#I. The Legend#. Constancy in love has inspired many writers and hasgiven undying fame to many legends and traditions. Among the famouslovers that have passed into legend and that stand as the embodiment ofconstant love in different ages and in different countries,—Pyramus andThisbe, Hero and Leander, Tristam and Isolde, Romeo and Juliet,—are tobe found Marsilla and Isabel. These Lovers of Teruel
, as constant asany of the others, are especially notable because of the purity of theirlove and because of the absence of violence in their sudden departurefrom this life. Disappointed love, desperate grief at separation, wasthe only cause of their death.
The old city of Teruel, founded by the Aragonese in the latter half ofthe twelfth century at the junction of the Guadalaviar and the Alfambraas a stronghold in the territory recently recovered from the Moors, wasthe fitting scene for the action of the legend…. The pioneer life ofthe city, the depth of sentiment and singleness of purpose of itsAragonese inhabitants, the crusading spirit that carried to victory thearmies of Peter II of Aragón and his more famous son, James theConqueror, lend probability to a legend that would ordinarily beconsidered highly improbable from the point of view of historicalauthenticity. Stripped of the fantastic details that have gathered aboutit in the many literary treatments given to it by Spanish writers, thelegend may be briefly told. In Teruel, at the beginning of thethirteenth century, lived Juan Diego Martínez Garcés de Marsilla andIsabel de Segura. They had loved each other from childhood, but when itbecame a question of marriage, Isabel's father opposed the unionbecause of the young man's lack of material resources and because awealthy suitor, Rodrigo de Azagra, had presented himself for the hand ofhis daughter. All that the entreaties of the lovers could gain from himwas the promise that if Marsilla went to the wars, gained fame andriches, and returned before a certain day, he would receive Isabel inmarriage. This Marsilla did; but unfortunately he was unable to returnuntil just after the expiration of the time set. When he reached Teruel,he found Isabel married to the wealthy rival. Disappointed in theirhopes after so many years of constant love and continual struggleagainst adversity, Marsilla died of grief, and Isabel soon followed him;separated in life by cruel fate, they were united in death. Buried inthe same tomb, they were later disinterred, and their mummified remainsmay now be seen in the old church of San Pedro in Teruel.
#II. Authenticity of the Legend#. The earliest references that haveyet been found to the legend belong to the middle of the sixteenthcentury, that is, more than three centuries after the supposed death ofthe lovers.
In 1555, when the church of San Pedro in Teruel wasundergoing some repairs, two bodies, supposedly those of Marsilla andIsabel, were discovered in one tomb in a remarkably good state ofpreservation. They were reburied at the foot of the altar in the chapelof Saints Cosme and Damian, and the story of the unfortunate loversbegan to spread far and wide. By the end of the century it wasapparently widely known and attracted considerable attention to the oldcity of Teruel. When Philip III of Spain was journeying to Valencia in1599 he was induced to turn aside to visit the church of San Pedro. Inthe official account of his journey, "Jornada de Su Majestad Felipe IIIy Alteza la Infanta Doña Isabel, desde Madrid, a casarse el Rey con laReyna Doña Margarita, y su Alteza con el Archiduque Alberto," the storyof the legend as then generally accepted is related so succinctly thatit may well be quoted here: "En la iglesia de San Pedro, en la capillade San Cosme y San Damián, de la dicha ciudad, está la sepultura de losAmantes que llaman de Teruel; y dicen eran un mancebo y una doncella quese querían mucho, ella rica y él al contrario; y como él pidiese pormujer la doncella y por ser pobre no se la diesen, se determinó a ir porel mundo a adquerir hacienda y ella aguardarle ciertos años, al cabo delos cuales y dos o tres días más, volvió rico y halló que aquella nochese casaba la doncella. Tuvo trazas de meterse debajo de su cama y amedia noche le pidió un abrazo, dándose a conocer; ella le dijo que nopodía por no ser ya suya, y él murió luego al punto.
Lleváronle aenterrar, y ella fué al entierro, y cuando le querían echar en lasepultura, se arrimó a la ataúd y quedó allí muerta; y así losenterraron juntos en una sepultura, sabido el caso."
