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Title: Modern Spanish Lyrics

 

Author: Various

 

Editor: Elijah Clarence Hills And S. Griswold Morley

 

Release Date: June 14, 2005 [EBook #16059]

 

Language: English

 

Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1

 

*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK MODERN SPANISH LYRICS ***

Produced by Juliet Sutherland, Miranda van de Heijning, Renald Levesque and the Online Distributed Proofreading Team.

MODERN SPANISH

 

LYRICS

 

_EDITED WITH INTRODUCTION, NOTES AND VOCABULARY_

 

BY

 

ELIJAH CLARENCE HILLS, PH. D., LITT.D. _Professor of Romance Languages in Colorado College_ AND

 

S. GRISWOLD MORLEY, PH. D. _University of Colorado_

 

NEW YORK

 

HENRY HOLT AND COMPANY

 

1913

 

Page iii

 

PREFACE

The present volume aims to furnish American students of Spanish with a convenient selection of the Castilian lyrics best adapted to class reading. It was the intention of the editors to include no poem which did not possess distinct literary value. On the other hand, some of the most famous Spanish lyrics do not seem apt to awaken the interest of the average student: it is for this reason that scholars will miss the names of certain eminent poets of the _siglo de oro_. The nineteenth century, hardly inferior in merit and nearer to present-day readers in thought and language, is much more fully represented. No apology is needed for the inclusion of poems by Spanish-American writers, for they will bear comparison both in style and thought with the best work from the mother Peninsula.

The Spanish poems are presented chronologically, according to the dates of their authors. The Spanish-American poems are arranged according to countries and chronologically within those divisions. Omissions are indicated by rows of dots and are due in all cases to the necessity of bringing the material within the limits of a small volume. Three poems (the _Fiesta de toros_ of Moratín, the _Castellano leal_ of Rivas and the _Leyenda_ of Zorrilla) are more narrative than lyric. The _romances_ selected are Page iv the most lyrical of their kind. A few songs have been added to illustrate the relation of poetry to music.

The editors have been constantly in consultation in all parts of the work, but the preparation of the _Prosody_, the _Notes_ (including articles on Spanish-American literature) and the part of the _Introduction_ dealing with the nineteenth century, was undertaken by Mr. Hills, while Mr. Morley had in charge the _Introduction_ prior to 1800, and the _Vocabulary_. Aid has been received from many sources. Special thanks are due to Professor J.D.M. Ford and Dr. A.F. Whittem of Harvard University, Don Ricardo Palma of Peru, Don Rubén Darío of Nicaragua, Don Rufino Blanco-Fombona of Venezuela, Professor Carlos Bransby of the University of California, and Dr. Alfred Coester of Brooklyn, N.Y.

E.C.H.

 

S.G.M.

 

Page v

 

CONTENTS

 

PREFACE

 

INTRODUCTION:

 

I. Spanish Lyric Poetry to 1800

 

II. Spanish Lyric Poetry of the Nineteenth Century III. Spanish Versification

 

ESPAÑA

ROMANCES:
Abenámar
Fonte-frida
El conde Arnaldos
La constancia
El amante desdichado
El prisionero

