LITERATURE AND THE ARTS.
Though one of the most interesting countries of Europe with regard to
architecture, Spain can lay claim to no style peculiar to itself, or
that originated wholly within the Peninsula. It contains, however, noble
specimens of art and architecture of very varied epochs and character,
from the work of the unknown sculptors who carved the so-called "toros"
of Guisando and erected the huge dolmens and other megalithic monuments
so thickly strewed over its soil, to the architects and artists of the
present day. Almost all the races which have trodden the land have left
monuments upon it--the Carthaginians, perhaps, the fewest. Scarcely
anywhere else does the solid, practical character of Roman architecture
appear more fully than in the amphitheatres, aqueducts, and especially
in the bridges of Spain. The amphitheatres, temples, and walls of
Murviedro (Saguntum), Tarragona, Toledo, Coria, Plasencia; the aqueducts
of Merida, Seville, and Segovia; the bridges of Tuy over the Minho, of
Zamora over the Douro, Salamanca over the Tormes, of Alcantara,
Garrovillas de Alconetar, and Puente del Arzobispo over the Tagus, of
Merida and Medellin over the Guadiana, of Seville, Cordova, and Ubeda
over the Guadalquiver, and of Lerida over the Segre, are noble relics of
Roman work. Of the period when Roman art was gradually modified under
Christian influences, and the basilica was transformed into the
Christian church, very few remains exist. To the Vandal and Gothic
conquerors belong part of the walls of Toledo, and a few chapels and
small churches in the north and north-west may belong in part to this
date (417-717); but the most peculiar artistic remains of this period
are the jewellers' and goldsmiths' work, preserved in the metal crowns
and treasure of Guarrazar (624-672), of a style which, though probably
derived from the East through Byzantium, continued to influence Spanish
goldsmiths' work down to the eleventh century.
[Illustration: GIRALDA OF SEVILLE.
_Page 197._]
The architecture and art of the race that succeeded to the Visigoths is
of much more notable character. The civil and religious architecture of
the Spanish Arabs is well worthy of most careful study, and is a grand
example of the artistic talent of a race which, though debarred by its
religious faith from the reproduction of human, or even of animal form,
and delighting neither in the scenes of the theatre or the circus, has
yet left masterpieces of architectural beauty in lands so wide apart as
Spain, Egypt, Persia, and Hindostan. The architecture of the Arabs in
Spain may be roughly divided into three periods: The first, from the
eighth to the tenth century, tells most clearly of its origin as an
imitation or modification of the Byzantine style; its masterpiece is the
Mosque of Cordova. The second period, from the tenth to the thirteenth
centuries, shows the architects seeking their real style--it is a period
of transition; its finest erection is the Giralda of Seville. The third
period is when the Moorish style acquired its fullest development in the
glorious Alhambra, from the thirteenth to the sixteenth centuries.
Contemporary with the last period is the Mudejar style, the modification
which Arabic art underwent in the hands of the Christian conquerors. To
this belong the Alcazar of Seville, 1353; the Mudejar gates of Toledo
and Saragossa, and the Chapel of St. James in Alcala de Henares. In
their domestic architecture the Arabs alone have almost solved the
problem how to unite ventilation and ornament by means of currents of
air of different temperatures. The pendulous stucco fretwork by which
they conceal the angles of their apartments serves not only for ornament
but to equalize the temperature and to admit of concealed openings
whereby air can penetrate without draught or chill. The sense of true
harmony of colour seems to be an intuitional gift of Oriental races, and
is practically understood by them as it never has been by any other. The
Mosaics of Greece and Rome, and those of mediaeval Italy, in their
storied designs, appeal more to the intellect; but those of Arabic art
rest and charm the eye by the purity and harmonious blending of tone as
do none other. In spite of some apparent exceptions, and those of the
earliest date, as the Mosque of Cordova (788), and the cloisters of
Tayloon at Cairo (879), Arabic architecture, like Grecian, depended for
its effect more on the exquisite symmetry and exact proportion of all
details to a consummate whole, than to impressions of awe derived from
vast size or immense solidity. It is thus that the massive Roman arch
became moulded into the light horse-shoe shape, peculiar to the Spanish
Arabs from the eighth to the tenth centuries. The originality of this
architecture is not, however, so great as appears at first sight. The
influence of Byzantine architecture and of that of the Christian
churches with which the Arabs had become acquainted during their
conquests, and of constant accessions from Oriental art, can be clearly
traced therein. But in Spain there is perhaps a juster proportion, a
greater variety and richness of ornamentation and colour than is to be
found elsewhere. The grandest of Moorish buildings in Spain is
undoubtedly one of the earliest, the great Mosque of Cordova, with its
forest of 1200 columns, its fifty-seven naves, nineteen gates, and
upwards of 4000 lamps, recalling the impression produced by the Egyptian
hall of Karnac at Thebes,--an impression so vivid that even the
iconoclast emperor, Charles V., whose own palace mars the beauty of the
Alhambra, rebuked the Archbishop of Cordova for destroying what he never
could replace, when he cut away some of the columns to make room for a
Christian chapel. Not less beautiful in their graceful proportions than
the Campanile of Italy are the minarets and towers of Arabian art in
Spain, as the Giralda of Seville and others; even the quaintness of the