Seventeen years later a long epic poem by the secretary of the citycouncil of Teruel, Juan Yagüe de Salas, aroused much discussion as tothe authenticity of the legend. In 1619 the bodies were again exhumedand in the coffin of one of them were found written the words "Éste esDon Diego Juan Martínez de Marsilla"; also a document, "papel de letramuy antigua," giving the story in detail. This document disappeared, butthe copy that Juan Yagüe claimed to have made may be seen in thearchives of the church of San Pedro or in the transcription published inthe Semanario Pintoresco
for the week ending Feb. 5, 1837 (Vol. II,pages 45-47). The genuineness of the document and its copy is verydoubtful. The first paragraph shows some linguistic peculiarities of oldAragonese; but these gradually disappear, until there is little left inthe language to differentiate it from that of the good notary public andpoet, Juan Yagüe, who was so anxious to prove authenticity for thelegend treated in his poem. Although there is no reliable evidence thatthe bodies exhumed in 1555 and again in 1619
were those of Marsilla andIsabel, the church of San Pedro has held them in special reverence.They attract many admirers to the old city on the Guadalaviar and thetourist who expresses incredulity when shown the remains of the loversbecomes thereby
persona non grata
in Teruel.
For three centuries the controversy has continued and has resulted inthe spilling of much ink. The most complete and authoritative study ofthe sources and growth of the legend is that of the eminent scholarCotarelo y Mori
(Sobre el origen y desarrollo de la leyenda de LosAmantes de Teruel
, 2d edition, 1907). His conclusions support thetheory that the legend is the result of the localization in Teruel ofthe story of the unfortunate Florentine lovers, Girolamo and Salvestra,as related by Boccaccio in his
Decameron
, Book IV, Novel 8. He refutesthe arguments advanced by the supporters of the authenticity of thelegend, calls attention to the suspicious nature of all the documents,and maintains the thesis that Boccaccio's story found its way into Spaintoward the end of the fourteenth century and took the form of the legendof the
Lovers of Teruel
about the middle of the sixteenth century, atwhich time it first appeared definitely in Spanish literature.
Themajority of literary critics and historians accept Cotarelo y Mori'sconclusions; others, however, refuse to give up the historic basis ofthe legend. They cannot deny, of course, the evident similarity of thestories; they explain it by saying that the story of the constant loverswho died in Teruel in 1217 was carried to Italy by Aragonese soldiers ormerchants, was heard by the Italian novelist, and used by him as thebasis for his story of Girolamo and Salvestra.
#III. The Legend in Spanish Literature.# Very few of the famouslegends of the world rest upon documentary evidence, and the fact thatthe legend of the
Lovers of Teruel
lacks historic proof has had littleinfluence upon its popularity. It has been productive of muchliterature, the extent of which is indicated by the two hundred or moretitles contained in the bibliography[l]
published by Domingo Gascón yGuimbao in 1907. Of the many poems, plays, and novels inspired by thelegend only the most noteworthy can be mentioned here. The oldestliterary treatment is apparently that of Pedro de Alventosa, writtenabout the middle of the sixteenth century, Historia lastimosa y sentidade los tiernos amantes Marcilla y Segura
. This was followed in 1566 bya Latin poem of about five hundred lines by Antonio de Serón, publishedin 1907 by Gascón y Guimbao, with a Spanish translation and an excellentbibliography. In 1581 the legend was given dramatic treatment by Rey deArtieda, who followed the story in its essential elements but modernizedthe action by placing it in the time of Charles V, only forty-six yearsearlier than the publication of the play. It has little literary value,but is important because of its influence on later dramatists. Passingover various treatments of the theme that serve merely to indicate itsgrowing popularity, we come to the pretentious epic poem of Juan Yagüede Salas in twenty-six cantos,
Los Amantes de Teruel, Epopeya trágica
,in which, besides adding many fantastic details to the legend, theauthor presented much extraneous matter bearing upon the general historyof Teruel. Because of this widely known poem and the growing popularityof the
Lovers
, two dramatists of the Golden Age, Tirso de Molina andPérez de Montalbán, gave it their attention.
