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SPANISH
LITERATURE
The name Spanish in connexion with literature is now generally restricted to See also:works in the Castilian See also:tongue
.
In the See also:present See also:article it is taken in the wider sense as embracing the See also:literary productions of the whole Iberian See also:Peninsula, with the exceptions of See also:Portugal and of See also:Galicia, the latter of which, as regards See also:language and literature, belongs to the Portuguese domain
.
Spanish literature thus considered falls into twA divisions—Castilian and Catalan
.
I
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Castilian Literature.—Of the Castilian texts now extant none is of earlier date than the 12th See also:century, and very probably none goes farther back than 1150
.
The See also:text generally accepted as the See also:oldest—the See also:Mystery of the Magian See also:Kings, as it is rather inappropriately designated by most historians of literature—is a fragment of a See also:short semi-liturgical See also:play meant to be acted
in the See also: Whilst in the Poema the Cid appears as the loyal See also:vassal, deploring the See also:necessity of separating from his king, the Cid of the second poem, CrOnica rimada del Cid, is almost a See also:rebel and at least a refractory vassal who dares treat his See also:sovereign as an equal . The portion of the CrOnica which has been preserved deals in the See also:main with the youth of Rodrigo; it contains the See also:primitive version of his quarrel with the See also:Count See also:Gomez de Gormaz and the marriage of the slayer with Ximena, the Count's daughter, and also a See also:series of fabulous episodes, such as the Cid's See also:journey to France to fight with the twelve peers of See also:Charlemagne, &c . The Poema, which survives in a 14th-century See also:manuscript, be-longs to about the See also:middle of the 12th century; the See also:form under which the CrOnica text has reached us is at least two centuries later; but, on the other See also:hand, several traditions collected by the author See also:bear an incontestable See also:stamp of antiquity . The versification of both poems is irregular . Normally this epic measure may be. divided into two hemistichs of seven or eight syllables each; but here the lines sometimes fall short of this number and sometimes exceed it; the strophes follow the See also:model of the laisses of the See also:French chansons de geste—that is, they have a single assonance and vary greatly in extent . A fragment of an epic poem on the infantes de See also:Lara has been reconstituted from the CrOnica See also:general by Ramon Menendez Pidal (1896) ; if similar poems existed on real personages like See also:Roderick, or mythical heroes like Bernardo del Carpio, they have not survived . Still the frequent allusions in the See also:chronicles to the narratives of the juglares suggest that Castilian heroic poetry was richer than the scarcity of the monuments now extant would See also:lead us to believe . Fernan Gonzalez, first in-dependent count of See also:Castile (loth century), has alone been celebrated in a poem composed (about 1250 or later) in single-See also:rhyme quatrains . With the heroic poetry which takes its themes from the national history and legends, there See also:grew up in the 13th century a school Poems of of religious and didactic poetry, the most eminent 13th Gen- representative of which is Gonzalo de Berceo (1 18o?-tiny . 1246?) . This poet, See also:born at Berceo (Logrono), composed several lives of Spanish See also:saints, and other devotional poems, such as the Miracles and the Praises of the Virgin . Berceo calls his poems prosa, decir, dictado, indicating thereby that he intended them to be read and recited, not sung like the cantares .
They are written in single-rhyme quatrains and in verses of twelve to fourteen syllables, according its the ending of each hemistich is masculine or feminine
.
