Chapter 3

In the year 1793 there had been formed in Seville by a group of young writers an Academia de Letras Humanas to foster the cultivation of letters. The members of this academy were admirers of Herrera, the Spanish Petrarchist and patriotic poet of the sixteenth century, and they strove for a continuation of the tradition of the earlier Sevillan group. The more important writers of the later Sevillan school were Arjona, Blanco, Lista and Reinoso. Manuel María de ARJONA (1771-1820), a priest well read in the Greek and Latin classics, was an imitator of Horace. José María BLANCO (1775-1841), known in the history of English literature as Blanco White, spent much time in England and wrote in English as well as in Castilian. Ordained a Catholic priest he later became an Unitarian. The best-known and most influential writer of the group was Alberto LISTA (1775-1848), an educator and page xxxiv later canon of Seville. Lista was a skilful artist and like Arjona an admirer and imitator of Horace; but his ideas lacked depth. His best-known poem is probably a religious one, _Á la muerte de Jesús,_ which abounds in true poetic feeling. Lista exerted great influence as a teacher and his _Lecciones de literatura española_ did much to stimulate the study of Spanish letters. Félix José REINOSO (1772-1814), also a priest, imitated Milton in _octava rima_. As a whole the influence of the Sevillan school was healthful. By insisting upon purity of diction and regularity in versification, the members of the school helped somewhat to restrain the license and improve the bad taste prevailing in the Spanish literature of the time. The Catalonian Manuel de CABANYES (1808-1833) remained unaffected by the warring literary schools and followed with passionate enthusiasm the precepts of the ancients and particularly of Horace.

In the third decade of the nineteenth century romanticism, with its revolt against the restrictions of classicism, with its free play of imagination and emotion, and with lyricism as its predominant note, flowed freely into Spain from England and France. Spain had remained preëminently the home of romanticism when France and England had turned to classicism, and only in the second half of the eighteenth century had Spanish writers given to classicism a reception that was at the best lukewarm. Now romanticism was welcomed back with open arms, and Spanish writers turned eagerly for inspiration not only to Chateaubriand, Victor Hugo and Byron, but also to Lope de Vega and Calderón. Spain has always worshiped the past, for Spain was once great, and the appeal of romanticism was page xxxv therefore the greater as it drew its material largely from national sources.

In 1830 a club known as the Parnasillo was formed in Madrid to spread the new literary theories, much as the Cénacle had done in Paris. The members of the Parnasillo met in a wretched little café to avoid public attention. Here were to be found Bretón de los Herreros, Estébanez Calderón, Mesonero Romanos, Gil y Zárate, Ventura de la Vega, Espronceda and Larra. The influence of Spanish epic and dramatic poetry had been important in stimulating the growth of romanticism in England, Germany and France. In England, Robert Southey translated into English the poem and the chronicle of the Cid and Sir Walter Scott published his Vision of Don Roderick; in Germany, Herder's translation of some of the Cid _romances_ and the Schlegel brothers' metrical version of Calderón's dramas had called attention to the merit of the earlier Spanish literature; and in France, Abel Hugo translated into French the _Romancero_ and his brother Victor made Spanish subjects popular with _Hernani_ and _Ruy Blas_ and the _Légendes des siècles_. But Spain, under the despotism of Ferdinand VII, the "Tyrant of Literature," remained apparently indifferent or even hostile to its own wonderful creations, and clung outwardly to French neo-classicism.[2] Böhl von Faber,[3] the German consul at Cadiz, who was influenced by the Schlegel brothers, had early called attention to the merit of the Spanish literature of the Golden Age and had even had some of Calderón's plays performed at Cadiz. And in page xxxvi 1832 Durán published his epoch-making _Romancero_. In 1833 Ferdinand VII died and the romantic movement was hastened by the home-coming of a number of men who had fled the despotism of the monarch and had spent some time in England and France, where they had come into contact with the romanticists of those countries. Prominent amongst these were Martínez de la Rosa, Antonio Alcalá Galiano, the Duke of Rivas and Espronceda.

[Footnote 2: Cf. _l'Épopée castillane_, Ramón Menéndez Pidal, Paris, 1910, pp. 249-252.]

[Footnote 3: The father of Fernán Caballero.]