VINCENTE (GIL) (1470-1540?)
Canción
TERESA DE JESÚS (SANTA) (1515-1582) Letrilla (que llevaba por registro en su breviario)
LEÓN (FRAY LUIS DE) (1527-1591)
Vida retirada
ANÓNIMO
Á Cristo crucificado
VEGA (LOPE DE) (1562-1635)
Canción de la Virgen
Mañana
QUEVEDO (FRANCISCO DE) (1580-1645)
Epístola satírica al conde de Olivares
Letrilla satírica
VILLEGAS (ESTEBAN MANUEL DE) (1589-1669) Cantilena: De un pajarillo
CALDERÓN DE LA BARCA (PEDRO) (1600-1681) "Estas que fueron pompa y alegría,"
Consejo de Crespo á su hijo
GONZÁLEZ (FRAY DIEGO) (1733-1794)
El murciélago alevoso page vi
MORATÍN (NICOLÁS F. DE) (1737-1780)
Fiesta de toros en Madrid
JOVELLANOS (GASPAR M. DE) (1744-1811)
Á Arnesto
MELÉNDEZ VALDÉS (JUAN) (1754-1817)
Rosana en los fuegos
QUINTANA (MANUEL JOSÉ) (1772-1857)
Oda á España, después de la revolución de marzo
SOLÍS (DIONISIO) (1774-1834)
La pregunta de la niña
GALLEGO (JUAN NICASIO) (1777-1853)
El Dos de Mayo
MARTÍNEZ DE LA ROSA (FRANCISCO) (1787-1862) El nido
RIVAS (DUQUE DE) (1791-1865)
Un castellano leal
AROLAS (PADRE JUAN) (1805-1849)
"Sé más feliz que yo"
ESPRONCEDA (JOSÉ DE) (1808-1842)
Canción del pirata
Á la patria
ZORRILLA (JOSÉ) (1817-1893)
Oriental
Indecisión
La fuente
Á buen juez, mejor testigo
TRUEBA (ANTONIO DE) (1821-1889)
Cantos de pájaro
La perejilera
SELGAS (JOSÉ) (1821-1882)
La modestia
ALARCÓN (PEDRO ANTONIO DE) (1833-1891) El Mont-Blanc
El secreto
BÉCQUER (GUSTAVO A.) (1836-1870)
Rimas: II
VII
LIII
LXXIII page vii
QUEROL (VINCENTE WENCESLAO) (1836-1889) En Noche-Buena
CAMPOAMOR (RAMÓN DE) (1817-1901) Proximidad del bien
¡Quién supiera escribir!
El mayor castigo
NÚÑEZ DE ARCE (GASPAR) (1834-1903) ¡Excelsior!
Tristezas
¡Sursum Corda!
PALACIO (MANUEL DEL) (1832-1895)
Amor oculto
BARTRINA (JOAQUÍN MARÍA) (1850-1880) Arabescos
REINA (MANUEL) (1860-)
La poesía

ARGENTINA

ECHEVERRÍA (O. ESTEBAN) (1805-1851) Canción de Elvira
ANDRADE (OLEGARIO VICTOR) (1838-1882) Atlántida
Prometeo
OBLIGADO (RAFAEL) (1852-)
En la ribera

COLOMBIA

ORTIZ (JOSÉ JOAQUÍN) (1814-1892)
Colombia y España
CARO (JOSÉ EUSEBIO) (1817-1853)
El ciprés
MARROQUÍN (JOSÉ MANUEL) (1827-)
Los cazadores y la perrilla
CARO (MIGUEL ANTONIO) (1843-1909)
Vuelta á la patria page viii
ARRIETA (DIÓGENES A.) (1848-)
En la tumba de mi hijo
GUTIÉRREZ PONCE (IGNACIO) (1850-)
Dolora
GARAVITO A. (JOSÉ MARÍA) (1860-)
Volveré mañana

CUBA

HEREDIA (JOSÉ MARÍA) (1803-1839)
En el teocalli de Cholula
El Niágara

"PLÁCIDO" (GABRIEL DE LA CONCEPCIÓN VALDÉS) (1809-1844) Plegaria á Dios

AVELLANEDA (GERTRUDIS GÓMEZ DE) (1814-1873) Á Wáshington
Al partir

ECUADOR

 

OLMEDO (JOSÉ JOAQUÍN) (1780-1847) La victoria de Junín

 

MÉXICO

PESADO (JOSÉ JOAQUÍN DE) (1801-1861) Serenata
CALDERÓN (FERNANDO) (1809-1845) La rosa marchita
ACUÑA (MANUEL) (1849-1873)
Nocturno: Á Rosario
PEZA (JUAN DE DIOS) (1852-1910) Reír llorando
Fusiles y muñecas

NICARAGUA

 

DARÍO (RUBÉN) (1864-) Á Roosevelt

 

page ix VENEZUELA

BELLO (ANDRÉS) (1781-1865)
Á la victoria de Bailén
La agricultura de la zona tórrida

PÉREZ BONALDE (JUAN ANTONIO) (1846-1892) Vuelta á la patria
MARTÍN DE LA GUARDIA (HERACLIO) (1830-) Ultima ilusión

CANCIONES

La carcelera
Riverana
La cachucha
La valenciana
Canción devota
La jota gallega
El trágala
Himno de Riego
Himno nacional de México Himno nacional de Cuba NOTES