Los Amantes de Teruel
ofthe great Tirso de Molina, published in 1635, is disappointing,considering the dramatic ability of the author; it contains passages ofdramatic effectiveness but is weak in construction. As in Rey deArtieda's play, the action is placed in the sixteenth century; Marsillatakes part in the famous expedition of Charles V against the Moors inTunis, saves the Emperor's life, and, richly rewarded, returns, toolate, to claim the promised bride. It is a better play than that ofArtieda, but is itself surpassed by Montalbán's play of three yearslater. Although he was far from possessing the dramatic genius of Tirso,Montalbán succeeded in giving the story the form that it was to maintainon the stage for two centuries. Frequent performances and many editionsof his play, as well as many other literary treatments and referencesthat might be cited, attest the continued popularity of the legend.
[Footnote 1:
Los Amantes de Teruel, Bibliografía de los Amantes
.
Domingo Gascón y Guimbao, Madrid, 1907.]
Finally, in the early days of Romanticism, it assumed the dramatic formthat has remained most popular down to the present day. On thenineteenth of January of the year 1837 the theatergoing people of Madridwere moved to vociferous applause by a new treatment of the old theme,and a new star of the literary firmament was recognized in the person ofJuan Eugenio Hartzenbusch. In his dramatic masterpiece Hartzenbuscheclipsed all the other plays that have dealt with the legend, and morethan twenty editions stand as proof of its continued popularity. Besidesthese many editions of the play, numerous novels, poems, and operas haveappeared from time to time. For the most complete bibliography down to1907 the reader is again referred to that of the official historian ofTeruel, Gascón y Guimbao. We must now turn our attention to the authorof the best dramatic treatment of the legend.
#IV. Life of Hartzenbusch#. Juan Eugenio Hartzenbusch, born in 1806,was the only son of a German cabinet-maker who had wandered to Spainfrom his home near Cologne, married a Spanish girl, and opened up a shopin Madrid. The son inherited from his German father and Spanish mothertraits of character that were exemplified later in his life andwritings. From his father he received a fondness for meditation,conscientious industry in acquiring sound scholarship, and the patienceneeded for the continual revision of his plays; from his mother came hisardent imagination and love of literature. Childhood and youth were forhim a period of disappointment and struggle against adversity. Less thantwo years old when his mother died after a short period of insanitycaused by the sight of bloodshed in the turbulent streets of Madrid in1808, he was left to the care of a brooding father who had littlesympathy with his literary aspirations, but who did wish to give him thebest education he could afford. He received a common school educationand was permitted to spend the four years from 1818 to 1822 in theCollege of San Isidro. As a result of the political troubles in Spain in1823, the father's business, never very prosperous, fell away and theson had to leave college to help in the workshop. He was thus compelledto spend a large part of his time in making furniture, although hisinclination was toward literature.
His leisure was given to study and to the acquirement of a practicalknowledge of the dramatic art, gained for the most part from books,because of his father's dislike of the theater and because of the lackof money for any unnecessary expenditure. He translated several Frenchand Italian plays, adapted others to Spanish conditions, and recastvarious
comedias
of the
Siglo de Oro
, with a view to making themmore suitable for presentation. He tried his hand also at originalproduction and succeeded in getting some of his plays on the stage, onlyto have them withdrawn almost immediately. Undiscouraged by repeatedfailure, he continued studying and writing, more determined than ever tobecome a successful dramatist and thus realize the ambition that waskindled in him by the first dramatic performance that he had witnessedwhen he had already reached manhood.
At the time of his marriage in 1830 he was still helping his ailing anddespondent father in the workshop; more interested undoubtedly in hisliterary pursuits, but ever faithful to the call of duty. Until successas a dramatist made it possible for him to gain a living for his familyby literature, he continued patiently his manual labor. At his father'sdeath he closed the workshop and for a short time became dependent fora livelihood on stenography, with which he had already eked out theslender returns from the labor of his hands.