In this period of transition one of the first prominent men of letters to show the effects of romanticism was Francisco MARTÍNEZ DE LA ROSA (1787-1862). Among his earlier writings are a _Poética_ and several odes in honor of the heroes of the War of Independence against the French. After his exile in Paris he returned home imbued with romanticism, and his two plays, _Conjuración de Venecia_ (1834) and _Abén Humeya_ (1836: it had already been given in French at Paris in 1830), mark the first public triumph of romanticism in Spain. But Martínez de la Rosa lacked force and originality and his works merely paved the way for the greater triumph of the Duke of Rivas. Ángel de Saavedra, DUQUE DE RIVAS (1791-1865), a liberal noble, insured the definite triumph of romanticism in Spain by the successful performance of his drama _Don Álvaro_ (1835). At first a follower of Moratín and Quintana, he turned, after several years of exile in England, the Isle of Malta and France, to the new romantic school, and casting off all classical restraints soon became the acknowledged leader of the Spanish romanticists. Among his better works are the lyric _Al faro de Malta_, the legendary narrative poem _El moro expósito_ and his _Romances históricos_. The _Romances_ are more sober in tone and less fantastic,--and it should be added, less popular to-day,--than the legends of page xxxvii Zorrilla. After a tempestuous life the Duke of Rivas settled quietly into the place of director of the Spanish Academy, which post he held till his death.

José de ESPRONCEDA (1808-1842) was preëminently a disciple of Byron, with Byron's mingling of pessimism and aspiration, and like him in revolt against the established order of things in politics and social organization. His passionate outpourings, his brilliant imagery and the music of his verse give to Espronceda a first place amongst the Spanish lyrical poets of the nineteenth century. Some of his shorter lyrics (e.g. _Canto á Teresa_) are inspired by his one-time passion for Teresa with whom after her marriage to another he eloped from London to Paris. The poet's best known longer works are the _Diablo mundo_ and the _Estudiante de Salamanca_, which are largely made up of detached lyrics in which the subjective note is strikingly prominent. Espronceda was one of those fortunate few who shine in the world of letters although they work little. Both in lyric mastery and in his spirit of revolt, Espronceda holds the place in Spanish literature that is held in English by Byron. He is the chief Spanish exponent of a great revolutionary movement that swept over the world of letters in the first half of the nineteenth century.

José ZORRILLA (1817-1893) first won fame by the reading of an elegy at the burial of Larra. Zorrilla was a most prolific and spontaneous writer of verses, much of which is unfinished in form and deficient in philosophical insight. But in spite of his carelessness and shallowness he rivaled Espronceda in popularity. His verses are not seldom melodramatic or childish, but they are rich in coloring and poetic fancy and they form a page xxxviii vast enchanted world in which the Spaniards still delight to wander. His versions of old Spanish legends are doubtless his most enduring work and their appeal to Spanish patriotism is not less potent to-day than when they were written. Zorrilla's dramatic works were successful on the stage by reason of their primitive vigor, especially _Don Juan Tenorio_, _El Zapatero y el rey_ and _Traidor, inconfeso y mártir_. This "fantastic and legendary poet" went to Mexico in 1854 and he remained there several years. After that date he wrote little and the little lacked merit.

Gertrudis Gómez de AVELLANEDA (1814-1873) was born in Cuba but spent most of her life in Spain. Avellaneda was a graceful writer of lyrics in which there was feeling and melody but little depth of thought. With her the moving impulse was love, both human and divine. Her first volume of poems (1841) probably contains her best work. Her novels _Sab_ and _Espatolino_ were popular in their day but are now fallen into oblivion. Some of her plays, especially _Baltasar_ and _Munio_, do not lack merit. Avellaneda is recognized as the foremost poet amongst the women of nineteenth-century Spain.

Two of the most successful dramatists of this period, García Gutiérrez and Hartzenbusch, were also lyric poets. Antonio GARCÍA GUTIÉRREZ (1813-1884), the author of _El trovador_, published two volumes of mediocre verses. Juan Eugenio HARTZENBUSCH (1806-1880) was, like Fernán Caballero, the child of a German father and a Spanish mother. Though an eminent scholar and critic, he did not hesitate in his _Amantes de Teruel_ to play to the popular passion for sentimentality. He produced some lyric verse of worth. Manuel BRETÓN DE LOS HERREROS (1796-1873) was primarily a humorist and satirist, who turned from page xxxix lyric verse to drama as his best medium of expression. He delighted in holding up to ridicule the excesses of romanticism. Mention should be made here of two poets who had been, like Espronceda, pupils of Alberto Lista. The eclectic poet MARQUÉS DE MOLINS (Mariano Roca de Togores: 1812-1889) wrote passively in all the literary genres of his time. VENTURA DE LA VEGA (1807-1865) was born in Argentina, but came to Spain at an early age. He was a well-balanced, cautious writer of mediocre verses that are rather neo-classic than romantic.