In the same See also:metre were composed, also in the 13th century, two See also:long poems—one on See also: By way of precaution, the poet represents himself as one who has survived his illusions, and maintains that carnal love (loco amor) must finally give See also:place to divine love; but this See also:mask of devotion cannot disguise the real See also:character of the See also:work . The Rimado de palacio of Pero See also:Lopez de See also:Ayala, See also:chancellor of Castile at the end of the 14th century, does not refer exclusively to See also:court life; the author satirizes with great severity the vices of all classes of laymen and church-men . Akin to this Rimado de palacio are the proverbios morales of the See also:Jew Sem Tob of Carrion, dedicated to See also:Peter the Cruel (1350 to 1369) . The Poema de Alfonso Onceno, by Rodrigo Yanez, is a far-off See also:echo of the epical poems, the laisses being superseded by octo-syllabic lines with alternate rhymes . The General See also:Dance of See also:Death and a new version of the Debate between Soul and Body, both in eight-See also:line strophes of arte See also:mayor (verses of twelve syllables), and both imitated from French originals, are usually referred to this period; they both belong, however, to the 15th century . The word " See also:romance " not only signifies in See also:Spain, as in other Romanic countries, the vulgar tongue, but also bears the See also:special meaning of a short epic narrative poem (historic Romances. ballad) or, at a later date, a short lyric poem . As regards the form, the " romance " (Spanish el romance, in contrast to French, &c., la romance) is a composition in long verses of sixteen syllables ending with one assonance; these verses are often wrongly divided into two short lines, the first of which, naturally, is rhymeless . This being the form of the romance See also:verse, the CrOnica rimada del Cid, and even the Poema (though in this See also:case the See also:influence of the French alexandrines is perceptible), might be considered as a series of romances; and in fact several of the old romances of the Cid, which form each an See also:independent whole and were printed as See also:separate poems in the 16th century, are partly to be found in the CrOnica . Other romances, notably those dealing with the heroes of the Carolingian epic, so popular in Spain, or with the legendary figures which Spanish patriotism opposed to the French paladins—as, for example, Bernardo del Carpio, the See also:rival and the conqueror of See also:Roland in Castilian tradition—seem to be detached fragments of the canlares de gesta mentioned by Alphonso X . At the close of the 15th century, and especially during the 16th, the romances, which had previously passed from mouth to mouth, began to be written down, and afterwards to be printed, at first on broadsheets (pliegos sueltos) and subsequently in collections (romanceros) ; these are either general collections, in which romances of very different date, character and subject are gathered together, or are collections restricted tc a single See also:episode or personage (for example, the Romancero 5 8 o del Cid) . In such romanceros the epic verse is usually regarded as octosyllabic and is printed as such; occasionally certain See also:editions See also:divide the romance into strophes of four verses (cuartetas) . King Alphonso X .
(d
.
1284), under whose patronage were published the See also:code entitled See also:Las Siete partidas and several great See also:Prose scientific compilations (such as the Libros de astro-Chronkles, nomia and the Lapidario), was also the founder of 13th-See also:pith Spanish historiography in the vulgar tongue
.
The Centuries
.
CrOnica general, composed under his direction, consists of two distinct parts: the one treats of universal history from the creation of the See also:world to the first centuries of the See also:Christian era (La General a See also: With these royal chronicles should be mentioned some See also:biographies of important persons . Thus in the 15th century the chronicle of Pedro Nino, count of Buelna (1375-Biographies . 1446), by Gutierre See also:Diez de See also:Games; that of AIvaro de See also:Luna, See also:constable of Castile (d . 