VOCABULARY[a]

 

[Transcriber's note a: The vocabulary section has not been submitted for transcription.}

 

INTRODUCTION page xi

 

I

 

SPANISH LYRIC POETRY TO 1800

It has been observed that epic poetry, which is collective and objective in its nature, always reaches its full development in a nation sooner than lyric poetry, which is individual and subjective. Such is certainly the case in Spain. Numerous popular epics of much merit existed there in the Middle Ages.[1] Of a popular lyric there are few traces in the same period; and the Castilian lyric as an art-form reached its height in the sixteenth, and again in the nineteenth, centuries. It is necessary always to bear in mind the distinction between the mysterious product called popular poetry, which is continually being created but seldom finds its way into the annals of literature, and artistic poetry. The chronicler of the Spanish lyric is concerned with the latter almost exclusively, though he will have occasion to mention the former not infrequently as the basis of some of the best artificial creations.

[Footnote 1: The popular epics were written in assonating lines of variable length. There were also numerous monkish narrative poems _(mester de clereçia)_ in stanzas of four Alexandrine lines each, all riming _(cuaderna vía)_.]

If one were to enumerate _ab origine_ the lyric
productions of the Iberian Peninsula he might begin
with the vague references of Strabo to the songs of its primitive inhabitants, and then pass on to Latin page xii poets of Spanish birth, such as Seneca, Lucan and Martial. The later Spaniards who wrote Christian poetry in Latin, as Juvencus and Prudentius, might then be considered. But in order not to embrace many diverse subjects foreign to the contents of this collection, we must confine our inquiry to lyric production in the language of Castile, which became the dominating tongue of the Kingdom of Spain.

Such a restriction excludes, of course, the Arabic lyric, a highly artificial poetry produced abundantly by the Moors during their occupation of the south of Spain; it excludes also the philosophical and religious poetry of the Spanish Jews, by no means despicable in thought or form. Catalan poetry, once written in the Provençal manner and of late happily revived, also lies outside our field.

Even the Galician poetry, which flourished so freely under the external stimulus of the Provençal troubadours, can be included only with regard to its influence upon Castilian. The Galician dialect, spoken in the northwest corner of the Peninsula, developed earlier than the Castilian of the central region, and it was adopted by poets in other parts for lyric verse. Alfonso X of Castile (reigned 1252-1284) could write prose in Castilian, but he must needs employ Galician for his _Cantigas de Santa María_. The Portuguese nobles, with King Diniz (reigned 1279-1325) at their head, filled the idle hours of their bloody and passionate lives by composing strangely abstract, conventional poems of love and religion in the manner of the Provençal _canso, dansa, balada_ and _pastorela_, which had had such a luxuriant growth in Southern France in the eleventh and twelfth centuries. A highly elaborated metrical system mainly distinguishes these writers, but some of page xiii their work catches a pleasing lilt which is supposed
to represent the imitation of songs of the people. The popular element in the Galician productions is slight, but it was to bear important fruit later, for its spirit is
that of the _serranas_ of Ruiz and Santillana, and of _villancicos_ and eclogues in the sixteenth century.

It was probably in the neighborhood of 1350 that lyrics began to be written in Castilian by the cultured classes of Leon and Castile, who had previously thought Galician the only proper tongue for that use, but the influence of the Galician school persisted long after. The first real lyric in Castilian is its offspring. This is the anonymous _Razón feyta d'amor_ or _Aventura amorosa_ (probably thirteenth century), a dainty story of the meeting of two lovers. It is apparently an isolated example, ahead of its time, unless, as is the case with the Castilian epic, more poems are lost than extant. The often quoted _Cántica de la Virgen_ of Gonzalo de Berceo (first half of thirteenth century), with its popular refrain _Eya velar_, is an oasis in the long religious epics of the amiable monk of S. Millán de la Cogolla. One must pass into the succeeding century to find the next examples of the true lyric. Juan RUIZ, the mischievous Archpriest of Hita (flourished _ca_. 1350), possessed a genius sufficiently keen and human to infuse a personal vigor into stale forms. In his _Libro de buen amor_ he incorporated lyrics both sacred and profane, _Loores de Santa María_ and _Cánticas de serrana_, plainly in the Galician manner and of complex metrical structure. The _serranas_ are particularly free and unconventional. The Chancellor Pero LÓPEZ DE AYALA (1332-1407), wise statesman, brilliant historian and trenchant page xiv satirist, wrote religious songs in the same style and
still more intricate in versification. They are included in the didactic poem usually called _El rimado de
palacio_.