leaning tower of Pisa finds its counterpart in the leaning tower of
Saragossa. The Moorish gates of Toledo, of Seville, and the Alcazar of
Segovia show how castellated strength may be wedded to artistic
elegance; but the most perfect union at once of fortress and of palace
is to be found in the noble group of buildings known as the Alhambra, on
the hill of Granada. Though trembling on the verge of debasement when
the severer forms of Arabian art were beginning to admit the
representation of animal shapes, whose rude sculpture forms a contrast
to the exquisite correctness of the alphabetic and geometrical designs
which ornament the walls, these buildings may yet be regarded as marking
the culmination of Moorish art. The fertility of decorative design, the
exquisite use made of Arabic lettering, and the simple yet subtle forms
of geometrical interlacing--apparently most fantastic, yet really ever
subordinated to a just proportion with the whole--these are a theme of
wondering admiration to every student. A whole grammar of ornament might
be illustrated by examples taken from these buildings alone. The
architecture of the houses of the Moorish aristocracy which still remain
in Seville, Granada, Toledo, and Saragossa is wonderfully adapted both
to the necessities of the climate and to domestic ornament. In the more
northern examples the open galleries, in the more southern the flat
roof, of the apartments surrounding the inner quadrangle make a
delightful resort in the cool of the day; while the court or _patio_
itself, with its fountains and shade, its flowers and creepers and
odoriferous shrubs, its mingled play of light and colour, through which
the delicate grace of ornament is seen uninjured by the dust and contact
with the outside traffic, appears to the northern tourist almost like
one of the fairy homes of which his ancestors dreamed, and which have
been described to him in many a legend, as a thing too lovely to be
gazed upon by mortal eyes unless unsealed.
[Illustration: MOORISH ORNAMENTATION.]
The influence and the impress of Arabian art was not confined in Spain
to mosques or to buildings consecrated to the use of Mohammedans alone.
Some of the most beautiful specimens of this architecture were erected
for Christians or for Jews. Arabic inscriptions used as ornaments are
still to be seen on the altar of the Cathedral of Gerona, in the Shrine
of San Isidore at Leon; Arabic architecture is seen in the palace of the
archbishops of Toledo, in a chapel in Alcala de Henares, and in more
than one synagogue of the Jews. Christian bishops used as episcopal
seals rings on which were engraved the praises of Allah. Long after the
conquest of the great cities of the centre and of the south, Moorish and
Mudejar architects were retained in the pay of Christian monarchs to
keep in repair the cathedrals and palaces, the beauty of whose
architecture the Christians could appreciate but could not imitate, much
less surpass. It is this fact, and the mingling of style and ideas
consequent thereon, which gives its sole peculiar characteristic to
Spanish art.
Meanwhile, contemporaneously with the flourishing period of Arabian art
in the south, a Christian architecture, strikingly in contrast from its
poverty of style and of invention, was slowly being reconstructed in the
north. Of the eighth century we have the crypt of the Church of Santa
Cruz, at Cangas in the Asturias, and some remains in parts of the
churches of Oviedo. To the tenth century belong parts of the Church of
San Pablo at Barcelona, and other Catalan churches, with here and there
a chapel in the Western Pyrenees. During the eleventh and twelfth
centuries the more important churches of Northern Spain were almost
reproductions of those of Southern France; the Cathedral of Santiago de
Compostella is almost a copy of the Church of St. Sernin at Toulouse;
but the Romanesque (semi-Byzantine) style lingered somewhat longer in
Spain than in the neighbouring country, and especially in North-eastern
Spain. In the twelfth century edifices of real beauty are beginning to
be built; such are the cloisters of Tarragona and the cathedrals of
Lerida and of Tudela. The cathedrals of Avila and Siguenza are of more
native Spanish character; while those of Toledo, Burgos, and Leon show
the influence of French artists in their general plan, but with an added
ornamentation derived from the richer and more florid fancy of the
south. Of these perhaps Leon is the noblest and Burgos the richest
example in Spain. Segovia, Salamanca, and Seville, of the fifteenth and
sixteenth centuries, are the latest of the great Gothic churches of
Spain, before the rise of the Renaissance.
Nowhere had the classical revival in architecture more influence than in
Spain. The almost exclusive type of church which, both in Spain and in
her vast colonies, is pointed out as the Spanish church, is that either
of the Renaissance or of the styles which have sprung from it. This soon
became fashionable, but its semi-pagan additions frequently harmonize
but ill with the deeper religious feeling of the preceding styles. Still
it has many fine examples; the works of Berruguete and Herrera are well
worthy of study. The Escorial, the work of the latter, is redeemed from
ugliness or meanness by the noble proportions of its central chapel and
pantheon. But to this semi-classical style succeeded, in the eighteenth
century, the Churrigueresque, the most debased of all styles, wherein
plaster took the place of sculpture, sham that of reality, and masses of
gilding and an incongruous medley of meaningless ornament concealed the
blunders in proportion and poverty of idea. The adoption of this style
by the Jesuits procured its prevalence in many districts of Spain and of
her colonies; occasionally the size of the buildings constructed gives a
certain grandeur and hides the debasement of the methods.
