenicienta nube_.

=31.=--12. =blasones de Castilla=: as at this time (in the reign of Alfonso VI) León and Castile were united, the =blasones= were probably two towers (for Castile) and two lions (for León), each one occupying a corner of the shield.

14. =Nunca mi espada venciera= apparently means: _Never did he conquer my sword_. This may refer to any adversary, or to some definite adversary in a previous combat.

26. The best bulls raised for bull-fights come from the valley of the Guadalquivir.

=32.=--22-26. =Así... acerquen á..., Como=, _may... bring to..., just as surely as_.

=33.=--8. Fernando I: see in _Vocab._

=35.=--28. The stanzas of pages 34 and 35 are probably known to every Spaniard: schoolboys commit them to memory for public recitation.

=36.=--15. =dignáredes= = _dignareis_. In modern Spanish the _d_ (from Lat. _t_) of the 2d pers. plur. verb endings has fallen.

=38.=--4. =Y... despedir= = _y [si no vieran] á Zaida que le despedía._

13. =cruz=: the cross of a sword is the guard which, crossing the hilt at right angles, gives the sword the shape of a cross. The cross swords were held in especial veneration by the medieval Christians.

Gaspar Melchor de Jovellanos (_or_ Jove-Llanos) (1744-1811) was one of the loftiest characters and most unselfish statesmen ever produced by Spain. Educated for the law, he filled with distinction important judicial offices in Seville and Madrid. In 1780 he was made a member of the Council of Orders. He attached himself to the fortunes of Count Cabarrús, and when that statesman fell from power in 1790, Jovellanos was exiled to page 266 his home in Gijón (Asturias). There he devoted himself to the betterment of his native province. In 1797 the favorite, Godoy, made him _ministro de gracia y justicia_; but he could not be other than an enemy of the corrupt "Prince of the Peace," and in 1798 he was again sent home. In 1801 he was seized and imprisoned in Majorca and was not released till the invasion of Spain by the French in 1808. He refused flattering offers of office under the French, and was the most active member of the _Junta Central_ which organized the Spanish cortes. Unjustly criticized for his labors he retired home, whence he was driven by a sudden incursion of the French. He died a few days after in an inn at Vega (Asturias).

Jovellanos' best literary work is really his political prose, such as the _Informe sobre un proyecto de ley agraria_ (1787) and _Defensa de la junta central_ (1810). His _Delincuente honrado_ (1773), a _comédie larmoyante_ after the manner of Diderot's _Fils naturel_, had wide success on the stage. His works are in vols. 46 and 50 of the _Bibl. de Aut. Esp._ Cf. E. Mérimée, _Jovellanos_, in the _Revue hispanique_, I, pp. 34-68.

=¿Quis tam patiens ut teneat se?= _who is so long-suffering as to control himself?_

21. =prisión=: see mention above of Jovellanos' imprisonment in Majorca.

=39.=--2. It is scarcely accurate to call Juvenal a =bufón=, since he was rather a scornful, austere satirist of indignation.

=40.=--26. =cuánto de= is an unusual expression; but if the line read: _¡Ay, cuánta amargura y cuánto lloro_, it would lack one syllable.

=41.=--4-6. =cuesta... infanta=. Evidently the world has changed little in a hundred years!

=42.=--Juan Meléndez Valdés (1754-1817) was born in the district of Badajoz (Estremadura). He studied law at Salamanca, where he was guided in letters by Cadalso. In 1780 he won a prize offered by the Academy for page 267 the best eclogue. He then accepted a professorship at Salamanca offered him by Jovellanos. Literary success led him to petition a position under the government which, involving as it did loss of independence, proved fatal to his character. He filled honorably important judicial posts in Saragossa and Valladolid, but court intrigue and the caprices of Godoy brought him many trials and undeserved punishments. In 1808 he accepted a position under the French, and nearly lost his life from popular indignation. Later his vacillations were pitiful: he wrote spirited poems now for the French and now against them. When they were finally expelled in 1813, he left the country with them and died in poverty and sorrow in Montpellier.

Most of his poems are in vol. 63 of the _Bibl. de Aut. Esp._; others have been published in the _Revue hispanique_, vols. I. and IV. Cf. his Life by Quintana in _Bibl. de Aut. Esp._, vol. 19; E. Mérimée, _Meléndez Valdés_, in _Revue hispanique_, I, 166-195; _Introduction_, p. xxx.

=44.=--5. =Muy más=: this use of _muy_ is not uncommon in the older classics, but the usual expression now is _mucho más_.

28. =benigna=: see note, p. 22, l. 6.