A marked reaction against the grandiose exaggerations of later romanticism appears in the works of José SELGAS y Carrasco (1824-1882), a clever writer of simple, sentimental verses. At one time his poetry was highly praised and widely read, but for the most part it is to-day censured as severely as it was once praised. Among the contemporaries of Selgas were the writer of simple verses and one-time popular tales, Antonio de TRUEBA (1821-1889) and Eduardo BUSTILLO, the author of _Las cuatro estaciones_ and _El ciego de Buenavista_. Somewhat of the tradition of the Sevillan school persisted in the verses of Manuel CAÑETE and Narciso CAMPILLO (1838-1900) and in those of the poet and literary critic José AMADOR DE LOS RÍOS.

The Sevillan Gustavo Adolfo BÉCQUER (1836-1870) wrote perhaps the most highly polished Spanish verse of the nineteenth century. His _Rimas_ are charged with true poetic fancy and the sweetest melody, but the many inversions of word-order that were used to attain to perfection of metrical form detract not a little from their charm. His writings are contained in three small volumes in which are found, together with the _Rimas_, a collection of prose legends. His prose work is page xl filled with morbid mysticism or fairy-like mystery. His dreamy prose is often compared to that of Hoffmann and his verses to those of Heine, although it is doubtful if he was largely influenced by either of these German writers. Bécquer sings primarily of idealized human love. His material life was wretched and it would seem that his spirit took flight into an enchanted land of its own creation. Most human beings love to forget at times their sordid surroundings and wander in dreamland; hence the enduring popularity of Bécquer's works and especially of the _Rimas_. Bécquer has been widely imitated throughout the Spanish-speaking world, but with little success. In this connection it should be noted that the Spanish poets who have most influenced the Spanish literature of the nineteenth century, both in the Peninsula and in America, are the Tyrtaean poet Quintana, the two leading romanticists Espronceda and Zorrilla and the mystic Bécquer.

Like most writers in Latin lands, Juan VALERA y Alcalá Galiano (1824-1905) and Marcelino MENÉNDEZ Y PELAYO (1856-1912) began their literary career with a volume or two of lyric verses. Valera's verses have perfect metrical form and evince high scholarship, but they are too learned to be popular. The lyrics of Menéndez y Pelayo have also more merit in form than in inspiration and are lacking in human interest. Both authors turned soon to more congenial work: Valera became the most versatile and polished of all nineteenth century Spanish writers of essays and novels; and Menéndez y Pelayo became Spain's greatest scholar in literary history. The popular novelist, Pedro Antonio de ALARCÓN (1833-1891), wrote lyrics in which there is a curious blending of humor and skepticism. page xli The foremost Spanish poet of the closing years of the nineteenth century was Ramón de CAMPOAMOR y Campoosorio (1817-1901) who is recognized as the initiator in Spain of a new type of verse in his _Doloras_ and _Pequeños poemas_. The _doloras_ are, for the most part, metrical fables or epigrams, dramatic or anecdotal in form, in which the author unites lightness of touch with depth of feeling. The _pequeño poema_ is merely an enlarged _dolora_. Campoamor disliked Byron and he disliked still more the sonorous emptiness that is characteristic of too much Spanish poetry.[4] In philosophy he revered Thomas à Kempis; in form he aimed at conciseness and directness rather than at artistic perfection. His poetry lacks enthusiasm and coloring, but it has dramatic interest.

[Footnote 4: Menéndez y Pelayo (_Ant. Poetas Hisp.-Am._, I, p. lv) says: "Al fin españoles somos, y á tal profusión de luz y á tal estrépito de palabras sonoras no hay entre nosotros quien resista."]