The domestic, palatial, and castellated architecture of Spain has little
peculiar beyond what has been already indicated. The royal palace at
Madrid, however, is one of the most successful architectural efforts of
the eighteenth century. The sculptured coats of arms on mean dwellings
are perhaps the most notable distinction of Spanish houses. Traces of
the influence of Moorish traditions may not unfrequently be observed. In
the north, the cottages and farms of the Basques, with overhanging roofs
and wooden galleries, recall in some degree those of Switzerland; in the
south the iron bars or rails (rejas) before the lower windows, and the
lattices (celosias) in the upper stories tell of insecurity and of
habits of almost Oriental seclusion of women.
Finer even than the architecture and the exterior of the buildings is
the church furniture in Spain. It is unsurpassed for beauty and
interest. The carved and sculptured wood-work in some of the cathedrals
is finer than even that of the Netherlands and of Germany. The storied
screens and choir stalls at Toledo; the retablos of Gerona and
Salamanca, of Avila and Seville; the choir fittings of Santiago, Zamora,
and of Burgos; the lecterns and pulpits both of brass and wood; and the
rails and gates and screens of noblest metal-work are often of simply
grand proportion; nay, even the polychrome wooden statues in the
churches will often be found to be of rarest beauty. The monuments
erected to the memory of the dead are equal to anything which affection
and piety have raised elsewhere, from that of Archbishop Maurice at
Burgos, in the thirteenth century--of the tombs of the constable and of
those of Juan II. and Isabel of Portugal, in the Cartuja de Miraflores,
of the fifteenth century; and that of Prince Juan, the only son of
Ferdinand and Isabella, at Avila, erected in 1497--down to the noble
mausoleum of inlaid metal-work by Zuloaga, lately placed in the Church
of the Atocha to the memory of Prim. In these and many more, Spain can
show a sequence able to vie with that of any other land. Hardly less
beautiful are the minor accessories of Catholic worship; the gold and
silver smiths' work of the chandeliers, the jewelled work of crosses,
custodias or shrines, and sacred vessels is often worthy of admiration.
In all such works of art, before the pillage of the French in the war of
liberation, and the destruction of the convents, Spain was probably one
of the richest of Christian lands. If we seem to insist too much on
ecclesiastical art in Spain, it is because, as we shall see still more
clearly in the case of painting, art has here concentrated its choicest
effort on religious subjects, and in them has won its greatest triumphs.
Except, perhaps, in arms and in porcelain, in portrait-painting and in
furniture, all the masterpieces of Spanish art are in some sense
ecclesiastical. Take away religion from her art, how poor would be the
residue, for even Arabian and Moslem art in Spain were essentially
religious.
_Painting._
Though Spain cannot rival some other countries, Italy for example, in
the number of her great painters; though she has founded no great
technical school; yet is she worthy of greatest admiration; in one or
two of her artists she has attained the very highest rank. As a
religious painter, especially in expressing in form and colour the
heights of mystic ecstasy, Murillo stands unrivalled. As a
portrait-painter of courtly grace and distinction, Velazquez has few
equals. It is not in landscape, or as interpreters of the ever-varying
beauty of external nature, that Spanish painters excel, but in the
delineation of the human form, and especially in the rendering of those
religious emotions which lead through asceticism to ecstasy. Not the
glorification of merely sensuous beauty, but the triumphs of the spirit
over the flesh are the conquests which they prefer to delineate.
Spanish painters may be divided among three great provinces: the
Valencian, Andalusian, and Castilian schools. Of these the Andalusian,
and especially the school of Seville, has produced by far the greatest
artists.
The earliest specimens of Spanish painting are of the decorative kind,
and are employed in subordination to architecture, to add colour to
form, and to heighten and make more evident the details of sculpture in
churches or convents. Much of this phase of art, in which they stand
very high, they probably learned from the Moors. From these labours in
churches and convents art in Spain received a religious imprint and
direction which it has never lost, and from which it is only now turning
in the present generation. Goya and Fortuny are perhaps the only
considerable painters of Spain in whose works religious subjects do not
preponderate. Spanish art reflects in a peculiar degree the
characteristic of Spanish theology. The mystic grace, the transport of
love which seems almost too human and tender when fixed on the Divine,
which moves us in the writings of St. Teresa, St. Juan de la Cruz,
Xavier, and others, touches us no less in the pictures of Murillo. Stern
and sombre, as these are lovely, are the paintings which remind us that
we are in the land of the inquisition. Figures of martyrs serene in
tortures, whose horrors are laid bare as by no other artists, figures of
saints of primitive, mediaeval, or of later times, who have carried
asceticism to excess, portraits of men who were as severe to themselves
as they were pitiless to others; such are the subjects which are
faithfully rendered by the pencils of Ribalta, Ribera, Zurbaran, and
many others. Later on, when the old constitutional liberties of Spain
had almost utterly fallen, and when the worship of the king had begun
almost to rival that of the Blessed Virgin, Velazquez and others give us
portraits of the royal family of Spain. The fun and wit which really
existed in Spanish life, and which her novelists have depicted with such
relish in innumerable novels, is but poorly represented in Spanish art
by any of her great masters. Murillo's beggar-boys are almost the only
pictures which answer to the "picaresque" side of Spanish literature
till the advent of Goya and of Fortuny.