Meanwhile, during these last years of apprenticeship in whichHartzenbusch was gaining complete mastery of his art by continual studyand practice, the literary revolution known as Romanticism was makingrapid progress. The death of the despotic Ferdinand VII in 1833 removedthe restraint that had been imposed upon literature as well as uponpolitical ideas. The theories of the French and English Romanticistswere penetrating Spanish literary circles, to be taken up eagerly by theyounger dramatists; political exiles of high social and literaryprestige, such as Martínez de la Rosa and the Duque de Rivas, werereturning to Spain with plays and poems composed according to the newtheories; the natural reaction from the logical, unemotional ideals ofthe Classicists was developing conditions favorable to the revolution.The first year of the struggle between the two schools of literature,1834, gave the Romanticists two important victories in the
Conjuraciónde Venecia
of Martinez de la Rosa, and the
Macías
of José de Larra,two plays that show clearly Romantic tendencies but that avoid an abruptbreak with the Classical theories. They served to prepare the way forthe thoroughly Romantic play of the Duque de Rivas,
Don Álvaro o lafuerza del sino
, a magnificent, though disordered, drama that gainedfor the Romanticists a decisive victory in 1835, a victory overClassicism in Spain similar to that gained in Paris five years earlierby the famous Hernani
of Victor Hugo, leader of the FrenchRomanticists. In 1836 the equally successful performance of ElTrovador
, the Romantic play of García Gutiérrez, confirmed the victorygained by the Romanticists with Don Álvaro
, and gave clear indicationthat the literary revolution was complete. The temper of the time wasdecidedly Romantic, and the wholehearted applause that resounded throughthe Teatro del Príncipe on the night of Jan. 19, 1837, at the firstperformance of
Los Amantes de Teruel
put an end to the long andlaborious apprenticeship of Hartzenbusch.
A few days later the warm reception given the play and its continuedpopularity were justified in a remarkable piece of dramatic criticism bythe rival playwright and keen literary critic, José de Larra, knownbetter by his journalistic pen-name, Fígaro, and greatly feared by hiscontemporaries for his mordant criticism and stinging satire. In theopening words of his review of the play, we may see the highly favorableattitude of the critic and realize the suddenness of the fame that cameto Hartzenbusch.
"Venir a aumentar el número de los vivientes, ser unhombre más donde hay tantos hombres, oír decir de sí: 'Es un talfulano,' es ser un árbol más en una alameda. Pero pasar cinco o seislustros oscuro y desconocido, y llegar una noche entre otras, convocar aun pueblo, hacer tributaria su curiosidad, alzar una cortina, conmoverel corazón, subyugar el juicio, hacerse aplaudir y aclamar, y oír al díasiguiente de sí mismo al pasar por una calle o por el Prado: 'Aquél esel escritor de la comedia aplaudida,' eso es algo; es nacer; es devolveral autor de nuestros días por un apellido oscuro un nombre claro; es daralcurnia a sus ascendientes en vez de recibirla de ellos."[2] Othercontemporary reviews were just as favorable, and all expressed withFígaro great hopes in the career of a dramatist that had thus begun withan acknowledged masterpiece. The
Semanario Pintoresco
, for example, aliterary magazine in its second year of publication, ended its review ofthe play with these words: "El joven que, saliendo de la oscuridad deltaller de un artesano, se presenta en el mundo literario con los Amantesde Teruel por primera prueba de su talento, hace concebir al teatroespañol la fundada esperanza de futuros días de gloria, y de verseelevado a la altura que un día ocupó en la admiración del mundocivilizado." (Feb. 5, 1837.)
[Footnote 2:
Obras completas de Fígaro.
Paris, 1889. Vol. III, page187.]
Thus encouraged by popular applause and by the enthusiastic praise ofliterary critics, Hartzenbusch produced at varying intervals manyexcellent plays, but none of them surpassed or even equaled his Amantesde Teruel
. Many of them, characterized by careful workmanship, dramaticeffectiveness, and fine literary finish, are well worth studying, anddeserve more attention than can be given them here. They offer all kindsof drama: tragedies such as
Doña Mencía
, in which the exaggerations ofRomanticism are given free rein; historical plays, in which strikingincidents in Spanish history or legend are given dramatic treatment;fantastic plays, such as La redoma encantada
, in which magic plays animportant part; comedies of character and manners, such as La coja y elencogido
, in which contemporary life found humorous presentation. Thebest of them may be read in the three volumes published in thewell-known series
Colección de Escritores Castellanos
. For literarycriticism the student is referred to the books mentioned later in thebibliography.
