Carnival has been ushered in, according to an ancient custom which
authorises so early a commencement of the gaieties that precede Lent.
Little, however, remains of that spirit of mirth which contrived such
ample amends for the demure behaviour required during the annual
grand fast. To judge from what I have seen and heard in my boyhood,
the generation who lived at Seville before me, were, in their love
of noisy merriment, but one step above children; and contrived to
pass a considerable portion of their time in a round of amusements,
more remarkable for jollity than for either show or refinement; yet
unmixed with any grossness or indecorum. I shall give a specimen
in a family of middle rank, whose circumstances were not the most
favourable to cheerfulness.
The joy and delight of my childhood was centered in the house of four
spinsters of the good old times, who, during a period of between
fifty and sixty years, passed “in single blessedness,” and with
claims to respectability, as ample as their means of supporting
it were scanty; had waged the most resolute and successful war
against melancholy, and were now the seasoned veterans of mirth.
Poverty being no source of degradation among us, these ladies had a
pretty numerous circle of friends, who, with their young families,
frequented their house--one of the old, large, and substantial
buildings which, for a trifling rent, may be had in this town, and
which care and neatness have kept furnished for more than a century,
without the addition or substitution of a single article. In a
lofty drawing-room, hung round with tapestry, the faded remnants of
ancient family pride, the good old ladies were ready, every evening
after sunset, to welcome their friends, especially the young of both
sexes, to whom they showed the most good-natured kindness. Their
scanty revenue did not allow them to treat the company with the usual
refreshments, except on particular days--an expense which they met
by a well-planned system of starvation, carried on throughout the
year, with the utmost good humour. An ancient guitar, as large as a
moderate violoncello, stood up in a corner of the room, ready at a
moment’s notice, to stir up the spirits of the young people into a
dance of the Spanish _Seguidillas_, or to accompany the songs which
were often _forfeited_ in the games that formed the staple merriment
at this season.
The games, in truth, which in England are nearly forgotten, even
within their last asylums--ladies’ schools and nurseries,--were
thirty years ago a favourite amusement in this country. That they
have, at some period, been common to a great part of Europe, will not
be doubted by any one who, like myself, may attach such importance
to this subject as to be at the trouble of comparing the different
sports of that kind which prevail in France, England, and Spain. I
wish, indeed, that antiquarians were a more jovial and volatile race
than I have found them in general; and that some one would trace up
these amusements to their common source. The French, with that spirit
of system and scientific arrangement which even their perfumers,
_Marchandes de Modes_, and dancing-masters display, have already,
according to a treatise now lying before me, distributed these games
into _Jeux d’action_ and _Jeux d’esprit_.
In marking their similarity among the three nations I have mentioned,
I shall pass over the former; for who can doubt that _romping_ (so I
will venture, though less elegantly, to express the French _action_)
is an innate principle in mankind, impelling the human animal to
similar pranks all over the globe, from the first to the third of his
climacterics? But to find that, just at the age when he perceives
the necessity of assuming the demureness of maturity, he should, in
different places and under a variety of circumstances, fall upon
the same contrivances in order to _desipere in loco_, or to find a
loop-hole to indulge himself in _playing the fool_, is a phenomenon
which I beg leave to recommend to the attention of philosophers.
The _jeux d’esprit_, which I find to be used, with some slight
variations, in France, England, and Spain, or, at least, in some
two of those countries, are--_The Aviary_, or giving the heart
to one bird, committing one’s secret to another, and plucking a
feather from a third; at the risk of mistaking the objects of the
intended raillery or gallantry, disguised under the name of different
birds.--In _The Soldier_, the players being questioned by the leader
about the clothing they mean to give a decayed veteran, must avoid
the words _yes_, _no_, _white_, and _black_. The ingenuity displayed
in this game is much of the kind that appears in some of our tales
of the seventeenth century, where the author engaged to omit some
particular vowel throughout his narrative.--_Exhausting a letter_,
each player being obliged to use three words with the initial
proposed by the leader. The English game, _I love my love_, is a
modification of this: in Spanish it is commonly called _el Jardin_,
the Garden.--_La Plaza de Toros_, or the Bull Amphitheatre, in
French, _L’Amphigouri_, is a story made up of words collected from
the players, each of whom engages to name objects peculiar to some
trade.--_Le mot placé_, a refinement on _Cross purposes_, in Spanish
_Los Despropósitos_, is a game in which every player in the ring,
having whispered to his neighbour, on the right, the most unusual
word he can think of, questions are put in the opposite direction,
the answer to which, besides being pertinent, must contain the given
word.--_The stool of repentance_, (Gallicè) _La Sellette_, (Hispan.)
_La Berlina_, is, as my French author wisely observes, a dangerous
game, where the penitent hears his faults from every one in company
through the medium of the leader, till he can guess the person who
has nettled him most by his remarks.
I will not deny that a taste among grown people for these childish
amusements, bespeaks a great want of refinement; but I must own, on
the other hand, that there is a charm in the remnants of primitive
simplicity, which gave a relish to these scenes of domestic gaiety,
not to be found in the more affected manners of the present day. The
French, especially in the provinces, are still addicted to these
joyous, unsophisticated family meetings. For my part, I lament that
the period is nearly gone by, when neither bigotry nor fastidiousness
had as yet condemned those cheap and simple means of giving vent to
the overflow of spirits, so common in the youth of all countries,
but more especially under this our animating sky; and cannot endure
with patience, that fashion should begin to disdain those friendly
meetings, where mirth and joy, springing from the young, diffused a
fresh glow of life over the old, and Hope and Remembrance seemed to
shake hands with Pleasure in the very teeth of Time.