The expressions of the plastic arts of Spain are neither so idealized as
the Italian, nor so intellectual as the German, nor so sensuous as the
Flemish, nor so realistic as those of the Dutch school; but they are far
more powerful in colouring and truer and deeper in feeling than are
those of the French school. The Spaniard painted the types and
characters of his native land, but he delighted to throw around them the
magic lights that never were on sea or land; through the intense
darkness of his asceticism ever peers a ray of heavenly light; but the
type of the figure is ever Spanish; never, in the best days of art, was
inspiration sought from a reproduction of the forms of pagan classical
ism, or from a mere eclecticism of beauty. Though the drawing is
correct, we feel that it has not been learned from a mere study of
ancient statuary or from anatomical preparations, but from the living
type and figure. Here and there we find painters like Juande Joannes
(Vicente Macip) and Domenico Theotocopuli (El Greco), who might have
lived on Italian soil; but generally the tone of Spanish painters is
local and unmistakable. Through all his styles--the _frio_ (cold),
_calido_ (warm), and the _vaporoso_ (mystic)--Murillo remained faithful
to Spanish, nay, to Andalusian models; none can mistake his saints and
virgins, his boys and beggars, as belonging to any other race. He does
not tell the wondrous story of the Incarnation with so grand an appeal
to the intellect as do the Italian painters. The "woman blessed
throughout all generations" does not look out to us from his canvas from
the serene heights of perfect woman-hood which has found its crown in
the mystery of the Motherhood of the Son of God, but in younger and more
girlish forms he paints for us the maiden rapt in adoring ecstasy as she
experiences the wonders of love divine, bathed in the golden light of a
rapture which none but the very purest can ever feel, and which the very
angels are represented as reverencing.
Space forbids our giving even an approximate catalogue of Spanish
painters; we can merely single out for mention the two or three of
highest rank in their respective provinces. In Valencia we have Ribalta
(1551-1628), Juan de Joames (Vicente Macip) (1523-79), and the great but
gloomy Ribera (1588-1609). To this school also belong the artists of
Catalonia and of the Balearic Isles. In Castile are Navarette (El Mudo)
(1526-79), Morales (1509-86), Theotocopuli (El Greco) (died 1578), and
the younger Herrera (died 1686). But the greatest painters are from
Andalusia and from Seville. The well-known names of Herrera the Elder
(1576-1656), Zurbaran (1598-1662), Murillo (1618-82), Velazquez
(1623-60), suffice to show its pre-eminence. The eighteenth century, in
art as well as in literature, was a time of utter decadence; Goya
(1746-1820), the caricaturist, is the only artist we need mention; but,
like its literature, Spanish art is now at length rising from its long
sleep. Fortuny (1838-74), has made himself a European reputation;
though, through his early death, the pictures he has left give promise
only of what his future might have been. Rosales (1840-73), though less
known by foreigners, is of equal, if not of greater merit; like Fortuny,
he died in his early prime. Madrazo, Jimenez, Fradilla, and others,
though not of more than national reputation, yet prove that art is not
extinct in Spain.
In what have been called the industrial arts Spain was formerly very
rich, and, but for the wretched economical policy and administration of
the Government since the seventeenth century, would probably have held
her own against other countries. The gold and silver ornaments still
worn by the peasantry in a few districts perpetuate designs and methods
of workmanship originally derived from the Moors, and much of the church
work is still of great excellence. No less beautiful is the iron-work,
in which a grand effect is often produced by simply noble proportions in
the gates, _rejas_, and screens of her cathedrals and churches; and in
another sphere, in the manufacture of arms, and of inlaying steel or
iron with arabesque patterns of gold and silver, an art which has been
lately revived with great success in Biscay and the Basque Provinces. In
porcelain and pottery the majolica ware, made at Valencia, was renowned
throughout Europe; and the Moorish glazed and lustred ware, the
manufacture of which remained a secret till the present century, is
greatly sought after by amateurs. The wine-jars (_tinajas_ and
_alpujarras_), the porous pottery (_bucaros_), the _azulejos_ or
decorated tiles, continue traditions originally derived through the
Arabs from the East, but which had almost expired when the manufacture
was faintly revived under royal patronage in the times of Charles III.,
to start again on a stronger life with the aid of English capital in our
own times. Spanish glass is sometimes curious, and much of the stained
and painted windows in the cathedrals is excellent, especially that of
Toledo and of Leon; but this art was undoubtedly learned from foreign
workmen, and only became naturalized in Spain. Of carvings in wood and
marble and ivory we have already sufficiently spoken. In textile fabrics
and embroidery, especially in lace, Spain was formerly very rich. The
mantillas of the ladies, the dresses of the sacred images, the copes of
the clergy, gave full opportunity for the production of this fabric; but
the chief effort is now directed to the manufacture of the best foreign
laces, all of which are most successfully imitated by hand-workers in
Valencia and Murcia, where they can be produced at a lower cost than is
possible in colder and more northern climes. Everything in Spain, even
the common use of colour and of flowers by the Andalusian peasants,
shows a natural feeling for art; and its production is hindered more by
indolence, and by the mischievous economical conditions of almost all
Spanish industry, than by any want of talent in the native workman or
artisan.
Though, perhaps, there is no country in Europe in which music is more
appreciated or practised than in Spain, it is singular that she has
produced no really great master. She has many composers of "zarzuelas,"
a species of lighter opera; her traditional dance and ballad tunes are
some of the most inspiriting possible; and her guitar playing is
renowned, but more for the romantic sentiment of the words and the
occasion on which it is used than for the music itself. Well-nigh the
only name for which even Spaniards claim equality with the great
European masters in serious music is that of Don Manuel Doyague, of
Salamanca (1755-1842). His _Miserere_, _Te Deum_, and various _Masses_
are said to equal those of any master of his time.