1453); and a curious book of travels, the narrative of the See also:embassy sent by Henry III. of Castile to Timur in 1403, written by the See also:head of the See also:mission, Ruy Gonzalez de See also:Clavijo . The other productions of Castilian prose in the 13th and 14th centuries are for the most part didactic and sententious 0therprose compositions, which, however, contain illustrations worts of or tales of Eastern origin . The Spanish See also:translation 13th and of Kalila and Dimna, made See also:direct from an Arabic 14th text, See also:dates from the middle of the 13th century, Centuries . and the romance of the Seven Sages (Sindibad), translated under the title of Libro de los enganos P asayatnientos de las mugeres, is referred to 1253 . From the second See also:half of the 13th century the collections of aphorisms, dits, apologues and moral tales become very numerous: first of all, versions of the Secretion secretorum, attributed in the middle ages to See also:Aristotle, one of which is entitled Poridat de las poridades, next the Proverbios buenos, the Bocados de oro or Libro de bonium, Rey de See also:Persia and the Libro de los gatos, which is derived from the Narrationes of See also:Odo of Cheriton . During the first half of the 14th century the See also:nephew of Alphonso X., the[LITERATURE See also:infante Juan See also:Manuel, wrote the various works which place him in the first See also:rank of medieval Spanish prose writers . The best known is the collection of tales, many of them borrowed from See also:Oriental sources, entitled El See also:Conde Lucanor; but, besides this contribution to literature, he wrote graver and still more didactic See also:treatises . The knowledge of antiquity, previously so vague, made remarkable progress in the 14th century . Curiosity was awakened concerning certain episodes of ancient history, such as the See also:War of See also:Troy, and See also:Benoit de Sainte-More's poem and the Latin narrative of Guido delle Colonise were both translated . Lopez de Ayala translated, or caused to be translated, See also:Pierre Bersuire's French version of See also:Livy, See also:Boetius and various writings of Isidore of See also:Seville and See also:Boccaccio . While the Carolingian See also:cycle is mainly represented in Spain by assonanced romances, of which the oldest seem to be fragments of lost poems by the juglares, the See also:British cycle (See also:Lancelot, Tristram, See also:Merlin, &c.) is represented Books of See also:Chivalry . almost exclusively by works in prose (see ROMANCE) . Those narratives are known only in 15th and 16th century editions, and these have been more or less modified to suit the See also:taste of the time; but it is impossible not [to recognize that books such as El Baladro del See also:sable Merlin (1498) and La Demanda del sancto grial (1515) presuppose a considerable antecedent literature of which they are only the See also:afterglow . The See also:principal French romances of the See also:Round Table were translated and imitated in Spain and in Portugal as early as the first half of the 14th century at least; of that there is no doubt . 'And, even if there were not satisfactory testimony on this point, the prodigious development in Spanish literature of the caballerias, or " books of chivalry," incontrovertibly derived from See also:fictions of See also:Breton origin, would be See also:proof enough that at an early date the Spaniards were See also:familiar with these romantic tales derived from France . The oldest work of the. See also:kind is El See also:Caballero Cifar, composed at the beginning of the 14th century, but the first book of real importance in the series of strictly Spanish caballerias is the Amadis de Gaula . Certain considerations lead one to seek for the unknown author of the first Amadis in Portugal, where the romances of the Round Table were more highly appreciated than in Spain, and where they have exercised a deeper influence on the national literature . To Garci See also:Rodriguez de Montalvo, however, falls the honour of having preserved the book by See also:printing it; he made the See also:mistake of diluting the original text and of adding a continuation, Las Sergas de Esplandidn . Allied to Montalvo's Amadis with its supplementary Esplandidn (15io) are the See also:Don Florisando (151o) and the Lisuarte de Grecia (1514), the Amadis de Grecia (1514), the Don Florisel de Niquea (1532-1551), &e., which form what Cervantes called the " Amadis See also:sect." Parallel with the Amadises are the Palmerines, the most celebrated of which are Palmerin de See also:Oliva (1511), Primaleon (1512), and Palmerin de Inglaterre,which was first written in Portuguese by See also:Moraes Cabral . None of those caballerias inspired by the Amadis were printed or even written before the 16th century, and they bear the stamp of that period; but they cannot be separated from their medieval model, the spirit of which they have preserved . Among the caballerias we may also class some narratives derived from the Carolingian epic—the Historia del emperador Carlomagno y de los dote pares, a very popular version still reprinted of the French romance of Fierabras, the Espejo de caballerias, into which has passed a large part of See also:Boiardo's Orlando innamorato, the Historia de la reiga Sibilla, &c . 