Poetry flourished in and about the courts of the monarchs of the Trastamara family; and what may be supposed a representative collection of the work done in the reigns of Henry II (1369-1379), John I (1379-1388), Henry III (1388-1406) and the minority of John II (1406-1454), is preserved for us in the _Cancionero_ which Juan Alfonso de Baena compiled and presented to the last-named king. Two schools of versifiers are to be distinguished in it. The older men, such as Villasandino, Sánchez de Talavera, Macías, Jerena, Juan Rodríguez del Padrón and Baena himself, continued the artificial Galician tradition, now run to seed. In others appears the imitation of Italian models which was to supplant the ancient fashion. Francisco Imperial, a worshiper of Dante, and other Andalusians such as Ruy Páez de Ribera, Pero González de Uceda and Ferrán Manuel de Lando, strove to introduce Italian meters and ideas. They first employed the Italian hendecasyllable, although it did not become acclimated till the days of Boscán. They likewise cultivated the _metro de arte mayor_, which later became so prominent (see below, p. lxxv ff.). But the interest of the poets of the _Cancionero de Baena_ is mainly historical. In spite of many an illuminating side-light on manners, of political invective and an occasional glint of
imagination, the amorous platitudes and wire-drawn love-contests of the Galician school, the stiff allegories of the Italianates leave us cold. It was a transition period and the most talented were unable to master the undeveloped poetic language. page xv

The same may be said, in general, of the whole fifteenth century. Although the language became greatly clarified toward 1500 it was not yet ready for masterly original work in verse. Invaded by a flood of Latinisms, springing from a novel and undigested humanism, encumbered still with archaic words and set phrases left over from the Galicians, it required purification at the hands of the real poets and scholars of the sixteenth century. The poetry of the fifteenth is inferior to the best prose of the same epoch; it is not old enough to be quaint and not modern enough to meet a present-day reader upon equal terms.

These remarks apply only to artistic poetry. Popular poetry,--that which was exemplified in the Middle Ages by the great epics of the Cid, the Infantes de Lara and other heroes, and in songs whose existence can rather be inferred than proved,--was never better. It produced the lyrico-epic _romances_ (see _Notes_, p. 253), which, as far as one may judge from their diction and from contemporary testimony, received their final form at about this time, though in many cases of older origin. It produced charming little songs which some of the later court poets admired sufficiently to gloss. But the cultured writers, just admitted to the splendid cultivated garden of Latin literature, despised these simple wayside flowers and did not care to preserve them for posterity.

The artistic poetry of the fifteenth century falls
naturally into three classes, corresponding to three currents of influence; and all three frequently appear in the work of one man, not blended, but distinct. One is the conventional love-poem of the Galician school, seldom containing a fresh or personal note. Another is the stilted allegory with erotic or historical page xvi content, for whose many sins Dante was chiefly
responsible, though Petrarch, he of the _Triunfi_, and Boccaccio cannot escape some blame. Third is a vein of highly moral reflections upon the vanity of life and certainty of death, sometimes running to political satire. Its roots may be found in the Book of Job, in Seneca and, nearer at hand, in the _Proverbios morales_ of the Jew Sem Tob (_ca_. 1350), in the _Rimado de Palacio_ of Ayala, and in a few poets of the _Cancionero de Baena_.