The love of study grew stronger in Hartzenbusch as the opportunity todevote himself to it became greater, so that after he had had severalplays presented with considerable success, scholarship began to absorbmore and more of his time and the intervals between plays began tolengthen. Literary criticism, editorial work in connection with neweditions of the Spanish classics, his duties as assistant and, later,chief librarian of the Biblioteca Nacional, these, with the productionfrom time to time of a new play, made him a well-known figure in theliterary life of Madrid. His was the quiet life of the modern man ofletters, to whom the incidents of greatest interest are of theintellectual order: the production of a new play, the publication of anew book of literary or scholarly value, the discovery of an oldmanuscript or the announcement of a new theory, the admission of a newmember to the Spanish Academy. Serenely tolerant in his outlook uponlife, of gentle disposition and ready sympathy, unaffectedly modest,indifferent to the accumulation of property beyond the needs of hissimple mode of living, conscientious in the performance of all hisduties, he retained to the end of his life the personal esteem of hismany friends. When death put an end in 1880 to the long illness thatsaddened the last years of his life, his mortal remains were conductedto the tomb with all due ceremony by the Spanish Academy, to whichmembership had been granted him in 1847 as a recognition of hisexcellent work as dramatist and scholar.
The productivity of Hartzenbusch, as well as his versatility, would beremarkable in any country but Spain. The
Bibliografía de Hartzenbusch
,prepared by his son and published in 1900,[3] stands as proof of thegreat extent and diversity of his productions; four hundred pages areneeded for the bibliographical data connected with his many publicationsand for a few extracts from his unpublished writings. Hundreds of titlesof dramas, poems, addresses, essays, literary criticism, scholarlycommentaries, indicate the versatility of his talent and his tirelessindustry.
[Footnote 3:
Bibliografía de Hartzenbusch
. Eugenio Hartzenbusch.
Madrid, 1900.]
#V. Hartzenbusch's Treatment of the Legend.# Apparently Hartzenbuschhad given much study and thought to the famous legend of the
Lovers ofTeruel
. At first it was his intention to use it in an historical novel,but only the first few pages of this have been preserved (
Bibliografíade Hartzenbusch
). Believing that the legend could be better treated indramatic form, he applied himself enthusiastically to the constructionof the play in accordance with the new theories that were becomingpopular, and had it ready for production when a copy of José de Larra's
Macías
came into his hands. What was his astonishment to find that theplot of his play was so similar to that of Macías
that no one would belikely to accept the similarity as a mere coincidence. Patiently hereconstructed it and had it published in 1836, if the date on the titlepage of the oldest edition is to be accepted as accurate.[4] Ifpublished in 1836, the author remained in obscurity until the firstperformance of the play, January 19 of the following year, made himfamous.
[Footnote 4:
Los Amantes de Teruel
, drama en cinco actos en prosa yverso por Juan Eugenio Hartzenbusch. Madrid. Imprenta de D. José MaríaRepullés. 1836.]
Many difficulties beset the dramatist in the construction of the play.The legend that served as plot was already known to all, so that theelement of suspense could not be used to any great extent. Moreover, theclimax was not in itself dramatic; the death of two lovers through griefat separation, pathetic though it be, lacked the tragic element of othersimilar stories in which death resulted from violence. The dénouement
,the probability of which would not be generally accepted, had to beretained in the treatment of a legend so widely known, a legend in whichthe essential originality consisted in this very improbability.
Carefulpreparation throughout the whole play was needed, then, for thisimprobable dénouement
, pathetic, rather than tragic; dramaticincidents had to be supplied by the author's own inventiveness, thecharacters had to be carefully delineated, the motivation carefullyconsidered. How successfully the author was able to overcome thesedifficulties, with what dramatic skill he was able to succeed wheredramatists such as Tirso de Molina and Montalbán were only partiallysuccessful, careful study of the play will reveal.
The play as given in this edition differs in many ways from the play asfirst presented in 1837. More than once the author returned to it, andthe numerous editions needed to supply the popular and continuous demandgave him the opportunity to revise it and give it the most artisticfinish of which he was capable.