_Literature._
It is not necessary to repeat here what has been said above on the
Spanish authors who wrote during the silver age of Latin literature, or
to trace again the origin of the Spanish language. It is evident that
all we can do is to give a very brief sketch of Spanish literature. This
literature is, perhaps, the richest in Europe in ballads and romances,
and these, which make one of its chief glories, are among its earliest
monuments. While the "Chanson de Roland" and other "Chansons de Gestes"
were being written in Northern France in the form of continuous epic
poems, Spain was celebrating her hero--the Cid--in a series of ballads.
These, if united, would tell almost the whole story of his life; but
each could be sung or recited alone as a separate and complete poem.
This form of verse continued for many ages to be the favourite
literature of the common people, and attained a development in Spain
beyond that which it did in any other land. For spontaneity, for
movement, for grace of expression, for sudden turns from martial ardour
to the most pathetic tenderness, the Spanish ballad is unrivalled. It
embraces and handles with almost equal success the most varied subjects:
war and chivalry and love, patriotism, wit, amusement, and religion,
have all been treated of in these romances, and the collections of each
kind would fill many volumes.
The first prose works in the Spanish language seem to have been a
translation of the Bible, under Alphonse X., and of two codes of law,
the "Fuero Juzgo" and "Las Siete Partidas," in the middle of the
thirteenth century. It seems to have been almost by accident that
Alfonzo wrote in the dialect of Leon and Castile in preference to that
of Galicia and Portugal. Had he chosen the latter, probably Portuguese
would have become the language of the whole Peninsula. Under his reign,
too, may have been commenced the first history written in Spanish, "La
Gran Conquista de Ultramar," telling the story of the Crusades, with
many romantic episodes. The next production that calls for remark is the
epic of Alexander the Great, by J. L. Segura, of the latter part of the
same century. This poem gives the name "Alexandrine" to all European
verse written in the same metre. In the early part of the fourteenth
century we have a collection of tales, with morals attached, called "El
Conde Lucanor," by Don Juan Manuel, nephew of Alphonse X. (1282-1347);
and Alfonso XI. continues the list of royal authors with a "Libro de la
Monteria,", or treatise on hunting. The arch-priest of Hita, Juan Ruiz
(1330-43), about the same time took up the strain of love and war in a
romance of mingled prose and verse, entitled "Guerras Civiles de
Granada." In the latter half of the fifteenth century we meet with a
remarkable production, the tragi-comedy of Celestina, which, in its
two-fold character of novel and of drama, has been the parent of a
double offspring, both of the comedy and of the _picaresque_ novel of
Spain. The Spanish rogue, at least in fiction, has been said to be the
only amusing rogue in Europe. The chief representations of him in
literature are in the novel of "Lazarillo de Tormes" (1554), by Hurtado
de Mendoza; "Guzman de Alfarache" (1599), by Mateo Aleman; and "La
Picara Justina" (1605), by the Dominican monk, Andreas Perez. The whole
series of these works culminated in a masterpiece, "Gil Blas," written,
not by a Spaniard, but by the Frenchman Lesage, in 1668; perhaps the
most graphic description of the manners of another nation ever written
by a foreigner.
The serious drama in Spain arose, probably, like that of other European
nations, from the mysteries and moralities of the Middle Ages, such as
are still continued to be performed occasionally at Elche and in other
districts. In the "Autos" of Calderon and others it bore clear marks of
this origin to a later date than any other contemporary drama. The first
plays of any consequence we hear of are those of Lope de Rueda
(1544-67), who, both as actor and as author, was greatly admired by
Cervantes. From him the Spanish drama, like the almost contemporary
Elizabethan drama in England, sprang at once to its full height.
Cervantes, in his tragedies "Los Banos de Argel," and in "El trato de
Argel" in which he described incidents in his own captivity, and in the
"Numancia," telling the story of the siege by the Romans, imitated and
surpassed his friend. In lighter pieces, comedies and _entremeses_, he
was less successful. Almost coeval with Cervantes is Lope de Vega
(1562-1635), perhaps the most prolific dramatic writer of any value that
ever lived. His pieces are numbered at from 1500 to 2000, and the best
of these are equal, if not superior, to those of Calderon in delineation
of character and in plot, and are inferior only in poetical merit. We
can only mention Tirso de Molina (1588-1648), Montahran (1602-38), and
Ruiz de Alarcon (died 1639) as dramatists of merit, whose best pieces,
especially those of the latter, approach very nearly to those of Lope
and of Calderon. Calderon de la Barca (1600-81), with the German, Goethe,
is the only dramatist of modern Europe who has been seriously put
forward as a rival, or even superior, to Shakspere. This we think to be
a mistake; in rich poetical imagery, in gorgeousness of fancy, in
harmony of verse, in stately dignity, in depth of religions feeling, in
knowledge of stage effect--in all these things he may be compared to our
English master; but he is very far inferior to him in width of sympathy,
in wit and rollicking fun, or in thoughtful humour; his comedy will not
bear comparison with that of Shakspere; but he falls most short in his
delineation of individual character. In comparison with Shakspere's, his
figures are but well-dressed puppets compared to living men and women;
not one of them lingers in the memory like a person whom we have known.