The poets Manuel del PALACIO (1832-1895) and Federico BALART (1831-1905), though quite unlike in genius, won the esteem of their contemporaries. Palacio wrote excellent sonnets and epigrams. In his _Leyendas y poemas_ he proved his mastery of Spanish diction; he had, moreover, the saving grace of humor which was so noticeably lacking in Zorrilla's legends. The poet and literary critic, Balart, achieved fame with his _Dolores_, in which he mourns with sincere grief the death of his beloved wife. Mention should also be made of the following poets who deserve recognition in this brief review of the history of Spanish lyric poetry: Vicente Wenceslao QUEROL (1836-1889), a Valencian, whose _El eclipse, Cartas á María_, and _La fiesta de Venus_, evince a remarkable technical skill and an unusual correctness of diction; Teodoro page xlii LLORENTE (cf. p. 279); José GALIANO ALCALÁ whose verses have delicate feeling and lively imagination; Emilio FERRARI (b. 1853), the author of _Abelardo é Hipatia_ and _Aspiración_; the pessimistic poets, Joaquín María de BARTRINA (1850-1880) and Gabino TEJADO; Salvador RUEDA (b. 1857), author of _El bloque_, _En tropel_ and _Cantos de la vendimia_; and the poet and dramatist, Eduardo MARQUINA.

After the death of Campoamor in the first year of the twentieth century, the title of _doyen_ of Spanish letters fell by universal acclaim to Gaspar NÚÑEZ DE ARCE (1834-1903). Núñez de Arce was a lyric poet, a dramatist and a writer of polemics, but first of all a man of action. With him the solution of political and sociological problems was all-important, and his literary writings were mostly the expression of his sociological and political views. Núñez de Arce is best known for his _Gritos del combate_ (1875), in which he sings of liberty but opposes anarchy with energy and courage. As a satirist he attacks the excesses of radicalism as well as the vices and foibles common to mankind.[5] As a poet he is neither original nor imaginative, and often his ideas are unduly limited; but he writes with a manly vigor that is rare amongst Spanish lyric poets, most of whom have given first place to the splendors of rhetoric.

[Footnote 5: Speaking of Núñez de Arce's satire, Juan Valera says humorously, in _Florilegio de poesías castellanas del siglo XIX_, Madrid, 1902, Vol. I, p. 247: «Está el poeta tan enojado contra la sociedad, contra nuestra descarriada civilización y contra los crímenes y maldades de ahora, y nos pinta tan perverso, tan vicioso y tan infeliz al hombre de nuestros días, atormentado por dudas, remordimientos, codicias y otras viles pasiones, que, á mi ver, lejos de avergonzarse este hombre de descender del mono, debiera ser el mono quien se avergonzara de haberse humanado.»]

Most writers on the history of European literatures have page xliii called attention to the fact that at the beginning of the nineteenth century there was a great outpouring of lyricism, which infused itself into prose as well as verse. When this movement had exhausted itself there came by inevitable reaction a period of materialism, when realism succeeded romanticism and prose fiction largely replaced verse. And now sociological and pseudo-scientific writings threaten the very existence of idealistic literature. And yet through it all there has been no dearth of poets. Browning in England and Campoamor in Spain, like many before them, have given metrical form to the expression of their philosophical views. And other poets, who had an intuitive aversion to science, have taken refuge in pure idealism and have created worlds after their own liking. To-day prose is recognized as the best medium for the promulgation of scientific or political teachings, and those who are by nature poets are turning to art for art's sake. Poetry is less didactic than formerly, and it is none the less beautiful and inspiring.

The _Notes_ to this volume contain historical sketches of the literatures of Argentina (p. 279), Colombia (p. 285), Cuba (p. 291), Ecuador and Peru (p. 296), Mexico (p. 307), and Venezuela (p. 315). It is to be regretted that lack of space has excluded an account of the literatures of other Spanish-American countries, and especially of Chile and Uruguay.

III

SPANISH VERSIFICATION

Spanish versification is subject to the following general laws:

(1) There must be a harmonious flow of syllables, in which harsh combinations of sounds are avoided. This page xliv usually requires that stressed syllables be separated by one or more unstressed syllables.[6]

[Footnote 6: By stress is meant secondary as well as primary syllabic stress. Thus, _en nuestra vida_ has primary stress on _vi-_, and secondary stress on _nues-_.]

(2) Verse must be divided into phrases, each of which can be uttered easily as one breath-group. The phrases are normally of not less than four nor more than eight syllables, with a rhythmic accent on the next to the last syllable of each phrase.[7] Phrases of a fixed number of syllables must recur at regular intervals. There may or may not be a pause at the end of the phrase.

