Jorge de Montemayor is another Portuguese poet, whose name belongs
rather to Spain than Portugal. His real appellation is unknown. He
adopted that of the place of his birth, Montemor, a town in the
jurisdiction of Coimbra in Portugal, which he in a manner translated
into Spanish, and called himself Jorge or George de Montemayor. He was
born about the year 1520, of humble origin, and slight education. In his
youth he entered the military profession. His talent for music first
brought him into notice: he emigrated into Castile, and endeavoured to
gain his livelihood by music: he succeeded in being incorporated in the
band of the Royal Chapel; and when the Infante don Philip, afterwards
Philip II., made his celebrated progress through Germany, Italy, and the
Low Countries, having in his suite a band of choice musicians and
singers, Montemayor made one among them.
These travels tended to enlarge his mind; and, although unacquainted
with the learned languages, he became a proficient in various foreign
ones, and joined to these accomplishments a taste for literature. His
love for music was allied closely to a talent for poetry; and when on
his return to Spain, he resided at the city of Leon, he established his
fame as an author, by writing his "Diana." The fame of this book spread
far and wide: it was imitated by almost every poet that wrote in those
days, and the style in which it was composed became the fashion
throughout Spain.
The "Diana" is a pastoral of such an ideal species, that it sets
chronology and history at defiance. Of these, our Shakspeare made light,
when he wrote "Cymbeline" and the "Winter's Tale;" but the "Diana" is
even more confused in its costume. The scene of it is placed at the foot
of the mountains of Leon; and the heroine is said to be the object of a
real attachment of the author. This lady in other poems is called
Marfisa: he is said to have loved her before he left Spain with the
court: on his return he found her married; and his grief and her
infidelity he personified in the Sireno and Diana of his pastoral. Thus
many modern events are spoken of; and the adventures of Abindarres and
Xarifa, contemporaries of king Ferdinand, are mentioned as of old date,
at the same time that Apollo and Diana, nymphs and fauns, are the
objects of adoration among the shepherds; for, indeed, in those days the
gods of the Greeks made as it were an integral portion of poetry, and it
would have been considered a solecism to have omitted the names and
worship of these deities. The story is conceived in the same
heterogeneous manner. There is infinite simplicity in all the part that
strictly appertains to Diana and her lover; and much of what is romantic
and even supernatural in the other portions.
The first book commences with the return of Sireno to the valleys of the
mountains of Leon. He has already heard of the falsehood of his
mistress, who is married to another. The romance opens with the songs of
his complaints. In one of these he addresses a lock of hair belonging to
Diana; and nothing can be more simple, yet touching and true, and
elegant, than the opening of this poem. He is joined by Silvano, another
lover of Diana, who has always been disdained; and his resignation is
truly exemplary: these two hapless lovers are joined by a shepherdess,
who is also suffering the woes of unfortunate passion; and her history
concludes the book. In the second, events of more action are introduced:
the scene even changes to a sort of fairy tale; but though the machinery
of the story alters, the sentiments remain the same, conceived in the
language of passion and reality. It is not until the sixth book that
Diana herself is introduced, and the canzoni placed in her mouth are
among the best in the book: she lays the blame of her infidelity on her
parents, who forced her to marry a rich shepherd. The romance concludes
without any change in the situation of the hero and heroine.
It is singular, that a work founded on such strange and unnatural
machinery should have seized on the imagination, we may almost say, of
the world; since this sort of pastoral became universally imitated; but
there is something in the rural pictures and out-of-door life which
composes the scenery of such works., grateful, we know not why, to our
hearts. The style of the "Diana" is, indeed, peculiarly beautiful.
Nothing can be more correct, yet less laboured; nothing more elegant,
yet less exaggerated. To express vividly and truly, yet gracefully and
in harmonious measure, the emotions of the various personages, appears
to be the author's chief aim. Thus we read on, attracted by the melody
of the style, the heartfelt truth of the sentiments, and the beauty of
the descriptions, even while we are quite careless of the developement
of the plot, and tolerably uninterested in any of the personages. To
translate the poetry of this book would be difficult, as the style forms
its charm; but it is impossible to read it in the original without being
carried away by the flow of the versification, and the unaffected
expression of real feeling.
The "Diana" superseded for a time the books of chivalry, of which the
Spaniards were so fond. Since Amadis first appeared, no work had been so
popular. Cervantes, who imitated it in his "Galatea," thus mentions it
in the scrutiny the curate and barber make of Don Quixote's library.
Speaking of pastorals in general, the curate says: "These books do not
deserve to be burned with the rest, because they have never done nor
will do the harm of which tales of chivalry are guilty; they are mere
books of amusement, and hurt no one." Of the pastoral in question
itself, he says: "Let us begin by the "Diana" of Montemayor: I am of
opinion that we tear out all that relates to the wise Felicia and the
enchanted water, and almost all the poems in long measure, and let the
prose remain, and the merit of its being the first of this species of
books."
Such was the reputation that Montemayor acquired by this romance, that
the queen of Portugal was desirous that he should return to his native
country. He was, accordingly, recalled, and nothing more is known of him
than that it is supposed that he died a violent death[29],--where, even,
is not known; for some say in Portugal, some in Italy: the dates
tolerably agree, those named being 1561 and 1562, so that he was
scarcely more than forty at the time of his death.
[Footnote 29: Sedano tells us that the queen Catalina of Portugal, on
recalling him, conferred on him an honourable situation in the royal
household. The date of his death is ascertained through an elegy which
is printed in all the editions of the "Diana;" and which mentions that
he died in 1562.]