The first half of the 15th century, or what comes almost to the same thing, the reign of John II. of Castile (1407-1454), is characterized as regards his literature (1) by the poetry of development of a court poetry, artificial and pre- 15th tentious; (2) by the influence of See also:Italian literature Century. on Castilian prose and poetry, the imitation of Boccaccio and See also:Dante, especially of the latter, which introduced into Spain a liking for See also:allegory; and (3) by more assiduous intercourse with antiquity . After the example of the Provencal troubadours whose literary doctrines had made their way into Castile through Portugal and See also:Catalonia, poetry was dramatic performances intended to explain to the faithful the now styled the arte de trobar . The arte de trobar is strictly " court " poetry, which consists of short pieces in complicated See also:measures—love plaints, debates, questions and repartees, motes with their glosas, See also:burlesque and satirical songs—verse wholly " occasional " and deficient in See also:charm when separated from its natural environment . In order to understand and appreciate these pieces they must be read in the collections made by the poets of the time, where each poem throws See also:light on the others . The most celebrated cancionero of the 15th century is that compiled for the amusement of his sovereign by Juan Alfonso de See also:Baena; it is, so to say, the See also:official collection of the poetic court of John II., although it also contains pieces by poets of earlier dates . After Baena's collection may be mentioned the Cancionero de Sticiiiga, which contains the Castilian poems of the trobadores who followed Alphonso V. of Aragon to See also:Naples . These cancioneros, consisting of the productions of a special See also:group, were succeeded by collections of a more See also:miscellaneous character in which versifiers of very different periods and localities are brought together, the pieces being classed simply according to their type . The earliest genuine Cancionero general (though it does not bear the title) is that compiled by Juan Fernandez de Constantina, which appears to have been issued from the Valencia See also:press at the beginning of the 16th century; the second, much better known, was published for the first time at Valencia in 151I by Hernando del Castillo . The other poetic school of the 15th century, which claims to be specially related to the Italians, had as its leaders Juan de See also:Mena, author of the Coronaci6n and the Laberinto de See also:Fortuna, and the See also:marquis of See also:Santillana, Ingo Lopez de See also:Mendoza, who in his sonnets was, perhaps, the first to imitate the structure of the Italian hendecasyllabics . With those two chiefs, who may be designated poelas as distinguished from the decidores and the trobadores of the cancioneros, must be ranked Francisco Imperial, a Genoese by descent, who at a somewhat earlier date helped to acclimatize in Spain the forms of Italian poetry . The marquis of Santillana occupies a considerable place in the literature of the 15th century not only by See also:reason of his poems, but through the sup-See also:port he afforded to all the writers of his time, and the impulse he gave to the study of antiquity and to the labours of translators . In the next See also:generation the most prominent figures are Gomez See also:Manrique and Jorge Manrique, the latter of whom has produced a short poem which is a masterpiece . With the exception of the chronicles and some caballerias the prose of the 15th century contains little that is striking. prose or The translation of See also:Virgil by Enrique de See also:Villena 15th Gen- is ponderous and shows no advance on the versions iury of Latin authors made in the previous century . A curious and amusing book, full of details about Spanish See also:manners, is the Corbacho (1438) of the archpriest of Talavera, Alfonso Martinez de Toledo, See also:chaplain to King John II.; the Corbacho belongs to the numerous See also:family of satires against See also:women, and this title, by which it is commonly known—borrowed from a work of Boccaccio's, with which it has otherwise nothing in See also:common—indicates that he has not spared them . The ancient liturgical Spanish See also:theatre is known to us only by fragments of the play of the Magian Kings, already nramatb mentioned; but certain regulations given in the Literature . Siete partidas (compiled between 1252 and 1257) prove that such a theatre existed, and that at the great festivals, such as See also:Christmas, Epiphany and See also:Easter, dramatic representations were given in church . These repre- sentations, originally a See also:simple commentary on the See also:liturgy, were gradually adulterated with buffoonery, which frequently brought down the censure of the See also:clergy . Alphonso X. even thought it necessary to forbid the " clerks " playing juegos de escarnios, and permitted in the See also:sanctuary only dramas destined to commemorate the principal episodes of the life of See also:Christ . Of all the Church festivals, the most popular in Spain was that of Corpus Christi, instituted by See also:Urban IV. in 1264 . At an early date the celebration of this festival was accompanied with eucharistic mystery . These dramas, called autos sacramentales, acquired more and more importance; in the 17th century, with See also:Calderon, they become grand allegorical