John II was a dilettante who left the government of the
kingdom to his favorite, Álvaro de Luna. He gained more fame in the world of letters than many better kings by
fostering the study of literature and gathering about him a circle of "court poets" nearly all of noble birth. Only
two names among them all imperatively require mention. Iñigo LÓPEZ DE MENDOZA, MARQUIS OF SANTILLANA (1398-1458) was the finest type of _grand seigneur_, protector of
letters, student, warrior, poet and politician. He wrote
verse in all three of the manners just named, but he will certainly be longest remembered for his _serranillas_, the fine flower of the Provençal-Galician tradition, in which the poet describes his meeting with a country lass.
Santillana combined the freshest local setting with
perfection of form and left nothing more to be desired in that genre. He also wrote the first sonnets in Castilian, but they are interesting only as an experiment, and had no followers. Juan de MENA (1411-1456) was purely a literary man, without other distinction of birth or accomplishment. His work is mainly after the Italian model. The _Laberinto de fortuna_, by which he is best known, is a dull allegory with much of Dante's apparatus. There are historical passages where the poet's patriotism leads him page xvii to a certain rhetorical height, but his good intentions are weighed down by three millstones: slavish imitation, the monotonous _arte mayor_ stanza and the deadly
earnestness of his temperament. He enjoyed great renown and authority for many decades.

Two anonymous poems of about the same time deserve mention. The _Danza de la muerte_, the Castilian representative of a type which appeared all over Europe, shows death summoning mortals from all stations of life with ghastly glee. The _Coplas de Mingo Revulgo_, promulgated during the reign of Henry IV (1454-1474), are a political satire in dialogue form, and exhibit for the first time the peculiar peasant dialect that later became a convention of the pastoral eclogues and also of the country scenes in the great drama.

The second half of the century continues the same tendencies with a notable development in the fluidity of the language and an increasing interest in popular poetry. Gómez Manrique (d. 1491?) was another warrior of a literary turn whose best verses are of a severely moral nature. His nephew JORGE MANRIQUE (1440-1478) wrote a single poem of the highest merit; his scanty other works are forgotten. The _Coplas por la muerte de su padre_, beautifully translated by Longfellow, contain some laments for the writer's personal loss, but more general reflections upon the instability of worldly glory. It is not to be thought that this famous poem is in any way original in idea; the theme had already been exploited to satiety, but Manrique gave it a superlative perfection of form and a contemporary application which left no room for improvement.

There were numerous more or less successful love-poets of the conventional type writing in page xviii octosyllabics and the inevitable imitators of Dante with their unreadable allegories in _arte mayor_. The repository for the short poems of these writers is the _Cancionero general_ of Hernando de Castillo (1511). It was reprinted many times throughout the sixteenth century. Among the writers represented in it one should distinguish, however, Rodrigo de Cota. His dramatic _Diálogo entre el amor y un viejo_ has real charm, and has saved his name from the oblivion to which most of his fellows have justly been consigned. The bishop Ambrosio Montesino (_Cancionero_, 1508) was a fervent religious poet and the precursor of the mystics of fifty years later.

The political condition of Spain improved immensely in the reign of Ferdinand and Isabella (1479-1516) and the country entered upon a period of internal homogeneity and tranquility which might be expected to foster artistic production. Such was the case; but literature was not the first of the arts to reach a highly refined state. The
first half of the sixteenth century is a period of
humanistic study, and the poetical works coming from it were still tentative. JUAN DEL ENCINA (1469-1533?) is important in the history of the drama, for his _églogas, representaciones_ and _autos_ are practically the first Spanish dramas not anonymous. As a lyric poet Encina excels in the light pastoral; he was a musician as well as a poet, and his bucolic _villancicos_ and _glosas_ in stanzas of six-and eight-syllable lines are daintily written and express genuine love of nature. The Portuguese GIL VICENTE (1470-1540?) was a follower of Encina at first, but a much bigger man. Like most of his compatriots of the sixteenth century he wrote in both Portuguese and Castilian, though better in the former tongue. He was close to the people in his thinking and writing page xix and some of the songs contained in his plays reproduce the truest popular savor.

The intimate connection between Spain and Italy during the period when the armies of the Emperor Charles V (Charles I of Spain: reigned 1516-1555) were overrunning the latter country gave a new stimulus to the imitation of Italian meters and poets which we have seen existed in a premature state since the reign of John II. The man who first achieved real success in the hendecasyllable, combined in sonnets, octaves, _terza rima_ and blank verse, was Juan BOSCÁN ALMOGAVER (1490?-1542), a Catalan of wealth and culture. Boscán was handicapped by writing in a tongue not native to him and by the constant holding of foreign models before his eyes, and he was not a man of genius; yet his verse kept to a loftier ideal than had appeared for a long time and his effort to lift Castilian poetry from the slough of convention into which it had fallen was successful. During the rest of the century the impulse given by Boscán divided Spanish lyrists into two opposing hosts, the Italianates and those who clung to the native meters (stanzas of short, chiefly octosyllabic, lines, for the _arte mayor_ had sunk by its own weight).