As Carnival approached, the spirit of romping gained fast upon its
assiduous votaries, till it ended in a _full possession_, which
lasted the three days preceding Ash-Wednesday.
The custom alluded to by Horace of _sticking a tail_,[37] is still
practised by the boys in the streets, to the great annoyance of
old ladies, who are generally the objects of this sport. One of
the ragged striplings that wander in crowds about Seville, having
tagged a piece of paper with a hooked pin, and stolen unperceived
behind some slow-paced female, as, wrapt up in her veil, she tells
the beads she carries in her left hand; fastens the paper-tail on
the back of the black or walking petticoat, called _Saya_. The whole
gang of ragamuffins, who, at a convenient distance, have watched
the dexterity of their companion, set up a loud cry of _Lárgalo,
lárgalo_--Drop it, drop it--which makes every female in the street
look to the rear, which, they well know is the fixed point of attack
with the merry light-troops. The alarm continues till some friendly
hand relieves the victim of sport, who, spinning and nodding like a
spent top, tries in vain to catch a glance at the fast-pinned paper,
unmindful of the physical law which forbids her head to revolve
faster than the great orbit on which the ominous comet flies.
[37]
... Nihilo ut sapientior, ille
Qui te deridet, caudam trahat,
SAT. II. iii.
So he who dared thy madness to deride,
Though you may frankly own yourself a fool,
Behind him trails his mark of ridicule.
FRANCIS.
Carnival, properly so called, is limited to Quinquagesima-Sunday,
and the two following days, a period which the lower classes pass
in drinking and rioting in those streets where the meaner sort of
houses abound, and especially in the vicinity of the large courts,
or halls, called _Corrales_, surrounded with small rooms or cells,
where numbers of the poorest inhabitants live in filth, misery, and
debauch. In front of these horrible places are seen crowds of men,
women, and children, singing, dancing, drinking, and pursuing each
other with handfuls of hair-powder. I have never seen, however, an
instance of their taking liberties with any person above their class;
yet, such bacchanals produce a feeling of insecurity, which makes the
approach of those spots very unpleasant during the Carnival.
At Madrid, where whole quarters of the town, such as _Avapiés_
and _Maravillas_, are inhabited exclusively by the rabble, these
Saturnalia are performed upon a larger scale. I once ventured with
three or four friends, all muffled in our cloaks, to parade the
Avapiés during the Carnival. The streets were crowded with men, who,
upon the least provocation, real or imaginary, would have instantly
used the knife, and of women equally ready to take no slight share in
any quarrel: for these lovely creatures often carry a poniard in a
sheath, thrust within the upper part of the left stocking, and held
up by the garter. We were, however, upon our best behaviour, and
by a look of complacency on their sports, and keeping at the most
respectful distance from the women, came away without meeting with
the least disposition to insolence or rudeness.
A gentleman who, either out of curiosity or depraved taste, attends
the amusements of the vulgar, is generally respected, provided he is
a mere spectator, and appears indifferent to the females. The ancient
Spanish jealousy is still observable among the lower classes; and
while not a sword is drawn in Spain upon a love-quarrel, the knife
often decides the claims of more humble lovers. Yet, love is, by
no means, the main instigator of murder among us. A constitutional
irritability, especially in the southern provinces, leads, without
any more assignable reason, to the frequent shedding of blood. A
small quantity of wine, nay, the mere blowing of the easterly wind,
called _Soláno_, is infallibly attended with deadly quarrels in
Andalusia. The average of dangerous or mortal wounds, on every great
festival at Seville, is, I believe, about two or three. We have,
indeed, a well-endowed hospital, named _de los Herídos_, which,
though open to all persons who meet with dangerous accidents, is
from this unhappy disposition of the people, almost confined to the
wounded. The large arm-chair where the surgeon in attendance examines
the patient just as he is brought in, usually upon a ladder, is
known in the whole town by the name of the Bullies’ chair--_Silla
de los Guapos_. Every thing, in fact, attests both the generality
and inveteracy of that horrible propensity among the Spaniards. I
have met with an original unpublished privilege granted in 1511, by
King Don Manoel of Portugal, to the German merchants established at
Lisbon, whereby their servants, to the number of six, are allowed to
carry arms both day and night, provided such privileged servants be
not Spaniards.[38] Had this clause been inserted after the Portuguese
nation had thrown off the Spanish yoke, I should attribute it to
political jealousy; but, considering its date, I must look upon it as
proving the inveteracy and notoriety of the barbarous disposition,
the mention of which has led me into this digression.
[38] “Os quais servidores naô seraô Hespanhôes para gozarem de
dita libertade.”
The Carnival amusements still in use among the middling ranks of
Andalusia are, swinging, playing all manner of tricks on the unwary,
such as breaking egg-shells full of powdered talc on the head, and
throwing handfuls of small sugar-plums at the ladies, which they
repay with besprinkling the assailants with water from a squirt. This
last practical joke, however, begins to be disused, and increased
refinement will soon put an end to them all. Dancing and a supper to
the frequenters of the daily _Tertulia_, is, on one of the three days
of Carnival, a matter of course among the wealthy.