pieces, regular theological See also:dissertations in the form of dramas . To the auto sacra-See also:mental corresponds the auto at nacimiento, or See also:drama of the Nativity . In Spain, as elsewhere, the See also:secular theatre is a product of the religious theatre . Expelled from the Church, the juegos de escarnios took See also:possession of the public squares and there attained See also:free development; ceasing to be a See also:mere See also:travesty of See also:dogma, they See also:developed into a drama whose See also:movement is no longer determined by the liturgy, and whose actors are borrowed from real life in Spanish society . This new theatre begins towards the close of the 15th century, with the See also:pastoral pieces of Juan del See also:Encina, which, after Virgil's example, he calls eglogas . Genuine shepherds are the interlocutors of these See also:bucolics, into which are also sometimes introduced students, and Lucas Fernandez, a contemporary and See also:pupil of Encina's, introduces gentlemen and soldiers . A book which, strictly speaking, does not belong to the theatre, the Tragicomedia de Calixto y Melibea, much better known as La See also:Celestina, caused the new theatre, still rudimentary in the attempts of the school of Encina, to make a step onwards . This astonishing novel taught the Spaniards the See also:art of See also:dialogue, and for the first time exhibited persons of all classes of society (particularly the lowest) speaking in See also:harmony with their natural surroundings . The progress caused by the Celestina may be estimated by means of the Propaladia of Bartolome de Torres Naharro, a collection of pieces represented at See also:Rome in presence of See also:Leo X . Torres Naharro is thought to have borrowed from France the See also:division of the play into " days " (tornados); shortly after Naharro we find the See also:comedy of manners in Lope de See also:Rueda, whose dramatic work is composed of regular comedies constructed on the model of Italian authors of the beginning of the 16th century, and also of little pieces intended for performance in the intervals between the larger plays (entremeses and pasos), some of which are See also:models of sprightly wit . Some of Naharro's, and especially of Rueda's, pieces foreshadow the comedy of intrigue, which is emphatically the type of the classic See also:stage . But to reach Lope de See also:Vega, the Spanish stage had to be enlarged in relation to national history . A poet of Seville, Juan de la Cueva, first brought on the boards subjects such as the exploits of the Cid, Bernardo del Carpio, and others, which had previously been treated of only in the romances . To a poet called Berrio, of whose work nothing has been preserved, are attributed the comedias of See also:Moors and Christians, in which were represented famous episodes of the ;.ge-long struggle against the infidel . And it was at this period (1585) that Cervantes experimented in the drama; in his Tratos de Argel he gives us a picture of See also:galley-life, recollections of his long captivity in See also:Algiers . There is no need to linger over the attempts at tragedy of the ancient type by Jeronimo Bermfidez, Cristobal de Virues, Lupercio Leonardo de'Argensoia, &c., the only successful specimen of which is the Numancia of Cervantes; these works, mere exercises in style and versification, remained without influence on the development of the Spanish stage .
The pre-classic period of this stage is, as regards dramatic form, one of indecision
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Some write in prose, like Rueda; others, like Naharro, show a preference for the redondillas of popular poetry; and there are those again who, to elevate the style of the stage, versify in hendecasyllabics
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Hesitation is also evident as to the mode of dividing the drama
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At first a division into five acts, after the manner of the ancients, is adopted, and this is followed by Cervantes in his early pieces; then Juan de la Cueva reduced the five acts to four, and in this he is imitated by most poets till the close of the 16th century (Lope de Vega himself in his youth composed pieces in four acts)
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Francisco de Avendafio divided his Florisea into three acts as early as 1551, but his example was not followed till about See also:forty years later, when this division was generally adopted in all dramatic works—with the exception of short pieces like the loa (See also:prologue), the entremes, the paso, the baile (different kinds of entr'acte)
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The See also:golden See also:age of Spanish literature belongs to the 16th and 17th centuries, extending approximately from 1550 to 1650
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Classic Age, Previous to the reign of the Catholic sovereigns 16th and there exists, strictly speaking, only a Castilian 17th Cen• literature, largely influenced by imitation first of
tunes
.
France and then of See also:Italy; the See also:union of the two crowns of Aragon and Castile, and afterwards the See also:advent of the See also:house of See also:Austria and the king of Spain's See also:election as See also:emperor, achieved the See also:political unity of Spain and the unity of Spanish literature
.
After the death of See also: |