The first and greatest of Boscán's disciples was his close friend GARCILASO DE LA VEGA (1503-1536) who far surpassed his master. He was a scion of a most noble family, a favorite of the emperor, and his adventurous career, passed mostly in Italy, ended in a soldier's death. His poems, however (_églogas, canciones_, sonnets, etc.), take us from real life into the sentimental world of the Arcadian pastoral. Shepherds discourse of their unrequited loves and mourn amid surroundings of an idealized Nature.

page xx
The pure diction, the Vergilian flavor, the classic finish of these poems made them favorites in Spain from the first, and their author has always been regarded as a master.

With Garcilaso begins the golden age of Spanish poetry and of Spanish literature in general, which may be said to close in 1681 with the death of Calderón. It was a period of external greatness, of conquest both in Europe and beyond the Atlantic, but it contained the germs of future decay. The strength of the nation was exhausted in futile warfare, and virile thought was stifled by the Inquisition, supported by the monarchs. Hence the luxuriant literature of the time runs in the channels farthest from underlying social problems; philosophy and political satire are absent, and the romantic drama, novel and lyric flourish. But in all external qualities the poetry written during this period has never been equaled in Spain. Its polish, color and choiceness of language have been the admiration and model of later Castilian poets.

The superficial nature of this literature is exhibited in the controversy excited by the efforts of Boscán and Garcilaso to substitute Italian forms for the older Spanish ones. The discussion dealt with externals; with meters, not ideas. Both schools delighted in the airy nothings of the conventional love lyric, and it matters little at this distance whether they were cast in lines of eleven or eight syllables.
The contest was warm at the time, however. Sá de Miranda (1495-1558), the chief exponent of the Italian school in Portugal, wrote effectively also in Castilian. Gutierre de Cetina (1518?-1572?) and Fernando de Acuña (1500?-1580?) are two others who supported the new measures. One whose example had more influence is Diego Hurtado de page xxi Mendoza (1503-1575), a famous diplomat, humanist and historian. He entertained his idle moments with verse, writing cleverly in the old style but turning also toward the new. His sanction for the latter seems to have proved decisive.

Cristóbal de CASTILLEJO (1490-1556) was the chief defender of the native Spanish forms. He employed them himself in light verse with cleverness, clearness and finish, and also attacked the innovators with all the resources of a caustic wit. In this patriotic task he was for a time aided by an organist of the cathedral at Granada, Gregorio Silvestre (1520-1569), of Portuguese birth. Silvestre, however, who is noted for the delicacy of his poems in whatever style, was later attracted by the popularity of the Italian meters and adopted them.

This literary squabble ended in the most natural way, namely, in the co-existence of both manners in peace and harmony. Italian forms were definitively naturalized in Spain, where they have maintained their place ever since. Subsequent poets wrote in either style or both as they felt moved, and no one reproached them. Such was the habit of Lope de Vega, Góngora, Quevedo and the other great writers of the seventeenth century.

A Sevillan Italianate was Fernando de HERRERA
(1534?-1597), admirer and annotator of Garcilaso. Although an ecclesiastic, his poetic genius was more virile than
that of his soldier master. He wrote Petrarchian sonnets to his platonic lady; but his martial, patriotic spirit
appears in his _canciones_, especially in those on the
battle of Lepanto and on the expedition of D. Sebastian of Portugal in Africa. In these stirring odes Herrera touches a sonorous, grandiloquent chord which rouses the page xxii reader's enthusiasm and places the writer in the first
rank of Spanish lyrists. He is noteworthy also in that
he made an attempt to create a poetic language by the
rejection of vulgar words and the coinage of new ones.
Others, notably Juan de Mena, had attempted it before, and Góngora afterward carried it to much greater lengths; but the idea never succeeded in Castilian to an extent nearly so great as it did in France, for example; and to-day the best poetical diction does no