We remember Calderon's verses, we revel in his splendid poetry, but we
utterly forget who it is that utters these dazzling strains. Calderon's
dramas and comedies are reckoned at 120, and his Autos, religious or
sacramental pieces, generally performed by religious or civil
corporations in the open air, are numbered at about seventy. In these
plays abstract qualities take the place of living personages, and it is
perhaps the greatest proof of Calderon's genius that he has by his
brilliant poetry and serene religious feeling made some of even these
acceptable to a modern reader.
But while the drama and comedy and the picaresque novel had been thus
developing themselves, a whole literature of quite a different kind had
sprung up into favour, flourished, and died away. This consisted of the
prose books of chivalry, and of the pastoral romances both in prose and
verse. They are remembered now chiefly through mention of them in the
pages of the immortal work, the "Don Quixote," of Cervantes, which
crushed them for ever. The most celebrated of them was the "Amadis de
Gaul," written probably at the end of the fourteenth century. The
imitations of it were innumerable, each more wild, extravagant, more
insipid, and in worse taste than the last. Of the pastoral romances the
only one we need to note is the "Diana Enamorada," of Montemayor
(1520-61), and perhaps the most successful after this is the "Galatea,"
of Cervantes himself, who could never entirely shake off the influence
of the writings he delighted to satirize, and of which he was the
literary executioner. The one Spanish book which has become really
European, in a degree which has been attained by no other purely secular
work, is the "Don Quixote" of this author (1547-1616). Into this
extraordinary production, under the guise of the adventures of his hero,
the last of the knights-errant, with his squire, Sancho Panza--a story
full of mirth, incident, and humour--Cervantes has put all the wisdom
which, by his observation on mankind and literature, he had collected
during a singularly varied life as writer, soldier, seaman, Algerine
slave, poet, and man of business. Though hardly belonging to the school
of the classical Renaissance, yet we see in Cervantes a specimen of the
marked and distinguishing excellence of the men at that time--the width
of their sympathies; so that each more eminent man seemed to contain in
himself an epitome of the experience of mankind. It is, perhaps, to this
many-sidedness of his experience, and of his culture, that is owing the
genial character, the pathetic humour, and the total absence of
bitterness in this masterly satire. Thus Cervantes, while laughing down
and extinguishing for ever the absurdities of the chivalrous and
pastoral romances, yet retains his sympathy for all that was really
noble, though exaggerated, in them. His "Don Quixote," though moving
irrepressible laughter, will for ever remain one of the choicest
representations of a brave, pure-minded, honourable gentleman, and tears
of pity for him are not far distant from our smiles at his quaint
insanities. Since the days of Cervantes one kind only of the chivalrous
romances has really survived in literature, and that is the historical
romance, of which the "Guerras Civiles de Granada" of the arch-priest
Hita, mentioned above, is so good an example. Another satirist, less
known than Cervantes, to whom his life bears some resemblance, Quevedo y
Villegas (1580-1645), is even a more versatile writer. In prose and
verse his writings are very numerous, but his style, learned and
obscure, often laboured in the extreme, though pregnant with thought and
wit, contrasts unfavourably with the clearness of Cervantes; he holds
now in Spanish literature a place nearly analogous to that of Swift
among British writers.
But we must hurry on. With the downfall of Granada, the discovery of
America, the consolidation of the kingdoms of the Peninsula into one
nation, real historical study began in Spain. Thus we have in quick
succession many works of considerable merit, such as the "Annals of
Aragon," by Zurita (1512-80); the "Comunidades of Castille," by Mejia
(1549); the great "History of Spain," by the Jesuit Mariana (1536-1632);
Herrera's "General History of the Indies" (1549-1625); the "Commentaries
on Peru," by the Inca, Garcilasso de la Vega (1540-1616); the monographs
of Hurtado de Mendoza on the "Wars of Granada" (1610); the "Expedition
of the Catalans," by Moncada (1623); the "Wars of Catalonia," by Melo
(1645); and, in literary form superior to all these, the "Conquest of
Mexico," by Solis (1685).
Of poetry, apart from the stage and from the romances, there is not much
of real value to engage our attention. The grandest verses of early
Spain are undoubtedly the "Coplas" of Manrique (1476), which have been
often translated into English, and which form one of the finest elegies
extant in any language. After Garcilassa de la Vega (1503-36), Spanish
poets fell into an unworthy imitation of the Italian; and subsequently
Gongora (1561-1627) set the example of a still more debased and stilted
style, full of affected conceits and mistaken classicalism. The only
tolerable epic poem which Spain has yet produced is the "Araucana" of
Ercilla, which tells the story of the wars with Indians of that name in
Chili, and in which the author had personally taken part.