[Footnote 7: The unstressed syllable may be lacking, or there may be two unstressed syllables, after the rhythmic accent. See under _Syllabication_.]

(_a_) In the n-syllable binary line the phrases may recur at irregular intervals. In lines with regular ternary movement phrasing is largely replaced by rhythmic pulsation (cf. p. lxx).

(3) There must be rime of final syllables, or final vowels, recurring at regular intervals.

(_a_) In some metrical arrangements of foreign origin the rimes recur at irregular intervals, or there is no rime at all. See the _silva_ and _versos sueltos_ under _Strophes_.

Whether normal Spanish verse has, or ever had, binary movement, with the occasional substitution of a "troche" for an "iambic," or vice-versa, is in dispute.[8] That is, whether in Spanish verse, with the usual movement, (1) the alternation of stressed and unstressed syllables is essential, or whether (2) the mere balancing of page xlv certain larger blocks of syllables is sufficient. For instance, in this line of Luis de León:

ya muestra en esperanza el fruto cierto,

is there regular rhythmic pulsation, much less marked than in English verse, doubtless,--but still an easily discernible alternation of stressed and unstressed syllables? If so, there must be secondary stress on _es-_. Or is _ya muestra en esperanza_ one block, and _el fruto cierto_ another, with no rhythmic stresses except those on _-anza_ and _cierto_?

[Footnote 8: There are in Spanish certain types of verses in which there is regular ternary movement throughout. These are treated separately. Cf. p. lxx.]

The truth seems to be that symmetry of phrases (the balancing of large blocks of syllables) is an essential and important part of modern Spanish versification; but that, in musical verse of the ordinary type, there is also a subtle and varied binary movement, while in some recitative verse (notably the dramatic _romance_ verse) the binary movement is almost or quite negligible.[9]

[Footnote 9: A count of Spanish verses (none from drama), by arbitrarily assuming three contiguous atonic syllables to be equal to-[/-]-(with secondary stress on the middle syllable), gave the following results (cf. _Romanic Review, Vol. III_, pp. 301-308):

Common syllabic arrangements of 8-syllable lines:

(1) / _ / _ / _ / (_): Esta triste voz oí.

(2) _ / _ / _ _ / (_): Llorando dicen así.

(3) _ / _ _ / _ / (_): Mi cama las duras peñas.

Of 933 lines, 446 (nearly one-half) were in class (1); 257 in class (2); and 191 in class (3). The remaining lines did not belong to any one of these three classes.

Common syllabic arrangements of 11-syllable lines:

(1) _ / _ / _ / _ / _ / (_): Verás con cuánto amor llamar porfía.

(2) / _ / _ _ / _ / _ / (_): Cuántas veces el ángel me decía.

(3) / _ _ / _ / _ / _ / (_): Este matiz que al cielo desafía.

Of 402 lines, 216 (slightly more than one-half) were in class (1); 94 were in class (2); and 75 in class (3). The remaining lines did not belong to any one of these three classes. Note that, in these arrangements of the 11-syllable lines, the irregularities in rhythm are found only in the first four syllables.] page xlvi Some poets have used at times a quite regular binary movement in Spanish verse; but they have had few or no followers, as the effect was too monotonous to please the Spanish ear. Thus, Solís:

Siempre orillas de la fuente Busco rosas á mi frente, Pienso en él y me sonrío, Y entre mí le llamo mío, Me entristezco de su ausencia, Y deseo en su presencia La más bella parecer. (p. 53, ll. 6-12)

The Colombian poet, José Eusebio Caro, wrote much verse thus, under the influence of the English poets.

On the other hand, some recent "decadent" poets have written verses in which the principle of symmetry of phrases, or of a fixed number of syllables, is abandoned, and rhythm and rime are considered sufficient to make the lines musical. Thus, Leopoldo Lugones (born 1875?), of Argentina, in verses which he calls «_libres_» (cf. _Lunario sentimental_, Buenos Aires, 1909):

Luna, quiero cantarte ¡Oh ilustre anciana de las mitologías! Con todas las fuerzas de mi arte.

Deidad que en los antiguos días Imprimiste en nuestro polvo tu sandalia, No alabaré el litúrgico furor de tus orgías Ni su erótica didascalia, Para que alumbres sin mayores ironías, Al polígloto elogio de las Guías, Noches sentimentales de _mises_ en Italia. (_Himno á la luna_)