Changed literary conditions afterRomanticism had run its course are reflected in the more sober dress ofthe revised play; there are reflected in it, too, the greaterrestraint, the more scholarly and critical attention to characterdelineation and literary finish befitting a man who had passed from thewarm impulsiveness of youth to the calm rationality of middle age. Thestudent who takes the trouble to compare the text of this edition withthat of the first will see many changes: the five acts are reduced tofour; some of the prose scenes are now in poetic form; the diction ismuch improved generally and obscure passages are made clear; somechanges in motivation are to be noted, especially in the scenes leadingup to the voluntary marriage of Isabel with Azagra; the mother'scharacter is notably ennobled. On the whole, the play has gained bythese revisions; what it has lost in freshness and spontaneity has beenmore than counterbalanced by the more careful delineation of character,improved motivation of action, correctness of diction, and literaryfinish.
The play in its first form is undoubtedly a better example ofRomanticism in all its phases, its tendencies toward exaggeration, itscrudities of thought and expression, combined with qualities unsurpassedin any other period of literature; in its revised form it is a moreartistic production, is still a Romantic play, and one of the best inSpanish literature.
#VI. Romanticism.# Generally speaking, an author belongs to his ownage and country, is moved by the prevalent ideas and sentiments; hisoutlook upon life is similar to that of the majority of hiscontemporaries. Ordinarily then, a piece of literature of a past age isunderstood and fully appreciated only by the student who is able to viewit in its proper historical perspective, to see it through the eyes ofthose for whom it was written. Especially is this true of Romanticliterature, the production of ardent and youthful enthusiasts who foundthemselves suddenly emancipated from the rigid rules and formalism ofFrench pseudo-Classicism of the eighteenth century. The tendency inliterature, as in political and social life, is to pass in a pendulumswing from one extreme to the other, so that to appreciate the fine andenduring qualities of Romantic literature and to make due allowance forits exaggerations and other apparent faults, the student must knowsomething of the Romantic movement and of the Classicism thatimmediately preceded it. Moreover, his purpose in reading a literarymasterpiece is not merely to understand and appreciate it in itself, butalso to gain through it some understanding of the age or literarymovement of which it is a representative. In order, then, that LosAmantes de Teruel
may be more fully appreciated as a dramaticmasterpiece, and in order that through it the student may come to afuller understanding of Romanticism, his attention is now directed tothe essential characteristics of this important literary movement.
Romanticism in Spanish literature is the name given to the literaryrevolt that began about 1830 against pseudo-Classicism. A similar revolthad already freed the other literatures of Europe, so that the manySpanish exiles who had been forced to seek refuge for political reasonsin England or on the Continent there became familiar with the new ideasin literature. Ardent converts to the new literary ideals, thesepolitical exiles, when permitted to return to Spain at the death of thedespotic Ferdinand VII in 1833, became the leaders in a literaryrevolution that soon swept away all opposition. The logical reactionfrom the rigid rules and formalism, new ideas in political and sociallife weakened opposition so rapidly and effectively that the Romanticpoetry and plays of the Duque de Rivas, Espronceda, García Gutiérrez,Hartzenbusch, and others found a ready and enthusiastic welcome.
In the comparison that is to be made of Romanticism and Classicism, romantic
and
classic
are to be used in their technical, literarysense. As ordinarily used, romantic
means the extreme opposite ofprosaic or commonplace; in literary history, Romantic is used todescribe the movement known as Romanticism. Classic, in its oldest andordinary acceptation, means the best of its class or kind; in itsliterary sense,
classic
, or
classical
, is usually applied to thetype of literature that harmonized so completely with eighteenth centuryrationalism, the Classicism, or rather pseudo-Classicism, which,enthroned in France, ruled all literary Europe until the closing yearsof the century. In the following comparison, Classic, Classicist, andClassicism are the opposites of Romantic, Romanticist, and Romanticism.
Romanticism, in its general application to all kinds of literature andto the literatures of all countries where it made itself effectivelyfelt, shows the following characteristics: 1.
Subjectivity
, the introduction of the personal note, the expressionby the author of his own individual feelings and ideas. The Classicist,aiming at universality and completeness, considered only the typical andeternal as suitable material for literature and carefully excludedwhatever seemed peculiar to himself; his ideal was to give perfectliterary form to ideas and sentiments acceptable to mankind generally,tr