From the close of the seventeenth and through the greater part of the
eighteenth century, literature partook of the progressive decadence of
all things in Spain. It withered and declined under the double censure
and oppression of the king and of the inquisition. The theatre, which
had striven hard in Spain to become the ally, or even the handmaid, of
the Church, was contemptuously thrust aside by the latter, and within a
century of Calderon's death, not even an Infanta could procure
permission from the inquisition for a comedy in time of carnaval. No
history of any value could be written under such conditions; the only
outlet for literary skill lay in religious and mystic writings, which
are of singular beauty. The classical and grammatical movement of the
Renaissance which had begun so well under the patronage of Juan de
Cisneros, Cardinal Ximenes, the great minister of Charles V., and the
chief monument of which is the Complutensian Polyglot Bible of 1514-17,
and its greatest scholar, Antonio de Nebrija, soon died away, and the
Spanish universities, which for a while had been the admiration, became,
in the eighteenth century, the laughing-stock of Europe. Of the earlier
period we may mention among the religious writers Luis de Granada
(1505-68), Santa Teresa (1515-82), the Jesuit, Ribadeneyra (1527-1611),
Juan de la Cruz (1542-91); but even this literature degenerated into
casuistry and mere technical scholasticism. Spanish religious poetry is,
however, far more copious and of greater excellence than is generally
supposed. It has been studied and collected in our own day by the
opposite schools of the Spanish Protestants, and by the champion of
orthodoxy, Menendez Pelayo.
There is little to notice in Spanish literature from this time until the
rise of the doctrinaire and economical writers of the reign of Carlos
III., who for the most part closely followed the contemporary school of
French publicists and encyclopaedists. Among these are Padre Benito
Feyjoo, who was the first to protest against the absence of science and
true learning in Spain; the Padre Isla (1703-81), decidedly one of the
wittiest of Spanish writers and satirists; Jovellanos (1744-1811), the
best statesman and political writer of his time, and in the purer walks
of literature the two Moratins (1737-1828). One or two philological
works, far in advance of their age, made now their appearance, such as
the tracts of Padre Sarmiento (1692-1770) on the Spanish language; the
works of the Jesuits Larramendi (1728-45) on the Basque, and of Hervas
(1735-1805) on general philology. To this period also belongs the
magnificent collection entitled, "La Espana Sagrada," commenced by
Florez (1754-1801), and, after many interruptions, completed only in
1880.
Towards the close of the eighteenth century, however, a reaction set in
against the French and so-called classical school, and the attention of
Spanish writers was recalled to the masterpieces of their own earlier
literature. The movement was accelerated by the course of political
events, and the successes of the war of independence against the French.
One of the earliest defenders of the romantic against the classical
school was Bohl de Faber, a Hamburg merchant settled in Cadiz. He
published in 1820-3, in his native town, selections from works of the
early poets and dramatists of Spain; and his daughter, Cecilia, under
the name of Fernan Caballero, has attained the highest rank among the
lady novelists of Spain. The admission of Bohl de Faber into the ranks
of the Spanish Academy, under Martinez de la Rosa, marks the definite
triumph of the national school. At first it seemed as if the movement
would produce simply a change of French for English and German models.
Fiction became a stiff imitation of Sir Walter Scott. In poetry the
influence of Byron reigned supreme. Espronceda (1810-42) has equalled
his master in his cynical odes. "The Beggar," "The Executioner," "The
last day of the Condemned," and "The Pirate," might almost have been
penned by Byron; and "El Mundo Diablo" will long live in Spanish
literature. Zorilla, born in 1817, still living, has been more
successful in his dramas than Espronceda, especially in "Don Juan
Tenorio," but his poems are inferior in force, though rich in colouring
and in the melody of his verse. Gustavo Becquer (1836-70) is another
poet who fed his genius with the legends of the past, but his models
were Edgar Poe and Hoffmann; some of his weird fantastic tales and poems
are excellent examples of their kind. Of an opposite character are the
realistic novels of Fernan Caballero above mentioned (1797-1877). These
are exquisite rose-tinted photographs of Spanish life and character
taken by one who sees everything Spanish with a favourable eye. Her
writings are distinguished by a delicate aristocratic grace and
tenderness which she throws over all subjects which she handles, whether
of high or lowly life. As an artist her plots are inferior to those of
many worse novelists; her descriptions of scenery are beautiful and
exact; as a delineator of individual character she fails, but as a
painter of type and class she is unrivalled. Her sketches abound in
humour and in gentle melancholy; a deep and true religious feeling
pervades every line, but she fails in strength and passion. Thus she can
be classed only in the second rank of female novelists, and does not
approach the genius of Georges Sand or of George Elliot. Trueba, in the
north, essays to imitate her, but he often sinks into puerility, nor
are his studies marked by the conscientious regard for fact which
distinguishes those of the lady writer. Pereda, who delineates the
peasants of Santander, is a less prolific writer but of higher literary
merit. Of living novelists we should place in the first rank Juan Valera
with his powerful novels, "Pepita Jimenez," "El Doctor Faustino," and
"Dona Luz." Next to him is, perhaps, Perez Galdos, who, in the series
entitled "Episodios Nacionales," rivals the national romances of
Erckmann-Chatrian in French. Pedro Alarcon has a greater fund of wit and
humour, and his "Sombrero de tres picos" is a most mirth-provoking tale.
Fernandez y Gonzalez, in the number, if not in the quality of his works,
may almost compete with the elder Alexandre Dumas, whose semi-historical
style he repeats. Feliz Pizcueta, a Valencian writer, has also written
many novels, whose scenes are laid in his native province. Among
dramatists now living, or lately dead, we may mention Hartzenbusch
(1806-80), whose "Amantes de Teruel" is one of the most successful
tragedies of the romantic school; Breton de los Herreros (1800-70);
Gertrudis de Avellaneda, the first Spanish female dramatist, born in
Cuba in 1816; Gutierrez, who, born in 1813, sought refuge, like Zorilla,
in Spanish America; Lopez de Ayala; and lastly, J. Estebanez, whose best
work is entitled "Un Drama Nuevo," and who reaches a high level of
dramatic art. Of more extravagant style, inferior to these, and already
marking a decadence, is Jose Echegaray, a man of most versatile and
opposite talents, and one of the first mathematicians of Spain, the best
of whose plays is "Locura o Santidad." Of lyric poets we may mention
Campoamor, an original but languid and graceful writer of minor verse,
and Selgas, whose grace is seasoned with wit and satire, but whose prose
is much superior to his verse. But by far the greatest of living Spanish
poets, though like Tennyson he has failed comparatively on the stage, is
Gaspar Nunez de Arce. His "Gritos del Combate," and "La Ultima
Lamentacion de Lord Byron," contain some noble verses. He writes in the
spirit of purest patriotism, with a stern morality, and with severe and
chastened art.
But more important than in the movement of fiction and poetry has been
the influence of the romantic school in history. The attention of
Spaniards has been at length turned to the study of their original
records, and especially to that of the early Arabic writers. The first
to attempt this, but with insufficient means, was J. A. Conde
(1757-1820) in his "Historia de la Dominacion de los Arabes en Espana."
This has since been superseded by the exacter learning of Don Pascual
Gayangos, in the "Mohammedan Dynasties of Spain," by many foreign
writers, and by the labours of Fernandez y Gonzalez in "Los Mudejares de
Castilla" (1866) and others. The labours of Don Modeste and Don Vicente
Lafuente, the one in ecclesiastical, the other in civil history, must be
mentioned with approval, and the works of Amador de los Rios, on the
literature of Spain and on the history of the Jews in Spain, do honour
to his country. Among other historians, we may mention F. Castro and
Sales y Ferrer, whose works are the popular manuals in education.
Fernandez Guerra in the ancient, and Coello in the modern, Geography of
Spain, are authors of the highest class; nor must we omit the Englishman
Bowles, who wrote on the Natural History of Spain in 1775. In Geology
another English name, Macpherson, attains the highest rank, together
with the surveyors employed on the "Comision de la Mapa Geologica" of
Spain. On the history of property in Spain and Europe, are two
remarkable essays by Cardenas and de Azcarate. In theology, on the Roman
Catholic side, are the writings of Balmes (1810-48); of Donoso Cortes
(1809-53), of the present Bishop of Cordova, Ceferino Gonzalez; and,
still publishing, the remarkable production of Menendez Pelayo,
"Historia de los Heterodoxos in Espana;" while in the Protestant
theology, Usoz, assisted by B. Wiffen in England and Boehmer in Germany,
has rescued from oblivion the works of the Spanish reformers. In
philology the Jesuit, Padre Fita y Colome, worthily continues the
traditions of Larramendi and of Hervas. Fernandez Guerra, and F. Tubino,
and the Barcelona school pursue archaeological studies with success. The
influence of outside European thought is every day more evident in
Spain. Ardent disciples of the school of Comte, of Darwin, and of
Schopenhauer, are to be found among her publicists. In political economy
Figuerola, G. Rodriguez, Colmeiro, Azcarate, and others, follow keenly
the teaching of the English liberal school. Face to face in
parliamentary eloquence and in politics stand Canovas del Castello and
Emilio Castelar; the latter distinguished by a florid oratory which is
unsurpassed in Europe, but whose style is far more effective when spoken
than when read; the former, with greater learning and a more cultivated
taste, would undoubtedly be known as a writer but for his devotion to
political life. The periodical and daily press of Spain, though not to
compare with that of England, or of the United States, is almost on a
par with that of most continental countries; the scientific and literary
reviews and magazines are yearly increasing both in numbers and in
value.
This sketch, however brief, would be incomplete without a glance at what
may be called the provincial literature of Spain. The publishers of
Barcelona, especially in illustrated works, vie with those of Madrid. It
is not in the Castilian tongue alone that the awakening is apparent. In
Catalonia and in Valencia the study of the native idiom and of their
ancient authors has been taken up with zeal, and with happiest results
in history and philology. Victor Balaguer, the Catalan poet and
dramatist is equal to all contemporary Spanish poets save Nunez de Arce.
The dramas of Pablo Soler (Serafi Petarra) are received with an
enthusiasm unknown to audiences in Madrid. Mila y Fontanals, Bofarull,
and Sanpere y Miquel are investigating with success the language,
history, and archaeology of their country. A like, though necessarily a
less important, movement is taking place in Andalusia, in the Basque
Provinces, in the Asturias, and in Galicia; everywhere what is worth
preserving in these dialects is being sought out, edited, and given to
the press. The archives of Simancas are at length thrown open to the
world, and guides and catalogues are being industriously prepared.
Sevillian scholars are also studying the archives of the Indies, and the
treasures of Hebrew and Arabian lore.
Thus, if Spain can at present boast no writer whom we can place
undoubtedly and unreservedly in the very first rank, she shows an
intellectual movement which, though confined at present to a
comparatively small portion of her inhabitants, may, if it spread and
continue, place her again in her proud position of the sixteenth and
seventeenth centuries, as one of the first of European nations, not
perhaps in arms and power, but in literature, if not in science.